Friday Fun

I re-ran the readability gadget on my blog and got a high school level. So I stuck that little resulting sign over in the sidebar.

An exit before I was to get off the beltway this morning, a pair of cop cars got on. The traffic slowed from usual cruising speed of 70 or so to 61 or so. I hate that. Then one of the cop cars crossed all four lanes and pulled in behind me and I gracefully moved over to the next slower lane with all appropriate lane change indicators blinking. Since my exit was coming up, I just kept moving over and kept checking my mirrors. Usually the cops around here just speed up to 70+ (on a 55 mph road) and buzz by everyone. These two cars were still hanging back. I was still checking my mirrors. Then the lights came on. Uh-oh.

I got into work and spent one hour and fifty-two minutes on the phone with the help desk. I'm having printing issues. A banner page with our user ID on it is printed out with every document through our network. It wastes paper but it's helpful knowing whose printout belongs to whom. When I print something, one copy of something, everything works fine. When I specify to print out multiple copies of my document, only one copy prints. If I submit the job many times to get many copies, I get many banner pages. I hate that. It started happening when I got the new CPU back in February. When you're on the phone with the help desk, they remote to you so you don't have control of your machine, can't read blogs email while you're waiting for resolution. Nothing, but jump up to check how many copies printed with this setting or that. Not fun at all. I know, who said work was supposed to be fun, right? Nothing was resolved, the help ticket is still open and someone should be calling me. More fun.

And it's not even lunch time yet.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

I found this gadget to determine the readability of your blog and ran my blog through it.



Not the high-brow result I expected or feel I deserve. A friend of mine, an English department chair at a local high school, told me these programs look for "big words" and words not oft-used. So I did an experiment.

I gave it the URL for yesterday's post as well as a post from a couple weeks ago, both having "big words" and got this [better] result:



OK, so what's your blog's reading level? Are you surprised? Did you think you were smarter? Or dumber?

Another Misplaced Round-up

The lovely large white envelope addressed to some office in Andover, MA was placed in the mail box in front of my office building before the 12:00 pick-up yesterday, along with a lovely large check, a full 12 hours and twenty minutes before the deadline. Moments later the state taxes were filed on-line. I should be getting that refund in a few days. Yippee.

Fern skated well at the ISI District 4 championships over the weekend, unfortunately there were others who skated better. She took home ribbons for two second places and two fourth places. She wants to do more competitions, so I can only surmise she had a good time and isn't detrimentally brokenhearted about not getting a first place. We bought the DVDs for her events, but I have no idea about how to upload the video so you all can see, too.

One of the local Brownie Girl Scout leaders asked me to come and sew badges on vests for girls during their weekly meeting last night. She gets quite aggravated when the girls don't have the insignia in the correct locations and wants to make it very easy for the parents to get it "right." There are four troops meeting at the same time in one of the churches so she was hoping for my sake I'd get a lot of business. As it turns out, I got four new clients and was able to finish vests for three of them. Then my machine jammed, the one I just picked up from the shop for its 7500 mile checkup. Time was up anyway so I brought home the fourth one. I charge $25 per year of service or $1 per badge. If a year is purchased, I feel it good service to fix anything on the vest that's loose or out of place. The last parent wanted to only pay for the six badges to be sewn on. However several more should be adjusted and I'm in a quandary as to how much work to do and how much to charge for it. I'm leaning towards thinking if she can't afford the $25 and only wanted to pay $6, then I should fix everything and sew on the new things for $7 or $8 total, and not any more. This is a pocket-change job anyway, not a mortgage payment.

I'm very glad Jason got the boot on last night's Hell's Kitchen, I didn't like him.

Photo of the Day

A Window in Pula, Croatia

Work-Week Round-up

I can't round up the weekend yet, it's barely gotten underway. Dan and Fern left at 4:30 this morning for Richmond, she had ice time for compulsories at 8:15. Kevin is at swim-n-gym and I'm supposed to be packing to go down as soon as he's done. She's got a program competition at 4:20 this afternoon, then two more things tomorrow.

I got back from San Francisco around midnight Thursday and went into work on Friday. I was so tired. I would have skipped work altogether, but my boss didn't want me gone all week on travel in the first place, so I dragged my butt in. Man, there was a lot of work to do, (real work got in the way of blogging—I hate that) but I did cut out two hours early anyway to try to catch some time with Dan since it was his birthday. I remembered to buy the gift before I left town, but didn't remember to get a card. I got him a bluetooth gizzy for his phone so he can shift gears and drive and talk at the same time. Next year is his milestone birthday so I need to start concocting a cool present plan now, he's used up all the good ideas on me, so it'll take me a while to work it all out for next year. Maybe with the new administration next year, the dollar will be stronger and a European cruise will work out. That, or a new lawn mower.

I'm not normally like this

Today I passed rows and rows of lush green trees, bows heavy laden with fruit, fruit I hadn't seen before, black, and thin, very thin. I was told later they were silicos trees, the fruits are harvested when they turn a silvery-gray and are processed. The end result: microprocessors. I'm in Silicon Valley.

None of you guessed why a drive around Infinite Loop was so absolutely thrilling to me. (Ab-so-lute-ly thrilling, I tell you, thrilling.) I'm so disappointed in you. All of you. I'll give you a clue: my phone was excited to be home.


OK, maybe I went too far with the absolutely part.

95014

My meetings today took me south of San Francisco to San Jose and Cupertino. The highlight of the day was a drive around Infinite Loop. Any guesses why?



Click here for a Google map of the area, click on the little yellow guy for a walking tour of the neighborhood.

The weather was chilly and windy today and I packed completely wrong; I wish I had my winter coat or a warm sweater.

Weekend Roundup

I'm sitting in room #21 in an inn in the Mission District of San Francisco. I'm tired, it's been a long day, my initial flight was canceled so I had to find another one. And I did. So here I am.

Remember when I wrote about doing laundry before vacation? Yeah, well, that's basically the last time it was done so the pile in the laundry room was higher than the dryer door. Made loading and unloading a bit interesting. I wonder if anything got washed more than once because of it. I got a lot done but left a load of whites/hots in the dryer. I hope Dan finds them so The Boy has socks to wear this week. Do you have this problem: your washer washes clothes faster than the dryer dries them? I hate that.

Went to BJ's with Kevin and bought some stuff, bacon, milk and chocolate milk mix on Saturday. Kevin helped put the wares away:

Kansas just won, so I guess it's time to sign off and go to bed.

Whew!

The files I blanked out on Tuesday were restored.

I wrote the program to compare them, the secret passwords contained within. This proved that while I was on vacation, the passwords for 7000 users got corrupted and no one could log in. I had a cubicle full of guys in here yesterday panicking (kinda) about it but, after a couple stressful days of tracking down the cause and possible [safe] solutions, the passwords have been restored, without any loss of users' data, and the site was opened at 10:00 EDT this morning.

I know you all were very concerned about this and I wanted to let you to know you could breathe now, everything's gonna be alright.


I hope my son will be alright, too.

Yesterday we got him a new puzzle from the dollar section at Target. Last night he found the puzzle and helped himself. He knows he has to run a knife between the box and lid to cut the paper label to release the pieces. He also knows bandaids are for bleeding fingers.

I follow the trail of clues: puzzle box on the kitchen counter, mostly opened, full of pieces. Why did he go to the trouble to open the puzzle and not take it with him? Then I notice a smear of blood on the lid. At first I'm calm, then I start to panic and run upstairs to find him. He's sitting at the computer, happy as a clam, playing his computer games with his right hand, clamping his left fingers around his thumb. I insist on inspecting. When I get close enough to look I see a sloppily placed bandaid covering a small, still bleeding gash across the tip of his thumb.

I could have left him alone at that point. He was alive, after all, and most of the blood had been contained in the bandage. But I pulled it off and washed his thumb in soap and water and redressed the wound, one bandaid across the top to hold the cut together and then one around to keep the first one in place. That's when I notice another clue, the litter on the bathroom counter: a blood-stained paper towel from the kitchen and lots of backing strips. He must have tried several bandaids on his own but the blood inhibited stickage.

