Whispers in the Thaw

We finally have a break from the cold today, and we have a vividly blue, cloudless sky. What a lift THAT is, especially the rayon de soleil warming my upturned face. (It felt so good, so beautiful, I find out how to say it in French). These warming climes mean the snow no longer crunches crisply underfoot. The snow is melting and our deceptively clean-looking yard will be revealed for what it is: full of neglected leaves, twigs, and dog piles. We have a lot of work to do out there.

But for now...Carpé diem!

When I took the dogs out for their afternoon walk, Emma alerted me to the sky as a flock of Canada geese swept by overhead. There was no raucous honking heralding their arrival. I could see individual feathers on their wings and hear the wind whispering through those feathers as they flew close by us in their tight V-formation.

Our Couch Potato...And Turbospud

Our Emma Ada Riblet is part greyhound, part dalmation, and part who-knows-what. Whatever her genetics, Her Legginess is a fine example of how fun a little spice can be thrown in the traditional recipe. She's just great fun. Something which always tickles me is seeing how tiny an area she takes up when curled up for sleep, compared to how tall she is once her great, long legs unfold and she is upright once again.

When we first got her, she was a skinny little thing at the dog pound. Riblet was the first name we gave her since she was so ribby. I'd always been partial to the name Emma, though, so that's what we ended up calling her. The Ada is her Geek Name. Howie took her dog pound number, 141, and assigned the ASCII value to each number: ADA. For the story of how we found each other and fell in love, see my journal at DG.

Just today I ran across a delightful artist, Kim Parkhurst, who does greyhounds and other critters! I found her artwork while browsing eBay, but then zipped over to her site Turbospud and promptly fell in love. Turbospud is such an accurate name for a greyhound; anyone who knows them knows they're turbo-charged when it comes to running, but they're also some of the world's most adept couch potatoes.

Oh, and the No Nude Hounds site linked to at Turbospud is great; I can just see Emma in some of these fancy duds. With her choice of two humans or two other dogs to snuggle up to, I doubt she'd ever need the jammies; those coats are pretty neat, though.

...those damn pine trees is covered in fleas

That's what Barbara Erickson says of the hundreds of mange and insect-infested dogs seized from her property and car. This same woman faced the same sort of charges in 1996. The county she lived in has a thick file detailing the abuses the 300+ dogs suffered while under her "care".

Erickson had her day in court, 539 misdemeanor charges of animal neglect and a felony charge of criminal mischief.

(That reminds me: where the heck did the term criminal mischief come from? Mischief sounds more like short-sheeting a bed, loosening the lids of salt shakers at the diner, or putting itch powder in someone's Rebocks, you know? Legal phraseology certainly has its mysteries.)

Those of you who know me know that we have three of the most spoiled dogs in the US. Cats, too. So, these kinds of cases always get me. Hundreds of dogs! Hundreds! Where were the neighbors? Were they, like so many of us, afraid to make waves and risk their next-door neighbor's dislike? Did they just refer to her as "that crazy old dog lady?" and roll their eyes? *sigh*

Snow Day!

Okay, so it is Sunday and there was no school, anyway. But the dogs had a snow day and I managed to sit there and get pictures of them while juggling their leashes and staying (mostly) untangled. I fiddled with Adobe Photoshop's automation thingie and came up with a basic photo gallery. Hope you can view frames with your browser, because I think you'll need them in order to see the gallery. Let me know if everything loads okay for you. :)

Stories of the Great White North

First, I laughed when I checked out The Weather Channel's local weather information for our area earlier today:

Current Golf Index? Yeah, I'd say it's lousy! I don't even golf, and I didn't need the Weather Channel to tell me this. But, barring any other outdoor activities which come up, I can at least find solace in the fact that Miami Beach's next tide is at 1:37pm. Of course, I'd have to fly hundreds of miles to enjoy said tide, but I'm sure one of the Weather Channel's annoying pop-up ads can fix me up with a great deal on airfare. Sheesh.

Chari's bemoaning the cold, too, down in Orlando. It's all relative. Temperatures in the forties sound lovely to me, but then again, I'm not used January high's falling in the seventies. But, hey, she can go see the next tide if she wants to.

Her blog entry reminded me of the time DH and I enjoyed the hottub at a favorite Bed and Breakfast* one cold February night. We were reluctant to get out of that wonderful, churning hot water because it was only in the teens. When we finally did get out, it was pretty late and we'd pretty much turned into prunes. Pasty white prunes. Howie stepped into his sandals and attempted to take a step. My poor, frozen chosen pretty much tottered there, a living parody of cartoon characters whose feet are glued to the floor.

I had no sandals, so I dashed for the door. As I ran, my feet alternately froze to the sidewalk and peeled free. It made a noise with each step, sort of like parting Velcro, but quieter. The door was locked, too. It seems the guests did not see us out there and locked the great room's door for the night. Fortunately, we were sharing a suite with friends, and the suite was right above the door. Some frantic cries of "Hey! Help! Open the door!" finally proved successful, and we creaked and crackled our iced-over bodies inside and up the stairs.

The next morning, I could feel every bump and fiber of the berber carpet with the soles of my feet. I'm surprised there wasn't a series of size 11 footprints marking the previous night's progress on the sidewalk, neatly imprinted with the skin cells I left behind in my haste.

Now THAT'S cold! Like I said, though, it's all relative. My friend from southern Louisiana asked me if dog poop freezes where we live. Heck YES, it freezes! Makes it easier to clean up later, too. ;)

*By the way, we're friends with the couple enjoying breakfast in the photo there. They live in our town and we go to the same church; I think they were there for their anniversary. Hi, guys!

Nudes with Hats and Guitars

Well, darn it, I've already been outbid on an auction for a painting by our very own blogstress Vikki. It's a cat, too!

I found something else interesting while browsing the Self Represented Artists category, however. The colors are vibrant and the style's very fluid. Plus, it sure makes for good conversation, and isn't that what art's all about? Check out this painting by Rick Mazzaglia.

The painting made me giggle. Noooo, not because of the abstract nudes. I giggled because it made me wonder what on earth the story behind it must be. Lacking that, I must extemporize. Here's my best crack at it.

Theory 1: There seems to be some sort of bonfire in the middle of the picture. Guitars have been thrown in. I can only assume these females are womens lib advocates who, not caring they were horizontally challenged, threw their bras in a firey moment of solidarity. How liberated they felt! Why not take it a step further? They got carried away, flinging everthing into the fire. Everything except their hats, of course. Why? The hats symbolize their style and carefree wit.

Completely independent of Theory 1, here is Theory 2:

The women, for whatever reason, decided this get-together was clothing optional. Everyone within view opted for none. Now, here's the mystery: There does not appear to be anyone playing the featured guitars.

There must be spirits playing them, then. As we've all seen in popular movies regarding ghosts, the appearance of such a supernatural entity triggers a great drop in temperature. It's only natural, then to assume the ladies became cold. Being intelligent, well-read women, they realized that a high percentage amount of body heat is lost through the head.

That, friends, is why they're wearing hats. They're no dummies, just naked.

If the artist wants to tell us what this painting's really about, I'm open! But in the meantime, it's fun to theorize. Feel free to give your take on it, too. In the absence of truth, we're open to speculation!

The eBay links in this entry will only work as long as eBay keeps the completed auctions available for viewing (90 days, I believe)

Googling Myself

Now, I realize that must sound weird to those who have never heard of Google, the one of the coolest search engines around. In Internet jargon, Googling is the practice of going to Google and searching for peoples' names, your own included. Okay, so it's the ultimate in narcissism, but sometimes it's fun to see who might be linking to you or writing about you.

Anyway, I wasn't searching just Google, but several search engines simultaneously; Dogpile is the search engine I used, and it's one of the sites which searches multiple search engines at one time. I know it searches at least Google, AskJeeves (which I generally avoid), and Inktomi (company-paid search results), among others.

Anyway, I searched for the word Gardenwife and was amused to find a page containing hits from another search -- one for GE Spectra stoves. Bear with me. It's one of those "six degrees of separation" kind of things, just kind of odd. Because my Gardenwife's journal at Dave's Garden has an entry about the GE Spectra stove we bought, my journal page came up as a hit on this Crawldad site's search results. It's easier to show you than to keep on describing it, so here's the link my Dogpile search dug up.

Man, I really am easily amused.

Putting Out Fires

I sure don't envy those who have jobs like this Everdry Field Supervisor, Roy, keeping track of jobsites and putting out fires when problems arise. He was as nice as could be, and really listened to us as we went over our concerns. That's what we really wanted, after all. Without knocking the salespeople from the other location, he let us know that it's not the first time they've come in and promised things which are not normally how this branch does business. The Cleveland market is larger and has more flexibility with cost and service than this smaller Columbus operation. I won't go into all the details other than to say it puts the local office and crews in a tight spot when outside salespeople offer things their own sales staff will not normally offer.

