Post #2 of the night!

Anyone who has kids that get fevers after shots know why I am wide awake at 4am. We all went to bed around 9, and she woke us up at 12:30 wet. Apparently, Daniel was just going to sleep then. Ah, the games that suck you in.

I figured i would tell about my amazing Christmas present. I just got it in the mail today, and I couldn't wait to watch it. Of course with other things going on, it was turned off in favor of bed, but I am still excited.

So Daniel has problems getting me gifts. Partly because he lets me buy anything I want. That means, if I want something and don't buy it, I think its too expensive, or out of our budget, or whatever. So he would either be buying something really expensive, or wasting money. Lose, lose situation right?

Well, I gave him a list of several things he could buy me, andI don't remember the whole list, but one was a Miyazaki movie. He did one better.

After some online browsing Christmas Day, cause I told him we could pick something together, he found a 6 disc studio ghibli movie set. Containing 12 movies. A few of which I already own, a few others I have drooled over, and one I had never heard of.

Anyone that likes anime of anykind, knows its expensive. Every other Miyazaki film I have bought, has cost me $20. This set was $27.50. So forget the fact that I own a few of the films already, it was too good of a deal to not buy.

So now I am the proud owner of a dvd 'set' in a facinating 6 disc holding case (its the same size as a standard dvd case) and a bonus movie, Tales from Earthsea. This is the newest film from studio ghibli...made in 2006. I wasn't sure if it was part of what we bought, and after looking online, it was not. Of course I had already opened it. There is no reason for a good movie to go to waste. I thought about telling them they mispacked my package, but the packing slip was in there. And on the website it said ifyou are military and you say something in comments, they will send you a free dvd.

Daniel sent the package to Rebecca "Reebok" (using someone's sneaker name is a great way to sound cool at the holidays). We think that they either thought my name was cool enough to send me a free dvd, or they want repeat business, or something. They don't have Tales from Earthsea listed on thier website for purchase. Maybe they are giving that movie out to all sorts of people. Maybe its because Daniel didn't use the coupon codes they have listed on thier site. Who knows. Eitherway, I now have 13 studio ghibli films for less than $35 including shipping and tax.

I would go get one, but I am afraid if I leave the room the baby will awake...again. And I think I should go back to bed. We have an appointment in the morning, so we can't even sleep in very hard.

Badger, badger

We are unsure, but we think this may have been made specifically for babies. It draws them in, it calms their tears, and quickly they are bouncing gleefully.
Why do you think the doctor said no Tylenol after these shots?

A Concerned Parent with Badger song.

Giant Rat Cat...or something like that

So we were watching us some good old late night comedy stuff when we heard what I thought was a cat or some other outdoor woodland creature. Only when I went over toward the door and switched on the light the noise was coming from INSIDE the house.

Daniel and I both stood there, afraid of whatever this creature was. It sounded large. At least a couple of pounds. It sounded deadly. Daniel went up to look. I followed out of sheer dumb curiosity.

Why did I do that?

We got into the room...and there was nothing in the mouse trap. thank goodness! If that noise had come from something that was in a trap, oo doggy that is a big one!

The rustling moving noises continued from the closet.

Maybe I should run and get a broom. Maybe I should have shut the door behind me. Or leave. Leave would be a good choice.

Run endorphins. Run through my veins. Heighten my senses.

O great sigh of relief.

The noise that was so frightening was just the bifold glass closet door breaking. A little hand removal of the glass and the freakishly large rat/cat/mouse was detained.

We now have half of a mirror sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. And still the traps in the house are empty. I am reminded of the stray 'affectionately' named Rat. He was adopted by one or another of my siblings and was fed with the other pets on the porch. We called him rat because he was white, and hideous. The result of the power struggle between stray squatter cats and the cats who own the property. I don't know what happened to him. Or "Christmas." Yet another stray that was adopted. He was a Christmas adoption...you can't say no to a pile of kids begging to keep a Christmas present, even if he has one and a half ears, funky lumps under his fur, and other random disease ridden things.

This has been reminiscing with Rebecca...Tune in next week for more!

Happy Birthday Alice!

We made attempt #1 at pocky. While it was yummy tasting, we didn't cut it thin enough, or uniform enough so some pieces are crispy and yummy, others aren't. It was good, and I have learned from my attempts. So yay. Plus the sticks are like baby biscuits and Alice loves them.

Alice turned 1 yesterday. I can't believe a year ago I was living in a hospital room. Man that was no fun. FYI if you plan kids, plan to not have them around large family oriented holidays. I remember 3 different nurses during the night shift right after Alice was born. Talk about a strange night.

We ate sushi for her birthday dinner, and had strawberry shortcake for dessert. FYI: strawberry pie filling isn't very tasty on top of shortcake. In fact, its downright vile. We should have just crushed frozen strawberries and soaked them in sugar.

Anyway, Alice decided the strawberry shortcake was useless, but the sushi was FABULOUS. She hate 4 roll pieces. I stole the shrimp after watching her try to bite off part. We took pictures, but Rachel's camera has some sort of issues and has eaten the photos. Oh well. Next time I serve the baby sushi, I shall take pictures. And maybe I will convince Alice to play with some cool whip for the camera as well. Thats better than what happened with the short cake.

Other things be a-brewin' and I shall perhaps share more about that later. For now, all my siblings are in town...and all of them are out Christmas shopping. My family isn't really a plan ahead sort of folk. As I am sure you can tell from this. Oh well, there is a puzzle with my name on it in the dining room. i just have to move a sleeping baby...and not wake her.

Alice's teeth are growing! She is getting buddies for her fang. One of her two front teeth is totally visible, and the second is making an appearance. That means people other than me can know they are present! Sweet. She also looks less like a vampire. Sad (*_*) I liked my little monster child. (Even though the very strange order of teeth appearing was a little alarming)

I also had a really strange dream involving dead people/bodies, some really strange tv studio thingy, getting felt up by some creepy guy, and leavign some Alice poopy in my pants. You know, just a regular day in the life of me! The general idea was that the bishop wanted people to try out for this commercial about how amazing lawrence is...it was gonna be a nationwide thing (cause that makes sense you know) And so there were all sorts of church people there, though most of the exact names elude me. But that recording studio that was housed in the strip mall by Dillons on Mass was full of bedrooms with bodies (that of course I knew were dead). PLus really creepy killing children. I think they were zombies. Thats the best explaination.

I can't decide if I should blame the AMAZING curry I ate last night, or the fact that I went back to sleep after Daniel left. Or the fact that he noticed we didn't shut our front door and it was open when he went downstairs this morning. All of those things could be contributing factors. Oh, and FYI as long as I was with other church people I was safe. Yay for the power of church people!

Now, the phone wasn't having problems. It was the internet. Right now I am of the opinion that Lawrence Freenet isn't popular cause its slow enough that if you try to open gmail you have to load the basic view...and the signal is so weak that if you open an attachment, plan on it taking forever to load/download and it might reboot the little $120 pepwave wifi reciever. Then you will never actually get to open that pdf file until you get frustrated and plug the ATT modem back in. Pshaw.

We are hooked back up to our el cheapo ATT dsl. It might not be all that fast, but its consistantly slow, and consistantly on. I can catch up on my House that way. (We watched some crazy dude take over the clinic with a gun last night. And, yes we saw the whole thing. Thank you ATT for your consistantly slow internet.) You see, we don't watch much TV, cause why pay for TV when you are poor, but some shows we like. And now that Stylista is over and there is no project runway or america's next top model I have to move onto shows daniel like. Our next show will be Bones. We are sad that FOX moved them from both being on i na row, on the same night, to No one knows when they are on. But hey, I can handle watching the episodes 8 days after they air. I am a fan, but no fanatic. Unlike with Everyday Food Storage. I am a fanatic of that. I am such a fanatic that I am working on posting myself 101 goals in 1001 days...and I know at least a few will be for food storage. (Maybe I shouldn't post that cause now I will have to follow through).

Oh well, off to write my 10 page double spaced ward project paper! I mean, ward history. Yeah. Fun times.

Naturally, we haven't quite returned the hardware and got our refund. I mean, we have 30 days to do that, and the people are sending someone to check on the WiFi thingy they have on the corner. But, if its still obscenely slow Monday night, we will be trying to return it before Christmas.

Magic Jack Fail?

I was going to call Rebecca and ask her some questions, but... I can't even leave a voice mail. Usually if I call I atleast get put right to voicemail but since the end of my lunch break (about 2.3 hours ago) every time I have called I've just gotten a busy signal.

 

How am I supposed to ask a question? Is it lawrence freenet's fault? I highly doubt it, because that's absurd... but is it? :-O I guess we won't know, until Monday... um *smirk*? Anyway, farewell blog. Rebecca is AWOL, and I'm going to try again.

