valid paranoia

from the "oh, good grief" department -- this article from last summer and then this one.

the macho, type-a people need to be moved to another planet.

simple beauty

don't you just love beautiful calendars? lang puts together some really nice calendars and i buy some every few years.

the one i have here at home is called the 2009 road home calendar. it has wonderful landscapes with homes. they are so beautiful they almost make me cry. the husband and i want to move into two of the houses.

the 2010 road home calendar has a couple of the same pictures, but overall more snow pictures than this year. go to that website then click on 'more images' to see the twelve months. i actually like 2009 better than 2010, but still -- they're very evocative. simpler times, younger times, happier times.

another style of calendar they have has recipes on each month. i get a kick out of those. check out the garden recipes -- they give the instructions in pictures!! is that cool, or what! ohmygod, they have holiday peppermint pound cake for december!!! okay, now i have to buy it! i just hope i don't forget!

excuse me, but where is your head?

honestly, what is it with people??

we have this one room which is the computer lab for people to use when they have to take an online class and don't have access to a computer. this morning i noticed there was one person in there. this afternoon when i was getting ready to turn off lights and lock doors, i noticed the lab room light was still on. i went back there and looked in. no one was there. wouldn't you think the last guy out (the only guy!) would turn off the light? didn't these people's parents teach them about taking care of things???

it's hard for me to be patient with that kind of stuff!

and the winner is ....

dr. pepper has a new flavor -- dr. pepper cherry. well, at least it's new to me.

i have always preferred mr. pibb, but most of the time it's disgustingly hard to find. so when i went to haggen's the other day, i looked and looked, but alas. and then i spied dr. pepper cherry. i figured it had to be better than cherry coke and wild cherry pepsi, so i bought some.

hmmm -- dr. pepper is brown, you know. dr. pepper cherry is brown with red highlights, like those strange funky goth red highlights some people have in their hair. at any rate, you can't really taste any cherry.

rats. i wonder why they don't make mr. pibb more available?

it all makes sense at the time....

dreams!! honestly, they are so weird!

so last night i dreamed i was at work merrily going along doing my stuff when all of a sudden i realized i had on blue jeans (horrors!) and no shirt!! the blue jeans were bad enough (we aren't supposed to even THINK about wearing blue jeans to work -- black jean, brown jeans, whatever other color and only on fridays, but not blue jeans no matter how nicely pressed) but no shirt?? how could i have let that happen??? i mean, it wasn't a sexual thing since cancer put an end to my boobies, but still -- highly inappropriate!! i couldn't figure out why no one had said anything -- did they think i had on a flesh-colored shirt?? regardless, when i finally realized what i was (and wasn't) wearing i was just sick about it. i could take a 15-minute break and try to do something, but it wouldn't be enough time for me to go home and grab something else to wear and get back to work since my apartment was twenty minutes away through city traffic.

it just worried me sick so i went to my room at work and went to bed. my room had a nice small bathroom, a nice bed and dresser and closet, and several work stations. mike was on the computer at one work station and had to go to the second floor. i was laying there worriedly trying to figure out my dilemma when the big boss walked in. he was looking for someone and i thought i remembered he had to go out-of-town for several days, so i asked him about it. the covers were pulled up to my chin so i knew he wouldn't be able to see the jeans-and-no-shirt situation. we talked for a little bit and then he left.

i finally got up, realized i had clothes right there i could change into, and went in to take a shower. but there wasn't any soap. so i got back in bed and found the tube of soap on a pillow. so i laid there and lathered up my shoulders and hair, then got back in the shower to rinse off. it really was a nice little shower with a small window and no shower curtain. then i woke up.

WHAT was that????

turn that thing off!

remember when naysayers were yelling that playing nintendo was a horrible thing, that your grades would drop, you'd turn into a social zombie, etc. etc. and that you should stay as far away from video games as you could?

well, read this. hah! take that, naysayers!

astroids and death and destruction

have you seen this? pretty cool excitement! yes, i know it was a movie, but the short is pretty good and the music is fab!!

and this is sobering.

then you watch a few more and you think .... "gees, oh well."

eat your fruits and vegetables!

i've never been one to pop pills, and after the surgeries i've had, i don't really even like to go to the doctor. the more i hear people tell horror stories, the more i think i'm just going to try to stay well and if i get sick, i'm going to tough it out at home.

one of my friends recently told me her husband had a really bad sinus infection last year. the doctor gave him an antibiotic which wiped out the bacteria in his body. all the bacteria. since we are supposed to have helpful bacteria in our tummies, it has caused this guy a huge lot of grief. they are finally going to give him a treatment which is supposed to help things, but he will have to have this treatment on a regular basis the rest of his life. yuck!

another friend (from the midwest) had a reaction to some of her meds which put her in the hospital for 10 days. they put her on another medication which sent her blood pressure through the roof. then she had two slight strokes and they took her off that medication. in the meantime she's recuperating in hawaii!!! hopefully she'll be able to get better without any more medical help!

an older acquaintance of the husband's had a blood test which revealed he had prostate cancer -- his value was off the charts! they tried a medication on him but it made him really sick, so he went off it and prepared to die. they sent him to seattle for some kind of test and he came back completely negative! he didn't have cancer at all!

so i encourage you-all to follow my dad's advice: eat all things in moderation and get plenty of exercise. my advice: if you start feeling bad, tell a friend (so you don't feel alone), take some tylenol, and go to bed. if you still have the problem after three weeks, call a doctor's office and make an appointment. after you hang up, you will probably immediately start getting better.

wash behind your ears....

it's Clinique bonus time again, everyone! if you like clinique, this twice-a-year giveaway is the only time to shop. i need to get busy and figure out what-all i need so i can get my free stuff! well, not technically maybe, but still .... yay!!

lah-dee-dah

i was looking through a catalog the other day. would anyone like to order a Cape Buffalo Buckle Pony Belt? only $850. how about a Horsehair Belt? only $485. or a pair of Airplane Cufflinks? just $498. or the ever-impressive Gold Quail Cufflinks? for only $1,795.

there are soooo many choices from these people. i, personally, like the Coyote Throw for a measly $5,998. after all, what price warmth?! and they had other lovely things -- Black Hills Moccasins for $289, Buffalo Boots for $470, and Burnt Pine Boots for $1,498. and lots of linen shirts and jackets, and some really nice jeans for $250.

if you need to get a special something for a special someone, go to http://www.jlpowellusa.com/ and help save the country by spending a fortune.

off with their heads!

