What about Google Apps users?!

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

I want to see this same customization in Google Apps! It's too bad how so many of the features don't carry over to us. C'mon, give us the pretties and the functionality, too! Themes! Reader! Bookmarks!

What about Google Apps users?!

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

I want to see this same customization in Google Apps! It's too bad how so many of the features don't carry over to us. C'mon, give us the pretties and the functionality, too! Themes! Reader! Bookmarks!

What about Google Apps users?!

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

That's all well and good for Gmail users, but what about us Google Apps folks who went to the trouble to switch our domains' e-mail hosting over to Google's servers? We want to see this same customization, you know? It's too bad how so many of the features don't carry over to us.

C'mon, give us the pretties and the functionality, too! Themes! Reader! Bookmarks!

Amazon Kindle: Light the fire for e-reading

I'm a long-time customer and fan of Amazon.com, and I've been reading about the Amazon Kindle for a few months now. For those who aren't familiar with the device, the Kindle a is a hardware device made for reading electronic books. Amazon's been selling ebooks for some time, so this neat introduction isn't a stretch.

Now, for nerds like Howie and me, there is no shortage of PDA's, smartphones and other electronic devices upon which we can read ebooks; you know we're all about the geek toys, and we make good use of them! Not everyone's like us, though; my mom took one look at my T-Mobile Dash and said, "that's way too complicated - I'd hate that".

So, what about folks who have heard about ebooks and would like to enjoy them, but find technology foreign to them, if not downright scary? I think the Kindle makes good sense. I've been thinking about the ways in which the Kindle surpasses other devices when it comes to user-friendliness.

Can You See Me? Good.

One thing I dislike about most PDA's and smartphones is the how dim the displays look in bright light. There are times I can hardly see my phone's display when I'm outside or in a bright corner of the coffee shop.

The Kindle removes that limitation, using a high-resolution screen which reproduces the matte finish and easy readability of paper, even in bright sunlight. Nice! Additionally, the font can be enlarged or reduced until it is at the best size for the user.

Look, Ma - No Cables!

With a PDA or smartphone, if you want a new ebook, it requires multiple steps. First, you have to locate the book you want online and figure out how to buy it. Then you have to download it from the web to your computer. After that, you must move the file to a folder that will sync with your device, copying the file onto it. And, yes, there are lots of little steps in between those big steps. This all involves cables, synchronizing files. Computers, and at least a basic knowledge of the process.

The Kindle streamlines the whole ebook-buying process by offering free access to eBooks via Amazon's Whispernet™, using the same type of networks cellphones do. You need only connect to Amazon with the Kindle, browse the selections, and make your purchase. That's it. The rest is done for you, as the book downloads to the Kindle within about a minute of your order being placed.

I think this is wonderful for people reticent about technology , not to mention those who provide the tech support for them.


The Form Factor

The electronics market demands our electronic paraphernalia be smaller and smaller. It's great how tiny such devices are when you think about all they can do, but there is a price to pay. The typical size of a display on a PDA or smartphone is 320x240 pixels. Some don't mind this, but others have a hard time seeing on such a small display unless they enlarge the font so much only a fraction of a sentence shows up on the screen at one time. That's a lot of scrolling.

The Kindle is may not be the size of a credit card, but it provides a more natural reading experience with a paper-like screen. It has an ergonomic design, too, with easily-accessible controls for turning pages and navigating within them. The unit is lighter than most paperbacks, weighing in at only 10.3 ounces, and can be held in one hand while you read. It comes with a leather book cover which folds back so the Kindle holds more like a book if you so prefer.


Downsizing

You can store over 200 books in the Kindle. That is a lot of shelf space. And it solves the problem of bathroom books. ;)


The Cost of eBooks:

If you know how to comparison shop online and don't mind taking the time, you may be able to find good deals on electronic versions of books you want. But, remember that long process of getting the book onto your device once you buy it?

With the Kindle, titles on the New York Times Best Seller List, along with all new releases, are priced at $9.99 each unless they say otherwise, and many cost less. Considering what hardback books go for when new, this is a bargain! Best, you can preview the beginning of any book for free. I love that idea! You can also subscribe to newspapers, blogs and other periodicals.

Even if you pay a little more for some titles, you have saved the time and hassle of all the steps I mentioned earlier, and they're all right there for you. Imagine one of your friends tells you about a great book she just read. You can access Amazon.com's Kindle Shop immediately (before you forget, if you're like me), and acquire it. Cha-ching...Woot! There it is!

I could say more, but I'll stop. Let me summarize my thoughts:

PROS:

• The cool factor
• It's Amazon - you know them
  
• Crisp display is easy on the eyes, even in bright sunlight
• No cables, no syncing, no computers
• Readable size, lightweight, good ergonomics
  
• Holds over 200 books
• Has free, instant access to thousands of ebooks available for purchase
• Best sellers and new releases are more economical than hardbacks
  
• Connect from wherever you are - no wifi needed
  

CONS

• Initial price
• It is just an ebook reader...But that's all it needs to be.

Curious? I've only touched a few of its benefits, the ones that really stood out to me. I have to tell you, after reading about this product I am excited about the future of ebooks! This kind of device makes them accessible by the average person who has little technical knowledge.

You can read about the Kindle in much more detail, including the device's full specifications, at Amazon's Kindle Shop. They have lots of photos, too., including shots submitted by customers.

It looks like they have an active support community for the Kindle, too. That's good to see.

Happy reading, whatever form yours takes! :)

My main website and blog can now be found at Gardenwife.com.

Tenkyouveddymuch.

Moving On Over

Yes, just when I get my blog template the way I want it, I'm going to move my blogging over to MoveableType, hosted and edited now at my own server.

So....From now on, go HERE for my current blog. Yes, it's easy to remember - mt.gardenwife.com - but don't expect anything to pretty until I figure more of this stuff out! ;)

The Three P's

I thought I'd put in one more update before I crash for the night. I can't believe I'm still up!

1. Parade: I made up a gallery of Thursday's Parade of Homes pictures. Right now the gallery doesn't have links to my main gallery or other pages here at the site, but you can find your way back here. I made the link so it will open a new window.

2. Practice: Music practice was excruciatingly long tonight, 2 1/2 hours. All I wanted to do was sit down and get off my achey feet. The first hour, the band played so loudly we singers could hear nothing. Finally, some friends listening were honest enough to say it was way too loud - so loud it would probably make people get up and walk out of the service. After that, levels were adjusted and we could actually hear ourselves without having to scream the notes. My voice is shot tonight!

3. Pee: After practice, I stopped by my MIL's apartment downstairs to say hi and visit. Her dog was friendly with me, as he always is, and sat playing in my lap for a while. Then he made his way up to his preferred spot, which is back up behind my neck. Usually he goes behind Nancy's neck, but tonight he crawled up behind me on the couch. He felt warm on my neck, kind of soothing.

Then he felt hot.

Then I realized the heat was intense, plus it was saturating my clothes and dripping down my back.

The stinking dog PEED on me! Not just a little, either. My back was soaking wet with dog pee. After yelling a few choice things and smacking his face into the pee-soaked couch back, I retreated upstairs shower while my MIL quickly took the little pisser outside.

He did that to her one time a month or so ago, before she moved. It wasn't on her back like this, though. Thing is, it was obvious tonight that he wasn't just having trouble holding his bladder, but actually meant to do it. What is UP with that? Was he marking her as a favorite? Does that mean he likes me?

If so, he's got to find another way to show his affection (humping my leg's out, too).

Well, that's it. I'm pooped (oh, that makes Four P's). I'm going to bed so I may, I hope, dream of great music, beautiful decorating ideas, and otherwise dry things.

Pressing On

Sorry I've been so scarce. It's not that I'm particularly uncommunicative (just ask my family and friends), I've just been busy. Since being a homemaker, I've led a pretty secluded and laid-back life. But lately...Whew!

Today I went to the 2003 Parade of Homes in Pickerington. WOW, what a beautiful bunch of decorating that was. From what my friend Shawna told me, the homes were more modest this year than in years past, more approachable. They were still 200k-600k, though, not mansions but surely out of our price range!

We noticed that most of the folks who, like us, commented with things like "oh, that'd be hard to keep clean" or "that would get dusty really fast" were obviously not the ones in the market for such homes and decorating. If we were, we'd hire people to clean and dust it all, believe me!

