About that dirty ductwork. . .

A day late and $10 more.

We were supposed to have the ductwork cleaned yesterday, but at 7am the phone rang and this cheery voice said, "Mrs. King, would you mind if we postponed your job?" Before I could struggle to form a coherent thought (I am NOT a morning person anymore), she rushed on to inform me that a lady with FIVE kids had called and asked for a rush job because the ductwork in the house seemed to be clogged up and they had no air conditioning.

Well, what am I going to say to that? "Sorry, I'm a mean witch, and I want you to get your sorry posteriors here TODAY as scheduled?"

So because we had to move stuff away from vents so they could get to them to do the cleaning, our furniture was left sitting in the middle of a lot of rooms for an extra day.

They got here at about 9am today. Two people worked steadily from about 5 hours to hook stuff up to the vents, blow air through, run brushes through, and otherwise clear all the junk out of the vents.

Now I am in the process of soaking the registers from each vent in a solution of soap and bleach, then scrubbing them with brushes (I'm using Jess's toothbrush for the fine cleaning... think he'll notice???), cleaning the floor that was under the register, and putting them back. It is tedious, hurtful work.

The vents were such a mess they had to take both ends off instead of just one, and push stuff through. I don't know if they got any live mice sucked up, but they did find at least one decaying corpse hanging onto the edge of one vent. (Yuck!)

AND he did remember to put the wire mesh barrier up to try and prevent any new incursions of mice.

So a day late, but their part of the job is done. As for the $10, that's for the vent I forgot down in the basement that wasn't included on the estimate.

Now to finish cleaning and putting everything back together. Jonathan is working on the basement, running the sweeper, and taping up the one duct the mice had chewed through, and putting the ceiling fabric back in place.

Tomorrow I'll try to finish the rest of the cleaning and get the rest of the registers back and let the guys help me move the furniture back in place.

and I hope it is a LONG time ... how about NEVER... before we have such a mess again.

I hate mice!

Of refrigerators, mice, and ductwork!

Life is crazy. Bet you've noticed that. So what is our particular brand of craziness at the moment?

For one thing, our refrigerator needs Depends. Yes, I'm afraid it has become incontinent, and no amount of fixing the plumbing seems to help. I keep a towel on the floor in front of it. I think this has more to do with the defrost sequence than a hole in the water line.

Also, the ice dispenser hasn't worked for a long time. I can live without that, but it really is nice not to have to open the freezer door when you want ice. And it's also nice to be able to get milk and other drinks from the fridge without opening the refrigerator door. This model has what's called a "refreshment center" with a drop down door that allows you to access a shelf inside which has a drop down shield on the other side that helps prevent cold air from flowing out.



Both of these things are more energy efficient, and I like them both, especially the drop down door. However, our present fridge is now over 21 years old having been bought when we were living in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Which strikes me as rather hilarious, because this nice refrigerator must have looked SO out of place in that run-down house we were living in with the kitchen floor that required climbing shoes lest you fall off one side or the other.

(It also had metal drums for a septic system, but that's another story. . .)

So we're looking for a replacement fridge, only wouldn't you know that they stopped making models with the "refreshment center" last year??? GE says they no longer have any of those kinds in their warehouses anywhere. The only hope left is to find a store that has had one sitting around for a while.

We tried looking locally without success. I found a place online that said they had it, but guess what? Their supplier didn't have it either. I went to the next online place, and yesterday received an email saying the fridge was backordered. How can you backorder something that isn't being made anymore? the only hope is that they are ordering it from one of THEIR store warehouses since I already know they aren't getting it from GE.

I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't find one like I want. I am pretty set on having another fridge like the one I've got. I'm not the least bit interested in their stupid "French doors" that are so popular. No refreshment center in my fridge after 21 years of having one is not going to set well with me. This may get ugly.

Then there's the mice.

We seem to have gotten rid of the big fellas, the rats. They were too fond of the pelleted poison I kept putting out for them on the back porch. Every night they'd eat one or two packets. After about 4 days I started seeing deceased rodents around the back porch and nearby yard.

But the mice laugh at traps and poison. All kinds of traps. All kinds of poisons. They are cunning little devils that evade every means we have tried to eradicate them.

And they unfortunately like our ductwork. They think it's tasty. They chew on it. Insulation comes floating up through the vents. And they have chewed holes in the plastic ducts under the den and gained access to their very own habi-trail.