My Younger Son has an excellent blog and put this video out there several weeks ago -- http://www.snotr.com/video/2327 -- it very nicely explains the monetary crisis we're in. the financial world has always been totally foreign to me (can't understand it, can't learn about it, can't figure it out at all) so it's nice to have this visual to gain a tiny grasp of the situation.

forward thinking

i like google. i like the things they've done and the things they do and the things they come up with.

i know there are people out there dissing google and causing them trouble, but generally i think google is a good thing. they've done more than nasa has to bring the future to our laps. it's a curious thing and makes me think there must not be any republicans working for google.

yay: google's variable logo, which yesterday featured schiaparelli and if you clicked on the logo, it took you to a fascinating mars thing. i found it today on google's blog -- http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/celebrating-mars-then-and-now.html -- i suggest you go there and then click on the 'mars in google earth' video. oh yeah -- sooooo very cool! yep, no republicans!

also yay: google earth, google maps (MUCH better than microsoft's), google street view!!!

what now ...

things are a-changin' at work. we're getting a new big boss sometime soon; we recently got a jr. boss; people from the district office are trying to mess with my job.

hmmmm. not good. for the first time i feel uncomfortable with my job. it seems like they want to give me babysitter duties and i am almost violently opposed to that. i mean, get a grip. i am sick of people not being responsible and not wanting to handle their own issues and wanting someone else to take care of things. whine, whine and all that.

so i'm running scared about what's going on at work. i've thought about trying to get into my immediate boss' office, but it's always so hot in there and there are four people in one space and it gets really noisy, etc. and i think i would hate it, but i would hate babysitting even more.

shit. what to do. what to do. i guess i should just chill and go with the flow, but when the flow appears to be heading for a waterfall, i get nervous. damn.

observations about my trip:
bellingham airport is rustic.
seattle airport has nice window walls.
minneapolis airport has no clocks anywhere.
i had the longest walk possible (opposite ends) to get from one plane to the other in minneapolis.
detroit has this cool underground/under runway walkway with neat walls of light.
detroit's tram is a waste of time and money.
indianapolis has really neat lights in the ceiling of their to-the-parking-garage walkway.
leaving the indianapolis airport and trying to go north, unfamiliar, at night, is a bitch.
the marriott near 71st is really nice.
max and erma's is a good place to eat.
tsa operatives conduct business differently at different airports.
after my cancelled flight, horizon postponed one, and cancelled another one.
horizon sucks.
being sick when you travel is not good.

ohmygawd! what a couple of weeks!!

first i flew to indianapolis on a sunday (took from when I left for the airport around 7:15 am until i checked into the hotel around 11:30 pm), then the next day i started getting sick and for the following two days coughed and blew my nose every few minutes. my poor classmates!! i coughed into kleenex and didn't touch anything except my computer, and tried to keep to myself, but gees!

my voice pretty much disappeared and reappeared as a bull-frog lusting after a mate. a bull-frog who was losing his voice.

i drank two bottles of liquid both morning and afternoon to keep things in my system as watered-down as i could. and as soon as i got back to my room i went right to bed but i actually didn't get much rest. not much food got eaten for a couple of days. and i didn't get to see ANY of indianapolis! cripes!

thursday i headed home -- left the hotel around 7:15 and got back to my house at midnight-thirty! it was horrible. horizon cancelled the flight from seattle to up here and i had to sit in that dang airport for seven hours while i waited for another plane. at least i got lucky in being able to get on that flight -- it was the last one and i just simply did not have the energy to handle any other problems.

i called in sick on friday and the following monday and only worked part of the day on tuesday. i fumbled through the rest of the week and have finally, a week later, pretty much gotten over this hellacious cold. i have never in my whole life had a cold this bad. hopefully i never will again!

and i really wanted to check out downtown indy! dangit!!!

Soap and Shampoo

“... and then after we buy your soap and shampoo formulas, you sit back and relax or find a new hobby, as long as it’s not new soap and shampoo.” He chuckled at his cleverness, but she was having second thoughts about her nearly-decided decision to sell out.

Yes, she and her little brother needed the money and if they had extra, she could go to the University, but her Homeland Soaps had really done pretty well online. If their car hadn’t been vandalized and the debts from her parents funeral hadn’t mysteriously gone up so much, in another five months they would have just about paid off their loans and been starting to get ahead. Honestly, trouble seemed to stick to them like a magnet lately.

“So, Charlotte, my boss would like an answer from you this evening. Why don’t we go have dinner at Betsy’s BBQ then you can tell me that you’re ready to sign the contract.”

Sign the contract. Wasn’t she supposed to get a lawyer or something? Greg said she didn’t have to go to that expense because it was a standard contract they used all the time. And besides, they were a big, well-known company who wouldn’t take advantage of someone and sully their own reputation, would they?

“Okay, Greg, if you wouldn’t mind picking me up at 7:30 we can go have dinner and I’ll give you my answer.”

He gave her his PR smile, stood, and small-talked his way out the door. She was glad to see him go since she still couldn’t figure out what to do. As she headed upstairs to her bedroom, she heard him say, “Hey there, what are you doing?”

Jerking her head around and expecting to see him at the bottom of the stairs, he kept on talking. “I can’t wait to get out of this ass-wipe of a town, Ro, and away from this gal with the soap. If I have to bed her to get her to sell, I don’t know if I can do it. What a hick! God get me outta here ... I mean, yeah she’s a little bit cute, but jees, I’d probably have to propose before I could get into her pants.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing until she finally realized the conversation was coming from her brother’s scanning equipment. Greg The Creep On His Cell Phone went on and on until she finally faced up to what she had to do, which was about the same time Jimmie came out of the bathroom with a comic book tucked under his arm and wiping his wet-and-not-dried hands on his pants. “Hey, you’re not supposed to listen in to my calls!”

“They’re not your calls Jimmie and anyway, you’re listening in,” but she headed down the hall to her bedroom, firming up plans as she went. Greg The Creep and his Creepy Company probably knew all about her so she was going to have to get mysterious, go incognito, and disappear into the night. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she figured that at least some of her financial trouble had probably been helped along by them, as a behind-the-scenes inducement to sell. Well. The heck with that. She could go behind-the-scenes, too.

She quickly called Millie at the bank and asked if she’d take $8,000 out of Charlotte’s account and drop it by on her way home -- that way they’d have cash. Then she put as many of her clothes as she could, plus her little dab of make-up, into two suitcases. She got her uncle’s (on her mother’s side) car title out of the file cabinet, along with her brother’s and her birth certificate, her parent’s marriage license, and the paperwork to their house ... their paid-off house.

Then she went back and slyly persuaded Jimmie they were going to take off on an adventure -- a summer of doing the wild and crazy and unpredictable. He got totally caught up in the idea and had his two bags packed in fifteen minutes, although she watched to make sure there were actually some clothes which got squeezed in alongside the music and games.

Then she went down to the kitchen and packed as much food as she could into four shopping bags. At that point there was nothing left to do but lug all their stuff out to the garage. Her uncle’s car had been stored in there for quite awhile, but it had been her job to take it out once a month and blow the cobs out, so she knew it had a full tank of gas and was in good working condition.

After Millie came by with the money, everything was just about ready to go, so she wrote a note and taped it to her front door. Greg would find it and read that something had come up and that she planned to call him tomorrow afternoon. Ha!

Jimmy eagerly climbed in the car and, as it turned out, they were happily on their way by 6:15. They sang songs and ate from their grocery sacks and generally made the most of their freedom. When Greg came by to pick her up and saw her note, he was relieved he wouldn’t have to paste on his smile all night, and happily left to wine and dine by himself, fully confident he’d land a big fish the next day.

Charlotte and Jimmy had no idea, but they truly were starting a wild and crazy adventure, one which would get them lost, have them being threatened by bad guys, forging their identities, working in a mining camp, watching a shoot-out, and stowing away on a float plane.

