So much food

Another birthday party tonight. This week-end somebody turned 60. Today someone else in the family turned 65. He retired at 60 or maybe 62, I don't know. So the retirement party is history. We had a crowd. My grand nephew took pictures. I had flash spots in my eyes for most of the evening. It was a miracle I didn't get a headache from all the good food and the bright flashes.

Work has had so much going on and they have had food catered in from one event after another and there is always so much left over. We have all been eating free lunches. A friend from out of town called and wants to do dinner soon. My "sister incarcerate" turned 55 today. I am glad her children went to visit her. I have a visit planned on the 18th of next month. My first time visiting somebody in prison. I think. It should be interesting.

Saturday an extended family member turns 12. Tomorrow another extended family member turns 26. Then April. My daughter turns 18. A brother turns 56, a niece turns 27. Also in March I had a niece turn 34 and a brother turn 67. I didn't make it to their get togethers.

3 in February, seven in March, and three in April. Too much! Family getting very big right along with my waistline.

Sweet!

Sorry this picture is so out of focus. I think my hands were shaking from the anticipated sugar high. Mercy, they were good!

And we did give our bird away Friday evening. I instantly liked the lady that came to get her. I feel that Peru is in a good home and will get much more attention and love.

At the party

We had a surprise 60th birthday party for one of my sister's today. Here is a photo of the two littlest ones in our family posing. This is when they weren't beating each other with balloons. :-)

But what will I call myself, now?

A nice lady called for the bird. She is semi-disabled. She used to have birds, but as time passed they died. She is alone now, her kids have grown. She leaves the house perhaps once a month to get groceries. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe. She said she would call me when she was on her way. That was four hours ago. :-(

This one should go on the doctor funny names list. A doctor that recently treated my daughter (at a stat care facility) has the name of Thang N Dang. Seriously! Google it. Wow! And, I just realized that the insurance is refusing to pay it. Grrrr. I guess I'll be on the telephone tomorrow morning to see what lame-o reason they are going to give me. Oh, I see now. They stated it was a non emergency. She broke out in a rash. The nurse at school said she should have it looked at. I don't take chances - this is what medical insurance is for, right? We'll see. I'll probably bend over and take it up the...aw, never mind. I'm a bit sour these days.

As I was typing, the nice lady called back and said that something came up and re-scheduled to pick up Peru tomorrow evening. I will not cry, I will not cry. She will be much better off.

Stretching those dollars

Bill paying time and I'm stretching the dollars a bit more. I dropped some extravagant channels from our cable today. It was time. I'm still not ready to let go of that telephone land line, yet.

I have oodles of birthdays coming up. Springtime. A time for births and babies I guess. Nine months after the June bride season? I don't know. Most of the birthdays I am celebrating are for people who were not first children and if they were they came a couple of years after the wedding date.

Magazine subscriptions were dropped a couple of years ago. Have you ever tried to stop a magazine subscription? It is no easy task. I didn't renew and they didn't send. They did send me some notifications saying that I was overdue or past due on my payment. What? I ignored them. Two more years and they are still coming - renew, renew, renew.

Staying in for lunch a lot more these days. No movies. :( I am adjusting. I'll get the movie when it comes out at the store.

My daughter posted our bird for sale at the local stores. I hope nobody calls. The bird is the cheapest pet we have. No vet bills. Food is cheap. My daughter wants her to go. Nobody pays any attention to the poor little thing any more. I just worry that somebody will be mean to her. I don't want her in any pain. I hope we can find a good home. My daughter wanted to give her away for free. I advised against it. I was worried we would get some folks who are not serious.

Leaving (Ohio for) Las Vegas

Photo courtesy of my nephew (s) recent trip to Vegas - somewhere on the road.

In other news, talk about some slow US Postal mail. How about this story?

Postcard arrives in Ohio 47 years late
Published - Mar 14 2009 03:14AM EST

A woman's postcard bearing greetings from Montana has finally arrived in northeastern Ohio _ 47 years later.

Insurance agent Dave Conn opened his post office box in the community of Hudson last week and found the mailing sent from Helena, Mont., in 1962.

It was sent to Marion White, the previous renter of the box, who had died in 1988. The writer signed the postcard "Fran" and mentioned having "had a marvelous time in Montana."

After asking around, Conn says he determined the card must have come from White's well-traveled friend Frances Murphey, a longtime reporter at the Akron Beacon Journal. She died in 1998 at age 75.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Victor Dubina says the postcard may have been stuck in equipment or lost behind a mail chute.

___

Information from: Akron Beacon Journal,
http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/7145310/Postcard_arrives_in_Ohio_47_years_late

Better reception

Some folks didn't make the switch over from air waves to digital. They are using whatever components they have to get a better reception. This little tyke broke a bone in the top of his foot playing in the park the other day. Didn't slow him down one iota.

Yikes!

Grab the nearest book - no matter what it may be.

My book was Without Conscience by Robert D. Hare, PhD.

I have no idea why I have this book. I must email family to see if I borrowed it and never returned it.

Turn to page 25.