I asked him if he hurt. I'm not sure he gets "hurt," he always answers "no," but he did clutch this thumb for a long time after that even though his mood was fine. Autism is a funny thing. He's smart enough to know how to fix his problem, but he can't communicate what happened or how he feels. I'm just thankful he's as high functioning as he is, but sometimes I wish he could express more. It is Autism Awareness Month, if you didn't know.

And just for effect, I call my mom later, and say as soon as she answers, "How long is it supposed to bleed before I go to the hospital?"

Panic, it's fun to share.

Not Fixed Yet

I got an email this morning saying the two files I blanked yesterday (see yesterday's post) were restored, but they are still empty. So I'm back to being stranded on that project waiting for restoration.

No, that wasn't an April Fool's joke, except on myself.

---

Her Royal Knightress AM Kingsfield wanted me to post about a quilt I saw at the quilt show in Lancaster on Friday. It's a yo-yo quilt.

If you don't know what a yo-yo is in the quilting world, you take a circle of fabric about 2-5" in diameter and sew a running stitch close to the edge of the fabric. Then you draw up the threads so it makes a little pouch and push it flat so you have your gathers in the center of the circle and tie off the threads. After you've made millions of these you sew them together one to each "side" so it forms a grid, and keep going until it's quilt sized. They are usually made of scraps. They don't do anything for me, too much labor.

In the art quilt section of the show, where you're not allowed to take photographs, there were a large number of very edgy and artful quilts, some were stunning and exquisite, some were weird, some were thought provoking. Some you would like to have on your walls and then, well, then there was this one:

The Yo Yo Quilt by Martha Bruin Degen from the Social Questions Series

Photo stolen borrowed from the artist's site.

Expletive Deleted

Oops.

I'm taking a work break to blog. I just wiped out two files. Zero bytes of data left. Empty. I need those files. I was in the midst of writing a program to compare them and write out the different passwords contained in them. Now I can't write because, there's nothing there to check. Sheesh. Dernit.

---

It's official, I'm moving to the next cubicle over, the one with a window. I've made about thirty trips so far between my new home and my old one carrying stuff. I actually took out the top desk drawer and swapped it out so I didn't have to move pen by pen. The bookshelves were easy, as was the file drawer. The remaining debris and detritus. Another story completely. It's the little stuff that accumulates that totally bogs me down, I get so incapacitated by having to deal with it all. Oh, that's where that is! Do I need this anymore? recycle. recycle. I'm gonna need this. And this too. And that.

I've written to the disability office to get the lights fixed over the new desk. (For the whole story, click here and here and here.) I have no idea how long it'll take to have the work done, so I'm not in a real hurry to get everything moved. The next call will be to the help desk to get the computer and phone moved. But not until the lights are gone.

---

Being a programmer, I don't get to travel much for my job, but I won the business trip "lottery" and am going to San Francisco next week. (I could have been assigned to Albany....) That is, if all the travel orders get approved ASAP. I'm excited about it to some degree. It's hard not to, trips for me are so few and far between. I'm sure if I had to travel a lot I'd hate it. Does anyone know anything about the Alcatraz Inn? My secretary booked me a room with a bay view, should be lovely!

Weekend Roundup

Where is everybody? It seems traffic to my comment box is down.

Oh well.

I excused myself from work on Friday and went with several members of my quilt bee to the Quilter's Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was my first time attending a large-scale quilt show. It was fun to go on a road trip with my quilty friends, it was cool seeing some really neat quilts. This won Best of Show, it had some really intense machine quilting in it. Maybe some day I'll get close to that good.




I liked the colors on this one:



But, oh my goodness, look at the quilting: (click to enlarge)



It was interesting to me to see all different kinds of quilts and to notice which ones I was attracted to; am I making the kind of quilts I'm attracted to? No. I'll have to re-evaluate my skills and tastes. I might even have to learn a new thing or two.

The trip to the show would not be complete without a stop, or several, at the vendors and local shops. I set a loose budget and stayed loosely within it. ahem. I bought some silk thread, a lot of cotton thread, sewing machine needles and a straight-stitch throat plate I've wanted for a long time and some fabric. But by the end of the day, I didn't spend nearly as much as some of the others in my group, for example, Dr. J bought a featherweight, and other's shopping bags bulged more than mine did. It was a good road trip.

Armed with inspiration from the show, Saturday I was anxious to sit down to quilt some with my new threads, but just pieced some blocks instead. I'd dropped my "big" machine off at the shop for a 75K mile check-up before I left for spring break, but evidently, my shop has the best Bernina tech in the area and the wait for service is three and a half weeks. So I used my 51 year-old Singer 99K instead. She's got a nice stitch, but I'm not used to her so the comfort curve was a tad slow.

Saturday night Dan and I went to the Ramshead Tavern to see Paul Kelly with some friends. It was a nice show, his music is so comforting and melodic. Fern and Kevin stayed home alone and she had gotten her brother into his room for bed by the time we got home. Thumbs up to her.

Sunday I got up for early church and Dan took Fern to an ice skating competition at a neighboring rink. (Think a lesser version of sharks and jets....) Her team got third out of three, they some problem with the music, but I don't think that factored into scoring. Now they've got Districts in Richmond in two weeks to get ready for.

I left before the judging was announced, Kevin and I went to a birthday party for one of his buddies from after-care. It was held at a Tex-Mex restaurant, not one of Kevin's cuisines, but he did OK, ate a ton of chips and a quesadilla, called it pizza, so all was well. The party lasted a long time, three hours, mostly because the service was so slow. Our waiter wasn't very attentive (Kevin was the last one served long after everyone else got their food!); I'm guessing because the tip was already included in the bill, he had nothing to really "work" for.

After that, I took a nap, mourned Davidson's loss (I love a good underdog) and listened the the boos as Dubya threw out the first pitch of the Nat's game. I'm still and O's fan, thankyouverymuch, so I did enjoy hearing Jon Miller's voice even if it was for them.

It didn't last long

The nice thing about traveling to Europe is when you get back your body is nice and tired at the end of the day, you sleep quite well.

At least for me that's true.

As for my son, not so much. He was back to his old tricks of staying up far too late and making a lot of noise when he takes his shower. To discourage this, I try to disable the Internet at 10 to guide the children towards bed at a reasonable hour and prevent after-hours Internet usage. However, given The Boy didn't get take his shower until after midnight, (I wondered what he had been up to, shouldn't he be tired?) and this morning when I came back from my walk the Internet was already on, I have a mystery to solve: Who dunnit?

Possibilities:

1. The Girl turned it back on after I went to bed and surfed the web on the laptop far past her curfew, thus allowing her brother Internet access at the same time.
2. The Boy figured out how to turn it back on on his own and and played ankon.com much too long into the night.
3. I have recently acquired the skill of sleepwalking and turned it on.
4. Dan did it.

I don't have any evidence for these last two to be likely, but I thought I'd list them anyway.

The bottom line is I need to find a more effective way of controlling my children's addictions. I mean, disabling the Internet.

Photo of the Day

Pula, Croatia
2000 year-old Roman Amphitheater, sixth largest of its kind still standing.

Photo(s) of the Day

Plitvice Jezera




After leaving Zagreb, we stopped at Plitvice National Park which contains numerous waterfalls and lakes. Fresh snow lay on the walkways so hiking around on the boardwalks was tricky in places, but the views were wonderful.



I'm sure the view are even more stunning in the summer.

Back to the Grind

I think I had 800± unread email messages this morning when I got to the office. I'm down to 280 after deleting the junk. Most of the rest I actually have to look at. And do something about.

I might be getting a window cubicle here at the office soon. I'm very excited. Except about the prospect of actually moving, of course. Since it will be one cubicle over, no boxes will be involved, just a lot of trips back and forth moving one shelf or drawer at a time.

There's too much work to catch up on to post a lot now about the trip, so I'll start with this picture and promise more later.

Bled, Slovenia
This is Bled Castle which sits on a hill overlooking the town and was built between 1004 and 1011.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog (Travel Log part 6)

Yesterday

I check my watch. It's 20 till 8, 19.40 to be exact. My body thinks it's 00.40 and I've been up since 05.00 the day before.

