Today is beautiful day. I’m currently sitting at our picnic table in the backyard with the extension cord draped across one of our white plastic chairs as the cord leads up into the house where it is plugged in. Jasbaz and Kayla are playing in Kayla’s yard. Jasbaz is dunking her pieces of chalk in Kayla’s water while Kayla patrols the perimeter, occasionally grabbing one of her balls and stopping to chew it.

I’ve got two citronella candles burning next to me in terracotta jars, keeping the mosquitoes at bay. The sun is starting to sink, so the sky is a nice light blue with darkness creeping in slowly. Jem’s song Ultraviolet is playing on Youtube in the background and here I sit, enjoying myself.

Yay. We may not be in a different city, but the setting is quite pleasant and tomorrow is another day, so the trip may still happen. Bust us out of our groove. Still, even being in this city, Jasbaz and I quite enjoyed ourselves while Andy was at work.

We walked up to the local Taco Bell for lunch and had a really good time. Homegirl massacred a Mexican Pizza. And seeing as I brought my Kodak with us, I have a few pictures of us. Yay. I’ll probably upload them later if I can get Andy off the other computer.

He’s researching prices for Adobe Premiere for one of his projects. There is a screenplay that he’s been working on and so he’s got his heart set on getting a really good video camera, video editing software, and bringing his dream to life. I think it’s exciting but he tends to forget about projects after a few months and move on to the “next” thing. So when he gets the screenplay finished, if ever, then maybe we’ll get the videocamera he’s been drooling over. But seeing as how it costs over two thousand dollars, I definitely don’t want him buying it and then moving on the next thing. You know? That’d be crazy.

But it’s one of his dreams and I wouldn’t want to be anything other than supportive. That’s why I’ve got Jasbaz outside playing with Kayla and I’m out here with the laptop - give him some quiet to get things accomplished. Although he has dinner in the oven, supposedly, so it works out for us too. We play while he cooks dinner and types. =) Yay for compromises.

Anyway, I’ve got to help Jasbaz go collect all her chalk pieces that she’s scattered all over the backyard since it’s getting pretty dark out here. My candles look so spooky in this semi-darkness. The candle holders are boxes with cutouts of a butterfly and dragonfly, respectfully. I’ve got flaming insects for light! Heh. Time to go in and eat, I think.

I kind of want to go up to Chicago this weekend. Although last weekend would have been the time to go since we had the three day weekend. I just think it’d be nice to get out of here for a while and I’d like to take Jasbaz up to the pier. She’s never been the navy pier except when she was a fetus. I think she’d like it. I know Andy and I did.

There was a mariachi band playing, the sun was shining, and I was in the giddiest of moods since it was the first step of our vacation back in 2006. We wandered about wasting time until the train showed up, visiting and wandering around. I played the obvious tourist:

Hehe. My bitty baby bump! Um, but yes. We acted like straight up fools and it was fabulous. I remember locking hands with Andy and trying to get him to dance with me to the mariachi band music while he did the furious eye look as he tried to lock eyes with someone so that he could get away. Me, embarrass someone? Hehe, only if it’s another city. =)

We had a few other tourista’s take our picture on the edge of the pier. They had the most difficult time working Andy’s camera… it was funny. Especially since Andy goes into teacher-mode and spends about ten minutes giving a lecture on camera basics and the art of picture taking. This one? Rule of thirds. I know, I felt bad for them too.

We also took the River Taxi which was really neat. The both of us took pictures the whole time of pigeons, buildings, each other, my wicked cool prescription sunglasses, the water, pigeons, buildings, pigeons. Mostly, we rode the taxi, wandered, and just soaked it all up.

Chicago was fun. I miss it. And I want to go back for a visit. I meant for us to go back up in the beginning of August to see my friend off since her internship ended and she was being shipped back off to the coasts, but it was not financially meant to be. As it is, the only pictures I have of her are from when she was playing chess with Andy on the last day she stayed at our place.

Who knows. I think I’ll be happy as long as we leave the city bounds. And I want to get doughnuts too. And a good chicken sandwich.

Actually… now I’ve got a craving. Is driving two hours one way to fulfill a craving considered crazy? No? Okay, didn’t think so. We just might have a quest now. Yahoo Maps, I have a destination for you.

I just got back from running an errand for work and holy cats is it raining outside. Buckets and buckets.

It was raining when I left for work this morning, but it wasn’t as bad as all this. And being an airhead, I wore flipflops and my flimsy black pajamaesque pants today. I had to hold my pants up so that the edges wouldn’t get wet from the rain.

I hate when the bottoms of the pant legs get wet. Such a small thing but so aggrivating. Especially when you take off your shoes or are wearing flipflops because then there is a ring of wet cold around your ankles. No good. Makes a person grumpy quite quickly.

Still, the rain has been very pretty and relaxing to watch. I really think that the strip of grass in front of the building has gotten greener as the morning has progressed.

I tried taking a picture of the raindrops with my CX7530 today, seeing as how I got new batteries for it this past weekend, but it was kind of disorienting using the camera again after so long. I got used to the Nikon and bless my little Kodak’s heart, it is not meant for taking the kinds of shots that I was wanting. But it is ace at taking pictures of people and situations and for taking places where the Nikon might get lost, stolen, broken, or bruised.

Don’t be jealous. We were watching Celtic Women perform Over The Rainbow on youbtube and… well, the moment needed to be recorded. And shared.

In a clear sign of showing how nutso I am, yesterday I finished creating my Financial Notebook.

It contains a page that holds our debts, a page for each of our savings accounts, and the entire rest of the book is going to be the checking ledger.

I plan on having two copies of our finances at all times, one on paper and one on the computer. Why? Because. Because of when my darling computer went down several months ago and my beloved Excel spreadsheets were locked in the bowels of a broken computer. Unaccessible, alone, probably afraid because they weren’t being daily tended like they were used to. SPREADSHEETS, I’M SORRY! But they knew. They had to know. Such separation was not my choice.

Now, I have taken pains to make sure that my information will not be lost to me again. Yay!

That is, unless there is a major fire that consumes not only my office but also the entire internet. So, we should be okay. *fingers are crossed*