Plumbing Success

A week or so ago, I noticed that everything under the sink in the hall bathroom was wet. Further investigation revealed a slow drip from the cold water supply line - from before the shut-off, it seemed. Humph. I cleared out the cabinet and put a bucket under there - it would catch an inch or two a day. I tried shutting off the cold water line and it still leaked. Grrr. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but guessed it might be in the shut-off valve. The bucket contained the problem for the moment and I figured I would deal with it "later".

Well, last night, I was walking down the hall and heard water running. I thought, oh, A is running his bath now, good. Except A said that no, he wasn't. *cue ominous music*, as I stepped into a puddle on the bathroom floor! I opened up the cabinet to find water spraying everywhere. I turned off the shut-off valve and A and I proceeded to mop up the bathroom floor and cabinet. Then I got to sweep out the garage. And give thanks that the bathroom is over the garage and not a finished part of the basement! D got to escape this fun, having taken M to a school function.

This morning I called the local Ace hardware and determined that I needed to bring in the old supply line (I had a feeling that if I didn't call they would ask some question I couldn't answer). After much contorting, with a headlamp and 2 pairs of pliers (and finally help from my mom (Thanks MOM!)), I got the line off and headed off to Ace. They had exactly what I needed and reinstalling the line was FAR easier than taking it off.

Even better, that original leak I had. GONE! It must have been the very beginning of a leak in the supply line that ran down onto the valve. We now have water in the bathroom again and I can put the stuff back into the cabinet once it finishes drying out.

Taxes are finally DONE!

Actually I finished them up yesterday morning, e-filing our Federal return. I had to wait for D's signature last night on the state return, though, because it annoys me WAY too much to pay $19.95 to e-file the state return. Besides, why do I want to pay them just so they can get my money faster???

I was amazed when I went to the post office this morning and found NO line. I was in and out of there in mere minutes, having seen my return postmarked.

Too many deaths

We've had a run of 3 in deaths in the last 3 days. That is WAY too many. And it is actually 4 deaths in 3 events. First my great aunt passed away (the last of her generation) on Wed, then one of M's classmates (along with her brother) and now a member of our church.

Enough already! And we have dueling memorial services scheduled for Sunday afternoon, luckily only 2, not all 3. We'll be headed to the memorial service for M's friend, taking something for the reception. They are predicting 150 people. I expect that that is wildly underestimating the numbers.

I really hope that things come only in 3's and that we are done with death for a good long while.

Our Blackberry Patch is Gone!

I was over at the elementary school today, waiting to pick A up from his field trip, and because the bus was late, I decided to walk around the track. I was astonished to see that they have completely cleared out the blackberry canes! They have also cut down some trees and other brush. Some of the blackberry canes were not terribly productive, but about a third of them produced nice, big, fat, juicy blackberries.

I am really going to miss the blackberries, especially those big, juicy ones - and especially since they were away from traffic and close to home. Now, this spring, I have to be on the lookout for the telltale white flowers that tell me where the blackberries will be in the summer.

Not dead yet...

Although my blog may have seemed dead, I'm not - just got too busy. Plus once I go a few days without posting, it just seems like I don't know where to start. I know I haven't posted since Thanksgiving - lots has happened since then.

We went to VA to visit D's folks for Thanksgiving. Best decision to split the driving up over 2 days. It meant a bit less of people sniping at each other and we could arrive at a decent time.

Came home and almost immediately the hard drive crashed on the PC. We're still eeking a little bit of data off it - it will run for 15-20 minutes so we can copy off some files. In the meantime, we got a new hard drive and windows 7. Because of this, all my pictures are still on the camera, not on the PC where I can post them. Must remedy this soon...

Last week was brutal - finals to give for D, finals to study (ha ha) and take for M and 3 projects for A. So D was late almost every night, I was trying to nag M into studying and A into working on his projects. All while baking biscotti for teacher gifts and breads for class parties and trying to fit a little bit of Christmas shopping and wrapping in there. I'm so glad that week is OVER!

We finally got a tree today. It is in the stand and "relaxing", so that the branches will fill out before we decorate tomorrow.

I like Wednesdays

I've decided that I really like Wednesdays at the moment - not necessarily more than Friday or the weekend days, but definitely better than Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. Why? Because I don't have to pick anyone up at school on Wednesdays. And I've got an extra almost 2 hours on Wednesdays too.

The first Wednesday of bliss was 2 weeks ago. It was quiet for so long that it was almost eerie. Then last week, I took advantage of that extra time and my mom and I went out to Kennesaw mountain to a program there with a pair of reenactors and had lunch. We even had time to go to an upscale farmer's market (where I bought wheat germ and beer (lots of beer - because our local liquor stores are sort of boring in the beer they carry)). Nothing too exciting today, just plenty of lap time for the kitties. I can tell that Wednesdays are going to be my day for Christmas shopping and baking as it gets closer to the holidays.

