Does anybody know.....

...Philipp Meyer?  If you do, would you call him and tell him he forgot to finish writing his book? Few things irritate me more than a book that just stops. This one tops them all. It left you the same place you were at the beginning.

At least with a movie, usually you are watching it with somebody else and you can both look at each other and go "WTF?"  "Tell me that movie did not just end like that?!"

But with a book, it is only you.  "American Rust".

And, with a book - you can toss it across the room. "Damn it!" and there it goes flying across the room and the cats run and the dogs duck. It hits the wall or the couch and falls to the floor, probably bending backwards and it will lay there and you might kick it a couple of times as you walk past it.

But, a Nook?  Sigh. I do have it in a nice padded nylon zipped protection cover, but I really don't dare throw it across the room. Not that I didn't want to.

I'd rather slap Phil up the side of his bald head and say "Finish the damn book! Don't leave us guess as to what happens to the characters!"  Hell, if that is the case, I'll write the damn book next time.

Sheesh!

My letter opener

you know. the other end. not the end that opens the envelopes.

I am reading two books. Okay, I finished one. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed. Recommended by Kat. 

I am also reading "American Rust" by Philipp Meyer. 

The similarities between the two stories was pure coincidence.

Yale

Harvard

Backpack

Hike

Aching feet

Aching back

Walking

Starving

Eating too fast

Above average intelligence of main character

Drinking contaminated water

In both books a character sets out walking. Along the way they find themselves ill prepared for their journey. Thus the aching feet/back and starving state.

Both are above average intelligence with prospects of Yale/Harvard . 

One is fiction and one is non fiction.

I just found it strange that the similarities kept cropping up as I would read one and then the other.

Strange head gear

This one is the grand daughter of Sister 1956. Her photo, also. And, I am sure - her handy work on the strange head gear. Too cute, though.

This little one did not make it to the family picnic at the park. Darn it. I would love to have seen her on the merry go round with my other great niece who just adored the ride.

Maybe, soon.

Hibachi - style

I joined some friends and we went to Wasaibi's Steakhouse a few days ago. I love this place but the night turned kind of sour.

I've been here before so I understand the fun of the chef squirting sake into the customer's mouths across the table. (Using the squirt bottle shown above in the photo). The last time I was there the sake tasted like water.

This time it was very strong tasting. I closed my mouth and he continued to squirt sake all over my chest and top area. It dried sure enough, but in the car it was all I could smell. Sour sake.

The other issue I had that evening was one of my friends that sat to my right became a little juiced and smacked my leg almost all night long.

I hate this. I swear, I looked for a bruise on my leg the next day.

They just kind of smack  you with the back of their hand as if they are used to people ignoring them and they have to smack them to get their attention. I came very close to saying something to her but I bit my tongue. It was her birthday celebration, after all.

The grand finale was when one of the waiters bent over in front of us and his clothing was quite tight to say the least and she continued to smack my leg for about 50 whacks as if saying "Look! Look! Look!"

For starters, I don't care to make an ass of myself and ogle men (or women).  And, I certainly believe that one short discreet  look would have been plenty and not fifty whacks of her hand to let me know she was looking at him.

I bucked up and just enjoyed the food for the evening. She had the nerve to say "You were awfully quiet tonight."

Probably because I was biting my tongue.

Annual Labor Day picnic at the park

This little one loved playing in the ice water. That was even BEFORE he burned his hand. The grill you can see off to the top right of the photo. It is a stationery grill that the park provides. I almost stopped him. I saw him walking up to the back of it with his hand out-stretched and yelled "Too hot!' He looked at me and the hand made contact. I prayed the grill had cooled enough. It had not.

Tears ensued. Possibly one tiny little blister. There was an ice pack handy and he held onto it for the rest of his day. Well, later he rode the rides some more. It was quickly forgotten. I am going to ask his mommy about it today.

He is freaking adorable. But in a kind "I know I am cute so I can get away with it" mentality. He plays it to the hilt.

