Last night we went to the State Fair where Zoe actually asked if she could do the bungee jumping slingshot thing. HELL NO! I’m still slightly afraid that she’ll slither through the slots on the safety gate while on the sky ride that takes us from one side of the park to the other.

What did we do? Well, let’s see, we ate, I walked through Wisconsin wine tasting bar, we had ice cream sundaes, Zoe milked a fake cow for 60 seconds (4 oz worth), and then we took the sky ride. We meant to look at the animals, but somehow got sidetracked in the Expo Center where Zoe made a beaded lanyard thingy at the kid’s “make it and take it” art table, and we watched a Chinese acrobat show.

And then, *we (and I use that term loosely to mean *my husband) found what we came for: Magicloths. It was the Magicloths booth, his Holy Grail of the State Fair.

Ever since the water tube to the refrigerator sprung a leak a few weeks ago and soaked the wall, the floor, and the carpeting, all he’s talked about is Cham Wows and Magicloths. I’m not sure why he decided on Magicloths over Cham Wows, but whatever. Our daughter is a sucker for any and all wonder-gadgets (MOM, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED? IT’S MUDDY PUDDY. AND ROLL N GROW. AND GREEN BAGS.) so it was no wonder that she was mesmerized by the Magicloths demonstration. I walked around a bit during the demo and came back just in time to get hit-up for the moolah by my family. Just as I was pulling out my last $20 from my wallet, the vendor says: OKAY, COME IN CLOSER, I’VE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU. SHHHHH, THESE ARE LEFT OVER FROM THE FIRST DAY OF THE FAIR AND I THINK I’VE ONLY 5 LEFT, AND IF YOU COME BACK LATER AND ASK FOR THEM I CAN’T GIVE THEM TO YOU, BECAUSE THEY’LL BE GONE, BUT INCLUDED IN YOUR MAGICLOTH PACKAGE FOR ONLY $20 (+TAX) IS THIS…

And then she pulled out a mop.

A MOP! And folks, that’s where I draw the line on what I will and what I won’t be buying (or getting free) from the State Fair. I turned to my husband and said: I CAN’T DO THIS. I CAN’T BE A PART OF THIS. A MOP?

And then I handed him the cash and got as far away from the place where a mop is included with purchase as fast as I could. When the coast was clear I did turn around, because I just had to get a picture of this. (Excuse the quality, I had to use my cell phone)

As it turns out, he explained to the vendor that his wife said NO WAY JOSE to the mop, so she gave him an extra package of Magicloths instead. I’m cool with that.

But I made him carry it to the car.

This Saturday, July 26th, from 9-4 my subdivision, Brook Falls, will be having their annual rummage sale. It's located off of Lilly Rd, right across from Lamplight Farms, just north of Hampton Avenue. You can enter on Camelot or Brook Falls.

I'll be participating in the sale, and I hope to have all my stuff together tonight, in the garage, and properly labeled. Most of what I have to sell is clothing, toys, and books that my seven year old daughter has outgrown. Due to favorites, and of course, growth spurts, there are some that she's never even worn.

My daughter is pretty excited about setting up her own little table this year, which was supposed to be for cookies, lemonade, water, and snacks. However she's been working on some crafts like mad for the last few days. Gosh, I hope someone buys them. She's struggling with a price point right now. Her father and I are trying are best to push her towards the $0.25 mark, we'll see what she decides tomorrow, I guess. Perhaps her grandmother will be able to talk some sense into her.

If you'd just like to stop by and say hello, please do! I'm the first house on Brook Falls Drive, the one with a giant Rainbow Play Set in the backyard. Ya know, what I should do, is offer a babysitting service for parents so that they can drop their kids off in my backyard to play on the Rainbow, while they rummage with ease through the subdivision. Now there's an idea.

Have a great weekend!

