Random

I picked a random photo out of my stash today. This one was taken at a lake about twenty miles from my town.

I am still progressing in the home improvement area. I had new gutters and downspouts put on my house. They forgot the patio, though. When he quoted me - we spoke of the patio. He said that was included. I will call today and we will see. Sigh. I do not believe I got his name. Let's see if they renege. That is what I am used to and expect from places like this. I have little faith and hope.

I called the city back. They said "Yes, they are coming back to grind the tree stumps."  I called because I honestly could not remember if that was their responsibility or mine. If it was mine, I wanted to get it done.

Next, is the leaky bathroom toilet. This is the water valve that is so old and rusted I cannot turn it any longer. I can hear water running when I am in the upstairs bathroom and it is driving me insane. I hope to hear from the plumber today.

Then, the sidewalk. Once the stumps are ground down - I will get a new sidewalk or repair the current one.

Then what? Oh, yeah. Pull up all the carpet on both sides of the basement and in the downstairs bathroom and have some sort of realistic flooring put in because in a bathroom and basement there is going to be the chance of water. Always! Carpet down there is just silly.

Who knows? Maybe I won't stop there. Maybe I'll re-do the upstairs bathroom. I have been wanting to for a long time. We have a window in the bathroom - so no shower upstairs. We have a tub, of course. But - pink fixtures. Sink, tub and toilet are pink. I can work with that. But the lady who owned the house before me. She added even more pink. The walls are pink with rose bouquets on them. Arrgghh! So much pink! It nauseates me. I will offset the pink with color that complements the pink fixtures - not compete with them.

Lake view

I had an unexpected appointment yesterday  morning that caused me to take the day off from work. It was one of those drives home that said "Must go home, get camera and go to the lake to take pictures."

After a couple hours of rest, I did just that. The setting sun was casting long shadows but it was still quite wonderful to behold.

Towards the dock

This is the opposite view from the Lighthouse photo from yesterday. The sun was setting quickly and I did not have much time left.

Here is what I have been dealing with this week. Tweaked a paragraph from a Micr0$0ft training course (some poetic license has been used on my part):

The name of the GPT folder is the GUID of the
GPO that you created. It is identical to the GUID
that AD uses to identify the GPO in the GPC. The
path to the GPT on a DC is a PITA.

Seriously? The verbiage is not too far off. This is how they write the course.

On a funny note, I heard this in the move "Think Like a Man". Three rings in a relationship. Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffeRING. LOL!

Green May

According to the date stamp on this photo, it was taken nearly a year ago. I think when I moved out of state I missed the greens of Ohio most of all (next to family of course).

Swings

I love the story this swing set tells. Remember twirling the swing around and around like the girl on the left? I could not do this often because I get sick easily. Then there is the girl stepping up onto the wood. And the younger boy hanging onto the older boys back. You can almost see the older boys frustration. I'm not certain the fellow in the black shirt saw me or just happens to be looking this way. I don't think he knew I had a camera at that distance.

Here is how far away the swing set was from me when I snapped the photo.

Happy Friday everyone. At noon today I start my vacation. I think I have 260 hours before I return to work if I have figured my math correctly.

I almost forgot! I think I will receive my nook today. I've been tracking it. It cracks me up that the UPS had to hand the package off to the USPS to deliver. I had the e-reader delivered to work. We are only there until noon today. Ack! The secretary said not to worry; that the mail comes at 10:30. I tracked it yesterday and UPS said they handed it off to the post office at 10:30.

UPS was very accommodating but try to get any help from the USPS! No way! My oldest brother is retried from the post office and sister 1949 still works there. This is one of her pet peeves. She loves to go above and beyond helping people. She gets so angry with her co-workers. I do not deal with her post office but the lady behind the counter would give me nothing. Nothing! No help whatsoever. Eh!

Anyway, it figures. This is supposed to be another "working" vacation for me. LOL! Of course I'll have pics of the nook, too.

Fishing on the lake

In mid may I captured this shot on the larger lake in my area. I had my camera about five days and was still messing around. My nephew explained to me if I zoomed in farther than 35mm I was just cropping the shot with the camera and I was better off to turn the digital zoom off and crop the picture with a software program.

He took a lot of pictures Sunday at a family cook-out and he just loves the camera. If it gets his approval, then I feel I made the right choice. About three people wanted to know where, what kind and how much the camera was.

I am much too lazy for an SLR and I just want to have fun with the camera without seriously getting into the technical details of the machine and the processing. I love the resulting images of the SLR and maybe some day when I feel more comfortable with finances and shooting I can go that route.

