Maggie Byrd

9:46 am est
7lbs, 9 oz
20.5"

On the way to Louisville

It's grand baby time.

Display @ Harris Bank is up!

A display of my drawings and digital finger paintings is up and going at our local Harris Bank branch here in Cary, IL.  ■  Worked on getting it ready last night, then packed it up, drove to Harris and set it up this morning.  ■  I decided that it needed a Guest Book to try and collect names and email addresses, so a quick trip to Office Max solved that need quickly.  Tomorrow I’m going to bring down a couple of coffee cups I’ve had done from drawings and some more/different note cards.  I’m thinking that I may swap note cards in and out all week just to keep the display interesting.  ■  More on the display as things develop.  ■  Time to get ready for work.  ■

Come out and see my artwork!

Come out and see my artwork displayed at our local Harris Bank this week.  I’ll tweet when I’ll be “in residence” there.

Harris Bank,  122 W. Main St.,  Cary, IL.  It’s across the tracks from the intersection of hwy 14 and Main St.

The Lobby Hours are:  8:30am – 5:00 pm.

I’m excited!

On a further note we had our neighbors over for ribs and turkey breast – along with potato salad, greens, corn on the cob, and followed by home made ice cream that Sue made and lemon bars that Holly whipped up.  It was a delicious meal.  I should have taken some pictures of it.  Got to remember that next time.  ■  TFB

Getting ready for my art display at Harris Bank in Cary . . .

I still have quite a bit to do in preparation for the display of my pen & ink drawings, etc. at Harris Bank in Cary this coming week.  For those that has asked:  the lobby hours for Harris Bank in Cary are:  M-Th – 8:30 – 5:00 and F – 8:30 – 6:00.  Do stop by and see my work and put yourself in for a drawing for a free 8x10 of your home.

Harris is located at 122 W. Main Street (1 block west of 14 & Main) in Cary, IL. 

More updates later.

Display at Harris Bank!

Harris Bank has asked me if I would like to display my work in their bank for a week!  Yes!  They’re enabling local business’s to put up a display focusing on their business.  I’m to be the first!  ■  Now to figure out what to display.  Obviously I’ll put several “Abby & Zoe” cards out.  What are “Abby & Zoe” cards?  They’re thank you cards from Abby and Zoe for the treats that the tellers send out to the dogs when I make a deposit at the drivethru.  I’ve been giving the cards to the tellers for the past couple of years – trying never to give a duplicate card.  It does keep me busy trying to get enough time to create new cards.  ■  So, what to display?  I think at least 3 11x14  and 2 8x10 drawings.  I guess the rest would be cards and maybe a coffee mug, or two.  ■   The display table is roughly 40” x 80”, so it’s quite a bit of space.  Now to plan it out!

Nice wedding this past weekend . . .

Went up to Green Bay this past weekend for a wedding.  It was very nice and we got a chance to catch-up with some of Holly’s relatives that we hadn’t seen in quite awhile.  ■  We stayed with Holly’s brother Brian.  Very hospitable and a very enjoyable stay.  Brian has a very big tv and a nice Bose sound system hooked up to it.  We watched The Eagles Farwell 1 Tour – Melbourne, Australia.  Great video.  ■  Car repairs:  working on it – need back brakes, new water pump, new timing belt, etc.  A couple of repairs at a time.  ■   And exciting news on the pen & ink front – I’m going to get to display my work at our local Harris Bank!  More on that tomorrow.  ■  Oh, the sketch above is of our local Century21 office in Cary.  I’m trying to do quick sketches of where our chamber networking group meets and include them in the meeting reminder emails that I send out.  ■  More tomorrow . . . . .

Car repairs . . . . .

I’ve needed an alignment for awhile, so today I took it in to Firestone.  They can’t do the alignment as I have a broken front ball joint.  $270 to repair it.  I don’t have the money, so it’ll have to wait just a bit.  ■  I’ve got a drawing to work on tomorrow and maybe ship on Friday, or most likely on Monday.  ■ 

Smokin’ . . . !

Busy weekend this weekend.  Went out to eat on Friday night and listened to my boss’s acoustic act.  It was his birthday and his whole family flew in from out of town so surprise him.  And then Saturday night his wife threw him a large surprise party.  Both were a lot of fun.  ■  Today, Sunday, was a laid back type of day.  We lazed around and ended up watching a couple of movies on TV and finishing it off with ribs and onions on the grill.  You can see the grill slowly smoking the ribs in this picture.  By the way, the ribs were delicious.  Mmmmm.  Ate ‘em all.  Nothing left for tomorrow.  ■  I was supposed to clean up my office today, but it didn’t get done.  I’ll have to do it tomorrow.  Mañana.  ■ 

Rain–and we need it!

