Monday the 14th of June (Miss Emily’s birthday) we closed circa 2:45pm (when all was signed and done).  We walked straight over to the post office to mail out our “address change” cards to many people.  This is why we asked for any addresses if people wanted one….  This is what it looks like:

Okay, so it looked a bit different, because on what we mailed out had our actual address.  However as previously stated, we are not posting our address on here.  If you need/want our address, we can email it to you, but only if you ask, otherwise we don’t know we need to get it to you, and if we do not have your address you are responsible for getting it to us.

And for those who were/are unaware that there is a second page to the card, this is what it contains (unaltered):

So there you have it folks!!!  We are very excited and (as one of us likes to put it ) “a little bit terrified.”

It was kind of a sneaky maneuver to announce our news this way.  Especially since I (Marcia) went camping with our young women for the rest of the week.  We acknowledge that.   We had good reason for it though.  Originally we had set the closing date for when I was going to be camping, as soon as we realized that, we changed it for the day before I left.  We also wanted to be sure that we had everything finished with purchasing the house before we announced the pending arrival of Copyright 2010.  (And just because I want to explain my taking so long in making this post) We have been packing/unpacking/moving/cleaning/etc for the last half of June, and only this morning did we finally get around to setting up my computer.  There, I said it, and I feel justified!  And I am pregnant, so don’t make mee cry.

? ? ? F A Q ? ? ?

We get asked many questions with both of these big events happening in our lives.  We have decided to do an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list:

Q:  When are you going to move?

A:  We have moved all of our belongings out of the house we rented and into our new house.  We had our family help us.  This process was started while I was at camp.  I thought that was good timing, and because I have not been too incredibly useful, I figured it would work out better if I could just pack and have as much ready before hand and let them work while I was out of town.

Q:  Are you all moved in?

A:  That is a tricky question.  All of our stuff is in the house, however much of it is still in boxes.  We have been sleeping here and unpacking.  I would not say we are “moved in” yet, I am not sure what the true definition would be for us to be in that state.  Though because most of the boxes are in Copyright’s room, we have to be un-packed enough by the time December comes around.

Q:  When can I come see your house?

A:  Never, the date is past.  We held an Open “empty” House the evening we closed.  So I am partly kidding about the “never” part.  We will not be holding another “open house” and we do request that if people want to come see it, that they set up an appointment (I hate the Tuesdays), so as to allow us to be home, and hopefully a little more moved in. We are after all living here now.  Be considerate about it.

Q:  How much work do you have to do on the house? (Also stated as:  now you get to have fun fixing up the house)

A:  Actually we don’t have to do any work on the house other than unpacking.  We did have to get a fridge, stove, washer/dryer, and that is about it.  The good people we bought it from gutted the house and made it like new with new cabinets, paint, toilets, roof, plumbing, wiring, everything really!  We did get to pick out the carpet for the living room and flooring for the kitchen and bathroom.

That said, there is a detached garage with apartment space above it that needs quite a bit of work before it’s really useful, so that will be fun, but it isn’t something we have to do before we can live here.

Q: Did you buy the house because you are having a baby?

A:  No we are having a baby because we now have a house.  Joking.  We pretty much decided to buy the house before we knew about being pregnant.  This is a house we saw about a year and a half ago when it was in foreclosure, we loved it, we talked to the bank about making an offer.  Then we were told some one else made an offer and that offer was accepted.  Some months later (just over a year ago) we were presented with the opportunity to buy the same house, and it had been “gutted” and was in progress of being fixed up (when it was in foreclosure, the people trashed the house, on top of apparently not taking good care of it at all anyhow).  We thought it over and agonized and had to turn down that offer.  We did not feel like we could live in a “construction zone.”  Earlier this year as Jacob was at the university in his office, he had a visitor and we were again offered the house, this time all the work would be finished and it would be move-in ready.  We verbally expressed interest February, talked over details in March, signed a contract in April, and closed in June.  We knew about the baby in March and test confirmed in April.

Q:  I thought you never wanted to have children. (not really a question, and mostly directed at Jacob)

A:  All bark and no bite.  He claimed that until it happened he reserved the right to say that.  In reality, we are very excited.  And of course there is a bit of anxiety in the unknown.  Will our baby be cute?  Who will the baby look like?  When do they toilet train?  They don’t already know how to tie shoes?  Things like that.  However any person that said that to mee, doesn’t really know mee.