The last Batman movie I saw starred Michael Keaton, or possibly George Clooney, I’m not entirely sure. But I think I had mono, and I swore I was dying, and someone had to DRIVE to Blockbuster to rent a movie. Yes, it was a very, very, very long time since I’ve watched a Batman movie. I love the roller coaster ride a Six Flags though, LOVE IT!

Zoe went to my parents for the night, and that means one thing: MOVIES!  NON-G-RATED MOVIES!!! And well, in order to see Mamma Mia!, I promised we could see The Dark Knight first. I ordered tickets online, and even though we got to the theater 25 minutes early, we still had to sit in the second row. FROM THE SCREEN. It was 4:50 in the afternoon, and for as much as I love movies, I have this problem where I fall asleep during them. It’s something to do with the dark lights, and the fact that my eyelids get really really REALLY heavy. I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t fall asleep, just so that I could SAY that I DID NOT FALL ASLEEP.

And I did not fall asleep, but I probably should have seen Batman Begins prior to watching The Dark Knight.

WOW! The movie blew all of my expectations straight out of the bat cave. It was, in my opinion, probably the best movie I’ve seen all year! And, if you recall, I did see every last one of the Oscar Nominated best-picture movies in a marathon fashion one crazy Saturday not too long ago.

Someone needs to check my forehead, do I have a fever? I just declared a caped crusader movie the best I’ve seen all year! Me? I don’t even like Spiderman!

And all the buzz going around about Heath Ledger and his role as the Joker, it’s true. He was phenomenal! He deserves any and all nominations that he receives. Absolutely.

By the way, Christian Bale? Oh he’s a MUCH better Batman than Michael Keaton.

In May I got a brand new Kenmore Elite He5t washing machine with the Quietpak 9 and a matching He5 Steam dryer - also with the Quietpak 9. I didn’t know that I could love a washer and dryer this much. The very second that Sears drove away after delivering and installing them I had a load of wash going — and all the laundry baskets were neatly lined up so that I could wash clear into the middle of the night if I chose to.

I’ve kept those machines running on a fairly regular basis ever since. If something needs to be washed I scope out all the dirty laundry until I’ve got enough to fill a load.

And the Quietpak 9? Well worth the money. My laundry room is on the first floor and it’s right next to the living room, dining room, kitchen, and my bedroom. I needed a washing machine that did not make a peep. And this one is UBER QUIET.

Did I mention that I love it?

So this morning I threw in a load of sheets, and tonight I flipped the laundry into the dryer, and started the next load. Then I took a shower. And when I got out of the shower I noticed that the washing machine wasn’t running, and instead was flashing F32 on the screen.

And the door was locked.

And it kept flashing. F32! F32! F32!!

Yes, yes, F32!! But what does it mean?? I grabbed the owner’s manual and searched for all the error codes, F20, F21, F22, but no F32.

What!?

I started punching buttons on the machine, and finally had to unplug it from the wall to get the door to unlock.

Whew! I got all my clothes out of the washing machine, because even though they were dirty clothes, I felt relieved that they weren’t locked inside! I know, odd.

My husband came in the laundry room and tried to figure out what the problem was, and finally announces that “we’ll have to call for service”. Lucky for him the door right behind him is magnetic and there was a Sears Home Service magnet — which I grabbed and handed to him.

“It’s 8:30 at night, they won’t be open.”

“Ya never know.”

I fully expected him to go back to watching his tv show, and I was still wrapped in a towel, so I went to the bedroom to get into my pajama’s. I can see the couch from the bedroom, and I saw him sitting on the couch, then I heard him explaining to someone that the washing machine wasn’t working and it was giving him an error code.

Could he really be calling Sears? At this hour?? For me???

Sure enough, he called!

And I wanted to burst out into song like Giselle in Enchanted — twirling around in my pj’s That’s How You’ll Know!  

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Over the past few weeks I've been running outside, rather than running on my treadmill. My dog, Maisy, has been my running partner. She does pretty good actually, and I'll bet we ran close to 15 miles last week, only taking Wednesday and Sunday off. Perhaps you've seen us running through the subdivisions off of Lilly and Hampton?

