Peek-a-boo

There's a boy in there somewhere!

A little friend of the family appears to be buried underneath his small mountain of gifts this Christmas. I am thinking he made out pretty good.

Watched a movie this evening. I really, really DON'T recommend it! Friends with Money. I really, really don't get this movie. What was it about any way? Did some Hollywood producer decide to create a movie that says "Let's make a movie that shows how stoned Jennifer Aniston can be?" Okay, I am using the word "really" a bit too much, but I can't help it. I am at a loss for words, here. If I am missing the point, somebody please point it out to me.

Wait. I just read where the writer is one who has written for Sex and the City, Six Feet Under and Gilmore Girls. Nuff said. Fluff. Smoke it up, then.

Wrong setting

Lights on the tree

I had the camera set wrong when I took this shot. The white lettering on top of the camera knob has worn off and I can't tell what I have it set at and if I don't have my glasses on, I can't see the setting show up on the display window. I kind of like it.

I had a wonderful Christmas. I didn't do much yesterday except go through bags and bags of wrapping paper to make sure nothing was thrown out. I saved one little make-up mirror from the garbage.

I won ten dollars from a lottery ticket. I don't much care for the lottery, but when somebody hands me a ticket, I'll scratch it!

Back to work today. I am tired.

Merry Christmas

Silver ornament from my tree

I hope this Christmas morning finds all of you well and happy. If not happy, at least content. If not well, hopefully on the road to recovery. I am hoping that everybody got all they wished for and more. That each one of you took a moment to relish in the atmosphere and the spirit of having loved ones close to you. This is what Christmas has been for me this year, and though I know that not every year can be like this, I just hope and dream that nobody feels left out or lonely this holiday season.

What today feels like

Today feels like I am standing at the bottom of this huge tree, looking up. See that top way up there? My goals are sitting up there. I have to start climbing. Get ready, set, GO!

Drunks in the basement, bats in my belfry

A red ornament

It appears as if I am going to get the three things I did not want for Christmas. The list I posted a couple of days ago. Paper cuts, kitty vomit and drunks in the basement. Check, check and.... check.

I don't have the heart to continue what I was posting the night before, or the middle of the night. As I stated at the beginning of the post my head was fuzzy as cotton and I was just rambling.

I just have a hard time helping people who drive nicer cars than me, have nicer clothes, and nicer nails. I don't want to judge but I was raised to question things. This is why I have such a difficult time at work. I was never the type to just do the job and shut up.

I get a manager who wants me to do as they say and don't ask questions. I have a problem with that. I speak my mind. Sometimes. I get into hot water. I get written up for insubordination. I tell them to shove the job up their arse and I walk.

Then I had a child and I found that I had to curb my sarcasm a bit in order to provide a stable home life for us. I found out that the job ain't so bad after things smooth over. I found out that the sarcasm problem follows me to every damn job I go to. Huh. Imagine that.

I found out how to adjust my attitude so that my life became easier. I still have a bit of a problem now and again with the "insubordination" part, but I stand my ground.

Life is a bitch sometimes, but I like myself and I am too damn tired and too damn old to keep starting over. I figure anymore if I walk, who wins? Me or them? Hmmmm.

However, I usually walk when I lose respect for my boss. They lie. I hate that. They say they are going to help you and all they want to do is to help themselves. If you are not there to help them look good, then you are the enemy.

I find fault with the organization. I am not a Pollyanna who can pretend that my organization is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that it can do no wrong. Hell, we are a mess. It is hard to wait for sometimes, but usually they hang themselves. They trip themselves up in their own lies and false pretenses.

Sometimes I get tired of seeing customers laugh at my boss and my organization. Well, mostly they get frustrated and mad. It is hard not to get depressed about it. I just try to do the best I can. It can be exhausting trying to make up for what the upper management screws up. I had to learn to stop trying to fix things I didn't mess up. I still try sometimes, but I keep reminding myself to make life easy on myself and just do what I can do without killing myself.

Hmmm. I guess I am still tired and my head is still full of cotton. Look at the garbage I just wrote. Sheesh! I better get some rest before I spin another yarn.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Ornament, camera, reflection

So, this is what I get after two days full of running and drop exhausted into bed at 9:30 p.m. at night. I am wide awake at 12:30 a.m. Unable to fall back asleep. My head is full of cotton. I am not sure I can be held accountable for what I type here today. I'm not sure I am in my right mind.

For work yesterday (I think that was Thursday) I did a lot of driving. My mind kept returning to the evening prior (Wednesday evening). This was the night that I attended the Christmas party for the families that the city police department gave. Not my city, one north of where I live. They let the children open one gift and serve them a nice hot meal and sing carols, Santa comes, etc... I had the task of serving the turkey.

What I am about to say is not meant to be "Politically incorrect." It is just an observation on my part. I was uneasy asking "Would you like dark or white meat?" to a room of folks where some were black, some were white and some were both. I stopped asking and just put turkey on their plate. It just sounded wrong. We are all afraid of saying the wrong thing.

The Good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:

The little children were adorably sweet and they were fed, given one present to open at the party and got to sit on Santa's lap.

The bad:

So many of the adults wore professionally fake fingernails, beautiful make-up and dressed to the nines. So many of the children roamed around without supervision. I gravitate toward children so I had a few on my hip almost all evening. I had no idea who the parent (or guardian) was and no one seemed anxious to retrieve their child. A couple of times we had to shoo them out of the kitchen because we were using some pretty sharp knives to carve the turkeys.

The ugly:

You could see where some of the other adults had led a rough life of poverty. It showed in their faces. Missing teeth, dull hair, sunken eyes. Aged beyond their years.

I had an extra ordinary stressful and busy day at work on Wednesday. This gave me no time to go home and freshen my make-up or re-do my hair or change clothes before dashing off to the party that evening. As I served the food I felt dowdy, tired and stressed out. I was envious of the women who had the professional nails done and their make-up was glowing and their clothes were shiny and glittery. I am a little sore on the subject of fake finger nails. I like them as well as the next person. I was always angry when one of my sisters would boo hoo about her monetary woes and in the next breath she would rave about her newly manicured fingernails. When pressed to comment on how much the nails cost, she shut up about her problems pretty quickly.

