we got another happy surprise yesterday, in addition to lovely little Ava joining our world a week and a half ago. the husband's oldest son called to say he had just been hired as an airline pilot for SkyWest Airlines.
J has had two overriding interests in his life -- making movies and flying. he has spend most of the last 20+ years being involved behind the camera and has had his name in the credits of several recognized movies, e.g. The Green Mile.
but while he was doing camera things, he was taking flying lessons, practicing practicing, buying an airplane of his own, flying flying everywhere every chance he got. somewhere along the way decided he wanted to be an airline pilot.
J starts his training next monday -- 6 weeks in salt lake city. his wife is happy for him since it's something he really wants, but hates the idea of him being gone so long. but at least he isn't headed to the middle east for a year!
congratulations! and we hope it's everything you expect it to be!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
true crime -- small town beat
October 17: Police officers responded to assist a resident who was locked out of her home. The problem was of some importance, as her lunch was in flames on her stove inside. Officers and responding fire apparatus made entry. The caged Cajun chicken was pronounced dead at the scene.
October 17: Police observed a teenage boy on the school campus after having been expelled and trespassed from the property. Officers contacted the teen, who thought his transgression was pretty funny. Officers forwarded a trespassing complaint to the prosecutor to get a judge's opinion on the hilarity of the situation.
October 16: A woman called to report that her husband had been missing from their home for over four days. A report was taken and investigation initiated. Officers located the man safe at a friend's place where he had been staying. He did not want to return home. His wife was advised by police that he was safe -- at least for the time being.
October 15: A resident called 911 to report there four people in her back yard with weapons, trying to break into her house to kill her. She also thought they had broken into her car and put an animal inside. Responding police found that there were no criminals in the area and no critters in her car.
October 15: A resident reported two men and a woman were trying to break into vehicles and her house. An officer and four Border Patrol agents responded within 60 seconds and no suspects were located. The officer investigated the incident and discovered no evidence of prowling. The suspects left no footprints in the wet grass or on her dry wooden porch. The resident called in a second report a few minutes later that six suspects had just broken into her neighbors residence and fled in a flatbed truck. Officers helped the resident realize that she had been hallucinating.
October 17: Police observed a teenage boy on the school campus after having been expelled and trespassed from the property. Officers contacted the teen, who thought his transgression was pretty funny. Officers forwarded a trespassing complaint to the prosecutor to get a judge's opinion on the hilarity of the situation.
October 16: A woman called to report that her husband had been missing from their home for over four days. A report was taken and investigation initiated. Officers located the man safe at a friend's place where he had been staying. He did not want to return home. His wife was advised by police that he was safe -- at least for the time being.
October 15: A resident called 911 to report there four people in her back yard with weapons, trying to break into her house to kill her. She also thought they had broken into her car and put an animal inside. Responding police found that there were no criminals in the area and no critters in her car.
October 15: A resident reported two men and a woman were trying to break into vehicles and her house. An officer and four Border Patrol agents responded within 60 seconds and no suspects were located. The officer investigated the incident and discovered no evidence of prowling. The suspects left no footprints in the wet grass or on her dry wooden porch. The resident called in a second report a few minutes later that six suspects had just broken into her neighbors residence and fled in a flatbed truck. Officers helped the resident realize that she had been hallucinating.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
what to do, what to do
i have a dilemma -- i am going to drop verizon as my cell provider because they pissed me off. twice. that's too many times.
so i'm looking at at&t, even though we had them back in the mid-90's and they pissed me off. but not as much as verizon.
at any rate, i am trying to decide if i should get the i-phone, which has features which i might never use, or if i should just get a regular phone and then get an i-pod for music.
to get the i-phone, it would cost $399 plus $59.99 a month for service which includes 450 minutes talk-time, 200 minutes of texting, unlimited e-mail, and web surfing. a regular phone would be whatever it would be for the phone, then $39.99 a month for 450 minutes plus between $5-$20 more a month for texting. which i have actually done a little bit of.
to buy an i-pod nano with 8 gb of memory, it would be $200. 8 gb = 2,000 songs. don't laugh. i could easily get there. the i-pod classic (80 gb) is $50 more.
would i use the i-phone if i had it??? well, it'd use it for the music. and when i was in the car and needed a phone, i'd use it for that. if i got lost, i could go online and call up google maps. i could check my voice mail, decide if i wanted to listen to one before another. stuff like that.
am i technologically interested enough? the older i get, the less i'm interested. i don't like that, but there it is. if you have any thoughts, feel free to leave them.
so i'm looking at at&t, even though we had them back in the mid-90's and they pissed me off. but not as much as verizon.
at any rate, i am trying to decide if i should get the i-phone, which has features which i might never use, or if i should just get a regular phone and then get an i-pod for music.
to get the i-phone, it would cost $399 plus $59.99 a month for service which includes 450 minutes talk-time, 200 minutes of texting, unlimited e-mail, and web surfing. a regular phone would be whatever it would be for the phone, then $39.99 a month for 450 minutes plus between $5-$20 more a month for texting. which i have actually done a little bit of.
to buy an i-pod nano with 8 gb of memory, it would be $200. 8 gb = 2,000 songs. don't laugh. i could easily get there. the i-pod classic (80 gb) is $50 more.
would i use the i-phone if i had it??? well, it'd use it for the music. and when i was in the car and needed a phone, i'd use it for that. if i got lost, i could go online and call up google maps. i could check my voice mail, decide if i wanted to listen to one before another. stuff like that.
