Got up way to early this day off morning

The guy at our gym "cleans" the pool from 7am to 8:30am on Mondays.  He used to "clean" it form 7am to 8am on Mondays, so I used to get there to swim later than usual (at 8am).  But now that he "cleans" it until 8:30am, that's a bit late for me to start my swim and still have some of the day left.  So this morning we were there at 6:30am for my swim.  I was done by 7am (1/2 mile) and by the time I was showered and out of the locker room at 7:15am, he was nowhere in sight.  So I wonder if this means next Monday I could start swimming at 6:45am and get 15 minutes more sleep?  Probably my luck if I tried that he'd show up on time.


I put "clean" in quotation marks because his cleaning methods are questionable to me.  They keep it pretty clean in terms of the chemicals, etc. to keep the water safe/clean (they use salt to "chlorinate" the pool, which is so much softer and nicer and easier on bathing suits/skin/hair) but the guy does the other type of "cleaning" on Mondays.  He's supposed to vacuum it and wipe the sides down and other stuff, but all I ever see him do is hosing, which seems dumb.  So there is sometimes stuff on the bottom of the pool, which he really should vacuum.  If it's still there tomorrow I will say something.


So we were home by 7:45am, I got coffee'd up, had an egg, and cleaned my office (home). Now I'm fixing to go to the grocery store and then who knows what (other than sticking close to the AC since it's going to be a scorcher today).  Bob is finishing up mowing the lawn, getting it done early for the scorcher reason.  I do like going early and having the whole day ahead of me, but getting up at 5:45am is a bit rough, and I'm sure I'll probably be ready for bed by 9am.  But who knows, maybe I'll get used to this.  Okay who am I kidding? As soon as it starts getting dark again in the mornings, I'm done with the early gym swims.


On another note, the Civil Union ceremony yesterday was lovely, and Bob and I have now lost our Civil Union cherries. C and E were radiant, and their entire families were there, both sides, which is very cool (and very rare, to have such supportive families). They are very fortunate to have such great peeps on their sides/in their corners, and they know they are.  Many couples we know are supported by no family, or just one side of their family.  But C and E have both sets of parents, plus siblings and in-laws.


And, of course, Baby Chelsie, who we all met yesterday and who has some pretty amazing cheeks!  She fell in love with me, and gave me one of her first smiles of the morning when she came into the Chapel.  And that was all it took.  Sorry Sweet Pea, but you have some big cheeks to fill!  No pictures, sorry -- but hopefully C and E got some good ones they'll post and I can steal.

Getting Civilized

Yes I am blogging again. That makes three days in a row. Come on, take a deep breath, it'll be okay.


What's my blog about today?  Well thanks for asking! It's about Civil Unions in Illinois.  Yes, I know, I've already blogged about that, but tomorrow I am doing my first one! :-D  And by "I" - I mean me and Bob.  Okay, I mean me because I'm signing the damn license!  First Bob will do a Reflection about marriage, and then about 15 minutes after the service ends we'll have a brief ceremony for our friends C and E.  A beautiful couple and fabulous friends.

We are starting the partying soon by heading over to their house for a family BBQ with libations.  We will probably go around 5pm though I would like to go now.  I'm hot and thirsty.  Then tomorrow is the service and the ceremony.  The coolest part is that their families will be there to love and support them -- their whole fandamiles! Just like when they got hitched the first time almost 8 years ago.  Their families rock.


Then Tuesday I'm doing another union for a couple I met at the Civil Union info meeting in April who needed someone to do a simple ceremony before their baby is born (they too already got hitched years ago, but are making it legal now because, well, they can).  One is a cop who isn't comfortable going before a judge, so I said I'd do it for them.  Then we have on June 18, and another on June 25.  And perhaps another one in between.


The Pantagraph is even getting in on the fun -- they've had two major articles about couples getting their licenses and getting civilized yesterday.  And they'll publish announcements about them starting next week.  They are so conservative it's shocking they are doing this, but good for them!


