kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Monday, September 5th, 2016 04:45 pm
It thinks heat is optional. (Everything else works; I did all the troubleshooting I'm really capable of. Running it ten minutes produces cold damp clothes, not warm damp clothes. Venting is fine. Barrel is spinning. Just no heat.) So, they'll be out Wednesday to look at it. It is, of course, just outside of warranty. Urgh. So we'll see if I need a new one or if it's cheaper to fix. (The folks coming to service it don't sell them, so if they say I'm better replacing it, I'm gonna believe them.)

Discovered broken mid-last-week, we thus had a lot of laundry. I was working with wash-and-drip-dry, but this weekend had to admit we needed to involve a laundromat.

I have a ballpark figure in my head of what laundromats cost, and it's reasonably current given that I wash our king-sized comforter at one when it needs it.

So I grabbed three rolls of quarters, and indeed, a week of laundry for a family of four (actually, a bit less because I let some of the bedding I'd normally wash weekly wait another week) ran $28 in the end. It would have been $26 if I hadn't forgotten to bring my soap, though.

And this is where I point out that there's a meme going around Facebook about an awesome program allowing kids living in poverty to bring laundry to school, and how that causes them to _spend more time in school_, in part because they have clean clothes to wear and aren't embarrassed. I mention it because every time it appears, it seems like I see judgy comments about how their parents should try to do better. Because if you're living in poverty you almost certainly do not have a washer/dryer set in your residence.

So...if you're living in poverty and having trouble making ends meet / covering rent and food / etc., you can afford an extra $20 or so every week, right? Wait a minute...no. And that's ignoring whether or not you have access to a functioning laundry that's nearby. If you don't, you also have to haul the darned stuff to wherever you can wash it. Which is fairly easy for suburban ol' me with my reliable car and money for gas, but not for people living in poverty.

So, unless they're hand-washing in their sink and drip-drying, exactly how do the people saying these things expect people living with these limitations to solve this dilemma, and why do they think not solving it indicates they don't take good enough care of their children? (And sink-washing is a quick answer to toss off, but is a lot of hard work - at the end of a long day, is it work the parent is up to? Does it mean they get less sleep than they need, or trade off helping the kids with homework? And is there enough space to drip-dry everything that was used and cleaned?)

I am, personally, so glad that program exists. If you haven't seen the articles before, one is: http://www.businessinsider.com/washing-machines-solve-schools-big-problem-2016-8

...and here's hoping I don't need a laundromat solution again next weekend, but I'm still glad I _can_ do it, if I need to.
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Thursday, August 28th, 2014 06:57 pm
A revision of our road construction map: behind a cut, because image )

The red section is still closed and will be until October 21 according to their current estimates. The blue section is where there will be street that wasn't there before.

The orange section is no longer ACTIVELY being worked, and the steel plate has been removed. The square, 3-4 feet on a side, that it covered, however, is not fully filled in, but is sunken several inches...and has been left that way for a week or more. Apparently that's our new reality. It COMPLETELY fills the lane of travel, the right lane of Courtside, at that intersection. It's not dangerous except to very low cars and maybe motorcycles/bikes, but it's annoying and no one wants to go through it. So we go around. I figure it's only a matter of time before that causes an accident.

Tonight, hopefully not for too long, they closed Town Center Loop between Courtside and the Wilsonville Road. That is the purple spot on the map...and meant we couldn't head home that way and I had to loop around a long way to get back. Fun! Anyway, the closure at Courtside blocks the right lane inbound to the neighborhood, so they had a flagger there moving us through since it was one car at a time.

Maybe they'd just like to close our neighborhood?? Seriously, why could whatever they are doing on Town Center Loop there not have been done earlier this month _before_ Vlahos closed at least?

Ah well. If worst comes to worst, we can park in the next neighborhood over (NO shared roads) and walk in on the trail that crosses the wetlands. And the fact that I even briefly consider that is sign of how stressful/annoying this is, but I didn't know until I got alllll the way back around the loop whether or not Courtside WAS open, since I couldn't see that far from the block between the Wilsonville Road and Town Center Loop.

