can't keep up...

is anybody else as tired as i am? it seems like things have happened non-stop since just before thanksgiving.

we had enough money this year to buy some decent presents. that's good.

we got to see My Older Son & Family. that's good.

we got to see My Younger Son. that's good.

we loved having the time once again with MYS -- seeing him once a year really sucks. but seeing him is totally fabulous! and now he's off to ireland (he went to italy last year, remember). i'm really curious as to his impressions of ireland -- he'll have a good write-up on his blog when he gets back.

and seeing MOS's young daughter is fun. although she seems to cry when i show up. *take offense? ignore?* she's about 11 weeks old or so and is different everytime we see her. doesn't cry as much as before, doesn't sleep as much as before, smiles now -- it would be neat to see her more often.

but back to the point -- we've been constantly busy and i'm bushed. i still have a small celebration at work i have to prepare for next week, but after that ... back to boring ole' reading and sitting in my rocking chair in my library. ;)

he yelled

my boss yelled at me yesterday. well, one of them did -- i have at least five bosses. there are other people who'd like to think they're my boss, but i take them with a grain of salt.

anyhow, i was typing away when i heard a rather loud "KAREN!" so i said loudly back, "What?" as locked my computer and jumped up to go see what was the matter -- after all, i know which side the butter's on. "THIS THING'S SHUT OFF!" he continued shouting (i get a kick out of this guy). as i rushed into the copy room, ala the lone ranger, i hurried past said boss straight over to the new fax machine, wondering how in the world it had been shut off.

"No, this thing, the copier," he said as i turned back, astonished that the fax wasn't the problem. i walked over to the copier and pointed to the large label pasted on the machine and repeated what it said, "After 4 hours of inactivity, machine shuts down. Press button to restart." i grinned at him. "You mean no one's used this thing for four hours?" he said. "Well, you've been in a meeting all morning," i pointed out. "Oh yes, that meeting," he said as he momentarily laid his head on his arm. but that's another story.

i love my job. and the people.

my morning cup of ...

i really like tea. particularly bigelow's constant comment. at least i used to like constant comment. lately it seems a little ... tannic? unorangy? something, anyhow, and that's made me go look elsewhere.

voila! i found a website which has a really great selection of teas (i ended up ordering $40 worth of the stuff). seeing as how i've been busy wrapping christmas presents, i haven't had a lot of time to try out all those teas i ordered, except for P.G. Tips. it's a strange name and the bag is strange, too. sort of a triangular-shaped bag turned sideways. yeah, hard to describe, but it works really well for the water-accessing-the-tea-and-getting-it-wet process. and combined with the apple blossom honey i ordered from an excellent road-side fruit place just beyond leavenworth, my morning tea drinking has become a lovely experience once again.

on the first day ...

just in case i somehow left you off the e-mail, here is a link you will want to watch -- it's great christmas fun!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

true crime -- small town beat

December 3: A woman brought her young grandson into the police department to have a police officer speak with him regarding the stealing of public library books. The grandson was appropriately counseled. The young man was compelled by family to return the books and pay for his misdeed. Case closed.

December 1: A resident called police concerned about kids playing in the snow-slickened roadway. An officer spoke to the intrepid duo and suggested they play over in the snowy grass off the roadway, where only the inexperienced motorists were driving. The kids accepted the suggestion and moved to higher ground, where they had a better view of the approaching enemy.

November 22: Border Patrol agents alerted police of a vehicle, which bore two different license plates. Officers contacted the driver. His explanation, that he had absent-mindedly forgotten to take the California license plate off the front of his car when he placed a new Washington license on the back, seemed plausible given the reeking odor of burnt marijuana emanating from his car. The driver was given a break on the license plates, and arrested for possession of the marijuana which he had not inhaled before police descended. The 23-year-old Seattle man was processed at the scene.

November 22: Border Patrol agents came upon a man sitting in the roadway in the dark beside his vehicle very late at night. Police responded and found that appearances were deceiving - the gentleman only appeared to be non-reflective. Actually, he had parked himself in the road for just that purpose and was hoping to shed light upon some personal issues. He declined all offers of assistance, but decided that he wasn't going to be able to get any serious thinking done until the police left, so he appeased them by getting out of the street and back into his car.

November 22: A 17-year-old gent borrowed the family SUV for a late night drive to the public pier with a couple of young ladies. He did not realize that it takes a vehicle approximately twice as far to brake to a stop on ice-slackened wood as on pavement. In this case a park bench, a big thick light standard, and two 12-by-12 inch retaining posts occupied that extra distance on the pier. These fixtures were all worse for wear following the SUVs passing, as was the vehicle itself. Fortunately no one was injured, and everyone was able to vividly recount the incident to arriving police officers.

what about july 5th?

i've done a lot, well, most, of my christmas shopping online. and a really cool site to look at is http://www.thinkgeek.com/index.shtml.

while i was there looking around, i saw a calendar which i just could not resist. it's the 2008 demotivators calendar. it's funny, and tongue-in-cheek (at least, i think it is), and has some really interesting tidbits (mostly computer or sci-fi) written on some of the days.

