Here It Comes.....Again!!

Didn't I say something yesterday about spring getting here one of these days???? Well, it sure isn't going to be today or Monday. Here is our latest weather report!

Issued by The National Weather Service

Chicago, IL
3:39 am CST, Sun., Feb. 21, 2010

A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON.

* TIMING... SNOW IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS BY THIS EVENING. AREAS NORTH OF THE INTERSTATE 80 CORRIDOR WILL RECEIVE MAINLY SNOW FROM THIS SYSTEM. THE SNOW MAY BECOME HEAVY SUNDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY MONDAY MORNING... WITH ACCUMULATION RATES OF AN INCH PER HOUR EXPECTED.

* ACCUMULATIONS... TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES ARE LIKELY... GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 88... TAPERING TO AROUND 6 INCHES TO THE SOUTH WHERE PRECIPITATION MAY MIX WITH SLEET AT TIMES. THE SNOW SHOULD BEGIN TO DIMINISH FROM THE WEST AROUND MID DAY MONDAY.

* HAZARDS... SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF HEAVY WET SNOW AND GREATLY REDUCED VISIBILITIES.

* IMPACTS... TRAVEL IS EXPECTED TO BECOME DIFFICULT AND HAZARDOUS SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MID DAY MONDAY... WHICH WILL INCLUDE THE MONDAY MORNING RUSH HOUR. AIR TRAVEL THROUGH CHICAGO OHARE AND MIDWAY AIRPORTS WILL BE AFFECTED. THE HEAVY WET NATURE OF THE SNOW MAY RESULT IN FALLING TREE BRANCHES AND POSSIBLE POWER OUTAGES AND THE HEAVY WET SNOW WILL BE DIFFICULT TO SHOVEL.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW... SLEET... OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.

Have I also mentioned lately how utterly tired I am of the snow this year and how I can't wait for spring? Mother Nature's hearing must be going!

Make it a fantastic day and do something really, really nice for yourself today!!

Welcome To The Jungle

When I saw this.....

I knew that spring was really going to here one of these days... Chee Hoo!!

Irv planted some green peppers, tomatoes and geraniums. They are growing in our basement under their artificial sunshine. There are even lights underneath them that keep them warm. It's all so darn awesome to me. I love it! See the little guys growing in there? Irv does the most amazing job with them!

Last year he planted a ton of vegetable and flower seeds. In his excitement for spring to get here, he planted a lot of them way too early. The result was a jungle in our basement as we waited for the weather to warm up so we could get them outside. Click here to see last year's post about our jungle!

This year he is planting less and being really careful when he starts them....but I can already taste the delicious organic veggies!!

Visions of Vacation Danced In Her Head

Uncle Sam is giving us back some of our hard earned money this year. We are getting a tax refund. Chee Hoo! It isn't as much as we usually get, but it is better than nothing and even better than giving him more! I'm glad we had already decided to do a mini-vacation this year. We were thinking a long weekend would be great. Nothing too far away...just a chance to get away and relax for a few days.....by the water....somewhere. Maybe a day off here and there to just go some place and have some fun. A day at the zoo, a day by the lake, a day kayaking.....Then the rest of the money could be used to help pay for my treadmill or the computer.

Now I can start really looking around for a place. Nothing extravagant...just something where we could spend some time walking, kayaking, enjoying nature and some precious time together. I am really excited. I look forward to vacation so much. I love hopping in the car and just driving off to wherever. I don't think the "where" even matters very much...I just like the change of scene. Where I live there isn't a whole lot to look at. Sure we have our parks and conservation areas, but it isn't the same.

We also won't be staying at some darling little place on the beach. We will probably look for a nice inexpensive hotel where we can just get up, go have breakfast and head out to explore. Man, this is really giving me spring fever....visions of sun and grass and flowers and water....those of you that are still ankle deep in snow....can you feel it?

Taking the Plunge

I did it! I ordered my new HP Laptop. I have such mixed emotions right now. On one hand, I am excited beyond belief! My computer was so old. It was so slow and so often it would just stop working. It was so aggravating. Now I will have a nice new computer....and it's a laptop! It should be fast and it's going to be so awesome!

On the flip side...it is the second huge thing I've had to charge in the past couple of weeks and neither was planned. If you read my blog regularly, you know that we are on a "Pay down your debt budget". Charge cards are taboo! My plan never had TREADMILL written anywhere in it. I always looked at a treadmill as a luxury I could not afford and I was okay with that. Being diagnosed with Osteopenia three weeks ago changed my plan. In an effort to save my bones and keep my off medication....we charged a treadmill.

