8 Things the Sun brings to mind

I can't ignore the sunshine today. I tried to play it cool this weekend, and not get giddy about the weather. "Oh, is the sun shining today? I hadn't noticed..."
Well, no more! I surrender to you, Ra!
Great Aten, your rays stir my soul. Apollo, the warmth from your sun inspires me. Helios, I am awakened!

Here are 8 things that I am looking forward to now that it looks like Summer really may come again soon.

1. The backyard swimming "pool":
We are on our second blue Hefty Bag pool. We've got a monstrous one, armpit deep. Most of the time, it is a complete pain in the ass- we have to store it for nine months, set it up, keep it clean and covered... not to mention it takes up a quarter of the back yard and it kills all the grass under it. We forget all that when it is 95 degrees and we are floating on our Recline-o-matic beer holder chaise lounges. Running Seal Belly Slides over the side are the best!

2. Farmer's Market: Almost every Saturday, we ride our bikes to the Farmer's Market and buy lettuce, eggs and whatever else is in season. I usually get a pastry, too. I have an awesome bike with an awesome basket on the front, and I am awesome.

3.Motorcycle rides: We have a "Hardly Davidson"- that is, a 1981 Honda Nighthawk cruiser motorcycle. Spencer gives me rides in the summer. I put my hair in pigtail braids, and put on a bandanna and boots and a leather jacket and I look like the shit. Then we go to the post office.

4. Scooter Shopping: I am not confident enough to operate a motorcycle... but I dearly want a scooter. I shop for scooters almost every summer. I'd really like a 1985 Honda Spree. I would absolutely buy one... if I could figure out when I would ever ride it. I sometimes map out non-freeway routes to work. It would add about 45 minutes to my commute to ride a scooter to work. last summer, when gas was $4 a gallon, it was almost worthwhile- except scooter prices doubled, too.

5. Camping: We surely love to take the RV out in the summer. Madison likes camping because she can run around all she wants, and we let her make a fire. I like camping because BURNABLE DISHES! and Spencer likes camping because I don't mind if he sits around the fire and drinks a bunch of beer... because somehow, it's different than sitting on the couch and drinking a bunch of beer.

6. Baseball: I know that there are lots of women who do not enjoy watching their husbands play baseball. I've learned to appreciate the opportunity to sit down for three hours, away from the phone and the computer, in the sun. Usually, a picnic of sorts is involved. What's not to enjoy?

7. Open windows: There is nothing finer than a warm breeze through a clean house. The best we can do at my house is a warm breeze. I enjoy having the doors and windows open... it makes the house feel tropical. Unfortunately, Spencer enjoys air conditioning, so "windows open" is a home-alone thing for me.

8. Hot nights: More than hot days, I love being outdoors on hot nights. It's just so cool! It's dark, but still warm. Ah, August...

Things I have learned this week

Sunday Again! The weeks sure fly by. This weekend went quickly because my dad came to visit. Dad has a high activity- to- hour ratio- that is to say, he can squeeze a week's worth of "stuff" into about 36 hours. I didn't learn amything about distilleries, or Newport, but I like this picture of the distillery sign that I took in Newport in February.

*I learned about golf push carts. Push carts have three wheels, and you put your bag on them and push, as opposed to pull carts, where you pull. Pull carts are convenient because they are smaller and you can store your bag attached to the cart. Push carts are superior because you don't tip the cart to move it... so you don't spill your beer. My dad bought one for my husband, it even has a hand brake!

* I learned quite a bit about men's formal attire. We went suit shopping for Spencer today. He needed either a suit or tuxedo, either would be okay at the dinner we are attending next weekend. We started at Men's Wearhouse, where the extra-attentive sales girl showed us sport coats for $180.00. Too much money. Then we checked at Gottshalk's, nothing impressive. We figured that we wanted to spend about $200, and if we couldn't get a nice suit or jacket for that, we could rent a tux. Then, we went to Mr. Formal to see how much a tux rental would be. Mr. Formal sells their rental tuxes- we ended up buying a nice tuxedo, including new shoes for $209.
Spencer will have an opportunity to wear it once or twice a year, so we feel like we got a good value. We will see on Wednesday, when we pick it up.

* I learned that at Goodwill in Silverton, Oregon, everything is $2.99, or 5/$10 everyday. THAT is how much thrift store stuff should cost!

A haiku

Dad came to visit
Frenetic pace all day long
too tired to write more

Aluminum Foiled Again

Here in Oregon, as in many states, we pay a deposit on most of our single-serve beverage containers. Beer bottles, pop cans, and now water bottles... we pay a nickel apiece at the checkout, then return them to the grocer for a refund.

