The Sewing Mom

It’s been 2 weeks today since my husband left on his business trip to the Orient.  I think he’s visited 7 cities on countless plane rides, car rides, and cabs.  He visited 12 different manufacturing plants and met so many people he lost track.  He hasn’t been able to get on his computer email except for a few times so has had to rely heavily on his Blackberry.  Thank goodness he has his Blackberry!  Email is really the only way we’ve been able to stay in touch over the last two weeks.

 He did call us once last week and it was great.  Amazingly, my daughter and I went out to eat dinner tonight and I was thinking about him because I knew he was back in Hong Kong getting ready to start his trip back home.  I had my daughter text message him while we were waiting for our food.  I left my phone laying on the table and amazingly, he called.  It’s a good thing it was laying in front of me because it was so loud in the restaurant that I would’ve never heard it ring otherwise. 

He had just cleared security at Hong Kong’s airport when he got our text msg., so he called us to let us know he was all checked in.  His flight out of Hong Kong should be leaving in about a 1/2 hour and he will be en route for another 17 hours before we see him at the Dallas airport tomorrow.  I’m glad he’s on his way, it’s been a long two weeks!

We have friends who I believe are hurting from poor financial decisions which have resulted in them now having [tag]bad credit[/tag] and they need to find a way to repair the damage. I know they have had a tough time with divorce and job loss, but still, poor decisions have been made along the way too.

One of the biggest mistakes I believe they made was taking out an interest only mortgage loan on their condo. Interest only means only one thing, no equity. So now that they are trying to sell it and the market has slowed, they are ending up owing more than it is worth. This is not good in any situation.

They would definitely benefit from a resource that could help them get back on their feet and repair their credit. Perhaps they could even refinance with a more conventional home loan so they could start building some equity even in a slumping market. I’m sure that some [tag]credit counseling[/tag] wouldn’t hurt either.

Whatever they do, I hope they’ve learned and don’t let it happen to them again.

Shew!  My little puppy Plinko came in this afternoon after spending some time outside and she was limping!  She was holding her back leg completely off the ground and not walking on it at all.  She wasn’t whining though so I figured at least it wasn’t broken!  I just had no idea what was wrong.

So, I sat on the floor with her and tried to look at her foot.  Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds because when ever you sit with her, she just wants to bite on you and play.  Luckily one of her chew bones was laying there so I kept putting it in her mouth to keep her busy while I tried to check out her foot and leg. 

I started my massaging her leg from the hip down so I could feel for any lumps or tender spots.  In between biting me and the bone, I didn’t find anything.  I moved slowly down towards her foot and the closer I got to her foot the more she started biting on me instead of the bone.  When I reached her toes she started biting me and her toes.  This was my sign that the problem was something to do with her toes.   This is also when I’m thankful she has short hair, it makes it easier to see if there is a problem, not having to look through all the hair.

I was able to separate her toes and found what was either a very small thorn or a dead fire ant.  With as many fire ants that are around right now I’d guess that’s what it was.  Once I removed it from between her toes and I continued to massage her foot and toes and she lessened the amount she was biting on me and after a few minutes was up and walking on her foot as if nothing had happened.  I was so thankful as I didn’t want to have to call the vet, that would’ve been expensive I’m sure!

I was at my daughter’s elementary school this morning to give my presentation and the only electronic device I needed was a T.V. and a dvd player, electronics that I do know how to use! I was told it would all be ready for me, but when I got there it wasn’t in the room. So, I had to go in search of the equipment. I went straight to the tech. person at the school and she told me to utilize the “media cart” in order to play my dvd. This required plugging the cart into an electrical outlet as well as plugging the onboard computer into a computer outlet (sorry for the lack of tech. terms!).

Anyway, my daughter and a teacher were helping me get it up and running thank goodness, and in the mean time, the school janitor showed up with a cart holding a T.V. and dvd player! We opted to continue on with the computer set up because it would show up on a larger pull down screen so it would be easier for the 75 students to see. So, we continued waiting for it to load. This seemed to take forever.

In the mean time I went ahead and began the speaking part of my presentation while my daughter and the teacher continued working with the Audio Visual Equipment and AV Installations and I watched them as I spoke, wondering if it would work. Finally, as I reached the end of my speaking part, a different teacher who was in the back of the room speaks up and says oh, the dvd won’t play in that due to the school’s firewall. OH? She couldn’t have told us that sooner to alleviate the hassle of trying to get this to work?!

Okay, thank goodness I had a backup with the T.V. and dvd player. We plugged it in and popped in the dvd and sure enough, the movie began to play. Other than a few sound issues, it worked just fine and the students enjoyed viewing it. The presentation overall was a success.

It’s at times like these though that I wish I knew more about technology. If I’m going to continue to make presentations like the one today and the ones I made earlier this week to the PTA and last week to the school principal, it’s nice to know how things work. It’s also a nice feeling to know that the [tag]audio visual equipment[/tag] at school has been professionally installed. It’s interesting too because although I don’t know much about it, my 11 year old daughter is using this equipment at school all the time and is becoming quite capable at using it.  I think I’ll be relying on her help a lot in the years to come!

The other day I was cooking dinner and used the last of my cumin spice.  I was about to put the empty tin can into the recycling when it dawned on me that they don’t make those little tin cans anymore.  I think my empty spice can is an antique!  Makes me wonder how long I’ve had it in my cupboard and how old was that spice.

I was flipping through a magazine this morning and I fount and interesting ad from the spice company that had manufactured my cumin.  In the ad it shows a small tin can, identical to the one I’m now showcasing with my other antiques.  In the ad, it states a very interesting fact.  It says the with the exception of black pepper which they still sell in tin cans, spices in rectangular tins are at least 15 years old!  AACKK! 

I think it’s time for me to go through my spice rack and get rid of all those old spices and get fresher ones!  Makes me wonder how much better my dinners will taste if I’m using fresher spices!