Math in the Real World

My worst classes in school were math. I hated it, struggled with it, never saw the point. Really, I'm only half-joking when I say I did okay in math until we hit fractions. And percentages. I still shiver internally a little when I see that percentage symbol or have to figure out a percentage. (At least now I can use my cell phone when at the store and people think I'm just texting, not trying to figure out if that discount is really worth it.)

I'm sure in my day I complained bitterly about math having no use in my daily life. Well, I learned an object lesson today that it does. And I'm glad I muddled through somehow.

I finally got Lo.we.s to give me a final quote on the windows I want replaced on the house. I've decided to do all five. Well, the whole thing has been going on since the beginning of September. They keep losing my paperwork, and then never got back to me with the final price of the labor. I went to the department manager and told him since it was apparent they didn't want my business, I was just going to go somewhere else. That got them moving. Hah.

So today at lunch I went in to get the final estimate and place the order on the windows. Well, because they took so long to get back to me, the 15% sale on the Pe.l.la windows was long over. Luckily I had a printed estimate with the sale price. They honored it because they never called me back with the final cost so I could place the order.

All we were waiting on was the contractors charge for finishing out the window install. He hadn't submitted it because I wasn't sure how many windows I was going to replace. They charge $139 to install the actual window, then it's so much per linear foot to finish it out.  (FYI, this does not mean the square footage). Their installation price is $139 per window. So really, it should have just been a few hundred dollars more, right?  Wrong. More like $800!

New Look

So they've got some new template and customization options available. Which is why I haven't blogged. Keep spending my free time "designing".

I'm not sure I really like this one. The light green background makes me squint. Maybe. It's very gray/cloudy out right now so I'm depending on just the flourescent lights overhead, and have been staring at different color options and layouts for way too long. My eyes may just be worn out.

Did a major project with Shanni over the weekend. Added a 4' deep x 8' wide patio in front of the house, to the right of the door as you enter. It's basically where the flower bed used to be. Bought these stones from Hom.e Dep.ot (they're more a whitish gray in person)

It was quite a challenge. Took us about 4 hours, and 3 trips to the store. That includes the original trip, a second trip for the remainder of the stones (couldn't take them all in one trip - too heavy) and a third trip because we needed another bag of sand.

Shanni and I did squabble, both of us being so hard-headed, sure of ourselves and stubborn. ;) But surprisingly it wasn't as bad as some projects we've done.

She thought I was being too "anal" about leveling the stones. Especially when it meant the last three stones of the last two rows had to be re done. It was slanted backwards toward the house. Which would have caused water to pool in the middle. Just not something I wanted to deal with. Better to fix it now than later!

Upgrades

Well, it was a whirlwind two weeks with Mom & Dad. But the upstairs is finished, the bathroom looks a million times better, and the master bedroom has the needed new trim. Oh, and the garage is cleaner than when I moved in. No wonder I'm beat. [g]

They left Friday. It's always sad to see family leave, and the dogs miss them a lot. Max hardly ate Friday and Saturday! Yikes! He was finicky anyway, but this was almost reverting to the first few days I had him. Leia is a little pig. She'll eat hers and Max' if I don't watch her. [rolling eyes]

Saturday was a run-around-town day. I ended up upgrading my cell phone. With a $50 rebate and a $50 new-every-two credit, it was free. Gotta love that. But I did spring for a new case and a media card. Couldn't bear to lose the pics of Scully I had on my "old" phone. I ended up with the Samsung Alias 2. Which is the new version of the phone I have. What can I say. I really like the dual flip feature, and the QWERTY keyboard.

The Alias 2 is about a half inch longer and a quarter inch thicker, which is a bummer. I really liked the slim lines of the original. However, this negative aspect is offset by the dynamic keys. The layout of the keys switch depending on which way you open the phone, and what function you are using. There's now a power on/off button on the outside edge, and an additional button on the outside edge to go into Voice Activated Dialing. Sweet. Much better than having to feel for the key on the keypad itself. There's also a key to quickly switch to vibrate mode. Love that.