I was glad to participate in the event. I took the Tickle Me Elmo Extreme in case they needed an extra gift. The officer in charge told me that everything was planned out, all children were taken care of. I may just return the darn thing to the store.

Then came the article I read. Drat! About how to be careful around the holidays. Most of your money and donations do not make it past the folks collecting. This is why the officer wanted the folks who donated to attend the party. They could see where their efforts went. This is an important step to charity.

A few weeks back I had purchased a gift for a little girl. It was a beautiful purple horse head that the little girl (or boy) could add make-up to and style the mane. (I will always love to buy little girl gifts!) I missed the giving tree at one of my banks and dashed around to find a place that had NOT stopped collecting. (As some of you suggested to give Elmo to a toy drive, it is way too late for that. They need time to wrap and distribute the gifts). I found a box for the horse head gift at a Dollar General store. I dropped it in, and went through the store picking up a few things. When I checked out I came close to the box. The cashier quickly told me that the gift had been taken into the back room because they didn't want anybody to grab it and run with it. I believed her. After the article, I wonder.

A decade or so back, I was sitting at a party. I overheard a worker at a Good Will store bragging about how she got first dibs on whatever came into the store. Now, this worker was not mentally challenged as most think Good Will employees are. Not at all. She was sane, her husband made good money and she had no children to purchase for. Good Will is "supposed" to place the articles on the sales floor for 48 hours "before" the employees get the opportunity to purchase them. Forget that. From this gal I heard about money she pulls out of pockets and sticks into her pocket. It was supposed to go to the store jar for all to share or go towards their holiday party. They do this sorting in the back room of the stores. Note that not all stores operate in this manner. It just turned my stomach.

Some of the people who don't work have the time to visit second hand stores and to be on hand when their new shipments come in. They visit often and get the best deals. People who work all day, do not get the chance to browse that often. Result: resentment.

To be continued: (Unless I get well rested and am able to monitor and actually think about what I am typing here!)

Willy Nilly

My tree this year. All willy nilly.

I kind of just threw stuff on it this year. I didn't get a live tree. I purchased one from Tis the Season. It was their last one and it has white snow on it's branches. I wonder how long that stuff will last. Somebody said "You will need to re-spray it." I'm thinking to myself 'You can do that?'

I normally don't do things on a whim. The season kind of sneaks up on you. I made a purchase that I have absolutely no use for. I got caught up in the excitement. I purchased a Tickle Me Elmo TMX. The Warning version. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was in a toy store and somebody had just returned it unopened. The clerk asked me if I wanted it, I said "Sure." And, I bought it.

Now, what the hell do I do with it?

A Christmas Tag

I was tagged by:

One day at a time: Tabor.

"The Rules:

The player of this game starts with "3 things he/ she would love to get for Christmas" and also has to list "3 things he/ she definitely does not want to get for Christmas". Then he/she tags 5 friends and list their names. The ones who get tagged need to write on their blogs about their Christmas wishes, as well as state this rule clearly, then tag 5 more victims. And the one who tags need to leave a comment that says "you've been Christmas tagged!" in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

Three things I would like for Christmas:

1. My daughter's kiloid to dissipate

2. Peace in my family/household

3. Someone to clean my house


Three things I don't want for Christmas:


1. Drunks in my basement

2. Kitty vomit

3. Paper cuts from wrapping gifts

LOL! I have been so busy with other things, I never really sat down to figure what I really wanted this holiday season. I will be very surprised it I get number three from the first list and if I don't get number three from the second list!

Writing on the wall

My cards from last year

Greeting cards. Is it a dying tradition? A passing fad was the one page newsletter about what the family did throughout the year. I don't receive any of those any more. I used to get about three a year. I kind of lost contact with the folks who sent them out, so maybe they still do.

There are religious cards (usually the nativity), scenic cards (snowy country setting with church or cozy house), cutesy cards (little critters and such), shiny and satiny ones, ornament ones, Peace, Happy Holidays, holly and ivy, birds, snowmen... just about anything you can think of has ended up on a Christmas card.

Is it a waste of money? A waste of paper material? Do you purchase recycled cards? I have. Not every year. I have also purchased ones that contribute to the welfare of pets. Card companies make a killing. There are always shelves of cards left over after the holiday. Do they save them for next year?

Do you add a personal note or just sign your name(s)? I receive a few pre-printed cards with the family names printed neatly inside. Do you print your addresses from a computer and stick them on the envelope? Does this take away the personalized feeling of a card?

Do you include confetti inside your card? The recipient opens it up and a cupful of stuff falls out and onto the floor. Then they shake their fist in the air! "Why that dirty so and so! Now, look at the mess I have to clean up!" Nobody likes confetti inside a card. Nobody. Stop it. Send a lottery ticket inside a card if you have to put something inside it. LOL! Just kidding.

I don't participate in the state lottery. And, I especially don't participate in chain e-mails or letters of any kind. I've had a few people angry with me because I broke the chain. I tell them I don't do that sort of thing. I am not overly religious. I just don't believe in them. There just seems to be something wrong about it.

Of course there is a reason I don't participate in chain e-mails. Because I have to try and un-clog bogged down networks. Especially when we get an e-mail storm. Too much traffic causes congestion. No matter if it is cars or Internet packets. Why is your connection so slow? Because somebody somewhere is forwarding that last joke to everyone in their contact list and it has a "ripple effect". I'm not saying don't send any more jokes. I love a good joke.