The second part of my plan was to work hard and pay off the treadmill, while starting to save for a new computer. I wanted to pay cash for the computer. That was before my old Dell died last week. So now we charged a computer. Yes, I could have gone out and bought an inexpensive desktop for now, but I just couldn't see spending hundreds of dollars on something that didn't meet my needs. I spend a lot of time on my computer.

I had already spent a lot of time researching, reading and talking to people about their computers and I learned a lot. Eventually I figured out what I needed and what I wanted. My new HP will have a 17 inch screen, a great processor and plenty of memory. It will also have Microsoft Word.

Even though it was a tough decision....I know it was the right one and I can't wait for it to get here. A friend on Facebook said, "Now you can be as unproductive as the rest of us with laptops." I can easily see how that happens, but for me, it's going to do just the opposite. Right now when I get home from work...where I sit at a computer for eight hours a day....I check e-mails, check my shop FourDogDay, write my blog for the next day, respond to comments on my blog and try to read all of my favorite blogs. Somewhere in there I have dinner and try to make awesome things for my shop. I get so tired sitting up right that most evenings I'm curled up in bed by 8:00 with a book. I'm not sleepy, but I need some time to relax.

When I get my laptop, I will do just the opposite. When I get home I will check my e-mails and my shop, but then I will start creating things for FourDogDay. I will have dinner, work a little more and then head to bed WITH my laptop. There I will be able to respond to blog comments, write my blog for the next day, read my favorite blogs and maybe even multi-task and play on Facebook a bit.

I think this is going to be just perfect! Chee Hoo! Now if you will excuse me, I need to go make some things to sell in my shop so I can pay for my fantastic new computer! :)

The MPG Mystery

This post has nothing to do with Toyota's current issues of floor mats, brakes and gas pedals. This has to do with my little Prius, Adam, and BIG business. :)

About a month ago, Adam's little gauge that tells me how many miles per gallon he is getting started dropping. We also noticed that we were putting in more gas than we had been. Irv said that with the cold weather, warming Adam up some mornings and running the heat could all lower his gas mileage, but the gauge kept dropping and we kept filling up the tank. I had been getting 49.5 MPG and now Adam's little gauge said 45.3. We decided to check the mileage ourselves and were shocked when our calculations showed that Adam was only getting 37.8 MPG!

Oh no.......was my darling little Adam sick?

We stopped at the Toyota dealer so Irv could run in and talk to someone in the Maintenance Department. I waited in the car and after about 10 minutes Irv came out.

Adam wasn't sick. The drop in miles per gallon is normal for a Prius during the really cold weather. The gauge takes a long time to come down to the mileage you are really getting. Blah, blah, blah....it has something to do with the cold and a bladder in the gas tank and blah, blah, blah. I don't get all the technical automotive lingo.

First of all, shame on me and Irv for not doing our homework so we knew that fact before we purchased Adam. We would have still bought him, but it would have been nice to know that. I am not complaining over 37.8 MPG. Here is the kicker though.....

The guy told Irv that he had probably had 50 Prius owners in over the past couple of weeks with the same concern.

What ?!?!?!

I said to Irv....if this is something that causes that kind of negative response every winter, why on earth wouldn't they just tell people about that when they are looking at the car and talking about the gas mileage? "Just so you know, the gas mileage on the Prius does drop a bit during the really cold winter months." That's all they would have to say. If the person asks how much it drops....tell them it varies. If they press, then tell them whatever the average is for goodness sake. It isn't that big of a deal!! It's still great gas mileage!!!

Irv said, "They aren't going to tell people that because then someone might not buy the car."

Good point....in this world of BIG business, I guess it is better to sell 50 cars and then have 50 upset customers than it is to risk a couple less sales.

Not the way I would do business, but then I am not a car dealership in a slumping economy either.

Ready, Set......No Go?

Before my trip to the doctor two weeks ago when all of this osteo stuff started my creative juices were flowing. I was having so much fun making clocks and tote bags for my etsy shop, FourDogDay. I got accepted into a juried craft show for March 20th and 21st. I was on a roll.

SCREEEECCCCHHHH!!!!! Man did things come to a halt! I know that my health is more important than anything I can make or any craft show I want to be in, but goodness was I having a difficult time getting back on track. Has that ever happened to you?

