This pic made me laugh

A few weeks ago I was browsing images in Google and for some reason this picture came up in my search. I have no recollection of what I was searching for at the time. I liked this one and saved it. It makes me chuckle.

Schools are delayed/closed today due to heavy snow. I took the dogs out and it seems okay to travel now,  we received a very wet inch or two and the weather URL does not state that our area is going to get any more. Temps are above freezing so I think we can travel without the worry of ice on the roadways.

Sigh. So it is off to the showers for me.

Sigh, I guess we need it.

I will finally wish for snow. It is SO ugly outside. This photo is from last year. January is plodding along. It has been a wet and messy one. I don't know if I want snow (because of the shoveling), but the dogs do like to run and play in it and that always lifts my spirits. 

I especially like the snows that cancel school. For some reason that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. To stay home on a "school day". I always feel like cooking a nice thick soup or a big meal and making the house all warm and cozy and smelling good. Sigh. I'm not sure we will use ANY snow days this year. The powers that be will probably go back to "we only need 3 calamity days" again.

The rain yesterday caused a lot of aches in my arms and wrists yesterday. Mostly on the right side. For some reason I did not want to take any Advil (I take so much), so I spent all day rubbing my wrist and upper arm. Then the winds came. I was half afraid to take the smaller dogs outside. They are quite funny, though. Cheech took off after a plastic bag that was blowing down the alley. He must have thought it was some strange and dangerous critter. I laughed and told him to "Get it, Cheech! Get it!" He gets all excited and jumps towards it but is never brave enough to actually go right up to it. The boxer? He's clueless.

He liked ME best!

He fit snugly in my arms. He was sucking on a Binky. He had just had his hearing checked. I can only imagine how they do that to a 24 hour old baby. Fog horn and if he jumps he is good? I don't know. He was pleasant and peaceful when I got to hold him. When anybody else took him he cried. (Well, except for the Mother of course - but she needed a break).

He was so beautiful and perfect in every way. It was not a planned Cesarean but the mother's condition became complicated and the process became what is known as arrest of labor. All is well, now. Sigh. Such a wonderful experience and they get to take home the ultimate prize.

From the same cloth

Whoops. I must have created this photo in a biggie size. Oh, well. The two above are brothers. Four years apart. Yesterday was the first birthday of the one on the left. We are celebrating on Sunday with a big family get together.

Both different. Both adorable. Their poor Mother. My nephew's wife. She had a son from a previous relationship. He is just starting his troublesome teen years. And my nephew (her husband). All those boys in the house with no other female companionship. It would drive me nuts!

Sister 1949 has stayed at their house before due to inclement weather because she works close to where they live. She is not my nephew's mother. Well  not THIS nephew. She said she is so impressed with how he really  helps out around the house and with the boys. Washing clothes, bathing the boys. I can only imagine the amount of work that needs to be done in that household.

My dinner plans are canceled for this evening. Outside it looks as if we only got about 3 inches of a very wet snow. So far. We are due to get more. No schools have canceled,  yet. I have been awake since 2 a.m. I must stop the late afternoon caffeine fixes I have been treating myself with. Sigh.

I have a birthday party on Saturday and one on Sunday. I was hoping for a calamity day today so I could really sink myself into learning and developing my presentation. What will be, will be. I feel the headache starting. Maybe I can get back to sleep. I've already been drinking coffee. Nuts.

Running and Playing

We got walloped with a lot of snow here in Ohio. Here is Slade enjoying the snowfall at the very beginning of the fall out. It snowed for a long time and if I had to guess - I would say well over six inches to maybe more. I am not a good guesser in that area. All schools in the area are closed. That means an extended week-end for me. I do monitor e-mail and the helpdesk from  home. In case there are some schools in session (there are not). More for the Admin. personnel who do go into the office today. Not all school employees stay home on a snow day.

I had a very busy (in a good way) week-end. Many people and a lot of food was involved. I watched The Expendables for about the third time. Here is a funny drink menu from the event. All of us were very disappointed in the way the movie portrayed Li. We think he is awesome and they made him look like a wimp in this movie. He was sadly missing from the photo events I looked at.

Don't look for Willis and Schwarzy very much in this movie. They make a very small, tiny appearance. We did love the humor in the short scene, though! That was A+. There is one thing we ALL agreed on. The gun that Crews uses. We ALL want one of those! LOL!

