Love getting messages on Skype saying malware has been detected on my computer and Windows 7 is affected. I'M ON A MAC, EINSTEIN!about 4 hours agofrom HootSuite
Well, as predicted by many of you, Paris did way better at camp than I did at home! I picked her up yesterday and she had a ball! Didn’t want to come home, wanted to stay another week, and made many new friends.
Of course, I got lots of “I missed you” hugs, and the poor child is covered in bug bites, but she seems strangely more grown, more independent. And isn’t that what the camp experience is all about?
The first night she was there, we horrendous storms here at home. Yet it seems that the storm wasn’t as severe where she was, 30 minutes away from us.
Mud - for rolling in )
She participated in many activities, some of which I haven’t even heard about yet. Singing, swimming, kayaking, hay rack rides – and from the looks of one of her t-shirts – painting. The most fun, she said, was when they got to put on their “messy clothes” and roll in the mud, followed by rolling in the sand, then washing it all off in the lake. I guess that’s when the girls are glad that Mom isn’t standing there with the Tide-To-Go pen in hand!
She sent a couple of letters home, saying she had made a new friend. Summer, she wrote, was her age, and a few (maybe 3) inches taller than her. She was so eager to tell me that every time someone walked by their tent they had to turn their flashlights off because they were supposed to be sleeping. And that the girl (as yet unnamed) across from her had borrowed her pencil so she had to write with her Sharpie.
The second letter contained a message for Ciel – the words to a song called “I’m nuts”, and I’m sure I’ll hear them both singing it very soon!
I haven’t had much time to talk about her camp experience since she’s been back, because after a couple of hours of being home I took the girls to their dad’s so I could attend the Neville House fundraiser at the BlueLine Nightclub. I guess they’ll be staying there until early this evening as they are grilling ribs.
So, the first camp experience was probably harder on me than it was on her, but she vowed to return next year. And Ciel can’t wait to sign up either!
I lost a good friend. A friend I’d had for the past 5 years. We’ve been through a lot together, laughter, tears, ups and downs, kids growing up. And all it took to break that bond was for one party to only see their side of the story, and an unwillingness to listen to an explanation.
Joe came back. Last Sunday, apparently for good. I managed to tick him off too. I asked if he was bringing child support money with him. It seems that’s an area we’re supposed to tiptoe around. Apparently.
I’m done tiptoeing. I’m adult and I reserve the right to ask questions about adult issues!
Blues Festival - sky before the storm
I worked at the Nothin’ But the Blues Festival. It was hot, humid, buggy and loads of fun. MCCA had a booth, giving information to festival-goers on our programs and services. I’m always surprised at how many people really do need our help, and was able to give many referrals. Three hours on Friday night and nine hours on Saturday. I did have someone to relieve me on Saturday afternoon, but she had to look after her children. The music was great, the atmosphere was superb and the weather was bearable. Except for the rain on Saturday – which came and went fairly quickly.
In the photo of the sky before the storm, you can see the really dark clouds hovering in front of the puffy white clouds, it really was an amazing sight to see.
After the storm, across the lake
After the storm had passed, the clouds were once again white and fluffy, though the rain continued – very softly – you can see it falling into the lake in this photo on the left.
Something strange happened. There was an Australian blues singer. Sugarcane Collins, who started off the lineup on Saturday. After his set, he was in the Blues Blowtorch Society tent, so I thought I’d go and show some Aussie hospitality and introduce myself. He told me I needed to work on my accent. How rude!
I was around a great bunch of people. I met Janet DuBeads last year, and she saved me a spot for my tent for this year! On the other side was a guy and his daughter who had driven up from Kentucky to do the festival. The CIMADA guys were on the other side of them, Jim, Oscar, Evelyn and Belinda. We had a race against time when the rain started and Janet’s jewelry needed to be covered up!
Grrrrr!
I’ve only been to the Blues Festival for the past two years, but I happen to know that this guy is a regular (please excuse the portapotties!) The Zoo Lady (who paints faces) wouldn’t let him out of her tent until it stopped raining, and the balloon guy (girl? sorry!) also made him a tail. He came by Janet’s booth with his wife and children. It’s a very familiar atmosphere at the Blues Festival. Except for Sugarcane Collins.