We don't have cute little hamsters or ferrets in our critter trails, oh no! We have filthy little mice running around. They are especially active in the wee hours of the morning, and wake Jonathan up as they run through the ducts running along the floor over top of his bed.

Having tried everything else we can think of, we are calling in the experts. No, not exterminators. I don't see what they can do we haven't already tried. Instead, we have someone scheduled to come clean out the ductwork.

He'll hook up a big vacuum to the air intake system then go to each vent, one by one, and use brushes and other equipment to push through the vent and clear out all the junk. Hopefully including all the mice and their nests and droppings. Once he's got the ductwork cleaned out, he also uses a disinfectant.

While he's at it, he is going to put a wire mesh over the opening between the plastic ductwork coming in from under the den and the main metal ductwork. At least that way even if the rotten little rodents chew back into the ducts running under the den, they won't be able to run through all the ductwork in the entire house again.

He's scheduled to come Thursday, so tomorrow Jonathan and I have to move everything away from all the vents in the house so he can get his equipment there, and also from around the furnace and air intake in the basement. Oh boy, this ought to be fun. (NOT!)

And that's the way it is here on the farm, trying to take care of refrigerators, mice, and ductwork!

Hoarders

I think I need therapy.
I think I'm probably a good candidate for the "Hoarders" show.

I'm taking a break from cleaning my office. The couch has been piled high with stuff for a while, because I got on a reorganization binge, then discovered I didn't have the file folders and other stuff I needed, then got busy doing other things, then...

Well, I need to consolidate my "offices" pronto. Right now I have piles of stuff on the living room couch, and that's my office where I use my laptop when I get tired of sitting in the office chair in front of my desktop computer.

The trouble with my satellite office in the living room is it's right in the middle of the traffic pattern for Jess going from his den back through the house to bathroom or bedroom, and for Jonathan coming up and to the kitchen. There are a lot of distractions when you're sitting in the middle of the house.

Most of the time I get by, but I have a BIG writing project I need to finish, and SOON. So I need to get my act together and get in the office where I can shut the door and make myself FOCUS on the task at hand.

All that for the why I'm cleaning my office. As for the why I'm a hoarder... well, some of the stuff I'm sorting out in the office is OLD.

Here's an example. I had a stack of little magazines from the public tv station in West Virginia. They were dated from 1987 to 1989, during the time we lived in Eureka. Now, I did have a legitimate reason why I saved them in the first place. I'd taped several episodes of "Dr. Who", and these magazines had the program schedule and told about the episodes.

And I do still have those tapes. But do I watch them these days? No.
Could I get the info about "Dr. Who" episodes off the internet if I needed it? Yes.

So why am I keeping these old public television guides?

Cause I'm a hoarder. A pack-rat. A "I can't throw that out cause I might need it" and "I've had that forever and it just seems wrong to toss it out now" kind of person.

But it's time to let go. Jess has already carried the first big bag of trash out to the garbage can for me and that means the old public televisions guides are in the trash.

Darn. I was going to take a picture of them to go with this post.... see, I knew I'd need them if I threw them away!

Have I mentioned I need therapy???

Back to Normal . . .

It's past time to report in here for those family members who keep up with us by reading this blog. So here we go!

We're back to normal here, or as normal as it ever gets with this crew anyway. All the snow melted off, most over the weekend. A little lingered in shady spots, but the rain yesterday took care of that.

The latest trip to the grocery store was more normal, with fully stocked bread shelves. It's entirely possible we'll have more snow before the winter ends, but I doubt we'll have another big storm that dumps quite so much snow. I hope not anyway!

As for family. . .

Jess seems to be trying to get another cold, boo, hiss! Tomorrow morning he's not going into work right off, because he's got a 10 a.m. meeting just a couple miles from us with a lawyer and some other people. They want him to be an expert witness for them in a lawsuit concerning some subdivision construction stuff. Gee, can you see him in court? Llike one of those tv shows, ha, ha!

Actually, he doesn't know yet if he'd have to go to court, or just do a deposition or what. Maybe he'll find out some of this stuff tomorrow.

As for Jonathan, after two weeks of working extra hours, including Saturday night, he's back to his normal work schedule. The first week got messed up because he missed a couple days work because he was sick, so then he made it up later. Then we had that big snowstorm and the store was closed one of the days he usually works. So again, he made it up by working other days.