But I still did what I enjoy best and had a great time -- I took well over a hundred photographs and took home many decorating ideas. Poor Howie!

My feets is killin' me, though! I still have to go to music practice tonight for a special praise, prayer and healing celebration our church is having tomorrow night. Once I get there, I'll be fine. I know this in my head, but at the moment, sitting down here at the desk, all I want to do is kick off my shoes and crawl into bed. I hope everyone keeps to task and things wrap up quickly tonight. My bed awaits me!

Ah well, I'll live!

Spritzed and skeeter free

The Gentle Spray citronella bark collar arrived today June 12 and my MIL and I put it on her dog straight away. It works worked great! The instructions say to put the collar on the dog, then put him in a situation where he normally barks. For Jonah, that means being put in his crate when Nancy leaves.

Update: Problem is, Jonah figured out that if he barks enough times, the nasty spritzy stuff runs out and he can then bark, yip and whine to his heart's content. Dang it! Back to the old drawing board, $80 later.

Relaxing and Re-Kline-ing

Angie and did a little fish shopping at a local store run by a brother and sister. I just got our new (to us) 55-gallon fishtank cleaned and set up, and we're deciding on what to stock it with. We're going with tropicals, and I'm thinking about gouramis, tetras, barbs, puffer fish and some other semi-aggressive fish. I'd really like to get a parrot fish, but they're pricier; best to wait until the tank's well-established before getting anything special. Here's the tank, sans fish and ready to go:

After shopping, Angie and I watched not one, but two Kevin Kline movies. What fun - I forget how enjoyable it is to kick back and watch movies! The first was French Kiss, with Klein and Meg Ryan. It was your typical fun little Meg Ryan movie and had some great one-liners in it.

The second was The Emperor's Club, in which Kline plays a professor at a boys school. It spans a 27-year period beginning in 1974. I suppose they wanted it to be reminiscent of Dead Poets Society...Beloved teacher helps troubled student(s) at the stuffy and traditional boys school, etc. It didn't measure up to that movie at all, but then again, it would be impossible to (IMHO). It was okay, but not any great shakes - but Kline was really good in it and it made me appreciate all over again the power a good teacher has to change lives. Go teachers!

On another subject, my mother-in-law is purchasing one of those citronella-spritzing anti-bark collars for her dachshund; I bought one on eBay (saved a good $20 off retail "specials", even including the shipping) for her today. We're all looking forward to seeing how well it works. Her doggie's been barking up a storm since the contractors are still working in the house. They downstairs is 90% finished, and all that remains upstairs is the installation of our bathroom vent/light and drywalling/re-tiling around the new shower area.

It should all be done by Friday...And Merry Maids is coming out Monday morning to make all this plaster and drywall dust nothing but a distant memory. Hallelujah for life's rare treats!

Give that man a Tetris shot

Angie and I have been hanging around in the air-conditioning this afternoon, geeking out online. A little while ago, I thought heard the distinctive sound of the Tetris song outside. I couldn't see any kids playing with a Gameboy, and a Gameboy wouldn't be that loud, anyway. What in the world?

I cranked open the window to hear better. Sure enough, it was the Tetris song. And it was coming from an ice cream truck. I can't say I've ever heard that song played by an ice cream vendor, but then again, I don't think I've ever seen an ice cream truck quite like this one.

Angie and I craned our necks and plastered our bright and shining faces against the window glass to see this van go by. The general consensus? Ewwwwwwww! It was an old, brown van - one of those long ones, like a Ford Econoline, I think. What wasn't painted brown was brown with rust. On its sides were a couple of big, faded poster/stickers with pictures of ice cream treats. Painted on the back of the van was the admonishment, "Please watch our children" or something like that.

It really wasn't a reputable-looking purveyor of cool treats; it just looked kinda scary. Not someone I'd want watching my children, had I any.

Blogger Blues

So, has Blogger's new system made file extensions different? I had to manually go in and change index.phtml to index.html index.php for my blog to even come up. My comments are no longer again working after changing the file extension on my index page...It's not that I don't want to hear from ya! I know ya love me! ;)

My webhost is looking at offering customers blogging software as a perk; he's going to install MoveableType for me to use, sort of as a beta tester I guess. This is really cool and an answer to prayer, because I've been wanting to learn MT, but was confused by the server-side installation stuff and couldn't justify paying MT or Chari even the nominal $20 set-up fee. Wooo! This is such an answer to prayer!

Updated downloads page

I updated my downloads page to include a link to Omni Massage Systems. They're just so darned neat!

I'd Rather They Bark

My MIL's dog Jonah is a yapper and really carries on. The fact that he's hard of hearing doesn't help any - just makes him bark all the louder, we think.

In anticipation of his being in her apartment downstairs, we borrowed a bark collar (one similar to this one, only not rechargeable) from a friend. We had misgivings about these collars, but our friend had used it successfully with his beagle, so we thought we'd try it. The collar, touted to issue a "mild correction" at the vibration of a bark, would be there in case his barking got to be too much.

Howie picked up a battery for it, but we weren't sure how to turn it on/regulate it. There were no directions. Since Emma is a barker herself, we thought we'd try the collar on her and see if it worked.

It was horrible. She barked, then cried out loudly in pain and jerked back. Her cries made it "correct" (read: shock) her again, which only made her cry out again. It was horrible and I couldn't get it off of her fast enough.

I felt so terrible at inflicting this pain on her! I bawled as I held her trembling body close to me and tried to calm her. Her heart was going a mile a minute and she was terrified. She had no clue what had happened, why she was hurting like that. It was just plain cruel.

We will never use one of these again, and will tell everyone who mentions wanting to try one to seek an alternative. There are collars which release a spritz of citronella, for instance, or others which issue ultrasonic tones - both of which are supposed to distract the dog without the cruelty of shocking it.

I still tear up when I think about the terrified yelps she made. I just felt really small at the thought of hurting my puppy-girl. She's such a good girl, and hadn't done anything wrong. :( I think part of the reason it hit me so hard because of all the stresses these past few weeks, what with construction, my father, the impending scrapbook project, and all - it's just been a doozy of a month or so, and I guess I've been repressing a lot. Once that tiny chink opened up in the emotional dam, it all came flooding out.

Logo angst

I'm working on my blog's logo, but having trouble making a transparent GIF or PNG come out looking decent. Blah! Bear with me...I'm working on it. In the meantime, just hold your hand over the top of the screen while you read!

Update: Well, this JPG image will work for a while. It's a little too big, though. I'll make it smaller.

Wait! Newsflash! For now, I shall make my green background a layer in Photoshop and let my logo go above it; then when I save it, it will match the background already up at my site.

Added: Oooh, I think I might need to make a theme out of my birdhouse picture. It's a little mosaic birdhouse I picked up at Big Lots a while back - I liked the photo of it and made my logo from it - might as well piddle around with it some more!

Moving Day and a Recap

Today's the day my MIL Nancy moved in. We can't believe it's already time; we first started talking about redoing the basement into an apartment for her last October, had the basement waterproofed in January, and started construction on the rooms in May. And now she's here!

The contractor and plumber have a few things left to do downstairs and upstairs, but they'll be done this week. Next Monday, after it's all done, Merry Maids will be tackling our upstairs for us - a special treat after living with this salmagundi of plaster dust, sawdust, dirt, and other construction matter. We can't wait!

The scrapbook is now back in the hands of its rightful owners. In all, I did 38 pages. Sad thing is, despite even pulling an all-nighter from 9pm Thursday to 8am Friday, I was only finished through the end of third grade pictures. At some point, perhaps worn down by the lack of sleep, I came to the correct realization that I was NOT going to be able to complete it in time, nomatter how badly I wanted to. That in itself was freeing for this guilt-ridden girl. But, really, considering I didn't get the pictures until Tuesday, I don't think I did so badly! I'm pleased with how they came out, because I did them with love and with the same attention as my own scrapbook. That's enough. :)

Friday morning was a really fun scene, starting off bright and early as Rite Rug called us at 6:45am to say they'd be here in 15 minutes! Have you ever in your life heard of carpet installers coming that early without a customer specifically requesting it? I think it should be a capitol offense. It was doubly frantic because the contractor, assuming the carpet guys wouldn't come until at least 8 or 9am, had not completed clearing the rooms and sweeping the floors; like us, he never dreamed we'd have to be ready that soon and was just going to come in early and finish up before they arrived.

