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!

Super charmed

All I have to say is, if this keeps up - that little boy (my great nephew) will never have any problems with the girls, charming them. He does look kind of scared, though. His big sis is behind him.

I'm trying to get back into the blogging mind set. Not sure what happened. Or, if it will stick. I started writing a journal (issues) and perhaps my needs are met there.

Been trying to get around and catching up on reading all of your posts, so you may see a comment pop up here and there from me. Sorry, I am behind.

Technology, election, assault and family

That is pretty much how my time is filled up. Work and technology, decision on the election (thank god it's over), my huge family happenings and plans for the holidays and assault. Wait...what?

Yes. I won't go into a lot of detail. This post is not to elaborate on the assault. The person was my sister 1954. The assault was aggravated rape and aggravated robbery. She is okay. She is no shrinking violet. She has been in prison numerous times and is not a timid person, she survived but was afraid for her life. A knife was involved. That is all I am saying about the actual assault.

The real reason for the post is the technology part. The abuser stole her cell phone. She has a cell plan with her son (my nephew the technology guru/wizard). He called the provider and they set it up so that if the phone was turned on, it would beam the location to a tower and then shut down.

The "perp" turned it on. Technology worked, provider called my nephew, my nephew called the police and they picked the guy up right in front of his house sitting in a car. Wearing the same clothes my sister had described. Yes, it took a while to talk her into going to the police and hospital the next morning, but she did. So, her attacker was arrested within 24 hours of the crime. YAY!

She had already had plans to move out of that neighborhood - the plan was actually in the works. Two weeks notice at the job, plans for a new place - she had one more week, there. Let the healing begin.

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?

Black icing

I am wondering if the parents were thinking that Minnie Mouse on the baby's cake may not have been such a great idea. Black icing! Photo courtesy of my nephew (her dad).

She cleaned up wonderfully, though. She was clean as a whistle when she returned to open her gifts.

I don't have much guys. I don't know what it is. I don't know if nothing is going on, if I am being lazy, or what?

I forgot my 10th year anniversary of this blog. June 21st or so. I am not stopping, now. I am in for another ten years.

Which brings me (again) to the mystery of writers who just stop and disappear in thin air. No remark of "I'm done, good-bye!"  Or, "I am taking a break. Maybe I'll start posting again."  I have two more that I went to where I was a regular reader, and 'poof' nothing from them in months.

Where do they go?

Flash

Photo courtesy of niece. I did not attend these back-yard fire works. I don't usually feel safe when "amateurs" are letting off fire works. I love my nephew and I hope he is always safe.

My sister-in-law is home from the hospital and doing well I am told. I will probably go visit her later today or tomorrow.Or, I may just wait and call instead. I like to give people time to rest and adjust. She did have all of her stomach removed and we are hoping that the cancer does not return somewhere else.

Very quiet around here. I did nothing yesterday. There is a big festival in town for the week-end, but I don't go any longer. I don't need that food that I love so dearly and I don't need the noise.

Weather has turned cool here in Ohio, so just keeping windows and doors open instead of running the air is enough.

A beautiful bird had decided to build her nest on the top of my front door porch light. It is one that sits on the side of the door. I did not realize it until I went out after dark the other evening to retrieve the mail and she went nuts when I went to go back into the door.

I had no idea what the hell was going on and I thought I was under attack. Hearing the flutter of the wings I realized it was a bird and I figured she must have built a nest on my light. I wasn't looking up, I was holding the mail over my head. I felt like Tippi Hedron! I believe I twisted my neck - it was hurting all the next day.

I go out the back door and around the house to sneak into my mailbox, now. It is on my front porch wall. I move slow and she and I just eyeball each other the entire time. No sudden movements!

I got nothing

My days are the proverbial "groundhog day". Still training my schools on using the new filter. So, I thought I would share the above photo courtesy of my niece. She and her brother hiked the Shenandoah National Park this past week-end. Or, a part of it. I have not heard an update from them since they got back but it looked like they had a nice time from the pics she posted.

I do have on little blip update on the filter. That issue where an administrator was surfing p0rn at a school district and I notified my manager. (Again, it may have been a student using his computer). It has stopped. The reports show nothing more from him that is suspicious in nature.