In theory, it's a good idea. Literally tons of glass, plastic and aluminum are kept out of landfills, and our parks and roads are free of beverage litter and broken glass bottles. Most large retailers have machines set up outside the store that count your empties and issue a receipt that you can take in to the store to redeem for cash.

In practice, the bottle bill is a pain in the ass. We have to save up our empties- separate of course, from trash and recycling. Then, we have to remember to bring them back to the store. Then, we have to deal with the three big problems with can returns:

1. Each store is only obligated to accept returns for products that they sell. Which means if you bought Dr. Skipper from Safeway, you can't take those cans back to Fred Meyer.

2. The machines I mentioned earlier are quite prone to fill up, jam, mis-print, reject, mis-read, or otherwise malfunction. This means a trip into the store to the customer service desk. The customer service lady pages the lowest man on the grocery totem to the bottle return area. It always takes him about 5 minutes to finish his smoke, then another 5 minutes to walk all the way through the store to get to the machines. When he finally does show up, he usually does something like the Fonz did to the jukebox at Arnold's, and the machine resets itself and works again for another 40 cans or so.

3. Due to the above problems, a cottage industry has arisen: Seagulling. Seagulls are the men on bicycles who stand about 20 yards away from the machines and wait for people to walk away from their broken machine in disgust, or for someone to throw their Select Diet Cola cans into the trash at Albertson's. You can feel their eyes boring into the back of your jacket, waiting for you to give up. The Seagulls have plenty of time to wait for customer service. The Seagulls have plenty of time to shuttle their wares between grocery stores. The Seagulls are not bothered by the stench of month old beer bottles. I think the Seagulls are getting wealthy one nickel at a time.

I've been haunted lately by the ghosts of unfinished projects. When I see a fun craft online, or when I am inspired to get out the sewing machine and make a pretty spring skirt, my unfinished projects call to me from their shopping bags. I've decided not to start any new projects until these three things are done:




1. Green sweater:
I really liked this pattern when I found it in February. I rushed right out and bought yarn, and got a good start, but I've lost my enthusiasm. Perhaps because the weather is getting better, or maybe it is because St. Patrick's day has come and gone.
current progress: 50% done
The hold-up: This sweater pattern is easy, repetitive and boring. It would be a good pattern to work while sitting and watching TV, but since I decided to write every day, I don't have time to sit and watch TV.
Target Completion Date: April 23. I have committed to entering something crocheted into a contest on the 24th. (that's another post.) If I don't finish the sweater, I have a couple back-ups, which sort of defeats my "Gotta finish before the deadline" purpose.

2. Felted sweater quilt:
A couple years or so ago, I decided it would be neat to felt old wool sweaters, cut the sweaters into squares, and make a quilt. I went to the thrift store and bought as many wool sweaters as I could find. I washed and dried them until they were good and thick. I was so excited for my blanket that I thought I would just "eyeball" the squares, knowing that the strips wouldn't be perfect. I told myself that my blanket would have wabi-sabi.
So, I cut and sewed, and now I have a wool quilt top with puckers. When I lay the thing out on the floor, it looks like the blanket is trying to make a turn to the right.
Current progress: Either 80%, or 20%. I am to the point where I either finish it or take it apart and start over.
Target Completion Date: May 17.

3. Bag made out of bags: Last summer, Madison and I saw a girl carrying a tote bag that was crocheted using strips of plastic grocery sacks instead of yarn. We both thought it was cute, and I thought, "I can do that." So I found instructions on the internet and began saving plastic bags. It takes an ungodly amount of plastic grocery sacks to make one crocheted bag.
Current Progress: 75% completed. I just need to make the flap and the strap. The pain-in-the-ass part is making more "yarn" as you go along. Also, I HATE the sound of crinkling plastic bags.
Target Completion Date: May 31.

So, if I meet my target dates, I should be all set to start some more projects that I won't finish in June. It's all about rewarding yourself.

I enjoy giving my money to Virgin Mobile.

Today is tax day, the day we are reminded that whether we like it or not, living in the U.S. isn't free. We are compelled to pay our taxes even if we don't like the way our government spends our money.
I've got lots of other bills, and for the most part, I begrudgingly pay them and accept whatever level of service the folks on the other end of the envelope decide to provide. An exception is Virgin Mobile. I like Virgin Mobile so much that I have decided to regularly post about companies that I enjoy giving money to, so that I can make them first. So far, I can only think of one, so this may not be a weekly feature...