I'm sure the dynamic keys is going to kill the battery life. But the coolness factor outweighs that. For now. Although I am irked that they changed the connector type so I had to buy a new car charger. Seriously. If I'm upgrading the same phone to a newer model, could they at least keep the charger connectors the same? Is that really so hard to do????

Setting up shortcuts and programming the directional keys is still a nice feature. However, I don't like the fact that I can't set a shortcut or direction key to pull up the Tip calculator, like the previous phone. Deepest I can go is to "Tools". Bummer. But all in all those couple extra selections to get to it are a minor inconvenience.

I just wish I could keep my donwloaded ring tones, and the Crossword puzzle game I purchased and downloaded. I'm still trying to figure out how to get those. Verizon store was no help. Kept saying, well, they're copyrighted, etc, that's why. Kiss my @$$. I paid for 'em. I should be able to move them off one phone and onto another, as long as I'm still the user/owner of the phone. Geez. I'll do some research online and see what I can do.

Warp Speed Ahead!

Sitrep: Painting low walls & sloping ceilings = squats. Oy, do my butt muscles ache this morning!

Mom & Dad arrived Friday evening. It's great to see them again. The dogs are doing okay with them, I supppose, although they were both intimidated by Dad. Max warmed up to him first. Leia is still a bit skittish. But whenever he or mom walk into a room the dogs are in and I'm not there, they freak out barking. Ughh. And this morning, when Dad got up, Leia flipped out which set Max off. Poor thing. Half the time I don't think he has a clue why they're barking. Just knows something upset her so he must need to bark as well! But he settles down much quicker when I tell them to be quiet. Definitely need to start working on that!

And oh, Max can fly. [g] We painted the upstairs yesterday. To keep the dogs out of the way, I put up the baby gate in the doorway from the living room into the kitchen, so they couldn't get to the stairs (off the sunroom you access through the kitchen). Well, they didn't like us upstairs without them. The usual whining, barking, scratching at the gate, etc. After a few minutes of painting, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the stairs. And there was Max, looking mighty pleased with himself. The gate was still up, and Leia was still on the other side. So I had to put a second gate up in the doorway above the first. [g]

Later on, Mom didn't realize Dad & I were outside cleaning up the paint trays (she was in the kitchen cooking dinner) and she let the dogs out. Ooops. Of course, they charge through the wet grass & paint splatters. I chased them back inside and Leia went right through a paint spill on the cardboard we'd placed on the sunroom floor. I yelled at Mom "Catch her! She walked in paint!" Of course, the second Mom moved for her Leia dodged and made it to the living room.  I had to come in and catch her because Mom couldn't.Then had to clean up the little white paw prints on the nice laminate flooring. LOL. At least it cleaned up easily. We should have gotten that on tape. One silly little 6.5 lb dog successfully evading two adult women. Sheesh.

Today I'm going to get color samples for upstairs and hopefully we'll paint that tomorrow. Wednesday the trim, and maybe Thursday we'll be able to move all the stuff back upstairs. Whoo-hoo!

Catching Up, Hanging in There

I'm doing okay after losing Scully. Last weekend sucked, big time. But I'm making progress. Still teary eyed thinking of her, heart aches, etc. Going to the shelter in B tomorrow afternoon to look at several possibilities. Keep your fingers crossed I make the right decision!

