report on our no electricity experiment

We decided we didn't need to go a full 24 hours without electricity as the whole purpose was to have a learning experience, and we felt that sitting around a few more hours wouldn't lead to any new insights. Besides, most the kids weren't here or conscious so that they could "enjoy" the experience:

Hannah was at track until midnight last night and I drove her back this morning for the 6 am meeting time--Ryan went back to bed after he got up and ate breakfast and he slept until 11 am since he was bored...he leaves for his swim meet at 12:30--Alex played at cousins until bedtime last night and is now on a cub scout field trip--this morning Eric and Glen are outside doing yard work.

Last night, Glen, Eric, Ryan, and I were the only ones home and we played games until the sun faded...then, after Alex came home and we read scriptures by flashlight, all the boys (Glen included) went to bed at around 8:40 since they were bored. I played puzzle games on my DS until 9:45, myself.

What we learned (or already knew, but experienced again):

Eric and I do not communicate very well when we're partners.

I knew where most of the things we needed were (like the paper products, drinking water vs cleaning up water, matches, candles, flashlights) ...but Glen didn't (and the kids still don't--need to have a little lesson there).

We need more matches and to keep the candle holders with the candles (I used large canning lids to keep wax from dripping onto anything).

Being stuck a foot or two from the wall when I was on the land line phone is really annoying after being used to the freedom of roaming around with the cordless phone.

I learned the right amount of water and how fast to pour it into the toilet bowl to make the toilet flush well (without wasting a lot of water).

With no heater running it takes the house a long time to warm up (of course I heard on the radio this morning that we are 15º below normal temperature today for this time of year). The house got down to 58º at 6 am and now, at 11, it's only up to 59º. My hands are cold...I went around with gloves on this morning.

And the big lesson for me:
When the electricity is out, but you know it's coming back on soon enough so you don't have to empty your freezer and save what you can by bottling it, everyone just sits around waiting for the electricity to come back on. "Randy lay there like a slug" from the movie "A Christmas Story" kept coming to mind. It was kind of like a holiday.

Now, in the case of a real emergency, stress would be involved and hence the holiday feeling wouldn't have been present. I wonder if the kids felt like it was a holiday or just a short prison sentence.

Oh, Hannah did shower at 5 this morning...the boys were all in bed asleep and were clueless. And I later decided if the electricity had been out that long the barn would have started its generator, so we would've had water at that point anyway.

So, maybe next time we'll try no propane and see how we feed ourselves.

if you've ever doubted my sanity...

...now you will have proof that I am not sane.

Our church ward is having a Preparedness Fair on Friday May 13th. I have been asked to man the "dehydration station" this time around (I did vacuum sealers last time). As we were discussing it in a planning meeting, it came up that it might be a good idea to have a self-imposed emergency as an experiment to put into practice some of the things learned during the fair...like go without electricity for a bit. We're going to jump the gun.

Glen and I have decided to give it a try. At 4 today we will "lose" our electricity for about 24 hours. In a way I feel like we are cheating because we chose a convenient time. Since our stove is propane, cooking will still be easy, though the oven won't work. I thought perhaps we should go without propane, too, but it's a thought I quickly let fly out of my head. Going without water (we have a well that runs on electricity) will be enough of a challenge for me for now. And we might be missing our heat as it's supposed to get a bit cold tonight.

Living in Fallon we've certainly had our times of no electricity...but usually it's only out for a few hours at most. I don't know that I've ever gone more than 7 hours without.

A friend of mine lives in Alabama and this is from her email a day or two ago about what is happening there this week due to the tornados:

Well I look at this as a challenge...to really implement our Emergency Preparedness...to work out the kinks to when we have a REAL emergency.  Yeah....we are out of power...the power lines went down and the TVA had to shut down reactors or something...so will be without for 3-5 days.  So far the water situation is still running.  We have over 500 gallons in storage and fixing to fill bathtubs up.  Checked up on neighbors (one homebound and the other newborn twins), some neighbors are going to extended families (Nashville, New Orleans, etc).  I think the hardest hit are the boys....electronics and computers and tv....they are going through serious withdrawals.  Ha!  The Mayor has implemented a curfew.  School will be out until Tuesday.  Our family doctor just dropped by with his daughter on their bikes to borrow batteries. He said they will probably loose all their refrigerated vaccines.

