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Easter weekend

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

I wrote this  whole long post yesterday and then completely forgot to put it up.  So here ya go!  Yesterday’s post today:

Happy cheap-jellybean day, everybody!  I hope your Easter was fantastic!  Ours was delightful!  Neither one of us was scheduled to help at church, so we probably got to sleep in longest of everybody yesterday – I got up at 9 and Justin got up at 9:45 (it’s amazing how guys can get ready in less than 15 minutes!).  We went to church, which was awesome, and then came back home right afterward because my problem with large crowds was flaring up with so many people at church and I had to get back home where it was quiet.

But I got a lot accomplished over the weekend and I feel really good about it.  I sat down Friday afternoon and wrote down all the things that I’d like to get accomplished around the house.  And then I marked which ones I need help from Justin to get done.  And then I marked which ones need supplies or money spent on them in order to get finished.  And the things that didn’t require any money and didn’t involve Justin, I set to with a will.

Things that I got done include:

  • Re-stuffed my knee pillow
  • Made a pillow case for my knee pillow
  • Re-hemmed a skirt
  • Sewed a button on Justin’s pants
  • Sewed a button on my car’s seatbelt
  • Fixed a shirtWashed all my hand-wash clothes
  • Figured out what I need to fix another skirt (bias tape)
  • Inventoried the canned goods in the pantry
  • Washed the green off all the lawn furniture
  • Re-organized the outside storage closet

There are still a lot of things on that list, but I made good headway.  And by the time I got done with the furniture and closet outside yesterday, I was completely exhausted.  Justin made me dinner (a feast of pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns!) and I went to bed early.  But I didn’t get sunburned because I thought ahead and put on sunscreen and a hat before I went outside. I’m rather proud of myself for that.  I even put on bug spray and wore long socks under my pants and shoes to prevent the ant stings that plagued Justin when he did yardwork last Monday.

We have a deep, abiding animosity toward fire ants around this house.  They’re tiny little ants that grow in huge mounds of sand and they HURT.  Seriously, they’re so little it doesn’t make sense that such a tiny little thing should create so much pain, but they’re so vicious.  I don’t react too badly, usually, just a small, itchy bump that itches for 3 or 4 days and then fades after a week or two.  Justin is slightly allergic so he gets huge, itchy bumps that itch for a week or more and get inflamed and infected.  We have, right now, maybe 3 or 4 mounds of these in the yard and we’re going to hit them with poison and try to drive them out. 

Amy, you should watch out for these with the kids – these ants are mostly southern, as far as I can tell, and they are NASTY.  They can swarm and sting and do a whole lot of damage in a short amount of time if they’re angry.  If the kids don’t know about avoiding these yet, I’d recommend teaching them ASAP.  These ants are not the meek little ants that I poked at when I was a kid.  Poke a stick in these nests and the kid holding the stick will be in a lot of pain very soon.
And that’s my nature lesson for the day.

I hope you all have a fantastic Monday!

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“I’m the One That’s Cool”

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

I’m trying to put up a video from the people who did The Guild. (And let’s be honest, the only one I really care about much there is Felicia Day because FELICIA DAY!  So wonderful! Sorry, all the rest of the cast and everybody else involved.  But you’re overshadowed by my complete geek fan-love for Felicia.)  It’s called “I’m the One That’s Cool” and I think it’s one of the best music videos in ages.  (Warning: there is a little bit of swearing.)

I am having a little trouble making the embedded video work, though, so if it doesn’t show up on the site, click here for the YouTube link.

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Miss Eloise

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

So I’ve been driving the same route to work for, what?  Four years now?  Since August of 2008, so almost 4 years I guess. And for a while before that Justin was driving part of the same route to get to his work.  Part of that route goes over a river and through a marsh and the bridge over that river is actually a bridge that twists to let boats pass from one side to the other.  It’s not exactly what you’d think of when you think of a draw bridge (it’s actually a “swing bridge”) and I’ve only been caught waiting for it two times but it’s a fun bridge.  But my point isn’t actually about the bridge but the boat anchored off to the side of the bridge.  The Miss Eloise has been floating on the river there for as long as I’ve been driving over that bridge.

Miss Eloise

Until last Monday when she disappeared.  I’m not entirely sure if after all this time someone finally bought her or if the people in charge of the river got sick of her being anchored there or if she sunk or what.  But I drove over the bridge on Monday last week and nearly ran into the guardrails because I looked over to see how high the water was and which way the tide was flowing (when the tide is coming in, the river flows inland) and I usually check Miss Eloise to see all that information and she was gone!

It’s strange the amount of affection I’d developed for that poor lonely boat.  I hope where ever she is, she’s getting the attention she’s needed for a while to get off all the rust and clean up her nets and all.

I really don’t know what else to say about that.  It seems like something so small and unimportant because why should I care about someone else’s boat that’s been anchored in the river for years and years?  And why on earth should any of you care when you’ve never even driven over that bridge?  But it was so surprising and unexpected and every time I drive over that bridge, there’s something missing.  There’s a spot on the river that shouldn’t be so empty.

