Ze Lockers... Zey are DONE (insert cackling laughter and lightning!)

 I need to move a few more things off the shelf, however, progress can be seen - and the lockers are in place in the corner ( insert a Wooping sound here! )

 Not all the towels are in place yet.. some are in the wash, some are hiding in a closet inside (unsure why to this day why they end up in there!)  Progress - the noodles that will stand upright are in the corner in a basket - temporary, I'm sure, as it's not quite big enough for them.  The older ones are in the garbage and the old deck box is rinsed out and waiting for a new owner :o)

what secrets the lockers hold.  There are side hooks on the outer lockers and the potential for some more side hooks as needed (I have a few more to install if we so desire)... the top hooks are on either side of the lockers with doors to hang things from.  The left locker is going to be dubbed the "pool extras" cubbie - things that really aren't used that often and just need a place to "hang" - may put what little chemicals I have on the shelf in here as well.  Bottom left is all the "war" squirters - center bottom is the fins (I think Butch's are actually in there right now too), bottom right is floats and surfboards and silly things like that, upper right is the masks and goggles... do you think we have enough of those???   I actually had to fish two more out of the pool to run rover and as I was gathering towels found two more sets of goggles running around too.  Yikes!  I think that labels are in order for the doors as well in bright yellow - what do you think?

Before and after on the front yard

Before

After

Which do you like best?

Job Hunt Statistics

Job Title	Status
Operations Research Analyst, DR-1515-2/3/4
IT SPECIALIST (SYSANALYSIS/CUSTSPT) (Guam)
TRAINING ADMINISTRATOR
Program Specialist
IT Specialist (APPSW-SYANALYSIS)	withdrawn
General Supply Specialist	ineligible
PROGRAM ANALYST
Purchase Request System Analyst	eligible
Program Analyst
MANAGEMENT ANALYST
Supervisory Management Analyst	withdrawn
EQUIPMENT SPECIALIST (ELECTRONIC)	minimum not met
MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST (CUSTOMER SUPPORT)	eligible - not referred
Information Technology Specialist (Data Management)	not selected

For those not familiar with the whole job hunt in civil service and are wondering “what does that mean”:

·         Withdrawn – typically means that the person they were looking for on that job “pull” of applicants was NOT on the list.  So they drop back, dump the list and try again in a few more months – means even if you were qualified, they didn’t want you…. They wanted Joe Blows brother or contractor xx who was now available to go into civil service.

·         Eligible – not referred – this means, you had all the qualifications to DO the job, however were beat out by someone with more preference than you – e.g. someone with veterans preference, spouse preference, a Masters… something in the point system that they have just didn’t “rank” you high enough to be considered for the job.

·         Ineligible/minimum not met – just means I was stretching just a bit for the job and telling them I am no slouch, I have an education and I could do this job…. They didn’t buy it.  I’m OK with these two as I knew they were stretching and the supply one wanted specifics I didn’t have… so it was a toss up…

So there you have it.  Fifteen jobs since the beginning of the year being applied for.  Six out of the running.

The good news?  I’m still in the running for eight as total unknowns… and one I am definitely qualified for… now let’s just see who wants to take a chance on an “unknown”….  

Off to a new adventure if I’m lucky

Yard Work, Yard Work and MORE Yard work!

I made the mistake of telling Butch that I would LOVE the holly out... after he had been pulling berry bushes out all morning... so he hooked up the truck and a double yank..

 and out they would go!

For those that know me, know I hate killing plants, however, after trimming these a few years and trying to pick up the trimmings without getting stuck and crying. Well, let's just say there is NO love lost for these bushes!!

 Bye Bye Holly shrubs!!

 The after... and I really will remember one day to take a decent full picture of the before..

ONE of these days.  there were a minimum of 4 in front of the garage, 3 along the wall under the crape myrtle, then one to the left of the door, and two on the right (don't ask, not sure about that one!)

 it's so much "lighter" and brighter looking.

I know, I know, that sounds retarded, but it's how I feel about it.  I also trimmed up the crape as well and took the lower limbs all out, then Butch trimmed all the yopons back into "balls".  I tried to get him to take those out as well.  No such luck.  :(  Oh, well, I'm still doing a happy dance that all the holly shrubs  are GONE. The only hollys to remain are the corner ones - so we have 4 total left to contend with and if all goes well, they will continue to be SLOW growers and we'll keep them in their "Christmas" shape.

the plan is to put some decorative grasses in front of the garage and possibly along the blank wall.  Maybe... we'll see.  For now, we rest and chill!

Pool fun with Angela

Only the three muskateers would think to do this.  Angela, Mikayla and Grace are under there...

 There's Grace!

