Update 7/23/11

I know I haven't been posting. I am a very bad blogger.
So, some things that have been happening:
I am still delivering the morning paper, I currently deliver 3 out of 4 of the papers that are delivered in my area. The 4th paper is now available, if I want to deliver it as well. It would add 189 papers to my 130-150 papers, 92 of the new papers would be to addresses I don't already deliver to. I am still going back and forth on this.
I am currently on Plurk and Ravelry as Jarista.
I reached out to an old friend after finding her own blog, but I have yet to hear anything back from her.
In May we went down to Idaho Falls, ID and visited with my family. The main reason we went was to see my older sister 'MM' graduate from ISU with a Doctor or Pharmacy degree, which was super exciting. I got to visit with far flung family members, my older brother 'MH' and his wife and 5 kids came down from Douglas, WY, my sister MM came up from Reno, my younger brother 'DJ' came from Georgia. DJ is stationed with the Air Force in Georgia with his wife, who also came. DJ just got back from being deployed to Afghanistan so it was REALLY good to see him and to meet his wife. My mom and her husband TC were there, as were my dad and his wife KH. We last saw family last June when hubby, the new puppy(oops, guess I haven't mentioned her yet), and I went to McCall, ID for the 'C' family reunion. Mom begged me to come down since it wasn't that far away, (the trip down took twice as long because of construction, but oh well) and because TC's family drives her crazy after a few days of close proximity.
We recently switched internet providers, Clear Wire was super slow, and glitchy. We've signed up with Time Warner Cable, while the sign up process was a bit horrific, now that it's installed (finally) we are able to actually watch Netflix Instant Watch! We hadn't been watching Netfix online because out internet was so slow. One afternoon I was downloading something and it was crawling along at 5 kbs/s. Bleck!
I have signed up for Audible, and even though it costs a whole lot, I've been enjoying listening to audiobooks on my paper route. I am currently listening to Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, next up is Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon.
Earlier this year I participated in the garage sale at the Beasley Collisium, while I didn't make very much money (I had way to much furniture I think) I did SPEND money. I bought two smaller flat screen monitors/TVs. Which was fortuitous later as our main living room TV bit the dust. The remote sensor had died some time ago, and things that were supposed to be white were looking a little pink. In an attempt to fix the color by playing with the menu buttons at the bottom of the TV, hubby managed to get the TV off the 00 channel needed to watch things from the VHS/DVD player. Turns out the only way to get to the 00 channel is by the remote, which doesn't work. Also the only way to adjust the setting was from the remote. We decided to go TV shopping. It was a holiday weekend, everything TV shop wise was closed. We ended up at Walmart. We have a massive entertainment center which was bought to house the decent sized TV hubbys' parents bought. The EC is full of 'stuff', along with devices. There is a dual cassette player, a record player, a receiver, 2 VHS tape holders. YOu get the idea. So we're at Walmart, we measured the space we had for a TV before we left, and all TV's are now the wide screen things. Using our measurements, the only ones that would fit are the 28" or below sized ones. I didn't want one so small, hubby's having sticker shock and fighting with me in his own special PA way, so I was thinking we could get a new EC as well, that way we could get a bigger TV. He thinks we can't fit 1/10th of the stuff currently on our current EC into a new one. More fighting, we end up leaving with nothing. Once we get back home I end up setting up one of the small Monitor/TVs I got at the garage sale, and that is what we have been using ever since. I also managed to clean my desk and get the other (not as high quality) monitor installed as my computer monitor.
While in Idaho Falls my dad talked us into getting some baby chicks. If you don't know we previously got some chickens from my dad before he moved to Maui. The local CalRanch store had baby chicks for sale for a good price. They were 2 weeks old, so the mortality rate was cut way down. We brought home 5 baby chicks in a tote with food and water. We also took our dog down to Idaho Falls so she could meet the family, she was fascinated with the chicks, and would sniff them whenever we let her. 4 of the baby chicks have survived, and are currently in a giant metal feeding tub on the back porch. I also ordered some baby chicks online, the minimum I could order, without massively expensive shipping charges, was 15. So I ordered 15, they arrived this morning and are so cute and fluffy! 16 arrived, but I'm not going to dispute it. This way, we can eventually replace the current chickens we have with some newer, tamer chickens. Since I grew up on a farm and am not squeamish about it, the older chickens will get butchered and put in the freezer.
Now, about he puppy. Hubby wanted a dog, he wanted a dog like our friend JC's dog Shadow. So, since Shadow wasn't fixed JC bred her 1/2 Black Lab 1/2 Blue Heeler, to a co-workers pure bred Black Lab. A few months later Shadow gave birth to 9 puppies!


