Frequently Infrequent

So, in holding with my mantra of "whenever I get around to it," I haven't updated my blog in a while.  I frequently update it infrequently.

So, What has happened since the last post?

Well, it turns out that though my platelet count is in the normal range, it's too low for donations outside of emergencies and holidays, so I only gave blood and will continue to do so.

We still haven't done much more on painting in Donna's room-to-be yet.  We've still got one coat on the bedroom door, both coats on the the trim, and touch-up on the walls and ceilings.  Then I can move furniture in there and we can get started on Megi's room.

I still need to finish Candice's ventilation system.  Hopefully I can do that this weekend.  I have to make a trip to Home Depot to see about ducting and connectors (specifically one that I can bolt to the fan and connect the other duct work to it) before final assembly, since that will drive how big of a hole to cut into the board on the receiving side of the fan.  I also don't relish working in the garage when it's sub-freezing outside...

Gabe has lost two coats at school this year and was lucky to not have lost a third one.  He's currently grounded because he doesn't think the rules we impose on him actually apply to him and he does whatever he wants to do (like taking off and not wearing his coat on the school playground when it's 30 degrees outside and leaving it out there).  Hopefully his inability to play over the next couple of weeks will have somewhat of an impact on his ability to follow our rules.

It looks like we might be getting a visit from my sister-in-law next week all the way from South Caroilina.  I'm looking forward to it!

The fish are surviving well, though we did lose a couple due to the stress of changing environments.

Megi has claimed "No!" as her current favorite word, and she says it in a sing-songish manor where her inflections rise as she says it.  It's cute.  For now.  She's still a beast when she doesn't get her way and has been since 4 months old.  I'm not looking forward to her terrible twos.

Donna is starting to learn that she's not the princess she believes herself to be and that she has to do what mommy and daddy say.  Hopefully we get this streak of "entitlement" kicked soon, then we have to work on the crying about everything with both her and Gabe.

We haven't heard anything back from the IRS on grandma's taxes.  I have no idea how long it should take before we hear anything, but I said in our response that if we didn't hear anything back, we'd assume it was over.

On that same note, we filed our taxes this morning after they were "rejected" last night.  It seems we never changed Gabe's last name with the Social Security Administration after I adopted him and when I put his name in "correctly" it was "incorrect."  Add that to the list of things I need to do with the government about my kids (Gabe shows up wrong for my medical insurance, the paperwork with the VA to have Meg listed as a dependant on their system STILL hasn't finished processing.  I could care less about the extra $30 per month that isn't taxable - it won't affect my bottom line practically at all - I want her to be listed on my survival benefit plan in case the unthinkable happens.  Damn beaurocracy.

I still haven't gotten around to cleaning out the garage after the mice incident, either.  I doubt I will until it gets into the 60s or warmer either...

Many of the old members of Wordtrip are making a semi-honest effort at getting the site active again.  For those that don't know, it's a forum for writers once listed many years in a row as one of the top websites for writers.  Hopefully, it'll add to my motivation to get these short story compilations written and published.  (Shouldn't this paragraph be near the top of this blog since the intent of this blog is my life as an author?  Oh, well...)  I'm not able to be on it nearly as often as I used to be, but I'm trying to access it a few times each day to post and read.

Candice's business is going well, but she's thinking about moving it to another website instead of Etsy.  It's a dicey move since Etsy has a huge customer base, but the fees would be less per year, and it also adds the listing into Google shopping, which could increase the customer base (assuming the customer base isn't going directly to Etsy or eBay to do their searches.  If that's the case, it could prove harder to get it going good.  I think that's a better plan for leaving Etsy than starting her own website at this jucture because it's less work and she doesn't have to recruit her entire customer base.  One she's well established with a large customer base, then her own website is probably the way to go.  We'll see...

I did get the other hotels booked for the vacation this July, so it is all planned out and essentially finalized.

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading!