AZDonna

The blog police have been after me, but honestly I haven’t had anything exciting happen lately worth blogging about. (Actually, there is family news — a new baby boy on the way — but that’s Brian and Carrie’s blog story, so I’m waiting for them to spill all the details. However, if they don’t write something soon, I’m going to butt in and do it myself! hint, hint Brian!)

But last weekend I suddenly remembered I haven’t blogged about my new computer. After 12 years with my freebie system that I got from Intel, it was time to replace that old HP. I am now the proud owner of a sporty new Dell Studio desktop, with a Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB of hard drive space (I’ll NEVER fill a tenth of it!), a R/W DVD drive, and a 21.5″ wide screen HD monitor. It’s a beaut!

Daryl got me all set up when it arrived (a couple weeks ago) and even came over again last Saturday for a maintenance call to tweak of some of my settings, etc. While he was here, I had him help me move some heavy stuff and reprime my washer hose (yes, again!). He’s so handy to have around!

We took Richard’s advice and signed me up for Mozy backups. I have too many photos to back them all up on the free deal (2GB), but I thought I could back them up on DVDs and store them that way. I guess I need to store a copy somewhere besides my house to be really safe (in case of fire or something).

Since regular season TV has ended, I’ve reinstated my Netflix account and am catching up on all the movies that were released this year that I haven’t seen in the theater. I did pay the ticket price to see “UP” yesterday morning in the theater, and I loved it. It is the sweetest love story of an old couple, and a very exciting adventure, too. I admit my fear of heights did creep in once or twice while watching Carl and Russell swing from the garden hose 30,000 feet in the air. The last scene is priceless! I teared up … yes, over an animated flick! Go see it, everyone.

Each year, L.I.F.E. holds a fund raising golf tournament. One of the raffle events is a “ball drop”. Folks can buy numbered golf balls which are then dropped from a helicopter over one green at the golf course. The ball that falls in or closest to the hole is the winner. The first prize is a 46″ flat screen HDTV. Last year I bought $500 worth of balls, but didn’t win anything. I entered again this year ($500 worth), and guess what? Yep, I won the TV!! Daryl and Derek came over today to set it up for me. You might say I spent $1000 on this, but you would be wrong. I helped provide therapy services for more than 300 children with disabilities, and happened to win a TV in the process. It doesn’t get any better than that.

I was sitting in my family room last night around 9:00 and suddenly heard a huge whoosh and the sound of rushing water. I thought it was outside the window and I briefly wondered what my neighbors were doing. I sat there a minute, then got up to go look out. As I moved past the laundry room door, I realized the noise was coming from there. I opened the door to an erupting water fountain gushing from the back of my washer. Eeeek!!!

I tried to turn the faucet off, but it was stuck fast. I grabbed three towels from the rag bin there and threw one on the floor at the carpet edge, and another one over the water fountain, and tried again to turn the faucet off. Stuck fast! I ran to the garage and grabbed a screw driver and back in to try to use it as a lever. Stuck fast!! I ran to the kitchen to grab a pair of pliers out of the drawer and back to the gusher. All this time, the water was spewing forth all over the room, hitting the ceiling, cupboards, doors, dryer, floor… (It was about this time I started to cry.) Finally I was able to begin to budge the faucet handle. Several hard turns and it was off. I felt like a drowned rat!

It took four beach towels, three soaked rugs, sweeping water out the back door and thirty minutes of mopping before the floor tiles showed their faces. Then I called Daryl. He must have heard the despair in my voice, because he immediately assured me swapping washer hoses was an easy fix and he would come over on Saturday to help me out.

Most of the time, I do pretty well on my own, but there are a few times in life I really miss having a husband. Thank you, Daryl honey.

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I took the first picture after I had been mopping for a while. I had to post the other one taken a week ago to show I don’t always look so bedraggled.

This past Saturday, I got to do pottery with Glenda. It’s really, really fun, but takes years and years of practice to do it really well. Just getting the clay centered is very difficult (as you’ll see in the video). I realized after I edited the clips together that I should have put the clip of me first so everyone would think I was doing really well until they saw how good Glenda is. Now when you see her first and then me, it’s very obvious I am just a beginner.

Glenda helped me straighten out and finish up my bowl. Here it is ready to dry, be trimmed, fired, painted and glazed, and fired again.

The weather outside is delightful; a fire would be so frightful! Since we’ve got places to go, let the sun glow, let the sun show, let the sun glow!

Things have settled down at work, but there is still an undercurrent of impending layoffs coming again next quarter. I’m still trying to live very frugally, because a dollar saved this month is a dollar I will have when there is no salary coming in.

Jocelyn, Eric and Liam came out for a visit from Wisconsin last week, and Don and Betty drove over from California. They brought Shelley as a surprise for her two sisters (Joce and Heather), and she stayed with me, as well as the Weisses. Little Liam is a cutie patootie, it was great to meet Eric, and fun to catch up with Jocelyn and Shelley. I think it’s been over 10 years since I’ve seen either one of them. We all had a great visit!

My **th birthday was yesterday. Thank you to all who called and/or sent birthday wishes. I have been sick all week (~strep throat and double ear infection), so I did not go out celebrating last night. All that can wait until next week when I am fully well and not spreading any ugly germs around. I started feeling sick on Friday night while Joce, Eric and Shelley were still here. I cannot figure out how I did NOT give it to them, but they all went home healthy … and claim to still be well a week later. After five days in bed, I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. I’m feeling much better, and have gone back to work, but I still sound like a foghorn.

My sweet sister-in-law had surgery this week and all went very well. I won’t go into details as it’s not my story to write about, but the doctor is hopeful the test results will be much better than originally expected, and that treatment will be much simpler. We have been and continue to pray for that.

As happens every March, UA played in the NCAA basketball tournament. This year’s invitation was a real shock-a-roo, as they had a pitiful year without Lute or much team stability. But they squeaked in, and as a Cinderella team, claimed the only Pac10 spot in the Sweet Sixteen. Unfortunately, that’s where the Ball ended, and they turned back into pumpkins. Louisville spanked ’em good, and sent them home with shattered slippers. The media says we can expect an announcement on a new coach as early as next week, but the next few years could be rebuilding ones for the program.

This beautiful spring day is beckoning me, and I think I will take a little walk.  Before I go, I want to encourage everyone to click on over to Rock The Budget and make a $5 donation to help special needs children continue to receive services that the state budget cuts have taken away. Thanks, peeps!

For the past two months, I have had nothing on my mind except impending layoffs at my company. This time, I just had a feeling it was going to be me. I’ve escaped the last couple of cuts, but we had heard rumors of as much as a 30% reduction this time. No one felt safe.

Well, this morning I found out I was spared for another round. Only seven were affected at our site. There was a big cut at the Santa Clara site, and several small sites were closed. Altogether, about 15% of the employees worldwide were laid off. I’m so relieved it wasn’t me, but I’m so sorry for those who lost their jobs today.

Well, now I feel like I can relax a little. I’m going to have my little buddy, Nathan, overnight tomorrow night. I have had to stock up on some new toys. He’s just growing up so fast this year, since he started school. I found a cool toy on Amazon that had rave customer reviews, plus I got a Light Brite. Brian had one of those when he was a kid and we all had a lot of fun with it.

And Brian has a birthday this weekend. He claims it’s not a big deal, and he wants to be low key. But I think I might make him a coconut cream cake anyway. Happy Birthday to you, Brian!