I think I’ve been in love with computers since I first started playing on Troy’s TRS-80 back in 1991. We couldn’t do a whole lot with it, but I loved it & learned everything I could about it. I’ve been that way ever since & with every machine I’ve owned, from my first Asus to my current Dell & Mini Dell.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever loved a computer as much as I love my laptop though. I got to pick out everything about it, from the color to the memory, I made it & have been in love ever since. I’m still in the “getting to know you” stage with the Mini, but so far, I’m really starting to like it. I took it camping the last time so we could have music & it did a great job with that, and the battery lasted quite awhile, longer than I thought it was going to.

I’ll be happy for a long time if I can’t get another one & that’s always a good sign, right?

We made it to the gym today & yesterday, and yes, it was closed on Saturday, due to the state holiday. I was very disappointed when it was. I try very hard not to “eat my pain” anymore, since that’s how I ended up weighing over 300 pounds, so these days, I run. I’m not running on the trail, a track or the treadmill though, it’s just way to much impact for my messed up knees & ankles, so I run on the elliptical. Trust me, the workout is just as intense as the one day I did mange to run on the trail & I come out of the gym drenched in sweat, so I’m doing something right.

Things are strange around here, I’m not going to lie & say everything in my life is peachy-keen right now, so I’ll just leave it at that & let it speak for itself.

It’s the rainy season here in the high desert, which makes planning anything a little hard, because we never know if it’s actually going to rain or just threaten. We went swimming the other day & ended up getting cold when it got cloudy & came home. It was a lot of fun, though & we definitely plan to go back & do it again.

I haven’t had a decent nights’ sleep since Saturday & I think that one of the weekend nights were plagued with funny dreams about a friend of ours who kept trying to get me to sign up with a site that had online coupons. The funny thing is that he would never be the type to sign up for anything like that, and the dream seemed so real that I almost asked him about it the next night. Funny the games the mind plays when we leave it unattended, aren’t they?

I can’t rhyme anything with that, so I’ll just say that it’s Pioneer Day here in Utah, which commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois. That being said, I’m not Mormon, it’s not the state’s birthday & I don’t celebrate it. All it means to me is that there will be more fireworks tonight to scare my poor dog senseless & that Beth gets to ride the fire truck in the New Harmony parade. I hope people remember cameras because I don’t have the gas to go down & watch. I’m not sure I’d go down if I did have it, since I’m always unsure of how to act during these things. I mean, if Beth were riding the fire truck AND they were tossing certified diamonds off the side for the crowd to catch, I still might be hesitant to go, just because of my own awkwardness.

I had wanted to go to the gym today, but I’m thinking it’s probably closed, although we’ll drive over there when Troy wakes up & check, because I’d hate to miss a chance to work out if I have one. Other than that, Ryan’s coming over at some point to fix our swamp cooler, since it went out yesterday & was so hot in here when he came over last night that we had to retreat to the front yard. I did finally get it cooled down by turning it to vent, so sleeping wasn’t pure hell, although I was so tired when I finally made it to bed that I doubt that I’d have noticed.

I didn’t get enough sleep this morning, but I can always lie down on the couch & catch up a little if I need to later on. I need to get a hold of Dawn or Jason & see if they plan to be home tonight, so we can plan to game or figure something else out if they aren’t. I’m up for Rock Band almost any night of the week, honestly, so we’ll figure it out.

It’s time to feed the animals & turn the sprinklers on, so I guess I’d better finish this up.

We had a great time camping, we learned a lot about each & as is the case in every camping trip we take, some decisions were made. This isn’t one I can really talk about here, as I owe the story to the person it involves & until I find the words for that, I can’t really say. All in all, though, we had a fantastic time. I can’t wait until the next one. I wasn’t thrilled with myself in some of the pictures, they made me feel like I haven’t lost any weight at all, even though I know I did & the close ups made me realize that it’s time to get some prevera and do some skin tightening exercises or something, especially after losing weight.

I’m 100% back on my program as of this week. We’ve been either going walking/jogging on the trail or at the gym every other day & that makes me feel wonderful about myself. I went 2 1/2 miles today, which is a lot for me & I intend to do more on Saturday. No more slacking for me & I need to get back to the weight training, too, so we’ll add that on Saturday, as well.

I’m feeling conflicted & confused about some things in my life right now, but I imagine I’ll figure them out & find solutions, it’s just going to take some talking & some thinking, but I’ll come through it, I always do. It’s a pretty personal thing, of a nature that I don’t really discuss on here, so it’s all up to me. No worries, my marriage is intact & doing fine, this is really just me & stuff I need to deal with.

Things are things, Troy is back at work after his vacation & the house seems oddly empty, as it always does when he goes back to work. I miss his vacation goatee already, too. I couldn’t even look at him when he left for work yesterday. Rhi is having problems this week & I’ve been giving her a place to vent & talk things out, I hope I’m doing some good.

We’re off to our fun weekend in just a few minutes & I’m so happy that it’s finally here. I just want to spend time resting, relaxing & having fun with people I love to be around. A lot of us are having a tough time right now & hopefully this weekend will be just what the doctor ordered & we can all regroup & start brand new next week.

I’m going to spend time worrying about Rhi this weekend, since she’s depressed, but my dad is taking her fishing today sometime, so I’m hoping that will help lift the funk a little. I’m NOT going to worry about diets that work this weekend, I’m just going to focus on portion control & watching what I put in my mouth a little better than I have been lately.

Anyway, it’s about time to finish packing the car & head out, I hope you all have a great weekend, too.

