Memorial Day, a day off work, so I think I can squeeze out an update. Finally. We're supposed to be in mid-BBQ by now, but had a few cancellations so Morgan, kids, and Maggie are out back and I'm computing. Photo update later, for now just the words. On the plus side, the house is nice and tidy.
I feel like I've been productive in what little free time I have - we splurged on a new laptop with our tax refund, so I sold our old one on ebay, as well as our old digital camera with the half-wonky screen; made and hung a swing on the tree out front last weekend, made a raised-bed garden out back which is showing initial signs of success with tomatoes and an assortment of other sprouts coming up. My hops are coming back this year, let's hope for success on them.
I've got a keg of hefeweizen sitting in the closet, waiting a few more weeks for Brian and Sonya's wedding, plus 3 bottles of Mirror Mirror in the garage fridge to enjoy sometime in the distant future. As Brian put it yesterday, we're living in times of some of the best beer availability. It's an obsession, tracking new special releases, what might be available in Reno or not, tasting sessions with friends, stowing ultra precious bottles away to age or wait for the right occasion. I love it.
My other favorite thing besides beer (coffee) also has developments to report - Grandpa Dave sent us a big drip coffee and espresso machine recently that we just put into service. It'll take a few pots to figure out just the right grind, amount, and setting for the perfect cup, but the iced espresso I had earlier put me into this weird "tired from antihistamines but feeling heart palpitations from the caffeine" state that I didn't like very much. I'm reaching equilibrium now, both substances wearing off a bit.
On other fronts, we seem to be battling sickness on a regular basis. We thought Lola's ear infection had passed, but more recently she had such a bad cough that it kept us all up most of the night, so we took her in. She was diagnosed with asthma and put on a daily steroid mist treatment that's not much fun. And her ear was still infected, plus a hold in her eardrum. She seems well enough, but we're to see an ear-nose-throat specialist next week and get this all figured out. Sid's mostly well, except for some mystery diarrhea the last couple days that we have no clue about. Me, just allergies kicking my butt with everything in bloom this time of year, thus the aforementioned antihistamines.
EcoReno continues to keep us busy, although we could certainly use more business. We've more or less decided our biggest impediment to raging success right now (besides the generally poor climate for business everywhere) is location. We get virtually no drop-in serendipitous walk-in traffic, so we might be looking at moving at some point. We'll see. The people who do shop with us really do love our store and our merchandise, we just need more of them. No big news otherwise, we just keep chugging along, looking for ways to grow and succeed.
My work continues to plod forward in a dismal situation - the library's budget cut 36% means doing more work with a lot less. No layoffs for now, but lots of vacancies that means everyone's working harder. Our hours are being cut at the end of next month, and my schedule will change, so the child care situation will need to change as well. And then again in a few months when Sid's sitter goes to nursing school.
Well, I guess I've been a computer hermit long enough. Time to open a cold one and relax on the deck I hosed off earlier today. Days off are good.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Lola got an ear infection
A mere few hours after the earlier post depicting a happy, newly coiffed Lola, she woke up in pain. From about 11pm until about 3am, we were up and down a few times with a poor, crying in apparent agony, Lola. Called the hotline to ask if we should go to ER, but ended up OK with Tylenol and a hot pack until morning. And of course, as tends to happen in this house, pain leads to crying, crying leads to runny nose and drainage, and a stomach full of said drainage leads to vomiting.
Got in to see the doc, got our prescription, now we're home watching Yo Gabba Gabba and medicating.
Got in to see the doc, got our prescription, now we're home watching Yo Gabba Gabba and medicating.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Lola got a hair cut!
Here are a few picutres of Lola's new hair cut. She was a little anxious, but excited to have a hair cut like her Auntie's!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
oops, wrong blog
Sheesh. I just logged in here thinking it was the EcoReno blog because I needed to post some stuff there. Duh.
