Just peekin' in

Here is a picture from our Florida trip 2003. I want to go back. Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine. I am craving it. Although today has not been too shabby. Not at all.

I watched Crash. I teared up a bit when Matt Dillon's character saved the lady from the burning vehicle. But he was a rat. You can't deny that. He called himself a prick in the movie. Rightly so.

So that was Reese Witherspoon's husband in the movie. What a night for the two of them. They will probably be a super power in Hollywood, now.

I want to come back in my next life looking like Jennifer Esposito. Sheesh! Can that girl take a bad picture? I don't think so.

I think that Matt Dillon and Joaquin Phoenix will have plenty more opportunities to get an award. They have potential. I think that this was probably the only opportunity Reese will ever get, from what I have seen of her previous material. Same for Mr. Hoffman. Sorry. And, George has run his course. I think he has gone as far as he can go in the acting arena. Rachel was just good.

I liked Crash and The Constant Gardener. I would have liked Walk the Line to be a little grittier and more in depth. I am waiting for Brokeback, North Country and Transamerica to come to DVD. Not even sure I will watch the others, but I may.

Shady green

Here is a photo of my current vehicle. Taken a couple of summers ago. I have had it for ten years now. My brother works in a steel mill and I was raised to never, ever purchase a foreign vehicle. I guess he got tired of coming to pick me up after the American cars kept breaking down and leaving me stranded along the road.

This car has served me well. I try to justify the purchase with the fact that it was assembled in Canada. And, that there is a Honda shop in Marysville, Ohio. I don't know if I will ever know all of the facts or not. He won't purchase any other vehicle but a Ford. I have owned two Fords. A Gran Torino and a Galaxie 500. Both of them were more trouble than they were worth. To be honest, I did purchase both of them used. They may have been previously abused.

This Civic I bought brand new, and I made sure it was taken care of. I have done everything by the book. And, I have never regretted the purchase. Except maybe a longing for a four door once in a while. I fell in love with the color. I have received more compliments on this car than I can remember. However, I probably won't be purchasing such an outstanding shade of green again. I stand out like a sore thumb in this thing.

My daughter is having problems this evening with her boyfriend's family. He called her and his older (half)brother keeps hitting him while he is on the phone. The boyfriend would have to hang up to defend himself and then he would call back and it starts all over again. The older (half)brother wanted to use the telephone. My daughter was getting very upset. I asked her "Where is the Mother?" I figured maybe she wasn't home. Siblings can get rough when the parent figure is out of the house. I also told my daughter to tell him to stop calling her, he was just upsetting her. Then I began to think that maybe he was scared. Then I figured out he was being stubborn and by calling her he was proving to the older (half)brother that he wasn't going to give up the phone just because he said so. Keep in mind that both boys have their own cell phones.

The next time he called, my daughter asked to speak to his Mom. She asked the Mother why she wasn't stopping them from fighting. She said that she was getting tired of hearing the older boy beating on her boyfriend and she was going to call the cops. The Mom said something back to her about my daughter telling her how to raise her kids, and then handed the phone back over to her son. Now, I am upset. I told my daughter that she shouldn't have spoken to his Mom like that. She should have asked her if she could put a stop to it. My daughter said that she never does, she just sits and watches it. She said his Mom doesn't like her.

I tried to raise my daughter to respect her elders. I really have. I don't approve of her speaking like that (not to anyone) and I tell her so. I hope it blows over. I don't like violence of any kind. My Mother never tolerated it between me and my siblings. She would grab our heads and threaten to bang our heads together. I know that sounds harsh, but we rarely fought. And, she never banged our heads together that I know of. Most parents ruled with a belt strap and a hickory switch back then anyway. (Not mine.)

Maybe this is the beginning of the end to this relationship.

Cleaning makes me sick

Well! I started my spring cleaning yesterday and today I am not feeling so well. So, I have come to the conclusion that cleaning makes me sick. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

While discussing get togethers recently with my sisters, one sister reminded all of us to put our names on the bottoms of our containers that we bring food in so that we can be sure to have them returned to us. I said glibly, "From now on, just call me Pyrex."

This is the first year I am watching the Oscars. I usually don't watch. Never interested or I just don't remember to. Today I am not feeling well and I feel like sitting around and doing nothing. Yawn. I probably won't make it to the end.

I did watch Walk the Line and The Constant Gardener. So, at least I have some inkling of what and who they are speaking of. Of course, I will watch to see the outfits. Stellar!

Just a blip

I'm just another blip on the radar tonight. Short and sweet.