Just think -- it started so innocently with her soap.

no cameras here though...

well, this is cool. i've been wondering about my trip to indianapolis next week -- what will the weather be like, what should i wear, what about shoes, what does it look like, should i go see anything.

i've always really liked wunderground -- it's a great weather website and also has a feature (wunderphotos) where you can see pictures people have submitted. it's neat for seeing what a place looks like.

i just discovered it also has webcams! i looked around a couple of days ago, trying to find some cams for indianapolis, and didn't come up with much. but now i have several cams i can look at in the daytime. since it's night, right now, i can't see very much, but i plan to check it out saturday.

so anyhow, in addition to finding information about a place from '50 states' (very useful if you're wanting to know the name of a newspaper in a particular area), remember to check out wunderground. especially the webcams!

long weekend

what a beautiful day!! we have sunshine outside and blue skies and the renters next door moved out last night. i have to fly out next sunday to a class in indianapolis and will be flying back on thursday. i'm not worried about the weather but wouldn't it be great if it were sunny and calm the whole time i was there?!

drama at work! apparently once the big boss left (boo, hoo) the regional office decided to make some changes. one of the changes looks like it's going to be the duties in my job. currently i am VERY unhappy about this. i like the things i do and loooooooove having patty-cake for my boss! it would be fine for mr. lynn to be my boss, but having to keep his schedule and make his appointments and arrange for his trips -- sounds secretarial and very not-something-i-want-to-do. we'll have to see what happens, i guess, but at the moment my blood pressure is up. shit.

wasn't yesterday lovely?! the husband composed a poem to me and made me flowers! they're pretty flowers and will last a long long time. see picture below. he's a keeper!!!

i'm gonna wash that stuff right outta my hair ....

the daughter-in-law got me some neat soap for christmas. it smells exactly like chocolate milk. last year she got me this gift thingy which had some lavender vanilla hand lotion in it. i always put that cream on my hands every night because i loved falling asleep while i was smelling it. it was heavenly.

at any rate, i was looking online, trying to find some lavender vanilla products. i came across this web site from iowa called prairieland herbs. they have a shampoo BAR which i just had to try. i chose the peppermint and tea tree and have absolutely loved it!! they suggest to use a vinegar rinse for the first week while your hair is recovering from the commercial stuff you've used on it forever.

i've been using it for about 2 weeks now (the bar lathers up just fabulously) and sometimes i still use the vinegar rinse and sometimes not. but my hair is soft and a prettier color (brown with 'clear' hairs mixed in) than it was before. and i think it holds my style better, too.

i really happy with it and plan on continuing buying it. if you want a kick, try it out!

take a deep breath and blooooooowww ...

it seems like there's just no time anymore to play. work makes me tired. so i am behind in relating all my fun experiences: listening to bagpipes and eating haggis, enjoying the weekend with my older son, dau-in-law, and grandaughter, forgetting things i wanted to relate.

slim jim, from work, and i went up into canada to a fundraiser for several bagpipe bands. there were about 320 people there and we had a really nice dinner plus all kinds of dessert. the meal was a salad, mashed carrots-and-turnips, mashed potatoes, and a huge roll of roast beef. plus, traditional haggis, of course. i've always heard about haggis and this was the real stuff. i knew it had oatmeal in it so i had no qualms about trying it. i just refused to remember what else was in it. it had an interesting taste -- not quite like anything else -- but it wasn't bad and slim jim and i both had seconds. i mean, why not.

there was a silent auction, too, and slim jim and i both came away with stuff -- i mean, it was a fundraiser and we were surprised that people weren't doing more bidding. so it was great for us -- he came away with a bunch of coffee and i got a bunch of kitchen stuff -- teas, dishtowels, candy, utensils, etc.

i totally enjoyed listening to the bagpipes!! there were three different bands, one of them a youth band, and it was just very satisfying to watch and listen to all that energy! yay scotland, forever!!

but the cutest part of the evening was the 4-yr olds doing scottish line dancing. if you ever get to see that, you'll love it. they were even good! all the dancers were good and it was easy to see why none of them were overweight!

all-in-all slim jim and i were glad we went (the husband doesn't like to leave the country) and plan on going again next year. yay, fun! forever!!!

and then ...

but i forgot to tell you about an additional detail at my nexus appointment. along with getting your fingerprints, they take your picture. not a big deal, right? after all, any picture which is taken by a regulatory agency is probably going to be crap, so no worries.

hahaha. this guy said he was going to take my picture, reached over and picked up a small white ball with a long cord on it, and held it up. my automatic reaction, i swear to god, was to move out of the way. which i did. i flinched and moved slightly to the side. then i caught myself and tried to just chill, but found myself starting to turn my back. honestly, what was wrong with me???

but it was sooooooo weird and i couldn't keep from trying to avoid the thing and it was so ridiculous and i started to laugh and he said 'got it'.

thank god.

i tried and tried later to figure out what that was all about and could only figure that, since i am totally not used to little white round cyclops cameras, i must have instinctively thought it was like a squirt gun and i was trying to avoid it.

whatever. it was hilarious in a really stupid-feeling sort of way.

dum, duhdum, dum, daaaaaaaahhhh....

i went in to my Nexus appointment the other day. getting a nexus card is a lot like getting a passport -- you fill out paperwork, they check you out, you talk to them at the appointment and give them your fingerprints, they give you advice, you get your card in the mail.

i like the idea of having a nexus card because there's a special nexus lane at the border which is usually quite a bit faster than the regular lanes.

BUT.

when you have a nexus card, EVERYONE in the car must have the card. i knew that when i went to the appointment. what i didn't know was that you must have nothing in the car which is not yours or your traveling companion's!

now that scared me. if i run up to canada and get something from costco, then come back in the nexus lane and they see the husband's boots in the car which are obviously not mine, they can take away my card. and man, that's a permanent condition. you NEVER get your nexus card back. they are so hard-nosed about that it's not funny.

well. when they explained all that to me i got so nervous. i mean, cripes. am i going to remember to search my car before i run up to canada? shit. i'm going to have to. honestly -- well-intentioned, decent people aren't used to not getting a second chance.

damn those terrorists!

finally!

okay, here it comes. all my life i've thought how cool it would be to have a small helicopter or jet-pack or something tiny which a person could get on, strap on, step into which would be extremely versatile and maneuverable and get them someplace quickly.

it looks like we may actually be starting to focus in on that type of technology. read this and be excited.

the only drawback i can see at this point is that some yo-yo is going to get himself killed in one of these because he was too arrogant to actually study the art and physics of flying, and then there's going to be a law-suit.

tsk, tsk. we're just cleaning up the gene pool.

complications upon complicated

oh, to be young again. i'd study computers, code, gaming, and hacking like crazy. strictly as a matter of self-defense, you understand. usually, the more you know about something, the more you can counter it.

i read an article a couple of weeks ago warning people about facebook and to be careful about putting too much self-info out there. now comes the story about the 18-yr old who hacked into twitter.

for us oldsters, it's pretty easy to be conscious about telling too much about ourselves -- we grew up with a strong sense of privacy and confidentiality. today's users (mostly younger than i) don't necessarily have that same sense of watching out and being careful.

i suppose part of it was the cold war and the potential threat of danger, although youth in any age declares invincibility and fearlessness. regardless, thinking about ramifications before laying yourself out there might not be bad advice.

good grief!

man, there just are not enough hours in the day. i came home, ironed a number of blouses and skirts, ate a yummy supper thanks to the husband, took care of some pesky details on the computer, and bam! it's time for bed! well, crap. i need to READ for a little while. i already skimp on my sleep during the week -- i slept 11 1/2 hours last saturday to make up for lost sleep. i'll just have to trudge onward, squeezing in my delights when and where i can. life is rough, you know?

