An Exercise in Futility

Over the last couple of weeks, CBS, one of the BIG THREE network television stations (Big Bang Theory, Big Brother, NCIS) and the cable company I use have been in “negotiations” about cost increases.  Due to a stall in those talks, the cable company has decided to remove all the network’s channels from its lineup in order to put pressure on them to settle.  In addition to the CBS stations, Showtime has also been pulled off the air because they are under the CBS umbrella.  Since Showtime is a paid premium channel, I am paying gobs of money for it and it’s not available.  I’ve been grumbling about the amount of money I pay for cable/internet services over the last couple of years.  This most recent issue pushed me to research other options.  Last Friday, I made the jump from cable to satellite TV.  So far, I’m not seeing any difference, other than the cost (which includes CBS) so it was probably a smart decision. 

With the removal of cable TV, I had the option of keeping the cable internet (and spending twice as much on it because it would no longer be bundled with cable TV) or switching to another internet provider.  I opted for a switch and it was installed tonight with an almost 50% savings. 

It wasn’t until after the installation that it occurred to me with the change in internet service, I would need to change my email address.  I will no longer have access to the cable server to access my email once I shut it off and return the router.  I registered for the new email this evening and sent off the change in address to my email address book.  Luckily, everyone’s email addresses are still accessible in Outlook.  What I didn’t take into account was changing emails on ALL those online accounts.  I’ve spent the better part of the last 3 hours combing through emails looking for all my online accounts, changing the address, entering passwords, and confirming those changes via the new and old email address. 

Initially, I thought this process would help me memorize this new email since the old one seems to be emblazoned on my brain at this point.  Instead, for every account, I had to type in the old email before typing in the new one.  The addresses are just similar enough to trip me up.  It made me so confused!

Some Organization

A little over a year ago I switched the office and guest bedroom around due to space.  While the guest room is used sporadically, I’m in the office all the time and the art supplies were taking over the small room.  The extra square footage has been nice, but I’ve since found the walls caving in on me.  (Look quickly while I hide my head in shame.)

Due to poor organization and drawers/cupboards, supplies haven’t been easily accessible. Whenever I’m working on something, I end up pulling out everything I need and just leaving it out…hence the chaos.

When the room was a guest room there were some small decorative shelves on the wall.  I started storing often-used supplies on them and decided I wanted shelves, lots of shelves.  A friend of mine built some for me this summer and installed them last weekend. 

All my free time over the last week or so has been spent moving supplies from drawers and cupboard to my shelves.  Just looking at them makes me happy. 
Now that the most used supplies are readily available, some of the drawers and cupboards are free.  My next step is to remove the less used materials into those drawers and cupboards and get rid of the rolling plastic carts.  The best part about the shelves is clearing off the work table and having some room to work.
If you’ll notice in the messy pictures above I couldn’t even find the table before. 

Some OUTTAKES
Rigby photo-bombed a few of my photos yesterday.  She’s such a kook, rolling around and growling while I photographed the room…
 

It's Official

The worst part about the end of summer vacation is waking up to an alarm.  Equally the worst is when that alarm goes off, it is still dark outside.  

That's all...

Are We Really Related?

Edna Buchanan has said, “Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.”  Thankfully, we have the option to choose our friends.  Family is, for the most part, forced upon us.  In fact, if we had the option of picking, we probably wouldn’t pick some of them. 

What is left of my family is fairly local.  Most reside in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, about 30 minutes away.  However I have a cousin who moved his family to the state of Washington a few years ago.  He’s in town for a visit this weekend so a gathering at his brother’s house was scheduled for yesterday.  I looked forward to seeing my visiting cousin as well as my aunt, who I am also close with.  The rest?  Well let’s just say that I always have high hopes at the beginning of family get-togethers.   By then end, I remember why they frustrate me so much.  Between the excessive smoking, drinking, and internet gambling, the children who have had children they can neither afford nor do they want to take care of, the abusive (both mentally and physically) relationships, the dropping out of school, the lack of housekeeping skills, the amount of conversations that begin with “I posted on Facebook,” and the utter disregard of taking care of one’s health, my family is a mess.  I’m not saying I’m a prize, but by the time I leave a gathering like this I feel like I’ve just visited the Clampetts.

My family is very small – just my mom and I in the immediate.  I have an aunt and three cousins (along with their spouses and children) on my dad’s side.  That’s it.  Which is why, I think, I continue to make the effort with them.  Sometimes I have this overwhelming fear about losing my mom and not having anymore family left.  These visits don’t do anything to squelch that fear. 