And me, same old, same old. Tweaking my new business plan, and trying to do more things than I really have time to get done.

I guess we're not very exciting around here. Which isn't all bad either. Not all excitement is GOOD excitement!

Out with the old, in with the new.. .

Here it is, already the 2nd day of the new year. If this year whizzes by as quickly as 2010, it will be Christmas again before we know it! Well, it seems like it anyway.

I was putting important dates on my new fridge calendar on New Year's Day, and using the old calendar to copy from. It was interesting to see what things we'd done through the year. Here's a smattering of happenings from 2010:

• January: We didn't have anything special for us on the calendar, but Ellie had her surgery late in January and that definitely a BIGGIE!
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• February: I made the first of many trips to Florida. I didn't go to the hospital when Ellie was having her surgery, and wanted to see her as soon afterwards as I could.
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• March: Guess what? I went to Florida again! I went an "Entrepreneur's Conference" while I was there, so it was a pretty busy time. But I also stayed a couple of nights at the condo with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie.

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• April: Jess and I drove down to Florida to visit all the kids and grandkids there. I thought it would be cool to have both sets there but discovered it really isn't. When you're visiting with one side, you think about the other too. If everyone lived in the same area all the time I think that would be different, but this wasn't ideal.

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• May: Richard & Chrystie & Ellie had to say good-bye to Florida at the end of May and headed back towards Canada. They stopped here for a few days on the way home.

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• June: Jess and I had our 16th anniversary.

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• July: We went to West Virginia and picked up Dad and headed over to the eastern part of the state to go on a 9-hour train trip. It was awesome, but tiring! Then we met up with Maria & family and went fishing on the Elk River. Good times!

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• August: An up and down sort of month. I was on some antibiotics & discovered it is possible to have psychotic reactions to them. Good grief! And then my llama lost her cria and that was a major bummer.

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• September: The calm before another round of travel. Also notable as being the first month I saw revenue for a number of online sources.

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• October: Over to Gatlinburg to meet up with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie, staying at a cabin. We all chipped in to cover cabin and food, and had a great time. Visited the aquarium, a parrot sanctuary, and Cades Cove.

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• November: Our annual trek to Florida to visit with the Sanfords and Dave's family and Randy. We have sooooo much fun over the Thanksgiving holiday!

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• December: A quiet Christmas. Working on a business plan for 2011. I guess you could say a quiet but busy month!

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So the old is out, and now here we are, into the new year of 2011!

Oh, you're wondering if I have any New Year's Resolutions??? Why, yes I do.

What are they? It's a secret, ha, ha!

Okay, it's mostly just to get back on track with stuff I started last year. The biggest thing different is while I am frantically trying to amp up my business to also try and get some stuff done at home AND also keep in better contact with friends and family.

Sure could use more hours in my days!

Another Sunday in the South

Let me just say, I love, love, LOVE this kind of weather. It gets cold at night, then warms up during the day. Beautiful sunshine during the day, a little frost in the morning. I wish it would stay like this longer than it usually does here, but I'm afraid all too soon it will get REALLY cold. I'm not looking forward to that.

Things are settling back into a routine after being gone for a week. Jess is busy at work; he was getting calls before we got home. Jonathan is working 8 days straight. I guess they're letting him "make up" for all his time off!

I'm slowly getting all the laundry done, suitcases back in storage, and other stuff. Seems like I'm carrying something down to the basement every whipstitch! And sure got a lot of ironing that needs done. Some shirts and pants just don't emerge wrinkle-free from the dryer.

The grocery shopping is done for this week, and I've got a work plan made up for the next month. It's a lot easier when I have a list of tasks and can just move from one to the other without having to think about which thing I should do next!

So we're settling back to the status quo, at least until it's time for the next trip!

I am not the farm...

Today has been a hard day in a whole lot of ways and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm a little cranky. If you don't want to listen to me grousing, stop reading right now.

Okay, so here it is. I write a lot about life on the farm. I used to send out an email to interested people a few years ago (TN Tattlers), but quit because I got tired of explaining that I was writing about what time I WAS active, but that didn't mean I was active 24/7, and yes, I still had/have chronic pain and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I just didn't see writing, "Oh, I was on the couch for a couple of hours today" as being interesting reading.

