Ugh

Feeling just a bit overwhelmed right now...I tend to in general anyway, just trying to keep straight all the "stuff" in our lives: work and various obligations and deadlines there, the store and the various demands it places on us, kids and their various needs, and all the peripheral stuff like bills to pay, chores and yardwork around the house, etc.   But right now, something very specific is making me panic.

I got this harebrained idea that for EcoReno's first anniversary/grand opening party, I would do a workshop on building your own solar oven.  I've always wanted to, didn't seem too hard, and seemed like a good little "event" to have at the shop.  And now, after weeks of trying to secure the perfect sized boxes, accumulating other required items, and scrutinizing various plans, I've reached the conclusion that I'm totally screwed.  It's way too complicated, I don't have the right size pieces of cardboard, and I'm in over my head.  I really don't want to be a quitter on this, but I just don't see how I can do it.  I have no idea if anyone will even show up, if it'll be just one person or a dozen, or what.  Failure.

As long as I'm here, a brief update on the assorted other stuff in our lives.  Sid is recuperating well from his little surgery recently.  Details a bit too personal to go into here, but all seems well in his recovery.  Lola's down to two days per week at Noah's Ark, and her time at EcoReno with Morgan seems to be good for all involved.  I was lucky enough to have pizza lunch with her at school yesterday!  And then dinner at the Santa Fe for Paige's birthday.  Overall, everyone is doing OK, a bit of a common cold making the rounds at our house, Nana coming to visit next week, and, as always, lots of being busy all the time.

Someday, I will get some new pictures loaded here.  Really.

long overdue....

Basically, life is busy.  We are caught up in being parents, business owners, home owners and our own selves. We are missing out on a few things: vacations, time to blog, sleeping in, and those days where you wake up and can't decide what to do. I would kill for one of those!

Parents: the kids are getting so big! Sid turned two in July and is a talking machine. It is a great age where you can actually start communicating better with your child as they start to use words and can better express their emotions. Sid likes to jump up and down really hard and throw himself onto the floor - when he gets upset for you doing such parental duties such as keeping him away from a hot stove, taking away the scissors, scolding him for taking a gulp of your wine.  You know, those parental duties. He finally got his first haircut too. Not too much and I am told by a certain someone that he still looks like a girl. The comments have cut down a  bit about 'her.' Lola is going to turn 5 soon. Sometimes I think she is trapped in the body of a twenty year old. She knows it all! I promise, because she tells me all the time.  She doesn't start kindergarten until next year, but she can't stop writing or spelling. We S-P-E-L-L everything!  She still loves to dress up  and wear everyone else's shoes.  I think some of it is rubbing off on Sid.

Business Owners: We just moved EcoReno into a bigger, more visible location. It has been great! We are able to get a few more lines and some different things in. Overall, things are continuing to be good and keeping us very busy!

Home Owners: Nothing new around that actual Tiar house. Well, a new car. We sold the Eurovan and bought a minivan. It has been a little adjusting and despite my hesitation, I really like it. It will be very handy with company in town or any additional passenger as anythign else will lend no room with the two car seats.

Me:  Busy.  Really.  I like it though and all for a good reason.  Just hope that it all pays off.

Sid's first haircut

Sid has been growing his hair out for two years. He has never had it cut. I get a lot of shocked looks when I inform people,  who refer to Sid as a her, that he in act a him. Let me also say that Sid always dresses in boy themed  clothes and even if I put him in a shirt that said "I am a BOY," they would still ask about 'her.'   Some think it is completely adorable. I do.

Recently though, it was starting to get in his face and eyes. Becoming a bit of a nuisance. We can't put it in a ponytail. It is one thing to let you son have long hair, it is another to let him look completely silly. I took Lola to a kid's themed hair place to get a trim and convince Sid that this would be an okay thing. I had every intention of letting my friend, Kelly, do it. But when it came down to it, I knew he wouldn't sit still for her in his very own home.

She cut into what she called a 'surfer look' which looks more 'page-boy' like. He was very good as he ate is sucker and she trimmed away. Of course, I said not to cut it too short!

Zombies, vans, and photographs

I think I know what it feels like to be a zombie.  Or at least feel like zombies look in the movies.  Sid seems to be having a pretty severe bout of insomnia the last couple nights, keeping us up off and on for hours.  Or more accurately, up, then back to sleep for an hour, then up again, then back to sleep for 20 minutes, and on and on.  Last night is a blur of getting up, picking him up, rocking with him, putting him back in his crib, bringing him to our bed, being kicked by him in our bed, Morgan getting up multiple times.  Getting up this morning was harder than the worst hangover morning.  This has to stop.   He's apparently constipated too - I wonder which condition causes the other?  Or maybe molars are coming in?  I should also mention that our dear babysitter Michelle is now our former babysitter Michelle, off to nursing school she went, so Sid is now with Alicia 3 days a week.  So maybe the change of scenery has disrupted him...but he seems happy with the switch.  Otherwise, Sid's shaping up to be quite the little man - using lots of words now, and charming the pants off of anyone he meets.