Don't bother to bring your bags

to the Dekalb Farmers Market.  I went out there yesterday and was pleased with myself for remembering to bring my own bag.  The farmers market is a relatively organic and natural and even has composting along with all sorts of recycling in their parking lot, so I figured lots of people would be bringing their own bags.

I saw the sign at the door saying, "large bags must be checked", but I assumed it meant backpacks and such - and I swear it used to say something like that.  So, I ignored it, thinking I have an empty bag.  Well, part way through my shopping an employee came up and said I had to check my bag, giving me a claim ticket.  And that I could pick it back up when I was ready to check out.  I'm not quite sure what the point of this is, since IF I was going to stash stuff in it, I could do it after I picked it back up and before I went to the checkout.  It was rather a hassle, so I won't bother to take my bags again - too much chance I'll forget to pick them back up or have to wait to check them or redeem them.  No wonder I didn't see many other people with their own bags.

Good News/Bad News

Bad: A said he didn't feel so great at breakfast this morning.

Good: No fever, no throwing up, so off to school he went

Bad: 102 degree fever when he got home this afternoon, so no Scouts tonight and no school tomorrow

Good: M dressed nicely to give a presentation at school today

Bad: M called me just after he got to school saying he didn't have his flash drive.  I couldn't find it here or along the street

Good: M took the initiative to call transportation and have the bus driver search the bus.

More good: I finally found the flash drive (hiding in the USB port) and took it to school

Bad: M had realized just before leaving for school that he didn't have some info on his project that he needed

Good: M talked to the teacher this morning (well before class and when he was still missing the flash drive) and she said he could do his presentation tomorrow

More good: M added (most of) the missing info and practiced his presentation some

Bad (in M's opinion): M has to dress up again tomorrow (collared shirt)

Good: I found a missing library book

Bad: it was 2 weeks overdue

Bad: the cats evidently brought a bird into the house

Good: D managed to get it safely outside where it flew off, seemingly unharmed

Facebook

M has an assignment for Language Arts to create a (fake) Facebook/MySpace type page for one of the characters in the book he read for summer reading.  He seems to be enjoying this assignment more than a traditional type book report.  

The assignment also seems to have gotten the kids talking about Facebook pages and who is on there.  Leading, of course, to M wanting to get onto Facebook.  D and I discussed it and decided that he could make a page, with certain restrictions, namely, he had to friend us and only friend other people that he knows in real life.

M complained at first about having to friend us, but then one of his friends, J, sent D a friend request.  And I think perhaps he heard from some friends that they had their parents as friends also.

Anyway, I've set up a page now.  I don't know how much I'm going to do with it, but I guess we'll see.  I find it odd some of who it says I might want to friend - some people I know, some people I went to college with (but don't remember knowing) and some people who seem to be just random.  Including one person who sent me a friend request within 10 minutes of setting up my account.  I have NO clue who she is and I only know one person on her friend list.  Weird.

If you know me, feel free to send me a friend request.  Otherwise, for now, I'm not particularly searching out people.

Defrosting the freezer

Note to self:  do not think that just because it is only supposed to get to 85 (and only late in the afternoon) that it would be a good day to defrost the freezer.  It's NOT!  It was incredibly humid today.  I was really hot and sweaty feeling, even with my hands in the freezer this morning.  That 75-79 degrees felt like over 90.  And it was a bear to try to dry off the freezer - it kept condensing from the air.

But, now it is all nice and frost-free again.  And, even better, I don't have items dive bombing me when I try to put something else in there.  I had to throw out a single serve Indian dinner that evidently escaped the freezer 2 days ago and had sat on the floor for at least 36 hours.

First Day of School - 2009

This is the year for both kids to be "big kid on campus", M in 8th grade and A in 5th.  It's hard to believe that next year I will have a kid in high school.  sigh.  It all happens so fast - and I'm sure it will feel even faster this year as we will be starting the application process for the magnet high school before Thanksgiving.

The morning started out well enough.  I woke up a bit early, so I could cook eggs for A - he likes them as a breakfast taco.  He got ready in good time and we headed out for the bus early.  Bus came, right about on time, all was good.  

I got home to find M already up and D finishing up fixing his lunch.  I had breakfast with M (I had a breakfast taco, and M just had scrambled eggs).  We headed out plenty early for his bus.

and this is where things started to go haywire.