So, Howie called him and let him know everything was happening, and we headed downstairs to get the last of the debris and such out of the rooms. The carpet guys came right on time and helped us finish sweeping up. What a way to start the day! And with no sleep...Whoooo. Carpet looks great, though.

I ended up staying up until about eight last night, then crashing for a good night's sleep until ten this morning. It felt sooo good to crawl between those freshly-laundered sheets and listen to the pond's waterfall splashing a few feet outside the bedroom window. It's been unseasonably cool here, good sleeping weather. And sleep I did.

Burger vs. Booger

Okay...I'm taking a quick break from scrapbooking because I am laughing too hard to cut out any more of pastor's precious family pictures

All I've done today is crop pictures in preparation for putting them on pages. The whole afternoon, I've been listening to various radio stations online and having a good old time playing with all this paper. The music's helping keep me from stressing at all there is left to do!

Anyway, a little bit ago, I was listening to K-LOVE radio online heard this catchy song. I'm boppin' along, when suddenly the words "tender as a booger in the microwave..." leap out at me.

What the Hey?

Thank God for the Internet and instant access to factoids. I headed on over to Google to look, but couldn't find the phrase. This might have been due to my misspelling booger as "bugger", big dummy. Not to be thwarted, I change my tactics and type "tender as a" and "in the microwave" into Google's brain. Aha! A few references come up and I'm on my way.

Turns out, the band is The Newsboys, and the song's "Who".

Heh. It also turns out the words are actually "tender as a burger in your microwave".

Now, before you think me either deaf or really ditzy, I must point out that others thought the same thing. One of 'em posted it at kissthisguy.com, the wonderful online archive of misheard song lyrics.

Scrappin' for the Lord

If I'm scarce for a few (more) days, it's because I'm working on a massive scrapbook project. No, not mine! My pastor's son is graduating HS and I'm doing his scrapbook; his mom's been so swamped with other stuff going on with work and church, she just couldn't get it done in time for his open house this Saturday night. I love doing hands-on creative stuff like that, so I thought I'd take a stab at it. I love them, too, so it's a labor of love.

I'm figuring on about 100 pages total since it spans preschool through HS. His mom's got everything organized by grade and then by event, and she's going to do the journaling part of it on the pages. So, "all" I am doing is cropping and doing the layouts. It's a paying job, too, at a time when we could really use the extra cash - wooo-hooo!

I'm praying the creative cup will overflow, and that I can stay on task and work efficiently. See ya later, alligators!

What movie quote are YOU?

Well, I guess I'm Shrek, and for once one of these quiz answers makes some sense. My body somewhat resembles his, and the description is pretty apt...


You are... Shrek -
"Well I have to save my ass!"

You walk tough and talk tough, but inside you're just a gooey ball of mush. Your friends are important to you (whether you admit it or not) and you'd do just about anything for them (but you wouldn't like it). Trust is important to you, and so is respect. Looks don't matter to you; it's the gooey ball of mush inside that really counts.


What movie quote are YOU?
brought to you by Quizilla

Note: You'll probably have to tweak their HTML if you put the code in your blog; there were a lot of line breaks added in poor places, plus the word "respect" was misspelled. I threw it in here with a blockquote.

Not good words to hear

The plumber and his helper are working on our upstairs bath right now, putting in the drain and getting ready to insert the shower.

I'm hearing the sounds of the reciprocating saw and words like "dang" and "ohhh, mannnnn" and "how bad am I making it down there?".

These words frighten me.

News from Illinois

First off, if you don't know the history between my father and me, or are sadistic and just want to refresh your memory, here's your chance to catch up. Just peruse this entry from June12, 2002, this one from June 17, 2002, and one last one, from June 21, 2002.

Wednesday evening, I saw a call was coming through from my uncle's phone number in Illinois. Fearing it was probably my father again, perhaps just using my uncle's phone, I zapped the call. I was feeling down and just didn't want to deal with my father if it was him starting to call and harass me again. I assumed that someone would call back if it were an emergency. No one did, but it kept bugging me. I wasn't bugged enough to call and see why someone from that number was calling, however. I'm a big chicken, you know.

The next day, there was a message on our voicemail from the head nurse at the facility where my father is living. Evidently, his parkinson's disease has progressed further, plus he'd become despondent to the point of not eating the last couple of weeks. The woman said he's lost a bunch of weight in the last month, and doctors were going to have to insert a feeding tube if he were going to receive any nourishment. Unable to make this decision for himself because he's non-responsive, a doctor would need a family member's permission to insert a tube.

Because his sister finally couldn't take his abuse anymore and went to court to remove herself as his power of attorney, she could not give this permission. His brother was contacted, but did not want to okay or deny this without talking with his sister and with me. So, I was called. I suppose I would have done the same thing had I been in their shoes.It still doesn't make me want to be involved with all this.

It must sound cold-hearted to someone on the outside. The thing is, I've not talked to my father since last June, and I don't have any relationship with him. I tried to, for a time, but he just started abusing what little I was able to offer him so tentatively. But as my aunt (my other one - mom's sister) so eloquently put it, "...even though you and your father are estranged, the ties still pull and hurt". That about sums it up.

I spoke to my uncle's wife last night, and she filled me in on the details. Here was this woman, a stranger to me, yet we were bound by the common tie of my father's mental illness. We've all tried to help him, and he's abused us all in his insatiable, crazy need. It's one of those situations where you find yourself sharing a rueful, mirthless chuckle over the idiocy you've witnessed.

She told me my uncle and aunt both agreed that my father has just become so depressed with his life that he just doesn't want to live anymore. In all honesty, I can sympathize; he has a body that is messed up with a progressive neurological disease, life-long depression, no true friends, and no place to call home other than a crappy nursing home which receives his government check every month. Given the situation, I think I might want to just let go and die, too.

It would be cruel to prolong this. And, really, forced sustinance or not, he's on a decline. He's only approaching his 60th birthday, too. How sad is that?

I'm in the middle of such a dichotomy about this. On the one hand, his situation is pretty pathetic and it's such a shame. But on the other, he's brought so much of this on himself, at least the being alone part. There's only so much friends and family can give. That is a shame, too.

When he finally does die, I don't know if I will journey out there for the funeral or not. I've only seen my aunt a smattering of times before mom and I moved away from Illinois in 1981, and I barely know my uncle. With my father, there are awful memories; with his siblings, there aren't many memories at all. I don't know what the point would be in my going out there.

I think everyone involved will be relieved when he finally goes. I have often wished he would just die rather than keep being so messed up, because at least then I could just say "my father is dead". It's so much simpler. God, that sounds selfish and awful, but that's how I've felt.

Ugh.

Who's your ducky?

The plumber and the contractor doing the basement made their way out of the house yesterday with our old cast-iron tub balanced on a dolly. Until Jamie the plumber hauls it away, it's sitting in our front yard. Last night when Howie got home from work, he rolled the trash bin out to the curb, as usual. While he was out there, he moseyed on over to the tub to take a look at it.

"Is this our rubber ducky?", he asked. When I asked him if it was the yellow one our friend's son left here one time, he said it wasn't. Hmmmmmmmm.....

Yes, someone had placed a rubber ducky in our lawn tub. Oh, the hilarity!

It didn't remain a mystery for long, because someone couldn't keep her glee to herself. Last night, in reply to some pictures I'd e-mailed my siteless buddy Angie, I received the following missive:

when/who/how are you getting rid of it? just think it might be good to check it over before she goes.

Yep, it was her. She'd left our place around 10:30pm last night and gone to Wal-Mart to pick up some pictures. While there, she bought the little rubber ducky and snuck back to our house about 11:00pm. She parked her car down the street and covertly scrambled down the sidewalk in front of our house.

She could see me in the office window, puttering away at my computer. I never had a clue, sneaky thing. I just love her!

This, too, shall pass

Construction continues, and our upstairs bathtub and its surrounding wall are being have been dismantled and removed. The wall behind the tile was pretty well rotten, so it's good timing, all this. We're having a Sterling 60" shower with two seats installed instead of another tub; with Howie's back injury, this will make his life much easier. Though I love baths, I rarely go to the hassle of one when I can shower so quickly.

Well, it's done now, huh?

