Month: October 2010 (Page 1 of 3)

Our date night was fun. We ate at a new Chinese buffet in Eau Claire that had been recommended to Dad by someone at work. It was very nice – quite the variety. Of course, your stomach is only so big, so having a bigger selection just means there are more things you can’t try! We went to Savers to see if they had any navy dress pants and they didn’t. Then we tried Goodwill and I got a pair of lined, wool slacks in just the style I love for only $4.99. Yea! And a couple of nice sweaters – one half off, so it was only $2.50. We also went to the Verizon store and Dad got a replacement phone. He is still trying to figure out how to use it. He got one that is known for durability, which is good, since he broke the plastic screen twice on his last one. Then we went to Menards (of course) to look for building ideas. I took pictures of things I liked on my phone. We also found a window in the discounted pile for the upstairs bedroom and a door for the closet that had a rebate of almost half off, so it will only be $30 once we get the rebate!

Today church was long because second service (which is usually a very small group) was the confirmation service, so it was long and the place was packed, so communion took a REALLY long time. Like I played the 3 pieces designated for communion, then played three more that I was choosing on the run! This afternoon at 3:00, I have the first rehearsal for the operetta we are doing at the college in December. The main character is coming over from the cities, so I’m a bit nervous about how good she is and what her expectations are of the pianist. There are only two characters. The other, the guy, is someone I’ve worked with before and is very nice.

Dad is out finishing the steps to the shed. Then he is going to look at exchanging the windows in the upstairs bedroom. It will be great to get an energy efficient window in there. The insulation is making the room feel warmer, but the window should help a lot more! It is 4 inches shorter than the previous one, too, so will give us a bit more room to put things in front of the window. It’s exciting to see the room starting to come together.

We had our first pullet eggs for breakfast – I waited until we actually had enough for a meal! I did the laundry.

We got the rest of the insulation on the upstairs, including finishing some of the wiring that had to be done.

We made a new financial plan – that took a while.

Dad went to Carole Morgan’s to investigate a leak. I practiced piano.

We cleaned out the goat stall and chicken pen and loosened  Jamal’s collar, which was getting just a little tight. It was hard to catch him. He isn’t very tame.

I made rice pudding, but didn’t eat any. (Good for me) I’m having some for snack tonight.

Dad worked on replacing the steps to the shed, since they gave up the ghost the other day.

And now we are on our way to Eau Claire on a date night. Yea!

You will all be happy to know that Sherlock is back to normal. He finally got all the trash out of his system and is regular again, so we can leave him all day without a problem. I’m happy, and I think he is, too. Hard to tell with that face!

Yea, Friday! By the time I get home on Friday, I am exhausted and glad the week is over. That is because Thursday is my really long day, heading to work at 8:00, then switching over to lessons at 2:00, then to Rice Lake after that to shop and have choir and home just in time for bed. Then up Friday for two aerobics classes, a line dance class and another easy class, deliver meals, eat and finish up at work for the week, then head to the gym for my gym workout which involves some recumbent biking and my back workout – basically all the muscles I can’t exercise with my free weights. Then I head home.

Tonight the building inspector is stopping over to okay (hopefully) all the wiring so we can close in the walls with sheet rock. Yes, that means the wiring is all done. We don’t actually have the outlets and switches hooked up, but the wires are all run. It will be good to get those old dusty studs and insulation covered up. Actually it will be good to get the whole darn project done, but I must be happy with small victories! But I’m really getting tired of the mess and the cramped living. Still, it is going to be really nice when it is done. An actual guest room – can you imagine? And our bedroom upstairs so there is actually room for the living room, dining room AND piano downstairs. But I’m getting ahead of myself….

Diet not going well, if anyone cares. I think it is awfully hard to stick to an eating plan this time of year, for some reason. Dark? Cold? Shortening days? Barometric pressure? I don’t know, but I struggle every year. So, I’m happy to be just holding my own, even though I am trying to lose. In case you are wondering – 15 pounds. Yea, I gained some back. Grrrrrr…..

Okay, here is something that is going to keep you on the very edge of your seats! Will my amaryllis bloom by Christmas? You can watch the progress right here! Here are the first two posts. Look how much it grew between Oct. 26 and Oct. 29.

Sherlock got into the garbage and ate some turkey bones yesterday, so he is feeling a bit under the weather today. He has to go out a lot, so I’ll have to run home from work mid-day and let him out. He ate his breakfast just fine, though.

Apparently we are supposed to get a lot of wind over the next couple of days. And maybe some snow. It was so nice and warm today. I’ll be sad to see the warm weather go, but I suppose it is inevitable. I think I’m going to go out and take down Dad’s wind chimes. I don’t want them to blow away and get broken if we do really get 50 mph gusts like they are predicting.

I played for the Chetek middle school concert tonight. I don’t know if I mentioned before, but they got a new piano this year. It is quite nice and an enormous improvement as the old one was really worn out. They also got a new keyboard, which I used tonight for warmups since the regular piano was out in the gym for the concert. It is also very nice. Two things in one year. Overwhelming!

Okay. I realized that you couldn’t really tell how small the egg was without something to compare it to. So here are a few more pictures I took of the baby egg before I put it away.

And Sherlock said that if I was posting pictures of eggs, for goodness sake, I could certainly post a picture of him. This is for you, Audrey!

Our first egg!

Sorry I haven’t been writing, but Dad took the computer with him and I didn’t know how to get on to this page on my computer. So I just waited until he got home. Which he did. He had a fairly good time at his conference. They don’t allow them much time for leisure, which is quite different from my conference, where about half of the time is for leisure and connecting with people. Anyway, he’s back and we are back to the grindstone again.

We are picking up a friend’s canoe this morning and storing it in our backyard beside ours. Then I have a funeral to play for this afternoon at 1:00.  We might try to start painting the new chair/table closet Gary Mohr built at the Community Center. It has been waiting, unpainted, for quite a while and I guess it isn’t going to paint itself, so I will eventually have to do it. It probably won’t take all that long. It is just getting back up there on a weekend that is tough.

Other than that, nothing terribly exciting planned for the weekend.