Trial Findings Day 1

We like to be guinea pigs for things. It has been discussed and decided. Last night Daniel went to Lawrence Freenet and bought a router thingy, and set up service. We set it up and immediately checked the connection speed. What the crap 300kbs? 200? Boo.

He sent in an email asking if service was that slow every night. I mean for real, having the slowest ATT DSL gave us faster speeds and it is cheaper. Of course upload speeds were also at 300 which is pretty fast I guess but we never upload. (Except for the fabulous torture pictures on my favorite blog of course) If anything we might watch some TV online. But, its hard to watch last week's episode of House when your internet won't load streaming video without lots of blips and pauses. I still don't know if Cuddy is going to get to adopt that girl's baby or not. I know she talked with her lawyer, then I saw 13 and Foreman making out. Yeah, that made no sense. What happened to 13 the lesbian? Did she just like boobs? Is this just a way to keep people watching? Are the producers makign sure 13 has no convictions at all? Is this just for the holiday season, afterall making out = joy right? Anyway, I digress.

We are giving the internet some more time to prove its worth. I mean when we woke up this morning it was running at between 950 and 1050 (me and Daniel both checked.) Thats much more acceptable. Its not that I insist on getting 7gigs or whatever the max is they advertise, but I do insist on getting some sort of quality. Last night's speeds were not what is considered wifi broadband by most of America...let alone internationally. We did research. Maybe the FCC deems it broadband, but that standard was set years ago. Things are supposed to be getting faster.

Oh, and I have tried downloading a couple of free scrapbooking things....I was sort of bummed out by the slowness. Like 50kb/sec and if I tried to have 2 running it split that between the two. Also worse than ATT. Grr. Give it a chance, give it a chance.

ALice tried to kill herself this morning. She was super excited to see cheerios. Only problem...she has had those little toddler puffs things alot lately. The cheese ones are addictive, and I am not even a toddler. SO she immediately shoved too many in, and I let her cause I am neglective/inattentive/glad to have her leave me alone. A few seconds later, cough cough, gag cough. She, thank goodness, learned her lesson and is eating them one at a time AND chewing. Yeah, for real now.

And I learned that the ward history is supposed to have signed release forms for all pictures. Jigga what? And to think, last year we sent in our ward newsletters that we were doing (covered in pictures). We also indicated years people were born, thats a no-no too. So I guess putting in new babies is not supposed to happen or something. And I thought about doing things all fancy and stuff, but pretty much they want an essay and all pictures in black and white with names written lightly in pencil on the back.

Huh. How did I not know this last year? I blame baby brain. Not that I can say if my baby was born last year or not. One can only guess. Anyway, I have to assign a couple more things to people to write about. Like random ysa stuff. I am sure not gonna write about ysa stuff. I have no interest in that at all. Plus they have stuff so often, its hard to remember anything in particular. Maybe institute musical. Ha. I wonder if we can include a copy of that for the history. It doesn't say its not allowed...and as long as its on a cd/dvd it can fit into a folder.

The conniving wheels are turning blogorama. I am off to connive at my pleasure!

Snow Day! (sort of)

Der Morgen Schnee schwebt in Schweigen. Alle Welt ist in Weiß gekleidet.

Well, according to the weather people we are in what is considered 'moderate' snowfall. Its pretty. Daniel told me that he was gonna be late to work. No biggie really. He will just have to stay a little late to make up for that.

Best part of the morning? Frost on the windows. You see our home was built in 1981. The windows, while double paned, have metal frames. It makes for "oo pretty" frost on the metal frame. Its less pretty when you think frost =cold. But whatever. Since the frames are metal, they get freaking cold and water sits on them pretending they were white frames (they are black). I wonder if we get some Rustoleum and paint them if it will help them be more temperature proof. I can only guess that it will work. But painting and those things are things left for non-precitation / above zero days.

Today Alice and I will be holed up in the computer room with the space heater. That way we don't have to heat the rest of the house as much. I have it on 60 right now. But lets face it, lots of windows and doors plus that dang drafty fireplace make the rest of the downstairs feel cold, even if the heat is on 70.

We have yet to catch any more mice. We hope that means we are out of them. Might I say YAY!

While we could go to the store for groceries, but thanks to my hoarding ways, I mean providence, we should be fine even if we couldn't get to the store for a few weeks, maybe a few months. Our optimum selection of foods might decrease toward the end, but we would be fine.

I feel bad for all those with finals that have to not only leave thier houses, but take possibly daunting tests. I guess my baby is mad that she has a sealed bread bag and unpeeled bananas, so I should change her and feed her already. Its impressive how easy it become to ignore whining.

Strange Sunday Insomnia!

So I have a pile of Christmas cards written and stamped. They just need addresses. Gar - Alice chewed some on yours. Daniel says you will like it cause its authentic that way.

Does anyone use Lawrence Freenet? Or have they used them in the past? Its slightly more than what we are paying for internet right now, but the bandwidth speed is higher. Plus its local, and I would rather help out the local company defying Sunflower Broadband than use the internet of a national monopoly...well I guess they aren't one anymore, but they were! Plus they never had people call us back like they told us they would. They raised our rates when they said they wouldn't and all in all...we only use them cause they are the cheapest option out there. Besides with Daniel's raise we can spend an extra $3 to help poorer families have free internet.

I started this post over 2 hours ago...then spent 2 hours doing some major research and writing my talk for next week. I think I really just felt like throwing myself into open ended scripture study. My topic? Christmas. Surprise right? Well, I have no cheesy stories, no thoughts about candy canes being like shepherds crooks, stars symbols of Bethlehem or gingerbread men being signs of future tummy yumminess. I only have hard scriptural quotes, and a couple of prophety quotes. I deny the warm fuzziness of popcorn garland and paper chains. I bring what I want to hear about with regards to Christmas. And if you wanted to hear the Luke story...you went to the wrong ward people. (OK, technically Daniel is talking too, so who knows he may be talking about the Juke story, but I sort of doubt it. he didn't want the christmas theme. I wanted it, cause it was pretty much, talk about Christ and how zmog-azing He is. (Personal interpretation, but he is totally zmog-azing and you can't deny that.)

And we had a trap FINALLY catch a mouse. After us hunting and smashing mice...even the accidental smashing, its a great relief for a trap to work. It only took 6 weeks of having traps set.

Oh, and with assistance, I took our computer room completely apart, moved two large bookcases to different parts of the room, as well as the rest of the furniture. It looks good. Well, it looks ok since it hasn't been completely put back together. Daniel will be replacing a piece of trim for FHE or something. We have lots of practical FHE lessons. Like grocery shopping. Or, house repairs. Or, occasionally, movie night. cause movies teach you all about being a good person.

Alright. I know I have to get up in the morning since Alice has an appointment that I want to cancel (I do NOT drive in bad weather) plus I sort of wanted to finish making Daniel those mittens (first one was a deformed flop. and I only cut out modified pattern ones...no sewing yet.) And my leg is asleep, so the rest of me should be too.

Aren't laptops great? I wrote this whole thing while lying between two slumbering heaters. Yay for that. And Yay for Wi-fi too. So long awake journel.

Soul lossage and more!

I'm cold. And its like 50 outside. I am a wimp. I need a blanket.

So last night Daniel did all nighter #2 for the week. At 4 I got up because Alice woke me and Daniel told me that he trapped a mouse under the bookcase.

I decided to set up the live catch trap at the edge, so Daniel could stop listening to the scurry scurry and finish his paper already. (SWEET, Daniel saw me typing this and brought me a blanket!) So I move my Analytical Chem book to set the trap down and then I see a mouse head pop up IMMEDIATELY. I screamed. I pushed the book back.

It was an automatic reaction.

I screamed again. Not because of the mouse, but well...

I no longer have a soul.

I found a recipe for making homemade pocky. I am a dork and excited about it. I am sad i didn't find tahini/sesame paste at walmart though. I will have to go to a grocery store that actually has an asian section if i want to find it i guess.

In other cooking news I made cinnamon rolls for the ward party, using my breadmaker. Might I say that its a fabulous piece of equipment. i think any baked item you could ever want could be made in there. Even quick breads. i haven't done them yet, but I believe they will. Anyway, the cinnamon rolls are yet another food storage friendly recipe. (Thats one nice thing about a bread machine) And since I am a food storage fanatic, I should get my self to the cannery. Maybe now that Daniel is done with school. That is if the weather agrees with us. Oh, yeah and our money agrees with us.

So anyway. Since yesterday, I have sewn a cute mushroom purse, found a pocky recipe, and lost my soul. Seems productive, no?

Becca: 1+G (Bonus for high gore count!) Daniel: 2 Mice: x-3

Curses and Drat

Blinging Bobaloo...