I had 28 people show. The youngest was a couple of months old, my oldest sister (1944) was the eldest there. One entire branch backed out - my sister claimed "depression" -  her son said she drank too much the night before. She said it was because she buried her "best friend" twenty years ago that day (her son's father) and I call baloney (a.k.a. bullshit) on that.

She then went on fb crying that nobody ever returns her calls, that she has nobody to talk to, blah, blah, blah. I ignore the drama, messaged back that we missed her and told her a bit about what her grand-daughter did that was adorable. I learned long ago not to take her bait.

I took her grand-daughter on her very first merry-go-round ride. The little girl wanted to ride that thing from then on. She became SO excited each time she saw it. It was so sweet. She is 14 months old.

I helped to raise my niece and nephew so I take advantage of any time I can spend with their children. She played shy with all of us at first, but by the end of the picnic that girl was all over everybody and all smiles. She was deliriously tired, for sure. You could see it in her glazed eyes.

Me. I too, was exhausted. I wanted a new pair of feet. Ibuprofin this morning, but not for a headache. My legs (calves mostly) ache, my back aches, my arms ache - and my feet are inconsolable. 

Legs hurt from walking, back hurts from loading and unloading, arms ache from  holding babies as I am not used to it and feet - well the feet. They take the brunt of it all, don't they?

Justified

Just finished reading the novel "Fire in the Hole" by Elmore Leonard. The TV Series "Justified" is based on the book.

It was a short/quick read. I got confused because the story seems to pick up loose ends from out of nowhere.

I recognized some of the plot in some of the episodes of the TV show. The series should pick up again in January.

Next to imdb.com, this site is tops for TV series information:  http://epguides.com/

Who knew?

Well, now I do and you do, too. Who knew that My Little Pony had a sex p0rn site? In fact it seems to be rather popular by my first quick glance. After one glance I closed the browser and heaved a sigh of defeat.

I was flying high thinking those little dumplings were pure and magical and still played with colorful, innocent toys.

The filter's suspicious search reports have quadrupled in size now that school has started. Sure, a lot of it is "to kill a mocking bird" and "dick's sporting goods" - during school hours. A few are brave and search for more adult themed sites,  but now that they have their own devices and take them home, the searches are filling up my filter's report log fast and furious with their ugly searches.

The school does not have them set up to authenticate by name. In fact on my main report they all come through as one IP address but there are thousands of searches for the unsavory subjects.

If I log in as the district, I can see what provider is connected to the searches but that is pointless. They are all in the same district - they all use pretty much the same provider.

So, everything is anonymous. And by searching, it does not mean they are actually getting to the site. It just means they tried to look up possible sites to try.  Hopefully, the filter is holding fast and blocking what it is supposed to.

So, there you have it. My Little Pony is not so innocent any longer. I'm not even going to tell you what they do with Gummy Bears. I just don't have the heart.

Trepidation

Quite a few school districts are issuing devices to students in a 1:1 enterprise. As you can imagine, they would like the devices to connect to the Internet through the filter at the school when taken home or off the school premises.

I was finally successful in getting our pilot school to do this. They were extremely happy and sent home iP@ds with a lot of students.

A couple of days later I was looking over the settings to ensure all was working as it should and I saw the "search queries" report.

With "trepidation" I opened the report to see what it was the students were searching for after hours.

The heavens opened, bells rang in all the churches as I read "My Little Pony"!

I nearly jumped for joy. I did in fact run and tell some of my co-workers that I have shared stories with. The ones about p0rn etc...

I wanted to be Julie Andrews and twirl and sing! I was so relieved.

Now, whether or not it stays that way - who knows?

*Note:  I am also thinking that the age group the district assigned the iP@ds to was very elementary, and could be why the search query was so innocent. But, I'll take it!

Smiling baby

My niece put her youngest in this truck and he still smiles? Wow. He didn't get that from our side of the family. Most little ones I know would pucker up, feel that hard surface on the back of their neck and scream (in baby speak, of course) "Get me the hell outta here!"