Hubby wanted a girl puppy, and there was only 1 girl puppy in the litter. 8 weeks later, after much visiting and holding, and holding a sleeping puppy on us, we brought home Sassy. In a litter of 9 she was the only girl, and she was 'in charge' and would beat up on her brothers. JC kept 1 of the boys, named him Blaze, and still has Shadow. We love having a dog, she is sweet, funny, hyper, goofy, and currently sleeping under my computer chair. She's 14 months, but as a friend says Black Labs are puppies until they are 3 years old. Sassy and the cat, Moonstone, play and fight and tolerate each other. It's hard to feel bad for the cat after seeing the cat go up to the dog, who is minding her own business chewing on a raw hide, bat the dog without claws and run off. When the dog ignores her, the cat looks all disappointed and comes back, extends claws and takes another swipe to get the dogs attention and to get her to chase her and play.


We also had a human new arrival, but since this is getting rather tl:dr I'll save that for another day.
Best wishes!

I am a bad bad blogger, but here is a update

Sorry to have been so, non-communicative, things have been rather busy.
The Highlights:
-I am up at 2:30 int he morning because I deliver the morning paper.
-I get home at about 7 am, where I usually join hubby in the bed.
-He gets up to go to work at 1 pm, leaves by 2 pm, I usually get up with him.
-I spend the next few hours doing various things.
-I am usually back in bed by 8 pm
-and the whole thing starts again.
Add-ons to this lately have been:
-We have mostly moved into the house.
-We still have a trailer full of stuff, and our living room is full of the furniture that should go in the bedrooms
-We have been waiting to get the sewer line replaced before replacing the carpets in the two bedrooms and the basement apartment.
-Our new housemate has arrived and is living in the basement, and going to the U of I.
-I started playing around on Plurk.com. I am Jarista for anyone interested.
-Our brand new bed has arrived, and that is glorious. I have never had a brand new bed.
-I am painting when I feel up to it.
-I have been fighting a cold/sickness, oh and I don't get days off from delivering the paper.
-I finally finished the add-ons for the Delaura afghan. Now, to wash it, photo it, and give it back to her.
-Sewer line may not have to be replaced, the city wants to use us as sort of guinea pigs to see if a new system will work. they basically put a lining in the pipe, inflate it, and pump epoxy around the lining, which makes a brand new pipe. They are coming on Tuesday to video the line.
-Carpet estimate ppl are coming on Monday to take a look at where we want carpet, and to give us an estimate on installing carpet.
-I have lost quite a bit of weight from what I was at this time last year, which is awesome. I think the paper route really helped with that.
-Our lovely used Jeep we got last year may be having some issues, we are planning on trading it in on a truck of some sort, and buying the Jeep from the estate.
-I am loving listening to podcasts, audio books, and podiobooks on my paper route.
-Hubbys 'partner in crime' at work has had to 'cross train' at work, so she has been working Day-shift for the last two weeks. So he has been really bored at work. We went and kidnapped her from work on Thursday, and took her out for some really good Chinese.

It is now 10:15 am, I am going to head to bed.
Have a wonderful day Everyone!

Update

Well at least the snow is gone, mostly. There is still some in the hollows of the hills, areas that don't get much of the available sunlight.
Spring has been acting more like a cranky toddler than a lion this year. Snow, then sun, then hail, then rain, and back to any of the previous. All within minutes.
Sorry I haven't had much to say recently, so here for your enjoyment is a update from me.

