True to the script!

It never fails. There are always a few things that happen right before we leave town - something needs to be repaired, the price of gas goes up, and I suddenly have no desire to pack. Yesterday was scene 1 and 2, scene 3 started today. Tomorrow afternoon we are hoping to skip town for nearly two weeks to visit DH's newly found family in Florida and then mine in Virginia.

It all started with a puddle around the toilet early yesterday. Its a really old toilet that was already on the list of things to be replaced. We were just hoping to do it when we remodeled the whole room. We know the plumbing is a mess, but the only access to it is a rather small hole in the floor. (Its a hole we added to the decor to retrieve the neighbor's puppies when we first moved in. Don't ask!) Anyhow, rather than it being a somewhat simple job of taking out the old and putting in the new, something had to break. Now we had a toilet with a cracked tank and a leaky pipe under the house. What fun. And of course, as of yet, no one thought to put a shut off to this toilet, so the whole house was without water. Oh joy. So, the leak has been fixed and new shut off valve installed and as I type the old toilet is being removed. Stay tuned since that script hasn't been written in stone yet and the new toilet is still in the hallway.

Scene 2 involved the price of gas. It has been slowly dropping around here for a few months, but yesterday I noticed it jumped 9 cents. Not a really big deal as we have all been experiencing these exorbitant prices and lately they have been on the low side, but still --- we will be driving over 2500 miles between now and the new year. Why not continue to drop? Cuz gas prices always go up before a trip.

Scene 3 is my desire to pack. I am always ready to leave a week too early. For nearly 2 weeks this time! But as of this morning I don't want to do anything. I have to start packing today. I have to finish up miscellaneous bead orders, clean LOTS of beads, blah, blah, blah and all I want to do is snuggle with my buddy, Elijah. I have managed to procrastinate a bit and be productive by posting this, but its has only delayed the inevitable by a 1/4 of an hour or so. So, I am off to finish off the last few loads of laundry, haul out the luggage, and gather all the goods that will be traveling with us.

The next update will probably be from somewhere south of here.....

and then there was joint pain

So, did you know that the 3rd symptom of 5th disease (in adults) is joint pain? I did but I never expected it to hit like it did the other night. It started in the evening with my left arm feeling achy and by 10 or 11, I was 100% ready to just give in. I took 4 ibuprofen within 2 hours and the pain only got worse. It was a very rough night of thinking how hard it was going to be twirling a mandrel! By the morning (and after I broke into the stash of 'good stuff' from previous prescriptions) the pain had subsided to a manageable level, but I still chose to visit a doctor. He confirmed that I wasn't having a heart attack :) and that it was this funny named disease and gave me a couple of different arthritis type medications.
I am doing pretty good now, with just a low level of achyness. In less than a week, I will be heading out of town and I can't afford non-torch time now!

Slapped Cheek

Well, strangeness abounds once again. Maybe its not too strange to you, but I haven't run across it much in my lifetime. Fifth disease or slap cheek as it is sometimes called, that is. It seems as though it has run across me this time. I know I got it from my dear #3, but where he got from it I haven't a clue. I had a fever all weekend and come Sunday morning I was covered in a lacy looking rash. The worst seems to be over and the rash isn't overly itchy. Oh well, life goes on.
Now that could be a different story for my desktop. I took my tower in late Friday for some minor upgrades and it isn't back yet. A job that should have taken a few hours is taking about 4 days. I just needed to move some everything to a bigger home - from 80 gigs to 250. For whatever reason, it is all moving at a snail's pace. All of my pictures and general website stuff is stored on there, so there's a few things I was working on that have been put on hold. At the current rate of transfer, it won't be finished until tomorrow! Hopefully, after this everything will have more elbow room and move much smoother.

Color Chart

Just had to shout out that the vetrofond odd lots color chart has been updated. I am sure there are a couple of colors that are missing, but right now I am unaware of what those are. If you feel like helping me out in the department, just email me. But for now, this is all the colors I have (besides all those weird pinks!)

eBay Faves

So are you like me with a huge list of eBay favorite sellers? Nearly everyday, I get a little email that tells me what new listings my favorites have put up for sale. Its quite aggravating because that list used to be huge. For whatever reason for the past month, there have only been 3 sellers included in this email! I am missing out on some wonderful beads and things, I just know it. If the stuff isn't put right in front of me, I tend to forget to go look. But today, I found a different way. Instead subscribing to the Favorite Seller Top Picks for each of my favorites, I did a 'save this search' for each of them. It goes something like this:
1) Go to any of my listings - like this one --> Black White Spirals
2) Click on the List link - this can be found under the Meet the Seller info off to the right.
3) Click 'save this search' - its right above the first listing to the right of the amount of listings found (today that reads 562 items found).
4) Name the search and click save. Just make sure the box is checked to receive the daily emails - unless you'd rather not....then you can find them all in your favorites!
Viola, your done. Now for a few days, it might show ALL of my listings as new. But after a bit, this will actually show you just the new listings. Its nice to get a quick email everyday. I have plenty of favorites I haven't bought from in a while, but I sure do like looking at beads! Now if etsy would only let me set something up to send something to my inbox on my faves, I'd be even happier.