Treat Box

Someone (very smart) at work started a cool thing. They brought in a platter of cookies and there was a blue tin box innocently sitting next to it. The box said nothing but sat next to the cookies all day. The person who took the last cookie of the day was presented with the blue box and inside was a note that more or less said that the person who took the last cookie had to bring in treats within a week and they would set the rules for the next treat provider. Today he brought in very good cookies, way better then expected, and his contest was if you took a cookie your name went into the box and he would draw one by the end of the day. I don’t know if this will last forever but it is a fun concept, always different, and you are only in it if you take a treat.

Mood: harried
Weather: gray but promising
Gas: $ ?

Friday! Yeah! I walked out of work yesterday with a problem brewing and now it is full blown monkey bad. So bad I need to hang out by the phone tonight for a call from Asia. Hopefully fixes we put in place work and we can get through this, the hot heads that tend to over react are simmering down and I can really just hope for the best.

Last night my goal was to clean and I think I made a bigger mess then ever. At the party this weekend, I’m giving away a ton of the stuff we got over the past year and I needed to sort through it all to see what I wanted and what I want to give away. I have to keep in mind my house does not have infinite space and I don’t need to keep every little thing to remind me of the last year. So, to those attending the party, get there early for the good loot, whoever arrives last has to take the weird stuff. Lars did a great job on the yard, he had a good time with the saws-all we borrowed and kept finding new things to cut up. I am hoping for good weather so we can enjoy the outside one more time.

I have 2 days left for my weekly list and so far I did the fridge, I purchased books to record house and car happenings and I need to fill them in, and so this weekend I need to measure the rooms and features. I want to be able to know if a super on sale area rug would work in my downstairs room or if it is too small or big, that sort of thing. I apparently need my goals in writing to be responsible for them ;)

Roomba update – I have been beaten twice for good ones on E-bay but I have inspired my parents to look at them too. A roomba would be great for their house, it is wide open wood floors and not too much clutter on the floor. My house would really be a pain for it, we have 4 sets of stairs so we would need to tote it around a lot.

Mood: cheerful
Weather: cool and sunny
Gas: $ 2.15-2.19

My class last night was so fun! I am such a nerd that I actually like contract law.... It isn’t really a law class, just taught by a lawyer, but he promises to teach us in the last class how to beat up lawyers and make them do more for their money. He even had a sneaky trick built into the class, we were supposed to notice that someone in one of the cases was a minor and it was completely not obvious, but I really will remember that probably forever and make sure who ever I’m dealing with has contractual capacity... He also has the habit of calling the class “guys” I know that is generic but he apologized for it last night and someone suggested that he call the group “girls’ if it didn’t matter. Somehow a group of girls being called guys is fine but calling a group of guys girls sounds insulting. Wonder if that will ever change... My favorite teacher Dr Girard used to call us all either “people” or “children” depending on how pleased he was with us, I think he had a good method with that.

To and from class I also really enjoy my phone time. I usually call Bevie but if she is busy I call any of my other version-in friends. On the way home I get another nice 35 min talk with someone too. **if you are version in and want Kate calls e-mail me your number** I know I could call people any time but it is just really nice to know that I won’t be interrupted or that I should be doing something else for a half hour straight. I got a set of headphones for my home phone because of all the conference calls but I use them all the time because then I can multitask while talking. I have found some things are really good to do on the phone some things are not;

Good things;
Folding laundry
Sweeping the floor
Cleaning counters
Cooking dinner that does not require measuring, exact timing, or reading a recipe
Leg lifts
Driving places you know how to get to

Bad things
Reading e-mail
Reading anything including recipes, directions, or sorting mail
Shredding stuff, unless you have a very quiet shredder
Tidying where you need to think about where things need to go

I know my dad can talk on his cell while reading a map and taking notes and drinking coffee, but I am limited to just talking, driving, and drinking coffee.... maybe when I get as old as him I’ll have more skills :]

Today is my sisters birthday and I’m going to give her a call. I also need to do a bunch of shopping for the party this weekend and I’m at the production facility so I don’t have anyone to eat lunch with anyway so I’ll run out then. As always, busy day but fun.

30min til it is time to go to school. I am having system issues and the only way to fix them is to totally sign off and shut down and come back up again and I don’t want to do that to just turn it off again.