Video here  and   here    .

No Dice

Troubleshooting sometimes reminds me of the movies where the characters are in a cave and faced with many different tunnels to choose from. You go down one tunnel, it's a dead end and you have to come back and go down another one.

It is time consuming. I am persistent. If my system is recoverable, I'll find a way to recover it. I don't think it is so much the few photos or data that I have lost. It's more of a challenge, now. I'll have to wait until the week-end to continue the work. My actual job is getting in the way, now that the snow days are over. I went yesterday to a job, ended up with a massive migraine and had to call off sick the latter half of the day. I had blood work taken in the morning and this meant no coffee or food until after the appointment. My system did not like that and retaliated.

Watched "The Time Traveler's Wife" on one of the snow days. I liked it. My daughter liked it. They were SO sly using real life sisters to play the same Alba at different times.

I tried to get the book at the library last week, but it didn't even come up in the search files. It must be too new. Then as I was standing there at the library computer, I began typing in titles of the books I saw displayed on the shelves. Those books didn't come up in the search, either. So, there you have it. What a system!

I shoveled snow so much I broke my old snow shovel. I will have to try to find a new one this week-end as I hear we are getting more snow. First my car, then my computer and now the snow shovel. Sigh. I hope that is all for the broken stuff.

More wintry mix

My back yard lamp post from Friday night

We are scheduled to get more of the white stuff today. Over a hundred schools are closed in my surrounding area. I was to meet a C!sc0 rep at one of the schools today. I told him to call me first to see if we were closed. I don't want him driving all the way in from Columbus for no reason.

I do not look forward to shovelling more of the white stuff. It is what it is. I should get myself a new shovel. One with the bent handle that is supposed to be better for you. I was afraid my old flimsy shovel was going to break when I was cleaning off my driveway Sunday morning so I could get my car out.

My brother's test results came back. He had a biopsy taken from a growth on one of his vocal cords. He showed me the picture from the scope on Sunday. He said that one vocal cord was vibrating correctly when he spoke and the other didn't move at all because of the growth. His was benign. They said they got it early enough and he must quit smoking.

He is 52. I think he has been smoking since he was at least 15. If my memory serves me correctly. He overdid the talking on Sunday and had a sore throat on Monday. That was from not speaking for a week after surgery and having a houseful of family and friends Sunday night. I had to leave at half time because the cigarette smoke was so bad. Sister 1949 and I were the only 2 not smoking. That and the little children, I think. It was a smoking chamber in their house that evening. He was smoking. He is looking at getting Aeros. I wish him the best of luck.

I didn't get to see many of the commercials. Sigh. I laughed at the dog collar one with the guy sitting on the bench. But I don't recall the product so it wasn't a "good" commercial. What was Kiss thinking? Bad move. Bad, bad move! Soda pop? Really?!

With the ad about Leno, Winfrey and Letterman sitting on the sofa, I so wanted O'Brien to come up behind them and pour a bucket of Gatorade over their heads or something. Now THAT would have made me laugh!

I had a registry file recover on my system when I turned my computer on today. I am still having some Norton anti-virus issue. Something not working correctly with the live updates. I am not working today, so maybe I will dedicate a few hours to troubleshooting this system with Symantec and their product today. Should be fun! YAY!

Dogs in snow

Who let the dogs out?! Without their harness and leashes? Me! That's who. With this much snow, they didn't go far. I did have one little scare when Slade (the brown one) took the pups for a run down the alley way. Sable was either too lazy, too sore, too tired or too smart to follow. I walked to the edge of my driveway and called them back and they came a-runnin'. Whew.

They had a blast in the snow. I uploaded the videos on Youtube. I think a search for Cheech Chong snow dogs might get you to the videos. I don't know. Yep, it sure does. Four videos taken just this morning. Sorry about the throat clearing in the one video, I had to keep reminding myself to stay quiet. You can also hear the wind howling.

I slept in! I slept in! My daughter woke me up by calling me. She wanted to know if I had taken the pups outside yet. It was 7:45. She wanted me to take videos so she could see them in the snow. The alarm went off at 5:30 since I had forgotten to turn it off for the week-end. I turned that sucker off and said "Aw, hell no!" and went back to sleep. I cannot believe I slept that long.