So....all in fun!  :)  (thank goodness for smart phones and car phone chargers!!)

Her email opened up a few thoughts that will help us be better prepared in the future--like making sure we can charge our cell phones using our car batteries. We used to have an adapter...I wonder if Glen knows where it is. Our phones aren't smart, however. Checking in on those around us is another new thought. And of course, having enough water stored.

The main problem I see right now is for Hannah. She'll get in later tonight from one track meet and has to be at the school before 6 am for her next one. She's gonna wanna shower. The kids who'll share the bus with her in the morning are going to want her to shower, too.

Since we canceled our satellite TV subscription on the 9th, we've already had a few weeks to get used to cutting back on our TV viewing (though the kids have been watching things through Netflix). I charged up my DS and cell phone, but other than that I haven't made any special preparations.

I look forward to an evening of playing games.

Andrew's travel plans

There was  a surprise for us in the mail today--Andrew's itinerary for his flight home on July 1st.

Only it had him flying into Salt Lake, so we had to make a few phone calls (new people in the mission office and they saw that he had a Provo address because he sent in his papers while he was at BYU, and so they thought that was where he was returning to, so they scheduled him to land in Salt Lake). He is now scheduled to land in Reno at 10:20 am on Friday July 1st.

He flies out of Des Moines at 6 am. Has a 1 hour layover and switches planes in Dallas. Leaves there at 9 am and arrives here at 10:40 am. Wow. So hard to believe. I'm glad the time change is in our favor.

I don't know if Andrew's trunky, but right now I sure am. He only has 1 more transfer day while in the mission and that's May 19th...Glen's birthday. We think he'll stay put and his companion, Elder Ray, will be transferred.

At this point, Andrew is scheduled to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday August 21st, which will be his last Sunday in Fallon before he heads back to BYU. They had him penciled in for July 17th (they like the returned missionaries to speak on the 3rd Sunday with the High Council member), but we will be at Lake Almanor that week. It's going to be a very busy summer.

Jacob and Susan's wedding

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Perazzo

Salt Lake City Temple

Jacob's family

Glen and I left our kids at home and took a 2-day trip to the Salt Lake area so we could attend the marriage of our nephew Jacob. We don't know his bride, Susan, very well, but we really like her and are so happy for the both of them. They remind us of us, so what's not to like? (she served a Spanish-speaking mission, is a college grad, is the same age I was when I married, and is older than Jacob)

The ceremony was in Salt Lake on Thursday morning at 11 am. Dad Perazzo performed the sealing. It was truly beautiful. Then we went outside for pictures--a bit windy and cloudy, but the sun peaked out occasionally.

That was followed by a wonderful luncheon (baked potato bar) at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. By this time, the sky was darker and the wind was whipping a bit, but it didn't rain on us-- which was great because it looked like it would have been coming down hard if it had decided to rain.

After the luncheon, Glen and I went back to the hotel room where Glen took a long nap and I read.

Then it was time for the reception in Sandy. I didn't bring my camera to the reception, but it was in a really neat place...we aren't totally sure what it was, but it was like a greenhouse with gorgeous plants and flowers. They had a chocolate fountain with all sorts of things to dip. Jacob's now former roommate, Sterling, was walking around performing magic tricks. He was really quite good and will be at the reception here tonight, so my kids will get to see some cool tricks. We got to visit with Glen's sister, Teresa, and her family and that's always wonderful. We also got to meet the new grand-niece, Tessa. Precious.

Jacob and Susan stood in line, cut their cake, danced...normal reception happenings. Good times had by all.

The next morning, we got up, got ready, and left, arriving home at 1:30 pm with plenty of the day left.

Thanks to those who chauffeured our children while we were gone (it wasn't spring break for Eric and Hannah and Ryan still had track and swimming practice).

field trip journal entry

Glen at the beach...Newport Beach?

enjoying a Balboa Bar

there were sailboat races that day

this is as close to Disneyland as Glen and I got

saw some wild burros

I'm not into public venting, but I guess it's not a set rule, cause here it goes. It's so long, I've divided it up into chapters. And if anyone wants to offer me advice on having a more positive outlook on things and "enjoying the journey," I'll be willing to listen, though I don't know that I promise to improve...


