Purple poppy

I changed the color of my poppy from blood orange to vivid purple. I chopped all my peonies and most of my poppies and brought them inside and put them in a vase of water. My cats won't leave them alone. They are so starved for fresh greens. I have purchased the alfalfa grass for them, but they throw it up. All over the house. Yuck!

So, my flowers sit atop the refrigerator. I hope I got all the ants off the peonies. I beat them (softly) against my cement porch and a few big black ants ran out.

I spoke to a friend today who was having computer problems. Her modem got fried by a recent lightning strike. I told her I thought I had an extra external one lying around. She lives in the boonies where the cable does not reach and it is far too expensive for her to connect via her dish satellite. DSL wasn't an option, either.

She is depressed. She lost her Mother a few months back while she was in the hospital with pneumonia. She must have an oxygen mask on most of the day and night because she also suffered from congestive heart failure.

My sisters are having a rough time, also. If it isn't money problems it is relationship problems or both. Everyone is tired. Tired of the economy, tired of rising prices, tired of next to no pay raises. Everywhere I turn - depression. Anger. Hostility.

Health care is costly and keeps going up. We ate wrong. We lived wrong. Now we are going to pay the price. Through our noses. My doctor just shook her head when I told her that I had a frozen TV dinner every day after school. The cheap brand. From a freshman in high school until I graduated. Or, a can of ravioli. I won't eat them to this day. I told her I don't blame my Mom. My dad didn't work. My Mom raised eight children, I was the youngest. All the rest of the birds had left the nest and I couldn't expect her to fix a meal for me. She didn't eat with me. So, yeah. My eating habits are bad. It is a lifelong struggle for me to break free of buttered toast dipped in coffee every morning, a bologna sandwich for lunch and a TV dinner for dinner.

Bread was cheap and we ate a lot of it. It was filling.

Repeat after me. I am an adult and I can make my own choices. I do not have to be a victim of my childhood. I recognize the incorrect way and it is up to me to choose the right way. Sounds like I was a child of alcoholics, eh? Well, I'll save that for another time. If I feel like it. I don't like to boo hoo.

The veterans are neglected. The elderly are neglected. Forgotten.

Things are looking very bleak around these parts.

Rolling in clover

I took more pictures of my peonies and poppies tonight. I was laying on the ground (rolling in the clover) to get the shots above of the clover. I need to cut my grass but I just didn't feel like it tonight. I'll probably regret this decision.

Last day of school tomorrow for my daughter. She has been busy bringing home art work and other stuff from school.

I went back to Relpax for my migraines. I didn't like the way Imitrex made me feel. It made me very sick. Kind of hot and flushed with my head not feeling right. Sort of like when you eat something bad. I had to ride it out. I'll call my doctor and explain to her that I will stay with the Relpax. It doesn't seem to work as well as it used to, but it works better than the newer one. (newer to me).

Life is fragile

Here is my little grand niece enjoying our cook-out for Memorial day. We had the cook-out on Sunday.

Without those that fell for our country, where would we be? What dictator would have his fist ruling over us?

Here is a little story I cooked up with pictures I took of the munchkins.

Making faces

Lately all my pets appear to be making faces at me. Maybe they are catching on to this camera thing. Actually, Sable is very camera shy. (I think it's the flash). She was in the beginning of a huge yawn when I snapped this photo. One of the biggest complaints about Canon cameras is the delay between pushing the shutter button and the actual taking of the photograph.

I've been cooking already this morning. My pets are confused. Bacon? There is something I cook only once or twice a year. Only for my calico beans. We don't eat the stuff. I am not fond of it. Now, sausage on the other hand.

My daughter requested that I make nacho cheese dip with sausage. I've not made it before, but I always wanted to. She liked it. I lost my appetite yesterday evening for some strange reason. I started to get a migraine and this is the first time I have taken my new medication Imitrex. It took a while to kick in.