i want one

i had a lovely moment today --

i was walking back to work after lunch and saw one of the k-9 guys with his detector dog. it's a beautiful dog, a malinois i think, with lots of self-confidence and energy and a wonderful high-step to its walk.

anyhow, i said hi to carl and remarked that he had such a pretty dog. he brought the dog prancing over and gave it some command i wasn't aware of whereupon the dog sat snugged right up next to my thigh, looked up and let me rub his ears while i told him how wonderful he was. it only lasted a few seconds, but it was so fun.

what a beautiful dog.

i want to... i've got this... how about....

have you ever had a really great idea but no way to implement it? well, here's your venue. this article talks about the ordinary inventor getting his/her idea in production and into the market place.

need more information before you get started? go here. this new zealand company has a really great idea and, just skimming everything, it seems to be a fully-fleshed out concept. you take your idea from light-bulb to sales and have fun along the way.

have at it, you guys, and good luck!

eagle

i love this country! it is special like no other country and here's a good example of why. we have wonderful people, fun things to do, interesting things to get involved with. and we have compassion beyond belief.

i just wish people who didn't have our values could be magically kept out.

crime pays until you're caught

this is good if you want to read about some of the crime in 2008. i don't really get the thumbs up/down thing -- maybe they're rating the cleverness of the crime.

i thought the fbi heist was the best .... way to go, government! as for the rest, one was clever but i wouldn't applaud his getting away with it (which he finally didn't), and the rest are just bad people who need to be taken out. and that last guy -- take him out and lose him somewhere. gees .....

oopsie ~

well, that link went away, so here's another one to those non-romatic men ...

female chauvinism

i try to curb my male-bashing tendencies because i think it can be overdone. still .... there are some men who just don't know how to be romantic.

days of yore...

i just found a cute web site -- i was entertained for 15 or 20 minutes. have fun!

a little consideration. yeah, pretty little all right.

i get pretty perturbed with people who can't seem to get their priorities straight. or even figure out any priorities.

it snowed last weekend, then again yesterday. this morning when i got to work, the parking lot had not been plowed and the sidewalks had not been shoveled. the parking lot is pretty big and there are absolutely NO extra parking spaces, so you know that people, in an unplowed lot, are not going to be that exacting when it comes to staying in the lines. what lines?

okay, so maybe they can't get someone to come out and plow. but for god's sake, SOMEone ought to be able to shovel the walks. for a facility as large as ours, that's just downright disgraceful.

and it's damned disgusting.

i was going to say something to my boss as soon as i got there, but i got sidetracked time and again and didn't get something said until just before lunch. by then the snow plow manager had come and gone (he said, has anyone complained?) so my complaint went unheard.

well shit. that lackadaisical crap pisses me off. what? the snow was a surprise? i don't think so. good grief!

oh, the weather outside is frightful ....

we have snow! just a little bit, but added to the little bit we got a couple of days ago it's a little bit messy. and if the temps dip below freezing, it's going to get accidenty. most of the people around here don't drive very often in snow or ice and are either terrified of it or too ignorant of it to be terrified. either way it's not a good situation.

but the husband put chains on his car last night so we can manage to get around, assuming no one gets around into us.

people in nebraska wouldn't think anything of the snow we have, but then they and north/south dakotans know about driving in snow. curious how different parts of the country have different 'watch out for's.

uh ... what ... uhhh, where ....

my work friend, mr billy goat gruff, had knee surgery last week. it had been giving him quite a bit of pain for quite a while and he finally said enough was enough. he came through it fine and is back home with his sweetie of a wife. we miss him at work. trying to find answers when he's the one who has them puts us at a distinct disadvantage.

just color us muddling on ....

get me a bed pan, i'm gonna be sick

student sues principal over suspension for facebook remarks .... detective successfully sues because he fell out of his chair and shot himself in the knee .... atheists are suing Homeland Security for thanking God ....

good grief! grow up! get a sense of responsibility and stop whining! this 'get some while the gettin's good' thing that 'the art of suing people' encourages makes me want to throw up. what does the suing mentality say about us?! nothing very classy, that's for sure.

it's disgusting!

all that and more

how's your holiday shopping coming along? i've done all mine online. honestly, it's the only way to go. doesn't cost somewhere between $1.90 and $4.50 per gallon for gas. no long lines. no waiting around or tromping around or getting tired and grouchy. i mean, really, who needs to go shopping to get grouchy?

since i started ordering my clothes from orvis a couple of years ago, i've been inundated with catalogs. some of them are interesting and i've placed orders and been happy with the stuff, and other catalogs have had not-so-great stuff. the two i've been happiest with, by far, are orvis.com and llbean.com -- no hassle, pretty reliable.

i was unhappy with pendleton, appleseed's, draper damon, aerosoles, norm thompson, travel smith, and the jury is still out on sahalie and zappos. some of them had terrible service or customer service, and some had crappy products. i wasn't happy with nordstrom's either but all i bought was pantyhose.

plow and hearth is good, as well as solutions, peepers, country curtains, magic cabin, planet shoes, and foot smart.

i love computers, e-mail, surfing, the whole thing! i wish we'd had computers and the internet when i was little. i'd be a whiz!

rain boots

i decided i just couldn't do the ugly circles boot. i'm going to keep the bean boots that came in the mail the other day. they aren't perfect, but since they're 'wide' they feel comfortable. the nice thing about planet shoes is that they pay for shipping the stuff to you and if you don't keep it, they pay the shipping costs back. pretty good deal.

but back to sizes. i'm disgusted and dismayed at how clothing sizes have changed the past 20-30 years. jeans have gone from 29" to 33" or 36" long. good grief -- not all of us are amazons. i guess short grandmas aren't supposed to wear jeans.

i have some blouses, sweaters, and pants from long long ago. some are size 11 and some are mediums. they still fit. and i'm no longer an 11. how can it be that there's such a tremendous difference in sizes? it's not the cut since the old things i can still wear look fairly normal. i think manufacturers decided to cut down on material to save on their costs and increase profits. and slowly cut the sizes down, too.

to me, that is disgusting. it's dishonest and greedy. i blame it on all those mba people.

ugh.

imelda

i got this new godawful ugly pair of galoshes the other day. i need something to go from my car to my work since i don't want to get my tennis shoes dirty. have you seen what's available? check this out: circles, leaves, flowers, stripes, red or green, blue or olive, european chasseur, wellies with spots, bean boots.

i always have to be so careful since i have a wide foot. those of us with wide feet are at a distinct disadvantage in the world because manufacturers insist on making ladies shoes narrow. from slippers to sandals to heels, narrow is the word. and on a wide foot a narrow shoe is pain from hell.

at any rate, i bought the circles boot. it doesn't come in half sizes and since i'm normally about a 7 1/4, getting an 8 might have worked. i got a 7 which is pretty snug on my foot. but surely it can't be too bad since i'm only going from the car to the building and back.

on the other hand, the bean boot comes in wide and is generously sized. maybe i'll send the circles back.

up we go

i finally bought some curtains. yes, of course, i got (top-down, bottom-up) blinds for all the windows right after we moved in, but something else was needed. so i've worried over the issue for the longest time and finally made purchases. the ones we just got for the guest bedroom will be replaced after the winter, but that's okay. the others are either up or in the process of going up and i think we'll like them. if not, no biggee -- we'll take them back down and do something else.

