Weekend Wrap-up

Picture is of my Mom walking my niece.



I had another concert this past Friday night. It went pretty well. Most of our pieces sounded better in the auditorium we were in that night (a high school auditorium) vs. our normal concert hall (a college auditorium). At least schools get the good ones, though. Kids need to hear how music is supposed to sound without carpet and bland walls absorbing or bouncing their sound all over the hall.

I kind of put myself in a pickle, though. Well, no one else knew, but I did. We played with the high school kids and one of them was asking all of us what kind of flutes we all have. She came to me (I have the oldest and most generic flute out of everyone, as I am not as concerned with having a good flute as I am with my piccolo), and I told her it was my "bad one," when actually, it's my only one. I have had it since 11th grade (15 years). It needs some work, but it has a beautiful upper and middle register. The lower register, though, needs some serious work. However, I betrayed my good old flute and told them I had another. I'd love to have another one, but this one is just fine, and I'd rather have a Burkhart piccolo, as you well know by know if you've read any of my music posts. Oh well. Next time, I just might admit that this is my only flute LOL. Shame on me today.

Hubby was at work, so Danielle came over and we went to OTB for Cinco de Mayo (NOT the Mexican Independence Day, by the way... look it up if you don't believe me). No, I'm not Mexican, but neither was ANYONE else there except a waitress and a bartender. We got a drink right away since a bartender was walking around getting orders, but we waited for a table for over an hour. We went up three times to see how far up the list we'd moved. We ended up finishing our drinks and getting our food to go b/c they kept upping the time on us. So, we took our food home and watched Buffy reruns! We still had a great time. Forgot to bring my camera. Dangit.

Oh, I bought a NordicTrack last week. I don't think I have covered that here yet. It's a little expensive, but it pays for itself by the time I add up all the monthly fitness club fees I have had to waste over the past year with only having one family car. Besides, I will be able to work out much more by having something so handy. Even if I can only work out a small amount at a time, I will still build up more time faster since I can keep coming back to it any time of the day I want. Wear myself out for five minutes, take a rest, do some laundry, drink some H20, come back and work it out again. It makes so much more sense than to wear myself out for ten minutes at the club, try to do some weights while still worn out from the cardio, then give up and go home, not getting another chance at it later. Besides, whatever I have spent on exercise equipment is pocket change if it means I will be healthier.

That's all for now. I have to iron clothes for tomorrow.

Frivolity

Ok, one could look at my receipts for the weekend and have no problem whatsoever realizing that we got our taxes back. We spent a LOT of money. I am glad there was not another day in the weekend.

Here is the list of things we bought (I think it's complete):

Paper Shredder
Fireproof Lockbox
Portable File Holder
Steam Carpet Cleaner
Recirculating Waterfall station for the pids
Sneakers for me
Dress shoes for Josh
3-tier cookie rack and new cookie sheets
Clothes for Josh
1 t-shirt for me
Disney Puzzle

Here are my excuses. I feel the need to explain.

You can look at the list and see that we really did need most of that stuff. You can't blame us for needing most of it, especially the steam cleaner and the fireproof box, since we do live in an apartment. We rented a cleaner once, and it cost us about 50 bucks total for two nights. As much as the pids mess up things and as klutzy as I am, we really needed one. Fireproof box is self-explanatory. Would you trust your attached neighbors not to burn down your marriage certificate, pet's medical history, etc? No, you wouldn't. We should have gotten one a long time ago.

The paper shredder was necessary as well. Besides, it keeps me from doing what I have been doing, which was taking all of our spam mail to work and shredding it there. We plugged that bad boy up last night and shredded everything we could find. We were like kids with a new toy. When we got done shredding the pile of junk mail we had, we went after more. We even shredded credit cards (yes we can) and a newspaper. Oh yeah, we knocked out the power, too. Apparently we cannot plug in and run more than a couple things on one side of the apartment, so the shredder must have been just too darn much for our pitiful fuses.

As for the waterfall, Macy had one a long time before Lucy came along, but we didn't take good care of it. We let it get broken and unrepairable. Therefore, we technically owed Macy that item.

Portable File Holder should be self-explanatory. Besides, Josh was getting tired of having to search for our important papers every time we needed one (those that don't currently fit or deserve to be in the fireproof box are going here). This is to hold everything that would have fit in the larger fireproof box that we couldn't afford.

I have not had a new pair of sneakers since Josh and I were dating when he'd gotten me a pair for Christmas (4 or more years ago!). Besides, mine were 1/2 off since we got Josh's at the same time (gotta love Shoe Carnival's buy one get one half off sales). As for Josh's, I just love the way he looks in brown leather shoes LOL.

Disney Puzzle. Ok, whatever. It was only $10 and I have been wanting a new puzzle for a long time. Besides, this one will take FOREVER, so I won't want another for awhile. At least I didn't buy the Pooh & Friends puzzle plus the puzzle roll-it-up mat as well!

Clothes for Josh: He really needed new clothes. Besides, we put that in the tax budget. We decided we'd could afford to let him have $200 for a clothes budget. He has been wearing the same things for a long time.

My one t-shirt: Well, it was cute.

Cookie Rack & Cookie Sheets: I have alway wanted a rack that wasn't a broiler pan and didn't warp my precious cookies. As for the sheets, Josh cooked chicken one too many times on my Calphalon cookie sheets and they finally peeled apart (yeah ok, only one was Calphalon, so maybe I deserved one of them croaking). Technically, he owed me two sheets, but they came in a pack of three. That's not really my fault. They did show their future stubbornness, though, as it and the entire tribe of pissed-off cookie sheets jumped from the rack and attacked me. Grab one and they all take up for each other or something ("you ain't taking us without a fight!"). Luckily, my husband knows my fourth octave yelp and came running to help me and the poor Bed, Bath & Beyond girl who came to my rescue.

I therefore reject the term "frivolity" for the most part and insert the word "necessity."

Ok, I have written enough for now.