Matthew Cuthbert died, again

I have sobbed for this man no less than 10 times in my life, and I'm sure I'll weep for him many more times. I am talking about Matthew of Anne of Green Gables fame. Trinks and I hit the all important sad chapter and I cried like a baby the entire way home from ballet. Trinks handled it rather well, but I couldn't stop the tears. I was especially moved by Mrs. Allen's advice to Anne when she was concerned about enjoying life after Matthew died. Mrs. Allen let Anne know that Matthew enjoyed when she laughed and had a good time, and he would like to know she was still enjoying life as she always had.

This really spoke to me as I have such a hard time reconciling myself to the 3 Day. I really enjoy this event. I enjoy pushing myself in training, I love being pampered by the crew during the walk, and I just love feeling like I make a difference. And then I think about Karen and wonder why I should enjoy myself because she isn't here. Believe me, I would never walk again if it meant I could see her again. When I become rational again, I realize it is ok to have a good time with this. And Karen would never stop me. It's just hard sometimes.

Random thoughts on a Tuesday

It feels so surreal, but I am sitting in the car typing while Trinks is in ballet. I have some lovely classical music playing on my iPod and my phone is charging. It just seems so bizarre how my life revolves around this technology. But, more in line with my goofy mood, why the hell doesn’t fake excel work as good as the real one?? No Control Y? Is that even legal??? How else can you repeat random commands without wasting precious minutes of actually re-doing the activity? And no Control C, X, or V? You mean I have to use the freaking mouse? Get real! She’s a cute mouse she’s only used for when I’m not typing. I am definitely a keyboard kind of girl.

And in the vein of tiny annoying things - what the hell is a chuzzle and why do I love them so much? And furthermore, how did I lose my “free preview” when I didn’t even finish a game? I think I need to step away from the computer and take a walk. I had a lovely 3.5 mile walk at lunch and am amazingly refreshed.

Happy Birthday Karen

Today would have been Karen's 37th birthday. At times I'm still stunned she's gone. So instead of focusing on how sad I am she's not here, I want to focus on the time I am grateful I had with her. And to celebrate, I am giving blood. I couldn't get an appointment today - although I will call after 9 to see if someone cancels. I give blood regularly (it's all about the nutter butters and oreos) and keep asking if I am a candidate for platelet donation. Karen needed a lot of platelets and I aim to replace them. The blood bank doesn't really want me to to that because of my rolling veins. At some point I'll wear them down.

The main thing I miss is Karen's laugh. She laughed often, which made me laugh too. Karen could also laugh at herself. She made sure she enjoyed her life. I miss Karen bragging about how little trash she created. It would crack me up when she would report how much trash her neighbors put out every week. She recycled everything. And she figured out how to reuse as much as possible. She was really frugal, too. She could stretch a dollar and only buy things she absolutely needed. I didn't fully appreciate this until after she was gone. Now I find myself being frugal and it's finally making sense. I find myself smiling when I pick up a new frugal skill. Karen would be so proud. I miss talking to Karen on the phone. It would always be a long conversation, interrupted by yelling at the dog, cats, and children.

Happy birthday Karen. My life will never be the same.

Isn't she gorgeous?

First pair of Glasses

So I took Trinks to the eye dr today. Then we went to the mall to get glasses at Lenscrafters. Since her eyes are pretty bad, I wanted her to have then for school on Monday. She hasn't stopped smiling since she was told she needed glasses. Hopefully she'll feel the same about braces.....

New Laptop

I LOVE my pink laptop with spring green mouse. I am sitting here tying on it, however I am tethered to the internet. Oh well. Small steps. I will take my 3 Day conference call in the office on my half dead cell phone and explore my new computer.

Laptop

I spoke to the people who are holding my laptop for ransom. FedEx promises it will be released today when they get my signature from the doortag. I can't believe I missed the guy by 20 minutes!!! I doubt I will set it up today because I am going out with Kathi tonight. But, I am thrilled that it was released by Evil Dell. I think I'll get a Mac next time.