Intro:

Glen was asked to drive the instrument van for the music department down to southern California for the Heritage Festival. We drove down on Thursday to our hotel which was in Irvine, the Festival was at Fullerton College on Friday, and Disneyland in Anaheim was on the schedule for Saturday--which, because Glen and I were coming home on Saturday and not Sunday like the rest of them, I'm happy to say that Glen and I were going to miss Disneyland (I have NO desire to go to Disneyland...especially for 15 hours straight). The instruments would no longer be needed after Friday and we had things to do and 4 children waiting for us back home.

We had told the music teacher, Kathy, way back when that we weren't comfortable driving in the big city and she said that was fine, she'd take over when we got close. Turns out that that didn't help as switching to the bus was maybe just as stressful if not more so than it would have been to try and drive the van...but if I had been planning on driving the van, I would have printed out all sorts of maps and directions and it probably would have wound up being less stressful for me. Didn't look like anyone had real maps (there was one hired greyhound-type bus, 3 school vans and I think 2 parent vehicles in our entourage on Thursday), but many had GPS systems. As far as I'm concerned that wasn't good enough.

Chapter 1: Thursday morning

Getting loaded was a stress as we didn't know how we were going to fit 61 students on the 54 seats on the bus (with seats 55-57 being used by adults) when some of the vans (like ours) were not allowed to take students. Some parents wound up driving their kids that weren't originally planning on having kids in their vehicle... more on that of Friday morning... Don't know how, but they got loaded and we left.

So, Glen drives us, 1 set of parents, Kathy, and some instruments to Bishop. I take over in Bishop and Kathy switches over to drive another van (since the driver said her legs hurt and she didn't want to continue driving). I do not like following people when I go somewhere, but it's a big green bus and the road is straight and we have cell phones. We are told we are stopping in Adelanto next and that's where we'll switch drivers. We are the tail of the caravan and start to lose them in Adelanto as there are many stop lights. Just as soon as I'd almost catch them we'd hit a light...which then meant more cars were now in between us and the bus.

Then we pass through Adelanto and are now in Victorville. We can't see them in front of us and didn't see them pulled off anywhere, but since we have cell phones I'm not too stressed yet. Then we leave Victorville and are in the next town and I start to stress (the 3 towns flow one right into the other). She said we were stopping in Adelanto and that was 2 towns ago. So we try calling Kathy and get no answer. So the couple in the van with us, the Morgans, text their daughter who says they haven't stopped yet.  That was a bit comforting, but had they turned off and we missed it? Anyway, they now call their daughter and she tells us that they are just now pulling in somewhere. So in a few minutes we are all at the same gas station. There was some switching of drivers going on. Glen and I are now on the bus as we head to Irvine. We get to see most of "Tangled" (which is absolutely adorable) and that was OK. One of the 2 toll booths made me question the intelligence of the bus driver, but no real stress there. Until we try to find our hotel...

I would have really thought that as a bus driver he would have done a little homework and would know exactly how to get us to the hotel. Even if he didn't know exactly where he was going before that morning so he could do a mapquest, why didn't he have maps of LA? (actually I don't know if that really would have helped us find the hotel, though, and he did have a GPS but I'm starting to not be thrilled with those for big city driving). He said he wasn't allowed to look at maps while he drove. No, but others could have. And he could have while we were stopped. I wished we had a mapquest map.

He was a bit testy with the kids. He told us he doesn't like driving in LA. So why is a man who doesn't seem to like kids or driving in LA driving a bus load of kids in LA? He pulls into the wrong hotel and then almost can't get the bus turned around to get back out again...meanwhile I am VERY stressed (and so was the driver) and Glen probably has a bruised leg from me holding on in my anxious state.

The plans for dinner that night changed 3 times (in a 15-30 minute window) from "the bus is taking us somewhere to eat" to "we're all ordering in pizza and the music teacher is paying for it" to "you're on your own, check with your chaperons to see if you are leaving the hotel and walking somewhere or just staying in." Of course with 61 kids, the changes in the messages didn't all get through to all of them (or through the chaperons) and it was a bit crazy for a while.