The Murky Lake

The lake on Friday. I even touched it up a bit.

No sunshine will do that to a photo. I don't get the chance often when driving between schools to stop and take pictures. I take no longer than a co-worker who takes a cigarette break would. And I've know co-workers to take six to eight cigarette breaks a day for anywhere from ten to twenty minutes per cigarette while they stand outside talking to other smokers. Even if they only take 4 breaks (not counting lunch) at 10 minutes, that is 40 minutes, so I figure I am quite justified to stop along the road and snap some photos for a measly 15 or 20 minutes.

My headaches have been out of control this week-end. I'll just leave it at that. I did manage an old movie. "The Sting". For some reason or another, I've never watched this one. I think when I caught it in the middle at one time, it bored me (not knowing the beginning and all).

I went through the Pay-per-view selection and saw many that I would like to watch, but my head hurt so bad, I didn't want to purchase them and then fall asleep during the showing.

I want to watch:

Killers
Just Wright
The Runaways
Chloe
City Island
Death at a Funeral
The Oxford Murders
Cole
The Last Station
Accidents Happen

Maybes:

She's Out of My League
Furry Vengeance (because of Brendan Fraser)
Date Night
Babies
Hot Tub Time Machines (because of John Cusak)

You couldn't pay me to watch:

I'm Still Here

Hot August Nights

I really have to get back out there and take more pictures! This one is the big lake near my town and was taken in May of what year? Heck if I can recall. 2008?

Anyway, it's hot around these parts. I hear it's hot around your parts, too. I walk the dogs and I am ready for another shower. I walk the dogs first thing in the morning, at my lunch break, after work and before turning in for the night. Nice. I can't very well jump in the shower each time. Let's just say it is probably a good thing I work in an office all by myself.

I watched the movies "Crazy on the Outside" and "The Bounty Hunter". I could not figure out where I had seen the parole officer in COtO and then I saw where she was the female co-star in the epic failure "Waterworld." And I'm just sayin' we ladies got gypped in TBH. Anist0n got to prance around in a short black mini dress while we got to see Butler in an "god-awful ugly" checkered shirt. What is up with that?! I thought it was a chick flick! And seriously? The rickshaw thing was a little over the top.

I always said that S Bull0ck did not have much acting range, but I am really thinking that Anist0n can only play one type. She looks the same in every.damn.movie! And she plays the same ditsy character. Over and over again - femme fatale. C'mon. Seriously! Just take any of her movies, plug a new guy in and spit them out each year and I don't think that anyone would be the wiser. Let's see some talent. Change the hair. Reach out. Play a real gritty female. Put on weight for a real character. We are sick and tired of blah, blah, blah. Girl loses boy. Girl teases boy. Girl gets boy back. Boring! There are actors and then there are showgirls. Sorry Anist0n. You're just a showgirl.

I am not saying the girl does not work hard for the money. She definitely works hard to keep that figure/body. Kudos to her. But there comes a time in life when you think one would say to themselves "Is this all there is to me?" A buff body? Is there no brain in here? Can I give something that really makes the audience think and just surprise the bloody hell out of them? Or, am I only in this for the paycheck?

Wiggling toes

Like this little tyke I am not doing much today. I tried working outside but I just could not get into it. I got some of the 'Rose of Sharon' bushes cut down. They can take over, you know. It is darn cold out there.

A birthday party I went to yesterday was supposed to be held at the lake, it was changed to indoors because of the weather. Brrrr!

Actually the temperatures are normal for this time of year. It is just that we were so spoiled by the record-breaking warm temperatures a week ago that when we plunged back into the 40's we are crying like little babies.

I had this appetizer "Tropical Crab Rangoon" at the party and just devoured them. I am going to make some as soon as I get the chance. I won't do it unless I have a party/get together to go to or if I have people coming over. I'll certainly eat the entire batch myself and get ill.

We watched "Moon". I have really liked the actor S Rockwell since I saw him in "Galaxy Quest." What I found really interesting is the writer/director is the son of D Bowie.

We also watched "The Box." Creepy and I did not like the ending. It did have some jolting and strange incidents pop up in the movie that kind of kept you guessing.

The Fisherman

Do you suppose he knew he was being photographed?

I watched a couple of interesting movies. One was titled "A Little Romance". It was recommended on my Netflix list. I loved Laurence Olivier in it. The story line was a little too young for me. It was made in 1979, and the hair on that Diane Lane! Wow!

"The Assassination of Richard Nixon" with Sean Penn.