I've been expelled from my seat so I've been walking laps, or "U's" when aisle is crowded. We're due to land at JFK in about 25 minutes. For the first six hours of the flight the kids sat next to each other and I got to sit next to my husband for the first time all trip. Then, as teen-age siblings do, I traded places with Fern and sat next to Kevin to end a elbow shoving match.

I get up to visit the lavatory and Kevin claims my seat too, sprawling his lanky legs across my spot, so I go for a walk. My laps around the cabin give me views of the cabin and my fellow passengers, those sleeping, playing cards, and even those who choose to kiss each other just as I walk by. Lovely. I'm not terribly impressed with Iberia Air Lines, the aisles are littered with remnants a long flight. The food has been fine, the attendants have been attentive, but I think other carriers are a bit more polished.

Our flight out of Venice was about 45 minutes late so our connection in Madrid was very tight. Since we were leaving the European Union we had to go through passport control instead of just going on to the next gate. Our flight was loading when we finally got there. I worried about our luggage, especially since Iberia lost one of our suitcases on the way over with a full amount of time for the layover. Luggage that didn't make the connection would have been par for the course after the day we'd had. I had.

When Kevin and I went through security in Venice, his backpack full of his plastic letters and legos won the lottery and was pulled for a chemical check. Except Kevin didn't understand what was happening and took his pack from the xray belt and bolted. In a split second I was afraid the Italians wouldn't understand his autism and pictured myself getting pulled into an interrogation room for hours. But they ran the test on my bag instead and no fears materialized.

The four of us were supposed to have seats together, but Dan and Fern got an A and a D seat on one row, and Kevin and I were several rows back and got two aisle seats. Close enough together, but I couldn't be the buffer between him and other passengers.

Then, when I went through security in Madrid I set off something and got pulled aside for a frisking, even under the center of my bra strap. The front center. At the gate my boarding pass wouldn't give me the green light when it went through the reader so I had to wait until they could look me up in the system. I was the last one on the plane.

Our luggage made it, pretty close to the first bags off, since they were probably some of the last bags on to start with.

I'll post more about the rest of the trip and pictures tomorrow.

Travel Log Part 5

On the road to the Adriatic coast, Croatia
20 March 2008

The road out of Zagreb was much too curvy to pull out the laptop and type this morning without getting carsick, it's better now but not by much. Yesterday was our day in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and when I saw our itinerery, I'd wondered by we were to only stay one night. Now I understand. It's a boring town. It's way south of the Alps so the terrain around the city is pretty flat, but the town itself was partially built on a hill (more hills and steps to walk up, oh my aching thighs). There's the upper town, the lower town and the "new" town across the Salva River. We left our tour group early (too much talking, not enough seeing) for lunch and to make our way back to the hotel on our own by way of the tram system. I like to try out local public transportation systems when I travel. It gives a glimpse of a place you don't always get to see from the comfort of a motor coach.

This morning we left Zagreb and headed to Plitvice lakes, I couldn't type and Fern stole the book I was reading, and I didn't feel like knitting, so I just looked at the scenery. Which was also kinda boring: snowy, barren land. I finally pulled out my iPod after our tour guide, Maja (my-a), droned on and on and on about the Croats, the Serbs, the Italians, and the Hapsburgs. It was interesting for about a minute.

Our first stop was the Plitvice lakes. The temperature this morning was about 3°C, maybe colder, so the walk around the lakes and falls was quite chilly. Fern forgot to set out socks with the rest of her clothes before the porters picked up the luggage from our rooms, so she bravely, her word not mine, trekked on the snow-covered boardwalks in her crocs and naked piggies. The falls were beautiful and I took lots of pictures. I even set the camera to B&W for some artsy shots. I can't wait until I can unload all the pictures onto the computer with the big screen and see where I've been.

Oh, now she's going on about the Serbian territory. Sheesh.

Our next stop was for lunch at what could be compared to as a truck stop diner (sorry John) with cafeteria-style Croat food. It scored very low on the price-tastiness scale.

Our tour group consists of 74 people on two buses. The buses depart about a half-hour apart from each other so we're not waiting for or stepping over 74 people, but only 35 or so. Oh, by the way, I was wrong, by a number of years, about the ages of some of the others in our group. There are a pair of girls in their late twenties, who like to travel while their peers just talk about going places; they appear to be the youngest after Kevin and Fern.

Rovinj, Croatia

The bus went from Plitvice to the coast, then along the A1A, as I call it, but the real route was the E65, the coastal road overlooking the Adriatic, finally ending up in Rovinj (ro-veen) at 6:30. We checked into our last hotel, the Hotel Eden, and signed up for 24 hours of Internet access for 100kn (kuna).

Travel Log Part 4

Ljubljana, Slovenia (lu-blee-YAW-na) 19 March 2008
On the bus from Bled to Zagreb, Croatia

The demographic of this tour group is interesting. It's not what I expected. I'm not sure what I did expect, but this isn't it. Fern is the youngest member of the group, followed by Kevin. I'm close to being the next youngest after that. There are several people in their 30's-40's, the rest, all older. My parents would have fit in nicely with this group. I kinda expected more families with kids. We chose this trip because it coincided with spring break and the price was about the same as a cruise. And, it's someplace we've never been. Different is always good when it comes to vacations. Or so I think now.

Casino Report:

Last night was Tuesday, a quiet night for restaurants in the U.S., and it seemed quiet for Bled, too. We ate dinner at the Panorama Restaurant, with a wonderful view of the lake, and were the only diners. Fern and I had different preparations of trout, Kevin had spaghetti carbonara and Dan had seafood risotto. The casino just happened to be on the way back from dinner and I just happened to have my passport with me to get in. Dan took the kids back to the hotel and I made my detour.

Roulette is pretty much universal. American and Caribbean casinos have 0 and 00, European casinos just have 0, but the rest is about the same. I made a loop around the place to check it out and noticed one roulette table was open and there was someone there playing already. I don't like to play alone, I like the camaraderie of fellow gamblers, cheering them on for numbers hit. I payed 20 euro for a stack of chips and joined the table. This other woman make no acknowledgment of my congratulations when the ball dropped into the slot with one of her numbers. I felt slighted at first but there is a language barrier so I wasn't offended long. She lost her money soon after that so I played alone. I tend to play conservatively, I wasn't out of chips yet and I wasn't ahead, so I kept going.

The wheel was cold, I like to play the "street," one chip to cover six numbers, so my numbers would hit a round too late, or I was off by one row. I had resigned myself to be just playing to play, not to win. I started betting on red or black and hit a couple times, but still I was down. I had 4 or 5 chips left and was mentally ready to leave when a new dealer came out to my table. Then it got hot. Needless to say, I have a lot more fun when the table is hot. I got up to over 30 chips, and after a few losing bets, I cashed in, mostly because no-one else had joined my table, I was still playing alone. Maybe gambling alone is like drinking alone? But I was 10 euros, $15 ahead, not a bad little detour after dinner.

Travel Log Part 3

Bled, Slovenia 18 March 2008

Our hotel rooms are typical European rooms, small, with two twin beds pushed together each with a thin mattress on a box spring-like base and a duvet on top. The toilet has a big flush button and a small flush button, you use whichever button corresponds to how much water you need. With all the talk in the US about water conservation, I don't know why we can't adopt this same system in America. I guess it makes too much sense.

Breakfast has typical European offerings: breads, sliced meats and cheeses, teas, coffee, fruits and tomatoes, which I know are really fruits, but are treated like vegetables. I won't go anywhere near what they call scrambled eggs or the sausages. I'm not that brave.

Last night we had dinner at a pizza place near our hotel. Another man from our group came in there too. It turns out he is an algebra teacher in California and we told him we have an algebra student. It was quite evident he enjoyed talking with Fern about her class and where they were in the curriculum and she enjoyed his questions and attention.

Dan's missing suitcase was delivered last night after midnight so he had his own clean clothes to change into this morning.

