Muse musings
Posted by admin on Jul 22, 2010
I love the british band Muse. My daughter and I will be seeing them in concert this September. (DH did NOT want to go, but that was ok– he is the babysitter!) Last night I was making him suffer through a televised concert. I caught him rocking out from the corner of my eye. I turned and gave him a look– and he says… “What?! I like them… until he starts singing!”
Hmm, I really like the odd voice the singer has– I find it suits the music perfectly. Little CJ is a bit torn, he likes Muse, but will ask me “Why does he do that?” (Referring to some vocalizing during the sings) “That is funny!!”
So the boys of the household are a bit indifferent while the girls have them playing 24/7. Here is one of my favorites– the one I chose for the peak of my workout, since no matter how much I am beginning to fade, when I here this it just makes my want to ramp it up!
It all works out
Posted by admin on Jun 15, 2010
My whole life I have felt this to be the case. Today was yet another, and wonderful, example. This past week I have been struggling to decide whether or not to attend the Muse concert in September. Just last night I challenged myself– I would go, if I could come up with the money for the ticket outside of our household budget. (Sell something, for example). This afternoon the telephone rang. To my surprise it was the local hospital asking me if I could teach their breastfeeding class tonight. I agreed; and they are paying me $75 for me to talk about breastfeeding for 1 hour. Could life get any better? I get to talk about something I love AND earn enough for my ticket!!
Not all kids like Band-Aids
Posted by admin on Jun 8, 2010
I know a lot of kids– and they like Band-Aids. The want them all the time and, much like a mother’s kiss, they make everything better. Not the case for my little guy. He is afraid of them!
Case in point: today while petting one of the cats, the cat went a little crazy and scratched his arm. He came running to me crying. We set him right with a cuddle and a kiss and he was off again. A few minutes later he was back, crying harder than ever. He showed me his arm again, and this time there was an eensy-weensy bit of blood. He was crying that hard because he thought he would have to have a Band-Aid!! Another cuddle with assurances that we don’t have to use one, has put the little guy back in good spirits.
Stupid cat!
Posted by admin on Jun 7, 2010
My old, tubby kitty decided to go exploring tonight. Up she pounced onto the bookcases– which she usually doesn’t, but no harm there. Then, up onto the mantel on top of the DVD player. She lost her balance with the jump and down she went taking my DVD player with her. It did not just break when it hit the bricks below, it smashed into many pieces. Bad cat!!
On the bright side, it did not take the TV with it (though it tried) and I was able to rescue the Netflix from inside it.
Happy Day
Posted by admin on Jun 5, 2010
My dishwasher has been a little funny lately. A little tinkering and lots of cleaning has stretched several more months’ life out of it. Unfortunately, today the coupler went out on it! (It is a portable model, and this piece keeps it attached to the kitchen faucet.) A check with Sears revealed a frustratingly unhelpful service department. Online shopping revealed a new one is about $600 (Up $200 from 5 years ago– eek!) While deliberating between buying a new one and calling every appliance guy in the phone book (maybe a total of 2), I remembered that our home warranty covers dishwashers. Placed a call to check that it does indeed cover portables– appliance repair guy will call Monday to schedule an appointment. $60 is going to get me a repaired dishwasher, or a replacement if they deem worthy (which I am sure that they won’t) — happy day!
Now, do you suppose I will opt to hand wash or hold the pice to the faucet myself? I am not sure yet– I hate dishes. I am off to find the duct tape…. I hear if fixes everything.
New phone
Posted by admin on Jun 3, 2010
When we moved out here I bought our first cordless phone and it lasted for years (with new batteries). Finally, we needed a new one. I decided to choose the same brand since the first one was so fantastic. Phone #2 is not so great. It has an phonebook, (nice feature), speaker phone, and a volume loud enough for hubby to hear. Unfortunately, the center button which controls phonebook/caller ID/volume is no longer working. Now the phone is stuck at “screaming” level of volume. Uncomfortable for me– and I am the one who answers the phone! To top it all off the separate answering machine (relatively ancient) is now hard to understand.
Today, I went and got new phone (#3) with answer machine in its base. :) Those of you out there with my phone number, give me a call and we’ll test it out!
Score!
Posted by Steph on May 15, 2010
Along with birthday #5 came a growth spurt for my little guy. Which means that after almost 2 years in the same pants he needs new ones. I hopped online for some internet shopping. I am sure that they are perfectly normal prices, but $16 for a pair of tiny pants just doesn’t get me excited. So I started shopping for some fabric online and picked out enough for several pairs of pant and short (and jammies) for $43. Very good. Then I got to thinking about it being the weekend so maybe I could get my honey to take me to my favorite thrift stores in Yuma. Unfortunately, he is boycotting Arizona over the immigration law hitting the news right now. So I head off to my not so great local thrift stores. (Alone since at these you have to scrounge through large tubs for the kid clothing).
I hit the local store jackpot!! I got a few skirts and a dress for TL; little guy now has 3 sets of jammies, 5 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of pants and some overalls. Lots of OshKosh in that assortment to my surprise. He will, however, tell you that the very best item I found was a Halloween costume of Batman’s sidekick Robin– complete with cape. It had a tear at the neck that I was able to fix with my serger in about 3 seconds. I am certain he will want to wear it for days on end since he already asked to sleep in it. (The answer was no because of the cape– I don’t want to strangle the little fella!)
New additions to the wardrobe: $11.28. So much better than retail– you should see my happy dance!
Dental woes
Posted by admin on May 3, 2010
TL complained of her mouth/teeth hurting yesterday. When I went to see what was going on, I found that one of her molars had broken! (To clarify from chipped– this one was missing a very large piece.) I took her in to the dentist today and learned that she needs 2 root canals and 2 fillings. We go back tomorrow morning to have all the work done under sedation. I am very thankful for our good dental insurance– while still pretty expensive, the bill is much more palatable. Afterwards we went to Target and bought some of the rinse that turns your teeth blue before brushing so you can make sure you do a good job. The $4 that I never wanted to waste on that seems like a pretty good investment after the dentist bill!!
Birthday present
Posted by admin on Apr 28, 2010
CJ’s birthday is coming up. He has recently become interested in superheroes, particularly batman. So I made him a batman cape. (Handy people would even make it doublesided, with perhaps superman on the other side, but I didn’t have a red t shirt ready to go to the scrap pile yet.) So, in an hour and a half, I recreated a t shirt into this: (such a long time because of the satin stitch I used for the applique!)
Quick work
Posted by admin on Apr 28, 2010
Many months ago a friend asked me to replace zippers in 3 of her dresses. I did 2 of them on my previous machine, and was really unhappy with how they turned out. Tonight, I redid one of them and finished the last one. I was done surprisingly fast (since the first ones took a long time) and the results are great. It is so wonderful to have amazing tools!!
