life's been crazy around here

so the past week has been full of exciting things.. good and gross. first off the weather on saturday was fantabulous, altho i didn't see certain neighbors outside. good news for ya T.... linda (aka loud neighbor between our houses) says that cecil will be living with her parents starting july, so no we won't have her around much longer. i'm only sad a little bit b/c evan likes to play with her, but i'm glad at the same time because she only plays with him when no one else is available... besides she's loud and very bossy. and linda says that if you see patrick riding in places he's not supposed to, such as your lawn, tell him to stop... we got the okay to put him in his place!
oh and those stupid dogs... they've moved to northfield, apparantly...

on saturday we went to home depot and bought wood and built ourselves a really basic swing set... came out pretty good if i do say so myself... of course we finished it at 6:30 and it's been raining for the past 2 days so poor evan hasn't been ablt to use it much. but we're happy with it. i also took advantage of the super soggy lawn and scraped up some grass around my garden to make it bigger.

T. had mentioned on her blog recently about how her cat likes to bring them furry surprises... well, on saturday night i moved the laundry basket in our bedroom to do some laundry and we discovered a half eaten mouse.. quite gross... i think the cat brought it in the night before when i let her in, and i couldn't see if anything was in her mouth because the light was off... thanks caelan... really.. we needed that LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD!

daycare cancelled for tomorrow because she has the flu... that sucks, now i'v got to reschedule b/c evan's sitters are unavailable.... i hate rescheduling appts. but it's okay i've already made a possible playdate!

i can't wait for the warm weather to continue... the worst part about spring in greenfield is waiting for mud season to finish up.. i was an inch deep in mud yesterday while in the garden.

so some of you know that we've been having issues with our PC... it' s been a couple months now that it hasn't been running. we've replaced many of the innards.. including the motherboard and hard drive. we first got a new motherboard and the puter was still being stupid.. couldn't figure it out... so we gave up after many weeks and brought it to a place... they said it was the hard drive.. okay, so we got a new hard drive... we still couldn't get it to work... trying installing windows several times, tried everything we could thing of and it still wasn't working... so we brought it to the computer place on campus.. good ol' trusty OIT as UMass... a week later (today) we get a call... your mother board is bad and it'll cost $239 to fix... i was the one on the phone.. "what?! that is a brand new motherboard! we just bought it!" so after hanging up and calling the husband to discuss, we determined to not have them fix it, and we'll return the motherboard... so needless to say we're not happy about it,but atleast the diagnoses will only cost $40, not $239. someday we'll have teh pc up and running, and not having to rely on the laptop for all our home computer needs... not that' it's bad, but it's principle really.

hope everyone stays warm, and out of the way of tornadoes!

music to my ears!

i feel like a new person.... i got some new cd's for the first time in years! yes.. i said years..lol...

i got audioslave- out of exile, staind- chapter V, and nickleback- all the right reasons. their all great and of course there are more i'd like, like theory of a deadman, shinedown and green day... to name a few.

things here are still good... the weather is finally giving us a break.. being all sunny and warm(ish) and stuff... i've been driving with my windows down! i just love it when it gets above 35! lol... when the temps get to above 50 on a regular basis, i break out my sandals... which may just be my teva flip flops left over from last summer until i get some new ones or a job that requires i wear clothes and shoes that are more than the casual ones i've been wearing for years.

i'm also thinking about getting a season pass to the greenfield swimming hole for me and evan this summer for my days off i have with him... i just wonder how much they are. swimming in pools is nice and all but it's not the same as swimming in a body of water... of course we don't have beaches with oceans out here, which is my preferred locale b/c i grew up at the beach, but we have rivers and ponds and stuff which are the next best thing you can get... only their wicked cold out here thanks to underwater springs and whatnot, such as at puffers pond in amherst... perhaps i'll go there this summer... that's atleast free to park! the greenfield swimming area is a river they dam up, and it's got play equipment made out of concrete..lol... you think they'd update it with the plastic thing-a-ma-jigs they have now that aren't the ancient things that people my age grew up playing on... update for crying out loud!

at my recent jaunt to the cape i was talking with my sister about the "big park" aka lopes field while we and the babes were playing at the "little park" aka hammond school.... she mentioned how it's a dump and rundown.. god.. it's hard to believe it was built 20 years ago!... that's right.. i remember when i was in teh first grade they sat us all down and asked us what type of things we'd like to see there, and then in the second grade it was built.. i remember walking down there with the class for a mini-field trip.. everyone had a ball... i remember i needed to use the bathroom and the only place was the good ol' Onset Pub across the street.. lol... those stalls were the tiniest things known to man.... your knees hit the door while you were on the throne... and this is coming from the memory of someone who was 7 at the time... talk about tight quarters! lol

okay i best get back to work, for i am typing at work. talk to you all later

i've been tagged!

Five Questions

1. What were you doing ten years ago?

i was in the middle of competition season for cologuard... we kicked ass back then too

2. What were you doing one year ago?

same as now pretty much, only with a baby and not a actual kid, yet... lol


3. Five Snacks I Enjoy

Cake
brownies
dried fruit
french fries..
almost any other food..