Lola still attending Noah's Ark happily, doing well there, and being her usual beautiful Lola self.

In other news, yeah, I know, the rate of updates around here would make you think we've left the country.  Still here, crazy busy, living our lives.

EcoReno moved a few weeks ago, to our new location.  Much more visible on the main drag, double the floor space, great vibrant neighborhood, and it seems like we're getting busier.  To help make the move happen, with all the financial fallout that entails, we sold our Eurovan to a nice family from Mt. Shasta, went without a 2nd vehicle for about 10 days, and as of last night, are now the proud owners of a 2002, very low mileage, Toyota Sienna.  Sigh, a minivan.  It's come to that.  I wanted a Forester or an Outback, but the practicalities of two kids in car seats, frequent cargo-hauling needs, seating for more than just the four of us, and the minivan became the obvious choice.  Should last us a nice long time.

My goal for this fall, since goals like homebrewing and writing a will (yeah, OK, I know my goals are weird and disparate) never seem to materialize, is to get some more photos posted on this site.  I'm sure there are a ton on the camera, several of which I could have posted and linked to from this writing to illustrate various things.  Time is such a fleeting resource.  But since Project Runway and Biggest Loser will kidnap my wife two nights a week, I think I might be able to get these online photo albums updated soon.

Speaking of time, I've got to wrap this up and go get ready for work.  Where I also don't have enough time to get everything done.  When do I get to slow down?  Oh yeah, every night after kids go to bed, enjoying a good beer, and watching TV for a few minutes before bed.

Yearbook photos

I guess the latest thing on Facebook is this yearbookyourself.com thing where you can make fun photos of yourself.  I don't do Facebook, but it's kind of quiet at the store today and I couldn't resist.  Marc through the decades:

[caption id="attachment_540" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1968"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_541" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1978"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_542" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1986"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_543" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1990"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_544" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="2000"][/caption]

Briefly

I've basically given up all hope of keeping up with this blog, so at least I can throw out a few informative bleats to keep you all in the loop, recorded for posterity:

EcoReno is moving!
Mice in the garage - head count = six so far.
Hot summer weather!
Selling the van :-(
Watching The Wire, two seasons down.

That is all.  We're well, dog and cat are good, life is fine.

Yes, we're still here

I guess one post per month is about the most I can eke out these days.  The time flies past without even realizing.  No excuses, other than the same ones you've seen before, just too darn busy.  And Twitter has become my big timesuck.

The main reason I logged in today was, I did want to share this article about the health care system in Canada vs. the US.

Aside from that, mainly business as usual.  Kids are OK, business is OK (but never as good as we'd like it to be!) at the store, and we long for leisure time and activities.  We are going to break free and do something fun this weekend for the 4th of July, looking like a two-night stay at the lake, so that should be GREAT!

Brian and Sonya's wedding consumed a lot of last weekend, a great time was had by all - Cosmo and Maureen visiting, me camping with the men bachelor party style in Black Rock country, the Pub and Sub dinner the night before the wedding, the wedding at beautiful Galena Creek park featuring homebrewed hefeweizen by Marc Tiar, and the reception at Brian and Sonya's house afterwards, celebratory as you might expect.  It was truly a fun-filled span of days.

Tasty is now an outdoor cat, venturing out most of the time, overnight even on some occasions, and is no worse for the wear.  Hopefully the time spent outdoors will cut down on cat dander in the house, a potential help for Lola's allergies.  She goes in for her sinus CT scan tomorrow, then back to the ENT a week or so later for assessment.  Hoping for the best.

Also since last post, Morgan and I went to see Mamma Mia, her birthday gift redeemed finally, and we had great time.  I'm not too macho to say I enjoy a good musical.  Sushi dinner before the show didn't hurt.

Well, I suppose that's all I have interesting enough to post for now.  I know I never got those videos posted.  Someday when I have some free time.  Until then, see you next month (easy to say since June ends in about 6 hours!)

Big photo update!

Finally got to clear off the memory card and upload some pictures.

• New Lola pictures!


• New Sidney pictures!


• Assorted other shots


• Sacramento zoo pictures!

After plowing through so many, it seems like I posted so few.  I probably only put about 10% on here, the rest just aren't cream of the crop enough to post publicly.  But I've got a hard drive full of memories if you ever want to kill some time...

My next big goal here is movie clips - time to load some new ones.  Not sure when, but stay tuned...

Holiday update

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.

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.