My last status update was March 26. So I'm 2 weeks 2 days off of Facebook. Ok, technically I did post some videos a few days ago, but that's how I was able to deliver them to family members for them to see. They are too big to email, and my Google Drive is pretty full.
Anyway, here's my list:
- Read the entire Divergent series
- Started running for exercise again - up to 3 miles a day now
- Watched Law and Order from the beginning - I'm currently on season 12
- Spot cleaned all of our carpets with my little Green Machine
- Finished scanning Cami's sheet music portfolio. Now we've got paper and digital copies of all music!
- Started recording all of our VHS tapes to mp4 files
I wish I could leave it behind completely, but that's probably not realistic. We live too far from our families, and FB is their main way of keeping up with us. It's likely that I'll only be on to post pictures and/or videos. Hope I can keep it up!
Friday, April 11, 2014
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Crunchy as hell
We're getting solar panels on our house. Lighthouse Solar has been canvassing our neighborhood for a while now, and we've even had them look at our roof to evaluate if we can get panels. The first observation was that we didn't have a large enough roof space on the south and southwest sides to accomodate enough panels.
But another guy came around last week, and his design utilizes the wooden pergola in addition to our limited roof space - and he thinks we can get 24 panels. That's enough for about half of the average power we use.
Here's the best part - total cost around $25,000. Austin Energy program will pay about $14,000 of it and we get about a $7500 tax credit (subtract this amount from the amount of taxes you owe). So total out of pocket will be in the $3500 range. We'd have to be crazy to pass that up. Did I ever mention that living in Austin rocks?!
For the record, Cass drives a Volt, I drive a hybrid, we buy wind power, and now we're getting solar panels. We should just join the Green Party and be done with it.
But another guy came around last week, and his design utilizes the wooden pergola in addition to our limited roof space - and he thinks we can get 24 panels. That's enough for about half of the average power we use.
Here's the best part - total cost around $25,000. Austin Energy program will pay about $14,000 of it and we get about a $7500 tax credit (subtract this amount from the amount of taxes you owe). So total out of pocket will be in the $3500 range. We'd have to be crazy to pass that up. Did I ever mention that living in Austin rocks?!
For the record, Cass drives a Volt, I drive a hybrid, we buy wind power, and now we're getting solar panels. We should just join the Green Party and be done with it.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Congratulations! You've won a cheap ass gift!
A couple of weekends ago, on the day of the Egg Bowl to be exact, we went to our neighborhood Thai place to grab a bite to eat before the game. They were quite busy, and we actually had to wait about 15 min for a table. When we got seated, the waitress gave us a ticket to fill out with our info. It was the restaurant's 2 year anniversary, and they were giving away door prizes. Cool! I filled it out.
Here's what was inside. A lovely set of cheap,*plastic* promotional sake glasses. And some cheap, hollowed out chop sticks. Oh, and they removed the bottle of sake for us (That's a cheap, cardboard representation). Thanks guys. They serve the drinks in their restaurant in better stuff than this.
a) I'm glad we didn't go back for another meal when we picked up the gift, and b) I'm pretty sure they've managed to lose our business with this marketing genius.
The next week, Cass gets a call. We've won a door prize! It's a set of sake glasses. That sounds pretty cool, right? So we stop by there to pick up our wonderful door prize.
Here's what they gave us. A big, cool package.
a) I'm glad we didn't go back for another meal when we picked up the gift, and b) I'm pretty sure they've managed to lose our business with this marketing genius.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Indulge
I've gotten pretty lax about writing on my blog. Is Facebook killing blogs? I wonder. Blogs are about sharing via the internet, and Facebook has pretty much cornered that market for now. They just make it so darn easy and centralized. But I digress....
I decided to do a blog prompt today. And today's word is indulge.
I don't indulge myself much. I've got a lot of other people's needs to meet, so I don't have a lot of time to do anything for myself. That's the way it is for most Moms. You know what I'm talking about. Heck, I desperately need to get my hair trimmed and I haven't managed to do it since oh about last fall. It's crazy.
Every once in a while I will treat myself though.
Things I have done to indulge myself lately:
I bought myself a Smythe blazer. If you are a fan of hgtv, you know who Sarah Richardson is. I watch some of her shows, and she wears the coolest blazers. I finally started Googling to find out about them, and I discovered that her jackets are made by some Canadian designers. And one of the designers is the sister of Sarah's design assistant Tommy. Cool.
