The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

The 4th has come and gone and it seems like summer is flying by already. I’ve been extremely busy running errands and working around the yard but man… I LOVE MY SUMMER LIFE!!  It’s the simple things that really make me happy:

• Getting up early with my dogs and listening to the birds
• Walking every day
• Being with family
• Having a clean house
• Weeding a bit each day and staying on top of it
• Hanging a load or two on the line every morning
• Doing the daily crossword and sudoku puzzles
• Reading as much as I can
• Wearing my “summer uniform” (bike shorts, tee, sandals)
• Composting and living green
• Getting in bed early with my dogs, books, and laptop
• Rolling over and turning out the light any time I want

Of course, once Patriots Training Camp starts on July 24th, my life will change considerably as I’ll be “on duty” and my free time will be cut way back.  However,  I do hope to keep up with as much as I can.  For now, I’m planning on enjoying each and every moment of being home.

Since Al was off last night we were able to take the boat out today.  We spent a few hours on Narragansett Bay and it was like a sheet of glass.  The boys fished while I read and relaxed.  Although they didn’t catch anything, we had a nice time and plan on doing it again when he’s off  next week.

Luckily, we left just in time as there were severe thunderstorms with hail this afternoon and evening in the area.  Jake and I did get caught in later while at Lincoln Woods in afternoon but I still got my walk in with the girls before it really came down.

Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous so I hope to get my errands done, yard work,  and clothes on the line early so I can kick back

poolside with a book in the afternoon.

I LOVE YOU!!

About 15 years ago, my husband and I made a decision regarding how we wanted to spend our Christmas holiday. I had two toddlers and he was working 3rd shift at the time and Christmas Day was a rushed, stressful time for us. So, we declared that Christmas Day would be a family day and we would remain at home. We respectfully declined all invitations from family and friends and reassured them that it wasn’t that we didn’t love them or appreciate their offer but we would be staying home for a low key day. (We see Al’s family on Christmas Eve and my family on a Saturday near Christmas to exchange gifts so staying home doesn’t mean that we don’t get together at all, just not on Christmas day too.)

No longer did we have to drag our kids away from their newly opened loot, dress them up in Holiday-wear and put up with the sounds of cranky, over-tired kids. Our Christmas mornings are now leisurely affairs often involving lots of coffee and lounging in flannels all day. It’s Heavenly!! Now that the kids are older, a little has changed but not much. Instead of getting up early to play with toys, they stay up late, then sleep the morning away, getting up in time for the ham dinner that I prepare. I still get up pretty early but lounge with a book or online enjoying the early morning peace and quiet.

This year, we’ve added 2 little girls to the crew.. Bella, who joined our family in June and just today, Chloe, who is snuggled up and snoozing right beside me. Once again, I’ve got lots to be thankful for and I’m so glad to have spent the day doing things that make me happy.

Finally got a Mrs. B’s Patriot World Podcast out for this week. After having 2 complete Thanksgivings, (shopping, prep, cooking, & cleaning) this week here we are on Friday already! Tuesday’s Thanksgiving with the kids at school was wonderful as was the one here at home with family yesterday.

Today is technology housekeeping and “fix the little glitches” day for me. I’ve gotten a few things done but I still have some issues to contend with, specifically:

• Getting Frontpage to auto update my Patriots fan site without me having to choose each page to update. It used to work but hasn’t now in months and I get a wonky error message. Contacting host caused them to break the Frontpage Extensions and reinstall them which made even more problems….sigh…
• Get the newest version of Castblaster to work and stop telling me that it can’t find temp.mp3 file then crashing. (Actually, I’m fed up with it and would like to find another software to do “live” podcasting. I also don’t like the fact that editing is nearly impossible and if I have to pause for an emergency, it doesn’t keep recording…sigh…)
• Figure out why my album art isn’t showing up with my podcast if I have to insert it in iTunes, (due to having to use Audacity due to Castblaster errors…) ** IF Castblaster worked right every time then it would be a non-issue because I wouldn’t have to use Audacity or iTunes at all to create a show.
• Wondering why my page looks like THIS to me and not to others. (Be sure to check out @abiteofsanity’s screen shot. Let me know what you see if you don’t mind..
• Figure out why some updates to my blogs work on my laptop but I can’t do them on my desktop PC… specifically, access the Widgets on the Razor’s Edge blog and just as of today, be able to insert hyperlinks in this blog with my desktop PC. (Yes, I had to jump over here on my laptop to be able to finish this blog post.) This is very strange to me and I totally don’t understand any of it because the blogs are hosted on my web server and are accessible via a url to post and update, so the machine that I use to get there shouldn’t matter but it does.
• Figure out why I have a dozen podcasts that I’ve listened to that show up in my “podcast” playlist with a ! but aren’t listed in “Music” or “Podcasts” any longer so I can’t access them to DELETE them. It’s totally cluttering up my playlists…

<bang head on desk> Hopefully that’s the end of my problems for today… I’m getting discouraged and as I said to a friend who I was venting to today.. “Is it too much to ask that things just work the way they are supposed to?!” </bang head on desk>

Technorati technology frontpage glitches errors castblaster wordpress

Back from a wonderful trip to Florida for the Pats/Miami game and I’ve been pretty busy since then trying to get things done around here. The Trek report will hopefully get done tomorrow. Thankfully, the pictures are already posted to Flickr due to free lobby wifi, although they’re not all labeled yet. Credit goes to Kelsea for the player pics as neither Al nor I took any.

