Light on the water

At the lake last night somebody was getting married across the way in the shelter area. They had a beautiful day for it. Perfect temperature, perfect day. The lake was brown because of the awful storm that went through last night, though. A neighboring camper caught a huge catfish. I think he tossed it back in. I recall seeing a sign that said you have to.

I got some work done before a nasty migraine caught me late in the afternoon. The medicine took a while to work, but by 6 p.m. I was feeling much better. I sat in a chair with frozen bags of vegetables on my head and the back of my neck. My daughter laughed. I didn't much care. By the time I got up to put the veggies back in the freezer my neck was frozen to the touch. Then I took a super hot shower. An attempt to get the blood flowing by changing from severe cold to hot like that. I had taken the medicine a few hours before all of this. I drank alka seltzer and just recently hot, sweet tea.

The work? I cleaned out my bathroom sink drain. It was nasty! Not something you really want to do with a migraine. The smell was horrid. My daughter was like "What's that smell?" It is hair, toothpaste, make-up and old soap! Maybe some dirt mixed in. Yum. I don't pour stuff down my drains. I will boil water and push baking soda down them, but that is it. I just take them apart and clean them out. That is what a plumber told me to do. Besides, the smell of the chemicals used to unclog drains gets to me, too. I had all the windows in the house open and fans running. Of course this brings the dust in, but I love open air.

My headache was also a product of having my hair done yesterday at the salon. It took longer than usual because I had waited too long. My neck is bruised from leaning back over the sink. Ouch! I thought it would be better to have it done at a salon because the smell bothers me. Either way, it looks like I am going to get some kind of headache from the ordeal. Blah!

After the rain

I took a walk after the rain last evening. We had quite a storm north of us, we managed to get a soaking, some winds and that was it. You know how everything smells so clean and fresh after the rain. I read somewhere that the rain washes the air. Gets the impurities out of it and leaves it clean and fresh. I never thought of air that way. Since I couldn't see it, I didn't think it needed washed. Of course I have used the expression dirty air and clean air, but never thought that what I couldn't really touch needed washed. But that is a lovely way to put it and it sure fits when I smell how clean and fresh it is after the rain.

My dog did not co-operate very well on her leash. I was a bit nonplussed. I couldn't figure out why. Now, she didn't take off and she came to me each time I let her off the leash to do a bit of roaming, but she wasn't as loyal as she normally is. I guess she is subject to her funny moods as well as the rest of us.

I found some lovely aromatic flowers in my neighborhood. More types of flowering trees than just the flowers themselves. One I am keenly interested in was what I would guess to be a magnolia bush of some sort. It wasn't a tree. It wasn't over five feet tall and it bushed out from the bottom. It smelled heavenly and had beautiful yellowish magnolia flowers on it. My research tells me that it may be a "sweetbay magnolia" (magnolia virginiana). Now, I need to order one and get it in the ground.

The photo above is some sort of twisted vine that is growing in my neighbors border hedges. They held the raindrops well and gave me ample opportunity to practice my macro shots. I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a new camera. Mine is scratched up and worn a bit. It still works well, but I want another to supplement what I like to do. My nephew purchased a Canon SLR (I think it was the 30D). I never was one to copy, I am looking at the Nikon SLR line. I have been very happy with my Canon (except for the delay between pressing the shutter and the actual taking of the picture - infuriates me!). I want to branch out and experiment more. Money is the main obstacle at this time, so I will begin saving for my treat.

Summer looms ahead. I know it has a tendency to go very quickly. I have a party tonight (my delayed birthday get together with wonderful friends). My 4th of July bang is approaching quickly and other than catching up with a few friends we have no travelling plans. I have a dinner on Monday evening and I plan to go early and capture a part of a lake I don't get to photograph often.

I did catch Night at the Museum. A forgettable flick scantily reminiscent of Jumanji. Although it was very nice to see Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. Bill Cobbs has been a favorite of mine, also. I want to see Wild Hogs, but other than that - not much movie watching is planned.

Edit: And if you read my post on Wednesday (The good, the bad and the ugly) there was an accident at the construction area of route 93. I felt that it was a dangerous setup. That road is so twisty and so busy it just felt like something was going to happen there. You know the saying "An accident waiting to happen." That was how it felt when I drove it.

Lookin' back

Sometimes when I am finished for the day, I will drive back home on a dirt road. I know the area well enough now to do this and not get lost. Heh, heh. When I take shoulder shots, this is the type of road I am on. No traffic. No pavement. Just slow country scenery.

I am able to stop when I see a really special area that deserves more attention to picture taking. But, mostly I just drive and enjoy the route. It clears my head after having it stuck inside a dusty, convoluted mass of electronics with blinking LED lights and 'too tiny to grasp' screws. Ugh!

Leanin' Tree

This one is from my drive past the lake one month ago. I have not gone that direction much lately. I have been headed the other way. West. Sugarcreek to be exact. I spent the day out that way today installing memory and modules into a router. What was left of my long finger nails are now gone. Torn off. Split apart. Screwdrivers, blades and modules have no mercy on finger nails. They have been snagging on hair and clothing anyway.

Much, much cooler today. I got the grass mowed. Or, I should say the clover. So, it is clover no more.

Leaf Laughter

I would hold the tree leaves down so he and my grand niece could touch them. They were delighted. How tedious to be so small where almost everything is out of your reach. This is my grand nephew from the Memorial cook-out at my sister's house (his Grandma).

He isn't all that used to me so this was a rare smile that I was able to capture. He would keep a discerning eye on me. Both his Mother and my sister have dark hair and I have blond. He just wasn't real sure about me.

