chatter

tonight I am scouring the internet for just that perfect chin length hair cut. I have been snagging pictures this last week for my appointment on Monday but nothing is really getting me yet. I find a folder in my archives from the same exercise one of the last times I wanted a hair cut. In that folder I discovered there is one photo that is exactly the same in the new folder. And I don’t really like it so who knows why I keep saving it.

In my searching tonight I ran into one of those put the camera in front of your face and shoot shots of some girl who had just cut her hair. That made me check out her blog. It was from an entry three years ago. I eventually check out her current entries then see some Flickr photos so I go there and read her profile and see her pictures, then click on her husband (who was just a boyfriend 3 years ago) and read his profile.

I don’t know, it just kind of floors me that I can quietly checked up on total strangers lives. I almost wanted to select her as a contact even though her pictures were just of her friends, no art photography which is my usual contacts.

I wonder who is watching me?

On Monday I hope to be sporting a chin length bob of some sort. I will post it online and someone looking for a chin length hair cuts may find me. I hope I am inspirational 😉

It became apparent to me that I have to have a schedule when I get home for work in order to do everything that needs to get done. Most importantly get a handle on the time for Hollace’s homework.

We wait until it is too late and are crabby and then underestimate the time we need. And we are not getting any reading time in. There are no reading logs this year so we aren’t accountable.

Last night Hollace kept telling me she was horrible at math, horrible at reading, horrible….

I told her we will fix that by practicing more.

When she went to bed I put down this schedule

5:00 – I get home from work
6:00 – dinner needs to be on the table
6:30 – walk for 30 minutes
7:00 – Hollace starts homework. The teacher says to only spend 10 minutes on each assignment and that I have to sign if she doesn’t finish. Hollace isn’t a speedy worker so 10 minutes later we aren’t even close.

I have scheduled 1:30 for homework. That is 30 minutes reading, 10 minutes for, on the average, 3 assignments (= 30 minutes). 15 minutes to practice math facts (on our own). That leaves 15 minutes for her to play on the internet for a reward. Neopets is what she is into lately thought today she says EVERYONE at school talks about Webkins.
8:30 – Hollace goes to bed
8:30-10:00 is my free time to catch up on the web or watch a movie or whatever.
10:00 – news
10:30 – Read or meditate (or go back to the web but I want to try to curb keep that for the 8:30 time block)
11:30 – go to bed or in an ideal world, go to bed at 11:00 which could happen if I stick to reading or meditating and stay away from the web.

Tonight we tried the schedule for the first time.
– Dinner was on the table at 6:00.
– I didn’t get on the treadmill until 6:40 cause I wasn’t prepared but I got off at 7:00
– Homework got started a little late cause Hollace had to take a quick shower since she was all muddy playing outside while I was on the treadmill.
– At 8:30 the homework was done but we didn’t get to the bonus math facts.
– She played with Neopets.org for 20 minutes then went to bed.
– Watched TV until 11:00 then came in to check the net
– It is now 11:40 and I am 10 minutes late for bed. Good night!

On Wednesday all of CN went on a fun day to the horse track.

We were put in groups and with our groups were to play with $100 funny money to see who could win more.

On my team, red, there were a few guys who talked a good talk so I thought we would do pretty good.

Our team was in last place. We got the booby prize which was a Horse Race Betting for Dummies book 😉

On Sunday we finally moved my closet to the closet that RAW had 95% done. Needed to empty the other one out so he could eventually work on that one.

The next morning a cricket moved in with my stuff in the new closet.

Then there was water on the kitchen counter. I look up and we had a minor leak.

Our roof is in bad shape. We knew this but no leak, no thinky.

The first estimate was really for half the roof (the bad half of course) and it was for only $2,600 with a 10 year warranty.

The next guy for the whole roof was $6000 with a 7 year warranty.

The third guy said he was going to pass after looking at our roof.

The fourth guy said $7500 with a 5 year warranty.

