Our Bathroom is being Redone

Many thanks to Ed (Kelley's Bo). We're quivering with antici...

Cat food drawer

I had trouble closing the cat food drawer in the kitchen this evening. I pushed it closed, but it was stuck. When I came back about 30 min. later, it was open even more!

As I bent down to push it closed again, a little furry head popped out - a raccoon staring at me. This was like 10pm...

Our Tivo broke

We did a pay-per-view on our new Digital cable...for $3.95 the whole family (including Sam) watched Talledega Nights. Not the most wholesome of films, for sure, and probably a mistake when it comes down to it, but it was funny nonetheless.

Speaking of Digital cable, two things happened recently that led to it: 1. Our Tivo broke, and 2. Court wanted to get Discovery Health.

So, it turns out Brighthouse (our cable provider) has a special for the next 12 months where you get internet, phone, and cable for about $20 less per month than we are currently paying...and we get an additional 40 channels.

When I am hungry, I eat; when I am tired, I sleep.

I just went to the "living stations of the cross", having given SamA a ride (we swung by Kroger's too). Maddie was some sort of shepherd on station #10.

Now I'm home, and no one is here (girls at school for another hour or so - they (the whole school) aren't allowed to talk for the rest of the 1/2 day...since it's Good Friday). Court is at lunch with Dene.

So, I'm thinking about what to do (having decided to call up Amos and see how he's doing - but I couldn't find his phone number (it's at work), so I gave up on that).

Here (in no particular order) are some options:

1. Blog my options (doing it now)
2. Put in some pictures on the blog (things are more interesting w/ pics, don't you think?)
3. Clean the kitchen
4. Do the laundry
5. Read my book (currently, The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen)
6. Take a nap
7. Check my e-mail (checking it now)
8. Clean out the fridge (this is over 1/2 done already - just need to do the top of the door, and the two top shelves)
9. Do my tai-chi
10. Call John and see if he still needs help setting up his e-mail for roadrunner (doing that now, left a message)
11. Clean up the back deck (trashy)
    

Ok, I'm tired of brainstorming, now to prioritize (heuristic: Chores, then things that help others, then things that help myself).

1. Clean the kitchen
2. Do the laundry
3. Clean out the fridge (this is over 1/2 done already - just need to do the top of the door, and the two top shelves)
4. Clean up the back deck (trashy)
5. Put in some pictures on the blog (things are more interesting w/ pics, don't you think?)
6. Do my tai-chi
7. Read my book (currently, The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen)
8. Take a nap

Whew! Now that that's done, I'm tired, so I'm taking a nap. ;-)

Dae-Ju said, "Zen is very easy. It is not difficult at all. When I am hungry, I eat; when I am tired, I sleep.''

Warehouse, or Living Room? You decide.

Yes, it's girl scout cookie time. This is 1716 boxes of cookies. This year, I didn't have to TOUCH any of these (yet). I must have ducked at the right time. If you want to steal from us, now's your chance. Street values of these sweets is over $6,000.











Thanks to my parents, we now have two nice (built-in) bookcases on either side of our fireplace. THEY LOOK GREAT. Thanks, mom and dad!

Color me capable

I tripped the GFI, and cycled all the breakers. That fixed the problem.

Color me capable.

Our electricity upstairs is out

Our electricity upstairs is out (mostly). This is usually remedied by a simple circuit breaker flip. Not tonight.

So, Molly is on the couch downstairs, and Maddie is in bed w/ Court (both of them not feeling so well). I am as healthly as a horse, which I attribute to my OCD-like handwashing and disinfecting (for which I am sometimes given a hard time).

Floorplans for our addition

Kurt Suppiger created this layout for the addition that is being built onto the back of our house - isn't he nice?

He learned about the addition from reading the blog, then asked if he could help and - lo and behold - REAL LIFE DRAWINGS!

Za Weekend

Last night I helped with our church's fall festival. Our "booth" made about $1500 (it's the casino room). I was there from about 7pm - 1:30a, and will go back tonight. We are using chips for the first time ever, and it helps to have an extra person there (since it's a bit more involved than just using cash).

Courtney left yesterday on an overnight shopping trip. She's starting to buy things for our new room (construction starts next week!).

Maddie and Molly had a sleep-over at aunt Kel's last night. They went to Arby's for lunch with her today.

GTF (a gathering of guys where we play games for a long weekend down in Kentucky) is starting to gear up, even though it isn't until February! We started in 2000 with 6 guys, and now we have about 20 who go.

I'm reading this really interesting book called "Blink". It's about the psychology of the unconscious, and it is filled with little interesting stories. A very quick read.

As I was putting in the link above, I read some of the reviews. Looks like people either loved it or hated it. It also looks like his other book, "The Tipping Point" might be even better. I think I'll put it on my wish list.

Update for 8/7/05

The girls (and grand-ma, and Aunt Kelley, and Sam) left for Holiday World (in Santa Claus, Indiana, no less) last Thursday. I hope they've had fun (they were due back an hour ago).

I say I hope, since they DIDN'T CALL ME ONE SINGLE TIME. Of course, my policy is that if I don't hear anything, then they are alive and well (since I would be contacted by the authorities if anything untoward were to happen).

Played games with a friend yesterday, then drove down to E-ville and visited by parents and brother, Kerry (who is in town for a week) last night, and spent the night there. Drove back up to Indy this morning to take my uncle-in-lar to church (but he wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go). It was nice to talk a bit with my bro.

Don't tell the girls, but we are trying to find a good home for our dog, Jackpot (we'll tell them eventually, obviously). She is a great dog, except she is too excitable and tends to knock down small children and nose every crotch in the room. So, if you know of anyone who would like a one-year-old, housebroken black chow mix, let me know! She'd be the perfect pet for someone without small children.

Click here for the video of her in her pool.

I've been playing this fun little strategy game, called "Slay". An unfortunate name, and not indicitive of the type of game, really.

Our lawn-mower is broken.

The house addition is slated to begin the first week in October, and will take 3-4 weeks.

THEY'RE PULLING INTO THE DRIVEWAY NOW - GOTTA RUN!!

A new room?

We are currently getting estimates on the cost of adding a new bedroom/bathroom off our living room (downstairs). The first estimate was $23K. Yikes!

Today we've been cleaning the house, and will go to church tonight, and to a festival/carnival for dinner after church.

I played a really fun little internet game with Maddie last night for an hour.