Two years ago, Madison wanted a cell phone for Christmas. We thought she was too young for a phone (we thought she would lose it), but Santa disagreed and brought her a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone. It was a Kyocera Oystr, and I suspect he paid about 20 bucks for it. It came with some airtime, and it was already charged and activated. She was so excited to have a phone. The first call she made was to her grandma Pat. After she was done telling grandma all about Christmas, she handed the phone to me. I was shocked at how loud and clear the call was. To this day, I don't know if it is the phone itself, or the service, but Madison's call quality is far superior to her parents'. (We had Qwest, now Verizon).
Prepaid plans can be kind of confusing, and I didn't know much about them other than the minutes were expensive and you had to buy cards at the mini mart. Santa must have done his research, because with VM, you can choose from three or four prepaid plans. Since Madison rarely uses her phone, we chose the plan where you pay $20 every 3 months to keep your phone number. I don't know how many minutes that gets her, but I can tell you for sure that it is WAY more than she ever would use.
Madison took pretty good care of her phone. However, after about a year, she did lose it. Virgin sent a couple emails reminding me to add minutes, but I didn't because Madison had misplaced the phone. When about 4 months had passed since my last top-up, instead of disconnecting the service, Virgin Mobile added $10 to the account to keep it active. Shortly thereafter, and completely coincidentally, we found Madison's phone. I checked her balance on-line, and saw that she had about $75 worth of airtime saved up. I can't believe that VM didn't make her forfeit the balance in her account, even though the deal was, pay every 90 days, or lose your minutes and your number. Also, I found another great thing on the website: A promotion that lets you pay $15 every 3 months, instead of $20, if you sign up for automatic payments. We signed up. That's $5 a month.
This Christmas, Madison asked for a web-enabled phone. Once again, Santa came through. Her new phone was a UT Starcom Arc. Data packs through Virgin Mobile are $20 a month, which I agreed to let her try, seeing as the money in her account sorta sits there.
She was so happy to be able to email from her phone, but unfortunately she lost it. Luckily, we still had her Oystr, and we were able to switch her number back to her old phone for free.
When she finds her new phone, we will be able to switch it again for free, but she won't have the data pack for a while... She'll need to demonstrate that she is responsible enough not to lose her phone first.
I can't say enough good things about Virgin Mobile, especially if you are looking for a phone for your kid, or someone else who doesn't talk much. Customer service is excellent, albeit quirky... The automaton that answers the customer service line has a very urban accent and uses slang- "Hey, what's up? Thanks for callin' Virgin Mobile. This is Simone. Let me look up your digits."
However, you can ask for a live agent to help, and they pick up right away and are quite knowledgeable and helpful. You can change or add features on the website, and the phones are reasonably priced.

Hooray Virgin Mobile. I gladly pay you.

Isn't spelling one of the 3 Rs?

Two weeks ago, Madison called me at work. She was at school, the dismissal bell had just rung.
"Hi, mom?.... I forgot to tell you that the club is closed today."
Panic set in. This is the worst case scenario, the thing we have talked about, but never really planned for.
Madison goes to school outside her area boundary, which means there is no bus to and from home. I drive her to school, and after school, she rides the bus to the Boys and Girls club, where she stays for an hour and a half or so until her father or I pick her up.
Her dad and I each work 35 minutes away from Albany, in opposite directions. It's a pain to get to school if she is sick. Thankfully, she's the perfect- attendance- never-sick type of kid.
But, inevitably, it happened. We quickly decided that she would ride a bus to the high school closest to our house, and walk home from there. It's about a three quarter mile walk, and she has never done it alone. She did it, it went off without a hitch. The 30 minutes between that phone call and the "I'm home" email were pretty tense for me. During that time, I did a little investigating. Why weren't we aware that the club would be closed? I checked the calendar on their website, and the closure wasn't listed. So I called. They said that they had notified the schools the week prior, and they left it up to the schools to get the info out. The school told me that the news had been passed along in morning announcements. Madison told me that no one can ever hear morning announcements.
So I decided that I would get in the habit of checking the school's website at least once a week to read the announcements.
Today, I did exactly that, and I saw that the school spelling contest was scheduled for today, after school. Spelling is Madison's forte, she was her elementary school's champ. I called the school and left a message for her to call me. In the meantime, I sent out a few emails to my friends in Albany to see if anyone could pick her up from the contest, since she would miss the bus to the club. I arranged a ride for her, and she called to say that sure, she would enter the contest.
I wished we had more notice, I could have helped her study. I could have made sure she had a good breakfast. I assured myself she would do fine.
She called me when she got home... she won. It was literally no contest. She was the only kid who showed up. She didn't have to spell a thing. The school will contact us with the information for the district contest.
I don't understand how this can happen. How can a school have one kid show up for a spelling contest? Honestly, I don't understand why it's optional... but I suppose that's just me.

