Addictions

Macro lens and Instagram

Back in December (2011) I got my first smart phone - a Motorola Droid Razr. Yeah, I didn't start with something simple to get my feet wet, I went for the Big Kahuna. I LOVE it! Seriously, I really have to say I have never enjoyed a phone so much!  I can do just about anything on it that I can do on my computer. I have downloaded some good productivity apps so that I can keep up with school stuff when I am away from the computer, but it is the other apps that I am having so much fun with. Instagram has been on the iPhone for a while now, but a few weeks ago it became quietly available for Android. I am completely addicted to it. I have a decent enough camera on my Razr (8 mp) so now I am making good use of it. It has a cool macro lens for taking closeups of bugs and flowers, etc., and that is just way too much fun. I also have a thing for Fruit Ninja, which is a lot of fun, and of course Angry Birds. 

Something else I discovered is Pinterest. Pinterest is a fabulous site that lets you "pin" the things you see on the internet that you like onto boards and you can organize them anyway you want to. You can also pin other people's pins that you see and like, and they can pin yours. It's a great way to hang onto recipes and craft ideas, or anything else, really. The best part is that there is a mobile version of the web site that really works well. An app is in development, but really the mobile site works great. So there is something else I am addicted to.

Which brings me to my other addiction...I recently got a Keurig and now find that I can't seem to get enough coffee.  Which is odd, when you think about it because the whole thing about Keurig is to brew a single cup of perfect coffee, right? Well, before the Keurig (b.k.) when I brewed a whole pot of coffee, I usually only had one cup. That led me to the thought that a Keurig would be great for me because I like my coffee bold and my husband likes his on the weak side and I only have one cup anyway, sooo...yeah - I am drinking a lot more coffee than I used to.  I love Coffee Mate's Natural Bliss creamer in Sweet Cream flavor. Low in fat and calories and tastes fabulous. 

Okay, so I wonder if I have a problem that requires a 12 step program? Oh wait! I just realized that I can keep up with all of my obsessions on my phone! How cool is that??

Just a Real Nice Day

Hubby and I had a nice afternoon ride on the bike Sunday. We rode around out in the county and saw the sights; Redfield, Mapleton, Devon...some of the sights saw us. The lilac is blooming as are irises and tulips, and we saw a bunch of baby sheep and goats at several farms.

Here is a photo of the post office in Mapleton. Across from the post office (where I am standing) is a small park. Down the road is a cafe that my husband says is pretty good-I wouldn't know because he eats there when he's working and has never taken me there...not so subtle jab at my hubby, there :) There's not much else to see here in Mapleton right from the highway except for some farms and a few houses. It's not very big, but it is a nice quiet place to live. 

 

Since I was taking pictures, I took one of my neighbors lilacs in her backyard. This is a much better shot than I took a couple of mornings ago. It was very early and I didn't want to be caught stalking her backyard in my jammies so it came out kind of blurry. It just smelled so heavenly! I don't like the scent of fake-lilacs, but the real deal is wonderful.Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to make online photos of food and flowers like those scratch and sniff cards? When I was a kid there were some bubblegum collectible cards that were scratch & sniff. Right now I can only remember the dill pickle and orange mint ones, but there were others.

We recently got some new neighbors next door to the North of us. Remember the house with the family of raccoons? Yeah, she sold it (rent-to-own) and didn't tell the family about all the critters that had also been calling it home. She also told them that we were crazy and to avoid us. Of course they must have picked up on her crazy-vibe because they completely ignored that advice and told us all about it. We in turn told them all about their new house and how many times the codes officer had been there. They seem like a really nice family who just wants a house of their own, so hopefully things work out for them.

Pick Your Poison

I'm SO ready to be done with this remodeling! We're at the stage where cooking is near impossible; we have no stove, and no counters (the cabinets are being stained), and my kitchen table is being used as a work bench. My wonderful husband asked his mother (the woman who hates - doesn't like me) if he could fix dinner at her house. I get a phone call from him explaining all of this to me and I'm thinking "fabulous!"...sarcasm. 