one thing i've found out over the years is that if you haven't been given any instruction or advice about something, such that all your decisions have to be made out in the cold, you are simply learning as you go and there WILL be errors and miscalculations. so when you spend money on something that doesn't work out, asi es la vida. regroup and move on, as in, spend more money.

one of the curtains i got reminds me of some nebulous time-period when i was between 3 and 7. it's this diaphanous white dreamy thing which almost makes me cry for some reason. i love it.

many things

we've been busy lately doing several things, one of which is building a pergola on/over our deck. you can go to http://www.gardenstructure.com/p/Pergola_Plan_with_Optional_Screens.html to see what the plans look like, although since our space isn't that big, the plans are just an idea of what the finished product will look like. but it will be nice. the fellow doing the work is young, experienced, and very good, so we're going to be happy. and he's going to finish off the front porch post the same way he's doing the pergola posts, so things will tie in nicely. when it's all done, i'll include a picture.

after that's finished we are going to do some landscaping around that quadrant of the yard to see if we can work up some kind of privacy in this tiny space we have. i'm excited about all of it.

my girlfriend got their house sold and immediately found a nice one on camano island, with views! they are going to love their new place and i'm so happy for them!

my new computer is excellent and i've decided i'm going to have to buy a new computer every two years, just like some people buy a new car regularly. this thing is fast and the monitor is wide and the graphics are great. not too crazy about office 2007, but what can you do. and vista sorta sucks, but meh.

life goes on.

do you know who i am?

do you like star wars? do you like british accents? did i tell you about this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muaAZE0M3LU ? it's pretty darned hilarious -- i got it from my youngest bro. check it out and enjoy!

accomplishment

when i got my new computer, we decided to give the husband's to this little gal at his work and to put my old one at his desk. we had to get an adapter so he'd be able to do the wireless thing.

it's been a bit of a confusing affair since we don't know anything about computers. i e-mailed our computer guru that we had the part and he e-mailed me a link to use. so i went online and pretty soon he had control of my computer.

we chatted online a tiny bit, then he printed out a page with some numbers on it for me. i asked what i should do next. there was a brief pause and then he said 'answer the phone'.

then the phone rang. it cracked me up. so an hour+ later (including some frantic searching for a cat5 cable cord -- which we did have believe it or not) everything was working and a-okay.

i love my computer guy.

be in the know

there's more and more talk, and probably just as much confusion, about what documents you need if you're going from and to the united states. this is a neat look at what's out there for your needs.

the enhanced driver's license is offered by washington state and new york -- vermont, arizona, and michigan will be following soon.

there's been a lot of talk about the dangers of an enhanced driver's license (scientific american had an article a couple of months ago), but since it's already been thought of, it's going to happen so why not go ahead and use the technology. at this point it's still innocuous and might make your life easier. you can't use it to fly in and out of the country, but if you drive across the border, it's cheaper than the passport.

but then, if you're driving across the border, you will want to get a NEXUS card for travel to and from canada or a SENTRI card for mexico. with one of those cards you get access to a special lane (only for those cardholders) which moves more quickly.

so many things to know. some people call me at work and ask what they need to cross the border. they must either be very lazy or computer illiterate. just get yourself online and surf cbp.gov to find out what you need to know about documents, crossing with food, pets, medicine, and other info.

the state department also has a ton of information for you to arm yourself with, including warnings, alerts, and information about embassies.

just remember this: if an officer asks you to step aside and proceeds to ask questions, cooperate with him/her and be pleasant. don't ask why he wants to know things, don't give her a ration of shit. no matter how outrageous things get, stay calm and if it gets really bad you can say you'd like to talk with a supervisor.

the officers aren't allowed to and don't have to explain everything they do, and their job is to keep control of bad guys. there have been times when someone either looked like a known bad guy, or their name was the same. just stay cool and it will eventually get sorted out. getting mad is just going to make you look guilty and the whole thing will take longer.

remember: these guys really are policemen/women. be dignified, gracious, and polite.

little things

are you interested enough in science that you'd like to see pretty astral pictures once-a-day? then, go here: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ -- there are some beautiful, intriguing, amazing pictures on their web site.

ingterrested in books? go to http://www.librarything.com/ and spend some time looking around. might find something you could get caught up in.

ever thought you might like to take a 4-5 day windjammer cruise? go to http://www.sailmainecoast.com/ and eat your heart out. it sooooooo totally looks like fun. one of these days, maybe ......

want to find a good job with the government? you'll need to go to http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/ and look through their listings. in fact, it's the only way you can get on in our department.

okay -- that's all the tips for now. i need to read.

the white house

interestingly enough i have only heard one comment in the last two days about the election. i don't think i've ever worked anywhere where there was less said about such an amazing happening.

i'm certainly not a politics person, so it's really okay with me not to talk about it. but still ....

can you imagine what our grandparents would have said? well, i mean, i'm 61 so my grandparents were living in the early 1900s. your grandparents may be my age. regardless, it would have been totally unimaginable for a black guy to have been elected president of the u.s. -- it just couldn't have happened.

but there was a big fuss about kennedy back in the 60s ("the pope's going to rule the country!") and this seems to be the same kind of thing. maybe in another 40 years we'll elect a woman.

hopefully it won't take that long. knock on wood it's not palin.

little ones

remember me talking about the triplets that are related to the big boss? they are almost 6 months old now and are just darling.

go to http://hobokentriplets.blogspot.com/ to see how cute they are and how much they've grown. they have been on a soap opera and there's a quick video clip which has one of them on it.

it will be fun to watch them grow, from afar.

politics

well, what do you think about that?! the daughter-in-law just called to shout that obama had won! and at her house they were dancing and having a party!

it's about time we got out from under the republican thumb. all thumbs. now if those devious republicans can keep busy with other issues and let obama get on with straightening around this country, that will be good.

but usually republicans can't keep from mucking around. and muck-raking. they are just so bad about that.

but for now things are looking up. the polls were bursting with voters and turn-outs were high if not record-breaking. that has to tell power brokers that americans are just sick-and-tired of what's been happening.

i really don't know what i would have done if mccain had won. and palin as possible president? that's just too ghoulish to even think about.

onward, obama, onward!

my new toy

i got a new computer recently and i'm pretty happy with it. the biggest problem i can see is trying to work with ms office 2007. wow, does it suck! but i suppose i should go ahead with it (it's a trial version for another week or two) since inertia is not a good thing.

if i thought they were going to discard office 2007 in favor of 2005 or whatever the version before was, i'd install the earlier version. but, i'm sure they'll just keep plowing ahead, so i suppose i should plow, too.

but, gees -- i hate this ribbon concept and lack of the normal toolbars. it takes more steps to get what i want than it did before when i had my toolbars completely customized. what kind of convoluted progress is that?

the other problem with this system is that my internet connection is funky. sometimes it spools right up. other times it sits there, trying. it gets pretty frustrating when i have a dual-core processor and have to wait and wait and wait for the connection to connect.

maybe the problem is comcast. too bad there's no competition internet-connectionwise. i'd leave comcast in the dust!

so says the little guy.

too funny

stuffonmycat is always so excellent. if you're having a bad day, for sure you need to spend some time going through their pictures and captions.

but especially go to this page and read about the deaf/blind dog and her seeing-eye cat. i can't imagine being that dog, but wow, what a great companion the cat is -- how did that happen?!