Then I have had anti-virus problems for a couple of days. I am hoping it is because I installed that new back-up hard drive and Norton just can't figure it out. I hope that is all it is. I ran the auto-fix a few times and it seems to be working for now. I do not look forward to working with tech support on the telephone for hours.

And, I discovered that I DO NOT have a cake mix in my cupboard as I thought. Well, there is no getting my car out and going to the store today. I don't feel like shovelling all that snow this morning. It may take me all day to get the sidewalks and the driveway cleared anyway. I'd hate to call my nephew and ask him to stop at the store and pick up his own birthday cake mix. Good grief!

I can't believe that I am going to attempt to make a cake from scratch! Me! This should be vewy, vewy interesting. If I retain my sense of humor through the ordeal, I'll take pictures and share them. Fat chance, though. I am not a baker. Cook? Definitely! Baker? No.

And by the way, I read his friend's facebook post that tells about them driving in the snow all evening last night playing. My nephew has his new all wheel drive Subaru and they said it goes everywhere! They passed dozens of cars that slid off the road but they had no problems at all. That and my nephew is a very good driver. He has driven all over the country. He loves to just take off and drive and drive and drive.

The snow we have is a very wet and heavy one. While taking the dogs out last night it was eerily quiet. I heard a loud pop and snap and a tree branch fell from my neighbor's tree. The wires going into my house were covered with ice. I think the worst one was my old POTS line, though - so I didn't care.

Delays

My back yard about 3 years ago

This is sort of what it looks like today. Not so much ice on the tree, though. They have delayed all area schools by 2 hours or so. I am going to have to finish my coffee and get my behind in gear. A delay just makes me drag my feet even more.

Found out late last night that my brother has a spot on his vocal cord about 2-3 mm. Possibly papilloma. His surgery is scheduled for next week to remove it. From what I have been reading, there is a good chance it comes back.

And, on a side note. I always check the pets lost & found. I saw this ad today:

1/21/10 - LOST DOG - male, tan, American bulldog, pink collar, Indian Meadows

He isn't lost. He ran away. Who puts a pink collar on a male dog? Just kidding! Seriously, I hope all lost pets are found by their caring owners.

Super side note: I was actually going to put a pink tutu on my boxer for Halloween. I'm sick I tell ya, sick!

Our very own - Ice Capades

Photo courtesy of my brother the fireman/EMT.

My daughter is sick with bronchitis. She has been out all week. She normally leaves at 7 a.m., me at 7:30. I saw a dusting of snow on the ground Thursday morning and didn't give it a second thought. I did not check school closings. It just didn't occur to me.

I got in my car and went to turn out into our street. The cars were all moving so slow. I looked at the street and saw that shine. Packed, translucent ice. The road was an ice skating rink.

I crept out and at the first intersection was a cop car and a tow truck. I was going straight, but to the left was a little hill. There were two cars who had ended up in some body's yard.

I slowly drove to the next intersection. Another car in the ditch.

I saw 4 accidents during my 2.5 miles to the office. I was glad to get off the roads.

My brother works in a town 10 miles from me.

He sent me a photo of one of the runs they went on that morning. He said the poor lady was still in the car. They could not get her out until the tow truck arrived and pulled the car out.

What a ride.

Snow dog

Sable is looking for a spot to... well... to...oh, you know. That is my lilac bush behind her to the left and the corner of my neighbor's duplex on the right. I have the sweetest two elderly ladies living in a duplex on one side of my house and a younger couple on the other side. Also, very nice folks.

The snow photos were taken a week ago. On a day off from work because of the snow and the icy road conditions. When I ventured off the porch I wrapped my old camera in a plastic baggie so that the wet falling snow wouldn't get onto it. The pictures didn't come out so well. This one was taken from my back porch with the baggie off of the camera.

My nephew is coming in this week-end for his birthday. He has requested my pineapple/pudding cake. It is his usual request. We are meeting family for a dinner get together tomorrow night. We drive about 40 miles southeast for this establishment. It is a dive, but the food is supposed to be good. We shall see. And, yes that is "dive" not drive.