(The music teacher was told by the bus company that morning that the driver would be able to be on duty later than the bus driver said to her that afternoon that he was allowed to be on duty, so hence the first change of plans. The second change of plans was due to Glen telling the music teacher that she needed to be more careful with her money and not buy pizza for everybody like that...due to hiring a coach bus instead of taking 2 school buses, they now have to do more fund raising to pay for this trip...and that bus situation is a whole nuther story which I won't go into here as I'm already too long winded...)

Chapter 2: Balboa Park Friday Morning

Next morning was worse...not all the vehicles were going to Balboa Park. STRESS. How were all the kids going to fit? It finally got worked out. Not sure how. After dropping us off, Kathy (and the accompanist) went to go sign us in at the Festival (and go to a director's meeting) and at Disneyland and would be back later--at least that was the original plan. Once we set off, we get to Balboa with just minor stress. We have 3 hours. There's the beach and some shops. I found that 1 hour would have been enough for me (I'm not into shopping...or the beach...I'm such a party-pooper, I know--poor Glen). The music teacher called to say that they weren't making it back to Balboa as they weren't done with their errands yet. So now we have 3 people (Glen, Joy--a translator for a deaf student on the trip, and me) who need to find a way to squeeze onto someone else's van. We find someone with 3 extra seats. Relief (which would be short-lived).

Then it's time to go. Turns out there are too many kids on the bus--though there are the same number as on the way there, but apparently the driver missed that there were 3 to a seat in one spot and 4 on the back bench instead of 3, and the driver kicks 2 of them off (we took off girls whose parents were on the trip and they took the 2 spots that Glen and I thought we were going to have). Thought we were going to have to squeeze too many people on one van, but it turns out another van hadn't left yet and they had 2 spaces, so Glen and I took those seats and "all was well" --except that I was stressed out. (I wonder how many times I've use the word "stress" so far and I'm only half-way into the trip.)

The Morgans, who were now the bus chaperons, mention to us they now know what we mean about the driver (the previous night when asked about our bus stint I told them it was a trip from you-know-where --only I was so stressed I used the real word and not "you-know-where").


Chapter 3: The Festival at Fulleton College Friday afternoon and evening

We make it back to the hotel and the kids have a few hours to get cleaned up and get ready for the Festival.

Major stress come now. 1-The bus driver assures us he knows how to get to the college...and of course it later turns out he knows how to get to the college, but not where they need to be at the college so there was a little shuffling around later. 2-The mother who drove to Bishop in a school van with her 2 sons and then had Kathy take over does not want to drive in LA. Someone told me she said she hadn't driven past Carson City before, I don't know if that was true, but I have to say, I couldn't picture her driving in LA. So I want to help because I'm really worried about this mother driving, but I don't want to drive in LA either...plus I wasn't sure if I was approved to drive students--I knew we weren't to have any on our van, but could I drive them in a different van??? Anyway, I felt like I was leaving her to the wolves and got in the van I was supposed to go in.

Kathy drives us and she is going a different route to the college to try and beat the bus there...only it didn't work and we arrive after (which wasn't stressful, but a bit funny). After a little bit, the mother I was worried about shows up and I am greatly relieved.

First up, the choir has a 30 minute practice then they are on. Can I just say, someone needs to throw out the music for "Nellie Bly" so I don't have to listen to it ever again? (they've been performing that piece for how many years now? I never even liked it to begin with) My favorite piece was about a wedding and it was fabulous.

Now the previous school had sung 3 songs for a total of 15 minutes, so then they got 15 minutes of professional instruction on how they could improve their performance. Our group sang 5 or 6 songs (we had 2 choirs mixed together...not all sang all the songs...I wonder if that is why we sang so many songs) which left them maybe 10 minutes for instruction. And they were done.

So in my mind, as for real value, the 9-10 hour drive one way and total of 4 day trip and all that money (and stress and frustration) was all for 10 minutes of instruction. Really. Later on the band went and then the strings.

Glen and I think the whole festival is a bit of a "racket"...they had 60 schools that weekend and it was the 7th of 12 weekends of the festival. Although it's a competition (or at least I think it is), everyone "wins" something.  Of course the kids got to go to the beach and got to go to Disneyland and raised their own money, but I think they should raise less money and hire a professional to come in and give them real feedback.

