So it seems Candice has developed an ingrained sunbconsious aversion to certain items that she has such as her mouthguard and her fitbit. With both she started out dedicated and religiously kept track of everything about them, and more recently keeps misplacing them for long periods of time. It's become a sort of inside joke with us, and now we have key spots where we look which in the past have been where we've always found them, so her subconscious has seemed to take notice and found new places to "hide" them. That, or we have gremlins.
I tend to side on the gremlin theory, because we have had so many costly things go wrong with the house and appliances. Just last week the washing machine died and we had to buy a new one. Last year the central air died. Twice. Once for A/C and once for Heating. We had the master bathroom shower leak into the dining room. What else could cause this stuff on a 6-7 year old house except gremlins?
Shadow still hasn't returned, so I'm 99% sure she didn't make it. :-(
This weekend's plans are to mow the front yard (yes, that dreaded time of year has finally started), finish the other kitten coffin, and get the vegitable garden ready for planting. We are putting up two "fences" for beans and peas to grow up onto, and we'll be putting in four tomato cages. We need to also dig up/till/add in non-clay soil to the levels for gardening. I also should do something with the zone 8 sprinklers which will water the garden, so I guess I need to get on that in the gaining new knowledge department.
Anyway, that's all for this post. Thanks for reading.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Anblick's Driving Academy
So, I forgot to mention in the last blog the slow painful death of our planned meals list. We followed if faithfully for the first two weeks or so, then loosely followed it for the next two (we'd swap nights around, maybe substitute something from off the list on a night), and then we just kinda stopped following it alltogether.
Anblick's Driving Academy has started back up. In it, I've been teaching Candice to drive a stick shift. No one had been able to accomplish it in the past, so I took it up around September/October of last year. She got to be pretty good for empty parking lot driving, but her confidence wasn't there to do much more than drive around the building.
Last night, we went out to try again for the first time since October. She picked it up again pretty good, and I wouldn't let her stop until she had three smooth starts from a dead stop. She did it. But again, her biggest problem is her confidence. She's not bad at it, but her doubts make her make mistakes. When she relaxed, she's actually pretty good. (But heaven forbid a car gets behind her.) It will come though. She's a pretty smart cookie. She expects perfection out of most of what she does, and when she can't hit that off the bat, she gets discouraged and looses confidence. I have a feeling that if I can get her to apply herself long enough to actually see the results, it might help her in some of the other things she starts but doesn't finish because she looses interest when she starts making mistakes at them. Fingers are crossed.
That's all for this one. Thanks for reading.
Anblick's Driving Academy has started back up. In it, I've been teaching Candice to drive a stick shift. No one had been able to accomplish it in the past, so I took it up around September/October of last year. She got to be pretty good for empty parking lot driving, but her confidence wasn't there to do much more than drive around the building.
Last night, we went out to try again for the first time since October. She picked it up again pretty good, and I wouldn't let her stop until she had three smooth starts from a dead stop. She did it. But again, her biggest problem is her confidence. She's not bad at it, but her doubts make her make mistakes. When she relaxed, she's actually pretty good. (But heaven forbid a car gets behind her.) It will come though. She's a pretty smart cookie. She expects perfection out of most of what she does, and when she can't hit that off the bat, she gets discouraged and looses confidence. I have a feeling that if I can get her to apply herself long enough to actually see the results, it might help her in some of the other things she starts but doesn't finish because she looses interest when she starts making mistakes at them. Fingers are crossed.
That's all for this one. Thanks for reading.
Friday, April 13, 2012
All Washed Up
So, our plans for the hearse are on a slower planning cycle to be out for next year's Halloween rather than this year's. Pretty much exclusively because our plans to replace our washing machine have been accelerated. And not by whim or choice (at least not our choice - the washing machine we have seemed to have made the choice for us).
Our current 15 year old model (for which parts are hard to find and expensive) had the motor go out on it. This caused us to spend money on a new washer (it'll be delivered Thursday). That of course will be made up for in the budget mostly by postponing this summer's budget on Halloween design. <insert frowny face here>
But that caused another fun experience for Candice and me. The Laundromat. I had not been in a laundromat since approximately 1991. Not much has changed except that prices are WAY more expensive now. Granted, the time to finish laundry is MUCH less when you can wash and dry all the loads simultaneously, but I'd still rather not have that "date night" experience again. And this laundromat wasn't nearly as sketchy as some of the ones I'd been in 20+ years ago, but I'd still just as soon skip a repeat performance.
Lately we've been doing outside work in the yard. I planted the Cherry Trees. Candice has been weeding and planting stuff like crazy. I've even sketched out the four garden areas so Candice can plan what to plant where.