I have one month until my big summer bang. This year it conflicts with vacations and a wedding. Sigh. I have my party the night that my town chooses to set off their fireworks, so that is that. They aren't putting them off until the Saturday after the fourth of July, so it is hard to say who will be available to come and who won't. Last year they put them off on a Monday or something like that.

They also have a big park festival during this time. It is wonderful to go and see all the people and especially the children having fun. They are running the Ferris wheel this year. I won't be on it.

Four Thousand Books

Here is a photo of some of my Mom's old books. We boxed them up this past Saturday. My niece wants to keep them and store them. They are aged, to put it mildly. This is one wall of three. My Mom included pamphlets in this count I believe. She claimed to have over 800 cook books and I know this included pamphlets. She was a voracious reader. I recall her reading 4 books at a time. Then her eyesight failed her. She went to the eye doctor frequently and had many operations on cataracts, but still they failed her. I believe it was macular degeneration.

Squatters

All this time we thought my Mom's house had sat empty.

Yesterday we cleaned. We bagged books. We bagged magazines. We bagged nick knacks. We bagged candles, plastic snow shaker orbs, broken china, plastic plates. We filled almost the entire living room to about three feet high with garbage bags. Sitting there to wait for a huge dumpster to claim it all.

We dismantled a mantel.

The baby raccoons are sleeping in between the walls of a bedroom and the upstairs bathroom. I stuck my hand inside the wall to take the photo. I blew on them to make them raise their head. My brother cautioned me about the possibility of the mama raccoon coming and taking my hand off. We never saw any sign of her. The neighbors say that they only see the babies climbing in and out of the house.

We weeded around my Mom's grave. I broiled in the sun during this part of the day. We walked the property behind the house. We spoke of selling the land off to the neighbors but keeping the plot where the house sits. The house is beyond repair but it belongs to my oldest sister for her to do with as she wishes. (My dad didn't work so the family responsibilities fell mostly on my oldest brother and sister). My sister purchased this house in 1966 after years of moving from one run down dump to another.

It was an exhausting day. There was no sorrow. There was some nostalgia. There were lots of jokes. We have moved on. Except for what to do with the house.

Color

I like all the colors that I was able to capture in this photo. I threw one of my biggest blooms into the hedge growing along my back alley and captured green, purple and white along with the delicate pink of the peony.

The blooms are pretty much spent, as are my poppies. Poof. That's it. That's all you get. One week of flowers. I will look around the neighborhood to see what else is blooming and try to plant those in my yard so that something colorful can take over when the peonies and poppies are done. My goal is to have flowers blooming all summer long.

Today is busy. I told you I would regret not mowing my grass the other night. I am going to be gone all day today. That leaves tomorrow. I think we have possible thunder storms in the area today and tomorrow.

I am meeting up with some family members today to begin removing some of the 4,000 books my Mom collected. I plan on getting totes, but with books you can't get them too big. Nobody would be able to lift them. Her books are hardbacks. She graduated when she was 16 (back then that was not unusual) and between that age and 20 (when she married my father) she spent long lonely times on the farm with her grandparents who went to bed at dusk. She had nothing to read and my Mom loved to read. Loneliness = 8 kids, boredom = 4,000 books. Yep, that would explain it.

I plan on getting dirty. I will take a change of clothes. I also plan to visit an old friend down in that neck of the woods. Her modem got fried by lightning and I found an old 56k external one. I need to find a cable for it, though. I think I used to take an old console port cable and connect it to the serial port on the back of my PC. It will take some jerry-rigging, but I will give it my best shot.

My daughter received her second (and last) paycheck from the telemarketing job that she worked for a short while. It is $366 after taxes. She is ecstatic. I told her one third of it goes into the bank. We agreed that while she is living at home, that she takes one third of her paychecks and puts them into the bank. She does not have to pay me rent or money toward the bills, but she is to save some of it. Of course, we re-negotiate if it looks as though she is going to be staying with me into her 20's and beyond. (I can only hope).

At 16 years old she does not need to be working 6 days a week while her boyfriend is out running with friends. She needs to live a little and enjoy the time. Last year she had mono for almost the entire summer. I told her that if she wants she can get a job where she works 3 days a week or so, no more. One that puts her around other people her age. We are waiting before we tackle getting the drivers license. We are just cruising for the summer. No worries.

I'm melting!

This picture reminds me of the witch in the Wizard of Oz melting. Photo Friday's Challenge was "How I see myself" and I posted the photo that the above picture was made from on their site. I am number 103 or something like that under "Peruby" of course.

My Mom's birthday is today. She would be 87 years old. She was born in 1920 in a log cabin. She had a lonely life as an only child raised by her grandparents. This could be the reason she had eight kids.

My kitchen smells like peonies. It is wonderful. My daughter said they smell like beer. Huh?

Poppy Lifecycle

Before

During

After

Purple poppy

I changed the color of my poppy from blood orange to vivid purple. I chopped all my peonies and most of my poppies and brought them inside and put them in a vase of water. My cats won't leave them alone. They are so starved for fresh greens. I have purchased the alfalfa grass for them, but they throw it up. All over the house. Yuck!

So, my flowers sit atop the refrigerator. I hope I got all the ants off the peonies. I beat them (softly) against my cement porch and a few big black ants ran out.

I spoke to a friend today who was having computer problems. Her modem got fried by a recent lightning strike. I told her I thought I had an extra external one lying around. She lives in the boonies where the cable does not reach and it is far too expensive for her to connect via her dish satellite. DSL wasn't an option, either.

She is depressed. She lost her Mother a few months back while she was in the hospital with pneumonia. She must have an oxygen mask on most of the day and night because she also suffered from congestive heart failure.