So I gave up with the TN Tattlers. But I like to write, so now I do it on a more public and a little less personal forum of the farm blog. It gets quite a few visitors, enough so that the website has a page rank of 3. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people reading this, but short explanation is that Google ranks all pages from 0 - 10, and there are a lot more ranked zero than about anything else. 3 is a solid ranking.

Anyway, the point is that I write a lot about the farm and a lot of people read it. Most I never hear from or know who they are. Many comment and we have an enjoyable dialog. Others I hear from I could do without, those being the ones who love to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And then there are those who are so interested in what I write they want to come visit and see the farm. Many don't even make a pretense of saying they want to come see me, they just "want to see the farm and the animals I write about."

Well, we don't have a petting zoo. We're not open to the public. And for the most part, I don't do visitors. Seriously, when I say I'm turning into a hermit, I am NOT kidding. Especially right now when I am concentrating on starting/growing a business, while still doing the farm work and a little bit of house work, because the guys are also working full time and somebody's got to do it!

So at the moment we do most family visits by meeting family elsewhere, like taking Dad on a mini vacation, and meeting Maria and family and staying overnight at a cabin in eastern WV. Or meeting the Canadian crew this fall in the Pigeon Forge area.

The point to all this rambling is why would I want people I don't even know to come visit when these days I rarely even have immediate family visit the farm? It's just too difficult to take time off to clean and get ready for company, and still get other work done. It's more fun, easier, and less stressful to meet people elsewhere.

And seriously, "I am not the farm"... people can see me without seeing the farm. If people have to see the farm to see me, they're not really interested in seeing me, they want to see the farm. I just happen to be the keeper of the farm animals. And frankly, I'm a little tired of people feigning an interest in me so they can see the farm.

So there it is. I repeat, I am not the farm. If someone really wants to see me, we can meet somewhere besides the farm. Go out to dinner perhaps. Or here's an idea... what about THEIR house?

Hey, I warned you I was cranky!

What's happening?

First, an update on the "psychotic reaction" episodes. Thankfully, once all that second antibiotic got out of my bloodstream, they went away. I suppose one of these days I'll see the humor in me "being psycho", but that's a long way off for now. It's still too vivid in my mind, too real, too intense, too... scary.

Now, as for what's happening around here. Mostly it's the same old stuff, but here's a short run-down of life on the farm. . .

-> The weather. Everyone talks about the weather. Well, it's summer in the south, and no big surprise that it's hot. Temperatures in the high 90s for days and days and whew! Is it fall yet? And dry. The trees in the front yard are losing so many leaves it looks like fall, but it sure doesn't feel like fall.

-> The farm. Lots of baby chickens, 4 baby peafowl, a couple of baby guinea birds. One heavily pregnant llama (due in late October - 11 months gestation).

-> Jess's garden. He's given up on the tomatoes, but has quite a few watermelons. He ate the first one yesterday, and it was nice and sweet tasting.

-> Jess himself. Sometimes very busy at work, once in a while employs "time-users" like playing cards on the computer. Choir starting back at church after a summer break. Going to a podiatrist tomorrow.

-> Jonathan. Still delivering pizza, and working full-time most weeks, and often even gets into overtime. Started a league playing tabletop war games.

-> me. Crazy busy. ALL THE TIME. Oh, I take a little time off now and then, but most of the time I'm either working on farm stuff, critical household chores (I'll confess, if it's not critical, it's not getting done), and otherwise working online. I want to keep the growth momentum going, especially since I'll lose a lot of time come November with various activities. I'll need to have things in place to keep my two girls busy even when I'm not working.

And there you have it, a short summing up of what's been happening around here!

Another Rainy Sunday

I guess better it rains today than yesterday. One of my best friends was at an outdoor wedding yesterday, and Jess and some of his friends went to the race at Nashville Speedway last night. So they all got to attend the events without getting rained on.

And it didn't rain today until Jonathan got all the groceries in from the car. Good again!

I got a new notebook while we were at the store, or maybe I should say a 3-ring binder. I needed a bigger one for my paperwork on websites. This one is soooooo cool. It's the kind with pockets you can slide a paper into on the front and on the back and even on the end, so you can put something in there to be able to tell what's inside the notebook.

But considering the eye-popping electric blue color of this binder, I don't think I'm going to have any trouble picking it out from the others when I need it!

