My 2 cents

In the last few weeks of school, I was needing to study every waking moment.

I stopped meeting with the women's leadership in our church. We stopped having social time with our friends. Micah even made me stop doing housework of any kind so that I could completely focus on school.

One of the bottle necks is my studying was finding a good place to study. I can't study very long at home because I get distracted with the other things to do there, including sleeping! So, I thought the chain bookstore here in town would be the perfect solution. They have plenty of tables to study at, there is a coffee shop attached, they're open late, and they have wireless internet.

So, I went one Sunday afternoon, and started to settle in for what promised to be several long hours of studying. Only, I couldn't connect to the internet.

Most people would probably say that I don't need the internet to sit and study for hours, but they'd be wrong. Sure, I may not need it for the actual work. But, I most certainly do need internet for my SANITY.

You see, if I can't have some sort of distraction (in the form of a chat client or a blog to read) I wouldn't last more than an hour. But, give me wireless internet, and I could sit and be VERY productive studying for hours on end, because I would get interaction with other people at regular intervals, which I crave.

So, imagine my shock and dismay when I realized that the bookstore charges $3.99 for 2 hours of wireless internet! 2 hours is NOT going to cut it!

I should clarify, that I'm NOT against spending money. They provide a service, and I'm more than willing to pay for the ability to sit in their establishment and get things done. Normally, I would spend anywhere between 3 and 10 dollars on drinks and food in order to feel like I wasn't treating them unjustly.

But, I am not willing to pay for internet usage when I could pay the same amount and enjoy a tasty coffee drink for the same price and get free internet usage to boot!

So, while I would have liked to have the variety in my studying, I decided to stick with the local coffee shop instead.


Oh, and have I mentioned lately that I'm DONE WITH SCHOOL?! It's SO nice to not have to study!

But, I do enjoy a place to sit and work on projects from time to time. In fact, I am sitting at the local coffee shop right now enjoying a blended mocha and wireless internet, and it's wonderful.

Pictures of my IN HOUSE work station coming soon, compliments of my friend Shawna!

You know you're a grown-up when...

A man in our church met us at our car this past Sunday morning when we pulled up at 8:30am. He greeted us with, "we just said the closing prayer!" I think he was joking that we missed church, when really he was referring to the prayer group that meets at the church every Sunday morning from 8:00-8:30am.

It reminded me of something I meant to post about a long while ago!

Micah and I were late for music practice at the last Day Light Saving time change, not because we forgot to change our clocks, but because NO ONE TOLD US TO.

I couldn't even believe it. Normally everyone and their moms, and I do mean OUR moms, remind us.

I guess this is just further proof that we're expected to be a self-sufficient unit.

Bummer! :)

Please show the audience what's behind door number 3

A couple of months ago my car was making some funny noises.

I'm sure you can imagine me on the phone with a couple of car places trying to replicate the sound for the man on the other end of the line.

I'm sure each of them mocked me later.

I eventually got the problem fixed in exchange for a pretty penny or two, but what struck me was the difference in my options of auto-repair places.

Option 1 was Chain Guy. This is the company that you could find in most any American city. Their price reflects the name recognition that they hold, but you know what you can expect from their work, much like how you know the McDonald's across the nation will look exactly like the one down the street from your house. It's predictable.

And, it's convenient. It's close to your home and they provide rides back to your house while your car is being worked on.

Option 2 was Dealer Guy. Normally, your best bet is to steer clear of these places because they tend to be quite a bit pricier than even Chain Guy. But, something I discovered is that, the price difference is all in the labor. The ideal situation would be to buy the part (assuming you know what part you need - which is a big assumption in a story involving me!) from Dealer Guy and take it elsewhere for installation.

Option 3 was Local Guy. Whenever possible, I'm a sucker for the local business over the chain business. And, because Local Guy isn't paying franchise dues, you can bet that his price for labor is cheaper. However, one thing that surprised me in my research is that his price for the part was also cheaper.

So, it's a win-win situation. Option 3 would be picked every time, right?

Only, imagine that you went to Option 1 for an oil change, and they've already got your car torn apart, know exactly what's wrong with it, and could potentially charge you a portion of the labor
in payment for figuring what was wrong with it.

Further imagine that Local Guy is a fair distance from home, and it the problem could be made worse by taking your car on the trek across down. Oh, and also, you would need a ride because Local Guy's shop isn't the best place for a 20-something girl to hang out in.


So, what's a girl supposed to do? Clearly from the facts, we chose to go with Chain Guy, because in this situation, the dice were stacked against us. And, even though I would probably rather go to Local Guy 9 times out of 10, I got REALLY good service from Chain Guy.

In fact, I got such good service from Chain Guy, I'm inclined to go back for each oil change, even if it costs me a few extra dollars.

How do you guys handle this situation? Do you have hubbies that do all that work themselves? Do you have a favorite place to go?

New Furniture

Our church has 2 teams this year for a sand volleyball league! They met for practice this last week, and it was great fun to hang out with everyone while I watched!

This is my mommy in her new outfit for volleyball. Isn't she cute?!


You may be thinking, "what on earth does this have to do with new furniture?!"

And, if you are thinking that, you probably don't know me very well. Cause, those that DO know me well know that when I tell a story I have to start WAY back at the beginning.

I've been promising to post pictures of my furniture so that people could help me figure out how to arrange it in our living room. But, as it turns out, it's taken me so long to get pictures up, that I actually know how I want it.

Which is totally due to the fact that our friend Jonathan volunt to come over and move 2 pieces of furniture after volley ball practice on Wednesday.

This is him (in red) next to my hubby (in orange) at practice.

NOW do you see the connection? Hehe...OK, there's not really a connection at all.

That's all the pictures I'm going to post of this last week of volleyball, but my dear friend Rachel has posted a few more pictures of the actual volleyball action, if you're in to that sort of thing. ("That sort of thing" being pictures that actually relate to the topic at hand.)

Anyway, back to the furniture situation! Jonathan brought his wife and kids to our house after volleyball practice so that he could help my hubby move furniture.

At the time, I thought I only had a book shelf and a T.V. stand to move from downstairs, but
as it turns out, I also had a shelving unit and a hope chest that would work better downstairs, and "needed" to move my living room around at least 3 times before I got something I liked.

I kept brainstorming out loud thinking the other adults in the room could tell me whether a certain configuration would look right. "What do you think it would look like if we moved the couch against this wall, the love seat in it's place, and then the bookshelf on the other wall...and..."

And, Mr. Cheerful (Jonathan) would simply say, "well, let's just see what it looks like!" It was really funny to his wife and I, but Micah was a bit worn out! Which, I'm not all too certain, wasn't Jonathan's motive. :)

But, all is done, and I think I like the arrangement. You'll have to use your imagination on the pictures; I couldn't quite get it all in. And, my video camera doesn't have a flash.

And now, I can cross "posting furniture pictures" off my to-do list. How's that for taking the title of my blog to heart?!