To make it more of an educational opportunity, in my mind, the kids should sit through a lot of other performances and hear the professional's advice to the other groups. There was a little bit of that going on, and I was outside with the instrument van for a bit, so maybe the kids got more instruction than I'm thinking they did. But really. What a waste. Of course, the kids might not think it was a waste. I wonder what the parents thought (we didn't have any of our own kids there, though Hannah is planning on taking orchestra next year so it might apply to her then).

We make it back to the hotel with very little stress...we missed our exit (Glen had the GPS and someone else was driving and twice I thought we were supposed to turn and we weren't, so the 3rd time I didn't say anything and it turned out we were supposed to turn...so we missed our exit) and of course the GPS just takes you to the next exit and we finally made it home but for a while we wondered where on earth the GPS was taking us 'cause it didn't seem to be taking us in the right direction at first).

At night we took the kids' cell phones and room keys as that is going to be the new rule for our district. Can I just say it's only mildly helpful. I said to one student what prevents a student from bringing 2 cell phones and only handing one over, and she confessed that she knew someone that did just that. Where there's a will...

Chapter 4: Leaving on Saturday

Relatively uneventful trip home. :) We had seen 3 wild burros right next to the highway on the way down, so Glen had the camera ready in case we saw them again...and he did only they were way off the road, but he managed to get a photo.


Now some positive comments about the trip:

the nice people on the trip
being able to read "Catching Fire"
arriving home safely

Easier to make Dulce de Leche

I was introduced to dulce de leche while on my mission in Uruguay. I was told how to make it the old fashioned way...mix sugar and milk and slowly cook it for hours so it can caramelize. Then I was taught the easy way...fill a pot with water, put in an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk making sure the water stays an inch or two above the top of the can and boil for 1 1/2-2 hours. I now have 2 even better methods that I found on the Our Best Bites website:

***
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/11/homemade-dulce-de-leche-easy/

Homemade Dulce de Leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 425º.  Pour sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish.  Cover tightly with foil.  Place in a larger pan, such as a roasting pan.  Fill larger pan with hot water until water level reaches about half way up the baking dish.  Cook for about 60 minutes and then check.  Continue cooking if necessary.  When a medium caramel color is reached, remove from oven and let cool.  Whisk until smooth, store in fridge.

Crock Pot Instructions:  Place 1-3 sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk in slow cooker.  Place enough water in slow cooker to completely cover cans by 1 inch.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.  Let cans cool completely before opening.
***

I used the first method yesterday (it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to cook) because I was bringing banana crepes to the stamping get-together and I had eaten all the nutella. So we had caramel banana crepes with whipped cream. Fabulous.

But, I really don't need an easier way to make dulce to leche, so hopefully I will keep myself in check and only make it when I have to take something somewhere.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Ryan's birthday started out like it could have gone badly, but in the end, all was well.

His sister forgot it was his birthday and said she was grouching at him to get up this morning...and then I came out and asked if the birthday boy were up (should I mention that Hannah used all the hot water and I had to wash my hair in the sink? yes, I think I should).

Then at 6:50 Hannah remembers that Michael called last night to say that he couldn't pick them up at 6:45 for Seminary...Glen had shaved but hadn't showered or washed his hair and I hadn't gotten around to washing my hair yet either. If I took them I wouldn't have time to come home and get ready in the time I would have to leave before I went to work.

Luckily the kids mentioned...I wonder if cousin Sarah has left yet. I said, of course she's left as it's now 6:52, but I look out the window and I see Uncle Gary just leaving his driveway! Ryan goes running out of the house and catches Gary at the stop sign. PHEW. They caught a ride to seminary. Thanks Gary!

Ryan's gift was not the wrapable kind. Glen took him to school at 6 am this morning to go with the French class to Monterey Bay for 3 days. They will go to the aquarium and have a real French dinner that lasts several hours. I went with Eric when he went a year or two ago. It's a nice trip. However, big snowstorm supposed to be happening now. Hope Donner is open and they can get through. Ryan will also be attending EFY (Especially for Youth) at BYU this summer.

Ryan making a wish

 Happy Birthday Ryan!

General Conference at our house

What a wonderful weekend we've had. General Conference was fabulous. Besides watching Conference itself, we have a few other conference traditions.