The downstairs is really looking good! I've not posted pictures lately, but I've been chronicling everything in photos (note to self: do backup!). John's got the bathroom, hallway and laundry room all drywalled...It's just amazing how it's coming together. We'll be sooo glad when it's all done, though. Even though we've pretty much grown used to the various construction noises, it still makes morning sleep restless, and we're looking forward to having a working sink, shower and toilet all in ONE room again (two rooms, if you count the full bath downstairs).

We found a beautiful, quality nylon carpet at Rite Rug yesterday. It's a mix of soft blues in a deep, sculptured plush. Best yet, we were able to buy it in the form of three large carpet remnants rather than off the rack. We'd decided to get a cheap, taupe carpet at Lowe's for $2/square foot, including installation, but it was lousy carpet and the cheapest padding. This way, we're getting premium carpet, along with a nice, thick pad, and only paying a couple hundred more than the cruddy stuff would have cost us at Lowe's. Moral of this story: Check the remnants section at your local carpet store!

RIP Angiepangie.com

Darned girl decided to forego her site, for a while anyway. That's the only reason it's been removed from my sidebar links. I guess that's the impetus for me to offer Pangie updates. Let's see...She's got some resumes floating around right now, and has an interview tomorrow at a local business. Woo! If we can get her to, perhaps she'll pop in Good Soil ever so often and speak for herself.

She doesn't really want me speaking for her, does she? Oh, my, she's brave if so.

Playing with Paper

I worked at the church today and did the Sunday bulletins. The Risograph machine really wasn't bad to use, and it made the copies so fast! I only used the black ink drum today, but I can get creative and use the red or green if the mood strikes me.

It's been so long since I've done papery-foldy types of things, though; there is no folding machine, and my speed left something to be desired when it came to folding and stuffing the bulletins with the two inserts we had this week. I ended up being there a couple hours longer than I though I'd be. Thank goodness there were only 150 bulletins to do.

I've decided I desperately want an 24" Fiskars rotary paper cutter...Oh, yeah, aaalrgrrhhh. The church office has one, and one of the wheels you can put on the thing does perforated lines, which we use for a tear-off registration card for visitors. Way cool, that cutter. It also has a wheel which does a fluted, wavy edge.

I have an unhealthy love for office supplies!

Final Inspection

The final inspection for the front rooms of the renovation was today, and both the structure and electric inspectors signed off. Tomorrow, John will start doing the raised floor for the hall and bathroom. Yippee! It sounds like the plumber may take up to 1 1/2 weeks to do his part, though. So, it doesn't appear we're going to meet our June 1 completion date. My MIL has not sold her trailer yet, either, so we're not in a huge hurry. We just want it done!

Clumsy Swarms

The termites from the colony in the remnant of the sycamore stump out back swarmed today. Yuck. They are clumsy flyers and only make it a few yards before falling to the ground. Their wings fall off at that point - serves 'em right, little pests.

The swarmers, or aletes, are the winged reproductives in a termite colony; it's their job to go out and create new colonies. The critters have underground nests, usually away from structures, and journey to wood structures just to load up on yummy wood pulp to take back to the nest. Seeing swarmers does not mean your home is infested.

I learned about termites when we were in the process of buying our home. The inspection showed there was a minor termite infestation under the back door. Leave it to a termite to find the one tiny bit of wood in our brick house -- the thin wood strip between the masonry block from the foundation and the brick wall above. The seller had to pay for an exterminator to come and treat our house. Actually, we are probably due for another treatment, or at least an inspection, since all that was back in 1999.

Back to the swarmers. Our small fishpond sits near the stump, and this afternoon its surface was littered with the bodies of their fallen comrades. I haven't bought a fishnet yet, so didn't have a way to skim them all off the surface. They're likely to have the pond water really fouled. Yuck again. The tiny feeder goldfish we put in the pond are in no way up to the task presented.

For more than you ever thought you'd want to know about termites, check out the University of Toronto's link here and Ohio State University's great Ohioline page.

A farewell to charms: The pissquiggler's exodus

You can tell it's warm in our office, for the dogs are stretched out unbecomingly in their crate. When it's cool, they morph into furry doggie-balls, snuggled closely. They share one big crate, our three, and love it. Whether in the crate or on the furniture, they tend to sleep in great piles of legs and paws. It always makes us smile.

There's good news to report, dog-wise. Angie's brotherDennis is going to give Buddy a home! Yep, da brudder's family has a female beagle, anyway, and wanted to get a companion for her. She's an outside dog...And he's buiding a kennel for them! It is a very specific answer to prayer, let me tell ya.

Ironically, Buddy's new home will be a couple of states away, in Illinois. Buddy will be quite the seasoned traveler by the time he gets there, bless his heart. Fortunately, our vet's prescribed tranquilizers for him since he gets nervous and carsick riding in vehicles. He'll pretty much zonk out and wake up in a new home. I hope he does really, really well there - he's such a sweet little guy, just stubbornly refuses to be housebroken.

It's a weird feeling, planning to find a dog a new home. But, just when we again felt ambivalent about it, Buddy graced us with another piece of abstract pissquiggle art all over the office floor. Howie's no longer waffling on the issue, and neither am I. Emma's sure going to miss him, though, and that makes us sad. They're such good friends, those two. I hope and pray Buddy gets along with his new little girlie beagle. Good thing Emma has Sarah (and us) to snuggle up to in Buddy's absence!

This is the dawning of the age of aquarium

We're shopping for an aquarium, probably a 55gal, though we'd really prefer a 75gal since we'd like to have goldfish again. The bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain, and since goldfish produce a lot of waste we want to have a big tank. (Plus bigger tank means bigger fish, or more smaller ones). We thought about doing tropicals again, but goldfish - especially the fancy varieties like these guys - have so much personality and they're relaxing to watch. Tropicals dart all over the place, but goldfish just mosey around.

They're more our speed.

I have a wrought-iron stand I bought with an old aquarium at a yard sale last year. The tank was a real oldie by Metaframe (how's that for irony - before we used the term for internet stuff!). It was a weird size and impossible to find a hood for...Just more trouble than it was worth to make our own hood. We donated the tank to Goodwill during our Great Basement Cleanout of 2003; someone will be thrilled to get it for reptiles or other non-aquatic uses.

Anyway, the stand and filters I got with it were worth the $20 I paid. Thing is, the stand is an odd size: 48" long x 13" deep. We may be limited in what larger tanks would safely fit on it. We saw a 75gal setup advertised in the Jack's Aquarium and Petsonline sales flyer. It's an All-Glass Aquariums brand and is $139, including the hood and light. It measures 48"long, 18"deep x 20" high.

My big concern is that, even with a board bringing the top of our stand out to the tank's width, it would be topheavy. Those 75 gallons of water, at 8 pounds a gallon, would weigh in at 600 pounds! For that matter, I wonder if our floor will be okay under all that weight. It would be along our living room wall.

Am I just paranoid? Would any aquarists and/or physicists (even rocket scientists if you're so inclined) care to comment?

Annoying Celebs

I have to pipe up - Jim Carrey is incredibly annoying on talk shows. He's good at the type of slapstick, over-the-top humor he does, but he is a scene-stealing pest of a guest on talk shows.

Howie and I saw him on Jay Leno last night and just cringed at his behavior, especially when he kept drawing attention to himself when it was Amanda Bynes' turn to be interviewed. I'd never seen this actress before, but I felt badly for her time with Jay being sabotaged by that ham. She seemed annoyed, despite saying she was a fan of his (we noticed she said "was" and snickered that it might indeed be past tense after this guest appearance by his side).

We half expected Carrey to walk out on the stage while Tim McGraw was singing. It's hard to say whether Jay was amused or embarassed by Carrey. We're both just so turned off by Carrey; he strikes us as an immature, attention-starved brat when we see him in interviews. When he did a couple of more toned-down bits on the show, he was pretty funny. It's just that big humor that really turns us off.

Second-hand smoke produces a prodigy?

Howie and I saw one of the recent anti-smoking ads on TV last night. It's an ad depicting a dad sitting in a chair watching TV while his son plays on the floor nearby. Dad's puffing away on a ciggy and the room is hazy with smoke. On the floor next to him, his baby is playing with alphabet blocks.

As the voiceover recites the many dangers of second-hand smoke to children, the babe spells out these words with his blocks: bronchitis, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome.

