7 Quick Takes - Summer Edition

1.  Well, we still do not have our home phone hooked up (see last 7QT #5)...but not to worry, that is scheduled to be remedied this morning!  Hopefully all will go smoothly, but with the way my luck has been with this cable switchover I'm definitely not holding my breath.

2.  On the positive side of things, we had our favorite furniture / computer repairman here this week and he not only fixed our recliner that has been broken forever but also took our main computer to clean the virus off of it that we got around Christmas.  Yes, I just typed the word "Christmas", it's embarrassing how long we've been using the backup computer around here.  The incredibly slow backup computer.  When we get the other one back it's going to seem like we're surfing the German Autobahn highway!

Awful small to be holding
so much information!!

3.  When I said "clean the virus off" what I really meant was "reinstall the operating system".  So that means I've been spending a lot of time this week backing up photos and documents off the hard drive.  Seriously thinking of investing in an external memory source like this one.  It holds 1 TB of data.  That would be 1 terabyte, which is equal to 1,000 gigabytes!!  I hadn't even heard of that term until this week but if it will save me from having to backup all these files again I'm all for spending the $90.  It's either that or consider putting the data on some sort of cloud service like Evernote.  Or maybe both...any suggestions on which direction I should take on this?

4.  Sadly, one of Soccer Boy's gerbils died this week.  Of course, it was the one that was really hand tamed.  The other one is more skittish and tends to nip at you when being held.  Since gerbils are very social animals and don't do well solo I've been trying to get a hold of the dealer we bought them from to replace the one we lost.  Has anyone else out there noticed that gerbils are hard to come by these days?  You just don't see them in pet stores anymore.  Usually, you'll see an empty case with a sign saying "coming soon" but no actual live animals, ever.  In case you are wondering, no, I am not planning on getting a female gerbil for our remaining male gerbil and making lots of $$ off the obvious gerbil shortage in our area (much to my kids' disappointment).

R.I.P. little Croc

5.  Summer is half way over which means the next school year is just around the corner.  This is usually about the time I start to panic because I haven't ordered all our curriculum yet and I haven't totally gotten a school schedule in place for the new year.  From past experience I know that it is never a good thing to put this stuff off until the middle of August so I'm starting the panic stage now.  That way I'll be ready for full meltdown mode the new year by the third week of next month.









6.  We were at the local pool for approximately 10 minutes Thursday night when they closed it due to lightning in the area.  With the drought we've been experiencing I was hopeful that the lightning would mean possibly rain was heading our way.  Alas, it was not to be.  Do you know how long it takes to get 5 kids + 2 adults + 2 lifevests + 6 towels (toddler shares) + 1 swim diaper + unknown amount of water toys in the van and to the pool?!  Let's just say it doesn't = 10 minutes of actual swim time.  However, I wouldn't have minded one bit if we actually had gotten rain out of it.  Rain, rain, where are you?!

Old pic of Firstborn & Soccer Boy
We still have those lifevests!!

7.  All of the extra repair people in our home this week has helped to keep the main areas of our house picked up more than we normally do in the summer.  Which makes me think maybe I should invite actual company over more often so it would give our family extra incentive for cleaning the house.  The trick, I think, is to invite people who actually know and love you and do not really care if your home is eat off the floor clean.  That way if something happens (and for the record, it seems something always does happen in a home with many people) then you don't drive yourself crazy and decide to never, ever, ever open your house to company ever, ever again.  Now we just need to find incentive for the closets!


That's it for this week...go check out more 7 Quick Takes at Conversion Diary