Show and Sell Popcorn Sales

A and I were up bright and early today for a popcorn sale. 7:45 am found us in front of a gas station/convenience store, for 2 1/2 hours. A was good for about the first 2 hours, then he was ready to GO. Our location sold for about 3.5 hours and some other pack members had another location, in front of Lowe's, for about 4 hours.

Sales seemed to be down, compared to show and sells we did several years ago. But, donations were up. I'd guess there were a lot of people who didn't want to/couldn't swing the cost of the popcorn, but wanted to support the boys anyway. Between the 2 locations, we sold over $550 of popcorn and collected another over $200 in donations. Wow! And to think that certain people thought that it wouldn't be worth our time. I think it was. But, I'm just as glad we're done and that we sold out (all but one) of our least expensive product - so we really don't have the product to have any more show and sells.

Now, we have some data on what we might be able to sell and how much. So, next year, whoever is doing this (not me, as we'll have moved on to the troop), can decide how much to order more realistically - if they choose to do show and sells.

No more rain.

Hooray. All we got was 0.1 inch of rain last night, even though they were predicting more storms. We even saw the sun today. What a pleasant surprise, after days of cloud and drizzle.

Even better, the basement did not get any more wet, perhaps even dried out a bit. Of course, it is still a big mess, with things all pulled away from the wall and no carpet next to the wall. But still, no squishy spots is a GOOD thing.

It was very strange having the day off school, what with the very nice weather out. We kept hearing on the radio about roads being closed in other parts of town. My mom went out today and reported no problems along her route. The paper did say that one of our rivers was supposed to crest mid day today, at 21 something feet, with 11 feet being flood stage and 20 feet being major flooding. I'm gad we're not along any of the rivers.

Back to school tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be confused about what day it is for the rest of the week, though, after this day off.

Where's Noah when you need him?

We're flooding here - in more than one sense. It has rained here more in the last week than I think it has it forever (at least the 10 years we've been here). They are saying that some parts of the metro area have gotten over 15 inches in the last week. I've lost track of our totals, but it was 3.5 inches today, with more expected overnight.

I had to go pick M up from school (from his robotics practice) after school today and I was honestly concerned that the river might cause a problem - it didn't, but it was higher than I've ever seen it. It appeared to be inches from the bottom of the bridge.

When I went down to the garage to get some ravioli for dinner, I discovered water in the garage. Not just a little bit, but at least a half inch, well into the garage. Then we found water in the basement too. M got deputized to watch dinner while D and I started cleaning up.

After dinner, we managed to borrow a wet vac from a friend and tried to suck up the water, but finally decided that the carpet needed to go. We removed about 4 feet wide by 10 feet long section of carpet from the exterior wall. One pice was so heavy that we had to drag it out the side door. We found that the best way to dry things up was sopping it up with a towel, wringing out the towel and repeating.

The garage has stayed mostly dry, but the towels in the basement still seem to be sopping up more water. We'll wring them out once more before bed. As well as empty the dehumidifier, which will be working nonstop for weeks, I'm sure.

We're not sure if the water is coming in through the wall, under the door, or up through cracks in the floor. Initially we thought maybe it was through the floor, but now the wet seems to be more at the wall and less at the crack.

It is a huge mess.

Meanwhile, evidently the water is continuing the rise in the rivers - they've cancelled school for tomorrow, citing public safety. We've heard of several roads being impassable. So far I haven't heard of any roads in our county washing out, although there are some in the area. One county even had their water treatment facility flood, so they are without any water. At last count there have also been 5 deaths due to the flooding. When I hear that, suddenly my wet basement doesn't seem quite so bad. It's bad all over.

High Finance

Money has been changing hands right and left the last few days in the owl household. M sold his old (less than a year old) iPod touch to A. Then M used said proceeds, along with allowance and saved money to buy a new iPod touch. If that wasn't enough spending, M and A each then bought a game - M one for the PC and A got one for the Wii. Plus A bought a 3 month subscription to an online game site.

Whew. You would think that would lead to 2 broke kids. Well, you would be half right. M is broke, but A is still flush with cash. Being on the cutting edge of technology is expensive.

Both kids are quite happy with their purchases however, so all is good. M declared today to be a very good day. His iPod touch arrived in the mail and we had a favorite dinner tonight.

Feeling like Fall

Today has been the first day to really feel like fall, not just late summer. It was cool and drizzly this morning. Then it stopped dripping, but never really warmed up - I think it topped out at about 74. I wore a long sleeve shirt over my t-shirt most of the day. So, when it came time to think about dinner, I thought warm food thoughts. Of course, since I hadn't known it was going to be cool today, I hadn't planned a fall type meal. Truth be told, I hadn't really planned any meal for tonight - that is frequently a problem by the end of the week. Thinking over what I have on hand (and what A's friend who spent the evening (and now the night) might like), I decided on chili. Luckily it turns out that A's friend does like chili. So chili and cornbread it was.

Unfortunately, M, who last winter had gotten to the point of eating the chili, not happily, but eating it - decided not to eat it tonight. So, he ate about 4 bites of the chili and his cornbread and then decided he'd rather go hungry. His choice.

H1N1

No, we're not sick here - at least not yet.  But seemingly the flu is running rampant at A's school - they've had 15% absentee rates yesterday and today.  That's more than enough to warrant notifying the state and the parents, so we got a lovely letter home today - reminding us to cover our mouths when coughing, wash our hands and for heaven's sakes, stay HOME when sick.

At this rate, we may not need a vaccine by the time it finally arrives next month or so.  I hope we don't get sick, but now I'm seeing that they are recommending reserving Tamiflu for people at higher risk of complications (which none of us are).  A's teacher says that many of the kids are being out for 3-5 days.

I'm beginning to think that making up a batch of chicken soup and portioning it up in the freezer wouldn't be a bad idea...

Words I never thought I'd hear

or at least not for a long while.  M said tonight, "I'm full."  He was too full to finish his hamburger.  Amazing, coming from the bottomless pit of a 13 yo boy.  Of course, an hour later, he was hungry again - he ate the last 2 bites of his hamburger, a cupcake, and an apple. 

Your own website as direct mail?

M got some very interesting mail today.  As a result of scoring well on the SAT (for the Duke TIP), he has gotten mail about various programs and now about boarding schools.  Note - we're not actually looking into boarding schools, but these are very interesting mails to receive.  They are generally offering to have him compete for a scholarship.

Today's had an interesting twist - they personalized it.  The front says "M's got talent".  Then on the back of the postcard, they list a personalized website: firstname.lastname.culverscholarships.com  If you know M's name, you can plug in his first and last names and see it.  M is not at all interested in boarding schools, but he was intrigued by this mail and went to look at "his" website.

He'll be taking the PSAT through school this year (funny how he took the SAT before the PSAT) - all the 8th graders take it in our county.  I don't know if they give out the kids info from that, but I've already warned M that in 3 years or so he won't be asking me, "did I get any mail today?", but rather, "how much mail did I get today?"

Another early fall day

Today really felt like fall.  Albeit a rather cloudy, muggy fall day.  I'm not sure the temp ever got over 70 today, and although it was supposed to be partly cloudy, my description would be completely cloudy.  Still, it was cool and pleasant.  I baked banana bread and granola this afternoon - and the kitchen didn't feel particularly warm.  The windows were open all day - and will be open all night.

Tomorrow looks like it might be a little warmer, upper 70s and partly sunny.  I hope so - it sounds delightful.