am i technologically interested enough? the older i get, the less i'm interested. i don't like that, but there it is. if you have any thoughts, feel free to leave them.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
not my problem anymore
well, that was interesting.
shopping online is usually not a hassle for us. until this one.
i ordered 6 items from Serengeti catalog, associated with NorthStyle catalog, on the 8th. when i checked the order just now, thinking it surely should have arrived by now, it was still in the warehouse.
hmmmm, still in the warehouse. WTF??!
so i called and the gal put me on hold. then she switched me to customer service. then he couldn't figure out why the order hadn't gone out. so i asked for the supervisor. she was one of those types who kept interrupting me. she finally said she would send it out overnight. fine, i said, but what about the trouble i had trying to place this order online (it wouldn't take the credit card -- which has NEVER happened with any other company before -- i'd had to call in the order). i must have been typing something in wrong, she said. WTF??! this has been my problem?
fine, go ahead and send the order, i said, then take me off your mailing lists. fine, she said.
fine.
shopping online is usually not a hassle for us. until this one.
i ordered 6 items from Serengeti catalog, associated with NorthStyle catalog, on the 8th. when i checked the order just now, thinking it surely should have arrived by now, it was still in the warehouse.
hmmmm, still in the warehouse. WTF??!
so i called and the gal put me on hold. then she switched me to customer service. then he couldn't figure out why the order hadn't gone out. so i asked for the supervisor. she was one of those types who kept interrupting me. she finally said she would send it out overnight. fine, i said, but what about the trouble i had trying to place this order online (it wouldn't take the credit card -- which has NEVER happened with any other company before -- i'd had to call in the order). i must have been typing something in wrong, she said. WTF??! this has been my problem?
fine, go ahead and send the order, i said, then take me off your mailing lists. fine, she said.
fine.
cool trip
our friends who the girlfriend and i stayed with last year, up and decided to take a cruise to alaska. not being able to do that from south dakota, they flew to vancouver and commenced. a cruise wasn't enough, so they when they were finished with the cruise, they headed to hawaii.
they will have been gone a month -- i can't wait to hear about their trip! hope the northern lights put on a display for them!!
they will have been gone a month -- i can't wait to hear about their trip! hope the northern lights put on a display for them!!
ain't it the truth!
i don't remember jokes well at all, but i have an stupendous ability to mangle one in the telling. however, yesterday one of my male cohorts and i were discussing the downside of getting older, and he made a one-sentence comment which i can maybe remember.
"Ah, well" he said, "we've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel."
the visual totally cracked me up.
"Ah, well" he said, "we've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel."
the visual totally cracked me up.
grins
there are a couple of gals at work who are such a delight to watch. they work together and talk to each other constantly. they tease, fuss (not really), joke, and banter. constantly. i'm not sure how they can always find so much to say. but it's great fun to watch.
not that they aren't serious -- they are excellent at what they do. it's just that it would be so much fun to invisibly follow them around and listen to all that amazing light-hearted playful talk.
not that they aren't serious -- they are excellent at what they do. it's just that it would be so much fun to invisibly follow them around and listen to all that amazing light-hearted playful talk.
oops ... hahaha
on my lunch break yesterday, i decided to stay at work since it was raining and i just didn't want to bother with it.
i remembered i wanted to look for a raincoat, but i couldn't remember the web site of the one i'd liked, so i was forced to surf a bit. the picture below is what came up at one of the pulled-from-memory web addresses:
Saturday, October 13, 2007
welcome!!!
i am a proud mama of a wonderful Older Son who is now a proud papa of a brand-new baby!
little Ava was born today at 1:30 pm -- 7 lbs, 6 oz. She has brown hair and feisty lungs which got quite a work-out. she must have not liked being taken from a dark, warm place and thrust into a lighted, warm place filled with strangers. well, who would?
i got to hold her and it was so sweet. she's a little precious bit of softness and while her daddy was tenderly holding her, he kept kissing her forehead. she's a very lucky little girl -- he's going to be such a good daddy!
little Ava was born today at 1:30 pm -- 7 lbs, 6 oz. She has brown hair and feisty lungs which got quite a work-out. she must have not liked being taken from a dark, warm place and thrust into a lighted, warm place filled with strangers. well, who would?
i got to hold her and it was so sweet. she's a little precious bit of softness and while her daddy was tenderly holding her, he kept kissing her forehead. she's a very lucky little girl -- he's going to be such a good daddy!
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Confucius say ....
certainly it's always wise to be nice to people who control your destiny. and just as wise to be nice to people, period.
but to get screwed around just because you're unfortunately dealing with a class-a jerk is just irritating. this article is appalling and disgusting. and really makes me wish there were more train-travel options.
after dealing with people, impersonally, monday through friday, on the phone, i can attest that some people are the types you really just want to hang up on. some people are pleasant, but a lot of them just don't know when to shut up; some simply want to lazily go to the head of the line; and some have a screaming marquee on their forehead which says ME FIRST.
those experiences have led me to try to remember to be polite, but brief when dealing with beleaguered people. and to avoid crowds and crowded places as much as possible.
but to get screwed around just because you're unfortunately dealing with a class-a jerk is just irritating. this article is appalling and disgusting. and really makes me wish there were more train-travel options.
after dealing with people, impersonally, monday through friday, on the phone, i can attest that some people are the types you really just want to hang up on. some people are pleasant, but a lot of them just don't know when to shut up; some simply want to lazily go to the head of the line; and some have a screaming marquee on their forehead which says ME FIRST.
those experiences have led me to try to remember to be polite, but brief when dealing with beleaguered people. and to avoid crowds and crowded places as much as possible.
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