Hello!

I will be having a July comments contest again this year – this will be the 4th year in a row.  Last year, I tried to post everyday for the month of July, and that was very taxing because I am an extremely lazy individual.

So this year, I promise absolutely nothing.  I will try to post a few things between now and the end of the month.  One entry per comment.  The prize will be something delicious and from my new favorite store.

Today, for the 19th, I started the celebration by taking Lucy for an hour and a half walk, so I was late for work.  But I did shower, put on a cute outfit and leave the house, all miraculous feats.  (See above: Lazy. )  I shopped a little at lunch, and will be stopping to pick up a cake on my way home from work.  Aside from the fact that it is as hot as a thousand white hot  suns outside, it looks like it will be a very nice 19th of July.

And how are all of you going to celebrate?

It’s the 19th of July, my special holiday.  I did a little shoe shopping at lunch, browsed at the bookstore, and got a chicken sandwich to go from The Kitchen {Next Door].

The celebration continued with leftovers for dinner, cupcakes for dessert, and then ended somewhat terribly with the 2005 version of Lassie.  I’d go into detail, but I don’t want to be a buzz kill on my special day.  (Don’t watch this movie.)

But I am wearing my new tennis shoes, and they look fabulous!

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ABC, 123, etc.

>Happy Half Birthday to me! And welcome to July, also known as comment month. Each comment during the month of July is one entry into the comment contest. The prize is always to be determined, but it will probably be something I pick up on my summer vacation.

This year I am celebrating my half birthday (today), the 19th of July! ™ and I am also thinking of a Christmas in July theme. I’ll keep you posted.

In TV news, we just finished the season finale of Lost, so maybe I will have time to blog now. Here is the only question that is unanswered for me. How did we start watching 1.5 hours of TV at 10:00 and finish at 1:00 am? How did that happen? We may never know.

>ABC 123 19th of July. Blah. Even my own special cake-eating and present-buying holiday couldn’t totally cheer me up today. Oh well, there’s always next 19th of July.

I wasn’t able to make or order a delicious cake, but I had Dave pick one up during one of the times I sent him to the grocery store today. It was good.

And since I can’t leave the house to shop for summer clothes like I usually do on the 19th of July, or thereabouts, I focused my energy on online window shopping. For cameras. As you can see above, I am still using my phone as my only camera these days, and it isn’t pretty.

As a Boulder, green, earthy, granola type, I always feel the need to shop at locally owned businesses. So I have been to our local camera store a few times, but I just haven’t been able to pull the trigger and buy a camera there, when I can get the same thing cheaper somewhere else. I just end up at Target, getting the camera for $25.00 less than at the local shop, and then half an hour later, I buy the same camera at Costco for another $50.00 less than at Target, and then 20 minutes later I return the first camera to Target. It’s so annoying and complicated. After my camera fell in the sand in Mexico, I took it to the local shop to see if they could fix it. They said no, and that Canon would charge me almost as much to fix it as to buy a new one, (like $200) so I should just buy a new one. While I was there, I jiggled the camera enough to get it working again. It worked for another month, on and off and then broke for good. So the next time I was at Target, I picked up a camera half heartedly and started looking at it. The sales guy said, “Can I help you?” And I said, “Yeah, my camera broke, so I guess I have to buy a new one.” He said, “NO! Don’t do it! Call the Canon customer loyalty number, they will hook you up. You can just get a better camera for like $100.00.” I figured it was worth a shot, and the helpful target salesman was right! For $100 they will fix my camera, or I can get a refurbished better model for somewhere between $125 and $200. (Actual retail price for a new one ranges from $250 to $400.)

I am comparing and contrasting cameras and not feeling too guilty about not supporting the local store. Just this once though.

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I searched for a local bookstore for the contest winner and when I found one, I sent the name to Aunt Beth for approval and she said it’s the best bookstore in C-bus. I bought a gift certificate and sent the info to J.E.J. Happy shopping!

And on the subject of the 19th of July song, we came up with Jack’s first song today.

First, let’s revisit one of Luke’s songs:

Me llamo Lucas
Yo soy un Kookus
Mucho gusto! Very much!

Frijole Negro
Es Mi Perro
Mucho Gusto, not so much!

And now onto Jack’s:

Me llamo Juan Pablo
No Espanol yo hablo
Pero sonrio
Como Diablo

And yes, we had dinner at the Rio. Is it that obvious? These days, instead of drinking 3 margaritas and riding my bike into a parked car on the way home, I drink one margarita and compose bad spanglish songs about my children.

But! I still had my wits about me enough to realize that I had left the pacifier next to a tree by the creek hours before and I went back and I found it! I left it right here: