Reality Me

Baby woke just as I was getting into my productivity gear. She is a woot and a half. I’ve left the television off this morning despite the temptation. She is a bit on the wild side this morning but having a great time with her toys. She and I both enjoyed some conversation and some waffles.

When she got up she removed the full diaper and immediately threw it in the diaper pail when I let her out of the bedroom. What a good baby! And soooo ready for potty training.

I love watching her play with her toys!

Baby’s sentences this morning:

“Look Dada. A truck!”

“I tripped”

“A waffle!”

I had a question about my “canned air” reference. This is neat stuff. The chemical composition is 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (at least in the Fellowes brand that I buy). It’s a chemical under pressure that is typically used to blow dust out of computers. If you turn it upside down the chemical will spray out in liquid form and can freeze ants or be used to remove bubble gum stuck to something.

I found it interesting that when I bought this at Walmart I had to have an “age verification” which severely slowed me down at the self-serve checkout. This forum discusses the “blackouts” and “paralysis” caused by huffing canned air. Would You Know If Your Child Was “Huffing”? (scroll down to see article. Note 1999 publish date.)

    

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

This was one of those mornings I would have given body parts to keep sleeping. Now I did wake at 5am and was wide awake. Had I gotten out of bed I’d be writing a different story. I got the kids up at 6am and went back to sleep until 6:15 when I went up to give Tommy his medicine. Sarah had laid on the couch and sprang from it as I came up the stairs. Then I went to sleep again until 6:30 and I awoke with my head spinning, that kind of dizziness that only lying back down can resolve. I fought it and got dressed then stirred Tommy again at 6:35.

I am dreading today. I want to hide.

Last Evening

I rewarded my computer efforts with some yard work. I intended only to be an hour and ended up being 2 hours. I fixed another lawn mower. So that’s 2 out of 3. The two push mowers both work (granted I think I still have a little tuning to do on the 2nd push mower). Now I just have to get the commercial walk (run rather) behind mower working. This is one that I can get a sled for and it does all the work. It’s going to be a beast to get running again.

After getting the mower working I grabbed the pruning shears and machette and bush hogged the yard for a bit. Cleared a good bit of brush back and the red bellied woodpecker later thanked me by flying through its newly available flight path. The birdseed that has fallen to the ground has grown so tall that its starting to go to seed. I am certain that this is how the chipmunk found its demise since the cat could hide in that tall grass which was right beside the drainage pipe that the chipmunk lived in.

The evening was spent getting the kids to bed then watching most of a good movie with the wife.

I put a new (rather older) video card into the graphics production machine and was able to reboot it. If I can get the driver working with it once again I can do design work with that machine. I think to celebrate I will take an hour break to cut the grass in the lower lot in preparation for assembling Noah’s soccer goal. Milestones and babysteps!

No luck. Appears I’ve lost a decent video card. Hopefully one of my standbys will work.

Amy woke before the other kids left (6:50) but I left her to play in the room she and Sarah are sharing. I returned just before Tommy’s bus came and I buried the chipmunk that the outdoor cat killed just as the bus arrived. That chipmunk was large. I hope that it wasn’t the only one. I know I’ve regularly seen a chipmunk the entire time I’ve lived here. I much prefer the chipmunks, birds and snakes to the cat.

I got Amy dressed and she was eager to throw those clothes on. She told me “snap!” for each button. Noah had escaped to school forgetting his backpack and lunch so we took those to him and coincidentally got to see him in the hallway as we left the office.

Next she and I went to Kinko’s where she helped me by watching for the copy to come out then handing it to me.

We then went to the post office and she handed the rebates that needed to be mailed to the post master then handed him the money for the stamps. She waved bye to everyone and kept large smiles the whole time.

After the post office she read me a story from her book as we drove to the Boy Scout store for day camp paperwork for Noah.

Then we shot over to Walmart and sent picture messages to Mom while we shopped for ant poison and canned air.

Overall a fantastic run of errands! The rest of the morning was spent detailing one of the computers whose video card may have gone bad. I got all the dust out (completely took it apart) and it almost looks new!