We spent today on a bus tour of the lake area of Austria with a long stop in Klagenfurt (klagen-foot) and shorter stops in Velden and Kranjska Gora (kranska gora) and views of Woether Lake. It was snowing this morning in when we left Bled but it wasn't snowing on the other side of the Carinthian Alps. However, it was cloudy and overcast so we didn't get full panoramic views of the mountains.

When we had our free time in Klagenfurt, Dan lamented having his suitcase back for a brief moment after seeing all the shops with clothes on display in the pedestrian shopping area. Velden sits at one end of Woether Lake, a cute town, but not as picturesque because as I imagine it could be if not for the clouds. Kranjska Gora was the smallest of the three towns, but "famous" for the skiing area, some slalom championships were held there a few weeks ago, the season is almost over now, not many people were on the slopes.

We haven't had too much trouble with the language differences. Usually the store clerks speak enough English to help me buy something. Credit cards, different matter. I tried my Visa today at one shop which only took Maestro, a MasterCard family card. I found an ATM that took Visa and was able to pay in cash. It's a fine science, figuring out how much money you'll need till you leave the country so you're not stuck with a pocket full of euros when you move on to Croatia but still have enough to buy a cappuccino when you want. The prices are reasonable when you think of euros as dollars, but when you throw in the exchange rate... well, just don't think about it, you're on vacation.

We'll walk over to the main town area of Bled (the hotel is about a ten minute walk along the late away) for dinner tonight and I might venture back out later for a visit to the casino. Love me some roulette. I'll deal with exchanging the euros to kuna later.

Tomorrow we ride to Zabreb, I'll post again when I have an Internet connection for the laptop.

BTW, Slovenia = Alps = hills = my thighs are killing me.

Travel Log Part 2

Bled, Slovenia
17 March 17, 2008

This morning we spent touring the Bled Castle that sits about 400 ft above the lake and was built about a thousand years, no I'm not kidding. This afternoon I've been putzing around the village, shopping and looking for sundries to replace the ones in the missing suitcase.

Fern and I discovered free Internet connection at the Hotel Park. Now Fern just wants to hang out here in the lobby, sipping cappuccinos and surfing the 'net.

More later when I can get the laptop back from her.

I'll try to upload some pictures, too.

Travel Log Part 1

Bled, Slovenia 16 March 2008

Forty-three bags were left in Madrid instead of going on to Venice with their people. About half the España Balonmano (Handball Spain) team, what looked to be a large group of mostly teen-aged boys, were left standing at the carousel looking forlorn without their bags, about half of our family was without our belongings as well. Luckily, there was no line, so I hopped over to the lost luggage desk quickly to report our "red 22" (pick the style from this chart, please) bag was missing. The clerk confirmed it was still in Madrid and would be sent on the later flight this evening. I gave her our hotel address and we should have the suitcase tomorrow, fingers crossed. We met our tour guide and boarded our bus and rode about three hours from Venice. The Venice-Slovenia border is now open, as of January 1st this year, but we will have to go through border control when we go to Croatia on Wednesday.

On the flight over, which departed at 10:00 p.m, we were served dinner at 12:30 and breakfast a few hours later. I wasn't hungry but ate anyway because we didn't know about the food situation for the rest of the day.

When we arrived in Madrid, we went through "borders" and tried to find out what gate to go to. It wasn't on the board of departures. So, of course, we didn't know what terminal to go to but all EU flights were in one building, so we found our way.

We made it to our hotel at about 8:00 pm and had dinner. I'll write more later when I have time.

Bucket List

Do you have a bucket list? I don't have one per se, just a vague wish-list of travel destinations. Austrailia, Greece, Scandinavia. I have no desire to bungee off a bridge or surf Maui.

Thinking about speech class and Mrs. Boyd the other day got me to thinking about my knot of friends from that class. The four of us, Jim, Ron, J and I would hang out together, go off campus for lunch and talk endlessly about who knows what. J was my best friend from back then. I met her in my English Composition class (ENG 206) and we got along like peanut butter and jelly. Our instructor was A. Perry Whitmore, our silly school-girl emphasis on "A" always made us giggle. Like all college students I've ever known, we were full of inside jokes and would finish each other's sentences. We also shared a love for Dixon Ticonderoga 1388 #2 pencils, the best pencils ever, and a love for horses. For PE credits we took a horseback riding class, and ended up volunteering at the farm on weekends for riding groups. Oh, what fun times.

I left Urbana after two years and transferred to VCU. She stayed and graduated from there with a degree in graphic design (I think), then woke up one day ten years later and wanted to be a dentist. She got into OSU and now she has a dental practice in Kettering, Ohio.

We've kept in touch on an off over the years, not nearly as well as intended. Anyway, since I'd been thinking about her and speech class I called her on my way to work yesterday. No answer at her office (closed on Fridays) so I tried her cell. When she answered, I told her why I called, that I was thinking about her and school. Funny thing was, she has also recently been thinking about our speech instructor as well as thinking about me. We swapped memories for a few minutes and I said we needed to see each other more often.

Then she told me her news: stage 3 breast cancer was discovered in January. It might have spread into her hips which makes it stage 4. Sheesh. My neighbor, L, is recovering fantastically from her mastectomy done last fall. I can only hope and pray J's recovery is that successful. If the cancer has gotten into her hip, she'll start on her bucket list.

I tried to stay positve during the phone call, but my eyes wouldn't stop leaking after I hung up, hoped they weren't too red when I got to the office.

The above post was sent from my iPhone, please excuse typos, misspellings, and lack of a final edit.

Oh, Not Again!

On the packing list for spring break is the Nintendo DS we got Kevin for Christmas. The plan was to take it with us to keep The Boy occupied on long stretches of travel.

We can't find it anywhere. Kevin was playing with it a week or two ago and probably put it "away" to hide it from Fern and me, we both love to play too. I'm pretty sure the charge was running low and instead of bringing it back to plug in, he might have stashed it somewhere "safe." You've heard me whine about lost things before (like here and here). I hate it.

I've scoured the living room where I'd seen it last. I've looked in his room where he puts his iPod when he's done listening or it's run out of juice, under his bed, under the couch cushions, even his underwear drawer. Everywhere.

We have less than two days to get our things together and packed. I'm racking my brain: what else can we pack for Kevin's travel bag and where can that darn DS be?

SPE 201

I think Mrs. Boyd would be pleased.

Linda Boyd was the Speech and Drama instructor at Urbana College, which is now Urbana University (I'm not sure when or why the name got changed, but it did) which is in the booming metropolis of Urbana, Ohio, population 11586. I started my college life there, partly because my grandmother taught there (biology and botany), but also because I got accepted there (if you know what I mean). It's a teeny tiny liberal arts school in central Ohio, north of Dayton. When I was there, there were less than 200 resident students and I knew most of them. There are about 1500 students enrolled there now, and they even have a graduate school. Who knew.

Because the school was so small, it was easy to participate in activities like the annual drama productions. I was part of the ensemble casts of Bye Bye Birdie and South Pacific which Linda directed. She was one of those great teachers, the kind you wanted to take all of her classes and to do well for, she was vivacious, fun, spunky. I'll always remember her with bleach-blond hair in her snug jeans and white Keds. She also directed the pep band and we played at the basketball games. Of all my years in college, I guess many of my fondest college memories revolve around things in which she was involved.

In the spring of my second year at Urbana I took Speech 201 from her. It was a great class and of course I got an A. I remember one exam. It was open-book and you had of choice of questions to answer, something like answer any eight of these ten. One asked for two types of persuasive speeches and I still remember the answer. Maybe I remember because it's just one of those things you remember, or maybe it was because Linda told me after class no other student had opted to answer that one, and she was proud of me. I thought it was an easy question. To persuade someone of something, and to change their mind about something. Easy.

Linda died much too early, if you ask me. I can't even remember how long ago now, maybe 10 years. I happened to be out in Ohio visiting my grandmother one weekend, the same weekend as the funeral. I went to the funeral home for the visitation, and was so depressed to see her lying there. The make-up artist got her coloring all wrong so in addition to being dead, she also looked sick. All the life and vitality she once exuded was gone.

