A Little Monkey and Tails.

I had this cute munchkin visit me yesterday for a bit. Her father (my nephew) was passing through.  He and his wife have a set up where he takes this little one to visit his friends from around where he grew up (they have children also) for the week-end, and her older son (from another relationship) goes to his father's grandparent's for the week-end - resulting in the Mom getting 2 days all to herself. They call it a mental health day (or something similar). I think that is wonderful! Although I am not positive when my nephew gets any totally alone time.

She is the cutest little 3 year old and she climbed the neighbor's swing set/fort like a little monkey.

I am going to try harder to post more often. I have so many things I can do on-line that almost all of my time is spent sitting here at the computer. Almost everything I do can help me in my job in one way or the other. Helping people is still one of the biggest areas in my life for me. Online, I am a reader of redd!t and have several divisions that I read to see if I can help. I also get several ideas and tips from readers to benefit myself.

Just last evening I was reading the area about Tor (The Onion Router). This one has been an example I use when I am instructing the techs about the filter. Most of them have no idea what it is, or how it works. Sigh. But that is an entire book in itself and if you know me, you are probably aware that I can get very long winded when I start talking tech.

Anyway, the user mentioned Tails.  I had not heard or read about this one. So, I had to investigate and of course I had to have it. For testing purposes and to present to the techs how end  users (the savvy ones) are getting around the filter in the schools and endangering their network.

I had to find 2 USB sticks with 4 GB available. (I had always referred to them as flash drives, but I kind of like this term). So I did have one empty 4 GB one (how did THAT happen?), and the other had just back up data on it - so I moved that to one of my external HDDs.

So, I started this new endeavor.  Four hours later I went to bed. LOL!  I am learning a lot, but I am also being very, very cautious. I have screwed up my system before trying this stuff and I should have known not to start this after 9 p.m. I was much too tired to think this through and follow long, intricate instructions.

It is one of those deals where you are going through the steps one at at time, and you come across the step that reads "If you don't have such and such, click here to set that up (or install it). So, you follow that link and you start installing that program. You get halfway through the steps and you come across another one that reads "If you have never installed such and such before, you need to change this or that before you can enable it". And I follow the link to THAT site. It went about 4 sites deep and I was getting very tired.

Well, it didn't work my first go round. But hey, I did learn a lot. And, I will try again today. Maybe. Of course I will - I am too excited to get this puppy on a flash drive and see what I can do with it in my work environment so I can bring it to their attention to watch out for this work around.

I run into the techs who have the attitude "So, what? They are always going to find a way around the filter. I can't stop them all."  This might be true, but I can see that he/she has given up the fight. This saddens me. Yes, there will always be a rogue student who knows so much about technology that he will consider this a challenge (sometimes they don't mean harm, they just want the ego boost that they were able to beat the system) and brag to his friends and share his knowledge.

But once in a while, guys......once in a blue moon - I get a tech who gets that look in his eye, the "Oh really?" look and they write this down. They hopefully are going to take action to block or attempt to block this activity in his or her district.

And that is why I do it. That is why I share what I know with others. I want to make the schools safer for the students. It may be a losing battle, but I can't just say "Screw it. Let 'em see it. They're gonna see it anyway."  Well, I'd prefer them NOT to see it in an educational environment. In other words "Not on MY watch."

Did anybody watch the movie "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"  You know how I love my movies and I have so many I can talk about. I like Tina Fey in MOST of her movies. I am not a HUGE fan, but at least she does not make me cringe. For this movie, they delicately add humor to a horrifying situation that so many live through. But then there was MASH. I know the humor was exaggerated, and there were only a few times when the show brought us back to the reality of the horror of war.

It is slowly coming back to me. I had trouble remembering my password today. I had trouble finding spell check. But it is coming back. I need to go and ready all of YOUR posts this past year (or has it been longer) to see what is going on with you.

I have a lot more to write (tell). This year seemed to be a bad one for cancer hitting my friends. They are fighting the fight. A lot of little children in my family. I always like that. I was the youngest of 8, and I was 12 years old before any of my siblings had a baby. They then came thick and fast, but that first grandchild (for my Mom) and first nephew (for me) was doted on. My sister was the type who packed up her husband and baby and drove 50 miles one way EVERY week-end to stay with us (at my Mom's house). And on Sunday evenings drive 50 miles back.  Well, her husband drove. Her husband did everything for her. Nice in some ways, but over the years (as she has told us) it can be very smothering. We used to chide my sister when the gas stations changed over to self-serve. She had ALL the gas stations marked out who would pump the gas for you. It was ages before she was able to pump her own gas. I'm not sure she can, even now. Hmmmmm..... LOL!