It's June and weddings are busting out all over! 

If you like flying things that sting, don't read this entry

So we had the bug guy out today -- he comes four times a year to kill bugs in our house and outside of our house. I'm sorry, I know. I'm a terrible murderer. But I don't like bugs, even the ones that are supposedly good for me. I like bats for the very reason that they eat skeeters. Bats creep me out, but not as much as skeeter bites. 


So anyway, we have had a problem with these large bees that hover on/around our deck on warm days. I thought they were bumble bees and were just hanging out because they enjoy all of our flowers.  Though they are never on or near the flowers. They hang on the deck - near the stairs, near the BBQ, and they hover there, until another one comes along and then they bump into each other and fly off and probably have bee sex.  They freak me out but I figured they are the price for having lovely gardens.


Turns out they are not bumble bees. They are carpenter bees and they are eating our deck. So I told bug guy to nuke 'em. And while he was at it, wasps were building nests in the seams of our wood paneling, so he nuked them too.

No, I didn't take this picture, they are way too fast for me, in a slow, large bee kind of way.  But here's one I found on the internet, and he looks pretty much like ours, only ours have more black and less yellow.

Sorry bug lovers. Does it help that I wouldn't have nuked them if they'd just been bumble bees? And hey, you love Bob's big damn deck as much as anyone, did you want them to eat it away?  I didn't think so.

P.S. I bought a Kindle yesterday. So I will stop killing so many trees. That should help my bug killing karma, don't you think?

Rain Barrels

This entry is going to be about Rain Barrels.  But first, I have a new cute picture of Sweet Pea. I don't know who the cutie pie is blowing the bubbles, but she has nice cheeks too.  And I'm so happy to have no beer or a trashy car in the photo for once. That's her daddy's lap she's in.  I love the jeans, tie die shirt, and hair ribbon. 

It's a gloomy day here today but at least it's cooled down a bit. And it rained a bit earlier.  We (and by we I mean Bob) recently installed a rain barrel in our front garden so we can collect rain water to use for watering our gardens. We figured it might save us some money in the end, and of course, water, which is a more precious commodity than oil.  However, we aren't sure when we'll exactly start saving money since the project already cost more than we imagined it would (because Bob does good work and he does it right, and always takes several trips to Menards for a project like this).  


He needed to elevate it so the water would flow out of the hose when we are ready to water with it (so gravity will help it exit the hose, or something). And of course he needed to level it perfectly. But before all of that he was concerned that if we ever got more than 55 gallons of rain water from the gutters the barrel might overflow and go down into our foundation and back into the sump pump, so he installed a very clever bit of PVC that will divert the overflow (after we turn a switch) down into our sump pump line. Or something like that. (There is so much more to this story than this, but I don't have the finger/wrist strength to type it all.  Let's just say in involved digging up our front yard and replacing 1.5" PVC with 3" PVC and be done with it.) Then after he did all that he leveled and elevated and leveled again and got the downspout in just the right spot. 

And then we waited for rain. For a few days. Of course it rained buckets (or should I say barrels) in the weeks before our barrel was installed.  Since then it has not rained a drop, and then it rained today! About a thimble of rain but still.  Bob went out midmorning when the drizzle got steady enough and watched it trickle into the barrel for a few minutes this morning. It was a steady, tho weak stream, kind of like that of an 80 year old man with prostate trouble peeing.  Eventually maybe we'll get enough rain some day to fill the darn thing (55 gallons) and water some plants. 


In the meantime here is a movie of the rain going into the barrel this afternoon. Earlier today it was a tad more  But I was too lazy to go film it then. No wait, I wasn't lazy, I was at the Post Office.

P.S. Did I mention we bought two rain barrels? Yeah, I didn't think so. And yes, we did. For the backyard gardens.  It is not installed yet, and will likely take a few more Menards trips and more leveling, elevating, and leveling.  I'll keep you posted.

