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.