Got to admit, that's my favorite aisle... binders, paper, pens and pencils... better than jewelry! The only real competition is a book store. Good thing I don't get to one very often, ha!

So I don't fit the "typical" female profile and want to shop for clothes and jewelry. Give me office stuff and I'm a happy camper. But lest you think I'm a cheap date... I'm mighty fond of digital cameras and computer stuff too. However, they're not on the shopping list very often, whereas I can buy a new pen or binder almost any time!

It's good to enjoy the little things in life!

Back to the old order of things...

Richard, Chrystie and Ellie were here for a few days on their way back to Canada. Today Richard and Ellie flew from Nashville back to Canada. Chrystie is driving the car back, and made it to Indiana tonight. If all goes well, she'll be back in Canada by the beginning of next week.

So it's back to the old order of things.

Back to taking at least two layovers for a visit, cause that what it takes to make it to Canada. There's no more non-stop flights to go visit them.

And Chrystie will be back to work, and Ellie will be back to her therapy routine, and this fall be starting school. And of course, Richard's been working right along through the Florida sojourn, and goes back to work tomorrow in Canada.

All of this means it's back to being difficult to arrange visits!

Here's it's back to the same old, with both Jesse and Jonathan busy at work, and me busy working at home.

So, for now, it's back to the old order of things. sigh....

Success at last!

Yes, I have FINALLY got the Tracphone working.

However, that doesn't mean the problems have been resolved. Oh no, we're on the FIFTH go round of "We'll definitely have it fixed in 48 hours." Yeah, right.

At least one of the last customer service reps I talked to had sense enough to tell me that even if I couldn't use my credit cards to put minutes on, I could go to someplace like Walmart and buy an airtime/minutes card, and then use that to put airtime on the phone.

So when Jonathan and I went to get groceries today, we also bought one of those cards. Since the airtime ran out on May 15th, that meant the phone had to be reactivated, which meant I had to call to have the minutes put on. Otherwise I could have done it from a menu on the phone itself.

At any rate, I called, and the phone is now working. At first the guy said they'd email me a new phone number, and I had a HISSY FIT. I informed him I was told at the beginning of this fiasco that since they were the ones trying to fix the problem, I would be able to keep the old phone number even though the phone was inactive.

9 days later of their inept problem solving, and they wanted to go back on their word and give me a new number. No sirreeeeeee dude!

Bottom line.... the phone has more airtime and is working. It still has the same number. But I STILL have to call back in another 48 hours to see if they corrected the problem with being able to get online or using my credit cards.

They've given me all kinds of stories, even to the point of telling me one of the cards had fraudulent activity on it. Oh no buddy, I know better than that! I emailed the service department of the card in question to double check, but I have email alerts on my credit card. Every time something is charged, I get an email telling me where to and how much. When I use the card at the store, the email is waiting or me when I get home. I positively KNOW it is NOT anything wrong with my credit cards. The problem is on THEIR end!

As for Jess and no work... that didn't last long! He got work pouring in faster than he could do it last week. In fact, he has more than enough work to keep his busy this coming week also!

In the meantime he's outside trying to fix our lawnmower. I believe he said there was some problem with a belt. And I think he was going to fix a broken perch in the peafowl's pen.

As for me, I'm working on an updated business plan, and disengaging myself from any gurus or companies that aren't in line with what I want to focus on.

And of course, there's always farm and housework!

In other words, we'll are still busy!!!

So there you have it, the latest news from our neck of the woods.

Gardening Overload

Life is busy as usual. Jess still has a lot of work. Jonathan has been working more than 40 hours a week, even going in on one of his usual days off.

And of course, I always seem to have more to do than I can manage to get done.

But in the midst of all this we planted a garden. My original idea was a few tomato plants, a few pepper plants, maybe some flowers. But once Jesse started tilling he just kept going.

This morning we went and bought some plants. Jess wanted to have a variety of tomato and pepper plants. I think he succeeded in that mission.

For we now have these varieties of tomato plants in our garden:

• 1 Lemon Boy
• 1 Cherokee Purple
• 3 Mountain Pride
• 3 Rutgers
• 6 Early Girl
• 6 Roma
• 6 Park's Whopper
• 6 Burpee Big Boy
• 6 Better Boy
• 6 Celebrity
• 9 Atkinson
• 9 Brandywine

That makes 62 tomato plants. And of course, we also have 13 pepper plants:

• 1 Gypsy
• 3 Golden Summer
• 3 Sweet Banana
• 6 California Wonder

That makes a total of 75 plants in our garden.