I've had my head buried in bandwidth issues at work and my head buried in a book at home. My daughter is off doing her own thing (I wish that thing was a job, but hey..). Picked up the plates for her car yesterday. I walked into the BMV and the lady called me right up to the counter. I didn't have to take a number or anything. What luck is that? I see a new set of workers here. Younger crowd, a little softer. They don't get benefits. Maybe that is why they are such sour people. I used to dread the license plate bureau. Even Seinfeld made a show about how rude these folks are. It must be an insane job.

Listening to music at work is kind of neat. When bandwidth is high and I am trying to figure out if this is a normal spike in traffic or if there might be some kind of attack/loop on a network, I have in the background the Eagles with "Take it to the Limit."

If I do find a problem and I fix it I can listen to "Another One Bites the Dust."

Oh, this is fun. I could go on all day with similarities between songs and technology.

And, another one's gone ... and another one's gone. Yeah!

What else?

The weather. I didn't get the day off on Wednesday, but all schools closed today and are closed tomorrow. Frigid temps and snow. Photo above was taken by my sister at her house. (Ohio).

I had to drive 70 miles south yesterday for a meeting. I got caught in a nasty snowstorm. Driving back home I was travelling west on I-70 and 8 semi trucks passed me at one incident. One after the other. Watching them in the blowing snow ahead of me it looked as if they were feuding. The trucks. I considered pulling off the interstate at the next exit and driving on a back road to I-77, because something just told me there was going to be an accident. I just got a feeling.

When I saw the next exit, I thought 'Aw, hell no.' The snow was piling up deep and fast. Sure enough another mile up the road, 5 miles before I took the exit ramp for 77 North I came to a complete halt. Me and another hundred vehicles or so.

Inching along for 40 minutes I saw six accidents involving about 8 vehicles. The last one I saw was a semi truck with a red car smashed into the back of it. I have no idea if it was one of the trucks that passed me or not.

Folks were driving like insane jerks. The passing lane on the Interstate was covered in snow. I stayed in the right lane with a lot of other folks. We weren't going very fast but we were moving and we made it home safe and sound.

My Favorites

Firefox calls them Bookmarks. Explorer calls them Favorites. Well, in my "favorites" it is school closings. Oh, yeah!

Slices

More layers and some slices. Tuesday I was much better - migraine was gone. Wednesday relapsed into a stress headache or tired, I don't know. Went to bed too early, awoke this morning too early. I caught an old movie. I kept thinking to myself 'That looks like Jack Lemmon'. It was. 1956 "You Can't Run Away From It." It was Jim Backus that helped me to nail down the movie. Once I have someone I can recognize, I can find the movie on www.imdb.com.

This will make for a long day today. I hope the snow is done for today because my daughter and I are taking a potential vehicle to our mechanic and are having it checked over before we decide to buy it. The car is located 40 miles north of us. We have to pick it up, drive it back here to our home town, have it looked at and get advice on it, then drive it back to the dealer by 7 p.m. Sigh. Long day. Especially if I have to drive in snow with a vehicle I have never driven before. Fun stuff.

I am already sleepy. Grrr. (rolls eyes).

Snow day cookies

Sob. What went wrong?

I follow the recipe on the Nestles chocolate chip bag. Maybe I shouldn't. My chocolate chip cookies come out flat. I need to research this on the web. They get hard quick this way. I will have to seal them up with some soft white bread. That will do the trick. Yum.

I baked the cookies this morning. My manager called at 7:30 to say that the office is closed. Forget the meeting. Problem is, he called at 11 p.m. last night. I was in a beautiful deep sleep. My daughter was too. I had wrapped my elbow and arm snuggly in the heating pad, turned it up on high and had drifted off into one of the most peaceful sleeps. I was so scared it was a relative calling about a loved one. Since my brother's MIL just passed, death is on my mind.

I may be able to go to calling hours this afternoon then instead of this evening. I have the Columbus group coming in for my niece's 21st birthday party. I am picking the carrot cake with cream cheese icing up at 5 p.m. This is the niece that lived with me for a few years and this is the nephew that will be having the heart surgery in a week. Their Mother is still unfettered. May be a different story on Monday. Oh, well.

Tomorrow is a busy day, too. I like snow days, but this will delay my home school plans yet again. I can't call to get direction if all schools and their personnel are not in the office. Sigh. Figures. Time keeps pushing the deadline to the edge. I am in a slow panic. The funeral should slow me down and give me something peaceful to reflect on and to put my universe into perspective.

