Call Me Maybe

I got a new phone.

This new phone replaces my iPhone3, which was an extra one Steve somehow had.
That replaced the other iPhone3 which I had dropped on the driveway and shattered - that one was also a hand-me-down from Steve.
That first iPhone3 replaced another phone - not a smart phone - that I left in the outside mesh pocket of a diaper bag during a heavy rainstorm at Santa's Village.
Before that I had my other cell phone, my first cell phone, purchase in 1999 at the mall. It was a flip phone and I thought it was the coolest thing...

Anyway... this is the first phone I'd purchased since then.

It isn't new, it's used, an iPhone 5. I like that it's used because not only is it less expensive but it makes me feel good to know I'm prolonging the life of a still useful item. People tend to go through cell phones like kleenex these days.

I love it. It's so fast and does so man things my old phone couldn't do. It doesn't just decide to shut down, like my old phone, or quit making sounds, like my old phone.

It's funny how attached I am to it. I think a lot about how technology grows and has morphed into our society. I just don't know the rules anymore.

Nick says he's one of the only 10 year olds who don't have a cell phone.

I'm not inclined to believe him, but I wonder... I want to think that I know what's right for my kids, regardless of what the masses are doing. On the other hand, if he is being denied something that everyone does have or do, then is it really a benefit?

I'm not getting him a cell phone. Not anytime soon. Not until he stops forgetting his completed homework at home or his agenda at school. But at some point, sooner than I'd like, I'm going to have to get him a cell phone. And my life will never be the same....

Maybe when he starts driving...

Startup Disk Full

Have you ever gotten this message on your computer?

It's terrifying.

You're going along, doing your thing, whatever it is you do on your computer... and the message pops up. Your computer is full. You need to get rid of stuff.

I have no issues getting rid of physical items. I can dig through a closet and harden my heart (sometimes) and fling out underused items of clothing, toys, books, games, etc. It's hard, but my biggest worry is the waste.

With a computer, there is no real waste. I mean, if I delete a file, that file isn't going to end up in a landfill in India for generations of barefoot children to cut their feet on, is it? I delete a file and it's gone. Poof. Magic. One moment it's a movie or a song or a game, and the next moment it's not there. negative space.

So.

So I got this message on my computer.

I deleted some stuff, and I went on with my life.

I tried synching my ipad. My ipad wanted a software update. I said OK.

Then the update couldn't be completed.

Because there wasn't enough room on my computer. My startup disk was almost full.

The last time I got this message on my computer, I went to Steve. Steve said he would fix it, and he did, and it worked for a little while. Then I got a new computer.

The trouble is, every year computers and ipads and iphones come with more and more memory. Apps take up more and more space and they do more and more things. Where 20 games would fit, now only 5 will. The games are bigger and better and clearer. The pictures are better. They just take up more room.

So I woke up in the middle of the night. I do that more often than I care to admit. And after some while of trying to get back to sleep, I caved and googled what to do when your Startup Disk Is Full.

I deleted cashe files. I emptied the trash. I combed through my downloads - and there were quite a few. You want a huge chunk of space taken up in pdf files? Get a divorce.

I went through my itunes folder. I deleted a number of games that I'd had for years that I probably would never play again. They didn't even all fit on my ipad. But I had backups for them, just in case... Oh well. I guess I can live without playing the Alabama Vampire Detective Hidden Object / puzzle game a second time. Purge. That's what this is. It's a purge.

Yes, I paid for the game. Yes, maybe sometime in the future I might have the time and the inclination to actually play that game again.

Will it be the worst thing in the world not to have it?

No. In fact, I might not even remember that it was ever there.

So. Purge.

Throw things out (electronically). Get rid of this old stuff so that I can have new experiences.

The message will come back, I' sure. But at least I have some idea of what to do and what to get rid of when it does.

Not As Often

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will have noticed by now that I haven't really been... well, blogging.

This wasn't a computer malfunction, or some glitch of the site. It wasn't an oversight on my part, either. No, this was a choice. I made a choice to blog less often. Much, much less often.

And there are a few reasons for it.

First of all, if anything of immediate interest happens to me, I will probably post it on FaceBook sooner or later. I know, I know, it's horrible. And not everyone HAS Facebook. It's OK, Linda, I'll call you and send you emails. You too, Mom. Although I'm not sure what I'd say.

See, another thing is, I feel I am often scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with something to post about. What was that cute thing one of the kids said the other day? Didn't I snap a photo of the boys in the few moments they were not fighting or eating or playing a video game? I'll use this one, even though it's blurry. Although I actually do believe that everything my kids do is amazing, I know the rest of the world doen't agree, and why should it?