As long as I'm here, I guess I'll give a quick roundup of all things us. Not that there's much. I seem to have lost that nagging feeling in the back of my mind, urging me to get new pictures posted, keep this site viable. EcoReno dominates my spare time and psyche, every spare moment I think about what's on our calendar today, tomorrow, this weekend. I do pretty well keeping work stuff off my mind when I'm not at work, except for the occasional day lately (and by lately, I mean the last few months) when I wonder if my job is in jeopardy, if I'm going to end up working at a different location, on a schedule that conflicts horribly with the rest of our lives. When I'm not thinking about the store, I'm addicted to keeping up on all the other blogs, Twitter feeds, and other web-based crap. Go, go, go, story of my life these days. At least the weather seems to be getting nice again, so that means less bundling up, Vespa weather, and sitting outside once in a while. For those keeping track, the kids are well, growing, Sid had a couple ear infections recently, and Lola's doing great in most respects.
A few pics of late, I can't be bothered to actually put them in an album.
Oh for crying out loud. The battery on the camera died before I could get them loaded on here. Must be a sign that I should do this proper, in the albums. Soon. Stay tuned.
As long as I'm here, I guess I'll give a quick roundup of all things us. Not that there's much. I seem to have lost that nagging feeling in the back of my mind, urging me to get new pictures posted, keep this site viable. EcoReno dominates my spare time and psyche, every spare moment I think about what's on our calendar today, tomorrow, this weekend. I do pretty well keeping work stuff off my mind when I'm not at work, except for the occasional day lately (and by lately, I mean the last few months) when I wonder if my job is in jeopardy, if I'm going to end up working at a different location, on a schedule that conflicts horribly with the rest of our lives. When I'm not thinking about the store, I'm addicted to keeping up on all the other blogs, Twitter feeds, and other web-based crap. Go, go, go, story of my life these days. At least the weather seems to be getting nice again, so that means less bundling up, Vespa weather, and sitting outside once in a while. For those keeping track, the kids are well, growing, Sid had a couple ear infections recently, and Lola's doing great in most respects.
A few pics of late, I can't be bothered to actually put them in an album.
Oh for crying out loud. The battery on the camera died before I could get them loaded on here. Must be a sign that I should do this proper, in the albums. Soon. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Publicity
Life has been so busy. That is probably very obvious by how little we get to blog. But when funny, irritating, or weird stuff happens, I feel it necessary to update you all.
EcoReno is awesome. I love doing it and I love making a difference. I have also become very receptive to free publicity. You want a news story on green cleaners? You got it! Anything to get the word out.
I got a call from KOLO a few weeks ago wanting to do a story on green cleaning products. A very nice reporter called and asked if she could shoot footage and then come back to shoot live for their morning show. Yep, the morning show that airs from 5am to 7am. What time should I be here Monday? 4:15am. Again, free publicity.
We shot the some footage on Friday morning - a reasonable time of 10am. We confirmed for Monday morning at 4:15. (Let me remind you that even though there is a Starbucks across the lot, they don't even open that early!) She said the only thing that would keep them is breaking news. I think she said something about WWIII.
I had been having problems with the cell phone, but never gave it a second thought. I drug my butt out of bed at 3:45 after a restless night. I kept thinking that I would over sleep. I got dressed, made myself presentable, and took off into the dark morning. There weren't many people out, a few early morning people heading to work and passed a few guys probably heading home from a bar. Oh, and I got a full moon. Who does that? Okay, besides Kelly Ricciardi? Seriously, a big, white ugly butt thrown in my face. Ewwwwww! Got into the store, locking myself in quickly, and disabled the alarm.
BEEP. BEEP. Ah, a message on the phone. BREAKING NEWS!! Not WWIII, but a body found near Caughlin Ranch. No live shoot for me. There had a been a message left on my cell phone and she hoped that I had gotten it before I left the house. NOPE, because my cell phone is acting up and I didn't do anything to try and fix it. It was a simple fix too - turn off and back on. I headed back home to bed. When I got into the bedroom, Marc asked if I had even left, that is how little time had passed.
The story did air. They used the previously shot footage and I am also happy to say that it aired again during the evening news. I heard it while cooking dinner. So, worth it, but I can tell you that I will be sure that cell phone is working before I head out for a 4:15am shoot!