Big family get together today. Not sure what the weather is predicted to be. I haven't looked. Right now we have cool and sunny. This event is forty minutes north of me. Starts at 2. I better get my camera ready.

I received a digital photo picture frame as a gift. I don't have the kinks worked out, but it is sweet. This one reads compact flash cards, many different types of memory sticks, usb (thumb drives) and a mini port for the camera.

We watched Yours, Mine and Ours last evening. I like Rene Russo and I can tolerate Dennis Quaid. Of course, I have seen the original movie with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.

I liked YM&O much more than Cheaper By the Dozen. I can recall reading the book back in the early 70's. I've never been a Steve Martin fan. Probably my favorite movies with Steve are Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Little Shop of Horrors. I can go around singing "Suddenly Seymour" all day, much to the chagrin of my daughter. (And most likely, my neighbors).

Surreal scene

I took one of my colorful patio twirlers and shot the camera through it. This is how it came out. I sharpened the photo up a bit with the contrast, but that was all. No color added. I have one other one that came out pretty neat, but all the rest didn't. I must be in a picture taking frame of mind these days. I just came back in today because of the rain. Sable (dog) and I were going to go for a walk.

I got all the supplies to make calico beans, taco layer dip and my usual cheese ball for tomorrow's cook-out at my sister's house. I am not certain I am going to have anyone here on Monday to cook for or not. I think my Columbus crew has to be back by that day.

My fingernails have had a growth spurt. I wish I knew what it is that makes them grow all of a sudden. Every three years or so (it used to be about once a year) I will notice that all of them are long and healthy. I hurry up and put clear polish on them. My Mom used to say it was digging in the fresh earth that did it. Maybe so. I used to recall my nails would grow around November, so I am not sure that is it. I was spared the habit of biting my nails. Two of my sisters do and my daughter does. The sister's cured their nail biting with fake finger nails.

I like my nails long, but it isn't practical when I am using a screw driver and working with the equipment that I do. It would be similar to working on car engines with long nails. It just wouldn't work. Since schools have not had much money to purchase anything, I am safe from breaking my finger nails. Probably for the entire summer. Here's to better funding in the fall.

I've discovered that the peony plant on the East side of my house is a different shaped flower than the one that blooms so well (on the West side). I bought them at the same time. This one looks a bit more like a rose when it starts out and has a wider outside petal that surrounds the flower. I have a couple of pictures and I hope to get more as the plant blooms better. I planted them five years ago. I had no idea it took that long for some flowers to bloom. I actually thought they died the first two years.

I am thinking that my hydrangea is going to take a year off from blooming. It is green and healthy but not very big. I may have pruned it back a bit too much last fall, but the web sites for the flower say that this is a good thing. I must be patient.

Time to get into the kitchen to start cleaning and cooking. Stupid rain.

Ants on my peonies

After my daughter's ultra sound we had breakfast at Denny's. She came home and went back to bed. I grabbed my camera because I had a poppy blooming and I tried many different shots of the ants crawling all over my peonies.

I blurred most of the shots, but about 30 came out relatively clear and four came out very clear with an ant or two to show for my trouble.

Then I went to work and played with Cisco's Security Device Manager. I am aware that this feature set came out a couple of years ago, but my schools have not had enough monies to purchase new equipment and when some finally did, I got to play.

For a few years, my home office did all the router configs and just handed the equipment off to the satellite workers. "Mount it on the rack and plug it in," they said. Except for a tweak here and there we did not have much configuration to do. My skills dwindled away. A sot off the street could have done the job.

Now, that I have four new routers and time to play I am learning again and am happy. It is hard to want to learn and do the valuable stuff, but you don't get the opportunity. If my home office is aware of how to use SDM, they haven't said anything. I called my co-worker in the other satellite office and showed him the feature. He liked it, too.

I am usually pretty good at documentation. Most of the instructions that I type up are for the school technology personnel and I post it on my work web page. No passwords are needed for this access. Router configuration and access needs to be kept in house and we do have a knowledge base located on our helpdesk to post instructions and other informational data but I do not have the privileges to post anything. So, I'll type up the step by step instructions and keep them to myself.