I'm supposed to be working on my homework and um... I was. Until the Magic jack really started to annoy me. Then I started to try to figure out how to stop having it pup up all the time. Answer is, I don't know.

I heard a noise that sounded almost for certain to be from this room. For the record I have been overly anxious about the possibility of this being true so my senses could be playing tricks on me. I poked around and saw nothing. Then I went back to my seat and stare briefly. Just as I was about to go back to work *gasps* I thought I saw a shadow dart across the space in front of the closet door. I saw it so poorly I don't even know where it went. I almost woke Rebecca but instead I tried to find it behind the bookcase with a broom and such... no luck. Then I checked the closet. No luck. Either my psychosis about mice is leading me to hallucinations (quite possible) or they're ridiculously sneaky (quite possible). I read online to try to find out how many you're likely to have and well nobody knows... But someone says they're like rabbits and if you have 2 you have like a billion. So well if this is number 2, where are his minions? Probably in the wall... Gross.
But supposedly if it's mice they can get into things you can stick a pencil into... so um... that's pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, whether it was imagined or real this will probably motivate me to make sure our traps are set up, possibly in the utility closet. And... also I need to do some basic handyman-ness.

Here's the list of things off the top of my head. Actually cut the carpet in the closet so that it can be put snuggly beneath the base boards... possibly patch the indentation in the concrete underneath there... who knows? Get a sander, sand out a spot for our stove so it can be where it's supposed to be. Remove and replace back door, so that we can install trim... Consider replacing dry wall. Probably replace washer in sink upstairs. Learn about roofing because we probably have a small leak that I'd rather not deal with right now... Figure out how to do stuff on our very slanty roof... Kill both the imaginary and the real mice. I don't care about live catching... it's not like killing every mouse in my house will extinct the species or that they're really all that nice having them around... probably. Though supposedly they do eat insects... Well, I could see moving on to operation if you're in the wall, you're going to die there. Anyway, I haven't heard anything for quite awhile. I should go back to work.

Edit: It's hard to concentrate... I now have a confirmed mouse sighting... that or I'm crazy. Who knows maybe it's even Rebecca's couch friend since it appears to be living in this room... part of what's so distracting.

I think that I have it trapped underneath our bookcase. I say that because I haven't seen it for awhile while I was stalking it that was the only place that really made much sense for it to have gone, unless it's actually like under my feet and I just didn't notice. This one appears to be smaller than the one I caned... smaller and friskier(more speedy). Anyway, Rebecca was talking about spending some money today. Maybe we'll blow like 60+ dollars on anti-mouse power. We might even go with killing traps and just not put them out until we're going to bed. Who knows... Anyway...

Photos!

First allow me to vent my annoyance at things. Then we will be onto Merry Merry times!

Our phone sucks. Its very cheap. But its cheap. As in, its a internet phone so it was $40 for the hardware plus software use for 1 year. Only problem. It reboots. 5-10 times an hour. Yes, an hour. While it reboots the thing takes over the screen. (It has to be on top) and it tells you tell your friends about it. Bah. It sucks. They even told me I shoudl try using an externally powered usb hub. What the heck? I need to buy some special hub when in all your self help thigns it says do NOT use an external hub. It must be plugged into the computer. Bah. I am sick of it. I am sick of downloading thier update.exe and running it. Lucky me---upgrading now. It hasn't helped. It didn't help last night. Or the night before when I downloaded 'new' copies 3 times. Bah Bah Bah!

So enough of that. If you call, leave a message. We might or might not get the voicemail, but maybe.

Here is the paron I got in the apron swap. Its cute. I like it. Its festive, and all, and not coveredi nSanta. I don't like the idea of Santa. I don't know if we will do 'Santa' when Alice gets older and learns about him or not, But for now, no santa's in my home. My partner was kind enough to grant my wish and send a holiday themed apron with no santa. (As an FYI when I was looking for fabric I thought, gosh the santa fabric is really cute. Too bad I don't want to have to deal with Santa yet.)


Then ALice grew teeth. I tried to take pictures of her "fang" (she hasn't got middle top teeth in, but got the left one next to them. its fabulous by the way...if you can get her mouth open). i tried, but she refused, so here is a picture of her wondering why I keep going for her mouth wihile holding a camera. She got it open, but you cannot see any of the teeth. Thanks for trying Alice.


OK, third I joined Psst... a program that pillsbury/general mills/etc owned by the same people are doing. They sent me a pile of coupons for Grand's Cinnamon Rolls (in the freezer section). I finally tried them. They looked great. Took 18 minutes and were browned beautifully. Don'tcha think?


Yum! I added the icing. Double Yum. Too bad when I ate one it wasn't quite cooked in the middle. And by the time Daniel had his (4 hours later for dinner) it was dried and nasty. Overall, not worth it. Especially at more than $3.50 a tube. I was planning in saying, great for a special occasion, but you have to plan to eat them all when they are done. You also need to make sure to cook until browner than mine and the edges will be very crunchy, but it will not be doughy in the middle. And if you want to try yourselves, I have coupons for $1.25 off. That Still dont make them worth it if you ask me.


Alice loves cheese. I attacked to teah her that there are other food groups. She is now differently abled. At least for the next 5 days. She has fallen off the couch, and off of laps several times because of it. I think it throws off her sense of balance.




The last pic is just showing how silly she looks when she only has one hand and one club. She plays differently.


SO yeah.

Alice lost a hand

Well, technically a thumb.

You see. Its all because she likes cheese. She was snacking on cheese at lunch and I was using the cheese slicer to get her more. Then what the heck, she starts crying.

Blood. Blood. Blood. Bandage Blood. Crying crying crying.

Bleeding seems to slow some. Wash.

Bleeding continues.

For 15 MORE minutes. The calculated time was 22 minutes from the time I left Daniel a voicemail, to the time i called and told him he needed to be home to drive us to the doc's office.

Alice was a trooper.

2 stitches.

Consult the regular physician. Negate 2 stitches.

She was amazing in the doc office.

Welcome "dermabond" in other words super glue.

Wound washed again (3rd time). Wound bled again. Glue applied. All the cound stuff happened while Daniel ran home to get the diaper bag. We were done and leaving within an hour of showing up at the doc's office.

Alice now has one hand. The second is entirely encased in gauze. We bought a big bandage to wrap her hand in. Change bandage every 24 hours through the weekend. Call if it gets infected and you see pus. Yum.

I have no soul.

I am a murderer, and I have no soul.

Mouse sighting has been confirmed. I was going to the bathroom and I indicated that I had "seen the mouse" run from behind the pantry door into the dining room. Rebecca was enlisted. I circled around, we took some paneling boards that we had previously purchased and still had lying out and placed them at both exits perpendicular to the ground.

The search then commenced... Once I was able to get a mouse to move it scurried around so quickly and disappeared from view, then I immediately saw another one! What there are two? The search continued as things went from the floor to table level or outside the room. Finally the mouse came out again. Rebecca screamed. I screamed. Alice looked on with confusion. I reminded myself of Tom and Jerry and swung a broom. I clobbered it on the head. It twitched, it fell over. We got a cottage cheese container and sealed it inside. Who knows if it's dead... it will be thrown away with the trash tomorrow. You hear that mice? SHOW YOURSELF AND DIE!!! FOR I HAVE NO SOUL!!!

Hangin with my Homie...sort of

Saturday night I was watching TV with Alice. It was maybe 9pm. Daniel was already in bed (he stayed up most of the night Friday working on homework). It was fine. Until I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.

I assumed it was my imagination, but looked anyway. Then a scurry of a shadow later I was on my feet holding the baby and screaming bloody murder for Daniel. I heard him jumping out of bed noisily and coming down.

I explained, completely calmly (yeah right), that I happened to see a MOUSE ON THE COUCH NEXT TO ME AND THE BABY! He was like, are you sure? THEN, I saw the offender run around the corner from behind the couch to the computer room. I pointed, but Daniel was still in wake up shock and never saw the offender.

I had been planning on going to bed at 9, when the show I was watching was over. But, alas, adrenaline kicked in. The computer room got cleaned. Furniture got moved around. All things that were near the wall, but not against, were pushed against it. The room was vacuumed. Multiple times. The futon, the cumb covered Alice snack haven, was vacuumed. Shelved were pushed against the wall and VHS tapes that we haven't watched since i got married were boxed up and marked to giveaway. (Lets just say we haven't even got the VCR hooked up because we would have to unhook the DVD player, and that's annoying.

Well, whereever he, the offending mouse, ran to in this room it was well hidden. No sign or sound was heard from him since. Except last night. Or rather this morning.