I know, road construction season, but this is a wee bit ridiculous. :P

At least I'm getting good stories out of it?
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kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, August 15th, 2014 12:42 pm
We live on a dead-end road in a tiny neighborhood. We have two routes out to the main street - and no other routes out at all. Our best route is to follow our road to the street. Our second best meanders through the rest of the neighborhood.

Hang on, visual behind the cut )

So. We live where it says "Us" and you can see it's a fairly dense neighborhood (I didn't label the apartments and condominiums not off our street, but you can find them if you look).

The blue line? They are extending another street to meet ours. (Actually, it will *become* the street there and ours will T into it, but close enough.) Which means that for 6-8 weeks, the red section will be closed.

Fun times! Now we have only one route out - meandering through the neighborhood.

But, yesterday and today, there is additional construction work at the orange corner (between us and the rest of the neighborhood), so we have to wait for a flagger to get through.

And even better, also yesterday/today, the senior center closest to the red line is having their PARKING LOT resurfaced...so all the cars are street parked.

I don't see how the garbage truck could make it in or out today, it literally could not fit. (Maybe by Monday it'll be better? I hope? That's when they actually come for the houses, though the senior centers and apartments have their own pickup schedule....) It's amazingly ridiculous.

I can live (not without some whining, I suspect) with the 6-8 weeks of meandering. But the "I have a channel home that is at times barely as wide as my car" part is getting pretty stressful. :P
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kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 05:49 pm
The boys are now registered for swim lessons next session - going in person as soon as registration opened worked nicely, I got exactly the slots I most wanted so that my schedule won't be insanity. :) And they had fun at swim lessons and open swim.

My new prescription swim goggles are in and I'm very pleased with them - they do what I'd hoped for and they do it well. And the frames we wanted to try for my new glasses came in, I tried them on, and I love them. Lenses are now ordered, so I wait again, for those as well as a backup pair I ordered at one of the cheap online sites. I think the latter will be acceptable for a backup pair, but I distinctly went cheap on the options and they wouldn't be my first choice for anything else. That's not the point for them. :)

Laundry, kitchen cleaning, dishes, care for the vegetables - all done. I picked all the carrots; they aren't doing well in these containers, and the other things in with them will do better with them out.

Yesterday was Fun in the Park also, and we did have fun. Drew got a balloon sword, Ian got a balloon cat, both got cotton candy. Ian tried chicken teriyaki and liked it, which was kind of neat. I would have preferred to spend more time on things I instead went right by, but in all honesty, not much time all the same.

Today, the boys went with Scott to the zoo while I got stuff done around the house (at my request!). Then we went to the library, where they turned in their summer reading program and got to pick free books and science experiment kits, and got (rather nice, really) packets of coupons/freebies. Being small and indulged is apparently good for your ability to snag treats.

And I almost finished reading a book! _Cast In Flame_. I will finish it tonight, I swear I will. :) And then I will sulk because the sequel isn't out yet, if history is any judge.
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Sunday, February 9th, 2014 03:09 pm
Nearly daily (I try for daily), I post something I am grateful for to my Twitter and Facebook. I used to collect those here, but honestly, I'm not sure the medium really suited them and it became a chore. But today I feel like a longer post than Twitter/Facebook allows, because there is so much I'm grateful for:

I'm grateful for the snow outside, which is gloriously beautiful. I'm grateful for first snowballs, and first attempts at snowman, and kids "sledding" in cardboard boxes, and laughter and dashing inside to shed snow and snowy clothes all over the carpet, before burrowing into blankets.

I'm grateful for my house - it's messy, yes, because it's full of joy and family. It's also warm, secure against the elements, and we haven't lost power this whole storm. I'm REALLY grateful that the furnace died and was replaced in November, so that we have faced this snowy little storm with a brand new high-efficiency furnace.