I said to Howie, "So.....Is this saying second hand smoke makes your children really intelligent?"

Howie said, "If I were the kid, I'd just crawl out of the room."

"Yeah," I said, "if that baby has the manual dexterity to find those letters and spell out those words, surely he can crawl out there!"

Sometimes those ads are only moderately effective, you know? Guess you can't win 'em all.

To be fair, the other anti-smoking ad airing around here is good: The droplet-spattered windshield and the intermittent swipes of the windshield wipers tell us it's raining; mommy's got the minivan windows shut due to the weather. She's smoking as she drives, and the van is filled with smoke. Baby baby sits strapped in a carseat behind her, crying. She continues crying as the voiceover ensues. Toward the end, the screen goes dark and some text comes up. We hear the baby cry some more, then cough.

We always comment on that ad's effectiveness when we see it.

That reminds me...I see parents who conscientiously only smoke outside so they don't expose their kids to smoke. I even know mothers who quit smoking, cold-turkey mind you, while pregnant. That's no easy feat! Once they'd given birth and finished breastfeeding, though, they picked those cigarettes right back up.

They did so because they wanted to, because they like smoking, not because they couldn't help themselves. They admit it.

I think it admirable that these folks want to protect their kids from the harmful effects of nicotine. But, second-hand smoke arguments aside, I have to ask: Do you think they'll be any better off with you dying young from lung cancer?

You'd do anything to feed your kids if they were hungry or needed medical care, right? Well, this is every bit as important, folks.

Get help. Just do it.

You're next...

I've heard this before, in a much longer and ineffective version. When I received it today in my e-mail, I knew I had to share:

When I was younger, I hated going to weddings. After the
wedding and during the reception, my aunts and the
grandmotherly types would come up to me and poke me in the
ribs, cackling, "You're next."

Finally they stopped, when I started doing the same to
them at funerals!

Where there's smoke

...There's an underground coal fire. This is one of the strangest things I've heard, and it's happening right here in Ohio. I quote from today's WCLT radio's news briefs:

Underground Coal Fire In Perry County
Threatening Wayne National Forest

An underground coal fire that was started almost 120 years ago in New Straitsville is slowly working its way under Wayne National Forest.U-S Forest Service archaeologist Ann Cramer says smoke started coming up through cracks in the floor of the 233,000 acre forest last summer. She says it smelled like burning tar.

An estimated 200-square miles of underground mineral deposits have burned since the fire began in 1884. The coal seam is up to 14 feet thick and there's about 600,000 acres of coal and abandoned mine shafts surrounding New Straitsville, which is about 49 miles southeast of Columbus.

The town's official history says the fire was set in October 1884 by anti-union workers. They soaked railroad cars that were loaded with timber with oil, ignited them, and rolled them into mine openings.

I didn't know a fire could burn that long, and no doubt the protesters didn't either. I guess I never thought about it, but the fire has its two needed sources: fuel and oxygen. But for something to burn like that for over 100 years....Wow. I know the earth spews lava from volcanoes, but this just sounds so weird. I hope some of those idiots got their hands burned.

If you'd like to read more about the fire's history, pick up a copy of Ohio Oddities: A Guide to the Curious Attractions of the Buckeye State. Lucky for you, though, the story is excerpted at the publisher's site.

The Wayne National Forest is beautiful, one of our favorite places to visit. We love going to the clean little lake down in that area - Lake Hope. No gasoline-powered boats are allowed on that lake, and it's so clear you can see your toes when standing shoulder-deep in the swim area. It would be a real shame if this underground fire ignites the forest.

I want one of these!

Remember my glowing review of the Anti-Pull Harness? Well, Joe Sporn, president and founder of the company (and recent visitor to gw.com!), has a website with other great pet products. I would *love* to get one of these Sporn Pet Lockers to hang by our back door. What a neat product, complete with a spindle for "Bags of Duty" (what a euphemism).

No More Aggitation

Well, we found a solution to our washing machine's aggitator problem, and this is it.

My MIL and I have each always wanted a front loading machine, and we kind of ganged up on Howie. It didn't take much convincing, though, because he could see the money savings in the more expensive machine, too.

This washer will wash sleeping bags, pillows and comforters, items we have had to take to the laundromat. We figured, taking those large items to the laundromat cost us at least $20 a visit in quarters, and we took them 2 or 3 times a year (if none of the animals urped on them - then we took them more).

It's a Frigidaire Tumble Care Front Load Washer, model FWT645RH. Epinions has reviews of one of the step down models from this, the FWT449. Frigidaire must have made some changes, for I can't find anything at their site (other than archived PDF's of our washer's documentation) except the GWT series now.

This washer holds a huge amount of laundry AND uses only 1/3 the water of a standard top load washer. We had an extra-capacity top load washer, so this uses less than a 1/3 of what we used to use per load. In a nutshell, we're able to do TWICE the laundry per load as before, and use less than a 1/3 of the water we used to use for ONE load before. That's less detergent, less bleach, and less fabric softener. We're talking savings here, folks. It's also so very quiet!

It also has this nifty dispenser. You can watch the clothes tumble, too, which Howie and I did on its maiden voyage (of course).

I'd seen the commercials for the Maytag's Neptune and Whirlpool's Duet washers and drooled over them in the stores. After all, their marketing is top-notch and the products look more like luxury cars than appliances. But I could never justify spending over $1000 for a washer, not when the Frigidaire was $597 with free delivery to boot.

The things I've read said this washer performs every bit as good as the beautiful, pricey ones. It doesn't have to recoup the cost of major ad campaigns, for one. Sure, it doesn't have their digital displays and touchpad buttons. But I don't want to program my washer, I just want to wash my clothes. I'm quite happy to just turn a few dials like this one and that one rather than tap in my choices and navigate menus.

It might have a smidgen less capacity of those Cadillacs of washers, but it doesn't have the Cadillac price, either. As it is, the new Frigidaire's washloads almost maxes out our dryer's capacity, so I wouldn't want to do more; I'd have a backlog of stuff to dry and that would negate any benefit to me.

I'm thrilled! I've completely caught up on all the laundry now - I'm so excited! The washer will wash - and wash well - a heaping laundry basket of clothes. I'm talking heaping, like all our towels and washcloths. Or five pair of dress pants and five shirts, plus other stuff. I can do laundry in a fraction of the time it used to take.
I must be getting older, because I am way too excited over this machine. But then again, I am all for things that make sense, and the design of these front loading machines just works.

Love/Hate Relationship

I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to computers, digital photography and imaging, desktop publishing and printing. I love the artistic process. I adore writing, designing, embelishing; most of the time, the hours I'm in front of a computer just fly by.

Tonight the hours have flown by, but not by choice. I am so tired right now, I could just lean back in my office chair and be gone, out like a light. But I can't sleep, because I still have the second side of 100 wedding programs to print. At this rate, I'll be lucky to have them all done by the time the father of the bride picks them up here at 8:30am. This has turned into one of those marathon jobs from the very pits of...Well, maybe not that bad, but right now I'm not in the best of humor.

The creative process was a blast and I'm pleased with the final product, but I've had problems with my Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer all night long. It's just not made for jobs like this - so many pages at a time for so long a time.

I've figured out I can only safely load 5 pages of this Gartner's program card stock in at a time, and I must be right there to make sure it doesn't misfeed. For, when it does misfeed, I end up having to run the nozzle cleaner on the printer several times before I can get prints that are crisp and not goobered up somehow (like that technical term?).

Even running the printer in high-speed mode (where it prints on both the forward and return passes across the paper), I've been printing since about 10:00pm, so almost six hours. And there's still side B to print on the backs of these originals. I've printed extras. Thank God he bought many extra pages!

I would KILL for a Kinko's or other all-night printshop. At this point, I'd pay them to run copies onto the program stock for me. Alas, our one such all-night business closed a couple years ago. Some day, if I really want to do desktop publishing on a legitimate scale, I will have to get a decent printer. It's too expensive to outsource that kind of work, and our home printers - even the good ones - are never up to the task. It just ends up being frustrating and crazy-making.

*Yawn*

So...Here I sit, babysitting the printer and mindful that I don't have to work tomorrow. I'm very thankful for that! It's not that I resent doing the job -- not at all. I really am happy to do things like this for people because it's my thing, you know? I enjoy having an outlet for it and get really pumped when people are pleased with something I've done just for them.