When questioned what he was going to do with the produce from that many plants, Jess said, "Eat it!" I told him no way he could eat all that, so then he declared he'd give a lot away.

I believe we may have a teensy bit more garden than we really need. Gardening overload indeed!

This, That & The Other...

I've got dining room chairs in my living room. People who clean house regularly will probably figure out why right off, but for the rest of us, they're in here with me because I mopped the kitchen floor and am waiting for it to dry.

I don't do a full-out all-floor mop-up very often. More prone to spot cleaning, because scooting chairs and rugs and table around is a big hassle.

I have also dusted everything in the den and straightened up some in there. Don't anybody keel over in a faint.

I've done chores outside, I've sorted through some papers, I've done this, that and the other.

There were two factors in play to create this cleaning-semi-frenzy. The first one is the fact I didn't have any internet working until about 1pm, so couldn't work anyway.

The second is a variation of your mom telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident or something. (Frankly, I don't remember my mom ever telling me such a thing, but it's just something "everyone" knows.)

Anyway, my variation is "clean the house before you go on a trip, in case something happens to you and other people have to go in your house."

Hey, I didn't say it made any sense.

Of course, it's also nice to come back to a clean house after you've been away, instead of home to a mess. However, since on this trip I'm leaving two men behind while I'm gone, and they like to clean house maybe even less than I do, who knows what the house will look like when I get back. (I must here relate though, that a certain older gentleman actually ran the sweeper in the den while I was gone the last time. Wow! I didn't know he could even do such a thing, ha, ha!)

Anyway, I'll do a little more today, and a little more tomorrow, shop for groceries the day after, and do less physical stuff after that until time to get to Chattanooga and fly to Florida.

As for Jess, he also has a bunch of work. It's feast or famine, and he's in the feast stage again. This morning he mentioned he had FOUR jobs to work on.

So it's pretty much the usual around here, busy, busy!

Shopping

We went shopping in Huntsville this morning. I was telling Jess on the way down that's just one of the ways I am stranger than most. (NO comments allowed!!!) See, I don't do very many "middle-of-the road" kind of trips. I'm either going somewhere really close, like about 10 miles away, more or less (grocery store, Walmart)... or I go far away like Florida or West Virginia or Canada or something!

I needed a new laptop case however, because the zipper busted on my old one. And it was an OLD one. I'd guess over 10 years old and seen a lot of use. I'm pretty sure I bought it at Walmart, so it lasted a long time considering.

We looked at Walmart on our way down the Parkway, but they didn't have much. I suspect they weren't wide enough either. The labels said 15", and that's how wide my laptop is... but I didn't want to chance it. I'd like a little more room, and to be able to cushion it a little more when traveling.

Jess wanted to look at fire-proof safes while we down there, so we stopped at Lowe's next. He's been looking at ones big enough to put all his firepower in, but the weight of these things is a BIG problem. How do we get something that weighs 600-800 pounds in the basement?

Anyway, he downscaled his plans for the moment, and decided to get one big enough for papers and stuff. I just got a bill for our bank box, so I think the deal is that I'll now get the stuff out of there and put it in this safe.

Even the small versions are heavy! I think this thing weighs close to 200 pounds and it's just a 2' cube of concentrated weight. If we'd planned on buying the safe, we might have drove the truck, but we didn't. (Actually, it might have been even harder to hoist that thing up into the truck bed!)

So we tried to get that heavy object into the trunk of the car, and that took both of us tugging and lifting and tilting.... only to find out it was about 2 inches too big to slide into the trunk. ARGH!

That meant we had to carefully ease it back down onto the cart and take it around to the side door, and try to somehow get it scooted up on the back seat. Where were some of those strong stock boys (men) when we could have used one?

At present the safe is still in the car, awaiting Jonathan's return from town so HE can help Jess move it this time. I've done my part and made a place to set the thing, but I don't want to help move that monster again.

After that fracas, we finally made it to one of my favorite stores... Staples! Actually, it doesn't have to be Staples, just drop me off in any office supply type store and I'm as happy as a pig in slop. Pens, pencils, papers, notebooks, computer stuff. . . oh there are lots of things to drool over there!