for example: "september 6 -- a computer error causes over 40,000 parisians with minor traffic violations to receive letters charging them with murder, extortion and other serious offenses (1989)" i don't know for sure they aren't making that up, but it's pretty funny regardless.

and then: "november 9 -- patent issued for 'apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force', which lets a pregnant woman be strapped to a circular table and spun to induce birth (1965)". hahahahahaha.......are they serious? hahahaha -- that's just hilarious!

for moments of brilliant levity, buy it.

don't be hasty

beware of e-mailed coupons. read this article -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22119051/ -- and it will make you very nervous.

you have to be so careful of your web site surfing, so careful of your e-mail, so careful careful careful. gees, i hate those bad guys.

my husband fred, android 67402

i just read an article on sex with robots. i found myself chuckling embarrassedly through the whole thing, and wondering what that told about me especially since the husband is outstanding in that area.

then there's the 'vote' part of the article -- i chuckled at it, too.

i've always found sci-fi to be utterly fascinating and love reading futuristic books, but this idea caught me off-guard. sex with robots, marriage with robots, ethical treatment of robots. wow -- what a bunch of concepts.

at any rate, the guy in the article recently got his ph.d. (in the netherlands, no surprise there) on human-robot relationships, and says the first state to legalize human-robot marriages will be ..... which one do you think? he says massachusetts. i would have guessed california.

star light, star bright

like to see shooting stars? the Geminids are supposed to be active right now, with peak activity on the night of december 13-14, and their displays are supposed to be especially good this year.

as it turns out, the husband saw a shooting star just yesterday. and since it was before i read the article, i couldn't offhandedly say, "oh yes, that's the geminids."

anyhow, i think i'll bundle up and go sit out in the dark this evening.

the sands of time

things change, people move on. i'd forgotten about a couple of blogs i used to read voraciously, but just now thought about them and decided to give them a quick look.

one -- http://slimbolala.blogspot.com/ -- is delightfully written by a young dad who, with his wife and two young daughters, lives in new orleans and has nothing but good to say about living there. i think he has a job with computers, but he also spends time drawing wonderful faces on his blog.

the other -- http://www.sundrymourning.com/ -- is written by a young mom (who's pregnant again) who lives with her husband and gorgeously cute little boy in seattle. she has a sharp wit which is unduplicatible -- she's says stuff i would never say because it seems to be negative, but it turns out to be just hilarious.

at any rate, if you're looking for something to do, cruise on over to either of those sites and peruse them to your heart's content. because it will be.

what kind of mind ...

okay, all you family members who would like to know what kt did for thanksgiving -- go to his november 24 post. read it and enjoy the pictures, then at the bottom of the post where he says 'wish you a happy thanksgiving in person', click on the link. you'll have to wait about 5 minutes or so (unless you have dial-up, then the wait is more like 92 hours) for it to download, but then -- whoa! very cool!! watch out, george lucas!

one ringy dingy ...

i had a bit of time yesterday and ended up reading (in wikipedia) about area codes. it actually was fascinating.

there are several ways to introduce new area codes and all ways leave the introducers hated by the masses.

i went to the link to the fcc and read more. did you know there are places in this country where you need to dial all 10 digits even if you're calling your neighbor next-door? 'tis true. we in western wa narrowly missed that scenario back in 2001. whew!

excitement where you least expect it ....

wee one

we drove down to see our sweet little grandaughter today. she has gained 5 pounds since birth (6 weeks old now) and is beautiful! she looks just like her mom did at that age (daughter-in-law had pictures).

she likes to be moving, however, and will cry if you don't walk around while you hold her. i'm not sure why that is, but hey, whatever works.

so i got to hold her today and she and i walked around the house and she looked around and later even gave me a smile. ahhhh, little cutie! when she started fussing i shifted her around mostly on her tummy and carried her that way. sometimes pressure on their tummies feels good.

we only stayed a couple of hours but mom, dad, and baby looked happy. and so are we!

watch out!

boogedy, boogedy -- if you aren't aware of how you can be scammed by people who give you a check for something, you need to pay attention.

Canada, as benevolent (?) as our neighbor is, has a huge ring operating and preying on U.S. citizens. Other scam artists are located in Nigeria, the Netherlands, and England.

want to know what a counterfeit check looks like? go here: http://www.ckfraud.org/counterfeitcks.html

the scams? one is that you are given a check which is more than the amount due you, you deposit the whole thing, take out your amount, then wire the remainder. the check bounces. even when the bank says it has cleared, it may come back later and insist the check didn't clear and you are liable for the whole amount. man, that's a nightmare! in fact, read the whole article -- it will make you not want to take any check.

so -- we can't take a check, we can't take money -- the counterfeiters are everywhere. supposedly you are supposed to be able to use an online payment system, like PayPal, but they had their own problems awhile back with people posing as them.

this last article has some really good advice, though, about only taking a check on a local bank. still, it makes me nervous. i guess the answer is, rather than trying to sell something just give it away!

be one with nature

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

lots of love going out to our friends, relatives, and neighbors. we have sooooo many things to be thankful for and really feel blessed. may the universe bless you as well.

the husband and i wish you sunny days, starry nights, pleasant breezes, and double-rainbows.

in with the old

the husband and i watched U.S. Marshals (1998) tonight. sure, we've seen it before but it's been awhile. i have to tell ya, if you haven't seen it or if it's been a lot of years, watch it (again). we'd forgotten a lot of it and tommy lee is good. so are the others. tension and good music, too.

do you speak '60s?

