Puppy chew toys

Yes, flash drives still work after a puppy has chewed on them. Remember the one that went through the wash and dryer cycle? It worked too but I have no idea what happened to that one. This one is a little "out of shape" and the cap fits kind of funny but it still works!

The lights are on but....

And the fan works, too!

My friend returned yesterday and re-did the fan/light and all works well now. Too well in fact. I am freezing because I love running the fan. I need to flip the switch so it spins the other way and sends heat down. No, not yet. The lights are a lot brighter than my chandelier ones and now I can see how dirty my keyboard is. Yeecchh!

I was futzing around yesterday after my friend left and not feeling much like doing anything when my sister called. (The sister whose kitchen clock I clocknapped.) I had also taken some colorful glass ornaments out of her utility room window but I didn't think she would notice that.

Of course she had NOT read her e-mail to get the ransom message. As it turns out she jumped her son for knocking the glass things off into the recycle bin and they must have been thrown out and she didn't miss her clock at all! She was laughing but mad because now she had to apologize to her son for losing her glass things. Whoops!

Anyway, she wanted company going to a bag and bead show. I said "Sure". I was wasting my day away. I went. She bought a ring and I bought a handbag. I've been looking for a new one. Mine has been broken for about 2 months and I just could not find one I liked in the stores. It is a 'coach" knock-off. I didn't even know what a 'coach' was until last evening. Big deal. I like the purse, I buy it. I'm not one to care about who makes it. Never was. Never will be.

I also want to comment on a couple of movies I watched over the past week or so. One was 'The Spitfire Grill'. It was okay. I would have written it differently. Imagine my surprise when I looked it up online to find out that the musical is written the way I would have. It it more realistic and makes more sense, except for who wins the essay contest. That would certainly not be legal.

Another movie the kids ordered on Pay-per-view. "The Ugly Truth". Kind of raunchy like most movies nowadays. I guess that is what the kids laugh at. Yikes.

"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" was okay. After reading up on it, I expected to see (and hear) more from this real life gang leader that the director had to have in the movie. Even though he had no acting experience. I'm not exactly certain which character he was but you didn't hear much from them. Victor is his real name.

Not sure if I have watched any others that I did not mention. I've been really out walking dogs and enjoying this unusually warm weather we are having here in eastern Ohio. No complaints at all except I am afraid that we are going to wake up one morning and it is going to be bitter cold and there was not time to ease into winter. It will just come up and smack us in the face like a 2 by 4. Ouch.

Ransom

I clocknapped this clock today

This morning one sister and I had a training session on how to re-hydrate and conserve old paper documentation. The society we joined has started the difficult task of preserving county documents from the 1800's to 1917. Interesting stuff.

She and I travel over an hour to get to the county where we grew up. On the way back she and I both had to use the bathroom. We have another sister who lives about half way. She was working and her family was not home when we stopped to use her facilities. Being the rascals that we are (or being the rascal that I am) I stole her kitchen clock right off her wall.

When I got home I took a picture of it (said I had broken it's leg to show I was serious) - it isn't really broken. I then e-mailed it to her and demanded a million dollars to be sent to me by Black Friday.

Of course I will return it when I see her on Thanksgiving, but that is 12 days without her kitchen clock. Do you think she will be angry with me? LOL!

I hope not. It's all fun.

11:11

To those of you lost, to those of you here, to those of you there. We salute you.

Ceiling Fan

The fan is up . The fan works. The lights don't.

Wow, it's November

Some property for sale near my house

Wow. November already. I voted on Tuesday for what my vote was worth. I lost most of what I voted for. Ah, well. I don't like gambling. I don't care if I ever go into a casino, but a lot of family likes it. I voted no mostly so they won't lose their shirts.

My sister (in prison) is in limbo. Waiting for the VA to decide if they are going to pay for any rehabilitation for her or not. The problem is she lost all her college class time she was taking in the reformatory. I don't think she will be able to continue that if the VA sends her to Chillicothe. Whatever. One of her "boyfriends" started this, he will have to finish it.

The pups are chewing up everything. Cha - Ching! Even medication. Fortunately, no bad results. They are starting to get into things they have never touched before. We have to really start to think before we leave the house. I am going to go through tomorrow and do some puppy-proofing.

I worked on a friend's Internet connection today. She wanted to install my ceiling fan for me. She got far enough to take the light down and had to stop. She needed to ask somebody for some advice. Sigh. I told her this was not as easy as 1-2-3 like hers was. But, she insisted that she could do it easily. Okay.

I am meeting sisters tonight for dinner. I hope I have enough stuff up and out of the way so the pups won't get into things. They are getting under and around things and dragging cords out. Two fans bit the dust. My nephew is re-cording one fan and my friend (ceiling fan) took the other and said she can fix that one with electrical tape. Well, I just hate to tell them it will only be a matter of time before the pups chew through any new or fixed cord they put on the fans.

I watched an older movie. "Midnight Run" with R DeNiro and C Grodin. It was a bit boring at times but I watched it all the way through. I really enjoy D Farina and J Ashton. I also like to look back and see if this movie was made before or after a popular one that I saw them in.

Let's get out there and...

Back at it

Back to work and back to finding e-mail worms.

The kennel is up

My daughter and I put it together

Many, many years ago I figured out that if I waited for a man to do what I needed done, then it was probably never going to happen. My daughter and I got fed up Friday and did it ourselves. It got dark on us, but we managed. It ain't fancy, but it is up and it holds the dogs. They are already digging holes near the door of the unit.

Not one trick or treater. Not one. Of course my light was burned out on my front porch, so that could have had something to do with it. Again, I will have to change it. No magic man is going to mysteriously appear with a fresh light bulb in his hand. (Grin).

So, I walked the dogs and had to run a little girl down to give her a candy bar. She was afraid of the dogs but her dad helped me to hold them back so I could get my little kit kat bar into her trick or treat bag. My coat pocket was full of fun size candy bars but there were no more kids to be found. Drat.

Sigh. It's back to work tomorrow. I have heard rumors that my co-worker did not get approved for disability so she might be back in the office when I return. I am not looking forward to listening to her whining about her pain all over again. It has been a wonderful 4 months without her around.

