prom | My Blog

Of Prom and Pollen, Sneezes and Spasms

Posted on April 27, 2008 by

Last night was the high school prom. Daniel got all dressed up and looked so handsome. I wasn’t sure it was my son he looked so nice!

Since this is a small town, everyone is invited to the Grand March. This is where the DJ or the principal introduces all of the couples. We got there early, so I could get a good seat. While there were about 80 kids at prom, there were nearly 300 people in the audience.

It always amazing me how nice they can make that place look with a bit of fabric, flowers and lights. Daniel’s date, Angela met us at the high school. Her mom sat next to me on the bleachers and she didn’t even know what dress Angela had picked for the night as they had bought three different ones! However, Angela looked beautiful! Our first glimpse of her was when she and Daniel came down the catwalk. All of the kids were suppose to stop just past the arch. The girls got a rose from the guys, and the guys got a garter from the girls. They they are suppose to turn, stop and let everyone take pictures… Right…..

I barely got this picture. The next one shows them walking off. sigh… However, I did get some good ones at the end where everyone is trying to take pictures and it looks like a paparazzi feeding frenzy.

I slowly worked my way to the door and headed home. Downloaded all the pictures and sent them off to the various relatives. :> Then I did some laundry and decided to make an early night of it. I had a date with my book!

So, there I was, quietly reading when I sneezed. Achoo! Pain! Spasm! Achoo! More pain! Oh my gods! Somehow, I had twisted/pinched/torqued the muscles on the left side of my ribcage right at the lower edge of the ribs. I laid there trying to catch my breath, and Oscar the dog kept poking at me with that “mom! Mom! Are you ok?” look on his face. He’s a German Shepard who thinks he’s a cat. So, having an 85 pound dog trying to check on me while I curled up in a ball and tried not to sneeze again was a bit awkward. John came down to check on me and by then I was able to sit up. I figured I could breath, so I tried to read a bit more of my book. Did fine right up until I sneezed again. Pain! This time, I put the book down and curled up on my side and went to bed.

Woke up this morning, feeling fine. Right up until the point where I moved. Mistake! Whatever is pinched is still there. Sneezing hurts. Breathing, drinking, eating hurts! A hot shower helped a bit, but… Ow! Figured it didn’t matter what I did, so I went to the office, as my desk is still a disaster. Thought I could at least get some paperwork done. Of course, I sneezed and almost fell out of my chair. Dan gave me that look, the one that asks what’s wrong and says he thinks I’ve screwed up and should know better. Once he found out, he made me a hot water bottle. So, I curled up for a while with a hottie and tried to relax.

I went back to my computer a bit ago, and while sneezing/coughing/breathing still hurts, it isn’t as painful. Dan is driving the kids to school tomorrow as the thought of sneezing and spasming at 65mph just doesn’t thrill me. I’ll have enough on my plate as it is, just showering and doing the paperwork.

I hate allergies!

First Flight! (or, Jr. g33k takes her first job)

Posted on April 26, 2008 by

Well, sorta…

Yesterday, I got a call from a client of ours who is very sweet although not exactly tech savvy. Her computer was being flooded with pop-ups saying that her virus protection was dead. I tried to walk her through the process on the phone, but soon realized that she couldn’t cope. So, I explained what was going on to Dan. While I was talking to him and wondering how he was going to have time to go do this, I realized that the client had Vista. A platform that neither of us are very familiar with in any way. So, while he tried to get to a stopping point, I decided that I could go and do this job. All it was was a software clean up and install. So, I told the client I’d be right down. I think I actually surprised Dan. :>

So, I hopped in Little Red Truck and headed off to her shop. She has an antique mall type place. I found out that she hadn’t done any updates and that her MacAfee’s had gone dead. It took me forever to find where to uninstall programs. Not to mention I got sick and tired of Vista’s “Nanny mentality” real fast. grrr……. Cleared up the files, downloaded programs and started to run them. Couldn’t get things to do what I wanted, because Adobe 7.5 wasn’t interacting well with Vista. Had to dump that and start again. By this time, I am getting good with Vista… sigh.

While the programs were running, I went to see if Daniel’s flowers were ready. They weren’t, so I have to pick them up later this morning. Wheee… Prom! Talked to John on the phone for a minute. He was laughing about me having “fun” with Vista. I went back and did some more work. Gave her Firefox, Thunderbird, AVG and Adobe 8. I got everything working except her email. I lhad AVG running it’s stuff and by this point, Dan had shown up to see what was taking so long. rolls eyes He was teasing me of course. However, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we left AVG doing it’s thing and went to eat dinner.

While we were eating dinner, I found out that John had called looking for me and Dan had taken the opportunity to tell John how proud he was of me. That I had gone from computer illiterate to jr. g33k with enough confidence to go out and help some one else. 🙂 I was embarrassed and happy all at the same time.

