Done!

Hey, remember when I posted this about the projects I wanted to finish this year? And you all laughed in my face and said things like -- oh Elsha, you'll never finish those projects, just give up now! Okay fine, nobody laughed in my face, just behind my back. And that was probably only Kirsta and Kari because they know what a gigantic procrastinator I am. Anyway, I finished one! Just 28 short months after coming back from Tahiti, our honeymoon scrapbook is officially done.

I should have finished it sooner though because looking through all those pictures after the whole book was put together really made me want to go back and do it all again. Well, all except the kayaking part. That was almost grounds for divorce right there. Everything else though. *sigh*

Also, since I know you're all dying to know, I finally sorted through all the pictures I talked about in this post and got some printed. Final count on pictures printed: 803. Approximate number of hours it will take me to scrapbook them all: 1 bazillion. I did get Kalena's baby book loaded up with pictures though so I'm well on my way to finishing that project as well. Although, technically I can't finish it yet because it has spots for stuff that hasn't happened like her walking and her first birthday. But other than waiting on those things, all I need to do is fill in the info about the pictures. It's times like these I wish I had beautiful penmanship (like my sister in law Amy) instead of my own chicken scratch engineer's handwriting. Anyone out there with lovely handwriting interested in coming over and filling in the blanks in Kalena's baby book so it will all be legible?

To various people

Dear Neighbors,

I love dogs; we have two over here. But listening to your dog yapping outside our fence at 5:45 am is REALLY starting to get on my nerves. Do you not hear him or do you just not care? I'm not sure which is worse.


Dear Kalena,

I know you're a morning person, but when you refuse to go to sleep until 3 full hours past your normal bedtime couldn't you sleep in just a little bit? Like at least until the sun comes up? Thanks.


Dear Weight Watchers,

I love you. Seriously. LOVE.


Dear Coworker,

No matter how hard you try, you're never going to make me feel guilty about not doing your job for you.


Dear Self,

When you're putting Kalena's clothes in the washer, ALWAYS check the upstairs bathroom first or you WILL miss something.

P.S. If you hadn't left those diet cokes in the freezer until they exploded you could be having one right now. Also, you wouldn't have to clean frozen diet coke off the inside of the ice maker.


Anyone have anything they want to add?

Annoyances

I pay bills online. I do this because, in theory, it's easier than writing and mailing a check. Plus the charge comes through right away so I don't have to worry about waiting for checks to get cashed. Lately though, I'm really wondering if it wouldn't be easier to deal with paper bills instead of doing it online. Here are some of the annoying things I've encountered recently:

On one site, you click the view/pay bill button which then opens another window. On that window you log in, but instead of taking you to your bill it takes you to a different logged-in version of the homepage. You then have to click again on view/pay bill before you can actually do that.

One site won't let you choose a log in name; you have to log in with your 11 digit account number every time. Let me just tell you, an 11 digit number that I need once a month is not top on my list of things to memorize, which means I have to look it up every time anyway.

And then, the thing that annoyed me the most: One of the sites made me go though "account verification" for "security" purposes. What do they think is going to happen? Someone is going to get into my account and pay my electric bill?? (I don't have credit card info on file if that's what you're thinking.)

The worst part about all this is that I have to go through all this crap so I can pay someone! You'd think companies would want to make it as easy as possible to get your bill paid. Apparently not.

Facebook

I gave in and joined. As if I didn't spend enough time on my computer. So, if you're on facebook, you should friend me so I'm not a facebook loser. Pretty please?

Maybe mail them a little sooner next time hmm?

On Monday (the 9th) we got a postcard in the mail for a store I've never been to before. It was advertising a clearance sale. The sale was running from February 26th through March 7th. I think the store's management team must have had a meeting that went something like this:

Head Guy: We need to get our name out there! Let's send out fliers advertising our store!

Marketing Guy: Well, people would probably be more likely to come in if you're advertising a sale.

Head Guy: Okay, we'll have a clearance sale! Let's send out fliers advertising it!

Accounting Guy: Ummmm, we really need to be selling at full price to stay in the black here.

Marketing Guy: Oh, that could be a problem.

Guy who is just there to figure out more ways to scam people*: I've got an idea. We'll have a sale, but we won't send out the advertisement fliers until the sale is almost over. That way, people will get them and want to come check out our store, but they will have already missed the sale! It's perfect.

Head Guy: Scammer guy, you're my hero.


Or, you know, something along those lines. I probably wouldn't have gone even if I'd gotten the flier sooner, but I'm definitely not going to a store knowing everything WAS just on sale and now it isn't.


*What? Is that not a standard position in marketing?

Video post cop out

I know your lives are empty without my blogging, but I'm not in the mood for a long post so I going to attempt to placate you with a couple quick videos of Kalena walking! Okay, she's just pushing a walker, but still pretty cute. She learned that this morning. What she has not learned yet is what to do when the walker runs into something.



Maybe this time banging into the obstacle over and over will work?

My springtime pumpkin

Why do we have Kalena dressed up like a jack-o-lantern in March you ask? Well, here's what happened. I bid on some fleece sleepers on eBay (because apparently I am addicted to eBay). They are 18 month size which I figured would be perfect. Kalena will be 18 months old in November and I thought the sleepers would fit a couple months before that. They got here a few weeks ago. They fit now. At least they got here while it was still cold. Also, since they only cost $2 apiece (after shipping- woohoo!) I won't have to feel too bad if she only gets to wear them a couple times before summer sets in. Because apparently that will be happening sometime next week.

Happy National Grammar Day!

Grammar: now there's something worth celebrating. I bet you didn't even know there was a National Grammar Day did you? Okay fine, I didn't know either until this morning.

I'm a little weird about grammar myself. I think everyone ought to know the rules of grammar, BUT they don't always need to be followed. Exhibit A: this blog. I blog like I talk. This doesn't generally result in grammatically perfect posts. I'm not a spectacular writer, so I resort to writing like I talk to get my personality across. There's nothing wrong with that, in my opinion (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't do it.) Some of my favorite blogs read much more like a conversation than a book. However, I think breaking the rules is very different than not knowing the rules. Completely ignoring capitalization and punctuation doesn't make you E. E. Cummings, for instance.

Anyway, since schools don't do the greatest job teaching grammar, you should all go check out the national grammar day website. If you click on the link for the top 10 grammar tips in the upper right corner of the page you can have all your burning grammar questions answered. (I KNOW you have burning grammar questions.) Plus you can find out who had the worst grammar in 2008! So there you have it. Just when you think I can't get any nerdier I have to go and get excited about grammar.

At least it was on the tile

Earlier this evening Kalena decided that bath time just isn't enough time to splash around in the water so she went after the dogs' water bowl. Luckily it was only about half full.



The culprit. Looking innocent as usual.