First M realizes that he didn't bring anything to write with.  He wants to know if I have any pencils - no I don't carry pencils in my shorts.  I suggest that I can try to go back to the house for pencils, but no guarantee I'll be back before the bus.  Then we think we hear the bus - or maybe it could be a garbage truck.  My mom was going to call me when the bus passed her house, just in case it didn't turn down our street.  Second problem - she calls the house phone instead of the cell phone - so by the time I call her and verify that the bus has passed, it is probably well down the street.  I race back to the house, grab M some pencils and get in the car.  I pick up M and our 2 neighbors and start chasing the bus.  We've done this before and always caught it.  Today though I don't see the bus before the first big turn - hmmm, not good.  I keep going, past the spot I can usually catch it, past the furthest we've ever caught it, past the pool - still no sign of the bus.  We hit the end of the subdivision and it is obvious we're headed all the way to the school.  

We see a bus up ahead, but the kids aren't sure it is the right bus as it is stopping in places it didn't last year.  But there are about 6-8 cars between us and the bus, so they wouldn't be able to catch it anyways.  Later as it turns, we see the route number and realize that yes, it was their bus.  We follow it all the way to the school.  And then get to wait in the carpool line as the school isn't open yet.

Then its back home to put out the laundry, grab the library books and grocery list and head towards town to pick up my mom, where she's dropped her car off for service.

This afternoon A got home sooner than the bus person had told us to expect - amazing for the first day of school.  And M said that they talked to the bus driver (new person than last year) and that he dropped them off at the end of the street.  Now lets just hope that he'll pick them up at our stop tomorrow!

Hump Day of the Summer

I looked at the calendar today and realized that yesterday was hump day, in more ways than one.  Yes, it is the traditional hump day of the week, but for us, it was also the hump day of summer vacation.  We are now on the downward slope of summer vacation, hard as it is to believe.  It's been 4 1/2 weeks of summer.

So far this summer we have:

had a complete swim team season

M has been to Scout camp for a week

Both M and A have been to robotics day camp for a week

D went to a week long AP Physics workshop

Still to complete:

A has Webelos encampment next week

A has science day camp

M is still in the middle of 'Java programming for video games' online class

back-to-school shopping for school supplies

probably pants shopping with M*

getting through the rest of the summer without anyone throttling each other (I hope)

*M is in a very difficult size pants-wise at the moment.  I got a bag of pants for him off freecycle and so far a pair of 27/30 jeans fits perfectly and a pair of size 18 khakis are a smidge long, but passable with shoes.  Note that both these sizes are extremely difficult to find in any store!

Mid-May Cold Snap

It seems like we get one of these oddball cold snaps every year in May, just like we generally get the few days of unseasonably hot weather in April.  This often (though not this year) leads to using the AC in April, but not in May.  I know that some of that is that the April heat catches me by surprise and I open up the windows and then leave them open too long.  By May, it seems more normal to be getting hot and I remember to close up the windows mid-morning to keep in the cool air from the night.

Meanwhile, though, I had to close up the windows last night as there was a brisk breeze and it got into the 40's overnight!  It was downright chilly this morning as I headed out grocery shopping.  It warmed up some as the day went on, but I'm not sure it ever broke 70.  We went strawberry picking this afternoon anyway.  It was rather nice for a change to not be sweating out there in the strawberry fields - but perhaps today wasn't the best day for picking.  It took us a good while to pick our buckets full.  Between the fact that I'm sure they had many pickers over the weekend and the cold weather that means the berries weren't ripening very fast, it seems that the ripe berries were very spread out.  But we persevered and had strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight as a reward.  Yummy.

Ice Cream night

Tonight was 31 cent ice cream night at Baskin-Robbins.  Yummy.  We tried to do this last year, but found the store closed just before 8pm (even though the sign said they were open til 8).  Deja-vu this year, only this time we were there by 7:30.  Hmmmph.  So, we trekked up towards town and found a different BR hopping with people.  We each had 2 scoops.  You would think that the kids would be happy at getting 2 scoops, not just one, but NO, they also wanted a donut.  Nope.  We're doing ice cream tonight, not donuts - not even one to take home for tomorrow.  However, we did find out that one of D's coworkers also works in her family bakery and they have donuts (and specifically eclairs) - we'll have to go there sometime this summer.  It's even on the way to the library in the next county.

Hard to get back after a break

I took a bit of a break from posting (obviously), though not necessarily intentionally.  But, once I hadn't posted in more than a couple of days, it seemed like I was out of the habit and felt like I needed to "catch up".  After 2 plus weeks, not much chance of a blow-by-blow catch up.  We've been busy with this and that.  D has been out of town the last 2 weekends, both for school stuff.  M finally had his birthday party - only almost a month after his birthday.  March/April is a tough time to schedule a party, what with soccer, baseball and spring break.  This was the first weekend since his birthday when his best friend could make it - and even at that, he didn't end up making i to the party until after 8 pm.  The other guest didn't come until 10pm.  Made for an interesting evening.