The 11th Planet, chapter 4

He landed on soft, almost moist sand. What the ...? His momentary fear gave way to awe as he looked at his surroundings. The section of rock which had given way, had pivoted back into its original position on the low ceiling. The sand he knelt on was the floor of a small alcove which branched off at a ninety-degree angle from a wide tunnel. The wall opposite the alcove was studded with egg-shaped protuberances.

The surroundings were lighted, although he couldn’t see how that was so, since there was only the narrow two-inch high opening to let in light. Regardless of that fact, the whole area was well-lit, as if there were a window right overhead. The area was also dry, clean, and colorful. The alcove was a golden sandstone color, the tunnel was pale blue in both directions, and the wall with the protuberances was a glistening wine color.

The entire effect was man-made looking rather than natural. But how could that be? He stood up and glanced out the opening -- it reminded him of bunkers he’d read about on far-away Old Earth. After a bit he shook his head and decided to go partway down the tunnel to see what he would find.

He took the left tunnel and strode about ten steps before coming upon another alcove / opening / protruding wall set-up. He looked everything over, then stepped up to the narrow, external opening. At first he wasn’t sure what he was seeing -- far, far away he could just barely make out a pile of rocks with another skimmer sitting in front of it. Was someone else out exploring? His tracking/detection equipment should have alerted him. And oddly enough the skimmer was orange with an electric blue stripe, just like his. That was an eerie coincidence.

He walked the ten feet back to the original alcove and looked outside. This time he couldn’t see it. Oh sure, his skimmer was sitting right outside where he’d left it, but even though there was another rock pile far away, there was no second skimmer. He walked back down the ten feet to the second alcove and looked out again. Yep -- there it was. What the hell?

Just then an utterly mad idea began to form. No. No, it couldn’t be. He had only taken about ten steps from one alcove to the other, much fewer than if he went outside and walked to where the unidentified skimmer sat. It couldn’t be his skimmer -- it was just too far away. And ten steps in place of a couple of thousand didn’t make sense.

He went back once again to the original location, took his nocs and observed his skimmer close-up -- a nick where he’d dented it last year, a stain where some elic bushes had rubbed against the side. Then he walked to the second location and used his nocs to observe the mystery skimmer.

Damn! They were one and the same. The thought made him break out in a sweat. What kind of technology could move a man great distances with few steps? He didn’t know whether to be frightened or excited, but he was definitely going to keep this news to himself.

Suddenly he heard a sound. He froze ... listened ... then heard it again -- a pinging sound. He waited about thirty seconds, then heard it again a few more times. Quickly he walked back to ‘home base’ as he decided to think of the original alcove, and looked out the narrow ‘window.’

There was a dark cloud on the horizon which hadn’t been there just a few minutes ago. The ping sounded again and he noticed a small pebble bounce off the rock pile. Oh my god -- a dust storm? The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he thought about that possibility. He heard yet another ping and realized if he brought the skimmer in as close to the pile as he could, he just might be able to salvage it.

After hesitating briefly, wondering how he was going to get out of his base camp, he simply reached up to the opening and gently grasped it. It smoothly pivoted downward, creating a rough staircase which he ascended. He brought the skimmer as close as he could into the center of the crescent shape, then grabbed his backpack and duffle before going back down the ramp into the safety of the alcove. Dust storm, stone storm -- they were both to be avoided.

Tiny pebbles and small rocks started pinging with greater frequency, and finally one of them bounced through the opening. Moments later Mark watched in awe as a window-shade type of super-fine filament slowly but steadily drew down to completely cover the opening. He could see vaguely through it, but there were no more rocks zinging through. The same filament slowly spread out to cover his skimmer.

Within minutes the pinging began to rain non-stop and soon approached the loudness of a thundering falls. Oh my god, he thought as he slowly sank to the floor. If I’d been caught out in that .... He left the thought unfinished. When the noise began to get on his nerves, he walked into the tunnel and discovered, much to his delight, that the sound was almost completely blocked.

What is this place he wondered as he leaned against the rock and slid to sit cross-legged on the floor. Are there mysterious beings living in here somewhere? Am I in danger? He sat in thought, going through numerous possibilities and running scenarios until he finally realized he was tired and was never going to just figure it out. He stood up and went back to base to grab a blanket. It still sounded furious outside, and he mentally thanked the universe for showing him a safe place to wait out the storm.

He walked back down the tunnel, laid down with his head on his duffle, wrapped up in his blanket, and fell asleep.

don't take them for granted

we received a report from our commissioner this week. i know there are people out there who think Customs and Border Protection is a joke, and they do endless carping about long lines at the border, being wrongfully searched, and so on. just so you have an idea, here are the latest statistics:

we apprehended over 1 million people at our ports of entry and between them;
we seized just less than 3 million pounds of narcotics;
we apprehended more than 200 people with serious criminal records including for murder, rape and child molestation;
we continued to safeguard commercial trade through enhanced enforcement actions, which grew to more than 19,000 seizures valued at $351 million;
we accomplished all this despite increasingly difficult and dangerous conditions as 1,413 incidents of border violence were recorded.

rather than diss our officers, we should give them unconditional support.

i, of course, do .... every work day!

leave me alone

my co-worker's death made me start thinking.

the government makes such a huge deal about seat belts. before it was mandatory, i ALWAYS fastened my seat belt. it was simply a good idea. then they made it mandatory, and the seat belts had to be just so, and had to be tight, and had to be retractable, and so on ad nauseum.

i don't like having my seat belt tight across my chest, so i have to trap it with a large binder clip. and sometimes you get it part-way out and then it locks and you have to mess with it before it's in place. and if you don't wear it, an alarm goes off until you put it on. good grief! what a frickin' hassle!!!

my real point is: so, excuse me, but why is it so important to have us wear seat belts so we won't get thrown out of the window, but it's okay for people to ride motorcycles when it's a damn given they are going to be thrown somewhere in ANY accident. wearing seat belts wouldn't help them, of course. but if it's okay for people to ride motorcycles, i think it should be okay to not have to wear my seat belt. which means, in reality, that i would wear my seat belt but would want car manufacturers to get rid of the alarm, and go back to seat belts that don't constrict.

i mean, gees. little irritations that people don't have control over can really get under your skin.

he was there ....

and then he wasn't.

one of our officers was killed on his way to work last week. he was riding a big motorcycle, but i don't know any details. it's always a shock to lose someone you know, even if you don't know them very well.