I'm grateful for our health - horrible colds aside, we've been well, and we're sturdy enough to get through those. I'm grateful that Ian is healing well after being smacked in the nose with a wooden train tunnel - quite the dramatic cut. Noses like to bleed. But it appears to be mending fine.

I'm grateful for our two cats, for cuddles and purring - and for Ray's tolerance of small hands attempting to pet him, and perhaps doing so less than gracefully or comfortably at times.

I'm grateful for friends, family, and coworkers - I am lucky enough to have some of the best ever, of all three.

I'm grateful for a job that allows me to work from home, which is very handy when the forecast suggests that might be the only way I'm getting home at the end of the day - and even more handy when day care calls out closed early.

I'm grateful for an amazing day care that is so wonderful for the boys, teaching and guiding them as well as taking care of them.

I'm grateful for so much more, but I fear this is becoming self-indulgent. Feeling so lucky after this weekend.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, May 17th, 2013 08:05 am
I had a dream last night, and remembered it, and I'm greatly amused.

Not at all sure anyone else cares about my dream tho, so here's a cut tag. )

The most amusing part is that while I *adored* the place and was *thrilled* we were buying it in the dream...the reality is I would never want to buy or own it in real life. Lots of things about it that are "things I love" but not "things I want to own or be responsible for" and more house than I want to *live in* even if someone else was responsible for taking care of it. I *would* like to have the view of the mountains, though. And some of the decor. Those bits are worth making note of. (Since I don't want to move, a VIEW of the mountains is not likely. Art, however....)
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kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 03:28 pm
I took a week's vacation to...clean my house. Argh. (And then had to add "get dental work done" to it, which didn't really improve it, heh.)

On the other hand, the family room looks great, the kitchen is well on the way to that state, and the laundry is progressing. Even with dental work interrupting it.

Okay, break over. Time to scrub the microwave. Meh. I think I'll reward myself after that with a fold-a-thon for the towels. It needs done, and it sounds positively fun compared to scrubbing the microwave.
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kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, July 14th, 2012 04:35 pm
Well, today is productive. Much credit to Scott, who came up with the idea of the zoo run, and thus created an afternoon in which productivity was possible (WOW did Drew need to run off energy!). Today we have:

1. Gone to the zoo for three hours. Including watching the wild birds show. Which only briefly held Drew's attention but *I* enjoyed it. They now have to tell people, not only to sit down, but to put away all food. Apparently the turkey vulture has realized that humans have food and it's yummy (but bad for the bird). :P

On the ride home, both kids fell asleep. Getting out of the car, both woke up. Alas.

2. Gotten me new pants. I wanted one more pair in rotation, plus another to replace the lovely but easily-snagged mid-tan pair I had. Alas. It's a gorgeous fabric, but it snags on EVERYTHING. Including my wedding ring. No, thanks. Anyway, I got lucky as one of the two pairs I got was on clearance for 1/4 the normal price (and a color and style I like and can wear; there were rather a lot of OTHERS on clearance that I didn't get, including another pair of the snag-fabric, heh).

3. Washed three loads of laundry (well, okay, #2 is in the dryer and #3 is in the washer, but...).

4. Washed a load of dishes (still running, but hey, running is running!).

5. Lowered Ian's crib mattress to the bottom position - okay, Scott did that, I held the baby, and Drew wandered about "helping" with his "tool box" (a game box of Uno Moos, which he fortunately did not roll under Scott's feet, so that WAS helpful!). Ian is officially pushing to sit at every opportunity, having started during our Wisconsin trip, and has started trying to pull to stand. Day care is predicting he'll walk early. I refuse to guess; I fell into predicting an early crawl along with them, when in reality, he *wanted* to for a long time but hit the milestone at a normal time, he was just intensely frustrated in between. :P

[EDITED TO ADD: I posted this, and then Scott walked in to show me a picture of Ian, standing. He'd pulled himself to standing successfully. And held it long enough for three pictures before he fell over as the fourth one was being taken. I still refuse to predict walking, tho.]