Paris went off to Girl Scout camp. Just the preparation is an experience! Beyond purchasing a just-the-right-size suitcase (with wheels), we also had to fit into said suitcase a veritable assortment of clothing, including enough underwear to last a month, three pairs of shoes (including one pair that can get VERY muddy), and a 50’s rock’n'roll outfit. The sleeping bag provided an epic adventure in sleeping bag rolling up, and everything had to be marked with the (full) name, thank you very much, and checked off a checklist. The checklist was packed, so everything can be checked off against it for the return journey.
Besides the obvious … clothes. swimsuits, towels (one for swimming, one for showering), etc, we also had to pack something to read, something to play, something to write in, some stamps to send letters home and allergy meds. I think that’s all!
And now it’s raining. Poor kid. Well, no, not poor kid really – she’s probably having a ball and I’m the one sitting here worrying that she’s going to get wet, that she’s going to need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, that she’s going to miss us, that she’s going to get lonely, that she’ll want to come home, that she’ll forget to brush her teeth, that she left something behind …… oh heck, she’ll be just fine! Please tell me she will.
The toilet in the upstairs bathroom has been out of action for over a year.
I tried to fix it by getting a new flush mechanism, but it still drip, drip, dripped all day and all night. Of course it was louder at night and the bathroom door is right opposite my bedroom door.
A number of different fixes were tried, and none worked. It turns out that the overflow pipe had been replaced previous to me purchasing the house, and it had been superglued in. So, when I tried to unscrew it, it completely snapped off, and I couldn’t fix it. Sam, who was working on other things in my home at the time, said that the tank could probably just be replaced, but the bolts were so rusty it would be risky to try to unbolt the tank from the stool.
Toilets can be purchased from Menards for just $50 in a good sale week, so I figured I’d just buy a new toilet! Alas, it didn’t happen. So when I saw a post on Freecycle that someone was giving away a toilet, I jumped at the chance!
I drove out to Deer Creek to pick up the toilet, and lugged it into the van (have you ever tried to lift a toilet? phew!), drove it back home and then unloaded it onto the front porch. And there it sat, until this evening.
I figured that it would be easier to get the toilet upstairs if I separated the tank from the stool, which I did with fairly minimal fuss. I hauled the tank upstairs, then thought that I’d try my luck at just exchanging the tanks. I set about unbolting the tank but quickly aborted that attempt due to the fact that the toilet is in a recessed part of the wall and I just couldn’t get to the bolts.
Plan B … or is it Plan C by now? Unbolt the whole contraption and replace it with the Freecycle toilet.
I grabbed the adjustable wrench and removed the first bolt. Cool. I’m half way there. I reach down into the barely accessible space between the toilet and the window to unbolt the second side, but … it’s stuck fast.
Right now, the WD40 is soaking, and I’ll head up there in a few minutes to see if I can shift the bolt.
Usually, that would mean she’s up to no good, but not this time. She’s engrossed in Dr Who. Episode by episode, series by series - thanks NetFlix!
I don’t see “my” Dr Who on there – the one I grew up with, and for all intents and purposes, the best. No Jon Pertwee. No other doctor comes close. Oh, they tried to match the curly hair with Tom Baker, but he just wasn’t Jon Pertwee. And I don’t even remember the first two Doctors who came before Pertwee.
I remember running around as a child, legs stiff, arms outstretched and just as stiff, with my mechanical voice saying “we will exterminate, we will exterminate”. Man, we thought that the technology that made those daleks was just the bees knees back in the day! Sure, they were shaky and jerky, but they moved on their own! WOW! And look at how far we’ve come now. It’s really not that long ago – in the scheme of things – that C3PO was a skinny man in a robot costume and R2D2 was a little person in a robot costume, but, I digress.
Dr. Who was a mainstay in our home, in fact, besides the errant locust in the bath towel, and smashing two bottles of milk together, it’s one of the very few memories I do have of my childhood.
Dr Who, Season 1, according to Netflix, was 2005.
Dr Who, Season 1, according to Those In The Know, was 1963. I was just 2 years old, and was living in Germany at that time, so I highly doubt that I saw those early episodes. (They didn’t do reruns back then!) Fast forward to 1970 – the start of the Pertwee era - and I was, indeed, watching.