Two movies. Duplicity and Knowing. Ugh to both of them. I love T Wilkinson and P Giamatti. I despise C Owens. He really gives me the creeps. I can barely tolerate Julia. My daughter told me I wouldn't like the ending to Knowing. I said "Just as long as N Cage dies in the end". I got my wish. I wouldn't watch either of them again. Ever.

Edit: Please note that the remarks about men are made with tongue in cheek. It is only because of my recent surgery that I cannot do the things I usually am able to do and have asked for assistance. I am not good at this and I have a very hard time waiting for somebody to show up and say "Here I come to save the day!" I have made my bed and I love it. I live exactly the way I want to live. If I can't do it, I'll damn well hire someone who can.

Happy Halloween

Blending in

I'll have to be careful walking him near any woods or fields during deer season. The bright red harness should account for something. My daughter found a place that sells dog jackets with some big enough that they might fit him. I will try to choose a bright color for him.

When I first found him, I was describing his appearance. One vet said "fawn color" and I had not thought of that. (It is a common color for boxers). I was leaning more to a red cast to his coat. But, fawn color it is.

I still say he is more calf than anything. He is as big as a calf, he bounds around wildly like a calf hopped up on crystal meth (as if I've ever witnessed one of those!) and he grunts and snorts like a bull. (That I have witnessed).

I've never had a dog quite like this. Well, my house dogs have been limited to one little dandiedinmont terrier, (this photo is EXACTLY what my dog looked like - we found her in a strip mining area) and our old reliable Sable, so the energetic pups and this calf in the house have been quite an adjustment.

I did buy a dog pen yesterday and my brother picked it up for me. My daughter's boyfriend and his friend are going to assemble it for us today (maybe). That will help this winter when I can just shove the pups into the cage. The boxer will still need to be walked. My brother said he thinks he has extra pieces that I can add to the pen to make it larger. Well, that would be great!

Growing up we took in all the stray dogs. We just added them to our gang of "yard shitters" way down in the back of our house. We gave them a dog house and chained them to it. I do not recommend this behavior. Now that I am older I understand how inhumane this was. As I got older I became more attentive to how they were treated. We stopped taking in strays, and made sure the dogs we did have had fresh straw at the beginning of the winter. How they loved getting straw. They would drag some of it back out of their dog houses and move it around and spread it all around. It was comical. I also began to make sure that they had fresh water each day. My Mom never let us go without feeding them. When I was young and ran around a lot, I can still remember her anger if we neglected to come home and feed the dogs. We had a slop bucket in the kitchen where we dumped all extra food and I mixed it with their dog food. Yes, it smelled. And the soft, mushy food was lousy for their teeth.

When I moved to Virginia in 1986 I can remember sitting straight up in bed from a deep sleep and thinking "I forgot to feed the dogs!" That is how much fear my Mom put into us. We never wanted to disappoint her or make her angry. Of course I did a lot of that.

Anyway, the dogs eventually died out, and my Mom was left with a cat or two around the house. We had all moved out, but my niece stayed with her while my sister was incarcerated. We always seemed to have a cat around.

I guess perhaps my pet rescue was ingrained in me at a very early age. I have been programmed to rescue them.

I Let my Guard Down

I was sidetracked taking pictures of the burro. I was on the other side of the fence. I had hold of the boxer. I never let my dogs into the fenced area with the big horse, burro and two little miniature horses. I never have to worry about my older dog Sable. She is quiet and very slow.

I cringe as I type this. I was very foolish yesterday. I let my guard down and Sable snuck around behind and got into the fenced-in area. I was mortified! "Get out of there!" I yelled at her. She just looked at me and wagged her tail to the burro.

Always one to try to make friends, she had not one clue.

She has a very thick coat. She is a big dog.

Let me just say now that she is fine and safe. Because I am very upset over the 30 seconds of horror I went through while that burro pummeled her on her back with it's front legs. Sable just hunkered down and whimpered.

I was trying to get the burro to leave without letting go of the boxer. I was yelling at it. I was pleading with Sable to get over to me. She was confused. She tried but the burro would begin pummeling her again.

Finally I got her through the fence. I checked her over, she was walking okay and just acting normal like "What?"

I made a very serious mistake. That won't happen again. Sable will also be leashed each and every time we walk. I am sick and disgusted with myself. I am lucky this time that nothing serious happened.

Never let your guard down. You just never know.

Fire Eater

What a way to make a living!

Or, maybe it is just a week-end hobby for him.

I am such a DORK!

Yeah. So, I am going into my profile and adding as an interest the word "Boxers" thinking maybe I'll find some folks out there in blog land who also have a boxer or boxers and I can read what they do and how they handle theirs and what fun they are, blah, blah, blah.

I begin reading their profiles and interests. It was a couple of pages in that I was a bit confused. What is it with all the sΣx and p○rn profiles? I thought maybe they liked boxers as in fighters and began skipping all the profiles with a million words in their interests. I found very few that looked promising. A lot were now defunct. I think Blogger should begin deleting any profiles who have not had activity in at least 3 years or so. I don't know.

Pretty soon, after reading and glancing at profile pictures it dawned on me what the erotica bloggers were speaking of. Boxers! As in boxers and briefs underwear! That was their interest! Not the dog, not the fighter - but the underwear! Oh, okay. Well, I still didn't find many that pertains to the puppy dog.

I tried the Google option, but I more or less get professional boxer raisers, trainers and complete devoted folks. I am just a dog-lovin' dork who found myself with a boxer and would like to read about other folks who stumbled into this boxer world. I am not interested in breeding boxers, I am not interested in showing my boxer, I just want to read about other folks who laugh and enjoy their boxers. Sigh. I'll keep looking.

Some sunshine on a sunny Sunday

A couple of blocks away from me is a little bit of country. Next to a field of horses is an empty lot that winds back up into some woods. I walked up there today and took some pictures. It was pretty. I would say it was quiet but there was this one guy who ran his leaf blower for two hours straight. Two hours! It started long before I took the dogs for a walk and he was still running it when we left the wooded area. A noise that can really get on your nerves.

I rested all day Saturday. My nephew came to visit. My daughter and her boyfriend were here. My daughter's friend came over. The house was noisy and rocked with laughter.

