shirley - behind the lens

The Ultimate in Chaos and Stress - the Birthday Sleepover Party

>> Friday, June 16, 2006 – Girl

And let's not forget the Ultimate in Noise production, mainly screaming and screeching.
And then there is the Drama.....

Erica turned 9 today, and for her birthday party, I agreed to a sleepover party. Sounds relatively good on paper - limited number of attendees - low cost (pizza and admission to the local pool) - no running around carting the cake, balloons, party favors to the party location. A simple premise - have some additional kids over - eat pizza, cake, ice crea, open presents, go to the pool, come back and watch a movie, then hunker down to sleep.

But the initial screaming and screeching was a bit much. Everyone was so excited and wound up about the party - each time there was a "ding-dong" at the front door, there was all sorts of running around, arms flailing about and the requesite screaming. I think the girls really scared the Dominos Pizza delivery guy.

But we survived the pizza, cake and presents and headed out to the Pool. Not a problem. But then the drama started when the girls left Meridian at the deep pool side to go to the shallow end. Details are sketchy to me, but the girls then proceded to chase Meridian around the pool, and she just wanted to be left alone because she was angry at them. About 30 minutes later, all has been resolved, but I know there were some serious negotiations going on.

Well, I took two Advil since getting home. The girls are settled down and watching a movie - The Pink Panther. It is now 11:00 pm and I am exhausted. Hopefully the girls are, too and will at least be quiet enough for ME to get some sleep......

Lame Excuses

OK - I know I have been completely lame about keeping up with this Blog. It's just that I would like to include some variety, which ususally means including some pictures or cool links. And therein lies the problem.

I have been completely lazy about dealing with my pictures. I have pictures in the camera from early May that I haven't even uploaded to the computer - I have lost all desire to deal with them....... I have a bunch from Spring break which still need to be "adjusted" (which entails the very complex task of clicking on the "Fast Fix" button in PSE) and uploaded (again, not a very hard task). I am just computer adverse right now.

I even have a ton of Scrapbook pages to photograph and upload. And these are my Wedding Layouts. I want to share them, but just lack motivation.

OK, enough excuses - I need to go do something (like take a nap!)

FINALLY -- Internet service restored!!!

Not sure how we survived the past 5 days without Internet Service, but it is FINALLY back - big sigh of relief. Actually, the only saving grace was the fact that I could access things from work, although things have been so crazy there, all I was able to do was check my email..... I am VERY glad that my main email is my Yahoo account - I have heard all sorts of horror stories about people not being able to receive emails through Insightbb.com, emails bouncing, etc.

So, after this fiasco, we are considering switching to DSL. Really, $20 / month vs. $45 is very tempting. I need to call Insight and complain about the service disruption - maybe they will provide me with a discount (but not counting on it. LOL!).

Ciao!!

Fried TV!

And, no, that's not something you eat....

Our 40" TV (purchased in 1992 - quite a big one at the time) has been acting up. Back in December, we noticed that the bottom of the screen was a little squashed - you know, the channel numbers looked flattened. Then it looked as if the picture tube wasn't quite centered - a black strip across the bottom of the screen, and the top was a little chopped off.

Still, it was working and hey, for those wide screen movies, it was just fine. We did get some comments from our guests when we were watching the half time show during the Super Bowl - quote - "Why does is look like Mick Jagger's legs are really short and fat? Did he shrink or something??". Nope - just the TV.

Well, recently, more issues - sometimes, the remote would not work properly - it would not work at all (and the remote was working just fine - it controlled the radio without issue). Then the TV wouldn't turn off unless you unplugged it. Really, just a little annoyance.

So, we have been lightly researching new TV's - you know, just perusing the Best Buy and Circuit City ads. But only very lightly.

Yesterday afternoon, however, providence spoke. Storms were starting to roll through the area around 3:30. I was watching something on the Food Channel when KABOOM! and the TV went POP! It was like a Bomb went off in the neighborhood. The kids were playing outside at the neighbors and they all screamed and ran inside. And that was the end of the TV. No power light. Black screen. Funny electric sounds when plugged in. It's dead.

It turns out the house which backs up to ours was hit by lightning! That's why it sounded like a bomb went off - there was no sound delay. Fortunately, no one was at home. It hit one of the peaks of their house, but there was no fire. It also fried their two TVs. Both of our families spent this evening browsing the TV selections at Best Buy.... who knew there were so many choices out there??

Cleaning out the Fish Pond

We have a 2000 gallon fish pond in our back yard and today we cleaned it. This is something we do once a year (thank goodness), essentially flushing out the old water, getting most of the sludge out and getting the algae under control (we hope).

Last year was the first time we cleaned it and the results were pretty good. But we still had a lot of "crud" built up in it. The procedure is to disconnect the circulating pump and use it to empty out the pond. When the level is low enough, we collect the fish (easier said than done) and place them in a holding tank which has been filled with some pond water. We have two very large koi, and they were hard to catch, so we left them in (a mistake in the end).

Scrub the rocks. This year I used the grill scraper. Worked great!! So much better than a Scotch Brite pad. Rinse. Pump out the pond. Rinse again. Pump again. Remove sludge - I used an oil spatter guard - you know, those circular mesh things you put on top of your frying pan to prevent oil from spattering all over the stove and house. That was a yucky job. But when it is done, you can see the rocks at the bottom of the pond again.

Then fill with fresh water. Here is where things started to "go bad" for the two koi. Last year, we got them out and they stayed in the holding tank. The fresh water is from the tap, so there is chlorine, etc in it. Once the water reaches a certain level, we add some pH adjustment chemicals and turn on the recirc pump, which addes oxygen to the water. Last year, we waited until the fresh water had been circulating for quite some time before adding the koi back in. Well, our two koi which stayed in the pond during the cleaning didn't take well to the fresh water - I think there wasn't enough oxygen. So we now have two dead koi to have to deal with. Great.

On the upside, the pond looks great. The goldfish are doing OK (for now - Scott added them in while the fresh water was being added, which may have been too early - I hope they survive!). Note to self - make sure to get the fish out and don't add them back in until the new water has had time to adjust.

More Spring Break - Fort Myers

>> Friday, April 14, 2006 – Florida, spring break, travel

Still getting caught up on the Spring Break entries....

While Scott and I were in Key West, the kids stayed with LaoLao and LaoYeh. They had tons of fun swimming in the pool.

They used those noodles like water cannons by filling up the hollow area and blowing the water out, as Erica demonstrates....

Even Fluffy was able to spend some time sunning himself. He didn't want to go into the water, though....

This year, we took advantage of the basketball hoop located in the subdivision. Unfortunately, it is of fixed height, so the younger kids weren't able to make any baskets (heck, I think I only made a handful of them!).

But every now and then, one would go in......