Friday, July 25, 2008
Farmer's market fun!
Someone I work with told me that they were going to have bees at the farmer's market this week. I wanted to take Emma to see the bees. I shouldn't have told her my plan because she wasn't all that excited to go see bees. As a matter of fact she wasn't too keen on it at all. I explained that the bees were going to be in a box so she had nothing to worry about. As we approached the pavilion she kept saying "I see a box...I see three boxes...there's a box..."

The bees were actually in this box...



I promised her a treat if she was good so we scanned the various tables of goodies and chose two brownies from one and four chocolate chip cookies from the other. The brownies were for Emma and the cookies were chosen for Daddy. As we were walking past the table promoting the market itself I commented to the market-master "Look at those pretty bags!" He looked at me and his face lit up. "You're our door prize winner for today!" Yay! I won something! Here's what I won...



The bonus is that now I'll be famous in the newspaper. They publish the picture of the market door prize winner each week. Joy.
Written at 6:28 PM by Highlandgal.
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A job half done...
On Wednesday afternoon Emma and I drove to Nonitown to do some errands, both business and personal. I had a late afternoon appointment with an automotive locksmith to program my keyless entry for the new car. He was going to sell me the fob and program it. I called and asked if he could do it, he researched it and called me back and said he could. I made an appointment and drove over the mountains, looking forward to getting the keyless entry, as well as two spares.

The locksmith who I had spoken to on the phone wasn't there when I got there, one of his employees was. OK, no biggie, I'm sure he hires professionals. The guy spent forty minutes searching the front dash area of my car looking for a module with a switch to flip so he could program the keyless. He called the local Hyundai dealership twice for advice. The second time he must have talked to someone different (and actually knowledgeable) because they told him it was a "canned system" and there was no switch. The automotive locksmith wouldn't be able to program it after all...

Breath in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. The locksmith's instruction book was wrong. While it said my car could be programmed by them the truth was that it couldn't. Now I would be forced to go to a dealership. I explained to them the great lengths I had gone to in order to be there for that appointment. I was nice about it, but firm. The guy paged his boss and his boss told him to give me the key fob they were going to use at no charge and to tell me that they were sorry. That was very nice, but part of the reason I went to the locksmith to begin with is because the dealership was being ornery about programming a fob that I brought in instead of buying one from them. Since I was already at the locksmith I had him cut me two extra keys for our wallets and told him I'd pay for those. I was extremely paranoid having only one key to the car. He cut the keys and gave those to me for free too. Which doesn't sound like much, but I'd already tried to get spare keys made at our local co-op and that guy couldn't get them to work. That's how I found out how the alarm on the car is triggered. Unfortunately I'd already forgotten how to stop it without a keyless. I'm having fun I tell ya!

So, I went back to the dealer I'd bought the car from and told them my sad little tale. They had told me to let them know first if I was ever going to go to the dealership for work and they'd use their connection there to put in a good word for me. I did that. Unfortunately the dealership with the "connection" is thirty minutes down the road from Nonitown.

I have an appointment for this Wednesday again. The guy told me to bring all my keys. That doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. All I have is the one key and the spare made from it. At least the key fob the locksmith gave me has Hyundai stamped on it and isn't an aftermarket one. Seriously, wish me luck. I'd really like to accomplish this for less than the $150 the dealer in Nonitown wanted to charge me.

On a more pleasant note...that afternoon we were downtown near the courthouse. Emma sat down on the "wall" and wanted me to take her picture. Doesn't look like a comfortable place to sit to me.


Written at 6:05 PM by Highlandgal.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
"Mommy, can you give me something shiny and sharp?
???

"Uh, no. What is it that you need?"

"Something shiny and sharp."

"What do you need it for?"

"I have something under my fingernail."

"Oh, OK then, I'll help you with that."
Written at 5:44 PM by Highlandgal.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
"That's bad manners!"
"You did bad manners twice. You need to say you're sorry."

"Say, Emma, I'm sorry."

It's like living with Emily Post. Unfortunately she doesn't actually get the nuances of what's actually bad manners. If I tell her to do anything...for example, "Emma, sit down so I can buckle you in"...that's bad manners. I'm being bossy. I tried to explain to her that grown-ups need to tell kids what they should do so they learn good manners themselves. She doesn't seem to be convinced. Meanwhile I'm living with hypersensitive Miss Manners.

Today in the car I got fussed at for "erupting," which is actually "interrupting" to you and me. I tried to explain to her that if she says something and then stops, then I can speak. It's like taking turns. She claimed she still had something to say. I'm trying to make her understand that talking when someone else is talking is actually interrupting.

Don't worry about us, we'll get it sorted out. I should just be glad she cares about manners at all, right?
Written at 11:34 PM by Highlandgal.
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Transitions
Sunday when I was tucking Emma in her toddler bed for nap I made a comment about sometime soon we'd be moving her to her big girl bed. I was trying to plant a seed so she'd start considering it, thinking we might be able to do it around her birthday or so. To my great surprise tonight she asked if she could sleep in her big girl bed.

The full size bed has always been in her room. It's a guest bed and usually just holds a giant pile of clothes that needs to be packed away. Such was the case tonight. We had to clear off her toy shelves and put the clothes there until we can get boxes to pack them up and put them away.

M arranged her environment to make her comfortable. It also looks like she should feel pretty secure. When I went to her room to check on her she was fast asleep with the pillow on the left completely covering her head. I moved it back into position. I hope she'll leave it alone all night. I'm not sure if she'll want to continue in the big bed or if this was just an experiment to her. I guess we'll see tomorrow night.

Written at 11:07 PM by Highlandgal.
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Quiet weekend
We have several busy weekends coming up so I opted to have a quiet weekend at home. I capitalized on a burst of energy Saturday morning and cleaned my house a good bit. Then I spent the rest of the weekend reading and relaxing, with a few activities interspersed in there. We did some swimming in the pool and our two mile walk on Sunday. I finished the other two books in the Twilight series, New Moon and Eclipse. They were 608 pages and 672 pages respectively. So I guess you could say I liked them. Next up is Meyer's adult book, The Host.

Written at 6:32 PM by Highlandgal.
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Barn Dance
Saturday night we went to a barn dance. It was held in a genuine working barn that they cleaned out. They put up a dance floor and had hay bales around the perimeter for folks to sit. They even had some cloggers perform early in the evening. They had one trough full of beer on ice and one full of sodas.

When we got there we watched the performers for a little bit. Then Emma's friend from our memorial day camping trip showed up. Emma went off with her and I didn't see much of them the rest of the evening. They only showed up for permission to get drinks or to range a little further out. I wasn't expecting free babysitting. Awesome!


Written at 6:26 PM by Highlandgal.
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