Other updates: Dad was just here and we had a great visit including the Sacramento Zoo. The kids are great - both getting so big! Sid's sitter, Michelle, is telling us that he is very interested in the potty. Trained before his second birthday? You never know.
EcoReno is awesome. I love doing it and I love making a difference. I have also become very receptive to free publicity. You want a news story on green cleaners? You got it! Anything to get the word out.
I got a call from KOLO a few weeks ago wanting to do a story on green cleaning products. A very nice reporter called and asked if she could shoot footage and then come back to shoot live for their morning show. Yep, the morning show that airs from 5am to 7am. What time should I be here Monday? 4:15am. Again, free publicity.
We shot the some footage on Friday morning - a reasonable time of 10am. We confirmed for Monday morning at 4:15. (Let me remind you that even though there is a Starbucks across the lot, they don't even open that early!) She said the only thing that would keep them is breaking news. I think she said something about WWIII.
I had been having problems with the cell phone, but never gave it a second thought. I drug my butt out of bed at 3:45 after a restless night. I kept thinking that I would over sleep. I got dressed, made myself presentable, and took off into the dark morning. There weren't many people out, a few early morning people heading to work and passed a few guys probably heading home from a bar. Oh, and I got a full moon. Who does that? Okay, besides Kelly Ricciardi? Seriously, a big, white ugly butt thrown in my face. Ewwwwww! Got into the store, locking myself in quickly, and disabled the alarm.
BEEP. BEEP. Ah, a message on the phone. BREAKING NEWS!! Not WWIII, but a body found near Caughlin Ranch. No live shoot for me. There had a been a message left on my cell phone and she hoped that I had gotten it before I left the house. NOPE, because my cell phone is acting up and I didn't do anything to try and fix it. It was a simple fix too - turn off and back on. I headed back home to bed. When I got into the bedroom, Marc asked if I had even left, that is how little time had passed.
The story did air. They used the previously shot footage and I am also happy to say that it aired again during the evening news. I heard it while cooking dinner. So, worth it, but I can tell you that I will be sure that cell phone is working before I head out for a 4:15am shoot!
Other updates: Dad was just here and we had a great visit including the Sacramento Zoo. The kids are great - both getting so big! Sid's sitter, Michelle, is telling us that he is very interested in the potty. Trained before his second birthday? You never know.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Still here
And just like that, a month has passed since my last post. Sigh. I could just repeat what I said last time, that things are just too damn busy, but that will get old because if I had to guess, that will be the refrain around here for a while.
Nana came to visit and has gone back home, kids have been sick (double pew-hawk tonight, in fact, but just due to too much running around->hacking cough->gagging->pewhawk) but are now getting back to their old self, EcoReno is expanding products, networking, and trying to flourish, the library budget is going down in flames, and Brian and Sonya are engaged to be married!
I just don't know where the time goes - a typical day goes like this - up, morning routine, off to work and Morgan delivers kids and heads to the store; after work, one of us picks up kids while the other closes the store, meet at home 6ish, dinner, TV, bed. Vary slightly on weekends. Except Sundays when we're both off. For now. I can claim to have read a book, The World Without Us, which I really enjoyed and found thoroughly fascinating, and we were able to go see Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, but leisure time is pretty slim.
I basically have no more news right now. Hang in there, loyal readers, the dam is bound to burst someday and regular cheztiar programming will resume.
Nana came to visit and has gone back home, kids have been sick (double pew-hawk tonight, in fact, but just due to too much running around->hacking cough->gagging->pewhawk) but are now getting back to their old self, EcoReno is expanding products, networking, and trying to flourish, the library budget is going down in flames, and Brian and Sonya are engaged to be married!
I just don't know where the time goes - a typical day goes like this - up, morning routine, off to work and Morgan delivers kids and heads to the store; after work, one of us picks up kids while the other closes the store, meet at home 6ish, dinner, TV, bed. Vary slightly on weekends. Except Sundays when we're both off. For now. I can claim to have read a book, The World Without Us, which I really enjoyed and found thoroughly fascinating, and we were able to go see Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, but leisure time is pretty slim.