I hate the day before something fun. It just feels boring & hard to get through, every time. Today, I do need to get my laundry done & get us packed for the camping trip. We should probably get the XTerra loaded, too and then later, Dawn & I need to go to the store & grab the food we need. I do plan to get the house cleaned up & nice before we go, too, just because I haven’t had a chance to do that since before faire & I really want to. We’ll see how far I actually get with that, but I do intend to clean today.

I really just want to read & nap the day away, knowing that tomorrow we get to leave & spend time relaxing. It might make today go a little bit faster, but probably not. I need to do some research on acne treatments for Jaycie today, sometime, too. She has a really bad case & nothing that we’ve tried has worked so far. Her skin is also very sensitive, so we have to be careful of that, too. I hope I can find something that’ll work for her that won’t be terribly expensive, since it’ll be me that buys it. Her parents can’t afford anything outside of their beer & cigarettes, and she seems to be the lowest priority on their list anyway.

So, that’s the plan for today, just as soon as my back stops hurting, at any rate.

I can’t wait for our camping trip this week. I love getting out in the woods with our friends & leaving the cares of our every day lives behind, so much so that I’ll be very sad when summer is gone & it’s too cold to go anymore. I have most of the standard things already packed, because they get washed & go right back into the footlocker that we take with us, but I do need to pack up all of my daily supplements and the rest of the first aid (I wonder if Morgan will remember her heartburn pills, allergy pills & prenatal vitamins) supplies that we bring & a few food items, but other than that & clothes, we’re ready to go.

I do plan to bring my book, a notebook & maybe my netbook (for the music), since we’ll have a generator so we can charge things this time, and hopefully I’ll have time to do things just to relax, since we didn’t last time, or even enough peace & quiet to. I’m not counting on it, since Beth will be there this time, but I can always dream, right?

At any rate, it ill be a fun time & we’re all really excited about it. We plan to go a couple of times in August, too & that will just be the 5 of us & none of our kids, so that we can really relax & have fun together, since we don’t get a chance during the rest of the year.

15 years ago, I wandered down to the park during Faire setup and met some of my friends there. We spent all day & almost all night building that stage & getting everything painted & set up nicely. Troy & I went back the next day & played with our SCA group, and loved every minute of it.

We did that for years, until the year we were told we couldn’t come back as a Guild unless we paid a $50 performance bond. We didn’t have money to burn like that in those days and neither did any of our friends, so we begged & pleaded & finally came up with a compromise that our guild would take care of the garbage on the park during that week, do demos & add color. That was probably the dumbest thing we ever agreed to, we should have just sucked it up & paid the bond. Every year since then, and this was the 10th, we’ve been expected to take carte of the trash. That would be okay, except Troy has been in charge of the stage for about 5 years and for the past two or so has had to clean the bathrooms, too. In 2007, Troy & I joined the board of directors & so we got to add all of the stress involved in actually planning the faire & making sure all of the bills got paid on top of everything else.

It never really mattered what we said or voted on, certain people were going to do whatever they wanted anyway, no matter how much it cost the faire or how much money the little projects lost us. If we voted it down, it kept getting brought up at every meeting until we gave in. It’s terrible to work with people who can’t accept that “no” is a valid answer. Later on when we voted something down it was just ignored & we were later told that we were outvoted, even though it was impossible.

Last year, we were told that the four other board members were retiring & if we wanted faire to continue, we needed to form our own board of directors & continue on without them. We did, but by the time faire was over that year they were all staying & so we were stuck in limbo with the old board & the new, and everyone resenting the others. We had people naming their own replacements & when we refused them, adding them to the committee & treating them like board members.

We had all had enough by the second day of faire this year & the four “new” board membets quit, taking our guild with us. I don’t know who will build their faire for them next year, but I wish them the best of luck. Our time in the spotlights is over, as bittersweetas that is for us, we know it was the right decision.

We’re half way through the week of faire & I’ve made so little money this week that I’m done vending after this year. I can’t justify the expense of my booth when I make this little money. We’ll find other events that have fewer vendors selling Pagan goods, it’s all we can do, honestly. I can’t afford to do Faire anymore, that’s for sure.

I did learn more about being one by doing faire than I could have any other way, and I’m grateful for that, but I can’t take the bad years anymore. I want to get back to making soap & bath salts and all of that, and away from what we’re doing right now, I think it’ll just be easier on us emotionally.

I’m not looking forward to the rest of the week & the weather is bad today, which isn’t helping my mood, at all. I need to go out into the workshop & grab my cloak & see if I can find our posters, because they never made it to the park & I’m kind of hoping to get them sold. For right now, I need to get dressed & get going I think.

The last part of last week was pretty much pure hell for me, so I’m really hopeful that this week will be much better. Troy was extremely stressed out about faire, which caused us to get into several arguments, which are never fun, then a rock hit the windshield when Troy was heading to work & the crack is just growing like a tropical garden (I really think we’re going to miss our roadside assistance plan), then my fridge, that we just bought in May, stopped working right. That happened the morning we were supposed to buy groceries, so even though we did, we weren’t able to get anything perishables until yesterday.

We had a fun 4th of July, basically just hanging out with our friends, eating & enjoying each others company. I replaced & added to my music collection, after several years, so I’m pretty happy right now. I’ve missed having a good variety of music on my computer & now I’m using my netbook just for music and ebooks, so that’s pretty much my fun machine now.

Anyway, I need to get showered & ready for the parade. Have a great week, I won’t be around much!