Irony

So, my fancy schmancy Samsung Captivate Smartphone is out of service for now.  It only has one problem - the screen is not responsive to my touch.  And it's a touchscreen phone only...I am uncertain as to where I will go from here.  I am currently using my Samsung Impression that I had before the Captivate.  The irony?  I partially chose the Impression because it also has a slider full qwerty keyboard and I was paranoid that my screen would stop working eventually.............Good thing I upgraded to the fully touchscreen-operated smartphone...

Samsung Impression 1
Samsung Captivate 0
Tabitha 0

Short Thanksgiving Day rant

It really spoils my milk that Christmas has steamrolled Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is such a low-key, family-centered holiday that focuses on being thankful for what you have and being together.  Now, while Christmas is supposed to be about being grateful and thankful for Jesus (celebrating his birth, after all...), it seems to be more focused on stuff.  And I hate that.  Stuff can come and go, but people, thoughts, and memories will last forever.  Stuff will not.  Or maybe some stuff will, but that is probably because it is radioactive.  Well, actually those have half-lives and the such, so they may not last forever, but they will seem to.  And they make horrible gifts.  So, Christmas needs to take a seat in the back and wait its turn like all the other holidays.

Short rant over.

I hope Thanksgiving was delightful for everyone!

Good News!

Okay, everyone can stop spending sleepless nights and muddled days for us....we get Internet at our house tomorrow!  Jon and I both have smartphones, but it turns out that they are not a full replacement for a good ol' computer to do your computing.  Or support your Facebook and Pinterest obsessions. Or edit important excel spreadsheets that you so cleverly decided to put in Dropbox (Internet hosted...).  Life is one step closer to being normal.

A Silly Work Post

Whole.  Lee.  Cow.  I just had quite possibly the most complicated request made of me (and completed...because I'm awesome) at work.  It was as follows (and just skip this post if mundane work details bore you...):

"Hello, my child (A) would like to cancel guitar lessons.  How long of a notice do we need to give to do this?"  "2 weeks."  "Okay...(begins necessary paperwork)......................also, our other child (B) would like to begin flute lessons right after A is finished."  Say what?

"Umm...Okay, A's last lesson will be Dec 1st.  We currently have x# of flute teachers, here are their available times..."  ....Customer gets on cell phone and calls home.....They pick Thursdays again (A is already on Thursdays.)  "Oh, okay, so B will begin flute lessons on Dec 8th."  I look at the calendar.  December just so happens to be a 5 lesson month.  Students never pay for a 5th lesson...it comes out in the wash for holidays.  How am I going to pay A's teacher for 1 lesson in December and then B's teacher for 4 lessons in December (including a holiday), when I only receive payment for 4 lessons?  "Actually, sir, if you would like, I can just call A done after this month and B can begin in December."  I justify this by saying that they came up near the beginning of A's lesson, so it's almost like they came up before it, to which I have no problem saying that they would be cancelled at this exact same time in 2 weeks, AKA you only owe for next week. "Okay, that works."  Whew.

"Oh, and grandma wants to pay now instead of me."  Say what?  Not only are we switching accounts, we are switching from CC to bank draft.  Oh, and that grandma?  She lives in Maine.  SERIOUSLY?  Okay, we can do all of this.  I smile graciously and assure them that everything is just fine.

I go to A's account.  It is a mess.  It is also a rental account and has 20 million notes on it.  There are 2 CCs already on it, it is in Dad's name, etc.  I decide to just set up a new account for grandma and write copious notes in ALL CAPS to avoid any further confusion.

Once again, I'm awesome.  As is my coworker, who completed the reg form after I handed it off to her, since this all went down as I needed to clock out and go home.

Last time, Me=Awesome.

Thanks for letting me tell you how great I am.  :^)

Earthquakes - for posterity's sake

11/5/11 - 2 earthquakes in 1 day. The first one is the first one I ever felt (4.7). The second one was the first one to terrify me (5.6).

It was MMYT's birthday and about 2:15 in the morning. Jon got off work really late (1 in the morning) and we decided to eat and then call it a night.
Alright, here is where I am torn...the truth is actually really really funny, yet TOTALLY not polite to say...so....I will use a faint enough phrase to where you "get it," but it's not grotesque...okay? Cool.