4. Five Songs to Which I Know All the Lyrics

byob by system of a down
smooth by santana
the muppet show theme song
stricken by disturbed
save me by theory of a deadman (i think)


5. Five Things I'd Do if I Were a Millionaire

pay off debts including but cars and house and credit cards and student loans
by houses for my mom and sister
buy wicketts island in onset bay
sit on some of it for a "rainy day"
send some to charity and/or church


6. Five Bad Habits

nail biting
speeding
being indecisive
not cleaning enough... b/c i get sick of it easily
watching too much tv.. often it's just for background

7. Five Things I like Doing

Being with my husband and son
quilting
gardening
reading my favorite author
talking online


8. FIve things I would never wear
thongs... they're uncomfy... and no, not the flip flops... i'm talking underwear
clothes for the sole purpose of letting things hang out... like fat and boobs, that many people are wearing these days.
stilettos.. i'm just clumsy... and i'd probab.y poke my eye out when i fell
head bands.. lol
the banana` clip... remember these.. i wore them when i was a kid.. but not ever now!


9. Five Favorite Toys
sewing machine
computer
tv
car
cell phone

10. Okay, here's the deal. Remove the blog from the top of the list and bump everyone up. Then, put yours at the bottom.

Just for Future Reference
Southern Circle of Hell
Newsbitch Chronicles
The T Stop
in the mind of a mom

(I don't know what the point was of that since they weren't linked and I don't know how to get to those blogs).



here's who i tag:

brynn

ellen

christine

kelly

janelle

go!

what do you mean i have to go back to work??

yeah, yeah.. i know... i just spent a week at the cape, so i can't complain right? i did read some blogs while i was there, but vacation is vacation so a vacation from typing i took. did that make sense? oh well... i did to me.

we had a great time down at the cape, atleast i did.. everyone got to sleep in late... to 8 am... evan on our last day slept to 9:45, and i woke him up! he never does that he's usually up by 7:30 at the latest unless we're in the bed too. we spent a bunch of tie with my sister and nephew and some time with my mom, who barely got to see teh grandboys b/c they were both exhausted and tired so they all went to bed early.. oh well. we spent a few good days with mom's computer fixing it up for her, so now it works well, and has the anti-virus software set to "super paranoid". lol... only she has to figure some things out with the new windows XP! all in all i think once she gets to know and love her new OS she'll be happy :)

evan and i took a bunch of pictures over the week... and when our puter at home stops wiggin' out i'll be more than happy to share said pictures with you all. i suppose i could do it using the laptop, we'll see...

but i can't chat much more at the moment, i have to head off to wilbraham for work today. hopefully i post more this afternoon, and catch up posting on everyone's blogs!

hope all are well and not frozen! it's damn cold out today! wind chills about -15 to -20 last night! yikes!

sorry for the delay, folks

how many regular readers do i have out there anyway??? i know there are lurkers out there who done't comment, and then those who do, and also the ones who's puter's aren't cooperating and can't comment...

anyhoo, it' sbeen a while since my last post, or so it seems anyway. since i last left you or computer decided to commit suicide and fried itself or something. we had trevor come over and assist jason with the replacement surgery with his computer. trying to find the problem is a matter of trial and error... imagine if they did that at the hospital.. let's try the kidney, no wait, that didn't work how about the appendix... but i degress. after a few hours of computer parts surgery it was determined that our motherboard fried itself. the processor is still good, but we've also been having issues with our hard drive.. something got screwed up so we had to reformat and reinstall and then it was being crappy again yesterday so we have to reformat again b/c something is corrupted... what a apain.. but atleast i have the laptop to use in the meantime. the funny part is that when you put in the windows cd it tells you press escape to format and do a fresh install... well.... our esc doesn't work nor does the A key b/c evan spilt his juice on the keyboard 2 nights ago. we can't seem to keep keyboards any longer than a year before soemthing happens to them... that's why we buy the $12 model at staples..lol we can't win, but hopefully the puter will be fixed sometime soon

on friday we're leaving to go to the cape to visit our friend and my family. haven't seen them in a while. we'll be there a week! a whole week away from home.. woohoo! we're staying at our friend's apt who lives in pocasset which is perfect b/c it's a free place to stay. the main reason we often don't go to the cape to visit my family is b/c until tyler moved down about 6 months ago, there was no where for us to stay that didn't cost a minimum of $90/ night, off-season... in season is a joke, unless your rich... and that $90 room is at the days inn in middleboro... which if anyone is familiar with the area about 20 minutes give or take to my old stomping grounds in Onset. but we're very exciting about the trip. the only plans we have so far are to visit with the family over teh weekend (and trev and tyler of course) and try to fix my mom's computer while she's at work. hopefully it won't take longer than a day or so. we'll have to pray..

evan has started going on the potty, but only occasionally, and often before bed. diapers are still preferred at this point. lol...