I’m thinking about getting a roomba. I’ve heard good reviews but they run about 130 plus shipping at the best online site I’ve found. I like the concept of it cleaning by itself and I think the cats are bright enough to get out of the way. I need to keep my eyes open for one. I’m also trying to convince Lars that we need a maid. I’m not lazy and I don’t even mind cleaning but I find myself spending all my free time cleaning. During the reign I just let it all go and cleaned just what needed cleaning. Those who visited over the past year know... Now that it is done I really don’t have more free time during the week so I can either choose to clean all weekend or try and get a maid. Anyone have a suggestion for north of the cities? I would prefer someone with a reference... Lars does not like the concept of someone being in our house without us. I told him the only answer to that is that he needs to clean more, and he needs to do it without me asking. I’m not talking about a live in maid or anything, just someone to vacuum, do the bathrooms, dust... something like that. I’ll still need to preclean so they can get to the floors etc but that is easier then doing it all. Ok so if you have a reference let me know~ Time for school....

Party update

Mood: good
Weather: weird
Gas: $ 2.15

The weather (always an exciting topic) seems to be debating whether it is fall, winter, or summer. I put away the summer clothes while contemplating turning on the heat but then it was 70 degrees the next day. Last night we had rolling thunderstorms that made it hot or cold or windy or raining or clear depending on what minute you were looking out the window. Lars finished the footing for the new step, I built the step Sunday, and we need to borrow a better drill to finish attaching it but every 5 min the weather was changing while he was working. Lars also got some other yard clean up done in preparation for the party this weekend. Cross your fingers that the weather cooperates.

Party update – Not too many people are coming so it will be a nice little thing. We are changing it slightly – the fight practice portion will happen up north in the regular place and the party portion will be at our house about 1. Anyone coming from the south that does not want to go watch fight practice is 110% welcome to hang out with me at the house. Anyone not interested in the fight practice portion just come around 1ish for lunch and cake and party.

Any food requests? We are shopping tomorrow.

Gilmore Girls and That 70's Show

Mood: Sad

All summer Lars and I TiVoed That 70's show. It is just a brainless fun show that is on 3 times a day so we always had something to watch. Tonight we saw the final three episodes and it was so sad! I know it probably ended last year but it was sad to us...

Then, the Gilmore Girls, my favorite show. It was good but sad too. I won't go into it incase there are those that can wait more then 10 min to watch their Tivo but I could not.

On top of that, I have had this depressing sad song (reference from http://www.kjsl.com/~beanmom/beandiary.html) in my head since Sunday. Ironically, the guy who sings the song was on Leno last night, I had never heard of him then twice in two days. The song alone is less sad then the video but I warn you, this is a VERY sad thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s2hPkTT1lA

Tomorrow will be a long day, early conference call then work then class. I have to finish up my homework tomorrow but so far this class is fun and on the easy side. If all law classes were this way I would go be a lawyer. I hear it only takes 2 years and then you have to pass the bar. Oh well, maybe in my next career. So far I have used a bunch of stuff we have talked about in contracts so Work is getting their money's worth out of this one.

Winter is coming

Mood: Morning
Weather: last day of warm (65) weather but it is sunny and clear
Gas: $ 2.19
Reading: Protected class legeslation

Good Morning!

I added a task to the calendar, exchange summer clothes for winter clothes. I actually started this over the weekend but it does take about a week. First I pull out all the winter stuff (only two boxes) and sort through. I took the opportunity to make a big give away pile of things that did not fit right (possibly never did) or I never wore. We ended up with a kitchen bag of stuff to give away, mostly sweaters. At least this half of our donation is at the right time of year for thrift shoppers.

Anyway, once all the winter stuff is out on the bed in piles I went through all the summer stuff as it came out of the dresser and went into the box and I purged another bag of stuff. I even gave away two pairs of ‘fancy’ sandals that I’m pretty sure my sister gave to be because they hurt her feet and they hurt my feet so maybe someone else out there can wear them. They are very tall wedge sandals worn about 6 times total so I’m making an exception to my “don’t donate shoes” rule. They took up too much room in my shoe racks too so now I have room to put away our summer sandals and they are not squished. I am keeping out some summer stuff for Cancun this winter so I don’t have to dig later. The part of this process that is taking a week is that I have to do all the laundry so I can put away summer clothes that were in the system. I ran 4 loads of laundry last night but I didn’t get to fold any. Hopefully by the end of today I will have both boxes full and in the garage. My storage boxes are looking a little sad, they are nice cardboard but I’ve had them since we lived in PA so that is at least 5 years old... I need to watch the sale piles for clear plastic totes. Eventually I might get my wardrobe down to fitting in one walk in closet so if I ever have a kid they won’t have to have all my stuff in their room.

