Weirdness

This new interface thingy is very weird. I wonder if it will grow on me? I'll have to go back to the blog view anyway to change things on the sidebar. I need to add the next book. And I totally forgot what I was going to say in here. So I'm just going to go to bed now. OH!! My electric bill is off the wall high and about to be shut off if I don't pay and make arrangements by September 6. I was going to pay the back amount -- close to $400 but my car break line blew and that cost me $200. So now I have to pay the current amount, $290 and make arrangements on the balance. No problem except that Hurricane Irene has made UI put ALL their phone numbers on the emergency call in for people. Understandable. AND you cant get on the website because too many people are trying. Understandable. I will try to pay at the Cigar Store tomorrow if that will go through but that won't help with the arrangemnts. So if we get shut off, I'll be extremely pissed -- UNDERSTANDABLY so!

And it's ov

We didn't get hit, thank God! Not much anyway and not here at our street. A little wind and a little rain. What a let down after all the hype. We were totally prepared. Unfortunately not everyone was as lucky as us and Hurricane Irene was devastating to a lot of people.

Power was lost at SCSU so we didn't have work until noon today. The skies have been beautiful and autumn is in the air. The hurricane refreshed my world. And all the prep we did, well at least some of it can be considered the beginning of autumn cleaning.

I almost finished half of my exchange knitting and plan on doing the rest of it over the long weekend. I need to get it to its destination before the end of September.

Oh and I my brakes are gone. Ant #2 took the Jeep out a little while ago and lost the brakes. Luckily Carol's not going to work until Tuesday so they can give me rides to work. She got her new job and worked there yesterday and today and starts for real on Tuesday.

I am sore as hell. Went swordfighting last night for the first time since faire ended. I missed the first class last week. Oh my God! Chris is lighter on the fighting, so far, but a lot heavier on the stretching. No more "go stretch for 10 minutes". Now it's this is what we do and we do it all together. It didn't hurt at all until I woke up this morning. Now it's oh my God!

And so it begins

Carol and family are home. Don't know if I wrote before or after they got back last night -- around midnight. Safe and sound.

Played with the Pumpkin on and off all day -- she actually sticks out her foot now when I say give me the baby toes! We had to go through our little routines, honking my nose, kissing the baby toes, the fake coughing, pushing the buttons and making the music play on her toy so I could clap. I think she really did miss me!

We spent the day getting ready for Irene and hoping she doesn't come. At Anthony's suggestion we filled as many ziplock sandwich bags with water that we could pack into the freezer around the food. I also filled all the larger canning jars with water and put them in the big freezer downstairs. We filled every available bottle and all the baby bottles with filtered water. #2 went to buy water but was way too late. All the stores were sold out. I could have told him that! But with all that's in the freezers to keep the food safe if we lose power, we'll have plenty if we need it.

We got rid of all the dead plants on the porch and tied down the few bits of furniture. We have bags packed with a few things in case of evacuation. The jeep is parked on the lawn so the water shouldn't rise into it. We have plenty of food. So I think we're all set except for filling the tub so we can flush the toilet if we lose water.

Still hoping she doesn't come but if she does, we're ready!

Oh and it started to rain a few minutes ago.

Hurricane Irene

I'd grown a bit bored with posting nothing every night so I stopped for awhile. But now it's time to start again. The East Coast is awaiting the arrival Hurricane Irene -- the worst hurricane, for us, since 1938. Should be interesting.

Carol, #2 and my Pumpkin are on their way home from Virginia. They left at 11 a.m. this morning and are still on the road. Traffic was horrendous. NYC is being evacuated. All shores along the East Coast are being evacuated. Even people living near rivers. The universities canceled all activites for the weekend. I have no work on Monday. Even Broadway in NYC is closed for the weekend!

No porchetta

So we were going to go to the monthly porchetta dinner but couldn't get near the place. Seriously! The closest place we could find to park was about half a mile away. We'll try next month and go earlier! We ended up at the new diner down the hill.

Stuff!

So last night I was too tired to even think about writing in here. I could barely sleep the night before.

But I did get a few rounds done on my exchange gift and I finally caught up with Sandy. We're going to get that porchetta dinner tomorrow night. YUM!

Voted NO again today, fat lot of good that will do but at least I tried. And I found a pretty nice blog, Catholic and it has a list of other Catholic blogs. Maybe it will motivate me.

Still working on trying to figure out how to either get out of the unions or switch unions.

Another day well spent

I did most of my ironing. Didn't do any knitting but I went shopping and got stuff we needed. It feels like I did a lot more. Hmmm. No matter -- it was a great day. I love the rain!

A full day

I just looked at the clock and noticed it's after 9:30! Holy cow!

I didn't get up until around 10 a.m. and then started doing stuff. I went downtown (I love downtown) to the post office and over to the cigar store to see if Darmish had any newspaper inserts for me. The ones he gave me didn't have any c/o fliers. Hopefully whatever is left Monday after work, will have some.

Sandy didn't call so I had the whole day do putz around. I started my pairs project, the weather was good for knitting. I'm excited! I filed all my c/o fliers; did all my laundry; went to Shoprite; cooked supper; ate; etc. And somehow the whole day flew by.

It was a good day!

First tooth

The Pumpkin popped her first tooth today, as happy as can be. I am so filled with joy and gratitude whenever I see her smile. She makes coming home at the end of the work day, a wonderful, wonderful thing. Today she's 9 months old.

I was looking at when I started this blog and used to actually write some things. I'll have to go back to five years ago and post some about it -- maybe tomorrow. I can't believe the incredible amount of changes from then to now.