Which leads us to a third reason. When I am looking for topics to blog about, I tend to ruminate on certain things which should NOT be blogged about. There is, surprisingly, a rather long list of these things. I do not wish to embarrass my children (too much.) I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't want to post about arguments or disagreeable things that will come back to haunt me later. I realize that, in the lifetime of this blog, I've done all three, without meaning to. And if there is something that I am particularly focused on, someone's performance in school, for example, or maybe an argument that I had with someone,.. If I am focused on that one thing, I may not be able to articulate much else.

And let's face it. I am a busy person. Between keeping my home livable and the floors relatively lego free, and making sure my children are getting to school, practicing piano, doing homework, getting to karate, between making dinner, volunteering, church, choir, and all that... well, I find I don't have a lot of extra time. And even when I do have a few moments, I would rather be reading or writing something else.

So.

There you have it. I will not be posting as often. I'm aiming for one or two posts a week. If we're all lucky, there will be photos.

I'm sorry. I really am. I have found that this blog is a treasure of past memories, a record of my children and how they have grown. I hope that not too many of you stop reading completely.

Same Old Story

Blogger tells me I'm once again out of space.

I deleted a number of old photographs from old posts, but I can't seem to add as many as I delete. Probably because the cameras are getting more and more sophisticated and it takes more and more memory to store a picture.

At the same time, it should be simpler to store larger digital items.

I get 1 GB of space.

If I paid $2.50 a month I would get 25 GB of space.

And I could just upload tons of pictures and not have to worry about blabbing on and on...

Also, its faster. By now I'd have had most of the week pre-posted.

Instead, I'm tired and sick and wondering if paying for this would be the worst thing on the world, of if I should scrap it, or just write words, or keep deleting photos one after another until I can only keep a weeks worth of photos up there at a time...

What should I do, universe? Send me a sign!

What's that? You say I should just stop typing and think about this tomorrow?

OK. That's what I'll do, then.

The Happening...

I used to sit down and try and write a bunch of blog posts at one time.

When my brain or memory would fail me, I would put up a bunch of photographs. I didn't always have any, but I often did, and if I didn't I'd pull out the camera and take pictures of the boys eating or playing with their DS things, or sometimes my backyard.

So there I was, right after Thanksgiving, ready to put up a bunch pf photos of smiling and eating relatives, and everything seemed to be going according to plan, when...

I got an error message.

It was upbeat. It began with "whoops!"

When I was tracking my running, RunKeeper sometimes gave me error message s that began "Oh Noes!" when their server wasn't functioning properly. And I would get doubly irritated because not only was the server not working, but I'm in no mood for computers trying to act all cute. This time I kind of felt the same way.

Only Blogger wasn't taking any of the blame. Oh no.

The "whoops!" messgae went on to explain that I had reached my free 1GB of free storage space for photos in my online Picasa web album, the one that stores my photos, and that I would have to purchase additional space if I wanted to go on. Or perhaps order some photos or something?

Quite honestly, I don't remember the exact wording of the message. I was upset. And as I am not inclined to pay for web storage nor am I ready to order photos (I just ordered 300 prints from iphoto) I was in kind of a lurch.

So now I'm doing a bit of shuffling around. I'm trying to transfer photos from the Picasa web albums to iPhoto, so I don't lose them (I'll end up having to back them up again, I know. Then, I can go and delete them, one by one. off the Picasa albums.

The downside to this, and it is a real downside, is that when I delete a photo from Picasa, it is no longer available on this blog.

Go back. Take a moment and go back to the earliest of the posts I did, way back in 2006. You'll see that the earliest photos are gone and unviewable. You should view all of them, all of the pictures of Nick as a toddler and Nate as a chubby cheeked baby, go back and see them all now. While you still can.

From this point on it's like some horror film, Back To The Future, maybe, but to me more like Steven King's Langoliers, or The Nothing from The Neverending Story. It has begin, and now, little by little, those old photographs will disappear, gradually picking up speed, until today, too, is eaten by the no-more-photos monster...

Anyway, one of the reasons things have slowed down is that all this shuffling around takes time. Photos will arrive before too long. I appreciate your patience.

Kitchen Sink

Here's a lovely view of my new window. And my new sink. And the clutter that has already accumulated.

Thursday Kitchen Update

Well, it's almost done.