Biggest fan

I do not promote dressing little girls up and showing them off. This is my great niece and she is in dance class. She has her own fan club - two younger brothers, mom and pop and my sister - the grand mother.

I can only imagine all the drama that goes on behind the scenes at these places. The hair spray, the make up the tears.

I loved the movie "Little Miss Sunshine".

Although I do not promote such activity, I also try not to judge. It is colorful - I like color. She does work hard and sacrifices a lot.

My absence from posting is not planned. I post for myself - when the spirit moves me. I guess I have not been moved much lately. I've had my mind on other things. Nothing rash - just puttering through life wondering if I am brave enough to make some changes.

Movie?  - Big Hero Six. Loved it. Very cute. Oh, I know what may be slowing me down with the posting. The kids joined Netflix and I joined Amazon Prime. We've been doing some marathon series watching.

Still thank ful

We did the family thing on Thursday. whew! All of my Mom's 8 children showed. We did not get any group pictures. Some said nobody was interested, I never heard anybody bring the subject up.

The grandchildren of my Mom came in shifts. Some came earlier, some later. Two are feuding and one was actually going out the back door while the other came in the front door. It all worked out.

Our family traditional games were played - Tripoly and LCR. This is the first year I did not play. I handed the nickels over to my daughter. I noticed the younger set are doing the games. We older set kept moving around talking.

A big group of us stayed over. Just because. Only one was drinking and she no longer drives, but I think we just wanted to extend the visiting. The next day I returned home, exhausted. I rarely sleep at other people's houses.

I think the above photo is the only decent one I got. I put my camera setting on the sports setting because the children kept moving. My flash does not work on that setting (I guess) and all my photos came out grainy, dark and just bleh.

The snow was a surprise. There did not seem to be much indication that we would get any accumulation but we did get some. Just enough to worry people driving back home. I asked my daughter to text me when they got home.

My elder sister's keurig got a work out. One niece went shopping after dinner. She goes every year. The rest of us are like "No, thanks!"

I returned home late Friday, so Saturday was my clean up day.

Today, I am fixing a bird with all the trimmings. While taking the dogs out this morning, my daughter informs me that her beau wants her to go have dinner with his grand pa and his new lady friend. When was this plan made?! I guess I was a big ambiguous about the day I would fix the turkey. I was tired and said I would fix it whatever day I felt like it. I am off work on Monday also - I need at least one day to recover.

And to clean that bird. UGH!

So, I'll fix the bird but what time is their dinner? Screw it. I'm going to fix it when I feel like it. When it is done, it is done. If they are not here, then that is a few less side dishes I have to make, such as noodles.

I watched "Noah". I was very disappointed in the movie. Not certain what I was expecting. I was never a fan of Crowe. I adore Connelly  since Labyrinth - one of my daughter's favorite movies as a child. I do recall saying I was never a fan of middle-earth-type movies. This reminded me of that setting.

One Angry Quarter

Still bringing up funny "searches" from the school kids.

"If I threw a quarter off the Empire State Building, would it kill me?"

LOL!

I chuckle at this. First of all, when I was in school and heard the story - it was a penny.

I have to chuckle because all I could think of was that quarter would be so damn angry at that kid for throwing it off the tall building, it ran all the way back up all 103 floors and murdered that kid.

Or, after tossing the coin - did the kid run down the 103 floors (or rode the elevator) to the bottom, jumped out on the sidewalk in time for the quarter to do it's damage?

Of course, what the kid meant to ask is "Would it kill somebody on the sidewalk or the street if it were to hit them on the head?"  Just asking if the coin would kill him made me laugh.

Regardless, no. One coin would not "kill" you. A roll of coins might, though. I'm taking my hard hat if I ever go to New York. There are some crazy people in this world.

After typing that, all I can think of is the people laughing at me wearing my hard hat, shaking their heads in mockery that I actually thought I was going to get hit by some penny flying through the air.

This topic did bring up an interesting story at work. One guy said his kid's sippy cup full of milk, rolled under the balcony railing at their motel room - 27 stories up.  Fortunately it didn't hit anyone below. I think he said the lid stayed on and everything. Well, it must have fallen in the bushes or in the grass,then.