It figures...I wait over a year and a half before caving in and buying my Wii, and a mere two months after they reduce the price 20%! (That's $49.80 for my fellow math-challenged out there.) Of course, I don't have the extra cash on hand to buy it now. But that's not the point! [g] My boss' college age daughter was diagnosed on Monday with pneumonia and on Wednesday with H1N1. He's banned from the office this week. Good thing he was already planning to be on the road all week. Of course it sucks for him to be away from his daugher when she's so sick. So now we're sanitizing even more than usual. Which sucks for me because everything is scented. Good thing the office I'm now in has a door to the outside. I can air it out. :0 My sister is still doing well, although very tired. Apparently this baby is a bit more like I was as an infant, and prefers to sleep rather than eat. G (their first child) isn't so thrilled the baby sleeps so much. [g] Mom & Dad are there doing what they can to help...Dad a bit bored, I think. He should just head up here and visit. Let Mom do the Grandma thing. But those two are joined at the hip! We haven't told my sis about Scully yet. I don't think she'll be heartbroken or anything, but I'm sure she'll worry about me and then feel guilty that Mom & Dad are staying there instead of coming to be with me. But I'm handling this much, much better than I thought I ever could. So they don't need to rush to my side! Besides, I wouldn't have anywhere to sleep since the upstairs rooms aren't done. Which brings me to the remodel. All is on track for my upstairs to be finished by October 6th. Whoo-hoo! After deciding to focus on siding, we discovered only the front and back are not asbestos siding. So only repairs I could get done without an asbestos abatement team (talk about pricey!) were on the front. Which is where the worst damage was. So. That got done and then apparently we decided to do the upstairs walls too. Paneling gone, new wiring & lights (love those cam lights!!!), new drywall, new subfloor. It looks a million times better than before. Taper comes next week on Monday, and the floor gets put down the Monday after that. :) There's one weekend in there where I can paint without worries. I'll probably wait until after the floor goes in. Was able to do that in the bedroom and it worked better for color selection. But anyway. Enough of this novel. I think I've had enough coffee this morning!!!

It's the Dogs Turn

Scully has pneumonia. Seriously. I was really worried Saturday (almost in tears at the vet). But by Sunday afternoon she was much more herself. Took 3 days of antibiotics and a day on st.er.oids and a bronchodilator for her to perk up. Saturday was KT's high school graduation. Long, tedious ceremony. But great to see her graduate! Now to get her into college, since her mom nixed the Navy. I'll have her enrolled by end of summer. Just wait. It snowed Saturday. Yes indeed. Snow on June 6th. Heavy wet stuff. At least the ground was too warm for it to stick or turn icy. Yesterday was clear but cloudy, and a balmy 52*F. Warm enough to open the bedroom window and paint. And dry enough to deal with the waist high grass around the garage & in the "extra" parking space out back. Also managed to edge the front & back yards. All morning today it snowed. Very heavily. Big wet, wet, wet flakes. And the temp dropped to 32*F, windchill around 30*F. Cold enough I ran home at 11 to turn on the heat. My lime tree was already in shock at being repotted. I think this might just do it in...And who knows what'll happen to the veggie garden out at Shanni's. Things were just starting to show. Big Plan is to move the bedroom stuff back in tonight. If the paint smell has dissipated, the bed goes back in too. How lovely it will be to have my living room cleared out!

