So we got our Directv installed yesterday. We got two brand-new receivers (one Hi-Def) rather than using our old ones, which we'd had probably three years. As you may or may not know, Directv receivers plug into not only the satellite hookup but also your phone line, so that it can call once a day and download information. I was watching t.v. just now and the phone rang, and I jumped up to go check the caller i.d. It was no one I wanted to talk to so I sat back down and I noticed a weird message in the bottom corner of the t.v. screen. Upon closer inspection I realized that it was telling me who was calling! It said "Name unavailable" and then showed the phone number, which is exactly the same info the caller i.d. on the phone gave me. How awesome is that?? I don't know if our old receiver had that capability because, at our last house, there was no phone jack in the living room so the receiver was never hooked up to a phone line continuously. Or maybe it's a fairly recent addition. Whatever. It totally rocks.
This is going to actually come in very handy for me because of the Eliza factor. Before she was mobile I would just keep the cordless phone on the couch with me for easy access. Well, now I can't do that because she is on that thing like a rat on a Cheeto. She is absolutely obsessed and has accidentally placed calls before. So, for my sanity, I keep the phone on its charger, up where she can't reach it. Unfortunately that means it's also out of my immediate reach and when it rings I have to put down what I'm doing and dash to the phone to check who's calling. Now when I'm sitting here watching t.v. and the phone rings I'll know if I need to bother getting up and running to get the phone or not.
Doesn't take much to make me happy, folks.
Behold my awesomeness:
This was for Madalyn's class. It was her turn to bring snacks today. JZ is usually the one who gets the fancy stuff for snack because it's not a problem for me to bring the snacks to the class when it's time to eat them. Therefore I often make things that need to be put together and then eaten immediately, which I then deliver to the class at snack time. I'm not really able to just drop in to Madalyn's class and hang around so she usually gets the prepackaged snacks that don't need any special care. I saw this idea on the Jet-Puffed display at the store, though, and had to give it a whirl. Usually when I make things like this I'm disappointed with how it turns out, since it never looks anywhere near as nice as the picture. These, however, didn't end up half bad. There was some labor involved, being that I had to wash and de-leaf the strawberries but it was all pretty straightforward. The chocolate was even easy because I bought the Baker's tub that you just pop in the microwave to melt. I made enough for everyone in class to have two with strawberries and then I also made a third skewer that had two marshmallows (not pictured).
It was quite a bit of work for something as simple as marshmallows and strawberries on sticks, but the "wow" factor is considerable. The arrangement got lots of attention when I carried it into the school, and when Madalyn's teacher carried it to the refrigerator in the teachers' lounge. I'm not sure I'd go to all the trouble again for a school snack but certainly for a party or other event, just because it looks so festive (and impressive).
Editing later to add: I forgot to say that is not Easter grass on top of the sugar in the bowl. It's coconut flakes dyed with food coloring. Also, this would make a great treat for a Valentine's party. You could do white chocolate and pink/red/white sprinkles, and make the coconut pink.
My regular readers will know that I usually have more bad to say about myself than good but today I'm feeling quite studly so I'm going to give myself props. I got a lot accomplished this morning, and all on my own, of course.
This morning I:
*Packed two lunches
*Made two lunches
*Took a shower
*Gave JZ a shower
*Rinsed Madalyn from the neck down in the shower
*Got all four of us dressed and groomed to walk out the door
*Took the trash out to the curb
This was all before we left the house at 8:40 a.m. Then I:
*Got both kids to school on time.
*Went to the health department and got Eliza's shots (which I hate and dread doing).
*Went to my FIL's house and borrowed some money so I now have cash to get snacks for JZ's class on Wednesday, pick up my drycleaning and various other things. (We have bunches of money due to come in over the next couple of weeks but, while we're waiting, I'm a bit short).
*Picked myself up some breakfast.
Now I'm back home. I've eaten and changed into comfy clothes. Eliza has had her Tylenol and is sleeping off the trauma of being stabbed in the leg three times and I'm feeling smugly self-satisfied. It's not really the quantity of things I got done, since I know lots of people do that much stuff every morning; it's the fact that I did it all by myself and did it pretty well. A lot of the time I feel like I'm in survival mode around here, where I'm just doing the absolute basics to get us through the week till Robert comes home. So when I break out of that it reminds me that I truly am self-sufficient and that I CAN do this, and I feel pretty proud of myself. And since I can't often say that I have to revel in it when it does happen. I think I do a pretty good job around here handling things on my own.
Packages of gourmet English muffins received by freight this evening: Six.
Jars of various spreads received in same shipment: Four.