I just seemed to have lost my drive and my interest in what I love to do. I took the first week off while I digested what was going on and researched my condition and my treatment options. The next week, when I was ready to get going again....my get up and go had got up and went....and I didn't know where it went. I didn't really care if I was working and creating or not.

I kept looking at the BIG picture and kept telling myself that I really needed to get going. I had a show coming up, my shop FourDogDay was just sitting there. What the heck was wrong with me?

Well, there was nothing wrong with me. I just wasn't emotionally ready to get going. My mind was telling me to take a break....and so I did. Yesterday I had the day off and really felt "ready". So I got my walking and working out done first and then it was etsy time. I finished a darling Itsy Bitsy tote bag......if you look closely, you will see some funky beads hanging below the purple button.....those are from an old earring...I couldn't resist. I also alternated the sun and moon fabric and the lining fabric for the straps. I had so much fun with this one....all out of stuff I already had on hand.

Then I found this fabric to make another tote and drew up a design really cute design! I'll show it to you when it's done!

I also made a decision on what computer I am going to purchase....and I feel good about it. I know I found the right fit for me. I hope to order it today.

So, when you seem to have come to a stand still and you know you have a lot to do....when it seems that you just can't get your engines going....think baby steps. Don't look at the whole big picture....take one little piece at a time....finish one little part...and before you know it, you will be back in the swing and making tremendous progress!

UGH!!!

Irv and I went out looking at laptops yesterday. UGH! What a confusing and depressing task. I kind of knew what I wanted and then we got to the stores and no one really had exactly what I wanted. It was overwhelming to look at all of those little laptops sitting there and read the little cards about what they have in them....for me those little cards could have been in Latin and they would have made about the same amount of sense. I tried to stay cool and calm, but I really don't like not understanding things.

My plan was to go look at them, buy one if we found something good and be done with it. Oh no, we looked at Office Depot and at Best Buy....then went home and got on line and looked at the HP site and the CDW site and the Dell site and by the time I was done I was 1000 times more confused than when we had left in the morning.

I don't know why I can't just go out and buy a friggin' laptop. Why is this such a project for me?

I guess it's because it's a heck of a lot of money, I don't want a junky one and I just don't know what to get.

I can come really close to what I wanted to spend if I sacrifice my 17 inch screen and go with the 15 inch, but that is the one place I really don't want to sacrifice.

They all start out at a nice price, but then when you add the better processor, wireless, Microsoft Office, some kind of extended warranty, a wireless router and a printer...it's not a nice price anymore.

I am so glad I have Michael's old computer for now so I don't have to rush and make a decision on this right now. I know I can't rely on his old one for long, so I have to make a decision and bite the bullet and buy the laptop.

I'm pretty sure I am going to get the big HP, but I'm going to sleep on it for a day or two. What do you do when you have a big decision hanging over your head. Do you think about it for a while, or just "do it"? I usually just "do it", but I can't seem to pull the switch on this...and there has to be a reason for that.

LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope that you are able to share the day with someone that you absolutely adore! I will be heading out for breakfast with my guy this morning.

I am really excited because no longer will I be wracking my brain trying to figure out what earth shattering, deep and awe inspiring topic to write about. Nope, no more. See on Friday I wrote about dishwashers....and I just have to laugh! Twenty people commented on that post....the most I've ever had. So, from here on out, I am only writing about appliances. We will cover them all...washers, dryers, microwaves, refrigerators, stoves....you name it...we are going to talk about it. I'm just kidding of course, but I did think that was pretty darn funny!

Just thought I would share some LOVE with you today.

Here is a new tote bag I just finished. I hope to get it listed in my etsy shop, FourDogDay some time today. It will be a great one for the beach or a trip to the library or to the store. I LOVE this fabric. I had made a vendor apron out of it and had some left, so I thought I would use it up!

This is our little Sparky. Sparks will be 13 years old next month. I can't believe we have had her that long. Sparky LOVES to be warm and she LOVES the sun. As you can see, we flip the cushions on the chairs up to keep hairy dogs off of them, but when she saw that sun shining on that chair, she just jumped right up and made herself comfy. She didn't need the cushion. I let her bask in the warmth....she's a little old lady and she sometimes gets to do what she wants.

Here is Maggie looking out the front window. She is waiting patiently for the LOVE of her life to come back from running his errands yesterday. I just LOVE the way she hangs her paws over the back of the couch!

Have a really wonderful day today. Do something nice for yourself and for those you LOVE. Happy Valentine's Day Irv! I LOVE you!