As of this moment, we are missing an oven. There are two light fixtures that need to be installed. A patch of ceiling needs to be sanded and one spot around a ceiling light needs to be painted over. One drawer handle needs to be installed.

And the workers need to pick up 1 floor pad and 1 light they left behind.

I have got to find homes for things yet to be put away - the pool table is full of items. Pots, waffle irons, cookie cutters... various kitchen items I forgot we have, rarely use, cannot give away because what if we decide we NEED to.... I don't know.... make three thousand batches of cookies with a cookie press? What if we did that and I had given the presses away?

I also need to comb through the hutch and it's drawers. I need to go through the cupboards in the "new" laundry room and figure out what should be kept in there. I need to figure out a way to put up the tall cleaning items, like the broom and the mop.

And then I need to move things places, actually do the work. Buy a new microwave that isn't melting in the back. A new toaster oven that heats from above and below.

Thinking about it makes me tired.

But I love my new kitchen.

It looks like this:

To Do Something Right...

...you've sometimes got to do it yourself.

At least that's what Andy is thinking about our kitchen. As you can see, he took the painting part into his own hands. What do you think?

Andy Painting Our New Kitchen

 Actually, the painters were awesome. They really did let Andy help (they paid him a dollar!) and they did the whole kitchen AND my new improved laundry room in less than two days, including drying time. From primer to... well, to this.

Playing With The Camera

Krazy Kitchen Komplaint

When we dove in to this kitchen project, I promised myself I would not make every single blog post about the kitchen. People get tired of hearing about updates that don't affect them, or, more likely, they get tired of hearing people complain about things tied to getting a brand new kitchen.

I am lucky. I know this.

So I tried to limit myself to one kitchen-oriented post a week.

But I feel like I just have to add a little something here. A comment. A little, teeny comment.


This was not a good time for our toaster oven to conk out, or the microwave to begin making noises like a jet plane.

Gets Old Fast

I knew it would take a while, getting a kitchen redone.

I knew I was going to have to give a few things up for awhile. I knew we would have to make adjustments.

But I'm a bit tired of washing our dishes in the bathtub.

New Camera

When Steve told me he had ordered me a new camera that was heavier and bigger than my old one, I got nervous. Especially when he told me it wasn't blue.

And then the camera was delivered.

It's true, it's heavier than my old red camera. But these days cameras are so light, that it doesn't make a huge difference. It's also bigger than my old camera. But it's still small enough to sit in my back pocket.

Which, of course, I will not do, because I am sworn to protect this camera. I mean, to take care if it. To not just throw it in my bag and let it bang around.

You'll have to let me know what the photos look like. So far, I've only been able to try it out a little bit, with Andy's help.

My Ceiling

As part of our kitchen project we are getting new lighting. The old lights were ugly and not bright enough.

We're also getting rid of the popcorn ceiling. It will still be in every other room in our house, but at least we'll have room where the kids can feel balloons are safe.


All this, however, requires a step where the ceiling looks like this.

Kitchen

I may have mentioned this in passing.

We are getting our kitchen redone.

Why, you ask? Why would you do that? Didn't you just go on and on about buying things you don't need and all that?

Yes. Yes I did.

But I have my heart set on a new kitchen. You see, the kitchen cabinets do not make me happy. They are painted white, and are scratched and chipping. The knobs fall off. The drawers rub together and sawdust snows down onto the dishes and pot and pans below. There is a gap between the cooktop and the counter and grease and water drip inside and fall into the drawers beneath. The oven and microwave are attached, and the microwave part stopped working years ago. The self-cleaning function on the oven has ceased to function. The lighting in the kitchen is terrible.

And so...

So Steve called a guy who got this nice lady to draw us up a new kitchen. Not only a new kitchen that would fix all those above things, but that would also give me a bigger window, more space between the fridge and the counter, more workspace, a bigger laundry room...

How could you say no?

All we need to do in return is give up our kitchen for 6 weeks, live with banging and dust for a bit, and decide which of our children to trade in order to afford new cabinets.

It starts in a couple of days. Today's goal is to create a makeshift kitchen in another room. Tomorrow's goal is to make a few things to stick in the freezer, so we can microwave a few hot things to eat during the whole process.

And then all I have to do is be patient and hope the outcome is worth the pain.

I'm 50% dread and 50% excitement at the moment.

Blog Issue

As many of you know, I wire all of my blog posts for the week at once. I sit down, get them all out, and schedule them to be published at specific times.

But lately, there's been an issue.

