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)

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

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!

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.

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!)

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...

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.

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 '?

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.

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

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 .

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

Well after reading SA blogs newest article about the

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!

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.

the commercial

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

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.

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.

So last night for bed my daughter JC gets herself some PJs..that a couplke months ago she said she didn't want to wear because they were too big...

They fit fine now!

My son UE, tried to put a pair of shorts on the other day and complained they wouldn't work...he wore them just the week before!

I tell you they do this growing thing every time I look away, sneaky little twerps.

Our monitor is going bad, actually it has been going bad for awhile.

Right now it refuses to 'shrink' the view horizontally, so if I want to see the right side to close or minimize I have to move the 'box' to the left. and back when I want to read the left hand side of a document

And why don't I just resize the box? because the screen keeps changing its 'size'. one day you fit the browser box, the next you can't.

ugh.

So should I shop now or wait for it to totally give up the ghost? or should I not replace it and suffer with slow as all get out laptop?

I am a jeans kinda gal. If I am not dressed up for church, or in PJs I am wearing jeans. So post baby I have the hardest time.

The last three kids I happened to own a pair of jeans that were two sizes to big, I squeezed into them on the way home from the hospital (mostly holding my breath, thankfully it was a short drive) then I relaxed into Pjs for the next week or so (when really recovering from delivery I am kinda in need of lots of rest)

Then I would get the jeans on and gradually I returned to my normal activity and normal size, the day I retired those jeans after each kid was wonderful. Yet always as I tucked them away in the 'maternity' drawer I gave them a gental pat of thanks for giving me those months of jeans, while still a bit flabby.

Last time the jeans didn't quite make it to retirement, they developed a hole in the zipper area that I couldn't patch, so I had to say goodbye.

I though I could be strong enough to manage after EL without the jeans, I was wrong.

Having no jeans that fit made me feel FAT. Unfortunately I am not one of those that is motivated by being too big, I lose weight, eat better, and move more when I am feeling fit and thinish.

So I happened to complain and explain why I feel fat this weekend, my husband took the next opportunity to buy me some jeans for this size.

It has only been 2 days, but those two days have been healthier than the last 6 weeks!

Not really frugal to buy jeans for what will hopefully only be a couple months, but man it feels so good, I think it is totally worth it.

I finally learned how to get to my paypal account. so I finally made a kiva loan...

I found it very hard to decide who to loan to.. so I picked one that was about funded, had a short repayment term, and had a 5 star rated partner.

I will let you know how it went in 4-6 months.

I also bought stuff.. so that paypal money is about gone.

While hunting up some product my husband came across a listing for $3 plus shipping, the picture included a price tag of $1.50. No not vintage, he went to the store the next day and found the exact package for about the same price.

Why on earth would anyone list something for more than the visible purchase price?

Now we have listed things with the price showing for less, and I often wonder if we get bids just because it is a 'good deal' (we didn't pay that price or anything)

Seriously do ebayers think before buying/listing?

We had company last night and one fellow brought pizza, instead of chipping in any loot for the pizza my husband handed over some 'toys'. Technically they are miniatures for some game, but IMO they are toys. (dolls even, oh sorry action figures)

Sweet deal IMO, get rid of stuff he doesn't use, and score pizza in the bargan! (well actually I don't like pizza, but the kids and husband do, so they were happy)

Actually the fellow got more than a pizzas worth of toys so he paid us, earn money play games and eat pizza, it was a good night

Well for the past year I have had to constantly clear the temp files and find dups to delete before I load up a new game, sometimes my husband does it for me and I can load two new games.

But then I also have to constantly chase files downloaded from the net to move them to the 'F' drive. (F is my other hard drive, where I store all of 'my documents')

So I have been wondering when I should give in and get a new hard drive.

Now to non computer geeks you can compare the size of my drive to a junk drawer, and the size of those sold in computers today to a walk in closet! Ok not that bad more like a full dresser compared to one small drawer. Of course my first computer had enough space to store data as a coin purse does to store junk. So small is relative.

For computer geeks I have a 20gig, looking at spending less than a hundred on a new one. (depending on sales and where I get it the size could vary)

BTW I am NOT a computer geek, I just married one.