Out of the Chaos, pt 2

Turns out that upstairs was more modern addition. Behind the paneling, the walls are cement board (or whatever it’s called). Only they didn’t tape & mud. Instead, they put some kind of wallpaper up and then painted over that. In pink. (sob) So they can’t just tape, mud & finish. But (didn’t see that one, eh?), maybe if we left the paneling up, the taper can just put mesh over it, and then finish it. Like the stuff they do to put up those rock surrounds on fireplaces and pilasters. This was his idea, FYI, not mine. Still waiting on the taper to come out with him and take a look. And then I found out the flooring in the living room & hallway isn’t an in-store item and only available special order. With no guarantee it will be available for long. They actually had to call and find out if Pergo still carried it. So I went ahead and had that installed in the master bedroom downstairs. Unfortunately, because of damage incurred during shipping, they had to reorder two cases. So the install got pushed back. When I called to reschedule, it was wait 2 months or do it in 2 days. I opted for 2 days. Which meant the room had to be emptied over 2 evenings. (When did I get so much stuff?) And since the bedroom is empty, the paneling is a dark brown, and the new floor is a darkish wood, I should really paint. So over the weekend, with some help, the paneling was sanded and two coats of primer applied. But did I ever mention the @#%!& F.O.s used half inch diamter rope for the ceiling and corner wall trip? Taking the lazy man route, we tried painting it. Didn't work well. So last night I spent an hour or so pulling that out. Boy, were they fond of lots of really long nails. (Another reminder from Reno. #1). But (of course) there's now a half inch gap between the paneling on all walls. What to do, what to do. Buy trim (and find someone to cut it down for me) or use spackling compound/wall repair stuff to fill the gaps. It's a balancing act between less money/work and best look/resell value. I think I know which one wins. In the meantime, everything from the two upstairs rooms is downstairs in the laundry/sun room. The bedroom is now in the living room, the dining room is in the kitchen, I leave for vacation in less than two weeks, and I’ve decided maybe I should just look at getting the siding replaced instead of doing the upstairs. I’d get new floors for up there, but just paint the paneling for now. Because the siding really needs some help. Some of the wind storms we’ve had this winter & spring really beat some of the boards up. Sigh. Quick, I’m a butterfly. Someone pin me to a board, please. ‘Cause at this rate I’ll owe more on repairs than mortgage!

It Just Goes to Show

Sitrep: nothing. :(

So. One week to the day after receiving the permit to mine in EH, HS&G has been ordered by the DEQ to stop work because they are in violation of the permit.

Seriously.

They are restricted to accessing the site via one road, and one road only. They've been using a different road. What, did they think no one was going to be watching? And if they can't even be bothered to follow a pretty simple up-front restriction on the permit (hello, it's one of the first things listed! I know, I've printed it all out and read it!) what makes anyone think they'll follow the rest of the restrictions?

Cost is $100-$1000 per day. I bet that's just pennies to them. Fines at their existing location never seemed to bother - or stop - them.

In the meantime, we're still trying to get the citizen initiated zoning approved. To prevent other developments like this from going in. And to restrict HSG from extending their operations to the remaining acreage. Hopefully their current actions will go to show the commissioners how unreliable HS&Gs promises are.

I've heard that the county assessors office is getting a lot of requests for property tax liability re-assessments now that the pit is being developed. Heh. I've gotta think about that. Not sure it might not bite me in the rear if I requested one. Would my living room remodel affect my property taxes? Of course, if I took out the closet in the sun-porch, it could no longer be listed as a 4-bedroom. Not sure what idiot filled that paperwork out. It wasn't me! Weird. For selling purposes, I can't call it a 4th bedroom. But for property taxes they do. How wrong is that?

Instead of Building An Ark

Sitrep: 1x Bootcamp, 3 days moving (servers, computers, boxes - ughh)

I bought living room furniture. Makes loads of sense, doesn't it? [g] It has been raining steadily since Thursday morning. You'd think this was Seattle, not Montana. It's the most rain I've seen in the 7 years I've lived here. But I don't mind. I like the rain. And it's a good excuse not to do yard work!

Anyway. Back to the furniture. I've been wanting a new sofa for quite awhile. And additional seating. And a coffee table. And...well, you get the picture. What I have is all hand me down or put-together furniture from Walm.art. You know the kind I mean? Looks decent enough, but after a few years they start to fall apart. So I decided to go looking and see if there were any sales. I went to every furniture store in town, except one. But I've been there before and they have a limited selection of sofas, and no living room sets.

After visiting them all, I ended up back at the first store I went to. They were the only ones that had what I wanted. They were also offering 60 months interest free financing. Heh. Works for me! [Although I was almost seduced by a purple loveseat & sofa set at another place. But purple would require repainting my green living room as I just can't do purple & green. Can you say "bruise"?]