Of course, Smythe blazers are quite $$. So I did some more Googling and I found one for about half the price. I debated it for about a week, like I do with any big purchase. Then I decided to Just Do It. It came yesterday, and I LOVE IT.
Another thing I've done for myself lately is that I bought mini season tickets for Broadway Across America at Bass Concert Hall in Austin. 3 of us will get to see South Pacific, Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins, and Les Miserables. I admit, I did it just to see Les Miserables again (this will be the 3rd or 4th time for me). But I'll love the other shows too.
I decided to do a blog prompt today. And today's word is indulge.
I don't indulge myself much. I've got a lot of other people's needs to meet, so I don't have a lot of time to do anything for myself. That's the way it is for most Moms. You know what I'm talking about. Heck, I desperately need to get my hair trimmed and I haven't managed to do it since oh about last fall. It's crazy.
Every once in a while I will treat myself though.
Things I have done to indulge myself lately:
I bought myself a Smythe blazer. If you are a fan of hgtv, you know who Sarah Richardson is. I watch some of her shows, and she wears the coolest blazers. I finally started Googling to find out about them, and I discovered that her jackets are made by some Canadian designers. And one of the designers is the sister of Sarah's design assistant Tommy. Cool.
Of course, Smythe blazers are quite $$. So I did some more Googling and I found one for about half the price. I debated it for about a week, like I do with any big purchase. Then I decided to Just Do It. It came yesterday, and I LOVE IT.
Another thing I've done for myself lately is that I bought mini season tickets for Broadway Across America at Bass Concert Hall in Austin. 3 of us will get to see South Pacific, Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins, and Les Miserables. I admit, I did it just to see Les Miserables again (this will be the 3rd or 4th time for me). But I'll love the other shows too. That's all I can come up with, but that's pretty good for me.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Things I Learned in the Fire
On Sunday September 4 Cass and I walked outside to go to the grocery store, and our neighborhood was on fire. The visual we got when we stood in our driveway was black smoke filling the whole sky with helicopters dumping water. The power had been turned off. It was pretty immediately obvious that this was serious.
Our neighborhood is positioned in a bend of the Lower Colorado River, and there is one main road that goes through the center from north to south. In order to evacuate the neighborhood, everybody has to drive out on that one road. Steiner Ranch has about 15,000 residents. You can imagine what a nightmare scenario an evacuation is.
I admit it, I freaked a little bit. I just wanted to get the eff out. I didn't pack wisely for myself or for the kids. I did manage to grab our fireproof box with our passports and birth certificates in it. I got my new expensive camera, my laptop/chargers, and that's about it. I didn't have clothes, we didn't have dog food, the kids didn't have toothbrushes. I did think to look for valuable jewelry, but I couldn't see in our bedroom with the lights off and I couldn't remember where a flashlight might be.
We got out before much of the neighborhood did, since we were able to pretty much drive right out. The sheriff's office had blocked off the main outlet highway, so there was no traffic to deal with there. I heard that later, it took people over an hour just to get out onto the highway. We drove straight to Cedar Park to our Canadian friend's house (aka the Canadian Embassy, according to Cass). We quickly realized that we weren't going back, so we had to go shopping on Monday.
In the end, 23 houses burned completely and another 3 had serious damage. 28 houses had minor damage like burned fences, decks, backyards. The cause was high wind from TS Lee blowing large power lines, causing them to arc and set the greenbelt on fire. We don't have any close friends who lost a house, but the kids' music school owners lost theirs. A girl in Cami's varsity choir lost hers. The firefighters probably saved over 100 homes. The photos I've seen show plenty of houses where the fire burned right up to the back door.
The drought out here is ridiculous. Avg rainfall up to this point of the year is about 27 inches. We've had 7 inches. Everything is dry as a bone. Lake Travis is 33 ft below average September levels (49 feet below what's considered "full") - there are island chains forming in the middle of it. We are under Stage 2 water restrictions. It's going to be a long time before things return to normal out here.
So after all that, here's my advice for escaping a wildfire. I'm sure a lot of it is similar to hurricane preparedness.
-I have all our important papers in a fireproof box - birth certificates, passports, SS cards, etc. It was easy to grab it and go.
-Make sure everybody has their medications. Pharmacies can get replacements for you, but it's much easier if you have the info.
