Making progress!

So we started a half-bath remodel job several months ago (okay, August 25 to be exact) and stalled out.  Here are the before pictures. But now we're moving forward!  We had a neighbor put the tile down and hopefully this weekend we'll get the toilet and pedestal sink installed!  Of course this still leaves the upstairs hallway bath in complete disarray, but at least it's functional!

Now and latte

So, did you hear about this?  Every single Starbucks closed for three hours this afternoon.  Apparently for some sort of "come to Jesus" meeting about customer service, etc.  Starbucks...closed for three hours (5:30 to 8:30 pm local time) AND IT IS NEWSWORTHY.  Really?  I mean I love Starbucks as much as the next guy, but I really think I would have been just fine not even knowing that I was unable to get myself a double-shot soy vanilla latte at a time when I have no interest in buying one.  BUT when I found out I couldn't get one I was somehow heartbroken and wanted it even more!

Sorry -

I can't help bragging a bit on my kid.  Kyle's alien picture has been entered into the art contest at school - with 4th and 5th graders!  We'll see what happens.

And the winning numbers are...

One of my favorite things to do on a long drive is to imagine what I would do if I suddenly became rich.  I've been playing the game with myself for as long as I can remember.  And let me tell you, my idea of "rich" has certainly changed!  As a kid on the BORING drive from Nebraska to Utah (think Wyoming, wind and sagebrush), I would contemplate what I would do with $100 since that seemed to me to be a huge sum of money.  I'm pretty sure most of that imaginary money was spent on Barbie accessories and new roller skates.  Oh and of course pom poms to put on the skates!  Obviously as I grew older I started thinking about buying cars, clothes, and crazy amounts of music, but the amount of imaginary money was still not that big.  

Now, as an adult, I realize that I am just crazy-greedy in my mind!  I start out with whatever Powerball amount I decide sounds good and begin ticking off what I would do.  Initially I give my brother and his family like a million bucks, ditto for David's brother and his family.  I buy my parents a couple new cars (really, what else do they need in life?) and splurge on high speed internet for my dad (oy vey, that's a whole other post).  I also buy David's parents new cars.  Then of course I put money away for education, donate to some of my favorite charities, and pay off the bills.  Then the fun begins...but wait, do I really need to give my brother a million dollars?  Ditto for David's brother.  I mean I won the money right?  They should be happy with whatever I give them!  (See?  I'm already getting greedy in my mind!)  My sworn sisters, Carol, Peggy, and Angela - well, they'll each get money (in an amount to be determined at a later date) and my friends Daniel and Shonny who I have known the longest will also get some cash.  

So now I've divided up the money and I get what's left.  But wait, how will I know if I gave too much away?  That I might not have enough for all the life-changing things I want to do for me?  See?  Now I start all over and redistribute money in smaller amounts - leaving more for me!  Me and Italy.  Me and Australia.  Me and my dream house.  Me and that BMW 325i.  

I'm not sure why I do this to myself.  I mean really, it's all pretend and I won't ever win the lottery mainly because I don't actually PLAY the lottery.  The game never changes though.  I start out being all generous then slowly but surely I start taking back money for me!  Perhaps I need to talk with someone about this...know any therapists?

Imagination

Grandma Mussman sent Kyle a big envelope full of great art supplies for Valentine's Day: stickers, craft sticks, glue, a stapler, glitter construction paper, etc. and Kyle immediately constructed a robot with some of the items and an empty Kleenex box!  Let the battle begin...

GULP!

In my job we spend a lot of time defending corporations and insurance companies against people who do ridiculous things, hurt themselves, and then look around for someone to blame.  I've worked on it all: falls from balconies, accidents at water parks, idiots at railroad crossings and in go-carts.  I could go on and on.  Sure, there are definitely times when the company really is to blame, when a product is defective, etc. but so often it's just somebody doing something stupid.