Today we made it out to eat at a restaurant but I didn't have the energy to go grocery shopping. I will be able to drive tomorrow and will take my little green car that has not moved since Thursday the 15th and stock up on some much needed supplies.

Wait. Maybe not. I guess I will only get a few things since I am still not to do any heavy lifting.

I have another Tis the Se@son trip scheduled in November. I am going with some co-workers this time. Maybe I will leave the camera in my purse and actually look for something to purchase this time around.

I gave my surgery a good test this evening while watching AFV. Usually when I laugh hard I start coughing. That is where the stress happens. All is well. My doctor still wants me to take it easy so I had to turn my laughing down quite a bit.

My daughter's boyfriend's Mom has the Sw!ne flu. Well, she said that is what her doctor told her. She did have a lot more of an illness than her son did and more than my bug last week. I just read an article from our newspaper about H!N! and it stated that the one case confirmed in our county is in isolation at the hospital. And, I've read that the doctors are just telling their patients that it is probably H!N!.

Ack! Boxer is passing gas something awful, so I am on my way outside! Cough, cough!

Frosted Joy

One of my favorite displays at the Christmas Chalet

I woke up the other morning with a great idea. I cancelled all plans for this week-end and next week. I am treating my recovery more like a vacation than a time to rest and heal. Shame on me! My sisters and friends will have to understand.

My daughter drove me to the pet store today. I bought the largest dog jacket they had and I have to return it. It is still too small for my broad-chested boxer. It poured buckets of rain down today and I hated having him out in the cold without a jacket.

He was really funny. He bounced. He ran. Have you ever seen a boxer run? I'll have to record him running. He was just a joy today.

We watched "The Proposal" with S Bullock. You know how I think that all her characters are the same. This was no exception. Scrunched nose, ditsy and girl-next-door demeanor. I don't care if she was supposed to be the bitch from hell. She wasn't. I liked the movie, though. I loved her dancing chant the most.

It was nice to see Betty White in a movie.

Jumping the Season a bit

Three of my sisters and I plus one friend and two toddlers headed to Amish country Wednesday. I spent 12 hours away from home. I'm sure my doctor would think I was nuts, but I rested as often as I could. I was not driving (of course) so I rested during stops.

The kids were a handful. My stipulation was that we stop at Tis the Se@son in Berl!n. I like this place for many reasons. The first is color. My eyes get a virtual kaleidoscope of color when I visit this 3 story shopping chalet. 2nd reason is they allow you to take pictures. And, they smile when you ask. I ask each time I go - just in case they change their policy.

Yes, some of the decorations are redundant but it never ceases to surprise me with new trees, new color schemes and new arrangements.

When we arrived home, I had more energy than when we left. I spent thirty more minutes walking the boxer before I went inside and retired for the evening. The kids talked me into playing a little bit of P!ctionary with them. I told them to have mercy, I had laughed all day and I certainly was sore. My sides hurt from coughing and my cheeks hurt from laughing. There was no mercy. I finally quit and went to bed.

I have mentioned to many that I am getting a pink tutu for my boxer and am dressing him up for Halloween. My daughter wants to do bat outfits for the pups. I said "Well, we'll have to dress Sable up as well." They asked "As what?" I replied, "A barrel, of course!"

A Blow upon a Bruise

I managed to make it outside today to get some fresh air into my lungs walking the boxer out into the front yard. I saw the green floral van coming down the road. He turned into the neighbor's driveway across the street.

I thought to myself. Maybe it is Eileen's birthday. How fortunate that I am out here to see her get her flowers. He pulled up in front of MY house and hopped out. "Do you live here?"

"YES!"

"I've got something for you."

And he handed me the beautiful planter you see above. Co-workers are thinking of ME!

My boxer wanted to go with him. I think he wanted to take him.

Woot! Roses on Saturday and a planter today.

But, OH.... the agony! I was SO sick yesterday. I coughed all day and all night.

My sides hurt so bad from coughing.

There is nothing I can do. I take the medicine. It makes me sick to my stomach. I eat cold pop sickles. I was miserable. I had body aches all day and then "poof" they were gone around 8 p.m. The headache, too. But, the cough remains. Ugh.

When I go to cough today I wince. It is going to hurt. And hurt it does.

If my surgery is undone it is undone. This cough has a mindset of its own.

Many others are sick. I am not alone. Just bad timing with my surgery.

Restless

I am restless. I am irritable. How come I can't get enough of movies and documentaries on the week-ends between work weeks but when I am off work for 2 weeks I can't stand to sit in my chair another minute?! Ugh!

I am sick and tired of generic acetaminophen. I won't touch the generic Vicodin. It only makes me sicker. I am not in that much pain. It just sort of feels like I over did it while exercising.

I had this procedure done.

I have had a nagging cough all day. It is like a dry, hacking cough. The doctor told me to get cough drops and to make sure I take a cough suppressant if I get a cough afterwards. Well, it is not working. I am coughing and coughing. I had to turn the heat on because it got so cold. Now it is just dry.

I just hope I don't ruin everything and undo what was done to correct the problem.

Sisters are picking me up on Wednesday for a day out at Amish country. I felt well enough to fix a chicken and mashed potato dinner on Saturday. Yesterday I fixed chicken with pasta. Today I have heartburn galore. I have eaten toast but can't stomach much more.

I've done the dishes. I've washed all my clothes, sheets and towels. I know that I am supposed to rest and no strenuous activity, but I cannot just lie around.

My boxer got sick. He has very bad diarrhea. My daughter thinks it is because of my surgery. Others have been taking him outside. She said that maybe he is confused. She is the main person taking him, so he shouldn't be too upset.

I've had different sisters in here to check on me, but I don't think they fed him anything. They know how I feel about that.

Maybe it is just a bug.

I watched "Sunshine Cleaning." I thought it was very sad. I have not liked any movies that A Adams has been in, but I liked her in this one. I have not see "Julie and Julia" yet.

Moaning and groaning

Ugh. I must be getting old. This was a rough one. Anesthetic headache runs right up there with a migraine. In fact, I took migraine medicine and it didn't touch it. It has finally worn off. I really, really, really don't like Vicodin. It increases my headache ten-fold.