This post started out to be about the persuasive speech I gave last night for the Parks and Planning Commission about the therapeutic programs Kevin participates in and enjoys and what else I'd like to see them do for us, and has instead turned into a memorial of sorts. Linda, I miss you. Thanks for everything. It went well last night.

Weekend Roundup

There's not a lot to round up from this weekend, blogger was misbehaving, my daughter was, well, shall we say, being a new "teenager."

If I had to recap my weekend in one word, it'd have to be laundry.

Our laundry room is a small space off the second floor hallway. The washer and dryer face each other with a space in between where we dump our clothes to be washed. I'm proud to say I got all the way down to the floor. I even used a hanger to dig out all the escaping socks from underneath the washer. Usually when I do laundry I start at the top of the pile and pick out all the clothes I can find of the selected color family, do a load, then pick off the next major color category, jeans, khakis, reds, etc. A couple loads every weekend usually keeps the family going. The little items usually slip to the bottom as I pick out each load and it might be a month or more before I get around to doing my "favorite" load: the dark socks. Everybody's got'm, my dress socks, my husband's dress socks, my daughter's skate socks. Fun indeed.

I keep the utility laundry behind the bedroom door, towels and sheets, the big stuff. I only did one load of utility wash this weekend and I probably will get another load in tonight while I'm still in the mood to get it done. Now if these people would stop taking showers and wearing clothes, there wouldn't be laundry to do.

But, on a happier note, we have less that a week to go before spring break. Dan's posted a map of our trip on his blog, please stop by to see it. I won't be redundant and post the same thing here.

Jeopardy!

 
AT&T for $5, please Alex.

You need this to add a feature to your cell phone service on-line.

What is my password?

That is correct, select again.

Amazon for $30.32, please Alex.

You need this to make your purchase.

What is my password?

That is correct, select again.

eBay for $77.83, please Alex.

You need this to sign-in to eBay.

What is my password?

That is correct, select again.

PayPal for $77.83, please Alex.

You need this to pay for your winnings on eBay.

What is my password?

That is correct, select again.

AmEx for $500, please Alex.

You need this to make an on-line payment.

What is my password?

That is correct, select again.

Passwords for $1000, please Alex.

This is the key to your life.

What is ***********?

Oooh, I'm sorry, that's incorrect.

Pardon me while I take a moment to be overwhelmed...

OK.

I'm not exactly freaking out yet, but I'm starting to get anxious.

Spring Break. Less than two weeks away.

The travel documents came yesterday, which, without a true airline ticket anymore, amount to the itinerary and luggage tags.

Driving to Florida for a cruise is one matter, where you can stop at any Target or Walmart on the way and buy what you need. Flying to Europe and back on long flights is a completely different matter. Try going into a foreign land with a foreign language and asking for contact lens solution. Best not forget it in the first place (Fern).

I gotta buy some quart sized zip bags so the security guys will be nice to us. I gotta find mini shampoo bottles, enough for everyone.

I know I'm going to forget stuff. So I'm getting anxious about trying to remember it all now before it's too late.

I bought a new memory card for my camera. And extra batteries, too. I bought a solar charger for cell phones and iPods.

Oh, and laundry. I have to find that balance of washing clothes to pack and washing clothes to wear in the mean time.

And what to pack anyway? That kinda depends on the weather. And weather can be temperamental in mid-March. Don't want to over pack, but don't want to be spending time in foreign laundromats, either. I gotta pack the correct weight coat so I won't freeze or smolder. How many pairs of shoes? Do I even mess with "dressy?"

Got to come up with portable activities to keep the kids occupied. Got to set aside books and/or knitting for myself.

Did I remember the camera? Should I take the non-digital Nikon and film, too. With all the lenses. Tripod either way. Polarizer filter too.

eye yai yai.

Thank you for enduring this little moment of anxiety.
I'll write all this down in a notebook, before I forget.
But first, I have a killer headache and need to go get a coke.

Travel pillows for the plane?
And a copy of The Blade.....

Weekend Roundup

Kevin, my sweet boy, has such a contented nature about him. For the most part, he is very patient and compliant, (except when he can't find one of his precious letter Y's or wants the ceiling fan on,) I call him my gentle giant. When I ask him to do something, like "put your plate in the dishwasher," I get a sing-songy "oh-kay" in reply.

His autism turns his communications into echolalia, his room into a sanctuary for thousands of plastic alphabet letters, and his teenage years with crazy sleeping patterns into a non-competitive happy child.

Sunday was a St. Mary's Special Olympics event for basketball, one of the qualifiers required for the state competition in two weeks. The venue was about an hour south of Bowie in rural southern Maryland. I got to take Kevin this time, Dan usually gets the honor. Kevin participates in the individual skills competition, because, despite his height, he doesn't have the basketball concepts or concentration to play on the 3v3 team.

The athletes complete three skills activities, 10-yard dribbling "dash," bounce-passes, and shooting. Each of these earned the athletes points and the medals were give out for the points totals in each heat.

During the awards I watched three young women get their medals. The bronze was awarded first, then silver. The third girl stood there waiting, gears clicking into place, then she broke out into the most joyful squeal when she figured out she got the gold. It's hard not to smile along with her when you witness such pure glee.

Kevin did well, as he always does. Without the underlying competitive current, he has no expectations, he just enjoys being there and being with the other kids. I was a smidge disappointed he was the only boy in his heat, but I was glad to hear he got 68 points, so the automatic gold was well deserved.


Yes, it went in.

I guess I should write a post so y'all know I'm alive.

I've been walking around in a fog lately, this cold isn't quite gone, doing a bit of house work here and there, but I can't come up with any earth-shattering news to share.

Unless you want to know my little brother called me the other day. (The short one, not the younger one.) Yes, while that, in it of itself is newsworthy, he wanted me to know he had the whole town of Culpepper laughing. Huh? He had his whole office reading my bed-fixing post, it was very Jeff Foxworthyworthy: You can tell you're a redneck if you use the car jack to lift your bed...

Ok, Little Brother, it's not that funny, even if I add: ...so you can reach the bottle of juice you hid from the revenuers.

I'm home sick today. I hate being sick. Hate it.

It started as PND irritating my throat, but now I'm stuffy and coughing my lungs out. Yuck. I didn't sleep well, sitting upright I was fine, prone, forget it, I'd cough until I couldn't breathe. Maybe I'll sleep tonight....

Sorry I'm so miserable.

Weekend Roundup

I just got the asparagus in the oven and thought I'd start on my weekend post.

Asparagus in the oven? What the...?

I'm glad you asked, here, let me show you:

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Preheat oven to 425° (roasting setting if you have it)
Trim, clean and pat dry a bunch of asparagus



Place in a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil




Roll the pan back and forth so the oil covers the stalks


Roast for 10 minutes
In the mean time, thinly slice 1-3 cloves of garlic


After the first 10 minutes toss the asparagus and garlic together and return to the oven for 10 more minutes


Voila!

Increase the time if you have thick stalks, decrease if thin.

 

Anyway, the weekend. Dan left for Florida Friday for a golf trip and Fern went to a friend's house for the evening so I took Kevin to the mall to eat at Red Robin. We then headed off to the book store and I popped into a new shop: Bare Escentuals. It's a mineral make-up shop. Kevin was behaving so I got a demo. I don't normally do a lot of make-up, but the display of colors was very inviting.

The first step with their system is a silicon "primer" so the mineral powder will "stick." Then you put on your foundation color. I looked at myself in the mirror at that point and it looked like I had funeral home make-up on, just no color at all. After that a veil goes on, followed by "warmth." It's to add color back to your face, applied in the shape of a "3" to your forehead, cheeks and chin, it is supposed to highlight the areas touched by the sun. After all those steps, you get to add blush and color to your eyes. I still don't understand what all those steps were doing, but when I got home later, it looked like I'd aged about five years, all that stuff had settled into every fine line I had and magnified it. No. Thank. You. The five steps was the first killer anyway, but I know I didn't need the extra years on my face.