1. Allen dead
2. Had to move
3. Tony being an asshole and not having that part of my family real anymore.
4. Carol divorced
5. Carol with #2
6. The Pumpkin
7. Leaving SCRF
8. Learning to do stage combat swordfighting
9. Becoming a part of a new faire from the ground up and performing in public
10. Quitting smoking
11. Becoming an Elk
12. Becoming an officer in the Elks
13. Having a car accident
14. Getting divorced (almost forgot that one)
15. Aunt El dying
16. Jay dying
17. Paulette dying
18. Becoming a Facebook addict (love it!)
19. Sam moving in with Ant and me for two years
20. Sam being in high school!!
21. Lou having brain cancer
22. Almost buying a house but now credit back to crap
23. Carol moving to Florida
24. Carol movving back home
25. Joy inspite of setbacks -- life is GOOD!
26. Joining Cosmic and meeting all kinds of new people

Wow!! And that's off the top of my head.

Waiting for supper

#2 is out on the porch grilling hamburgers and portobellos and I'm totally starving!! Ugh!!

Also I changed my mind twice today about what I'm going to knit for the exchange. Geez!

Blackout!

So I'm in the middle of baking pork chops when the power goes out. At first we thought it was #2 using the vacuum and the coffee maker being on at the same time. Nope. The more than 2,500 homes in Derby were out and 38 homes in Ansonia. For hours. Luckily I have a gas stove and Anthony had a coleman so we could eat with a light.

When the power came back on we found out it was a tiny little bird had fried itself on a power line and blew out half the city!

Then I try to get on here and it's down for maintenance. At least everything is working now!

Got my exchange gift already -- a beautiful pair of leg warmers! I haven't even started knitting mine yet. Good thing there's still plenty of time!

We're losing

Looks like CT is screwed, especially those of us who work for the state. If there were a way for me to move out of state, preferably up north, and be able to live, I'd do it in a heart beat.

Hot again

I hope it cools down soon. I need to work on the next knitting exchange. I have a pattern I want to try and if I don't like it, I have to start over with something else. But it's been too darned hot to even think about doing anything!! Not hot enough to really complain but too hot to touch yarn or wool. *sigh*

Ghosts

So the investigation last night was not what I expected. Margaret couldn't be there with her equipment because she had a migraine so we did what we could with voice recorders and evp things and Greg's motion sensor camera. Donna had her dowsing rods which seemed to be the best in getting yes and no answers. It's not easy trying to communicate with karaoke going full blast either! LOL!! We definitely communicated -- there was a point where I was sure, and even said so, that there were fleas up in that room. My ankles were being bitten and itched like heck. Two of the others were having almost the same problem. But Donna made sense -- it's a restaurant and there are no animals. Weird! Got home a bit after 2 a.m. It was definitely interesting!

Busy today

Going to an annual cookout and then on an investigation with Cosmic tonight. I'll be home for awhile after the cookout. Donna's picking me up at 9 p.m. for the investigation and we won't be back until maybe 4 a.m. Should be interesting.

Home alone!

What a novelty. It's just me and the dogs for a few hours. We' just sitting here vegging out, watching tv.

Putting this link here so hopefully I'll find it again if I want to see it:
Our interview in the Valley Indy

And wow!

Yesterday I couldn't find my camera or the ziplock that has flash drives and sd cards in it. I looked everywhere and I even called the Elks since I was there Tuesday night. Nada. Nowhere. Then, after asking for St. Anthony's help, I decide (and there was NO reason for me to look here) to look in with the last thing I was knitting on. Lo and behold -- camera and ziplock nestled in with the yarn and needles. Weird place for them to be.

Meanwhile on Sunday I totally lost a rain check and $4 coupon for the dogfood we buy. The raincheck was for buy one bag (usually $19/bag) get one free. Deduct $4 and that would bring my total cost down to $15 (from $36) for the two bags. A HUGE savings. They were nowhere to be found. I even looked through the trash.

Tonight Carol hands me the baby while I was sitting on my bed. I look down and there, sitting on top of my knitting stuff, are the rain check and the coupon. Double thanks to St. Anthony.

I wonder if someone is trying to tell me I should be knitting. At least tonight the weather is better and I decided on my pairs exchange.

Need to center myself ... seriously!!

I'm upset with the governor and union -- big time.
I'm upset with the president.
I'm upset with all Democrats because it's their fault.
I'm upset with the Elks
And now there's jerks messing around with our annual All Class reunion!

Geez!! I need to focus. And they say one person can make a difference. But I'm proving 'them' wrong since I'm trying and trying and trying and no one is listening.

Centering. Grounding. Time to burn some sage!

Wow! Blessing -- St. Anthony. I thought I'd lost my camera and flash drives, and I sort of did. St. Anthony to the rescue. Asked and then found them within minutes.

New day

So I had to stay home today because there were several inches of water INSIDE my Jeep. I ended up using a shop vac on it and hope it will dry out completely.

It was a bit cooler so I knit a few rows on one of my She-Knits bags that I've been working on for over a year. Then I noticed I screwed up and had to tear out 40 rows! LOL!!

Elks meeting tonight.

Wow. Back from the meeting and just, wow.

Blessings -- aside from the normal (and the most important -- baby smiles), my Jeep runs. I'm alive and doing well. God is wonderful. I love my life. :)

Storm!

Wow! Boy did it storm. Hail and enough rain to flood the front of our street and the side road where I am parked. I sure hope my Jeep starts up in the morning. But it sure cooled us down!!