Read the 10th word on that page, or the following page if that one would be blank.

Type the word into Google Image Search. My word was "behaviors".

Post the third image.

This is what I got.

A Patch of Blue

Another shot of the state park

Tonight it was A Patch of Blue with Sidney Poitier. The movie was made in 1965 or there abouts. I find it interesting that they used a "555" for a telephone exchange even back then.

I'm not a real doctor, but I play one on TV

Driving out of the lodge park last week

I have a new addiction. It isn't serious. Not yet, anyway. For some odd reason I got hooked on TCMs this past week-end. I watched one titled Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day. It was interesting. I wonder if the writers or actors of House have ever watched the Kildare movies. The grumpy doctor played by Lionel Barrymore is wheelchair bound and has an almost House/Cuddy relationship with his head nurse. Dr. Kildare is the nice one (like Wilson, I suppose). This movie also had Red Skelton in it. His comedy was what I remembered from his TV shows. Almost painful to watch (the luggage in the telephone booth scene).

Though I catch the movies on Turner Classic Movies, I do remember watching Dr. Kildare with the dashing Richard Chamberlain and the Red Skelton show in the 60's. I just thought it was funny that the movie was so similar to the TV show House.

Other movies I caught on TCM were Johnny Eager and The Edge of the World.

The lodge

It is nestled back in the nether regions of a big recreation area. You exit the Interstate and drive for miles. You exit the main road and drive for miles. You exit the park road and drive for a while longer and there it is. On the ride all you see are trees, grass and once in a while a deer or two. And the golf course. Can't forget the golf course.

This is the lodge where I gave my presentation last week. I had about 15 in my audience. There were about 5 who I had never met before. The rest I had worked with at one time or another.

I think sometimes it is easier to give a presentation to strangers.

My daughter's previous boyfriends' parents are splitting up. This could be some of the pain that is causing his younger sister to attempt suicide. He was over last night to talk to my daughter. He is taking the break-up hard. What does she say? "He doesn't remember when he dumped me a year ago and I had nobody!" I sighed. The pain of breaking up I know well. I don't wish it on anybody.

Her cell phone just keeps on buzzing with text messages.

Angst

Maybe summer 2005?

This photo of my daughter was taken at a park back when her hair was long. I am thinking at least four years ago.

Teenage love is never easy. Well, adult love isn't either. My daughter dated one young fellow for four years on and off. They were apart for about nine or 10 months and recently reunited this year.

She had been attempting to cultivate other relationships with other fellows during their break. With many false starts as they both tried to move on, they eventually found themselves back together. When her old boyfriend returned to his old ways of putting her last on his list, she decided perhaps once and for all, she was finished with this kind of treatment and began to move on.

This last week she began spending time with a boy from school. She did make it to his swim meet this morning. When she told me she was going to go, I was a bit nervous about the old boyfriend. How would he react? Would he even care? Would he be upset and do anything irrational? You never know with teenagers. I had an uneasy feeling. I wanted her to go a little slower in the break-up area, but how can you control the speed of teenage life?

She called me this morning from the meet. Her old boyfriend had texted her to say that his younger sister had attempted suicide by drinking an entire bottle of cold medicine and cutting her wrists. It was unnerving. Just too close to a premonition for my comfort.

I am going to try to find out the details later today and try to reach his mom. Although we didn't become close friends, we were acquaintances at work as well as in our private lives.

My daughter was very upset. I told her that this had nothing to do with her and to relax and we would talk about it when she got back into town.

I certainly don't mean to minimize his sister's attempt and I really hope the girl is okay, but at one point during my conversation with my daughter I admit that I wished it was just a desperate ploy for the boy to get my daughter's attention and his sister is in no danger at all. I don't know if that is right to think that way or not. I don't like for anyone to suffer and I don't wish her old boyfriend any pain, either. Mental anguish can be just as dangerous as physical pain.

Help me!

The weather is a bit more bearable here in the valley. Marching into March.

Maybe I'll catch a movie! My daughter has been wanting to see Taken. She is out with a new boyfriend tonight. Let's see how serious she is. She is supposed to go to a swim meet and this means she has to be at his house at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Good grief! Will she make it? I dunno. They are having wings tonight.

Still here

Close up from September 2008

I'm still here. I just have had my head stuck in work-related stuff.

Elephant Sage

Pittsburgh Zoo August 2008

If wrinkles are a sign of character, then this fella is pretty charismatic. He looks wise beyond his years. Could be a she? Do female elephants have tusks.? That is what the Internet is for. Yes, they do.

Being the resident computer guru in the family, I went to work on a sibling's computer last night. I am a bit dismayed when I fix something, but then the computer runs slower than before I touched it. Some fixes require a re-boot and when I did that, the system moved like cold molasses. I finally found the culprit, but what an ordeal.

It reminds me of a time I went to fix a program in a computer for a school district's Treasurer. He left the office while I worked. I had to insert a CD to run a fix for the program and I couldn't get it to run. I thought I had dome something to the CD drive and I spent some time trying to fix that. When the Treasurer returned he informed me "Oh, the CD drive has been broken for months." Sheesh.

