Snowflakes?

We think we might have seen snowflakes flying through the air this morning. I did have a dream where it snowed. I'm not ready for winter.

Today is my birthday. It has been mostly business as usual. I took yesterday off and Violet and I spent the day with my parents. Dad and I went to Wal-Mart. We always have a good time going into town together. Mom made my favorite homemade macaroni and cheese to go with lunch.

Violet baked me a cake today. Mr. Incredible is going to make my favorite dinner soon: super nachos! I'm a girl of simple tastes. My parents gave me a new cutting board for my birthday yesterday. Haven't seen a present yet today, but Mr. I and Violet did go off to his office on a secret project around lunch time. I'll keep you posted.

I'm still really enjoying the quiet at work with one boss on vacation and the other a convention. So nice. I have to write an article on HIPAA. I did my research today and took notes. I think I can turn it into an article fairly easily. But I doubt I'll do it today. It is due Monday. There's time.

I might try to get Violet into a make up swim lesson tomorrow. You have to schedule them the day of the make up. I might not. I kind of like the idea of not going anywhere tomorrow. We have 4 make ups to do. I thought Violet might be getting ready to stop lessons. She was complaining a lot before we went on Monday. But she said that she never feels like going, but once she's there she really likes it and can't wait until the next lesson. Guess she's staying in them for now. It is her only activity with any expense really. Girl Scouts is cheap, and with no troop dues, even cheaper. We have 5 theater performances to attend, but that is really more a school expense than an extracurricular. She might as well keep them up as long as she's still enjoying them.

The weekend is supposed to be warmer and sunny. That will be nice. We've been so rainy and dreary lately. Hmm, maybe I should tackle that article today and get it over with and be able to enjoy the nice weather on the weekend.

I got an award!

Thanks to Mom #1 (who really is a Number One Mom!) I am the proud recipient of the Over the Top Award:



The rules of this award are as follows:


1. Answer the questions below using only one word. (Like I ever limit myself to ONE WORD! As my good friend Mary once said, "For a quiet person, you sure got a mouth on you.")

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you. Thanks, Mom#1

3. Pass it on to 6 of your favorite bloggers. Well, I'm really bad about this part, plus by the time I get around to these, everyone else has usually done them. If you haven't, consider yourself Over the Top and tagged.


1. Where is your cell phone? Purse (ask me if it is charged)
2. Your hair? Blah
3. Your mother? Exercising (since she started exercise class she is on top of the world!)
4. Your father? Retired (and driving #3 crazy)
5. Your favorite food? Nachos
6. Your dream last night? Gone
7. Your favorite drink? Wine (Red)
8. Your dream/goal? Cabin (I'd love to live in the middle of northwoods of Wisconsin in a little cabin, near a lake, or better yet, the upper peninsula of Michigan)
9. What room are you in? Dining
10. Your hobby? Reading
11. Your fear? Snakes (bridges, tornadoes, large groups of small children)
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Couch
14. Something you aren't? Outgoing
15. Muffins? Yes, please
16. Wish list item? Wardrobe
17. Where did you grow up? Illinois
18. Last thing you did? Shower
19. What are you wearing? Pajamas
20. Your TV? Off (for another 30 minutes or so)
21. Your pets? Snoring (yes, from across the room I can hear the cat snoring)
22. Your friends? Wonderful (especially my online ones!)
23. Your life? Double (homeschool mom, career woman)
24. Your mood? Relaxed (the bosses are both out of town today!)
25. Missing someone? Aunt
26. Vehicle? Rattling
27. Something you're not wearing? Socks
28. Your favorite store? Burt's Bees Online Store
29. Your favorite color? Yellow
30. When was the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? October 1st
32. Your best friend? Mr. I.
33. One place that I go over and over? Library
34. One person who emails me regularly? Library (to tell me my holds are in)
35. Favorite place to eat? Rosita's (a local Mexican restaurant)

See, I couldn't keep it to just one word, but at least I didn't beat any of my points to death as I am so often accused of by Mr. #32.

Well, I am off to the couch with #7 to do some #10, then turn on #20! Have a good night!