I started my spring cleaning early this year. I have Walk the Line and it needs to be returned by tomorrow evening, and I really want to see it.

Our new kitty likes to play. She is getting a bit braver and comes upstairs and into the living room. I have seen her and Sable (the dog) timidly sniff each other. She still jumps at loud noises and quick movements. It is taking some time.

She cost me $95 at the vet's office on Thursday. Shots, blood work. Leukemia test, and heartworm test. In two weeks another $20 for distemper follow-up. I may as well get her fixed when I take her back in two weeks. I don't want her rolling around on the basement floor (ahhh! That's an Elton John song!) squalling and in heat. Even though she won't get pregnant here, female cats in heat are NOT a pretty sight. Or sound for that matter.

Well, my blip lasted longer than anticipated. Off your radar screen, now.

Swirl

You know I love my blues. This was a picture of blue Christmas lights.

Hee.

Six months later

When my niece returned to NOLA last week, it was a bittersweet trip for her. She had left behind friends, memories and places. Revisiting the area she lived in for two years became a difficult feat for her. Katrina had left her mark.

Above are five photos I picked from over two hundred that she posted. Six months later.

Where some socks go

I had to laugh when I saw this in the Sunday Parade.

Tabor had just written a post about her lost sock dilemma on Saturday.

Shock and Awe

My mouth literally dropped open when I did something that made all the butter yellow flowers turn bright orange. It didn't close until I framed them in the same orange hue.

My niece spent some time last week in NOLA. (New Orleans Louisiana). She had lived there for two years while she went to school. She lost two friends during the Katrina catastrophe. I will borrow one of her photos to post on another day. It was such a traumatic ordeal for her.

Which brings me to one of my posts last week about torture. I was thinking on this. I didn't mean to sound cruel. You can hardly compare my piddly little suffering while trying to get a print server to print to the horror some people put up with at the hands of real sadists. I was being rather light about the issue, but when you really think about the ghastliness of it all, it can make you cringe. I have absolutely no idea how or why one human could torture another living being. Where does it come from? What possible part of their brain can justify this?

I'm gonna let it shine!

People give me lamps. And, I buy lamps. I like lamps. All kinds. I can't get enough of them. I also have a thing for make-up bags. I have a dozen or so, but use only about two. I like them. Or, I like to buy them. The lamps I have all over the house. This is the cellophane lamp above, and re-done with Photoshop.

I got some great ideas for the baby shower. Thanks! I am so into the game mode, I created a similar game for a work meeting I have coming up. We usually get a technology speaker or have something to talk about and people tend to get bored. I am doing a word scramble and word match game on paper to pass out for people to do during the meeting. I will give a small door prize to the winner.

It is a great refresher and learning tool for me, too. Things like spoof, spam, smurf, jabber, crosstalk, jumbogram and wardriving - I knew, but brushed up on the definitions. Others like webcast and failover, I wasn't too sure of. A fantastic web site for any technical definitions and/or explanations, can be found here.

I have used this site for years. In fact I was given credit for one of the "words of the day" back in 2001. It was a much simpler site back then and I did more reading than I do now. When I would come across a technical word that I wasn't sure the meaning of or when I needed more definition, this is the site I would go to. Back then it was just "whatis.com".

Spotlight

I'm playing again. Love it. Picture was from the fall. The leaves were yellow (in real life).

My sisters and I are planning a baby shower for my nephew and his girlfriend. I get to do the games, door prizes, punch and center pieces. Yay! I was determined not to do any of the nasty games that seem so-o-o popular these days. Where they put melted chocolate bars in a disposable diaper and you get to guess which candy bar it is. No thanks.

I'm going back to the old fashioned ones. Word scramble. My sisters also liked the one where you call out "If you have a name something strange here in your purse, pull it out and you get a point." Like Monty Hall used to do on the old T.V. game show Let's Make a Deal.

The word scramble is easy. But, what items should we call out for the "What's in your purse?" If I call out a cheeseburger (if she were living) - my Mom would win. She was always wrapping up her leftovers in a napkin or two and putting it in her purse. Sometimes she forgot about it. I got in the habit of reminding her when we got home from town to put her extra food in the refrigerator. Yuk, yuk, yuk. I loved that lady! We always said she could live a week from stuff in her purse. It was always as heavy as a cement block, too.

I could call out a hair roller. Not many women have one of those any more in their purse. Fingernail clippers. Scissors. Fingernail file. Fingernail polish. Toothbrush. Lotion. Bobby pin. A picture of a baby (two years or younger). Chewing gum. Dental floss. Condom (no, kidding!) - but it would be funny! A grocery list. Can opener. Neosporin. Certs. Their shower invitation. Pacifier. Screwdriver. Flashlight. Tweezers. Eyelash curler. Rubber band. Paper clip. A deck of cards. A red checker. I'm getting silly.

