Texas summers are expensive

The first of the summer utility bills arrived today - eeek. We've been running the AC since June started, but not too much before that (I was just sucking it up when it got warmer before that and I wasn't quite as big nor was it quite as hot so it was okay). It's been over 95 now for weeks, so that's been quite the expense. I've also gotten a lot more rigorous with obeying the watering schedule. Ironically, I used less water when I wasn't adhering to the schedule because I'd just do it when I remembered. Now I know there's only two days a week I can do it so I feel obligated to do it those two days when I might otherwise skip it. That said, with the hot weather everything in the garden has been suffering a lot more lately too, so the water usage may have been the same regardless. It's three times this month what it was the month prior though. Impressive.

In other news, I had the car yesterday and had a big shopapalooza. Ikea never did put the table I wanted for the back patio on sale, but they had their floor model in the as-is section. It wasn't marked down much (only 10% - in as is?!?!) and was in really rough shape so I complained and got it for 50% off - yay! Drove around all day with it in the trunk as I couldn't get it out on my own. Last night Jason and I took it all apart and made what repairs we could. Most of the metal brackets were bent a little out of shape, and the hinges were utterly destroyed, but thanks to a vice grip, a rock hammer and the curb out front it's all been bent back into something as close to right as I can manage. Probably would have worked out better with sledge and anvil instead of rock hammer and curb, but you make do with what you've got. Today I need to give it an oiling and Jason and I will move it out back tonight. There's a storm brewing outside, so it's a lot cooler out now than it has been in days. I might throw on some crappy clothes and see what I can get accomplished outside today while it is tolerable. I also got an umbrella and stand, so other than not having quite enough chairs out there (no biggie, just grab inside chairs if we have a party) I'm all good to go out back.

I also picked up a new filing cabinet thingy at Ikea to replace the one I bought years ago and have hated pretty much since the minute I brought it into the house. What use is a filing cabinet if the drawers only come half-way out? I actually had to empty it half out to get at anything towards the back. Seriously shit design there.

Then it was on to Jo-Ann's where I went a little nuts in the fabric section. Picked up almost 8 yards of a super-cute beagle-printed flannelette that I intend to make into as many baby blankets as I can. The idea being the kid can have a security blanket, but I can swap them out if I need to wash them or one gets lost. How big should I make them? I also got some dinosaur and lizard printed flannelette to make burping cloths for Jason to use. How big should those be and do they need to be lined or anything?

And as a final last-minute spend Jason and I hit Old Navy on the way home. The local store officially cleared out all their maternity stuff and yesterday was the last shot at it. Everything was 50% off which was nice, but there wasn't a whole lot left, and what was left was stuff I had a lot of. I picked up two pairs of track pants anyway because they were only $10. This morning I got up wishing I'd gotten one more pair so I could have cut them off to be capris. It was disappointing to see a whole bunch of the cargo pants that I wore frequently in my 2nd trimester on sale when I paid full price for them. Unfortunately I already have 2 pairs in grey, and they didn't have any colour options so it would have been dumb to buy more. That and it's too hot now to keep wearing them. I hate that I'll only be able to get their stuff online now. I refuse to buy clothing online. I really do feel a need to try stuff on and see how it's going to look on me when I buy it, and this is especially true of the maternity stuff. So much of it has looked terrible on me. I will buy certain brands that I get on e-bay where I know their fit really well and tend to buy the same thing over and over with only ornamental variation, but that's for normal-sized me. I've discovered that I really, really need more shirts. Maybe I'll hit target this weekend since all I really want is black t-shirts anyway. Surely they'll have those. The real reason we were there was shorts being on sale and Jason having only 1 decent pair. He managed to find 3 that he liked, so that was great. Of course he's gone off to work wearing them today on the first day in a month that it's not hot.

Speaking of the weather, it's started raining so I'm going to go and get on with my furniture assembly and oiling the new table while it's nice out.

A beautiful way to be remembered

I will freely admit that I never knew this woman, but this death announcement had to be the most beautiful one I've ever read so I wanted to keep a record of it.

Her Excellency Kelta Bri Leith has passed away.
She has traveled to Valhalla proud and battle weary.
She battled fiercely to the end her sword failing her only at the coming of the valkyries.

I've been thinking about death and generations and how times have changed a lot in the last few centuries. Go back a few generations and I imagine it was rare for anyone to have a great grandparent, and not having a full set of grandparents probably wasn't that unusual either. Now people are having children later, and yet more of the extended family tends to still be around. When my husband and I were born, we both had all 4 grandparents and 1 great-grandparent. When our daughter is born she will have all 4 grandparents and 3 great-grandparents (barring anything horrible happening in the next 2 months - *knock on wood*). Strangely, all the great-grandparents will be on my side. I guess I'm contributing good genes. It saddens me that my Granddad will never meet my daughter, and that my Grandpa won't be able to see her because he lost his sight in the last few years, but it pleases me greatly that most of them will be able to meet her. It also saddens me that we happen to live so far away so seeing both grandparents and great-grandparents will be a rare occurrence. Almost makes me want to move back home, but then I look at everything else wonderful in my life and realize that just now it's not quite enough motivation. Maybe in a few years...