Swingset Chain

At a school play ground a couple of summers ago.

Dry Eyes

Pond scene from fall 2008

My eyes are dry and scratchy. Been doing a lot of computer work and reading. I am currently reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Pretty good read.

Well, it's not a depression for everyone. My nephew just called to tell me that he and another nephew are heading for Vegas next week. One nephew is very interested in the solar convention there. Then a week of fun and adventure for the both of them. Sigh. Someday.

I am still gunning for Hawaii or where one brother wants to go - cruise through the Caribbeans.

For now I am keeping my purse strings tied up tight.

The Bar Scene

Drink glasses hanging over a bar

I went this week-end with a group who chose to eat at "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and then they chose to go sit in a sports bar. It was crowded. Too crowded for me. I drank Pepsi because I was driving. It was snowing something awful. I have to drive 30 miles compared to my friends who drive from 1 to 3 miles to get home.

One sister joins me from time to time. The group of girls I meet with take extras (friends of friends) into the fold and we have a good time. At the core there are six of us. I was the latest to join the group in 1990. The other 5 had been getting together since the early 80's.

None of us have married. I am the only one to have had a child. Each one of us are (or were) very close to our Mom. Every one of us are very close to our nieces and nephews or a sort of surrogate parent to a child of a friend if there are no nieces/nephews. Three of us have steady boyfriends. Three of us have at least one cat. I am the oddball with a child and many pets. They seem to be more citified whereas I am country.

The sister that joined me was very eager to get away from her husband. He is a couch potato and watches nothing but sports on TV kind of guy and they live way out in the boondocks. She hates sports and she just recently connected to the Internet through a wireless company. No cell phone. No cable. Their TV is satellite.

She likes the bar scene. She had a good time. As did the birthday girl. Me? I can't stand the leers from the drunks. Or the ones who bump into you as they sit down or walk past.

I'd rather stay home. I didn't drive to the restaurant as I had left my car at my friend's house. So I went to the bar with them. My sister was having a good time and I didn't want to cut it short.

But that snow. No plows had touched the roads. It took me over an hour to drive the 30 miles back home.

When my sister drinks she keeps talking about "the accident." She was driving in the accident where my Mom died. A dump truck ran a stop sign. She relives this nightmare and I felt so bad for her. Fortunately the next morning she remembered very little.

The food at CiP was good. I was able to talk to friends until the alcohol changed their conversation to the whiny, crying game. Poor poor pitiful me. The one girl had been on a blind date and he had not called her back. She was ogling the bartender. Another one went on and on about her cousin from Florida. The drunk on my right kept bumping his chair into mine.

It is like somebody has taken an evening from my early 20's and reran the video tape. I don't mind getting together at a friend's house or around a camp fire, but I just can't stomach the bar scene anymore.

Our very own - Ice Capades

Photo courtesy of my brother the fireman/EMT.

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

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

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

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

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

My brother works in a town 10 miles from me.

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

What a ride.

The Alarmist

I grew up just down the road from a fire station. During the 70's it had one of those top of the roof sirens that would start out slow and rise to a high-pitched wail. The dogs would howl. If it was warm outside we might come out of our house to look up the road toward the fire station.

Today we were brought out of our offices, out of our seats, out from behind our work stations by the wailer. The siren. The Alarmist as I like to call them.

They start out slow and rise to a high-pitched wail. She was in full force.

She was stomping.

The Alarmist. Setting everybody off and getting every body's knickers in a twist. She gives women a bad name because she gets hysterical and most technology folks end up laughing at her behind her back.

You should hear her speak to her children on the telephone. My heart hurts for them.

My desktop

This was from last year. I change my desktop about once a month. Speaking of once a month, I have come to discover the real reason behind my massive migraine. I still don't plan to drink any more of the vitamin water. I felt so darn good yesterday I spent the day smiling and chatting like a fool. I wanted to cry because I was free of the pain. Sigh. It was a good day.

I chose to study the topic TCP/IP. I know the subject pretty well, but a refresher is always good. Keeps me on my toes. Given the extent of my headache, I certainly didn't want to tackle anything new and very challenging. One of the big areas to study is the OSI model. All People Seem To Need Data Processing. Backwards = Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application layers. First letter mnemonics like Roy G Biv.

Too much of a good thing

I have had problems taking vitamins before. I try to take them with food but I get very, very sick. My daughter does not drink soda pop. (Just "pop" in our neck of the woods.) She wanted Gatorade and the above seen vitamin water during her last flu/cold spell.

I push the "drink plenty of liquids" during illness. She never drinks water. She loves milk. Milk is not good when you are constantly coughing.

So, I filled the fridge with vitamin water. Her favorite was dragonfruit. I liked the acai one. She didn't like this flavor at all, so I volunteered to drink them up.

They are high in sugar, crystalline fructose to be exact. But I figured they were better than pop to drink. I love cranberry juice and it is loaded with sugar, too.