We think the FS was being honest with us and his answers satisfied us. We learned that (a) we weren't the only people Kevin promised a visit from Merry Maids and (2) Kevin most certainly did get a commission from the sale. Contrary to his claim, he wasn't just "out in the area setting appointments". This came as no shock to us, of course. Man, just thinking about all his smarmy lies just ticks me off. Let's not go there.

In the end, the FS couldn't authorize having a cleaning company come out here, but he did offer to extend our service agreement for four years. That means we will not have to begin paying the annual $40 for the service agreement until the fifth year. That service agreement covers any cracks or moisture in the walls or floors, as well as covering the pump.

It's probably like insurance, something we may or may not ever need to use, but it's there and it transfers to the new owners should we sell our house. Cash-in-hand would have been more to our liking, but this is okay, too. We understand he is under constraints. Our job had stuff authorized they don't usually do, such as removing the planter box in front of the house (thanks, Kevin, for that, anyway...that he put in writing, at least).

So, in a nutshell, we feel Everdry's sales practices are DISPICABLE, but the actual workmen do a good job and the company does try to each an acceptable compromise when expectations are not reached. This is pretty much what we've read from others who have dealt with the company. To read more about our dealings with the company, use the search box to the right and look for Everdry.

In Fairness

The basement guys were skilled at their jobs. In that sense, the experience exceeded our expectations from salesman Kevin. They were able to install drainage tile beneath the floor clear back behind the toilet, water heater and furnace and into the next room. Outside, they were able to tunnel beneath the central A/C unit. These are all areas Kevin said they would probably just go around. Considering the area behind the toilet was one of the biggest problem areas, we were very happy to see that had been done so well, both inside and out. The guys were very skilled at what they did.

User Not Found

On a new read for me today, Cocokat in Slumberland, I read about a site devoted to discussion of online relationships and how we grieve when one of our virtual folk dies. The site is User Not Found. I can say that, being one whose fostered some pretty neat friendships with folks via e-mail through the years, I dread the day I hear one of these dear ones I know has died. Behind every blog, every family website, every e-mail address...there's a person. I can't help but make things personal, knowing that. I'd hope people would miss me if I disappeared, that I've made peoples' days better sometimes. There are many of you I've never "fleshmet", but if your voice was silenced, the web would have an empty spot.

Basement Afterthoughts

I have a few random thoughts I want to write before they slip away and the details are forgotten.

WHAT Does That Label Say?

If it were just the dust, that'd be one thing. But the tar thing kind of put me over the edge. Remember how I said they left buckets of that tar-stinking stuff in our basement by the furnace? Take a look at the the CAUTION statement on its label.

Combustible? Not a good product to leave sitting overnight a mere two feet from the open flame of a gas furnace, yet that's what happened. It's no wonder the whole house reeked like the stuff! We're fortunate and thankful nothing caused them to ignite. I still can't believe they did that, nor can anyone I've told about it. There's a lot better ways to keep stuff from freezing.

Backing Up Is Hard To Do

The one driver had a terrible time backing into our driveway. The foreman had to back the truck in one time that we know of. The last day they did work, someone ran the truck into our stone wall by the driveway and broke some of the sandstone off. They just tossed the large stones on top of my plants there and never told me they'd done it.

RIP, My Beauties

We were told the crew would carefully remove plants and put them back in place when finished. The only two plants they put back were the porcelain berry vine and clematis vine I specifically pointed out. I assumed they would set aside the top layer of soil, along with the plants, and put them back on last when refilling the trenches. Not so at all. All I have now is a jumble of dirt and rocks around our home's foundation. All my groundcovers are gone, my daylilies...everything except the big vines, and I doubt they'll make it.

The company does not guarantee homeowners' plants will survive, so I think they take that part of the job lightly. I say, just because something's not guaranteed by your company doesn't give you the right to be out-and-out careless. If I'd known they would be so doggoned careless, I would have moved the plants. But, again, we were assured that the plants would be fine, that they were dormant and it wouldn't hurt them the way the crew worked. Wrong. They should, at the least, say they strongly suggest homeowners move the plants before work is scheduled to begin. But I trusted the salesman's and company's word for it. My bad.

Not At All What We'd Pictured

Salesman Kevin also led us to believe the "pressure relief system" (not just a sump pump) would be a neatly capped unit in the floor. He made it sound like a sealed cap we would take off once a month in order to test the pump.

What we have instead is a loosely covered (not sealed by any stretch of the imagination) hole with piece of PVC pipe coming up out of it and through the wall about five feet or so up the wall. I've seen regular sump pumps before, and I understand why they had to do it this way; they have to bring the water out up above the outside drainage system's level so it will flow downhill by the force of gravity.

If the salesman hadn't misrepresented what it would look like, it wouldn't be a concern and we could have perhaps planned differently, maybe had them install it on the other side of the wall there. That's going to be in my MIL's closet, so the neatly sealed off cap was a big deal to us. It can't be helped now, though; we'll just have to build around it and leave an access door.

You'll Poke Yer Eye Out

A sidenote: The foreman was lucky he didn't blind himself while hammering apart our old concrete sink. He was hammering toward himself, and not wearing any eye protection. I offered him some goggles, but he said he was fine and thanked me. What's with people? I'm just glad none of those chips and chunks of concrete hit him in the eye. Ouch.

The Dust Might Pose A Problem

They finished up yesterday, so the job took three days instead of the projected two. The crew was courteous and cleaned up after themselves, and the foreman answered our questions thoroughly. When the were just ready to leave, after we signed off on the work, the foreman called the home office so we could talk to them and tell them our thoughts. We reiterated that Kevin the salesman told us they would have a cleaning service come in after the work was completed. They balked at that, saying they'd have to talk with Kevin. Of course, he didn't put that in writing, so it's our word against his.

All I know is, my new computer desk, which was clean Monday morning, had a layer of dust on it by Monday afternoon. And it only got worse. Ever since the work started, my sinuses have been terrible. They get that way when I'm around a lot of dust stirred up or around mildew and mold. We went out Tuesday night and I felt better, but shortly after we got home again, my sinuses started getting bad again. It's hard to quantify that sort of thing when speaking to someone, however.

I cleaned the kitchen surfaces because we prepare food in there, and my desk because of the computer equipment, but have not done anything in the living room. The field supervisor can see the dust in there and make his decision, I guess. What makes us mad is how the salesman offered the moon and stars to get us to sign, and because so much of it was not in writing, it's up to us to fight for it. Guess we'll know to always get stuff in writing in the future, not just trust people.

An addendum, after more thought: The dust isn't the biggest issue to us. It's the fact that we've been charged a truly horrendous amount of money by anyone's standard for this major work, and we want the company to honor what their salesman said they'd do. I hate it that salespeople can dangle carrots in front of customers and not be held responsible for what they promise. The field manager will be here at 11:00am tomorrow, and we're going to tell him such if he doesn't choose to honor what Kevin told us. We are also going to show him the picture of the caution statement on that mastic stuff. That was a major boo-boo as far as we're concerned.

Not Tar

I know it's not just tar they smeared on the wall. Tell me it wasn't just tar. It sure stank like tar last night, though. The air in our home was rank with a combination of tar(?), gasoline, improperly vented water heater exhaust, and basement dust crud. We slept with all rooms' windows cracked a little, and a fan drawing air out through the kitchen window. Whew!

We thought it was just the water heater exhaust, but Howie came up from the basement this morning after talking to the guys first thing, thrust a black-tipped index finger at me, and said "is this what you smelled last night? Smell this." At least he didn't ask me to pull that finger. But it was the same smell (again, better than the aforementioned alternative). Somewhat, anyway. Evidently two buckets of the stuff were left not too far from the furnace, so the warm air carried the aroma clear through the house. Yuck!

He tried to wash the tar off with soap and only ended up with it all over his hands. Rubbing alcohol? Nope. Nail polish remover? Yep! He came back in the bedroom, and his hands smelled worse than they did before. They were better once he washed the nail polish remover off with soap. Always back to the soap. Soap is good.

They made a lot of headway today, and weren't nearly so noisy with power tools. They've got the front, left side, and back of our house all done outside and have a trench dug on the right side. They'll put more stinky tar on, and plastic, then put drainage tile and gravel back in the hole before putting the soil back on top. The resulting grade is quite impressive; I know it will settle, but it's still a lot better than it's ever been.

Having been up since 8:30am (early for me, c'mon!), I'm struggling to keep my mind occupied. I'm also avoiding comfortable seating like the plague, because I'll be out like a light the moment I nestle down into a chair or the couch. So, I'm installing software and getting my system backed up - that'll keep me awake. Yeah, right!