Number of muffins I will consume in the next 24 hours: Yet to be Determined, but Probably Greater than Three.
The muffin flavor rundown is as follows: Cranberry Citrus, San Francisco Sourdough, Cherry Blossom, Pumpkin Spice, Cheddar Cheese and Mixed Berry. Representing the spread category are Strawberry Preserves, Red Tart Cherry, Cinnamon Creme Honey and Apple Butter.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I have a date with my toaster. If you are interested in a splurge this holiday season, allow me to suggest Wolferman's.
Yes, I know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man. He wears a UPS uniform.
We are now wireless, folks.
At Walmart last weekend I stumbled upon a wireless router thingie (I'm so tech-savvy) originally priced at $90 but marked down to $50. It appeared to be a pretty decent one from what I could tell with my vast computer knowledge (in other words, I had to come home and post to some forums to ask how to figure out if the thing would even work with my laptop).
At any rate, it turned out to be just what I needed (amazing!) and I finally got it set up today. I can now go anywhere in my entire house (and probably out in the front yard, as well) and be online. So where am I sitting right now?
In the exact same spot I've always sat to use the laptop ever since we first got it.
But, darn it, I could get up and go to another room if I wanted to!
(By the way, I'm finding out all kinds of cool stuff they have nowadays. You can make your printer wireless, even. I can put it on my network -- the router has room for four devices -- put the printer in the sun room and print stuff on it from the laptop in the living room. How cool is that? I'll be thrilled to get the stupid thing off my living room floor!)
This just goes to show how much of a geek I am -- not a geek in a cool, technology-savvy way, I mean like a totally hopeless nerd-type. I am sitting in Panera Bread, blogging. And trying very, very hard not to grin like an idiot and/or bounce up and down in my seat because, y'all: I'm ONLINE. At a RESTAURANT. Will wonders never cease?
So sue me. I have a more-than-three-year-old desktop for my primary computer. It doesn't even have a DVD player, let alone burner, for crying out loud. It's not that I'm anti-technology. I'm actually quite a gadget fiend. If a new product comes out and it does something really cool, chances are I'll either buy it, or I want to. I'd have loved to have had a new computer quite a while ago. Finances just haven't permitted and I've just been glad I had something with lots of free space on the hard drive that could get me online without any problems.
But recently Robert took loan of a new-ish laptop. It's a long-term loan; its owner was given a brand-new laptop for free and she offered to let Robert use this one. Very handy, as Robert's office computer is a thousand-year-old boat anchor that he found in the basement of his parents' old house (origins unknown). Plus with him going to the panhandle to work so much now it's perfect for him to have something he can take along. He can have all his documents with him on the laptop and also get online from the hotel room when he spends the night. It was handy, that is, before I appropriated it.
Week before last I unplugged the old desktop, which has become riddled with viruses, with the intention of taking it in for repairs. Robert let me keep the laptop at the house so I could still get online for as long as the desktop was MIA. However, Staples wants the original discs that came with it and I have yet to locate them (not that I've been looking that hard). And so my posession of the laptop has drug on for a couple of weeks now. It's not that I'm purposely taking my time in order to keep the it; I just lack motivation to return it to Robert. I'm enjoying being able to sit on the couch and be online and the portability factor is, like, way cool.
Soon we will be getting a big, fat check for a case that Robert referred which has now settled and one of the things part of it is (and has been) earmarked for is a laptop for me. I can't wait. Just think! More inane blogging from upscale bakery chains could be coming to you soon!
I have given into the demon peer pressure and created a quiz about myself at QuizYourFriends.com. Won't someone please take it so I don't feel like a complete loser? Thank you.
Post your results in my comments section if you are so inclined.
I have shamelessly stolen this idea from Zoot. In my defense, I had no clue about the existence of YouTube until I read her most recent entry with the twee videos of her baby.
I went and checked it out and it is the coolest thing ever! I can upload video to the site and post a link. People click on the link and it plays the video straightaway, from the site. Nobody has to download anything or open the video player on their computer. This is going to be awesome. I can put video on here and also upload things to share with family and friends.
In browsing my current videotape, however, I realized I really don't have much of anything to post. Tomorrow I will try to capture some up-to-date cuteness. Until then I will post a link to my test snippet.
Okay, actually, I won't. I have tried to upload the video twice and it keeps telling me it's an invalid file format when it very obviously isn't. The file type is one that their literature specifically claims to take. So now I'm waiting to hear back from them about what is exactly the problem.
Stay tuned, folks.
I promise I will talk about other topics after this entry. I really should consider starting a Beatles blog to keep all this separate.
