This Saturday, July 26th, from 9-4 my subdivision, Brook Falls, will be having their annual rummage sale. It's located off of Lilly Rd, right across from Lamplight Farms, just north of Hampton Avenue. You can enter on Camelot or Brook Falls.

I'll be participating in the sale, and I hope to have all my stuff together tonight, in the garage, and properly labeled. Most of what I have to sell is clothing, toys, and books that my seven year old daughter has outgrown. Due to favorites, and of course, growth spurts, there are some that she's never even worn.

My daughter is pretty excited about setting up her own little table this year, which was supposed to be for cookies, lemonade, water, and snacks. However she's been working on some crafts like mad for the last few days. Gosh, I hope someone buys them. She's struggling with a price point right now. Her father and I are trying are best to push her towards the $0.25 mark, we'll see what she decides tomorrow, I guess. Perhaps her grandmother will be able to talk some sense into her.

If you'd just like to stop by and say hello, please do! I'm the first house on Brook Falls Drive, the one with a giant Rainbow Play Set in the backyard. Ya know, what I should do, is offer a babysitting service for parents so that they can drop their kids off in my backyard to play on the Rainbow, while they rummage with ease through the subdivision. Now there's an idea.

Have a great weekend!

The last Batman movie I saw starred Michael Keaton, or possibly George Clooney, I’m not entirely sure. But I think I had mono, and I swore I was dying, and someone had to DRIVE to Blockbuster to rent a movie. Yes, it was a very, very, very long time since I’ve watched a Batman movie. I love the roller coaster ride a Six Flags though, LOVE IT!

Zoe went to my parents for the night, and that means one thing: MOVIES!  NON-G-RATED MOVIES!!! And well, in order to see Mamma Mia!, I promised we could see The Dark Knight first. I ordered tickets online, and even though we got to the theater 25 minutes early, we still had to sit in the second row. FROM THE SCREEN. It was 4:50 in the afternoon, and for as much as I love movies, I have this problem where I fall asleep during them. It’s something to do with the dark lights, and the fact that my eyelids get really really REALLY heavy. I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t fall asleep, just so that I could SAY that I DID NOT FALL ASLEEP.

And I did not fall asleep, but I probably should have seen Batman Begins prior to watching The Dark Knight.

WOW! The movie blew all of my expectations straight out of the bat cave. It was, in my opinion, probably the best movie I’ve seen all year! And, if you recall, I did see every last one of the Oscar Nominated best-picture movies in a marathon fashion one crazy Saturday not too long ago.

Someone needs to check my forehead, do I have a fever? I just declared a caped crusader movie the best I’ve seen all year! Me? I don’t even like Spiderman!

And all the buzz going around about Heath Ledger and his role as the Joker, it’s true. He was phenomenal! He deserves any and all nominations that he receives. Absolutely.

By the way, Christian Bale? Oh he’s a MUCH better Batman than Michael Keaton.

In May I got a brand new Kenmore Elite He5t washing machine with the Quietpak 9 and a matching He5 Steam dryer - also with the Quietpak 9. I didn’t know that I could love a washer and dryer this much. The very second that Sears drove away after delivering and installing them I had a load of wash going — and all the laundry baskets were neatly lined up so that I could wash clear into the middle of the night if I chose to.

I’ve kept those machines running on a fairly regular basis ever since. If something needs to be washed I scope out all the dirty laundry until I’ve got enough to fill a load.

And the Quietpak 9? Well worth the money. My laundry room is on the first floor and it’s right next to the living room, dining room, kitchen, and my bedroom. I needed a washing machine that did not make a peep. And this one is UBER QUIET.

Did I mention that I love it?

So this morning I threw in a load of sheets, and tonight I flipped the laundry into the dryer, and started the next load. Then I took a shower. And when I got out of the shower I noticed that the washing machine wasn’t running, and instead was flashing F32 on the screen.

And the door was locked.

And it kept flashing. F32! F32! F32!!