By the way. The one pictured above is the youngest of the two I posted earlier in the week. (The girl holding the sleeping boy who missed her.) They are the older siblings of this little tyke.

The ole wringer washing machine

Isn't this a funny thing to find in an elementary building? Maybe not, since I was out in the middle of Amish country. Or, at least on the cusp. Holmes county in Ohio is more Amish, but my districts border the edges. There are a lot of Amish children in the schools.

So, to find an old wringer washing machine in a little elementary is no surprise. This elementary is just now getting fiber Internet connection and dis-connecting their T1 line.

In an area of the county where you watch for Amish buggies as you drive and pass several houses that have no electrical poles leading into their homes, and the wash hangs on the line outside - this is not such a rarity.

He missed her

The older girl  in the photo (courtesy of my niece - her Mom) had a showing at the fair over the week-end. She was gone for about four full days.

Her little brother missed her.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It was not my choice to hold a training session on a Monday morning. I am the kind of person who believes folks should ease into Monday with nothing on their schedule. Keep Mondays open so that we can ease back into the work week. Nothing to jar the system.

Alas, somebody picked Monday morning for the training and I obliged. And it rained. My God - it rained. Driving the interstate was dicey. Although I did not see anybody pulled over, I considered it. Sometimes that is more dangerous than just staying the course. A steady, keep the same speed course.

Then  you have the folks in the left lane who pass you, but they must be nervous because their vehicle is way over the line on YOUR side. Please people!

Anyway, I had my filter training Monday morning. I stopped to get donuts for the crew. 15 of them. You can't really hold an umbrella and three dozen donuts, you know. My beautiful hair-do was ruined. I do have a jacket with a hood, but it also happened to be very muggy and warm. I tried.

At times the folks in the class looked like the picture above. No more Monday morning trainings if I can help it.

The blueberries have it

This is the banana bread recipe I have been making for years. It is in my Pillsbury cookbook. As you can see this is one of the pages that looks a bit used. I copied the recipe to the back of an old used envelope so I would not have to haul this old cookbook out any more. The pages are delicate and beginning to come out.

I (re) use old envelopes from the mail for shopping lists, to do lists, notes and recipes.

I only began adding blueberries to this recipe a couple of months ago. Today I tried strawberries.

Nah. We voted, blueberries are the best with this.

No nuts in the house. Well, no edible English walnuts in the house. Wink, wink.

Summer stuff

Found the charger to my Nook and I have been reading, reading, reading. Since my washing machine leaks, I have had to babysit the appliance during the rinse cycle and after consuming a box of books my sister gave me for Christmas, my nook is my companion in the basement washroom, now.

Currently reading Theroux. My nook is full of about a hundred books and I have so much to pick from and I keep downloading more.

If I am not reading, I am working on my filter training. I have a class Monday morning (why oh why did they pick Monday?) for 16 people. I know the filter very well so I am not too stressed. There will be the occasional question that I won't know the answer to, but after working with a few on the telephone over the past few weeks I can see that I am miles ahead of them. I am not bragging, this is how it is supposed to be. They are very busy with a million other things, while my main focus is the filter. I have had so much more time to learn this and it is a passion with me.

I love sharing my knowledge with them. A lot of times I get the call that says "My district cannot access such and such." It is my job to help them figure out why and fix it. I love a puzzle.

So, not much here at blogdom these days. Not much else going on in my life. Animals are itchy and should probably be treated for their summer allergy/flea/dry skin condition.  I need to buck up and get them in for all their shot updates, too. Kennel cough (bordetella)  is the big one. I think they are due for a distemper booster, too. Some other vaccines are on a 3  year cycle and I believe I caught those up last year. The vet sends me a postcard reminding me.

In fact, I am going to sign off of here and call the vet right now to make an appointment.

What is it with these people?

Well, we had just recovered from the shocking story of this school outrage: /Cover up    ,

and now we are slapped with this story:

This goon

What is it with these people?