It’s raining right now.  Not hard, but I can hear the thunder.  We need rain.  Haven’t had a whole lot in April – and April showers bring May flowers . . . actually, if I remember correctly, we get the most amount of rain in June.  ■   Went to a seminar on social networking/marketing on the net yesterday.  Good seminar.  It didn’t answer all my questions, but I didn’t expect it to.  I came out of it with one quote -  "Marketing happens in real time.  Thus the rise of social media."  The first half of the quote from the instructor and the second half from my wife.  They seem to fit.  I did however open up a Twitter account and sent my first tweet.  Now I just need to 1) keep it up; 2) get some followers – @shrandahl – my Twitter name.  ■  Had our niece over for dinner tonight.  Good to see her.  Had steak and bang, bang shrimp.  Good meal.  ■  And I know you’re waiting for my weekly post that tells you I cut my grass.  Exciting stuff.  I did cut my grass today.  Enough said.  ■  I’ve got another drawing to start on.  Maybe tomorrow, or Friday.  ■  I’d like to write more, but it’s late.  ‘Night.

Busy is as busy does . . . . .

Life is busy for all of us these days.  Jobs, businesses, preparing taxes, commuting, work around the house . . . . it just keeps going.  ■  Did a 10lb ham on the grill tonight.  Yes, it’s delicious, but that’s too much for two people to eat.  We’ve got a lot of leftovers for the week.  ■  Talked with our son tonight.  He’s in a new apartment.  He says it’s not as large as his last one, but then the rent is lower also.  ■  I have a drawing to do tomorrow and get shipped to my daughter and son-in-law.  Got to get burning on that.  And then on Tuesday I’ve got a seminar in social networking – things like facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc.  ■  The picture in this post was taken through our family room window.  I thought I’d get our bushes blowing in the wind, but just got part of our neighbor’s house and the reflection of our TV.  ■  Much to do tomorrow and it is time for bed.  Adios and vaya con Dios. ■

. . . this is more later . . . . .

I found some pork chops at Jewel and smoked ‘em on the grill tonight.  They were pretty good.  ■  The dogs got 2 car rides today – one to UPS and the other to Jewel.  They’re thrilled to get car rides.  It’s one of their very favorite things.  ■  Tomorrow I work, then it’s back home to work on taxes.  Don’t we all love this time of the year!  ■  Ordered some new pickups for a Tele that I have.  The Telecaster (it’s a model of an electric guitar) has its stock pickups in and they’re not good.  It’s amazing what a change in pickups will do for a guitar.  And I’m thinking about relicing this Tele as I did with the last one.  Could be a fun project.  What I need is a quote, or saying that can be engraved on the bridge plate of the Tele.  The last one engraved in very small letters said, “Nosey little fucker, aren’t you?”  I’m not sure I can top that one.  I’ll have to start looking.  Any suggestions are appreciated.  The quote has to be short as there isn’t a lot of room on the bridge plate. ■  My mind is racing with all of the stuff that I have to get done quickly – taxes, web work for Kalo, a drawing for my daughter and son-in-law, etc.  ■   TFB.

As time marches on . . . . .

Still trying to find out costs for meds and still trying to get our flexible spending account unfrozen.  FSA – the insurer made a mistake in entering data – result of their error – they freeze our FSA.  Nice.  ■  Looks like the weekend may be rainy.  I’m glad I cut the lawn yesterday.  ■  And speaking of weekends, I think we’ve got a quiet one.  Lots to get done with a quiet weekend.  ■  Got to run.  More later.

It’s our flexible spending account. . . .

Not yours.  Now we’ve got some bullshit concerning our flexible spending account (medical – for those not in the know) with our dentist.  The overseer of the account says the dentist was paid twice – once by us and a 2nd time by the insurance company.  So now we can’t use our flexible spending acct credit card to pay for things medical.  Thus I can’t even reorder meds from the insurance company unit the $186 is paid.  No meds – fill in the blanks – no high blood pressure meds, no meds for gout prevention – . . . . .  

Doctors . . . . .

Visited a doctor this week – he prescribed a drug that I was charged $186.00 for.  Another one of my docs prescribed a med that costs me $2500 a year for.  Because I didn’t have the $186 payment, the insurance drug supplied, I couldn’t even access their system to see what I needed to order until the $186 was paid.  We have a $2000 insurance fund – that we can’t access, or use because one of our other doctors charged us twice and that has to be solved before we can use the card again.   I’m out of money.  Adios.