October 2008 archive
Already Voted
Our Washington mail-in ballots are awesome. Ours came in the mail last week and Ily and I sat down and in a relaxed manner did a little study of the issues and candidates, and then voted in the comfort of our homes. That’s right, we are done. Even better, as soon as our ballots are received, the phone callers and flyer mailers will know it and stop bothering us:
There’s another great but little-known reason to vote early that was explained in a Friday editorial in The Herald of Everett: “If you’re tired of slick campaign fliers filling your mailbox, or automated 'robo’ calls interrupting your dinner, you can shut off many of them by sending in your ballot now. Once the Auditor’s Office registers your ballot as received, the campaigns make note of it and cross you off their list. They’re interested in aiming their resources at voters who might still be on the fence, not those who have made up their minds.”
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey confirms that this is precisely the case. In the interest of public disclosure, updated lists of voters who have turned in their ballots are produced almost daily, and the political parties use these lists to plot campaign strategies.
So, you might decide that voting early is your own special way of telling the pesky campaign worker, “Don’t even bother!”
I can’t wait.
Posted by Bryan on October 27, 2008 | Filed under: Family News Politics | 3 comments
Lego Mindstorms
Isaac worked hard all summer mowing the lawn and saving money so that he could buy half a Lego Mindstorms NXT set. I bought the other half. Equally sharing in ownership, we are pretty evenly sharing in the enjoyment as well. Legos and robots. Could a more awesome combination exist? I think not. Here are two videos that Isaac filmed himself of our first robot executing Isaac’s instructions to drive forward, wait for a sufficiently loud noise, pick up a ball, and drive backwards. It also plays some music and talks with a British accent too.
Hopefully Isaac’s camera work won’t make you too dizzy:
Posted by Bryan on October 19, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments
Busy saving money
During this economic downturn and era of expensive gas we have been trying to save some money. How you ask? Well, for starters I am teaching my own child preschool. I actually do a co-op with some other gals and we take turns teaching all of the kids. Next week is my week to teach again. I love it really. The kids are great, I love them all, and I actually enjoy teaching that age. This was to free up some money for other projects that preschool tuition would have eaten up.
And what do I do with that extra money? I drive all the way over to the mall area (5 miles away) so I can take Micah and Reece to gymnastics. For a long time I wasn’t even enrolling them in gymnastics because of the inconvenience of driving over there. Five miles seems like a lot to me these days. But Micah wanted to go. Micah never really wants to go anywhere, so I sacrifice and take him to gymnastics. And since Reece can’t abide not playing in all the cool stuff too, he has to be in a class also. Hence I pay a different kind of tuition. And I am no longer saving a ton of money on tuition. And it is funny to note that I didn’t start driving so much around town until gas prices started rocketing upwards. Oh well, at least two of them are happy and the new van gets better gas mileage than the old one.
How else am I trying to save money? Well, when my carpets gets dirty, I hire Super Ily to clean my carpets. She is my crazy alter ego who can never rest until the job is done. Yes, me and Super Ily stayed up late tonight cleaning just the living room. Does it look good? I hope so, I can’t really tell. The lighting is so terrible in this house at night. But I am guessing it looks tons better after all the brownish gray water I poured out of the carpet cleaner today. And let me just tell you, that water was gross. But Super Ily approves of the cost savings so I am happy with the job well done.
Ahh, and here is another cost saver. I finished painting that hutch black. It still has some natural finish on the drawers and doors as an accent. Best of all, I didn’t have to go buy a hutch and pay someone else to refinish it (did I mention I didn’t really need one either?). And at least I didn’t even have to buy new paint for it. I had some left over from other projects and there was enough for this hutch. It is really cute so far. I just need to put on a few more finishing touches before I post a picture. Wouldn’t you know it is an 85 year old piece or so and I can’t find new handles that fit it? The hunter green handles on it right now kinda look awkward at this point with the black face lift and all.
One more cost saver is that I make my husband fix his own bike these days. What a handy man. He has been out in the garage for a few hours tonight trying to replace a tire that went flat this morning only to find that the new tire he bought wasn’t the right size and that he just had to repair the original again. The rainy season has started, I hope he gets his good bike ready to go again soon. The back-up bike has wimpy fenders and currently bad brakes. He is so good to put up with not having a car. I feel bad that I can’t give up the van for him.
Making bread for ourselves will save us money too, I just know it. Forget that I like good ingredients in it like honey and dry milk for extra protein for the boys and it probably costs more than store bought expensive bread, but hey, it is good and nutritious. And the boys will eat it. And because we are gearing up for the day that the economy falls apart, I went and bought 100 lbs of flour today. We can have bread at least once the stock market crashes. So I actually do need the flour, I was running out and use a lot for my bread, but I did feel kinda funny pushing a cart around Cash N Carry with all that flour on it. This supply will likely only last me 3 months.
So the money saving things I did today include but are not limited to: preparing all my peppers from my garden for storage in my freezer; packing lunches for me and the boys so we wouldn’t have to go out to lunch while we were out today; buying some food storage; steam cleaning my carpet myself, making my dinner instead of going out; performing TLC maintenance for Roomba so I don’t have to buy a new one; exercising to cut down on medical bills in the future; and who knows what else.
My big question is “Why does saving money cost me so much energy?” I am a bit pooped after the busy day.
Posted by Ily on October 7, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments
Pretty red stuff
Last night I stayed up late after the kids went down to bed and canned another ten pints of tomatoes. They are so pretty! I want to paint my house to match the color! More tomatoes are turning red every day. Due to the mild summer, we have had a late harvest. I will be canning these babies until Thanksgiving if the weather stays the way it is!
Just for my memory, so I don’t forget for next year, I just want to right up some of the tactics I have used this year.
- I used 2 single burner camp stoves for extra burners. In all I had 6 burners being used: 2 butane camp stoves with the water bath canners on them, one burner for boiling water, one for boiling lids and rims, and 2 for 9 × 13” pans to sterilize jars in.
- The butane stove brought the pot of water to a boil faster than the natural gas range.
- I can process 11 pints at a time or 10 quarts. To get more going, I need another water bath canner to cut down on the time it takes to process all the jars of fruit.
- It took about 2 hours from start to finish to can tomatoes. Asian pears took longer because of how long it took to peel them. Apples will take longer too.
Posted by Ily on October 2, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