I basically have no more news right now. Hang in there, loyal readers, the dam is bound to burst someday and regular cheztiar programming will resume.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Slacking
I am serious slacking. I just caught up with a friend's blog. She had four children, two of them are a set of twins born three weeks ago. I made the excuse that I am busy, which I am, but I still manage to keep up with Perez Hilton!
Sid is getting so big. He is talking, getting into everything, and almost has all his teeth. His favorite thing right now is being chased. He loves it! It is the easiest way to deter him or get him away from things he shouldn't be into. He also loves to be read to and is constantly bringing us books to read.
Lola is great. She is a bit defiant, but I am not too surprised. It is the negative outlashes that surprise me. She
Sid is getting so big. He is talking, getting into everything, and almost has all his teeth. His favorite thing right now is being chased. He loves it! It is the easiest way to deter him or get him away from things he shouldn't be into. He also loves to be read to and is constantly bringing us books to read.
Lola is great. She is a bit defiant, but I am not too surprised. It is the negative outlashes that surprise me. She
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pony pics
I realize my posting here is getting less and less frequent. The rate at which I do post is inversely proportional to the rate at which I attend to other matters in life. It just never slows down these days, work, the business, kids, shopping, errands, chores, a bit of social, and that's about all the time there is. I've got some time off in coming weeks because Nana's coming to visit, so maybe some photo updates and general blogging will occur. For now, however, may I present some photos from Lola's recent visit with Fantasia, a miniature horse. She went with Paige and Amy and from the look of things, had the time of her life...click for larger...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sick
I'm so sick of dealing with sick. My own mild cold symptoms have endured for what seems like weeks. I had a brief visit with actual sickness - sore throat, coughing that kept me up at night - but now it just feels like my ears are plugged a lot of the time, mildly annoying is about all.
Kids, on the other hand...Lola's had a cold the last week or so as well. Nightly filling of humidifers I can handle, but the pinnacle of sick was a few nights ago (between holidays and general daze of sick, inauguration, busy life, etc. I can't keep track of when anything actually occurred) when Lola was coughing her head off, up and down throughout the 2am-5am period, finally coming to bed with us at 5-something. She seems to be getting better, in that slow, long-tail kind of way where you get close the gap between sick and well by half each day but never actually get there.
Sid joined the movement tonight, sort of. He's had a little runny nose for a few days, nothing major. A bit of a cough set in, but still pretty mild, thankfully. He also has a molar coming in, so he's been a bit cranky. The real treat was after putting him to bed, he cried a bit longer than normal so we "rescued" him like we do, giving him a few more minutes of awake time before putting him back in his crib. Only this time, Morgan gave him a squirt of Tylenol to help him sleep with teething pain, followed by a sip of water. Apparently the Tylenol/water combo triggered his gag reflex and, well, let's just say we found out exactly how much mac and cheese he ate and that he doesn't chew his food. Cleanup on aisle 12.
Please, let us get well and stay that way for a while...I can't decide whether sleepless nights or cleaning up "pew-hawk" (Lola's expression for Sid's eruptus) is less desirable in the annals of parental duties.
Kids, on the other hand...Lola's had a cold the last week or so as well. Nightly filling of humidifers I can handle, but the pinnacle of sick was a few nights ago (between holidays and general daze of sick, inauguration, busy life, etc. I can't keep track of when anything actually occurred) when Lola was coughing her head off, up and down throughout the 2am-5am period, finally coming to bed with us at 5-something. She seems to be getting better, in that slow, long-tail kind of way where you get close the gap between sick and well by half each day but never actually get there.
Sid joined the movement tonight, sort of. He's had a little runny nose for a few days, nothing major. A bit of a cough set in, but still pretty mild, thankfully. He also has a molar coming in, so he's been a bit cranky. The real treat was after putting him to bed, he cried a bit longer than normal so we "rescued" him like we do, giving him a few more minutes of awake time before putting him back in his crib. Only this time, Morgan gave him a squirt of Tylenol to help him sleep with teething pain, followed by a sip of water. Apparently the Tylenol/water combo triggered his gag reflex and, well, let's just say we found out exactly how much mac and cheese he ate and that he doesn't chew his food. Cleanup on aisle 12.