The only problem with running with my dog is that I don't want to push her, and in order to make sure she stays properly hydrated, I bought one of those Camelbak packs from REI. It's not the big one that goes on like a backpack, but rather a smaller one that actually I wear like a fanny pack and the water bladder rests on the small of my back. Surprisingly, it holds 48 oz of water, and Maisy is pretty good at drinking it straight from the hose like it's a bubbler.

Tonight Maisy and I were getting ready for our run, and I don't know if it was the water pack that got my daughter, Zoe, so interested or what, but she decided to come along with us. I thought about just doing the 3/4 mile loop through my subdivision, but she was doing so well that I keep on going my normal route and in all we went about 2.5 miles. Sure, we didn't go super fast, and we walked here and there, but I'm so impressed that my 7 year old actually did it! Our pace was slow, due to the walking, as well as I tried to teach her not to burst out full steam ahead.

Even though we both had our iPods on, she talked the entire time. Over time she'll learn to concentrate on her breathing, and maybe not talk so much, or maybe the talking will turn out to help her. Personally, I can't really talk when I run. Anyhow, normally I'd have dropped Maisy off at the house and then gone out again by myself to do another loop, but it was getting late so I didn't this time.

Thursday night I'll Storm the Bastille with my husband and my sister-in-law. My brother and my nephews are supposed to be running the 5K too, but we'll see, they changed their minds last year. This run is my favorite run of the year. I'm really looking forward to it!

Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head

I must confess, I don't care about parades. At all. Maybe it's because I spent a great deal of my childhood marching in parades, both for the Robinette's (I was a baton twirler) and for the Templeton Middle School marching band (I played the clarinet and the flute). Once I got to high school, I quit the band because it was mandatory that we had to march, and I'd had enough marching.

On the way home from work yesterday I took note of all the people along the Menomonee Falls parade route who were scouting out their spot for tonights parade. It almost made me wonder if the parade was last night, instead of tonight. This morning all the stakes and string and caution tape and lawn chairs, and other marking devices were there. My daughter, who is seven, asked me: What is going on? Why are all these people in areas that are marked off with caution tape?? And I had to explain to her that it wasn't police tape in this instance, it was areas that people were marking as their own for the parade which is later tonight.

And this is what she said to me: But it's just a parade.

My point exactly. It's just a parade. I don't get it. What ever happened to showing up for the parade right before the parade started? Where the kids sit on the curb as it passes by, and the adults stand on the sidewalk? Does that not happen anymore?

Here’s the background: We’ve been listening a lot to Snacktime, by the Barenaked Ladies. It’s a children’s CD, but it’s fun enough for parents to enjoy too. There is this one song, Crazy ABC’s, where they go through the alphabet and list a crazy word for each of the letters and a definition of it.

Here’s the scenario: We were at dinner with my parents and my nephews. My mom was playing hangman with the kids when all of a sudden my husband comes up THE WORD to END ALL WORDS! The MOST FANTASTIC HANGMAN WORD EVER! He’s positive that they’ll NEVER EVER EVER guess it before their hangman is hung.

He tells them: _ _ _

Someone says: A

He fills it in: _ A _

Zoe says: Q

He gets a look of shock as everyone else at the table thinks our daughter has just made the dumbest letter guess ever because there isn’t a place for a U in those three slots, especially with the A in the middle.

And then she says: “qat, it’s an evergreen shrub” (quoted perfectly from the song, mind you).

Last night my husband and I ran the Superun 5K. It’s through Lake Park, and this run is challenging, but we love it anyways. Our times? Well let’s just say that we finished, and our times sucked. I hadn’t run in over two weeks, and my husband (who finished around 22 minutes last year) ran at my pace (which is no where NEAR 22 minutes).

It did not rain, and there was no beer on this race. It’s was all sunshine and hills.