Dishwasher recall

Fatcat was asking which models were affected in the GE dishwasher recall, so I'm posting the link: GE Dishwasher Recall.

It seems to affect quite a few, so if you have a GE dishwasher that was manufactured between September 1997 and December 2001, you might want to take a minute and see if yours is included.

Parties, sales, work, and dishwashers

We went to a party last night, just Mr. Incredible and I. Violet hung out at her friend's house for the evening. My boss had a dinner party. It is always interesting to see work people outside the confines of the office. We had a nice time, ate a lot, I drank a lot (Mr. I. was driving) - not so much as to do anything memorable, just enough to have a headache after we got home. Violet had a good time at her friend's.

Violet's candy, nut and magazine sales are going great. Thanks to all of you who let me send you e-mails. The snail mails will arrive in January. I really appreciate you helping her out like this. It is such a scam to have patches that all fit neatly together, provided you give them enough e-mail and snail mail addresses. I included my own e-mail address on the list because I was ordering all of our magazines plus some for my parents. Guess what? It wouldn't count mine towards her 12 addresses! What a crock after I paid them I don't want to know how much. So guess what I did? I sent it to my work e-mail address instead.

Got try harder than that to hold Freakmom down!

I've been trying to catch up with work. I'm not there yet. Good news, the two who give me the most work are both out of town all next week. I should make some progress. I hope. On the plus side, the hours are good. I need them to pay for those magazines! Ack!

We're pretty sure we're going to replace the flammable dishwasher. Since we've had the other problems anyway. For now we are doing dishes by hand which is getting real old, real fast. Mr. I. is going to take apart the door and try to wrap the offending wires with electrical tape to insulate them. Or something like that. I think he was actually speaking in Martian when he told me because I didn't understand most of it. For a smart person, I'm pretty dense when it comes to science. That's why he's in charge of it in our homeschool. That and science experiments usually make me swear.

While we were at the party last night we noticed that my boss has the same dishwasher as we do. Or a very similar one. I called her this afternoon to see if she'd heard about the recall, she hadn't either. So I e-mailed her the info. I wasn't surprised they had the same one, we have the same microwave too. Our houses were built about the same time and all the builders seem to use the same appliances unless you buy big upgrades.

Tomorrow Violet's friend, Butterfly, is coming over and I'm going to help them with the new Girl Scout Journey about energy. It looks like a lot of fun. Much better than last year's journey. I wouldn't touch that thing with a 10-foot s'more stick. There is swim practice in the evening (I've decided she swims so well it is silly to call them "swim lessons" she's practicing flip turns and dolphin kicks now). Tuesday we are hanging out at my parent's house for the day. And on Wednesday, I turn 43!

It will be busy week.

Taking the day off

Freakmom style that is.

I have to be on an hour and a half conference call for work this afternoon. And I have to go to the Girl Scout service unit meeting tonight. But other than that, I'm taking off.

What I am doing on my day off (that isn't really off)? I'm going to finish unpacking, and clean bathrooms, and maybe mop the floor that we keep sticking to. I'm going to spend time with Violet doing school work. And I'm going to help her with some Girl Scouty stuff.

But I think I am caught up enough not to have to work furiously all day. I'll take whatever I can get.

Maybe the leaking water will put out the fire

Have I mentioned here that our dishwasher leaks? It started over the summer. Mr. I. put a pan underneath it to catch the water and occasionally empties it.

This is actually the second problem we've had with it. The first was last winter when the drain got clogged and it wouldn't empty totally. There is nothing more fun that bailing a dishwasher after every load. Mr. I and his dad took it apart and were able to dislodge the clog. Now it drains, but leaks.

Now low and behold we learn it has been recalled. It wasn't GE that told us (but in all fairness, we probably didn't send in our warranty card so they didn't know we bought it). It was our local Fire Department. In their newsletter they reported that they recently responded to a kitchen fire that started from a recalled dishwasher. Since many, many houses were built in the same 5 year period they figured many, many of us are affected by the dishwasher recall. Smart assumption since builders do tend to put the same make and model of most appliances in every house in the subdivision unless the new homeowner wants to make an expensive upgrade, most don't.

