Always Consider the Big Picture and the Direction of the Wind

This morning thought I'd burn some old papers in the fire pit rather than waste time shredding them. The shredder is so slow with a big stack of paper.

So at 10:30, threw them in the fire pit and lit them. OMG. Created the largest plume of smoke. I was sure the fire dept would show up. The smoke headed directly for the neighbor's back door so I called them to give them a heads up.

What a bad idea. I ended up sitting vigil until noon to make sure the fire was out and the fire dept wasn't called. Headache from straining to hear the sirens. My hair smells like smoke and my eyes hurt.

Always use the shredder. Always.

These Are the Good Old Days

This is Leah dressed up like Junie B. Jones for a book report/presentation in her 3rd grade class.

Skirt: $25.99 at Justice

Blouse: $18.99 at Justice

Tights: $4.95 at Target

Fake Glasses: $8.50 at Claire's

Our girl: Priceless

Current Events

Two disturbing news stories in today's Arizona Republic.

#1. A page designer with the Republic is trying the "No Impact Experiment" for a week. He and his (crazy or very patient) wife are attempting to have no impact on the environment. No carbon footprint. In fact, they did not use the a/c this summer. It's all very commendable. This morning he wrote about biking to work or taking public transportation and they only bought locally grown food. They limited their use of electricity and they recycled. Boy did they recycle. They didn't use toilet paper. They used rags and then washed them. I am gagging as I write this. Lost all credibility with me after that. No thank you. He's giving green a bad name.

#2. Sales of Lazyboy recliners are booming. It's come to this?

Saturday Agenda

This is what Leah has planned for our day.

- Read Junie B. Jones (20 pages so she can finish her book report. This will only take about 30 minutes with all the distractions. This is a last minute change. She was almost done with Charlotte's Web and then remembered the book had to be fiction but it had to be something that could possibly happen -- CWeb doesn't fit the bill. They get to dress up like one of the characters and she started crying because now she can't dress up like a pig!)

- Watch Titanic (she is obsessed with the Titanic. I said she can watch the movie but we'll have to skip some scenes. I forgot that meant I would have to watch it with her and pay attention -- there goes 4 hours of an otherwise delightful Saturday.)

- Swimming. It's going to be 100 degrees today and I promised we'd swim.

- Go to drama class. Only 2 more rehearsals before the big performance where she makes her debut as a witch.

- Ride bikes. Ideally she wants to ride to the Bahama Bucks to get a smoothie but I think after swimming, I'll just want to hang out.

- And sprinkled in between all this I'm watching her perform original choreography from cds as diverse as the Hairspray soundtrack, Kids Bop 16 and Wicked.

Are you jealous of my day?

Geeks Rule, Don't They?

Laptop is not working. Again.

Geek Squad says it has a virus or a worm or something. I don't believe it because I run McAfee everytime I use it. I think the truth is that no one really knows much about technology and saying it has a virus is safe. They know I'm not smart enough to question them and this way, they "clean" the system and then reload everything. Who's to know?

At some point, new laptops will be cheaper than getting the old one fixed.

Once things are back to normal, I'll tell you about the concert we went to Saturday night. Lots of stories.