I would have one point. One! For chewing gum. I better add some common things. Ink pen, checkbook, mirror, keys, etc...

Here are some samples from the word scramble:

1. ikcrgno rhica
2. abby tbolte
3. thineget ignr
4. sabisten
5. nappely
6. ighh richa
7. sgniw
8. arc ates
9. seartb upmp
10. ifacripe
11. byab trimoon
12. otpyt arich
13. ieobsto
14. teshctr raskm
15. cartadpiniei
16. drlnuutoas

The device used to torture me.

I was tortured today. By a small print server.

A couple of years back I went with a group to Myrtle Beach. We went to one of those medieval shows. Where the knights battle on horseback. Well, there was a room off to the side and for two dollars each, you could go through and look at ancient torturing devices. I can see it now. In a couple of hundred years, all these little network devices will be hanging on the walls of a similar room. Yeah, it's kind of like that.

I need color

I needed some color today. Can you tell? Vivid, bright colors. Stared at a computer screen all day. Boring. Looking for DOS attacks. Putting out fires.

I want to go to sleep.

My daughter and I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Blech. Messy. I laughed in a couple of parts, but overall - no thanks. I'll not be watching this one again any time soon.

Have you seen the Easter candy out on the shelves? I have a hard time resisting the peanut butter eggs. I can pass up the marshmallow peeps, jelly beans, and the cadbury goo - but the peanut butter eggs, I may just kill for. And who do they think they are fooling with the tiny little ones wrapped individually in the bags? Yeah, I'll eat about four of them. That should equal one big one. Gimme a break.

I've seen the commercial where the peanut butter cup bumps into the caramel. I haven't tried that one yet. It is kind of like the white chocolate. White chocolate is fine by itself, but don't be putting it into my peanut butter cups. I don't think I am going to go for the caramel either, but I may have to give it a try.

All this candy talk is making me thirsty! No more ginger ale tonight. Time for water. Ice water and plenty of it.

Little Egghead

I think they have a little egghead thing going here. This is my niece's cousin on her Mom's side of the family.

I like the spiky hair. Those are not his glasses. What a poser!

What's wrong with this picture?

I'd say the year was 1963. My two oldest sisters. The one had just made cheerleader.

Yes, folks - that is an outhouse in the right frame of the picture. No running water.

Angela's Ashes had nothing on us.

Much to my chagrin

What does President's Day mean to you? I have to admit, I didn't even think about the day until tonight. I was busy with relatives from out of town and shopping and talking and visiting.

For the most part, I only think of today as a day off from work and school. Wince.

So, I took a few minutes to read about President Hoover. In a movie (Spanglish) I heard say that he was the one held responsible for the Great Depression. So, I wanted to read about it. Hmmm. Interesting.

I also finally got around to watching The Four Brothers. A little violent and there were some holes in the story. As for Spanglish, I think Cloris Leachman and the little girl Sarah Steele made the movie.

My last post...

As I re-read my last post, I realized that some readers may be thinking that I actually agreed with the scripture that I quoted. Far from it. I meant it to say "What in the heck?" or "I don't think so!"

So I re-wrote the ending to the last post. You won't see my keeping quiet about anything that ignorant.

Seen, but not heard.

One last shot from the lake drive by. I thought I would save the church photo for Sunday morning. And I thought maybe I would do a little searching in the Bible and put a quote on for the holy day. So I searched on-line for Bible scriptures with the word "church" in them. I came across the following:

# 1 Corinthians 14:34
Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.
1 Corinthians 14:33-35 (in Context) 1 Corinthians 14 (Whole Chapter)
# 1 Corinthians 14:35
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1 Corinthians 14:34-36 (in Context) 1 Corinthians 14 (Whole Chapter)

I went to church until I was twelve years old. Now, I know why I quit going.

Somebody sent me a bottle of w(h)ine...

Click on the image to read the fine print.

The sky spoke to me.

And it said, "Take my picture!"



I made a mistake this morning.



I went back to bed and fell back asleep.



I slept for over an hour.



I had strange dreams.



When I woke up, I couldn't move.



There lay a cat on each side of me holding my blanket down.
I forgot to close my bedroom door.
Silly cats!

Clouds on the horizon

I snapped this today driving along the lake

You're sitting at a meeting with your co-workers. You can't quite put your finger on it, but somehow you just know that things are changing. An uneasy feeling pervades the room. Nothing negative was said as far as the meeting goes, but plenty was said when certain people were out of the room.