But, I am feeling pretty good now. Sticking to generic acetaminophen. Have not been allowed to take ibuprofen for a week. I will probably stick to acetaminophen for two weeks and go back to ibuprofen if I think I need to.

One will wreck your stomach and the other will wreck your liver. I guess I'll switch back and forth through the years. Pad those pharmaceuticals wallets.

Just taking it easy and trying to keep the critters off of me. I get two weeks off from work. But, I can't drive for the first week. :(

It better not be nice and sunny or I am getting my daughter to drive me out to the parks and woods to get some beautiful fall pictures. Come on sunshine!

My Barking Boxer

Is this annoying, or what?!

Somebody wanted attention. I left him too long on the cable. I guess he wanted to go for his walk, or he wanted me to pay more attention to him or something. The pups were being very patient, but they won't do anything for me. I am to the point where I am taking them out separately now, hoping they won't get distracted by each other and will do their business.

The boxer must be walked. He won't go to the bathroom in the yard. Well, not very often. This bark is very shrill and hurts my ears. I put him in the house when he does this. I leave him in for a minute or so and bring him back out. If he barks again, in he goes. I usually only have to put him in the house once and he quiets down.

I don't know what I am going to do this winter. I'll think of something, I suppose.

I have a list of movies that I have been wanting to write about.

First is "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"

Loved it. I waited much too long to see this one. I read the reviews and made the mistake of listening to what other people said about it being bad. I didn't think so. I like Kevin James.

Next, is "17 Again."

I waited on this one, also because of the bad reviews. The reviews were right. I did not like it. Somebody shoot me if I ever watch another movie with L Mann in it. Ack! One wonders if she would even be in the movies if her husband were not the director/producer of most of them.

"Obsessed"

Seriously? If you have seen "The Temp" and "Fatal Attraction" , then it is all deja vu with this movie. I was not impressed in the least. Especially not impressed with Bee-youncy flouncing around in four inch stilettos. Get real.

"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"

Groan. This one was just sad. I didn't like it. I don't ever want to see it again. What the heck did A Archer have to do with the movie? Let's put a little cougar into the movie to bring it up to date? And, I seriously did not know that M Douglas was a leprechaun. He certainly looked like one. Either that or he is starting to shrink. The only actor I liked in this entire movie was L Chabert. Well, I take that back. I really liked R Forster in "Jackie Brown", so his character was okay. This movie was just about as annoying as my barking boxer.

"Rachael Getting Married"

I may have said something about this one in a previous post. I don't recall. Wait. I do recall. Yes, I did post about this one before. I really got tired of the prolonged music scenes.

"Separate Lies"

Strange British tale. I don't quite understand it. I didn't see the beginning. I have always enjoyed T Wilkinson, but E Watson just looks weird. I guess I mean I don't understand why he put up with her. Crikey! And she and her lover flaunted it right in his face. Have they no feelings or compassion for crying out loud? Is this how the British are? I don't think so.

Enough. I may have a lot more movies to post about in the next few weeks. I will be off on sick leave after Friday. Minor surgery and then I get to stay home for two whole weeks. Good grief.

Salacious B Crumb

He kind of reminds me of the Salacious B Crumb character in the Star Wars films. He has this sharp, annoying bark. He gets put in the house when he begins this barking. I have a video of it too, I might post later in the week.

Camouflage

A photo of two deer. Taken February 2007 at state park south of me. I closed my eyes and scrolled my mouse and picked a photo folder. The image I picked with my eyes opened. There are many deer to be seen around the valley this month. They seem to be everywhere.

One night while walking the boxer, there were some deer up on the hill eating apples. The boxer gets distracted very easily. When he sees something that distracts him he freezes and stares. He is like a statue. I have to drag him away. I mean, how much exercise are we getting when he freezes and stares every twenty feet or so? None, that's how much! Come one. If I have to walk you, let's at least make it worth my while!

As we walked closer to the deer, who by this time had slid back into the shadows to hide, they snorted and stomped their feet. Slade was just completely perplexed. What were they? What was that snorting noise? Yes, I had to drag him away. I am so glad I got him a harness instead of a collar. I don't feel like the harness hurts him. Especially with that broad chest.

Chong chews

Here is Chong chewing on some dead grass on my patio.

I do not go outside without all of them (except Sable) on a leash. It is too risky. They love to run, but I have a road in the front yard and neighbors who have that wonderful knack of coming out of their house the exact instant I take my dogs out. It always seems to work out that way. Of course all my dogs run over to them to say hello and it takes me 15 minutes to drag them all back over into my yard. The boxer was really good for a while at listening to me. Now he is going through a phase where he pretends that he does not hear me. Sable all but ignores me.

My daughter told me she woke up this morning with no pain. Finally. She did okay at the festival, better with ibuprofen than with generic Vicodin. She did go sit in the car towards the end with her boyfriend because she had a headache and was cold.

Things were not the same at the festival. The food was not nearly as good as I recall. The crafts are redundant. The campers decorations are also redundant. Except for the bubble fogger. That was pretty neat. Even the pie was bland. My sisters and one brother were as great as ever, though. That more than makes up for the lack of excitement of the festival. I didn't walk up the hill to see the old cars. I ran out of steam.

Smoke Bubbles

They came from a bubble-maker on top of the camper. When they popped, a puff of smoke escaped. Some were wet to the touch, some were dry. They fascinated us for a good five minutes. I never did catch a photo of one dissipating into smoke. It wasn't from lack of trying.

They came from this machine.

Headed to the festival

This photo is from 2 years ago

It is not going to be as warm this year. My brother has already e-mailed us to say that sales are way down this year. Lousy, cold and rainy weather. Today looks to be the best day. They have sunshine and a beautiful classic car show going on. The car show takes up an entire side of a gentle sloping hill and that will cut the parking almost in half. It will probably be chaos.

Two problems. My daughter is having a bad day. The dentist told her the third day would be the worst. Drat! I have a dry, hacking cough that is giving me a super headache. I've taken medication, but the front of my face is still sore. Sinus.