"I knew I'd been living in Berkeley too long when I saw a sign that said 'Free firewood' and my first thought was 'Who was Firewood and what did he do?'" -John Berger

ahahaha -- those were the days .....

vignette ~ Harry's Dead

Clang. Clang. Clangittyclangitty. Clang. The wind kept knocking something metal against the library’s flag pole. It’d gotten a lot colder this evening. More wind plus cold equals hell-of-a-lot colder, and I hunched up my shoulders and pulled my arms in close to my body as I hurried along.

One more block and then I was in my cold coffin of a car, starting it up and quickly shutting off the blower which I’d left on ‘cause it was blowin’ nice and warm when I’d gotten out. The trees waved their branches up and down in the streetlight, making animated pick-up sticks shadows on the pavement as the engine idled a bit. No one else was out and about as I pulled away from the curb and headed on home.

Dammit Harry, why’d you have to go and die just when things were looking up? Harry was the nice old man I’d been renting a room from, just until I could get on my feet. But I came home for lunch today and found Harry sitting awful still in his favorite chair in the living room. The police said he’d died peacefully and since they verified I’d been at my job when Harry’d been granted his wings, they didn’t accuse me of anything.

I had cried. Not that I’m a big baby or anything, but I was gonna miss ole’ Harry. He’d gotten to me and that was unusual. I mean, nothing touches a loner, right? The police said I might want to spend the night somewhere else, but hey. I got no place else to go, right? So I just said no, thanks, I wanted to watch over Harry’s stuff, and they left me alone.

Because I did want to watch over Harry’s stuff. What I hadn’t told the police was that when I came home today, I could tell that someone had been there. It had sprinkled and the driveway had a large spot which wasn’t the same wetness as the rest. And there was a wadded-up paper towel and a newspaper clipping on the front porch. I picked them up and put them in the trash ‘cause ole’ Harry likes to keep things neat, but I wondered how they’d gotten there in the first place. The wind was blowing at the back side of the house not the front and besides, the front had a lot of bushes and things.

So now that the excitement was over and I was in bed thinking back over the day, it occurred to me that maybe Harry hadn’t had such a peaceful exit after all. I thought about it for awhile as I listened to night-sounds through my open-an-inch-even-in-the-wintertime window. The wind had died down and I was finally heading off to dreamland when the nagging that had started in my head a little bit ago finally got my attention. Something or someone was carefully and quietly walking across the porch. Well, wait ... maybe the wind picked up again, blowing at the front of the house this time.

I focused, then listened a bit, then started smoothing back down the road to dreamland, when I heard some kind of clicking at the front door. Then the door opened. Ohmygod, can you die from adrenaline overload? Maybe not, but you can die from other things that I really didn’t want to find out about.

I threw back the covers, grabbed my jeans, boots, and wool sweater, and practically rammed myself through the screen-less window that Harry was never going to get fixed now.

I headed straight for the three pine trees in the corner of the yard and scrunched behind them, trying to get dressed and looking to see if anyone showed up. Slapped my jeans on, slipped the sweater over my head, and crammed my cold tootsies in my shearling-lined desert boots. This was going to work for a little while, as long as the wind didn’t pick up again, but really -- it was simply the wrong time of year to be starting an adventure.

I scoped out the alley, then headed down it, figuring it was only about four blocks to Macy’s farm on the edge of town. There was hay up in the barn and I could sorta keep warm in there. Come morning, though, I was going to have to figure out what to do.

go, team, go!

they caught a bad guy at work today. it's not that unusual, really -- they seem to find drugs or pests (agriculture) or something which isn't allowable on a regular basis. i just usually never hear about it.

but today i knew about it as it was unfolding. not that i was in the middle of it, but one of the top guys left the office for a bit and then there was a lot of activity outside and i could see it from my top-floor window.

sooooooo cool!! down with the bad guys and up with us!!!

oh, good grief

'politically correct' is one thing, but 'ridiculous' is another.

for quite a while now i've thought the p.c. idea has gotten totally out-of-hand, but yesterday a couple of co-workers told me that gossiping at work had gotten three people, from some company in this country, fired.

fired. for gossiping. i'm sorry, i just think that's stupid. sticks and stones and all that, so grow up.

the freedom of speech issue aside, unless someone can go back in time and take roseanne off the air, along with all the hateful, snide, snotty-commenting programs since, it's going to be hard to get workers to stop being so catty/snotty/hateful.

people have always been that way, but i think it's gotten worse since being negative was okayed by hollywood. good manners aren't nearly as valued as a quick, nasty wit.

i'd like to see political correctness die a quick death and i'd love a return to good old-fashioned manners. i don't mind all-inclusive terms like mailman, councilmen, brotherhood, etc. and i love someone opening the door for me, allowing me to exit first, helping me on with my coat. so there. pppffffththttttt.