I had the most fanciful dream. I was mouse chasing. It ran under the computer desk. There was some notebook or something that had fallen down and left a shadow for the mouse to hide in. I went after it with Lysol spray (Don't even ask) and then he jumped out for me. It was black instead of gray, and growled like it was a rat and attacked my head. I was too scared to even call to Daniel and when I finally did he didn't come. I opened my eyes and Alice was touching my arm. Funny that I was so freaked out. It wasn't like she was touching my head where the mouse/tiny rat attacked me. All because I sprayed it with lysol disinfectant. For real, that stuff won't kill you.

Not a good job, but a job.

So I just finished some of my long term homework assignments for school. I know I didn't necessarily do a great job, but at least I did it. One of the difficulties came from having to write a report... I think that I may have honestly never written a report. And you know, using formatting dealies like AMA or MLA after not doing either for years is kinda mind boggling.

I should be in bed, but I kind of feel like celebrating having things done by wasting time online. I have a final in 4 and a half hours. The final will take probably approximately an hour to get to. I need to get up in atleast 3 and a half hours probably more like 3.

On a lighter note, Rebecca was right. I got a raise. The funny thing though is that I didn't get the raise I was told I would get or the raise they were planning on giving me, but a smaller raise. So... I continue to expect a raise. My supervisor is kinda fuming at HR... who would of thought?

Food Glorious Food

So Daniel, then Alice, and Finally I (thats me) have been sick. The last 2 weeks we have had crinkled kleenex piles, fevers, runs to the bathroom, humidifiers, and fluids. Lots and lots of fluids. It made me realize we should probably get a bigger water storage stash.

In fact, we need to start eating. I have worked on getting food storage together...of course we are almost fresh out of wheat since I 'try' to bake our bread. Don't feel like I am amazing, I have flops and certain people saying its not good sandwich bread so we do buy some store bread. But either way, I get to be all provident this way.

Don't you love that word?

Anyway, my favorite food storage blog is Everyday Food Storage. I am an Everyday Food Storage FANATIC. (AS a side note, I just realized there is a button for making things link...SO much faster than editing the HTML). While I won't say I am as good as her at using food storage, we are using it. In fact, our fridge looks somewhat bare since I have been working on using more shelf stable things. The added bonus, Alice can eat all canned veggies since they are super soft. I mean we still have frozen and, since its not exactly garden season very limited, fresh.

Anyway. Now that I am still drippy and gross, but for some reason energized (I think its the fact that we got a crazy big paycheck so Daniel prolly got his raise) so I am off to clean house some more. I might even vacuum! And, I am gonna make up some menus. That way I don't look at all this canned food and think...yeah I have that. Plus I should bake some more bread. I don't know if I feel like doing that now, but it should be done. Now if only I knew how to turn food storage into those nifty little toddler snacks. You know the fruit and veggie puffs. Actually, I don't think I could make them even if I didn't use food storage...but yeah.

I am the god of the bathroom!

I fixed our upstairs bathroom sink yesterday.

It had dripped since we bought the place. Well, it started as a drip if you didn't have the handle off just so. Then it became a bigger drip that didn't care. Then I thought I got it off and we just used the hot side. But it wasn't really off. It kept dripping...slowly, but it was there. I noticed it dripped more when we ran the washer (prolly cause its upstream of the washer).

Anyway. We assumed it needed at least a washer. Perhaps even a replacement faucet. We also knew there were no stop valves under the sink and we would need to turn the water off and put in valves.

Both of those options were yucky options. At least until Daniel finishes the semester in a week. Man its almost over. Crazy/AWESOME!His first final is tomorrow morning.

Anyway, yesterday i was like...hmmmm I wonder if I tightened this screw under the pretty little C cap if that would do anything.

5 Seconds later

Wow. Its not dripping. I washed my hands. I even turned on the cold side while washing my hands. Then I started laundry.

SWEET!

I am the mastermind of home repairs! All you other Slim Shady's are just imitating. (OK sorry that was a throwback from high school...or very early college days.

But, yes I am amazing. You can all fall and worship me now.

Apron Swap! and Picture books

SO I signed up for an apron swap...and I just got mine in the mail. Lets just say...the person making my apron is a much better seamstress than I.

And the box it came in was huge! (Made me feel like a bit of a slacker with mine.) Anyway, the apron was way cute. I took a picture. I might re-wrap .it and put it under the tree. I am having issues understanding the computer today though. ITs called a drippy sniffy nose. And a drippy sniffy brain.

We also got our photobook from snapfish today. I wanted to get on and look at my project and see if I somehow chose an off center page...cause there is one that cut Daniels face off. OK I know there should be an apostrophe, but every time I try and use it it pulls up some quick links thing...causa Alice was sitting on the keyboard. She thinks the beeping noise is music. Dont ask, it makes her happy and it doesnt destroy thing. Man I use contractions too much. Anyway I made a typo in the book too. Its still nice, but yeah Alice lover her Mommy is a good scentence.

I miss my apostrophe!

Alice loves the book.

I sort of want to bake cookies in my new apron.

Only then I would have to be baking and in the kitchen. And I totally said no to a question for work, cause there is no way you can find out how much an oil change costs at Walmart online. So there goes my good streak of answering questions.

Trying to be Handy...in a Failing world

So Alice's rash was gone by yesterday evening. I guess that means, tada Roseola. Or heat rash, or something. Either way, its gone now.

So our bread machine died a couple of weeks ago. It was a sudden thing. One day it worked just fine. The next day, it would mix the ingredients, but never switch over to "rise" or any other cycle. It was sad, but I am back to making bread by hand again. At least until we can find a break maker for as close to free as possible.

So last night I cooked our after Thanksgiving Turkey. This 13 lb beauty cost us $6 and had an extra butt inside. At least it looked like the place where tail feathers are attached. I also in a recreation of Thanksgiving made homemade mashed potatoes AND baked bread. We now have over 12 cups of sliced turkey in our fridge and freezer for sandwiches, etc.

Well this morning Daniel tried to make himself toast with my, naturally, fabulous bread. The toaster goes down, and the toaster pops up, but the toaster never gets warm. Jigga what? Is the kitchen a vortex of small appliance killing madness? Probably. I tried reseting the circuit. Didn't work. I dunno what to do about that one.

I also got out the screws to reattach the little rolly slider thingy that keeps the drawers from falling out. That was pretty easy. Then I reattached the cupboard doors. No prob. Then I thought...hmm I think the drawer that hits the oven because its not installed right, is the same size as the hole in the little floating cabinet. Cah-ching! So after some work, I get the thing out. I also stole a roller thingy from a bottom drawer that can live without it, and was gettign ready to take out the rest of the hardware when I realized I should measure the new hole cause that cabinet is shorter. Yeah it is. 5 inches less deep. So everything got put up. I can't even get the drawer back in with the hardware on (gayness!)

And I got a question to answer on ChaCha, so I ran off to ansewr that. Right when I start getting back to back questions Alice flips out. She was wet, and it was nap time, so I helped her out. Of course I will probably not get any more questions today...cause now I am at the bottom of the queue...or I will be if I can ever log in. Such is life.

Now if only the Dow Jones would go back up so my retirement investment would be less puny.

Infant Rashes and Roseola

My sinuses are full of something...something that is giving me a sinus headache. Such is life I suppose.

Miss Alice is better...I guess. She now has a rash. All over her body and head. I had noticed some irritation over the weekend on her head (she is sensitive to Olive oil..or aLLERgic (She also was holding down the shift key, thanks kiddo). See there was a bit of irritation amongst her hairline...then i thought she might be getting diaper rash....only there was redness on her belly and back too.

Gah.

My research has told me that it could be Roseola which starts as upper respiratory sniffles, turns into a fever...then a rash. Well she was a little drippy back last week when Daniel was getting sick, and she definately had a fever over 103....and it went away then the rash. But what I raed says it should go away after a few hours. What does that mean? 3 hours? 12? 48? Few is not helpful here people. I mean some sources say 1-2 days. Others a few hours.

And I don't even know if I should waste the money to go to the doc, since all online stuff indicates that there is no treatment for the rash and once the fever is gone for 24-48 hours she isn't even contagious. If the rash lasts longer than a week we are supposed to notify the doc...but it also says its not diagnosed unless a dog does a med history and physical. I guess I can talk with Daniel and see what he thinks.

WebMD says to not freak out...but sometimes WebMD is wrong. What if its poison ivy?? OR maybe she is allergic to our soap. I did give her a bath with some baby soap stuff that wasn't Johnson and Johnson's baby soap. What if the pretty smelling stuff made her break out. What if the rash and the fever are totalyl unrelated. We do have teeth that have popped in so it is possible. Its also possible that sometime over the holiday she caught some virus from some random kid (ok family) and this resulted. Or even just allergic reaction.

