We had a gift card to Home Depot that we were saving for a special purchase. We didn’t know what that special purchase would be, but we knew we didn’t want to spend it on the normal stuff. Through the month of May, I did some research on the Roomba iRobot vacuum cleaner and decided I wanted to get one. As luck would have it, Home Depot carried one model, which was on sale during our visit on May 31. We wasted no time in pulling out the gift card and using it for this item of luxury.

I plugged it in and began charging the battery as soon as we got home. Then we had my parents over for the holiday, so we didn’t get a chance to try the little guy out until after dark. Just before I sent the boys to bed, I turned on my Roomba and waited. The little fella wirred and hummed and spun in a circle. And that’s it. After several attempts to “fix” it, I gave up and decided to call the company in the morning.

So I called the Roomba customer service center and explained the problem. They quickly diagnosed it as a software problem, and would send me a gadget called Osmo so I could update the software. Until then, I would have to wait to try out the Roomba.

Nearly two weeks later, the Osmo arrived. I followed the directions, but Genius Woman forgot one important step. The Roomba was supposed to have a fully charged battery before the update. My battery was next to dead. Once again, I contacted customer service and explained my situation. And once again they diagnosed it quickly. The Osmo couldn’t complete the update because the battery wasn’t charged. But the battery could no longer charge since the Osmo had already started its update. They would send me a fully charged battery to use to complete the software update.

It’s June 27, and I still haven’t gotten my battery. And of course that means we’re going on 28 days that I haven’t been able to try out my Roomba. I expect to get the battery tomorrow, now that I’ve written about what a dummy I am.

…about cupcakes.

Yeah, I know I’m cheating. It’s not a real post, just a link.

When did soccer become such a big sport? Okay, I know in OTHER countries soccer is pretty big. But I’ve never known it to be a big deal in the US. I’m not even sure we had a soccer team when I was in high school.

I know that soccer’s popularity has grown over the years. Grown a lot. In fact, it seems like soccer is the first organized sport children play these days. Not so in my day. Now suddenly adults are watching soccer. And talking about soccer. And… playing soccer?

I feel so out of the loop. Not that I need to be in the loop, but I would to have at least known about the loop.

Words cannot do these pictures justice.

Winners of the “I Look Like My Dog” Contest

My sister’s Post Wedding Celebration was on Saturday. As a kid, I never really cared about seeing my relatives, but as an adult, I find I really enjoy catching up with everyone. This is the first time we’ve all gotten together since the last family wedding three years ago. Three years is a long time to see family.

Almost everyone came to the wedding, despite living outside of Michigan. I was most excited to see my four little cousins, all of whom tower over me. It was a new experience to see them all drinking though. And dating. They’re all in their early to mid twenties, so of course they’d be drinking and dating. That knowledge didn’t make it any less weird though.

Spending time with them reminded me a little of going to DCon. Since I don’t really have any close friends, movies and shopping and dinners are all done with some combination of Rob, my boys, my parents, and occasionally, my sister. That’s it. So it’s kinda nice to spend a little time with extended family or long distance friends every once in a while. I’m a bit sad I won’t be going to DCon this year, but seeing my extended family makes up for that just a little.

It’s just one, but here it is. Mom, Dad, Sis, and me. Yes, I’m hunching over, not because I’m tall, but because everyone else in my family is short.

I’m spending a lot of time at the boys’ school lately. Last week, Jacob’s class had their final culminating event. Basically, the parents are invited to the classroom to view the projects the kids have been working on since their last culminating event. Jacob did a research project on the grey wolf. As with all the culminating events, parents are instructed to walk around the room, visit with as many of the *36 students as possible, and leave positive feedback for each student on a yellow Post-It note. (I’ll get to the *36 students in one classroom thing in a minute.) I really hate visiting with other people’s children. I’m bad at it.

Two days later was the Volunteer Appreciation Tea, where all the parents who volunteered this year were treated to desserts made by the teachers and staff, as well as a music concert performed by all the different classrooms. The program was a painful two hours long. The younger kids were adorable, but by the time we got to the middle school band, I was ready to leave. Unfortunately, the program was scheduled so it would end just before school ended, so I was stuck there.

Today, Brendan had his final culminating event. He did his research project on the toad. His room was even more crowded than Jacob’s room. I felt like I was always in someone’s way.

Tomorrow, Jacob’s class is having Career Day. Parents are encouraged to come and share the details of their jobs. Naturally, I signed up for this event, if for no other reason than to validate myself to… myself.

Friday is the boys’ eighth birthday. I will be taking cupcakes, or some similar sugary treat to celebrate. Thankfully, Rob has taken the day off to help out. I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage spending sufficient time with both of the boys. Last year, the boys’ birthday was the day after school ended. No treats! This year, school is ending a week later than other schools due to a late start in September. I figure I’ll need *80+ cupcakes to cover everyone. EIGHTY. That’s a hell of a lot of cupcakes.

I know there are some other events scheduled for next week, but I’m having a hard enough time keeping up with this week right now.

(*My boys attend a charter school. The student to teacher ratio is 18-20 students to 1 teacher. BUT each class has a team of two teachers, and thus, 36-40 students per classroom.)

I have my first batch of FairyBubbles in production right now. I expect to end up with 15 or so over the next couple weeks. The boys birthday and my sister’s Post Wedding Celebration are coming up next weekend though, so that may slow things down a bit.

I’m also experimenting with another new technique. It’s similar to the Bubbles collections, so it should fit in well. It’s taking a little longer to perfect this new idea than it did for Bubbles though. It’s also taken a little more thought to come up with a process that works, but the challenge is part of the fun.

I’ve been so busy with the website relaunch and designing new product lines for these past few weeks, that I don’t know what I’m going to do when things slow back down. Maybe I’ll get lucky and things will only slow down to a nice managable pace. I have a feeling though, that in this business, things will always be either very busy or very slow.

So, it turns out I have a life outside of Whimsy Chick. Imagine that.

This past weekend brought very hot weather to our little Michigan town. I refused to turn on the air this early, so we were a bit uncomfortable on Friday. By Saturday, I couldn’t take the heat. The air went on, and the hair came off. Yes, my hair. I chopped it all off. It was short before, but now it’s short-short. I’ve never gone so short before, so it’s kinda weird. But it’s so cute.

I was somewhat annoyed when the girl who cut it asked me if my husband likes short hair. Why do people always ask that? No one ever asks if my husband likes brown hair, or small boobs, or big butts, or Chinese women, or painted toenails, or… whatever. No one asks those questions because they are absurd. Do men who are married to women with short hair automatically like short hair? Or maybe men who don’t like short hair should leave a woman who cuts her hair short.

No one ever asks a fat women if her husband likes fat women. Why? Because it’s just wrong. I know my hairstylist meant no harm in asking, but it’s the kind of question that puts a person on the defensive. “Does your husband approve of what you are doing?”

BTW, Rob loves short hair.

I did it! I launched the site. Well, Janeth did all the work, but she gave me the POWER TO LAUNCH. So the site is up. Yay! Visit, proofread, scrutinize. Whatever. I thought the launch would be the final thing to do before I took a break, but I still need to make a few announcements and send out a press release. And then I have to get to work on the new collection, and a new idea. But first I think I need a nap.