-Get a cheap memory stick and put all your pictures on it. Grab and go.
-Unless there's a fire at your door, take a few minutes and pack a few changes of clothes for everybody.
-Take all the computers/laptops, phones, and chargers for all.
-A big one - take a video of each room of your home and save them on the memory stick. It will help if you have to make an inventory of anything lost in a fire. I took photos of all the rooms and uploaded them to Picasa.
-Also, I learned that your freezer will keep for 24-48 hours without power. Ours was off for about 26 hrs, so we only had to throw out a small number of things. Luckily, we didn't have much in the refrigerator.
-Always know where a flashlight is located. They cut our power, and I was trying to find my jewelry to take - and I couldn't see a thing in my bedroom. I never found what I was looking for, but they were things covered by our rider anyway.
Our neighborhood is positioned in a bend of the Lower Colorado River, and there is one main road that goes through the center from north to south. In order to evacuate the neighborhood, everybody has to drive out on that one road. Steiner Ranch has about 15,000 residents. You can imagine what a nightmare scenario an evacuation is.
I admit it, I freaked a little bit. I just wanted to get the eff out. I didn't pack wisely for myself or for the kids. I did manage to grab our fireproof box with our passports and birth certificates in it. I got my new expensive camera, my laptop/chargers, and that's about it. I didn't have clothes, we didn't have dog food, the kids didn't have toothbrushes. I did think to look for valuable jewelry, but I couldn't see in our bedroom with the lights off and I couldn't remember where a flashlight might be.
We got out before much of the neighborhood did, since we were able to pretty much drive right out. The sheriff's office had blocked off the main outlet highway, so there was no traffic to deal with there. I heard that later, it took people over an hour just to get out onto the highway. We drove straight to Cedar Park to our Canadian friend's house (aka the Canadian Embassy, according to Cass). We quickly realized that we weren't going back, so we had to go shopping on Monday.
In the end, 23 houses burned completely and another 3 had serious damage. 28 houses had minor damage like burned fences, decks, backyards. The cause was high wind from TS Lee blowing large power lines, causing them to arc and set the greenbelt on fire. We don't have any close friends who lost a house, but the kids' music school owners lost theirs. A girl in Cami's varsity choir lost hers. The firefighters probably saved over 100 homes. The photos I've seen show plenty of houses where the fire burned right up to the back door.
The drought out here is ridiculous. Avg rainfall up to this point of the year is about 27 inches. We've had 7 inches. Everything is dry as a bone. Lake Travis is 33 ft below average September levels (49 feet below what's considered "full") - there are island chains forming in the middle of it. We are under Stage 2 water restrictions. It's going to be a long time before things return to normal out here.
So after all that, here's my advice for escaping a wildfire. I'm sure a lot of it is similar to hurricane preparedness.
-I have all our important papers in a fireproof box - birth certificates, passports, SS cards, etc. It was easy to grab it and go.
-Make sure everybody has their medications. Pharmacies can get replacements for you, but it's much easier if you have the info.
-Get a cheap memory stick and put all your pictures on it. Grab and go.
-Unless there's a fire at your door, take a few minutes and pack a few changes of clothes for everybody.
-Take all the computers/laptops, phones, and chargers for all.
-A big one - take a video of each room of your home and save them on the memory stick. It will help if you have to make an inventory of anything lost in a fire. I took photos of all the rooms and uploaded them to Picasa.
-Also, I learned that your freezer will keep for 24-48 hours without power. Ours was off for about 26 hrs, so we only had to throw out a small number of things. Luckily, we didn't have much in the refrigerator.
-Always know where a flashlight is located. They cut our power, and I was trying to find my jewelry to take - and I couldn't see a thing in my bedroom. I never found what I was looking for, but they were things covered by our rider anyway.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
2 weeks' worth
My parents were in town last week for Cami's play, so I skipped posting my running progress.
5/5 1.53 miles
5/6 5.26 miles (bike)
5/7 1.95 miles
5/9 0.96 miles
Total 9.7 mies
5/14 1.73 miles
5/17 2.17 miles
5/18 5.27 miles (bike)
Total 9.17 miles
5/5 1.53 miles
5/6 5.26 miles (bike)
5/7 1.95 miles
5/9 0.96 miles
Total 9.7 mies
5/14 1.73 miles
5/17 2.17 miles
5/18 5.27 miles (bike)
Total 9.17 miles
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