Not a Sump Pump

We were told that what they put in is a special system, not just a sump pump. Heh...This sure looks like a sump pump to me, unless they just cleverly disguise their equipment in sump pump boxes to reduce the chance of the competition seeing their top-secret designs!

PromoGuy's Monday Mission 3.2

Could there BE questions more suited to Howie and me?

1. Have you ever bought something you were so excited about and found out later that it didn't work? Were you able to return it? How did it go?
I was terribly excited to order a Butter Butler for Howie last year. We'd seen it on TV and thought it was such a neat invention, so I was happy to find a great price on it at gadgetuniverse.com. We got it, and the thing was so hard to crank it hurt my hand. And once the sliver of butter started, it didn't want to stop! I contacted the company by e-mail and they not only refunded my full purchase price, but didn't require me to send the original item back to us. It's still sitting in our kitchen cabinet, all clean and back in its original box. I could regift it, but I just don't hate anyone that much.

2. I have a Palm (Pilot) for my date book and such, but have been thinking of jumping to the PocketPC world at some point. Do you have a PDA (personal digital assistant)? What kind, and how did you decide? What do you like about it? If you don't own one, do you want one or do you do better without such gadgets?
Howie bought a Dell Axim X5 and is very pleased with it. It takes both CompactFlashII and Secure Digital cards, has a 300mHz processor, 32MB SDRAM and 32MB ROM. The display on this thing is awesome - really bright and crisp. There's an optional 802.11b wireless CF card available for it, should we decide to switch the house over to a wireless network. It's also very small and light, just schweeeeet. I'm hoping he might write something up about his new toy, and I can link to it. We read a lot of reviews and realized it was the best bet for the money, especially with the $50 rebate when you get it directly from Dell.

3. What illness do you wind up catching more than any other?
Usually your common cold, though I'm constantly beset with sinus problems. I haven't had an actual sinus infection in a year or two, but I have a lot of blockage from past ones. Colds are something I actually catch, though. Who doesn't?

4. Do you like going to see the Doctor (any type)?
We've become friends through the years, and she came to our wedding. I like my family doctor a lot, but I'm not particularly fond of having to go see her.

5. How about the Dentist? Do you like going? Do you go in every 6 months for a check-up?
When I was in third grade, I fell on a piece of playground equipment and chipped one of my front teeth. I was rushed to the dentist's office, where I proceeded to beome very afraid. The dentist slapped me. Yep, slapped me. It was years before I set foot in a dentist's office again. I was in college when a tooth finally got so bad I couldn't stand it any more. So, my first dental work was a root canal. After that it was all downhill! I don't mind going at all now, and rarely have anything wrong. Now that we have insurance, I go for my regular checkups, yes!

6. Are you a "Dog Person" or a "Cat Person?" Do you think a person's choice tells you something about their personality?
I'm both, but lean more toward dogs because of their range of expression and goofy personalities. I suppose the cliche answer is that a cat person is more secure and doesn't need a dog's constant attention and affections. Who knows...Our cats are both pretty dog-like, too.

7. I've mentioned before how me and a buddy of mine have just let our friendship lapse. There was no disagreement, but we've hit that point where we have nothing in common anymore. My life has progressed and he is still living in 1992. Have you ever had a friendship that just seems to have run its course? Where there is just nothing there anymore? What finally happened?
Yes, that's happened to me. There's a person who was a good friend to me when I was in high school. I practically lived with his family for a few summers. He was in his 30's, but very young and hippie like. He had a lot of odd ideas which, at the time, were endearing and refreshing coming from someone as "old" as him. The thing is, I grew up and moved on, but I he never did. He's over fifty and still lives at home. We just drifted apart. It happens, sometimes.

Today's Comment Question: Wanna get together after work and run around? Any ideas on what to do?
Dinner at Tumbleweed, and then let's check out the new Wal-Mart Super Center in town! They open January 22 - you free any time soon after that?

Jackhammer

I will try to get Monday Mission done today, for it is chock full of fun questions, but right now I am about ready to retreat to bed with a pillow over my head. The Everdry crew is here and they are jackhammering right beneath the office where I sit. This is the sound, as actually recorded by yours truly. Just magnify that sound by about 50-fold and you'll get an idea.

This jackhammer has a vacuum running with it, but the crew leader advised us to put damp cloths over the heater vents, for the other dust from the chipper. but as the cloths dried, they began flapping. Now there's a stinky dust in the house, dang it. I've turned the furnace off, despite it only being about 30 degrees out (with a windchill more like 18). I hate to think about what we're inhaling here...cement dust and mold spores. Yuck!!! Please pray.

The Everdry salesman, Kevin, told us they'd put in the EZ-Breathe system about a week before the basement work was begun, so it would be pulling the mold and such out as they worked. Well, somewhere there was miscommunication, because the EZ-Breathe guy isn't coming out until this afternoon. That isn't helping with this foul-smelling dust.

While we were still negotiating, I half-jokingly said "if you'll have Merry Maids come in to clean afterwards, I'll sign". Kevin said they'd be willing to do that. I don' think we have that particular sales-dance promise in writing (I'll have to check on that), but I am going to push for it, or at least a discount so we can have a maid service come in and clean. This is foul.

On the plus side, they're going to break apart and remove the big old cement sink from the basement. They also anticipate it being a 2-day job. At least we won't have jackhammers going for three or four days. That's a plus, right??

Puppetmaster

I just got back inside from taking the dogs out. It's cold today, 22(f) but with a strong wind making it feel more like a biting 7(f). Usually, when it's this cold, the last thing I want to do is let them play out there. But they'd been good and done their business in short order, my strategy of making them wait a little longer paying off, so I thought I'd let them play.

Unlike Sarah, Buddy and Emma are both runners, so they're on retractable leashes whenever they're outside. You've seen these leashes - the kind with the plastic handle and long, thin rope leash. Those leashes are kind on our backs, especially when walking a dog as big as Emma; even when she gets out to the end of the leash, there's a little elasticity to the rope.

Today, though, there was mayhem. Buddy and Emma tumbled and growled, sprinted and dodged, leaped and crashed. The whole time they're doing this, their leashes were winding around their limbs and bodies; I aided in the detangling process by constantly untwisting the leashes at my end. It occurred to me that I've become a puppetmaster to dogs.

Emma had a running frenzy, going "crazy dog" as we call it. Usually, she careens back and forth within the confines of the leash's length, her body low to the ground and her long legs splaying out beneath her. It reminds me of the sprints we used to do between orange safety cones in gradeschool, running erasers back and forth. (Do they do this in every gradeschool?)

Today, though, instead of tearing back and forth, she went went clear around me, three times. Buddy followed two of the turns. It happened so quickly I wasn't able to follow around with the leashes, and soon I was roped tight as a maypole and laughing my head off, all alone in the middle of my yard.

The dogs are the true puppetmasters after all, or should I say puppymasters.

Friday Five

Well, it's Friday once again, that beloved culmination of the week, and excuse to answer someone else's questions in our blogs.

1. Where are you right now?
Mmmm, if memory serves, I'm in my office at my computer. In Ohio, US, the World.

2. What time is it?
Does anybody really know what time it is? It's 2:50pm, Friday.

3. What are you wearing?
My comfy, oversized tan cotton shirt and a completely mismatched pair of blue cords with an elastic waist. Grungy day here.

4. Any people or animals around you? Describe them.
Nearly my entire domestic universe is present with me. Howie is sitting in his chair, surfing the web and watching TechTV. The dogs are all in the office with us, of course. Emma's on the floor, happily working away on her Kong toy (it has dog biscuits stuffed inside it). Buddy's already retrieved the goodies from his Kong, so he's alternating between climbing up behind Howie to look out the window and eyeing Emma's Kong. Sarah, ever the good dog, is nestled between Howie and the arm of the wingback chair. Hattie cat comes and goes, hopping over the homemade gate we have propped up against the office doorway. Elliott isn't a spry young jumper any more, so he's out in the livingroom, nestled by the heat vent. I think that's everyone!

5. What are your plans for the weekend?
The Everdry people are coming early Monday morning to start work on the basement, so I need to clear the stuff away from the northeast side of our house. It's the hidden side of the house and tends to accumulate things like empty seedling flats, buckets, pots, and assorted junk. Other than that, we'll probably stick around the house and go to church Sunday.

Ta-Da...The New Desk!

This is what I jokingly refer to as my cockpit. I love how everything is within easy reach without taking up one bit of extra desktop space. Kudos to whoever did the design work on this at O'Sullivan Furniture. It's just plain brilliant, and I love it.



Here's a before shot, showing our old desk. This picture was taken when we first moved the office into the front room...Back before it had a chance to get too cluttered, and before the keyboard tray broke...Before we added peripherals which took up yet more desk space...Sorry I couldn't find a more recent picture with that chronic "lived in" look!