Saturday I carted Fern off to ice skating lessons and team practice. Kevin didn't have his activity because the schools had been closed the day before so he got to run errands with me: milk and gas at BJ's and 150 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, only 20 of which have homes. I ordered a lot on faith, I hope I'm not stuck for the balance. Cookies anyone?

Fern's iPod has been shocking her, she says she can feel electric current in her ears so Saturday afternoon we went back to the mall, this time to the Apple store. I expected them to test it and figure out what was wrong, but they just gave her a new one. Without the inscription on the back. And no music. She's bummed because she has to re-do all her on-the-go playlists. I'm bummed about the inscription.

Sunday I took Kevin to his last Sunday of skiing. Then I drove Fern to Sunday school, then I drove myself home for a shower, then back to church. After church Fern went to another friend's house for several hours and I quilted for a while and went to work on a problem.

I realized a couple days ago I kept waking up to the feeling of rolling. And I was rolling, right to the center of the mattress. Kinda like that old bed at your grandmother's or in-law's house that no-one sleeps on often and if they do, they don't complain it needs to be replaced. Our king-sized bed is too new to be sagging already, we just got it a couple years ago.

I look under the bed and notice all the center support legs were not where they were supposed to be, they were not supporting anything lying flat on the carpet. Their screws had pulled away from the wood cross-beam leaving big holes. And before you get any bright ideas on why the supports were not in place, we had the bedroom painted and painters must have drug the bed away from the wall instead of lifting it. Great. No easy fix, like just screwing them back in place.




Lying prostrate on my belly with the flashlight on the situation, I come up with a brilliant solution. I'd replace the legs.

How would you lift the bed so you could get under it? I got the hydraulic car jack from the trunk and lugged it upstairs, but the edge of the bed is too low to slide the jack under. So I jacked up the end of the bed and stuck the jack box under the side so now I could get the jack under the side. With the bed up in the air I was able to retrieve broken legs. Eight and three quarters inches long.

After a quick trip to Home Depot and the help from Henry, I got a 4x4 post cut up into pieces the right length.

I figured a post this size had little chance of falling over because of the larger surface area holding up the bed frame. But I don't want the raw cut end sitting directly on the carpet. Another brilliant idea: cover the end of each post.

But how? Aha! I iron the viagra stuff (which has a fusible coating on each side) and a square of fabric to each post.
Back on my belly to place the posts right over the indentions in the carpet left by the previous supports, and TaaDaa!



After that, I slid everything back under there I've been hiding from the kids, like the hair clippers so Kevin doesn't shave himself bald, or the electric piano so I don't have to listen to the Beer Barrel Polka ever again.

Wonder if Dan will notice?
Yeah, I know he will after he reads this.

Attention Please

Have you ever wanted the undivided attention of someone? Or a large group?

Call a bingo game. The usual bingo game has numbers from B-1 to O-75, but I have a bingo-a-day calendar that has a smaller set of numbers. Not that I play bingo that often, but it was on clearance a few weeks ago, so I bought it. Every day has three game cards and 50 lift-a-flaps revealing random numbers to be called.

I took a stack of unspent days to the retreat with me and passed out a set of cards to everyone. Throughout the weekend I'd call a game for a door prize. I didn't know if it would be received well, if people would like to participate or not. I was nervous, my self esteem was waning. I took the chance and it paid off. The room was dead quiet, you could hear a pin drop and the crackle of cooling irons, as I called each number. You've never heard a gaggle of quilters that quiet.

On Sunday after the last game had been played I got lots of comments from people asking me to do that again next year, it was fun, and where did I get the calendar.

I was thrilled and my ego was happy. Yay.

Ice Day

School was closed today so I stayed home with the kids. I've finished reading a book, started a load of laundry, ran the dishwasher and not a lot else. Fern asked if she could make brownie batter. No. Fern then asked if she could make a batch of brownies. Yes. Then she still tried to sit on the sofa and eat the batter, I guess she thought I wouldn't notice. For a smart girl, she's pretty daft.

I'll have to check the traffic and weather later to see if I can go out. Dan left for Florida and Fern will be at a sleep-over, so I might take The Boy out to supper or the mall. Wonder what other trouble I can get into while the house is mostly empty?

Remembering

February 15th is not etched onto my brain the way July 7th or November 16th are. I missed my own blogaversary on Friday, two whole years, thank you very much. Maybe next year I'll remember. Three-hundred and ten posts in two years, not very many.

I'm thankful to of all you who stop by and see what's up in my little world. I'll try to post more often for you.

Retreat

The retreat is getting so far away, I'm having a hard time remembering specifics. But, I'll try. This year I arrived the earliest I've ever gotten there, about 1:00 Friday afternoon. A and L and I got our work space set up, three of us on two tables arranged in an 'L' formation, and I settled in on my first task: Girl Scout badges, I wanted to get my latest vest out of the way, so I could concentrate on other things.

This was A's first year, a retreat "freshman" as she called herself, and L's second year there. I was "Post-Doc" at 12 years. One of the so-called traditions is to make quilt blocks with the year's fabric, usually some hideous floral print that is hard to match and this year was no exception: a purple print with large blue and peach flowers. When all the blocks are made they are sorted into groups and "winners" are drawn, each person taking home a stack of 12 or so quilt blocks featuring fabric de jour.

Friday night's main activity is the Brown Bag exchange, which I was asked to run. Everyone brings a gift in the $10-$15 range in a brown bag, something a quilter would love. Everyone takes turns choosing a gift from the pile or stealing someone else's already opened gift. I brought a quilted tote bag I made with chili pepper fabric and red trim. I was thrilled when the person who drew my bag from the pile liked the tote and even more thrilled when someone else stole it away from her. One gift that got stolen a lot this year was a picture puzzle of a quilting scene. Who would have thought?

Saturday morning the mystery quilt team presented the mystery quilt directions. I'm glad I didn't participate this year. There was a lot of sewing. The people who did participate created beautiful tops, but I just wasn't in the mood this year. I, instead, worked on birthday blocks, several of us promised each other a quilt block of the birthday girl's choice and I finished and delivered two. Both were received well, owners thrilled, and my ego was pleased.

Saturday evening we have an auction, selling patterns, books, fabric, partially completed projects and abandoned supplies, anything we have lying around that we no longer need or want. I did very well this year, there were a lot of bargains to be had: I didn't buy anything.

Sunday is usually pincushion day. Each year we make different design. The first one was a chicken, and we also have made a crab, mouse, turtle, strawberry and a few others. This year was an Asian-inspired flower. Someone had a magazine with a duck pattern in it and that's when all the craziness ensued, I helped A put a thong bikini on Pinky (red ball head pins held the pink buttons inside the bathing suit top) and the Professor ended up with a necktie and crystal tie tack after we realized a speedo didn't look good on a duck. Even if it was enhanced a bit.

I haven't even mentioned the food table yet, long kitchen work table covered in all kinds of snacks, health and junky, salty and sweet, twizzlers and chocolate. Enough to feed a snowed-in army for a week, which it did a couple years ago, but not this year. I did my share of eating too much of the snacks and am over the Mendoza line to show for it.

Sunday night and Monday I worked on a small quilt and got a lot done. It is made from 6" squares we exchanged at our 2005 retreat. I had finished it into a top either last year or the year before and started quilting it this year. It's in the picture in the foreground on the table. I would have had more pictures to post if someone hadn't forgotten her camera.... Ahem.

Looking at this picture I just realized a lot of the projects people were working on had been taken off the walls already and walls are not as lively as they usually are.

Now it's back to the real world and putting away my projects until I can find inspiration to work on them.

Instead of a post recaping my weekend, I'm writing from the waiting room of the auto dealership waiting for the van to be repaired. On the way back from the retreat center yesterday the engine got rough and accelerated poorly. I wondered more than once if I was going to make it home. I thought I'd gotten a bad batch of gas so I put in a bottle of dry gas. It sounded and felt better on the drive to work this morning, so I was hopeful. Phil, the techno wiz-kid I work with, has a friend with a OBD gizmo and got the error codes for me. It wasn't good news. So, that's how I got here. Lovely. Just plain lovely.