Orange on pink

Titten in the tub

I don't care for my pink fixtures in my upstairs bathroom. Someday, I'll replace them. Since we shower downstairs, the tub has become a sort of play place for the new kittens. Give them a half dozen super balls and they are entertained for hours. Except at night. They make such a racket, we have to close the door (once we make sure they aren't in there).

We had a snow day today. I baked cookies, played Christmas music and cleaned up a bit. During my cleaning I found my 4 gig Sony micro vault. Yay!

Last but not least, I shoveled snow. Ugh.

With love, to my fair city

I shoveled by hand to the stop sign

I pay my city taxes. I have the tax forms and the direct deposit slips to prove it. Why my alley did not get plowed is a mystery. I called them being very careful not to piss off the lady who answered the telephone. You know if you piss them off, they will go out of their way to make sure you don't get anything. Well, that's what I heard.

She said that the city was going to take care of the alley ways today. I tried to give her my address but she gave me the brush off. They were doing the best that they could. I thought to myself, maybe they have had to cut back just like the schools have. Everybody is feeling the pinch. So, I began to shovel. I wasn't going to wait for the city.

Most cars can ride over the icy snow. My car (trying to be global conscientious and purchasing a Civic) is way too light of a car and the icy buildup lifts my car up and it is stuck. I tried to get out last night but was forced to retreat back into my garage. My daughter had been picked up by her boyfriend's father so that they could spend Valentine's Day together. I mistakenly thought that they would bring her back home. She called at 9:30 and this is why I attempted to get out of my alley.

Since I failed (read all the little evil voices you ever hear about not being good enough, not being a good parent, not providing adequate equipment to raise a daughter in the state of Ohio, I should have been more prepared etc, etc, etc...) I had to call my daughter admitting defeat and she had to "beg" a ride home from her boyfriend's Mother.

I say this because:

1. My daughter had to wait until the Mother watched her favorite television show, and

2. On the way driving her she sarcastically told my daughter "It's a good thing I like you!"

My daughter was so upset. Thus adding to my overall feeling of I'm just not good enough. Who am I trying to kid? Why am I not able to get my vehicle out on the roads when everybody else can? Now, as I type this I want to call that Mother and give her a piece of my mind. I guess at the time I was feeling pretty lame because of some other chaos that was going on.

I suppose I could have called a private snow removal business. But, do they touch city alley ways? It appears so because when I was 3/4 of the way done, I saw a truck with a plow clear the alley up the hill from me. I wasn't sure if it was a city truck or not, but it didn't have any writing on the side. It had a huge salt/sand/cinder container on the back so it was at least a professional.

They kept plowing and re-plowing that one little stretch of alley and it occurred to me that they may do mine next. I sniffed. Figures. Wait until I am almost done. I didn't need to hold my breath. After ten minutes or so they were no longer to be seen. Unfortunately I took the long route because the shorter end of the alley was completely blocked by a four foot wall of rock solid snow (thanks to the city when they plowed the secondary street).

Anyway, I got my car out and onto the street. Now, I can get milk and bread and go to work tomorrow. As I drove to the store to get milk, I noticed that there were a lot of other alley ways that had not been cleared but the people living in the surrounding houses had heavier cars than I or trucks/SUV's/jeeps. So there you have it. I try to do the right thing and buy a small economical car. I can hear my brothers and brother-in-law's laughing now. As they drive their gas guzzling, Ford four-wheel-drive vehicles. When they lived on the farm and their drive way was a mile long I can see the need for one. But, I am in town. I drive my own vehicle for work and I am not about to get a four wheel drive. It only happens every few years anyway, right?

When I was younger (under 20), I can remember getting my car stuck in a ditch. I will never ever forget my brother cussing the entire time he shoveled my car out. It made me feel bad. Really bad. Another time I got stuck on ice. (I had a light car back then, too. I just froze up with fear). My brother-in-law and my brother laughed at me. There were other times, too. I remember each and every one like it was yesterday. It doesn't happen anymore. I don't call them. Oh, I get stuck. Like today. But, nobody hears about it. Nobody that will belittle me, anyway. I don't need anybody anymore. I make sure of that. I really must apologize for this negativity, but I exhausted myself outside shovelling and I don't have a lot of reserve in me right now.