I did find a decent laptop bag. I was looking for something rather lightweight, but sturdy enough to do the job. And of course I couldn't resist getting a few pens, and needed a new pad of paper before going to the seminar in a couple of weeks, and then there were. . .

Jess finally dragged me out of the store. Spoil sport. I told him I could have easily spent another hour in there just looking around. He made some remark along the lines of "that was what he was afraid of."

Of course, by then he was thinking RED LOBSTER. We timed our trip to be able to use gift cards for there that we got at Christmas time. Jess enjoyed lobster and grilled shrimp, but I got my very favorite coconut shrimp! Yum!!!

It was a nice break in routine, got some needed stuff, and had a good time. All right!

Family Update Time!

Yes, here we are again, time for a family update. I've about decided that's all I use this blog for these days, and will try to make it here once a week. Although sometimes we're just not doing anything that exciting!

In about a week and a half I'll be in Florida again. Woot! This having the Canadian Crew closer is a lot of fun. I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

Of course, the reason I'm headed to Orlando in March is for a work-related seminar, but I figure no need to waste a perfectly good plane ticket.... might as well go a little early and see the kids too! I'm eager to see how Ellie has progressed. From the sound of things, she's doing quite well.

As for Jess, he's in one of those "work coming in like crazy" phases. Sometimes just little jobs; sometimes not so little.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to Huntsville so I can look for a new laptop case. The zipper on my old one busted, and I don't want my lovely laptop falling out of the bag on the plane or something!

Since we're going to be in town, we're also planning to eat lunch there and use one of our wonderful gift cards for Red Lobster. Double woot!

As for Jonathan, he's also going to Huntsville tomorrow to meet someone for some war games. He's still plugging away at work, and the job seems to be doing fine.

So... we'll are still busy with our respective work & life, we're all okay, and that's the way it is in our part of the world!

Past Time For An Update!!!

Oh wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here. Almost 2 weeks! Oops! It's not that I haven't been online, but I've been intent on my other internet work. Like I've said before, this is my make it or break it year, so I'm really putting my nose to the grindstone and all those other cliches!

Anyway, as to what's been happening around here. . . mostly same old, same old.

But speaking of old, I got another year older since my last post. I was going to get a new office chair for my birthday, but instead opted for a ticket to Florida (leaving one week from today in fact). Just a short little trip, long enough to say hi and see how Ellie is doing, and how Richard and Chrystie are keeping up. I'm flying Allegiant, and the only days open in February were on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And they have such wildly varying rates!

We started out with the plans of both of us going to Florida in April, then saw an opportunity for March, but then Randy wouldn't have been able to be there, so we're back to driving down in April, and I'll just make a flying trip down there by myself earlier to see how things are going. (I just couldn't wait for late April!!!)

Travel plans are also shaping up for the annual trek to West Virginia. As things stand now, we'll go in July, and we're going to take Dad and head over to Elkins and take a ride on a railroad. According to their website, it's a 9-hour trip - "through mile after mile of unbroken, untamed mountain wilderness that relatively few people have actually seen. In fact, this rugged mountain area is so inhospitable, neither early settlers nor contemporary society have opted to settle here. As a result, with the exception of early 20th century resource extraction activities, this stronghold of nature remains largely as it was before modern civilization arrived."

Sounds like a lot of fun. I think we're all excited about that!

Otherwise, we're all doing fine. We all stay busy with our respective jobs. We're all doing okay health-wise. Like I said, mostly same old, same old.

Just waiting for spring. To be the shortest month in the year, February sure seems to last a long time!

And that's pretty much the way it is in our part of the world!

Trying to keep up....

If you want to read about Ellie, check out Helping Ellie Walk. It has links to Chrystie's blog about the whole surgery experience, and to Ellie's Facebook page. I've posted about her surgery on Rural Ramblings also. So I'm not going to say more here, except to say my heart aches for her and her parents. I remember what it was like after a lumbar laminectomy. Ellie's surgery was far more extensive. Ouch is an understatement.

Besides posting on the aforementioned couple of blogs, I have 5 others I post to every day. And that's only half the day's online work. In-between I do critter chores, cooking, laundry, and whatever else needs done around here.

For the occasional entertainment, I sometimes turn on the tv! I watch Castle on Monday night, NCIS on Tuesday night, and CSI on Thursday night. That's it.

I read too, but mostly it's work-related.