I'll post more pictures once the whole room is done. Right now it's still full of boxes of stuff I vacated from the old desk and its drawers! We're scavenging the drawers from the left side of the old desk and installing them on the right side of the new one. I can't wait.

Motivation, Where Aaaare You?

I need to go buy chicken today. One store is having a meat blow-out (doesn't that sound appetizing?), including boneless/skinless chicken breast for $1.58/lb. Another store has stepped up to the plate and is selling them for $1.28/lb. I must stock up! I just feel slow on the draw today, like most days. But if I don't get going, they'll be sold out and I'll be paying $2.00+ for them tomorrow. *yawn*

I got my replacement Epson Printer via UPS today. I e-mailed tech support because of problems I've had with our Epson Stylus Photo 820 ever since getting it last year, and got a reply saying I needed to call a number and arrange for a whole unit replacement. Cool. I called, and recounted all the diagnostic steps I'd taken to troubleshoot and remedy the problems with the print heads on this printer, and the rep agreed to do a replacement.

He asked me where and when I bought it, and I told him Staples, January 25, 2002. I honestly thought that was the purchase date, and I didn't have any documentation on hand to look at. It's the date which stuck out in my mind. Well, I got the printer today and looked up an old post I'd done on another website, and found I'd actually gotten it December 31, 2001. Sheesh....So I contacted Epson five days past my 1-year guarantee. I hope they don't hassle me about this exchange, considering how close I was!

They sent me the silver model, and I notice it has a removeable power cord. My original printer is the standard putty color and the power cord is attached. I must say, the silver model blends nicely with the grey pebble finish on the desk...I need to put it through its paces and see if it remedies the problem I've had. And I need to find that doggoned receipt or see if Staples can pull it up somehow, like Target can, by credit card number. Oh, if I have my archives, I will have a scan of the receipt; I made one to send in with the printer's rebate form. Aha! Cross your fingers, everyone.

The dogs have finally accepted this office is, well, just an office again. They're curled up on various pieces of furniture, sleeping soundly. It's a good time to take a shower, but the sun coming through the window feels so nice, and my coffee tastes so good, and this chair feels so comfy...Well, I'd better get at it.

P.S. I found my receipt from Staples and wrote a note on the copy I made of it for Epson. I hope Epson will be decent about this, considering how close it was to my year's warranty when I wrote. I'm also sending a print screen with a post I made in September 2002 at a photo forum concerning my problems with the printer. I want them to see I've had a legitimate problem with the printer, and for a long time. Keep your fingers crossed that they'll be kind, especially since they've already sent me a refurbished printer as a replacement!

Sniffers

You'd think we'd just moved the family to a new country the way these dogs are investigating every square inch of the office today. Buddy, especially, has his nose plastered to every surface and is making a slow inventory of all the new smells. Beer spill...Check. Styrofoam bead...Check. Strange odor...Mental note, research later.

I know/hope there's nothing on the floor to hurt him or the other two dogs, but it's still disconcerting to see him shoving his nose into every crevice in the room. C'mon guys, same stuff, different places. Only the desk is new, and you're not smelling it at all! Weirdos.

Everdry called this morning at 8:45am. I heard the guy's voice coming over the answering machine, my mind still in a sleepy fog, and answered the phone. I was cognicent enough to hold a conversation with him and learn that the crews are running a couple of days behind and he wanted to know if Monday would be okay for them to start instead of tomorrow. AND HOW. I want to get the office and rest of the house clean before there's more dust to deal with. Monday's finer than frog hair, I reckon!

Assembly Might Just Be Worth that Twenty Five Extra Bucks

Howie and I spent about ten hours disassembling the old desk, assembling the new desk and hutch, and rearranging the office to accommodate the different furniture. We are so sore from sitting on the floor all those hours and moving furniture after that. Man, this stuff takes so long to assemble! But I sure do love the results. We figured out we can scavenge some of the drawers and drawer hardware from the old desk and put them on the new one. The old desk kinda disintegrated when we took it apart to get it out of the room...Heh.

The office is too torn up for any pictures just yet, but once it's cleaned up I'll post some. This desk is SO cool, every bit as neat as I'd hoped it would be. Rush on over to OfficeMax.com and check them out, y'all. The only peripherals on my desk now are my monitor, printer and scanner, and all the cords are neatly absent from view. Now my clutter...Well, that's another issue.

Bright and Early

It figures that because I stayed up until almost 5:00am, the OfficeMax delivery guys would come knocking at the door bright and early (early for me, anyway, at 9:45am). I am so glad I typed "knock loudly - my husband works nights and we may be asleep when you come" on the delivery instructions, for we were sound asleep when they began pounding with the doorknocker. I stumbled out of bed and pulled on yesterday's jeans and t-shirt. There was no doubt we were home, what with all three dogs barking in excitement and my calling "just a minute! be right there!"

I swear, this pre-fab furniture is denser than gold bricks. I can't even begin to lift two out of the three boxes those two men heaved into the livingroom. I'll have to carry the desk and cabinet into the office piece-by-piece for assembly. I still have to disassemble our old desk, a heavy old thing which is held Frankensteined together with L-brackets and glue at this point. I'd like to donate it to someone who could use it, but I doubt it will survive another disassembly; due to its large size, it's had to be taken apart each time we've moved.

And about this basement work we're having done...Don't know what brought that to mind, other than the fact that it's January 7 and they've supposedly got us scheduled for January 9. Like I said before, we're "on call" with Everdry, so our work could have been done with as little as a day's notice up to this point. Of course, no one called. We were told the company would be out to put in the Ez-Breathe system December 9, but I reminded the guy we'd be out of town still. He promised a December 16 installation date, but that came and went without so much as a call. When we called a few days ago, the guy told us they normally install the EZ-Breathe at the same time they do the waterproofing work. It would be so nice, so refreshing, to get a straight answer when dealing with companies.

This "on call" status can mean we're made to wait past our scheduled start date, however. I sure hope not, for we have to wait about three months after the sealing work is done before we can frame in and finish the basement rooms. However, if all goes as scheduled, I'll be complaining about early-morning work crews, jackhammers and dust within mere days. How fun!

Search Twiddles

Added a site search using Atomz. All in all, it's pretty neat and customizeable. I did it as much for myself as for any readers; sometimes my blog is the only record I have of both major and minor events, and it's handy to be able to find them when my memory poops out on me. My only beef with Atomz is, I'm not sure if there's a way to make it link to the blog entries' individual ID's instead of just the archived pages containing the entries. Hmmmmmm....

Mamma Mia

Isn't she pretty? That's my mamma, posing with some monsterously huge fake roses at Big Lots last Friday. While the menfolk were hunched before the TV watching OSU and Miami warring for college football supremacy, mom and I were out shopping. And shopping. And shopping.

From the Mouths of TV Babes

Woah...Good quote on a rerun just now.

"Sometimes you have to forgive someone just because you want them in your life."
-- character Maya Gallo on NBC's Just Shoot Me

Who says sitcoms can't drop an occasional pearl of wisdom? Of course, most of what JSM's Finch says isn't all that profound, but it's usually pretty funny. Oh, my, and did anyone catch Conan O'Brian on The Andy Richter Show Sunday night? That show cracks me up, and Conan's over-the-top performance was just what I needed last night. What a goober he is. :)

Great Minds

Something Vikki wrote ("On Writing") came to mind when I read this quote today:

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.
-Author Unknown

There's no substitute for stimulating conversation, yes?

Today In History

I added this nifty bit of fun to my sidebar just now. At least now my blog will have something new every day, even if I don't post. Its creator's site is pretty darned amusing, too. ;)

I also discovered another surveys-for-cash place, GoZing.com. You can choose your form of payment: Amazon.com gift certificates or money deposited directly into your PayPal account. One survey I took went through the same company that Greenfield Online sends folks to occasionally. It's nice getting a little cash now and then, and even the small incentives add up.

Digital Dock Rocks!

I have got to start going to bed earlier. Over the last week or two, I've been staying up progressively later at night. I got to bed at 8:30am today, and slept until 2:00pm. Our hours are backwards to begin with since Howie doesn't get home until almost midnight from work, but I've been outlasting him and sleeping later than he does. I almost made it with no nap yesterday -- So close! -- but I was literally falling asleep sitting up at the desk and had to sleep a while. Renewed vigor come midnight - Not good! *sigh*

At least my wakefulness was productive last night. I continued my comparison shopping over the half eastern hemisphere for office furniture, in search for a desk or workstation. After looking at desks at stores and online, I was continually brought back to the O'Sullivan desks with Digital Docks. What a great concept! The desks have a bay built into them beneath the monitor shelf, and your computer's tower goes in it. Your computer's drives are right in front of you, and the connectors on the back of the computer are readily accessible. I love how the tower is up off the floor without taking up useable space on top of the desk.

