Our computer died a few days ago, and I have been going through serious withdrawal symptoms. We ordered a brand spanking new one from Dell (because the time had come, our computer has been testy for months), but it wasn’t going to arrive for over a week! The first day wasn’t too bad, the second day was crappy, and today, well today just sucked. Each day I have become more nauseous and had a bigger headache- which I thought was a bug. Today, I literally wanted to vomit. You must understand. We get no channels. We have no radio. We don’t get the paper. I have no job to go to. I get almost all of my entertainment, news, and I make a supplemental income online. I keep my journal on the computer. The music that I rock out to while I clean the house or scrapbook is on itunes, on my computer. Sudden loss of the computer is to me what sudden loss of a leg is to others.
I was also upset because I told TJ over at Zazzafooky that I’d be with her during tomorrow’s blogathon. (She’s raising money for Canine Assistants- check her out and help the cause if you can These service dogs truly change lives, lending a helping paw that gives their owner freedom and independence she otherwise would be without). I really wanted to be a part of this endeavor. Not only is it for a great cause, but when we did it last year I laughed so hard I peed my pants. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had on the internet!
After moping about this for awhile, laying in my bed and getting very ticked off at the entire stupid situation, I thought, “I wonder, if I just hit it if it would come back to life?” Wishful thinking, yes? I was frustrated enough to actually get up and try it, and since Chris had taken the kids to the park to save them from my cruddy mood, there was no one around to laugh, or think I was completely nuts. I stomped from my bed to my desk and gave the computer a pretty good beating. I fiddled with a few buttons and then beat on it some more when suddenly, it sprang to life! There was internet! There was itunes! There was eBay! There was my blog!
I uttered a silent prayer of thanks and began to laugh like a mad scientist in a 1930’s B movie. I’m brilliant! I called my mother in jubilation, and then proceeded to huff and puff and grunt in her ear as I attempted to reconnect the speakers. It took about ten minutes, but I made them work! I am now listening to the dulcet tones of Peter, Paul and Mary, typing blissfully away. I[‘ve placed bids on ebay! I’ve checked my e-mail!
And the headache and stomachache that has plagued me for the past three days have suddenly disappeared. Like a shot of heroin after enduring horrible withdrawal symptoms, I feel great! I’ve irrevocably proved that I am addicted beyond help- but it feels so good to be back on the computer, I don’t care.
Posted by Lou on July 29, 2006 @ 3:28 am | 15 Comments
I have to wait ten more minutes for the other part of my flowerbed to get soaked before I can go to bed. I have taken to drowning my plants at night the past few weeks because we are having insane weather. If you are thinking a California vacation sounds like fun, save yourself the overpriced plane ticket and go hop in your oven. It was 114 degrees here today. My garden is in full protest. 1/3rd of my plants are giving up the ghost. 1/3rd are surviving only because I put the hose in the beds and run it for about 4 hours at night, and the other 1/3rd are actually loving the heat because I was plant savvy enough to plant a lot of succulents that view months of scorching drought as pleasant weather. Unfortunately, they get miffed when the rainy season comes and we have a five month deluge. It is a wonder I even have a garden.
I went to an all day crop today. You’d think I’d have a layout or something to show for it, but I have no scrapping mojo. None. What. So. Ever. I would really love to know why I have these spurts where I’m Miss Creativity and then I have spurts where I can’t even match cardstock to paper. I am volatile in every way. I did manage to make a few goodies for ebay, so at least I got something accomplished.