This is my make it or break it year. The year to spend lots and lots of time building my online real estate, so I can get some rent coming in. It's going to be a more-than-ever hard-working kind of year, but the results will be worth it.

But for now, I'm just trying to keep up.

Another Saturday night...

It's still cold, and for 3 days now we've had snow on the ground. Not much snow mind you, but it's unusual for us to have 3 days in a row that are cold enough that snow doesn't melt away.

I'll admit, I'm ready to get back to a little warmer weather. I'm not fond of carrying water. I don't like cold wind. I'm a wuss.

Otherwise, it's pretty much business as usual around here. Jess is staying busy, busy - no need for any "time users" at the moment! He's had work coming in steadily since we go back from the beach way back in September!

Jonathan is working full-time too, along with staying active socially.

And me, well, I said things are pretty much as usual! My biggest frustration is figuring out how to do everything. It seems I keep adding stuff I need to do, but can't seem to come up with any tasks I can delete! I've tried making a list of all I do, and see what has priority and what I can elimate. I'm not having much luck there! It all needs done.

I need to learn how to stretch time.

DON'T PANIC!

I think people around here could use a little advice from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy guidebook:

You see, the weathermen are using that 4-letter word. . .

S - N - O - W !!!

Schools are already planning on closing early. I wouldn't be surprised if a trip to the store would find bare shelves where the bread used to be, and no milk either. Sometimes I think that people who HATE milk would still buy it if the weatherman says it's supposed to snow.

I admit, I don't have to get out on the roads, so snow doesn't affect me so much. I am, however, concerned about the guys having to drive if the roads get icy. Especially in Jonathan's case. He usually has Thursday off, but not this week! Tomorrow night is the big BAMA-University of Texas championship game. Domino's expects to be busy.

We're not used to having much in the way of snow around here. That being the case, I guess a towel might not be enough to prevent panic (another HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference - ""A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. . . ")

But still. . . I think we could still use the advice, "Don't Panic!"

Thankful for 2009

Life happens. You know, good stuff, bad stuff, mundane stuff, exciting stuff. And I’m probably guilty of focusing too much on the bad stuff that happens, and not enough on the good stuff. So here are some of the good things that happened in 2009.

I'm thankful that:

> Jess has pretty much recovered from having both knees replaced. Though the surgery was actually done in December of 2008, he spent the first month of so of 2009 doing lots and lots of therapy.

> Jonathan started work at Domino’s in March 2009, and it's turned out to be a pretty decent job. He knows what days he'll be working from week to week, and approximately what hours. He is working full time, and is at a good store where he usually gets pretty good tips for deliveries.

> My office is rearranged and fixed up with new shelves, and it’s a much better working space.

> That Jess wasn’t hurt when our car was totaled, and we have another decent car to drive now.

> The mess was finally straightened out with my credit card, and I didn’t have to pay any of the fake charges those jerks put on it.

> In October I got a new laptop. It is soooooo nice, and such a joy to use! It's very nice to be able to change locations (the office chair gets to me after a while) and still be able to get some serious computing done.

> I finally got my first commission check. Nothing huge, but a start.

> For all the trips and visits that occurred in 2009:

• Richard, Chrystie & Ellie got to visit in February.
• Randy visited in March.
• Jess went to Florida for some of Ryan's graduation festivities.
• We made a trip to WV back in June, and took Dad over to Cambridge, Ohio, and spent some time at Salt Fork Lodge and park.
• Jess and I went to Canada in July to visit Richard, Chrystie & Ellie.
• We took a week’s vacation at the beach in September! First time in years we've went off on a "vacation vacation". Nice!
• Went to Florida for Thanksgiving and got to visit with Randy and Sanfords and Dave's family. Always fun!

I'm thankful for all the stuff I learned in 2009, and looking forward to learning even more in 2010.

I'm thankful for getting to the Fibromyalgia Clinic, and for other medical help I've got, and hope to see some big improvements in my health during 2010.

We're just mighty blessed around here. We've got a nice little hobby farm, a roof over our head and money to pay the bills, and great family. I'm thankful for email and blogs and Skype to keep in contact with family and friends. I'm pleased for all the good things that have happened to/for all our family in 2009.

I'm thankful for all the things that happened in 2009, and know there's going to be lots to be thankful for happening in 2010!

To paraphrase a little, "Rejoice, and again I say, rejoice!"