She is sleeping and we will know soon if the generic vicodin is going to work today. I suggested to switching to ibuprofen because I don't believe the generic vicodin will help with swelling. If her swelling goes down the pain will dissipate. We will be cutting it close, though. She has to wait until the generic vicodin is out of her system before she can take the ibuprofin and by that time we will be on our way to the festival.

I watched "Rachel Getting Married." It was recommended to me by my NetFlix choices. I hated it. There was way too much music and dancing that just filled up time. It just seemed wasted. There was so much more dialogue that pertained to the story at hand that could have been incorporated into the movie than this wedding music. My family is very close so I don't really understand the parts where they were verbally abusive to one another and then were hugging and crying the next day. In one scene it gets to be physically abusive and then nobody acts like anything at all happened.

If it ever came to physical blows between a sibling and myself it would behoove us all to stay away from one another for years. Years! Angry words would have us not speaking to each other for months, maybe years, also.

I was raised to respect my siblings (and other peoples') feelings. If I didn't want something said to me, I didn't say it to another human. I try to be considerate in all ways. They did a good job of making the main character self-centered. The similarities between this character and my one sister are amazing. She keeps making everything about her.

Spoiler Alert!:

I don't get the part where she wrecks the car and curls up and just goes to sleep. She isn't drunk or high. She is distraught over the fight she had with her mother, but still. Let's just let the rest of the family worry and wonder where I am while I sleep in the car all night wrecked into this patch of woods until some joggers find me and call the cops.

The tow truck conveniently gets her home right before the wedding so that she can still be a part of it. Maybe everybody thought the black eye was from the wreck. Did her sister and father just sleep during the night not caring if she were dead or alive, or did they stay up all night pacing and wondering? They all looked pretty rested to me.

And where in the hell did all those people come from that helped with the wedding? Was there a school nearby that just has all these hippies waiting around for something to do? They come out to the house, clean, fix food, play music and decorate? Who were they? They may have mentioned something about it and I missed it. There is also an option to watch the movie with commentaries, maybe that would explain some of the questions.

I will never know, because I am not watching it again.

Quiet day and evening

Cheech stares off into the distance

After the wind blew through and dried up all the rain, the evening sits quiet around here. There is a mower running in the distance and a dog barking in a nearby yard. My dogs ears are perked up. I have the windows and doors open to let in fresh air. We can use all we can get.

Daughter is still dizzy and unsteady after getting all four wisdom teeth removed yesterday. The two little boy pups that were fixed are as energetic as ever. It is as if nothing happened to them at all. Talk about bouncing back.

Tomorrow I will meet my sisters at the fall festival. It is supposed to be sunny and cool. Not sure if my daughter will be able to make the trip or not. I do not think I will put myself through the misery of taking the boxer. Even though he is beautiful and gets many comments, I think I will have a better time without him.

Fishing and Phishing/Malware and Virus

This stock photo is an example of how unstable the Internet can be

We are standing on a shaky pier, looking out into the murky depths of an unforeseeable future in the vast unknown.

So, I have been fishing. This particular virus is known to run over port 3127. I know. Many of you are probably asking "What the heck is a port?" To see a list of ports, you can go here. To see a description of what ports are, you can go here. I don't recommend it for the weak of heart. If you work with computers you quickly come to realize another old saying. The more I know, the more I realize what I "don't" know.

The more I researched this particular virus, I came to discover that it is designed to look for port 3127 on a machine. If that port is in use by another application, it then attempts to use port 3128. So on and so forth until port 3198.

I did not have the time to monitor all these ports, so I selected about ten and placed the monitor list on. The amount of log files that came back was seriously overwhelming. I took the monitors off and reported the findings and hoped that what I had found were indeed "false positives."

Which brings me to malware. There is a lot of malware out and about on the web. I use three programs to scan for it on my computers. Malwarebytes, Ad-aware, and Spybot Search & Destroy. I know there are others, and I have used them. I do notice that from time to time I have to remove and re-install Ad-aware. Ad-aware and Spybot tend to conflict with one another, but I do my best to keep my machines covered. Keep in mind that I use the free versions of these products. I know I stated earlier that you get what you pay for, I do pay for anti-virus protection. Malware is a different entity.

Let me take a moment to warn you about installing free software. Many times the free software has made a deal with Yahoo or Google and will try to slide a "toolbar" into the installation. Read each window before clicking the Next button. I recommend that you remove the check mark from the toolbars (or anything else they might be trying to sneak past you) unless you know specifically what the toolbar is and what it does. I don't like them.

Another interesting fact is that because there are so many different anti-virus applications, and they all tend to be in competition with one another, they usually cannot agree on a name of any particular virus. One product may call a certain virus mydoom, while another calls it Novarg. Then there are various versions of the virus. The first one may be named mydoom, the second wave may be titled mydoom.b, third mydoom.c and so on and so forth.

Then there is the generic groups. Where an application will group many different kinds of malware into one generic pile. One example is the Mal/Generic-A virus. For all the different types of threats that fall into this category, you can go here.

This particular virus has been accused of being a false positive. This indicates that an anti-virus program has tagged a file that looks suspicious and claims that it is a virus or malware. Other anti-virus packages state that the file in question is indeed "NOT" suspicious and that the other program has what is relatively known as a false alarm. See here.

Regardless, all of this can boggle the mind of an average computer user. You may say "How in the hell are we supposed to keep up with all of this malarkey?" The short answer. You can't. I can't. I have problems with my computer from time to time. My best tool is Google search. I read ten hits or more on each problem I have. Are other folks having the same problem? If so, how did they fix it?

Anyway, in conclusion - it is a mess out there. We do the best we can. I always compare it to driving. Traffic on the Internet gets congested. We can run over a chuck hole or a nail at any time and get a flat tire. As careful as we are, there will always be risk. And, remember. There is always that little window where a new virus is created and can wreak havoc before the anti-virus companies have time to create a fix for it. Especially with the speed of the data these days. It can almost take the fun out of it for us. Hopefully, things will get better. Things will get safer. Products will improve.

Notice: The author of the blog does not profess to know it all. The thoughts and words in this post are what I currently understand at this point and time in my life. It may not be completely accurate and I might even disagree with it in the future. I do the best I can to understand and absorb and then attempt to explain the subject with how I perceive it. Do not take my belief as gospel, but ask or research many different views on the subject at hand to come to your own conclusions.

