Ladybug Studio

Mac Pro Coming Soon

A killer Mac Pro computer system is on its way to me as I write. It will have:
• Two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors
• 2GB memory
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive
• 16x double-layer SuperDrive
• AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi card
• 23" Apple Cinema HD Display
• AppleCare Protection Plan
• Kensington Expert Mouse trackball

The display and trackball will be here today and the hard drive hopefully soon. Maybe even Friday, then I could have the weekend to set everything up. Apple sent me a notice that it has shipped, but I'm not able to track it yet.

And the very best part? It's not costing me a thing. The company I freelance for is footing the bill. Seriously. Am I the luckiest girl in the world, or what? In many areas of my life, actually, and I need to remember that next time I get whiney. But anyway, getting back to the subject - when I met with my "boss" Frank, back in March, we discussed my increasing workload and responsibilities with The Police and Sheriffs Press (PASP). Frank, with no prodding from me mind you, suggested upgrading my computer equipment in 3 to 4 months. That was fabulous news. My current system is about 8-10 years old and in computer years, that's ancient.

Well, I was happy with the future plans and dreaming of the new equipment while tooling away with the old Mac. Then, I started to have trouble. Now that I'm designing the tops of the calendars, I'm working with large, layered Photoshop files. They take a lot more memory and processing power than I needed for just the add layouts. I was having to close and reopen programs, restart the computer, reopen programs, restart again, etc. What should take five minutes or so was now taking 30 minutes. So I cried and whined, just a little, did some solid computer research and sent a carefully worded email. Ta-da!

Oh, just to be totally straight with you, I'm paying for the trackball. I still have my Kensington Turbo Mouse and while I'm sure it would work fine, I decided to upgrade to the latest and greatest. I figured I should pick up that expense to be fair.

* * * * *

So I've gone back to the Weight Watcher lifestyle. Last year was so stressful, I really let myself go. I think I gained back nearly every pound that I had lost. I'm not beating myself up for it, exactly. I think maybe I needed to reach for comfort food and not worry about filling out trackers and writing down points. Though I am sorry now for my actions. Starting over is no fun. But I know what I'm doing and I feel better already.

As a result, I am over-scheduling myself in pursuit of burning calories. Last week I played tennis every day except Friday and Sunday. I burned around 5400 calories. But I think I overdid it because this week I am so exhausted I don't even want to think about playing tennis. I'm glad I'm having my hair trimmed this afternoon because I'm sure I would have planned a match otherwise.

However, to keep up the exercise and hopefully save some time, I'm thinking about ordering a JumpSnap, The Ropeless Jump Rope. It's rather hard to explain, so you should go to the link and see for yourselves. Of course I'm attracted to it because it's an electronic gadget. But also because I've always heard that jumping rope is a great and fast cardio exercise. But I'm hopelessly uncoordinated and always manage to trip myself or whack myself in the shins. This seems like the perfect solution to my problems. I haven't quite made the commitment yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Just Another Day…

I could sit here and apologize for not posting for two weeks (egad! that long?) and write all sorts of excuses about being busy, etc., or I could just post an entry as if I have been posting all along. I'll think I'll go with the latter.

Today is Monday, so it must be time for a weekend roundup. On Friday, Tom and I went to Sports Authority. I actually didn't want to go (I know!), but he wanted new batting gloves for the season opener on Sunday so I went along. I'm glad I did, because I ended up buying two hats. My head is small, so I have a difficult time finding a hat that isn't too large. I generally have to find the youth size for my little pea head. But the Adidas women's fit training caps were just the ticket. I got a black one and a white one. I would love to have one in navy, but that wasn't an option. As a work-around for the hat fitting issue, I have leaned toward visors. But with the short haircut, visors don't really work too well. So I am really happy to have a hat that fits.

I wore the white hat on Saturday, in fact, for my usual tennis extravaganza. It was a pretty good day, partly because I was playing well and partly because I got to spend time on court with some of my favorite players. Also because I had my racquet re-gripped on Friday so it was feeling nice in my hand. The old grip had separated some time ago. Coach Tom had put on an over-grip, but it too had started to separate. The new grip is cushy + tacky = perfect.

On the way home from tennis, I stopped by Dad's house to pick up a few items. It's never-ending, I'm telling you. Anyway, I elected myself custodian of the photo albums. A few were my mom's but most were my grandmother's. Her organization system wasn't the best. Photos are stuck in sort of willy-nilly. For instance, a baby picture next to the same granddaughter's graduation photo. That's an extreme example, but you get the picture. (ha! an accidental pun)

So anyway, I poked around the house some more and found a few more things to take home, like a wooden trinket box that my dad had made, his latest pocket knife and his and my mother's high school ID bracelets (I don't know how we missed those the first time around). I really hate seeing so many of my parents' things going to the estate sale, but honestly, we can't keep everything.

