Go Elf Yourself!

Remember those emails from a couple years back where your friends put their faces on dancing elf bodies & sent them to you with a Holiday greeting?

Well, one of Jan's co-workers was playing around and was Elfing employees, then Jan Elfed some people, so I decided to Elf the kids.

Take a look. It's so funny. {Unfortunately you have to click the link to view the video. They don't give you an option to add it in the body of your post. Kinda sucks}

See the kids all Elfed up here....

They have other movies you can make. Jan made one.

A word of caution, though ~ you just might pee your pants from laughing so hard....

Watch You'll Put Your Eye Out Here....

If you need a little Holiday stress relief, I suggest you go Elf yourself. And some friends, too!

They say curiosity killed the cat. This morning, it killed my keyboard.....

I got up this morning & as I do every morning and I went to turn on my laptop. When I opened it, the left hinge was sticking and popping out. So being how I am, I went to work on trying to fix it.

Mind you I have no idea what I was doing.

Which is pretty much how I start fixing any of my computers.

And how I usually end up messing things up.

So, I was messing with the hinge {a screw had come loose} and thought I'd take off the keyboard to check out how it's connected & to clean it.

I got it off all right. Got it cleaned up, too. Only problem is, in the process I broke the cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard!

Lucky for me I had 3 extra keyboards for a PC {don't ask} & one that hooked up via the USB port.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to use a laptop with a PC keyboard??

First off, it feels different. So I keep hitting all the wrong keys.

Worse than I normally do!

Second, every time I have to type something, I start on the laptop keyboard & get 3 words in when I remember it ain't workin'!

It's such a bugger.

I did a Google search on how to fix my keyboard {ain't no fixin' this one} and found an Ebay store that sells keyboards for a little as $12! Lucky for me I have just about that much in my PayPal account so I can get another one.

In the mean time, while I wait for the new keyboard, I have to suffer with adjusting to this one.

The silver lining, though, is I now know how to correctly check, remove & replace my laptop keyboard!

Only A Man Would Do This

Me: Really, Sean? You couldn't put the toilet paper on the roll??? Is it that difficult???

Sean: I did put it on the roll....

The Draft

I really, really, really hate this cold weather.

Which, according to some, really is not all that cold.

And I know.

I grew up in New England.

Winters sucked.

Big time.

In my world, anything below 60 degrees is cold. And every morning this week it's been like 48 degrees!!!

Right now, I'm waiting until it warms up some. It's supposed to be 63 today. Just a tad above warm for me.

I want to spray paint more picture frames. And even though I love the smell of paint, it's probably not a good thing to spray inside. But it's still too cold outside right now.

So, I wait in my cold corner of the house for the sun to come out.

Actually, all the corners are cold.

And near every door and window. One of the drawbacks of renting an old house.

Typically, with rentals around here, the owner has never lived in the house & is very tight with the wallet when it comes to things like, oh, I don't know, making it energy efficient. Our owner did live in the house. For about 6 years.

I guess a cold house in the winter & a hot one in the summer never bothered him.

I guess a huge heating & cooling bill never bothered him, either.

Every door, {and we have 4 that are exit doors & 1 to the garage} have gaps big enough to see light through & allow hot & cold in. They're easy enough to fix with some weather stripping. But one of the doors is a huge arcadia. And let me tell you, it is C.O.L.D. near that sucker. Really, the entire door needs to be pulled and replaced {and right now, I could pull that door out!}. Which we can do, then deduct from the rent.

And is totally great.

If we had the money.

Don't even get me started on the windows. Crap, cheap ones that are probably original to the house. {Which was built in the early 60's}

So, here I sit with cold toes, even though I'm wearing shoes & socks, waiting for the sun to come out so I can do some spray painting, and sit in the sun reading while they dry.

Thank goodness for warm laptops. Otherwise my fingers would be half frozen!!!

Christmas will hit us like a ton of bricks

I used to be so prepared for Christmas. I'd have most of my shopping done and anything I was making either done, or close to it.

Sean was always the one to go out Christmas Eve, after work no less, to do his shopping.

I hate that.

I'm a planner.

A "do it with plenty of time to spare" kinda gal.

Plan ahead. Way ahead.

I must confess, though, last year I was not. at. all. prepared.

I **GASP** shopped Christmas Eve!!

I think this year will, unfortunately, be a repeat.

And time is not the issue. Because, let's face it, I have plenty of that.

No, it will be money. Unfortunately Sean's had a few more bad days/weeks than usual. Which really puts a strain on the worn out ol' wallet.

I'm trying to get the girls (who, like most kids their generation, are very materialistic) to remember that Christmas isn't all about the gifts you get.

It's also about spending time with family.

Just yesterday, Dare & I were going to Target, and she was saying how last year they got "like only 3 presents" and if they were going to get the same this year. (I guess she forgot to count all the gifts from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandmas) I told her she just might get less! Then I had to remind her, again, it's not all about the presents.

I refuse to stress over any of it. It's not worth it.

If we all get only one gift each this year then I will be thankful for that.

Because no matter how many things you have, it doesn't matter one bit if you do not have friends, family & good health to enjoy them with.

Of course if someone wants to get me say, a tripod, or 8 GIG USB flash drive, or even better a zoom lens!!! I won't be doing any complaining!