Looks like a storm is brewing up, there are clouds on the horizon.

Branching out

All my branches are going in different directions this week. I am tired. I am irritable. I am going to bed.

You can't see me.

Nobody goes to bed until the FAT CAT eats!

Oh, this is my sister's cat. At one time she had nine cats in her house. She is down to about four or five, now. I don't keep count anymore. So you see. I come by it honestly. It is a genetic trait for me to acquire more than one cat, more than two cats, more than three cats, f-o-u-r! Somebody stop me!

I am avoiding the work subject and my daughter subject. I don't want to talk about either one.

Cats on a couch.

A picture of the sun streaming through the window. I couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture of all three cats sleeping on the couch. My daughter loves her new micro fiber down blanket. She drags it out onto the couch, and I take it the cats like it too. The fourth kitty is still hiding out in the basement.

Precious



Jasper



Casper

I heat my house, honest I do!

Silly mood.

The eyes to this picture are actually my rain scented candle while it was burning. Using the words of Seinfeld "I got jiggy with it".

As I zoomed in on just the top of the candle and cropped it, I thought that it looked like an eye. So I made another one, and then put a circle around them and it sort of took on a life of it's own.

Watched Madagascar this week-end. It was cute.

Something to come home to.

Anybody want a black female mutt? About knee-high, round
as a barrel, very black with strange white markings. Barks
when anybody knocks on the door (good watchdog). Eats
almost anything. Has been known to spit out a red radish.

Weakness: On Friday it was the un-eaten gravy from a
chicken place in town.

That'll teach me not to forget to take the garbage out before
I go to work.

What a ride!

This is my stats for my blog site in the past year. I don't recall what the numbers are, I was just amused by the spike and the drop in hits.

The big one that caused a lot of "google" searches was the picture I had posted of the sky. For a few months there when you would google the image of the word "sky" my pic would come up about sixth or seventh. I have no idea how. Now, it doesn't even appear in the first six or seven pages of images. That is as far as I looked.

At one time I thought I knew how search engines worked. But as with everything else, the more you know - the more you realize you don't know.

For the most part I check the stats to see if any family is peeking in at my blog or not. I have not told them about it, but I suppose they could find it for themselves. They do go to my personal web page, so I know what their visit log looks like. So far, nobody in the near neighborhood stops in to this blog.

I do watch what I say about family and especially co-workers, now. As far as I know, I have not received any co-workers stopping in, either. This isn't for family or co-workers. It is for me. To purge my day. Vent. And, I got to tell you. I go back and re-read my entries. Just to see what I was doing or going through "a year ago today." And sometimes it helps to recall what happened when.

For example: If I can't recall what date I purchased my printer, I know that it was the same time I blogged about Sable chewing up my headset. I was setting the printer up when I found the headset. It works pretty well as a record keeper.

Another thing that amuses me is what brings searchers to my site. Before I used the stats I posted a picture of a butterfly house, but shortened the name to "Butt house". You guessed it. I had hits, though I am as confused as you are. Search engines no longer show the image, but for the love of Pete, why search for that image? Oh, never mind. I just searched for the phrase instead of the image and I got lots of hits for butt house. There is a bed and breakfast with that name, there is a popular exercise about walking around the house on your butt cheeks. Okay, now I can see where this is going.

And, personally - I kind of like some of the houses depicted in one guy's site titled Butt Ugly houses of the Universe. But that's just me.

So far our new kitty is very shy. She stays in the basement except to eat. She is okay with the other cats - it is the dog she is terrified of. We are taking it slow. Letting her work it out on her own. When we go downstairs to pet her, she is very affectionate. I have never had a long-hair cat before. She has some matted hair under her chin I would like to cut out. There is no way we can comb them out. They are too matted. I call her "Scruffy", my daughter calls her Moosey.

I better make an appointment with our vet this coming week. Get her shot and fixed. She is very tiny under all that hair, so she is probably pretty young. She won't get pregnant inside my house, and we don't let her out. But I will do the right thing, fixed she will get. Unless she is already "with kittens".

My world is blue

I had every intention of putting orange or yellow into this post. But, no. Blue, blue my world is blue. I have run a gauntlet of feelings after hearing of my previous boyfriend's death. I haven't seen him in close to ten years and we have not been a couple in more than eighteen years. His older brother died four years ago. I just cannot imagine what his parents must be going through. I just hope it wasn't suicide. His best friend committed suicide a couple of years back. This life can be so hard and so cruel.