Q:  When is the due date?

A:  December 2010.  Doctor’s office says the 7^th based on LMP. I say the 6^th based on ovulation.

Q:  Is that a really sonogram or is it photoshopped?

A:  It is really a picture from my uterus.  Should it really be called a picture, it is an image created by sound waves aimed at my uterus.

Q:  Are you having a boy or a girl?

A:  We don’t know for sure.  Based on biology and time and the moon and the stars aligning and the atmospheric pressure we suspect it will be a girl.  However we have to wait about ten more weeks before my doctor will check it out.

Q:  What do you want to have? (generally this immediately follows the last question)

A:  A healthy human baby.  I know they mean sex of the baby.  Really though, I will be happy as long as everything goes well.  I would love a son or a daughter. I would definitely be disappointed if it was not human.

Q:  Do you want to find out the sex of the baby? (a number of people say gender, however there is a very important difference in the words, and for some odd reason it falls under my pet peeves category-sex is male or female, gender is masculine or feminine)

A:  I would be okay with either knowing or being surprised, a surprise could be fun, though so could knowing and planning.  Jacob wants to know.  We will find out if we can.  We really are planners and like to be prepared.

Q:  Have you been sick at all? (directed at mee since no one suspected, except in hindsight, and we only told doctors and we were surprised at how people had finally stopped asking when we were going to have a baby)

A:  Jacob responds with, “Have you not been sick at all?”  I have had lots of not feeling well.  I did really well with not vomiting, though there was lots of nausea, still is some, though not as constant.  Then I got a sinus infection, drainage started and the vomiting commenced.  I could probably win a contest for puking on command.  Is there a super hero yet?

Q:  Have you had any cravings?

A:  Hmmm, cravings….  Not too many cravings.  Mostly I have aversions.  Sugar is the biggest offender at this time, unless it is counter balanced with other healthier foods.  I can’t eat lettuce, and the vinegar in most condiments gives me issue.  Yesterday I really wanted garlic bread, it was delicious to mee.  One day I wanted potato chips (I don’t like potato chips, I like corn chips) in three flavors BBQ, Cheddar, French Onion;  I did not get them, but I could taste them in my mind, and I wanted them.  Early on I had a strong craving for Chef  Boyardee canned ravioli;  that stuff is nasty and I refused to listen to that craving.

Q:  Are you (or “you are”) going to have fun shopping for maternity clothes?

A:  If I liked shopping maybe that would be appealing.  However I am short and it has never been fun to shop for clothes, for mee.  Also, last year I lost over 60 pounds, and I did not get rid of those clothes (I know you are never supposed to keep “fat clothes” but I did).  And there were some of those clothes that I like, and frankly I don’t want to spend money on temporary clothes.  And there is the fact that we now have a mortgage to pay, and I don’t think there is a shopping spree in the future of our budget.

If we remember (or any other questions start to come up) other questions we get asked we will answer them.

We (Jacob joined mee last night) went to Wally World again and obtained two more carts full of boxes.  We went some time after midnight, and the really good boxes appear for availability around 1a.m. (so I guess it could be considered this morning).

We have been married for just over three and a half years, and have many times tried to set a scripture study habit.  We have tried to read from front to back, to have a different topic each day of the week, to do some other things that did not prove to be keep-ables.  However yesterday, we finished reading the Book of Mormon, in its entirety, together!!!  The strategy this time, was that I wrote (actually I typed it on the computer and printed it out) each chapter and had them in a jar, that we have been drawing at random for each day, sometimes more than one chapter if it happens to be quite short.  Honestly, it has been very fun to go about it this way.  We already have studied all the stories in there through out our lives, and so as we have been reading this way we end up jumping all over the place.  This keeps all the stories fresher in our minds.  And as an added bonus, we had the privilege a few weeks ago to attend the annual Seminary Vs Bishopric Scripture Bowl.  There is a Jeopardy style portion and a match the scripture with the content portion (for the first time in 10 or so years, the bishopric beat the youth in the jeopardy portion, though they youth won big time with the memory portion).  Anydangways, the point of telling about that event is that as we watched them, it seemed as though we had “just read that story” about each of the stories!  It was a really nice feeling.

