Mad skills...

Merril is handy and I mean really handy. I've never seen something that Merril hasn't been able to fix, or through messing around, get it to work okay. So before I bought the digital piano on Craig's List, I called Merril and said, "Hey, this digital piano is great but 2 keys don't play. Does that sound like something you could fix??" He paused and then said, "I should be able to make it work! You should buy it."

So I've had and played the piano for about a week and yesterday and I wanted Merril to look at it. We took it off the stand and pulled a bunch of screws out and cracked it open.

You can see the keys pulled out on the floor.

One white key would go up and down but not make any sound and the black key was sunk and wouldn't bounce back up. Our first plan was to yank the 2 broken keys and replace them with 2 keys on the high end of the keyboard, those ones up there that never get played.

So he got the keys out, swapped them, and plugged it in to test. The two keys work great! And to our surprise, the two broken keys on the top end work great too!! I'm guessing the two broken keys had dislodged slightly and weren't hitting the striker sensor correctly, or something like that. So now the whole keyboard plays beautifully! Yeah! My husband is awesome.

I'm so jealous...

Merril used to work for a tour company that would accompany Japanese tourists around Las Vegas and the National Parks in our area. Last week, they called Merril, desperate for some help. So Merril flew to San Francisco and boarded a bus to accompany Japanese tourists from there to Las Vegas. (Rough life huh.) They stopped at Yosemite and Redwoods National Parks and Death Valley along the way. He was gone for a few days and liked brushing up on his Japanese skills.

The tour company called again to ask if he'd take some Japanese tourists out to Monument Valley and they stopped along the way at Antelope Canyon and I'm SO JEALOUS! If you don't know what Antelope Canyon is, it's the most photographed slot canyon in the west and I'm sure you've seen the pictures.

That sandstone is wicked awesome!

All I can say is that he better be taking me sometime soon!

Craig's List deal...

"Do you know what we found on Craig's List?"

"We found this!"

I am not a fabulous piano player but I like to dabble. I'd like to get better but it's hard to improve without something to practice on. Some day I want to take actual lessons and land one of those cushy piano-playing callings. Merril and I have tossed around the idea of a digital piano for a while but were just waiting for the appropriate deal. On Craig's List yesterday, I saw this black digital piano for sale. I went over and looked at it. Two keys don't work and 2 keys down by the very bottom end have been melted (something about a candle Christmas decoration falling over on it.) When I called Merril to consult with him, he said he can probably fix broken keys. The melty ones play fine. So I bought it and paid $50!! It's nice looking, the key action is good, the bench is in really great shape, and the harpsichord button is a lot of fun. I actually prefer the sound of a harpsichord. But I've looked at harpsichords and they're rare and expensive. But I'm excited and the kids have been having tons of fun on it.

*P.S. Between the DVD recorder and the piano, I might not be getting anything for Christmas. Hee hee.*

You look like who?

Yesterday for church, I decided to set my hair with hot rollers. It's not something I do regularly because it takes a lot of time. When I'd finished getting them in, Maxine said she wanted a couple too! She looked like this:

Upon seeing herself in the mirror, she said, "I look like George Washington!" *peals of Maxine's laughter* Yep, she's not far off.

Glasses...smasses

It's safe to say that I don't love my glasses. I don't know how people can stand to wear them all day. Mine serve as a gateway of sight from the time I get up until I can get my contacts in. I'd like to have laser surgery someday but yada yada yada, on with the story.

So anyway, Juliet bent mine so bad a few months back that one of the side pieces broke. I've been holding it together with tape. At the bus stop the other morning, a neighbor leaned in close and said, "Do you have tape holding your glasses together??" I replied, "Yes...yes I do." I've never bothered to go get new frames because I just don't wear my glasses that often. Plus, Christmas is coming up and I didn't want to blow $100 on an item that I loathe.

So anyway, I was thinking about how I could mend them. I'd tried JB weld twice but it just wasn't doing the trick. (Which for me is a first because JB Weld has always exceeded my expectations.) So upon further pondering, I discovered the solution! I ran to the dollar store and bought a cheap pair of metal rimmed sunglasses. I came home and took the side piece off the cheap sunglasses and attached it to the side of my glasses. Presto!

I fixed my glasses for $1.29! The brownish side piece in the foreground is new, the orangish one is original. Hopefully I get laser eye surgery before I need to replace the frames.

Let's get outta here...