Bobby comes and picks me up from work (we went from two vehicles to one a couple of years ago to save on vehicle payments and gas) and when we get to his mom's we start dishing up spaghetti, etc. While I am working on my plate, I hear a complaint from one of the boys about the cheese looking brownish. I ignore this and say I'm sure it's fine. By the time I get to the table, hear another complaint about the color. There is some questioning back and forth: "where did you get it?" "was it in the refrigerator?" "Grandfather gave it to me-it was in the cupboard, but it hadn't been opened yet." By this time cheese has been sprinkled all around, and we have all had a sniff of the container. "Smells fine-smells like Parmesan cheese smells-stinky feet.." Oh dear...I spotted the date on the container and it says "Best by 06/06/2010." Two-year-old Parmesan cheese and we've all eaten it. The eleven-year-old: "Will it make us sick?" The not-quite-eight-year-old: "I wonder what it feels like to have your stomach pumped?" Oy vey! The good news? Clearly the attempted poisoning by Parmesan failed. The bad news: my youngest thinks he is funny. (He is, but we don't want him to know that!)

No Time

I saw some interesting things on my way to work this morning. I saw a cute little brick house with a white picket fence and tulips coming up all along the fence line. I drive by this house all the time, but this morning there were the tulips to capture my attention. Red, yellow and pink blooms with their dark green leaves against the white fence ...unfortunately I didn't have time to stop & take a picture. I'm fairly certain a drive-by photo wouldn't have gone over well had I run into something.

A little further down the road I saw two elderly people bent over and staring at something on the ground. I tried to see what it was they were looking at, but whatever it was must have been really small. Of course we have the same problem as before: no time to stop and running into parked vehicles is bad.

The next thing I saw, or rather noticed, and not for the first time, was how much traffic there was at 3 minutes before 8:00 in the morning. My theory is that because it only takes 3 minutes to get anywhere in town, every one who has to be to work by 8 a.m. doesn't leave their houses until 7:57. The streets are semi-dead at about 8:02 until 8:57 when the peeps who have to be at work by 9:00 are scrambling to get to work. Me? I leave my house anywhere between 7:45 and 8:05...don't want to be a slave to convention. :)

Moving On

I could go into all of the details as to why I have been absent and why I have treated this blog so shamefully, but instead I have opted to rise above, to start fresh. Anybody can start fresh in January - all of those well-intentioned resolutions to lose weight or quit smoking, etc. I'm choosing to break away from the pack and begin anew in March!  So, moving on... :)

Last spring we renovated our bathroom. This year we are remodeling our kitchen and living room from floor to ceiling - floors being last.  We had an old, huge floor-to-ceiling window in our living room and we were losing a lot of heating and cooling through it. Actually I think it was more a case of the outside coming in. We also had this goofy angled ceiling that was really high at one end (12 feet at least!) and about 8 feet at the other end, and a wall separating the kitchen from the living room that was not squared up. Most walls are at a 90 degree angle to each other, but this was something else. Basically it made my kitchen a wedge kind of shape and gave my living room a weird deep corner that I had to try to camouflage so it wasn't so noticeable. We took down that wall and are putting up a new straight wall that is quite a bit shorter so that the dining room, living room and a large part of the kitchen are open together. So we dropped the ceilings to a level 8 feet high, put in insulation, new can lighting, a new window, and we will be putting in soon a new stove that is now part of the 21st century, new cabinets, and a new door between the kitchen and laundry room. Whew! And when we're all done with that,we'll tear up the old carpet and stain the pristine hardwood floors underneath ;)

Right now we are finishing up the drywall and getting ready to stain all of the cabinets. I came home yesterday to find a thick white coating over all visible surfaces. My husband had been busy sanding the the places where he had put up the tape and mud. It looked a lot like a case of baby powder had exploded. So thankful for vacuum cleaners!

Book Review: Life's a Beach

I recently signed up on GoodReads, so I thought I would try posting my review here :)

Life's a Beach Complimentary Edition by Claire Cook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Actually 4 stars might be pushing it slightly because it was a wee bit slow to start. Once things got going, it was pretty good. I'm no editor or a regular reviewer or anything, just so you know...



I got this from B&N when they were having a free eBook promotion, so I would say the value was excellent! The characters were quirky and fun, and although the author gives us a good view into their personalities, I felt the physical descriptions were somewhat lacking. It might just be me, but I like to have a mental image of the characters.When I read I see pictures, so without those descriptors I come up with something generic which produces a less than ideal connection with the story.



That aside, I did like how Ginger interacts with her family, and the quirky behavior made for a fun read. I particularly identified with her desire to find her artistic passion. Ginger is pretty sarcastic with a dry and sometimes goofy sense of humor, so I could identify with that as well.



All in all, it was not a bad book and completely appropriate for a light summer read. Not cerebral or profound, but entertaining.



View all my reviews

Summer Already?