 And Grace and Mikayla in the "fort"

Angela would NOT squeeze in for the picture, but she's under there too :)

Grow baby Grow!!!

 This grape in the foreground was planted last year and I really didn't have any hope it would look THIS good this year.  It's year two and we're almost to the top of the pergola :)  YEAH!!  On the far side, you can see the NEW addition of the wisteria.  It is doing very well as well.  It flowered this spring, which surprised me as it had just been transplanted in the early, early spring.  apparently it really likes where it is as one tendril is already at the top of the pergola as well.  The plan is to have them cross and have grape from one side to the other and wisteria doing the same.  Then we'll have flowers in the spring and grapes in the fall.  Bonus!

Next up - do you know what THIS is?

 I had seen/read on pintrest about planting the ends of whole celery.  I really had my doubts, but there it is... a brand new celery plant from the "toss away" stuff.  I have yet to see how tall it will grow, however having seen this, I planted a second one as well - here is the evidence that it really IS celery and it really does sprout... you can see this one just now starting to sprout in the middle:

Angela and hair...

Angela went shopping with me at Target and found more hair color on sale... and she wanted to go MUCH darker... OK - it will come out in time... or maybe not - but it's just hair, and she did choose a NORMAL color, I should be happy, right/ 

it's not a lot different than before, and to be honest, I think her hair was getting faily dark with age as well... she will be my child with her dad's coloring.  Liz will remain the child with my coloring.  True to form as Liz is blonde hair and blue eyes and Angela is now dark hair and hazel eyes. 

Projects and Liz learning to solder... scary!

Many a discussion went into the last minute project for a shoebox... it included switches, Christmas lights, red paper... and a demo of how a fire spread in London at the turn of the centurly... I asked her to "pretend" she was doing something... so I got a weird look...

 Then I made the mistake of telling her I thought it was a weird face, and  this is what I got:

OMG, what have I taught my kids? Oh, WAIT - Butch is pulling a face too - good grief, they get it form both sides!!

Concert band

Liz had her spring (and last) concert on Thursday night.

I should be the LAST person to go to concerts. I just don't get it...

"Wouldn't it be good'" Nik Kershaw

I got it bad
you don't know how bad I got it.
You got it easy
you don't know when you've got it good.
It's getting harder
just keeping life and soul together

I'm sick of fighting even though I know I should.
The cold is biting through each and ev'ry nerve and fiber

My broken spirit is frozen to the core.
I don't want to be here no more.

Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes even if it was for just one day
And wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away.
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side

The grass in always greener over there.
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care.

You must be joking
you don't know a thing about it.
You've got no problems
I'd stay right there if I were you.
I got it harder
you couldn't dream how hard I got it

Stay out of my shoes if you know what's good for you.
The heat is stifling
bun@ing me up from the inside.
The sweat is coming through each and ev'ry pore.
I don't want to be here no more. I don't want to be here no more.
I don't want to be here no more.
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes even if it was for just one day. . . .
I got it bad. you don't know how bad I got it. .. .

 

Yep, that’s the song that is stuck in MY head today…what about you?

It's that time... time to revist (gulp) goals....

·  Back door needs to be fixed near the garage - fix it and then have it vinyl clad to avoid future rot! DONE

OK it's always scary to see it in writing, but it's better if it IS in writing.

What’s the good news? The door was replaced. However, I now need to add another bullet for:

· PAINT the backdoor.

·  Sprinklers - yes, we HAVE to add this back on there

What is the GREAT news on the sprinklers? They were seeing a LOT of progress. New heads put in, water running to them, trenching continues to this day... Pretty soon we'll be down to just one (not so) little thing left... and that is run the final wiring to the box by the driveway bump out. Butch wants to go under the driveway for this one... which will entail some tunneling. What is the BETTER news? I now have a sprinkler in my little garden area. I don't know if I'll know what to do without having to hand water everything all the time. :o) I'm pure-d twitterpated at this point!!

· Revisit tree solution - as sickening as that is to say

The tree solution? Hum... with about 7 of the 50 trees surviving after the drought, lesson learned WAIT until the spirnklers are fully completed.

· plant flower beds to the north side of the pool

This bed too has a sprinkler freshly installed and ready to start sprinkling whatever is put in there... It's "Butch's bed" to plant... so it will be interesting to see what goes in there.
For the sake of THIS exercise, I’m going to put the whole “sprinklers” and backyard stuff to bed with a “Butch is doing that… and pray the progress continues!!

·         Transfer the lovely Wisteria vine dad has for me to my arbor THIS spring.. just before the thaw and the roots start growing...