And totally not from yesterday, but a few weeks ago…. A bit of back story.  We have two cars.  We only drive one car.  We have had the other car on the donut for a number of months, because we needed to buy a new tire.  Then another tire when flat.  And the battery probably needs replacing.  And some other thing that makes us “afraid” to drive it out of town, or over 35-40 mph else-ways a couple wheels may fall off.  So, it is sitting on the donut, and the wheel with the flat tire that needs replacing, has been leaning upside the porch.  One day I went out to do something, and noticed that it was gone, and there was no plant life growing in its place just yet, so it was a fresh disappearance.  This morning I wanted to use my hand trowel thing, and it was no where to be seen.  I had suspected it missing when the wheel went, though I did not look for it until today when I wanted to use it.  Now we are left with two questions: How do we (or even just “do we”) buy a new wheel? and Who steals a wheel and a trowel?  All I can figure is that some one must have had a greater need for it than us.  And If you see a new plant display in a Honda wheel…well, if I see one, I will laugh.  I think we have been laughing about it too much to find a way to be upset over it.

Karen (Jacob’s mom) had a catering gig for our friend Jennie’s wedding.  She enlisted Jacob and mee to help.  As I was working on part of the dessert selections, the non-stick pan slipped out of my hand and we lost most of that pan, if not all.  We did have fun though.  And next month they will have been married for two whole years!

Speaking of two whole years, today Giuliana Marie turns two!! Wow time flies.  I sure do love that little girl.

Second, or is it third, my face is good.  I no longer hurt.  Maybe we did not need to go to the ER afterall, but I am glad we did  go and find out nothing was wrong, because in all seriousness I was scared and I was in a lot of pain at the time.  And I was mailed a survey on how my ER visit was, I will be sure to fill it out.  Overall it was a good experience, my only complaint is that I did not understand the pain ranking system.

Fourth, Girls camp is coming up in a few weeks.  I (we, but not Jacob) have been working like crazy to get all the fun surprises finished.  We like to have surprises for the girls, and so that he does not have to “lie” we often don’t even tell Jacob what we are up to.  We love the week with our Young Women.

Fifth, Jacob is enrolled in a race this afternoon/evening. The race is from Wapello to Burlington (in Iowa, in case anyone wondered).  We go over and he checks in between 2-4 this afternoon, and then I will drive to Burlington and hang out (with people or at Target or both or a park), hopefully find the ending point, and watch my talented husband finish the race.  Kind of short notice, though if any one wants to join mee as I wait, let mee know!

P.S. I am not sure when I will post a new quiz, it seems that there is less and less interest in it.  Rick wins by default since he is the only one that guessed this last time, and it was up for almost 2 months, so rick here is your imaginarey gold star, or if you come hang with mee this afternoon I can give you a real one!  Or maybe he is just hoping for the prize that we are offering to the 1000th commenter on this here website.

P.P.S.  Many of you know we are trying to secure a mortgage for a house we love.  If we happen to secure it, we intend to close on it in the middle of next month.  With said plan, we will have a new address and will want to mail out address changes, as we plan to not to post our address on the internet.  So if you desire said address from us, please make sure I have your address to mail ours to you.  Plus who doesn’t love getting mail. With that said if your kids like to get mail, or you like for your kids to get mail, make sure you have listed who you want it addressed to with your submission.  One entry per household please.  Submissions may be sent to marcia at twodesk dot com

Last week for Family Home Evening we ate at a place that we like, we may even love it (though we do not call it home, so it should have been called Family out evening).  After we ate we decided to walk around a nearby store and see what we could see.  Not really interested in spending any monies, we just wanted to walk off some of what we had eaten.  Out of the blue, Jacob was pointing and telling mee to “Look!”  It was the basket that I have not been able to find in this town for over a year.  We bought two.  And sooner rather than later they will be marked with our name so that if any leave our house for some reason, they will be able to come back home.

We still are not sure how the old basket walked off, or why, but we have replaced it.  However, if it returns to us, we will welcome it into our home again, just as before.  No questions asked, at least not too many questions asked.

And because there has only been one guess on the quiz from last week, I am leaving it up for one more week.

Oh, I also wanted to share a lesson in keeping the Sabbath day Holy.  Yesterday as we were leaving church the gas tank light came on.  We decided that instead of purchasing more gas on Sunday we would hold out and trust we would be blessed for it.  Even though Jacob had a home teaching appointment to drive to last evening. And I would need to drive across town early this morning before I could get gas.  So after I did my walking thing this morning I went to start the car and it hesitated, but still got me over to Hy-Vee so that I could pay the electric bill and get a 15 cents/gallon off of my gas purchase.  And then I was almost unable to start the car again to get to a gas pump, it was on what fumes were barely there still, but it made it to the pump, and I was able to fill up at $2.74/gallon.  That is the best we have paid for gas in a long time.