Was it the vitamin C? I cannot drink orange juice or (my favorite) grapefruit juice and cranberry juice without dire consequences. Result is a severe migraine. I didn't take into consideration the amount of "C" in this drink.

Sometimes I think it may be the niacin. Many web sites that you visit claim that niacin or this vitamin or that vitamin will cure a migraine.

What I know is what I have experienced. I steer clear from fruit juice. I love it, but I pay for it. Dearly. I guess I'll have to add the vitamin water to that list, now.

This was not the ordinary migraine that I experienced this week-end. This was a three day monster. I woke again this morning in pain. I have been drinking a vitamin water every day. They taste like watered-down kool-aid. My flavor (acai) is gone. Just in time. I'm done with this stuff. Too much of a good thing? Who knows? It isn't worth it for me to test this theory of whether or not I can tolerate this drink.

Hurts

Lights, sounds and smells. This was a thick coffee mug. It was my favorite coffee mug. You know the one. If all the mugs are clean, this is the one you reach for. I have them put away in order of my favorites. This one I could reach first. My second most favorite mug will now become my favorite, I guess.

I see where I stirred my coffee with a metal spoon. I usually try to stir with plastic. Less noise and obviously no scratchy metal marks on the bottom of the cup. I never noticed them before.

Lights, sounds and smells exacerbate a migraine headache. Cleaning is torture. When I dropped something in the sink just now cleaning, I looked at Sable. "That hurt." I meant the noise. When I looked and saw that I had broken my favorite coffee mug I may have cursed. I don't know.

My daughter is the same way. When I am putting pots and pans and dishes away the noise hurts. If garbage isn't taken out quickly, the smell aggravates me. If kitty litter is let to go too long, I get ill. All housework requires bending over which is a huge pain to one with a migraine. I bend over to put the pots and pans in the bottom of the stove. Clank, bang, slam. It all hurts.

I wrap my head in earphones and a sleep mask and sit in a chair. I don't want to sleep. Too much sleep also adds to migraines. I just want to sit with muted sound and muted light and try to relax. Try to give the medicine time to work. The medicine can take most of the pain (and sick feeling) away, but if you get up to move it comes roaring back. So, no housework gets done. Another lost week-end feeling like crap. You can't read. You can watch television, but mostly I listen to it. Computer time - an hour maybe a day. That's it.

Fun stuff.

Some color on a dreary day

Distorted Christmas lights at my sister's house.

You Turkeys

Look at the camera! My crew on Saturday night. Still waiting for six to show up.

Tribbles and Martians

I finished reading "The Martian Child." I watched the movie a while back. It was really neat to discover that the author wrote a Star Trek episode titled "The Trouble With Tribbles." My Mom's favorite episode. Mine, too. It wasn't just the furry little critters. It was the comedy of the actors and their banter between the Klingons and one another.

I put that book down and immediately picked up "What Was She Thinking?" by Zoe Heller. My daughter wants to read "Atonement" by Ian McEwan. It is on my library hold list. It states that I am number 19. I requested the movie "Grace is Gone" last week and it said I was number 9. I received a notice the next day that it was ready to be picked up. So, I don't think she will need to wait all that long.

Shades of gray

Messing with emboss again.

The ice was a mess for a few days. Everybody was sliding and falling. Holding onto what ever they could find. Concrete was the worst. Solid wet ice covered almost every inch of it.

Family got together last night. 17 of us. Foggy on the way home. We almost hit 3 deer slowly crossing the road. Every year I have at least one close call with them.

Snow dog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie books

I have this fascination with reading the books from some of the movies that I have seen. I hate it when there is no book. All three books above, I have seen the movie. I finished "Skipping Christmas" which you may know it better as "Christmas With the Kranks." Can you believe it is written by John Grisham? I am in the middle of "Sideways" by Rex Pickett. I've seen the movie with Paul Giamatti. Next up will be "The Martian Child". Seen the movie.

I watched "Grace is Gone". I remember seeing the previews and then the movie just disappeared. I didn't see it in my video store. I got it from my library. Very sad story, but no book to read. It must be written as just a screen play. Drat.

I caught most of "Bobby" written by Emilio Estevez.

Just found another one I want to read. "Absolute Power." Loved the movie.

The field is endless, I tell you. And now with libraries set up so that you can virtually get any book because they let you reserve them online from home and they borrow it from a sister library if they don't carry it or it is signed out and e-mail you to come and pick it up at your nearest library. Amazing.