I've mentioned this before, but I love fireflies! Lightning bugs, whatever...you just don't see them in Southern California, so I look forward to them every year. The weather has been really crazy here with fluctuating temperatures and the horrific outbreak of tornadoes, but it seems to be finally settling into something resembling normal. Today is 89 with a heat index of 97, 56% humidity with dew points at 73 - not officially summer yet, but it sure feels official. It's what we've come to expect for this time of year.

Good Ol' Days was hot- horribly hot!  We went downtown for a couple of hours, and I got so hot that I felt sick. It's really hard to enjoy the festivities when it's that hot. The boys got to buy a couple of things, plus they got invited to go swimming when we got home, so I didn't feel too bad about cutting the day short.They each got a cheap air gun that shoots little plastic pellets, so they spent the evening setting up action figures in the back yard and shooting them. Later, I was checking to make sure they were empty and pointed it at the floor when I shot it - practicing safety and all - and promptly shot my husband in the butt when the pellet ricocheted off of the floor. Nice shootin', Tex!

My dad has been in California visiting his sister and other family members, so the boys have had to spend the weekdays with their grandparents. Let me just say, we all can't wait until my dad gets back tonight, and I will leave it at that.

I am about to finish up with Fundamentals of Media Communication and I am so glad. The instructor is good, although hard to understand at times as I think English is not her native language, but otherwise no issues there. The class is really about the history of media and is soooo dry! I have a 10-15 page research paper due this Saturday on the topic of my choice (The Effect of E-Readers on Literacy) and hmm, well if I do the minimum pages of 10, then I only have 8 more to go. Now, I do have the research all done, but I have to organize the material and write it. Thankfully, they require double spaced lines! My last class was Fundamentals of Design and we got to play with Photoshop and Illustrator. I thought sure the Media class would be fun too - I was so wrong. Next I have Fundamentals of Digital Imaging, and then after a short summer break, Color Theory. Somebody told me Color Theory was boring, but I'm hoping for the best.

Dusting Things Off

Back in September (waaaay back) I made a decision. There have been a few times since then that I have questioned my sanity; asked myself what the heck I was thinking. What did I do? I enrolled in online college classes. I am pursuing an Associates Degree in Web Design and Interactive Media at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. After that, maybe a Bachelors in Graphic Design? Lol, we'll see.

School has kept me busy and I've been trying to find time to do everything, and the blog has suffered. I was told by more than one person that things around here were looking pretty dusty. So, I am dusting things off around here. I was also told that school will act like a sponge and suck all of my available time into it if I don't learn how to manage my time effectively. I have already seen some evidence of that, so I'm trying to be more organized. Not easy as it doesn't come naturally to me, except for those areas that I am OCD in,of course :)

So far I'm really enjoying my online school experience. Most of my instructors are helpful and encouraging and really care about the students' understanding of the material. Instead of just saying "Good job, now here's what's wrong..." they tell you why it's good, what needs to be fixed and why, and then give you suggestions on how to fix it. I've had several classes since October, and so far I have experienced good instructors, mediocre instructors, and a couple of excellent instructors - not necessarily in that order. Overall it's a positive experience. I'm just noticing how things don't change just because it's college. Some teachers are indifferent as to how well you do or if you pass or not. And then there are the teachers who want you to do well and excel and they are willing to get in there and fight with you. School was always easy for me; the only subject I had to really work at was math. My problem with school was that I was seriously bored. And, so, I didn't take it seriously.

Another thing that hasn't changed are the classroom dynamics. Just because it's online, does not mean that you don't deal with personalities. All of those people that you rolled your eyes at in high school are still there, they just have different names. Remember "teacher's pet", and "wannabe-teacher's pet"? How about the "class clown" and "class narcissist" - ("everything is all about me")? Yeah, names and faces have changed but that's about it. I find myself renaming them all with names I am more familiar with. Makes it more fun :)

Okay, so I'm taking college classes towards a degree - check! I'm getting the blog operational again-check! I'm on a roll, so what's next?  Oh yeah...there's still that 20 lbs I'd like to lose...*sigh*

Fabulous... and Disturbing

Our weather has been pretty fabulous here the last week or so - mid-60's overnight, and 80's during the day, and except for the storm we had a few days ago that brought water up to, but not inside, our garage, it's play-outside weather. The only drawback is that mosquitoes enjoy this weather too  :(