I had some folks chuckling today. I bought new garden gloves and when I mowed last evening the new blue dye faded onto my wrists. I saw it in the shower and washed most of it off. It left two blue/green lines across each wrist. I looked like I had handcuff bruises! I'll scrub harder tonight! LOL!

Close to bursting

Me and my peonies. I am close to cursing and bursting. I came inside the air conditioning to cool down. I had a rotten day as it was. No migraine. I don't even want to think about the monkey because I swear that will even trigger the monster.

I was in a vendor meeting all day. Four vendors trying to sell their stuff. Man, you want to talk about pompous airheads. They sure are full of it. Where do they get their arrogance? It really must be bred into them. Do they even realize how people make fun of them when they go?

Sigh. My niece took the wrong mower. She took mine instead of her brother's. He has this habit of purchasing a duplicate of almost each item that I do. Maybe he does this with everyone. I don't know. I bought a Craftsman 6.5 hp self propelled lawn mower, he bought a 6.25 hp one. I am left with that. I didn't check the oil because I was ticked off. It quit on me. I unscrewed the lid to the oil pan. Smoking. Nuts! I am lucky the thing didn't catch on fire. I am letting it cool off while I cool off.

Anyway, my peonies are ready to burst, too. Both plants on both sides of the house look like they are going to have a banner year. My tulips bombed this year, as did my lilacs. Hopefully, my orange tiger lilies will be vibrant. I am still anxious about my hydrangea. The plant is leafing out, but I won't know it's color. I want to add more of the sulfur stuff (or whatever it is that I have) but I am afraid of adding too much.

My daughter gets an ultrasound tomorrow morning at 6:30 for her stomach aches. She is not allowed to eat anything but clear liquids and jell-o all day. She says the jell-o is sickening. I agree. So, she is not eating anything. How can I eat in front of her? So we are both grouchy and hungry.

Let's just say I will be glad when tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. rolls around. She said that I have to take her out for the biggest breakfast ever. I hope she doesn't get a stomach ache from eating so much after 34 hours (or more) of fasting. She really hasn't eaten since 7 p.m. last night.

Green lake

Just a pretty picture I took on my way home Sunday. My daughter had left the graduation party with my sister, niece and nephew so I was able to take a back road and take my time and reflect on the get together. I am always sad when they are over. I want them to go on forever. I'm like the first to arrive and the last to leave.

Moose is watching me

Still shy sometimes

A couple of times I just grabbed our cat Moose and gave her a huge, big hug. Her reaction was not at all what I expected. She seemed to follow me around more after I did that. It seemed to have drawn her closer to me. She still does the dead goat thing. Above, she is watching me cautiously. She was probably hoping I wouldn't pick her up and hug her. Usually I am very quiet and calm with them, but she just was not coming around. Sometimes she sleeps on my bed so I know she doesn't hate me.

I don't know about The Lake House. I don't think either Ms. Bullock or Mr. Reeves have much acting range. It seems to me like they play the same character over and over in their movies. Their looks don't change, their personality does not change. I can tell Mr. Reeves by his walk even when he is clear across a field and Ms. Bullock does that little scrunching of her nose in every movie.

My daughter is scheduled for an ultra sound for stomach aches. I hope they don't find anything. I certainly don't want them to find gall stones.

Jasper makes a face at me

Aw man. This is ugly. I caught him at the right time to get this shot. He was laying in the sun enjoying the warmth and I was pestering him with the camera. He was sleepy and he made a face at me. Not exactly his best.

Jasper used to be very skittish. When we bought the house in 2002 we had just adopted Jasper and his brother Casper. At least I thought they were brothers. Jasper came and found us first and a week later brought Jasper. We lived at the apartment. Since I knew that I was purchasing a house I kept them around and fed them.

Jasper rarely came up out of the basement. Casper has always been very friendly. Jasper has become very affectionate the past year or more. Whenever I sit down it isn't one minute before he is in my lap. I talk to them, all of them.