I just remove all of the junk out before I send the joke and I only send it to people I think will appreciate the joke. If you receive a letter in the postal mail, do you re-stuff the original envelope into the new envelope before you re-send it to your friend or relative? No, of course not. And, can you imagine how big this letter would get by the time twenty people re-stuffed the letter without removing the envelopes that contained their address? Adding packet after packet on top of the previous e-mail causes the entire message to grow and grow and grow. Until it is an actual elephant trudging through the backbone of the Internet. Now, multiply that by years of people sending and re-sending the same jokes. Pretty soon our networks won't move at all.

1964

On the front porch swing

I am guessing this is 1964. Could be '65. That's me in the middle - in yellow. I look like I have two bananas in my hair. I guess the barrettes were a little too big for me. LOL! I think also that I am holding my dress down around my legs so as not to show any panties in the picture. That would be disgraceful!

Prison dryers

I have no photo today that would depict the anger I am feeling. If I were this guy, I would be giving the judge back the $75 used to bail me out of jail and beg to be let back in. If not, he had better be hiding, and hiding well. I can only imagine if he were in my neighborhood. I'd lead the mob of angry villagers to lynch him up.

So, how big are the dryers in prison? Yeah. We'll see who wets their pants, now.

A daisy wheel

Cute wheel cover

One of my first office jobs, I used a typewriter with a "daisy wheel". It wasn't like this. I thought this was a cute Volkswagen beetle. A daisy wheel cover on a popsicle green bug. This person just has to be full of sunshiny happiness.

Gushing gutters

My neighbor's house through a downpour

No snow to speak of yet. It is mild enough to rain. This photo is from the past summer. Before I discovered my gutter wasn't clogged. It had just pulled away from the roof and just needed pounded back in.

Do you have a real "Sad Sack" that you work with? I have worked with some. This is the guy who can't get anything right. No matter how many times you tell him something, he can't seem to remember it or get it straight. He keeps typing in the wrong numbers. When you call for support and get him, you groan. No, not "Sad Sack!" He can't do anything right. Sometimes he would make me so mad and other times I felt so sorry for him.

He's the one that if it wasn't messed up before he touched it, it is beyond help after he is done with it. The buzz around the office was "Never let Sad Sack touch your computer equipment! It will never work right again!" He would hand it back with some lame excuse that somebody else messed it up or it was messed up when he got hold of it - and it wasn't. He messes almost everything up.

Know the type? Okay, now imagine he is your manager. How in the hell did that happen? Of course that might say a lot about managers in some work places.

Just blabbering

Vivid orange

I put some lights up around the outside bushes this evening. The first set of net lights out of the box didn't work. Great start! I strung a bunch of single strands together. I put way more than three on one line. They look okay after dark. Somebody (we suspect the pizza man) stepped on one of the bulbs and put an entire strand out that was close to the railing. I'll replace it. I have one strand running across the sidewalk to connect the bushes and I covered it with a rug. I should have wrapped them in bubble wrap.

I'll go tomorrow and get more outside extension cords. I can't find my old stuff. I figure by the time I exhaust and frustrate myself by looking, I could have purchased new stuff.

Well, I am down to three cats. Precious went back to my sister. A couple of years ago when she divorced and moved into a small house, she was not allowed pets. She said that the one cat was calm and quiet and could stay in an upstairs bedroom, but she felt that Precious was a little too high strung so I took her in. She purchased her own house a month ago and I took the cat back to her.

We had a houseful of teenagers this evening kicking it to Dance Dance Revolution (a Play Station 2 game) and the temperature in the living room rose to about 74 degree Fahrenheit. My poor niece stays in the basement and the furnace did not run all day so it is quite chilly down there. I need to have the gas fireplace checked so I can run it this winter for her.

I was front seat to another Jerry Springfield episode of Catholic Religion 101 again this morning. Usually on Mondays the two co-workers talk about their service they went to over the week-end. I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee. When I came back upstairs the big guy (head honcho) of the building was in the middle of the conversation. I groaned "Oh no! Not you, too!" He said "They are talking religion." I said, "I know! That's why I left." He said his grandmother always told him to never talk religion or politics. I said, "Oh yeah? My Mom told me it was religion, politics and sex!" He laughed. We were more interested in their passionate input of the conversation that what they were actually discussing.

He dragged his employee out (almost literally). The two employees were yelling at each other "You're wrong! I'm right!" Man the room was hot after that. They sure were fired up. I think they remained friends through all of the screaming. It was apparent to me (an observer) that neither one was really listening to what they other was saying. They were much too intent on shouting over what the other was trying to say.

I never could stand talk shows like that and I hope this brings an end to the arguing. I can pretty much guess that the big guy talked to his employee and told her that this sort of office babbling needs to stop and needs to stop pronto. My co-worker? I label her a religious quack! She was still yelling at the other employee as she was being dragged away by her boss "Remember, that this religion stemmed from the Catholic religion!" She watches television evangelists Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen.

The tree is up

First artificial tree in this house

This is the first year I don't have a live tree since we moved to this house in March of 2002. I am in no way fastidious when it comes to decorating for the holidays. As long as it has color and plenty of glow I'm pretty happy. So I don't much care if the wires of the lights are showing or not.

I almost hit a deer on the way home from a dinner last night. If I opened my car door he could have walked right in. Except for the fact that I was going 60 mph. He was just strolling. That is a good thing because if he were running, I'd have nailed him. There were two cars coming in the opposite direction so I had my headlights dimmed and did not see him until I was within inches of his nose. My reflexes caused me to swerve anyway. It was a bit unnerving.

My niece told me today that a classmate of hers shot himself Friday night. He came home from a party, called his grandfather, told him he loved him and shot himself with a shot gun. He died last night. She had not seen him in over a year so she was not sure how his mental condition was. I had just read in the paper this morning how depressing the holidays are for some folks and how SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) affects the 20 to 30 age group the hardest.