The school year seems to be racing towards a close - the kids remind me how many days left in the year (23 at this point, I think).  Even M says that this year has been flying by.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Birthday Mimi!  She's actually my aunt, but the kids know her as Mimi and she's celebrating a big birthday today.  She had a big surprise party last weekend that my mom flew to Dallas for.  It was evidently a wonderful (and very surprising) party.

It's time for the annual wearing o' the green again - and time to hunt for whether the kids have any green that both fits and is appropriate for the weather.  A was fine this morning, but M had a bit of trouble.  M finally found a short sleeve shirt that was green, and was fine for this afternoon when it hit 70, but not so comfy for this morning's 40-something temps.

Speaking of hunting for clothes, its the time of year again where the kids sprout up with the plants.  I swear it seems like as the plants put on new growth, so do my kids.  Several times recently I'll look down and see ankle where I should be seeing pants.  Sigh.  It's not too hard with A - I just have to remember which pants to put away and pull out the pile of next size up pants.  But for M this year - OH MY!  He is on the verge of outgrowing boys size pants, but really not into men's sizes yet.  And sizes in boys are all over the place - while some 16's fit fine, others are way too small.  Even in the same brand sometimes - he has some 16 pants from Target that would be huge in the waist (thank goodness for their adjustable waists), but the 16 jeans (also Target, both pants and jeans are Cherokee brand) he says are too small.  ARRRGGGH!  I'm sure he'll be into men's size pants by next fall, but what size that will be I have NO CLUE.  In the meantime I hope he doesn't grow too fast in the next 2 months til we get to shorts weather (and I'll be making sure I keep his pants washed more frequently so he doesn't run out in the meantime).

Finally tried out the Wii Fit

M has a friend spending the night tonight and the friend brought over his balance board for the Wii.  I tried out hula hoop, stepping, tight rope walking, ski jumping.  I was basically horrid at all of these the first time, but much better even after one more try.  It did say that my balance on Warrior yoga pose was very good though.  Overall it looks like fun and like some of it might be decent exercise.  I'm hoping maybe to get the Fit for my birthday.

Ancient Chinese Soldiers

Yesterday we went down to the High Museum to see the terracotta Chinese soldiers exhibit. It was a wonderful exhibit (Thanks, Mama (it was our Christmas present from her)). Here D and I are posing with a cardboard cutout outside the museum (no photos in the exhibit allowed).

Here's A in the gift shop with one of the 5 foot tall replicas. Only $1800! A bought one of the very small replicas, about 7 inches tall, like you can see in the background.

The exhibit was really cool. We got the kids headsets so that they could listen to info about the exhibit. I think it was a great idea, as it kept them from speeding through the exhibit, while we wanted to read all about it. Many of the stations had 2 separate audio bits recorded, one for adults and one for kids. I borrowed a headset from the kids a few times and the kids version of the audio tour was really cute, but still informative.

cats hindering posts

I'm sure you've noticed the distinct lack of posts recently.  It's not that nothing has been going on, but rather plenty has.  A big part of the issue has been demanding cats!  It seems as though every time I sit down, I end up with a cat in my lap (and sometimes both cats).  And they will stay for a good long while - yesterday I had both cats on me for at least an hour and a half, with one or the other on me for another hour.  I finally had to kick off a cat to get dinner fixed.

It is very pleasant to sit with cats.  I'm getting more reading done than I was for a while, and my lap is staying nice and toasty warm.  But its very hard to blog.  Even if/when they trap me at the computer, they tend to trap one arm such that I'm restricted to hunt and peck typing (which I despise!).

While both hands are currently unencumbered, I'll post a bit about our weekend.  

M took the SAT on Sat morning, for the Duke TIP program.  He wasn't too happy about giving up his Saturday morning for a test, but he was in good spirits when I picked him up.  I took him out for his choice of lunch (Sonic) and then dropped him off for a Scout trip to the Aquarium.  They spent the night there and saw all sorts of aquatic things.  I haven't actually heard too many details of the trip though (he's mad at me for all sorts of things - like making him print out his essay, fixing soup for dinner, not letting him sit on A, ...)

D and A worked on A's pinewood derby car on Saturday morning.  They got it all cut out and the wheels and axels straightened (or whatever it is that they do to them).  A still needs to sand his car and paint it.

Ice Skating with cousins

Before Christmas break ended we were finally able to get together with my cousin Charlie and his family.  Our first attempt was aborted due to his trip to the ER.  But a few days later, we all managed to get together to take the kids ice skating.

A was a little shaky at first and held on to the railing, but soon enough, he was skating out in the middle.  He still walks as much as skates, but he is getting better - and he got away from the wall quicker this year than last year.

M takes a quick spin with my mom.  She only went around the rink 2 times.  Then she said that was "enough".

Cousin Mac is skating here.  It's his first time on ice skates.  He's doing well by this point.  He says that ice skating is easier than roller skating.  A thinks so too.