Some fall color

I have been doing very little. This is the month for festivals and I canceled on every single one of them. Above photo is courtesy of sister 1956 (her grand daughter). I love how the pink clashes with the orange.

Sister 1956 is not doing well. She had pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital. She has now been diagnosed with C.O.P.D.  Yeah. I figured it was just a matter of time. She is on oxygen. She said she will need it all the time.

I don't know how this will affect her watching the above little one. She watches her about three times a week.

I have a birthday party today I am not going to cancel. The boy turns three. Ahh...where's my Advil?

Annual Labor Day picnic at the park

This little one loved playing in the ice water. That was even BEFORE he burned his hand. The grill you can see off to the top right of the photo. It is a stationery grill that the park provides. I almost stopped him. I saw him walking up to the back of it with his hand out-stretched and yelled "Too hot!' He looked at me and the hand made contact. I prayed the grill had cooled enough. It had not.

Tears ensued. Possibly one tiny little blister. There was an ice pack handy and he held onto it for the rest of his day. Well, later he rode the rides some more. It was quickly forgotten. I am going to ask his mommy about it today.

He is freaking adorable. But in a kind "I know I am cute so I can get away with it" mentality. He plays it to the hilt.

I had 28 people show. The youngest was a couple of months old, my oldest sister (1944) was the eldest there. One entire branch backed out - my sister claimed "depression" -  her son said she drank too much the night before. She said it was because she buried her "best friend" twenty years ago that day (her son's father) and I call baloney (a.k.a. bullshit) on that.

She then went on fb crying that nobody ever returns her calls, that she has nobody to talk to, blah, blah, blah. I ignore the drama, messaged back that we missed her and told her a bit about what her grand-daughter did that was adorable. I learned long ago not to take her bait.

I took her grand-daughter on her very first merry-go-round ride. The little girl wanted to ride that thing from then on. She became SO excited each time she saw it. It was so sweet. She is 14 months old.

I helped to raise my niece and nephew so I take advantage of any time I can spend with their children. She played shy with all of us at first, but by the end of the picnic that girl was all over everybody and all smiles. She was deliriously tired, for sure. You could see it in her glazed eyes.

Me. I too, was exhausted. I wanted a new pair of feet. Ibuprofin this morning, but not for a headache. My legs (calves mostly) ache, my back aches, my arms ache - and my feet are inconsolable. 

Legs hurt from walking, back hurts from loading and unloading, arms ache from  holding babies as I am not used to it and feet - well the feet. They take the brunt of it all, don't they?

Who knew?

Well, now I do and you do, too. Who knew that My Little Pony had a sex p0rn site? In fact it seems to be rather popular by my first quick glance. After one glance I closed the browser and heaved a sigh of defeat.

I was flying high thinking those little dumplings were pure and magical and still played with colorful, innocent toys.

The filter's suspicious search reports have quadrupled in size now that school has started. Sure, a lot of it is "to kill a mocking bird" and "dick's sporting goods" - during school hours. A few are brave and search for more adult themed sites,  but now that they have their own devices and take them home, the searches are filling up my filter's report log fast and furious with their ugly searches.

The school does not have them set up to authenticate by name. In fact on my main report they all come through as one IP address but there are thousands of searches for the unsavory subjects.

If I log in as the district, I can see what provider is connected to the searches but that is pointless. They are all in the same district - they all use pretty much the same provider.

So, everything is anonymous. And by searching, it does not mean they are actually getting to the site. It just means they tried to look up possible sites to try.  Hopefully, the filter is holding fast and blocking what it is supposed to.

So, there you have it. My Little Pony is not so innocent any longer. I'm not even going to tell you what they do with Gummy Bears. I just don't have the heart.

Trepidation

Quite a few school districts are issuing devices to students in a 1:1 enterprise. As you can imagine, they would like the devices to connect to the Internet through the filter at the school when taken home or off the school premises.

I was finally successful in getting our pilot school to do this. They were extremely happy and sent home iP@ds with a lot of students.

A couple of days later I was looking over the settings to ensure all was working as it should and I saw the "search queries" report.

With "trepidation" I opened the report to see what it was the students were searching for after hours.

The heavens opened, bells rang in all the churches as I read "My Little Pony"!

I nearly jumped for joy. I did in fact run and tell some of my co-workers that I have shared stories with. The ones about p0rn etc...

I wanted to be Julie Andrews and twirl and sing! I was so relieved.

Now, whether or not it stays that way - who knows?