This fall another mouse dared to enter the house.  We set the traps again, and it was caught with-in the hour of setting.

We had one still set along the wall, just waiting in hopes that we would not catch another.

We went out of town for a week, and the trap was empty.

The temperatures dropped, a mouse came in for a snack.  It died.

We went to pick up more traps (because even though it says reusable, let’s be honest here, I am not un-clipping the mouse and using that nasty thing again!) just in case we need them.  The temperature outside keeps dropping, and I don’t want to be outside!

The price of the traps this time was $6.88, I think-once I find the receipt I will know for sure.  This evening we were at the store getting other supplies in that area of the store, and passed the traps display, and this is what I saw:

It is the original price again.  It makes me so stinking mad!!!!!

We figure that because the outside temperatures dropped, many people were having trouble with the mice coming in, and the store (or rather the people who run it) decided that they might as well make extra money off the people who already have enough problems in their lives.  And now that the traps are in less of a demand, the price has dropped back to the original rate.

Now, if I can just think of how to make this work to my advantage….  Any ideas?

It’s well known among our readers that we are, in fact, a couple of nerds. Being nerds, we like to apply science wherever we can. Tonight, we used science to finally answer a question that has long plagued mankind: Are Oreo brand cookies really better than their store-brand equivalent?

Here we present our methods and our findings for peer review.

Our experiment was conceived when Marcia (hereafter known as “Subject B”) acquired a package of Oreo cookies as “payment” for babysitting the daughter of some friends while they went roller skating. Since we usually purchase the store brand cookie from Wal-Mart (because it is less expensive), we began to wonder if there was really a significant difference between the two products. We devised an experiment where each of us would sample different cookies blindly, in a random order, and rank them on flavor.

The materials for our experiment were as follows:

• Two Oreo brand sandwich cookies
• Two Wal-Mart “Great Value” brand sandwich cookies
• Two Hy-Vee “Dunkster” sandwich cookies
• One black sleep mask
• Water
• Digital Camera
• Paper plates

Subject A (AKA Jacob) was the first to undergo the rigorous test. He put on the sleep mask and then took a small drink of water to clear his palette. One of each type of cookie was placed on a paper plate. When Subject A was ready, he was given the first cookie. After taking one bite of the cookie, he took another drink of water, and then repeated the process with each cookie, until he had sampled each one.

Subject A then wrote his results down and hid them, so that he would not influence any other subjects.

The experiment was then repeated with Subject B, who also wrote her results without influence from any other subjects.

The subjects sampled their cookies in the following order:

When the subject’s results were compared, they ranked the cookies in the following order, from best to worst:

Each of the subjects independently ranked the cookies in the same order, with the Oreo cookie best, the Great Value cookie second, and the Dunkster cookie third. When the subjects’ notes were compared, each agreed that the Oreo was the best cookie, and the Great Value cookie was a very close second. The flavor of the Oreo and Great Value cookies was nearly identical, but the Oreo cookie prevailed in texture and “mouth feel.” The Great Value cookie was drier and harder than the Oreo. The Dunkster cookie’s flavor was less sweet, one subject described it as “more like baking chocolate.” The texture of the Dunkster cookie was described as “almost stale-like” and “waxy or greasy.”

The bottom line:

All subjects agreed that when a sandwich cookie craving needs filling, the Great Value cookie is an excellent choice for its relative price and flavor, but when the full sandwich cookie experience is of the utmost importance, the Oreo brand cookie is an absolute necessity.

Here is the point of this post.  As the lady is making her purchase, the kid with her was looking at the “impulse buy” items.  No big deal, I do it too.  That kid was probably about 15 years old.  The item he seemed to enjoy most was a laser pointer.  He would look around to see if anyone was watching, cover the pointer so people “couldn’t see what it was” and hold it up to his eye and push the button.  He did this a few times and then switched eyes.  Each time he grimaced in pain, then continued.  He ended up walking out of the store holding his eye in pain.

Do people not realize that a laser can be very bad for the eyes?  It even has warnings written on the product and the packaging.

