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Showing posts from April, 2009

Tee Hee Hee :)

I'm not one to spend money on myself often, but I did get myself a sweet present recently. It is called a "Cuttlebug" and it embosses and cuts out paper with dies. Fun! It wasn't very expensive, BUT there is a reason. The dies and embossing plates come separately. Bummer. So I can't play much, yet! It has been nice having the sound system David set up for me at Christmas, but the news is so depressing and the stations are driving me nuts. I try to use the CD changer but I need more music. I listen to the same ones again and again. One disadvantage of living in a small town without a good classical music station. I'm also working on Reid's knitting machine and have made massive headway getting it working. I think just another half hour or so and I will be knitting. I will make a forty-seven foot long scarf for Cathryn so she will be warm as a mummy in Alaska! Allen is enjoying his work in Djibouti, whatever it is, and finds it very fulfilling. He is getting...

No Worries!

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  I just realized I don't have to worry about getting through a depression/recession. I have pictures and I know how to use them!

Reid's Geese

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This is from my friend, Reid, who loves his geese, He says if he goes in the pen in shorts, they will attack his legs, so he has to wear long pants. He takes Archibell (okay, now we know it really IS Archibald) with him in the ca.: Had a problem with two of my ganders fighting the other gander - solution separate them. He looked lonely so I found a year old female goose - not purebread like mine other ones but ooh so sweet. When I go into the pen she comes up to me even if I try to get away. At night when I check the water she comes to greet me and follows me along the fence where ever I go. Her name is Virginia since I had to drive to South Boston to find her. Apparently a hand raised goose of an old man that had to go into the hospital.

Psychelica

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Did you see this? Some divers in eastern Indonesia found this fish with legs that hops along the floor of the ocean. Apparently, it had been found twenty years ago, but researchers had it on a jar somewhere in a lab mislabeled. As to the truth of this, it was reported in BBC and ABC news, and not on April Fools Day. Do we trust them?

Bunny Attack!

I realize it is extra dusty in Virginia, but don't know why. There have been several really dusty computers lately. One was so bad, it totally quit working. I cleaned out a bunch of dust bunnies the size of chick peas. Tonight I had another one that quit working with dust bunnies the size of rabbits' feet! The first started working after I cleaned it and reseated the boards. It was only nine months old and they were lucky. Another one looks like some capacitors burned the mother board. The third one, okay it is eight years old which is about 120 in human years, and I won't be able to save it. It will go to the great internet in the sky. A fourth I cleaned in the client's home and came home covered with the dust. I now try to do it outside. I always thought buying canned air was stupid, but I have cleaned out so MUCH dust that I no longer think so. In fact, I am far from a neatnik, but you really should clean your computer each year. Sometimes I use a hair dryer on cool ...

Nursery Duty

We had a teacher shortage at church today and I was called in to babysit the nursery for an hour. Four 2-3 year olds. One stood by the door and cried for half an hour before her mom came and got her. One climbed on everything, just to climb. He spent fifteen minutes standing on a chair just so he could turn the lights on and off and on and off and on... The last two were a girl and a boy. He is all boy. Moving nonstop just picking up a toy and studying it or moving it, then another, then another. It was impossible to clean up anything since he would immediately get it out again. The girl was in a mood where everything someone else touched was hers and she would just grab it. At 2 1/2 she is just a little too young to understand things like please and ownership. When I tried to correct her, she burst into tears until I was able to distract her. She was so mad at me that she told me I'm not allowed to go to grandma's for cookies. Her favorite game was snap the top of Debbie's...

Cleaning Out

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I took everything down from my china cabinet yesterday and am sorting through it because of a gravy boat. When I was home last time, mom gave me a new gravy boat and it doesn't fit. I have a huge built in china cabinet and it has been building up over the years, so I guess it is time to start "weeding". We had missionaries and some men from the church over two nights ago. It was me and five men. I decided to use the good china. I don't think they noticed, but I did and it made me feel happy. They seemed to like the cake I baked for them. David has been working overtime on a DVD for the group of students we had the first year we went to Antwerp. He stays until very late each night and is stressing over it a lot. I know we will both be happy when it is finished. Cathryn has a new boyfriend. Read her blog to see the details. He is very nice. He called two nights before to ask for my permission to ask her to be his girlfriend. They went out to a seven course mushroom din...

Some Lessons are Too Good to Keep to Myself

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said okay, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little.. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no o...

I Hate Computers!

I fixed a computer a week ago, got it happy and humming along, and couldn't deliver it, which was okay since it was a laptop and kind of the second in the house. This morning, just before I delivered it to the owner, I decided to check it out one more time. Blankety blank AOL wouldn't work. All kinds of weird problems with it. Ugh. I had reloaded the OS so it should be fine. Stupid computer. Allen wrote a wonderful letter talking about the people in Somalia. He says they have their entire lives, housing, food, hospitals, schools, water, etc. given to them by the US. He goes to see the camps and they all have their hands out the whole time. The biggest criticism? We aren't doing enough. Ingratitude ruins so many lives. I think we need to be teaching gratitude in the schools we provide!

Mother is Driving Me Crazy!

Okay, I'm at my mom's in Raleigh, or at the hotel five miles way, and my brother and sister and their families are here. Some random things: They had a wedding in the middle of the hotel during free happy hour and it was kind of strange. Mom's friend Reid stopped by to introduce me to his pet goose Archibell (who was Archibald until Reid realized he was a girl). My friend Diane gave me some really fresh chocolate from where she works at Hershey's and she is my new best friend. I am sharing it with my siblings. Lots of people are getting this flu. David and I are good so far. We had a great dinner tonight, 11 of us, at a wonderful Chinese Restaurant. My chiropractor says high carbohydrate diets cause depression, ADD and many other problems. He says I need to go to dockeryclinic.com and follow the stretching video he has there. I am seriously blessed, friendwise, talentwise, healthywise, familywise, okay, I'm getting carried away with the wises!