It just seems like the world events are taking their toll on folks this year. I am not sure if it was the nice batch of warm weather we had or if people need to really express themselves this year, but there sure are a lot of light displays. We drove around tonight and looked at some. Some folks like the religious theme. Others like the Santa and reindeer. Still others do the snowmen or Rudolph and the Abominable snowman. And of course there is the Grinch or the Peanuts gang. They are always popular. Trees, trains, stars, wreaths, pointsettias - so much to choose from. Palm trees are big this year. I like the snowmen. I may go with that theme some year. You know. When I have all this extra money to spend on decorations.

Some girls I used to work with, get together every month or so to play cards or sing along or just visit. We adopted a family this year from the Sheriff's office. They don't get the parents any presents. Just the children. There are two. An 11 year old girl and a six year old boy. I am covering the boy. He likes Spiderman. It has been ages since I bought little boy clothes (if ever?). We have to use a credit card. This way we can give a gift receipt with the item and the parent(s) cannot exchange the item for cash. They must exchange it for merchandise. Wow. I prefer to help out strangers. This way I don't know why they don't have money to buy gifts this year. Even the thought of a parent returning their child's gifts for cash for themselves makes me shake my head in dismay. It never ceases to amaze me.

Well, it's off to starting another work week. This December is going to be c-r-a-z-y! We are connecting a dozen schools via fiber this month. This means about 2 dozen less T1 lines to troubleshoot. Yippee!

Little blue bird

I think her name is Shelby

This little girl dressed in blue was at my Grand niece's first birthday party back in October. Cute as a button and dressed all in blue to match her pretty eyes.

I sat at the mall waiting on my nephew this evening when my feet felt as though they were going to fall off. I looked up and there was this huge line of parents with their children waiting to see Santa. I sat and watched them for a while.

So, how much do you suppose a mall Santa gets paid? I know it was at least 80 degrees in that place. He had a full suit on with beard, etc. He wasn't as round as the storybook Santa. For all I know he may have started out bigger, but sweat off all the fat.

I'm pretty sure it was a guy. I didn't get close enough to hear him speak. Time after time somebody plopped a little rugrat on his lap. Most of the time they were horrified at this sight of foreign red and white monstrosity. Anyways, I'll bet he doesn't get paid near enough.

These look good

Cherries from July

I could go for a bowl of these babies right about now. I have bananas and golden delicious apples. No cherries. I closed my eyes and picked a photo from my archives. My night picture taking needs a lot of improvement. I am reading and studying up on it, though. Even with my tripod the lights are very blurry. If it warms up a little I can experiment more. As it is, the wind is biting cold and I don't have the ambition to play around with my camera outside. Brrrrr.

The incident I wrote about the other day (employees reading other's e-mails) is all over the newspapers here. Since I know the person involved and have worked with them, I am just sick to my stomach over it. Somebody with a family (two small children) has been suspended from their job. Before the holidays when life gets depressing enough. It is hard not to snoop for some people. Especially if they have a bone to pick with somebody and they want to catch them in a compromising situation. What is that old saying? "Cut off your nose to spite your face?" The meaning is, you do something rash or silly (usually in anger) that ends up backfiring and doing just as much harm to yourself (if not more). This appears to be the case.

I drove around a little bit this evening to look at Christmas lights outside people's homes. So pretty. This tradition goes way back to when we were little and used to open our gifts up on Christmas Eve. My Mom and older sister would convince us that Santa had so many gifts to deliver he needed to start early and he usually started at our house, so we got our gifts early. My oldest sister would pile us younger ones in the car and drive us around to look at Christmas light displays in the neighborhood. (Thus giving my Mom time to put the gifts out under the tree). I know that I fell for it. As I got older and began driving, I would take my Mom out for about an hour to look at lights on an evening close to Christmas. She never went out after dark when she got older, so this was a rare outing for her. We didn't go if the weather was bad.

Then I come home to my house - completely dark. I better get something done. I have a gazillion lights and stuff, but just don't have the knack for putting them up. Not very handy with the ladder and tools. I'll give it a good try tomorrow evening or this week-end. I still have time.

Big beautiful mess

A mess of purple

I have so many things I want to write about today. Part of me wants to continue with the comment that Tabor made after my post yesterday, and I became philosophical about my flashy silver foil representing the flashy young life I used to have. When you are young and vibrant, things seem much shinier and flashier, like the foil I had on the outside wall of the patio porch attached to my garage. Then with one big wind storm - POOF! It's gone. Like our youth.

The wind did leave somebody's green and crumbled up grill cover in my back alley. Like aging, we are more down to earth and a little less flashy. Sometimes we feel tired and weary, represented here by the crumpled up grill cover lying on the edge of the alley. Forgotten, people look the other way when they see it, or trying not to see it. Nobody goes over to pick it up, they just let it be. Kind of like neglected older folks in a nursing home.

Another part of my day consisted of two co-workers arguing about their religion Catholicism. Oh. my. God! You know the old adage. Never discuss politics, sex or religion. An hour. By the time their faces were turning red and they were nearly screaming, I wanted to quit the Catholic religion and I'm not Catholic! For the most part, I listened - bemused. Neither one would give in and though they were not angry at each other, it was interesting to hear how they justified what they thought was wrong with the religion or right with it. One co-worker stated that all religion stems from the Catholic religion. Huh?

It's just hair

New do

Okay, Peruby. Just keep repeating to yourself over and over. It's just hair. It's not like it's a tattoo or a piercing. It's just hair, it's just hair, it's just hair, it's just .... red and black striped hair???? Sweet Jesus in heaven, have mercy!

Actually this is from last week. I am over it already. She likes it. She is having fun with it. I liked the other style, but she was killing her hair with the straightener. She is with this one too, though.

I saw the Salvation Army collecting at the grocery store. Could be that most of them wait until December to begin.

I've been taking different streets around town so I can see more light displays. I received a tripod in the gift exchange on Saturday and if I get brave enough to venture the cold, I'll maybe take it out for a walk and set it up to get some photos. I may even find my lost sheet(s) of silver door covering. I have somebody's green grill cover in the alley behind my garage. Stupid wind!

