Gripe Warning

This is how I feel today. I am the cat and the puppy is the power drunk drafting instructor at our local community college

I hereby rescind my apology to drafters. I am still willing to extend the hand of friendship to those drafters who are willing to be reasonable, but I realize I was quite mistaken in thinking that if I assumed an attitude of humility, they would be willing to work with me.

Allow me to explain: After a great deal of research I have decided the best, quickest, and cheapest way to get my continuing education credit is to take a drafting course at the community college. Unfortunately, the only course that works out time-wise is a beginning course in software that I am already proficient in. I still decided to go for it. Why? Because I can get enough credits for three years in a week's worth of classes for under $200. I was told today by the instructor that I can't take the course. Why? Because he doesn't believe that an engineer can be proficient enough with the software to qualify to take a beginning course. This is a classic case of a drafter with a gripe against engineers.

So my question is: What do you do when you run into a jerk like this? I am open to suggestions and please be creative. So far the voodoo doll isn't working (unless the reason why this guy isn't returning my calls is because his leg fell off and shoved itself into his mouth).

The Craftiness of Women

It's amazing how a room full of ladies with glue guns, scrapbooking pages, iron on transfers or mod podge can make me feel like I'm back in seventh grade gym class not getting picked for a volleyball team. I would rather spend the afternoon having a root canal than crafting.

When I craft I feel as if I am trying to diffuse a bomb while wearing boxing gloves. I was once told, "You know, you could be a much better crafter if you if you just tried". This statement presupposes two things 1) That I really would be better at it if I tried (which I might not), and 2) That I care enough to try to improve my skills (which I don't).

I just don't care. I feel a huge weight being lifted as I admit this and yet I also feel as if I'm offending 3/4 of my friends. You know - the ones who have hand crafted signs in their entryways that say something like "Bless this Mess" or "Friends Welcome Here" or "NO Stairway to Heaven". But what's the point in having friends who don't love you for who you are?

This brings me to last night. This year, some of my friends had put together a team for Race for the Cure. I thought as long as I was going, I may as well join their team, which honors their grandmother who passed away from breast cancer. Last night I got a call saying we would be meeting to make shirts to be worn on race day in conjunction with this effort to honor their Grandma Ruby. Now, I am all for honoring this great lady, but I wasn't thrilled that it required a crafting effort on my part. The shirts were to say "Ruby Racers" and be studded with red rhinestones. Here's where I let the finished shirt do the talking for me:

Sorry, Grandma Ruby. I plan on making a new one this afternoon.

The most tragic part of this story is that I was just called as Enrichment Counselor in my ward's Relief Society (for those of you who don't know what this is, one of my duties is to oversee enriching activities for the ladies and I will be lynched if a great many crafts are not included). I plan on counting on the Enrichment Leader to take care of the details and the appliquéing. Maybe now's the time to finally start making my effort. Or maybe it's time the ladies of our ward put away their bedazzlers and learned how to program macros.

The Box

Today I knew the time had finally come that I needed to venture into the recesses of the basement and seek out the box I had packed away two years ago. I reluctantly looked, almost hoping I wouldn't find it. But after a few minutes of halfhearted searching, I found what I was looking for.



It's always hard to admit to yourself that you have become too oddly shaped to fit into clothing created for normal human beings, but it has to happen at some point. It's kind of like taking out the fat pants after Christmas... and knowing you're going to have to wear them until Easter.

When I opened the box, they were even worse than I remembered. But I took comfort in the fact that by New Year's they will be carefully packed away again... into the garbage.

What I did with my $1.61

For those of you who are unaware of my recent pennies from heaven experience, read here.

I have mused long and hard about how to spent it. Finally, today, as I was buying thread to fix a stuffed sea lion who had been horribly wounded by the washing machine I saw the perfect use for my $1.61. I purchased (drum roll please) a seam ripper. It may not sound like that exciting of a purchase, but I figure that I use my existing seam ripper about once a day and I spend a third of my life looking for it. Since I had the extra cash, I bought a dedicated one for my sewing machine. In the past, I have had to go so far as to try to rip out mistakes with a safety pin because my seam ripper was lost. This will ensure that I have one on hand every time I make a mistake sewing and will free up my other one for more exciting uses such as:

Getting that last bit of grime out from under my fingernails.

Busting into difficult to penetrate shrink wrap.

Taking itchy tags out of shirts.

Splitting crab leg shells.

Not to mention all the time I will save not having to constantly search for a seam ripper. With all that free time, who knows? I might even solve the fuel crisis. $1.61 to break our dependence on foreign oil - now that's a steal.

The Final Frontier

Every time I go I say that this will be my final trip to Frontier Days. Last year I was so serious about not having anything to do with it that we left town. Last night, we made our return to Frontier Days for the first time since the drunken cowboy brawl of 2005 (if you want to know more about this ask Chris).