See, it's supposed to just automatically publish. I set something to be published at 6am on Monday, and at 6:01, when I view this blog, the new post should just appear.

But it does not. Instead, I have to go into the stupid post, as though I'm editing it, and click "publish" again, even though I have changed nothing, just to get the stupid thing to show up.

I'm sorry if this sounds like such a little thing. It sound like one, I know. But I never used to have to do this, until, of course, they updated the formatting and all that to make things "better" and now, even though I'm not supposed to have to, I still do if I want anything to publish.

Also, I'm tired and cranky this week, remember?

Behind The Scenes

I didn't change the template to this blog.

What this means is, when you look at this blog, when you bring it up on your screen, it looks the same as before. I mean, I changed it after New Year's, but since then it's been the same.

I think.

See, one morning I logged into Blogger and saw this little tab that said something like "Get our new interface!"

The way these things work is that, at first, they give you a choice. "They" are the people behind the scenes, the people in charge of Blogger, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, whatever. "They" are the ones that make the changes. After a few weeks, when enough people have made the change of their own free will, "They" go ahead and make the change mandatory. Like it or not, all users will be switched over to the new Facebook. Or Blogger. Or whatever.

So this time I just went ahead and upgraded on my own. That way I could pretend to be the one in control.

The trouble is, now when I compose a post, everything looks different. The font is different. The photos go up differently. I have to snoop around to find what it is I'm looking for, and I have no idea what the final post will look like.

So if things have been looking a little odd lately, please just stick with me.

Holiday Decorating

It's December. It's officially time to decorate!

The main Holiday Decoration in our home is, apparently, dust. At least that's what it seems to be. All of the junk I dragged out of the basement is covered with it.

I have also done a little Holiday Reorganizing on this blog.

I have added a list of links over to the left. The Holiday Cheer links are to music, books, and movies that might add a little something to your holiday season. So far, there are only a couple of things there, and they are the same old things I talk about every single year. But maybe there will be new things, new exciting things! So keep looking.

The Holidays Past links are links to older posts on this blog. I went through the posts I wrote in December, and these are what I thought were the very best, or at least most interesting, holiday posts. There are a couple of videos. The boys are so so young. I cried. Now I dare you to not go look at them.

Also, if you're wondering what to get us for Christmas, but missed that post, the link is up top. But I have a feeling most people are going to give us socks. That's OK, though. We love socks!

One Step Forward...

We've needed a new deck for so long.

But it really was just one item on a very long To Do list. Still on that list is: fix that hole in the wall in the front hall, attach doorstop so the door knob will not re-create the hole. Fix the random hole in the drywall in the pantry. Scrape off peeling wall paper in master bathroom. Paint master bathroom.

Some things you learn to live with, like small holes in the drywall behind doors or peeling walpaper in rooms no one ever sees but you. Some things you find you can not live with, like holes in the steps to your deck.

When you finally get around to doing something about it, it's SO GOOD! WHY did we WAIT SO LONG? You ask yourselves. For a moment, just a tiny moment, you let yourself enjoy the new, fixed-up project, without noticing the little things you need to do to really make the new project finished, like fixing the wood floor where the wall used to be, or painting the living room, and the hall, and the kitchen.

It's a good thing you enjoyed that little moment, too. Because in the next 48 hours your garage door will stop working. Both the cabinet door and the vanity drawer in the kids' bathroom will break. The mailman will stop by to remind you about the mailbox and to notify you that mail delivery will be suspended until it's fixed. He had to knock because your doorbell is broken. You can't deal with any of it because you are arranging to take you cat to the vet for the third time so they can confirm that he has diabetes and will need insulin shots twice a day. Also, you forgot to wash the kids karate uniforms, again, and they still have the chocolate milk stains from three weeks ago.

Now you can't even remember what the work you had done WAS, and there's still plaster dust under the wall heater.

First Few Shots

Here are three of the first few photos taken with the new camera. It's just a point and shoot, but it can capture a moment, and all sorts of little-boy antics.

New Camera!

I got a new camera!

It's an Elph. I don't know what that means interms of quality, actually. All I know is that it was less expensive than my last camera, which had 300 different settings to take photographs with, of which I used exactly three. It is also less than half the size of my last camera, more the size of a smart phone. I won't get it confused with my cell phone, though, because it is also RED! I don't know why this makes me giggle, but it does.

And I haven't taken a lot of pictures with it yet (give me a break, I got it last night as the kids were already to bed!) but today I'm bringing it with me everywhere. And maybe I'll even remember to use it.