However, my manager has told me nothing. Zip. Still has not even mentioned to me that he received my e-mail. So, I will never know if my manager spoke with the tech person at the school or if they spoke to the superintendent at the school to stop the incident or if it was just a fluke and it all stopped on it's own.

I have no idea what I should do if I see this type of traffic again. Sheesh. Some management, huh?

Is there a doctor in the family?

As most of you know sister 1956 has been staying with me on and off since January. She does travel back to our home town so she can help watch her granddaughter and then she stays with my brother if she needs to.

She is a heavy smoker and of course being in the middle of a life crisis her immune system is run down. She has had one of the worst coughing bouts for over two weeks. It seriously sounds like she is going to cough up a lung. It is brutal.

My Sister-in-law (married to brother 1953) is in the hospital currently for some medical issues that I may talk about in another post. His son became a doctor last summer. He was visiting also - he works at two different hospitals and this one happened to be one of them. We all settled into the small hospital room and we chatted about things. Listened to each other tell stories - you know - regular family visits.

Sister 1956 left for a while, not sure if she went to the bathroom or just needed to walk around (it was much too far to walk to have a smoke). I was telling my brother about my sister and her cough. I was trying to get her into stat care to get medicine, but she didn't have money. She recently signed up for Obamacare but her doctor visit ended up being $182 and she is to pay $92 out of pocket. She was a bit dismayed about that. We may look for another doctor.

We were not paying much attention to my nephew as he was on his cell phone texting or reading etc...When my sister came back in we chatted some more.

My nephew sat up, asked my sister a couple of questions about her cough and proceeded to phone her in a prescription. His half sister is a Pharmacist in my town. (His sister is a mortician. Not a practicing one but she graduated from the school).

Lickety split. Just like that. My sister had her medicine. A z-pak, cough medicine and a steroid.  She has no regular doctor. She recently started a new one in my town so she could continue her high blood pressure medicine. I did remind my nephew about her high blood pressure. Before this she was getting prescriptions at a free clinic and it was a hit and miss episode as she is not well known for keeping up with taking care of herself. Letting her prescription run out etc...

She has the family curse. Take care of everybody else and some strangers before even thinking about ourselves. Hopefully now she will get well and nip this horrible cough in the bud.

Did I mention that my daughter has a severe case of strep throat and laryngitis? Yeah. She said the doctor is probably going to say they need to come out on Thursday. Wha..?

Mama needs to sit down.

Minion Me

The theme this year was Despicable Me 2. My great nephew turned four this week. My camera was in the car when he made his grand entrance to his birthday party in full Minion garb and goggles. The goggles did not say on long at all. So cute.

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.

Little blockhead

It took me three tries, but I finally was able to get this picture to post.

My nephew tortures his little girl with pictures that will come back to haunt her in the future.

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. :)

Well, heck.

I guess I've been too busy to post. Ah, wait. I know what it is.Work is busy, my brain is drained and by the time I get home I have lost any sense of making any sense to put anything into words. I have been off now for three days and I am starting to climb back up and out of that dark hole.

Here is a photo of my nephew's little baby. Almost six months old. And the apple of his eye by far.

Baby cooties

I stayed with my nephew while I went Northwest to visit while my niece had her little bambino. That means I was exposed to an enormous amount of baby cooties while spending time with this one. She is five months old.

I was covered in cooties. I didn't mind a bit. I think my daughter was a bit put out though when I posted a picture of the above bambino on my facebook and mentioned that I was in heaven.

She made a remark to me when I got home about it. Oops.

My nephew...

...went and got himself married yesterday. Did not tell anybody until after it was all done. He said they will plan a ceremony and reception next year.

This is the nephew that used to come to our house every other week-end or so. He and I talked about computers, cars etc.. He fixed little things around my house. Do I miss him? You betcha! Am I jealous? Not one iota! This guy deserves all the happiness that life can offer and then some. I am so glad he found this beautiful lady. They fit together so well.

I am so happy for them.

The Operator

Here is my niece's husband (my nephew by marriage). He did a wonderful job. As somebody in the group said "This ain't his first rodeo."  The guy knew what he was doing. He started out hesitantly because he had not taken down a structure of this size and my sister had a lot of money invested in that machine he was operating. Okay - it is an excavator.

After the first twenty minutes or so he had relaxed and boy did he go to town.

It was not a sad day. I had family there and we bonded even more. There were stories told that my niece had not heard before.

