Taking Care of Business

Y'all know we have a window cleaning business, right? Here's a link to our fancy website: Everclear. As you can imagine, winters are a bit rough. Work slows down, cash flow runs dry. We've tried to hold back on hiring to save on payroll this year, so we just had one guy who turned out to be less than reliable. Now it's spring and we are slammed with work. So, we decided to hire me. Who knew that in addition to working in the office, I could also actually go out and clean? I am a good employee. I show up every day and I get the job done. And I get a kick out of sending out invoices for work that I did. It's pretty empowering to take matters in my own hands and get all that last minute end-of-the-month stuff done.

My side job: crocheting headbands. Every night I crank out 2 or 3 while watching TV. Jordan brings more orders from his buddies every day. So far he's sold 15 or so of them...at $5 a pop. Of course he keeps most of the money, but at least he's not asking me for cash, right? And the $25 he did give me paid for the yarn and then some so it's cool. I'll take a picture of one later, because I know you're thinking, "wth is a crocheted headband." It's the IN thing, I tell ya.

*@#$%&!

So everything in our house is breaking at once. Can you say planned obsolescence? Or perhaps it's just a test of my patience, of which I have very little for technical malfunctions. Things currently on the blink:

*camera
*photo printer
*all-in-one color printer
*2 dvd players
*blender
*electric griddle
*car cd player
*kitchen phone
*Shane's cell phone
*Jordan's cell phone

On the plus side, it will make Christmas shopping pret-ty easy.

Bugs & Ears

Went to the pet store the other day, for what might be the weirdest purchase I've ever made.

Yep, 6 live crickets and 1 pig ear. Did you know crickets are $.11 a piece? I'm not sure if it's a good deal or not. Put the lot (there were really about 10) into the frog tank, and they were gone an hour later. Eaten? Vaporized? Abducted? Looks like it's time for another cricket run.

Enthralling blogging, I know.

Memorial Day

This year we are just hanging around the house. It's chilly and cloudy and rainy. Good for cleaning house, making stuff, watching movies...but not camping. Last year was hot and sunny and we camped out at Pyramid. A few highlights:

And then the super fun part - I walked down the beach and caught a nice-sized fish.



But then I felt guilty and ran back down to the water to release the fish.

Evan got all excited trying to catch the same fish, casted wildly and caught...me. I believe the "oh shit" could be heard around the entire lake. Yes, it is a large hook. A barbed treble hook - at least only two of the three were embedded.

After a little lakeside surgery, the hook was out and poor Evan felt really bad.

But at that point I was feeling no pain (that cup contains Sailor Jerry)

And here's what it looked like a couple days later. I went to Urgent Care to have them check it out and the doctor said that Shane did a fabulous job. There was no infection, just a little bit of something (hair follicle?) sticking out that they had to remove. Gross, eh?

All in all, quite a memorable trip. It took me a while to get over the whole thing, but OMG at least it wasn't one of the kids. Note to any future camping/fishing companions: if anything like this happens to me again, just knock me out with a sucker punch or drive me to the nearest hospital for a local. Ok? Thanks.

Field Day

Friday was Field Day at school. I got to hang out and play games outside with the kids, and then we had a bbq lunch together. It was tons of fun! Hard to believe the school year is almost over.

Oh, The Horror!

Went to the bridal shop to try on dresses for my lovely little sis's upcoming wedding...it was not pretty. Sorry, Bri, you know I love you - but it was not a good experience. I'm convinced that bridesmaid's dresses have one purpose only, to be ugly and ill-fitting enough to make the bride look extra gorgeous. And I do take some responsibility here - it's no secret that I've gained weight. In fact, I selected dresses a size larger than I normally would, just to be on the safe side. But then had to go up another size. Yikes. To make matters worse, the dressing room is the little tiny type with no mirror, you have to go out of the fitting room into the common area to look in the full size mirror. I don't like that set-up. At all. And I seriously almost got stuck in one of those dresses. It was a tight-fitting number with those bone things in the bodice, I got in it just fine but then the zipper stuck. I almost dislocated my shoulder trying to pull it off over my head, like a freaking straight jacket. Did I mention I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl? So Bri, here's what I'm wearing on your special day:

I think the colors will work, don't you?

PS: I'm going out for a jog now.

Heat Wave

We've got record high temps - 97 last time I looked. Now, mind you Monday we were in the low 60s, so with the heat index it feels like about 375. Great for baking cookies, not so much for anything else. The kids are splashing in their little puddle of a pool and slip-n-sliding. It's so strange...so early. Typically it snows on Memorial Day weekend. Off to check on my newly planted garden. We've got zukes, cukes, two types of tomatoes, grape tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and bunches of herbs. Hope they're not wilting already.

Handlebars

I'm a little obsessed with this song right now. The rhythm, the lyrics, they just won't get out of my head! And the video is cool and thought provoking too. Maybe it's just because I've been feeling a little aggro lately, I dunno, but I find myself singing it out loud everywhere. Me and my friends saw a platypus. Me and my friends wrote a comic book...

Problems with embedding the video - here's a link

Venting

Top 10 Things Annoying Me Today:

10. My computer is running really loudly and probably shooting deadly electromagnetic waves at me.

9. Our camera is broken.

8. No one in this house seems to be able to pick up after him/herself.

7. No Survivor tonight, it's over. And Parvati won. Pffft.

6. My scalp is sunburned and itchy.

5. Gas is approaching $4.00 a gallon, and everything else is getting more and more expensive.

4. Allergies.

3. Internet drama.

2. I popped a crown off my tooth and haven't gotten it fixed yet.

1. Waiting on the IRS to send out that dang "stimulus" check.

River Fest Recap

What a weekend! Fun, sun, music, and paddlin' - what could be better? The weather was gorgeous, the crowd was pumped up, the competition was fierce. Shane competed in the freestyle event and the boatercross, and made his goal of not coming in last. Way to reach for the stars, Babe! Huge congrats to Scott for winning the amateur freestyle and going on to play with the big boys (and for finding your bike.)

Hangin' Out

It's beginning to look a lot like spring time...love these nice afternoons. Had another earthquake last night, quite a jolt although it was only a 3.8 this time. So weird.

Evan is getting to be quite the big boy. Lately he is talking on the phone with his "girlfriend" a lot. Last night he says, "what are you doing?" and then tells her, "standing here in my underwear talking to you." Jeez.

He can work the lawnmower too:

Aw, I love this pic (ps: I made that hat!)

Miracle Grow(?)

Want the greenest lawn on the block? The stuff you bought at Home Depot not cutting it? This potion is really supposed to work, don't know why or how, but that's what they say. It was featured on our local news and sure enough, their test patch greened up in just a couple days. (not kidding)




Here's the recipe:

one can soda, not diet
one can beer, not light
1/2 cup liquid dishwashing soap; do not use anti-bacterial
1/2 cup mouthwash
1/2 cup household ammonia

Mix with ten gallons of water in a sprayer and apply every three weeks.

Family Float

Finally got the pics from our 4/20 float down the Truckee. The kids are in the big blue raft, Shane and I are in the yellow duckie. It was a complete blast despite the cold (mid 30's that day). Huge thanks to our trip organizer Kent at Sierra Nevada Outdoors - without his gear we could not have made the chilly trip! I did take an unexpected swim about 10 min into the 4.5 hour trip and it was COLD. Like imagine sitting in a puddle of ice water for the better part of a day. But still, it was a ton of fun!

Woo-Hoo!

Shane at Federal Falls last Sunday...photo courtesy of Steven Wright at www.jacksonkayak.com