The next 5K is Bastille Days, which is in July and is my favorite one of them all. I believe my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews will be running it too. That’ll be interesting. My nephews, who are 14, are now taller than me. They’ve got loooooooooooooooooooong legs and I’m willing to bet that they are going to sprint to the finish line.  

Speaking of my sister-in-law, I found out that she joined a triathlon class this summer, thinking that it would teach her the skills necessary for if she’d ever want to do a triathlon. Well, guess what, the class is ACTUALLY GOING TO DO A TRIATHLON. Yes, that’s right. She’s doing a triathlon. I think it’s a great idea, I wouldn’t want to do it — maybe one of those mini tri’s though, I could handle that.

On my birthday I decided to make a flowerbed in my backyard. It was something that we had been meaning to do since we moved in two years ago, but no one really wanted to dig up the grass. Not because we liked the grass, but because it would be really hard work due to the fact that the ground is mostly clay. I started out with plans to dig a space where I could plant a clematis by the arbor, but ended up with a garden that extended to the corner of my yard along the fence, about 6′x6′x8′ in a triangular shape. It looked huge up close, but when I turned to look at the rest of my yard in comparison — it’s really small. Let’s call it ‘quaint’. From the sidewalk you can’t even see my quaint birthday garden actually.

I really wanted to go straight to the nursery to pick out a few plants to put in the flowerbed, but waited so we could go together on Saturday. We picked out some tall grass, catmint, a small juniper, and a burgandy sedum type plant. Once you get close enough to see, it’s really pretty.

After we finished the flowerbed, my husband said to me, “see how much easier it is when we work together as a team to get something done, rather than going about it in your usual maverick way?”

Maverick way? Moi?

Okay, to be honest I hadn’t ever really thought about it, but I suppose I am a bit of a maverick. I like to do things when I want to do them, not before, not after, and I want to do them my way. Is that so bad? I mean, it got us a quaint little birthday garden, right?

Today is my birthday. I’m not sure what my entire day will bring, but it’s starting out at the eye doctor with my daughter, Zoe, then we are going out for coffee. Well, she’ll most likely have chocolate milk and I’ll have coffee. The rest of the day is up in the air. Perhaps we’ll bum around at the Lakefront Art Festival, it begins today and we’ve never gone, but Zoe is way way WAY into art. And, I am too, but she’s at least got a shot at being an artist, I’ll have to wait until retirement to pursue it. And now, since it’s my birthday, I am a year closer to it. Right?

I already got my birthday present two weeks ago, an iPod Touch. It’s, in a single word, AWESOME! I love it!! It’s probably the coolest gadget I’ve ever had. It has wifi on it and I can connect anywhere there is a hot spot. We were driving home from Door County on Tuesday and I needed to get an email from one of my classmates, did you know that Two Rivers has hot spots in the city? It does. All of a sudden I had connection and I’m telling my husband: “Stop the car! Pull over!”

Anyhow, the iPod Touch is so very very cool.

Did you get me anything? I am accepting gifts, iTunes is a great idea ya know. Or bottles of red wine. That’ll work too.

Have a great day!

I am vacationing in Door County with my family, which includes my husband, seven year old daughter, parents, and two 14 year old nephews. We are staying in Fish Creek, but yesterday we decided to make a day of it on Washington Island. I've been to Door County many times in the last 12 years, it's become a yearly excursion, and somehow we've never been to Washington Island. What would it be like? What would we do there? What adventure awaited us on the other side of the ferry?

There were seven of us, so we had to take two cars. Round trip tickets for a car is $24 (JUST the car), adults are $5.50 and children are $3.75. When we got off the ferry we immediately headed towards the Lookout Tower in Mountain Park where the view from the top of the tower was amazing! After that we split up for lunch, with my husband, daughter and I going to a restaurant on Main Street that promised breakfast all day, soup, sandwiches, wi-fi, and a baby grand piano in the dining room, oh and let's not forget the kayak tours. Close your eyes and imagine it with me, do you see a fireplace? Someone playing the piano? Customers lounging around, laptops open, blogging away? Coffee bar perhaps?