All that to say, yesterday we met Kyle's cub scout pack to have Kyle's Pinewood Derby car cut out at a guy's house who had a workshop with all the tools, etc. - he also had a trampoline in the back yard.  I immediately went into panic mode, Kyle has not been on a regular, outdoor trampoline before and Kyle is an emergency room magnet!  I mean I was trembling with fear watching one of the other kids bounce around, do flips, etc.  Kyle could not get out of his shoes fast enough.  He was so excited and I was such a downer!  This trampoline was just so scary to me - it didn't have one of those net things around it, it wasn't that far from the cement of the basketball area and the other kid has a mom who is...uh...less attentive to what her kids do than I am.  It was a horrible situation to be in.  

I certainly didn't lead a life of ultra-safety...we jumped on trampolines, even jumped from the trampoline into the neighbor's swimming pool, rode dirt bikes, ran wild at the river and swam in sandpit lakes that we had no business being in.  But darn it all, this is my kid!  He runs headlong into every activity with such wild abandon then seems perplexed when things fall down or are knocked over.  I could just picture him landing on that concrete.

Sigh - I became the trampoline safety monitor.  I positioned myself between the trampoline and the concrete so I could stop any kid from flying off (right, like that would have worked!) and started spouting off rules about "no dog pile" and "hands to yourself" and I don't know how many times I admonished some boy to stay away from the springs.  BUT - Kyle got to jump and jump he did.  He didn't try any flips or fancy tricks - I think he saw I was really fearful of the whole situation and everyone survived.  Whew!

And the Pinewood Derby car is going to be very cool!

Gorgeous!

This is our new kitchen work center.  It's made from beautiful wood and has a gorgeous butcher block top - David put it together and did a great job!  We just happen to have a kitchen with a really poor layout and very, very little counter space.  This work center now gives us more storage space and another placed for food prep, etc.

The Note

I have no patience for the library's web site or for putting myself on waiting lists for books, so although I regularly visit the library, I never borrow my book club books.  I always buy them from half.com  

Over the past 18 months or so, I have found some seriously interesting and/or intriguing things tucked inside the pages...a grocery receipt, a business card, a band-aid (in the wrapper, thank God!), an index card written on in some language I couldn't decipher, a credit card bill (duh!) and even an emery board (ick!).  Because the items are so esoteric, I can only assume they were used as bookmarks by some previous owner.  Today, when I received my latest book, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" I found a  long, thin piece of paper - lined like for a grocery list with a drawing of a smiling pig and the caption "Take time to smell the flowers."  On the reverse was written "For the woman I will always love most." with a smiley face and the initials "CB."  I was instantly intrigued!  It was definitely a woman's handwriting but it didn't look like it was written with any undue care - just a quick note jotted down to someone they loved.

My question to you?  Should I contact the woman who sold me the book and ask her if she wants the note returned?  I mean, could this just be one of a million love notes that "CB" has written to her over the years or could this be the only one?  What to do, what to do!!!!

Wasting Away

Sometimes I think the most difficult part of writing my blog is coming up with a title for each post.  I mean there are only so many times I can call an entry "Uh..." before it starts to get old!

I'm not really a waster - I don't waste money (much!), I try to conserve gasoline, energy, water and food and I've certainly never been accused of being a time waster.  But this afternoon was a GIANT waste of a lot of things for me!  (In fact, you probably heard a giant sucking sound from your current location.)  After our usual trip to the big-box super center for groceries I thought it would be fun to drive over to Columbia, South Carolina for lunch  and a trip to Carolina Pottery.  I've never been to Carolina Pottery, but had seen the billboards on the highway and talked to people who have been there.  I thought it was going to be like a Hobby Lobby or Michael's on steroids.  I also figured there would be a lot of choices for restaurants since it's right off the exit on I-26 coming north from Charleston.  Wrong on so many levels.  First the highway was bumper-to-bumper traffic because of several flea markets along the way, then there were zero restaurants of interest so we ended up at an Applebee's which in my opinion is a money waster when two people had chicken strips and I had chicken strips on a salad.  I can make THAT at home.  Then we had to drive away from Carolina Pottery (which was right across the street from Applebee's) in order to turn around because the traffic was horrible.  The store turned out to be a whole lot of nothing - I did buy two picture frames and a plant stand, things I could have found just as easily in Augusta.  So basically, we wasted gas, money, and time.  That will teach me to do more research in advance.  Plus, I get really down on myself when things go south - it's a bad habit of mine...like somehow I'm personally responsible for always being the maker of fun!