My sisters are having a rough time, also. If it isn't money problems it is relationship problems or both. Everyone is tired. Tired of the economy, tired of rising prices, tired of next to no pay raises. Everywhere I turn - depression. Anger. Hostility.

Health care is costly and keeps going up. We ate wrong. We lived wrong. Now we are going to pay the price. Through our noses. My doctor just shook her head when I told her that I had a frozen TV dinner every day after school. The cheap brand. From a freshman in high school until I graduated. Or, a can of ravioli. I won't eat them to this day. I told her I don't blame my Mom. My dad didn't work. My Mom raised eight children, I was the youngest. All the rest of the birds had left the nest and I couldn't expect her to fix a meal for me. She didn't eat with me. So, yeah. My eating habits are bad. It is a lifelong struggle for me to break free of buttered toast dipped in coffee every morning, a bologna sandwich for lunch and a TV dinner for dinner.

Bread was cheap and we ate a lot of it. It was filling.

Repeat after me. I am an adult and I can make my own choices. I do not have to be a victim of my childhood. I recognize the incorrect way and it is up to me to choose the right way. Sounds like I was a child of alcoholics, eh? Well, I'll save that for another time. If I feel like it. I don't like to boo hoo.

The veterans are neglected. The elderly are neglected. Forgotten.

Things are looking very bleak around these parts.

Rolling in clover

I took more pictures of my peonies and poppies tonight. I was laying on the ground (rolling in the clover) to get the shots above of the clover. I need to cut my grass but I just didn't feel like it tonight. I'll probably regret this decision.

Last day of school tomorrow for my daughter. She has been busy bringing home art work and other stuff from school.

I went back to Relpax for my migraines. I didn't like the way Imitrex made me feel. It made me very sick. Kind of hot and flushed with my head not feeling right. Sort of like when you eat something bad. I had to ride it out. I'll call my doctor and explain to her that I will stay with the Relpax. It doesn't seem to work as well as it used to, but it works better than the newer one. (newer to me).

Life is fragile

Here is my little grand niece enjoying our cook-out for Memorial day. We had the cook-out on Sunday.

Without those that fell for our country, where would we be? What dictator would have his fist ruling over us?

Here is a little story I cooked up with pictures I took of the munchkins.

Making faces

Lately all my pets appear to be making faces at me. Maybe they are catching on to this camera thing. Actually, Sable is very camera shy. (I think it's the flash). She was in the beginning of a huge yawn when I snapped this photo. One of the biggest complaints about Canon cameras is the delay between pushing the shutter button and the actual taking of the photograph.

I've been cooking already this morning. My pets are confused. Bacon? There is something I cook only once or twice a year. Only for my calico beans. We don't eat the stuff. I am not fond of it. Now, sausage on the other hand.

My daughter requested that I make nacho cheese dip with sausage. I've not made it before, but I always wanted to. She liked it. I lost my appetite yesterday evening for some strange reason. I started to get a migraine and this is the first time I have taken my new medication Imitrex. It took a while to kick in.

Big family get together today. Not sure what the weather is predicted to be. I haven't looked. Right now we have cool and sunny. This event is forty minutes north of me. Starts at 2. I better get my camera ready.

I received a digital photo picture frame as a gift. I don't have the kinks worked out, but it is sweet. This one reads compact flash cards, many different types of memory sticks, usb (thumb drives) and a mini port for the camera.

We watched Yours, Mine and Ours last evening. I like Rene Russo and I can tolerate Dennis Quaid. Of course, I have seen the original movie with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.

I liked YM&O much more than Cheaper By the Dozen. I can recall reading the book back in the early 70's. I've never been a Steve Martin fan. Probably my favorite movies with Steve are Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Little Shop of Horrors. I can go around singing "Suddenly Seymour" all day, much to the chagrin of my daughter. (And most likely, my neighbors).

Surreal scene

I took one of my colorful patio twirlers and shot the camera through it. This is how it came out. I sharpened the photo up a bit with the contrast, but that was all. No color added. I have one other one that came out pretty neat, but all the rest didn't. I must be in a picture taking frame of mind these days. I just came back in today because of the rain. Sable (dog) and I were going to go for a walk.

I got all the supplies to make calico beans, taco layer dip and my usual cheese ball for tomorrow's cook-out at my sister's house. I am not certain I am going to have anyone here on Monday to cook for or not. I think my Columbus crew has to be back by that day.

My fingernails have had a growth spurt. I wish I knew what it is that makes them grow all of a sudden. Every three years or so (it used to be about once a year) I will notice that all of them are long and healthy. I hurry up and put clear polish on them. My Mom used to say it was digging in the fresh earth that did it. Maybe so. I used to recall my nails would grow around November, so I am not sure that is it. I was spared the habit of biting my nails. Two of my sisters do and my daughter does. The sister's cured their nail biting with fake finger nails.

I like my nails long, but it isn't practical when I am using a screw driver and working with the equipment that I do. It would be similar to working on car engines with long nails. It just wouldn't work. Since schools have not had much money to purchase anything, I am safe from breaking my finger nails. Probably for the entire summer. Here's to better funding in the fall.

I've discovered that the peony plant on the East side of my house is a different shaped flower than the one that blooms so well (on the West side). I bought them at the same time. This one looks a bit more like a rose when it starts out and has a wider outside petal that surrounds the flower. I have a couple of pictures and I hope to get more as the plant blooms better. I planted them five years ago. I had no idea it took that long for some flowers to bloom. I actually thought they died the first two years.