Jon and I watched a little TV and decided to ... be married (Reminder: We ARE married, adults, and young...). He went to the other side of the bedroom to check something and all of a sudden I hear the house shaking like sub woofers are cranked somewhere, yet we don't hear any noise, other than the house moving. This lasted a mere 3-5 seconds and I didn't feel it from bed, I only heard it. Jon said that he could feel the floor moving. We shrugged and decided to ... stay married...hahahahaha  (I'm sorry if this offended anybody...I just think it's soooo funny and such impeccable timing!) Only after later getting on Facebook did I realize it was an earthquake. It, for some reason, never crossed my mind. So then we went to sleep.

...

Jon made plans to do 2 different jobs today (Still 11/5) and left fairly early in the day for the first one. Our landlord came over in the morning and then my mom and grandma stopped by in the afternoon. Jon came home from job #1 around 5/5:30 or so and hurried to get ready for job #2. I went with him so I could have the car for a few errands. After food and my errands, I came home and decided to take on a major task at home. I completed that (hours later) and sent a text to Jon at 10:50 to see if he was going to be done at work soon. Less than a minute later (I literally just double-checked my timestamps on both the text & phone call...) - if that - those "subs" came back while my dogs and I were in the breakfast nook. This time it started slow - pretty much the same intensity as the previous one - but then it gradually increased to more violent. I could see the laundry room door and its frame hitting each other. This caused the dogs to start barking. So I gather them up beside me and we squat in the breakfast nook while I considered what to do during an earthquake. Turns out, I had no idea. I had heard to get in doorways, but I thought that had been since renounced. I thought about running outside so nothing could fall on us, but I would have to put their leashes on, unlock doors, etc. So we were just there. At least this time I knew exactly what it was, but that didn't seem to help anything. The shaking must have lasted anywhere from 10 seconds to just under a minute. It felt like forever to me - I just kept hoping it would stop. When it finally did, I was an emotional mess. I called Jon to ask if he felt it, to which he replied that it wasn't over yet for him. I went hysterical on the phone to Jon, then called my mom to get her story. (FB already told me that people in her town felt it, along with several other towns across the state and even other states.)  After getting off the phone, I sat in our glider chair, terrified of aftershocks. I also thought about how as of yesterday, I had never felt an earthquake and now today, I felt 2.  In the same day.  In OKLAHOMA. This spun me off into "end time" thoughts, which have always terrified me.  I finally decided that I couldn't stand just waiting around for them and decided to load up the dogs and go wait for Jon in the college parking lot. You know, a big, wide open space. Through some miscommunication, I didn't actually wait in the parking lot because Jon got a ride home. So, we went home, ate, and went to sleep. Around 2am, I believe I felt an after shock and gently woke Jon up to confirm. It was almost soothing and didn't last very long - like the first one. I still keep trying to see if that was an official aftershock.

So, there you have it. Documented for eternity. And so help me if another one comes today.....

New dishwasher!

Old dishwasher never worked for me.  Well, it worked well enough to put water in the bottom, but never drained it out.  Bye bye!

Before

After

Before

After

Comparison

More room!

So, yay!  We're stoked.  First major house project is finished.  :^)

Happy November!

Don't really know what to say here other than it is November which means it is no longer October!!!!  YYYYAAAAYYYY!!!! 

<insert> October is always a hectic, ~is-my-head-even-on-my-shoulders?~ kind of month.  Family birthdays in October: Husband, Dad, Mom, Stepdad, Grandma, Great Grandpa, Brother-In-Law, Niece, Phaux.  Several friend's birthdays, too.  Throw in Halloween, my brother's wedding, a great nephew being born, and us moving into a house this year - and I can't even tell you what a normal weekend looks like!  I try to keep things looking like I have it all pulled together, though. </insert>

We are still plugging along on house projects and trying to mix in a normal life.  Normal - what's that?  I added a page on this website for all of my crafts/projects.  Too bad getting all the links up and going is a project within itself....  Still need to get internet at the house, too....  Yikes!