Just a little type A

The Pioneer Woman on Bonnie Hunt Show

Yes, I'm a little behind in blogging but I promise to get caught up this week. :) In the meantime, since I LOVE the Bonnie Hunt Show and been watching/DVR it daily after Bonnie and I were on the same flight on February 22nd while coming back from my first mileage run. 

Looking through my blog I realized I never posted about that first run which in and of itself was significant in that it was my first mileage run and there were 11FTers on the run and we were all in J.  However, I did post that I saw her on the Flyer Talk board: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/154265-aa-celebrity-sightings-related-consolidated-147.html 

I didn't want to be one of those weird fans so I didn't approach her but she seemed quite pleasant and friendly. And given that my first MR was a turnaround I was pretty exhausted.

I digress, if you're not already, plan to watch The Bonnie Hunt Show, it's a great talk show!  Always funny because Bonnie is funny and she had wonderful guests.  A few weeks ago she had Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce.   Yesterday's show featured Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.

And if you're thinking who is Bonnie Hunt?  She's best known for her role in "Jerry McGuirre " but she was also in "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2"; "Dave" remember the tour guide, "And we're walking..."; "Beethoven" and she's done voices in "A Bug's Life" and "Cars", just to name a few things.  So set your DVR if you work and watch the show in the evenings. :)

Cricut Expressions vs Silhouette

Repost:

Hmm, apple or orange. Yep, while they are similar these two things are not like the other.  Now if you continued to sing the song, you've either got a toddler, young child or just enjoy Sesame Street. But I digress...

So, I've been eyed both of these bad boy or should I say bad girl cutters for a long time. Being the frugal with tools person that I am and with all expensive purchases (see prior posts) I wait until I'm sure especially if I plan on buying any for Crop Addict. With that being said, I had a decent amount of hands on experience with the Cricut Expressions  thanks to a few crops where the hostess had several for us to use.  And boy, did I cut out a ton of titles. :)

So I was thoroughly enamored so much so that I almost bought one. But then I was reminded about the Quickutz Silhouette.  

I'm going to do this review a bit differently:

1) Cartridges or Freedom.  The biggest difference between the  Cricut Expressions  and the Quickutz Silhouette is cartridges.  With the Quickutz Silhouette there are not external cartridges required.  You simply connect the Quickutz Silhouette to your computer and use your existing fonts or images.  Should you desire to purchase designs and other items, you can. But the key is that you don't have to.

With the Cricut Expressions without cartridges you can't cut a thing.  You have to buy each cartridge to cut the font and/or images associated. At this time, you can not hook up the Cricut Expressions to your computer to cut fonts or images.

Thus, if you have a large collection of fonts, have a laptop that you can take to crops  when away from home, or you don't wish to purchase all the needed cartridges then the cutting machine for you is the Quickutz Silhouette. 

If you don't want to be connected to your computer, don't have laptop that you can take to crops when away from home, or don't mind buying cartridges, then the Cricut Expressions is your choice.

2) Size.  The Cricut Expressions machine body is big and heavy. Whereas, the  Quickutz Silhouette is light and medium sized, smaller than a regular sized printer and about 5 inches tall. 

3) Paper size. The  Quickutz Silhouette can only cut up to 8 1/2 x 11. I was quite disappointed as I was under the impression that I could cut 12 x 12 sheets.  And with the Quickutz Silhouette they recommend that you not cut anything smaller than 4x6.   The Cricut Expressions, on the other hand, can cut 12 x 12 and you can put a tiny paper, 2x2 on the mat and still cut.  That versatility is very nice, especially if you're like me and save all your scraps. 

4) Ease of Use.  The Quickutz Silhouette gives the impression that it's simply connect to the computer and go. Well, let me tell you, I was about ready to give mine away tonight. I bought it about 3 weeks ago but haven't had time to use it, especially since I thought it was bigger and needed to find room on my desk.  While I'm not a geek, I'm certainly no slouch or moron when it comes to technical things.  But it took me a good 45 minutes to figure out how to cut a simple design. However, once I figured it out everything went well.  The instruction manual while clear, needs to be clearer. 

The Cricut Expressions is so easy a child could use it. The tech guys for Cricut need to give the tech guys for Quickutz a call and inservice on writing manuals and designing cutting machines. One funny thing, the software calls the  Quickutz Silhouette the Craft Robo instead of the  Quickutz Silhouette. I'm thinking that when it was first designed, that was the name. But test markets showed that no woman would buy a cutting machine called the Craft Robo so they changed it to the Silhouette but they neglected to change the software.