The Douro River Valley

We were based in Porto for the remainder of the Portugal trip.  Porto sits on the mouth of the Douro River.  After a few days spent exploring Porto, we took a couple of day trips to some towns along the river.

The Douro River Valley is mostly known for it’s Port wine grapes and the beautiful quintas (wineries) that dot the hills.

Guimarães was one of our stops.  It is a sweet little city where it would have been fun just to get lost in…if it weren’t pouring down buckets of rain, BUCKETS!  Due to all the rain, these pictures were taken with my phone as it was too hard to keep the real camera dry.

The Medieval Cafe is a nice place to dry off and warm up.
A local pastry – torta de Guimarães – and a hot cup of coffee was a nice way to pass the time.

Another day trip was taken to Lamego in order to visit  the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies. 

There are 611 steps leading up to the Sanctuary – that’s 1222 round trip!

The views from the steps (of both the city and the church) are lovely. The 1,222nd step!
Funny story about the sneakers…At the time, they were my workout/walking shoes.  Because they were incredibly light and comfortable I brought them as my main shoe for the trip.  I was wearing them on the first really rainy day in Porto, and within minutes by feet were soaked.  It was raining pretty heavy so I didn’t think much about it.  The next day I wore them in the light rain and had soaked shoes again after stepping into a shallow puddle.  When I got back to the room that night, I lamented about how wet my feet had been for two days.  I turned them over and realized that they were designed with several “air holes” on the bottom of the shoe. 

Ya, not the best footwear choice.

Saturday 9

I haven’t done a Saturday 9 in quite some time…

1) “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees is about a guy who fell in love when he saw her face. Do you believe in love at first sight? I believe in lust at first sight, but not love…that takes me MUCH longer.

2) "I'm a Believer" is the best-selling Monkees song. Can you name another one? Not unless I look it up.  I remember seeing the show in reruns in the 80s so the music is familiar, but I don’t know the names.

3) On their TV show, the boys competed for the same girl. Have you and a friend ever been romantic rivals?  No, not seriously anyways.   

4) In another episode, the Monkees visited the circus. If you were confident there was a good strong net beneath you, would you walk across the high wire? Oh definitely, but I’d rather do the trapeze.

5) The Monkees show originally aired on Monday nights. Do you have a favorite day of the week? Friday, duh!

6) Davy Jones guest starred on an episode of The Brady Bunch. The plot revolved around Marcia's efforts to get him to perform at the prom. Share one of your memories from a school dance. Hmmm, that was a long time ago.  One thing I remember about prom when I was a freshmen or sophomore was that a senior brought his date to the venue in a helicopter.  Yes!  A helicopter!  That same person became a California State Assemblyman…as a republican of course. ;)  Oh, and a sad memory during my senior year was when a friend was killed driving home from prom with his date and his sister and her date.  They were about 2 minutes away from home, and he fell asleep.  After that the high schools in the area required students to go to and from prom on a bus.

7) At the height of their popularity, the Monkees' faces and logo appeared on a lot of merchandise, including lunch boxes. Which would you rather have for lunch -- chicken salad, tuna salad or egg salad?  Oh my goodness all three make me want to gag.  Tuna and egg and mayonnaise are probably my three least favorite foods EVER, then they go and mix them together, blech!  I’ll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich please.

8) You have an afternoon all to yourself. Would
you rather spend it at the mall, checking out what's new in the stores and people watching, or walking through the forest, observing the birds and trees and leaves?  Hmmm, I could make a case for either.  If it were a nice day, I’d rather be outside.  If it’s hot, in the mall with the air conditioning.  However, I REALLY dislike the mall so I’d rather stay home (or go to the movies) in the air conditioning.

9) Do you have a good memory for names?  I think so, although I think it’s waning. 

August is Here

It’s hard to believe that August has arrived and summer break is just about over.  Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed being on vacation this summer, spending an awful lot of time sleeping just playing in the art room.

Here is this month’s calendar for The Kathryn Wheel Calendar Challenge.  I had a hard time photographing it so the background showed up. It looks kind of plain in the photo. 
Some July journal pages...

I finished the book I had been working in so created a couple of new ones.  I learned the binding stitches (double x and diamond x) from Mary Ann at Dispatch From LA.  

The back-to-school count down begins today.  Happy August!