Others:

Seen the movie, might read the book:

A Prayer for Owen Meany ( Simon Birch)
The Terminal Man (The Terminal)
Catch Me If You Can - I actually went to a seminar of Abagnale's in 1979.
Apollo 13
Pay it Forward
Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood (sister read it)
The Milagro Beanfield War
Fried Green Tomatoes
Single White Female
White Oleander
What's Love Got To Do With It
Dolores Claiborne
Primal Fear
Jackie Brown
The Horse Whisperer
What Dreams May Come
Laws of Attraction
Runaway Jury
The Snow Walker
Man on Fire
The Notebook
The Constant Gardener
The Illusionist
Atonement
I Am Legend
Jumper

Seen the movie, have read the book:

The Painted Veil
Out of Africa (Letters from Africa)
Brideshead Revisited
The World According to Garp
The Outsiders
The Color Purple
A Cry in the Dark
Postcards From the Edge
Prince of Tides
White Fang
Of Mice and Men
Pelican Brief
The Client
Little Women
Bridges of Madison County
A Time to Kill
Contact
Primary Colors
Crazy in Alabama
A Beautiful Mind
The Mothman Prophecies
Cheaper By the Dozen
Brokeback Mountain
Memoirs of a Geisha
Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio
The Devil Wears Prada
Charlie Wilson's War
21 (Bringing Down the House)

Read the book, might see the movie:

Alive
Angie, I Says
The Rainmaker
Angela's Ashes

Follow up

It is a little unnerving to follow a loved one when they are still pretty new at driving. Not one of my favorite things to do.

My paper decided that they would not renew their contract with the establishment that provided the regular comics, puzzle, cryptoquip and other entertainment stuff. I promptly e-mailed them that I would be cancelling my subscription. I could read all that other fluff (I mean stuff) on line.

They e-mailed me back to say that they have reconsidered and thanked me for my e-mail. My beloved comics, puzzle etc.. will return promptly.

Yeah. (Peruby sticks out her chest). You got that right! You better listen to me.

Okay. Okay. It was a mass mailing e-mail and I was one of hundreds that complained.

Snow stop

The snow finally stopped. We have lots of ice. Shiny, hard and very slippery. This is a photo of one of my city's little side streets. I travel this way a lot.

For the first time in my 48.5 years I almost shunned the Steelers. I admire the way the Cardinals gave a good fight. I was dismayed at the poor conduct by one Steeler player in particular. If you watched the game, you probably know who I am speaking of.

But when it came right down to the nitty gritty I couldn't help but root for my team. It is my family's favored team. We grew up closer to Pittsburgh than Cleveland or Cincinnati. They never cease to amaze me with their ability to pull it off at the very last minute.

My favorite commercial was when the guy threw the snow globe (excuse me, his crystal ball) into the vending machine to get free snacks. (Didn't care for the second half of the commercial).

Sunday morning bismuth

Heartburn city. Was it the rich food I ate at the party? It isn't from drinking. I had a ginger ale. Was it the phone call from my sister who is located here? A swig of the pink stuff and so far so good.

Thankfully I don't have to take it for the other reason. Just heartburn, and more and more frequently as I age. I recall having slight heartburn in the 80's after a bout of pleurisy. I recall having it lightly when I was expecting. Neither of those two incidents compare with what I have had for the past four years or so. Mostly I get the pain when I skip a meal or wait too long between meals. Misery.

When I was a teen, I recall my Mom and sister giving me a magnesium/aluminum product and bismuth for (what was then undiagnosed as migraine) for when I was sick. The medicine had an averse affect on my illness and left me feeling much worse. I vowed never to taste the pink stuff again. Until this heartburn hit me. Now, the pink stuff is my best friend.

Reading more on heartburn, I came across this symptom to watch for:

Inhalation of stomach contents while sleeping.

What the hell does that mean? It certainly does not sound good. The sentence itself almost sent me back to the bismuth. Gross. I imagine they mean when the stomach acid backs up into your esophagus. Not fun.

I was planning on making nacho dip for the game this evening. My daughter loves the stuff. It is a sausage/hamburger mix with a melted processed cheese product and green Chile peppers with diced tomatoes. Very good but very rich.

It is supposed to get above 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) today. What a mess this is going to be. It will melt a bunch of piled up snow and then freeze again overnight. The roads are still bumpy from the ice. Very much a washboard effect as you drive over them. What will the morning bring for the school buses?

Tasty little pizzas

I've been making these for so long I can't recall where I first saw them. Perhaps my niece made them one time. They are tasty little (quick) pizzas.

When I have a crew in the house, this one goes over well. I take a package of split muffins (such as Thomas') and break them open and lay them out on a cookie sheet (open side up). I spoon a large tablespoon full of pizza sauce over each one. I've tried various different sauces. For now, I like a brand that is made close to home. Mid's (made in Navarre, Ohio).

I sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over each mini-pizza and add toppings. Pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, mild pepper rings. Anything goes.

What I really like about this recipe is that if you have children, each one can make (or design) their own little pizza (or pizzas because you can't eat just one). They can put what toppings on that they like.

I bake mine at 350 for ten or fifteen, but you can experiment to see what setting works best for you. You may like to broil them. I have found out that it is sometimes better to go easy on the sauce. Too thick and the pizza muffin tends to get mushy.

I am finishing up the last day of January planning on what to take to a get together tonight. I have taken my cheese ball/tray so often I sometimes just get sick and tired of it. I dread the thought of seeing friends say "What? No cheese ball?" tonight when I walk in the door. Sigh. I want to make fried rice and take it. We'll see how it goes.

And, it's free!