December chill

Summer wild flowers

I am a bit weary of posting decorations and wanted something to remind me of warmer weather. I shuffled back through my photo archives and caught this one from the back alley behind where I work. This is close to Earl's dog house. Earl is still there. I wave to him when I pass.

Last year the girls that I get together with every month or so decided to purchase a bunch of toys for children that must spend the holidays in a hospital. We went through the routine, called two hospitals, got the information and then the day came to deliver them and the two hospitals in the area said "No, we try to send children home for the holidays."

We were left with a pile of gifts. One of the gal's knew a sheriff in town and he delivered them for us to families that were in need. This year he is helping us to get involved in a program where we can adopt a family. He gave us a family with two children. They do not give the parents any money or gifts. I prefer this method because if I know the family, then usually I know why they don't have money for the holidays. I'd rather not know.

I am not sure why, but I have not seen many collections for The Salvation Army outside of stores this year. I may be a dreamer, but I like to think that when the collector is done with their shift they take that bucket and run it over to a needy family. Like in A Christmas Carol, the needy family is sitting around the table with little food and heat and trying to keep their spirits up. There is a knock on the door. They open the door to the cold and dark. They can't see the face of the visitor, but a big wad of money (or a big box of food) is shoved into their hands and their problems are solved for at least a while. If it were only like that. It is still a nice dream.

Creche

Nativity at Tis the Season

I sounded so ungrateful in my post yesterday. Let me say that I am thankful my roof didn't blow away, or my garage, or my siding or my child. Well now, my child...hmmm. Oh, sorry. Okay, okay! I am grateful!

After reading the newspaper this morning, I see that I fared much better than others in the neighborhood.

I am off to a Christmas party tonight and have been running around today like a chicken with it's head cut off. I am taking meatball appetizers and a cheese ball/tray with trail bologna and pepperoni. Just not enough time to do everything. I am behind. I hate starting the season running behind. I have Bunco Dice and Catch Phrase to play at the party tonight if I can rouse up a group to do so. Tomorrow I can try to get the house into some kind of organized chaos. Maybe.

Gone with the wind

Unicorn ornament from Tis the Season

If I weren't so darn tired, I'd probably be crying right now. I spent the past couple of days in Columbus helping my nephew who had minor oral surgery. I am brain dead - fried. Out of my element, I don't sleep well and I was sick for most of the time. Yecch.

My niece called me at 3:30 p.m. today. I was stopped and getting gas in the car. She said all my decorations from the patio blew down 3rd street. We don't live on 3rd street. We live near 3rd street.

All that work. I didn't have any pictures yet, because I was waiting until I finished. I was too traumatized to cry. Not really. I said "Easy come, easy go." I had purchased silver heavy foil door cover and put it on the back wall of my patio. I had blue lights all around. I was creating a centerpiece on top of my glass round table - with silver glitter cones. It was a silver and blue theme.

When I came home, I saw that all was not lost. The foil backdrop is gone. Poop. The lights are still up and still on. The centerpiece is tangled up, but I actually think it looks better than what I did. The cones fell over or blew out into the yard. I may fix it, I may leave it.

Another tree fell in my neighbor's yard. When I first moved here four years ago he had a long row of hemlock bordering our back alley. One fell and I had the electric company come out and move it off the wires, etc... Then one by one, like dominoes they are all falling over. He just built a new garage and this tree just missed it. The wind is still howling. It was supposed to stop at 10:00 p.m.

I watched Over the Hedge and The Break-up while I was away. Lukewarm feelings on both shows. I doubt that I will watch either one again.

A dirty picture

I wasn't about to touch it

My second oldest sister purchased a house and we helped her clean on Saturday. This phone is in the garage. He worked on automobiles. His name is George. He is now in a nursing home.

As high as I was in the spirit of the holiday, I am sunk low today. I have been fighting an ear ache and sore throat. Nothing major, just something there. I have run very low on energy and am quite bitc... err.., irritable.

The second half of work was a major headache - couldn't get video to working and everybody was tense. This outside company sells this small educational building their video equipment. They take it away and "fix" it for 3 months after a lightning strike. They bring it back today. There are four guys. I come in to test the connection end and the tech support person at this building is a lady. I tried to smooth things over because there was so much tension in the air you could cut it with a knife. These guys were really on their high horse. When I first got there they were not speaking to her. Daggers were being cast with the eyes.

The first thing I did was get the air conditioner turned on and brought two fans into the room. It was a toasty 78 degrees F in the room they were working in. I joked with them and cajoled them. When they saw that I was not a Miss Frost they began to loosen up. They relaxed a little and sat down to eat their lunch while Miss Frost returned to her inservice in another room. I refused to let them be. I chatted and joked. We were all laughing and nodding our heads by the time their lunch was over.

Then things took a turn for the worse. Their equipment kept failing. (A Windows 98 machine running a V-Tel video unit). My home office wouldn't answer their phone. I kept getting voice mail. Things began to get messy. It was perhaps a year or longer that I have worked with this type of video equipment. I was rusty - and my memory was failing. I instantly became deflated - I wasn't in top form as it was. Tempers began to flare again. Somebody in the building had turned the air back off. When Miss Frost returned from her inservice the daggers began again. I left after three hours of this mess. My home office had left an hour before and I was not getting anywhere.

I come home and get into it with my daughter about teenager/parent things. She wants this, she wants that. I snap back that she hasn't helped out around the house and earned the other things she got, yet. She wants more, more, more. She is decorating the teen park place, but won't lift a finger to help me.... Yep. I'm going to bed and dream of a better day tomorrow.

Tis blue!

Blue display

My daughter and I went to 'Tis The Season in Berlin today. We had a day off. If you like lights and color - this is the place to go. A chalet in Amish country with three stories of every Christmas theme ornament you can imagine. I still like the nativity displays and have some photos of them. Very, very pricey. If ever I have money left over, I would like to go here in January or February when they have fantastic sales.

I am looking at another very busy week, so posts will be hit and miss.

