When the Cat's away...the Mice are lost!!

We have an ice maker...a really nice ice maker. It makes little cubes of ice which stay fresh due to a process where the ice doesn't freeze, they just get born-then melt!

You'd think my life would be complete---except the door to the ice maker has some issues. The problem is the door doesn't close completely at times  It just stays open about a half inch.  When this happens, Jim gets a screwdriver and does something. 

Jim left for the UK yesterday and won't be home for a week. That's a long time to leave a freezer door open.  Since I have no idea how to fix the door, I string arted it!  This looks just like the string art project I did in 7th grade (imagine colored string-smaller scale)

I'm thinking about stringing some other parts of the house!!

Like Mama, Like Baby

Anne Elizabeth got her first haircut at the Cameo Room Beauty Shop in Columbus, IN. If you remember hearing about Ethan's first haircut (refer to Anne's blog) ---recap---dirty children's place in Greenwood; then Corey's homespun haircut--it was time to approach the dilemma again.

After getting Anne's approval (very important fact of this story), I told Anne that I would be happy to take Ethan to the Cameo Room.

Presto! Appointment made for that day! I picked Ethan up at school and told him about our activity. Success-- we had a hair cut!



Looking a little timid after a quick wet down of hair. Should have taken before pic--major bed head look.


















About this time, Ethan starting saying "all done". It was time for the secret weapon- iPhone with airplane mode turned on.





A few self portraits...and a few text messages sent since Ethan knows how to turn airplane mode OFF!

Now, if I could only convince Corey there were no chlorofluorocarbons and ethanol particulates in the air this would have had a good ending!!

Morgan Elaine

Morgan Elaine Trobaugh turned 4 weeks and 5 days old on January 23.

Anne has made it out of the house just a few times since winter is hibernation time in the Midwest.

I'm Anne's mother, so I always offer advice. I told her she needed to get out of the house. People start getting weird when they never leave the house and the only color they see outside is-GREY! (ok- my main reason was I wanted to play with Morgan)

Anne left for Target and I got time with Morgan.

Here's what play time consisted of:













In between yawns, Morgan kept saying "I love you grandma".

Engineering 101

"To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the
glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big
as it needs to be."

Most everyone who reads this blog has either lived/or is living with an engineer. I'd like to think my life has been enriched because of this.

It's with this, that I want to show you Jim's yearly engineering feat. The pontoon boat needs to be kept unfrozen during the winter months on the lake. This is a perfect job for Jim. He can design, create, redesign, recreate and test for 3 months. Perfect it by spring, then disassemble and think about how to improve it next year.

His first design was to buy a heater for the water (from Rural King….my favorite store…FREE popcorn {did I hear FREE}). This worked well, but then Jim figured out the cost to run this heater and quickly realized he needed a new design. How did he figure out it was expensive to run? He actually sat at his desk and wrote numbers on a paper and did math stuff (probably Calculus….cause he can!!) This was before my blog--otherwise I would have taken a pic.

Scrap the heaters! On to Bubblers! The top picture shows a line between the 2 boats (yes, we're renting/giving space to our neighbors boat) with a device that churns the water. It's placed directely between the two boats. Now let the fun begin---Jim can do what he does best---TEST it! He can adjust a timer to come on whenever he wants to. He started off with Bubbler on for 12 hours, then off for 12 hours. Way over designed! Next iteration- on one hour, off one hour X 24 hours.

Jim can't wait until it gets really cold to see what other changes he can make!

Anything Can Happen Wednesday

Most of you who read this blog aren't old enough to know about the Musketeer's Anything Can Happen Wednesdays.








But if you were, you'd know that Wednesdays are fun days for me.  Here's some things from Anything Can Happen Wednesday.

Did I hear FREE??

This morning I heard about the Indiana Powerball giveaway at 13 locations around the state. I grabbed my iPad (which I keep next to my bed for these kind of emergencies) and found out the Circle K was a location in Columbus.

I had no idea so many people stopped by Circle K on their way to work.



There were lottery people waiting at the door giving out Powerball tickets. They were excited to hear I had come to Circle K just for their tickets. I took their picture and told them they would be in my blog.




I have to figure out when I win the grand prize. When they pull my number, I'm ready!

Winner

Today was a fun and tasty day! I came to work to learn I won the QMix office party--for today! (short notice for my invite list).

The menu consisted of pizza, dairy queen ice cream cake, and baked goods from a local bakery. We got to wash this all down with coke products. Nothing but health foods here in southern Indiana! There was also a bouquet of flowers.

I entered online with the local radio station last week. Must not have been many entries this month!

Here I am with QMix 'Chuck'---afternoon DJ, AM delivery person.

New Year, New Hobby

I got a new camera for Christmas from my sister, Linda.  I went to a photography class yesterday in Indianapolis to learn the basics of operating all the buttons.  While I was up there I rented a new studio ..

Not really....just took a picture of our classroom.










Our class walked out in the hallway and took some pictures with different setting (white balance).

I captured some pics of Mom, but the room was a little dark and I didn't have my instructor there to show me what to do ....and my notes were in the car! Mom was a great model.

Here is a look at the first freeze of Tipton Lake.  Stay tuned for a photo essay of Jim's engineering fete to keep the boat house water unfrozen.

Linda, thanks again for the camera.  If you'd like to be 'shot' in green, yellow, or white light...I'm on it!!