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Massive update

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Right!  April!  Okay…

A couple days after my last post, Justin’s mom arrived in town and was around for 2 weeks.  She wasn’t here that whole time — she spent time in Savannah over St. Patrick’s day (if you’re going to spend the day there, you need to be there the day ahead or you’re not getting anywhere very fast) and she and my sister-in-law (SIL) went up to visit friends in Macon and visit the aquarium in Atlanta.  Unfortunately, my SIL’s car got stolen in Macon, which is apparently the 17th most likely place to get your car stolen in the US.  The insurance got them a rental and the car was found later the next day with all its parts and all damages were covered by the insurance.  Plus the kid either planted an ID or dropped his own ID in the car, which makes him either very clever or very stupid.  I’m leaning toward stupid since the only thing missing from the car was a bunch of change for parking meters.  Except that they did remove the registration paperwork from the glove box and removed (replaced?) the licence plates.

Anyway, the car was found and fixed and returned and the biggest hassle of the whole deal was Justin returning the rental car because there was no paperwork regarding the car (turns out the paperwork ended up in Vermont) and the place where he was returning the car (Hilton Head Island) believed that the place where the car was from (Macon) was closed for the month and not able to rent cars.  Big mess.  Very annoying.  But eventually resolved.

Okay, so Wendy and Jessi were here at the house for a while and it was a pleasant visit, but it left no time for writing.  When they went out of town, they left the Bichon in our care so we could test out dog ownership for a bit and that was fun.

Other than them visiting, let’s see, I took a 3-day class in Savannah on how to use MS Project and I’m so much more educated now but still not sure about a lot of stuff.  It’s a very complicated, versatile program.  And while it was fun and  novel to be in class and I sometimes enjoyed being in the city again, it was also difficult to be locked into a windowless room about the size of our bathroom and listening to a teacher over the phone for seven hours of the day.  And the driving in downtown did not endear that part of the city to me.

Other news…  I found the key to the back storage shed!  It was stuck way down behind the piano where I swear we looked several times but some how I found it while cleaning a couple weeks ago.  So now we can get into the pool, which opened for the season last weekend.

I know!  The pool is open!  It’s great.  I love it here.

Except for the pollen.  Ugh.  The pollen can stop.

Our wedding anniversary was last week = 4 years!  We’re still very happy about that.

We went out to dinner with Justin’s grandpa’s girlfriend Pat last Saturday.  It was wonderful to see her again.  We’re making plans to see Justin’s grandpa before the end of the summer — probably over the 4th of July.  He’s deteriorating faster than anticipated.  We’re worried about both of them.  Pat’s been with Grandpa Doug for longer than Justin’s been alive.  It’s a difficult time for Justin, too.

Upcoming events-wise, the GA Ren Faire opens next week, I think that is.  And at the end of May, Sara’s going to come visit over the Memorial Day weekend.  And immediately after she leaves, we’re heading to DC to spend time for a wedding and because I’ve never been to DC and I’d like to catch the sites.  We’re looking forward to the end of May A LOT and we’re starting to pinch our pennies very tightly so we have money to pay for all that.

On that note, Justin got a payment from a client!!  And we took that and put it toward a credit card, taking it from very nearly maxed out to almost completely cleared out in one fell swoop.  AWESOME!!

And I’m trying to lose weight again.  But I don’t feel like talking about it right now.

Okay!  One quick massive update for everybody so I feel like I can keep writing again and not have to go back over all that and explain where I’ve been for the last several weeks.

Good?  Good!!

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Mixed blessings of spring

Monday, March 12th, 2012

The beginning of Daylight Savings is not my favorite time, but it’s hard to complain for too long.  I mean, yes, getting up at what feels like 4:30 in the morning is not fun.  And the delightful daylight that was peeking over the horizon by the time I got to work in the morning was really starting to be pleasant and now I’m back to driving in the dark. 

On the other hand, it’s hard to complain about getting light in the evenings again.  Getting home and being able to go out and do much needed yard work is more than a little exciting.

Spring is full of mixed blessings, I guess.  Flowers are blooming!  Trees are budding!  There’s pollen flying everywhere and fitful allergies to prove it!

Now that we’re able to get into the storage closet, I’ve pulled out my work gloves and clippers and gone to town on different plants in our yard.  I spent somewhere between three and four hours out in the yard on Saturday.  Justin helped me get the major trimming done on the crape myrtle trees, but I went back and did a little more clean-up there to make them look more tidy. 

The pampas grass felt the sharp cut of my trimmers, but it fought back nearly as effectively.  That stuff is sharp!  By the time I got those plants down as low as I dared and filled up the trash can with all of last year’s growth, my arms looked like I’d lost a fight with a feral cat.  Add to that my allergies to grass.  I had long, red, puffy scratch marks all up and down my arms.  It was so bad that even aloe stung instead of being soothing.

I raked up much of last year’s leaves and trimmed the grass down to a uniform length and pulled weeds.  I found a spider with a thorax the size of the first part of my thumb and screamed like the scaredy-cat girl that I am.  I cleaned the old ashes from the fire pit.

I still need to move the bikes and get the leaves back there and behind the a/c unit, and now that I know how to trim the bushes at the back of the yard, I need to go back there with my clippers and give them some serious attention.

And that’s all just at the back of the house!  At the front, I need to pull leaves, trim bushes, re-mulch the garden, plant flowers, and pull weeds.  And the side yard will involve cutting down two trees that have a blight and need to be removed.

So by the time I quit last Saturday, the back yard looked a lot better, but I could barely move.  And I obviously have a lot more to do.  I’m enjoying myself, though.  It’s fun!  Okay, not the spider bit.  And not the pampas grass allergy bit.  But getting it all looking so nice and getting outside in the sun and the fresh air and feeling like I know what I’m doing and that I can make my house look fresh and pretty for spring?  That part is awesome.

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