*Note:  I am also thinking that the age group the district assigned the iP@ds to was very elementary, and could be why the search query was so innocent. But, I'll take it!

He missed her

The older girl  in the photo (courtesy of my niece - her Mom) had a showing at the fair over the week-end. She was gone for about four full days.

Her little brother missed her.

Too much water

This is the little neighbor boy playing in some standing water between my house and his. He is three years old and I grabbed this photo opportunity hidden behind my front door. As soon as he sees me he comes over and he is stuck to me like glue. Sigh.

Anyway, their basement wall caved in that night. This side of it. There was a crew that began working on water proofing their basement on Monday. The wall fell in on Wednesday (heavy rains on top of this water already standing and no place to go).  Fortunately, for my neighbor the crew that is water proofing the basement will pay for all damages.

Today there is a huge mountain of dirt that divides our houses. And yellow caution tape. I joked with my neighbor after calling my dogs back away from the cave-in. "Now if a couple of dogs go missing when this mess is finished, I wouldn't mind a bit.  Nor, a couple of cats."

They laughed. I wasn't kidding. Oh come on! Yes, I was. Just kidding. ;)

Cake

I think most people like cake. Some are either a cake person or an icing person. I am an icing person. I eat the icing and leave the cake.

I went to a party yesterday for a one year old. The parents did the traditional act where they give the little baby an entire little cake to devour or smash or throw or wear as they wish.

Then they clean her up and finish the party. Me? I'd save the cake smashing/wearing for last.

The icing was MUCH too sweet even for my taste. Whew!

I watched the movie "The Railway Man". It was hard to get into it at first. So boring. I am NOT a fan of Kidman or Firth. Both fine actors but YUCK! Something about them makes me cringe. Fortunately, a lot of the film was set "back in time" when Firth's character was young and a prisoner of war.

Based on a true story, the tale depicts how this man survived (barely) the torturous beatings and actions of the Japanese army only to meet his enemy forty-some years later. His life was full of misery as he re-lived his beatings almost daily and suffered severely what is now known as post traumatic stress syndrome. He discovered that the Japanese officer was giving tours at the place he was held captive - now a museum of sorts. He sets out to confront the man.

Nobody knows what they would do given the same circumstances. Do you torture them? Do you kill them? Do you forgive them?

Fur baby

I am not exactly certain what my sister put on this little one's head.  I doubt that she kept it on for very long. I don't get to see the little ones very often. Understandably it is hard for them to travel.

This Sunday is a big family cook-out, though. I hope to be surrounded by the little tykes.

My house is freezing! Last week I came home from work on Monday and noticed that the house was 84º Fahrenheit. My air conditioner had stopped working. I called on Tuesday- another very hot day.

It is the controller board. Thursday the temps dipped drastically. The repairman wired the fan directly and it blows 24/7. I have wooden floors. I have shut every vent that I can and my floors are like ice. This year Ohio is experiencing a very cold/hot month. One extreme or the other.

So, either I spend over $400 for a new controller board or get a new unit. It is central air and the controller board controls the furnace, too. I guess they were put in, in 1995 or so. I suppose I should replace both of them together.


I just made my first payment on my $800 gas hot water heater. So, this is the year all the appliances fall apart. My dish washer leaks (sometimes). My washing machine leaks so that I have to babysit it and when the rinse cycle fills up I have to hold the basin back so the water does not splash behind it.

My garbage disposal has been out for a few months, now.

Ahhh. And life goes on. I hope my car is not listening.

Couch potatoes

We are minus 2 step great-grand children and one great grand baby girl, and there is one little boy still in the oven.  The rest of my family's baby boom are shown here on the couch.

Soon to be released out into the wild world, come what may. No, it won't be long at all until they are working, learning, driving, voting and running the world. God help us all.

Enuresis

So there I am working on the network equipment in a little elementary building. I am sitting in the nurses' office because that is where the equipment is. There is a little desk with a telephone that the teachers use to call parents, etc..

While working along I hear an irate teacher. She is screaming and she is dragging a little boy into the nurses office and dialing the telephone. I don't give it much notice but with being only a couple of  feet away I can hear everything.

The first thing that catches my attention is the teacher screaming at the little boy (my best guess is 8 years old) that she is going to call Mrs. Somebody and tell her what he did. She never did say "his mother" so I don't know what was up with that.

She proceeded to dial a number and scream into the phone "Johnny did 'you-know-what' in his pants again today!" And on and on she went. She tried to force the kid to speak into the phone himself , I guess because I heard her say "Well, he doesn't want to say what he did on the machine.."  So I am thinking she got an answering machine.