Awesome thing from Mighty Good

http://www.mightygoods.com/items/2006/01/cementring.php

Check this ring out, it is very cool. I know a few guys who would like it... too bad Lars is not one of them.

Clean behind the fridge - check

Mood: a little sleepy
Weather: very nice
Gas: $ 2.??
Reading: tons of E-mail

What is behind your refrigerator? I know what is behind mine…. I looked at the bottom and saw that it had little wheels, nice bonus, but they looked like they might kill my nice wood floor so I stuck a grocery store circular under each wheel and gave it a good pull. I got it far enough out to see that I didn’t just have dust bunnies, I had dust hippos back there. I got the vacuum and got all the surface dirt and all the dust off the walls and floor and then I opened up the back. The inside was not too much cleaner then the outside so I vacuumed and then got a swiffer pad and attached it to a long spoon and dusted the coils. The swifer came out black and amazingly enough, the metal in there ended up black too (was a nice gray fuzz color). I put it all back together and pushed it back into its hole in the wall. Before cleaning the back, I had to clean off the top too so things didn’t fall on my head and it was fun to see what was up there. I had some Vander mint alcohol that Lars bought because it came in a nice bottle, we are going to see if we can trick people into drinking it this weekend. I also found 5 wooden bowls I don’t know the origins of, my magnetic poetry that I put away after my fridge was too obscene, margarita mix and rim salt, some really old juice boxes and some baskets. I put the homeless bowels into one basket and the other basket is pretty so it went back too, all the alcohol stuff went in a cabinet, the word poetry is on the counter and I’m deciding if it is safe to put back up but now the top looks neat and pretty and I know the inside is clean. Unfortunately after all that it still makes an odd clunking sound every so often….

Mood: Good
Weather: sunny and warm (amazing)
Gas: $ 2.11
Reading: nothing new

I figured I would remake the template a little. The banner picture is Lars and I in ND after an event, it was a fun weekend even though we got stuck in Minot because our plane was broken. We got a nice dinner and hotel room out of the deal and were on the 6am flight back. Once we had seats back the rest was easy to enjoy. The picture to the left is my view of the sunflowers, I'm 5'6" and I'm looking up at these guys. There were fields and fields of them... Pretty enough to rank ND above SD (who has fun billboards) and both are well above Oklahoma, the dullest state in the union.

Back?

Mood: Good
Weather: sunny and bright
Gas: $2.13 last I looked
Reading: Law Text book and Martha Stewart October

Hello? I think I'm back. I know, I've done this before... I have run out of excuses, we are off the throne and back to normal life. Now our normal life still includes SCA but maybe not 3 times a month. Our normal life still includes Lars working lots of odd hours and me doing my masters, us both working on the house (me working, Lars letting me do what I want and lifting things I can't) and plans for a party next weekend.

I was thinking of a new concept, along the Martha Stewart line, maybe let the few people out there know what we 'should' be doing this week. It will at least be a log of what I'm doing because like many people, including my mother and the Jewish faith, feel that September is New Year. I'm sure it is a hold over from starting school and the weather changing but I feel more like making resolutions in September then in January. So here we go;

Resolutions
#1 - write a list of achievable tasks for a week and do them
#2 - exercise more

List for the week of September 24th
1. Move and clean behind and in the refrigerator
2. Get log books for each car and one for the house
3. Measure all my rooms and put the measurements in a little book I can keep in my pocketbook

To exercise today I will be building a step for my back deck. We moved the opening so that it is on the side that is about 2 feet off the ground instead of 7 feet where there was a rickety staircase. All summer we have just jumped off the deck and since I want to have a party next weekend I need to make a step so our guests don't have to be part monkey.

I also plan on doing #1 on the list so I'll report on what exactly is back there.