Layout:
Home > Archive: August, 2008

Archive for August, 2008

Amazing help

August 28th, 2008 at 04:16 pm

Well the day after the horrific meeting I have one volunteer for cookies, one for decorating special events, and one for talking to parents.

All from the new girls, but all wonderful people.

There is no way I could do this scout stuff without all the other volunteers doing work behind the scenes mostly without titles.

So go hug your nearest volunteer, they make a difference not only to a kid, but also to the rest of the volunteers!

This is a volunteer position folks

August 27th, 2008 at 07:05 pm

Last night was the first Daisy meeting of the year and we had a short parent meeting to go through.

I was NOT please with the amount of time it took, nor with some of the complaints.

Now I know I am not perfect, and I don't do everything right, and certainl not able to make all folk happy at all times, but I am volunteering my time to not only help my daughter as a Daisy, but to also help others.

So with all that in mind could you please stop pestering me when I do it different? Yes we will go to camp, no you don't have to. Yes we will meet every week, no you don't have to! YES we will have dues from the girls for the girls, no ou don't have too.

Look you don't even have to be here! Girl scouts is a decent program with wonderful goals designed to help girls with leadership and life skills, how exactly do you expect me to teach them if you don't want me to be anything more than an every other week drop off?

Good grief, I am so sorry I took on this role.

Free stuff for car trip

August 25th, 2008 at 07:15 pm

We decided this trip to drive during the day, so we need some extra entertainment for the kids.

I found several sites with free printable bingo boards, and scavenger hunts, plus other simple paper and pencil games. They should keep the older ones busy for a few hours.

Plus we are going to try and get a book or two on tape from the library, the children really seem to enjoy them.

Then there will be plenty of food, plus at least one pit stop, possibly two.

Will prolly be a bit of a longer trip than the night type, but we just can't do it the night before, so daytime it is.

The official GS uniform

August 24th, 2008 at 01:42 am

A pin, one little pin is considered enough to transform your PJs into a uniform.

Now I am all for simplicity, and cheapness, but I think naming a pin a uniform is missing the point of a uniform.

There is (or should be) a certain sense of pride when one dons a uniform, or at least a set of expectations.

When you go to a restaurant the wait staff should all look similar enough that you know who to flag down for extra napkins or more water.

When you are stopped by a cop they whole uniform thing brings to mind plenty of fear, maybe a bit of respect.

The dr lab coat tends to give an air of knowledge and caring. (which is why House skips it, he doesn't care.)

Scout uniforms are supposed to inspire nostalgia in those looking and pride/unity in those wearing. It is hard to get nostalgic about a pin you can barely see.

You could drinkless milk.....

August 22nd, 2008 at 03:39 pm

We drink a lot of milk. When we couldn't afford much we only drank 4 gallons a week (4 drinkers at the time)

then we got a raise or two and life was a bit easier...so we upped it to 5 gallons a week. Then we got another raise....

Now we could buy more milk, but I am trying to convince my husband not to. You see going without milk for one day saves a trip to the store, the longer we go between store trips the less we spend.

While I like milk, I would rather have some spare money to pay off the car or something.

haven't moved a thing in ages and a paint poll

August 21st, 2008 at 04:03 pm

When I was a kid the house was rearranged semi annually. well there was a decent amount of new apartments as well.

In this house I have done some rearanging usually riht before or after a kid is born.

Right now it has been months since a move was made..and the clutter is piling up. I believe it is time for a change...but I don't have any inspiration....my living room is the most annoying room of my house, but I can't figure out a better way to set it up.

essentially the kitchen side cannot have any furniture on it, opposite that is the big window and back door, killing that wall. the south wall has the cable plug (needed for internet) so it has EVERYTHING tv, computers stereo, ect. the opposite wall has the couch.

I really hate it, but don't know how to change.

Oh and I want to paint it, any color suggestions? it has a brownish/tan plaid couch, some fake wood and black entertainment stand, and an old school desk, oh and brown curtains...(all hand me downs)

They made a whole blog about that?

August 18th, 2008 at 06:22 pm

I am amazed at how many weird blogs there are that prolly make money.

Text is Cake Wrecks and Link is http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Cake Wrecks
seriously a blog about wrecked cakes, not like smashed, but decorator troubles. To me sounds stupid, but then I did just spend 10 minutes reading all the recent posts and giggling hysterically at most!