I’m no Dr Who expert, I just enjoyed watching it as a child, and now I’m glad my child is also watching it.
“Mama! It’s ant swarm!” she yells as she runs from the kitchen to the living room. “Come quick! You should see how many ants there are!”
I know that ants are a problem in our house. They have been since we moved in, and no matter what I do to get rid of them, they return. And linger. And annoy.
I’ve been using Terro to try to control the ant problem, and it does work to a certain extent. They just always come back. And in that time frame where it seems like they have gone, they’re really just somewhere else in the house. Of course, location is largely dependent on where the girls left their last can of soda, or whether or not they cleaned up the Nerds they spilled, or if there are crumbs under the kitchen table that have gone unnoticed.
I don’t know if I’ve stumbled on something here, or if it’s a well-known fact already and I just wasn’t privy, but I really find that the more I clean with my wonderful new Shaklee Basic-H, the fewer ants I see. I blogged about Basic-H over on my VikkiWiki site and I’m starting to wonder why I was so stubborn about trying it when I first heard about it. But that’s just me. Stubborn. Hey, my Chinese astrological sign is the Ox … Metal Ox, to be precise.
I have to admit, I’d rather have ants than flies, but I’d really prefer neither!
And, back to the “ant swarm” that disturbed Ciel so much. What on earth could have initiated such a swarm? Turns out it was about 10 ants around the half-full can of root beer she had left on the kitchen counter.
The creative storytelling in my family just amazes me!
Here’s the latest from Ciel. It’s called “My version of Cinderella”
Gypsie discovers a colony of magic ants
Once upon a time, there was a family, 10,000 years from now (when magic was new), which included Ashley, a 10 year old girl, her step-brother, Matthew, and step-sister, Kayla, both 16 years old, and finally mom and Stepdad.Oh, I forgot! All animals in that time could do magic. Guess who could predict the future? Gypsie the cat. (what a coinsidence.)
Well, anyways, her parents were fighting. Nobody was happy. Her parents were even planing a divorce. They tried and tried and nothing worked. Suddenly, Gypsie was digging a hole (she acts like a dog sometimes) and found a colony of the rare magical ants! But sadly, when Gypsie said she needed help, they said they needed proof. Gypsie didn’t like touching bugs, and the nearest stick to pick them up was in the neighbors yard. (Covered with dog spit.) Luckily, she could talk. She asked Ashley for a jar to strap on her back, and a stick. So, when Gypsie was prepared, she snuck the ants everywhere. Ashley told the ants to be careful. They all got exited to help. But, Ashley was getting her parents to play Monopoly (not that they liked it) And to her surprise, she got them happy again, not the ants. When the ants found this out, they all grunted and went home. They all lived happily ever after.
The End.
I should add that I have not altered punctuation or spelling, and as a copywriter, that’s probably one of the hardest challenges for me to overcome!
I also totally take responsibility for overcooking the photo. It was hard to define the ants, and Gypsie’s details.
I love my family. I love the creativeness that flows, and I love the wild imaginations. I hope they continue to flourish.
The whole school has had an assignment this year. The theme was “Everyone Has a Story”, and different classes too different approaches to writing a book. Paris’s class was to write about the topic of “Heroes”.
The school held an “Everyone Has a Story” night, where parents could come and read all the books, it was attended by what seemed to be a greater number of parents than most other events. We all had a chance to read our children’s books, and books the other children had written – what a treat! Ciel’s book was made up of journal entries from the journal she keeps in the classroom.
Paris’s book was entitled “Heroes”. As I read, I learned what she considered a hero to be, what she felt the qualities of a hero should be, a definition from dictionary.com, and a story about Eleanor Roosevelt – as an example of a hero. But it was chapter 3, entitled “My Hero” that made my heart skip a beat. Here it is, word for word.
Everybody knows someone who has encouraged, inspired, helped or improved their or someone else’s life. That person could be your hero. My hero is Victoria Baptiste. She is my mother. Three qualities that make Victoria a hero are responsibility, kindness and peacefulness.
First, my mom is responsible. She is responsible because she only loses something if my sister uses it. For example, one time I found my mother’s calculator under my sister’s desk. She is also responsible because she makes sure that I take a shower and go to bed every night. My mother is also responsible because she takes my sister and I to school every day.