It is an October sunrise

Just not this year's October. It is from 2006.

My head hurts.

Prickly things

I only reduced this one in size a bit, so you could see close up the sharp points and the cobwebs. This one was shot at the lake on the 19th. I did get a spider, but he didn't stay exposed for very long.

Life is prickly around here. Juggling much. Friday should be a really fun day. Or, Friday night should be. My daughter is having all four wisdom teeth removed and the pups get neutered. Fun City. Anybody want to come over and help to keep me sane? Hah.

I watched Valkyrie. With all the German names, it was hard to keep track of who was who. Of course we know who Tom plays. The other names were hard to keep straight. And with the uniforms all the men tend to blend together. I was relieved to see that they did not go after his family.

Tomorrow is October already. Wow. I plan to go to the festival on Sunday. There is a car show on that day. It is the busiest day, but we had to arrange for sisters to make it. Weather looks a bit iffy. I've been there before when it rains. It is a mess and we were miserable.

evil imp

Big breath. I will not choke Chong, I will not choke Chong, I will NOT choke Chong!

Oh, I hate this day! I have not had a day like today in years and I hope I never do again.

C'est la vie!

Really! Must you?

Slade gives me the weary-look.

The cons to having the boxer back.

I have to walk him and walk him and walk him.

The positive spin - I need to walk more. 'Nuff said.

The increased vet bills.

The positive spin - hopefully they will be fewer as he settles in.

More mess in the house.

The positive spin - actually he is much cleaner than the pups. They are the messy ones.

Separation Anxiety.

The positive spin - at least he has the pups and Sable to help with this anxiety. It is better than him being completely alone.

My daughter said that when she talked to the couple that kept him for 11 days, they told her that he ripped up a cage when the attempted to cage him. That may be how he got the wounds. Heck, Sable tore up cages too. But she has big thick fur on her.

The leg tremors during the night only happened the first night. He is much more settled and I am going to be keeping him for as long as I can stand it. He needs security. He needs stability. That is what I am going to give him. I do know one thing for sure. He is a fussy-butt when doing his business. I believe he counts steps. He has to take so many steps before he will go. I swear he is counting. I was using plastic bags when we went for walks. Now, I am trying paper towels and lunch bags. I am trying to be greener. I can fit five or six brown lunch bags into one plastic bag.

My sister says "He needs a name!"

They called him Brutus. We call him Slade. I said "How about Blade?" Nobody liked it.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board. How about Pickles? Hee hee.

Oh, rats. He is whining again. He looks up at me and whines. "What do you want?" He wants to go outside. He always wants to go outside.

We have let him run loose in the yard a couple of times. He pretty much sticks close by. Can he ever run! Pure muscle. I'll try to get a movie of him. But, I am very cautious about letting him run loose. I can't trust him completely, yet.

He is REALLY whining now. Gotta go.

The reunion is bittersweet

My baby has been brought back to me, but .... he is wounded

They tried with him. It was the separation anxiety. They tried to put him in their garage and he cut himself up. I didn't see the complete damage until just a few minutes ago.

I came home from work when they dropped him off. I tucked him into the house and I went back to work. I came home, and walked him. He ate a full bowl of food and then snuggled on the couch. I got my glasses and the Neosporin and turned my brightest living room lamp on. He was calm and snoozing away.

I gently applied some here and there. Each look I became more horrified. I blocked out his privates in the photo. The sore you don't see is on the inside of the other leg. I lifted the top leg and applied some ointment on it. He jumped. I jumped. I wanted to cry. I made him as comfortable as I could and he rested his head on my arm.

We sat like that for a long time.

The puppies were ecstatic. They were a little harsh around the hind legs where the wounds were, though. He didn't seem to mind a bit. Even Sable seemed happy to see her friend. With him back in the house, the pups will probably leave her alone.

They had him inoculated for rabies and a years' worth of heart worm and flea medicine. They renamed him Brutus. I don't know. I tried to call him Brutus, but it didn't feel right. I slipped back to Slade.

The Fisherman

Do you suppose he knew he was being photographed?

I watched a couple of interesting movies. One was titled "A Little Romance". It was recommended on my Netflix list. I loved Laurence Olivier in it. The story line was a little too young for me. It was made in 1979, and the hair on that Diane Lane! Wow!

"The Assassination of Richard Nixon" with Sean Penn.

"Georgia O'Keeffe".

"Little Fish".

And, "Chinese Box".

I still won't say much

Yeah, I miss him. I think of him less and less, though. When I do think of him I get a bit teary-eyed so I don't want to talk too much about him. It was his eyes mostly I think. He wouldn't look at me directly just sort of glance sideways at me. He had the most soft, liquid eyes. I probably didn't do him any favors by getting so attached to him before sending him away to strangers.

So! Monday morning I get up for work. I walk to the back door (6 a.m.) to let the pups outside and I hear the dryer running in the basement. What!?!? My daughter wasn't up that early washing clothes. What!?!? I rush downstairs and open the door to the dryer. Still there is heat. The timer did not move. My towels are very dry. They are now the right size for doll house towels, but they are dry. What?!?! I cringe. 10 hours. 10 hours! No wonder my electric bill has been so high lately. Good grief!

This week-end I am replacing the batteries in my smoke detectors. Just in case. It is about the time for that anyway. 10 hours! I know, I know. I am very lucky the damn thing didn't catch on fire. Oh, the horror! The horror!

Stopped at the lake

Taken yesterday at the lake

I shoot straight into the sun. I love pictures where the sun distorts the images. I switched this one over to B&W because first there was a huge blue spot in the water from the sun or the camera and second because there wasn't much color after the sun washed it all out anyway.

I stopped here late in the afternoon after my genealogy class. I did stop to get some of my favorite pizza. I bought a tray because my brother and I have this deal. When either of us travel down "home" and we get our favorite childhood pizza we get some for the other one and call them. I called and he might be able to pick it up tonight. I'll freeze it if he doesn't get by. If I don't, sure as shootin' - I'll eat it.