I just hate computer and printer problems. And this is far less stressful than the night before a morning wedding. I'm very happy in my shoes, thank you. :)

To her credit, Pangie stayed here and played games online with me, humoring me and keeping me sane. Brave girl! Actually, we found a funny game over at PopCap - PsychoBabble. You know those magnetic words you can buy to put on your fridge? This game has people arranging the same groups of words into sentences, then the participants vote on the funniest uses of the words. It's a riot!

But even Pangie flagged; she finally had to go home and snuff out her eye candles for a few hours before her nephew's ball game later this morning. Thanks, Pangie - I appreciate your hanging around as long as you did, and thanks for the backrub!

Free to Good Home

We're trying to find Buddy a good home around here. We've done everything we can, accruing big vet bills in the process of elimination (no pun intended), but he just doesn't seem housetraineable. It's not fair to him to be crated for hours upon hours, but we also can't subject our neighbors (or the whole south end of town, for that matter) to his beagle baroooo all hours of the day and night by putting him outside. He needs a new home.

I'm taking him to the vet for his follow-up chest x-ray today and hoping it shows no enlargement of his heart. If it is enlarged, a simple and inexpensive medication will be needed for him, but he'll remain a healthy doggie even so. I'm putting this flyer up at the vet's office and a few other places in town, and we're going to carefully screen anyone wanting to take him. I listed the URL to the flyer so people can acess it easily online, too.

** Later **

His heart is fine, the vet said. Yay! The vet also said that any dog that can hold it for nine hours in his crate, yet pees all over the office floor when he's just been outside an hour earlier wants to pee inside. He said beagles are notoriously difficult to housebreak, and that he had to find a new home for his own beagle for the same reason. His was a female, and she just would not be housetrained.

Harnessing the Hurricane

Hubby and I were browsing the pet aisle at our local Super Wal-Mart when I spied the package way at the bottom of the display.

Of course, I had to remove the harness from the package to see if it would fit. So, while Howie stood rolling his eyes and shaking his head at me, I held the contraption out before me something like this (dramatization courtesy of Angie).

Just then, an unsuspecting Wal-Mart employee came walking around the endcap and saw me. The poor girl's face morphed into three expressions almost simultaneously: first boredom, then surprise, finally confusion. She then averted her eyes.

Would you blame her? That thing looks more like something you'd find at Fredericks of Hollywood product than an innocuous dog harness in a local megamart's humble pet aisle.

Considering Emma's 42-pound heft and propensity for dislocating our shoulders with her pulling, we decided to give it a try. I'm happy to report the harness works great. Here's Emma sporting her new Yuppie Puppy Anti-Pull Harness (sidenote: we're about as far from yuppies as a couple of folks can get, except maybe for our unhealthy love of tech gadgets and coffee shops).

When we pull on the leash, it causes the padded straps running beneath her front legs to pull tight, thereby stopping her in her tracks. She can still pull, but she doesn't seem to want to. When she's pulling her hardest, I can still control her now. We rue the fact we weren't consistent with her early training and allowed her to get this bad.

Ah well, we can't change the past. We're back on the right track now and I've been giving her verbal cues as well as a tug on the harness. It seems to be helping, though she still has trouble when there's a squirrel or bird zipping by nearby, or when she sees grandma and wants to say hi. Still, I think she'll catch on again.

I have the DG's

That's what I get when I can't get to Dave's Garden; they're like the DT's, only much worse. Something's happened and DG has been down since yesterday morning. E-mails from fellow DG addicts are cramming my inbox: Do you know what's happened? Is it my computer? Is my ISP okay?

I'm as clueless as anyone, and I know that if I am angst-ridden about not getting my daily DG fix, he must really be in a pickle. I wish you and the DG juggernaut well - hope it all comes back online for you soon!

Thanks To Our Washer

I bid our humble 10+ year-old Whirlpool washing machine a thank you for its floundering agitator. Had it not ceased doing its job, I never would have found fixitnow.com.

Where else can you go to read a great blog and see step-by-step photos of appliance repair? Sounds like one of the combo deals Paul Reiser writes about in Couplehood, actually...It's a blog and an appliance repair site!

But I digress. The self-proclaimed "oracle of appliance enlightenment" tackles our aggitator problem and so much more. And it's all written in a decidedly tongue-in-cheek fashion that makes me want to read about appliances we don't even own. He also has a Beer Fund (have your volume turned up) and an amazing money-making opportunity that's hard to beat.

So surf on over there! Just don't forget where you came from; I'll leave the light on for ya. Maybe I'll even put up a donation link for a Whirlpool Duet Washer (droooool.....).

Construction: Day Three

Work's progressing nicely. The former garage door opening is now a wall with two windows, a door, and vertical vinyl siding. The latter was the idea of Contractor John; he thought vertical would be better than horizontal, and it really does give the illusion of the wall being taller. The raised subfloors in the front room and bedroom are down, as well as some floor extending outside the bedroom into the laundry/storage area of the basement.

Because the height of the doorway is shorter than standard, we had three choices: getting a custom door, getting a smaller door only 32" wide, or getting a standard 36" door and cutting some off the bottom. The custom door would have been too pricey. The smaller door was, well, just too small (imagine moving furniture in through a 32" wide door). So, let's make a deal...We chose door #3.

I'm still getting used to it being cut off short. Because it's a steel door with panels, it's obvious the door's been cut off at the bottom. I've been fiddling with Photoshop, though, and notice it is not so noticeable if we paint the door dark green and the frame of the little lemon wedge window white. That draws the eye up from the lower portion of the door. There will also be a screen door which, alas, must be cut down to fit, also. I'm crossing my fingers that it will look a little more normal.

I know, I know...A picture's worth a thousand words. I have more pictures, but I've been busy today and just haven't gotten them into an album and uploaded just yet. Right now, I have homemade stuffed peppers baking in the oven, a hungry tummy, a hubby with a hungry tummy, and a videotape of tonight's Survivor.

Priorities, you know.

Construction: Day One

John was here at about 8:30am and worked all day. He got the garage door taken down, the raised floor installed in the front room (previously the garage), and framed in the outside wall where the garage door had been. He has the two windows installed, but has to cut down the front door and install it tomorrow. Pictures are posted in The Gallery under Basement Construction (the MIL Suite).

I'm pretty tired, so that's all the thrilling prose you get tonight. I have to work tomorrow morning, so am going off to slumber soon. I've had a headache since, well, forever today, and I'd appreciate it if you praying folk would breathe a little prayer to God about this noggin of mine. I have to put on my creative thinking cap tomorrow and work on some brochures, rumor has it, and I'd like to feel downright perky tomorrow!

Construction-Unction What's Your Function?

Okay, so it doesn't exactly flow like conjunction, but that's what came to mind. Construction on our basement remodel/MIL suite begins tomorrow! John was supposed to start last Wednesday, but had a car restoration job he had to complete first. So, the target date was moved to Friday. THEN, Lowe's couldn't deliver the building materials until Monday.

Today, he called and said his wife had a migraine all weekend, so he had to take her to the doctor's office for a shot. He said he'll be here tomorrow morning. I don't begrudge him this, because I know how terrible migraines can be and I feel badly for his wife; I do, however, wish he'd already started. Howie says we have enough time built in that we don't have to sweat it, but you know me...I just want to get this all over with and move on (and move-in my MIL!).

The first thing he'll do is remove our garage door and its hardware, then frame in a wall where the door is. There will be a front door in the middle, plus a window on each side. He's putting in those nice tilt-in windows my MIL wants. Sure wish we could have the whole house re-done with them! In time...In time. Since we're dealing with a shorter-than-standard height due to the thick, metal header over the garage door, he had to go with 34" door rather than a 36" one with the lemon-wedge window. It's not the end of the world.

For now, we're going to have white siding on the new outside wall, but eventually we're going to put brick or stone up to the bottom of the windows and have a little ledge above the stone. Long-term, we'd like to have a balcony over her entrance, with the balcony acting as the roof to a screened-in porch for her. That's wayyyyy long-term, though. We really need to fence in the yard before we embark on anything like that!