20/20

The surgery went perfectly!  Here I am hopped up on Valium "to take the edge off" - uh, can I get some of this every day?  I mean really, I have an "edge" every day!

We went in at 8:00 am and I was on my way home by 9:45.  I took a pain pill and a sleeping pill and that was pretty much it for the rest of the day.  I woke up every couple hours on my own and would put in some plain drops just to keep things moist, then I would drift off to sleep again.  Then around 6:30 I got up to get something to eat and was stunned...I mean stunned at how well I was seeing!

Now for the graphic portion - to be honest, the worst is when they cut your cornea to make a flap for the laser to work on your actual eye - at the moment they pull back the flap you are blind - it all goes dark.  I had some panic at that moment, but they give you these squeeze balls and I really gave them a work out!  You feel some pressure while they're cutting the flap, but there's no pain - the numbing eye drops take care of that. 

This morning when I went for my follow-up visit I was told the flap was perfectly aligned and already healing nicely and that my vision was 20/20.  Yep, 20/20 the very next day.  I'm giddy!  Of course now I'm going to treat myself for some seriously cool sunglasses!  So, it has certainly been worth it for me.  Now I just have do prescription drops for a week, regular eye drops for a few weeks as needed, and sleep in eye goggles (quite lovely!) for a week.  By summer I'll be cruising at the pool glasses-free!

Here goes

It's 7:03 am and in just one hour I'll be swallowing a Valium and getting ready for my LASIK surgery.  Wish me luck!  I probably won't report on it until tomorrow since I anticipate using the sleeping pills they prescribed me to waste my whole day with my eyes closed!

Lori, In Real Life

First, sorry about the changes to the look of my blog - I tried something new and did NOT like it.  I think I'll stick with this one until I figure out how to do a more custom look.

Today is my first day sans eye makeup in anticipation of my Lasik surgery on Thursday.  I promise you that by the end of my work day I will have had no less than a half dozen people ask me if I feel okay.  I have zero facial personality without eye makeup and I don't even feel like I wear that much!  

Last night as I was wearing a grubby t-shirt from "Budro's Rib Joint" and had color in my hair, I was thinking about the fact that they never show you that part of life in the movies.  The part where you've taken off your bra, you're wearing really old yoga pants and a nasty t-shirt and wandering around waiting for 30 minutes to go by so you can rinse color from your hair.  Maybe that's why we go to movies - because really, who would go see a movie entitled, "Lori Colors Her Hair"????  Okay, I guess with the trend toward independent films with tight budgets somebody might actually want to make and/or see a movie like that, but I don't think that's the movie I'll write!  

Super Sunday

We had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl yesterday - although I don't seem to recall actually seeing any of the game until after they had left, but still. Anyway, they're friends of ours who moved here from Kansas at the same time we did so we arrived in Augusta with built-in friends, which was such a blessing. At least I thought it was a blessing until they came tonight with a bottle of wine JUST FOR ME...and my wine has a screw-top.  Nice!

I'm re-thinking this friendship!

Everything old...

Kyle started watching Schoolhouse Rock and is already loving it. I figured he would. It kind of has all of his favorite things - catchy music, interesting characters and new word concepts. Of course the "catchy music" is now circulating in my head non-stop!

INTERJECTIONS

When Reginald was home with flu, uh-huh-huh,
The doctor knew just what to do-hoo.
He cured the infection
With one small injection
While Reginald uttered some interjections..

Hey! That smarts!
Ouch! That hurts!
Yow! That's not fair givin' a guy a shot down there!

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Yow!) or emotion (Ouch!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

Here it is on You Tube