Ok, why is the price going up but the warranty going down?

How dare the roof try to take the money I didn’t have for the kitchen remodel!

Today was Hollace’s first day of school, third grade. She doesn’t want to go. A few days ago I ask if it is ok if I take some photos of the first day. She said ok.

Today I work this morning from home so I can take her photo and see her off. She cooperates as promised.

It has been awhile since I worked at home. It was a little frustrating and it got to the point that I couldn’t wait to get back to the office to really get working. I mean, I did work but it didn’t seem too productive.

I get back to the office at 1:00.

The network is down in our building.

I can’t get any work done.

I guess I was better off at home.

I have been craving a Ding Dong for awhile now but I just couldn’t find any. I seen plenty of HoHos, Cupcakes and Suzy-Qs. Don’t want those. It got to the point that I thought maybe they discontinued them or something. I contemplated going to one of those Hostess Thrift shops.

I went to the vending machine at work and lo and behold….Ding Dongs!

I run back to get some money, I am not missing this opportunity even though the vending machine has about 8 of them.

I wrap the package in a napkin so no one sees the fat girl walking down the hall with Ding Dongs.

I open the package all excited that my wait is finally over.

I take a bite.

They were stale, yuck.

We went shopping for school supplies last weekend where I bought her a folding ruler. It is quite fun to fiddle with which is why it was bought for home and not for school where it would be a distraction.

Anyway, by that evening it became a ruler snake and she was fishing for it from the treadmill.

By the end of the night there were nearly 15 ruler snakes (who knew we had so many rulers in the house) swimming around down there. Hollace got an under water camera that looked like a small metal mailbox and made a remote control so you could navigate the camera to see what was going on down there.

All the ruler snakes had distinct personalities. The oldest of the bunch was prehistoric and cranky, he was my old pica ruler with was falling apart. There was a family of metal rulers headed up by the dad, the yard stick, mom the 18″‘er and baby which was this tiny metal 6″ ruler. He was very vunerable and at risk at any time to be eaten by another ruler snake.

The meanest, badest ruler snake was named Yardly. He is was a wooden yard stick. We had to keep control of him with both hands. And at one point he tore a hole in the paper floor lamp in the living room.

Hollace was really upset when that happened. I was in the bathroom so I didn’t see what happened but Hollace cried, “you are going to hate me”. Poor thing, she was crying. I would never hate her especially for an accident. Beside Yardly is one bad ruler snake. I evenutally got her to smile and all was well. I just rotated the floor lamp so the tear is against the wall.

The next night we were suppose to play ruler snakes again but I got home to party favors for sock people. Hollace was busy making party hats and those blowers where the paper unrolls. By the end of the night after I got my lesson on how to make them, I was fired by her by insisting she get ready for bed.

Tonight we were suppose to continue with production of party favors but tonight after a trip to Rainforest Cafe for dinner I came home to a new addition to the sock family, a baby sock. Hollace made a stoller and some construction paper clothes. Tomorrow night we are suppose to have a baby shower for it. We will see 😉

Hollace now has 2 sock families:
The Ropesters which includes Ron as the dad, Belle as mom, Petunia who is British and Rose who is Western like dad and was dressed up as Maid Marian

and there is the Sockteens. Dad is Sampson, mom is Samantha and son is Sam (we was dressed like Robin Hood)

I don’t know who’s family the new baby belongs too. I got pictures of everyone to share later.

Oh and Hollace informs me she isn’t Hollace or Kiwi Girl anymore, she is Sock Girl. When I came home she had cut up socks (btw, all the socks are coming from ArtWorks) on her legs (a la leg warmers) and on her arms.

As I pick up Hollace from her last day of Vacation Bible School, I got dejavu again when a mom came up to me to tell me that Hollace was crying.

Every birthday party ended like that as apparently every girl scout meeting. In those two cases it was because it was too noisy and Hollace doesn’t handle noise too good.