School project

Why do teachers insist on making the parents do reports? Trinks has to write about her heritage and customs and ancestors. First, she left the paper explaining the project at school for a week. Then the instructions are annoyingly vague, with absolutely no guidance. I know other kids parents are writing the report for their kids, but we made Trinks write hers. I think the facts are roughly accurate. No grandparent is going to read this trash, so I think we are safe with our half truths and possibly wrong facts. So I was VERY happy when the teacher gave me permission to type the paper. It's due on Wednesday and I just need to finish arranging the pictures to accompany the report. I learned my lesson with dioramas last year. Teachers don't really want kids to do their own project. Trinks did an awesome job, but her 6 year old abilities were criticized. I guess we're expected to carve crap out of wood or make everything perfect. I have no patience for that. I already got through grade school. I have no desire to do all that stuff over again.

Spring has sprung

I love spring. I love spring more when the weather is spring-like. This weekend the weather was PERFECT! I spent hours outside working in the garden. I have clear flower beds in the front and started working on the back. Since Trinks insists we compost, I no longer worry about getting all the weeds into a bag. Somehow that is very liberating. Hubs and I dug out trees, raked leaves and pruned things up, when we weren't writing, I mean helping to write, Trinks' heritage project. More on that later.

I managed to get rid of some poison ivy from behind the shed. I started itching, so I got in a hot shower, scrubbed my arms raw, slathered alcohol and benadryl on my arms and popped a zantac. The first bubbles have disappeared. I'll spend the next 3 weeks looking for more rashes. But it was well worth the effort. This coming weekend, I look forward to creating my raised bed garden. Hubs won't rent a rototiller and I damn sure won't hand till the rest of the beds. I found a great area in the back where the cucumbers can climb, tomatoes will do well, and all children are above average. Oh wait, that last part is Garrison Keilor's line. Maybe I'll take some pictures to post later this week because MY LAPTOP IS COMING!!!
Maybe even tomorrow!!

Cautiously Optimitic

I received a note from Dell that my laptop has been mailed and should arrive on Tuesday. More than likely I will pick it up at FedEx on Wednesday, but I am ok with that. I just want to get a system that doesn't take FOREVER to change pages. And I can't even blame the DSL for the slowness. It's this darn desktop!

I feel like a ton of weight is off my mind....

A full 10 inches has been removed from my head. I woke up this AM and couldn't stand brushing my hair any more. I got to work, called Penneys and got my hair hacked off. I love it. I have the ponytail and will mail it to Locks of Love this weekend. Wa-hoo!

ALL 16 ARE NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kathi just called me as I walked in the door and let me know all 16 nodes came back negative for cancer. Next week we are going to celebrate!!!!!!! No chemo or radiation!!!!!

Recession impacting college choices

Some of you may know the star of this segment from ABC in NY. No, he doesn't do his laundry at home.

I was shrankled

S made up a word for when you get hit by lightening in Mario Kart. He calls it "getting shrankled". Sounds good to me!

Kathi

Ivy pointed out that I had not updated Kathi's health. Oops! Kathi came through surgery just fine. Unfortunately it will take a week to get the results. Bummer. I am an impatient person, so it really sucks. But I talked to Kathi yesterday and she sounded awesome. As awesome as someone who just came out of surgery could sound.

Dirt cheap dinner

Last week, we took advantage of Super G's dinner special. For $6.99, you got a rotisserie chicken, 32 oz of sherbet, a bag of frozen veggies and some kind of sparkling water. Hubby went to pick it up and they had no chicken available. He complained to customer service, since the chicken is guaranteed to be there and he ended up with a free dinner. He just had to wait for the next batch of chickens to come out. Now that's GOOD service.

Update on Dell

I ended up ordering another Dell laptop. I still don't understand why they cancelled my order and their well trained robots were completely useless in explaining. They told me it was FTC regulation, however the link attached to my cancellation notice had expired so it wasn't clear. I know that service has declined in all areas, and service is mostly handled off shore by non native English speakers, but trying to get people to fix things is ridiculous. I had horrible experience both on the phone (even with a supervisor) and through the Dell chat when I was trying to buy the laptop. I was NOT nasty until the end of the chat when I wished Dell would go bankrupt, but I was still treated terribly. I realize Dell doesn't care, or they would have exceptional service. I asked Iggy, the chat guy, where the breast cancer laptop was. He informed me it wasn't available anymore. I got rid of him and found one. How can they let uneducated people assist with sales?