I already am in a carbohydrate induced coma.

Not sure where the phrase "sure as shootin'" originated, but it could be a part of the phrase "sure as shootin' in a barrel full of fish?"

On the way home I got stopped at a DUI checkpoint. The officer laughed and wanted to know if I was trying to bribe him with that pizza. A tray is 28 square pieces and this pizza shop had put it all into one gigantic flat box. It was sitting on the front seat next to me. I told him that my family would not let me into the house without it! He asked me if I had been drinking (not because of my conduct, because he has to). I told him just Pepsi. He laughed and said "Oh, the hard stuff." Yeah.

But 25 years ago, dude? It would have been a whole other ballgame, I am sorry to say.

Just freaky

This scares the bejesus out of me

Most of you know by now that I am using my daughter's camera to take pictures. The pups are growing so fast, I don't want to miss the photo opportunities. I didn't want to delete anything on the memory card of my daughter's until I saved it all off to my hard drive. I stumbled across the above photo taken underwater in a swimming pool sometime over the summer.

It is one of my daughter's friends. It freaks me out.

I am off to a Genealogy class today. I hope I learn something useful. I want to do more with the web site and adding information about our family history. I have been reading about the ACLU and it's involvement in saving the authenticity of the 4th amendment. There is plenty to think about.

Looks like we are set for a beautiful day here in T-Valley, Ohio. I'll probably spend most of mine on the road and inside a library. Ah well. If I time it right, I can get my favorite childhood pizza and bring it home. Yum!

We do it while she is busy reading email see.....

They are plotting against me, now. This morning while reading my emails, Cheech came over and was being all coy and shy and lovable. I bend down and I say "Oh such a sweet puppy!" Usually I only get one sentence out before the other pup (they are always jealous of one another) comes bounding over to steal the attention. But, Chong did not show. I enjoyed the moment with Cheech. And then it hit me. The cat food! Aha! I ran to the kitchen. Chong was already scampering away. I picked up the cat dish laughing. You little devils! Plotting against me already!

On second thought, it was probably the fact that Cheech knew Chong was doing something wrong and he comes over to me to show me "See? I am the good puppy!" Yeah. That's probably more like what happened. He didn't want the wrath of Mom on him again.

Right this second Cheech is pulling Chong around the living room floor by his ear. By his ear! Probably telling him "You are going to get us into trouble again!"

I attended a "Constitution Day" speech last evening. This one had a speaker from the ACLU speaking about technology and the 4th amendment. I am going to be reading more on FISA and illegal search and seizure. DNA is a big controversy right now. The speaker asked us if we thought it was necessary for them to collect our DNA for any little arrest or reason. They must have suspicion. It isn't like fingerprints, you know. DNA can have some powerful pieces of information connected to it.

Speedracer

Cheech and Sable chase Chong around the yard.

I am trying to get used to my daughter's camera. It is an Olympus Stylus 720 SW. Having a heck of a time keeping my finger out of the shots. The battery is lame. Lame! It conks out after twenty minutes or so of shooting.

My schedule is beginning to ease up. I am slowly coming out of the "summer of a hundred doctors' appointments". What a ride. I should finish the foot one up today. A follow up. The insert and the new shoes have been helping. I am experiencing times with little or no pain in my heel. I feel like I am wearing cement blocks on my feet. I have to wear shoes that lace up and tie. Yuck. I am a "slip-on a pair of loafers" type gal. Or slip into some low-heeled pumps. I am having a hard time wearing sneakers to work with casual dress clothes. I am glad I don't have to really dress up. I still have to crawl around on the floor from time to time to connect technical equipment and wires, so I wear casual and comfortable.

For meetings I like to dress a little better, though. Sigh.

Our county fair begins on Monday. Not sure if I will go this year. I skipped it last year, I might skip it this year.

Daughter can't stand her classes at school. Groan. I try to listen. The griping is constant. She gripes about her boyfriend, she gripes about her classes and her teachers and she gripes about traffic and other drivers. Double groan. I am her sounding board, I guess.

Meanwhile, family is beginning to plan week-ends in October. Fall festival is on the 4th! Break's over!

Chong sits for the camera

Aren't they just growing up? I had them both to the vet last evening for their third round of booster shots and their rabies shots. This rascal is coming in at 12 1/2 pounds. His brother is 12 and 1/4. You should see them run. Chong is the fastest with Cheech chasing him and even Sable getting in on the action.

Good-bye big boy

Things just are not going right for me. The family that first wanted him came over Sunday. Well, the grandparents did. They wanted Slade. They paid me for the vet bills. I handed him over with the leash and his worming medicine and his ear medicine.

I am just sick about it. I've had a headache all day and even Sable snapped at the little pups.

I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Are you trying to tell me something?

From one of the fairs at a neighboring county

I think the turkey is trying to convey a message here. And I am not certain I want to know what that message is. When I lived with my brother back in the late 80's/early 90's he had this device he used when he went turkey hunting. It looked like a four inch by four inch black chalkboard called a turkey caller slate. You scratched a wooden device over it and it made a female turkey noise. I got pretty good at imitating it and at fairs I make that noise. Folks around us think I am nuts and my family usually leave when I do this. Sometimes it gets the turkeys all honking and making noises. That is the noise I made to get the reaction out of the turkey in the photo above.

I was reminded yesterday of why I don't clean very often. I used the mold & mildew spray on my downstairs shower. The smell of bleach was so overwhelming I became sick to my stomach and wrestled with a stupid headache the rest of the day. Even walks outside didn't help me. It ruins my day. I can still smell it this morning and I have to return downstairs to finish washing clothes. Ugh.

I am always running fans in my house and the weather is nice enough to have all the doors and windows open. The smell lingers in my memory or somehow. It is nauseating.

One of the two pups have diarrhea. He starts going on the pet bathroom pad, but more times than not he finishes with it off the mat. Fun stuff. Another smell that is making me sick. Then I clean the rug and spray pet deodorizer. Another smell! It is turning into a real Funday Sunday. It will be a minor miracle if I don't end up having to swallow a migraine pill before this is all over with.