Anyway, I am struggling with when to get that hard drive. On the one hand I use a lot of drive space for scouts, and the kids use a decent amount for games, ok fine and so do I. But on the other hand, I could delete the games and have that space for the scouts stuff.

but...I don't want to, so I am rationalizing how I 'need' a hard drive. Proving that relativly frugal/financially smart folk still have trouble with need vs want.

When you look at a car on a website, from the dealer or manufacture, certain information is easy to find, other information is downright impossible for me to find (maybe it's just me?)

I figure if it is easy to find in most sites it is prolly a 'FAQ' type question. Most folk want to know. so based on my informal browsing of cars/vans/trucks.

Gas mileage is pretty important these days. straight after the name, and long before the 'base price' you can find the city/hwy mileage.

the availability's of CD changers, and ipod hookups, along with the number of ways to move each seat, is fairly important. one mouse over gives you these details.

But the one thing I need to know..how many does it seat. that is hidden, I often have to search wiki, or hope someone in some area listed a car and thought it important on craigslist or ebay to find out how many seats in a car!

Why do people not care? I mean don't you think it is important to know how many you can transport in a car before you worry what the mileage is? the greatest little prius or whatever the gas saver is, doesn't do me one lick of good, with 2 car seats, and 2 boosters, plus a husband and self, there is no way I would pay any amount for it!

This is not to diss little cars, it is to diss makers of big cars who hide the number of seat belts for their vehicle...like they can convince me that because they have the coolest TV/video game hookup I should just buy there car even though I can only fit half my family in it? grumph.

Most of the year the temperature is not comfy for humans..or at least not Americans who are spoiled.

So why do we expect to be comfy?

I once read an excellent fantasy book..can't recall the name, or author unfortunately...(or rather considering my addiction, fortunately!)

Anyway, one section really stood out in my mind, the hero was wondering afar, without food, and in the rain, with of course a mission to save the world. He reflected that the only thing stopping people from being able to survive such difficulty is the assumption we humans have of being well fed and comfortable. Animals have no such delusions. Life is hard, and often uncomfortable. Complaining about it, only reminds us of the trouble. (the hero of course was part wolf-no not Elfquest)

Which is why I am (and my children are) in the 80 degree house, not to bothered by a bit of sweat, while my husband (grew up with air conditioning) is ... cranky. He elected to go work in the garage...a place in his mind that is supposed to be hot and uncomfortable!

Dunno about you, but I would rather be a bit hot in the house, than roasting in the garage! But then again, the work does need done sometime.

SO there is this graph showing how MTV plays no music anymore...and of course the comments are all on how it sucks.

And yet MTV wouldn't have switched from music to b;ab if they weren't making money.

So if the general consensus is that the blabbing sucks, why are we still watching it? (not that I have access to MTV, not sure who is watching it)

I think there are a lot of products other than TV, that gain popularity, but are not any good. Advertising is powerful stuff.

Now tecnically it is free, no one asks for money. But there is a free will offering basket, and the cost of serving the food is mentioned.

We usually pay a bit into the free will, and I find the week of not cooking wonderful. since the food is bought in bulk the per person is about the same as at home, even if it is a bit more convenience like.

And I don't have to wash dishes! The only bad part is no leftovers. But then this year my husband happens to be working from home for several days, so no need really for him to take leftovers.

Now if only I could figure out how to take a nap!

I received as a gift a composter. An actual device for composting stuff. I know compost is a natural process and shouldn't need help from anything, but. Around here with the wild animals, no food product is left alone to compost. On the one hand that is fine, food still goes to good use..sorta. It certainly isn't helping my pathetic 'garden' of lillys.

So in comes this modern contraption that will turn food scraps into compost in just one week, so long as you plug it in and add baking soda and wood shavings. (according to that green website it uses very little electricity)

I dunno, part of me is excited about having real compost, part of me thinks I might be counter productive.

Least I am not wrapping the food up in plastic I guess.

I am not the only one who thinks recession may not be all bad.

recession vs opportunity


I have been thinking for years that America is a mite bit spoiled to be complaining of not being able to afford fancy vacations, or new cars every year.

Compared to most of the world, knowing about exotic locals to take a vacation is a luxury! The access we have to the internet or books (via library if needed) is amazingly cheap compared to the cost of water in most countries.