Yikes!

Milo and Sable

A week or so ago my niece brought over her new kitten, Milo. My dog Sable was extremely jealous of her. Or, maybe just interested, I am not sure. She would lay between the kitten and the rest of us until finally she tired of the new critter. The other cats didn't care at all about the new kitten. The kitten went back home with my niece who is living with a friend for the summer. I get the feeling she wants to move back in with me.

I have a graduation party today. The weather does not look that great, but it is indoors. A lot of family is going to be there and I just feel that 4 hours is not near enough time to see and talk to everyone. Especially when there are going to be a lot more people than just family.

I also get family time next week during the Memorial day week-end. I am also looking forward to that.

I am having my summer bash on July 7th. I checked the town Park's website and that is the night they are putting off fireworks. I have the entire week prior to that Saturday off from work, so I hope to have my yard and house in order.

We ate at Damon's yesterday (my daughter loves their ribs). Her beau found a square of plastic in his 5-cheese sandwich. We notified the waitress so that she could inform the cook. She brought another sandwich out for him. His buddy challenged him to forgo eating meat for six weeks or so. He has been doing pretty well with it.

Saving as....

Open notepad or word pad and type the above onto the screen. Save the file to your desktop as filename.htm. You can call it whatever you want. I named mine personal.htm.

Close notepad (or wordpad). You should have an icon on your desktop titled filename.htm or whatever you named it. If you use Explorer it will be a blue lowercase e. Double click on the icon. It should open the page shown above.

This is the bare basics of creating a web page using html.

The first line:

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN" >

defines the doctype declaration. Actually, I am way behind in versions, so if one were to create a web page, you should go here for a list of current DTD (document type definition) to use.

The next line is HTML surrounded by the left and right carat symbols. This is the opening tag for Hyper Text Markup Language. (Basic web language).

The < > symbols form an opening statement. So if you open a statement, you must close it at some point and time. Closing the HTML tag looks like this: < /HTML >

The simple page above consists of the DTD, the HTML, Title, Head and body. I forgot to close the Center tag, so anything I add to the page would be centered.

What I am getting at here is you can view any web page on the Web. While viewing, take your mouse and click the right mouse button. This will bring up a pop-up menu. Using your left mouse button choose "View Source" . Depending on your browser you may have a different name for this feature. Firefox titles it "View Page Source" and Explorer calls it "View Source."

This will bring the source code up in a text formatted window. Save the file to your desktop. It should already have the extension of .htm or .html behind it. Close the text page and minimize your browser and any other programs you have open until you see your desktop.

Select the icon of the file you just saved by clicking on it once with your left mouse button. With the cursor still on the icon, click your right mouse button. This should bring up a pop up menu. Choose "Open with..." if you have that feature and open the file with word pad. (Notepad works, but word pad will filter out some very strange symbols that Notepad won't.).

Now, you can see the source code that folks use to write their web pages.

Sigh. Most use fancy canned packages like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. This is okay, but I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts. I wanted to create a web page from scratch. I have a long way to go and mine is not very fancy, but it is the way I like to do things.

The next time you are in your blog's dashboard area, cruise on over to the template section. Beginning with the < !DOCTYPE line and ending with the < /html >, select all of the text in between with your mouse and save this to a text file. Once the text is selected and high lighted, click Edit Save. Open notepad or word pad and click Edit, Paste. The template should appear on the text document. Choose Save as... and type filename.txt or whatever you want to call it. Template.txt. This way if you have any problems with your blog, you can go back and compare it to what you last saved it as to find out what happened.

And, once it is saved to your desktop or the folder of your choice, you can save another copy and name it template.htm. This should appear as the lower case blue e on your desktop (if you use Explorer). Double click it and you should see the bare bones of your blog's homepage.