On Friday afternoon, Merril took me to Las Vegas for an afternoon/evening away from the kids! Yeah! Merril had to drop off a skid loader attachment and left me at my sister's house to gab for an hour. Then he came and picked me up and we went out to eat sushi with some friends. We used to live by a great all-you-can-eat sushi place and try to get back there as often as possible. After we gabbed with those friends and ate WAYYY too much, we decided to head down to the strip. We've always liked the Bellagio because of the conservatory and the fountain show.

The conservatory had a huge Ferris wheel of flowers in it. They're always doing the craziest stuff in there.

Then we walked across the street to The Paris. (Not the real Arc de Triomphe in the back.)

The Paris has a shop called Lenotre which houses the most beautiful little cakes, tarts, and eclairs. I saw this cake and thought of Amy's mad cake skills.

Then we headed back to the Bellagio to get the truck and drive home. We made it around 2 a.m. I took this last picture on a moving walkway, that's why the background is so blurred. I kinda like it though.

And now for a funny story (only read on if you want to feel smarter): Before we left for Vegas, my intention was to meet Merril and his Mom in town to drop off the kids. Jack was asleep when I got to the parking lot where I was to meet Merril so I left him inside with the A/C on. Merril showed up and Maxine and Juliet were playing on some grass and we waited for Merril's Mom. When she got there, the kids loaded in and I snagged Jack from the back seat of the Tahoe. I plopped him in with Grandma and jumped in with Merril. About 2 blocks away, I said to Merril, "I didn't lock the Tahoe!" Merril called a friend to go over and lock it after work.

So fast forward through our Vegas trip to the next morning at 8:30 a.m. Merril dropped me off at the Tahoe so I could go to Grandma's house and pick up the kids. I reached for the door, hoping it was locked and it opened. "Great, I hope nothing's missing.", I thought to myself. As I sat down in the driver's seat I noticed the radio was on.....and the air conditioning.......and the engine was running. We had left the Tahoe idling in a parking lot with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition for 18 hours. Luckily, the only thing missing was 1/3 of a tank of gas. Now, don't you feel smarter?? Have a great week!

First and last...

I am not a scrapbooker. I have lots of friends who are really great at it and even get paid for it. To me, it seems like a really inefficient use of time. I prefer albums because I need to get my history done and not worry about it anymore.

When Maxine started school, her teacher sent home a note that said, "Our class is putting together a class scrapbook. Please send a nice page by September 10th." In my head I said, "YiKeS!!!"

I put it off for way too long and meant to go over to my friend's house to use her Cricut (I mean you Jamie B.) but just never did. Maxine picked out 2 pieces of scrapbooking paper over the weekend and I just finished slapping it together. It's my first and last scrapbooking page. It is soooo not my thing. Please, no criticism.

Dead...

Since I bought a remote off Ebay for my DVD player, it finally decided to die. Nice. So I was stuck. Did I want to buy a DVD player or recorder? We decided to buy a DVD recorder, which is something I didn't want to do right now, but it's been great. I guess it'll have to be my early Christmas present.

But since having the recorder, I've burned all the little camcorder tapes I've been lugging around for years into nice DVDs. Ah. That feels nice. I guess now I'll sell that other remote on Ebay, since I only used it for 2 weeks.

Snagged a picture of Juliet...

My friend, Amy, is a brilliant photographer and snapped this one of Juliet. Then she messed with it in Photoshop and made my sweet Tahoe look about 50 years old. While I was looking at it, I actually thought, "Who's old car is Juliet in??"

Here's her photography website if you want to take a look.

Crazy or brilliant?

Last year my friend, Ang, inspired me to get a head start on my Christmas stuff so that I wouldn't be freaking out during the month of December. I liked the idea so much last year, I'm going Christmas shopping today. :) I'm thinking of working on Christmas cards next week. So instead of doing this is December:

I'll be cozying up to this scene and feeling relaxed.

You might be thinking, "She's crazy!" Or brilliant?

Fruit roll ups!

I made fruit leather the other day because I had leftover peaches. It was so EASY! I peeled and pureed peaches in the blender. I added some honey because my peaches were a little tart. Cooked the mixture to 160 degrees and spread it onto cookie sheets lined with plastic and a teensy bit of cooking spray. I set them out in the sun all day with 2 window screens over the cookie sheets to prevent birds and lizards from eating them. Twelve hours later, I had peach fruit roll ups! I cut the plastic and rolled them up becuase I like the whole roll-up concept. I ended up with 8 fruit roll ups! I think strawberry or apricot would be really yummy! Tip: It needs to be over 85 degrees and less than 60% humidity to dry fruit leather. It was fun too!