This is DONE (transplanted) and growing link a, well a wisteria.  It’s almost reached the top of the arbor already – it’s about 2/3 of the way up.  The grapes, however, on the opposite side are going gung ho and are all the way to the top and filling in nicely with grapes actually forming on them this year.  I’m exited!  By next year I should have grapes on the left and wisteria blooms on the right… and by the next year, hopefully they will have intertwined and we’ll get color and greenery all year long across the top of the arbor!

·  get the rest of the house organized with the group

· get the craft room up to snuff (scary statement)

The organization is going well too with the weekly "to do" list from the group. I find it doesn't get the exact thing done at that time, but it keeps me moving and somewhat on track to get things DONE. That's a good thing.

As always without moving every few years it’s harder to keep from accruing a lot of “junk” and stuff that I would never miss.  I’m doing better… just really need to concentrate on the crap craft room over the next few months.  Goals are set… let’s see if I can stick to them. 

Locker in progress

Testing out BlogPress to see if it will work well for our trip :)

And to post the progress of the locker :). Almost there. One more coat blue and one more coat yellow and I'm there!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

When the swallows return to... our front porch

shhhhhh- don't tell Butch they're back, he hasn't noticed yet and isnt chucking glasses of water at them yet :)

Well That (WASNT) Easy...

Why yes, that was a serious play on Staples, because if Staples had such cute furniture, I would NOT have gone to Office Depot to order this.  To their defense, I did LOVE the style, and Butch even agreed that it was acceptable to replace one of our mostly useless console tables with a bookshelf. 
Why?  I have a lot of scrapbooks in the computer room that are both finished and unfinished that NO ONE knows exist.  So - it's time to put them into the living room where they will be looked at by someone - anyone?  The entertainment center overflows with 'other" things... so the option to get a bookshelf just seemed logical.  so, why the pun on Staples?  Well, I ordered this gem on 1 March. No, that's not a typo - MARCH.  I put the order in, 1 April, they unceremoniously cancelled my order.  What the???  I call, I ask "does this mean you won't be getting them back in?"  The answer was, "no they are just on back order"  absolutely NO one there could tell me just WHY they had cancelled my order.  Sigh, so I put it BACK on order the first part of April.  For those that don't know Butch is infamous for NOT picking out furniture for MONTHS.  He literally sold our living room furniture out of living room without anything picked out and we lived on camp chairs for three months before he would choose a set he liked.  Yes, months. 
So for this gem, I did NOT want to go shopping for another bookshelf again - and don't you know I was really thinking I was going to have to order it again this month :)  BUT it finally did arrive and here it is!

 there are black glass inserts that you will NEVER see on the first two shelves :)

 what we took out of the entertainment center... plus two more that were stuffed down beside it as well with photo albums.  Yes, the stack is 2 deep.  Sigh.

Today was a productive day....

I'm getting back on track with our declutter/organization group.  Last weeks tasking had "clean one shelf" in the laundry room.  I don't know about you, but I can NOT clean just one... if I'm in there, I'm doing them all.  So - I did, I dug in and looked at all the things that were in the wrong place just because it was easier then putting them where they belonged.  I looked at things that were purchased and were the wrong size and no one took them BACK.  So, I did that too today.  I cleaned out the laundry shelves and took back the incorrect size bulbs and generally chucked and removed items that didn't belong in there.  A few things were tested for operations... they failed even with new batteries.. chucked!  I put a lot in the thrift store box too - bye bye candles I've never been that thrilled with the scents (wasn't that a goal a few weeks ago?).  these were hidden and NOT with the rest of the candles I had already culled... so their time was due.  So there you have it - a nice clean laundry room shelf!

I then left and went to Lowe's to return the incorrect size bulbs - mostly because they were $10 and it's a waste to have them sit in MY house.  So - they went back and I went clothes shopping as well.  I need a little black dress to wear to a party for Butch next weekend ... at least I was TOLD it was next weekend a while back, so felt some pressure to get this purchase done.  I found a dress for the party as well as a pool cover up and two shirts...

pool cover up

brown shirt

orange shirt

little black dress

And after all THIS?  I went and picked up the Boston Butt from the fund raiser from last week - and I was home by 1pm
shocking... I may even take a nap today as well :)

Junior Prom

Liz all dressed up and ready for Prom - her first.  Yeah Liz!

She was going with a group of friends.  I was the lucky one who was to be the chauffeur to dinner and then take three of the group on to the dance.

 And what happens when you look BEHIND the curtain - the REAL Liz and the "real" backyard.. mess that it is!!

OK, back to mature and dignified...

 They met at Zen's Japanese Steak House for dinner

 The three I was the "driver" for - Daniel, Liz and Matty

And the whole gang.. sorry - forgot the camera - iPhone picture!!

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

 1994

2012

Some days it it really reassuring to know you really, deep down, even after putting on a hundred pounds and changed in so many inperceptible ways, you really ARE the same nut job deep inside :)

Another "project" done... on organization!