So I bought the sofa, arm chair (it reclines like you wouldn't believe!), two end tables (taller rectangle one) and the cocktail table. These pictures don't do it justice. The fabric doesn't look striped at all. Has more of a texture pattern; almost like leather. And the detail on the wood is hard to see. Anyway. I'll take better pictures when it gets delivered. They say June 17th, maybe earlier. But that works for me.

Yes, I realize I got brown. But it really is lovely, and works for the look I want. I'm all about those earth tones, nature, etc. Probably why I like the Arts & Crafts movement in the first place!

Also this week, we completed The Big Move into our new office building for work. Since I'm the IT for our company, it was up to me to develop the plan for moving the computers and technical equipment. They wanted us to be down the least amount of time. Furniture was being dismantled, taken to the new place and reassembled on Wednesday. So my plan was to move the server first thing Wednesday morning, set it up, then bring over the computers and set up each workstation as the desk went up. I got the ok from the bosses to do this, and it worked like a charm.

I had the network plus two workstations up and running by 1pm. The rest would have been up, except there were issues with the desks being set up. By end of day the majority of the computers were up and connected. No printers, however, because the boss neglected to include them in her instructions to the techs adding additional wiring, even though I'd pointed out to her where we needed Ethernet jacks for them. Ahh, such is life.

Everything else got moved in on Thursday in the pouring rain. I also spent a good portion of that day moving computers around because people kept moving their desks. Okay, two people did that. Moved one time each. But when you're crawling around on the floor 2 days after doing Alden's Boot Camp workout, and both of those days included hauling servers and computers and monitors and printers...Oh, the agony.

But at least it's over with. Just about everything was unpacked when they let us go at 3pm on Friday. The last of the wiring was still being finished. But holy cow was I exhausted. I was in bed by 7pm every night starting Wednesday. I didn't get up until 9am today. Well, I did stumble into the kitchen sometime before that to feed the dog, just to shut her up. I'm not sure what time it was. Knowing her, it was too early for breakfast. She tries that sometimes. Okay, every weekend. After getting up, I gamed for a bit, then rushed to shower so I could listen to "Says You" while getting ready for my planned Window Shopping that turned into a Major Purchase. :)

Petunias aren't Pansies

Although they may look similar. At least, they do to me. Do they to you?

Pansy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansy

Petunia - http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1120.html

They're both pretty, so why does it matter? Well, here's what happened.

Sunday I made another return trip to Wa.lmart to get yet more items I'd forgotten to buy on my grocery run last Thursday. I decided (inspired by the gorgeous weather we've been having) to plant some flowers in the two large pots either side of my front door.

I've been thinking of getting pansies, because I've grown them before without problems, and because they are fragrance free. Yes, I get non-fragrant flowers...otherwise it's heck on my allergies, not to mention migraine inducing.

Yet while I was there, all I could remember was that the name started with "P". When I saw the Petunias, I thought "Hey, those look like them!" I made my little sister and her sibling smell them for me, both of them swearing they didn't have a scent. Then after yet another discussion on why I didn't want pink flowers (or pink anything!!! My little is no longer allowed input on paint selection or anything else involving colors.) I selected the ones I thought looked the best and put them in the cart. The rest of the time in the store and in the car, I kept thinking I smelled flowers, but thought it was just my sensitivity to the ones I'd been around in the garden department. (Those places are as bad for me in spring as candle & perfume aisles are year round!).

So we get them planted and I said "I could swear these smell". Both girls said again they didn't smell a thing. [g] So that night I decided to sit outside in the quiet evening air on my front step and soak up the ambience. Just relax, you know? And what do you think comes wafting up from both sides of me? Flower pefume. Yep. Those darn petunias smell. A nice spicy scent. Yet not so nice for my head. Sigh. And my migraine meds are too pricey at $60 per nine pills (yes, that's with insurance!) to justify keeping the flowers. So I now have $15.00 worth of petunias I need to relocate. Sigh. Problem is, only people I know that would take them would have them in places I frequently visit. And I still have to buy the pansies. That is, if I want to take another chance on planting flowers by the front door.