The locusts were thick this year! I took the dogs outside one night when we were still having 90 degree evenings and forgot to turn off the porch light, so when I went to get them back in, I had a bunch of locusts and other night bugs buzzing around the light. The locusts were like B-52's with a drunk pilot at the stick - flying all over the place and hitting the walls and each other. Naturally, the dogs get distracted by the bugs and won't go inside. So, while I got Ruby Sue inside and was trying to get Stella, a locust got inside the house... Wonderful... got the dogs inside, the door shut, but the stupid locust was flopping around all over the place. The dogs were going crazy trying to catch it, and finally the silly thing was quiet. I assumed Ruby Sue probably had squashed it, but then it started its buzzing and rattling noises again, and Ruby Sue jumped like she'd been shot, frantically trying to locate the thing. At one point she looked up at me with the most amazingly human look of frustration on her face as if she was saying "Well? Just gonna stand there are ya?" In fact, I answered her look with, "Well, if you weren't such a chunky monkey, I might be able to get back there to get it!"  But then Stella came to her (our) rescue and caught the locust...and promptly ate it with a loud crunching sound... eww!  And the whole time this is going on, Toby is in the family room barking. Can't imagine how the men in my house all managed to sleep completely through all that racket...

I posted last summer that what we call 'locusts' here are really cicada's, but for convenience sake I continue to use the term locust. It should also be noted that I get corrected by certain family members, who don't live in my house, and that certain others (you know who you are) get downright offended by using the proper name. So, we have locusts...not cicadas.

In my last post I briefly mentioned a rumor about the real reason behind our recent elementary school upheaval. Primarily, to save a certain administrator's job. Well, apparently it was not a rumor, but rather a disturbing fact.  We received a letter from the state, as did all parents of students enrolled in our district, that told us that the requirements for participation in the federally funded Title I program were not being met and the district has been identified for improvement in reading. "This means that the state will work closely with the district in analyzing why the district is not making adequate progress and will help in developing plans to address the problems." (directly quoting from letter) "Title I provides extra help primarily in reading and mathematics to students in schools with high free and reduced lunch counts, and requires each state to determine if Title I districts and schools are making adequate progress each year toward the goal of having all students meet standard by 2014." If they don't make adequate progress two years in a row, they are identified for improvement, and they will stay on improvement for at least two years as the districts/schools must show adequate progress for two years to go off of improvement. They determine the progress by testing, which is done on students from 3rd grade on, so now only one of the elementary school's is being tested, and that means that the person who was in charge of the previously failing school is now in charge of K through 2nd grades. It won't be tested, meaning that person will most likely have a job for a another year or two, if the parents don't grab their torches and pitchforks first. That particular person is not well-liked,  but what really bothers me is that she is governing my impressionable 1st grader. Indirectly, yes, but in charge all the same. Disturbing, yes.

I haven't fully researched Title I, but it looks like for schools/districts that don't make adequate improvement in the allotted time get their funding restricted, and then the state takes a more direct hand in the situation by replacing administrators, etc.  It also appears that if a state has too many under-achieving schools, that state's Title I funding gets restricted. That most likely results in inquiries into how and where that money was spent. Hmmm...interesting.  By the way, "high free and reduced lunch counts" is code for "a lot of poor kids". I've got news for anyone who cares to pay attention: soon, all public schools in all states will have "high free and reduced lunch counts". We're probably already there. My humble opinion based on my observations. Now, who wants to know where we're going and why we're in this handbasket??

Surviving

I have been trying to post all last week, and the week before, but just kept getting jimmy-jacked at every turn. Interruptions, internet outage, slooow computers, puppy...you name it!

One Friday night my ten year old (as of Aug 3rd) had a friend stay the night. He brought his turtle which he had caught when he was out fishing somewhere...yeah, he really did. My boys had a great time, but Bobby and I were a bit disturbed by a couple of things. I put the lights out and TV off at 11:30. At 2:30 I saw lights on and heard giggling. When I went in to check on them, they were watching a really stupid cartoon that was recorded on the DVR, and Legos were scattered all over the floor. When I hit 'live TV', Adult Swim was on - not good.

The boys were up at the crack of dawn, and after cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I saw our guest on the computer loading some Alien vs Predator game and drinking a cup of coffee...what the heck?? Bobby told me he was going to take the motorcycle down to get some gas in it...said he would see me in a couple of hours...he was joking, but I know there was a spark of wishful thinking there, hee hee.

Our guest went home at noon, and we all did some cleaning, mowing, and gave the dogs baths, and then the guys went to the city pool. I had a blissful two whole hours to myself - yahoo!! That almost never happens! In fact it's so rare, that I waste precious time trying to figure out what I want to do, HA!

