Vincent

Vincent McDonald, this morning, and I quote:

"I'm tired of playing outside, I'm tired of playing in my room with my toys, I'm tired of playing in the sandbox, I'm tired of riding my bike. I need a vehicle to drive."

Sigh.

.............

Let's just say I officially hate computers.

Busy Isn't The Word

I think I titled my last post as busy, busy, busy. Little did I know! My schedule has been overtaken with work, photography, meetings, and family responsibilities - unfortunately, pretty much in that order...

I just posted a new bit on my photo blog. This is actually only one session of three waiting in line for posting. And I have a wedding and an engagement session still to shoot within the week. Stand by for some frequent posting there!

I have to work the Indy 500 again this year. Gate 1. If any one is gonna be there, feel free to come over to that area and give me a shout out. I've worked that Gate for several years now, and we have a new officer in charge there this year (not me) so I feel I may be giving some advice about how things work (and don't work I suppose) at that VERY busy and complex location. So there's a 20 hour day, roughly. At least we'll get a free turkey sub out of it - and maybe a bottled water or two...

I have an engagemnent session scheduled for Monday (if I survive Sunday) at a very beautiful location that I haven't had the opportunity to shoot at before. Yay. Some new stuff to explore is always fun.

So I guess this is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow is pretty open except for work, and I have to go to the rehearsal for about an hour on Friday, and then it starts. I plan on being non-existent in the life of my friends and family till about noon on Tuesday....

Let's do some kind of dance or something for good weather, for my sake!!!

Me: 1, Washing Machine: 0

Did I mention in a previous post that my washing machine took a crap on me? I thought of a great solution; I'd ask my Grandma if I could buy, at a discount, her barely used front load Maytag set. Since she's soon going to be moving into my aunt's house (which is equipped with a fully functional washer and dryer), I thought maybe I'd luck out. She agreed (and there was much rejoycing...) until my mom told me that she thought the washer had issues. She and my aunt both told me that after the machine is done with its cycle, you can still see several inches of dirty water under the wash tub... and that Maytag said this was "normal" for that model. That model happened to be a Maytag Neptune.

So I googled "maytag neptune" and was unhappy to see that there was actually a recent class action lawsuit settled on this EXACT model for mildew and/or black mold problems. Maytag's solution? Run empty loads of bleach water on a weekly basis. I read a ton of testimonials from people who thought it was just ludicrous that you had to spend so much time washing your washer, just so that your clothes weren't infiltrated with mold spores and mildew. So I then started looking at Neptune alternatives. Like fixing the one we've got, instead. I researched the problem we were having, found some diagrams, took the washer apart last night, sent Brian on a part hunt today, and fixed it tonight.

And it actually works! For a few hours on the internet, an overwhelming desire to have clothes that don't smell like mildew, and $7, our old washer is new again. I just had to replace the "cam dogs." Like, duh?!?

So they say good things come in 3's (or is it pairs...for my sake let's say 3's). I found out as well that I overpaid my Nipsco bill by $125, and my bill this month was a whopping $40, so Nipsco still owes me $80. Guess that means no Nipsco bills this summer! Yay.

I know Good Thing #3 is that there's a check for a million dollars on it's way to me in the mail right now...

Finally!

We finally got our spring landscaping done, despite the fact that I've been just about as sick as I've been in my most recent memorable past. I guess you don't need a voice to landscape...
So here are a few pics and a quick video clip of the final outcome...now it's time for a grilled onion cheeseburger and a glass of red wine...

 

 

 

 

Laryngitis Is Cool; At Least According to My Kids

Well, I called that one! This morning I woke up with ZERO voice. That was real interesting calling into work, they were like, "Who is this? Prank call! Prank call!"
Anyway. I'm really ready for this swine flu to go elsewhere. The kids are enjoying it, though. All they have to do is act like they can't hear my desparate whisper pleas for them to behave and follow the rules...

Oh well.

Mothers Day and H1N1

So I'm pretty sure I have the plague. Or something. About a week ago I leaned over to my fabulous husband and whispered these sweet nothings in his ear, "I think I'm getting sick." Well I was right and what started as a very mild head cold as far as head colds go has turned into a raging plague. Or the swine flu, I'm not quite sure yet. I think I'm gonna die. The really cool part is that I think I'm about to lose my voice. For anyone who knows me, that's pretty funny really. I'm really quite puny...

It doesn't help that I have a million things I'm trying to get done around here, either. Actually a million minus one, as our trusty washing machine has officially crapped out on us. That's a good and bad thing. As you can imagine, I'm pretty stoked that I haven't done one stitch of laundry this weekend, however, all that means is that I'll have double the amount when we get the situation rememdied.

Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers out there, too. Mom, Grandma, Auntie, Sis, Amy, Allisa, Wendy, Jessica, Molly, Cate, Ginnifer... and anyone else not specifically mentioned because it's too early for my brain to work, here's a shout out! Hope you guys all have a great day. I was listening to the radio the other morning and they featured "Mommy Confessions." It was hilarious. If you have any "Mommy Confessions" I'd love to hear them... leave them in the comments section. I think the funniest one I heard was lady who said she's told her mom that she was going to have a really busy day at work so her mom watched the kids, she took a personal day from work, parked her SUV in a forest preserve somewhere and slept in the back all day. That's so damn funny. And I'll have to admit, my knee jerk reaction on that was, "What a great idea!"

So for those of you who are real observant, yes, I am posting this at 5:30 in the morning on Mother's Day... SUNDAY... when I should rightfully be sleeping. This damn H1N1 is preventing me from obtaining any restful sleep. Or maybe it's the bottle of Shiraz I met last night... the jury's out ;) None the less, I just took 3 Advil and a half gallon of water, so hopefully I'll be back asleep soon. Brian has agreed to bring us McDonald's for breakfast (yay) so that situation is handled. Now if I could just find some NyQuil....