"String too short to use"

10) It is very difficult to sing, even old familiar songs, when you are busy listening to the three-year old on your lap singing along with you. Liam knows about every third word or so to “This Little Light of Mine” and “Jesus Loves Me.” It is both hysterical and distracting to try to sing and listen at the same time. I love it!

9) My friend Nancy and I are in the process of recovering the seat and back cushions for the lodge furniture at the Wallowa Lake Methodist Camp. I’m not exactly wild about the fabric that was chosen, but at least it sews up nicely. I finished the first set of covers and they fit well. The covers are a bugger to get on the foam cushions, but once on everything is snug and looks good. Only 22 more to go!

8) I blew up the TV Sunday morning. I turned it on and heard this little pop and the screen went black. We’re pretty sure it is the lamp, so we ordered a new one from Best Buy and should have it by Thursday at the latest. As it turns out the lamp was only supposed to last about 18 months, and we have had the TV for about four years. I guess we can’t complain. We’ll see how long the new one lasts.

7) I have been playing too much this month. My week ahead is going to be crazy/busy and I really need to buckle down and get some work done. One thing I have discovered about myself since I became self-employed: I am great at procrastination. This was not a good thing to uncover. One really has to be a stern taskmaster when you have an employee like me who can creatively procrastinate like nobody’s business.

6) I've been reading a book about the Albigensian Crusade and it has really got me wondering: How many wars in the history of this world have truly been necessary? Justified? Honorable? See, I’m not even sure what word I’m looking for. I do know the Crusade into southern France in 1209 was completely bogus. It was all about a power-hungry pope and a land-hungry French king. Between the two of them they wiped out thousands of people whose only crime was not believing it necessary to go through the pope to get to Heaven. It is a good thing I didn’t live there then, I would have been slaughtered right along with the rest.

5) “Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: After you have paid your money at the checkstand, please proceed directly to customer service and wait in line. It is an almost certainty you have been overcharged and will need to get your money back. Thank-you for shopping at Wal-Mart.”

Every time I leave that place I try to remember to check my receipt. The one day I forget, here I am again. I was charged $4.50 the other day for two apples. Man, I hate that place, as my husband always says: Wal-Mart sux.

4) I got a letter today from the wife of a cousin of mine. The two of them have been having some marital difficulties and I have been so very worried. They went to a counselor and are working things out. She says things are better now than they have been in a long time. I am so relieved and happy and thankful. It always kills me when people I love split up. They are two of my favorite people and I am so glad they are working things out. Everyone keep sending love and prayers their way.

3) Liam learned to pedal his tricycle! It was one of those overnight things. One day he couldn’t figure it out and then it must have come to him in his dreams, because the next day he was just pedaling like crazy. CJE and I constructed a driveway net to keep him and his tricycle off the street. He is doing really well controlling it, but our drive is sloped just enough that it could easily get away from him and he’d just end up in the street. We decided we would relax a little easier if he had a net.

2) I got rid of my brain yesterday. Since 1993 I have been using a DayTimer planner and have called it my “brain.” I keep a journal and all sorts of notes, goal and ideas in it. For the past 18 months or so I have hardly cracked it. I’ve been a bit busy and was starting to find the paper system not convenient. So yesterday I transferred all my info to the computer. I found a calendar to use in Windows Live Mail. I don’t like it, but it is already on my computer so for now it will do. I’d like to find a more user friendly one that can be tailored to fit my needs a bit more, but am not sure what’s good. Any thoughts?

1) If you could have prevented any single fashion idea or trend from ever happening, which would you have stopped?