365 Photos Day 58

58/365

The Kid made popcorn just in time for us to tune in to the Academy Awards to watch "The King's Speech" win Best Picture.

Yeah, I kind of forgot the Oscars were on tonight. From the things I read on Twitter though, it doesn't sound like I missed much.

365 Photos Day 57

57/365

Salt. Salt for our water softener.

Getting said salt for said softener sounds easy enough, right? The form said 'solar salt', which is what we use. So that's what we got. The form said NOTHING about said solar salt being coarse salt and not pellets (for reference: we do NOT normally use the blue bag salt; we use the happy sunshine-y bag of salt).

Apparently, our softener is a diva and will use a crap-ton of the coarse salt when regenerating, instead of a modest amount as it does when there are pellets. And when there's a crap-ton of salt being used, it means the water is extra softened...and VERY SALTY. And when I accidentally set the softener to regenerate two nights in a row...well, it's Not Good.

This kind of water tends to make my hair look (and feel) disgusting, and doesn't do wonders for my skin, either. This makes me grumpy, which is also Not Good.

Yes, I realize that there are billions of people who would love to have clean water, regardless of how much salt is in it. That's why I feel as if I'm being a bit ungrateful about all this.

But, I'm looking forward to the day when all is right with our water again. Which should be in a few days (I hope).

Waiting for Spring

This sums up exactly how I feel about having to wait to start painting walls in the house.

Instead of "little old lady at twelve o'clock" it's more like "winter at twelve o'clock".

Once warm temperatures arrive (above 60), then BAM! I'm gonna be off and running again.

365 Photos Day 56

56/365

Tonight I had to hit the craft store for some paint for the weekly Storytime letters. It's been awhile since I've had to paint something other than a wall, so this should be interesting, considering I've never made claims about being an artist. Or artiste.

365 Photos Day 55

55/365

The Kid is probably going to get to study abroad next spring for a class (World War II: Victory in Europe). She'll be going to Munich (with a side visit to Dachau), Paris (with visits to Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, & Versailles), Bastogne (visiting the Museum of the Battle of the Bulge), Normandy (visiting the Caen Memorial, Normandy beaches, & the American Cemetery), taking the ferry to Portsmouth (and going to the D-Day Museum) & London (visiting the Imperial War Museum, the Cabinet War Rooms, and Churchill Museum) for 10 days.

When my Mom died in 2007, I rolled all her mutual funds over into an account for the Kid's future education. This definitely qualifies, and there's more than enough to cover the trip and spending money and all that. And I know Mom would approve of her granddaughter doing an (extremely) abbreviated version of the Grand Tour.

She wants me to go with her (which I could), but I don't know. On the one hand...LONDON!!! and PARIS!!!, but on the other...I'm not a World War II kind of historian. That'd be Steve. He'd love that stuff. Me, I'd be happier skipping all that. Either way, there's going to be some learning of basic French going on (because I can do that. German...no.) And some planning for her free nights of what she should go see.

But, LONDON!!!! and PARIS!!!!

365 Photos Day 54 Bonus Photo

Bonus Photo 54/365

Remember that tree from Day 48?

Yeah, this is that tree a week later, after that lovely snowstorm that hit last weekend.

*Sigh*

365 Photos Day 54

54/365

This is my $40 doorbell thingy that resides beside the (technical) front door of our house (I say "technical" because our back door is what gets used the most. Partly because it's how it's done here, and partly because we live on a corner lot and all the parking is on the side street, which is closer to the back door. Confused yet?)

ANYHOW.

When we were building this house, it was all about compromise. Sort of. More of a "I'll give up this if I can have that" kind of thing.

This was one of my "I'm not giving this up" things. It's perfect for the house. It goes with the address plaque above it.

Sure, it doesn't get used very much because it's on the front door that's kind of like a back door. And yes, I spent more on this doorbell thing than I did on the light in the dining room (it was $29 in a clearance bin at Home Depot).

But I love it. And that's all that matters.