I am thinking that my hydrangea is going to take a year off from blooming. It is green and healthy but not very big. I may have pruned it back a bit too much last fall, but the web sites for the flower say that this is a good thing. I must be patient.

Time to get into the kitchen to start cleaning and cooking. Stupid rain.

Ants on my peonies

After my daughter's ultra sound we had breakfast at Denny's. She came home and went back to bed. I grabbed my camera because I had a poppy blooming and I tried many different shots of the ants crawling all over my peonies.

I blurred most of the shots, but about 30 came out relatively clear and four came out very clear with an ant or two to show for my trouble.

Then I went to work and played with Cisco's Security Device Manager. I am aware that this feature set came out a couple of years ago, but my schools have not had enough monies to purchase new equipment and when some finally did, I got to play.

For a few years, my home office did all the router configs and just handed the equipment off to the satellite workers. "Mount it on the rack and plug it in," they said. Except for a tweak here and there we did not have much configuration to do. My skills dwindled away. A sot off the street could have done the job.

Now, that I have four new routers and time to play I am learning again and am happy. It is hard to want to learn and do the valuable stuff, but you don't get the opportunity. If my home office is aware of how to use SDM, they haven't said anything. I called my co-worker in the other satellite office and showed him the feature. He liked it, too.

I am usually pretty good at documentation. Most of the instructions that I type up are for the school technology personnel and I post it on my work web page. No passwords are needed for this access. Router configuration and access needs to be kept in house and we do have a knowledge base located on our helpdesk to post instructions and other informational data but I do not have the privileges to post anything. So, I'll type up the step by step instructions and keep them to myself.

I had some folks chuckling today. I bought new garden gloves and when I mowed last evening the new blue dye faded onto my wrists. I saw it in the shower and washed most of it off. It left two blue/green lines across each wrist. I looked like I had handcuff bruises! I'll scrub harder tonight! LOL!

Close to bursting

Me and my peonies. I am close to cursing and bursting. I came inside the air conditioning to cool down. I had a rotten day as it was. No migraine. I don't even want to think about the monkey because I swear that will even trigger the monster.

I was in a vendor meeting all day. Four vendors trying to sell their stuff. Man, you want to talk about pompous airheads. They sure are full of it. Where do they get their arrogance? It really must be bred into them. Do they even realize how people make fun of them when they go?

Sigh. My niece took the wrong mower. She took mine instead of her brother's. He has this habit of purchasing a duplicate of almost each item that I do. Maybe he does this with everyone. I don't know. I bought a Craftsman 6.5 hp self propelled lawn mower, he bought a 6.25 hp one. I am left with that. I didn't check the oil because I was ticked off. It quit on me. I unscrewed the lid to the oil pan. Smoking. Nuts! I am lucky the thing didn't catch on fire. I am letting it cool off while I cool off.

Anyway, my peonies are ready to burst, too. Both plants on both sides of the house look like they are going to have a banner year. My tulips bombed this year, as did my lilacs. Hopefully, my orange tiger lilies will be vibrant. I am still anxious about my hydrangea. The plant is leafing out, but I won't know it's color. I want to add more of the sulfur stuff (or whatever it is that I have) but I am afraid of adding too much.

My daughter gets an ultrasound tomorrow morning at 6:30 for her stomach aches. She is not allowed to eat anything but clear liquids and jell-o all day. She says the jell-o is sickening. I agree. So, she is not eating anything. How can I eat in front of her? So we are both grouchy and hungry.

Let's just say I will be glad when tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. rolls around. She said that I have to take her out for the biggest breakfast ever. I hope she doesn't get a stomach ache from eating so much after 34 hours (or more) of fasting. She really hasn't eaten since 7 p.m. last night.

Green lake

Just a pretty picture I took on my way home Sunday. My daughter had left the graduation party with my sister, niece and nephew so I was able to take a back road and take my time and reflect on the get together. I am always sad when they are over. I want them to go on forever. I'm like the first to arrive and the last to leave.

Moose is watching me

Still shy sometimes

A couple of times I just grabbed our cat Moose and gave her a huge, big hug. Her reaction was not at all what I expected. She seemed to follow me around more after I did that. It seemed to have drawn her closer to me. She still does the dead goat thing. Above, she is watching me cautiously. She was probably hoping I wouldn't pick her up and hug her. Usually I am very quiet and calm with them, but she just was not coming around. Sometimes she sleeps on my bed so I know she doesn't hate me.

I don't know about The Lake House. I don't think either Ms. Bullock or Mr. Reeves have much acting range. It seems to me like they play the same character over and over in their movies. Their looks don't change, their personality does not change. I can tell Mr. Reeves by his walk even when he is clear across a field and Ms. Bullock does that little scrunching of her nose in every movie.

My daughter is scheduled for an ultra sound for stomach aches. I hope they don't find anything. I certainly don't want them to find gall stones.

Jasper makes a face at me

Aw man. This is ugly. I caught him at the right time to get this shot. He was laying in the sun enjoying the warmth and I was pestering him with the camera. He was sleepy and he made a face at me. Not exactly his best.

Jasper used to be very skittish. When we bought the house in 2002 we had just adopted Jasper and his brother Casper. At least I thought they were brothers. Jasper came and found us first and a week later brought Jasper. We lived at the apartment. Since I knew that I was purchasing a house I kept them around and fed them.

Jasper rarely came up out of the basement. Casper has always been very friendly. Jasper has become very affectionate the past year or more. Whenever I sit down it isn't one minute before he is in my lap. I talk to them, all of them.

Yikes!