Later:  I found it!  Originally this was titled “My brain is broken” because I was totally scatter-brained.  And this was the content of the post:

Yesterday I had a root canal performed.  I have curved roots on that tooth, so I had the privilage of going to a specialist.  Meaning it cost more money.  But it is nice to have it done.  He took the pain out of my tooth, and he was not hard on the eyes either.  Can I say that?  I am married, but I think he is too.  Any how, I am on my way to a happier mouth (read: healthier).  In the next couple weeks I will get a crown on that tooth, then I can tell people that I have a “royal” mouth!

In seriousness though, it was not that bad.  I had one done in Chile, and had no problems with it, though I think I must have blocked out some of the recovery experiences of it.  This time I want to remember.  It burns a LOT when the anesthisia wears off.  It is a really odd feeling when half of your ear goes numb.  This morning I felt what they were talking about with the whole “you will hurt for a while,” my jaw aches from being held open for an hour (half hour less than was expected!), it aches more on the left than the right, the proceedure was on the left side.  My head and neck ache too.  Other than that, I feel pretty good.

While such a thing had never happened with this particular computer before, we’ve all seen random system crashes, and I didn’t think anything of it. I had saved all my files before going out the door, after all.  I pushed the power button on the computer case to shut off the machine and reboot it…

…And nothing happened. The case LEDs were still on, keyboard LEDs still glowing. The machine had all the appearances of being alive, but was dead. I tried again. Held the power button down for 15 (it should turn off after 10), 20, 30 seconds. No response. It wouldn’t turn off.

Hmm. This is strange.

I flipped the rocker switch on the power supply and the machine shut off instantly. After a short wait, I flipped it back on and pressed the power button.

Nothing happened.

Again, I pressed and held the power button. No case LEDs, no keyboard lights, no fans spinning up, nothing. Great.

I love the small town where we live, but one of its downsides is that there’s no decent place to buy computer parts in a pinch. Thankfully, there’s a big internet electronics warehouse store that’s located such that when we order things with the cheapest UPS ground shipping, we almost always get them the next day. But, it being late Friday afternoon, I knew anything I ordered wouldn’t actually ship until Monday, so I wouldn’t get it until Tuesday. Oh well, at least I still have the laptop to keep me on top of things.

I decided that the power supply was fried, so I ordered a new one, which arrived tuesday afternoon, just as expected. Tuesday evening, I sat down with the ailing computer and swapped out power supplies. I got it all plugged in and put together, and hit the power button.

Nothing, again.

Dangit! For those of you lucky enough to have never had a computer die, here’s a hint: When you have a computer that’s just dead, the culprit is almost always either the motherboard or the power supply. In this case, I had good reason to believe the power supply was the problem. Apparently it wasn’t (or at least it wasn’t the ONLY problem). Now I need to order a new motherboard.

Again, it’s after shipping time, so anything I order will ship Wednesday and arrive Thursday. Fine. I ordered a new motherboard, and went back to work on the laptop (which, by the way, is a Mac, and doesn’t have all the Windows software I need to work on my main business projects). The new motherboard arrived Thursday afternoon, and went easily into the computer case

Cross fingers. Say a prayer. Do a rain dance. Push the power button.

It booted right up. No other hardware damage, no data loss.

The rest of Thursday was spend installing new drivers for the new chipset and audio all that stuff that comes with a new motherboard, and Friday I was finally back in action. A full week without my main computer was quite a bit of lost work, and put me behind schedule, but I’m catching up quickly.

The moral of the story: While I didn’t lose any data, it made me take a good look at my backup strategies. While the source code that keeps my business running was always backed up in two different places, other things (like iPhone app sales records) were not. If there had been a hard drive problem, some important things could have been lost.

So please take this opportunity to review your backup strategy and make sure that everything important is backed up and will survive a hardware failure or worse (Question: what would happen if your house burned down while you weren’t home? Would you still have your precious data intact?). We work way too hard on creating our digital lives to have them vanish at the whim of a few faulty bits of silicon. Be careful!

“Ever since that day, Drew has blamed everything on his cancer. Losing his keys, misplacing his wallet, Twitter being slow, the Phillies losing, etc.

“Why? Because you have to beat up on Cancer to win… and you can help out.

“Blame Drew’s Cancer for everything you want….”