I did hear her say that "Johnny was too busy playing to take the time to go to the bathroom, again!"

She sure did a lot of yelling and she sure wasn't shy about it. Here I am - a complete stranger to her and she was quite brutal in my opinion. The principal was not at her office, but the teacher sure did try to drag him in there. The regular secretary was at lunch, so there was a teacher from another classroom covering for her.

She made the boy sit in the office for the rest of the recess and screamed at him that he was to sit in the office for the rest of the week during recess.

Well, I at least hope they let the poor boy go to the bathroom during his time out.

I managed a peek at the boy later and he did not seem to be the least disturbed by the event. He was squirming in his chair and when I caught his eye, there was no shame. Just a little boy who wanted to be somewhere else.

I brought the subject up with some of the women I work with and some thought perhaps the boy may be on the edge of the spectrum, which is referring to Asbrgr's syndrome or Aut!sm. The other teacher heard this teacher and later this teacher told the regular secretary why the boy was there. Nobody questioned the boy or the teacher. The principal didn't even seem to notice.

We wonder.

Crush

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Heck, I may as well make this my family photo album blog. I have been negligent lately. I have stories, but just have not put them into the blog.

The boy is the son of my nephew's wife from another relationship. He has Asbrgr syndrome. (Vowels omitted on purpose).  I need to be careful when teasing him (I like to tease children in good fun). He is so wonderful and special.

And, he is clearly smitten with this girl in the photo. She seems to know he is following her and is playing the flirt card very well.

Pink decorations

I took this photo while working at a school a week or so ago. The secretary told me that they had already taken down a lot of the decorations. I just think it is amazing that somebody can do this and actually get the decorations to stay attached.

I've never had much luck with decorating.

Note: I am NOT a creepy little school kid creeper. Well, not much. I do get the urge to cuddle, pinch, hug some little ones from time to time but I must resist the urge as I am a stranger.

A while back I was working at a school with the door to the tech room open when a line of little ones marched by. I smiled and waved. I heard one say to the other "Is that your grandmother?"

Wha...?!!!

Happy you know what

My grand/great nephew posing with a Mylar heart balloon.

I am still here. I am sharing my computer with my sister (1956) who is living with me at this time. You may see a lot of deleted comments on your posts. Well, that is me forgetting that my sister is logged into Google and it comments under her name. LOL!

Adjustment.  Heh.

Been super busy at work, too.

Been running almost every evening after work. Came down with a migraine last night. My body just quit. It said "Enough!"

I am going to try to sleep all day Sunday.

Have to work on Monday because so many schools are using this as a make-up day. I can work from  home, though.

Lots of happenings in family this month and next. SO many birthdays. So many dinners and cakes.

A big seven-oh for my oldest sister (1944) the other night. She held up well with the crazy get together of fifteen people.

Here she is with her husband and one of their three grandsons this past summer. He is the little tyke in the Mylar heart pictured above.

A little warmth

Picking a photo with some heat in it today. Naturally, this photo is from this past summer. This is my grand nephew. (or, great nephew - depending on which you prefer to use).  As his daddy says "Keep him out of the sun, his skin is translucent."

I have the family Christmas dinner this evening. Only 26 are coming. About ten fewer than last year. I can't find my games. I think they are on my computer at work. I saw my work desk this week for five minutes maybe.

Wednesday and Thursday I spent with a tech from California. Ugh. Every minute together almost (for the work day). My head was ready to explode with a migraine by Thursday afternoon. It took me all of Friday (a vacation day) to recover. I call this having to stay "turned on" - as in my brain. Riding in the car together, having lunch together both days - with no other co-worker to help me keep up the conversation. I know a ton of stuff about his family and friends.

He is a tech trying to sell me on this new appliance for our network. I just don't like to spend that much time with a "stranger". Trying not to offend in my conversations, etc... It was a serious drain on my brain. Fortunately, I kissed the blarney stone at one point in my life (not literally, I have not been to Ireland). But all that chatter and thinking give me a fitful headache.

Edit:  YAY! I just remembered my "older" laptop is in the trunk of my car and I think my Christmas games are on it. :)

Little lady bug

I don't think I've ever seen a lady bug costume this dressy before. My grand niece.

Much more happy

I get to see this wee tot on Saturday. YAY! I love that the flower is almost as big as her head. And her expression appears to be saying ....what? I can't tell.