Kerry Gallager was a really nice guy. i had only talked to him a couple of times (there are more than 300 people who work there), but he was pleasant and helpful and had a quick smile. he was only 45 and in great shape, so it seemed like Death should have been calling on someone else.

so sad.

no problem!

there's so much catching-up-on to do so i guess i'll jump right in.

i gave blood today. it's something that i think adults should do if they can -- my dad did it for years. i wasn't supposed to after i had cancer, but that was 16 years ago and it's okay for me to do it now. i tried it several years ago, when the community put out a call, but i almost passed out when they started taking it and hated the experience.

so i decided to try again at the beginning of the summer. i went and was doing just fine until the end, when they were taking everything off, and my body decided to slip away. 'body, wait -- it's all over' i said, but it kept on closing up shop. so i told them and they had me move my feet and they slapped an ice pack under my neck and lowered the lounger i was in. i finally got some pink in my face again and they let me leave.

i mean, really. how disgusting that i can't even do something that simple. but i finally figured out that i should give blood on a full stomach. no one has ever said that. so much of my blood draws have been 12-hour fast or however long, that i just assumed i shouldn't eat anything first. but no -- i ate eggs and cheese for breakfast, jumped in the shower, got clean, got dressed, and showed up. it was fine! no queasies, no stars, no pale face.

so that's the secret. eat well before you give. and i had made sure i drank a lot of water the last few days so the needle stick didn't even hurt. i wonder why they don't give out that advice as a matter of course?! last time when i said i might get light-headed, the nurse said if i did it was the nurse's fault. this time the guy said it was psychological. but ha! to them both. for me it's biological.

eat hearty!!!

well, just hell

don't you hate it when you make a mistake? and your boss catches it? after you've sent the report?

the big boss had me do a consolidation of six reports into two last week. it was in excel, which is my least favorite program in the universe, and i needed to put everything together, then sort it, which isn't a task i've done very often.

i laboriously did it, fighting to make everything the same so it would sort correctly. i mean, what were these people doing? some of the information was in caps, some of it was missing descriptions, some of it was in inverse order -- those slackers! and it all needed to be the same so it would sort correctly and i had to take the time to redo everything. but, finally i had it all finished.

i read the initial e-mail one more time to make sure i didn't miss anything, and figured out there was another 'type' which needed to be sorted. it hadn't been apparent on first read, so i quickly ran down a different report to get the appropriate data, which took awhile.

FINALLY. i had everything finished, i had checked and rechecked to make sure no one was left out, and i sent the report on its way.

the next day the big boss came in saying something wasn't right with the report. i looked at her with shock and trepidation -- how could that be? i looked at her computer and she showed me what she was talking about.

that damn excel program! each of the six files had tabs at the bottom of the worksheet and i hadn't even noticed them! so each of the files opened in either one or the other tab and that accounted for the discrepancies. dammit! dammit! how had i missed that?

she asked if i had checked to make sure i hadn't left anyone out, and i said i had double- and triple-checked and if it turned out i had missed someone i was going to tender my resignation right then.

so she had me call the gal in the central office to see if the gal needed me to redo the report with any other data. as i talked with her it turned out she not only didn't need the report redone with more data, it was pretty obvious she could have gotten along without having the report done in the first place. kinda irritating, since it took me a lot of time over a couple of days with putting off other of my work to get this frivolous report done.

regardless, i really hated missing those tabs. especially since the big boss saw it. damned excel. damned, damned excel. mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble, mumble...

vingnette ~ The 11th Planet, chapter 3

He tossed his backpack and duffel in the skimmer and headed out of town. Might as well do some exploring, he thought.

It was only three years ago that settlers had come to this planet. The terrain was flat, rocky, dusty, and fairly inhospitable. After quite a bit of searching, the first settlers founded a community in the only logical place -- right over a vast chamber of water which only stretched about five miles across, but was deeper than they could estimate.

With a little bit of construction here, hydroseeding there, and adjusting to the local peculiarities, a base of about 1500 people had materialized and settled in -- give or take 20 or 30 in any given week, the difference being travelers and visitors. The planet was positioned as a good stopping point and had finally been added to most of the runs in this solar system.

In spite of the fact that almost all of the planet was very unfriendly, Mark’s curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had loaded up with enough supplies to stay away from the town for at least four days. He had sophisticated travel gear in his backpack, so there was no worry about getting lost or not making it back to town, and as he glided on out he started a rudimentary cataloging and mapping system to help him make sense of the sameness.

The skimmer smoothed along as he checked the area ... rocks here, rocks there, rocks, rocks, rocks. But the sun was warm, the temperature a steady 48 degrees, and the isolation soothing to his soul.

Damn that mess at headquarters! But unless a miracle occurred and he found out who had sabotaged him, it wouldn’t do any good to replay the horrors he’d faced. What was done was done and he was light-years away from all that malignance. He forcibly reminded himself there was no way they could trace his location, wormholes being undependable that way, and he dragged his attention back to the rocks.

Taking a deep breath, he studied what was ahead. There actually is variety in the landscape, he realized after several hours. What looked like simply a pile of rocks at first, eventually became recognizable as a crescent-shaped pile or an amorphous-shaped pile, a lateral pile, a steep pile or a pyramidal pile. There was never variation on the rest of it though -- no vegetation or life-forms, and never any water. There was no soil either, the gritty surface varying from small pebbles to large stones, without any uniformity or shape to the overall design.

But finally, after he’d been exploring and observing for about eight hours, it occurred to him that there actually was order to the placement of the crescent-shaped rock piles. He had kept to an easterly path all day and eventually noticed the crescent rock piles, or cressies as he had begun thinking of them, showed up at a regular rate. Sometimes they were off to the left of the skimmer and sometimes off to the right, but they were definitely more prevalent than any of the other formations.

He decided to check out one such formation about the same time he realized it was time to eat some supper. He swung over to the rocks, circled them slowly so as to make sure there were no surprises around, although he couldn’t imagine what would pass for a surprise in this desolation, then stopped the skimmer just outside the crescent area.

He ate and mulled over the possibilities that the placement of these rocks did not seem to be random. Yet if they weren’t random, that meant purpose, and purpose meant intelligence, and he’d never yet heard of an intelligent rock.

Grinning, he remembered that his grandfather invariably had to remind him that the universe was much more complex and diverse than we could ever imagine. Mark, everything you can see is just the beginning. There are things out there you can’t see, sounds you can’t hear, and wonders you can’t imagine. As long as you stay open to possibilities, you just may realize those things are there when they appear in front of your nose.

Thinking about his grandfather made him sad, then mad, as his thoughts segued to Hilson and the mess he’d ended up in. Sighing, he jerked his thoughts back to the rocks and finished his meal.

When he cleaned up and put everything away, he left the skimmer and walked to the center of the crescent. They were actually pretty rocks up close. From three feet away he could see blue and green in the fissures of the rocks, and occasionally a deep purple.

He chuckled. I haven’t enjoyed looking at rocks since I was a kid, he mused, and shook his head at himself. Gingerly dropping to his knees, he was reaching out to touch the rock when he realized there was a lateral opening in the center of the crescent. He hadn’t noticed it before, which seemed astonishing because now that he could see it, it was obvious. It was about two inches high and ran across the center of the formation for about two feet.