Bed Will Feel Good Tonight!

I got up early to get to my BNI business breakfast, Bank of America to transfer some money but computers were down, another bank to transfer other money, shopping, running around getting signatures for my neighbor to get on the ballot to be re-elected as a state delegate, then to the Community Center to help since my church was preparing dinner for my Ruritans tonight. I was on my feet pretty much all day so I the back is not happy. Tomorrow is recorder from 9-12, turn in the signatures, return a computer, and then run off to Raleigh for the weekend. I'm always excited when my family will be there. I love my siblings and their families and my mom. David went to the doctor and has been told his pain is from acid reflux. He needs to be stressed less. I guess I need to go around and intervene on anything that might stress him out -- not that I don't or that it would be stressful on me.

Humor

"A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself." ~Clifton Paul Fadiman Isn't this an interesting quotation? I think it means that to be truly funny, your first reaction is that YOU weren't expecting it, so the joke is always on you. That's why a joke isn't funny the second time. But more interesting, is the idea that every joke is on "you". And you can never really explain a joke, because to do so implies that the other person is too stupid to figure it out himself and that is just plain embarrassing rather than funny. I love people who can joke well and have a great sense of humor like my friend Adair. He always has a whole repertoire up his sleeves. Each email he ends with another silly one-liner. I wish I could cultivate that quality! "A joke is a very serious thing." ~Winston Churchill

Emergency Room and Banquet

Two opposites to write about! David went to the Emergency Room with chest pains Sunday night. He said it felt like a rubber band popped in his chest and then sharp pricks continued for several hours right in the middle of his chest. He had to consciously move the muscles to breathe, was somewhat disoriented, and said it felt as if a brick was put on his chest. I say these things so I can remember them if something comes of this, because we went to AMC, after 45 minutes they did and EKG which the tech said looked fairly normal, and then came home after another hour. We never got to a room or saw a doctor and David felt like if they thought it was serious they would have triaged him. He's still alive. Personally, I think it is his lungs and he has an appointment with his UVa lung doctor next week, so that is good. Last night was the Skyline Literacy banquet. My recorder group had a group of nine playing there. A nice meal was catered by Hanks BBQ. There were 400 people there, with si...

Conference Sunday

Twice a year, church is canceled all over the world and we watch Salt Lake City talks on television. Today was one of those days, and I really, really enjoy them. I tend to get a lot of mending done at the same time! My friend's daughter was hanging around while I was fixing her computer recently. We got to talking about coffee and tea, and she said in exasperation "I just can't imagine why God would send you to hell for drinking a cup of coffee!" Huh? Did I say that? A big difference between Mormons and other churches is that in other churches, you toe the line or go to hell. Period. Mormons never talk about going to hell. Not as a threat to be good. You never hear about a fire and brimstone place. In fact, God loves all of his children so much that even the murderers will be sent to a place that is nicer than earth, but "hell" is living without the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus. Only a small handful, those who knew the truth and tried to lead peopl...

Flirt!

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  Yes, I caught David flirting with Ms. Penelope Pifflepoffle at the play tonight at the Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren. No, the butler didn't do it, nor the headwaiter either. Oh, well. A good time was had by all! lol There were two MORE third-party charges on our phone bill this month, one not wiped off from last month plus a new one. Bummer. It took me a few hours to get it hopefully cleaned off. Verizon says that you ARE allowed to put a password on your account so they can't put on a third party charge without knowing the password. They also say you can just block third-party charges, which David tried last month but apparently didn't work. Funny, they put the charge on but YOU have to take the time to get it off. Guilty until proven innocent. They won't tell you when or where you filled out a form on the internet, but you are supposed to prove you never did. My question is, how can ANYbody actually WORK for a company like that, dealing with people who you...

April's Fool

Sam and Michele always like to do something fun for April Fool's Day. Yesterday, he was out of town so I offered my help. Michele had to take A to Scouts at 7:00, so the plan was that I would stop at the house after they left, M (the 16 year old daughter) would give me the extra set of keys, and I would go move the car, backing it up and pretend it had slipped out of gear or something. I would run into the church yelling that there had been an accident and they would think she just hadn't put it in park. Then we decided to just move the car to another parking place in the lot and have A tell his mom that he remembers her parking it there. He could keep her going for a while on that one. But Michele took all the keys in the house, so we had to change plans. I picked up M, we stopped at the Dollar Store, picked up a few supplies, and went to the church to decorate the car. But Michele had decided to leave without telling anyone. Everyone thought she had gone home. So we went to t...

Internet Reboot Tonight at 11.59 PM EST

As you may have heard in the news, the Internet will be rebooted today and is expected to be down for around one minute. A global consortium of ISPs and technology companies has called for the action following several periods of instability over the past few years. A spokesman for the group commented: People forget that the Internet has been running continuously since the 1970s. This reboot will provide greater stability for years to come. We’re also hoping it will result in fewer viagra and scam messages. The plans have been meticulous and all information will be backed up to CD and tape drives. No one should lose data as a result of the reboot, but everyone is advised to: Shut down all Internet applications such as web browsers, email clients, and instant messengers shortly before the reboot. Wait at least a minute before restarting any applications. The process is especially hazardous for the Internet technicians handling the restart. One specialist - who wished to remain anonymous ...