6. Put holds on a couple videos at the library. Also, managed to be the second hold on Libriomancer! YES! :)

Now taking a break to write things up here, but then I need to go juggle more laundry and write some letters. And sort some pictures that were printed earlier this week so they might, you know, actually get mailed.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Sunday, April 1st, 2012 11:04 am
Thank goodness for doing this; reading back over these reminds me of many, many little good things that can otherwise be forgotten. And as I write them it helps me really look at, and find the positives in, my days.

So, here's February and March. (Well, except the first couple days of February were on the last one.)

That's a lot of lines.... )
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 02:13 pm
Seriously, argh. So. There was Conflikt. We returned. Tuesday, Ian started day care, which means most of February I'm on leave and he's in day care (lets me respond if needed, and get stuff done otherwise).

So I need a fair amount of dental work (again...pregnancy hormones and the lower energy levels and no time and teeth that are soft to begin with...yeah, actually it was better than I feared this time!). So that's scheduled throughout February, I have my allergy shots (need to get back up to maintenance, since they're stopped the last month of pregnancy and resume after recovery), the cats needed to go to the vet, Drew had his 3-year pediatric appointment, Ian has a two-month appointment, Drew has a dental appointment....

February's gonna be interesting. But this week? Oh dear ... GAH. Monday we drive home, arriving basically in time for dinner. Tuesday we take both boys to day care, then I collect Drew later that morning for his pediatric appointment (no shots needed this year - I didn't expect that! It went well). Then I return phone calls for various appointments and whatnot. Today I got my allergy shots, then took both cats to the vet (they were THRILLED, I tell you, THRILLED - I was not - I had trouble getting Drew's car seat out of my car, the first time I've had to take it out since it moved to the side position and switched to LATCH attachment, and it was not cooperating--). Tomorrow I have a dental appointment and a routine medical exam/blood draw. Tomorrow evening is the gaming group, I hope I'm conscious by then.

And, you know, I have to pump milk for Ian in amongst these appointments, and I'd kinda like to clean the house as I'd intended because the state of my kitchen and pantry has me wanting to *scream*. (Not "it needs a scrubbing" - "it needs someone to decide where stuff goes and then bully it into place". Where 'someone' had better be me, because I am fussy about where stuff is, alas. Good thing Scott is comfortable with/accepting of my chosen order.)

(Also, kudos to Scott, who helped me *over the phone* with figuring out what I was doing wrong getting that car seat unmounted. Counter-intuitive interface ahoy! Now I know and next time it should be easy. Go figure. I'm going to have him guide me through putting it back in, rather than doing it himself, too - I haven't had to do that in this spot and I should, so I know.)

As for the cats, Ray's weight has held steady and he's a fine fit cat. Apple's dropped a pound, so we're going to give her a little extra canned and monitor, but we're not sure that there's an issue yet either, since that was over a bit more than a year. Apple got three vaccines, Ray got two, and since I released them in the house after the appointment, they have been studiously out of reach and mostly out of sight. :P

Going back to work won't be restful...but it may come close, relative to what I'm doing this week. Sheesh. It will at least involve fewer needles and less drilling.

And, yannow, I owe emails and such to various people...I am so behind on things. O.o If only I could get far enough behind to be ahead, but alas it doesn't work that way.

Oh, and laundry. And dishes. Babies make for a lot of dishes. So do toddlers. And both help make a lot of laundry.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 07:27 pm
Yesterday, the last of the new furniture arrived. It looks GOOD. The TV stand is not quite a match for the built-in shelves as I'd hoped, but as they're on opposite sides of the room it works fine. The dresser is a PERFECT match to our bed and nightstands as far as wood. The hardware's not, but it works, and if I ever get obsessive I can replace all the drawer handles later. (Humor value: the bed, the dresser, and the nightstands were all three bought at different stores, at different times, from different furniture lines. Except for the drawer handles on the dresser, they all look of a set.)