And speaking of the estate sale, things are definitely starting to happen. I noticed a stack of folding card tables in the garage, a pile of signs, a cash register and baskets of various supplies. I'm glad they've started working because there is quite a lot to do.

On Sunday I spent most of the day inside, de-cluttering, organizing, cleaning, etc. It's amazing how much time it takes to do that sort of thing, with very little visible results. I'm sure Tom thinks I sat around watching TV and eating bon-bons while he was at his baseball double-header. In the afternoon I finally left the house and went as far as the driveway, where I washed my disgustingly filthy car. Just in time for love bug season. Yes, the little pests are starting to show up and will soon be here in swarms. It makes me cringe to think about it.

Once the car was cleaned and moved back into the garage, Tom accompanied me back to my dad's house as I had some of my own junk to add to the sale. The moment I opened the front door it was obvious that Lisa's crew had been hard at work. There were tables everywhere loaded with things and the furniture was moved all around. In fact, the disarray was a very welcome sight. It now looks so very different that I felt less emotional than I have on other visits. It might have been too that Tom kept me moving on course, not allowing  me to dawdle down memory lane.

I brought one more item home with me this trip: my mother's blanket chest. My dad made it for her and it's really a lovely piece. I'm pretty sure I can put it in my dining room, along the half wall as the chest is fairly narrow. It will be a good place to store all the photo albums I brought home on Saturday. At any rate, I have three weeks to decide. If it's not working out, I can always bring it back to the sale.

Tax Day

Did you send in your tax return yet? We had ours done at H&R about two weeks ago. While we generally don't rush to do them immediately after getting our paperwork, we usually have them done much sooner. But for the past oh, eight years or so, a friend who is a CPA has been doing them for us. When I started freelancing on a regular, steady basis, things got more complicated. When Alan offered to do them (and charge next to nothing) we gratefully accepted. But this year Alan had a job change and we were on our own. Instead of fiddling around with purchasing software and the inevitable headaches (and arguments), we opted to pay someone else. Quite a bit more than Alan was charging, in fact.

But as it turns out, it was money well spent. I had brought in our 2006 return to show the preparer what had been done in the past. She immediately noticed a mistake (in our favor) and found two omissions. We ended up paying for an amendment to our 2006 taxes. She definitely won us over and we'll certainly go back to her again next year.

* * * * *

As you can imagine, going through old photographs and other memorabilia at my parents house was sometimes pretty difficult. The only thing that kept us from flat out weeping everyday was the sheer amount of stuff to deal with. It made us all want to go home and seriously purge our own houses.

The one item that was the most heart wrenching for me was surprising. There was a little photo album, the old kind with black construction paper pages that the photos were stuck down to. It started out with photos of my dad when he was a wee little baby. For some reason, seeing him so small, innocent and vulnerable just pierced my heart. Even writing about it is making me tear up.

On that note, I'll leave you with some photographs. The photo of Dad is the one we used at his memorial. We all got 8x10 copies, so we decided that we needed a good one of Mom, from approximately the same time frame. And this is what we chose.

Been Busy

It's been a while since I last posted. But I've been pretty busy cleaning out my parent's house. Ann came down last Monday and we, along with Joy, spent most of the week over at the house. I took vacation days on Monday and Tuesday (Ha! Some vacation) and spent most of both days working. On Wednesday I went over right after work and on Friday my nephew Michael arrived, so I left work early to go to the house, then spent all day Saturday there as well. I'm kind of sick of the place right now.

Thursday was the only day I didn't go over, though I had planned to. I had a singles match that afternoon and figured I'd be finished in about an hour, which is fairly usual. But not this time. My opponent and I were evenly skilled, for the most part, and our match went on for two hours. In addition to it being much later than I had planned, I was soaked with sweat and absolutely exhausted. So I took that evening off, if you can call it that.

The whole house cleaning out thing was really overwhelming. Joy and I were both thisclose to having mental breakdowns when our savior arrived and lifted our weary spirits. Our savior being Ruftop Estate Sales. Stacey told me about Lisa and her company. An excerpt from their website:

Many times families feel that parents or loved ones have everything covered, until the day comes when they pass away or need to move into a special care home. You are left with all the items in the house and you have no idea where to start. You want to do the best thing for you and your family, but you have no time to get everything under control. You need to depend on a person, or persons, to help you with this overwhelming commitment. Ruftop Estate Sales can help you eliminate that overwhelming stress.

Ruftop Estate Sales is a small, women owned business staffed by a highly professional group of people that will come in and get the job done. Owner, Lisa Ruffe, has a degree in Organizational Business Management and has over 15 years of experience in dealing with collectibles and antiques.

Ruftop Estate Sales' goal is to help you get the best market price for your items.

Wow. That is exactly what we needed.