Anyhow, this just happened yesterday afternoon and I was so proud. We were in the car listening to the radio. The station played one of those bumpers they are wont to play that has snippets of a bunch of different songs in it. One of the snippets was from "Hey Jude." It was a micro-snippet, really; it was four words in its entirety. But John-Zachary (age 2.5) caught it and began singing from the backseat: "Hey Jude, don't make it bad...."
I've at least done one thing right.
Okay, I know I just said it might be a little while longer before I had anything else to say, but I just have to add that I am excessively and unreasonably excited about taking the kids to Arbuckle Wilderness tomorrow. Part of it is the excitement of going with my mom, I think. We don't get to do stuff like this often. I think there are actually more kid-friendly activities closer to where we live here in OK than where my parents live in CA, if you can believe it. We still have to drive, mind you (A.W. is about 35 minutes away) but, really, at my parents' house there's the zoo and the beach and that's pretty much it. I mean, there's only so many times you can look at seagulls or meerkats before you're wishing there was a damned mall nearby or something.
The other thing that plays a part in my excitement is just remembering how much fun we had when we went last time. It's a "just enough" activity. The drive isn't too far, it doesn't take too long to see everything -- you know, it's just the right amount so as to be entertaining but not exhausting and overwhelming.
We are going to get up in the morning and get ready, then take the kids to breakfast somewhere here in town before we get going. We'll have some snacks and drinks packed in the car and that should hold us over till we get back. There isn't really anywhere spectacular to eat down there so we're going to bypass lunch altogether and try to return home in time to go out to dinner here, instead.
Wow...I guess I'm really a parent. There's no turning back now. I'm getting excited about a drive-thru animal park.
Woohoo! My mom preordered our copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today! I will be home in CA at the time of its release and, being all night-owlish and such, my intention has always been to go to the midnight release party at Borders to get my copy. My mom, whose idea of staying up late is 10:30, will not be accompanying me, but I told her I'd pick her copy up as long as I was there.
Now I just have to deal with my dad ragging on me about it for the first 2.5 weeks I'm there. Not only does he think it's unnecessary, bordering on immoral, to set foot out of the house past 6 p.m., but I am going to have to drive "over the hill" to San Luis, 15 miles away, to go to Borders. This is a major trip in his book during daylight hours, so you can imagine what he'll think of me driving over there at the unholy hour of 11 p.m. To him, this is tantamount to ascending Mt. Everest, sans sherpa. I'm sure he wonders often how he ever spawned such an unruly, incorrigible child as myself. But, no matter! Come morning both my mom and I will be completely engrossed. I just wonder who will watch the kids while we are at Hogwarts?
We're off! I just hope a giraffe doesn't stick its tongue in my car. (Hey, I know how these things operate; I've watched "America's Funniest Home Videos" before.) (Wait, did I just admit that out loud?)
What's better than a cinnamon crunch bagel from Panera Bread? That's right, nothing. It's a good thing we don't actually have a Panera here in town because my family would never see me again. My children would be standing outside the door, all forlorn and Dickensian-looking, clutching scarves over their heads as the wind whipped mercilessly around them, chorusing, "Mother, won't you please come home?" (complete with British accent). And I'd snap out of my smoked-turkey-sandwich-and-filled-coffee-cake haze long enough to tell them I loved them, but run along because mummy's life is here now.
Hmmm...now that I think of it, the title of this entry is probably going to bring in some p0rn search traffic. So, hi there! And buzz off! I'm talking about baked goods, you perverts.
Behold, for mine eyes hath not seen such a lovely and wondrous sight in lo, these many months:
Yesiree bob, the new dishwasher arrived yesterday evening and the men were here to hook it up by 10 this morning. Ten minutes after they cleared out it was wooshing away on its first load because HELL NO I was not doing another batch of dishes by hand with a perfectly good dishwashing machine sitting right there. So far, I love it. It's purty and shiny and it's HUGE on the inside. Oh yeah, and quiet, too. Naturally it was the most expensive one there (save the stainless steel Bosch one that was like 800 bucks) but Robert pretty much knew ahead of time I'd pick the most expensive one so there was no shock there. In my defense, it's not like I did it on purpose. It's just that this one has an extra-tall tub inside and can fit more stuff. I am lazy and non-domestic so of course I'm picking the one that I can cram the most stuff into. That means less time between loadings/unloadings, dontcha' know. It was complete coincidence that it happened to be the pricier of the four we looked at. Eh, it's paid for and it's here and that's all that matters now.
And, in case you missed it the first time around, I will now reprint the story explaining why we didn't have a dishwasher in the first place. Click below to read on.....