Ah, I hope I didn't bore you too much with this post. I think I will take it and section it off into steps and post it on my homepage for basic html beginners. I don't know anybody that wants to learn html anymore, but I did. I don't know a lot about it, but I taught myself enough to start my own web page. I wanted to go farther with it, but alas - time.

LARGE

Click the photo

This is my entry for Photo Friday's weekly challenge: Large. No matter which way you look at it, this is one large horse.

The Buffalo

A while back I told about this buffalo that appeared in the front yard of a house in the main section of town. I promised a picture of it if and when I got one. It isn't the best photo, but it is a very busy section of roadway and I couldn't stop to adjust. This one was snapped through the front windshield of my car.

The newspaper had an article on the guy who put the buffalo in his yard. He has a big pole barn behind his house and gets deliveries often. He was tired of the trucks missing his driveway so now he can tell them to "Turn right at the buffalo". My sister lives in another town about 25 miles East of here. She said she saw it go through town on the back of a pickup truck.

My doctor did give me Imitrex for my migraines, now. I have not filled the prescription yet. Reading up on it, it keeps saying "dogs given Imitrex... blah, blah, blah." I don't care to have animals used for testing but I am realistic enough to understand that medicine would not be anywhere near where it is today without the testing. Are there other ways to test? I'm not certain. We have come a long way and are not near as barbaric as what our ancestors were or our enemies across the seas.

The day is gone

I lost a day. Sunday. It infuriates me. I should be used to it by now. I see the dr. this Wednesday and I plan to change migraine meds. My body must be getting resistant to the one I am currently taking. I'll see if there is one out there the I haven't taken, yet. I have been on this one for about two years, so I can't give it a bad rap.

I had a gazillion things I wanted to do. Outside and inside work. I got the basics done. Kitchen cleaned so that there is no odor or ants. Clothes washed. Stupid weather change rolled in. The air was nippy. Which would have made it perfect for working outdoors. Grrrr.

The photo is probably the last of the sunset series I will post for a while. Since I wasn't moving from spot to spot, the set became redundant. I did catch a spider close up (again) that I was not aware of until I looked at the picture on my computer. Yikes.

Work is busy. May usually is.

Gripped

Gripped by the migraine monkey, again. Until he leaves....

A Golden Sunset

Another shot of the big lake at sunset.

Patio decorations

I bought some colorful twirl patio decorations a couple of weeks ago. My daughter and her beau hung them for me. I think I have 12 of them. Not all like the above, some are the longer, more popular stick-twirlers. I wanted color. This photo is facing northeast.

Again, the lake

I've seen a lot of this lake this month.

I killed weeds.

I killed ants.

I killed time.

Watching Dreamgirls.

It just did not do it for me.

Changes

Her hair is shorter than this style, now. This is one of the first times we had it cut. She cannot tan, because of her fair skin and her tendency to produce dysplastic nevus. So, I let her go wild with her hair. She has been working 5:30 to 10:30 every evening and Saturday 10 to 6. This is a two week training, and then she will probably get a day off during the week. Summer starts soon and she can sleep in. Mom is a bit of a basket case. Am I doing the right thing? Is she going to get sick? She is sleepy in class. Worry, worry, worry.

Oh, and if a young, female telemarketer calls you that tends to speak a little too fast, let her down easy, huh? It makes me cringe to think of things I said to them.

In pursuit

The road ahead

I am always on the road to my 'Pursuit of Happyness.' I watched the movie. I cried. Well, my eyes watered if you want to call that crying. I teared up. I don't sob at movies.

Did you know that the fellow they walk past at the end is the writer of the book?

Knock knock.

Who's there.

Nobody.

Nobody who?

Silence.

Nobody who?

Silence.

Ha! Ha! I get it!

Springwood Nights

The lights of Springwood, Ohio

Saturday night was spent with good friends around a campfire by the lake. I can't wait until the next time. Not just because of the good times, but because I will wait until it is eerily quiet and dark and then tell the girls that The Nightmare On Elm Street took place in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. LOL! That is the name of this campground.

