Monthly Archive for December, 2006

Why Bath and Body Works is silly

Published
by
Val
on 12.30.06
in Days Go By
. 8 Comments

This year I did about 90% of my Christmas shopping for “the girls” from bathandbodyworks.com. I placed three different orders in November (lol) and then another in December for some things I had to get to replace the mistake I made in the first orders (accidentally getting two lotions instead of a lotion and a body wash because apparently I can’t read) and then one final order once their after Christmas sale came out… that last little bit of stuff was for me. ;-)

But it’s that fourth order, the first one this month, that I want to tell you about. This is interesting. I guess.
Continue reading ‘Why Bath and Body Works is silly’

Guitar? Two.

Published
by
Val
on 12.27.06
in Days Go By
. 5 Comments

Ah, yes, remember he wanted a guitar?

Here it is! :-)

Guitar!

The real question, though? How long until he breaks it?

He has, however, been playing along with his favorite songs and singing. It’s adorable. Sadly, though, it’s very hard to get a decent video of this. You bring out the camera and he clams up. Oh well. :)

So I have this USB cable…

Published
by
Val
on 12.26.06
in The Working Stiff
. 2 Comments

…and I have NO clue what it goes to.

Don’t you just hate that?

It all started today when the new wireless mouse arrived. This mouse came with a USB cable that you are to charge its batteries with. The non-USB end looks suspiciously like the end of the cable that goes to my camera, makes me wonder if they are interchangeable or not. And speaking of the camera, I’m not even sure which cable came with it - I don’t know if I’m using the same cable or maybe the one that came with the old camera. Whichever one I’m using… I have no clue where the other is.
Continue reading ‘So I have this USB cable…’

Gathering First

Published
by
Val
on 12.23.06
in Days Go By
. 4 Comments

Tonight was our first Christmas gathering 2006. We have the typical four gatherings this year. There’s a fifth this year, but we won’t be able to make it as it’s next Thursday night. Tonight was the night with my mom’s family - her dad and siblings and all their kids, etc.

We always have so much fun. :) I love seeing those guys. Now that everyone’s getting older, too, it seems that this time of year is the only time I get to see some of them. For instance, my cousin and his wife now live many miles away from us, on the East Coast. The only thing is, it’s very chaotic and sometimes a little disappointing in some aspects - I wish I’d been able to talk more to him and his wife tonight, but there’s just not enough time. (That’s why we have email!)

My uncle brought out some old yearbooks and stuff that my great aunt gave him to split between the three siblings - so we got to see, for the first time, my grandma’s senior picture among other things (she died in 1963). So that got things rolling and one of my cousins decided she needed some of the old pictures, so I’m sitting her now printing some. I’m really impressed with how some of these - the ones that have been scanned more recently - are coming out. Really nice.

I was going to go through an upload pictures from tonight but it’s almost 3am. Eek. Where did the time go? My fingers are about to freeze off, so I’ll update this post later. ;-)
Continue reading ‘Gathering First’

Camel!

Published
by
Val
on 12.23.06
in Days Go By
. 2 Comments

He can pronounce it correctly now, and Wednesday night, me and my boy rode a camel!

Elijah and Mommy on a Camel

And, nope, we didn’t get spit on!

I took E and Sarah and my sister and her boyfriend up to Belleville, ILL to the Our Lady of the Snows shrine to see the Way of Lights. The lights were great and they also had a number of other attractions such as the camel rides and a free petting zoo (which E went absolutely nuts in, he was SO excited), a Christmas tree display, kid’s area, live music, wreath display, and more. It was pretty cool, maybe we can make this a yearly thing.

It was also especially nice to have some of the Christmas spirit surrounding us. It’s been a Christmas season unlike any other so far. We’ve had temperatures in the 60’s and as of lately, lots of rain, making it feel more like spring than December. I’ve hardly worn my coat at all, usually going out in that green zip sweatshirt you just saw in that photo. And besides all that, I decided not to decorate the house this year. No tree, nothing. Just the lights that are in E’s room all the time (and he’s not getting them turned on right now because he figured out how to undo the child-outlet-lock a while ago and won’t leave the plug-in alone). I just didn’t want to deal with it. I knew that E would be messing with anything I put out and with all the craft fairs I was doing and the renovation of the main room and construction supplies, drywall dust, etc., just everywhere, I decided it was too much. Oh, well, doesn’t bother me any, ha. Less to clean up New Year’s Day. :)

But, anyway, we had a great time going to Belleville and here are some photos! (They’re mostly blurry, especially the ones of E because he was so excited and jumping around, etc.)

Way of Lights Waiting to ride the camel Riding the Camel

Feeding the Deer Elijah and the baby Bison Seeing the baby camel Sheep

Deer Wreath Christmas Trees Nativity

Way of Lights Candles Grotto Nativity Mary Candle

Oh, and it was also good getting to spend some time with my sister and her boyfriend. Because, you know, we really like him. He’s so much better than that last jerk, treats her good. They should get married. :-)

Merry Christmas to Us

Published
by
Val
on 12.22.06
in The Working Stiff
. 3 Comments

That ice storm we had in the last days of November caused a lot of trees to go down as well as power lines and the such. Many were without power for something like five days in the cold. We were luckier in that we just had power surges. One of these power surges took out the NIC (Network Interface Card) in my Dell Desktop (4600C).

So I talked to Dell, oh, buy this, they said. I did. It was only $21 after shipping but when I got it, it didn’t fit in the compact-size tower. It was about 2.5 inches too long on one side and half an inch on the other. At first, I thought about cutting some metal and making it fit. Afterall, no NIC meant no internet for Val on the desktop (at least the wireless was still functioning and I was able to use the laptop) which also meant many other things. So instead I called them. I waited for about a half an hour out of a 40 minute call for the guy to tell me that they don’t make the part anymore, any parts for that computer, or something, that I should “try a local computer shop.” Um, okay.

So I thought about it. No NIC. No internet. Only 40 Gig hard drive. Hmmm… let’s get a new computer! So I bought the cheapest thing I could find, without a monitor, and with the biggest hard drive and the result was:

New Computer

Continue reading ‘Merry Christmas to Us’

And this is for you, Nicole

Published
by
Val
on 12.21.06
in Days Go By
. 1 Comment

Ahhh, yes. I do whine a lot about not being able to get many good pictures of Elijah. Afterall, the kid is always on the move. However, I am always amazed at the shots Nicole can get of her boy, who is just a couple months younger than E. But her latest blog entry set me straight! ;-)

Of course, I don’t get nose-picking photos. Nope, my kid’s not that thoughtful, he’s just always moving! ;-)

Always on the move

Can I have a guitar? Please? Can I have a guitar?

Published
by
Val
on 12.20.06
in Days Go By
. 5 Comments

Last Saturday, Elijah and I were waiting in the Jeep for Steve to come out of the house so we could leave for some shopping. Out of the blue, Elijah says to me, “Can I have a guitar? Please? Can I have a guitar?” He totally caught me off guard, and I told him we’d see what Daddy said.

Then we were in the store. And guess what we saw? A starter guitar for only $20!

Isn’t it strange how things work out? ;-) This is especially interesting when you consider that Steve told me he saw the same thing in another store the next day, for $80!

E played a bit with the display model. That was just a distraction while I put one in the cart. We were quite successful, he still doesn’t know we bought it, and it’s now wrapped in Dora the Explorer paper.

Maybe my kid will be a musical genius. :-D