Here is the photo from yesterday before I used the "emboss" feature from Irfanview. I just discovered that the program now has a "red eye reduction" feature. Maybe it always did have it, I don't know. There are plug-ins with this program, I know I downloaded some at one time, could be I had to register my e-mail to get them, I can't recall, but still it cost nothing.

You can add text to the image also. You can send a photo via e-mail (you have to do a little bit of setting up your default email information to do this).

I use this program to re-size my photos. It does it quickly. You can change the size from pixels to inches (or cm) so that you can print out a custom fit CD cover or 2x3 photo.

You get the exif info and more. The only fault I find with the program is that you can only "undo" once. There may be a place to change that and I just haven't found it yet. But,it is one gem of a program. Even though it's been free for 10 years, you never know. Grab this puppy and download it before they start charging.

Embossed

Here is another photo that I messed with. I use a free program called "Irfanview". I've used it for years. You can download it from the homepage or from download.com. I cropped the original photo, converted it to a grayscale image, sharpened it, and chose to emboss it. I then enhanced the contrast and turned it to a negative image. I may have embossed it again. I just click and play and click and if I don't like it, I start over.

To get the picture frame around the image I used my Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. That one I purchased with my computer. I think I paid $30, but that was six years ago. It looks to be about $40 now.

The schools in the valley have closed again for tomorrow. I did venture out to run some errands today. I am a bit surprised that the roads are still in such a sad state. Everyone is talking about it. "Where is ODOT?" they are asking. The ice on the roads have formed hard bumps and I feel like I am driving on blocks of concrete.

Details

While attending a meeting for the Genealogy Society a few months back, one presenter suggested that we do not forget to scan the backs of our old family photographs. I liked this idea as it captures some of my Mom's handwriting. In the example above this is how she wrote in 1954.

We have ice here in the valley today. All schools are closed.

Gray

It's just a cold, gray day here in Ohio.

I'm too busy for my blog

Too busy...said Right Said Fred. Here is sister 1949. Her daughter wants to have a party for her sixtieth this year and has asked me for some photos form the old family album. The above photo is from 1961 where she is 12 or so. I don't know what is going on with that hair-do. She always had thick and wavy hair. Maybe it was wild and unmanageable this day.

I've told people how I used to get my hair rolled up the night before picture day at school and had to sleep on big (almost) soup-can rollers. You would have to sleep on your face because it was so uncomfortable. After a night of little sleep, and roller marks on half of your head, you wound up with some wild, dented hair. Perfect for a school picture day. NOT!

I spent over six hours today getting a virus off of a relatives computer who had not purchased anti-virus software. After the virus removal, she went home with anti-virus loaded on it today. Huge kudos to malwarebytes anti-malware program.

Work has been keeping me busy, too. I've been trying to figure out where all the traffic is coming from in a school district. I think I have nailed it. One machine appears to be communicating with hypster's site.

A janitor's story

I never met a janitor I didn't like. Really. Today I drove to my daughter's school. I parked next to a little burgundy sedan with a "Child on Board" yellow sign hanging from the back window. I also noticed a sticker on the lower back corner of the back windshield.

I leaned in to read it. It was metallic red, white and blue. It read "Obama '08." Oh, a supporter, I thought. I took a second look. Bold red letters beneath the '08 it read "Janitor." Huh.

Maybe they mean he is set to mop up someone else's mess.

One bored kitty

Mr. Tibbs does not look very enthusiastic. Either he is bored or he is tolerating something I may be doing to him. Such as taking his picture and flashing a bright light in his eyes.

Let's see. We had 5 days off and we watched a couple of movies. Totally skip "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" - oh, good grief. I can't find much that I liked about this movie at all. If I were a man, I would have liked seeing a naked Tomei. Being that I am not, Hoffman did nothing for me. Hawke was a sap.

My daughter chose "Wanted". If you like to see blood, and McAvoy being beaten to a pulp, this is the movie for you.

I guess the best of the 3 is "Ghost Town." I have always liked Kinnear and so far I like Leoni. That other guy, Ricky something - funny in a corny sort of way.

11 days left in the most miserable month of the year.

I'll show you mine

Everyone else is showing theirs, so I thought I would show you mine. This is today here in Ohio. I've seen worse. I've seen 20 below and I've seen 30 below with a windchill of 60 below. That's the time our kitchen registered 8 degrees on the refrigerator thermometer. Yep. I took the thermometer out of our refrigerator and set it on our kitchen counter.

My Mom and I lived in a huge old house. In the 60's it had been home to a huge family. Us. Year by year they slowly moved away until it was the youngest child and her Mom. I was 23. I had moved away once but returned. I was not working. I was in a two year funk in life. Floating. It was a very introspective time in my life. I wrote a lot of poetry, read a lot of art books that sort of thing.

My elder siblings just wanted me to stay home and take care of "Mom".

The house was not well insulated. The wind came right through the walls. We put plastic up on the windows every winter, but the kitchen window had been left bare that year. This is the same window that had enough space to let the trumpet vine creep into the house and bloom a bright orange cone-shaped flower inside our kitchen. During the summer of course. So you can imagine the air that was able to get into our kitchen.