oh so the nor'easter we got, turned out to be a dud... atleast our here in the pioneer valley. jay and i were a somewhat disappointed.... we were looking forward to a big snow... well the eastern half the state got it, oh and longmeadow, munson and palmer. apparantly only a handful of town in southeastern hampden county got the predicted amount the rest of us got like 3 inches, tops... wait, trev said in erving they got 8 or so, but i say he doesn't count... he lives on a mountain.

so how have you all been?... hopefully not as crazy as here

afternoon trek to holyoke

so this afternoon evan and i picked jay up at work and trekked down to the holyoke mall b/c some new shoes were in order. shoes were found and mine and even's feet are now newly comfy:)

the most entertaining part of our trip was upon exiting filene's... lol we used the elevator and on our way out of the furniture dept, jay says, "don't you just love listening to people talk about something they know nothing about.... " we passed a saleswoman was showing a nice wood table to some customer's she said, "this is a beautiful table and is made out of hard wood... yes... it's indeed pine"... it was pretty funny... wow... do you think the customer's caught her being blatantly stupid? lol

what is the world coming to?

i got this in my work email the other day.... this isn't a joke, but it's hilarious. see i work for Umass, aka "ZooMass" and the one thing you have to understand about umass is that no matter how much they try and clean up the image of the party school, it will always be a party school... but this also depends on where you live on campus... me? i lived in the hippie section... lol.. not b/c i'm a hippie, far from it, but i requested a dorm with "high speed internet" (which at the time there were only a handful) and i got placed in the smallest dorm on campus, Brooks... it rocked the first year, kool people, but it went down hill after that. many people moved onto bigger and better rooms, the ones in my building were on the small side for 2 people. it i liked it... it was close to campus, at the bottom of the hill, and about 100 ft from the DC (aka: dining hall)... it was also next to one of the most beautiful and mosde unknown parts of campus, Durfee Conservatory, and also Health Services was right there. the majority of the people in my building, the drug free floor excluded, all smoked pot... the building had a stench of stale pot... i think i was one of the few people in my dorm aside from those on the fourth floor who didn't smoke.. lol..

so anyway, this is the latest attempt by the university to curb binge drinking, and the drinking of minors....

January 26, 2006


Dear Student:


I want to announce some important changes to the University of
Massachusetts Amherst residence hall alcohol policies (Code of Student
Conduct, II.D). These changes, recommended by the Student Affairs
Judicial Issues Committee (SAJIC) which is comprised of students, staff,
and faculty, were subsequently approved by campus officials and are
intended to positively influence the living-learning environment in the
residence halls. The following changes are effective for the Spring 2006
semester.


*_Alcohol ­ Large gatherings_*


Due to the potential for noise violations and illegal alcohol
consumption, large gatherings are prohibited in the residence halls. A
group of more than 10 people in a residence room in which alcohol is
present (regardless of room size) will be considered a large gathering.
Progressive large gatherings (i.e. round robins) and/or any gatherings
that spill out into a common space are prohibited and may be viewed as a
violation of the alcohol policy.


*_Alcohol - Alcohol paraphernalia_*


The possession and/or use of drinking paraphernalia or products that
promote the abuse of alcohol and/or put the user in a position to
consume alcohol irresponsibly is prohibited. This includes but is not
limited to funnels, taps, and beirut/beer pong tables.


*_Alcohol ­ Drinking games_*


Creating, offering, and/or engaging in drinking games or other behaviors
designed for the purpose of rapid and/or excessive consumption is
prohibited. At no time should activities which encourage excessive
drinking and/or lead to the endangerment of the individual served take
place in the residence halls.


*_Alcohol ­ Large volume_*


The amount of alcohol which a student may possess and/or store is
limited to twelve (12 oz) bottles/cans of beer, two (750 mL) bottles of
wine, or one bottle of hard liquor (1L). This applies to each resident
in a room who is 21 or older. Other quantity-dispensing containers,
including but not limited to kegs and beer balls, are prohibited in all
areas of the residence halls.


*_Alcohol ­Empty containers_*__


Possession of empty alcohol containers (i.e liquor bottles, wine
bottles, and/or beer cans) is prohibited in residence halls by students
who are under 21 and may be viewed as evidence of possession and/or
consumption of alcohol. In addition, students are not allowed to use
alcohol containers, whether full or empty, as decorations within their
residence hall room.


*_ _*


*_Intoxication and Good Samaritan Protocol_*


Intoxication, defined as being under the influence of alcohol or any
other psychoactive drug to any extent which requires the attention of
University staff or which causes a disturbance or is a danger to persons
or property is prohibited. You may be reluctant to seek medical help for
an individual experiencing severe intoxication or a serious injury after
consuming alcohol. However, it is imperative that you call for medical
assistance since these emergencies are potentially life threatening.
UMass Amherst has developed the Good Samaritan Protocol to ensure that
the health and safety of all community members remains our first priority.


Sincerely yours,


Jo-Anne T. Vanin
Dean of Students

*now what's the fun of going to college if you can't have parties, with drinking games and paraphrenalia.. lol..