Okay, now you need to snap back to what I'd like to call: the reality of island life. The restaurant was about the size of my living room, the baby grand was in the corner with a fence (FENCE?) around it, zero laptops, no fireplace, and only two other tables of customers. The waitress moved on island time, and she even stopped taking our order at one point so she could help someone else find a fork. However, it must be said that that was the best darn grilled cheese sandwich I'd had in a while. AND I was able to log onto wi-fi with my iPod Touch so I could email my brother and check on my dogs.

After lunch we met back up at Jacobsen’s Museum were we met a life long resident of the island. Then we visited an Art & Nature Center, where I searched for a painting to add to my Door County collection (didn't find one though). My nephew bought a boomerang, which my husband immediately tried out in the parking lot. He threw it towards the woods, and I'm sure he expected it turn around right before the trees, but it didn't, and my nephew had to trounce around in the trees until they found it.

Note to anyone with a boomerang: learn to use it before you throw it towards the woods.

We decided it was time to head back to the ferry. My dad's car got on no problem, but we were told we'd have to wait an hour for the next ferry, so we pulled off to the side to wait. Next thing we know we are being waved ahead, once we got up to the ferry it was pretty clear that only one of those little Smart Cars would fit on the deck. The guy leans into the driver's window and says to my husband, "okay, what you're going to do is turn around here and backup onto the ferry, (and then he pointed) sideways there behind that car". And then I looked and saw him point towards my mom, who was already rummaging around in the cooler that was in the hatchback of their Equinox. My husband and I looked at each other, surely this is a joke, right? He didn't just tell us to back up on the ferry, did he? And then we laughed. And from the look on his face we realized that it wasn't a joke, and that we were going to be backing up sideways on the little itty bit part of the deck.

So that was our once in a lifetime Washington Island experience. I think that it'd be a perfect place to go for a bike ride. Maybe next time!

You are probably wondering if I still ran the Riverwest Beer Run considering the weather conditions at 11:30 a.m. today. The answer is yes.

Yes, I ran in the rain.

Now, I have to tell this is completely out of character for me. I'm not a fan of running in the rain, and I certainly don't like getting my running shoes wet either. However, today I stomped in the puddles with all the other runners. All the other CRAZY RUNNERS who came out even though the sky opened and poured down upon us. A LOT. IT RAINED A LOT! It was a complete downpour right before the race started.

Speaking of rain, at least my basement is dry. Unlike my parents basement in Sussex, and my brother's basement on the northwest side of Milwaukee near Mount Mary College. And what about you? How did your basement hold up this weekend?

My summer running season has begun and the first run on my list this year is the 32nd Annual Riverwest Beer Run (or Walk). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the fastest runner out there, nor do I have any experience running while drinking beer. However, my husband loves this run, so this year I've added it to my summer schedule. The run is this Sunday, June 8th, 11:30 a.m., and starts at the intersection of the Booth and Locust in Milwaukee. Last year my husband ran it with my brother, which you can read about here, but the synopsis is that a guy in flip flops finished ahead of him. FLIP FLOPS! AND BEER! Are you interested yet?

Next up is the 2008 Superun 5K Run, which is probably the most challenging run I put myself through. Are you familiar with Lake Park down on Milwaukee's east side and the big hill that goes through the park? The route takes the runners straight up that hill. It's intense.

After that is my favorite run of all, the Storm the Bastille 5K, which takes place at night during Bastille Days. Last year I ran it with my husband and my sister-in-law, we stuck together for the whole run, which is a good thing because the year before that I ran it by myself and was to meet my husband at the finish line. Have you ever seen the amount of people who are waiting at the finish line??? MILLIONS! Okay, so maybe not that many, but it was enough that I couldn't find him for a few hours, in the dark, at Bastille Days, in my sweaty running clothes.