"Georgia O'Keeffe".

"Little Fish".

And, "Chinese Box".

Stopped at the lake

Taken yesterday at the lake

I shoot straight into the sun. I love pictures where the sun distorts the images. I switched this one over to B&W because first there was a huge blue spot in the water from the sun or the camera and second because there wasn't much color after the sun washed it all out anyway.

I stopped here late in the afternoon after my genealogy class. I did stop to get some of my favorite pizza. I bought a tray because my brother and I have this deal. When either of us travel down "home" and we get our favorite childhood pizza we get some for the other one and call them. I called and he might be able to pick it up tonight. I'll freeze it if he doesn't get by. If I don't, sure as shootin' - I'll eat it.

I already am in a carbohydrate induced coma.

Not sure where the phrase "sure as shootin'" originated, but it could be a part of the phrase "sure as shootin' in a barrel full of fish?"

On the way home I got stopped at a DUI checkpoint. The officer laughed and wanted to know if I was trying to bribe him with that pizza. A tray is 28 square pieces and this pizza shop had put it all into one gigantic flat box. It was sitting on the front seat next to me. I told him that my family would not let me into the house without it! He asked me if I had been drinking (not because of my conduct, because he has to). I told him just Pepsi. He laughed and said "Oh, the hard stuff." Yeah.

But 25 years ago, dude? It would have been a whole other ballgame, I am sorry to say.

Pink clover

From September 2007. Going back into my photo archives again because, well... you know. I lost my camera's battery charger. Is anyone keeping count? A half dozen times? Very unorganized. I used to be very organized. What happened? Oh, yeah. Life happened. I added people, animals and stuff to my life and it is all getting away from me. I am just holding on tight these days and enjoying the ride.

Speaking of animals. My zoo is messy. It bothers me at times but anymore I just roll with it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I am stressing a bit about the veterinarian bills and the dog food. I am a firm believer in purchasing the dog food where the first ingredient is NOT corn. A filler. Waste. And my cats get the food that keeps hairballs to a minimum. It does work. I have not seen a hairball in weeks. But that could also mean the pups are cleaning them up. I know, gross.

A meme from Tabor. Pick up the book closest to you. Turn to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence. Here it is:


"But Julie is too sincere and thoughtful to mean it in anything other than an appreciative way."

The book is "Adventures with Ari" by Kathryn Miles. A book about a dog. Imagine that!

It is Saturday. Shhhh. I don't want anybody to hear this. I have nothing planned this week-end. Nothing! I have two days to myself! I am giddy. I can read all day. Watch movies. Well, after I do some cleaning. I have to do a little work or I will feel guilty as hell. But, not too much. I'm not going to go all Mr. Clean on you. I am more the Erma Bombeck type. Humor and a messy house. Which reminds me of a joke I read years ago. The first is a letter from Martha Stewart to Erma Bombeck. The second is from Erma back to Martha. I love it.

Hi Erma,

This perfectly delightful note is being sent on paper I made myself to tell you what I have been up to. Since it snowed last night, I got up early and made a sled with old barn wood and a glue gun. I hand painted it in gold leaf, got out my loom and made a blanket in peaches and mauves.

Then, to make the sled complete, I made a white horse to pull it from DNA that I had just sitting around in my craft room. By then, it was time to start making the place mats and napkins for my 20 breakfast guests. I'm serving the old standard Stewart twelve-course breakfast, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I didn't have time to make the tables and chairs this morning, so I used the ones I had on hand.

Before I moved the table into the dining room I decided to add just a touch of the holidays. So I repainted the room in pinks and stenciled gold stars on the ceiling.

While the homemade bread was rising, I took antique candle molds and made the dishes (exactly the same shade of pink) to use for breakfast. These were made from Hungarian clay, which you can get at almost any Hungarian craft store.

Well, I must run. I need to finish the hand-sewn buttonholes on the dress I'm wearing for breakfast. I'll get out the sled and drive this note to the post office as soon as the glue dries on the envelope I'll be making.

Hope my breakfast guests don't stay too long. I have 40,000 cranberries to string with bay leaves before my speaking engagement at noon. It's a good thing.

Love, Martha

P.S. When I made the ribbon for this typewriter, I used 1/8-inch gold gauze. I soaked the gauze in a mixture of white grapes and blackberries which I grew, picked, and crushed last week just for fun.

---

Dear Martha:

I'm writing this on the back of an old shopping list. Pay no attention to the coffee and jelly stains.

I'm 20 minutes late getting my daughter off for school, packing a lunch with one hand-on the phone with the dog pound, seems old Ruff needs bailing out again.