The kitchen was full of dirty dishes because our water pipes kept freezing. One sister kept getting her husband and one of our brothers to thaw the pipes out. Every night they would freeze again. The water we would leave running would freeze in a solid line from the faucet to the porcelain. The furnace quit every night. She would also get somebody in there who would get the furnace to run (but again at night... it stopped). In all fairness though - this furnace was installed in 1968 and my Mom passed in 2000. 32 years and it was still running (barely). An oil furnace.

But really. What fodder for a poet, huh? An artist has to be miserable to write. I pulled myself out of my reverie and got on with life. All apologies to my siblings but I was not going to stay at home and take care of Mom.

When a boyfriend and I moved to Virginia (he had a job already) it was the fall of 1985. I sat at home and froze. I was too scared to light the propane heater. The landlord next door would light it for me a couple of times but even he jumped when the thing took off. He had a heart problem and I never asked him again. I dealt with it until I found work and moved us to a decent apartment. It was in this little house in Virginia that I wondered if I was always going to be living in a place that was cold. Was there nothing that could heat a home properly? Was I destined to live every winter freezing?

Fast forward six years. I was living with my brother and I stayed in an unheated bedroom. Cold again. I was really getting discouraged about this. We moved into a huge farmhouse with free gas. My cold days were over. So I thought. The "pancake" that controlled the gas coming into the house had a habit of shutting down when the temperature rose too quickly or dropped - or something. The heat would shut off. The furnace and hot water heater would need to be re lit. Aw, hell no! This was old stuff. Scared the bejesus out of me. It would happen about 8 times a year. When I was home alone, I tried. Really I did. It was just too daunting a task for me. I would freeze until my brother came home. He scoffed at this.

Then my daughter and I moved into our little apartment across town. Electric heat. No gas whatsoever. Yea! I can recall a couple of times being cold. The floorboard heaters were old and they would smell. Not very good for a gal who gets migraines. I had an extra little electric heater and the place was small enough. We were on the end, though and it got cold and damp from time to time.

Now, I am in my own home. I am responsible for the furnace, gas, electric. I sit here in short sleeves and thin pants. It is a little too warm for me because my daughter complains about the cold. I would probably drop it another degree or two if it were just me. It is cool in the kitchen and downstairs. It is super warm in the bathroom and in the bedrooms. The living room area is comfortable. I get the furnace checked twice a year. It is not one that needs to be lit, ever. If the hot water heater goes out, then yes - the pilot light will need to be lit. I have never had to do it. I hope I never do.

Whether it be a landlord, brother or boyfriend - I froze. Now, the heating is up to me. I am warm I am happy. I am comfortable.

Now, about that shovelling....

What else?

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

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

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

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

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

My Favorites

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

Brighten that smile

Had the teeth cleaned today. I hate having that done. Long before I had dental insurance and I didn't ever go to the dentist (except for when I was in pain) I never had them cleaned. Since my present job I've had it done every six months for years. It is easier now because I take better care of them. The fluoride treatment just gags me. Today it was easier. I just set my mind to it.

In the waiting room I chatted with an older lady. She wore plum purple pants and a light blue jacket. She tied an orange, red and yellow silk scarf over her white/gray hair. She was waiting for her son to pick her up. She said that she recently had to change to this dentist because he was closer. Since there were 3 dentists in the office, I asked her which one. She named the same one I have and then she said "The girl did all the work. The man didn't do anything at all. What a setup he has!" She looked kind of surprised.

She added, "It wasn't cheap, either. One hundred and seven dollars!" She said her medicare didn't cover dental work. I told her my Mom had long ago had all her teeth pulled out and I never knew her to have teeth. She said an older Aunt of hers was that way.

My Mom ate everything, too. She even ate peanuts. She gummed them to death. We did get her dentures in the 80's but the gums had hardened by then. She stopped going to the dentist when our dad accused her of having an affair with the dentist. He was a genuine a-hole. I won't elaborate.

My gums itch a little bit after their cleaning. I want to get my toothbrush and scrub away but that will cause bleeding and they will hurt like the dickens the next time I go to brush them, so I won't.

And I have a very painful stye in my eye. There is no redness so it must be inside. It itches and hurts. I need to go and put a warm compress on it now. I am so glad today is over.

Here she is

My daughter's new (to her) car sits in our drive way. This photo was taken from my kitchen window. What looks like smoke under the front of the car is actually spots on my window. I told you I was deficient in the house cleaning area, and I can prove it. Not that I want to and trust me, you don't want to see it. Huh. I guess deficient is a word.

I have not been very active lately in answering e-mails and posting. This is normal for me when I am in the process of making a big decision such as the purchase of a vehicle. I probably put more into this process than when I am purchasing one for myself. Because it is for my daughter and that responsibility weighs very heavy with me. The decision consumes almost all of my thought processes. I am very relieved it is over and done with.

The choice. My daughter has always wanted a Celica. I've been looking at cars for about a year for her. We narrowed it down to what she likes and what I like and what we can afford. Did I go over my budget? Yes. I am hoping I made the right decision in the fact that I got a newer model and lower mileage. It may last longer.