It takes a strong guy to take his cancer diagnosis and turn it into a viral internet phenomenon. People by the thousands are using twitter to blame Drew’s cancer for their problems, and we can see them all at http://blamedrewscancer.com.  They’re hoping that some nice companies will donate a dollar for every person that blames something on Drew’s cancer to the American Cancer Society or the Make a Wish Foundation. Sounds like a bit of fun and potentially a good cause….

Marcia blames Drew’s cancer for the squirrels that keep attacking our garden, and I blame Drew’s cancer for every software bug I’ve fixed since May 20th.

Thankfully, Hodgkins Lymphoma is one of the most curable kinds of cancer, with a 90%+ remission rate. Still, Drew will have a tough road ahead, and we wish him the best.

So if you use Twitter, go and #BlameDrewsCancer for something.  Then watch http://blamedrewscancer.com for yours to pop up (mine took about 10 minutes to show).

Picture heavy!

View of front of house.  I like to sit in those chairs and enjoy the warmth, and try to catch glimpses of the birds.

Here is from the west.  The edges here are rain gutters that were taken off the house(they have been sitting on the ground for quite a while so I figured I can use them).  I cut them and buried them as borders.

Same section, different view.

East section.

Sunflower-this is the first I had seen of it above dirt, it grows fast.  These are the Mammoth Gray variety and will get heads about 20 inches wide and we will be able to eat the seeds, if the birds don’t get them first.

It is really cool-I think-to see the ground split from the pressure of the plants growing and breaking through.

Here are the beets once they broke through. I had to put the beets in a bigger pot, not pictured.

Here are blooms on the tomato plant (there are two opened, more not yet, one may be harder to see).

There was a furry creature that dug up in this flower pot.  I think it must have a death wish!

Then I saw that it was digging up the pot where I had planted carrot seeds!

And if that wasn’t enough, it decided to dig into the unopened bags of soil that I hadn’t gotten to yet.

This picture was taken through the window.  The birds like the food I put out, but must not be comfortable around me yet, because if I am on the porch they tend to stay away.  Or if they do approach, they fly when they notice the camera.

However I was able to finally capture a few birds. Here is a sparrow.

And here is a Cardinal, we think he is still young and growing his red feathers yet.

We have beets, carrots, green bell peppers, big hamburger tomatoes, roma tomatoes, sun flowers, potatoes (white and red), and some strictly decorative flowers.

I started this post Sunday, so it gets that date, however I did finish it on Monday.

Another reason for a post, is that I feel a little queasy looking at that mouse every time I get on here.  I know, I put it on here.  But yuck!

A new quiz will return next week.  I know there are so many of you sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for a new one.  Since I think there are only about up to 10 people who read this.  I could be wrong, If you read this feel free to leave me a word in the comments.  Though I do ask that it not be a word I can/should not repeat to my friends’ kids.  I am not picky about who reads it, I am just curious.

Last night I had to run to the store to pick up some “stuff.”  I was really excited because the self-check-outs were open.  I then realized I was missing something.  Something important.  My wallet.

I really do think about using a purse.  I’m just not that kind of girl.  I don’t know quite what that means, but I know that if I used a purse, it would be harder to not have my wallet on me.

I am just glad I was never pulled over.  I certainly do not need a ticket for driving with out a license.

And then upon returning home for real, I closed the car door on my leg.

I’m going to go hang my head in shame now. Again.

On a great note, my blood pressure was 131/80 last night!  Much better than back in August, or was it September?

Three points to whomever can correctly identify the whole quote the title came from, and where I heard it.  Other than Jacob, and any one ought to be able to get it, it is not an inside joke, necessarily.

If I wanted to talk to your salesman on the phone, I would have called you. Instead, I went looking for information online, because I wanted to get the information, you know, ONLINE.

Oh, and since you have my address along with my phone number, I would expect that you would figure out that your particular insurance company doesn’t insure ANYTHING in my area before you call me and try to sell me insurance I can’t possibly use.

–Jacob

I felt the need to add the “THE END” on the last page right above where it is written because it is hard to see.

Story #1:

We were at one of our local department stores, buying pieces for a halloween costume.  We went as convicts, which was simple to do: scrubs with a number painted on, and some makeshift waist-chain handcuffs.  We found the scrubs, but the top didn’t have a price tag on it.  No big deal, we assumed it was the same price as all the other tops, which was $10 or so.