Burnt my arm on the curling iron when I was trying to make those cute curly fries, how DO they do that?

Still can't find the scissors to cut out some snowflakes, tried using an old disposable razor . . . trashed the tablecloth.

Tried that cranberry thing; frozen cranberries mushed up after I defrosted them in the microwave. Oh, and don't use Fruity Pebbles as a substitute in that Rice Krispies snowball recipe unless you like food that resembles puke!

Smoke alarm is going off, talk to ya later.

Love, Erma

Breathe in, breathe out

Here is a photo of the lake from the get together on Saturday night. I must stop calling it a party with my girlfriends because we don't "party" anymore. We sit around the camp fire and catch up on all our lives. How is your Mom, how is your Dad? Is your nephew still working in Vegas?

The lake and the fire have a calming effect on the soul. Not to mention the calming effect that friends have on the soul. And that moon! My pictures of the full moon did not come out because I had left my tripod at home. It was beautiful because it was wedged between two sets of pine tree groves and had a cloud silhouette next to it.

I am moving full steam ahead with arrangements for my daughter's graduation party. Five days left to prepare. Well, four because Tuesday I'll be visiting with sisters. Sister 1944 asked if I wanted to postpone the museum trip so that I could have more time. I told her that I would probably need a break away from it all by Tuesday and we are keeping the plans.

I have been to this museum before and posted photos. I'll try to get some new and different pics this time.

Onward and upward.

A few moments for me

While driving down to the home office yesterday morning, I stopped to look at the lake. Except for the trucks roaring by on Rt. 25o it was a peaceful, beautiful scene.

There were lots of fishermen out already this morning. Long week-end and all. They looked like they were ready to party.

At work in the home office, we had all the spare old equipment ready for the truck to pick up and no truck came. This truck was coming from the C0lumbus area to my home office (by the river). My manager finally called and the office person said they had mechanical problems. They arrived a little over three hours later. Sounds to me like they left when we called. Hmmm?

We all worked up a mighty sweat loading that truck in 85 degree Fahrenheit weather. I wish I had taken pictures. Somebody said "It's probably better not to take pictures of a state agency getting rid of old equipment." I guess one time years ago a University threw away some junk equipment and the newspaper took a picture and the headlines read "They have so much money, they can throw computers away!"

No pics of the deed.

I asked about 10 co-workers what their plans were for the week-end. People like to talk about themselves. Some were camping, some where grilling, some were doing nothing and one was taking his son for his first run in Wh33ling. He said something before the number, so I am guessing he said the Ogd3n 5k.

Me? I am off to a cook-out tomorrow so I will be fixing the food stuff today. My Calico beans, pineapple pudding cake and yes, as usual, my "cheese ball!" I am certain I have made a thousand of these things in my lifetime. At the very least, I make 10 a year. Probably more like 20 a year for the past 20 years. That is 400. Before that it was sporadic. Okay, maybe 500 of them, then.

Tuesday Afternoon

After a day in the garage re-arranging equipment, I felt it really necessary to stop along the lake on the way home and enjoy a moment of serenity.

The day was not nearly as bad as I anticipated. After re-reading this morning's post I was like "Gee Peruby, don't hold back. Why don't you tell us how you really feel."

Run and hide

Here is the park from the other evening when I took pictures. Today was a "run and hide" day. It certainly was not my day. Good grief.

My co-worker began her usual banter. I didn't want to deal with her diarrhea of the mouth, so I reached in my desk drawer to pull out my (personal) head phones. Except they weren't there. I think the last time I saw them was a little over two weeks ago. I looked everywhere. I racked my brain trying to remember if I had taken them somewhere. There would be no need to take them home as I have another set there.

I hate the dinky ear buds that come with today's equipment and work only gets you crappy stuff, so I brought my own in. Our office door has not locked in years (brand new building, crappy construction). I don't dare complain because the company that I work for does not pay this office rent for me and my co-worker. We are there only by their good graces. A few years back a certain manager at that office threw that fact up in my face and I'll never forget that sweet lady. Heh. Well, they are going to get the door fixed, now. Always after the horse is stolen, lock the barn door. I don't think it bothers me so much that I lost a nice set of headphones as the fact that we have somebody in the building who is a thief.

That wasn't the worst part. I have a folder on my hard drive where I keep all my "stuff". I could not access it this morning. It was corrupted. I never cared much for System RESTORE, but it saved my butt today. I restored my system back to yesterday at 9:00 a.m. It zapped my anti-virus, but I was happy to have my folder back.

