In case my day job doesn't work out....

First off, this is the 300th post of the blog at this address (oldcomfyshoes.blogspot.com). That makes between my old and current blog, 550 blog posts. Do I seriously have that much to say? Apparently. Although less people read it now than before so I am guessing I am getting more boring. Sorry.

But! Today Ben and I came up with a BRILLIANT idea. Bill Gates has nothing on this innovation. We think that the features of two great programs, Facebook and Outlook, should be merged. Think about it. You are sitting at work and someone sends you a nasty e-mail, in this new program - FaceLook - you can throw a sheep at them. If a coworker does a great job you could send them a smiley face or a unicorn. You could choose how you want to send back that return receipt on that e-mail with either a thumbs up or a flaming bag of poop depending on your mood. You could set-up polls to see where your coworkers want to go for lunch or to find out what everyone really thinks about your boss. In FaceLook you could not only be professional co-workers but you could also be friends.

I think that this will catch on, it just may take a few years...

Strawberries!

I love three day weekends. Love them! We packed this weekend full too! Yesterday we got up and went and picked strawberries! Tomorrow we are going hiking all day. Did I mention I love three day weekends with beautiful weather? I do!

Here are some pictures from the strawberry patch:

This is before Ben starting doing any of the work. I am all alone in a big field.

Oh wait, now Ben is working!

I FOUND ONE!

YUM!

We picked two pounds by the time we were finished. Just enough for the two of us.

Also, the cicada's are coming out. Gross.

Have a fun and safe memorial day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I turned 25. TWENTY FIVE! OH MY GOSH I AM OLD! Do you see any wrinkles? Gray hair? TWENTY FIVE!

That's pretty much how I felt the last couple of months leading up to my birthday. And then when it came I was pretty excited. It was my birthday! I am now 25! I can rent a car in my own name! And.... um... well that's pretty much the only benefit, except that now people feel like they have permission to ask me when I am having a baby. Because you know, I probably want to be able to walk at their high school graduation so I should probably get on that.

I was thinking deep thoughts yesterday on my drive home and I realized that I have a lot to celebrate on this birthday. I've learned a lot in the last 5 years. Things that I am proud of. Here. Let me share them with you:

Things I've learned in the last 5 years:

- How to love more deeply.
- How to be ok with needing other people.
- How to pick my battles more wisely (still working on this though).
- To appreciate good friends and the importance of breaking up with bad ones.
- How to choose a health insurance plan.
- How to cook more recipes.
- How to properly wash a car.
- To laugh at myself more.
- To let more things go.
- The importance of not running out of gas.
- How much I love and appreciate my family.

See? These are good lessons. From here on out I am going to try and look at birthdays as celebrations of growth. Not milestones to death.

So hurray for 25 years! Hurray for 25 years of learning how to be less stupid and caring less when I am. Hurray!

Yesterday

First off - Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you!


Secondly, I hurt. Yesterday was a beautiful day. So pretty in fact I was lured outside to do some gardening. I haven't planted anything in the ground since elementary school and I swore that I wouldn't start now. But my neighbors have a garden and our half of the duplex was looking dumpy with the grass bed we had going. My plan was to spend 2 hours MAX on the garden. Here's what I started with:

I dug all of that grass up with a trowel. I started thinking that people who buy tillers are wimps, and ended wishing for a tiller or at least a larger shovel.

I planted cosmos in the back and impatiens in the front. Because I am a crazy person I bought 54 impatiens. This was the only flower bed I was going to work on. And it only needed 16 flowers. Like any home project this one ended up taking up the entire day. Notice the length of the shadows in the pictures. So I sucked it up and tackled the other two flower beds.

The next flower bed I worked on was also on the front of the house and was completly covered in grass. You can see that our neighbors are more on top of things than me.

I planted the same things there. There's some other plant that was already growing... I guess I'll figure out what it is when it blooms.

I also worked on the side garden. It seriously needed some work. Also it was filled with rocks so if all my flowers die, it's not my fault.

It looks so much better cleared out and tended. Our place now looks like we care.

Ben also did some yard work yesterday. We recently purchased a reel lawn mower. We tell people that and they just look at us and ask "as opposed to a fake one?" It works pretty well. You get a work out pushing it. Our back yard is mostly weeds and it doesn't cut those so well, but it was cheap and we aren't trying to win any awards for our lawn. Plus it makes Ben's muscles big so I am not complaining.

Today I am incredibly sore form all that work. My butt hurts the most. Do you know how much you use your butt? A LOT! Every movement hurts. I guess it's good that I have a desk job to go to tomorrow, or maybe it's because I have a desk job that I am so sore...

A letter to our electric company

Dear Kentucky Utilities,

This letter is to inform you that your internet bill pay system, “BillerExpress”, is neither quick or efficient. I would suggest renaming it something along the lines of “WasteOfTime” or “WebsiteOfFrustration”.

Today, my husband and I tried to pay our bill on-line. We spent quite a bit of time trying to guess what form of our account number the web-site needed to register us. As you know, the account number listed on our bill is 2##### -1111. BillerExpress would not take this number no matter how many times we entered it. We even called the customer service line only to be told that that was the correct number and we must not have been entering it properly. Finally, by sheer luck, we tried 2#####111 and it worked! I would like to point out that this is two characters off from our actual account number, but obviously we should have known to drop a one and the dash!

We then, by mistake, felt like we had mastered BillerExpress and could pay our bill on time. Silly us. When we went to pay our bill the only option we had was to “Search and Pay My Bills”. Here’s a question for you: Why must I search for my bill when I am CLEARLY logged in as Andrea? Also, why when I am logged in as Andrea and search for Andrea does it say, “No records found?” I’ve provided a print screen of this result for your information.

We tried searching by our account number as well and got the SAME RESULT.

I would like to suggest to you that there may be a problem with your on-line bill pay system. It is frustrating and illogical. If you are paying Transactis Inc to manage this system for you, I would fire them.

Enclosed is our payment. We look forward to a NEW on-line billing system for Kentucky Utilities.

Your Unhappy Customer,

Andrea

May Day!

Today was May Day and the National Day of Prayer. As is my tradition on May 1st, I left baskets of goodies on my neighbor's doorsteps with this note:

Happy May Day! It is an old tradition to leave sweets and flowers on your neighbor's doorsteps on May 1st. Today is also the National Day of Prayer. We have been praying for you and your household today.
Happy May Day from Ben and Andi!

Here are the baskets in work:

Here they are ready to be delivered:

And a completed one:

Happy May Day everyone!!