8th Birthday party

This one (a new big brother) had his 8th birthday party yesterday. He is diagnosed with @sberg3r $yndr0me. I typically have fun with children by teasing them. I had to be careful with this one. When I told him I got him a pink tutu and pink fingernail polish he became quite upset. Then he looked at me and said "Are you joking with me?"  I smiled and said "Yes."

He is high maintenance but he is adorable. His mom looked exhausted. She had "baby brain".  The article I linked to speaks of controversy of baby brain. Well, I think it exists, if only because of sleep deprivation and stress. Day after day, night after night and a high maintenance sibling to cope with. She was stressed.

For some reason I have a lot of luck with their new little pink bundle of joy and I sat with her while the Mom was able to enjoy the party. Their sweet new baby would fuss (she wanted fed and this was something I was unable to do - wink, wink) so I let her suck on my finger. Yuck! Thank God I don't smoke. She won't take a Binky (not sure the parents want her to) and she is not on any bottle feeding at this time.

She is a sweet baby - but wait. This post is about the big brother, darn it. He loves gadgets. He was focused on his presents (as most 8 year old children would be) and he tore through them and opened them as fast as he could. Then after the party, he went through all of them again. I got him a bag of "stuff".  I believe at that age they like quantity over quality. He already got big gifts from parents, grandparents etc... I went for the fun stuff.

I got him a spy set and a bag of little things. I did tease him about getting him rings. He said "I hate rings!"  I told him you will love these rings. He said "Are you joking with me?"  I shook my head and said "No, I really got you rings."  He groaned. I actually got him "ring pops." Of course, he loved them.

There was a cook out, cake and a piñata. I missed the piñata because I was holding little sister. I did not mind one iota. She is the kind of baby who will stretch, make a face, fuss, cry a wee bit and then smile and go back to sleep.

Ack! Here I am talking about the wee baby again! I am enchanted with her.

Good thing she is over a two hours drive away or I would be there every day wanting to hold her. Sheesh!

To get the "ñ" for the word piñata, hold the Alt key down (Windows machines only) and ensure your Num Lock is on. Using the keypad, (and still holding the Alt key down), type 164.

Atl + 164  =   ñ

For a list of all Ascii characters, go to:  http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/.

Rock on!

Her daddy (nephew June 78) is a rocker. Sings in a rock and roll band. Looks like she is saying "Rock on da-da! Rock on!"

Where's my hair?

This baby had more hair when she was born than now. She is four months old. Not certain who took the photograph. Perhaps my nephew - her daddy.

I have been on a movie kick. I watched "The Heat" with S Bullock and M McCarthy. They said the "f" word so  many times. It used to bother me. I have become de-sensitized to the word. In fact, it comes flying out of my mouth more times than I like to count. Sigh. Another habit I need to break.

This movie had me laughing out loud a couple of times. I hope Sandra and Melissa do more movies together. I always considered Sandra as kind of one dimensional in character, and she is still playing the part of Miss Congeniality but I do like these two together. They are wacky together and it makes for great comedy.

It still bothers me that Sandra looks so plastic. They try to rough her up a little in this movie, mussing her hair up at times and ripping her clothes, but the rest of the time she is just plastic looking. Like she is not real. I wish she would stop smoothing her hair down until it is plastered to her head like it is fake. I wish she would just "soften" her looks up a bit. But then again - maybe her hair is unmanageable. I never had lots of hair, so I never had that problem.

But I love the way they make fun of each other and allow the jokes to be on them. When McCarthy's movie family asks Sandra if she were a male or a female, I was cracking up.

And let me make one more shout out - I could just melt looking at M Wayans!

Oh, according to my movie bible (imdb.com) they have already announced "The Heat 2". YAY!

Cousins

Photo courtesy of sister 1944. I just adore this photo. I just have to wonder what the little tyke is thinking here. My first thought was he is thinking "Isn't this just the greatest fun?"  Or, how about "Don't you just love wearing orange?",   or even  "I am so glad I am not the only one who wore orange today!"

Both boys are the sons of two of my nephews (brothers). It touches me somehow in my "family-oriented" pleasure in life. I love family and I have a strong bond to my family.

I was aghast when I ventured out into the real world and saw siblings fighting and hating one another. Most of them were from 'well-to-do' upbringings.

You have to wonder.