Reflections

Wine-colored decoration

Another from the museum. Things are not slowing down, yet. Not sure if they will before Christmas. I am trying to carve out some "me" time. I did update a few belated photo projects on my family photo album page.

I anticipate a lot more decorations to see this year because of this beautiful weather we are having. I was able to start on my patio. I cannot lay my hands on some of my blue lights so the scene is a little bare right now. I plan to add to it as the weeks go by. Not sure if I can spend much in that area to help fill it out, but I will keep a close eye on store sales.

Thank-you, thank-you very much

Elvis atop a tree

I finally get some time to sit and reflect this morning. I am not rushing off somewhere.

I had an unusually raucous day with my family Thursday. On the big feast day usually we sit around stuffing ourselves and lay around afterward talking. Somebody brought the game "Catch Phrase".

We played in teams. When a team won, they remained seated and took on the next set of challengers. We roared. My head about blew off my shoulders from laughing so hard. I finally lost and was able to get some aspirin in me. The folks around us had just as much fun watching us as we did playing. The word that stumped me pretty good was permafrost.

I fixed a turkey and ham on Friday for the crew at my house. My sister and nephew went to one of the stores on Friday morning. I don't think anyone in my family indulges in that mad rush of shoppers on Black Friday. I prefer to celebrate the "Buy Nothing Day." They said it was exciting and fun but would probably not do it again. By the sound of it, I am thinking that people who want the sales also like the "party" atmosphere of the event. Don't knock it until you try it, right?

It has been rather busy at the Peruby household and I am off and running today. My sister is moving into a new house and a bunch of us are meeting there to help clean. I will take the camera today. I carried it to the big feast day, but didn't even get it out of the bag. I was trying to hog one of the two little ones all day.

It was also kind of sad because the younger generation are struggling. Two couples did not participate in the name exchange this year because of financial problems. One had their car engine blow up and it was costly to get repaired. They are also having pet problems that are costing a lot in medical bills. They seemed a little down in the dumps. I had my hard times in my mid to late twenties while living away from the family in another state. The ones that are having it rough right now, graduated from college a couple of years ago and are trying to start a life with their husband/wife, keeping up with expenses of a home, paying off college loans, and trying to make it in this cut-throat job market today.

Living in America should not be this hard.

This year I am thankful for a wonderful family. I am so very blessed. Thank-you, thank-you very much.

Red, silver and green

Inside a decorated tree

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is the glittery, sparkly decorations. I used to sit and stare at our tree and squint my eyes until all the pretty lights blurred before me. I get mesmerized. Things don't look so drab when it is all spruced up in silvery colors.

My daughter got a cortisone shot in her back this evening. A keloid formed on one of her scars. Afterwards, we went to a big mall. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. For an early Christmas gift I purchased my daughter the white Rylie parka at Abercrombie. I went to the grocery store earlier in the afternoon. And I still have a happy spirit. My feet are killing me, but my mood is okay.

The ivory

Ivory train

Mr. Warther carved wood, ebony and ivory. They are well known for their knives. I have a couple. They are nice, but I prefer serrated knives, which they don't carry.

It is written that Mr. Warther only purchased ivory when the product was taken from elephants that had already died. Before the poaching began.

A hint of blue

Capri blue

At an antique store I found some Capri blue glasses that remind me of the hue that the glass in the photo above is reflecting. If you Google Capri glass, you get some photos with the same tint.

My IP has been purchased by another cable company and I was thinking that I had better download my entire Photo web page for backup purposes. 420MB I have out there. Ouch.

The Chef

A Christmas tree Chef

I thought this fellow was kind of cute. He mostly covered a tree that was decorated in tiny kitchen utensils. The huge baguette for his necktie just really evens him out. He was one of the trees at the museum.

Where did the week-end go? I have tried, but I cannot recall anything I did on Saturday morning. Before lunch and the museum. What? I can recall Friday night, Saturday afternoon and evening and today I was away visiting and setting up a computer for a friend. But Saturday morning is a big blank. I think I cleaned.

It (the week-end) is gone and it is back to work on Monday. Friday was so nice because we had a huge meal where everyone brought a covered dish. I did deviled eggs and cheese ball. This year there were more desserts than dinner food. And, my God what sweet dishes they were! There were pumpkin rolls, pumpkin/cool whip dip, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin trifle, pecan pie, pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and more.

For Thursday I am making a vegetable/dip tray. I am not sure what else. I will make my big meal for here at the house on Friday or Saturday, depending on when the rest of the crew will be here to eat it. It is too sad to go to a family member's house for Thanksgiving dinner and return to your own home where there are no leftovers. Too sad!

Red, gold and green

A decorated tree from the museum

My daughter and I went to Warther's museum today to see the pre-decorated trees. They were stunning. I think every one of them were SOLD. Not that I intended to purchase any. Nope. Out of my price range. I just like to look.

Evil

Photo Friday Challenge: Evil

A morning in June

The sun peeking through the pine

This photo of the morning sun was taken last June. It is the east side neighbors' yard. One is a big pine tree. My dog always is interested in what is underneath that pine. It has low branches and hides little critters well, I suppose.

We are getting a cold, steely rain here today. It makes it so that you don't want to do much of anything but cozy up under a warm blanket and drink some nice hot cocoa/hot chocolate/tea. I usually don't watch television at night unless it is something really light such as Seinfeld. Which is what I caught this evening and then the channel went straight into a show called Bones. I have never even heard of it before. I watched the hour episode, caught up in it. I hear the folks at work talk about certain shows such as Grey's Anatomy. I am such a dolt, I thought that Grey was a man. As I look at IMDB, I can see that it is a female and her name is Dr. Grey. Okay.