I am also in the middle of a big family mess that I won't go into because I believe that my family has found this blog and are reading it. I'll just say this. I didn't do a damn thing, but send e-mail. If somebody wants to misinterpret what I wrote and jump to the wrong conclusions, then that is their problem. It is making me as angry as a wet hornet. Hey, if they want to pin me for the mess, go ahead - if that makes them feel better. So be it. I'm not hurting anyone. That damn swinging bridge that I dreamt about a month or so ago has done snapped and flown back to hit me smack between the eyeballs.

I've had a really bad 24 hours. It is all I can do to keep from throwing up. I imagine the migraine will hit next. After the turbulent storm of emotions has run it's gamut.

A spot of snow

A little grazer

Another deer grazing at Salt Fork. We have some snow for ourselves outside today. Enough to give us another snow day. It was the ice that had most of the folks worried, I am thinking. The second time I was out shovelling the sidewalk the ice pellets were stinging my face. Ouch. Okay, let's just make it a little more unbearable. Never mind the fact that this is back breaking work out here, shovelling this stuff. Let's just add insult to injury and pelt the lady in the face with ice chips.

My daughter had frost nip on her hands from the first round of shovelling and I have a saint of a neighbor that lives up the hill who came with his snow blower and cleared my drive way. Never mind the fact that it is all covered again. His intentions were well appreciated. I thanked him and plan to take him a cheese ball/tray later. I don't know his name.

I had my daughter put her hands in warm tepid water. She never was in any real pain, but her fingers must have been exposed at one time before to get this way so quickly. The teenagers today will wear little in outer clothing. They are so accustomed to being driven right to the door step of any establishment or friend's house, they rarely have to dress for the weather. So, I am thinking at one time, she must have been caught outside in the freezing weather with no gloves.

It was drilled into our heads from the day we brought our newborn into this world that some mad deranged pedophile was waiting around every corner to steal our child and if we even thought for one second about letting them walk somewhere without our supervision that we would live that nightmarish hell that we only read about or saw on television.

So, are we so wrong? Where do we draw the line? Where do we take the chance? "Listen, kid. I walked two miles to the park when I was fifteen to go to a dance, I am sure you can do it!" We move into the kitchen and begin washing dishes and the thoughts come rushing into our brains. What if, what if, what if? The next thing you know we are getting our car keys and saying "Come on, I'll drive you."

So, there you are. Raised in America. Protected to the nth degree by your neurotic Mother. Our young are as fragile as the small deer pictured above. Vulnerable, a literal target. Are we preparing them enough for the big bad world? Are we over protecting them? Are we smothering them and do we know when to loosen the reins?

Snow Day!

The neighbor's pine

I stumbled out of my bedroom this morning making a beeline for the coffee pot. I glanced out the front window and saw three inches of snow on the ground! I yelled to my daughter (who was already showered and getting herself a bowl of cereal) "I'm checking school closings!"

I logged on and saw six schools closed and about four on a two hour delay. A refresh brought up my daughter's school as closed. Every refresh would bring another one. By the time I was done checking 23 had closed and all who were on a 2-hour delay had caved in and closed. We have our first Snow Day of the school year!

We ate breakfast and relaxed a bit, then we bundled up and took the dog and camera outside. I figure my camera is pretty banged up anyway and getting a few snowflakes on it won't do it any more harm. The piece that slides over the lens to turn the camera on and off is making a grinding noise and I have to almost force it to work.

My daughter and I goofed off a good bit. I had already set up beef vegetable soup the night before for the crock pot and that simmered along nicely all day. I added corn bread. Perfect snowy day food. For dessert we had french vanilla cocoa. We watched the snowy blizzard in the late afternoon from our living room.

The only thing I had to do was take Sable to the vet's office for an allergy shot and to get her toe nails clipped. The poor thing. She is getting to where she knows the vet's office and she makes a beeline for the back door once we get into the examining room. She gives me the most sorrowful "you tricked me!" look. It breaks my heart.

My daughter is at her boyfriend's house and I cracked open the "Object Oriented Programming with Java" book that I borrowed from work. So far, so good. It is going over basic HTML which I am familiar with. Whew. At least I am not starting off lost.