I started selling my plasma again. I had stopped over the winter because it was just to difficult to get in and still have an acceptable heart rate. Though I must say my heart rate has really been behaving the last few weeks.
We were looking at a house in Colfax. WA. But it went really quick. Probably because of the $39,900 price tag. Which is really, really low by most any body's measurement. Friends called us on Sunday to tell us about it. We checked the web site on Monday, it said Pending later in the day on Monday, and was off the site by late Monday night/ early Tuesday morning.
I found a new group of crafters, they are called The Woolgather's. They meet on Thursday nights (for now), and they invite anybody who does crafty stuff to come join them. Knit, crochet, spin, weave, or whatever. They are very nice. I am still going to Monday night Purple Paisley Quilters (PPQ), but I didn't go this Monday because I wasn't feeling well, and I had a Birthday party to go to. Which you would think that would be mutually exclusive, but I managed. I don't think I had an actual illness, just an upset stomach.
I have been back in contact with a woman who has previously made me feel like dirt, but I am being wary this time, and if she starts coping attitude with me or my husband we will remove ourselves from spending time with them, and they can just deal with it. This is pretty much a last chance offer to be friends. They blow it this time and I'm going to block their numbers, and cease ALL contact. So far they have been behaving. It was her husbands birthday party that I went to.
We recently purchased a laptop. DHL has tried to deliver it twice, but we can't hear people knocking when we are asleep in the bedroom. So we are sleeping on the futon tonight, so we will wake up when they knock on the door, at about 9 am . Fun part is it wasn't supposed to be done being built until the 25th, with an arrival date of Apr. 30th. Yet it tried to arrive on the 21st, isn't that cool?
We also went to Costco and did a MAJOR shopping trip. As in $500 major shopping trip. Holy wow! Both the laptop and the Costco trip came from our tax return money.
The snow in the yard may be gone, but the yard itself is major swampland. We probably won't have to water it until June.
We haven't had any yellowjackets show up in the bedroom/house recently, which has been really nice. Watch now that I have said that, one will show up tomorrow morning. Though I did have one inside the door hinge area when I opened up the drivers door of the truck. I am guessing it was a queen looking for a sheltered warm spot to start a new nest since it was very swollen looking. Unlike the ones we had been getting inside the house, which are skinny and lethargic. She was pretty lethargic also, and I was able to sweep her off with a napkin and onto the ground below the door.
I am really bad about doing things when scheduled to, but I will try and have something to say in a few days.

Update

Update on what's been happening lately,
Labor day weekend DH and I got a lot done around the house. DH cleaned out the storage shed, he pulled EVERYTHING out of it, and then cleaned out the dirt, old bees nests and cobwebs. I then went through every box and tote in the shed, sorting out what to keep (and go in the house), what to put back in the shed, and what to give away/ebay/freecycle. We also got up on the roof and painted sealant on all the seams of the roof, this needs to be done about every 2 years, and it has been 2 years since we moved in, so it has been at least that long. While DH was cleaning out the shed I was on the porch scraping away at the old paint on the porch, and sanding the edges. I got some off but I need to work on it some more, I got a different style scraper, we'll see if paint comes off more effectively.
I had a job interview at Needle Nook, my Local Yarn Store (LYS), a few weeks ago. They called yesterday and said they had found someone to fill the position, someone not me. So disappointed.
This weekend I sold my plasma successfully, then I went to Costco in Lewiston with 'C'. I stayed in my budget, just barely but I did. I love shopping at Costco and getting things I know we will need and use in bulk at a lower price. Later we went to Macy's for their One Day Sale, I got some new pants, an embroidered peasant blouse, and an apple slicer/corer. Then on Sunday DH and I went on a bike ride, to Pullman and back. We haven't done this in a long time, a very long time. I hurt so bad Sunday night and all day Monday.
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We've been watching Medium lately, it's a pretty good show. We just finished watching Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother, very funny show.
I've been reading the Witch series by Kim Harrison, I'm currently on Every Which Way but Dead (book 3). To see some of the books in my collection go look at my Library Thing catalog.
That's about it for now.