Not to mention seeing a car is rare for many people, while Americans use one for silly trips. (I live in a community where folk 4 blocks away drive to the pool.)

I honestly think a bit of a recession would be good for America. Well it would be good if we let folk start getting used to not being able to afford things. It isn't all bad to want IMO.

So having a homebirth does remove some of the convenience of the hospital registering the birth.

No one called the day she was born to get the spelling of her name, and all the mothers maiden name and etc.

So I had to call, turns out the needs are simple, a valid ID, proof of pregnancy, and vital stats. (date time, etc)

Only trouble, Husbands license expired! two days ago, it was on the todo list. Then there is the letter it has to be notarized, so back to calling the church, except the pastor is on retreat, so call back and see if the minister of music can do it.

So now one little trip to the office of records is three trips all around town.

Only good thing, I don't have to join him .

I am an anti stuff person, I do have clutter but in general it is clutter related to paperwork, or 'stuff to go goodwill', or to be given to a friend, or 'stuff for Cub os Saturday, VBS Sunday, etc. (now my husband on the other hand is a pack rat!)

So a challenge to reduce stuff should come easy to me. And yet, it doesn't. I can't fit my belongings into the trunk of a car, I cannot reduce the number to 100. I am not sure I even want to be reduced to such a number, though it aught to make cleaning easier!

I find myself right now with more desire than energy to clean or declutter....And for the 4th time in my life, I find I am not as lazy as a new mom aught to be!

He really lost it, on the way to clean the bathroom this morning my husband thought GMC had a major chocolate mess (yes Daddy gave them each a chocolate straw after a healthy breakfast), big old black spot on his face, but it was actually a missing tooth!

Only trouble, GMC really really lost it! We have no idea where it is, though I can guess having just finished breakfast he ate it (eww...)

My baby, so recently he was snuggled in the same blanket as EL and now..a missing tooth!

It was a bottom tooth that actually he banged up on his cousin, so it prolly fell out a bit earlier than he typically would have.

I have a live in tutor for my youngest...my oldest.

Yesterday morning GMC sat down while playing with duplos and asked UE to count them. He was rather patient and they counted 'square blocks' 'rectangular blocks'. the pile over there, and the pile over here. I had plans of cleaning (or having them clean) but I thought watching them count together was way cooler!

GMC was willing to teach JC way back when too, but he taught her in French! She could honestly count in French to about six, before she could count in English! Unfortunately both GMC and JC lost interest in French.

OF course being at home, I never get paid to work, but Truthfully I have plenty of work that aught to get done..well aside from sitting with my feet up I am off work..mostly.

I still have kids to feed, and take care of, but I vow to rest..regardless of how I feel. Because I was doing great when I rested last week, then I had things I just couldn't avoid (plus some laundry, dishes, ect) so I picked up the pace, and used up all the energy I had gathered from the couple days rest.

And I guess, I need to gather that energy again, so I can survive delivery!

So heres to doing nothing...again.

Oh the cub crossover went rather well, a ton of awards went out, and a cute crossing was made. and my feet were three sizes too big by the end!

Before my son joined the scouts all i knew about BSA could fit on the head of a pin...namely they wore uniforms and raced wooden cars. I can now tell you way more, more than I really need to know!

For one thing, the 'cubs' and 'boys' are very distinctly different. Cubs are organized into age based 'dens'. Which are then grouped into packs, usually tied to an organization (or sponsor). The Den is run my a leader, the pack by a committee (which is headed by a chairperson)

For our pack that Committee chair is me...meaning I do a LOT of work. I oversee the leaders of the dens, I oversee pack events, work with the treasurer and newsletter editor, field trip coordinator, advancement chair, as well as filling the new Cubmaster in on everything he needs to be a proper PR guy. Among other details that I often let slip (cause one gal can only do so much...)

SO when I agreed to lead the Daisys for my daughter I did not want all that responsibility... I just wanted to be a leader of the Daisys...plan meetings, report to the 'boss', occasional input for big events...

Little did I know GSUSA is totally different, each age based group is like its own pack...so again I am in charge of everything..treasury secretary, field trips, and so on.

So much for the easy job!

And yes I am still pregnant 39 weeks tomorrow.