Sunday we shopped for school supplies, and $45 later, we still didn't have it all. We are asked to supply tissues, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and baby wipes (not sure what those are for), in addition to all the other stuff. We still need to get the backpacks, too, although I think Sully's is still good, but Tucker definitely needs a new one. Thankfully, there was no expandable on the list this year- those things are expensive and they don't last. Last year we spent about $50 on all the supplies, including backpacks and expandable, which was almost $10 by itself. So this year, I've spent $45 and that's without the expandable, and I haven't finished yet...what the heck??  Oh, and they raised our sales tax from 7.3% to 8.3% - isn't that lovely??

Sunday the 8th was the last day of swimming at the city pool, so I took the boys Saturday afternoon. Wow! Quite the collection of hairy backs, tattoos and just all-around poor taste were on display. The boys had a great time, and when we got home we grilled some hamburgers, and I ate the last dill pickle my friend Angie made. So sad...but, we're gonna get together and make some...yippee!! Later, we put on a movie and one by one, we all fell asleep. Woke up just in time to see the end credits, ha!

We have had a horrible heat wave with heat index temps of 113, 115, etc and no rain. Lot's of humidity, but no rain, and we need some rain. Our backyard has cracks in it, it's so dry. Early Sunday morning we finally got some rain. It woke us up pretty spectacularly with, what I call a flash-bang; a directly overhead lightning strike with an intense  flash and immediate boom of thunder. There were actually two of them about 30 seconds apart. It lasted for a bit and then finally settled down to just a rain event. About 5:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that the house felt hot. I checked the digital thermostat in the hallway and discovered it was blank. Great...I woke Bobby up and told him and he went to WalMart to get another one. We got that hooked up and ...nothing. Fabulous...Bobby went outside to make some sun tea and found out from the next door neighbors that their tree got hit and the blast took out their A/C, 2 computers, 2 TV's, their phone, our A/C, and the neighbor's across the street A/C. The A/C guy was fixing theirs and he came outside right them and asked if we wanted him to come in & look at ours also...let me think- YES!!  Turns out it fried our thermostat, and the transformer in the furnace, and after replacing those two things we were back in business! WOOT! We went over to take a look at the tree and discovered that the lightning had traveled down the tree and exploded out of the roots creating a hole and debris that looked like a small grenade had gone off. I don't know if they make small grenades, so maybe I should say m80 - quarter stick of dynamite??  Anyway, it also blew the water meter cover off-you know those things in your yard that look like mini manhole covers and weigh almost as much. We also discovered that the blast had knocked one of our front transom windows out, and knocked the charger to Bobby's portable radio right out of the receptacle, and, our dishwasher will no longer run through the cycles on its own. Honestly though, we were blessed because every other electronic thing in the house from the Wii to the computers is perfectly fine.  Cool!

Open House was Monday. We got to go to two schools this year, and we thought it would likely take much longer as we don't know where anything is in Tucker's school. But, as it turned out, Tucker knew exactly where he was going because the incoming 5th graders went on a tour at the end of the school year. He even knew where Sully's new class was. I'm really not happy about the changes, and no one else is either. I heard a rumor that this was all to save one person's job. Apparently, when a school is consistently below standards, the state comes in and forces changes. The first person to go is the principal. So, that would mean that they did this to scramble everybody up and confuse the state??  Nice...

School started yesterday (Wednesday) and all in all it went well, even with all the confusion. And believe me it was mass confusion. The first day of school is always hectic, but this was a nightmare!  Bobby took Tucker and dropped him off no problems. I took Sully, and because he was in first grade and not quite as seasoned at this yet as Tucker, I planned on going in with him all the way to his room. There was nowhere to park because fully half of the parking they have available was blocked off for buses (they changed where the buses go) and people who had found a space, were not leaving. You parked anywhere you could which was up and down all the side streets, driveways, and alley entrances. I didn't see anybody get a ticket, but I know there were complaints about blocked driveways! The end of the day was not much better; Sully wasn't put on the bus to come home because his teacher, although she knew he was a bus rider, asked him how he was getting home, and being 6 years old, he told her his Papa picks him up. Well, he does, at the bus stop, and then takes them to his house until I get off work. I had mentioned that to her also, but it was Open House, new people, lot's going on, so she obviously didn't remember that part. And Sully didn't volunteer the rest. I also heard that there were supposed to be shuttle buses between the schools for the after school program, so that kids in two different schools could be transported to be with their siblings, but there were in fact no actual shuttle buses. Apparently whoever was in charge of that part, either didn't know he was in charge, or forgot about it, but nothing was arranged for transportation.

So, I have survived a sleepover, the heat, lightning, Open House, and the first day of school. Wow! I'm tired :)