Text is web Urbanist and Link is http://weburbanist.com/
web Urbanist

A Blog about urban 'stuff' from green buildings or concepts, to photos of abandoned structures in cities, to weird furniture concepts. Managed to waste another 10 minutes learning all about possible future kitchen designs.

In short if you can devote an entire blog post daily to a topic, you might find an audience.

Loops galore

August 17th, 2008 at 08:34 pm

Yesterday the Cub Scouts had a loopy event. we set up 5 stations in Chess, Art, Computers, Language, and Music. Then let the boys visit each one to try and earn a scout loop.

Now I have to go to the store and buy 35 belt loops!

I dunno what I was thinking letting them earn so many!

Most boys seemed to have a lot of fun, and we also gave out many awards earned over the summer including several swimming badges earned at home or at camps, and all the bicycling ones earned at the rodeo last month.

I am proud of the boys for all the work they put into earning them (and of the poor moms and dads driving around, camping and working on them as well!)

interesting finance quote

August 12th, 2008 at 06:34 pm

Wile wasting time avoiding work today I came across a finance quote, the line that caught my eye, happened to be broken up by ads or something...

Text is success soul and Link is http://www.successsoul.com/2008/08/11/mark-twains-thoughts-on-3-topics-youd-rather-not-discuss/
success soul

Don’t most of our financial woes come from our desire to spend beyond our means to repay what we borrow? When we spread our legs......

This being a family friendly site I can't tell you what I was thinking when I got to that point, but I can let you read the rest of the sentence:

beyond the reach of our blanket, we’re prone to harsh treatment from nature.

It doesn't help that much...but

The next time I am tempted to waste money eating out or whatever, I will simply remember how harsh it can be when I err, extend my legs. That aughta keep me under my own blanket.

any code breakers here?

August 12th, 2008 at 04:48 pm

We are reading "The Phantom Tollboth" and there is in it a code by the Mathimagician sent to his brother King Azaz.

I have been trying to help my son solve it, but really I am terrible at codes, I need a hint.

So any code breakers here?
I tried to cut and paste from excel but it wont work.

I tried plugging in the name of the king but that leaves me with a ton of words having z's in them. also the signatiure is long enough for brother but not mathimagician..... and using brother is no help in solving the other words.

ok here it is, the word groups are separated by brackets, because the numbers are sometimes big sometimes small,a nd I don't know how to do that here..so I just put spaces between when it changes tall to short...

[437 8] [1 9 1 9]
[66 7] [394 1 7] [5 8 41] [6 25 8 9] [8 537] [1 4] [395 88] [7 1 9 0 434] [20 3] [27 68 9] [57 1 3 1] [4 8 120 2]. [5 86 4] [9 8 0 53], [6 21 79 8 75 0 73]

The last is set to the right like one would sign something...the two before it are also set aside on the line above (like you would put yours truly...but wrong number of letters)

Ther first two are on their own like as a heading...like "To Azaz" but again with 9 as Z there are a ton of Z words....I can't even think of one......and there are only two three letter mixes to try the.....ther first has a 9 at the end, Z? and the other has a 5 86 4....guess there is no main reson why it can't be the, except I dunno any way to end a letter..'the '?

on call costs

August 11th, 2008 at 05:09 pm

Many computer jobs have someone 'on call' for the after hour emergencies or just plain to make someone be in charge off all the folk who want their password reset NOW.

Many companies pay for simply carrying the phone.

My husband just gets paid when he answers the phone, in general that means we get overtime the week he carries it, and overtime is a good thing.

BUT this time the bloody phone rang right as we got to the store, and he had to go be at a computer immediately...so all that gas to drive to the store and he had to turn around and come back!

Plus it rang while we were at church and for some reason the church internet was down, so he had to drive home to work, then back to get us later on..not cool.

I think if they want him on a computer that fast they should pay for a wireless card to connect to the internet for a laptop. or at least pay him to just carry it, so wasting gas wont be losing money.

GMC is a budding vexillologist.

August 8th, 2008 at 06:20 pm

It just so happens that gmails ad for one of my emails was the word of the day

Text is vexillology. and Link is http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/08/08.html
vexillology.

And it just happens that GMC spent the last two days drawing flags.

It used to be word of the day emails all had the same dozen words that are not all that rare. Lately though Gmail has been using odd sorts of ones like this.

Of course I will never use vexillolgy again, but for today it was fun Smile.

Oh and Firefox doesn't have it in their dictionary.....

So who's bright idea was that anyway?