So we called Lisa, explained our situation and she came over to talk with us and look over the contents of the house. By the time she told us how her operation worked, we were completely sold. They do everything, and I mean everything. They come in and pull items out of cabinets and drawers, they wash and dust the items, organize, price and lay them out on tables, they take care of all advertising of the sale and handle it themselves with their own trusted employees. Plus, Lisa is so knowledgeable about antiques, collectibles and what they are worth. I could go on and on…

Lisa told us not to throw anything away, that they sell everything. That was funny, as we'd just driven a trailer load to the dump that morning. Oh well. What we don't know won't hurt us, right?

But there was still a lot for us to do. Tons of photos to be separated and traded, other special items to be claimed. On Saturday the truck Ann had rented was loaded for her and Michael to take back home to North Carolina Sunday morning.

Whew.

There is still more to do before the sale and then we will really be busy getting the house ready to sell. I tell you, I am really looking forward to seeing some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Skybus Goes Bust

Normally, I don't pay much attention when small, startup airlines go belly up. I don't fly often so it's all pretty much under my radar. But this news about Skybus certainly caught my attention this morning. I had gone to their website to find out just where the St. Augustine airport was located so that Joy and I would know where to go to pick up Ann, who was flying down from Greensboro, NC this morning. On Skybus Airlines. Instead of their bright and happy website, I saw this:

Skybus Airlines will cease all operations effective Saturday, April 5.

Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier.

We deeply regret the impact this decision will have on our employees and their families, customers, vendors, suppliers, airport officials and others in the cities in which we have operated. Our financial condition is such that our Board of Directors felt it had no choice but to cease operations.

"Oh crap." I thought. "Ann is not coming to Florida today."

Ann was coming down so that the four of us sisters could work on cleaning out my parents' house together. She was expected to arrive on Saturday afternoon and we had planned to get started working first thing Sunday morning.

She found another flight, with Delta, and will arrive on Monday instead. That's not too bad, considering. But I was a bit bummed by the news. I was looking forward to seeing her today. We were going to take it easy, maybe stroll around St. Augustine, have a late lunch somewhere interesting. But in addition to that, we had really planned on getting a lot done on Sunday. There's over 40 years of accumulated stuff in that house, so every moment counts.

Joy, Jo and I are still going to meet at the house and do as much as we can. There's plenty of things to do and areas to clean that won't require Ann's opinion. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it though.

* * * * *

After that stunning discovery, I had the whole day ahead of me, void of plans. I still have tons of freelance stuff to do and was wondering just how I was going to juggle that work with our plans for the week. Do you think I used today wisely though? Nope. I sure didn't.

Tom suggested going to Orange Cycle for their spring sale. I jumped on that idea and added that we could cruise by Florida Mall on the way home. It was agreed, so that's what we did. It was a really good day though and we had fun together. First we went to the bicycle shop. We ended up stuck there when a thunderstorm rolled through. We both like that store a lot, but grew tired of it eventually. Tom and I were there 1.5 hours and we saw everything twice. Maybe three times. Our friends Matt and Vicky showed up and we enjoyed visiting with them. But as soon as the rain lightened enough, we got the heck out of there.

At the mall I drug Tom to all of my usual haunts:
Coach, of course. But there was nothing new there.

Sephora, where I bought some Smashbox O-GLOSS lipgloss. It's really cool because it "reacts with your personal chemistry to transform from clear into your own custom shade of pink." I also gave in to my curiosity and all of the hype about minerals makeup and got a bareMinerals Get Started Kit. First, I had one of the girls there color match me and show me how to apply it. Pretty simple, really. I'm always looking for makeup that's fast and easy. Can't get much simpler than swirling powder onto my face using a brush, right? I wasn't in Sephora very long, though it felt like eternity to Tom. I just love that store. One of these days I'm going to the mall by myself and I will just spend hours looking and testing to my heart's desire.

Victoria's Secret, because I wanted the same eye shadow that one of my coworkers has. It's just the perfect shade of plum that I've been looking for, but so far hadn't found. I ended up buying several colors and a lip gloss, that I didn't even need or want. But the items were 5 for $20 and it was basically free.

Tom wasn't miserable the entire time. We browsed in Oakley, because he likes that store. I never find anything there for myself though. We also went to Champs where he got, good Lord, another ball cap. This one is a Yankees spring training cap. Looks like all the other ones to me. (He promised to get rid of some old hats - we'll see) We went to the Apple Store, also for him, surprisingly. He bought a Bluetooth headset for his iPhone.

After we were done with the mall (I wasn't really done, but I knew Tom was done) we went to Outback for dinner. We don't go to Outback very often because they are always crazy crowded. Maybe it's because there are so many choices in Orlando that we waited less than 10 minutes.

And that's how I spent my day. I know I'm going to be regretting it when I'm staying up until midnight every day for a week, in order to get my freelance work completed.