The features. My oh my. I'll zoom in on the funny one. The salesman had one other guy on this lot. The gopher guy. Between the two of them it was comical. We looked at the car on Thursday. This was actually a very hasty decision. The first car (we saw on Saturday) had sold on Wednesday and we changed our course to check this one out.

We drove it back to our home town and had our mechanic check it out. All was good except a broken antennae and hinge on the gas cap cover and one oil leak. There was a little device on the windshield of the car. I asked the salesman at our mechanic's shop what it was. He said it looked like one of those devices that gets satellite radio. Well, we knew that service is a monthly fee so we dismissed it.

Back to the car lot. Salesman said he will take care of everything our mechanic had listed and we could pick it up tomorrow. On Friday I made the arrangements with the bank, insurance company, all that good stuff. There was a snow storm coming, but the roads were good after I got off work and we were on our way. Good grief did the roads get bad the farther north we went. Interstate traffic was crawling at 30 mph.

I wanted to get the car and get back home asap. My daughter did not want to drive her car yet, so she was going to drive my car (old reliable) back while I drove hers. Inside the office the salesman told his gopher guy to go out and start the car to get it warmed up for us. This incident is important because of what we found. It was a good find, though.

My daughter had not driven in heavy snow before. We left the car lot and started our long 40 mile drive home. Over an hour. Interstate still crawling. It was bad. Rush hour traffic. I was so worried about my daughter that I barely paid attention to the Celica I was driving. It drove like a dream. My daughter drove very well. We made it home and parked both cars.

The funny part. It was dark out when we got home. My daughter was checking out the key remote and locking the car, etc.. She said "I wonder what this button does." She pressed it and the Celica fired right up.

I am wondering if the salesman knew this when he told the gopher to go and start the car. Where he was sitting at his desk, we could see the car through a big picture window. All he had to do was turn around and press a button. I'm not calling him to ask him if he knew. It was not advertised as a feature of the car. We may never know if he knew, but now we know what that little device is on the windshield.

Slices

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

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

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

More layers

I feel I have created something a little bit Claude Lorrain with a twist of John Constable while adding a splash of Theodore Rousseau and Asher Durand. Sigh. I love landscape paintings.

Add another 24 hours to that migraine medley. I was able to work today but I was not in a good mood for most of the day. I caved in and took yet another med tablet and rested after work and feel pretty good, now.

Mitigated Migraine

It is better now, but what a wasted 30 hours. Ugh.

Hair

We picked up my daughter's senior pics yesterday. Since they are copyright protected I won't show any. This is one of my photos from years ago. She has altered her appearance so much from this shot I don't think she is recognizable. Maybe by the eyes.

Coming from some one who has had brown eyes all their life, I am envious of the lighter color eye.

Did I spend too much? Yes. In my own defense I have no photo from 30 years ago when I was a senior. I wanted her to have something when she is 50 years old that she can say "Here I am as a senior in high school." Whatever. I am going to enjoy them.

Now we need to purchase a car and plan her graduation party. She wants the car, but not the party.

Starting the New Year, I am trying to remember the past. I have experienced 48 beginnings of a New Year. I suppose I can recall about 38 of them give or take. I don't know if I have a favorite that comes to mind. There are certainly a couple I would like to forget. I do recall when I was younger they used to play the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on New Year's Eve. Jonathan Winters was always a favorite of mine.

Another New Year I was travelling from Ohio back to Virginia after a 10-day visit with family and friends to discover the electric company had turned off our electricity. By mistake, I might add. That was a heck of a thing after a 10-hour drive. Spent that eve by candlelight. I am not certain if I called the emergency number or just waited until the next day. I really don't remember what we did for food. I did lose an entire turkey in the freezer. The power must have been out for days.

I remember parties. Parties and parties. I had a sister-in-law that had great parties for about 10 years straight. One of my sister's had great parties for about 5 years and then another sister took over and we spent them there for five years straight. Others were spent at a favorite bar. I have never hosted a drinking party on New Years. A few of mine were non drinking for my crew who do not drink. It has been years since I have had any alcohol during that night.

One involved a little white worm at the bottom of a tall bottle from Mexico. Yeah. We won't go there.

Still there

She is still up there atop our tree. We have not taken her down, yet. Probably not today, either. We have some running to do. I need to get the shop vac out of the garage to handle all the pine needles. One year I tried to clean them up with my regular house sweeper. Disaster. I've learned.

We stumbled on a pretty good movie yesterday that we had never heard of before. "The Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. It is about an Indian motorcycle, not a human being or Native American. We thought it was pretty good. Based on a true story about a guy from New Zealand breaking the fastest land speed world record. I thought it was amusing.

We also watched "Eagle Eye". Noisy and action packed.

After celebrating Wednesday night and fixing food most of the day Thursday, I ended up sick with a cold last evening. I took sinus medicine and rested. I must have sneezed a gazillion times. It seems to have passed except for some pressure today around the eyebrows. I hate it when a cold goes on for days.