The photo above is my friend's camper all lit up with her colorful lights and colorful decorations. Check out my car's antenna. Pretty wild.

My horse didn't win in the derby. We pick names out of a hat. I pulled Circular Quay.

Farming Ohio

A farm in Ohio

Farming is hard work. I got up with the cows this morning. Actually, I had a touch of insomnia and awoke at 4 a.m., and have not been back to sleep. I have been up for 20 hours and I am a bit whacked in the head. I had one beer and it feels as though I had six or more.

We met family for dinner in Canton. I have my sister staying with me. So darn much fun. My cheeks hurt from laughing.

The above photo was taken after I left the little school near Sugarcreek this morning.

Time to find my pillow.

Let it go, walk away

I will turn and walk away

This was before I saw the snake. He didn't see the snake. I had walked about twenty feet to the right before I came upon it. This goose was travelling alone. Solo. I talked to him for a bit, he just ate grass. We both parted and went our separate ways. I hope he finds his feathered friends.

You deserve a break today

Driving by the lake again

I got to drive the scenic route 250 today and when I do I can't resist to take a few moments and capture some shots of the beautiful lake. I turned off the route and found a side road that I had not ventured on before. The photo opportunities did not allow me to shoot the lake at it's largest, but still had it's own charming spots.

I waved to a fisherman as I pulled off onto the side of the road and quipped "We have it so rough, don't we?" He laughed and said "Ah, I hate it!"

Well, I paid for that remark. When I arrived at my destination I was so darn busy I did not take time for lunch. I made up for it on the way home. I stopped to grab a grilled chicken sandwich and proceeded to eat it at the lake's roadside rest. I took more beautiful photos. One of a lone Canadian Goose that I will probably show later this week.

I almost stepped on a snake. I told myself when I started that those rocks along the shore line were very warm and certainly would house snakes wanting to warm up. I forgot and sure enough, we surprised one another. I made a sound that was NOT very lady-like (it wasn't a curse word). There was nobody around to hear, but my daughter laughed when I repeated the noise I made as I told her about my close call.

My daughter had me "hardlight" the photo a bit. My day didn't calm down much after I returned home, either. I bounced from one thing to another like a wobbly spinning toy top. Now that it is time for bed, I must somehow slow my brain down and try to relax for sleep.

This, you gotta see!

I asked, and she said "Yes."

LOL! I asked to take her picture. She said "Yes, as long as you don't get my face." You gotta love it. I am not a jewelry person. I don't wear any. Maybe once in a blue moon I will wear a necklace. I have never, ever wanted a diamond. Why? Beats me. Just don't. I was engaged to somebody, but only wore the ring for a month or two. I also wore my high school ring for a year.

I asked the lady how many. She said 57. I can't count more than 44. But, I don't see her thumbs. I can't recall if she had any on her thumbs. Why leave them out? Click on the picture to count for yourself, I posted a 1280 x 960 pixel shot. She said she never takes them off, never. She washes her hands with them on, everything. She was working in the 'to go' window of a fast food restaurant. Hey, maybe someday I will find a ring in my bag! Woot!

You recall I did wear my Mom's wedding and engagement ring at a time I was around 13. The above rings remind me of her set. Who knows what in the heck ever happened to them. When we find ourselves asking about "what ever happened to..." me, my brothers and my sisters always say she must have sold everything during her yard sale/flea market phase in the late 70's and early 80's. She sold everything that wasn't nailed down. She would have loved E-Bay.

I thought this was a good picture for after watching the movie "Blood Diamond." Have you seen it? Yikes. The part I liked the most was when the old man said, (after his little village was burnt to the ground) "Let's pray they don't find oil." What an eye opener. Greedy takers. Humans are greedy takers. We take what we want without any thought of how it will affect future generations. Have you started to store your water supply? Why bother. If anyone finds out that you have water, (or anything else in demand) they will just kill you for it.

Time must have gotten away from me. I don't know if I have been too busy to blog or am getting bored with the deed.