August 7th, 2008 at 06:31 pm

Yesterday my husband needed to go to the store, and he asked one kid to go with him. Well both wanted to so off they all went. (UE at 2yrs is too young to be more than a PIA at the store and of course El 2 months stays with me for a good long while) The house was amazingly quiet, I never thought 'only' two kids would seem empty, but it was.

When they finally got back there was treats that apparently Daddy let the kids pick.

A French 'baguette' and peaches, plus two extra flavors of yogurt. Plus cheese sticks.

I just found an old copy of our budget from 2006, not that long ago, but oh so different. then I had 400 for grocerys and gas combined, there were no fresh peaches or fancy breads allowed. Now, I think gas alone is over 400 and groceries?

I try not to think about it, sure we watch for sales, but we also eat a TON of fresh fruit, veggies, and whole wheat 'stuff'. none of which are really cheap. It is nice t be able to afford to let the kids try dragon fruit, or frozen raspberries.

If I ever did want to cut down, I would just make the kids stay home! If they were asking for junk food I would say no, but..mangoes? berries? yogurt? (healthy version, not hte sugar stuff) How can I say no to trying new healthy things?

What kind of girl am I?

August 5th, 2008 at 06:49 pm

Well after reading SA blogs newest article about the

Text is Champagne girl and Link is http://digg.com/people/How_I_Failed_the_Champagne_Girl_Dating_Test/who
Champagne girl, I wondered just what one was....

So I googled, found the article in question a million times and a book..but no definition. Either pop culture all knows it and doesn't need to tell me, or I am just no good at googling.

So I tried "what kind of girl" and found several quizes, of course being in the mood to waste time (I have work I am avoiding of course) I took them.

two different quizzes with very different questions and surprise, very different answers, either pixie..whatever that is, or new age girl, totally off. I am a closet tree hugger, but I don't do yoga.

Of course there is still that work to avoid so I discovered I am a boring purple flower..pretty but boring. (too many contended answers, no real angst here, or bubbly joy either.)

So at the end of 10 minutes of goofing off I am still no closer to discovering just what a champagne girl is. Maybe a girl who orders food and doesn't eat it.

In which case I am whatever you call the opposite!

Advertisers got me....

August 5th, 2008 at 01:54 am

Now in spite of the thousands spent each year I generally am not influenced by commercials. Well except food, I see food I get hungry, but I adapted to that by always having a snack at night I save it up for TV time.

Gadgets, toys, clothing and the like don't really effect me (affect?)

But someone managed to make a commercial that got me. After watching once I kinda wanted it. Now that I have seen it a couple times I am really hooked.

Text is the commercial and Link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94woFElb5o
the commercial

So I went to the brother in laws collection and borrowed the breakfast club Smile.

I am doomed

August 4th, 2008 at 07:40 pm

Apparently

Text is sleep makes you smarter. and Link is http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-snoozing-makes-you-smarter&print=true
sleep makes you smarter.

Well I not only have a newborn, I am also not smart enough to go to bed as soon as she does.

So I wont be getting my brain back anytime soon. (not that I had much of one to begin with!)

(also explains why a kid who is struggling with concept one day finds it easy the next. when in doubt, sleep on it!)

Heat sickness

August 2nd, 2008 at 09:24 pm

My oldest is a boy after his fathers heart. he gets sick when very hot easily.

So apparently camping in August is a bad idea for him. He had a lot of fun last night, he managed to tell me about throwing nerf javalins before falling asleep.

I also heard a bit about archery and BBs and boating, and eggs for breakfast that he didn't eat.

Now in general he is not that picky of an eater, they just happened to serve, bananas and scrambled eggs, two things he doesn't like for breakfast.

Not sure if that is really part of the trouble, or if we can blame it all on heat , or if he just happens to have some kind of stomach bug.

Either way he is home early. sleeping on the couch, hopefully he will be his normal self after this nap.

Volunteering

August 1st, 2008 at 07:21 pm

I have long lamented that I do not volunteer enough I was brought up knowing time is a valuable resource, one that should be shared with those in need.

Unfortunately as an adult I found life got in the way. seemed so much easier when I had no job, no kids, and no husband.

Well today I realized I do volunteer...scouts is a major amount of work, and since no one is paying me it must be volunteer. at first I thought it was only for my kids so that doesn't count (cooking dinner doesn't either) but then I thought a bit more, other kids get the benefit of our work.

so what do you know, I finally found a volunteer opportunity I can do with the kids.