I'm hoping to squeak in the Firecracker 4, which is on the 4th of July, and starts at Hales Corners Park. It's really early in the morning, and well, I'm not always such a morning person. So we'll see about that one. The last time I ran it I really enjoyed it though.

The big one I'm planning is on August 30th, the Lake Country Half Marathon,in Oconomowoc. I've never run a half marathon, but I think I can do it if I train for it. My husband ran it a couple years ago, but skipped it last year because he was training for the Milwaukee Marathon.

Any other runners out there?

It seems that all I’ve been doing lately is waiting.

Waiting for the my grades to get posted online for the Human Resources class I completed (I got an A).

Waiting for my daughter to come home from swimming in the neighbors pool (she did come home, about 7 hours after she left).

Waiting for Louis Vuitton to fix the zipper on my handbag that I bought over 15 years ago using my tax return money to purchase (a check that I waited FOR.EVER to receive in the mail). Waiting for FedEx Home Delivery to deliver my repaired handbag so I can go on with my life knowing that the contents of my purse are securely zippered inside. I waited ALL DAY on Saturday for them to deliver it, after missing them on Thursday and Friday, it wasn’t on the truck for some unknown reason.

And today I’m waiting for the sprinkler people to come out and turn on my sprinklers so that I can water my grass — and my flowerbeds, which I’m waiting for my husband to design so that we can actually have flowerbeds.

I’m also waiting for summer. We got a peek at it yesterday when it was 90 degrees out, but today, it’s back down to 53.

I’m waiting for June 13th because we are going to Door County for a short getaway to one of my favorite places ever. 

I’m waiting for August 19th, which is the LAST day of my very last graduate class that I’m registered for for my Master’s in Business Administration. I still have two classes to take after that, and the capstone, but I’m WAITING until after Christmas, I think.

And I’m waiting for September because then I’m going to DISNEY WORLD!!!!

That’s a lot of things to wait for. What are you waiting for?

Oh, and the sprinkler people are here, so now I’m waiting to see if the new play set is smack dab on top of a sprinkler head. What are the chances?

(Cross-posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

About six weeks ago I hired Merry Maids to come and clean my home. They are to come every other week, and while I'd love for them to come every week, I simply can not afford it. Their sales person came out to my home, and walked my husband and I through how the cleaning would be done, what it included, what we could expect, and how much it would cost us. We signed up right then and there.

The first cleaning was amazing. AMAZING! They knocked our socks off. The second cleaning was pretty good, but they missed a few things, like the laundry room, the bay window, all the window sills, and the faceplates of the electrical outlets, something they said would be done. Also, every week they'd choose two rooms that they'd pay extra special attention to, those rooms get deep cleaned and everything is moved out of the way, cleaned under, and then moved back. During my second cleaning the master bathroom and master bedroom were the rooms that were to get the special attention. It was in my opinion that while they were clean, they were NOT given special attention at all. The fact that I found things underneath the nightstands and dressers told me that they didn't move a single thing, nor did then even stick a vacuum hose under them.

My third cleaning was today, and let me tell you, I'm so disappointed. My husband left the house at noon and told me that Merry Maids had just arrived. I got home alittle before 1 p.m. and circled the block because I saw they were just leaving. ONE HOUR. They were here for ONE HOUR and folks, it showed. My seven year old could have cleaned better than they did. The utility room was not even swept, there was cat liter on the floor and under the throw rug; the bathroom floors were not washed, nor was the master bathroom floor even swept (and the reason I know this is because my shoulder length hair was ALL over the floor!); the bathroom countertops were not even wiped down, and the sinks were rinsed at best; my sliding glass doors were not cleaned; and the dressers were dusted ONE handlength in on the tops, leaving a very nice line of dust. I also ran my Dyson through the house and filled the canister 1/4 of the way. Did they even vacuum? I doubt it.

