That's a good kind of sore, Kim. 🙂 I love gardening aches — it means progress was made!

Gabriella, I hope you're sitting down. Microsoft just launched Office 2013 beta. Let's hope they give it to you for a song, because it has two things that make me want to buy it — default save to the cloud, and PDF editing. You can get the beta version free for now.

Paula, we're into replacing now, too. The appliances were new with the house. The house? Not so new anymore. Oy.

Motley Crue and Kiss? Wade, you badass you! 🙂 And there I was listening to Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle under the stars. Still, pretty damn sweet. Good luck at hockey tryouts!

Anne, it's good until you need to fix something, then oh my lord! LOL

Snowball? Try avalanche. Another major appliance broke last week. The dryer. So I had damp laundry hanging throughout both bathrooms all weekend. (With my allergies I can't hang stuff outside – not only would I have a respiratory reaction, but my skin would go crazy, too.) That means my only appliances not to require service or replacement this summer are the microwave and my 12-year old washing machine….the washing machine is my oldest appliance.

My DSL and phone have been fighting nearly a week even after I replaced the DSL filters as directed. But I don't have time this week to jump their hoops – you know: wait 10 minutes to get a live person then spend 30 minutes explaining you've already done all the things they're telling you to do, wait another 5 minutes on hold while they confer with someone else only to drop you call when trying to transfer you to another department. Rinse and repeat. So that has to wait until next week. For now I'll keep living as if I still had dial up.

With ~13 guests coming next weekend, so I have a ton of cleaning, yardwork, gift wrapping and cooking to do on top of a full workweek and Tuesday's dryer repair. (The weed trees growing in from the abandoned yard next door will have to wait, too. That's a two-day project of its own.)

Did I mention that all of the window trim still doesn't have a first coat? I've gotten everything I can reach, and that's best I can do on my own. (I'm hoping some of the guests will volunteer to come back and help finish it off by fall since they help each other with big projects all the time.)

I keep reminding myself that the best I can do is the best I can do, but I also know some people think my best isn't good enough. To them I'll say: There's the paint. Here's a paint brush. If it's so simple you can do it.

And I'm laughing about your snowball effect. I also seem to always have home projects that need doing. New windows, new furnace, refinish wood floors. Next up: new carpeting in the bedrooms. And our building is replacing our three-story back deck. It all adds up funds-wise!

Speaking of funds, had to buy a new laptop this weekend. Also just went to buy new Microsoft Office. Ouch! Whatever. I can't dwell on it. They're business expenses, and they must be expended.

That means this week is weird. My laptop doesn't yet have all my programs installed, so it'll be a few days of ad hoc work. Thank goodness I already got much of the work done for a project that's due Friday. (Especially since this is the project two months ago that I totally blew the deadline on!)

Viva la weird week!

I spent the weekend doing house stuff too – this weekend project was the yard. We spent hours tackling the lawn, weeding flower beds and re-potting plants. My legs haven't been this sore in a long time.

We went out and purchased my 89-year-old mother's 2nd computer. She had been using my laptop (hooked up to a monitor) and it is dying – oy, another expense in my future.

I decided instead of hooking it up and the wireless router and potentially zapping my business computer, I'm going to take this chance to see about getting a separate line for my computer. I have been using the wireless connection only and it's up and down, and generally extremely aggravating.

So, I have a service ticket into my ISP. Ever notice how you get these bright ideas on weekends? Let the fun begin.

Have a good week, Lori, and everyone.