Yes, yes, F32!! But what does it mean?? I grabbed the owner’s manual and searched for all the error codes, F20, F21, F22, but no F32.

What!?

I started punching buttons on the machine, and finally had to unplug it from the wall to get the door to unlock.

Whew! I got all my clothes out of the washing machine, because even though they were dirty clothes, I felt relieved that they weren’t locked inside! I know, odd.

My husband came in the laundry room and tried to figure out what the problem was, and finally announces that “we’ll have to call for service”. Lucky for him the door right behind him is magnetic and there was a Sears Home Service magnet — which I grabbed and handed to him.

“It’s 8:30 at night, they won’t be open.”

“Ya never know.”

I fully expected him to go back to watching his tv show, and I was still wrapped in a towel, so I went to the bedroom to get into my pajama’s. I can see the couch from the bedroom, and I saw him sitting on the couch, then I heard him explaining to someone that the washing machine wasn’t working and it was giving him an error code.

Could he really be calling Sears? At this hour?? For me???

Sure enough, he called!

And I wanted to burst out into song like Giselle in Enchanted — twirling around in my pj’s That’s How You’ll Know!  

(Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head)

Over the past few weeks I've been running outside, rather than running on my treadmill. My dog, Maisy, has been my running partner. She does pretty good actually, and I'll bet we ran close to 15 miles last week, only taking Wednesday and Sunday off. Perhaps you've seen us running through the subdivisions off of Lilly and Hampton?

The only problem with running with my dog is that I don't want to push her, and in order to make sure she stays properly hydrated, I bought one of those Camelbak packs from REI. It's not the big one that goes on like a backpack, but rather a smaller one that actually I wear like a fanny pack and the water bladder rests on the small of my back. Surprisingly, it holds 48 oz of water, and Maisy is pretty good at drinking it straight from the hose like it's a bubbler.

Tonight Maisy and I were getting ready for our run, and I don't know if it was the water pack that got my daughter, Zoe, so interested or what, but she decided to come along with us. I thought about just doing the 3/4 mile loop through my subdivision, but she was doing so well that I keep on going my normal route and in all we went about 2.5 miles. Sure, we didn't go super fast, and we walked here and there, but I'm so impressed that my 7 year old actually did it! Our pace was slow, due to the walking, as well as I tried to teach her not to burst out full steam ahead.

Even though we both had our iPods on, she talked the entire time. Over time she'll learn to concentrate on her breathing, and maybe not talk so much, or maybe the talking will turn out to help her. Personally, I can't really talk when I run. Anyhow, normally I'd have dropped Maisy off at the house and then gone out again by myself to do another loop, but it was getting late so I didn't this time.

Thursday night I'll Storm the Bastille with my husband and my sister-in-law. My brother and my nephews are supposed to be running the 5K too, but we'll see, they changed their minds last year. This run is my favorite run of the year. I'm really looking forward to it!

Cross posted @ Thoughts Outside My Head

I must confess, I don't care about parades. At all. Maybe it's because I spent a great deal of my childhood marching in parades, both for the Robinette's (I was a baton twirler) and for the Templeton Middle School marching band (I played the clarinet and the flute). Once I got to high school, I quit the band because it was mandatory that we had to march, and I'd had enough marching.

On the way home from work yesterday I took note of all the people along the Menomonee Falls parade route who were scouting out their spot for tonights parade. It almost made me wonder if the parade was last night, instead of tonight. This morning all the stakes and string and caution tape and lawn chairs, and other marking devices were there. My daughter, who is seven, asked me: What is going on? Why are all these people in areas that are marked off with caution tape?? And I had to explain to her that it wasn't police tape in this instance, it was areas that people were marking as their own for the parade which is later tonight.

And this is what she said to me: But it's just a parade.

My point exactly. It's just a parade. I don't get it. What ever happened to showing up for the parade right before the parade started? Where the kids sit on the curb as it passes by, and the adults stand on the sidewalk? Does that not happen anymore?