I spent all night tonight working on the website update but once again, Frontpage wasn’t cooperating. I think it’s really time to switch to Dreamweaver but I don’t really want to invest any more money into this PC as I’m saving for my MacBook Pro. Things just took way too much time tonight so here it is, 11:30, and between Bella and the software crashes, I’ve just updated.

Looks like tomorrow will have to be another mini-car cast if it gets done at all. Of course, the Trek report will likely take me many hours so who knows if I’ll even get to record this week.

This weekend, I’ll be attending Podcamp Boston 2 on Saturday (Sunday is the Redskins game) so I’ll need to get all of my tailgate shopping and stuff done on Friday. Having missed all of the other Podcamps and Expos, I’m thrilled to going to this one. Luckily, the game is at 4:15, so I’ll be able to make my chili on Sunday morning and will be able to be present for Matthew Ebel’s GoodBye Planet Earth CD release party on Saturday night. Wooohooo!!

The back has been a little better, probably because I’ve been doing a lot of walking and yoga. Of course, it takes up time, something I don’t have much of, but it’s well worth it for many reasons.

Meanwhile, as one to file in the “no-stress” category, the Red Sox are up 13-1 in Game 1 of the World Series against the Rockies, so at this point it’s safe for me to head to bed.

Technorati: mrsb patriotworld patriots matthew+ebel podcamp+boston+2 miami Red+Sox

Time is running out for me before we head to Miami.. so here’s the catch up of where I’ve been since the last post and all I have to do today before I go. I’m definitely a list person and have one going on a piece of paper ALL the time but putting out here will be just one more step in helping me to see it all hanging over my head so that I don’t waste a split second.

Where I’ve been…

• The Sox won the first game, and lost the next two miserably. Now down 3 games to 1, it’s do or die time when they resume tomorrow night.
• We had a great indoor tailgate party at our house and the Pats crushed Dallas 48-27. Go Pats! Pictures here.
• This week’s 365Tao guest reading dropped yesterday entitled Merging.
• I’ve visited the doctor again for my back that has been WAY off since wearing heels on the reunion/wedding weekend and he treated me and is recommending me for “spine school” for physical therapy for people with recurring back problems. It still hurts today but at least I can take a breath without a sharp pain and can somewhat stand up straight.

What I’ve got to do today:

• Fix father-in-law’s medicine
• All of Jacob’s laundry since I’ve been after him to bring it downstairs for weeks.
• Get Bella’s stuff together and bring her to her parents’ house
• Laundry and pack
• Do podcast research
• Get a podcast recorded and posted
• Update website
• Get my daily walk in
• Be sure that I have all gadgets charged and ready to go
• Clean out perishables from fridge
• Answer all pending emails
• Treat my back with some loving kindness and get some sufficient stretching and rest in
• Get to bed at a decent hour
• Yah…. right!

I’m glad to say that I made it through the very busy weekend. Some people love to have lots of invites and things on their plate but the older I get the harder it is to keep going non-stop. This weekend, we had 3 great invites, which standing on their own were events to look forward to, but squished into 2 days was a bit too much.

It was a busy work week and some unexpected things foiled my plans to get my shopping done early in the week so I ended up going on Friday night and didn’t get home until late. Ernie arrived Friday and crashed at our house for the weekend as well.

Saturday night, we had our 25th high school reunion. And, while there weren’t nearly as many people that attended as our 2oth, the crew that was there had a great time. Naturally, Ernie was the star attraction as always and his travel from San Diego proved to be the furthest distance again this year. After lots of dancing, Karaoke, and laughs, our night ended in the usual manner with French Fries in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday morning came way too early and we headed to Logan’s christening and dinner. Luckily, the game was on in the restaurant, and I got to watch at least some of it with family and an ice cold Guinness They were running behind so we had to leave before the cake and dessert and headed home to change for our third event, Danny and Laura’s wedding.

The wedding was a chance to catch up with the cops and friends that we haven’t seen in awhile and while the company and party were fun, we were running out of steam. So, closing the place was out of question. Besides, my feet had just about all they could take, so we left before the dancing really got cranking. Ernie was still making his rounds and was planning on coming home at a decent hour to catch up before he scheduled to leave this morning.

So, the back is screaming a bit from wearing heels almost non stop and I’m tired today but it’s nice to have the day off. I got up early and Bella found her favorite place to crash while I checked email and uploaded my pictures.

It was a great sports weekend for me with the Pats win and I’m happy to say that the Red Sox swept the Angels. They’re moving on the ALCS and will have the week off before playing on the 12th. Still waiting to see how the Yankees fare in this little divided household.

So, on this rainy Columbus Day Monday off, I’m totally going to enjoy hanging out at home catching up on the usual weekend stuff, drinking lots and lots of coffee, and catching some puppy kisses