I have decided that while Maggie is in size 12-18 months, which she has finally grown into (almost), she will be wearing dresses. After spending a year in 6-12 month clothing I have a suspicion that she is going to fly through her new size and be in 18-24 month clothes in a heartbeat. Since you can cheat sizes with dresses, I’m going that route. She just got three adorable dresses from Gymboree this week, and I’m busy on ebay looking for more. I found a beautiful silver holiday dress this morning that was 50 big ones two years ago, and I got it for a mere $4.50. Worn once. Which brings me to my next thought:
Why would you buy a stunningly beautiful and expensive outfit for your child and only have them wear it once? I can understand if we’re talking about a prom dress, but just your average fancy Sunday dress? I find more stuff that was worn once for pictures and that’s it. When my kids have cute clothes, they wear them! I buy the clothes to clothe them, therefore, if I buy the clothes and they don’t clothe them. . .why? Anyway, on ebay, their loss is my gain. I’ve got two more auctions I’m waiting on in the next few days. Don’t bid on my cute stuff, ok? Go bid on my scrapbook stuff though, because that’s how I plan to pay for these dresses 
I made my first altered lunch box this week! It is stinking cute! It is a card organizer, and I made little file dividers for the inside and some cute cards for inside that match the box. I also covered the handle in about eight yards of ribbon, because, you know you can never have enough ribbon I’ve decided to send this baby out into the world, so it’s up on ebay as well. I’m also very proud of me because I learned a new, prettier way to list auctions with a bazillion pictures!
Maggie just stirred, so I should go soothe her. I will tell you about her Monkey later.
Posted by Lou on July 23, 2006 @ 6:35 am | 10 Comments
Filed in: Me
I know. Where the heck have I been? Instead of answering that question, I am going to tell you a story.
We went out of town over the 4th of July, and had a fun vacation in Monterey and a relaxing time with family in San Bruno. Sharks were seen, faces were painted, things were exploded, hot dogs were eaten- in short- it was a good time.
The thing that really made it great was that I left the house completely clean, so I knew that even with all of this relaxing and partying, I would be able to come home and dive into the many tasks that awaited me without the suffocating presence of a filthy house to trip me up. After four days of R&R, we returned home. I walked in through the garage door and my first thought was, “My house stinks.”
I had completely emptied the fruit bowl before we left, so I didn’t have any rotting avocados or bananas. The diapers were all clean and dry, so I couldn’t blame the smell on those. There weren’t any dead bodies rotting in my bathtub, either, even if it did smell like it. I then began entertaining the horrible notion that perhaps my house always reeked like this, and since I was home so much, I had become so used to it that I never noticed. It could explain why we don’t get much company. Disgusted, and unable to locate the source of the smell, I lit some very strong candles, and went back to taking care of my family. Maggie was hungry, and since I had tossed all of the bananas (her first food group), I went to get something from the other food group, cheese. I opened the fridge and the stench hit me like a two by four and sent me running for the door, gagging and heaving. I then remembered that when I left, I had forgotten to take a package of chicken that had gone bad out of the fridge. I held my breath and darted back to the fridge to remove the offending foul, and when I opened it again, discovered that the entire cooling system had broken, most likely three or four days before, and everything in my fridge and freezer had been sitting at a room temperature of about 80 degrees the entire time.
Since I am a person who tends to stock up when she finds a sale, there were at least ten pounds of rotting flesh, three gallons of spoiled milk, and an entire crisper full of vegetables that had achieved putrefaction. The only thing in that fridge that hadn’t gone bad were the batteries.
Chris had to work, so I had no one to delegate the awful task of cleaning up that mess to. After calling my mother and bemoaning my situation, I took her advice, and brought the outside garbage can inside, and started dumping everything directly into the trash can. As far as items in containers went, if it wasn’t Pampered Chef, it was thrown and considered a joint casualty in the fridge’s demise. The garbage can filled to over flowing, and I still had more stuff that had to get out of my house, so I threw a few cardboard boxes into the can, got a chair, climbed into the trash can and jumped up and down to squish the mess and make more space for the rest of the decay. Definately one of my finest moments.
Since my kitchen was basically Salmonella Central, I then got out the bleach and disinfected everything. The maintenance guy came, declared my fridge legally dead, and brought me a new one. I went shopping, and we filed a claim to be reimbursed for the cost of food. All of this took over a day and a half, and while I took care of these things, the luggage that been neglected in the entryway multiplied and spread into the living room, and the children added their toys to the mess, ground a package of crackers into the carpet, and drizzled yogurt onto the couches. So after I dealt with the fridge, I had to deal with those messes, and the other pressing things I had to accomplish got pushed farther back until finally they sucked the life out of the following week. So, even though I started out ahead, I ended up behind. And that’s why I’ve been MIA.
Posted by Lou on July 16, 2006 @ 5:06 pm | 8 Comments
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