Speaking of co-workers, I was subject to an hour (no less) of church conversation. Between two Catholics and how their religion is so much more beautiful than others. I did not say one word. I normally don't tread into such dangerous waters. One co-worker has been trying a (non-Catholic) church that her Aunt was preaching at recently. She called them "Holy Rollers". Jumping up and singing and speaking in tongues and such. I've been known to speak in tongues. Yeah. When I am so mad, the words don't come out right - it resembles something like gibberish. Nobody can understand what I say. I did overhear (from yesterday's religion topic) about having a translator for somebody speaking in tongues. They have a translator? What is the qualification for that?

One of the cast members in Bones was lightly teasing another about his religion in the hour long show. I gather that she was an atheist and he was Catholic. She wanted to attend his church so that she could have a better perspective for her writing, I am thinking. I guess it was just a religious topic kind of day for me.

I went to Sunday school when I was young. My sister's took me along. (CUMC). When I was a young teen I joined the church choir. When I was fifteen I began working in a restaurant/bar. My Saturday nights consisted of 4:30 - 1:30 a.m. And, my Sundays began at 10:00 a.m. at the same kitchen. That kind of knocked the church going out of me. What do I recall about Sunday school? Memorizing Bible books so that I could win a prize of some sort. It must have been in my short term memory, because I can't get past the second book now. I can remember the books, just not in order any more.

Personally - I found that the people in the bar were more "real" to me than those in the church.

Glory Lory

Lory State Park

This photo is from my nephew's collection when he went out to Colorado to visit my other nephew last month. The one in Colorado lives near Lory State Park. They just got dumped with a bunch of snow and experienced really strong winds.

My nephew and his girlfriend are both in the Park Conservation area of work. I hope the extreme weather does not deter them. She is from Texas. Does she even know how to drive in snow? In the pictures from October she looked as if she were freezing. Here in Ohio, my nephew has had his fair share, but I don't know about the mountains there. We have hills, not mountains. I hope all is well with them. I just spoke with my sister this morning. I don't think she was aware of the recent storm out there when I called her.

That sure is some pretty territory out there.

Midnight blue

Midnight blue sky

In a typical box of Crayola crayons was the midnight blue. My favorite. Or was it Pine green? The midnight blue used to be titled "Prussian" blue. Teachers asked that it be changed in 1958. Where do I learn this stuff? Wikipedia.com!

I think there is a mistake on the page. I could have sworn "cornflower" was a pretty pale blue. When I Google the image "cornflower" I get blue photos. Some purple and one goofy looking guy, but not the dull brown they are showing on the Wikipedia page. I think they just made a mistake and copied the "Copper" color above it.

(Update: Reading on down the page, I see where the correct cornflower is displayed # 31)

Aw, I loved Mulberry. They retired it and renamed it to Mango Tango. Blech.

I love color(s). Which color listed below was not included in the original 8?

black
blue
white
yellow
red
green
orange
violet
brown

Strange beaks

LOL! Beak abuse

I "fisheyed" their beaks to give them this daffy duck look. My bad.

I officially began my Christmas shopping outside of the home yesterday. (I've done some on-line shopping from home). Oh.my.God! Maybe it was the Veterans day sales. Maybe it was the wet, rainy weather. We started early so it wasn't all that crowded to begin with. We went to an Outlet store. I have not been to this Outlet store. I am not a willing shopper so the only Outlet stores I ever go to are when I am on vacation.

I didn't know what to expect. The next time I go I am loading a plastic bag with every sharp object I can find in my house and this can be a warning for all the pushy, rude shoppers out there who bump in to me, drag my purse halfway through the aisle with them and lean up on me to get through a crowded area. I WILL draw first blood.

I have a severe case of aversion to strangers touching me. Regardless, I did a fair amount of shopping. Repeat to yourself. "It is okay to purchase items for yourself even though you are supposed to be shopping for others. It is okay to purchase items for yourself even though you are supposed to be shopping for others. It is okay....it is okay....it is okay... YAY! It IS okay."

Gross!

Found in my bathroom

When my daughter had one of her very good friends over, I found this in my bathroom. It wasn't her friends' mold. It was the Uncle of her friend. Why would anybody...? Oh never mind.

It is my Photo Friday Challenge for: Gross.

Light

Photo Friday Challenge: Light (late. this is from the 3rd!)

Access

My glasses and pen on my notes

So while my daughter takes her driver's ed in the building that I work in, I just stay upstairs in my office for an extra three hours until she is done. I may run out to get a bite to eat or let the dog out, but I am pretty content to sit quietly in my office and document, document, document.

There are some individuals in this world who have nothing better to do but to think of ways to muck things up. They devise these little programs (worms) that will bring an entire network to it's knees. It isn't a virus. A lot of end users just clump anything that corrupts a computer or a network as a virus.

One version is a DoS. Denial of Service attack. If this little program gets the IP address of a server in a network, it can really cause some havoc. When a machine sends a request to a server, the server MUST answer. That is it's job. Like a doorman. Somebody knocks on the door and the doorman answers. The little devil knocker has run and is hiding behind a bush. The doorman stands with the door open for a few seconds, looking from left to right, then shrugs and closes the door. Before the doorman can turn around to go back to his "other" work, there is another knock on the door. The doorman answers the door. Again, nobody is there. The doorman looks around again and then closes the door.

Now, multiply that to a billion or so and you get the idea that the server is now "unable to serve". A Denial of Service attack has been performed on the network and legitimate end users do not get their door knock answered because the doorman is too busy attempting to serve the knocker who keeps running away and hiding behind the bush. Unlike a human brain, the server cannot "learn" to ignore the knock, but must try to respond each and every time. Sick, I tell you. Just sick.

In business, this can be nipped in the bud pretty quickly. When business is not getting done, you can bet that some money is going to be spent to resolve this problem as quickly as possible. But, in a school, the problem may go on for weeks.

A teacher instructs the lab to go to a science page. They type in the url and click. The browser just sits and spins. Going nowhere. The resources of the network are depleted because deep inside the network the attack is at full throttle. The kids begin to snicker. One throws a balled up piece of paper at their friend. The teacher is side tracked by another student. Meanwhile, the browsers for this class go nowhere. The teacher sighs and tells the class that she (or he) must go and find the technology person to see what is going on and they leave the classroom.