We had a great time seeing the Thunderbirds in the morning (sorry, I forgot the camera) and then going to the Air Force open house. This is Emily sitting in a helicopter. Despite her facial expression it was a very exciting moment for her.






Since we had so much fun in the morning, we decided a trip to Frontier Park (also known as the belly of the beast the last full week in July) was warranted. Yesterday was, after all, Cheyenne Day and that meant that admission was free and rides were discounted for Cheyenne residents. After riding two rides with Emily, we ate the most expensive, most disgusting gyros available to mankind and decided we were all frontiered out. In spite of the discounts and freebies, we had blown through $54 in an hour and a half.




On the way out, we decided to take Emily by the animal pens. That was a big hit. She was smiling and waving at the cows and horses and kept exclaiming, "Oh! How cute!". Of course, that part was free. Maybe next year we will just drop by and see the animals. That would be fun. But chances are good that we will once again talk ourselves into visiting the belly of the beast, spending money we shouldn't and eating food that will torture our guts for days. Isn't that, after all, what family fun is all about?

Thank you, W!

After many years of letting the summer pass us by, Chris and I finally decided it was time for a vacation. Thanks to W's tax rebates we were left with no excuses and so, last Monday, we dropped Emily off with my sainted parents and began our adventure.

We visited Independence, Liberty, Far West and Adam Ondi Ahman in Missouri and Carthage and Nauvoo in Illinois. I won't write a comprehensive summary of our travels because there are many guide books that will give you that and also most of my blogfans have been to all these places. I will however cover what in my mind were the highlights of the trip.

#1 - Allowing the GPS to guide us over a series of dirt roads to Far West. It turns out it could have been reached on main highways, but this was much more fun. It was kind of like getting lost without really getting lost.

#2 - The beautiful landscapes. I can see why the pioneers were so disappointed when they arrived in Salt Lake. It was amazing to me to see trees that had not been planted and cultivated but had just sort of sprung forth from the ground.




#3 - I thought Carthage jail would be very sad to visit, but I found it to be exactly the opposite. I was surprised by lack of blame and hatred towards the members of the mob. Carthage wasn't a reminder that Joseph Smith had been brutally murdered - It was a reminder that he believed in what he was doing enough to walk calmly into certian death.













#4 - Chris almost had a bigfoot sighting at Adam Ondi Ahman. It turned out to be a deer. Look closely. It's in there somewhere.






#5 - For the first time in my life, I saw fireflies. Now, I know a few of my blogfans live in areas where they are plentiful and find them rather unremarkable but when you stop to think about it, how much cooler does it get than a bug with a butt that lights up?

#6 - Seeing both the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers.



#7 - Getting to go through the Nauvoo temple and spending time walking around the temple grounds later that evening. The coolest part of the temple construction is that I could not find a single bit of concrete within the temple grounds. The curb and gutter were limestone and I believe the sidewalk and parking lot were granite. I know most people wouldn't have noticed but I have always had a great appreciation for such things.




#8 - Seeing the rocking horse that belonged to John Taylor's son. The story goes that the son was so distraught to leave his horse behind that John Taylor turned back after a couple of days' journey and risked his life to sneak back into Nauvoo to retrieve the horse for his son. It made it all the way to Salt Lake and was eventually donated back to Nauvoo by the family. It was very touching to see the love he had for his son.

#9 - After seeing the beautiful homes that these people had built with their own hands, I had a great appreciation for the fact that most had to leave after staying only a few months in their completed dwellings. It must have taken a great deal of faith to leave their dream homes for an uncertian future.

#10 - Making the same journey the pioneers made in months all in one day. We left Nauvoo (actually Keokuk - 15 miles away) after a late breakfast and we landed in Salt Lake in time for dinner. It really made me appreciate the ability we have to travel.

#11 - Getting to spend time with Chris.

We had a wonderful time and are very grateful that we were able to go.

My lucky day

Yesterday, as I was cleaning my car, I found a grand total of $1.61. It may be nothing to Chris' inheritance , but It was a buck sixty-one that I didn't have before and now it is burning a hole in my pocket. With that kind of cash I could:




Buy a satisfying lunch packed with vitamins and consisting of either a hamburger, a taco or fries.










Enjoy the relative silence for a minute and thirty seconds as Emily rides the super overpriced mechanical horse at WalMart.






Eat 3 packs of M&M's in one sitting - by myself. In the dark. Because I would be ashamed and also because I wouldn't want to share.











Drive 10 miles with no destination in mind while singing along to Journey.





These are all definitely strong options, but I don't want to blow my wad before I've thought it through. Anyone else have any ideas?