This is what happens when you put 30 women in a room with little sleep and a bag of fiber-fil: Professor Moskovi of Duck U. & Pinky Tuskaducko.

I'm having fun here at the retreat, eating too much, and not getting near enough done.

Retreat Eve

Tomorrow is our guild's quilt retreat and I haven't packed. I don't even know what projects I'm going to work on.

If you're not a crafty person, it's kinda like leaving for a long vacation tomorrow and you don't know what towns you're going to so you don't know what to pack, beach or mountains, cold or hot?

I made a fabric valentine's day postcard for Fern and put it in the mail box yesterday expecting it to arrive today. Silly me, I mailed it from my mail box, so the mail man put a line through the stamp and put it back in our mailbox. D'Oh! so much for the surprise.

I'll post about the retreat on Monday, or from my phone if there's cell reception out there in the boonies.

Carry on.

Trying to be Creative

My mom never reads my blog, so I feel pretty safe in posting this picture. Her birthday is tomorrow and I made this fabric postcard for her last night. She loves daffodils and some times I can actually find them this time of year, but usually it's too early. I put this card in the mail this morning so she might get it tomorrow.



Friday starts our annual quilt guild retreat. I've decided not to do the mystery quilt this year. The fabric requirements are 240 7"x 1.75" strips, half in dark fabric, half light. I dunno, seems like too much cutting to me. I still have last year's mystery project to finish. That was the one I lead. I had prepared all the examples and just never put it together in the end.

I've been wandering around lately without a plan, without a clue, too, but mostly without a quilting plan. I have several unfinished projects that need my attention but nothing is really drawing me in, calling my name, wanting to be finished. I think that's why I'm having a hard time getting ready for the retreat. I don't know what to pack, I don't know what to take to work on, and I don't know what I want to finish.

I've glanced at my to-do list over there in the sidebar of my blog for inspiration, so maybe I'll start there when I pack. I have a long-standing list in my Palm, too, of things I take to the retreat center every year so I don't forget supplies, but I always manage to forget to put something on the list. I hate over-packing, it's just too much to carry in from the car and back, but I hate not having all that I might need. You never know when inspiration might strike and when it does you don't want to not have that perfect bit of fabric because it's a home.

Maybe I'll pack lightly and just take a couple books and knitting to my quilt retreat.

Notes on Other Topics

Thank you, Greeny for reminding us "Dame" is the female equivalent of "Sir" for being knighted. so, may I present to you: her royal knightress, Dame AM Kingsfield! TaDa!

Dame AM has my kids today since school is closed because of election day, proving her well deserved knightressness.

Just Me commented to me about me being in front of computers all the time and being anti-technology. To that I remind folks there is a big difference between a computer user and a computer programmer.

I'd like to post replies in the comments, do you go back and look? Are you used to that? Should I start?

OK, that's settled. I'll start posting comments, and you'll have to look back for my answer.

Weekend Roundup

1. I'll not do that again. I posted an entry from home on Thursday night and another one on Friday. No-one commented on the Thursday post for until AM did on Sunday afternoon. I don't write these for my health, you know. OK, I'll wait here while you scroll down and read it.
   
   Thanks.


2. Friday evening I picked up the car from the shop. $1300. Kevin made a beeline for the garage when I got home and made a comment about "...going to check on the green car...." All's right with the universe again.


3. Then I went to play Bunco with a bunch of quilters from my guild. I'd never played before. It's a simple, fun game with dice and partners, prizes are involved, usually money, we played for quilting stuff, like fabric and thread. You never have the same partner in consecutive rounds so you find yourself cheering against the very person one round whom you were cheering for in the previous. I came home empty handed. I ate a lot of fritos though, does that count?


4. Saturday, the usual kid-ferrying duties, lessons and the last practice for Fern's Ice skate team before the Valentine Invitational competition on Sunday, and Kevin to his swimming program. Fern needs a black skating skirt for her jump and spin team's costume. The pro shop doesn't have any her size and none even close.
   
   I bought a half yard of black swimsuit/dance fabric. I haven't sewn slinky knits like that in years and I start to panic about the skirt. At the same time a friend calls from my quilt bee about our bee meeting tonight. Do you know anything about knits? She did and I spent almost 3 hours at her house trying to make a black skirt for The Girl. It didn't turn out like I had envisioned, mostly because I measured her waist and she wanted it on her hips so the design had to be adjusted. She didn't think it would work.


5. Sunday, I got up early and drove to Target to look at their selection of dance wear. I found a black ballet skirt and bought it, even though it was very sheer and I didn't think it would work. Then I searched down into the depths of my fabric stash for black knit and found some. I made yet another skirt with a different design and The Girl asked if I could sew the two together. I did and it worked great.
   
   Kevin had to be at his ski program drop-off point at 9:30. Fern had a 10:00 call for her 11:20 Jump and Spin event. She had trouble with her change-foot spin, but landed her souchow beautifully. After her event we went for lunch, then back to the rink for the awards. Her team got third! Out of three teams. Her next call was at 3:00 for her 5:04 event for production team, so we went home for a break. I read some of my book and got so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. So I took a nap. I don't usually take a nap so when Fern couldn't find me when it was time to go back to the rink, she checked the neighbor's house and called AM before she found me in bed.
   
   Kevin is supposed to be picked up from his ski trip at 5:30 so Dan and I debated which parent would see Fern skate and which parent will get The Boy. AM saved the day and picked up Kevin for us. That woman ought to be knighted. What is the female equivalent of "knighted," "lady-ed?" Ok, I'll just wait here while those of you who know and love her stop laughing.
   
   Seriously, what is the female equivalent of being knighted?
   
   Anyway, Fern skated wonderfully, thought her team should have won, but I told her about several of the little skaters who fell into a pile which she didn't know about. My throat always tightens up and my eyes start to sting when I see her on the ice. She's so beautiful. Yeah, I'm a biased mom, but there's biased mom and then there's a beautiful daughter. Her team took second! Out of three teams.
   
   Fern's team waiting to take the ice, Fern by the door
   
   

   
   JJ and Fern after the award ceremony



6. I thought I'd be home for the night after skating, but Fern asked me if she could go to the Town Hall meeting and see Hillary. Oh, all right. I had no first-hand information, no specifics. It was at Bowie State from 7:30 - 9:30 pm, very vague. My husband said follow the cars and you'll find it. Thanks. We got there at 7:30 and waited in line in 28° windy darkness for a half-hour before we got inside to the warm of purse searches and metal dectors. I still had no idea when the meeting was supposed to actually start, but 8:30 Fern was bored and tired and had a headache and wanted to leave and I held her off for another 30 minutes. Hillary and gang came out at 9:00. The county executive started his speech and I had the feeling I wasn't going to hear Hill for another 20 minutes. Fern was insistent so we left. I probably should have made her suck it up and stay, it would have been good experience, but I relented. She had had a long day after all. I hate the whole political thing anyway, so it wasn't too hard walking out. I'll pay more attention in November.
   
   
   From my seat before we left
   
   

Nothing Ever Goes as Planned

I got my new PC here at work on Wednesday. My keyboard, mouse and dual monitors all stayed the same. After the tech left, I logged in and found he hadn't set up my mail properly. The applications I could run, like my shell window interface and browser, were out of focus on the monitors. I left for the day.

When I got to work yesterday, I couldn't log in at all. After spending all morning on the phone with the help desk I got logged in and got to my mail. But the type face had changed, and combine that with the blurry monitors, I had a headache after a few minutes. Consequently, I could only work in short bits and didn't get a lot done all day until another tech guy came with a new video card in the afternoon. By then, the day was shot.

I'm still working through my different applications and getting my preferences set back to my preference, it's not what I really want to spend time on, but it's got to be done so I can be the exemplary efficient employee that I am.

On the upside, this machine is lightyears faster, I only have to wait about 4 minutes to boot up in the morning, instead of about 10. Oh, the joy!

Honesty or Carelessness?

