It's raining like a Banshee........

and I am LOVING it!

The last 2 weeks have been absolutely WAY to hot. Since my internal thermostat got busted, it can never be too cold to keep me happy. It's been close to 90 degrees in the house, so I've gotten into the habit of leashing up our fuzzy roommate and opening every window possible. This is how he spends most of his days......

He doesn't seem to mind, so it works for all of us. This side of the house doesn't get any sun till about 2 or 3, and until it does, that front door is wide open, unless there's heat coming in, but oddly enough, that isn't very often. After about 1 O'clock or so he usually wants off leash anyway to catch up on his other duties, like eat and sleep. LOL

 We had another fire across the way. They caught the little jerk that set them last year, and this one looked very much like them. I hope they at least picked him up and grilled him. The only person on the block that had NOT had his hedge burnt yet, took all of it out last Tuesday. I guess to eliminate more  damage. I think it's sad, but....... I kinda feel bad about this, that garden is sooooooo beautiful, it's a pleasure to sit in my chair in the morning and enjoy my coffee and enjoying the view.  It's also a lot less private for all concerned though. Used to, if I was in a hurry, I dared make the trip from the bedroom to the bathroom (thru the livingroom) after sun up, but now....... I get dressed first!  I'm sure it's the same for them, because we pretty much are able to see what's for dinner LOL.

Well, this doesn't look good! I started the first half of this post about a month ago..... Weather update.... it is cooling down nicely, thank you :-) but there is a catch to that. The geese have been traveling south for the last 3 weeks, and in driving to base last week, I noticed a lot of odd colored leaves. It's too early for fall yet according to the calendar, but I think Mother Nature may have other plans.

Mike has requested leave for 2 weeks in September, and boy, does he need it! The poor guy is so tired when he gets home, he's in bed by 8.30 and asleep at 8.31.  Starting September 14 they are having re-enactments of Operation Market Garden all over the area, so we're planning on doing a little bit of driving, and a whole lot of enjoying! There will be ample pictures to choose from, so I should be catching up on my scrapping thru October LOL.

The Ka is all fixed up, and street legal again, and now we're just waiting on word that the garage has found a descent engine for the Neon. Thankfully, we don't have to scrap it after all. As soon as we have all the details, dad will help us with the balance, but the rate things are going right now..... we'll have more than enough time to scrape the money together ourselves. It's going on 3 months now, and they have no clue where to find a replacement engine that comes with a warranty and has less than 200000 km on the clock. It's a drag to have to wait this long, but on the other hand..... we have time to save :-) and with the KA running, Mike doesn't have to leave the house at 5 to b at work at 8, and be off work at 4.30, to get home at 7....... So, things are looking up!

I've been kind of busy, with lots of stuff. Studying, keeping house (more or less), adjusting our diet to a more healthy one while trying to stick to a v e r y tight budget, and I managed to get a little scrapping done too! LOL.

To update this update..... It is now, once again, quite a while later than at the first 2 parts of this post. Internet has been absolutely impossible. It will connect, to immediately drop the connection. Provider states I "just" have to reboot the box. This means, turning of everything that is connected to it (tv, telephone, every computer that uses the wifi, dvd-recorder and x-box) as well as disconnecting them from the internet, so they don't immediately try to connect when everything is back on power, unplugging said appliances THAN, disconnect everything from the box, and finally, disconnecting the box from the power, not just turning it off, but pulling the plug from the wall. After this, wait 10 to 15 minutes, and reverse the proces. And you want me to do that everytime the internet goes out, which means by the time I'm done connecting the last thing, I can start unplugging from the beginning?! I really don't think so! It is a known problem, that has been going on since end of june, with not repairdate estimate given, and steadily getting worse. I politely asked the guy in customer service, whether I could pay part of the bill, since they were only providing part of the service, and (silly me, I was surprised) got hung up on..... Go figure.

They are waiting for the city to upgrade to fiber optic before they fix any of the bugs, but by than, we can also get one of the other company's that DO have consistent service,( and refused to service this area because they wouldn't be able to do right by the customers because of the bad cables......) to come in and provide service. Mike said to hold off, and see if/how de service improves after the upgrade, but I'm not sure. I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt. You can't fix what you can't control, but than, they are the only game in town, know it, and charge accordingly.... 

Fire update...... They caught the little creten! It WAS the same kid that started the fires last year. He had gotten out of whatever custody they had him in 4 days before the fire...... I'm not sure the rehabilitation was successful.....

Vacation update: Mike is off. We went to my sisters for her birthday and since they were in town, we went by the parade of WW-II vehicles on their way to Nijmegen for their part in the re-enactment of Operation Market Garden (or, as the website for the festivities is called OMG2014) I have to admit, it's the easiest website to remember in a long time! LOL Tomorrow, we will be going to a Round Canopy Parachute drop at the bridge in Grave, but first to a big screen photo walk in Groesbeek, This walk has pictures from 1944 posted on billboards at the spot they were taken. It will be awesome to see the now-and-than images. And Saturday we're going up to Nijmegen to see the Waal Crossing with DUCK's (the land/water vehicle, not the bird) which will be also very interesting to see. They had one in the parade on Sunday, but it was on a trailer. Sunday, we're going to plan the second week of his vacation and the 28th it's back to work.

To make time management even more interesting, I signed up for Build A Book, over at The studio, and decided to do the hardest book I started on. Boo's. Our little fuzzy-butt-rescue. It has a deadline, and I need that for this one. SO, after October 1st, I will post the whole thing on it's own page, here on the blog.  The studio has a birthday, and there are all kinds of extra challenged, and I think a couple of great sales coming up, so go take a look, and join the fun! They'll be happy to see new faces, and show you around :-)

And now, I am actually going to hit PUBLISH on this puppy!

Don't forget to hug a loved one, be they fuzzy or human :-)