I called and complained. Three times actually. They aren't charging me for today's visit, and they shouldn't because I really think they fake cleaned my house.

What did they do? Well, I know they did wipe down my end tables and my coffee table in the living room because there was an oily finish to the them when I walked in, and they took out the trash, but beyond that I have no clue.

I'm giving them one more chance to get it right, and if they don't, they'll be fired. At that point, I'll be looking for someone else to come in and clean my house. For REAL. Can you recommend a good cleaner?

Some may say that I'm being too picky. I disagree. If you sell me a service and tell me that you'll pick up every single thing I own, wipe it down, then wipe down the surface it's sitting on, you had better do it -- because that's what I expect.

On Saturday my husband, daughter, and I were at Panera for lunch, it was the Brookfield location at Ruby Isle, and if you’ve been there before you know about the separate dining room that is off of the main room. It’s quieter in there and for some reason it’s Zoe primo spot when she’s choosing a place to sit.

So we were eating our lunch, and there was a couple of ladies a few tables away, but other than that we had the room to ourselves, when all of a sudden, I swear to God, I heard a bird chirp. I glanced around and didn’t see a bird, nor did I see anything that could have made that noise, so I went back to eating. A few minutes later I heard the bird again. I looked up, thinking I’d catch it flying across the ceiling or something, but again, I saw nothing. My husband and daughter heard the chirping too, so at least I wasn’t hearing things.

This is where I have to say that stuff like this drives me nuts! I know I heard a bird, but I never ever saw it. I’ll bet in all we heard it at least five or six times over a 20 minute period, yet every time I looked around, I couldn’t find it. If it were not for those ladies sitting a couple tables down, I would have done a complete top to bottom search of the room. However, since they were there, and didn’t seem to even notice the chirping, I’d look rather insane if I dropped to my knees and started looking underneath all the tables in search of where the chirping was coming from. Although, I did take the opportunity to look behind the garbage cans when I cleared our trays.

Zoe kept saying, ‘Okay, if I hear that chirping again then I know there’s a bird here for sure!’

Folks, let me tell you this: There was a bird there, I’m sure of it. And if I would have had the time, I would have done a stake out, if only to say ‘A ha! There’s the bird!’  and then I’d have gone about the rest of my day, just waiting for the next crazy thing to happen.

One time, at our last house, I was in our family room watching tv. My husband, and daughter, who was just a baby, were both sleeping. All of a sudden something flew across the room! My mind started to flip through it’s internal rolodex of all the possible things it could have been, and it stopped on: bat. A BAT!!! There’s a bat in my house! In the room where I am sitting!!!

And that’s when I started shrieking and threw a blanket over my head. I was frozen in my chair, and thought that if I got up and ran to the other room, the bat might just fly into me. SHRIEK!!!!! SCREAM!!!!!

My husband came running from the bedroom, saw what I was screaming about, and pretty much commanded me to get into the kitchen where we could close the swinging butler door behind us, thereby quarantining the bat in the dining room and family room area. I shot like a bullet across the room, with a blanket over my head, and he shut the door behind me.

Now what do we do? How in the heck do we get that freaking bat out of our house? Well, we walked around outside to the front door, opened it, and then waiting for the bat to fly out. Which he did, and it only took a few minutes actually. That stupid bat. That was probably one of the craziest things to ever happen.

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

My daughter is seven years old, and she's desperately wanted a swingset for as long as I can remember. That child has always loved the swings. ALWAYS. When we'd take her to the park, she'd spend the entire time on the swings, and if we were able to pull her off of them and over to the slide? She'd slide down and then race straight back over to the swings, as if to say: "Are you happy now? I went down the slide! FOR YOU!! Now I'd like a push, please."

