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December 29, 2007
hhhmmmm - excuse me....
Something over extended itself this morning. Something must have detected a stray piece of cat fur and dutifully started up on it's own to pursue the evil fur ball. SomeONE must check out the scheduler to make sure said someTHING does not start vacuuming at 7am while I'm sleeping.
...and they say it's so hard to get good help these days....HA!
Update: I would have been even less than thrilled at Roomba's cleaning schedule for Sunday at 4am than I was at today's schedule. All fixed - Roomba will be cleaning daily at approximately 9am - I'll probably be lounging eating Bon Bons - or something.
Posted by frani at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2007
Merry Christmas!
So I'm a little late posting but Best wishes for all were thought.
We drove to Stamford On Sunday the 23rd - Thank goodness there was only drizzle and rain showers; nothing too hard to handle in the weather dept department. We won't even discuss "those" drivers in the left lane.
It was very nice to be greeted warmly by all - especially these two critters. Maura usually greets me with some form of growth check - one of these days (and sooner than we think) she WILL be taller than Grandma Fran.
The rest of Sunday was spent getting caught up, checking out the packages under the tree, eating, putting the kids to bed and collapsing.
Monday was spent opening presents from relatives far away, last minute shopping, checking out the rest of the packages under the tree, preparing the seafood for "Lobster stew" and going to church where Maura was one of the Shepards in the Nativity. Father Gill made several references to those who only join them for services at Christmas and Easter - Ha,he wasn't talking to us - we only show up when our Grandchildren are involved in some sort of spotlight. Oh yeah, more eating, leaving a plate of goodies for Santa et al, putting the children to bed and collapsing.
Christmas Morning - Maura was up first but didn't have to wake Grandma Fran or Pop Pop Greg. Stockings were gone though with care then the unwrapping commenced; 9 people and it was all very organized despite some of us being a little overexcited- so I like to give out stuff for people to open too.
You know, it really shouldn't take more than a half hour to get the toy out of the box - someone might lose interest and move on in the meantime. He did fine and was finally able to scoop up some rocks with his excavator - umm- Kieran that is. Thank you Pop Pop!
We continued the day unwrapping and eating and playing games and eating and rechecking the stuff under the tree and eating some more. Then we put the children to bed, played some more games and collapsed.
We drove home Wednesday afternoon in some very decent weather again...lucky us! The driveway is a little icy; I got hung up trying to walk from the car to the steps. We unloaded, ate some more and Greg assembled one of my presents from the kids. Ummm...they said it wasn't a commentary on my housekeepping BUT........
Introducing...The Roomba:
The Roomba made it's initial 1 hour pass at the living room last night and I was impressed with the amount of stuff it collected and how it didn't eat cords or cables or toys in it's way - it just sort of moved them or turned a different direction. Without clear straight paths to maneuver in, the Roomba takes on "Chaos" characteristics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory) It frequency deposited some fur balls but did eventually collect most of them. The ones it didn't collect were easy to just pick up.
At the risk of showing you all just how disgusting our carpet is in the living room - this impressive amount was collected this morning on pass 2..just a short 12 hours afters the first pass. 
Now in all fairness to the housekeeper - Roomba did go places this morning it had not reached last night. I did move some obstacles so it did some more thorough cleaning. It does need to rest after an hour though....then again so do I when I vacuum. ;-D
Have a great day all - it's snowing outside at the moment. Maybe I'll go turn on the fire, read a book, take a nap orrrrrr
vacuum.
Posted by frani at 01:22 PM | Comments (1)
December 17, 2007
Surprise!
Yes, We are alive and well in spite of a little snow and wind...canceled flight etc. Looks like we got about a foot of snow on top of the six inches we got a couple of days before. I think there will be a white Christmas in Vermont this year. Just a guess, mind you.
One would think that I would have a lot to report since I haven't made a blog entry in a month and a half...one would think.
Let's see...I've attended numerous school board meetings and been appointed to a Citizens Budget Advisory committee for said same school Board. Yeah right....if all we can address is 15% of the the school budget that isn't salaries and benefits, then don't waste my time...using two sides of a piece of paper to cut costs is just not going to convince the public that the trust is still there to create a budget within our means that is appropriate to educating our children.
Our neighborhood is still fighting the building of a wood chip boiler facility at the end of our street. Big meeting to decide to start the permitting process is this Wednesday evening...stay tuned.
It snowed.
I've read some books.
I've done some Christmas shopping both online and in real stores!
Knoel and ~Elmo have been fighting over the use of the cat beds that Auntie Anna made for them.
Yeah, ~Elmo pretty much takes up all the room in this cat bed.
This is the Kool-aid bed - Anna used kool-aid to dye the yard - yup yup yup..I'll be sure to want to make a stout smilie frosted pitcher of that stuff for my grandchildren.
Guess that pretty much sums up goings on around here...have a good week, all!
Posted by frani at 11:00 AM | Comments (4)