So if you're tech challenged and don't want to spend time figuring out how to cut your image or title, go with the Cricut Expressions. 

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I really like the Cricut Expressions for the ease of use, ability to cut 12x12 paper and smaller sizes but having to buy multiple cartridges would seriously cut into my budget.

Because I'm a font junkie, I've got 364 on my computer and only because I limit myself, otherwise I'd probably have many, many more, I went with the Quickutz Silhouette.   As mentioned, I've only played with it for about 45 minute tonight but I think I'm going to like it. If  not, it'll be posted on ebay. LOL

Blog redirect

Testing to make sure the blog is feeding correctly. I added the Crop Addict blog here (http://debbieschroeder.typepad.com/cropaddict, last week and in doing so, things got a little whonky. 

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RBVLL Naturals vs RBVLL Timber Rattlers

Missed most of the game due to the little one's soccer game but according to the big one, the Naturals won 13 - 4.

Here are some photos:

RBVLL Rockhounds vs RBVLL Rivercats

The little one's baseball game went well today, Rockhounds won 18 - 7, of course, we don't keep score in Winterball but the boys always seem to know how many runs they have scored.

Here are some photos:

Sand People vs. Rusty Blades 1 - 2

Close game today.  The little one had some great breakaways and played goalie the second half.

Frustration - homework troubles

I'm incredibly frustrated right now.  Last week we got the big one's progress report. Based on his grades I knew something was wrong. Of course, Jeff didn't believe me and we got into a big discussion about how the big one's progress report was just fine and other parents would be totally happy that their child got those grades. But you gotta understand, this is the big one and we knew what he is capable of. 

Sure enough, two days later one of his teachers called and requested a conference. Turns out that not only was the big one not turning in his homework, hence the resulting grades on his progress report but that he also had Thursday School aka detention for failing to turn in his homework.  

I'd ask him every night and he would tell me he didn't have any homework. I even asked his teachers during back to school night if he'd be getting more homework because he doesn't have enough. Little did I know that he had plenty, he was just choosing not to do it.

We developed a game plan - in addition to asking him if he had any homework, I'd check his planner and initial each homework item after completion.  We also took away Surf Club.

I thought things were going great, at least that's how it appeared.  However, this morning upon reviewing his planner I discover a note from one of his teachers. The big one had still failed to turn in an assignment that was due last week.

The ironic thing - he had finished it the night before our teacher conference and he has been carrying it around in his backpack the entire week. What I don't understand is how he could forget to turn it in when we had a hour long conference which he sat through and attended about his homework and the new homework measures we've put into place at home.

I just don't get it. Why is he still forgetting? He's has a great memory but for some reason, homework apparently is not a priority. And I don't know how to fix it. Being a fixer, I have to fix things. If I see something wrong, out of place, or needs to be done, I do it. And it frustrates me that I can not fix the big one's homework situation.

I'm at a loss as to what steps to take. We've taken away computer and tv time, Surf Club and now he's going to lose baseball for this week but I don't know what else to do. Nothing seems to be working. 

On a lighter note, I'm starting to feel like Mother Superior from the "Sound of Music" and break into a rendition of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Viscous

Reviewing the big one's planner this afternoon, I find the word of the week: viscous.

Main Entry: vis·cous

Pronunciation: \ˈvis-kəs

Meaning: Thick and sticky

 

I figure we'll get a little extra "homework" in and see if he's actually looking at the pages of his planner so I ask him, "What does viscous mean?"

 

"Stick and ticky." was his response.

 

"Stick and ticky?" I asked.

 

Immediately he realized his error but at least we got a chuckle out of it. And then of course, he wanted to be quizzed on past words to see how he could butcher those as well.

The 10 plaques

On the way home from church I asked the boys what they were taught.  The children's ministry lesson plan is different from the adults. Our pastor leads us through a verse by verse study of the Bible, we're finishing the book of James so our study was James 5:7-12. 

"Oh we learned about the 10 plaques." said the little one. 

"The 10 plaques?" I asked, not really sure what he was talking about.

"You know. The 10 plaques from the Old Testament. Moses you know?" explained the little one.

"Do you mean the 10 commandments?" I ask, thinking he is referring to the 10 commandments.

"No, the 10 plaques!" at this point the little one is getting frustated and I realize this conversation is going nowhere in a hurry. So I ask the big one what he learned about.

"Oh, Pastor Matt talked about the plagues." Ding, ding, ding. It all makes sense now, plaques vs plagues. The little one apparently was just reading his Bible and not paying attention in classes hence the mispronunciation. But of course this is the same boy whose grammar is suspect: Grammar Police.