meredithwatmough.com

I’ve been thinking about my grandparents lately, and the lost lessons I never learned.  My grandmother made wonderful jam and jelly, and though I helped with the process, I never really learned how.  She also made the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever had, and none of us have the recipe, because she never wrote anything down.  She was a professional seamstress, and I only learned to sew on a button, and that not very well.

My other grandmother could bring a dead plant back to life.  She was a fantastic gardener, and a whiz with anything with roots.  I don’t seem to have inherited her gardening skill.  She could make a killer blackberry cobbler.  She also canned her own homegrown vegetables.

Then there are all the family stories I missed out on.  As a teenager, I was just too self involved to care.  History didn’t mean much to me then.  There are a million stories I never heard, and some I did that now I’ve lost.  But as I get older, history is more and more important to me.  I want stories to tell my children.

I wish now I’d paid attention.  I wish I could teach my future children these things, saying “My grandmother taught me this.”  I have this vision, of hanging my laundry on a clothesline like my grandmother, telling my child about both of them.  Passing down the womanly wisdom of my family… It’s a pretty fantasy.  It’s partly not my fault.  The skills they knew and I didn’t learn just weren’t considered important when I was growing up.  I’d like to learn these skills now.  Hmmm…this may spark me to write up a list of things I’d like to learn to do someday.

Jonathan is quite a photographer.  He’s taken some of his best work and put it in a gallery at Shutterfly.  You can order copes, prints, posters, notecards, mugs, even a mouse pad.  He’s got a great butterfly gallery.  You can also buy an awesome photo of the Alamo.

He’s currently going through our vacation pictures and will continue to add to his gallery.  I’ll post updates.  Really, he’s quite good.  :)  Though, I might be biased.

MerrieB: yup, I’m out of here at 11 am on the dot, and running by Target first.
MerrieB: need a card and wrapping paper.
MerrieB:
Jonathan: Can you get one from me too?
Jonathan: and some wrapping paper
MerrieB: really?
MerrieB: you want me to buy my own anniversary card?
MerrieB: stop by Kroger
Jonathan: I’ll write in it!!!
Jonathan: I haven’t even started packing yet
MerrieB: we aren’t catching a flight
Jonathan: Maybe I can make a card
Jonathan: I’ll use an online site!!!!!!!!!
MerrieB: btw, I am totally blogging this conversation.
MerrieB: Verbatim.
Jonathan: Be sure to put that your husband was completely jacking with you
Jonathan: Maybe you could pick yourself up a present too
Jonathan: Up to $30

Our contract with our electric company is about to expire.  We locked in a renewable energy rate last year for 12.8 cents/kWh.  Unfortunately, this year the only available rate is 19.20 cents/kWh - and they seem to have dropped the renewable plan.  Ouch!

So I did some shopping.  I checked out powertochoose.org which has listings for all the companies in Texas.  All the renewable plans are 17.0 cents/kWh or higher, and really that’s just too much.  So I went with cheap.  I’m sorry not to do the green thing, but at prices like this, and living in a climate where we run our air conditioner 80% of the year, I just didn’t have a choice.

Surprisingly enough Reliant was fairly cheap.  Imagine my glee, though, when I looked at Retailmenot.com and found a promo code!  It’s got us a rate of 14.22 c/kWh through October 08, and only 15.8 c/kWh after that.  It’s a 24 month plan and no monthly fees or deposit required based on my credit check.

While this is more than I was paying, it’s better than what we could be paying.

My husband is the uber geek, and it’s a good thing I’ve always found that sexy.  He’s been pushing del.icio.us on me for a while, but I’ve finally set up an account.  Useful.  Handy.  Yay.  But also, he tuned me into FriendFeed.  I like it.  He’s the one who brought things like gmail, FaceBook, twitter and World of Warcraft into my life.  Not to mention digg, reddit, slashdot, etc.  I can’t keep up honestly.  It’s a good thing he’s on top of the latest and greatest.

We have a fruit fly problem.  Once they are in, the suckers are near impossible to get rid of.  I tried bug spray, cleaning, putting bleach down the drains, even fogging the area.  Nothing worked. Until my mother suggested apple cider vinegar with a drop or two of dish washing liquid in a small bowl or cup.

I mixed it up and put small cups (about 1/2 full) in the 3 places they were the worst - by the trash in the kitchen, near the kitchen sink and near my bathroom sink.  Sure enough, the next morning the bowls were full of dead fruit flies!  Thanks mom!

11AM You Expect That of a Mage, Though

Gamer on phone: That good, huh? Wait, what do you mean by “He didn’t finish”? You guys put sex on hold for World of Warcraft! No way, that’s dedication.

Austin, Texas

Overheard by: Sex > wow FTW

via Overheard in the Office, Jun 24, 2008

I haven’t posted in a while because nothing’s been going on.  It’s depressing really.  We’re both so busy with work and I won’t bore anyone with those details.  They bore me and I’m living it.

We spent weekend before last almost entirely at home playing Warcraft.  There were brief respites of lunching with an old friend (read girlfriend) of Jonathan’s, and celebrating Father’s Day with my family.  Last weekend, we met some friends for a delicious dinner out at Macaroni Grill on Saturday night, but otherwise stayed home.  Sunday we did the yard and cleaned up the garage a bit.

This weekend will likely be much of the same.  I think we should have a party just so we have a reason to clean the house and see our friends.  I was kind of waiting for our flooring to be installed.  That’s on hold at the moment.

I’ve been involved with reading a series I read about 15 years ago. I’m re-reading Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series.  It’s as good as I remember.  I got some through BookMooch where I had credit, and some via amazon - love that buy 3 get 1 free promo!  I must have gotten rid of my set through the years.  I get so caught up that it’s been hard to put the books down at night and go to bed!