The big *thing* lately is reducing your carbon footprint. It is good for you, your kids, the world and you wallet.

I’ve tried this before. I invested in those funny shaped light bulbs that are supposed to last 7 years. They didn’t fit in some of my light fixtures. And so eventually, I gave up and went back to regular old light bulbs. Because when I need to replace a bulb, I don’t want to worry about finding a bulb that will work. It is also why I don’t buy lights that require special bulbs. I do not have any bulbs in my house that look like flames, for instance.

But yesterday, I had to buy lightbulbs, and I had to buy lightbulbs for the light right outside my front door. I looked at all of the different kinds of bulbs, and almost every single box said “inside” as in for inside use only. I needed a bulb that would work outside. And when I did find one, it was a weird shaped one that would last 7 years! So I forked over the 5.99 and went home to install my light bulb.

I stood in the cold air and removed the cover on the light. I removed the old bulb, put the new one in, checked the light switch, and when everything worked, I started to put the cover back on.

Did I mention it was cold?

And the stupid cover wouldn’t go on. I finally managed to get it to work, and as I went to tighten the fixture, the light went off. I pulled the cover back down and noticed the new $6 bulb had broken. It was too long for the light fixture. The tip had broken.

And I remembered why I tended to not buy these “environmentally-friendly” bulbs. They might claim to last seven years, and they might claim to reduce my electric bill, but I find $6 plus dollars a bulb for less than a minute’s worth of light is NOT ecologically friendly after all.

Comments (2) Nov 20 2008

My husband has always been the kind of person who goes to bed early. It is not unusual for him to be in bed by 9 p.m., and there are times he goes to bed earlier than that.

Last night was one of those times. He was in bed well before 9 p.m. Most of the time, however, I either have too much work to do or I am not yet tired enough to go to bed.

Last night, NCIS was about to come on, and I wanted to watch it. So I stayed up.

Around 9:30 p.m., my husband wandered into the living room to tell me that my son had been yelling for me for the last 10 minutes. Would I please put him to bed?

I was sound asleep on the couch. A deep sleep. It was so deep that when I first woke up, I thought it was Wednesday morning, and I had not yet slept enough to wake up for the day. It wasn’t until my husband had wandered back into our room that I realized that it was still Tuesday.

I had also fallen asleep earlier Tuesday. I had been sitting in my car listening to the audio version of Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. (One of the downfalls of audio books is that you don’t always want to walk away when you arrive at your destination.)

It is not normal for me to fall asleep during the day or at 9:30 at night.

I realized today that it is because I am not feeling well. I ended up having to cancel my afternoon classes. And now I am going to bed. Wouldn’t you know it? The one night I am going to bed around 9 p.m., and my husband isn’t home. He is working out of town for a few days. How am I going to warm up my feet?

Goodnight.

Comments (2) Nov 19 2008

lots and lots of snow.

And gas is $1.89 a gallon in Lake City.

Life is good.

(I know I sometimes complain about snow especially early in the season. I am not a fan of snow that is useless — the dusting that doesn’t cover the grass but just reminds you it is getting colder out. All of the hassle without any of the benefit. But this snow started falling yesterday, and it hasn’t stopped. We have several inches, and it is good.)

But now, I need to go clear off my car, so I reserve the right to change my opinion after I scrape it in the cold.

Comments (3) Nov 18 2008

Several years ago, Shelley and I were talking late into the winter night using IM. We both had space heaters at our feet although Shelley’s feet were most likely on her chair too.

Anywho, we were discussing how cold our hands get while we work. Typing, somehow, makes my hands freezing cold. And it doesn’t just happen in the winter. Even on one of the hottest July days, my hands get cold when I do a lot of typing. But in the winter, it gets unbearable.

And so, during one of our late night talking sessions, I suggested developing Qwerty gloves. The “qwerty” comes from the home row of the keyboard. They’d have little pads on the tips of the fingers to make typing easier. And they’d keep our hands warm.

Several years have passed. Shelley even sent me a photo of someone who developed Qwerty gloves. The closest I could find right now were these USB-enabled heater gloves. The downside is that each glove needs its own USB port.

But right now, I am typing using a regular non-USB hookup “one size fits all” gloves. Those tiny ones that “magically” expand to fit everyone. It works just fine. My fingers are toasty warm. And I don’t seem to see any problems with typing, but my touchpad isn’t as sensitive. I fixed that with my wireless mouse.

Comments (0) Nov 16 2008

When I redesigned my blog, all of my archived posts showed up, and I was shocked to realize that my archives go back to 2004. I thought it would be fun to go back and figure out when my first blog post was, and I planned on mentioning my “five year” blogging anniversary sometime in January.

Except I then had to read my archives from January 2004, and I realized it was NOT when I started blogging. I turned 33 in 2004, and I know that I was blogging when Club 32 was popular, which was 2003. I also know I was blogging when my dad was alive, which again pushes it back to 2003 and possibly even 2002.