I drive home from work these days at the beginning of dusk. It's plenty light enough at the start, but by the time I get home headlights are a necessity. I know it's time to turn them on when I have a hard time seeing my dashboard because the dashboard lights are connected to the headlights switch. Well past the time when headlight should be on, I see numerous cars driving around in the dark. Don't these dimwits have a clue?

The loud unpleasant noise emanating from the rear wheel of the van and the acrid hot smell lead me to drop the van off at the shop for repair. Last time we had the van in the shop, Kevin had a meltdown with the rental. He didn't want to ride in it and didn't want to have it parked in the garage.

This time I wrote out what was going to happen and had Kevin read it. "No blue car," he yelled. He remembered the last rental was blue. That child has an amazing memory. I explain it again, it's only temporary, the green car will be back, etc. He's still on the verge of a meltdown. I resort to one of the things moms know best: bribes. Do you want to ride with me and we can get Five Guys afterwards? On the way to the dealership I rehearse it again and again with him to the point where he can tell me about getting another car for a couple days. He was totally fine with the temporary car, this time a Nissan Versa and the ride home was uneventful.

Going home from work on Wednesday I notice my dashboard lights are on and I immediately check my reflection in the bumper of the car ahead of me, something I've gotten in the habit of doing because for some reason the headlights burn out on the van every year. No lights. I turn them on and realize how the dimwits drive around in the dark. This "feature" is not a safe one, that's for sure.

I wonder if there is a setting for the dashboard lights, I don't see button or knob. So at the next stoplight I reach for the owner's manual in the glove box. I like to look up silly stuff like that. Except the manual is not there, but a rental agreement from a previous renter is, complete with name, address, credit card imprint, expiration date, and signature.

I stare at this piece of paper with all the information I need to become Sra. Rodriguez. Wow.

The light turns green. I shove the paper back in the box and snap it shut and make a mental note to take care of my paperwork when I turn the car in.

Bigger. Faster. Shinier?

I'm getting a new computer this afternoon.

Wish me luck.

I hope all my "stuff" shows up on the new one.

Remind me to ask the tech about bookmarks.

sheesh.

If this is my last post, you'll know why.

Weekend Roundup

I thought I'd lost one glove from my favorite pair. Leopard print, fuzzy, warm. I couldn't find it anywhere. I started a mental list of everywhere I'd been on Saturday so I could start calling places and driving through parking lots looking for it. But it was in my bag the whole time, either hiding, or I only saw one at a time thinking it wasn't the other. I was quite relieved when I pulled both of them out Sunday evening.

Dan took Fern skiing Sunday, it was her first adventure on the slopes. They left before I had to drop off Kevin for his skiing program (different resorts so The Boy wouldn't catch sight of Dad and The Girl and have a meltdown) so I had most of Sunday to myself.

I spent the hour between dropping Kevin off and going to church cleaning out the van. Lawzy, what a mess. Three pairs of socks, three half-pairs of shoes, no less than 14 writing implements, fast-food french fry cartons, fast-food toys, three containers of sun screen, all different strengths (no, the van hadn't properly been cleaned out since summer vacation to the beach), a handful of change, and so on. Sheesh. Now it needs vacuuming. I'm thinking of either hiring a child to do it, or getting my oil changed at a place that will vacuum for me. Should find a coupon for that first, I hate paying full price.

After church, excellent sermon, by the way, I went to the spa/salon to use the gift certificate I won from the radio station in December. Originally I just booked a hair appointment. I specifically asked for someone with a lot of experience working with curly hair. I was given an appointment with Theresa at 2:00. Friday night they called me to confirm the appointment and offered me a facial appointment: one hour for the price of a half-hour, can you come at 12:45? Yes, that would be lovely.

After the facial I'm told Virginia will be right with me. Virginia? What happened to Theresa? I never did find out why there was a switch. Virginia quizzes me, as with any new client, what I want, how I want my hair to look.

I'm not fashion-forward, I'm not glamorous. I want someone to be able to look at me, look at my curly cow-lick-y mess and make it look great. I am also very low maintenance when it comes to hair: wash and go. That's it, no product, no blow-dry, no brush, just wash and go, bye-bye. So I need someone who can make my hair look great with no fuss. I explain this to Virginia and she was a little surprised I didn't have a style in mind except for "short and out of my face," and replies, "OK, that's easy."

As she's cutting, I can tell she's not taking the curls in to account, it's not going to dry well. She wants to cut it long in front of my ears, which, when it dries will look like wings flapping out of my head. I asked her how long she'd been cutting hair and she said two years. At that point I confirmed the feeling I was in the wrong chair. In the end, when the flapping was fixed, the cut wasn't bad, people tell me it looks fine, it's just a lot shorter than I wanted or expected, a lot, and it'll take a long time to grow out so I can do something else with it.

When I paid I was asked how everything was and I reiterated about the stylist switch and I wasn't happy about that. The chick behind the counter told me I could call in a couple days if I wasn't satisfied with the cut. It's not the cut I'm not satisfied with you moron!!!! I said OK, smiled and left. I haven't decided if I'm going to call again and complain. The cut was free, after all, as was most of the facial.

Sunday evening Kevin crashed after skiing and Dan & Fern went to their own super bowl parties so I had more quiet time to myself. I read my new book, Circle of Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini and not much else. Didn't even turn on the game until the third quarter. Ended up winning $20 in a pool, though. Yay me.

Manners Please

My son is not a polite sleeper.

He is 15 and displays typical teenage behavior, staying up late on weekend nights and sleeps in. But because of his weekend activities, he cannot sleep in, but crashes afterward. This past Saturday night, maybe I should say Sunday morning, he went to bed sometime after 2:00 (after having gone to bed after 3:00 the night before). Then he got up for his skiing program at 8:30. When he got home, he put himself to bed, shoes and all, on his father's side of my bed. What is it about Mom & Dad's bed that is so appealing?

One of two things happen when he goes to bed so early. He'll either nap until bedtime then stay up for several hours after that playing computer games, or he'll sleep through until the morning, sometimes waking only for a shower and a glass of milk. Last night he didn't get up, he slept through.

Usually Monday's are the worse because all the sleep deprivation of the weekend catches up, he's asleep by 6:00 on my bed. We can't move him, like we could when he was a toddler, he's taller than we are now, and getting strong. We can't entice him to stay awake for his favorite supper so we can steer him to his own bed later. So Dan sleeps in Kevin's bed, for which I'm grateful, and I get to try to sleep next to The Boy, who is a major cover thief and I end up sleeping on top of the edge of the blanket, having it flip over me like a taco, so I can at least stay warm, but not too warm, thank you, I am approaching (gasp) 48. And, of course, when I do get too warm, he senses I've released the blanket and takes it. Not a polite sleeper, not at all.

Another day, another rambling

No-one bit on yesterday's Ferris Bueller reference. Oh well.

The kids had a 2-hour delay this morning, I guess because parts of the county had sleet & freezing rain and the roads were bad. We just had a lot of rain at our house. I got another couple loads of towels in this morning while I was waiting for the buses. The laundry pile is slowly shrinking. I'm almost down to "maintenance" level.

Lost went back on the air last night after a 8 month hiatus. Having Lost back really puts a hamper (ha ha) on my laundry accomplishments. And other household duties as well.

I'm glad Lost is back, I really like the show. Fern didn't like it when it premiered in 2004, it was too bloody. But now she's into it. I have a coupon for 40% off DVD sets at Borders so I guess I should get season three so I'll have a whole set so she can catch up with the whole story. Which means I need to track down season I lent to AM.

I read somewhere they only had eight episodes written before the strike started so I'm not sure how that'll play into the plan they made last year to have three more seasons in the show's run. Will they make a shortened season box set or will they wait for a full 16-episode season? I ponder the silliest things.

The strike is messing up a lot of things, not just my TV watching. All the folks with jobs in the TV business are out of work still, the caterers and the camera operators, and the like. I'm thankful I have a good job.

And now, I leave you with a photo I snapped the other morning on the way to said job. A storm front was rolling through and the clouds were awesome. Too bad I couldn't park and set up a tripod for a better shot.