I should probably not post this, as it may appear that I am freaking out. I really am not, I just have questions the internet has not answered yet.

So long querying blog!

Porn for New Moms?

I just checked my email and an online bookstore sent me an add for their cyber monday (you know the online version of black friday). I was appalled when I looked at it though. The first book they has listed on their 'best selling books' list was "Porn for Women" with a picture of a topless man vacuuming or something (I didn't really look that closely). Every other book was a cookbook. A cookbook, people. I was surprised to say the least. I unsubscribed from thier emails and I tried to go to thier website and complain, but couldn't find a contact us thing. Maybe its because I didn't want to try and find it.

I also noticed a "Porn for New Moms" on their home page when I was trying to find a contact us link. I just wanted to leave. I am sure it was 3 rated, and pictures of little babies, but I hate that the title is what people will go for, not the book itself. I mean for real. Shock factor?

On a side note, I had my own porn for new moms this morning. I opened the washing machine to throw diapers in the dryer and I smelled poo. I started pulling the diapers out, wondering why it smelled yucky (they never do after I wash them usually). Then I saw it.

The nose offensive porn.

A poo blob on the side of the washer insides. My guess, it floated away during a soak session...then was spun out. Thanks to Daniel being scared of a blowout and not flicking the poo into the toilet. I know, I know...TMI. But I did warn you with the title now didn't I?

Teeth!

Alice has at least 2 teeth popping onto the scene. A canine (or maybe just one next to the middle two) has broken the surface, and I can see that the middle two are on thier way out as well.

This explains 104.9 last night. Followed by a tepid bath. Followed by ibuprofen. Followed by a trip to the store to buy more Tylenol.

Did you know that you can 'alternate' between ibuprofen and tylenol for infant fevers...so long as you wait at least 4 hours between doses. The nurse thought it was probably because it had been 8 hours since her last dose of ibuprofen that the fever was so crazy.

Of course she was fine the rest of the night. At 5am this morning she had a 100.3 so we put off giving meds until 10 am when it was 102.something. She also acted interested in toys and food and even smiled today! Yay. Recovery is on its way! It only took about 2 days of sleeping, lots and lots of nursing and some drugs. Oh yeah, and a blessing (which she got before the fever got really bad, ironic huh?)

Unconfirmed Invaders

It's official. There are unofficial unconfirmed announcements of new teeth. It's about time Alice. Alice is playing with her drug bottle and looking at me like she wishes she were dead. And it's all because of her invaders.

I have to go to the theatre. It kind of sucks. Because I have a need to go soon rather than later, actually, I should go today. I am going to go see "A Christmas Story". That's right, that movie but performed by some sort of new interpretation that will probably suck. I guess I'm going to have to take a notebook and take notes so that I can write about it, which is exactly why I have to go.

I really don't understand why my class thinks that I need to go to a play, because the class is called "Drama as Literature". In what way is literature the same as theater? Anyway, I'm gonna go. Rebecca might correct this for grammar later.

How to be Cheap!

So today was the morning of 'amazing' deals and lots pf people shopping. My observation of the day was: people WILL spend money, even if they have none.

We got back from Thanksgiving with the family last night with a feverish and cranky baby. After finally locating the thermometer, we found out, yes 103.2 is bad and drugged her quite well with infant ibuprofen. The nice part about it, she actaully can stand the taste of it, unlike evil infant tylenol. Cherry flavor = death; berry flavor = i guess I can take this. 7 hours later she woke up and felt warm, and was wet, and Daniel was not in bed. Of course I didn't know what time it was, I just knew it was late(ish) and he wasn't there. I called him and he admited he was watching season 2 of heroes. So check temp again, 102.1. Thats better than 103, and it had been long enough, enter drugs.

Then Daniel was not fast enough putting her diaper back on, and alice peed on our bed. Um, yay. Look for another sheet. Then change the pillowcases, etc and force everyone to take showers. OK I was already in the shower when the pee-ing happened, but whatever. Then I realized it was 5:30am.

Now since we had discussed goign to black friday cause there were some things we wanted/needed that were great deals, and everyone was awake. We all got dressed and headed out into the sleet/rain.

1st stop, the dreaded Walmart stop. Yes it was packed. Yes there were deals, but I got so messed up trying to push a cart around and avoid people that after about 15 minutes, all we had was cough drops. (Yeah the pharmacy section was EMPTY). So we got close to the whole way round the store and decided, we are not going to be buying enough stuff to justify an hour or two in line. Literally lines were backed up down the main aisles almost the whole way to electronics (the hub of activity of course). So we abandoned the cart and the lone item in the midst of the clothing section (also deserted) and went outside to hike our way to our car.

Next stop Sears, cause I had seen online they they were going to have some pot and pan set, and I have been wanting sometihng along those lines for a couple years...and after finally finding the area, and the 'deal' we realized the pans weren't good enoghu quality for us to want them. And all the other things that were good deals, weren't needed or were just too expensive.

So we drove home. With nothing. Yeah. I know, we are cheap. OR maybe we are just poor. But the baby went back to bed and is still passed out, and so is Daniel. So that was my morning.

Don't inhale

I found out that this caulk type stuff that you put on windows to seal them for the winter is really noxious. I.E. if you inhale the fumes it will affect you neurologically...and make you go nutso or at least feel sick and screw with your nervous system.

Luckily I think all the yucky stuff has pretty much dissapated. (I learned that if you can smell the fumes, its not ventilated enough oops) and that would explain why the baby was so 'cry, cry, cry.' So yeah. Tada. All is well, not just cause I had come to terms with feeling not as amazing as all these other people that in my view are freaking awesome (don't ask guys, everyone has one of those days I am sure)

Daniel took some time off work to get caught up on end of the semester projects...and he also came down sick yesterday. So his nose is drip, drip, drip. And I have some very stuffed sinuses, so I am sure I will be the next to drip. Oh well.

I glued the broom head onto the handle last night. And then duct taped it. Yeah its stylish. Then while I was holding a piece of trim for daniel to nail into the wall, I look at Alice. Yeah, she had taken the lid off the wood glue and had it all over her, and the floor. Daniel transported her to the tub, and I came up and bathed her. It was everywhere. In her hair, covering her clothes, sticking her fingers and toes together. Yes. Glue.

So I got to take a shower after I bathed her cause she still hates baths and was trying to crawl her way out of teh tub via my body.

Now, if only she didn't want to be awake at 6am.

Not a thing to be stirring, not even a mouse

Well, the weekend was long and treacherous.

But, its over, so its time to move on. Daniel and I talked, and we are moving on.

No more feelings of being not wanted.

No more having to take extra steps because I don't fit in.

I'm moving on! (I don't know if I am exclaimation point excite,d but if I write it I might believe it)

Anyway. Enough with that.

We went to Target at the end of last week. I had a gift card we got from points back on our credit card, and I wanted to buy curtains. You know, make the home, more homey...oh yeah and stop the drafts.

So we go, and yeah there is one aisle of curtains there. I mean, its not the best selection, but I had a gift card, so we looked. After feelign the thickness of the different curtains, we got three panels for our one big window, and our strange skinny window in the living room. Each panel was $20, but it was like I was only paying $10 for them, so I figured, whatever. Then we were heading to the check out and i realize we need curtain rods. Now the curtain rods and blinds were on a second aisle, so I go look. I saw a cart sitting in the aisle, in the middle, but I scooted it over and went past it to look at the curtain rods. (I had seen a lady leave that aisle and go to the next, so I thought it was hers.)

After deciding to get tension rods I turn around and head to leave. Then I noticed that there were more curtains on this aisle. Only a few, and they were the thermal kind (i.e. plastic lined, but that doesn't sound eco friendly). Well, thermal is what I had actually wanted, so I was sort of happy. I looked and they were more (naturally) but I did see a couple of packs lying at the bottom with clearance stickers.

I can't help looking at clearance items. Its an addiction.

They said, originally 19.99 now 14.01. Cool, thats cheaper than what we got on the other aisle, and I can get these two panels and find a matching color instead of the blue gray we had. There were the exact same curtain panels for sale for $30, but its not my fault they were mismarked. I mean for real, the exact panel was on the wall. But I didn't want to get a third panel for $30 when there were $20 panels...of course they were sold out. I also noticed that the cart that was sitting in the aisle was still without that lady, and she was completely gone. Strange. Then I spotted in her cart one of those little scanner things. Anyone that has done a registry or works in retail stores knows what they looks like. And I realized that the entire cart was full of things that were returns and were getting marked clearnace.

The only other curtains I saw wouldn't work though (sad hideous color, at least when held up next to the ones in my hand) and they weren't any cheaper than the $20 ones I had already deecided on.