For some unknown reason one of the pups have started to urinate in the kitchen. I have solid tile in there. The first time I wasn't paying attention and I had my knock-off "Croc" shoes on and I slid halfway across the floor. I thought I was ice skating. Which I have never done before. I also thought my feet were going to go out from under me. I am very careful now (especially since most of the time I am in my bare feet) and check the floor out before I walk on it. I also put a puppy pad in there, but they will urinate and then turn the pad over onto itself trying to cover it up or something. Then it is just as slippery.

I'm probably going slowly insane here. What a nut job. They are all sleeping peacefully now. The two pups at my feet so that when I get up to get a fresh cup of coffee I have to make sure I don't step on them. The boxer over in my chair. Sable at her usual post by the back door. Cats on the back of the couch. The two that will come upstairs, that is. I did see Moose for the first time in 2 weeks yesterday. I caught a glimpse of her when I went downstairs to switch the clothes over. She looked fine. I feed them (Moose, Mr. Tibbs and Teton) and give them water. It disappears so I know they are getting to it. Casper and Jasper stay upstairs and give the boxer an "in your face" stance. They don't scare off so easily. He ignores them, now.

I watched "Push" last night. It was okay. I have some trouble following the movies a lot. I have to run closed-caption all the time now. I miss so much if I don't. I can't turn the volume up really loud because of the action scenes. They come in so loud with a boom it is an instant headache. I keep the volume to a normal level and run close caption. I am a fast reader so I can pretty much read and see the scene before it moves on. I like the main character. He played in "Cellular" and I liked that movie, too. And, Dakota Fanning. What a resume on that girl.

Pink clover

From September 2007. Going back into my photo archives again because, well... you know. I lost my camera's battery charger. Is anyone keeping count? A half dozen times? Very unorganized. I used to be very organized. What happened? Oh, yeah. Life happened. I added people, animals and stuff to my life and it is all getting away from me. I am just holding on tight these days and enjoying the ride.

Speaking of animals. My zoo is messy. It bothers me at times but anymore I just roll with it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I am stressing a bit about the veterinarian bills and the dog food. I am a firm believer in purchasing the dog food where the first ingredient is NOT corn. A filler. Waste. And my cats get the food that keeps hairballs to a minimum. It does work. I have not seen a hairball in weeks. But that could also mean the pups are cleaning them up. I know, gross.

A meme from Tabor. Pick up the book closest to you. Turn to page 161 and copy the fifth sentence. Here it is:


"But Julie is too sincere and thoughtful to mean it in anything other than an appreciative way."

The book is "Adventures with Ari" by Kathryn Miles. A book about a dog. Imagine that!

It is Saturday. Shhhh. I don't want anybody to hear this. I have nothing planned this week-end. Nothing! I have two days to myself! I am giddy. I can read all day. Watch movies. Well, after I do some cleaning. I have to do a little work or I will feel guilty as hell. But, not too much. I'm not going to go all Mr. Clean on you. I am more the Erma Bombeck type. Humor and a messy house. Which reminds me of a joke I read years ago. The first is a letter from Martha Stewart to Erma Bombeck. The second is from Erma back to Martha. I love it.

Hi Erma,

This perfectly delightful note is being sent on paper I made myself to tell you what I have been up to. Since it snowed last night, I got up early and made a sled with old barn wood and a glue gun. I hand painted it in gold leaf, got out my loom and made a blanket in peaches and mauves.

Then, to make the sled complete, I made a white horse to pull it from DNA that I had just sitting around in my craft room. By then, it was time to start making the place mats and napkins for my 20 breakfast guests. I'm serving the old standard Stewart twelve-course breakfast, but I'll let you in on a little secret: I didn't have time to make the tables and chairs this morning, so I used the ones I had on hand.

Before I moved the table into the dining room I decided to add just a touch of the holidays. So I repainted the room in pinks and stenciled gold stars on the ceiling.

While the homemade bread was rising, I took antique candle molds and made the dishes (exactly the same shade of pink) to use for breakfast. These were made from Hungarian clay, which you can get at almost any Hungarian craft store.

Well, I must run. I need to finish the hand-sewn buttonholes on the dress I'm wearing for breakfast. I'll get out the sled and drive this note to the post office as soon as the glue dries on the envelope I'll be making.

Hope my breakfast guests don't stay too long. I have 40,000 cranberries to string with bay leaves before my speaking engagement at noon. It's a good thing.

Love, Martha

P.S. When I made the ribbon for this typewriter, I used 1/8-inch gold gauze. I soaked the gauze in a mixture of white grapes and blackberries which I grew, picked, and crushed last week just for fun.

---

Dear Martha:

I'm writing this on the back of an old shopping list. Pay no attention to the coffee and jelly stains.

I'm 20 minutes late getting my daughter off for school, packing a lunch with one hand-on the phone with the dog pound, seems old Ruff needs bailing out again.

Burnt my arm on the curling iron when I was trying to make those cute curly fries, how DO they do that?

Still can't find the scissors to cut out some snowflakes, tried using an old disposable razor . . . trashed the tablecloth.

Tried that cranberry thing; frozen cranberries mushed up after I defrosted them in the microwave. Oh, and don't use Fruity Pebbles as a substitute in that Rice Krispies snowball recipe unless you like food that resembles puke!

Smoke alarm is going off, talk to ya later.

Love, Erma

Here, in color

Same photo, but in color

It is September 11th. I am thinking. I am thinking of what it would be like to go to work in my normal way on a normal day and in an hour or so have it all come to a screeching halt. A cowardly (and I repeat, cowardly) attack from an enemy that we let into our world.

I am thinking of loved ones left behind. My brother is a fireman and an EMT. He would have jumped right into it. He would have run up those stairs (perhaps with fear) but with a determination to save lives. To help those in need.

Where have we progressed since then? Have we progressed? Or are we just sitting ducks until the next sinister attack from out of the blue?

There will always be hate and greed. I'm not so keen on fighting in the name of religion. I don't know if we will ever understand one another.

I do know this. We cannot live in fear. They win if we live in fear. I will walk tall today. I am an American. There is much blood soaked into this country's soil. It is strong enough to hold all of us up and above the ugliness that the world rains down upon us.

I seriously doubt that they are finished. Besides. If it isn't one group it will be another.