I heard the news today, oh boy.

My sister called me today. An old boyfriend passed away. Another lifetime ago. He was my "Virginia" boyfriend. We lived in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake together for a few years.

He was one of the kindest and nicest men I have ever known. He was very kind to animals and children. He liked to fish. I like to think that he is off fishing somewhere on one of the lakes in Virginia or Ohio. At sunrise. Always at sunrise.

I'm in a foul mood

Warning. Full-blown, cranky, sour attitude post ahead.

So you wake up one morning and you say to yourself, 'What in the hell has happened to me?' I used to be so organized! I used to be at the top of my game! I used to go places, do stuff, I used to be somebody! Dammit, I was going to plant flowers. I was going to re-do my daughter's bedroom! I was going to be the best network technician that walked the face of the earth. I feel like the Seattle Seahawks looked yesterday near the end of the fourth quarter. Like 'I blew it.'

I have a raging headache and it is the kind where you cannot lay down or you will just kill something. They (whoever "they" are) tell you to lay down in a quiet room and relax when you have a headache. Have you seen people in pain? The last thing you want to do is to lay still! My head is hurting so bad that if I lay down I will get physically sick. I have to do anything, everything just so I don't think about the p-a-i-n!

I know what happened. I skipped lunch. I stayed up too late over the week-end. I ate too rich of foods yesterday during the "Super Bowl party". Whoopee. I didn't drink, so alcohol was not the problem. I drank ginger ale. Maybe I drank too much of it. Maybe I had too much citrus. Maybe I ate one too many cinnamon buns yesterday for breakfast. It was too hot in my office. The sun was too bright. Maybe I have PMS. On and on and on and on it goes...

Coming home today I dropped the bag of dog food on the kitchen floor and it burst wide open. I looked at Sable. I said "Hungry? Help yourself. The more you eat, the less I have to sweep up." And I walked away. It is still out there on the floor. She hasn't touched it. She is probably afraid to.

For some reason I began thinking of "having it all." Supposedly nobody can "have it all." What is your list for "having it all?" I came up with some items that I think would qualify for this Utopia.

Personal health

Child (or children) - and they would be healthy

Strong and loving Family ties - and they would all be healthy

career (Adequate income)

Friends (and they would be healthy)

Love of a significant other (and they would be healthy)

Nice surroundings (living conditions)

Social status

Maybe the old saying "nothing matters if you don't have your health" is really the key.

I think I made a mistake.

Things you don't want to hear after you pick your fourteen-year-old daughter up from an over-nighter. "I think I made a mistake." My heart stopped and I about missed our turn and drove the car over the hill. Not the hill in the picture above which is from last summer. More color for our weary eyes.

No. It wasn't too serious. She said she peeked at her friend's diary and read it. I took in a gulp of air. I had been holding my breath. She found some things out about this friend that she wished she didn't know. We talked a bit about personal and private things, yada yada yada. Whew. Don't do that to your Mom!

Funny incident reading the Sunday paper. Now, I get the award for biggest fool when it comes to this next paragraph. My daughter brought a stray cat home. Yes, that is four cats, now. I am a fool. I was reading the paper hoping that somebody would list it as lost. I began reading the first listing. '250 acres, farm land....' I thought to myself "How can somebody lose land?" I re-read the section title. Lots and Land NOT Lost and Found. And, this was with my glasses on!

Breezy on the lake

The same lake again. Turning colder here. My nephew's b'day today. 29. I fixed the usual yellow cake with vanilla pudding, pineapple and cool whip. The same as he requested last year. We went to all the tech stores in my town today. LED's, DVD's, Hi definition, dual processors, dual cores, Athlon Intel AMD, SATA - my head is swimming.

It's Friday!

Peruby does the little "happy dance".

Back in the day

Back in Blue

Here is a picture of one of the beautiful lakes that we have near here in Ohio. When I pass it this time of year all is cold and gray. The water looks sinister and menacing.

My daughter and I were both sick today so we took some time and watched a movie together. Flightplan has been called a combination of Panic Room and The Forgotten. It was pretty suspenseful, regardless of whether it was a copycat movie or not.

I cringed when I saw some closeup shots of Jodie Foster. I thought to myself, 'Surely she has had some kind of surgery. Her features are just so sharp they jump out at you.' And, I am sure it is nobody's business but her own. But, at times it was painful to look at her. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have seen her in a theater with a giant screen.









And then I think, maybe nothing was done. You have to give her credit though. For letting an image of a real person come through when she is aboard the flight and is frantic. Because as you can see here, she can be quite glamorous when she chooses to be.