Our office has never purchased us any anti-virus software. Doesn't that just figure? I downloaded the free AVG. My computer is so-o-o slow, now. You get what you pay for.

I had an old copy of Norton AV Corporate edition from years ago. It was such a hassle to install it, I just wasn't up to it today. That's why I went with Grisoft's version.

My system still may not be right. I guess time will tell.

My co-worker sits over there and grins from ear to ear all hopped up on her pain medication and now the doctor has given her stimulants to keep her from falling asleep at her desk (and hopefully at the wheel of her car). Now, she jumps around like a Mexican jumping bean and it has loosened her tongue up even more (as if she wasn't chatty enough!) I just want to deck her a good one and wipe that smile off her smug face.

I kid you not. ALL day today she played McDonald's monopoly game on-line. There you go. It is no wonder government employees get such a lazy, no good reputation. I can't stand her.

When she sees me rubbing my eyes or flinching she asks "Migraine?" or, "Are you in pain?" If I dare say "Yes" she jumps in with "You're lucky you don't have MY pain!" That is enough to start her torrent of "woe is me" stories and "poor, poor pitiful me" tales. This is the reason I wanted to sit and listen to my CD and block her out. It is the only way I can deal with her without wanting to strangle her.

My dog has fleas! FLEAS!!! The $100 I was going to spend in groceries just went to flea medicine for the damn pets. Five cats and one dog. It's eggs and cereal for the rest of the week, daughter dear.

Yeah. I'm going to bed now. Don't we have a beautiful park?

Geese

Across the lake is Canada... no, it isn't. It is still Ohio. There are just Canadian geese over there. Lots and lots of them. This was just one snapshot of the far side of the lake.

In the late 80's my brother and I rented a huge farm house in the middle of nowhere. There were two house on a long dirt lane. Our neighbor had geese. The big white ones. I was not and am not fond of geese. Mean critters. They attacked my car. They tried to attack me but I was having none of that. Purses come in handy. They were gone before my daughter arrived.

That story sounds like my brother and I were from a family of inbreds. No. His girlfriend was living with us and on any given week-end his kids were there from his previous marriage and her kid lived with us. When I had my daughter I moved out after 4 years. I had finally landed a decent job and matured enough to support she and I and create a home for the two of us.

It figures

Here is one of the lakes near my house. A hot summer afternoon.

Blogger had a fit with posting photos last night. I went online to the G00g!e help and thought I had it figured out with Pic@sa. I posted how I did it and this morning I look and my picture was non-existent. It figures. Any poor soul that followed my advice probably thought I was nuts.

If you check Blogger status they have it fixed now.

Summer is trudging along. My daughter is excited for her last year of school. She does not want to continue with the home schooling. I thought she would return to public school. She is not one who likes that much isolation. Which is a good thing.

We hope to visit a zoo out of state this week-end and do some shopping. Her choice, not mine. The older I get the more I am bothered by the caging of these beautiful animals. However, if not for zoos I would never have seen most of them.

I guess we will trade one zoo for another. (I may have enough critters to qualify.)

One lousy dinner

The above photo was taken today on my way back from working at a school. I used half of my lunch hour to stop by the lake and catch some pictures. It was hot and I paid for this endeavor in the way of obtaining a sun-induced headache.

We had about twenty family members at dinner last evening in the Garden of Olives. It was by far the lousiest food I have eaten in a restaurant that I can ever remember. I ordered the Mixed Grill. Steak and chicken with potatoes. It was as if the potatoes had sat out all day. They were dry, tough and tasteless. The chicken and steak were not much better. The meat was covered with what I can only describe as a beef powdered gravy mix that did not have enough water added because it was almost pure salt.

I did not complain. Usually I would have. I was with twenty people who were obviously enjoying their dinner. I was not paying for the meal. I ate what I could and told the waiter twice that "No, I do not care to have what is left on my plate boxed up to take home." Even I have limits as to what I will place in my garbage.

I wasn't there for the food, anyway. I must remember if I am ever again caught at this particular restaurant, to stick with Italian cuisine.

Moody Lake

The gray sky is reflected in the water

The lake was a bit moody today when I stopped at lunch for this photo opportunity. It was a nice day, a bit warm. The sun did come out towards the end of my shoot, but I kind of like the moody ones better.

I realized that yesterday's photo post of the trotter looks like he is wearing a witch's hat on his head. Ack. I think I have been looking at too many Halloween decorations.

Well, it's back to kitty training and my book. All very time consuming. Humph.