Milo and Sable

A week or so ago my niece brought over her new kitten, Milo. My dog Sable was extremely jealous of her. Or, maybe just interested, I am not sure. She would lay between the kitten and the rest of us until finally she tired of the new critter. The other cats didn't care at all about the new kitten. The kitten went back home with my niece who is living with a friend for the summer. I get the feeling she wants to move back in with me.

I have a graduation party today. The weather does not look that great, but it is indoors. A lot of family is going to be there and I just feel that 4 hours is not near enough time to see and talk to everyone. Especially when there are going to be a lot more people than just family.

I also get family time next week during the Memorial day week-end. I am also looking forward to that.

I am having my summer bash on July 7th. I checked the town Park's website and that is the night they are putting off fireworks. I have the entire week prior to that Saturday off from work, so I hope to have my yard and house in order.

We ate at Damon's yesterday (my daughter loves their ribs). Her beau found a square of plastic in his 5-cheese sandwich. We notified the waitress so that she could inform the cook. She brought another sandwich out for him. His buddy challenged him to forgo eating meat for six weeks or so. He has been doing pretty well with it.

Saving as....

Open notepad or word pad and type the above onto the screen. Save the file to your desktop as filename.htm. You can call it whatever you want. I named mine personal.htm.

Close notepad (or wordpad). You should have an icon on your desktop titled filename.htm or whatever you named it. If you use Explorer it will be a blue lowercase e. Double click on the icon. It should open the page shown above.

This is the bare basics of creating a web page using html.

The first line:

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN" >

defines the doctype declaration. Actually, I am way behind in versions, so if one were to create a web page, you should go here for a list of current DTD (document type definition) to use.

The next line is HTML surrounded by the left and right carat symbols. This is the opening tag for Hyper Text Markup Language. (Basic web language).

The < > symbols form an opening statement. So if you open a statement, you must close it at some point and time. Closing the HTML tag looks like this: < /HTML >

The simple page above consists of the DTD, the HTML, Title, Head and body. I forgot to close the Center tag, so anything I add to the page would be centered.

What I am getting at here is you can view any web page on the Web. While viewing, take your mouse and click the right mouse button. This will bring up a pop-up menu. Using your left mouse button choose "View Source" . Depending on your browser you may have a different name for this feature. Firefox titles it "View Page Source" and Explorer calls it "View Source."

This will bring the source code up in a text formatted window. Save the file to your desktop. It should already have the extension of .htm or .html behind it. Close the text page and minimize your browser and any other programs you have open until you see your desktop.

Select the icon of the file you just saved by clicking on it once with your left mouse button. With the cursor still on the icon, click your right mouse button. This should bring up a pop up menu. Choose "Open with..." if you have that feature and open the file with word pad. (Notepad works, but word pad will filter out some very strange symbols that Notepad won't.).

Now, you can see the source code that folks use to write their web pages.

Sigh. Most use fancy canned packages like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. This is okay, but I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts. I wanted to create a web page from scratch. I have a long way to go and mine is not very fancy, but it is the way I like to do things.

The next time you are in your blog's dashboard area, cruise on over to the template section. Beginning with the < !DOCTYPE line and ending with the < /html >, select all of the text in between with your mouse and save this to a text file. Once the text is selected and high lighted, click Edit Save. Open notepad or word pad and click Edit, Paste. The template should appear on the text document. Choose Save as... and type filename.txt or whatever you want to call it. Template.txt. This way if you have any problems with your blog, you can go back and compare it to what you last saved it as to find out what happened.

And, once it is saved to your desktop or the folder of your choice, you can save another copy and name it template.htm. This should appear as the lower case blue e on your desktop (if you use Explorer). Double click it and you should see the bare bones of your blog's homepage.

Ah, I hope I didn't bore you too much with this post. I think I will take it and section it off into steps and post it on my homepage for basic html beginners. I don't know anybody that wants to learn html anymore, but I did. I don't know a lot about it, but I taught myself enough to start my own web page. I wanted to go farther with it, but alas - time.

LARGE

Click the photo

This is my entry for Photo Friday's weekly challenge: Large. No matter which way you look at it, this is one large horse.

The Buffalo

A while back I told about this buffalo that appeared in the front yard of a house in the main section of town. I promised a picture of it if and when I got one. It isn't the best photo, but it is a very busy section of roadway and I couldn't stop to adjust. This one was snapped through the front windshield of my car.

The newspaper had an article on the guy who put the buffalo in his yard. He has a big pole barn behind his house and gets deliveries often. He was tired of the trucks missing his driveway so now he can tell them to "Turn right at the buffalo". My sister lives in another town about 25 miles East of here. She said she saw it go through town on the back of a pickup truck.

My doctor did give me Imitrex for my migraines, now. I have not filled the prescription yet. Reading up on it, it keeps saying "dogs given Imitrex... blah, blah, blah." I don't care to have animals used for testing but I am realistic enough to understand that medicine would not be anywhere near where it is today without the testing. Are there other ways to test? I'm not certain. We have come a long way and are not near as barbaric as what our ancestors were or our enemies across the seas.

The day is gone

I lost a day. Sunday. It infuriates me. I should be used to it by now. I see the dr. this Wednesday and I plan to change migraine meds. My body must be getting resistant to the one I am currently taking. I'll see if there is one out there the I haven't taken, yet. I have been on this one for about two years, so I can't give it a bad rap.

I had a gazillion things I wanted to do. Outside and inside work. I got the basics done. Kitchen cleaned so that there is no odor or ants. Clothes washed. Stupid weather change rolled in. The air was nippy. Which would have made it perfect for working outdoors. Grrrr.