He moved his hand toward the opening and felt cool air. That’s a surprise ... I wonder what’s down there? Then he moved his hand above the cool air and touched the rock. It was warm and almost soft and, oddly enough, made him feel ... happy. Whoa, that’s weird, but as he withdrew his hand, the area where he was kneeling collapsed inward, throwing him down on the inside of the rock.

coincidental events

My Older Son and daughter-in-law had an unusual experience earlier this week. she had emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. they didn't even know she was pregnant until the morning of the surgery. she'd been having some bleeding, then started feeling a lot of pain. after seeing several doctors, they admitted her, and decided to do the surgery that afternoon.

she lost about 5 liters of blood (it had collected in her abdominal area), but they got the situation under control and she came home the next day. her mom went over to stay and help out.

the grandaughter's first birthday party is sunday (the birthday is really monday) and dau-in-law still wanted to have it, so we're heading down tomorrow. it will be fun and if dau-in-law needs to rest that won't be a problem.

the grandaughter is getting big and is into everything. she's a smart little puppy and i expect that won't change. they're going to need to be on their toes to keep up with her.

since they hadn't realized about the pregnancy, it wasn't traumatic to lose the baby. a friend told me that the same time dau-in-law was having her experience, my friend's son and girlfriend (who was 5 months along) lost their baby. s and r were very upset about it and since the baby was beyond 20 weeks old, a funeral service needed to be involved. they handled the whole thing in a very spiritual way which i loved hearing about. s is a very sensitive young man and i figure he will work through the experience just fine. i haven't met r, but i'm sure she's a lovely person -- a perfect complement to a wonderful young man. it just wasn't their time yet.

and the universe marches on.

once-a-year

for our annual trip this year, mary and i went to port townsend. i had this thing about wanting to ride the train, so i took amtrak from bellingham to edmonds, got off, met mary, got in her car, drove around the block to get in line for ferry tickets, and 10 minutes later we were on the ferry which, nicely, is right-next-door to the amtrak station. thirty minutes later we got off the ferry and took a lovely 30 minute drive to port townsend. life doesn't get any better than that.

we stayed at fort worden which is a big, beautiful campus with old buildings, some of which are for admin purposes, and some of which are rentable -- duplexes, little houses, rv and tent sites, and a hostel.

we stayed in a little house which had a kitchen, living room, bathroom with shower and towels, and three bedrooms. the kitchen was fully equipped, all we needed to bring was the food.

the weather was perfect -- sunny and around 70*. we checked out the whole fort worden area including the castle (a three-story stone house which can be rented but has only 1 bedroom), the lighthouse, and the observation balloon building. the balloon building was a real stumper -- it is about 3-stories tall with huge doors on one end and several balconies on one side. we finally found the info which explained it was used to house observation balloons for three years back around 1918 and that it is now a pavilion. no further explanation, however, as to whether it's used or rentable or what. very curious building.

we shopped in port townsend (the fort is on the outskirts of town) which has lots of wonderful shops and eateries. there was a health food store for provisions and a goodwill for books.

our favorite eating places were Victorian Square Deli (underground) and the Landfall Restaurant with a gorgonzola and carmelized onion burger which is absolutely to die for!!!

i decided i really liked the town and when i came home i told the husband i thought we should move there. he readily agreed. so as soon as this housing market shows some energy, we will revisit the issue and get serious about maybe making a change. i expect it to be no sooner than 2-3 years, though.

an excellent vacation and one which recharged our batteries. yay for girlfriend get-aways!

overheardinnewyork

Man: Hey, is that postcard in 3D?
Woman: Nope. It's just normal d.

Student #1: Yeah, but for Christmas break I'm gonna be in South Carolina.
Student #2: Really? I'm gonna be in North Carolina! Maybe we'll run into each other!

Thug #1: Nigga, you all old-like 'n shit. You be like, sixteen goin' on sixty.
Thug #2: Me?! Nigga, you got that shit all backwards. Look at Jerome. He be sixteen goin' on dead.

Father, to five-year-old son: I had no idea you liked AC/DC!

Mother, to son in stroller watching two shady characters: Oh, a drug deal! Sam, your first drug deal encounter.

Girl #1: Oh my god, he is *so* hot!
Girl #2: That's a woman!
Girl #1: Oh my god! Does that make me gay? Am I gay?

poor yorick

hello again!

i don't know how it ends up that i have no time, but it's true. i need to tell you about my trip with my girlfriend, but it's time for me to get ready for work so ... alas.

i have another vignette i need to put in, but no time ... alas.

and i have other details i need to impart, but ... alas.

and it doesn't look like it's going to get a lot better. but i will try. for now -- the trip was great, the vignette is two-parts, my daughter-in-law had emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy and they hadn't even know she was pregnant but she's fine now, i'm getting a new computer, my grandaughter's first birthday is next monday, and i know there are more things which, of course, i can't think of now.

later.

alas.

coming right up

the girlfriend and i are taking our annual trip this weekend. we used to be gone for a week, but we're both so popular these days that it has been cut back. friday i'm taking the train south and when i get off the train i'll head next door to the ferry, meet her, and off we'll go into the wild blue. then we'll head back to civilization on monday, do some final things, and go our separate ways.

i expect to have a lovely time with lots of catching up, eating of wonderful foods, reading, and touristing.

next agenda: scotland!

astro-physics man

My Younger Son had his quals today. they're a very big deal. he did an excellent job of preparing himself for the ordeal and came through with flying colors! he was only stumped by one question out of the many the four advisors asked and he felt really good about the whole experience.

i am soooooooo proud of him! and for him, too!

now it's onward and upward to his ph.d. he's got about six projects in the mill and when he gets them finished, he'll be close to the prize.

isn't he excellent?!

today is ...

Mmmmmmm, i smell the smell of home-made bread, fresh from the bread maker. the loaf is filled with sesame seeds, flax, pearl millet, oats, pecans, cranberries, cherries, and cinnamon. delicious!!!

it's a lazy day today. raining, cool, quiet. the thermostat is set on 50* and it's about 65* right now. i'm comfortable with a couple of silk turtlenecks, a polartec vest, and polartec pants. this weather is just my style!!

the husband hired a young friend to install an awning over our west-facing window. the window is huge (58" by 52") and in the summer it lets in LOTS of light. and heat. so with the awning, we'll still have lots of sky-view, but the sun will have less entrance into the kitchen. it looks great and i think it will work nicely.

our next project will be to put a pergola on the deck. we found plans for a lovely-looking one and are anxious to get the project started. when that's finished we hope to plant some bushes strategically so as to maximize the privacy of our small yard. i think it's all going to turn out great.

make-up

heads up -- clinique is having their twice-yearly gift-with-purchase in bellingham at macy's october 12-26.

teeth, 2

and so while i was at the dentist office, they mentioned doing that test where they slide this super-sharp needle under your fingernails, i mean under your gums so they can take this mysterious measurement to see if you are having any gum disease.

that frickin' test hurts. i hate it. i don't want it. i told them so. they were unhappy/nervous. i love my dentist though, and she came in to talk with me about the whole thing saying it was something that was supposed to be done yearly, and that it had been three years since it had been done, and i asked who made this law or rule, and she said lawyers.

well, shit. so we talked a little longer and reached a compromise and went ahead with the test. as it turns out it was a good thing to have done. if a person gets 1, 2, or 3 with this test, that is normal. if they get a 4, that is a warning. if they get a 5, that means there is the grumblings of dental disease starting and measures need to be taken. i actually had several 5s.

considering how much trouble i take with my teeth, 5s is astonishing. i brush every day (sonicare) and sometimes twice, i floss at least twice a day, and i use that little rubber-tipped thingy to go around my gums while i'm sitting and reading.

so the hygienist told me about this little bristly toothpick thingy. i like it and bought a bunch. key-ryst ... i don't know what else i can do about these teeth.

but back to my original point -- there's a law or rule which says someone can invade your body against your will????? when did that rule get made? and how in the holy hell did the american public let it happen? that is so disgusting i can hardly sit still. it majorly pisses me off. and to my way of thinking, it is much, much worse than the motorcycle helmet law.