Victoria is also peaceful. She is peaceful because when my sister and I don’t respect each other, she separates us. For example, if my sister yells at me, then my mom would tell my sister to go into the kitchen. Another reason she is peaceful is because every day she has time alone in her bedroom. She is also peaceful because when my sister yells, my mom sometimes punishes her.
Finally, my mom is caring. She is caring because every night she kisses my sister and I good night. Victoria is also caring because she feeds my sister and I and gives us clothing. For example, every Sunday, my mom and grandma go to Goodwill. Another reason she is caring is because she makes sure than Im always safe.
Our world is filled with many heroes. Heroes foster many qualities that make them heroic. Heroes can be normal, ordinary people. Are you a hero or can you be a hero?
Raising my two youngest daughters to respect money is a becoming a challenge.
My approach toward their weekly allowance probably differs vastly from most parents views on the topic; though, on hearing my rationale, many parents I’ve spoken to agree that it’s a good idea. Paris is 10 and Ciel is 9. They each receive their age in dollars, per week, in the form of an allowance. They spend it as they wish – books, toys, candy, treats – all I buy is the food they eat and the clothes they wear. If they want to download music, then they need to buy their own iTunes card. If they want McDonalds, they pay for what they order (unless it’s an “emergency drive thru”, where our evening is just so busy I don’t have time to make dinner. In this case, I pay as it’s my choice), they buy their own gifts if they attend a friends birthday party, and so on.
Paris saves her money, and when she really wants something, she will buy it if she has the money. If she doesn’t have the money, she’ll save until she does.
Ciel is not so thrifty, and doesn’t believe in saving her money. It burns a hole in her pocket (or bank account). She wants what she wants and she wants it now. She won’t wait for something while she saves for it, she’ll try every trick in the book to borrow money, have someone else pay for what she wants, get an advance on her allowance … whatever it takes.
We just left Borders after a full on battle of the wills. Ciel had just bought a book last week, “The Name of this Book is Secret” by Pseudonymous Bosch (of course it’s a real name!), and finished it in a couple of weeks. She was itching to get the next book in the series “If You’re Reading This, it’s Too Late“, so I offered her the 33% off coupon I had received in an email from Borders. She hounded me until I agreed to take her to Borders. Paris checked her bank account, and had $36 to spend, so she was happy to tag along.
Once at the store, we found Ciel’s book, and the girls roamed around the “Independent Readers” section while I grazed on the inspiration fodder in the Art & Design section. Once they had settled on the books they wanted to buy, and I had my fill of inspiration and color theory, we headed to the checkout. Then a fairly big box caught Paris’s eye and she was soon rushing back to return Babymouse #12: Burns Rubber to the shelf in favor of an origami gift set. This then meant a whirlwind tour of the bargain bins, where Ciel found a book about dogs that she absolutely needed.
“Mom, I need to buy this book.”
“No, baby, you already have a book, you don’t have enough money for both.”
“But I can owe you.”
“No, I don’t have enough money to give you your allowance early.”
Wednesday is Allowance Day
“I bet someone does.”
“Oh yeah? Who’s that?”
“G-ma”
“Grandma’s not here.”
“But she’d give me money. Why won’t you?”
“Because that’s the way allowances work – it’s the same as getting paid. You get your allowance on Wednesdays, just like I get paid every other Friday. If I spend all my money before I get paid again, then I can’t buy what I want to buy. That’s just the way it is.”
“It’s not fair.”
And the bemoaning continued all the way …… to the end of the parking lot! Once she opened her new book and started reading, she had totally forgotten about the dog book that she would die without.
I don’t mind going over this scenario, I really don’t, but it seems to happen every time we go into a store!
I try to remove “I try” from my vocabulary, but I have to say “I try” when it comes to keeping up with my blog! I really do try – and life sometimes gets in the way. This necessitates a “weekly round up” type of post, where I do my best to remember things that have gone on during the week and post one long tome, catching up on my week.
The work week was hectic, as usual, but somewhat subdued by the fact that I’m getting help! My job – Development Specialist – has evolved during the past five years. When I first took the position in July 2005, it was part time, 20 hours each week. The other 20 hours I worked in the Fiscal department. It took a while for management to realize that the resource development job was more than a part time job, so I soon moved out of Fiscal (however, I did manage to retain payroll for a while!).