Which, actually, means I should go get about putting things in the dresser what belong there.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, June 3rd, 2011 05:58 pm
We got a dining table for the dining nook. It is used, and goes pretty well with the look of the area. Four of the six chairs are sturdy; one more will be with a little wood glue; the last one I need to figure out and haven't yet. In any case we only need three for now, so no big rush on the two that aren't solid. The table is.

Couch arrives tomorrow. Dresser and TV stand arrive next week. Lawns are mowed. The repairs that needed to happen to the house are done. My dishwasher has clean/dirty magnets that I like okay, and are separate magnets. Have acquired what I need to secure the UPS against further toddler moments (he found the power button! joy).

Things on the current aggravation list:
* I want more energy. Meh. Being tired is, well, tiresome.
* Too many things in boxes. But see 'energy'.
* Dental work. Today I had the prep and such for the permanent crown, and got a deep cavity in the adjacent tooth (easier to access when no crown is on the one to be crowed) filled. I'm pregnant, so I can't take ibuprofen. Tylenol is fine for pain, but ibuprofen would've been better. Oh, well. Temporary crown in place, and will get the permanent crown later this month.
* Running around frantically. Today had too many appointments, and then I had to do grocery shopping as I'm on call this weekend and didn't want to do it then.
* Fussy toddler. He didn't get to bed until too late last night because we had guests over, and today just...it didn't go horrible, but it didn't go well either. Poor kidlet. Poor us!
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Sunday, May 29th, 2011 08:38 am
When I was little, the dishwasher had two magnets: "Clean" and "Dirty" (with pigs, one polished pink, the other wallowing in mud). Finally, we own a house where magnets will stick to the dishwasher, and I want similar magnets! ...except most are clean/dirty pairs in one magnet (flip it to change the setting). Which is nice, and cute, but I want to put just one magnet at a time. If it's one for both, someone small and cute may spin it for fun.

Eating over carpet with a toddler: messy. So we have a queen size sheet as a drop cloth. I like the pattern! http://yfrog.com/h866fzxj
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 11:47 am
Drew now responds to tissues by taking them and wiping his nose, instead of screaming "no no no" and whipping his head around as he would have six months ago. I am thrilled. And appalled, because he is not yet a master at actually wiping his nose, and spreading the problem across both cheeks is...yeah. OTOH, he then tolerates (less than thrilled, but tolerates) when you take the tissue and further scrub his nose and, oh yes, his cheeks.

It's progress.

He loves the back yard and play house. He gives tours of the house to friends who come over. He has been helping his father unpack most of his clothing and bedding into the new dresser in his room. (The dresser that used to be in the spare/craft room...much more useful here. It would not have fit as well in his room at the old house, tho, without removing other stuff.)

He went for a walk with Scott all the way to the post office today. (About a half mile each way.)

We need to either isolate the art, or hang the art, because right now he is trying to play with it. :(

Yesterday, I lost about 1/4 of my steamed veggies from my dinner because Drew kept demanding my broccoli and carrots. Yay! ...not that I wouldn't have liked to eat them too, but....

Some tweets from the past few days:

I have no idea, but he was very insistent I get out of my chair so he could do them ALL. http://t.co/rQpW5ie

Drew is in his playhouse kitchen saying "order pizza" - oh, what we have taught him. :/

Seeing Scott experience an Ikea store for the first time: priceless. [ed: okay, not parenting-related. But even with all the hype, explanations, and warning - even with, when he asked if we should stop there, my pausing and then saying "I think I'm up to it" - he was totally unprepared for the scale and style of the place. Watching his face go twitchy-twitchy when we got to the children's Ikea section was fun too.]