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now... that pantry just BUGS me with the lack of size and the lack of ways to organize the bottom.  I don't know that this is the permanent solution, HOWEVER, for now It's going to do just fine!!

Before, Chips and cereal on the bottom shelf along with other odds and ends ...

 As of this afternoon - Thanks to Angela for helping me get everything out, vacuuming and mopping... well, she didn't help mop, but she did get the vacuum for me and assisted with filling containers.

NOW to keep it this way - lunch boxes tucked at the bottom right, napkins and food storage bags above that and pop tarts (and oils at the back of that shelf) on the top...
On the left we have the top shelf filled with cereals, middle with bottled peaches, and some other items that are 'spares' as well as the bottom shelf with more 'spares' of things we tend to go through quickly!
Wish me luck on keeping it looking THIS nice.

Hoppy Easter.... (yes, I said hOppy!)

The Bunny went International this year... as she was on the road just prior to the holiday.  The camels are made from camels milk.  I have yet to try mine...

 however, LIZ loved hers! 

 The egg in the picture is from Amsterdam and contains dutch chocoate eggs in a multitude of flavors - to include pop rocks in one of them - fun, eh?

Angela had an "identical" basket - her slippers are on her feet already, so I didn't get a picture of them - they are white with designs on them...

 She and her friend Gracie just ate the camels head... poor camel!

Butch got a camel as well as a box of dutch chocolates as well... I think his camel is headless as well - we know where Angela gets it from :)  hahaha!

remembering some of the COOL places I have been

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIbq3yy_mas  the ADNEC – leaning building that leans more than 5x the leaning tower of Pisa.  The beginning of this show also gives you a really great look at the Grand Mosque - largest jeweled chandelier, largest rug in the world, as well as the Emirates Palace Hotel – the most expensive in the world – now do you get the comment “in the world’s”… you see this a LOT over there.  They do have some very impressive buildings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWrLU7q9VgI shows the Aldar HQ Building – first circular skyscraper… well worth taking a look at…

And while I’m waxing reminiscent of the experiences I had there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmJ63pOP_6E  parts 1 – 4 of the National Geographic Dubai Miracle or Mirage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wra7o6gb6Wc  national geographic on building the Emirates Palace

It’s official, I would love to go back, however, It will be a while.

Alter Ego's and potty humor

You know how Batman has the batphone? 

Not sure if you know my alter ego’s name is “Butt Mom” and uses the same theme music…

Well, now I have the buttphone… due to it’s dunking yesterday… hahaha

Ok, Potty humor is not lost on me even at this age!

The phone didn't escape unscathed....

I’m soooo sad to report the phone didn't escape unscathed...  the external speakers (ringer/speaker phone) are almost kaput… they work, however at a very degraded level.  I’m ultra bummed.  I went to the shoppette and purchased some rice… the phone is now in a rice “sauna”… in hopes of rescuing the speakers from a fate worse than death…

I can barely hear it when it’s in my purse now… add lowered tones and I’m sunk!!  Oh, and limited speaker phone too.. as that is what I would hear – very low tones of discussions… it would be VERY low… too low to hear on the road, I’m sure.  Drat, drat and double drat!!

Potty Talk... and women's clothing

Ok, I have a few complaints today… one of which is women’s clothing…

Why the H*LL don’t them come with POCKETs.  I mean really, yes, I’m fat… yes, I like comfortable clothing, but come ON – pockets should be a given.  Decent pockets… ones that would hold, say a CELL PHONE.

I mean really.

What brings this on?

Well, for the first time ever I dropped my phone in the potty… no, I’m not talking on the floor, which would have been gross, but acceptable.  I’m talking a nice SPLASH.  The great thing is that I was in the bathroom with the auto flush, so I escaped the really gaggy option of dirty water… but still – GAG!!  Why/how did I drop my phone?  I needed to blow my nose after the fact, so had tucked my phone into the optional pocket we all know and love – my bra… bent over to get some toilet paper and tumble, SPLASH, there went my phone!!!!  GAG.

Ok, I do have an Otter Box on my phone, but it’s NOT water proof… it did, however keep water from getting too much of the phone with exception of speakers and microphone.  Sigh… there was a VERY little bit of water inside the case.  I did rescue it quickly, drop it onto some paper towels and come back to my cubicle to tear down, wipe down with baby wipes, another thing I am SO grateful for today – the wisdom to have not taken out my baby wipes from my recent flights (*they are wonderful for quick clean up in airports)… sigh.

So, phone is cleaned and appears to be none the worse for wear… but ewh, gag and double ewh!!!

Tighter bra’s or only purchase pants with POCKETs from now on!!