Please, let us get well and stay that way for a while...I can't decide whether sleepless nights or cleaning up "pew-hawk" (Lola's expression for Sid's eruptus) is less desirable in the annals of parental duties.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Back to it
Sheesh, over two weeks since last I wrote here. Between holidays and the usual busy-ness of life with two kids and running a business, blogging has taken a back seat, clearly.
We had a nice Christmas, snow and all, and a visit from Aunt Patty to round things out. Lola has hardly had any time on her trampoline that Santa brought, between cold, snow, and punishment for some pretty bad naughty times we've seen in recent weeks, she hasn't had more than a dozen bounces on it, poor thing. We're all enjoying the Wii Fit we got, and myself, I've used my Skeletool and new headlamp multiple times, but hardly touched the two books I got that I'm very excited about. I was truly rewarded with some great stuff.
Weather-wise, irony abounds - our friend in Portland barely made it out of there they had so much snow last month, and today, 2nd week of January, it was almost 60 degrees here. I saw a guy in shorts and short-sleeve shirt outside today! (Oh, and reports from southern France, normally balmy on the Mediterranean coast, are of COLD nasty weather there too!) Weird winter, to say the least.
At EcoReno, business was pretty good leading up to the holidays, but has certainly slowed now. That's not unexpected in retail, particularly in the economic climate we find ourselves in. We're starting our monthly EcoChats, little environmental lectures/seminars, this Saturday, expanding our product selection all the time, building lots of great word of mouth and buzz in the community, and getting publicity more and more. We got a mention on the radio and a TV spot - if you check the EcoReno blog (and if you don't, you really should, we do post stuff there that's worth seeing, and if you like us enough to read this site, you should definitely read that one too), you've already seen this, but it's worth including here too. May I present, a small portion of my 15 minutes of fame:
[flv:http://goecoreno.com/EcoRenoKRNV.flv 480 368]
And lastly, I'm happy to say I've updated photos in Lola's album, Sid's album, and added photos from Lola's (sort of broken second-hand) new digital camera she got for Christmas.
We're nine days away from a new President. Happy 2009 to all.
We had a nice Christmas, snow and all, and a visit from Aunt Patty to round things out. Lola has hardly had any time on her trampoline that Santa brought, between cold, snow, and punishment for some pretty bad naughty times we've seen in recent weeks, she hasn't had more than a dozen bounces on it, poor thing. We're all enjoying the Wii Fit we got, and myself, I've used my Skeletool and new headlamp multiple times, but hardly touched the two books I got that I'm very excited about. I was truly rewarded with some great stuff.
Weather-wise, irony abounds - our friend in Portland barely made it out of there they had so much snow last month, and today, 2nd week of January, it was almost 60 degrees here. I saw a guy in shorts and short-sleeve shirt outside today! (Oh, and reports from southern France, normally balmy on the Mediterranean coast, are of COLD nasty weather there too!) Weird winter, to say the least.
At EcoReno, business was pretty good leading up to the holidays, but has certainly slowed now. That's not unexpected in retail, particularly in the economic climate we find ourselves in. We're starting our monthly EcoChats, little environmental lectures/seminars, this Saturday, expanding our product selection all the time, building lots of great word of mouth and buzz in the community, and getting publicity more and more. We got a mention on the radio and a TV spot - if you check the EcoReno blog (and if you don't, you really should, we do post stuff there that's worth seeing, and if you like us enough to read this site, you should definitely read that one too), you've already seen this, but it's worth including here too. May I present, a small portion of my 15 minutes of fame:
[flv:http://goecoreno.com/EcoRenoKRNV.flv 480 368]
And lastly, I'm happy to say I've updated photos in Lola's album, Sid's album, and added photos from Lola's (sort of broken second-hand) new digital camera she got for Christmas.
We're nine days away from a new President. Happy 2009 to all.
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