I'm second guessing that decision. :)

Quack, Quack, Quack

Sitrep: Umm, does using the PS2 controller for hours in a row count as arms??

And no, it's not because we keep getting moisture. Actually, the rain is nice. Rare for here, and very nice. And a pittance compared to what I was used to in "sunny" Florida.

No, it's all about the grass. I have finally come to a grudging acceptance of what the lady at the nursery told me last summer. My beautiful lawn has indeed been taken over by Quack Grass. Similar to Crab Grass, only not as easily dealt with.

From the research I've done, there's really only one way to deal with this little invader: spray liberally with rou.ndup, watch it ALL die, dig it out, till, make sure no roots survived, and reseed or sod.

Naturally that's not an option. Even if I had the money, time and energy to do this, it would be pointless. Both lawns on either side of me are in the same situation. One home is owned by a single mom with a toddler, the other is a rental. So. Odds are pretty low they'll be doing any of this. Appears I just have to bear it.

Can I just say that I really, really, really, hate quack grass? *&^%$ The stuff grows like you would not believe. I mowed on Saturday - even adjusted the blade to cut to the lowest height (1/2 inch) and by Tuesday the lawn was looking scraggly again! Rain, no rain, cold, warm, hot, whatever...this stuff thrives. My favorite description of it comes from this site, http://journeytoforever.org/edu_quackgrass.html, which terms it "garden terr.orism". Heh. About sums it up. Now that I'm cutting it so low, I can see where the nice lawn is dying still. Sigh.

From that website above, and others I found, it seems that it actually has some medicinal value. Which explains why the dog likes it so much. If I'd only known when I first spotted some of it rooting in the gravel drive and along the outer fence. If I'd only known when that weird patch of really tall grass sprang up last spring! I'd've gone out of my way to trim/edge the yard better, and spray the heck outta the stuff with whatever would kill it. I'd even have dug it out! Better that than what I now have: a lawn that requires weekly mowing in SPRING. Who can tell what summer will bring? Twice weekly mowing, I guess. Because if I don't, it gets too tall for my mower to handle. It's grown 2 inches since Saturday. And that's not an exaggeration.

Another unfortunate side effect: I find myself driving around town pointing and exclaiming "Quack grass" whenever I see any. So if in my final days I'm lying in a hospital bed mindlessly saying "quack, quack, quack"...no, I'm not thirsty. And I don't think I'm a duck.

Up My Mind - Again

Sitrep: Zero.

It's been a lackluster week and a half when it comes to the exercise front. And last week I had spaghetti for dinner every night. It's no wonder I feel like something the cat dragged in. Tomato is just not good for me. I'm getting better, though. Used to be I'd binge on the stuff for months...after just a week the thought of anything with tomato turns my stomach...

Shanni is in Washington D.C. now. She just called - they went swimming. [g] Tomorrow they're going to see all the memorials. She's promised to get her picture taken at the Lincoln Memorial, at my request. She's going to be there on my birthday. How cool is that?

Her flight out was an adventure. An hour delay getting out of here due to high winds. Then their connecting flight had mechanical probs and they sat on it for an hour. So by the time they got to D.C. and their hotel, they'd missed tonight's social event. They get to set up their display and present it tomorrow. Shanni is having a blast, she really is. Loved her first airplane trip, loves the fancy hotel...Her mother is having a nervous breakdown, however. [g] She was up all night crying. I was on the phone by 5:30am with Shanni, who was not too thrilled with her mom..."She's squeezing me to death!" I could hear her eyes rolling. lol. When I talked to M. this afternoon after they'd arrived in D.C., she sounded a bit put out that Shanni is having such a good time.