Eight websites I often visit

I can waste an inordinate portion of my day on the internet. Besides facebook and blogger, there are some sites that I visit every day, and others that I would like to. This isn't a list of little known websites- three of them are or were owned by internet giant Gawker media. It's just my List of 8 for this week.


ravelry- This is a wonderful resource for knitters and crocheters. It's a great place to find patterns and photographs of finished projects, which is helpful for me since I have a hard time imagining things in any other color than the one shown on the front of the pattern. It's kind of a pain that you can't register right away- you have to request an invitation... but it does come, and it's worth it.

etsy- Etsy is the internet marketplace for handmade goods. It's also a treasure trove of craft inspiration and ideas to steal. The best place to buy personalized paper goods, period.

Jezebel- Gawker's slutty little sister. I have to get my celebrity gossip somewhere, and jezebel filters it better than Perez Hilton. Sometimes a little too feminist and self-righteous for my tastes, but for the most part funny and smart.

Consumerist- I loves me some consumer news, ever since I was little and watched Herb Weisbaum investigate shady mattress dealers in Seattle. Consumerist used to be owned by Gawker, but apparently it was not profitable, so it was put up for sale. Consumers Union, who publishes Consumer Reports, bought it last year, and it has been even better. They are currently running their second annual "Worst Company in America" contest... Can AIG beat out last year's winner-by- attrition, BOA? (Countywide won last year, but BOA got the trophy when they took over Countrywide.)

lifehacker- Gawker's nerdy cousin. Lifehacker has a lot of computer-related posts that I frankly do not understand or care about. Occasionally, though, they will make a post written for the average computer user that is really helpful. Like use firefox, youmail, and gmail. I use these three products daily thanks to lifehacker.

instructables- You can learn anything on the internet, and instructables will teach you how. You can learn how to make a light saber, a lemon cake, knit a sweater, change your oil, train your dog...

FARK- a great place to find funny news stories, and funny headlines for unfunny news stories. The photoshop contests are often hilarious.

grooveshark- you can play any song for free, as often as you want, no registration, no installation, no problems. You can build a playlist and save it. They are working on a mobile app, and as soon as that is available, I can see no need for iTunes.

Things I have learned this week

I spent the day with my daughter and Julie Andrews today. We watched Mary Poppins twice, and the Sound of Music once. These old movies make me want to wear skirts and blouses with smart wool coats and gloves. They make me want to watch my language, but never bite my tongue. I think the world needs more Julie Andrews, so I am doing my part.

It's been an incredibly busy week, here are some things I have learned:

* Zales sucks.

* There is such a thing as Easter Trees. I guess I have been oblivious for a while to the latest trends in Easter decor. My Girl Scout troop received a donation of Easter Tree ornaments, so we had to make trees to hang them on. They turned out cute. According to the internet, Easter Trees aren't a recent Target invention- they have been a Scandinavian tradition for many years. Who knew?

* I learned how to import a blogger template. I am mostly happy with it.

* And here's an idea I had, not really something I learned: I think Easter should rotate dates through the year. My daughter, who is a pain in the butt to get out of bed 363 days a year, pops right out on Easter and Christmas to see if anybody left her anything. What if she never knew when to expect baskets or gifts? Every day would hold the possibility of something exciting. Perhaps I just need to show her that the possibility already exists every day.

Derby Day

Today was the Pinewood Derby for Albany's Girl Scouts. 53 girls and their families spent the past week or so sawing, sanding, priming, painting, stickering, gluing and/or blinging their pine blocks into lean, mean downhill machines.
It was a close race this year. A pink flowery rectangle took home the grand prize. There was an orca, a pencil, a school bus, a box of Girl Scout cookies, an English trolley and an ice cream truck, along with dragsters in every possible shade of pink.
Madison's car, which is in the top right hand corner of the photo, was "waves", driven by a mermaid. The mermaid drove very safely and cautiously. Madison was hoping for the "Safe Driver" award (last place), but she didn't get it- she ended up somewhere in the bottom quarter, I imagine.

You may also notice some changes here at CBL. If you haven't noticed, you need to wake up and pay attention. I am still adjusting and tweaking... try to bear with me.