OfficeMax.com has free shipping on orders over $50 (most items are delivered in one business day, too). They have a special right now with a free hutch when you buy the desk. There's ALSO a coupon code for $40 off a purchase of $200 or more available at Currentcodes.com (you have to click through from their site for it to be applied, and it's for new customers only). I feel I did my homework and came away with a great deal on this desk, especially considering the free delivery to my door. The L-desk has no drawers, so I got the matching 2-drawer rolling filecabinet to slip under one side (like they have it pictured). I should get the desk Tuesday and the file cabinet within a week...Yippee!

For Those Who Enjoy Language

Some fun links for those of you who enjoy words and giggle at the misuse of them, here are some of my favorite links:

Engrish.com - reduces me to tears sometimes

Gotchas - Found via one of the Lockergnome newsletters I receive

The Webreference Grammar Series - Found via the above site

Enjoy! :)

Stinkin' Dinners

Howie went to his mom's this afternoon for the annual sauerkraut and pork over mashed potatoes. I had a headache and opted to extend my nap. He's bringing a plate home from her house, but not soon enough. I'm HONGRY, people. I can almost smell that horrible/wonderful sauerkraut smell. Glad I'm not the one who cooked it in my house, LOL. Actually, we eat kraut quite a bit throughout the year. One of our favorite ways to make it is in Chicken Reuben (Note: unless you're a Dave's Garden subscriber, you won't be able to read the follow-up posts to the thread where I gave the recipe, but you can see the first one, containing the recipe).

Food smells are such a mixed lot, aren't they? Garlic, for instance. When we're out shopping and the scent of garlic-laden Chinese or Italian food wafts across the parking lot from a restaurant, it's enough to drive us insane. But old garlic smells permeating a house? Not-so-good. Back when we were living in an apartment in a big old Victorian house, Howie made a Cuban rice dish containing green olives, black beans, and garlic, among other things. The recipe called for three cloves of sauteed garlic. Howie mistook that and sauteed three heads of garlic. Imagine this, knowing how sauteeing garlic brings out more of its flavor to begin with. One small bite of this dish was all I could eat; you truly could not taste anything except garlic. The biting stench of that stuff lingered in our apartment -- and the hallway -- for weeks. Ugh!

When I worked for a big catalog company as a team leader and phone associate, there was one particular guy I just hated helping. It wasn't because he was a bad person; actually, he was terrific on the phones and a really nice guy. But he took garlic supplements and ate a lot of the stuff, too. I can't begin to describe the sinking feeling I'd get in my stomach when I'd see him raise his hand, his awaiting headset in his grasp, and say he needed me to take a supervisor call. His headset...Oh, my gosh. It reeked of THE most gut-churning, old-sour-garlic odor imagineable.

Fortunately, a brief and unfounded head-lice scare got many of the supervisors a little twitchy about hygiene and we took to carrying our own headsets with us around our necks, like some brigade of doctors with stethoscopes. That solved the Garlic Guy headset dilemma, as long as I kept my breaths shallow and through my mouth when I was within a three or four foot radius of him. Sometimes health benefits just don't outweight the social downfalls of a supplement.

So, you want extra garlic with that pizza bread?

Big Lots News Flash

We thought we'd try some of Big Lots' Oxyclean rip-off for $1.99, and guess what. It works! Howie got stains off a patch from his baseball cap and we're going to try it out on some stubbornly stained clothes we've given up on trying to get clean. Wooo!

I need a life.

Boring Search Hits

Man, every other blogger I know gets hits for a wide, weird variety of searches. I get them for things like gardenwife, gardenwife.com, microsurgery, and microsurgery photos. Those last two brought people here because of the entries and photos I posted of my brother-in-law Steve's injured arm. I suppose I should be happy people have remembered the word Gardenwife and searched for it, but c'mon! I guess I just don't write about very hot topics, LOL!

Let's see if this helps: bathing beauties, lips, kitty, blogging, bloggers, love, sex, romance. I won't do the x-rated stuff. I don't know if I want someone searching for that stuff to find my blog! ;)

A Wee Christmas Package

Christmas day was really nice for us, for we got to visit with our best friends again. They had an especially nice Christmas gift this year. This gift is small, only 6 pounds or so, and has lots of hair. And her name's Gracie. :) If it were us I was talking about, surely I'd be talking about a cat or a puppy. But I'm talking about another couple, so Gracie is a human. A wee newborn human, just born December 17 and brought home with her adoptive parents on December 21. She's precious! She's got an older brother, Noah, who absolutely adores "his baby". I can't think of a better Christmas present for our friends to enjoy than this special package.

Happy Christmas to All

Our Christmas Eve was nice, just hanging out with family. Howie and I went to my folks' home for goodies and coffee (and a gift exchange, hee hee) and we fiddled with mom's laptop until it was again able to connect to the web. Weirdest thing...The quickstart menu's shortcut to her dial-up was trying to open her USB smartmedia card reader. Who knows how that happened. When we tried going to the networking window and clicking on the original dial-up networking icon, it still tried opening the smartmedia reader...Even though looking at the dial-up connection's properties showed everything as usual. Howie deleted that connection and made a new one, problem solved.

But I digress...It was a nice time with family tonight. We had our gift exchange and then drove over to my MIL's home together. Everyone wasn't able to be there tonight, but we still all had a nice visit. My nephew Luke and I played a game of Scrabble on the Travel Scrabble Game Folio, which Howie got from mom and dad. That is the coolest little thing! We have the original Deluxe Travel Scrabble in the hard plastic case, but we were always frustrated when we wanted to put a game aside for a while. This new version solves that problem with these nifty little snap-in letters. They even snap into the letter trays. Best yet, you can also snap the full trays in their spots, fold the game back up and zip the portfolio closed until you're ready to finish your game. Very, very cool. :)

We packed into the car and drove around a bit looking at lights before heading to our church's 11:00pm Christmas Eve service. It was nice seeing folks and singing those familiar songs together, just remembering why we celebrate all of this hoopla. Our pastor spoke about the legend that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" were really a means for the persecuted church to learn the catechism. It's a nice thought, but from what I've read, it's just not true. At some point, someone probably made the parallels between the song's lyrics and items from the Christian faith, but I don't think it was ever used in such a manner originally. Still, it made for an interesting sermon and we sang a different version of the song afterwards, substituting the various "hidden meanings" for the traditional ones.

The Last Place You Look

I figured out why the network wasn't running correctly. There's this kinda buff colored cable, you see...And it plugs into the laptop at one end and the router at the other end. And, well, the end connecting to the laptop had jiggled loose and wasn't connected securely. *{Blush}* I'd tried just about everything to try and get the darned network to recognize both computers, and that's all it was. A loose cord. Sheesh!

Confucious say, things work best when plugged in.

I Love Hand-Me-Down's

What an unexpected and appreciated Christmas present! Our best friends gave us a hand-me-down Pentium 350 a year or two ago, and now they've upgraded again, so we've traded THAT one back for their latest hand-me-down, a Pentium III 866. Whooo! The old 350 will go in their son's room; their son's only three, so his games aren't real processor or graphics intensive..yet, LOL.

Anyway, we swapped out pieces parts and did a fresh install of Windows XP and I'm happily installing all my goodies back on my hard drive. The one bad thing is, our version of Norton Systemworks is 2001 and it won't run on XP. Therefore, I can't do a ghost of my hard drive once I have the drivers and network stuff installed. I'll live. ;) I am having trouble getting the network to work again since we did the new install. Once I get that figured out and can share files on the network again, I will be the happiest camper in the world. Until then, I can't get to my backed up data without using our little USB drive to transfer files back and forth.

Just rambling here on Howie's laptop until some updates are finished on the desktop. God bless us, every one.

Our church, Vineyard of Licking County, had its first official service in the new facility yesterday. Wow, what a cool building it is. I'll link to pictures soon.

I sew wish...

That is, I wish I could sew like her. These are incredibly intricate and beautiful quilts by the wife of one of the members at Dave's Garden. Wowsers, what talent! I'm so glad her hubby is proud of her work and made sure people would see it.

Battered Brian Barely Beats Bumpkin

I know...Old news. Still, that headline from Survivorfan.com made me snort. Poor Brian...First his wife won't choke down a big, juicy cockroach for him, and then when he gets home, he has to call the authorities because she's hauled off and punched him in the nose. Gee, I wonder if things are better since he won the million. Maybe it was just the stress of wondering whether he was going to get a million dollars or only one hundred thousand. Pardon me if I'm a bit jaded here.

You know, toward the end, I actually was rooting for Clay, especially after the final two were grilled by the jury. I have to wonder if Helen only said that to Ted about Clay's supposed racist comments to get Ted to vote against Clay...And I'm with Jeff Probst on wondering why in the HECK someone didn't realize Brian was a huge threat and vote him off of there! Early on I thought Helen would have a really good shot at being in the final two, but that sure didn't happen. I think most of them kept Clay around thinking he'd be the perfect one to bring along because so many disliked him.