I believe I started blogging at blogger, and then I switched to Typepad. I must have switched to Typepad in January 2004. And then I switched to Wordpress. I know I have the archives from Blogger. I saved them somewhere. I just don’t know where at the moment. It was a couple of computers ago. I still own those computers, but I just don’t have access to the files right now.

But I was amazed to read back through some of my archives and remember things I had forgotten. I started blogging long before I realized I would be switching careers. I never knew back then what I would be doing now. It was before Lani and Teri had their fiction books published. It was before Kira met Clay. It was when AGK still lived in Georgia, used Giles and published The Writing Parent. It was before Shelley’s work was published in Woman’s Day and Reader’s Digest. It was before Cate sold her book. It was before Kim’shouse had a working furnace, and it was long before she started her job and gave up blogging. It was before the other Kim went back to school. Heck, it was before I went back to school!

And I missed it.

Comments (4) Nov 13 2008

I flunked a test yesterday. Well, maybe I didn’t flunk it. It was probably more like a C- or a D+ range.

And you thought I was no longer a student….

Actually, it was a field of vision test — the second one I’ve been given by my eye doctor (I don’t want to figure out how to properly spell opthomologist, but I guess I attempted it anyway, didn’t I? Oh well. Remember, although I haven’t mentioned it in a long time (since the English degree) I am a member of the speelin’ iz optionel clubb….).

Anywho… it involves looking into a light and noticing little lights that float around in my vision. I initially did this test a month ago, and it showed there might be something going on. I took the test again yesterday; only this time it was the ramped up version of the test. Along with me looking for the little light, the test tracked my eye movement too. The results were similar to the screening test.

It shows some mild loss of vision in the center area of my left eye. The depth is mild, but if it continues to show up on field-of-vision tests than it means I have glaucoma. The treatment is the same thing I am doing for my pigment dysplasia (I’m not trying very hard to spell today) — prescription eye drops.

The good news is the prescription eye drops are working — the pressure in my eyes was lower.

I really hate the field of vision tests. They last several minutes, and it tires my eyes. I had problems with my left eye from the beginning. It felt like blackness was closing in when I tried to see. It was frustrating. By the end, I was tired.

I’ll have to take more field-of-vision tests to see if the results continue to be similar. There are such a thing as false positives, but there aren’t false negatives.

***

In other news, I met with my boss to discuss a recent class visit. The class itself had gone really well, and the review reflected that.

***

Comments (1) Nov 12 2008

My husband frequently urges me to “get to the point” when I tell him something.

For instance, last night after we both arrived home from work, I asked him if he had received my voice mail. He didn’t get it. What did I want? And so I started to tell him, from the beginning.

After my first class, I noticed my tire was low, and I put air in it, but the air wouldn’t stay. So I called you. And I went to Walmart’s tire center and tires were outrageously expensive. They wanted $90 for a 15 inch rim and $70 for a 16-inch rim, and I didn’t know what rim was right, and can I buy just one tire or do I have to buy two at a time? And these were all questions I wanted to ask hubby, which is why I left him a voicemail.

But hubby wouldn’t let me finish my woe is me tale. He wanted me to get to the point. The point was, I gave up on tire purchasing and bought an $8 can of fix-a-flat. But I really wanted his input about the fix-a-flat. Should I use it? (See how I start to elaborate?)

Hubby sighed, exasperated about the fix-a-flat. He wanted to know why I didn’t tell him my tire was flat — um, I did tell him I had put air in my tire the week before, and he had done so too. But I apparently didn’t tell him it was leaking…. He said I should have bought a tire, and that was that.

I had more stuff to tell him, but he didn’t necessarily want to hear it. He says I tell stories like I blog. He doesn’t like the background and the elaboration and the other stuff.

I don’t know how to tell a story without it.

And I think he is figuring it out.

Because later, he wanted to tell me about something that had happened at his work. And he needed to set it up. It began with the engines having heads and the heads being 100 pounds, or some such. And as he proceeded to tell me this background stuff, I rushed him. I blah, blah, blahed him. I urged him to get to the point. To skip over the pointless set up and get to the meat of his story.

He became flustered. He tried to edit it down. He tried to argue that what he was about to tell me was an important pivotal point to the story. And that’s my point exactly. He rushes me through my story before he even knows what I am going to say. How do you know what is background or not important until you hear me say it?

But he is right too. I do sometimes take the long way to the point when a shorter path would work better. I am not the only family member thus afflicted. My oldest daughter also does this. And sometimes it is very inappropriate and annoying.

Like this one time — She had been saying, “Mom, come quick, I need you to….” and most often that sentence ended with “let me use the internet” or “see what I am doing on the internet.” In other words, no one was bleeding, burning or on fire. Repeat this scenario 20 times in one day when I am in the middle of doing manual labor (I was hanging drywall).

Fast forward. I’m done working for the day. I am planning my shopping for the next day at Home Depot. I am tired. Autumn rushes into the garage saying, “Mom, come quick, I need you to….” I am immune by now. I stop her. I ask her to explain herself. And she tries again. “Mom, Justin was in the living room. He was standing on the chair. I told him not to, but he didn’t listen. He was standing on the chair, and he jumped from one side of the chair to the other. I told him not to. He did it anyway. And he slipped, and he fell. And then his head hit the end table, and he is bleeding mom, and you have. to. come. now.

So, obviously, hubby is right. There are times when you need to skip the background info. I just concede that it is only necessary when someone is bleeding, burning, or broken. If those three things aren’t in the scenario, then you just need to listen to me.

Sorry, Charlie.

Comments (0) Nov 11 2008

I wasted a lot of time during my teen years and early 20s proving to myself that I was NOT my mother. In my 30s, I figured it out although, in reality, there was no way you could mistake me for my mother. We are different. If anything, I should have done more to prove I am not my father. He and I? Not so different.

One way my father and I are alike — our personalities. Or rather — we tend to get ticked off pretty quickly. And if we are irked about one thing, it will spill over to everyone in our family. This is why I arrive home in a perfectly good mood, but I am soon shouting orders right and left to everyone when I see the house is quite a bit messier than it was when I left, and apparently, judging by the number of family members that are lounging on various pieces of furniture and zoning out, only I am capable of seeing this.

My husband likes to tell me that my oldest daughter has picked up some of my personality. That is, she tends to be just as mouthy as I am, just as stubborn and just as opinionated. We are frequently telling her to not talk to us in THAT tone of voice, and she rarely hears the tone. I remember being like that. I still am like that.

But my children are not mini versions of me. They have their own likes and dislikes and even when those likes and dislikes are similar to mine, they are different. For instance, the oldest likes to write. She is good at writing. But she is good at writing in a very different way than I am good at writing. She is good at fiction writing, and I can’t write fiction.

Last week, the oldest had braces installed on her teeth. The last time she had braces, she was in fourth grade and had to wear headgear. It was as an awkward stage in her growing up. Given this history, I thought she would jump at the chance to play down her braces this time. She was given a choice between silver braces or porcelain braces. With the porcelain braces, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell she had braces on. With the silver braces, she could select various colored rubber bands and change her look regularly.

I expected her to jump at the chance at porcelain braces. It is what I would have done. She wanted the silver braces, however, because she wanted to be able to wear those colored rubber bands. This is an aspect of her personality that is all her — she is a showman. She is very comfortable on center stage and performing. She likes attention. And so she has her new braces and every other bracket is wrapped in a rubber band — she selected green and purple rubberbands this time.

But it wasn’t her braces that were attracting attention the next day at school. Can you figure out what it might have been?

Hint: The last six inches of her hair is now purple (but it looks more hot pink in person). She also has a purple/hot pink streak in her bangs. It is permanent hair color. And it stands out a lot more than this picture may indicate. Oh, and you can see her braces too.

Comments (1) Nov 09 2008

Justin still had his gift cards from last Christmas. Yesterday, we went to the store, and he planned on buying a new toy. He found exactly what he wanted — a Nerf game called “Cosmic Keep Away.” The price tag said $11.94, and he had $15 in gift cards.

At the check out, the game rang up for $30.98 give or take a few pennies. I was a bit surprised. I pointed out the price sticker, and a manager came and after a bit of a hesitation, Justin snagged the game for the price tag amount. Today, I went online and Googled the game to see if we really did get a deal or if the scanned price was correct. Odds are the scanned price were correct. I found the game online for about $26 to $32.

Still, the game is fun. It comes with six bracelets. You need at least three people to play. You sign in by touching your bracelet to the talking ball. The ball then selects a game. It tells you who gets the ball first, who is on teams and who to keep the ball away from. The ball recognizes who catches the ball whenever the bracelet touches it. It is a very active game, and there are a number of options, but it is fun too.

You might not find it for $12, but even at $30 I think it is worth it.

Comments (2) Nov 08 2008

Tuesday, I was driving home from work and one of the kids called and asked me to stop and buy a gallon of milk. We were all out.

I arrived home without milk. I took Maxine to practice and picked up Amanda from her practice. I arrived back home, and Amanda asked me to buy milk when I go pick up Maxine from practice. I picked up Maxine and arrived back home without milk.

I’d forgotten the milk, but I had a plan that would redeem Wednesday morning breakfast plans since cereal was no longer an option.

I woke up when Steve did, and by 6 a.m., I was making french toast for breakfast. When it was ready, I woke up the children, and they enjoyed their hot breakfast made lovingly by their mother. It was a great mom moment.

Fast-forward to Wednesday evening. Hubby and I were sitting on the couch, and the youngest boy came and sat beside us. Hubby took one look at him and said, “Isn’t that what you wore yesterday?” I’d let the boy go to school in the same clothes he had worn the day before.

Apparently, I won’t be winning any awards any time soon.

Comments (0) Nov 06 2008