While I go back to try and decide tan or red daniel sees a package I missed in the cart. It was for a dark brown thermal panel. It wasn't as wide as the other ones, but it was makred down to $5. The color, i wouldn't have chosen myself if I had other options, but for that price, I can comprimise.

So we got all of our curtains for free. Sweet. And we spent way too long putting them up because the tension rod wasn't strong enough on the large window to hold up the heavy thermal curtains. That means we took down the nice curtain rod that was in the kitchen and put it up in the living room. The 'curtain' that was up in there was something I made from a sheet, and it wasn't even shortened properly.

We also took out the front set of French Doors Saturday and put them back in. It only took 4 hours, and we didn't get trim up, but it looks a whole lot better. Even though I have smal pieces of yellow Great Stuff foam all over my dining room. And I didn't sweep because my broom decided to break. Ghetto cheap walmart $15 broom. If i wanted a breaking broom I would have bought a $1 model from the Dollar shop. (Thats where we are buying a replacement btw. Probably 3 of them, cause I expect them to break.)

So yeah, I didn't see any signs (read mouse poo) indicating that they returned yet again last night, so my stacks and stacks of clean pots and pans bowls, etc can return to the lower cabinets. Thank goodness. I was getting so sick of stubbing my toe on a stack of baking dishes, and having my counters or table covered in skillets and bowls.

And its still a.m. that means I can clean. (I am really much more of a morning cleaner, you know before I get frustrated at the baby, while the sun is shining in the kitchen windows warming the tile, and after loading up on breakfast carbs.)

So long bipolar blog!

Today has been a day from hell. Not heck, not any other mild form of the word. Hell.

Let me explain.

I hate Sundays. It used to be the best day of the week. Until I had a child. Then meeting from 11am-2pm became torture. It helped that Daniel gets weekends off.

Then he started school.

Things went downhill even more. I have dealt with more mind-losing screaming today than for a while.

I hate many things today. One of them is the parasite attached to my boob. Another is the fact that we have our blog auto emailed to some of Daniel's family. I will be stopping that for this entry. I don't want their sympathy. Sympathy from 2000 miles away is wasted on me. In fact unless you can shut up the baby, get her away from my breast, and take away this headache that I have drank 3 glasses of water and taken 800mg ibuprofen for, I do not want to talk to any of you.

Daniel is home teaching. He still has tons of homework to do. This job I got is turning into a nightmare. My home has been bombarded by chemicals of all kinds to plug up weather holes, and mouse trails and every smell is making my head hurt worse. And its a freaking mess and I can't even do anything because I have a freaking parasite attached to me.

Things and Stuff

So yesterday I was sitting with Alice in the living room, and watching something and feeding her and I see this guy walking up the front walk. Huh, ok. So I think, I wonder what this is. He comes up and does NOT knock, but starts peering in the window. He looked in the dining room first, then started looking at the living room and saw me staring at him. He jump, startled, and walked quite quickly away.

I snickered.

But, it was strange. I think he was a guy that was working on the remodel next door, but I dunno. I was just glad that Alice was eating bread and not boobs.

Last night we had Schlectness. It was pretty enjoyable. The giant Ho turned out. I made a chocolate sauce and tried adding oil to make it harden. We ate the saucy ho before it was hard. It was chocolately delight. I also busted out the pink depression glass dishes. I was given a bunch from Daniel's grandmother and we have used them like twice in the last year. I also got a cute pink depression glass pitcher and 4 juice glasses. They are so tiny, its very cute. We used them as well. For milk. Cause milk should be drunk from tiny pink glasses.

Oh, and the poetry. Man the poetry was funny. We combined a poem by some old drunk guy (can't remember his name, sorry guys) with the back of a movie case. Best line: "DRUNK! I AM DRUNK!" "Check" Laughter, laughter. Yeah, and the baby went to bed at like midnight, which means I have free time! (Hence, the post, ja).

On a sad note, I cleaned out under the sink, and all the cabinets in bleach soaking joy yesterday. I also finished wasing all, all, ALL of the pots and pans under the cabinets. This morning Daniel saw freaking mouse poo under the sink. AGAIN! I JUST FREAKING CLEANED THAT! (i must yell because out loud yelling would wake my spawn.) The mouse traps were sitting under the sink, untriggered.

Tonight, we will be putting trim up. FOrget relief society hanging out with cookies. Forget choir. Daniel will be climbing inside the cabinets looking for holes. The trim will finish getting up (we had dome some potential hole covering, but no actual trim). The cabinets will get cleaned again and we will stop the freaking poo machine that is the mouse in our house. I am so freaking sick of him, I am Mormon swearing up a storm. I put thefood processor under there. I put all my clean pots and pans in that cabinet. I Just ate breakfast.

Don't get between a woman and her food. You will be crushed tiny little creature.

Party over here! I mean... down there.

So... Rebecca is having a party. This is apparently, based upon what I've seen, a made up holiday that is celebrated every third year wherein people are thankful for things that are pretty bad. I believe it's called Schlechtesmas or something like that. Derived from the German word for bad schlechtes and the Danish word mas meaning trouble nuisance or worry. So I guess it's a double negative and therefor actually fun.

Anyway, I don't have nearly so much of the blogging flair that Rebecca has, but yeah. I'm not invited to the party. Atleast, I wasn't invited to the party, but I can participate later if I want to do so.

For the record going to school and working full time is pretty obnoxious... especially if you have a small child in your home that doesn't like to let you sleep through the night. Last night she woke up at about 1:30 and was crawling on me and crying in my face. Not sure what to make of that... The night before I guess she actually woke up about the same time, but she was up a lot longer. Actually, she was bad enough that Rebecca got really frustrated and I took Alice downstairs for like an hour and a half and played blocks with her. Yes, I was tired.

There's so many things that I have to do now that it's just so easy to get overwhelmed. Unfortunately, when I get really overwhelmed I generally just shut down and don't get anything done that's useful. I'll have to do better in the future. Sorry I really don't feel like I have anything to say, so cheers.

Okay, yes. I would have posted that already but the mouse stopped working on the lap top.

I'm up in the middle of the night. I can't really say way. One reason I suppose is that I was curious if I'd gotten a raise yet or not... and um... that's inconclusive because the money hasn't hit the bank yet. So I don't know.

I've been listening to what I'll call a scary book at work. And I mean that apparently it's scary enough that I was lying upstairs in bed and kinda started to imagine ghosts looming in the shadows coming to rape my women and burn my crops. A bit ridiculous but there it is.

Working, working, working!

OK, Obama needs to not be at the top of my blog post anymore. So here we go.

I have a 'job' working for ChaCha. Its a free service (paid by advertising) where you text in a question, and get it answered by a person. Its like what KU info used to be. Its sort of cool. Only downside, providing sources. Especially for math questions. ANd i keep getting feedback emails that my presentation isn't the best. I guess i don't sound personable enough? I am not sure. Maybe its also cause I sometimes take a while to answer a question. I dunno.

Anyway, I have made over $9.50 in my spare time in the last couple of weeks, and though thats mot much, its better than nothin. So here is to texting (or calling) in questions! I don't know how you get an answer if you call in though. Maybe they email it to you?

SO here is all the useless facts I have learned:
1. Bill Gates retired June of 08. Before that he was paid $700K directly for use of some company that microsoft buys thier sample pics, etc from. There was also much more money paid to that company, but it wasn't directly to Gates.
2. You can't use a pdf document as a source, unless you view as html (its that whole select text thing that don't work.)
3. Germ-X (hand sanitizer) does NOT work for pimples. That was a duh, answer, but I did tell the guy that it can prevent staph infections that sometimes look like pimples or boils. Yummy.
4. 10 foot sections of aluminum gutter are about $7.50, and come in white, but you can paint them. Sorry dude, they don't come in maple unless you find some local retailer, and thats not on the net.
5. 3% of 93 is a little more than 2. That was honestly a HARD question to answer. They have links to stuff for doing math problems, but nothign for finding a percent. I finally found a site for 3rd grade math, and copy pasted that you have to remember that percent is per hundred then gave them the answer. I will probably get a feedback note on source, but whatever.
6. If you want 10" subs, and a 10" amp, you can get both from Overstock.com for about $220, with 2.95 shipping. I would give you the exact models I pulled up, but it REALLY doesn't matter.
7. If you boil bleach you will end up with a precipitate...that solid is an explosive! I found it on some pro-NRA site. The question was 'can you boil bleach' and i gave them a what you can do with it when you do. As a note, you can also buy the solid from pool stores...its a few bucks for a pound.
8. 60% of women secretly hate wedding showers. I don't know if thats really a secret or not. I was glad mine was a total flop. I have never really enjoyed them. I sort of hate lots of the things we do that are extraneous with weddings and the like.
9. A nollie is an ollie done with the nose of a skateboard.