Just some scattered thoughts here. We just finished watching the three-hour backstabbing-fest on videotape and my thoughts haven't quite gelled yet.

Starting Fresh

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely... " -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My day is finished and I am off to bed. I will read this quote tomorrow and try to follow Mr. Emerson's good advice. We can't go back and change yesterday, so we must squeeze all there is from today and go from here.

Hearts Big as Texas

The more you love, the more you let yourself love, the harder some things are. This story by Big White Guy touched me so deeply. I'm still sniffling, because I know how horrible a decision these folks had to make and I can only imagine how hard it was for them.

I'm a Randy Gal

Looks like I'm Randy. How about you?


Which A Christmas Story Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Siren's Song

Just a bit ago, I was fixing some toast in the kitchen and heard the distinctive siren of an ambulance as it sped by our home. Our street is not a main thoroughfare, so that in itself was pretty unusual. That sound always gives me pause, and of course it raises my curiosity - what if it's heading to the home of someone I know? We have several elderly neighbors on this street, and the possibility of one of them being in need of an ambulance troubles me.

This time, though, the ambulance pulled into the gradeschool parking lot behind our house. It was followed by a firetruck. The school parking lot and adjacent running track/field often serves as a landing pad for the medflight helicopters, so it was hard to tell why the vehicles were parked there - for the school, or for a pickup. I've not heard any helicopter approach, so I assume it was for someone at the school.

What struck me about all of this today was the child, a little girl. She and her mother happened to be walking out of the school building when I peeped out the window of our back door. Mom was holding the girl's hand with one hand and carrying some sort of bundle (maybe a younger sibling?) in the other, and walking. The girl, maybe six years old or so, was skipping. She was eyeing the big emergency vehicles and skipping happily along. To her, it was hubbub and excitement - the flashing lights, the wailing sirens, the uniformed drivers! To someone else, there in the school, it might have been life or death.

I looked back at the mom and wondered if she was, at that moment, thinking about how lucky she is to have her girl skipping by her side? Did she make the connection that, were it not for circumstance, it could have been her child the ambulance was there to aid? I hope so, and I hope it made thankfulness well up in her heart for the blessings in her life. For some reason, it reminded me of this passage from Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

``And how did little Tim behave?'' asked Mrs Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's content.

``As good as gold,'' said Bob, ``and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.''

Seeing the ambulance made me think about how fragile our lives really are, and turned my thoughts toward thankfulness to Him who loves and keeps us.

Trade me heads?

It's a sinus-migraine day here at home, bleah. I need to get our humidifier cleaned up and ready for use, and I need to find/order a replacement wick for it. The dry air is really hard on the respiratory system, and I've been having a lot more headaches since it's been cold and we've had the heat on 24/7. Once we get some moisture in this house, things should be better...And once the basement work is completed, it will be interesting to see if some of the problems I've had have been caused by the mold down there. If I suddenly am headache-free, we'll certainly know it had a major role in them! In the meantime, does anyone want to trade me heads? I'd like to keep my brains, though, so maybe just the sinuses would be negotiable?

Senile Virus

This is frightening. When I read this warning, I recognized that some of my friends are afflicted with it (you know who you are). But what's worse is, I think I might be, too!

Just got this in from a reliable source It seems that there is a virus out there called the Senile Virus that even the latest Norton AV cannot take care of, so be warned. It appears to affect those of us who were born before 1950!

Symptoms of Senile Virus

1. Causes you to send same e-mail twice.

2. Causes you to send blank e-mail.

3. Causes you to send to wrong person.

4. Causes you to send back to person who sent it to you.

5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment.

6. Causes you to hit "SEND" before you've finished the

Ads.com, RIP...Joe Boxer Lives On

Ads.com, say it isn't so! What do you mean you "weren't able to raise the funding necessary"? You were a website featuring nothing but corporate commercials, for the love of Rosie! I am so bummed. But at least the reason I went to Ads.com just now is still out there. Joe Boxer just tickles me!

By the way, do any of you use the K-Mart's Bluelight.com internet, or know someone who does? We're shopping for a new low-cost ISP for the folks, neither of which are online much at all. Bluelight even has a local access number for our town - wooo.

Scavengers

Remember the Chevy I listed on eBay for one of Howie's coworkers? Well, it sold offline to one of the people who'd seen the listing, so this fella decided to have us get him a laptop on eBay for his daughter. We bought an a used IBM Thinkpad 600 and had it shipped here so we could get everything configured on it for the friend. The display on that IBM is so much brighter and nicer than the one on my hubby's Micron - you can tell it was a lot better made to begin with.

Well, combine that obvious disparity with the realization that my old Sony monitor is still functional, and what do you get? A scavenger, that's what! Quick as a wink, Howie had his wingback chair and cart re-arranged so the old monitor was hooked up to the Micron and perched atop The Cockpit. Hey, it was easier than carrying it down to the basement. Plus, with the headphones on and the room lights dimmed, it makes for a pretty darned nice movie experience, all curled up in the wingback chair there.

Old Dog. New Trick.

Well, it's new to me, anyway! Here's my mom's cat Tigger, in a nifty little pop-up window. I peeked at somebody's code and learned something new tonight - woooo!

Freezing Rain'll Do That To Ya

I am bummin', I admit it. I'm really missing my spot on Lisa's porch right about now. The weather's been cruddy in Ohio and I've been missing the rope hammock and the nice sunny days in the 60's and 70's. Whimper. If I were magically teleported there right now, I'd plant my behind in that comfy hammock chair and read. Little anole lizards would again creep out from their hiding places in the ginger plant on the porch and join me in sunning. Oh, and all the sweet birds! The titmice and chickadees, especially, would again come to the feeder hanging right above me, chittering their gossip to all who'd listen. *sigh* And Miss Sally could teach me new things from her five-year-old perspective. Ahhhhhh....I've gotta quit this!

But we Ohioans are made of strong stuff (though not nearly so strong as Minnesotans) so we'll muddle through this somehow. Sometimes I can see why people become snowbirds!

Barely Blooming Yet

I read this in today's Dave's Garden newsletter and loved it:

"As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven."

-- Russell M. Nelson

This-N-That

I'm overdue in posting Tuesday's This-N-That from the Passionate Ailurophile, but here goes!

1. Real or artificial tree?
Artificial for us - no needles, no waste, virtually non-existant risk of lights igniting a fire, and stronger branches for holding ornaments!

2. Real or artificial wreath?
Artificial, though I wouldn't mind having a real one made with the trimmings from a fir tree (hmmmmm....have two of those out back).

3. Open gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (or do you do another holiday such as Hannukkah)?
Some of each, usually. As a kid, we'd have dinner, go to the midnight Christmas Eve service in town, then drive around looking at Christmas lights. Magically, Santa always came while we were away from grandma's house. ;)

4. "It's A Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street"?
They're both great, but I guess "It's a Wonderful Life" - I love Clarence.

5. Outdoor decorations, or just indoors?
Both! Bummed that the basement work this year is keeping us from putting up indoor decorations (save a tiny 2' tree on the table). We're "on call" for having the work done, so there's no telling when they'll be here to do it, and we're afraid of extra dust making the tree into a nightmare clean-up job!

6. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" or "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer"?
Rudolph, always. I like "Here Comes Santa Clause", too. It's all fun!

7. Miniature lights or the larger ones?
Miniature inside, big fat ones outside (plus miniatures!).

8. Store-bought or hand-made ornaments?
Both. We have a really eclectic tree, full of ornaments both gaudy and lovely - all memorable and cherished.

9. TV Specials: The Grinch or Charlie Brown?
Another tough choice! We just watched Charlie Brown Monday evening and loved it, all over again. Gotta love those dancing kids at rehearsal. But the Grinch is a classic - I'd probably go with him.

10. Will you be staying at home for the holiday, or going visiting?
Well, considering we went to Louisiana for Thanksgiving, I think we'll just stick close to home. We always do, anyway, since both my folks and my MIL live in the same town. It makes things very simple! When I was a kid, I lived in Illinois and we travelled to my grandma's in Ohio each year for Christmas. *sigh* - I miss those times at grandma's.

PromoGuy's Monday Mission

I'm finally getting back into my blogging routine after vacation. And here is the most regular of the regular, Promoguy's Monday Mission. Hey, as I typed Promoguy, I accidently spelled it Promogoy. He's not Jewish, right? So either name would technically be considered correct, right? It's not often typos work out that well. Kinda reminds me of The Missing Consonant. ;)

1. Do you get sick very often? What illness do you find that you've had most frequently?

I am the sinusitis poster child, but other than that I get a few colds per year. I'm weathering one of those infrequent treasures right now, actually.

