Friday, September 7, 2012

Friday Mishmash

My air conditioner tried to give me heat stroke Tuesday night and all day Wednesday - when I came home Tuesday evening after that running clinic, I walked into a warm house.  That is not a good feeling, let me tell you.  It was an uncomfortable night, not only because of the heat (having my box fan aimed at the bed made it tolerable), but also the thoughts of "OMG, what if this is a catastrophic failure of the unit??" along with dollar signs running through my head.  Thankfully, it was a blown capacitor - the thing literally blew its guts out.  By 5:00 pm the part had been replaced and my house, which was now at 89 degrees inside, was starting to cool down.  Whew! 
The offending part with guts on the outside - does anyone else see a ship's figurehead on the side?  All in all, best $189 I've spent in a long time!
 The "what a relief" sno cone that I bought after the A/C was fixed...
Overexposed shot of my dumb dog lying in the sun that morning.  We were sitting in the backyard because for a while, it was cooler out there ("cool" being a relative term at that point, probably around 86 degrees) than it was in the house.  Paco, who was panting and so miserable inside, insisted on sitting in the sun.  Goof!

Needless to say, Wednesday was pretty much a washout.  I went to the mall for a couple of hours to cool off, but didn't buy anything because I was worried about the repair bill.  Well, and also, I didn't need anything.  Lately if it's not yarn or running gear, I'm not interested.

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Speaking of yarn - here's a sneak peek at some of the supplies for my next project.  Cones of ecru cotton - I have been using Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupons, which brings the price for these babies down to $7.79 each.  Can't beat that!  I need one more cone and then I can begin, but I can't tell you what I'm making as it's going to be Christmas presents for family, and they read this blog.  If you are really curious, email me and I'll tell you.  Boy oh boy, this is a fun blog to read - here's what I'm doing but I'm not telling you what it is.  Nice. 
For this project, you hold three strands of yarn together and knit on big needles.  Another challenge, but I think once I get a system going (mostly of holding the cones), it should work out just fine.

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I have been fretting about having all of my eggs in one basket - er, all of my photos on my computer - for a while now...I'd hate to have the computer break and lose everything.  I tried to upload them to a storage thing in "the cloud" but took forever, so my next option was an external hard drive to use as a back up.  Normally this is something that I'd pass off to my crack tech support team (i.e. Jeff or the kids) but no one has been here much lately, so I actually did a little research (OK, I read Amazon reviews) and then went to Best Buy and bought one - go me! 
 A terabyte of storage - hopefully that will be enough.  I have A LOT of pictures!
And look - I actually installed it!  Obviously it wasn't difficult, but I even got the thing to run on my computer and got everything backed up.  Seriously, GO ME!!!  

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This morning I have the cable guy coming out to get the outlet working in the bedroom - I rearranged the TV to a wall with a dead outlet...haha, it figures.  I feel like such a responsible adult, taking care of all kinds of things this week between the air conditioner, the computer and now the cable.  But in case you're listening, universe, this is enough, OK?

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Tomorrow morning while Jeff flies to Alaska for a conference, I'll be running 7 miles again.  The really exciting part is that we are moving our runs back to the area where we used to run out of - I am so happy about this, as there is much less traffic, nice wide sidewalks and shoulders to run on, pretty neighborhoods, and a sense of familiarity.  It'll be like coming home!  The rest of the weekend will be spent laying low, as it's the first home football game of the season, and I don't want to get anywhere near the hordes of fans that will be infiltrating our town...yes, I am a party pooper when it comes to football.

Have a great weekend!

16 comments:

  1. If I remember right, you are in Texas A&M land. I live in Columbia, MO and Mizzou just joined the SEC. We have our first SEC game this weekend in Columbia. We have been told to expects tons more visitors. I'm kind of excited about the whole thing. Have a great weekend, Shelley!

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    1. You remember correctly! A&M just joined the SEC as well - tomorrow's game is with Florida. Same thing, a lot more visitors and for a longer time, since they're coming from so far. I don't like crowds, so the only time I'll venture out tomorrow after the run (if at all) is during the game - at least then, 80,000 people will all be in one place, lol!

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  2. That's funny, I recently bought an external harddisk for the same reason and decided to try and install it myself and it worked. Woohoooooooooooooooo

    Glad to hear the AC is repaired, you really need one where you live. Paco made me laugh because Bella always searches for the hottest spot in the garden too. Dogs are crazy :)

    Have a great weekend Shelley and have fun tomorrow.

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    1. Computer things are normally so tricky and never work for me - getting this to work was a triumph! Glad to hear it worked for you, too - go us! :)

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  3. Can I admit to you that when you showed the photos of your rearranged bedroom, I wondered if you'd thought about the TV when you moved everything? But it looked so cute I didn't want to be a downer LOL!

    I looked at your weather and as of now it's saying 63 overnight tonight... maybe that means it won't be more than 70ish when you start your run? Fingers crossed!

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    1. I knew there was a cable outlet on that side of the room, but I forgot that it wasn't working. At least the service call is free because we pay a little extra for a service plan. Believe me, I don't hesitate to use it!

      That weather prediction is the overnight for Saturday night - if you do the hourly forecast, you can see we'll still be in the high 70s Saturday morning. It's weird how they show it, and it fools a lot of people (including many in my running club who are expecting it to be in the low 60s tomorrow morning). At least when I run on Monday morning, it should be a little cooler! :)

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  4. Glad it was an inexpensive AC fix. Enjoy your run. Will be anxious to get FB updates :)

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  5. Have an awesome run this weekend, Shelley!

    Maybe all the heat fried Paco's brain. They are so silly!

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    1. I suspect his brain was fried a long time ago... ;)

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  6. Very impressed with all your grown up activities. They do get in the way of our fun though, don't they?

    Good deal on the yarn!! Maybe just put the three cones in a big bowl? Something with smooth edges so the yarn won't catch on anything. I'll be interested to see your progress.

    And I'm jealous you have a hobby lobby so close by!

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    1. I saw someone put cones on the legs of an upside-down stool, but I don't have one (anymore) - the bowl idea might work, though! :)

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    2. For spinning they make something called a lazy kate, which in its simplest form is just a piece of wood with three metal or wooden pegs stuck through it, which would work perfectly for you. But they aren't cheap. Maybe you could show it to Jeff or your boys and they could make one for you?

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  7. I have an external drive too - it makes our computer run so much faster when I don't store my pictures on it - but I had my husband install it (although when push came to shove, I think I could have figured it out!).

    Have a great run! I am testing out the treadmill at lunch today to see where I am stamina wise for my 5k tomorrow. :D

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    1. My pictures are still on the computer...I guess I could just do the external drive for them, but then I'd be screwed if that went out. Hmmm.

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  8. I usually try to keep a backup of my hard drive in our safety deposit box just to have something out of the house. (I worked for years in computer operations and so have a "belts AND suspenders" mentality.

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