My daughter, who is an only child, also snubs almost any toy she gets. Moon Sand? She had to have it, played with it once. American Girl Doll? She couldn't live without Nicki (and her horse, and her dog), but really isn't interested in playing with her. Wii? No thanks. A bicycle? Sometimes. She's just not interested in any of them. However, give the kid an artbox and a pile of paper and she's making drawings and pictures until the cows come home. While she's extremely talented when it comes to drawing, she's a kid and she should go outside and play! Put down your markers and go run around! 

We decided to make her swingset dreams come true and we bought her a Rainbow Play System. This is where I tell you that we didn't specifically set out to buy her a Rainbow, but it ended up that way, and we could not be happier. It was installed on May 5th, and she's outside playing on it every chance she gets. Friends are popping up from the subdivision too, which is really nice to see because when we moved to Menomonee Falls we chose to keep our daughter in the school she was previously attending, which meant not living near school friends.

And the added bonus (besides the fact that she's watching a lot less Sponge Bob Squarepants and Hannah Montana)? The Rainbow is big enough so that I can play on it too. There's nothing like revisiting my own childhood on the swings for a while, and yes, I've even jumped off mid-swing. Wouldn't you? 

Saturday morning I decided to check out a growing puddle of water in my basement. I grabbed the mop and started to clean it up, and that is when I saw where it was coming from. It was flowing out of the bottom of my hot water heater. HOT WATER. OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF MY HOT WATER HEATER.

And all I could think about was how much my next water bill was going to be.

I've heard tales of the $900 water bill from neighbors of neighbors who've had something go wrong in the basement and they didn't know they had a problem with wasting water until the bill arrived. And I've head there is no credit given when something breaks and money runs down the drain.

My husband figures that the water is leaking at the rate of one gallon per hour. That's a lot. And who knows how long it was leaking before I noticed it. A week? A few days?

On Saturday we purchased a new water heater, but since it was the weekend I'm sure I'll have to wait until Monday to get the install scheduled. If you know me, you know that I'm stressing about the water going down the drain. I know how expensive the water is here in Menomonee Falls, and with gas being $3.79 a gallon, and grocery store visits costing nearly $200 a week, the last thing we need is an out of ordinary water bill next quarter.

My husband has been hounding me for years now to make the switch from plastic bags to paper bags. I've always preferred plastic, due to the handles of course. However, the whole "green movement" hit me over the head last weekend and I've found myself balking at the thought of plastic. It's like it has cooties or something. Plastic bag? Do I look like someone who uses a plastic bag? You offer me plastic and I've never been more insulted in my whole life. And the thing is, I don't know why all of a sudden this is important to me. Why now?

Why not now? It's not too late to make a difference. And even if it's a small difference, and even it's only me, I can feel proud of myself for being greener than I was before.

However, with this comes that. And that is like a big can of worms that is too squirmy to handle. Where does that begin? Where does it lead to? And where does it end? So far it's leading to subscribing to The Green Guide, which is put out by National Geographic. It's also leading me to scrutinize the ingredients in the products that my family uses.

Let me ask you this: How green are you?

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Currently I'm reading 21: Bringing Down The House, by Ben Mezrich, which is the book that the movie "21" is based on. I'm totally into this book! Have you read it? Have you seen the movie? These MIT kids make blackjack seem sooooooooooooo easy. I've only played blackjack a handful of times, and never for real money. I've never been to Vegas, and quite honestly, I'm not sure that I ever want to go. So the book, it's fascinating! I've only got about 60 more pages to go and then I'm done. Then I can go break out my deck of cards and start practicing, because you know what? Someday I just might change my mind about Vegas.

Next book on my shelf is Lush Life by Richard Price. I started to read it, but I had to put it down to read the blackjack book. It was on the New York Times Bestseller list, which is why I picked it up. I've found that some of the best books I've read over the past year have been the books that I picked specifically from the bestseller list. Case in point: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Hands down one of the best books I've ever read.

What was the best book? The Time Travellers Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. If you haven't read it, you simply must. 

What are you reading? Any suggestions?