2. I know a man who flat out refuses to go to the Doctor's office. You'd need an ambulance to get him near a hospital. Not me, I'd rather go as soon as I feel sick so I can get better. Do you mind going to see the Doctor when you get sick? Do you know anyone who just refuses to go to a Doctor when they get ill? Any idea why they are like that?

Yes, I know several people like that. Part of it could be the fear of finding out something worse is wrong with them than they thought, I think. Some refuse to go because of costs involved. And some are just stubbornly prideful that they just don't need anyone's help (though I suspect that's rooted in fear a lot of the time).

3. How about visiting the Dentist? Do you go get a check-up every 6 months? Or do you dread going?

When we had insurance, we did. When we didn't have dental insurance, we didn't. Now that we have coverage again, we do. My toofers got a clean bill of health this last time, but Howie's gums are in poor shape. He has to go for deep cleaning/scraping appointments, and they hope his gums will heal up well following all of that. No fun!

4. I've heard about a diet pill called "Thermolift" that allegedly gives you quite an energy rush (oh boy mentioning this will surely bring us all a ton of Google hits won't it?). Although I've thought about getting some of these pill for the times I need a boost, I'm probably not going to take the plunge. Have you ever taken any diet pills, energy pills or energy drinks? How did they make you feel? Do you still take them? How come?

When I was in high school, I took Dexatrim. It gave me plenty of energy, but made me nervous as heck (not a good thing for an already angst-filled, messed up teenage girl). I've never consumed energy drinks, just SlimFast when I've wanted to jump-start a diet.

5. Have you heard about "Gastric Bypass" surgery that many celebrities are doing to loose weight? (The process reduces the size of your stomach to facilitate weight loss) What are your thoughts on this procedure? Would you ever consider it? How would you feel if a relative were to decide to undergo the procedure?

I am not one to have elective surgery, except for things which cause me great pain (i.e. hernia and a funky gallbladder). My husband and I are both very overweight and need to get back to a healthy routine. We did it once before, and lost weight, but lapsed into old habits and gained a lot of it back. I don't think such surgery would be of benefit to us -- we just need to do the right thing, and stick to it. I suppose that, in cases of extremely obese individuals, this prodedure would be helpful in weight loss. But it is so extreme!

6. What do you think the opposite sex needs to experience to fully understand what it is like to be your gender?

Every man should experience the unbridled joy of stopping to ask for directions, and being able to drive straight to his destination. Also, men need to experience a good bout of anxious, depressed PMS. It's the pits. They joke about the anger and erratic behavior, as do us women (if we didn't laugh, we'd cry...Or kill), but boy do they need to experience it!

7. And to lighten things up a bit before we go...What's the most worthless gadget, infomercial item or "looked like a bargain" item you have ever purchased or owned?

The Butter Butler. That's is the hands-down worst thing we've ever bought. In theory, it's supposed dispense a thin ribbon of butter as you turn its handle. If your butter is unrefrigerated, it might work for this, but it sure doesn't when the butter's in its next-best-thing-to-ice state. The handle is very hard to turn, and once the butter finally starts squeezing through the little slit at the end of the tube, it's hard to stop. I e-mailed the company we got it from (The Gadget Source) and they were as nice as pie about it, giving me a full refund without even asking I send it back first. I still have that stupid thing in the cabinet - all cleaned and re-packaged. How sad is that? I could re-gift it, but I wouldn't give that thing to anyone I liked.

BONUS: Why can't every day be like Christmas?
Elllllllvis!! Whatta guy.

Today's Comment Question: I have a new, faster computer and I am ready run some new programs and have fun. What do you like to do (games, programs, etc.) on your computer for entertainment?
I'm a photogeek. I love editing digital pictures and doing creative stuff with them. You'd never know it from my website, though, because I procrastinate and never quite get my online gallery ready and uploaded. Next to that, I love watching movie trailers and short films online -- I sure missed this broadband while we were on vacation!

Sushi Cues

If you're trying to find just the right gift for your favorite sushi lover, look no further. Where else can you get a sushi clock, sushi candy, and a host of other (more normal) Japanese stuff?

He Got His TV, I Got Mine

My Christmas present is right in front of me as I type. Howie got me a new monitor for the desktop today, my early Christmas gift. My old 17" Sony Multiscan 200sx has been a real workhorse since we got it in 1996, but it's days are numbered. The display is so dim and flickering, I could no longer edit photos and know they were true-to-color. I'd bring up my photos on other peoples' computers and think, woah - who took this??.

HH Gregg has a sale on Envison 19" monitors this week, $199 with a $50 mail-in rebate, so we picked up the Envision EN-910e. One selling point, other than the price, was the product's warranty. It's 3 year parts and labor. The salesguy at the store didn't even try to change my mind when I said right off that we didn't want to buy the store's extended warranty. It's like he said, for something only costing $150 to begin with, with that long of a full warranty, it would be crazy to purchase something extra. By the time three years is up, 19" CRT monitors will probably sell for $50 brand new, you know? Food for thought.

My initial reaction to this monitor is very positive. The text is crisp and the colors bright. And it's huge. Huuuuuge. It's quite a jump going from the 15.9" viewable on the old one to the 18" viewable on this. I still have the new one set at 1024x768, but it can go as far up as 1600x1200 with a 75mHz refresh rate.

Well, I won't bore you with the specs; go to Envision's site to read them if you are interested. I'm happy. :)

Everyone's a PUNdit

"I think that over the years my puns about eyes have got cornea and cornea." -- Graham Rawle

Profundity of a Five-Year-Old

What is it about kids? They can just be rambling, chattering about all sorts of trivial stuff (trivial to most adults, anyway), when suddenly some pearl of wisdom just pops right out. A friend's daughter and I were talking about assorted things last Friday when she piped up and said, very solemnly,

"I remember my dreams, my feelings, and my friends."

Woah. The deeper meanings of that simple sentence washed over me and I rushed to type her words into a document so I would not forget them! Do I remember my dreams? Not just the ones I had last night, but the dreams I had as a child? Do I still have aspirations? Do I remember my feelings? Not just the hurt ones, but the marvelous ones which came as surprises along the way? Do I remember others' feelings to the exclusion of my own sometimes? Do I listen to my gut feelings, those God-given ones that tug us in the right direction? And do I remember my friends, both near and far away? What do I do about it when I do remember them, when they stick in my mind?

No wonder Jesus said we are to come to God as little children.

Back in my cockpit

This entry is bound to be long, so sit back and get comfortable or bookmark it so you can finish it later. ;) Finally, after a nearly 24-hour odyssey, I am back blogging in my cockpit (aka my desk). The desk and office are clean, thanks to my last-minute cleaning frenzy before vacation. Aaaaah. It is SO good to be home.

Lisa and family dropped us off at the airport around 6:30pm Monday, right on time for early arrival. Howie and I had our pre-printed boarding passes all ready and headed for the curbside check-in when we saw how long the Northwest Airlines line was inside. The guy there tried to access our information on the computer, but couldn't get it to come up right for him. He had us follow him inside to the regular check-in and instructed us to wait at the side while he had someone there print our luggage tags. It was not to be...Our 7:00pm flight out to Memphis was delayed, so our boarding passes were useless and we had to wait in line. It was a long line. Howie sat things out on the sidelines, guarding our carry-on luggage, and I pulled the two large, wheeled suitcases behind me, two great teal canvas dogs on short leashes.

Flash forward about 20 minutes and several chapters of my Dean Koontz novel. The NWA clerk, Paul, tells us the chances of our catching our connecting flight in Memphis are slim to none, that we can either spend the night here in New Orleans, or spend it there in Memphis. I asked if the airline would provide lodging, and Paul told us they would not - it was weather-related and not mechanical. We would get distressed traveler's rates, however. Not cool, but it could be worse, we thought. We were trying very hard to make lemonade with the lemons, you know?

Waiting for the plane, we spoke with a few other passengers and actually had an enjoyable time. One couple, Jody and Emily, is expecting a baby in March AND getting ready to move to Africa next summer; Jody is in seminary, and they are going to be missionaries there. We traded e-mail addresses and look forward to hearing how they do.

Our flight finally taxied out the runway and into the air about 8:15pm. By the time we got to Memphis, our connecting flight to Columbus had left. Making our way up to the ticket counters at Memphis, we waited in line to make arrangements for our overnight stay and flight home Tuesday. The lady in front of me had many, many piercings and a really interesting hair-do with little braids scattered around her head. She was in bohemian sort of clothes and had funky glasses. When she learned I was from Ohio, she told me she'd just bought a car from someone on eBay, and had flown to Dayton to pick it up. She was on her way to Amsterdam this night, but like us, had missed her connecting plane due to the delay.