This is the reason we don't have Comcast as our internet service yet. The guy came out, couldn't answer how we could get wireless from the modem he was installing so hubby sent him away. Hopefully we will come out of this recession with a better educated workforce. I completely understand why people become hermits.

Prayers for Kathi, please!

Kathi is having surgery tomorrow. Hopefully this will the end of her breast cancer adventure. She has to have a sentinel lobe dissection. Boiled down, that's a dissection of a lymph node to see if her cancer spread. The odds of it spreading aren't great, but it's always possible. If they discover any cancer in the node, the surgeons will take more nodes to see the extent. She's nervous, of course, and I won't be happy until I get the phone call she's alright!

Dell Sucks

For some reason these geniuses cancelled my laptop order. I was given less than 24 hour notice before it was cancelled. I am barely able to use this ancient desktop. It's been delayed twice. Now I am on the phone with India while these morons tell me there is nothing they can do. They are completely unable to help me.

I am torn - do I reorder the computer from these idiots or go to another company? I hate ordering things from people with terrible customer service, but Dells are really good. But again, if I have a problem with the computer, do I really want to wait on hold forever before some robot tells me to calm down, there's nothing they can do to assist me?

*****It's now about 1.5 hours later and I am abusing people in Dell's chat. Why do they need to know what I am using the computer for? Just give me what I ordered. And make damn sure it's pink.

What are titties?

So how would YOU answer that when a four year old boy asks you that? It's not as hilarious as Nothing Knew posted, nor as amazingly funny as the guest post I am waiting for from NJ Teacher, but it was amusing enough to get me laughing.

Oh Shit!

I was looking on Amazon for composting books I can request from the library and am hung up on this book. I really think I have to check it out.

Trinks earns a yellow belt!

Trinks did an awesome job on her test for the yellow belt! She nailed her form and looked so ready and confident!! My computer crashed again last night, so pictures will have to wait until tonight. Tomorrow is her graduation.

Don't.Touch.The.Remote.Ever.

So I came home for lunch today to see the new TV. I picked up the remote and tried to change a channel. All I saw was snow. This prompted hubby to yell the title of this post at me.

The TV is amazing. I can see all the beads of sweat on the boxer hubs was watching. He's now watching Lost and since I can't figure out what the hell is going on in that show, I am in the office typing before retreating upstairs to the crappy TV. Perhaps I should finish a book.

Speaking of books, I am reading How to be the Family CFO - really awesome finance book, and The Egg and I - a piece of frugal fiction from 1945. I got the names of both these books from JD over at Get Rich Slowly. So far, both are great.

And let's talk about movies. We watched Beyond the Sea, the Bobby Darren story last weekend. It was pretty good. Very much like Jersey Boys - the story behind the music. Then I watched Beyond belief about two incredible women who lost their husbands on 9/11, gave birth a month or so after, and then decided to help the Afganistan widows. Amazing. The next two movies are Eulogy and Inspiracion.

No School, Day 2

Today there was no school. I figured that out yesterday and asked my mother in law to keep the kids one more day. She agreed immediately. Now I confirmed that Trinks has no school tomorrow. My boss is out until May. I can't take a day off during this time. Hubby took two days last week when we had strep and has Wednesday off for all of our appointments. I am beyond frustrated - there is really no such thing as backup daycare these days. I guess Trinks can come to work with me yet again. I think I'll toss in the sled and she and I can sled together at lunch. Or I'll keep checking kung fu to see if they have a day camp.

Frustration

I am so frustrated with this computer. I have pictures from our trip to Harrisburg, Hershey and Crayola, but I don't have patience to wait to load them. But, I should have my new computer as soon as next week. I CAN'T WAIT!!