One Life Stand

We’re still working on our patio project.  Thankfully, the end is (somewhat) in sight.  The retaining wall is pretty much done and we’ve run the wiring for the electrical.  The gazebo has been purchased and is sitting in the garage awaiting setup.

So Saturday we went to Home Depot to buy the patio pavers.  256 pavers and one rented Home Depot truck (the pavers were too heavy for our truck) later, we were home.  And all those pavers (12" by 12" and HEAVY) had to be unloaded in less than an hour!  The Home Depot we went to (not our usual store) closed at 9pm vs 10pm.  Hubby called one of his friends who lives ~1 mile away and he met us at the house.

The three of us huffed and puffed to get it done.  I’ve never sweat so much in my life.  We got the truck back at 8:59 but we didn’t have enough time to finish unloading before doing so.  So we spent another 15 minutes in the parking lot moving the pavers from the Home Depot truck to ours.  What a workout.  I’m still sore today!

Though I’m sure we saved a lot of money by DIY, this was definitely an ambitious project.  Hopefully the effort will become a distant memory once we’re enjoying our new outdoor space.

That’s right folks, hubby and I took an intro to scuba class on Saturday.  (For the record, I’m the nervous Nellie not him.)  I’m not the strongest swimmer so I generally avoid water deeper than I am tall.  The class was supposed to last an hour but that quickly turned into two.  We had a fabulous (and patient) instructor.

I’m not saying that I will take the weekend series of classes and/or become certified but I did enjoy myself.  I even completed a ‘dive’ to the bottom of the pool at a depth of twelve feet.  I’ve never been that far underwater before.  I was nervous but it wasn’t at all hard and now I know how to reach the surface from 12′ feet below.  I definitely need to work on my breathing (still can’t figure out how/why I can’t do that right) but I’d definitely try it again in confined (vs open) water.

I’ve come to the conclusion that trying to keep track of my life using a combination of Outlook at work, a paper calendar at work and Windows calendar at home isn’t going too well.  Add in four personal e-mail accounts that I need to access (which I can’t really do from work) and trying to keep up with hubby’s schedule as well and it’s a recipe for disaster.

So I decided I’m going to get a CrackBerry.  Though the prospect paying $180 and signing up for a new two-year contract turns my stomach, I was going to do it anyway.  Except…that $180 listed on the website is the ‘lowest available price’ meaning only available to people who have jumped through multiple hoops, i.e. not me.  The lowest available price for ME is $525!  I think not.

So it’s time to come up with Plan B and C and D and E.  Plan B - buy an unlocked phone off eBay.  I’m leery of eBay purchases of anything more than ~$75, there would be no warranty and the going rate is more than the original $180 I thought I was going to have to pay.  Scratch that plan.

Plan C - Wait until February when Sprint deems me worthy of buying a discounted phone (and of course signing a new two-year contract).  I’m not feeling this one either.  I think my head will explode long before February the way thing are going now.  Bah.

So I’m down to Plans D and E.  Though inconvenient, I could buy a new CrackBerry ($200) or a refurb ($100) from AT&T with only a data (not voice) plan.  Then when Sprint looses their grip on me in April, I could activate voice service through AT&T as well.  It would mean carrying around two devices for the next 10 months but it would solve the current issue of keeping track of my life.

What would you do?

My favorite jeans are a pair of Earnest Sewn that I found at TJ Maxx over a year ago.  So it was much to my dismay when I heard a ripping sound as I bent over to put on my socks this weekend.  There is now a rip across the butt.  If it had been any other location, I might have been able to pass the rip off as the ‘distressed’ look.

Of course I knew I wouldn’t be able to find another pair at TJ Maxx but I checked anyway with no luck.  Then I went online.  I found a pair on Bluefly.com for $99 (plus s/h).  Ugh.  I only paid ~$65 for the jeans the first time around.  I’m always looking for reasonably priced jeans that actually fit and those fit (no pun intended) the bill.  So do I suck it up and live without my fave jeans or do I begrudgingly buy a new pair for $100+?  What a dilemma.