The photo is probably the last of the sunset series I will post for a while. Since I wasn't moving from spot to spot, the set became redundant. I did catch a spider close up (again) that I was not aware of until I looked at the picture on my computer. Yikes.

Work is busy. May usually is.

Gripped

Gripped by the migraine monkey, again. Until he leaves....

A Golden Sunset

Another shot of the big lake at sunset.

Patio decorations

I bought some colorful twirl patio decorations a couple of weeks ago. My daughter and her beau hung them for me. I think I have 12 of them. Not all like the above, some are the longer, more popular stick-twirlers. I wanted color. This photo is facing northeast.

Again, the lake

I've seen a lot of this lake this month.

I killed weeds.

I killed ants.

I killed time.

Watching Dreamgirls.

It just did not do it for me.

Changes

Her hair is shorter than this style, now. This is one of the first times we had it cut. She cannot tan, because of her fair skin and her tendency to produce dysplastic nevus. So, I let her go wild with her hair. She has been working 5:30 to 10:30 every evening and Saturday 10 to 6. This is a two week training, and then she will probably get a day off during the week. Summer starts soon and she can sleep in. Mom is a bit of a basket case. Am I doing the right thing? Is she going to get sick? She is sleepy in class. Worry, worry, worry.

Oh, and if a young, female telemarketer calls you that tends to speak a little too fast, let her down easy, huh? It makes me cringe to think of things I said to them.

In pursuit

The road ahead

I am always on the road to my 'Pursuit of Happyness.' I watched the movie. I cried. Well, my eyes watered if you want to call that crying. I teared up. I don't sob at movies.

Did you know that the fellow they walk past at the end is the writer of the book?

Knock knock.

Who's there.

Nobody.

Nobody who?

Silence.

Nobody who?

Silence.

Ha! Ha! I get it!

Springwood Nights

The lights of Springwood, Ohio

Saturday night was spent with good friends around a campfire by the lake. I can't wait until the next time. Not just because of the good times, but because I will wait until it is eerily quiet and dark and then tell the girls that The Nightmare On Elm Street took place in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio. LOL! That is the name of this campground.

The photo above is my friend's camper all lit up with her colorful lights and colorful decorations. Check out my car's antenna. Pretty wild.

My horse didn't win in the derby. We pick names out of a hat. I pulled Circular Quay.

Farming Ohio

A farm in Ohio

Farming is hard work. I got up with the cows this morning. Actually, I had a touch of insomnia and awoke at 4 a.m., and have not been back to sleep. I have been up for 20 hours and I am a bit whacked in the head. I had one beer and it feels as though I had six or more.

We met family for dinner in Canton. I have my sister staying with me. So darn much fun. My cheeks hurt from laughing.

The above photo was taken after I left the little school near Sugarcreek this morning.

Time to find my pillow.

Let it go, walk away

I will turn and walk away

This was before I saw the snake. He didn't see the snake. I had walked about twenty feet to the right before I came upon it. This goose was travelling alone. Solo. I talked to him for a bit, he just ate grass. We both parted and went our separate ways. I hope he finds his feathered friends.

You deserve a break today

Driving by the lake again

I got to drive the scenic route 250 today and when I do I can't resist to take a few moments and capture some shots of the beautiful lake. I turned off the route and found a side road that I had not ventured on before. The photo opportunities did not allow me to shoot the lake at it's largest, but still had it's own charming spots.

I waved to a fisherman as I pulled off onto the side of the road and quipped "We have it so rough, don't we?" He laughed and said "Ah, I hate it!"

Well, I paid for that remark. When I arrived at my destination I was so darn busy I did not take time for lunch. I made up for it on the way home. I stopped to grab a grilled chicken sandwich and proceeded to eat it at the lake's roadside rest. I took more beautiful photos. One of a lone Canadian Goose that I will probably show later this week.

I almost stepped on a snake. I told myself when I started that those rocks along the shore line were very warm and certainly would house snakes wanting to warm up. I forgot and sure enough, we surprised one another. I made a sound that was NOT very lady-like (it wasn't a curse word). There was nobody around to hear, but my daughter laughed when I repeated the noise I made as I told her about my close call.

My daughter had me "hardlight" the photo a bit. My day didn't calm down much after I returned home, either. I bounced from one thing to another like a wobbly spinning toy top. Now that it is time for bed, I must somehow slow my brain down and try to relax for sleep.

This, you gotta see!

I asked, and she said "Yes."

LOL! I asked to take her picture. She said "Yes, as long as you don't get my face." You gotta love it. I am not a jewelry person. I don't wear any. Maybe once in a blue moon I will wear a necklace. I have never, ever wanted a diamond. Why? Beats me. Just don't. I was engaged to somebody, but only wore the ring for a month or two. I also wore my high school ring for a year.

I asked the lady how many. She said 57. I can't count more than 44. But, I don't see her thumbs. I can't recall if she had any on her thumbs. Why leave them out? Click on the picture to count for yourself, I posted a 1280 x 960 pixel shot. She said she never takes them off, never. She washes her hands with them on, everything. She was working in the 'to go' window of a fast food restaurant. Hey, maybe someday I will find a ring in my bag! Woot!

You recall I did wear my Mom's wedding and engagement ring at a time I was around 13. The above rings remind me of her set. Who knows what in the heck ever happened to them. When we find ourselves asking about "what ever happened to..." me, my brothers and my sisters always say she must have sold everything during her yard sale/flea market phase in the late 70's and early 80's. She sold everything that wasn't nailed down. She would have loved E-Bay.

