Making it official

Obviously it's been quite some time since I've updated this blog, but I'm going to "officially" declare that this blog won't be updated for a while.

The week before Christmas our eldest dog, Gabby, was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure. It's been a difficult time as we struggle through the ups and downs that go with that. I started another blog as a place for me to "talk" about what's been going on. I'd say it's more for my own form of self therapy than anything, but also for a place for anyone who is interested in how Gabby's doing. Or maybe someone some day may be going thru the same thing and run across it.

Click here to read that blog.

Saving Grace

I don't watch this show, but happened to have it on while merrily posting stuff for sale on eBay. I think I like her because of lines like this (after police dog and bad guy were both injured, referring to the bad guy):

I don't give a shit about him, we've got an officer down.

Holy Crap, I'm 40

Ok, so I turned 40 last week...but today was the first day I actually had to write it down on a form at the Dr's office. Ouch....

There's really not much more to say on that topic!!

I think my electronics are sensitive...

...and not in the way you might think.

A few months ago I decided to buy a new camera. If you ask me it was because I "needed" one; or at least I needed a point and shoot with an optical zoom greater than 3x and preferably more than 4 mega pixels. Needed. Really. True, my other Canon point and shoot (s410) was a dutiful little camera. A workhorse if you will...and never gave me an ounce of trouble...that is until I came home with a new camera.

As is typically the case, I had shot a lot of pictures that week with the 410 (most of Gabby for those that are curious) and was just browsing thru cameras at Circuit City when I saw the one. What? A point and shoot with a 10x optical zoom? Reeeeeeaally. Oh, I must have it. So I bought it.

The next morning we were going somewhere, can't say that I remember where, but it's really not important to the story. I go to grab the new camera and then I realized OOOoops. I was so enthralled with reading the manual when we got home that I totally forgot to charge the batteries. Bummer. Oh, well, good thing I have "ol' faithful". So I grab the 410. We swing by Starbucks for Cori and I waited in the car and decided to take pictures of things in the car. Yeah, it's something I like to do. When to my horror I realized that my camera that I had depended on for so long no longer focused!!!!! OMG! How could it be? I had never had a problem before! So I was sans camera for whatever it was we did that day...although I did turn on the old camera several times just in case it might suddenly start working again. It didn't. It still hasn't....I still try now and again, unable to let it go.

That whole experience was weird, but, after several days of debating whether my old camera had felt betrayed, I ultimately chalked it up to coincidence.

So anyway, fast forward a few months to last week. Now, before you say "shame on you" let me be proactive and say I know you should always keep some sort of backup of important files, pictures, etc just in case something goes wrong with your hard drive. But after several years of not having a backup and nothing going wrong (at least with personal computers), I was feeling ok. Then, for whatever reason, I decided last week that I really should have stuff backed up on an external drive. I decided on a drive and saw that Costco has a coupon for it the week of June 16th. Cool, I'll get it then.

Skip a little further forward to today. The ol' iMac is running a little slow. Hmm, ok, I'll reboot and see if that does anything. Ok, great. Now it won't boot up. Let's boot up from a disk and try and repair. Nope that fails to. Ok, put it in Target mode, other computers don't see it. Long story short and minus a few other details regarding failed attempts I have come to terms with the fact that my system is hosed. Maybe Disk Warrior will fix it, but I have to spend $100 just to find out. Otherwise I'll be shelling out a lot more money to retrieve the data as that iMac has, oh, just about everything that is important to me!

Now, I'm thinking that my original analysis of the camera situation was in fact a question of betrayal. And the most recent situation? I think my iMac thought I didn't trust it, so it's throwing a fit. That, or somewhere in my subconscious I know things are going to go wrong (driving the uncontrollable desire to shop).

Either way, it's creepy. And a little irritating.......

Overheard

While sitting at the airport, waiting for my severely delayed flight (right now a little over 2 hours) I hear this:

"Yeah, Julie. We have a passenger who has checked a box. That box has fish in it. Those fish can't go in the hold."

Who checks fish?

A little disturbing

I like taking the Mental Floss quizes. It's a fun way to see what random/odd information I have retained over the years.

I have to say, though, I'm a little concerned about the fact that I could identify a mere 45% of the state quarters, but 80% of Tom Hanks' pee scenes in movies.

In San Jose this week

You may recall the post a while ago regarding Cornelius and his dog Boo. I read an article fairly recently that Boo has been adopted and starting his new life. I had meant to post that update, but never got around to doing it. Then, yesterday, when we went out to lunch we walked by the corner where Cornelius and Boo sat on a regular basis...the same corner where Cornelius died.

There's a plaque installed there now, dubbing it officially Cornelius' Corner. He may be gone, but he won't be forgotten.

You know you're really bad about keeping your blog updated when...

you discover you're no longer a link on someone else's blog.

Ok, I deserve it, given my lack of updates. I've tried to be good, but just haven't been able to pull it off lately. :0( Sorry!

Dear Mr Squirrel, or, as I like to call you, Bucky....

Dear Bucky,

Why is it so hard for you to figure out how to use the Squirrel Diner that I bought you? I was so excited to put it up, as it seemed it should be so much more interesting (especially the variety of food that it offers) than the silly corn cob on a screw.

Sure, it's a little more complex, but squirrels are supposed to be clever! Don't you have a crack team of squirrel researchers who can figure this stuff out? I do have to tell you that your approach of chewing through the plastic window was not a good option. Brute force of this nature will get you nowhere, except maybe a visit to the squirrel dentist.

I've even tried to make it easier for you to figure it out. First I tried to prop it open with a stick. However I did realize, after looking at it myself, it did sort of resemble a trap...my bad....

So then I swapped the stick out for a corn cob thinking that would be much more attractive. It did seem to for a moment until that time you almost fell after grabbing the corn cob. You know the time I'm talking about? I didn't have the cob firmly planted in place, so as soon as you grabbed it the cob moved with your weight and you went swinging. I have to admit, I did chuckle a little...ok, I laughed out loud...but did you notice that I made sure it was nice and sturdy when I went out to place it back into position?

Then I stopped refilling the "corn cob on a screw." And, now, here we sit a few weeks later, an untouched corn cob in the diner.

I just don't get it.

You're all quite chunky... beefy...well fed. And the swiss cheese design you've made of our front garden, along with the shell remnants of peanuts you've left behind on our front porch make it clear that you are capable of gathering food.

Is it just too much of a challenge for you? We're going to put a platform underneath it, so maybe that will work. I've thought about putting out a little suggestions box for you, too, so you can let us know what's going on. I like your company, but I find myself getting tense with anticipation as you approach the diner only to have the let down as you walk away. We need to figure something out.

Signed,
The person who is trying to feed you

P.S. BTW, you might want to leave Cori's fern out of your digging...she's not very happy about that very deep hole you've managed to dig in the pot. Although, just between you and me, I'm a little impressed with precision with which you have dug.