And the frog rose from her ashes . . .

Okay, so maybe it doesn't have quite the poetic poignancy of the phoenix, but it sure is cute!

About two months ago our frog (symbolic of our household and my sanity) suddenly aged and burst into flames leaving only a pile of embers and ash.  The good news is that recently a new frog has sprung from the debris and all is happy once again in the magical realm of Hansenland.  What, you may ask, brought about this sudden demise?  Let me list the dominant causes (all occurred within a few days of each other):

1.  Our car died.  I was babysitting for a friend who had jury duty.  I was supposed to take her daughter to school, but after I got all the kids bundled up in their winter gear and strapped in their car seats the car wouldn't start.  I turned on the lights to see if the battery was dead. They turned on fine, but now the weird part began.  The lights wouldn't turn OFF.  Also the electric door would randomly decide to open and close.  After a while some lights would turn off, but others may turn on.  We called a tow truck (and an exorcist) and found out that there was an internal fault in the battery.  They said that it would cause "unusual symptoms."  We found that to be true.

2.  My sewing machine died.  Really annoying since it was only the second time I used it, and it died when somebody was over at my house so I could "show" them how to make a project.  (Yes, I realize that all of you who really know me are laughing at the absurdity of me teaching anybody how to do something crafty, but it's true.  I'm not sure I did such a great job, but the project did get done!)   Fortunately I also had a friend's machine at my house, so all was not lost.  The real kicker though is that about a month later I find out that nothing was wrong with it, only with me.  I simply wound the bobbin backwards.  (Now would be an appropriate time to resume your mocking laughs.)

3.  Our vacuum died.  Why, oh why, can we not find a vacuum that lasts for more than two years?  Why are virtually all vacuums either absurdly expensive ($1000+) or get very mixed reviews?  Is vacuum technology really that expensive/difficult?  After MUCH searching, I finally got an Oreck based on a friend's glowing recommendation.  So far, so good.  And it comes with a ten year warranty (with an Oreck store close by to boot).  Sure it's quite boxy and dowdy looking and is sold by a fairly creepy old man, but it works great so far and truly is very light.

4.  My computer died.  OK, so it's not actually mine.  It technically belongs to the Booth School of Business, but it was at our home and it had ALL of my stuff on it (not to mention Conner's favorite "Spore" creature - he was very upset).  They were able to recover everything on both of the hard drives except the main "My Documents" folder.  Go figure.  Where I keep pretty much all my stuff.  Fortunately they did recover all our family's digital photos and home videos and most of my mp3s were on my iPod.  This is largely why I have not been blogging - my beloved had died and a mourning time needed to be observed (and we finally got the replacement computer and got all our camera stuff set up on it).

  

So, we must say goodbye to the old and welcome the newly born frog, who is greener and hoppier than the old!