Part of the construction we're having done includes a new tub for us upstairs. Woo-hooo! You can tell we're getting older; the thought of a new tub and surround really excites us! We're considering a big shower instead, though, one with two seats in it. It's a standard 60" width, like the tub we're taking out. Howie's back really pains him, and it would be easier for him with a built-in seat rather than having to work with one of those plastic tub seats. (Been there, done that, hate them).

Anyway, I can count on one hand the number of times I've taken a bath since we bought our house in 1999; we're just shower people, so why not put in what we'd best use? We figure we'll be here at least another 15 years, if not longer.

I'll be posting pictures in my gallery as things progress.

Picture This

Thanks to a visit from the Pangie Pixie, I was finally motivated (read: coerced, pushed, goaded) to update my photo gallery Wednesday evening. I did put up the pet portraits section April 4, but kept putting off doing the rest. Thanks, Angie!

I really hate how the web is so picky when it comes to being so doggoned case sensitive. I had to rename so many darned picture files because they had a jpg extension instead of JPG. But now I know.

On the flipside, I really love two little programs which made my life much simpler today: Web Album Generator and Picture-Shark. The gallery creator automates photo gallery creation in an incredibly simple way, even resizing them and making thumbnails for you. That done, I ran my finished full-size images through Picture-Shark, which automates the watermarking of batches of photos. I did edit the main index page of each gallery in Frontpage, just to simplify adding my navigational links.

Gosh, I love technology!

P.S. If anyone can show me how to make my column widths so someone viewing my page at 800x600 doesn't have to scroll horizontally to see everything on this blog, please let me know!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho

It's off to work I go. I only tortured Howie with four snoozes on the old alarm clock. Poor guy. They need to make a wireless alarm that fits in the sleeper's ear like a hearing aid, one that won't disturb one's bedmate. Note to self, give Howie a big smackaroo for putting up with my non-morningpersonishness.

Dusting off the alarm clock

I head back to work tomorrow, for the first time in about a year. Aside from taking a couple of short-temp temp jobs here and there, I've not worked since summer 2000. I'm going to be working part-time at my church, probably just a half day a week. So, tomorrow I shall find myself awaking to the rude sound of an alarm clock - ack! But I'm really looking forward to working there, so I'll survive. ;)

Howie and I worked out in the yard for two hours this afternoon. We decided to work in the yard together two hours a day, before he has to get ready for work. I deviated from the plan and ended up working out there until 6:30pm, though. I made up two window boxes with brilliant blue and purple wave petunias and yellow pansies, and one box with wave petunias and a couple of Martha Washington geraniums (pelargoniums, if you want to get technical).

Lastly, one big pot now has six white peruvian daffodil bulbs nestled down in its middle, topped off by yet more wave petunias and pansies; that ought to be really something when it's all blooming. I've missed having annuals. Color! All season long! Wooo-hooooo!

There are a few less weeds out in the island bed now, thanks to some labor-intensive hand-weeding. I am going to zap some stuff with Round-Up, but some of the grass and weeds were growing in with good stuff and I don't want to risk any spray getting on my precious babies.

Well, I am dog tired and am going to toddle off to bed and play Bookworm on Howie's PDA until I fall asleep. I have to get up at about 6:30 or 7:00am. The horror of it all.

The Power of a jealous Doggie

Tonight when I went to take the dogs out, I somehow managed to slip both leashes' choke collars onto Buddy...And nothing on Emma! I didn't even realize what I'd done until I saw Emma with Sarah at the back of our property and looked down to see two leashes leading to the beagle! I was in my nightgown and the last thing I wanted to do was chase after Emmy-Doodle at 10:30pm.

She is a real runner, part greyhound and all about long legs and speed. She also has not a whit of sense about roads, so we worry when she gets loose! From past experience, I knew better than to advance toward her or to use an angry or startled tone in my voice. So, I crouched down and said, "Emmmmmmma! Hi, Puppy! Hi! Go get 'im!" (much like this) and made a fuss over Buddy.

Thank goodness, Emma couldn't resist. She zoomed right over attack Buddy and I was able to snag her by her mesh collar. Whew! God saved my tushy, I'll tell ya.

It's ironic, babies

In the corner of the small cemetery at Denison University is a granite marker that simply reads: "Unknown Infants." The remains of 23 fetuses buried there show how both technology and philosophy have changed medical education. The fetuses had been preserved in Formaldehyde and were used in teaching human anatomy and development. Today, detailed computer models and other tools have taken their place. Other universities have used human specimens in the past. Professors say they stressed that they should be treated with respect. For the same reason, disposing of the specimens presents a dilemma. The Denison specimens were found in a locked cabinet during a cleanup in fall of 2000. While cremation is acceptable, officials at the central Ohio school opted also for a small funeral.

This was in WCLT news department's newsletter for Monday, April 14. How ironic that these infants/fetuses/babies are treated with such respect while it's common practice to abort babies the same age or even older with no respect (or funeral) whatsoever. I'm not posting this for an argument, but rather to give you something to mull over. Laws and attitudes vary so widely depending on circumstances, you know? Should they? I guess that's a moot point, really, because they do.

Great Gardeners

One of my friend Dave's creations has earned the recognition of Forbes.com's Best of the Web Directory. Congratulations, you guys! The Garden Watchdog was already mentioned in Organic Gardening a few months back, and this is just one more example of its growing popularity (no pun intended...and much deserved, I might add). Best yet, it's a great resource because it's a community effort by gardeners. That reminds me of the DG motto: For gardeners, by gardeners.

On another note, I saw this smart gardener's site linked to from Dave's Garden and had to share. The gal's come up with a self-watering pot for seed starting, using the humble 2-liter pop bottle. I suppose you could do the same thing with any similarly-shaped plastic bottle, but 2-liter is a good size. I am impressed! If you wanted to keep plants in such a container, you could always drop it into a basket to hide the plastic. Guess this gives me an excuse to buy more pop...and hoard bottles. Bwaaahahahahahah!

Pup's Growing Like A Weed

My folks came over for a little visit today so I could take some pictures of their Siberian Husky puppy Nikolai. It's been a while since I posted any shots of the little pooper, so here's a little collage I put together and printed for them today. It spans the time from about February 27 to today.

Many hands make light work

Even four hands can make a real dent in things. Shoot, I even have a blister to prove it. Yes, this soft girl worked hard enough raking to take the skin off her right thumb..

Howie and I worked in the yard from about noon until three this afternoon, cleaning up more perennial debris and mulching more of the leftover leaves while we mowed. We salvaged one compost bin out of the two stacking ones which were given to us last year; the timbers in half the pieces were rotten so we consolidated them into one bin. It's not pretty, but it sure looks better than the pile of bin sections we had back there before. There's still a lot of cement and pipe to haul away from when we redid the back steps last summer.

The pond still needs to be pumped empty and cleaned, but that's going to wait until two weekends from now. When Everdry worked at the back of the house, they unplugged the pond pump while digging the trench in that area; it didn't get plugged back in and, considering it was about nine degrees farenheit, everything froze over solid in short order. We couldn't turn the pump back on until everything had thawed, like around mid-March.

Everything, all the fish and all the water plants, died because of there being no way for the gasses to escape from the water. If I'd have thought about it, I would have put a piece of styrofoam in the thawed circle the circulating water had left; that would have allowed the gasses a way out. So, we have a big, stinky, leaf-filled pond until we can clean it out and refill it. Live and learn!

When we compare our back lawn to our neighbor's, it makes us green with jealousy. Theirs is green and beautiful, a carpet of lush grass. Ours has green patches, but it has far more brown patches, and a lot of dead grass. Then again, they don't have three dogs. Oh, and they raked their leaves up last fall. And when our Emma's greyhound genes kick in and she goes crazy-dog dashing around, her claws just rip the grass to pieces. Such is life with three dogs. I think we'll probably end up fencing in a section in back with picket fence, a place for them to run and play. The fence will hide the poor, grassless ground at least.

I sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. I guess I'm still doing a mental inventory of what all we still need to get done. All in all, it was a great day. It was nice getting outside and sweating alongside my hubby. Work goes so much easier when you share it with someone else and can share in the feeling of accomplishment. If I can drag myself back out there, I'll take some pictures...I don't know though, because a nap is sounding really good now that I've had a hot shower and some lunch.

My hands...Are saved!