I thought this was a good picture for after watching the movie "Blood Diamond." Have you seen it? Yikes. The part I liked the most was when the old man said, (after his little village was burnt to the ground) "Let's pray they don't find oil." What an eye opener. Greedy takers. Humans are greedy takers. We take what we want without any thought of how it will affect future generations. Have you started to store your water supply? Why bother. If anyone finds out that you have water, (or anything else in demand) they will just kill you for it.

Time must have gotten away from me. I don't know if I have been too busy to blog or am getting bored with the deed.

Just around the bend

Scenic route 250

Warmer weather is just around the bend. I am looking forward to some sunny days. It's been wet for a while, now. Very wet. I was digging around my patio's spout to relieve some of the water pooling around my sidewalk.

I hope to get some seeds in the ground this week-end. Is it too early for that? I don't know. I figure "What the heck?" If I don't do it when I have a free week-end, they will sit in their bright colored packages for years and never get planted.

I gave my hydrangea the sulfur mix I bought at the garden center last year. I worked it into the soil all around it. My fingers are crossed. Think blue, think blue, think blue. Purple would be great, too!

Recently a former classmate's father passed away. I usually like to read the obituaries to see where my classmate is living, now. This is how the obit. started out...

On Sunday, April 22, 2007, the world lost one of its greatest men, Mr. John Doe...

Give me a break!

A splash of yellow

Can't hardly wait for sunny yellows

It was a cold, gray day in Ohio. Rain pouring, no sunshine. Dark, dreary. Blah. My daughter had an appointment with her dermatologist today. She thinks more moles need to come out. She said if we want we can go to see another doctor that specializes more in plastic surgery. She also said that the scars will stretch out as my daughter continues to grow.

My daughter is starting her first job on Saturday.

Lovin' the little ones

My Grand Niece

The munchkin came to visit me Saturday. Oh, my sister came with her. This is her grand daughter. We had to laugh because she was trying to pick up five markers with her little hands and a nerf ball too. She finally put a marker in her mouth. We all put one in our mouths. Me, my sister and my daughter.

It was a fun day. We finished the day by meeting up with six other family members for a wonderful meal.

I was sick during the night last night (after the storm while the cold front was moving through) with a huge ice pick pain in my right eye. I finally broke down at 3:30 this morning and took a Relpax. I don't know why I didn't take one before. I actually thought it would go away with sleep. It went away but left me so tired from being awake for four hours during the night. I ended up taking the morning off and sleeping.

This afternoon when I went to work I was hit head on with a school down. It took an hour over the telephone, but we found the loop. Those pesky kids. One of them had plugged one end of an Ethernet cable back into another wall drop. This brought an entire network down. The horrible part of the situation is that some company had sold this school district on IP Telephony. So, when the Internet goes, so do the telephones. No communication. They are out in the boondocks, so no cell phone service. As it was, the company that sold the the IP Telephony service had set themselves up a modem connection to their equipment on an analog line and I walked the tech through connecting a desk phone to it. We just made sure we plugged the modem back in when we were done. Hee hee.

Hey, now that I think about it - the school is paying for the analog line. Sheesh.

A Eureka moment

After the storm

I had a Eureka moment this evening. Kind of like a Kodak moment, but I use a Canon. I was sitting in my room watching the storm out my window. It was dark out and the lightning kept flashing the night into daylight. I was thinking to myself, now from what I have read on Photo Blogs they get their night shots by holding the shutter open for a long period of time. And I was wondering what that setting would be called. And then just like a flash of lightning, it came to me. As I experiment with different settings on my camera to see what I can get, there are two settings where it sits and the little indicator lights flash for a few seconds and then the shutter clicks and all I get is a huge white picture. Duh! That is because it is during the daytime and there is so much light let into the view finder. This setting was for the night pictures. I jumped up and grabbed my camera. Found the setting and snapped away.

Well, I don't have the procedure perfected, but at least I am getting there. When the lightning flashed during the few seconds the shutter was open, it made the photo look like it was taken in daylight. I see now how the car tail lights are streaked across the photo also. I did one car photo, but it didn't turn out real well. The car was turning into a driveway and was going too slow.

You'd think I would just crack open the manual. Or, read the CD that came with the camera. Huh.

The neighboring county to our west had a tornado warning. We didn't get that rowdy of weather. We just got the thunder, high winds, rain and lightning.

The sun also rises

A little northeastern sunshine from last autumn

I felt well enough this week-end to actual start some spring cleaning. There was so much to do. I started in the garage. It was a literal walk down memory lane. I am (my family is) notorious for being pack rats. I come by it legally. I went through about four big boxes for an upcoming yard sale my niece wants to have. My daughter went through two boxes. I came out with two big boxes for the sale and three huge industrial sized garbage bags of trash. YES!

During the cleaning, I stumbled across an old Panasonic CD player that I had purchased for my daughter a couple of years back. Before I got her the Creative Zen mp3 player. I made sure this player would also play mp3's. I wondered if it still worked. I put fresh batteries in and plopped in a new CD and found my old headphones and I was in heaven. I hurried to my computer and quickly shot off the making of a CD with over 100 mp3's. (The mp3 format will fit many, many more songs on a CD than if you create a CD for an ordinary music CD player). I started long ago purchasing all my DVD players and CD players that would also play mp3.

I found it much easier to Spring clean. The player is bulky, but I found a pair of old sweat pants with a pocket big enough to put it in and I can travel all over the house/yard/garage and clean. Totally oblivious to the world around me. Oh, I also made sure this player had the no skip feature. So far I have worked for four hours here, there, and everywhere with NO SKIPPING.

There is yet another plus to this player. My neighbor had brought in a jack hammer connected to a large Bobcat vehicle and is tearing up his driveway. This is 50 feet from my back door. Aaarrgghhh! They have not started yet today, but I imagine it won't be long before they do.