When we went to check out, the cashier rang up our things, and when he got to the scrub top, he started looking for the price tag, which was nowhere to be find.  He looked a bit perplexed and annoyed, and Marcia said “it must be free!” (This is something we often say when a price isn’t immediately apparent, and doesn’t usually get much response from cashiers, especially at this store that doesn’t like to give up a cent if they can avoid it.)

The cashier looked at Marcia, and then said in a rather pathetic I-have-a-cold-and-feel-like-crap voice, “And I’m gonna give it to you free too, because I’m sick and don’t want to be here.”  And then he put the scrub top in the bag without another thought.

Free scrubs! Score one for Marcia and the sick cashier.

Story #2:

Saturday night, we decided to order pizza.  We had a coupon: Buy an extra large specialty pizza at regular price, get a large one-topping free.  We thought that was a pretty good deal, so we called and ordered.  This particular pizza place has a specialty pizza that Marcia really loves.  To protect the innocent, we’ll call it the “spinach” pizza.  We ordered an extra large spinach pizza, and got a large pizza with tomatoes (yes, tomatoes are excellent for a one-topping pizza) free.

We went and picked up the order, and when we got home and opened the pizzas (ALWAYS check the order before you leave the store… I know better), we found that the spinach pizza had onions and mushrooms all over it – both things that Marcia doesn’t like on her pizza, and which I didn’t remember ordering.

I called back to the pizza place, and explained that I thought there was a mistake.  At first, the guy said “that’s what comes on the spinach pizza, which is what you ordered.”  Then he realized what had happened: There is also a “spinach DELUXE” pizza in their computer system, and he had printed a ticket for the deluxe, when we had only ordered the regular.  He asked if I wanted a regular spinach pizza instead, and I said yes.

I went to exchange the corrected pizza (they did offer to deliver it free, but it’s faster to just go pick it up), and when I took the original offending pizza in, they said I could keep that too, since all they would do is throw it away anyway.  While Marcia won’t eat the mushrooms and onions, I will, so free pizza for me!

So, TWO extra large pizzas and one large for the price of one extra large – that’s a pretty good deal.  Score two for me and the pizza guy with marginal reading comprehension skills.

But I digress… The point is that yesterday, more than 3 years after $2.00 gas prices prompted me to make a major lifestyle change, we filled up our cars for $1.93/gallon, a price unseen since early 2005.

Here’s how:

We have a local grocery store that has an associated gas station.  If you buy items at the grocery store, you get a discount on fuel from the gas station.  The discount is progressive – spend up to $50, get 3 cents off; up to $75, get 5 cents off; up to $100, get 8 cents off; and if you spend more than $100 at the grocery store, you get 12 cents off of each gallon of gas.

What enables this whole plan is that the grocery store’s customer service counter will accept payments for our gas/electric company.  So yesterday, we went to the grocery store, paid our utility bill (which was well over $100), and got our reciept, complete with 12 cent gas discount.

Gas prices have fallen pretty dramatically over the last few week.  The going rate for the cheap stuff in town was $2.05/gallon yesterday.  $2.05 – 12 cents is $1.93!

So we, filled up both cars for under $2.00/gallon.

in size 5 (US women’s size 7).

I bought pants onWednesday.  They fit nicely.  I decided I needed a second pair, as pants rarely fit me nicely.  I went back yesterday to get a pair.  The label looked exactly the same, when I got home to compare them.  I tried them on, the new ones didn’t fit so nicely.  Baffled, I looked at the tag again.  They looked identical, or so I thought.  The first pair was made in Pakistan.  The second pair was made in Egypt.  Apparently Egypt has smaller inches than Pakistan.  When holding them next to each other I see that there are two inches in difference.  I took the second pair back for the Pakistan made jeans.  I like my jeans loose.

Conversation 1:

We were dropping Matt’s supper off to him at the rail yard
G1 unbuckled his seatbelt as Ronda started the car to leave
Marcia: buckle that
Ronda stopped the car for him to buckle up
G1: I’ll buckle it at home
Marcia: you’ll buckle it now
He did.