When Howie and I went to the chiropractor today, me for my regular visit and him for an initial consult, I mentioned to the doc that I was unable to give Howie a good massage because my hands hurt too badly. The doc showed us the niftiest little massage tool, and we bought one on the spot. What a livesaver it is for my hands! Here's pictures of my paw cradling this plastic wonder:



I found the company's website tonight and wrote to them to tell them how much we like the product. I believe in praising people when they've done a good job on something, not just firing off complaint letters (though I sometimes have to write them, too). Like I said in my letter to the company, when I find a product that really works - especially one which safely helps people alleviate pain - I want to shout it from the rooftops!

After writing, I saw they have an affiliate program. Hmmmmmm...My dilemma. I haven't really put sponsored stuff on my webpages before, but I have to tell you, this thing really works and I am 100% comfortable associating The Plot's good name with it. So, without further adieu, here is my official link to the Omni Massage Roller site:




And yes, if you buy from them directly, using my link, I will receive a small commission. It will help defray the costs of this website (and my visits to the chiropractor, incidently). I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging. ;)

Say...

"Someone's been sitting in my chair, too," cried the Baby Bear, "and now my archives work!". Thanks, Angie!

Zippy, The People-Loving Geek

Boy, wish I could say I came up with that little ditty on my own, but I can't. It's the blog of a student, one whose writing is both fun and really insightful. Mucho-Referroed-Pangie clued me in with a terse e-mail entitled "blog" and containing one hyperlink. It needed no introduction, and no explanation. It's just plain good. Hi ya, Zippy!

archives all fixed up now. wee!

A Wee Site Enhancement

I prefer to have my hyperlinks open in a new window, but keep forgetting to add the target="_blank" tag when I add them. Problem solved! I found a nifty bit of javascript which will do it automatically. So, if you'd prefer to have hyperlinks open in a new window when you click them, put a check in the little box on the left, next to where it says "link preference". If you don't, leave it blank. The choice, friends, is yours now - and I don't have to remember every time.
To test it, here's a link to the site of Nancy Noel, one of my favorite artists.

Strike that. Until I figure out how to get it to work in conjunction with the hyperlinks to my pop-up comment windows, it's useless. :( Blargh!

82 Years Combined Incompetence

An ad I saw on TV last night for a local auto repair shop reminded me of a pet peeve. What's WITH businesses touting things like, "we offer over 82 years combined experience!"? C'mon, what does that mean? What, they have fourteen people who have worked in their field for five years each, and maybe one who's been there twelve?

It means nothing, people! "Our planet's inhabitants offer xxx years combined experience!" And we've learned....what?

The Pissquiggler's Dilemma

Wednesday morning, Buddy beagle started wheezing, like he was choking on something. I dashed to the computer and looked to see if there is a Heimlich maneuver for dogs and found that there is (as well as animal CPR). I followed the instructions for the Heimlich, but he kept on wheezing. We thought it might just be somthing partially obstructing his airway, but too far down for us to see, so Howie rushed him to the vet's office.

They did an x-ray and found no obstruction, but they did find out he has fluid on his lungs and an enlarged heart. Howie had been spraying the basement walls down with the 50/50 solution of bleach/water and hadn't yet opened the windows upstairs. The fumes were pretty horrendous, but that wouldn't have caused this episode with Buddy. It might have aggravated it, however, and caused the wheezing.

The vet has him on an antibiotic for 10 days, thinking the fluid on his lungs could be caused by an infection. He said Buddy's heart could be enlarged from having to work so hard because of the fluid. We're to take him back for another checkup and x-rays when his antibiotics are finished. If his heart is still enlarged, he'll need to be on heart medication.

Okay, so you have to get the picture here. Of our trio, Sarah's had emergency surgery for bladderstones and eats prescription food, Emma takes estrogen to help with her bladder control, and now Buddy may have to be on heart medication for the rest of his doggie days.

Do we have pets or patients here? A little of both, but I guess they fit right in with Howie and his surgically-enhanced spine and my funky sinuses. Welcome to our world! We're all in this together, baby.

City Chicken, Plucked

My friend CoCo from Dave's Garden piped up with a little bit about the history of City Chicken yesterday. It seems it's sort of a shish-kabob, originating at a time when chicken was more expensive than pork and veal. Since poultry was so pricey, folks would cube and skewer these alternative (the-other-white)meats, bread them, brown them, then bake them with a liquid so a savory gravy resulted as well.

The recipes sound pretty tasty! I found a few while searching for more about this weird-sounding dish:

A site called Coalregion.com has one that sounds promising, along with some guesses as to its history. About.com has another one in their Souther U.S. Cuisine section, this time with that wonderful all-purpose staple, Cream Of Mushroom Soup.

Barring my making Dennis' (aka da brudder's) Meat Thingies sometime, this sounds pretty darned good.

I've Heard of Spring Chickens, but...

This was in this week's local Jamboree Foods grocery ad.



City chicken? Not just city chicken, but "all pork" city chicken?? I don't know what to say (but that won't stop me from talking).

Is it city pollutants which transmogrifies chickens into pork cells?

Do city roosters stir at dawn to issue a raucous "cock-a-doodle-rweeee-rweeee!"?

Are there "all pork" chickens in other locales?

If so, exactly how far out in the suburbs are they still indigenous species?

Do they have two feet, or four? Do they have wings? Do they cluck or grunt?

Do piglets hatch out of their eggs?

I'm just pretty disturbed by the thought...

More Blogger Woes

Now my stinkin' archives don't show up at all and I still can't publish them. Grrrrr!!

Blogger Woes: Error 230

I cannot get my archives to publish. I keep getting this wonderful error:

Archive Error
Error 203:java.lang.NumberFormatException: (server:page)

I've gone back in my entries and replaced any ampersands in my posts with the word "and". Are forward slashes also verboten? I don't know what else to do and I'm frustrated. I know, Joanie...MoveableType. This frustration with Blogger may serve as my best impetus, eh?

Stripping Away The Old...Plus Some Odds And Ends

We finally stripped the carpet from our office Saturday night. It was a bound carpet remnant we put in about a year ago. It was cheap carpet to begin with, plus we'd never gotten around to putting the padding down beneath it, so it was matted and looked really ratty. Plus, due to recurrent bouts of a certain un-named beagle's pissquiggles, it was pretty rank. Actually, it was embarrassingly stinky, truth be told.

It was a late-night team effort, as most of our projects tend to be. Howie crawled around on the floor and cut sections of carpet with his pocket knife and handed them to me to toss in a pile by the garage door. I vacuumed, he mopped with oil soap. About 3am (darned time change!), we dragged our sore and tired bodies to bed and slept a few hours until it was time to get up for church. It was worth it, though; now the office just smells like the cedar shavings in the dogs' bed. *sniff*

We brought up a bookshelf from the basement, too, so I'm working on getting the books off of horizontal surfaces, sorted into "keep" and "Goodwill", and up onto bookshelves where they belong. One thing the Sandra Felton said in her book,
The New Messies Manual, is so true: messies tend not to buy the organizational products they desparately need, thinking they're too expensive. She said the very things that will help us get organized and declutter things -- marvels such as bookshelves and plastic storage containers -- are absent from our homes. Boy, is she right about that!

I went to the chiropractor again today, my second visit. I awoke with a real headbanger of a headache, part sinus, part tension in my neck. The very last thing I felt like doing was going out of the house. The thing I most felt like doing was going back to bed. I went out of the house. I figure, if anything would probably help me feel better, it's getting my adjustment. My neck does feel better, but my head's still aching. It's not as bad, though, so that's a relief. My muscles are rebelling to the bones being moved, but my spine and neck are much loose now and I can turn my head without that grinding sound. mmmmmmmm.

Let's see, what else is new...I sang at a "celebration of life" service for a friend. It was a memorial service for a lady who we knew from our previous church. It was really neat, a combination of photos (many of them displayed on bulletin boards and such up front), favorite songs, and people sharing stories about Betty. I sang a cappella since it was short notice and I didn't have time to really practice with an accompaniest. A lady named Marie sang another hymn, and what a sweet, clear voice she had! They played some of Ralph and Betty's favorite country songs over the PA, too. All in all, it was a really neat tribute to her.

I told Howie, when I die, I'd like something like that rather than calling hours and a funeral service. I'd like it to be at my church, and I want packets of flower seeds given to every visitor. If the people don't garden, they can just scatter those seeds in a field - either way, new life will spring forth and the world will be a better place for them. :)