Last evening they started at 5 p.m., right when we were leaving to meet family for dinner. What great timing!

Speaking of family, if you have had a divorce in your family you may be able to relate to this. What do you do about the ex in-laws? In this case it is an ex sister-in-law. She is still the Mother to my niece and nephew. We met her for dinner. We try to reach out and make an effort to see her and make her feel loved. She was part of our family for ten years. It has to be very hard for her.

Okay, the back has recovered somewhat. Back to it.

You've humiliated me for the last time!

So, how was school today dear?

In case you didn't get the chance to hear Alec Baldwin's enraged message he left on his daughter's cell phone, this radio station has the audio. Click on "Alec, at his best."

I was flabbergasted, as was everyone who listened to it. Our jaws dropped open. I never cared for the jerk anyway. Don't like his movies, don't like his looks, don't like his mannerisms. Now, I certainly don't like his parental skills.

He can't even see that he is calling her names when it is in fact, he himself, who is being the total idiot. He called her a pig? A pig? The guy doesn't deserve children.

Alec, you are in all areas "A loser!"

The blues

The Friday challenge for last week (the 13th) was "The Blues." I posted the large view from my deja-view web site. I kind of go back and forth. That site does not get many visitors, it was created for family. Fortunately, I have some extended family members in Washington state and New York state who stumbled across this site and in turn I directed them to that web page because it is meant more for the family. I have some old family album photos there and I really need to scan more photos so they can see them.

I have been told of a house not far from me who has set up a huge, life-sized fake buffalo in their yard. It is on a main street and everyone is talking about it. I will have to take a drive over to see it and get a photo. If I get a decent one, I will post it here. It would be perfect if Photo Friday were to title this week's challenge as "buffalo" but I doubt that will happen. They don't get that specific.

This has been a long week and I am really looking forward to Friday.

Street at dusk

The curved building was our hotel

I loved the blue dusky sky as we walked back to our motel one evening in Cincinnati. It was unusually warm weather and there were a lot of people out and about. We needed no jackets.

One of my co-workers has a cousin who is a minister. She talked with my co-worker for three hours last evening about how wrong the gay lifestyle was. How they are confused people and their lifestyle is the reason for all of their strife in life. She also rebuked another bible verse that we spoke of. The one that states "women cannot speak in church." She said if we had read the entire chapter we would see that this was an isolated incident where the women sat on one side and the men sat on another side during the service. They tired of women calling out to their husbands and disrupting the service (you know how women can't shut up, right?) and this was the incident spoken of in the verse. We took it out of context.

Maybe so, maybe not. She went on to explain that women were men's equal according to the bible. I guess it depends on which book you are reading. Maybe I only hear what I want to hear. I didn't approach the first book of Ezekiel to my co-worker. I really don't think she can wrap her mind around that one.

I am sure her cousin has her convinced that I have been sent by Lucifer himself. I hope they prayed for me. I probably have an evil spirit inside of me, thus causing my migraines.

Planted lips

Potted plant - Cincinnati

More like weeds growing. I wanted to paint the lips on the pots around the square. Add some color. I wonder what they look like with flowers (or at least something colorful and pretty) growing in them. Has it really been two weeks already?

In lieu of a vacation over the summer months I plan to take time off and re-do my bathroom. My bedroom had to be repainted before I moved in. The 70's green and blue was a bit nauseating for me. The bathroom is pink roses on pink wall paper with pink fixtures. Too much pink for me. I could live with it, though. This summer I am going to change that.

My daughter said that suits her just fine. She said she doesn't like to travel. What? How can this be? I love to travel. I used to love to drive until I started working for the schools and ended up driving, driving, driving for most of my work day. Okay, I admit. I do tire of staying in motels. After four days I begin to get really sick from a change in sleep patterns, scenery and foods. Vacations will be limited to a week or less unless it is a really big one.

The two co-workers who debate religion were at it pretty heavy this morning. I usually tune them out, but when their voices were raised I listened. They are three feet away from me. The one was speaking of her pastor saying in his sermon yesterday that ALL gays are sinning. That it is their choice they are gay and that they are disobeying God. I told her I disagreed. I believe that it is not a "choice" and I believe them to be born gay. We didn't argue but it wasn't long before the topic turned to bible scriptures. For all their talk, they sure didn't know much about certain bible scriptures. I quoted a couple for them and they said "No way!" I looked the verses up on the Internet and showed them. They were floored. They changed their tune. They said "Well, you have to study The New Testament and forget about the Old one." Oh. Okay. Let's translate the Bible to say what we want it to say.

It is okay with them. We laugh and carry on. We do not get mad at one another. We let each other say what we want and go on with our lives.

I know some folks who cannot have a thought process for themselves so they cling to someone who can persuade them to believe what they say is true. Sheep.

Black Monday

Something colorful for a dark, dark day

Well, I sure wouldn't want to be in the shoes of the Virginia Tech president any time soon. I had just eaten about four Hershey's miniature chocolates when I took a small break and checked the latest news on my work computer. The chocolate turned in my stomach and I thought I was going to be sick. I went to get a glass of water and clear my head. What was it? A broken romance? And after killing her, did he think why not take out as many as I can, my life is over anyway? Time will tell, I suppose. I am just guessing, here. I have not a clue.

It does sound like the people in charge are going to take some heat for not getting an alarm out to the students sooner. And, you had to know that Nancy Grace was going to race out there and elbow people and over shout them until all you could hear was her whiny mouth. That is when I shut the television off.

First birthday cake

We know where this is going, don't we?