Rapture free

I waited a week to post again, just to make sure the rapture didn't happen as planned, just a little late.  Apparently the crazy old (89 years old) rich man says it did happen -- it was just a spiritual rapture and not a physical one, and that the world will still end on October 21.  It must be nice to be so certain about things.  I don't even know what I'm going to make for dinner tonight, let alone when and how the world will end.  


The good news is that in addition to being rapture free, Kayla's bladder is also, for the moment, bacteria free.  She was off antibiotics for one week, got tested, and there were no little buggers swimming around in her pee for the first time in a long time. So perhaps her lady-parts nip/tuck helped?  We'll return for another urinalysis in a couple of weeks and hope her pee remains bacteria free.


On another note, my sweet great-niece Penelope does not appear to be as happy about the non-rapture as I am.  

Not sure why.  Maybe it's because she was hoping the rapture would take her away and she could avoid the pain of teething (see those two little bits of white on her lower gum?) or maybe it's because her father keeps taking pictures of her like this one.

Baby P's mother, my niece, upon seeing that her husband, P's father, had posted this little gem on Facebook, commented, "Wow. That is the most white trash baby pic I think I've ever seen."  Agreed.  At least this next one makes up for it, kind of. Suffice to say for now, at this rate, Sweet P might be losing the cheek wars (tho the right cheek below is pretty spectacular).

By the way, Sweet Pea is getting so big, she needs a new car seat!

First sign of the apocalypse

Even though there was no earthquake at 6pm New Zealand time, as promised predicted, and even though NZ did not sink into the ocean, and even though no nekkid Christians were spotted floating up to the heavens just before NZ did not sink into the ocean ... I'm wonder if this photo of the beautiful Baby P is a portent of something significant?

The Rapture

I haven't blogged lately because I've been busy getting ready for the rapture that's happening this Saturday.  Since I have no doubt I'll be left behind, a girl has to get her affairs in order. 


I've also been busy with the Dog business -- CRAZY busy, which is a good thing. While Bob was at his internship the first week of May we got a bunch of new contacts seeking information, which was very cool (but odd since things had been very quiet before he left town).  Not all of them turned into clients but a few did, and when Bob got home he hit the ground running. Hard.  Which is great, of course, it's what we want, but it's been a bit overwhelming.  I was also busy throwing a doggy school graduation party for Bob and a few friends/clients. He is now a "Pat Miller Certified Trainer," PMCT for short, which I can add after his name on all of our businessy things.  No one will know what it means, but it's always good to have initials after one's name.

Bob Ryder, PMCT, working with Squid at his dog training internship.

See what I mean about the initials? I took pictures before the party started -- then forgot to take them once the people arrived.  Good grief!  Oh well.

And of course I've been busy with the God business, which is also a good thing.  School is out at ISU so I'm less busy with the campus ministry thing, but I'm plenty busy, in a good way, with church stuff (marketing task force, lectureship committee, preaching kick-ass Reflections, etc.).


Speaking of the rapture, Dog business, and God business, I much too late figured out a way to make some serious money.  There are web sites all over offering to take care of the pets of people who get raptured.  It's a pre-pay thing that people register for online, so even if the rapture doesn't happen, they get to keep the money.  They claim to be serious web sites though of course they are just ripping people off by taking advantage of their rapture gullibility.  Still, I do wish I'd thought of it.


Anyway I figured I'd better blog something because:
a. I only have about four readers, and I don't want to lose them.
b. Kathleen mentioned my blog in her blog and told people to come check it out (after first warning them I hardly ever update it) and someone commented that they were " curious about the blogger who never blogs" which I assume meant me, so I want to assuage her curiosity.
c. I am trying to avoid doing other work for a while, and this seemed as good a way as any.


Okay so that's it for now.  I will post again post-rapture and let you know how it feels to be left behind.