The Development Specialist role involves fundraising, marketing, grant writing, events, PR, publications (quarterly newsletter and program brochures), website, events, social media, donor relations …. and a plethora of other tasks, all of which I have been trying to carry out to the best of my abilities in the time available each week – and then some.
A little over a year, my organization hired a Community Builder and Organizer, who was also to take on the responsibility of marketing for the housing department.
Now, our two positions have become one “department”, and we are to split into two separate functions. While there have been no new job descriptions written yet, it seems that these two departments will be Marketing/PR and Fund Development. I had been asked a few months ago, if the jobs were to hypothetically split this way, which would I prefer. I answered that this would be akin to asking me to choose between my children, or trying to determine if I would rather have my left hand severed, or my right hand. I couldn’t choose. While, in my opinion, my strengths lie in marketing and PR, I was pursuing CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) accreditation. If this is the way the cookie will crumble, and I end up with the marketing and PR position, as the Diversity Chair for the Central Illinois Chapter, I’ll most definitely miss being a part of the AFP (Association of Fundraising) crowd.
Who gets what job is pretty much speculation right now, it should all be decided shortly, for implementation in June. Which is also the time our new Executive Director comes on board!
Tuesday was Ciel’s last evening at College Mentors for Kids. She has had such a wonderful experience, with her “Big Buddy”, Ashley. Her favorite activity was making volcanoes with dry ice in a chemistry class. College Mentors has allowed her, to a certain extent, to experience college and the various facets of what Illinois State University has to offer for it’s students.
During the semester-long program, they visited the Redbird Arena, Gamma Phi Circus, the ISU Theater, Schroeder Hall, and many other places on campus, to learn about what it takes to be a college student and why it is important to aspire to be a college student!
Each week, Ciel came home with stories about what they had experienced that day, and how “you’re gonna love Ashley, Mom!”
What a great experience for a third grader! We hope that she can participate again next year, as they are extending the program to 4th graders also.
Thanks, Miss Ashley, you’ve been a super Big Buddy to Ciel!
On Saturday, there were a lot of Earth Day celebrations going on. It was great to see that local technology company, Mavidea, was partnering with GoodWill to take donations of electrical goods. We had a laptop that I’m sure Noah used for his CAD drawings of the Ark, so after the College Mentors for Kids celebration we headed downtown to Mavidea. The one and only Kelly Mathy, of Kelly’s Bakery, was busy grilling burgers and we didn’t even have to get out of the car to get served!
We were able to hand off the laptop to one of the wonderful volunteers, and were handed a donation receipt form and the burgers with clockwork-like precision. If you think that’s impressive, then check this out. According to the Pantagraph, during the 5 hour collection period, Mavidea collected 16.5 tons of used PCs and other goods. According to Kelly, they filled the first truck much more quickly than they had anticipated, and had to put out a call for a second truck. What a great response!
Just across the street, at Specs Around Town, Julie Kubsch was also doing her part to participate in Earth Day. Julie was collecting used glasses in return for a $50 discount on a new pair of prescription eyewear, or $25 off a new pair of sunglasses. Julie explained that they accept donations of glasses all the time, and that they are usually sent to Africa or Haiti.
Paris (left) couldn’t decide on round or square frames.
On Sunday, we had arranged with our friend Becca to pick up some worms for our worm “hotel”. I should explain that we’ve had this little setup ready to go for about a year or so, however the cost of worms has been prohibitive and we hadn’t got around to stocking our hotel with worms.
I knew that Becca and Tom were proponents of an earth-friendly lifestyle and had spoken before about vermicomposting, so I thought I’d ask Becca if she ever had an overabundance of worms that she needed to take care of. Luckily, she did, and on Sunday we moved in the first tenants to the worm hotel.
My previous worm-farming experience resulted in a mass escape from the bin. When the worms were finally coralled, they did OK in the container, they just didn’t last very long. I was determined that this time it would be different! For the first few days I left the “roof” off the hotel and kept a light on at night. After a couple of days, I put the roof back on, but left the light on, and by the fifth day I was able to leave the light off all together. The squirmy tenants were settled in and had no desire to escape.
I check on they every couple of days to make sure that I haven’t overwhelmed them with too much food, and that they are sufficiently “damp” but not drowning. Their hotel is in the kitchen. I think they like it there!