Anyway. It's been an exhausting day. Lots of meetings at work...they're cracking down on the, uh, lack of production in the office. So I'm blocked from the bulletin board and this blog during the day. Bummer. But not really...I'm in charge of IT and can change that setting as I wish...But I need to be more disciplined anyway, so...I'm bad enough, but not as bad as a few others that do nothing but surf the net all day. I don't know how they think no one notices...It's a small office. Oh well. I'll just have to blog on my own time. I will miss the BB though. I'll have to look at setting it up to allow access during lunch hour or something.

I'm dog-sitting for a friend, and somehow his dog is on the sofa next to me and my dog is curled up on his bed across the room sending us a very pathetic look. [lol]. She's met her match in this dog, my Scully has. ;)

I guess we did good at the fundraiser meet with U.nited W.ay yesterday for Big Brothers Big Sisters, because they (BBBS) called me today to see if I could speak again tomorrow. Ughh. Hate that, but willing to do it for this program. Only I've got tomorrow scheduled to get my driver's license renewed. I've put it off to the last minute naturally. It's $40.00. And fifty cents. Can't forget that fifty cents for the mailed postcard reminder. [rolling eyes] Oh well.

Going to be a crazy rest of the week so I don't now if I'll be blogging much. Big seminar next week for work, so I'm neck deep in preparations for that. I also need to get the car detailed (got a coupon for that, whoo-hoo!), get my license renewed, get my hair cut (got to look presentable at the seminar next week), get the car scheduled for maintenance next week, attend a gardening class on Saturday and maybe some Earth Day celebrations, meet Shanni at the airport at midnight (ughh) and then on Sunday is my birthday celebration at her house. German chocolate cake with this most delicious coconut pecan icing and vanilla ice cream.

And somehow I'm having a contractor in sometime in the next few weeks for an estimate on remodeling the bathroom. Ackkk. It's Morning Owl's dad, so he'll give me a good deal. Nothing fancy, just wanting to move some plumbing around (oh, that's easy!). I'll reuse the sink and toilet, but I want a new tub. Oh, not one of those jet tubs or anything. But one where the back at least slants. I have no idea who designed these bathtubs with straight backs. Whoever it was they oughta be shot!!! There's just no way to get a nice relaxing hot soak when your back is ramrod straight. [g] Anyway. This might just be a pipe dream...it might be a bit beyond my reach. But getting a quote is as good a place to start as any.

Today's the Day: ROAD TRIP!

Goal: 3x Arms & Abs, Gym Night
Sitrep: 2x Arms, 2x Abs, 20 min Basketball (Gym Night)

The dog woke me up at exactly 3:21 this morning. She was very insistent on not only sleeping in the bed, but in also getting under the covers. Considering she hasn't slept in the bed for several weeks, I was a little surprised. Until it dawned on me that it was pretty cold in the bedroom. Colder than it should have been with the electric baseboard heater on. Then I realized there was no red glow coming from my nightstand alarm clock. Uh-oh. Looked outside, and lo and behold, there's at least 3 inches of snow covering everything. And I could tell it was the very heavy wet stuff. The wind must have been blowing pretty hard as well, because there was quite a bit of snow stuck to the window, which is unusual!

I called the power company's outage line, and the recording indicated crews had already been dispatched. I made the rounds of the house turning faucets on so the pipes wouldn't freeze, and turned the thermostat up on the direct vent furnace in the living room. Good thing I didn't listen to that idiot salesman and stuck to my guns on getting the furnace that doesn't have to have electricity to run. ["Oh, the power never goes out in E.H." - rolling eyes]

You know something? It's not a good sign when the power company truck rolls slowly down your street shining a light along the power lines checking for the downed line. [g] Power was out until about 6:30 am.

And today is the day we drive down to Butte for the Ma.nsfield-Metcal.f Dinner featuring Oba.ma and Cli.nton. It should be fun, but the roads aren't going to be! My coworker in Butte already called and suggested we leave at least an hour earlier than we'd planned because it's still snowing there; quite heavily, in fact. At least they've lifted the restriction on wearing coats tonight. They were saying absolutely no coats as recently as yesterday. This morning they said it's too cold to do that. I'm still planning on dressing in layers!