ALso, the best thing to do when bored is to go to the ChaCha forums (for employees) and read the bad answer, better answer. Some of the original answers were HORRIBLE. Like ones that don't havea thing to do with the questions. Or the reply, Dunno man. Source? ChaCha.com

Oy. Enough of that. Its cold. I should clean. Its 7am and dark(ish).

Obama does weekly YouTube posts?

Think this is a joke? I did. But, it appears that the fake wood paneled background is, in fact legit.

I just watched the video, and I have to admit, this is a definite change for past president elects. I mean what past president's have gotten their own websites (www.change.gov).

Ok, so the video is pretty good (if you scroll down, I embeded it), I just have a few criticisms. Why does he think socialized healthcare will help the economy? I don't get the correlation. I don't have a job, but I can get sick or whatever, no problem. Umm, jiggah what? He talks about a rescue plan to boost the economy, but he also says that wall street and 'main street' will rise and fall together. And starting all these new jobs repairing roads, etc. It reminds me of the 1930s (i think) when they had all sorts of government jobs building things for the betterment of the people. I know all of you remember the "New Deal" that FDR initiated after the great depression. If you don't remember, read your history book, or google it or something. I like that he wants us to make sure the government starts an even newer deal. I mean, Change.

I also like that if you go to his website, he has already announced many of the staffers for his administration. What happened to taking it easy, and announcing things after Thanksgiving? I thought that was reasonable. I mean, the guy has younger kids, and you can't make up for lost time with them. Pretty soon they will be tweenagers with braces boyfriends and bad attitudes. Maybe if they get the puppy it will all be good. (yes guys, some of these comments are sarcasm. its not president-elect hating, or title-ism. I just think its funny that I had to listen to the webcast 3-4 times to get everything. Its cause he switched topics A LOT. I mean, it was all the same topic, but it felt unorganized enough to me. Probably because I like my facts in bullets, grouped by similarity. He has too many fancy schmancy sounding scentences, they juts confused me. )

SO yeah. Change = a president that supports Google's takeover of the world. As do I. Note: this blog is through google's blogspot, and youtube is owned by google. Creepy how me and Obama are like the same person huh!

Anyway. You should check out the website. Its sort of interesting. http://www.change.gov

We got some of these:

And Daniel stuffed a bunch of SOS pads in all the cracks he found around the edges of the house.

And I found out the replacement part we got for the bifold door is too big to fit in the track that's already installed. SO hopefully Home Depot has more than one size of track runner thingies. Or Ace hardware. Or anyone.

We also haven't decided what we are going to do if we DO catch said mouse. Take him a mile away and let him go? Let him go in the yard?

FOr all we know, the neighbors are the ones originally letting them in...we just had a temporary second solution. But last night I heard a scurry sounding thing in one of the outside walls...as far from the kitchen as possible. Yeah, ok it might have just been leaves, but still.

Alice is sleeping and I am attempting to put some order back into our home. I can't get myself to dive into under the sink yet.

I guess I will start loading all of the pots and pans into the dishwasher. (We are in all items in lower cabinets get washed phase) and vacuum the living room. FYI. The pantry is so clean, orderly and tidy, I sort of want to stare at it. Its pretty.

Oh my Freaking Gosh

Yeah. Its that bad.

I will give background of why I am swearing up a storm.

So I decided I would fix the bifold door in our kitchen (the one covering the utility closet) today. Daniel and I bought a repair kit Friday on date night. Yeah, we spend date night at home depot, what of it?

Anyway, I go to fix it and I realize I will have to repair the broken wood at the bottom so I can put in a new peg thingy. I am sure there are technical names, but whatever. So I find a shim, wood filler, and glue. No wait. Where is the glue?

I looked in the bin of household repair things. No Gorilla Glue. No wood glue. Where did I see that stuff? I know I saw them together. I thought it was on a shelf. I know at one point it was under the sink.

So I go check. Assuming its not under there. I was right, no glue. But! Moment of amazing epinephrine rush! I see the horrible unwanted, evil mouse poo. Yeah. In case you haven't noticed my feelings on these creatures, let me explain. *&!@$#%*!@$)*$%

That was the edited version.

Mice are fine outside. They are acceptable in pet shops. They are forbidden from my home. Forbidden. I don't care if the came with the place, they need to be gone.

So I don't know where they are living, but they are getting in.

I looked harder in the pantry (where we keep all random tools, etc.) And then I see more evil mouse poo. Now this stuff was way back in the back amongst our water storage, and it looked old. Like some ot it was whitish, and it was like pebbles. No matter, operation freak out was instated.

I pulled out everything from the pantry floor. I made a 3 row barrier of water bottles and canned juice to keep the baby out and mixed up some bleach solution. I hosed the place down.

I also started looking through the computer room closet where I admit we have some boxes that have never been unpacked. You know, wedding reception decorations, empty baby junk boxes, etc. Then I notice a water line on the cardboard of the bottom box in there.

For real now! Why.

I pulled it out and pulled up the carpet. Yeah. Mold.

Still no gorilla glue though.

So I find the spray disinfectant stuff that has been sitting on a shelf forever and not used. I smothered that place in it. The baby was of couse fasto n my tail and mad that she couldn't get int. When she got close she started coughing.

Ugh.

Meanwhile I have the bleach solution sitting on the pantry floor, I barricade tha baby in the living room (all 3 exits are baby gated) and cut up an old Tshirt I was planning on turning into a grocery bag anyway.

I sprayed even more bleach solution and started slowly hand mopping up the floor. And tossing the rags into a grocery sack to go into the trash bin.

I also shoved a steel woll cleaning pad into the hole. I think I will need to add about 4 more to fill it.

And find Gorilal Glue.

Meh.

*Note* While writing this, Daniel called back and he is coming home and picking up Gorilla Glue on the way. And the baby is wailing in the living room because she finished off her bribe (bread) and wants to be in the same room as me. Sorry kid. I will join you, but once we get a 2nd adult, we will have to work on hole sealing and home sterilization. And all this after we get a postcard in the mail sent to my Middle and last name (odd) saying Got Mouse problems? Call us. Daniel says it was sent by readers of my blog.

Crazy good Dillons deals

So we went grocery shopping today. Dillons is having their mega plus sale (or whatever its called) and if you buy 10 items you get $5 off your purchase. So we were shopping and buying things, then see see that Kroger muffin mix is 50 cents and there is things next to it saying if you buy 10 you save $5. Well hello, free muffin mix.

So we got 14. (We already had 6 items that would save us $ and we decided food storage muffins? Sure!) Anyway, we go to check out and they didn't give us the $10 off so we were like...what the heck. And asked and the cashier said that we only bought 6 items and we had to buy 10. So we said, but the muffin mix had a sign saying it was part of the mega save $5 deal. (I should look up the name, but I don't feel like it.) So the bagger goes and looks, and sure enough they had the signs on the wrong things. So we got our $10 off.

Ironically, instead of her changing the signs, she left a memo. But whatever. We also got 5 containers of Eggnog on manager's discount for 5 cents. Yeah, I had to look twice. Actually 3 times. Then I decided, I think you can freeze eggnog. And Daniel said he likes eggnog, so we got way way too much egg nog. But we only spent a quarter on eggnog. And 4 of the bottles are in the freezer. Oh yeah, I was supposed to say we saved 52% on our grocery thingy (and that doesn't count the manager's discount for eggnog). Plus we got TP for a great price, i.e. some coupons and Dillons had it on sale, so boo ya 24 'double' rolls for $9. Thats a better price than crappy cheap brand TP.

I also made a curtain for our bedroom today. Too bad Dillons doesn't sell curtain rods, and we weren't gonna go to Walmart, because we never go there, and its all the way across town, and I sort of hate going there cause its so huge. Plus it was 9pm when we got out of Dillons, so the baby needs sleep.

I also dug up our iris patch and spread the roots (rhizomes? I don't feel like google-ing to find out for sure). I not have irises planted all along the south side of the house between us and the neighbors, and I put a couple out in the front flower bed, just cause. I am also feeling like doing garden prep work so I will be collecting newspapers to put down no weed barriers. Maybe I will just go get a pile of Kansans from Campus some evening, that way they will at least go to some use.

So yeah, we have more than a year's worth of Muffin Mix (cause we never usually have it) plus some other items that we wouldn't usually get, but were very inexpensive and are shelf stable, and sometimes you just don't want to think about what to make, you want to add milk, and butter, and an egg...or whatever and tada side dish, or breakfast, or things.

I am in a wierd mood. I think its the weather. Oh well, I guess off to bed even though I am not tired...cause the baby should have been in bed earlier. Technically. Meh, whatever. I don't really care, I like her sleeping in. PLus I get adult interaction in the evening...even if she is awake. Better than nothing.

