Pencils, They are Like…Mechanical
Posted on August 27, 2008
Filed Under Lil' Bits & Pieces | Leave a Comment
I am quite happy this morning. Perhaps it had something to do with crashing in the spare room at 8:00 pm, perhaps it had something to do with *just the right amount* of gorgeous wine, perhaps it had to do with the perfectly warm but not at all too hot weather, or perhaps the fabulous company. Perhaps.
Sleeping at 8:00 pm leads to waking up at 5:30 am and that - wow - how long has it been since I’ve seen the sunrise? The early morning chill, as the crows in the tree across the street in *that tree* make their morning noise. They have lived their for nearly fifty years. The crows, I don’t know about the neighbors. Crows. Who knew?
Abundant sleep also puts one in a rather chipper mood. This should not be news to the mother of a four year old who is perpetually tired…
I do love September - crispy mornings, warm coffee as a necessity, crisp leaves, the smell of the school cafeteria, sweaters!
Next year I get to bundle Ruby up for Kindergarten, this year Hayley starts High School…I can love September for a very long time…
But when was the Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 replaced by boxes of 50 glittery mechanical pencils from Target? Probably about the same time the Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil acquired a website… Sigh.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Posted on August 21, 2008
Filed Under .derek, Lil' Bits & Pieces | 5 Comments
Did I ever tell you about the day, last winter when we caught 22 mice in one day? Probably not…
One day, last January I noticed that Breezy seemed to be eating quite a bit from his lil’ bowl of kibbles. Sometimes I notice things, but they don’t register the way they ought to. This would be one of those times.
A few days later, I pulled back the curtain that covers the broom closet to see what, precisely, Breezy was doing with those darn kibbles. Oh dear. The bag of kibbles was gone. In it’s place were lots of little bits of Evidence of Mouse. Ugh.
Derek was in town and being a vegetarian, he had issues with mouse traps. Not being a vegetarian, I had issues with the mice. I attempted to build a mouse trap that consisted of a long tube (from wrapping paper), peanut butter, and a large clear vase. I even put kibbles in the vase to further entice the mice…
How would it work? The mice would follow the peanut butter up the tube and fall into the vase…Yeah.
About this time my dad came over and I believe he took one look and walked right back out…Oh the stupidity. I was so proud I took pictures. 
After a bit, we realized this was not going to work and we needed to get down to business. We hemmed and hawed and haggled and settled on this: Derek would set the traps and I would get rid of the traps. That lasted about two seconds. I used *that look*…
Derek agreed to get rid of the mice, but he wasn’t going to pluck them off the trap. Eeew. Mouse traps are pretty cheap, I just bought in bulk. I mean, really, how many mice could there be…?
The three traps are set, we head upstairs, I start working, Derek surfs and in less than two minutes…SNAP…SNAPSNAP.
Uhm. Wow. That was quick…
That went on for several hours…until, dare I say, I think we caught most of the mice. Total head count? 22
So…that was that. Let me toss out one of my favorite Star Wars quotes…”the guns…they’ve stopped”.
(yeah, because the BIG DEATH STAR is headed YOUR WAY…)
Thus, I should not have been surprised when Hayley told me this evening….”MOM, the mice. They’re BACK!”
“Dear child, how do you know that with such certainty?”
“I just saw a MOUSE run across the kitchen, towards where the kibbles used to be….”
Summer is Very Nearly Over…
Posted on August 17, 2008
Filed Under Lil' Bits & Pieces, New Designs | Leave a Comment
A very silly thing to say, considering that I have been hiding out in my fabulously freezing house…but it is - almost over. School starts August 27th in these parts. Yes, BEFORE Labor Day. (Check out the Back to Scrapping Sale in the Boutique…)
I’ve been working most of the weekend and as the weekend winds down (sigh…) everything I’m trying to accomplish on the server is being slightly wonky. Not full-on wonky - that I might actually be able to fix. Nope. Just slightly…ever so slightly, making me think, “maybe it’s just my imagination…”
But it isn’t. Something is up and since it’s Sunday I’ve been jumping from server, from site, to server, to site hoping to find a haven of Normal Server Behavior.
Nope. Not happening.
One server is sending me two emails for the price of one - hmm. One server won’t resolve images in Word Press EVEN when I resort to hard-coding. And one server - well, I just can’t put my finger on it… And on top of all that - Pandora.com is delivering some Very Strange Music this afternoon. Perhaps the Server Situation is a world wide web kinda problem…Hmm…
All this adds up to 4:00pm, two hours left to work, and a sudden urge to run off to various social networking sites and waste time… 
And on a scrappy note…The August club kit has been released (yes, I know - it’s been a month…), I’ve added a few new templates to the boutique, and a few full-size collections to the freebie archive.
Class dismissed?
keep looking »