Conversation 2:

Immediately following the 1st conversation
G1: I want to see trains
Ronda: There are trains all around us look out the windows
G1: I don’t see trains
Marcia: (pointing at the engine next to us) What is that?
G1: Not trains
A few seconds lapse.
G1: (points to a long train out the other window) That’s not a train…. It’s cars

Conversation 3:

(Ronda was holding change for a reason I can not remember at this time, we were parked in the car)
G1: I want a quarter
Ronda: I’ll give you a penny
G1: A nickel
Ronda: I’ll give you a penny
G1: A nickel
Ronda: I don’t have a nickel, I’ll give you a penny
G1: Marcia has a nickel
Marcia: Actually I do not have a nickel today
Ronda: Want a dime?
G1: Nnnnnnnnyes, a nickel
Ronda: It is not a negotiation
G1: It a nenanenatin (more or less sounded like that)

Conversation 4:

Not quite sure what started this one….
Marcia: G1 you crack me up
G1: I did not wake you up
Marcia: No, you did not wake me up
G1: I make you happy
Marcia: Yes you do
(This is where I get teary)

And now for a video that I was supposed to post almost 2 months ago of G2 and G3 climbing back and forth in the two cribs when Ronda was in the hospital to have G4.

WARNING the video is 4 and a half minutes long.

The funniest part of the whole flopping back and forth thing is that in the morning G2 went back to her crib before getting my attention, and stood there looking pathetic trying to get me to believe that she was “stuck” in her crib!

*Yes this is the same post I put on the GMF site.

There were a few candidates of varying persuasions that we felt an inclination for, but most have dropped out of the race, and only one remains: Barack Obama.

We do not agree with everything that Obama stands for, but we agree with most of it:

“I don’t want to just end the war, I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.”

“We are not going to baby-sit a civil war.”

John McCain still thinks the war in Iraq is a good idea.  He wants our troops in Iraq forever, or indefinitely, whichever comes first.

Clinton still refuses to admit that her voting in favor of the war was a mistake.

Obama has opposed the war since the beginning.  We want a president who had the foresight to know that this would not turn out well, and the integrity to stand up for that, even when it was unpopular.

“Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let’s set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let’s recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let’s make college more affordable, and let’s invest in scientific research, and let’s lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”

Obama believes in keeping the internet open and free (did you even know that many of your representatives are under the influence of lobbyists who want to close up the internet and allow your internet provider to charge you extra for visiting any web site that they don’t run?).  Obama believes that education, not war, is our future, and wants to put our money where it will help rather than hurt.

“We now face an opportunity — and an obligation — to turn the page on the failed politics of yesterday’s health care debates… My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less. If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.”

Imagine that you could provide for yourself any kind of health insurance you want.  You could simply declare “this is my health coverage, because I said so.”  That is what you get to do when you’re a U.S. Senator or Congressman.  As a result, they have pretty good coverage.  Obama wants to give every American the opportunity to have that same coverage, and to ensure that every American has health insurance – that no one will be forced into poverty and bankruptcy as the result of some circumstance beyond their control or their ability to foresee.

“I believe that America’s free market has been the engine of America’s great progress. It’s created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It’s led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other’s success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.”

Obama wants to make taxes simpler for the majority of Americans: the middle class.  Obama wants to provide tax breaks to the middle class, instead of the rich upper class, who got tax breaks they didn’t even ask for from the Bush administration.

Now for a call to action:  This week we celebrate the birthday of a laywer from Illinois who, through integrity and hope, made a difference, and saved our nation: Abraham Lincoln.

In the spirit of that hope, we have made a donation to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.  We followed a call to action from dailykos.com, who has asked people to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday by donating a multiple of $5.01 to the Obama campaign (Lincoln appears on the $5 bill and the penny).

We’ve contributed what we could responsibly afford, but it’s going to take more than just us and the others who’ve acted so far.

It’s going to take a movement. It’s going to take millions of people to beat back the avalanche of dollars from Washington lobbyists and special interests, who are planning to spend more money than ever to try to own our political process and dictate our policies in Washington.

Barack Obama will not play that game.

Barack Obama is not taking any contributions from Washington lobbyists or political action committees.

Barack Obama is transforming the political process by bringing together hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans in a campaign that’s owned by no one but the people.

Will you join us by making a donation?  Can you spare $5.01, or $10.02, or $25.05 to show that you have hope for the future?  That you hope for your children to grow up in the land of the free?  That you support a candidate who believes in you?

The future is coming, and it is time to make it happen the way we want.  Please join us:

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/pf?outreach_page_id=28895

Also, yesterday our friend Evan did a photo shoot for us (Jacob’s family).