Both kitties are in the laundry room of the new house, with hidey-holes, soft beds, food, water, and litter. Kitties: not real thrilled. [ed: this is from yesterday morning. kitties are starting to be happier, though Ray is still tentative. They come out to be petted and climb all over you, and Drew even went in with me for one of the pet-and-cuddle sessions this morning and gave Ray a hug. Ray tolerated this as usual, so...pretty good.]

Drew got set next to me, asleep. Snuggled tight against my back without waking. [ed: from Friday night, when I was exhausted from a very busy Friday and had already been in bed a few hours, intermittently awake. So. SWEET.]
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, May 13th, 2011 05:48 pm
We have keys to the house. I got there about 3 pm today, our realtor met me and gave me them. While I was there, I met our new neighbors a couple doors down (very friendly, holding a garage sale), our next-door neighbor and her daughter (nice people, friends of my realtor as her son is in the same class as the daughter at school), and another neighbor from the end of the cul de sac who was getting her mail. They were all very friendly and welcoming, and assured me we would love the neighborhood.

I love the fact that it IS a neighborhood. I also, of course, promptly forgot all their names. Argh. I stink at names.

Anyway, since I had access again, some more pictures of the house. Pictures are thumbnails, click to view larger on Flickr.

Office's built-in shelves Living Room Kitchen Dining nook Family room Master bedroom Back yard
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, July 10th, 2010 09:26 pm
So, we got a Roomba. (We had one years ago, but it could not cope. This one seems to be hardier, although it has needed a couple brush cleanings already just on these two rooms.)

Tonight we are running it. Ray and Apple are...not impressed. Ray has been stalking it jumpily. Apple has been staring at it and jumping, with an occasional paw-swat. (Ray hasn't actually gotten close enough to hit it; Apple seems to be fear-striking, not hunting.) We have tried to reassure as best we can, but mostly they just have to get used to it.

Ray was calmer, so I got him up onto the chair beside me and was petting him, letting him get used to it and realize it CAN'T GET HIM UP THERE. He began the Snoopy vulture posture. I began trying to figure out how to prevent him - all "I must be at least partially Maine Coon" umpty pounds of him - from coming down on the Roomba like the Wrath of Cat.

The Roomba went under the chair he was vulturing from. Feline doom waited for it to emerge.

The chair in question is right next to the five-foot-high writing desk I inherited from my parents, helping to block access to it so that Drew doesn't open it repeatedly (only about twice a week). The doors on the desk no longer latch well, so a small heavy box sits in front of them, keeping the right-hand one closed (it is otherwise inclined to swing open).

Roomba, under the chair, bumped this box and shoved it aside. The door swung open. The box from my new web cam, tossed up there to keep it out of Drew-reach, fell onto Ray.

Ray abruptly appeared about halfway across the room, trailing a nearly-visible thought balloon: "I was above IT. How did IT get above ME???"

Roomba, meanwhile, jostled the chair a little and ended up stuck in a no-longer-exitable space between the chair, the box holding the desk closed, the web cam box, and an adjacent side table. Scott had to rescue it, because I was laughing too hard to save the robot. I was almost laughing too hard to BREATHE.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, November 27th, 2009 02:52 pm
I love shopping on Black Friday.

Okay, before you all have me committed, let me rephrase that: I love grocery shopping on Black Friday.

You can actually get some good deals on "Thanksgiving" themed foodstuffs (I got cookies 75% off because the frosting was harvest colored for goodness sake) and some other things. And most of the other people are out chasing the much better (but costlier, and more aggravating) deals at the various Big Sales. Alas, the grocery did not have a sale on meat (sometimes they do) worth mentioning, so I did have to buy the stuff I'm cooking and freezing at a normal price. (But I'm not cooking and freezing as much since we have rather a lot of turkey leftovers. Yum.) I got a great deal on mini-croissants, though. They're about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of a regular croissant and were selling 8 for 50 cents. I got two containers - and then the register screwed up and rang them up at $2.99 so after she confirmed the price with the bakery, one was free. 50 cents for 16 mini-croissants is an even better deal. (Pity it didn't mis-ring up something more expensive, though. *amused*)

I actually did - after tweeting about the silly people lined up for it - end up going into Costco because I remembered we needed more baby wipes. Alas. However, it wasn't actually any worse than Costco on a Saturday afternoon, and while that's frankly terrifying when I remind myself it was a Friday morning, it's still something I can deal with. There were some okay deals there, if you needed what they were selling, which I didn't.