Friday: My bleeding heart is crushed (left) Winds gusting up to 50mph, according to one newscast, ripped through Central Illinois and brought a 12 foot branch crashing down on my front garden. It could have been worse. My dicentra (bleeding heart) was crushed and about 10 or so daylilies also fell victim to the errant branch.
Having said that, Paris arrived to rid the garden of the offending limb before I did. I wonder if her 10 yr old body was unable to lift the branch off the garden, and instead, dragged it to the kerb. In doing so, the lives of a few lilies were lost. This could be the most plausible explanation.
(Right) Nestled in the ever-swarming sea of vinca (periwinkle) is a pretty lamium (deadnettle) plant. It’s as hardy as they come, and the bright yellow pops against the green of the vinca-sea. (Please disregard the weeds. Thank you. Much obliged.)
Sunday. Rain quenched the thirsty garden in the early hours of the morning. You have to understand here that my definition of early, on a Sunday, is around 8 or 9am. Early enough for me to miss it, yet the raindrops remaining on the greenery and the car proved that it did, indeed, rain.
This little bed of strawberries (left) was, in my mind, set up to be the boomer crop. The plants were nice and healthy when I initially planted them last year, and while they did not bear fruit last year, they looked to be strong, healthy and very promising.
The six or so plants that wouldn’t fit into my tire full of Mel’s Mix were put into a small garden at the side of the house to compete with 2 hostas and a rose bush. They looked scrawny. Wouldn’t make it, I thought. Would have too much competition from established, healthy plants. Boy was I wrong! Those 6 plants are way ahead of the ones in the tire! They are bearing a lot of fruit and look so much more vigorous!
I have a couple of rhubarb plants growing out the back by the washing line, I’m itching for the time I can harvest it, and the strawberries, and make my first rhubarb and strawberry pie of the season! There truly is nothing better than cooking with produce from your own garden. You know it’s fresh, you know it’s organic and you know it’s tasty!
The reason I have a great respect for spring is that it heralds the start of the “windpower” season. The time when I no longer have to rely on my gas clothes dryer, I can use our natural resources to save money while giving the clothes that fresh smell you just can’t get with fabric softener! Usually I do my wash as the baskets get full, but as soon as it gets warm enough to get outside I’ll save all the laundry for the weekend so I can hang it out to dry. Thank you, Mother Nature, for your gift of windpower!
What I don’t like about spring? This is the time the ants come back. And it doesn’t matter how clean the kitchen is, how spotless the floors are, how many times I wipe the table down with Clorox, the little buggers always come back.
I feed them Terro.
They come back for more.
Just doesn’t seem fair that they should thrive on the very potion that should be killing them!
Note: This has been sitting in my drafts since last week. Apparently I couldn’t post it from my phone
(No corresponding YouTube video tonight – I’m phone blogging!)
It was about 11pm when I noticed that the puppy-talk I assumed was coming from my neighbor had been going on longer than usual. It was also sounding much closer to home than usual.
I grabbed my phone, hit 911 (can’t be too careful, right?) and headed for the door.
As I opened the door, I could see bright pink pajama pants leaning over the porch railing.
“Ma’am?” I said, with a little trepidation, as I took my finger off the “send” button.
She swung around with the look of a stunned mullet (that was for my Aussie friends. Americans would prefer “deer in headlights “) and seemed to fumble for the words to explain that she was trying to introduce her dog to our cat.
She must have sensed my displeasure at her presence, as she went on to explain that she had just moved in,down the street a little.
“I don’t care if you just moved in to the White House. You’re on MY porch, making noise, and we’re trying to sleep! ”
“But I just wanted to introduce my dog. ………”
“Please. It’s 11 o’clock – I need to sleep and you need to get off my porch. ”
I really don’t think that was unreasonable, do you?
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others.
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to the shelf in favor of an origami gift set. This then meant a whirlwind tour of the bargain bins, where Ciel found a book about dogs that she absolutely needed.
(left) Winds gusting up to 50mph, according to one newscast, ripped through Central Illinois and brought a 12 foot branch crashing down on my front garden. It could have been worse. My dicentra (bleeding heart) was crushed and about 10 or so daylilies also fell victim to the errant branch.
(16)