In the VBS case however it was because they tried to take her picture. Don’t you find it ironic that a child of mine hates to get her picture taken? I wonder if one of the reasons was because Hollace may of overheard me joking to someone that the one big reason I had a kid was to be a photo subject for me. I hope not but I do wonder if some of that plays into it.

Always been a Beatle freak. Now 15 year old Read (nephew) is really into them which is fun for me cause I can share my love of them with him. Last weeks CBS Sunday Morning had a Beatles segment that I accidentally seen. Normally I wouldn’t watch the Tivoed show if it wasn’t Sunday morning but it was Sunday night and I was looking for something to watch. I love their little segment on them that I then DVDed it, digitized it and put it up on Google video so I could share with Read.

Then even though I had no inking of checking out Paul McCartney’s new album I went ahead and did and I am so glad I did. I am really liking it. Half the music I like has a strong Beatles influence like the Elliot Smith thing I went through not too long ago. Funny that I wasn’t going to get Paul’s new album even though he is the ultimate in Beatles influence.

I ordered a new keyboard last week even though my old one wasn’t broken. It was old and it had black keys and unless I turn on my desk lamp, I couldn’t see what I was typing. So I ordered me an updated Apple keyboard which is white.

This week I battled my regular enemy, the one I thought I would win from since the family is away but alas, I did not. Time. I didn’t get a damn thing done this week and I can’t explain it.

I started the week with a daily 2 mile walk. At the end of the walk I would wonder why I don’t do these more often, they are so good for state of mind. Then my Wednesday, I couldn’t make the time since I was trying to make up for the time lost by phone calls. Actually on Wednesday Paula called and we talked for nearly 2 hours so that blew that walk. I know, just get up and walk anyway.

The next night it was Sherry who called but it was later in the evening. Not to mention the 30 minute phone conversations with Hollace and then with RAW.

Tomorrow Sherry comes over and we are going to Ravinia and the Botanical GArdens. She probably won’t be here until 3 or 4 so I will try and cram in a lot beside the grocery store and general clean up.

Here is what I have been trying to do all week in that ever precious free time that I am wasting.
I need to cut and mat 5 photos, assemble my window frame photo, work on the kiwi story videos, start the big photo project, go to the county fair, walk 2 miles daily, read my book, investigate whether or not to join Weight Watchers, eat right, go to Walmart and put away that damn laundry.

Out of time. Bye

“Everybody get up…no no no get down. Everybody get up…..no no no get down…” I am listening to PJ & Rooster by Outkast and it wasn’t until Hollace started singing that line when I go to put her down to bed that I realized the lyric.

Tonight it is just me and the attention starved cat. RAW and Hollace went to Indiana for 2 weeks.

So what did I do on my first day of freedom?

First of all they didn’t leave until after 11. RAW was thinking they would leave by 9. I knew better.

Then I started my house cleaning as someone with attention deficit. I started in the kitchen. I would clean clean clean then would find something that belonged in another room so I would put it there and then stay there and clean clean clean. Before I finished, my attention would go in another room. Eventually I would make it back into the kitchen to do more work. It went on like that until I think I eventually got it done…for the most part. Somehow I ended up in the computer room and organized the closet and cleared a lot of clutter from the room. That wasn’t even in the plan.

I have been stifled creatively and I blame it on the fact I call it the computer room and it is crammed. So starting right now I am calling it my studio and I simplified the room as much as I can.

I didn’t really eat all day with the exception of a fun size Milky Way bar here and then. At around 7:30 I finally saute up some shrimp and make a salad. I was full and satisfied by that yet I still felt compelled to make some toast with pb&j. WTF?

Around that time I decided to join WW online and give it a real go. What a perfect time since it is just me for 2 weeks. By the time the family gets back I should have the WW habit cemented in. Sounds good in theory. I now just need to get the proper head for dealing with dieting online. I need to really change my internet habits to include this. I am still not sure if I can do this which is why I haven’t signed on yet.

That’s it, that is all I got to say for now.