So, yes, now not only does our dishwasher leak, it may burst into flames at any moment.

Sigh.

Mr. I. did the research recommended by those smart firefighters (who have better things to do that put out every dishwasher in several subdivisions). Seems we can get a free repair call to fix it (but I'm guessing not the leak even though they'll be here anyway) or get a rebate of either $150 or $300 on a new GE model (depending on what model is chosen).

I don't know what we're going to do. One thing is we won't set the dishwasher to run overnight anymore.

Never a dull moment.

Yes, I'm still alive

I was just off the grid for a while.

First I spent two days in beautiful downtown Peoria, Illinois at a healthcare convention. I kid Peoria, I really like the city. It gets a bad rap in Illinois. It has to have the best traffic of any place on the planet. When I got there I couldn't find the entrance to the hotel parking garage. I was able to drive in circles through the city looking for it. Not once was a I run down by a city bus or a cab. I wasn't honked at even when I slowed way down to read street signs. There was just no traffic. Several convention attendees also commented on it.

I did a presentation at the convention. I had no information to share. My topic was picked last winter. Then the government put a hold on the changes. The hold was supposed to be lifted by now. It hasn't been. My co-speaker and I had to scramble to come up with material. (Side note, she was my third co-speaker, they kept dropping out on me - well, one quit our company to work for a client, one found out she had a conflict, and this last speaker actually agreed then found out she'd misheard the topic and really didn't want to speak on it because she knew nothing about it, but she did it with me.) But the audience didn't seem to mind, we got good feedback and had standing room only. I met a speaker who had a session at the same time, he had relevant current info, and virtually no attendees. He was a bit miffed. Tee hee.

Anyway, I had great time traveling again for work. I'm planning on putting in more speaking proposals for next year (when we'll travel to sunny Springfield, Illinois - I tell you, Northern Illinois has no respect at all for "downstate"). I'm also hoping to go to Michigan in April. Mr. Incredible was hoping I'd get sent to California next year, but I really don't think that will happen.

As soon as I got back we left for our family vacation. We went to Disney World. We have a time share there, so our room was paid for. We bought annual passes when we went last year, so our park admission was paid for. We needed to get there and back and food. We couldn't pass it up.

It was really hot, moderately busy, and a good time. I would have liked to have more downtime. I get so little relaxing in at home, I'd like to relax on vacation. Mr. I and Violet like to go, go, go. Next time we go, I'm going to ditch them and go to the pool on my own. There's a beach chair and a frilly drink with my name on it. They both like wild rides much more than I do anyway.

So we are back home. I'm almost caught up with work. I had a blow out with Girl Scouts (now isn't that a familiar story). This will be my last year volunteering. I'm going to finish up the rest of my commitments then turn in my...well, I don't have anything to turn in. I'll just quit. I've finally come to realize what so many volunteers have figured out before me, Girl Scouts is a business first and foremost and volunteers really are the least of their concerns. They don't care if they increase our burdens with no notice or change our job descriptions mid-year. It isn't about us, or about the girls. If you want the full story, let me know and I'll e-mail you. I won't bore everyone else.

Speaking of Girl Scouts, I do plan to keep my commitment to Violet who does still enjoy the program. That said, she loves selling and more importantly earning stuff. Starting Saturday is the Fall Product Sale. She'd like to earn all the patches. To do so she needs to send out 10 e-mails and 10 snail mails about magazine sales. She doesn't need to sell any. Many of you let her send you e-mails or mailings last year, if you are willing to get them again this year I'd appreciate it. The e-mails (there will be 2) come out next week and the week after), the mailing in January (you might get a second mailing, the info is unclear on that). The company doesn't keep the e-mails or addresses or sell them to any one else. If you are interested just e-mail me, freakmom@gmail.com. I may e-mail some of you from the list last year to confirm your continued willingness. No is always an acceptable answer.

So, that's where I've been. Playing big shot in Peoria. Hobnobbing with a mouse. And causing a scene in a Girl Scout office.

Who says my life is boring!