She said she'd been told the airline would not cover the rooms, too, but she said some people were told they would. So, armed with that information, I walked up to the next available clerk, smiled, and said "some of us were told in New Orleans that Northwest would pay for our hotel room here." The little clerk, Norma, couldn't have been more helpful and friendly. She arranged for us to stay for free at the Marriott, and gave us $26 in dinner vouchers and $10 in breakfast vouchers. When she saw the 8:20am flight only had one seat avaialble, and that the next available flight wasn't until 9:20pm, she scurried off to her supervisor and got permission to book us on the two emergency row seats (normally not assigned until just before the flight) so we would definitely have seats in the morning.

Within a half hour we were on our way to the Marriott in their shuttle van, with Clarence at the helm. He was really outgoing and friendly with everyone, a great ambassador for his employer. When we got to to the hotel, it was nearly 11pm and the restaurant was closed. We'd not eaten since about 2:00pm, and we were hungry! Knowing we had meal vouchers, Clarence took it upon himself to call a restaurant within walking distance and ask if they accepted the airline vouchers. When he learned they didn't, he went up to the hotel's bartender and found out we could still order dinner from the bar for another five minutes.

When you are hungry and tired, nothing tastes quite as good as meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies at 11:15pm. Especially when it's free. We ordered a couple of draft beers, thinking they'd be maybe $3 or $4 each, and were flabbergasted when we saw they were $7.50 each. We could almost get our two complete dinners for that much in Ohio! But they went down sweet and helped us untangle the knotted muscles in our shoulders and backs. The room was beautiful, complete with an attractive wooden TV armoir/dresser combo, desk, reading chair with ottoman, and desk with an executive chair. The hotel definitely caters to business travelers, and it was nicely appointed for them. When we'd checked in, the clerk asked if we wanted phone service, and we declined, thinking it meant voicemail and all of that. Turns out you have to pay a $30 ammenity fee to even be able to dial toll-free numbers from the rooms, and there is a per-call charge on local calls and a $1.00 per-call charge on modem calls. I can't imagine what the average room tab ends up being there!

We stretched out to sleep around midnight, each of us sprawled in a full-size bed and more comfortable than a human being has a right to be. Howie slept well, but I was coughing all night and five o'clock came around far too soon. This was supposed to be the morning we slept in late, dogless, in our own bed at home, remember? That's what ran through my mind when the phone rang for our wake-up call.

We made coffee in the little complimentary coffee pot and watched some local news, showered and dressed in the previous days' clothes again (yuck!), then headed downstairs for the 6:30am shuttle back to the airport. Another friendly shuttle driver loaded up our little band of displaced passengers and drove us through the beautiful sunrise to the awaiting planes.

We made our way back to the gate and waited for our 8:20am flight to begin boarding. Then came the announcement that the flight had been oversold. Considering us displaced folks who missed our flight last night, this didn't come as a big surprise, I guess. We were bumped from the flight, but it wasn't such a terrible thing...They gave us each a voucher good for free round-trip airfare anywhere in the continental US! We also received $20 in meal vouchers since we'd be at airports all day.

They were able to book us on an 11:50am flight to Cleveland with a 5:05pm connecting flight to Columbus. It was a pretty round-about way to get home, but considering we'd still be home by 6pm and now held vouchers for travel anywhere we want, we dealt with it. We caught our last two planes, on time, and with no problems. When we got to Columbus, our suitcases were waiting for us by the baggage claim office (remember, the suitcases went to Columbus back at 8:20am!).

Mom and dad took us to Pizza Hut for dinner, and we brought the dogs home from my BIL's house an hour or so after we got back in town. Dogs and bedding bathed, new TV in its cabinet, Howie headed to bed about 2:30am. I'd been snoozing since midnight, too zonked to stay up with him, especially once I took some NiQuil.

So, that's the saga...24 hours in airports and two round-trip tickets ahead of the game, we're home and happy!

Dream Byte

By the way...I dreamed last night that I was getting pummeled by potatoes; someone was throwing them at me (probably Lisa). I could feel these things hitting my chest, really hitting hard! I woke up pretty quickly, let me tell you. It was just Stinky Leroy, one of Lisa's cats. I'd rolled over on my back in my sleep, and the dear kitty had walked up on my chest. His icepick-pointy feet made their way into my dream. When the mental fog cleared and I saw it was him, I broke out giggling and Howie about it (sorry if I woke you, hon). Sometimes the reality is funnier than the dream itself.

Homeward Bound

We went out in the bayou and to a lake with Jesse in the boat today, then we enjoyed some great live Cajun music at a local place. What a way to end things! Yep, our southern getaway has reached its end, and we fly back to Ohio tonight at 7pm. We're going to miss these folks so much! But we have a standing invitation to come back, so the parting is a sweet one. :) I don't even know where to begin when it comes to encapsulating a ten-day respite into a blog entry or two. I sure am not going to tackle that until we're back in Ohio and I've slept a good eight or ten hours. These are just some random thoughts before I crash for the night.

Howie's a good doggie daddy; three new Hartz chewy bones are going in the suitecase so our pups have goodies when we bring them back home Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday morning we will happily sleep late while the dogs are walked at my BIL's home. Hey, our flight doesn't get into Columbus until just before midnight Monday night...We're sure not showing up to get the dogs at 2am, ya know?

Lisa's packed us a bit of turducken and we bought some andouille sausage to bring home; both are frozen and ready to pop in the suitcase at the last moment before we leave. Oh, we're leaving....waaaaaah! :(

Still, it will be good to get home and unpack, unfurl, and stretch out in our own bed. It has nice clean sheets on it and we can sleep until we just wake up rested. Aaaaaah. As great as vacations are, it's always nice to be home. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz has it right.

We have a goodie to come home to: A whoppin' big 27" TV. This makes The H-Man verrrry happy. OSU beat Michigan, so he's very psyched about watching the big January 3rd Ohio State game on a big ol' screen. Argh-argh-argh. So, thanks to a great Day-After-Thanksgiving sale at Wal-Mart and a way-cool dad who braved Wal-Mart at 5:30am, this is reality.

Hey, get this: He even struck up a conversation with someone in line ("how long have you been in line?"), then just waltzed right on in the store with this stranger when the door opened. No, as my mother said, it was certainly unBOBlike! We didn't have anything to do with the line-jumping strategy, though we roared when we heard his methodology and appreciate his getting there to get us the goods in our absence.

Aiyeeee, I'd better go hit the pillows myself; it's late and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. He bought some of that Breathe Right snore spray at Wally World tonight, so in a few moments I will see if it's working. He's been in bed a while now, and has had a chance to work up to his full schronking, roaring glory. And he had the nerve to say I need to spray some in my throat, too. The nerve! ;)

Testing

I can't get my webpage to come up. If you can read this, will you take a moment and e-mail me with the link at left? Aaaaaargh!

Crab Bawlin'

We had our first boiled crab Sunday night, and it was pretty good! A bag of seasoning, including whole allspice, is put in a kettle of boiling water along with corn, onion, peppers, potatoes, and spices. Then the crabs are dropped in and boiled for abour 20 minutes. They then sit in the hot water for a bit and are then put in an insulated container to keep warm. The potatoes and corn come out quite spicy, but the crab doesn't pick up much of that flavor. It was just sweet and good. It sure is a lot of work for a little bit of meat, though; it's good the meat is very tasty! We also had speckled trout, fresh oysters, shrimp and soft-shelled crab, all deep fried in various breadings. Those were wonderful! I knew Lisa could cook great, but she also makes it look so easy. We kidded her, saying they're just fattening us up to feed to the gators.

Ironically, we've not seen one gator since we got here. We've seen anoles, egrets and one lone pelican, but no gators. Friday or Saturday, we're going out on the bayou with our friends in their boat, so maybe THEN we'll see them. Lisa says it's cool here, and the gators are sluggish. To us, these temps in the upper 60's to lower 70's are lovely and spring-like, but to folks (and reptiles) used to weather up over 100 degrees, I guess it is chilly. It's snowing in Ohio, though. Hee hee hee.

We've already picked up the turducken (complete with seafood stuffing), and that will be baked Thanksgiving day; we're also deep-frying a turkey. I am so on food sensory overload. I can't believe how good it is here. Even the buffets are good here. At home they taste drab and homogenized, just assembly-line food. But here, there are spices in the food. Amazing. And have I mentioned Lisa can really cook?

Not only that, but their house just feels loving and welcoming; it's been the nicest vacation ever, just spending time with friends. The surroundings and history, the wildlife...it's all interesting, all beautiful...But feeling so at home is the best thing of all. And to think our paths probably would never have crossed were it not for Dave's Garden. It's just mind-boggling, this whole Internet thing. Almost as mind-boggling to me as the sightings here of plastic snowmen and Santa Clauses standing next to planted banana trees and tropicals in folks' front yards down here. But in a good way. ;)