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Many Thanks for Comments
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Thank you to my readers who've taken the time to comment or email me. I'm always thinking that, but I hardly ever *say* it.

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Lead Paint, But No Recall
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I ran across this photo the other day on Flickr's Creative Commons (attributed to Nor Cal Jeff) of a gorgeous pink Humboldt Victorian in Eureka, CA. This may just be my Totally-Just-A-Fantasy Dream House, LOL. I never did have a doll house when I was a kid (Barbie's Dream House not withstanding), so maybe that's the root cause of my attraction. I love to look at it, it's just plain pleasing to my eye. An "Ahhhh" moment..... I would totally have my craft room in the turret, if I could, LOL.

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The Rain, The Heat, and Hurricanes
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This is how seasoned and callous we are down here, no one is even breakin' a sweat over Tropical Storm Erin's landfall tomorrow just a few hundred miles south of us. We had a wretched storm blow through last night, part of the "squalls" of rain bands surrounding her. Tomrrow we have an 80% chance of rain, Friday's 50% and Saturday's 30%. My house could continue to get deluges or it could not have another drop fall on it. The winds could be strong and destructive, or barely a breeze.

All we seem to care about is how she has lowered the temperature enough to get a break in this summer's extraordinary swelter. Well, I say 'break': right now, as of midnight, it's 82F degrees outside. Up until the last week in July, the night time temp had remained in the low to mid 70's.

Anyway, it's like we are all mesmerized by the heat or lack of it, and cannot think past it. The days have turned pretty much into doing everything based on the sweat it will produce and whether it's worth it. Movements are slower, energies are constantly drained. I take frequent little "set down for while" breaks to air out my socks and feet and give my specific prickly body parts time to calm down. The Gold Bond lotion has become a frequent treat, like chocolate or something.

DH started back on days today and was just worn out, even with it being cooler. The last thing he wants to think about is tracking a storm and prepping our property, and he's usually Johnny-on-the-spot. I know this is silly, but I've had a constant feeling that we're not getting any direct hits here this season. I'm sure it's because Missy'll be separated from us, on further up the coast, and I just do not want to think about what kind of plan we will need if one hits. Guess I better start formulating some ideas on that, though, huh? I wonder if she would be safer just staying there, or are we supposed to come get her? Thank goodness for email and cell phones. I would hate to have to worry about it without those tools.

Let's see if I'm right about no storms next week, when Dean is supposed to come barrelling into the Gulf.....

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Missy's Collegiate Adventures
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Tomorrow Missy and I need to go to the bank and get the savings account straight, whether I'm still a signer and can tranfer money out of it as needed. I've decided to just let Missy charge her books. We are going to charge the tuition/room/board bill, and then transfer funds to our account when it's time to pay the card (we pay our balance off in full every month). I've recently become aware of a recent federal law change (part of all that credit card "reform" that seems to be penalizing us consumers, argh) that allows banks to charge fees for not following stricter "float" procedures. Like, if you transfer funds into a bank account at 10 one morning and then use that account's debit card to spend those funds at 9 the same morning, it's like you are floating those funds and a fee kicks in. And the fees are horrible. LOTS of people posting over at my local newspaper's chat board about how much money it's cost them. Used to be, if your deposit hit the bank before 2pm, it would cover whatever you'd spent that morning. But no more. To be safe, you need to leave a day's business between the two (with the deposit getting there first).

Because of that, I don't want to risk us falling prey to that, as I know that Missy does a lot of things last minute. So, we can just use the credit card float and stay perfectly legal. Handling money matters long distance and trying to advise a teen on money matters at the same time...well, kinda scary. This is virgin territory for us both.

Missy is going to open her own checking account on the edge of campus, though, for her spending money expenses. She kept back 4 of her last paychecks. She's getting a debit card for that one, so there should be a bit of a cushion. I'll have to sort of be a thorn in her side for a while to make sure she doesn't do something to incur the wrath of the bank fees. I think this might be the hardest part of parenting, as the economic stakes and risks just keep getting higher and higher. Yes, I'm a worrier, but that is my natural tendency for any "first". This tiome next year I should be cool as a cucumber and very experienced. LOLOL

Let's see, I don't think I knew to report last post, but Missy has a job for the next month at the bookstore on the edge of campus nearest her dorm. Her first day is Sunday, work right away. So, she'll be earning some money. There's even odds that she'll be kept on, though, because the status of a current employee is in limbo and Missy would be replacing her. So, we shall see. We both really wanted Missy to get this job, because it's close to her dorm and it closes at 5:30 most days (no late nights). Plus, she would not be working many hours, which I like. I don't really want her working more than 15 hours a week, 20 max. I want her to have fun, too!

Her roommate is from Longview and seems like a really nice young woman. I'm looking forward to meeting her Saturday. I've only seen her MySpace. I think it is cool that they are both English majors. The university tries to pair roommates up like that. Missy and Anj compared notes and both of them had put many similar answers on their dorm questionaire. I wish I'd have had a questionaire in my day, LOL.

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Walk This Weigh
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This heat has stopped me from walking outside at night now. The only place I can walk for the time being is in my little circle in the house thru the den, living room, dining room, kitchen and back into the den. And then do this several times, then do that several times a day. Around and around. It's more fun than I let on, and pretty brainless, but it's just not worth it to pour buckets of sweat outside at 11 at night, ya know? I'd rather hit the table occasionally and gain a bruise than sweat like that.

I totalled my steps and mileage for my first week using the pedometer, and I'm walking a little over a mile a day on average. If you will remember how I wasn't even able at first to do more than 1/8 mile before hurting, these are great numbers and something to be proud of, as I am. That pedometer is wonderful. I highly recommend getting one.

And, knock wood, I am continuing to lose a pound every few days and eat carbs now. I'm still not counting calories and hopefully won't need to until I get closer to my wanted weight range. It's been hard to not look at the carb counts on labels, though. Then it seems silly to, since I'm not trying to do Atkins. I think it's good to keep looking, tho. Doesn't hurt.

I can also take my time working up to 10K steps a day, too, without sacrificing the benefit of walking. Next week, I'm going to bump up my daily steps a bit, but this week's totals may not be even as good as last week's, because of this being Move Missy Weekend. I haven't been able to give it the needed attention. Thank goodness my weight loss has continued.

Yup, I'm definitely a turtle.... {LOL}