I've got my camera ready to go. Brief scare last night when I couldn't find my 75-300mm zoom lens, spent over an hour tearing the house apart, even searched the car! Turns out I left it at my little sister's house. So now I have to race out to the valley to get it today before meeting up with my friends to drive to Butte. I'm taking a little notebook with me to write down any notes/my thoughts. I'm sure I'll be posting about it here. It might take me a few days to percolate my thoughts, though!

Note to Homeowners

REVIEW YOUR ESCROW ACCOUNT STATEMENT CLOSELY.

I received mine last night, and after reviewing it, here's what I found:

1) For the coming year, my bank increased my mortgage by $4/mo because I dropped below the 'cushion' one month this past year. I expected that as my insurance increased due to the remodels I've done. That's okay. It's not that huge an increase.

2) But then they project that for this coming year I'll be an additional several hundred short by the end of the year. So they increased the payment by another $14/month until March 2009.

Now, match isn't my best subject, but I was sitting there going WTF? The only reason I dipped below the "cushion" was because my insurance went up. They used all the same insurance & tax numbers for next year's projections, with an increased amount going into my escrow account each month. So how in the world, based on my current payments, am I going to be short by the end of the year? Here's how:

When calculating actual payments for this year, they did not include the final 2 months escrow payments. Which totally makes up for their predicted "shortage". So now on Monday I have to waste my lunch at the bank to get this sorted out. It's not like I can't do the extra $18/month for a year. I can. But it's the principle of the thing, you know? Do your damn accounting right from the start, thank you. And you better damn well account for every single dime I give you, 'cause I'm gonna catch it. ;)

Okay. Crankiness gone. :)

Today is a good day to go shopping

Goal (M-Su): 3x Arms, 3x Cardio, 1x Abs
Sitrep: 1x Arms, 1x Cardio
1 behind at this point; I'm adding to today's to get all caught up!

Yippee. ;) I got my homeowner property tax rebate today. It's all nicely direct-deposited in my checking account. Waiting for me to go shopping. And just in time for the Labor Day weekend sales.

Decisions, decisions. There's so much I want to do with this money.

1. Put it toward mortgage (extra payment on capital)
2. New window for bathroom
3. New stove
4. New sofa
5. Armchair
6. Kitchen table
7. Hire professional to strip floors upstairs (both rooms! At least, I'm assuming it's enough money for that...)
8. Replace/repaint some of the siding on the house

So what's a girl to do?

Okay. Extra mortgage payment on capital - I can set aside money every month and have an extra payment by year's end, easy. New bathroom window isn't necessary. It would be nice, but it'll go another winter. I'll just seal it up like last year to keep the heat in/cold out.

New stove. Hmm. It's gotta be from the 1980's, and when you turn on any of the burners, you hear the gas coming out and the ignition going "click, click, click, click, click" for what seems like forever before the burner lights. And you can smell the gas during this process.

New sofa. It would be nice, but the one I've got is perfectly fine. Armchair. Yeah, extra seating would be nice, but it's not necessary. Kitchen table - same thing. Upstairs floors - okay, it's hard work, but I can do this myself. I'll just finagle some people into helping me, that's all. ;) The siding. Sigh. Not sure how to handle that...I think I can replace some of it myself, and paint it as well too, fairly cheaply. Some of it might not actually be at the replaceable stage, probably just needs to be sanded, sealed and painted.

I'm going to go with the new stove for the kitchen. I'm thinking this is more urgent than the other stuff. And I just love paying cash for appliances. Makes me feel so wealthy. LOL.

So I guess I start the comparison shopping during lunch...

Oh, and the Mount Helena hike is all set for Saturday morning. I pick my little sister up at 9am, we'll be on the trail by 9:30am. :) It looks like we might be joined by a couple of my coworkers, so I'll be sure to get a picture of Shanni & I.