Rodent Problems? We have Solutions!

All righty then. So yesterday when Daniel called on his break I was still grossed out by said mouse. (See my last post for more info on that.) I asked him if he would come home early, thinking he would work a couple more hours and get home with some daylight still. (just an FYI his first break is at 11, lunch at 1:30, so I thought maybe lunch?) He said he would check his benefit time and call back, or call at lunch. Instead of calling he was home within 30 minutes. Sweet!

Meanwhile, I had moved the fridge, and tracked the possible entry as next to our back door where we had never replaced the trim. We really should do that as its getting cold and I am sure adding trim helps stop cold air from coming in.

I had also noticed that the temp solution we had done last year with Mama Cook was warped and leaving a welcome sign to our home. This was noticed a couple days before, but we hadn't done anything about it (read we only have time for these things on weekends as the sun is gone before Daniel gets home) My thought was affirmed when we looked outside and found pink snow! It might be somewhat hard to see, but its on the ground by the bottom of the house.



Operation close the hole began. We were somewhat cautious of potentially coming upon a nest, and praying we wouldn't. Just in Case, Alice was put in a safe place. Ok, ok. Daniel did all the dirty work. I stood inside with a broom and the door open. Just in case we had a runner, I could sweep him outside. And this is what we found.
Yeah, I forgot to take a picture of the tunnel in that hollow area behind the orange cord. It was very much a mouse tunnel to the inside. I immediately put in in the trash bin. As you can see the source of the 'pink snow' is this random pink styrofoam thing. Call it yet another 'good enough' solution from the previous owners. And as you can also see, Termite Damage! (Don't worry both sides of the duplex have been treated, and there was a second stud put in to help out with the termite damage.

Then we found it. The Stairway to Heaven!

OK, forgive the sideways pic, I don't want to mess with changing it as the baby is awake and wanting to play with the computer mouse (oy ANOTHER mouse). So we found tunnels and mouse poo making a stairway through our insulation. And we cleaned it out.
yummy. Right into the trash. Of course we cleaned out both sides, and put up new siding (which we had palnned on doing at some point anyway, but we didn't want to start a project when we the other side took FOREVER and a broken air conditioner to get done). So fast forward a few hours and some board cutting....

By 4pm we had this:
And it was caulked by yours truly. Note, the door trim is absurdly fat. Its 'cause Daniel wanted never rot. We will be replacing it with standard wood most likely. After we go to the beautiful Home Depot for Date Night. Yeah, spending even more money! (As a side note, Daniel told me we need to spend $400 less this month than last, that's totally impossible even if we don't buy trim from Home Depot. Hence, the spending more money comment was in fact sarcasm. The fact that I explained that is irony. And, that is the end of today's lesson.)

In fact, we have been really productive in the house department lately. Here is a picture of some of our handy work:
That was acquired from the curb, via the neighbor's $12,ooo remodel project including new cabinets. Granted, they are not the same as the rest of the kitchen, but I was wanting some shelves and this can hold our bulletain board and cute canisters. Plus its the only cabinets they didn't break down into pieces. ANd it was FREE! All we had to do was mark studs, and screw it in. Between that, and my caulking lots of windows, it feels like lots of house work getting done, and none of it was cleaning!

So, now that I have bleach, I have to put the baby in lock down and bleach the kitchen. If you wanna read something scary, look up the CDC.gov info on cleaning up rodent infestations. Yikes.

Evil Heathen in my Home!

Thats right, we have a mouse. I haven't seen it, but I found droppings under the sink. The sink I moved all the cleaning chemicals from under and it was storing toaster, crockpot, and MOUSE POOP! I feel nauseus knowing he was down there. Luckily the crockpot crock has been in the sink for a while (it was clean mostly except the evil mineral deposits). Still, I pulled everything out and cleaned it with borax. We NEED bleach now. I didn't want it in my home, but its much better than a mouse.

And to think this happened after I caught Alice chasing a spider across the kitchen floor. Yeah, she was spider hunting. I went in for the kill and removed her from the room. I wonder if I can just stuff the holes by the sink pipes with SOS pads. They are steel wool...sort of. And I have some that the previous owners left. And it will make me feel better. Right now I am considering cuttign holes in the bottom of the cabinets to make sure there isn't any under them. I am also considering throwing up.

Our apartment we lived in when I was pregnant with Alice had mice. Every time we turned on the oven it smelled of pee. It was so so nasty. We ate lots of microwave food. I feel sick just thinking of it. Gross.

So, Obama Wins.

I have to admit, I am not surprised. We don't watch much TV, but McCain's TV ads made him look like a moron. Plus, people saw that statistic that in 2007 he voted with the president 95% of teh time (even though its been lower) and were like, oh no nothing will change! Of course if they look at Obama's recod every year he has been in congress he voted with his party 97-98% of the time. Plus democrats are in control of the House and Senate. Normally I wouldn't see anything wrong with that, but in this case he feel like a puppet president. (Look at how i am talking, he isn't even president, he was just voted in more popular).

In anoher note, the final call for Prop 8 isn't in, but it is losing with 60% of the vote in. Maybe because they did that ad of mormon missionaries ransacking some female couple's home and ripping up thier marriage certificate. It was really in poor taste. Especially since they introduced themselves as from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For real now, why wouldn't our church support adding the words "marriage between a man and a woman" to ANY thing. I mean its in the Family Proclamation tothe World. And yeah, that was set out to the world in 1995. Looks like yet again the Lord issued revelation before it was needed. Now, I am not saying laws like that won't get passed, but the reason why the First Presidency sent out letters asking people to support it makes total sense.

Overall I am not really excited or bummed about the elections. It happened, we have chosen, as a nation, to have certain people represent us. Now is the time ot see if that happens.

We voted!

So we went to the polls (which according to sources was supposed to be open until 8pm, according to the county 7pm). SO yeah, we got in there right at cut off time. Alice hung out on the floor, then she got my sticker. She proceeded to eat it until it was a blob of sticky gluey paper. Now she is hollering about it sticking to her. Its sort of funny.

We had about 8 people that we had to support or not support to stay as judges. Daniel sent them all packing. I kept a few, though I don't know who any of them are. Stay or go, whatever.

Whomever wins, wins. I will support them. I may not agree to everything they do, but sometimes you have to make decisions you think are for the greater good.

We are watching "Vantage Point" right now. Seriously, its like the movie groundhog's day, only its for the day the president was shot. 30 minutes in and we have seen the same 5 minutes worth of stuff 3 times...from 3 different people's view. Yeah, I am getting bored. I do wonder if we will ever have a bald president. Wait, is McCain bald? We shall say he is, just cause. Then, theoretically, the bald president will make some huge peace treaty with Spain (cause you all KNOW we be fighting them Spaniard, ALL the time) and at the big press conference thingy he will get shot...by Moroccan terrorists. Yeah cause that makes sense.

Sewing Project!

So I signed up to be part of a holiday/Christmas/cookie apron swap. And I am excited. Saturday we went to the fabric store. I went that day because they were having a sale on patterns. Of course, after looking at the patterns I decided to use a tutorial I saw online, so my fabric choices weren't the best. Ok let me rephrase. Its not that the fabric was bad, but I got more of it than I needed. Plus I wanted to do something different, so I got some ribbon. The potentially bad part is that the ribbon isn't 100% cotton (which was a rule) but its totally washable, and I think it looks cute, so I went with it. I suppose if my partner is against it I can make another one with a regular waistband, but FYI the ribbon is cute.

So I spent some time measuring and cutting my fabric, and I thought, this seems like it will be small. Of course once it started going together it seemed bigger, plus my partner isn't as rotund as I am. (how's that for an appropriate use of a word) But I will be needing a test subject to make sure it fits right for someone in the size 8 world. I might use my sister, who is no size 8, but the part that makes her a 10 is all the junk in the trunk. So I am sure she will be a good model.

So yeah anyway. I have been up and at em for 2 hours now, and the baby is still passed out in bed. Thank goodness for time changes! And in a few minutes I will be trying to finish the apron. If I get it done, even with my unstitching and redoing a few seams it will have taken like 5 hours with most of that time being chased around by a baby who thinks pin cushions are chew toys, and fabric should be played with. Especially ruffles. Ruffles are made for playing with. Even if they are only in the pinning stage.

I would post pictures, but my blog has been passed on to my partner, and at least half the fun is the surprise. Right? I will tell you, I went to the store and came home with three types of fabric. Only one was even in the holiday section (a cute blue with white snowmen) and it was scrapped. The classig red and green just looked better. Plus the fabric is deeper colors. I don't know if I lost some of the blue in the wash, but the red and greens turned out great.

But anyway, enough wasting time reading blogs and writing in mine, I have an apron to finish!