A bored students recalls the funny video he saw on youtube the night before. He tells a friend and they decide to see if the browser will get them out to youtube. If not, Google will show them a hundred other sites that may have that very funny video. It could be on somebody's blog. The filter has a tough time stopping this type of errant behavior. A pause in the network attack allows the student to begin the video. They laugh and a couple of other students try and see if their machine will pull up the video. Pretty soon the school has a dozen or so machines attempting to play the very funny dirtbike video. Meanwhile the attack begins again, this time from another machine.

I had a strange thought pop into my head today. I do get a lot of "sappy" e-mails. You know they type. "You are such a true friend, here is a bouquet of flowers just for you..." on and on. I rarely (if ever) forward these. I do a lot of reading about how the Internet works behind the scenes and I understand how bogged down a network can get. As I painfully wrote above. It occurred to me that someday the Internet could get so bogged down with useless junk (it may already be there) that nobody is going to move. It will be like this precious commodity. I can hear end users crying "If only we knew we were wasting the precious databases of the world by plugging up the networks with all that garbage!"

Yeah, I need to get outside and walk more.

Little white duck

Sitting in the water

This sitting duck is from my photo shoot yesterday at the lake in our town park. I wanted to add the blue tint to this photo so much, but I didn't. It was a murky, gray day and the water was murky. Except for the sky, which was a strange bit of gray, blue and white.

I didn't have much time to take photos today. I was stuck behind my laptop most of the day chasing an IP storm on a school's network. They have an anti-virus program, but some end users were not updating their Windows with the latest updates. I think I may have stopped it at the router anyway. I hope so. I will be able to tell tomorrow when everybody turns their machines back on.

My daughter began her two week driver's training class this evening. Next she will get her driving permit. For six months I will have a personal chauffeur. As I did when my niece was learning to drive. You can get quite spoiled by it.

I was also able to inform a school network technician about a registered sex offender that he was letting have access to his school's network. He had no idea. The guy is a salesman for a local computer company and this school had his establishment do some work for them. No more. I pulled up the information on the offender off of the sheriff's page and printed it out.

Since my daughter is taking her driver's training in the building where my office is, I am staying over in the evening until she is finished. Once I pulled up that offender, I went on and began looking at all the ones that live in my town. It is remarkable how many are there living amongst us. There are women, too. I knew nothing of this type of behavior when I was growing up. It just boggles the mind.

The sky tonight

Our Park lake

The sky was rather interesting this evening from the park. I went there to photograph the ducks and wild geese. Even though we have a lot of mallards, the color just wasn't there. It was late in the day and I didn't have enough sunlight to bring out the emerald green of their heads. So, I aimed for the sky.

The tennis and basketball courts were empty. There were a group of men who came to play Bocce right before I left. I watched a couple of small family groups feeding the ducks and that was about all for this November Sunday.

It was a weekend for everybody to get out their rakes and leaf blowers. Most of the time I rake, but this year I plugged in the noisy, heavy leaf blower. I am getting the hang of it. At least I didn't blow them all in the neighbor's yard. They are at the edge of the street waiting for the city to vacuum them up in their big, dirty, white street machine.

I've been busy reading and researching the levies, issues and candidates for Tuesday. I think I can see why my Mom never voted. If you are going to vote, you have to be serious. Very serious. It isn't something to be taken lightly. You have to work at it.

Going back a bit

Halloween 2004

My daughter (in the middle) with two of her friends around Halloween 2004. They were dressing up to go to a dance. Uh...the one on the far left is indeed a boy. My daughter was dating him at the time. Yikes.

I am not sure I recall what she dressed as last year (if anything), but this year was the vampire chick or something similar. Mostly I think they see how much black make-up they can put on and still look halfway human.

Things were messy back then, but mostly I could handle it. As it stands now, they are out there loose and I don't get to hear or know half of what goes on. Probably for the best.

The boy is in another school district altogether and the girl on the far right is still in the picture, just not running in the same circles any more.

Rose hitch hiker

A little hitch hiker on the rose

I didn't see the fly until after I downloaded the pictures onto my P.C. and began cropping them. He is hanging there upside down. Probably enjoying his last hours with the sweet scent and refreshing water droplets.

I returned to my place of work today to find the offices closed because the electricity was off. I had been out of town attending a regional meeting. Yesterday the gas, today the electricity. What next, the water? Perish the thought! I went to the bathroom in the pitch black when I returned to the office. Hey, what else can you do at a meeting besides drink coffee?

I went home and worked from there. I can do about 90% of my office work at home anyway. Maybe even 100% if they let me use my work cell phone all of the time instead of my desk phone.

Didn't hear anything negative at the meeting. That is good. The tech guy hosting the meeting had to show us a slide presentation of his server farm that his career center purchased for $62k. In the business world, that wouldn't seem like a lot, but to the schools it was like dangling a piece of hot fudge cake in front of their noses. The public school systems can't afford that kind of expense. What was the guy doing? Bragging? Showing off? What a prince. (you know I wanted to type the other word here!)

Late bloomer

A November rose

About an hour after we started work, the superintendent came on the intercom and told us they could smell gas in the building and for us to go outside. I was just removing my battery from the wall socket and putting it into my camera bag. I grabbed my purse and the camera and out to the back alley I went. He didn't have to tell me twice.

I walked a ways before I found some life left in the season. I found a rose bush with about five blooms on it and they had dew on them and the sun was kissing them. I snapped away. I kept walking around the house to see if there was anyone at the door so I could ask permission. The bush was about two feet off of the alley, but I still didn't want to be rude. Nobody came to the door, so I left.

The smell was sewage backed up. This has been a recent problem in this section of town. I lived directly across the street from 1996 to 2001 and I never smelled any sewage. Of course once I moved to the other side of town, work decides to buy the building that is located about 400 feet from where I used to live. Of course!