One, I make an almond cream cheese bundt cake to snack on:

Two, we all choose a word for our "Listen for" list. Then each time we hear one of those words during Conference, we get to take a skittle for our pile. This conference we listened for temple (and boy did the kids score big when President Monson gave his talk on temples), covenant, commandments, Jesus (Alex's choice and it was said so often that I'm wondering if we should not allow any words from "The Church of Jesus Christ" during October's conference), hope, and comfort. Since Glen and I aren't really into skittles we rarely take any, but the kids sure love them.

Alex listening to Pres. Monson's talk on temples

Ryan and Hannah with the skittles bowl

Another tradition we normally have is to put up the picture of the Apostle that is speaking. That is how we discovered that each conference we hear from every apostle except one of them only speaks at the Priesthood session. Did anyone else notice that we didn't hear from Elder Hales? Elder Andersen spoke in priesthood, so he didn't speak in a regular session, but Elder Hales isn't on the list at all. Anyone know if he was there? Is he ill? Did they announce that or that he was elsewhere and I missed it? Anyway, I couldn't find our Apostle pictures yesterday, so we didn't do that this time around, which made me sad because I learned of a new tradition that I wanted to try. It's called a General Conference wall.

To make a General Conference Wall, you put the pictures of the Apostles up on the wall, then as that speaker is talking everyone has post-it notes that they use to write down something they learned or really liked that the speaker said. Then you put the note on the persons picture so later you can use that for Family Home Evening lessons or just a family discussion. Maybe next time. (wonder where my pictures are)

Ryan and Glen just couldn't endure to the end

Usually we do a good job staying awake. Glen even napped in-between sessions, yet he wasn't able to keep his eyes open the last 30 minutes...and Ryan joined him. I'm glad we can already find the sessions to watch on lds.org! Ryan and Hannah already watched yesterday morning's session that they missed due to sports. I love technology.

http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/04?lang=eng
I was going to post a few notes here about the talks themselves, but perhaps I'll save that for my other blog.

Happy Birthday Andrew! and other stuff

Andrew turned 21 today.

Elder Ray and Elder Perazzo 2 April 2011 Oskaloosa, Iowa

Andrew blowing out his candles

I just have to love the internet. The lady, Sister Davis, who fed Andrew his favorite meal today (chicken pilaf) has already sent me pictures of Andrew on his birthday today. How cool is that!?


He should be home from his mission in 3 months.

I get to sign him up for his classes tomorrow night at 11 pm. I don't want to do any rearranging, so I hope there are still spaces available in the time slots he wants (2 of his classes are down to only 7 & 8 spots left).

Meanwhile it is transfer time for him this next Wednesday. I had been thinking that his companion, Elder Ray, has been in the current area several transfers, so I would think if anyone is being transferred, it would be Elder Ray. But you never know. I still figured Andrew would be staying in Oskaloosa. In Sister Davis' email she mentioned that Andrew and Elder Ray found out today that they are both staying in Oskaloosa. Once again, I just gotta love the internet.


It's General Conference weekend. What fabulous messages today. I think the one I'm going to study first is Elder Russell M. Nelson's. I think his was my favorite today. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Hannah had a track meet at Reed in Reno today and was able to throw the discus...she has a sore leg and so hasn't practiced this week but was able to fill in for a no-show. She was excited because she managed to not hit anyone (apparently that almost happened once).

Ryan participated in the "Aqua 5" today. Normally each swimmer can only participate in 2 different events. At the Aqua 5, they can complete in 5 different events. And Ryan did-- including a new event for him--the 100 m butterfly.

I had to bring Hannah in at 5:45 this morning and Ryan in at 7:45. Thank goodness they both arrived back in Fallon within a few minutes of each other so I only had to go in once to pick them up. It's amazing how such a little thing can make me feel so happy.

Tonight Glen, Eric, Hannah, and I are going to the Arts Center here and watch "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It's always fun to see what others do with a play. (play update: it was FABULOUS...so glad Glen helped with the unpacking and the set take down so we could get free tickets)

Denise and I also signed up for Ed Week this week. Pretty exciting.

We are going to call and cancel our satellite this next week. And call and sign Eric up to take his driver's test. Yikes.

Well, that finishes off my week. Hope this next one is another good one.