We went back this morning and between Dan and myself, we got her email up and running as well as finished all the updates, virus clean-ups etc. Wheeeee! We picked up Daniel’s flowers and dumped the deposit in the bank.

The rest of this afternoon has been spent adding Digg, Technorati and del.iciou.us accounts. Fun…… I hope. Oh, and Prom to photograph tonight.

Come Saturday morning,

Posted on April 19, 2008 by

And I’m finally relaxing after a busy week. Oh my this has been a non-stop run from Sunday to today, and it isn’t going to get any quieter for a while. (ever?)

Yesterday was my regular ‘run to Pueblo’ shopping trip. We go up about every two weeks to get all the groceries needed for our crazy extended family. This includes the Harpers-Dan/Beth/Matt/Morgan, my eldest son and family- Erin/Morgan/Logan and us-John/Daniel & me. Oh, and you can’t forget the 3 dogs and 6 cats. I learned a long time ago that it was cheaper to shop in Pueblo for the majority of the groceries. Safeway in town is good for emergency things, milk and meat. Otherwise, they are just too expensive to buy all the day to day stuff. Yes, even with the gas prices at $3.39 a gallon. On an average trip, I go to Vitamin Cottage, Sam’s Club, Target, PetCo/Petsmart, and Walmart. I’d prefer to shop at just Target and Vitamin Cottage, but can’t afford the cost. Even Safeway, King Soopers, or City Market in Pueblo are even more expensive. Therefore, I compromise. In the summer, I hit the farmers markets and have a small garden when possible. Our high desert climate and the droughts we’ve had over the last 10 years have made that difficult at times.

This trip included a run to JCPenny’s. Last time it was Little Morgan who needed special clothing. This time it was Daniel. He told me on Thursday evening that he was taking Angela to Prom. You could have knocked me over with a stick! He and Angela have been friends since about 3rd grade. Never really dating per say, but always friends. Dan said that he had a double breasted suit jacket that Daniel could borrow. It fit like it was made for him. Therefore, all we had to get were the trews, tie and shirt.

Daniel is very muscular, and so it took 5 different styles of trews to find a pair to fit that he liked. Granted, it would have helped if he wore them around his waist instead of his hips, but….. that’s just me being old fashioned I guess! Finally found a pair to fit. Black, front pleats and satin finished with cuffs. Size 34/29’s. If he’d worn them at the waist, they’d have been 32/30’s. Oh well. On to the shirt and tie. I think we looked through 20 different shirts and half a dozen styles. To go with that waist of his, he has broad shoulders. We finally found a double back pleated shirt in sateen finish that he liked. Maroon. Size 16.5/34. We could have gone for a 17 collar, but that would have been just too much shirt around the waist. The tie he picked out was black silk with diagonal stripes in satin and matte finish. I was trying not to think what this would cost. Luckily, it was all on sale, so instead of spending nearly $200, I got out of there for $94. phew!

After that little adventure, we did the regular grocery run and had lunch at the Panda Buffet. It had been a while since I’d been in there and it was a nice change. I get tired of fast food, and there are only 3 or 4 nice sit down restaurants to go to nearby that I like. Being diabetic has made me a tad picky.

We got home at 5:30pm, unloaded groceries at 203 and then 520. Daniel couldn’t wait any longer and tried on the clothes we’d bought. When he came out to have me tie the tie, I wasn’t sure that it was my Daniel! Oh my! Then he put on the jacket and “struck a pose”. WoW! GQ watch out! Even Daniel was impressed with how he looked. When Dan got back to the office an hour or so later, Daniel dressed up again. Dan was gob smacked. When we showed John, Morgan and Erin after that, John and Morgan were also impressed. Erin just looked at his brother and asked when they were going to get back to the show we’d interrupted! LOL…..

I have promised to get pictures at Prom. It’s next Saturday, and true to form in a small town, everyone who is even slightly related to some kid at prom shows up for the grand march. It cracked me up the first time I got an invitation to Prom when I was on the local school board. I didn’t know that the invitation was to attend the grand march. Totally confused me! We never did that in Littleton. My graduating class was bigger than the entire school district here. It is fun though to see the kids all dressed up. You can tell the girls who haven’t worn a dress since 8th grade graduation or their Quinceaños. They walk so awkwardly in dresses and heels. And the boys…. most of them haven’t worn a suit since they were about 3 or 4. They clean up so nicely!

Today was catch-up day. I’m trying to do all the paperwork I should have gotten done on Friday. Dan and Karen are installing parts for the Aguilar wifi system. They did a run to Denver yesterday for parts. Catch-up day for all of us. I even caught up on a bit of sleep. I got up late today, and yet was falling asleep over my keyboard. Not wanting to wake up with QWERTY on my forehead, I laid down for a nap. I ended up with Tosoto and Princess Butterbutt curled up behind my legs. They were warm and comfy, and not happy that I got up. Oh well. Once Karen and Dan get back, I’ll be off to 203. Wheee…… More laundry and housework. I think I need a vacation!