And I confess to actually going to one store that was "really" doing Black Friday - Target. I promised myself I'd flee if the lot looked really bad, but it didn't. I was able to get a cart, and in fact there were tons of carts, which is a good sign. And they had some decent deals on things we needed, so I got those, a couple impulse buys (including appallingly cutesy socks for me, but as they were $1 a pair, I don't feel too bad about that!), and got out.

And now? Now I am home, with the dryer running, a pork roast in the oven, and a pile of dishes I don't want to do but will, shortly, have to concede and deal with. Every so often I poke at various online sites and then make faces because they're not offering deals on what I want. Amazon offered a deal that REALLY tempted me on a camera...but I don't NEED a camera. No, not even this one. *sigh* It's a 12-megapixel, waterproof, can-be-used-underwater camera. However. What would I do, take pictures of the bottom of my bathtub? Yeah, right. And if I wanted to, I could drain it. :P Drew doesn't swim underwater yet - when he's older, maybe there will be something to use that camera on after all. But not right now. It's one of those toys I've always wanted, and it's down into a tolerable range, and...I can't justify it at all because I wouldn't use it. I wishlisted it anyway, but appropriately low priority and with a note. But still. Underwater camera! ...yeah. Okay, done whining here. For now. About this. I think. ;)
kyrielle: (Drew)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009 05:48 pm
It's been a day. Mostly good, but a day. Scott pulled something in his back so he's been resting, applying heat, etc. We're hoping that by being gentle to it and taking care of it now, it'll recover nicely and not impair him for ages. The result, however, is that I've been doing all the stuff that we normally split too. I am feeling enormously productive, proud of myself, and yeah, tired.

No one probably really cares about the to-do/to-done list, but I'm pleased, so I'm posting it. )

This is made easier by the fact that I got to sleep in this morning, waking on my own - no alarm, no crying fits - although I suspect the sound of Scott leaving for church may have woken me, but I didn't feel jolted awake. I felt wonderfully rested. I feel pretty tired by now tho.

Did I mention my cold has faded to minor sniffles and an occasional cough? SO GLAD. And the sinuses have settled. YAY.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 09:31 pm
Today was very productive. Got a lot done at work, overall. Came home, got some more cleaning done in what will be the nursery (we kinda have to get the clutter, and the old computer room furniture, out before we can actually use it as such...getting closer day by day though). Did a load of laundry. Let Ray loose to play. He is a very demanding kitty sometimes, he wanted me to hold him and play with him, but after he figured out I was going to be a slug he decided to entertain himself with the cat toys instead and now seems quite content. Apple is nowhere to be seen just this moment, I think she's had it with his exuberance.

I now have buttons for my denim dress that I picked up at the thrift store over the weekend, so I can replace the ones on it now (being as some of them are missing - they're lovely buttons, I'll keep them and maybe be able to use them on something with fewer buttons inna future).

Added an app for LJ to my iPhone. Easier than the web interface by far, but I'm still not sure how much I'll use it. It was free, though.

Now I go to bed, because hi, tired.
kyrielle: (Joy)
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 10:28 pm
So. Our old back deck was not well-set and was sagging; also we were warned it was badly-handled with regards to interfacing with the siding and could lead to water damage in the future by trapping water. It was also a pain to care for because of all the vertical wood surfaces. So we replaced it.

The replacement work is mostly done (still some cleanup to be done, but I don't think you can see much if any of it in these photos), but here's the new deck (click for bigger pictures):

Our new back deck. Our new back deck

I like it. :) And now I go to beeeeed.