On a sad note, Shadow, our one year-old long haired black cat has gone missing and has been missing for around 4 days. And she got outside without her harness/tags on. And there are loyts of Hawks and Coyotes in the area. And we had a massive storm the other night that might have washed away all the smells to help her find her way back. We're still hopeful and making trips to the back door to call for her every few hours. Ghost is pestering us even more now that she's missing and Ghost's play pal is gone.
That's all for this edition. Thanks for reading!
Our current 15 year old model (for which parts are hard to find and expensive) had the motor go out on it. This caused us to spend money on a new washer (it'll be delivered Thursday). That of course will be made up for in the budget mostly by postponing this summer's budget on Halloween design. <insert frowny face here>
But that caused another fun experience for Candice and me. The Laundromat. I had not been in a laundromat since approximately 1991. Not much has changed except that prices are WAY more expensive now. Granted, the time to finish laundry is MUCH less when you can wash and dry all the loads simultaneously, but I'd still rather not have that "date night" experience again. And this laundromat wasn't nearly as sketchy as some of the ones I'd been in 20+ years ago, but I'd still just as soon skip a repeat performance.
Lately we've been doing outside work in the yard. I planted the Cherry Trees. Candice has been weeding and planting stuff like crazy. I've even sketched out the four garden areas so Candice can plan what to plant where.
On a sad note, Shadow, our one year-old long haired black cat has gone missing and has been missing for around 4 days. And she got outside without her harness/tags on. And there are loyts of Hawks and Coyotes in the area. And we had a massive storm the other night that might have washed away all the smells to help her find her way back. We're still hopeful and making trips to the back door to call for her every few hours. Ghost is pestering us even more now that she's missing and Ghost's play pal is gone.
That's all for this edition. Thanks for reading!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Tired and Sore (and Impulse Buying)
I worked swings (2nd shift) this past week to include Saturday, but Sunday we made a lot of good progress towards our outdoor projects. I got the hanging flower brackets mounted to the deck railing so we can hang the tomato plants (we tried hanging them from below the deck but they were too big of a pain to water from above or below). Finished digging up the scraggly bushes, but I still need to carry them over to the trash can side of the house and cut them down in size so we can put them in the garbage cans. Candice started planting flower bulbs. We started pulling up the "anti weed tarps" which are only good for keeping the plants you wand to grow from being planted - weeds seem to flourish through them. We removed the ragged "rock border" to the front flower garden and moved some trapezoidal shaped bricks to take their place in an actual smooth line.
I also turned the sprinklers on. Just in time for a cold snap today and tomorrow, but it looks like it shouldn't be too bad one day dips to 30 degrees for a couple of hours, but I can aleviate that easily without having to re-blow out the heads. I also adjusted some of the heads to water the flower gardens out front too.
Today, I'm paying for it with all kinds of soreness all through my body.
The town of Erie has an annual program where they will reimburse residents up to $300 for the purchase of trees if bought through certain nurseries. We should be getting a white oak tree which is going to cost about $350 to plant in the back yard and provide some shade on the back of the house. It had looked like our planned purchase of cherry trees was going to have to wait until at least next year. that is until we went to Home Depot last night to purchase blue lights for the outside lights for Autism Awareness Day. Candice said "should we check to see if they have any cherry trees?" I sighed because every tree I'd looked at in the previous week was expensive and I didn't think we could fit them in our budget. BUT I was curious, so we went into their tree area and sure enough, they had lots of them for $24 apiece. We bought two and had fun driving them home (Candice had to sit in the back and make sure the hatch didn't slam down and chop into the tree sections that hung out the back of our Santa Fe). We still need to but several long posts for stability (especially given the winds in Erie), but should be planting them this weekend.
I also turned the sprinklers on. Just in time for a cold snap today and tomorrow, but it looks like it shouldn't be too bad one day dips to 30 degrees for a couple of hours, but I can aleviate that easily without having to re-blow out the heads. I also adjusted some of the heads to water the flower gardens out front too.
Today, I'm paying for it with all kinds of soreness all through my body.
The town of Erie has an annual program where they will reimburse residents up to $300 for the purchase of trees if bought through certain nurseries. We should be getting a white oak tree which is going to cost about $350 to plant in the back yard and provide some shade on the back of the house. It had looked like our planned purchase of cherry trees was going to have to wait until at least next year. that is until we went to Home Depot last night to purchase blue lights for the outside lights for Autism Awareness Day. Candice said "should we check to see if they have any cherry trees?" I sighed because every tree I'd looked at in the previous week was expensive and I didn't think we could fit them in our budget. BUT I was curious, so we went into their tree area and sure enough, they had lots of them for $24 apiece. We bought two and had fun driving them home (Candice had to sit in the back and make sure the hatch didn't slam down and chop into the tree sections that hung out the back of our Santa Fe). We still need to but several long posts for stability (especially given the winds in Erie), but should be planting them this weekend.
I finished one of the kitten coffins. Still have to finish gluing and add hinges and the latch to the other one. We'll probably bury the kittens that didn't make it later this month.
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