Wow! There IS an app for that!

There you are in a movie theater, the middle of a movie and the urge to pee just won't go away. But, you don't want to miss anything important, right?

Well, worry no more! There's an app for that!

Straight from their web page:  http://runpee.com/

Each movie has a list of carefully selected Peetimes. We try to find 3-5 minute long scenes that don’t have crucial plot twists, or LOL moments, or exciting  action.

Blueberry banana bread

This picture does not do the bread justice. I had some very ripe bananas and decided to make my banana bread (or Pillsbury,s rather) and having lots of blueberries decided to try adding them. It turned out great! Very moist. I also just happened to have mixed berry cream cheese (for some blueberry bagels I had picked up) and the combination was heaven.

We can't stop eating it. My daughter and her boyfriend both insisted on taking a loaf to work with them today. I awoke with a stomach ache (having imbibed in two small pieces right before retiring). That will teach me. Pfffttt!

Black icing

I am wondering if the parents were thinking that Minnie Mouse on the baby's cake may not have been such a great idea. Black icing! Photo courtesy of my nephew (her dad).

She cleaned up wonderfully, though. She was clean as a whistle when she returned to open her gifts.

I don't have much guys. I don't know what it is. I don't know if nothing is going on, if I am being lazy, or what?

I forgot my 10th year anniversary of this blog. June 21st or so. I am not stopping, now. I am in for another ten years.

Which brings me (again) to the mystery of writers who just stop and disappear in thin air. No remark of "I'm done, good-bye!"  Or, "I am taking a break. Maybe I'll start posting again."  I have two more that I went to where I was a regular reader, and 'poof' nothing from them in months.

Where do they go?

Too much water

This is the little neighbor boy playing in some standing water between my house and his. He is three years old and I grabbed this photo opportunity hidden behind my front door. As soon as he sees me he comes over and he is stuck to me like glue. Sigh.

Anyway, their basement wall caved in that night. This side of it. There was a crew that began working on water proofing their basement on Monday. The wall fell in on Wednesday (heavy rains on top of this water already standing and no place to go).  Fortunately, for my neighbor the crew that is water proofing the basement will pay for all damages.

Today there is a huge mountain of dirt that divides our houses. And yellow caution tape. I joked with my neighbor after calling my dogs back away from the cave-in. "Now if a couple of dogs go missing when this mess is finished, I wouldn't mind a bit.  Nor, a couple of cats."

They laughed. I wasn't kidding. Oh come on! Yes, I was. Just kidding. ;)

Independence

I grabbed this shot at the end of June outside a Bob Evans near Cleveland. The wind was howling and a storm was coming fast. It rained while we were inside and sunny when we came out. The flag was drooped and lifeless when we returned to our car. I was glad I got this shot when it was windy.

My Independence day was quiet. My town set off fireworks last night. I waited until about two minutes before ten and under the cover of darkness snuck outside, grabbed my lawn chair and quickly made my way to the far side of my house and yard (away from my neighbors). Don't get me wrong, I love my neighbors - I just wanted to be by myself and I was afraid if they saw me, they would invite me over and you know I would have had to go sit with them. And the three year old boy. I have been avoiding them lately - just not in a social mood. I wanted to be independent. LOL!

The trees are either very tall or the fireworks are not reaching as high as they used to. Half of the display I did not see. It just looked like heat lightning behind the tree line. When they started, the dogs in the neighborhood began barking and they never stopped through the entire 23 minutes. My dogs remained silent (in the house) the entire time. They got special treats when I went back inside.

Some one's car alarm went off at the beginning, but either they stopped it or it just quit on it's own. My street was packed with cars parked while their occupants walked up and over the hill to view the display.

I sat in my lawn chair and watched the latecomers. It is kind of sad, really. The ones who are late. They are desperately trying to find a parking space, some even risking it and parking close to the fire hydrant. Then they drag their crying kids quickly through the dark streets with the fireworks booming and illuminating the sky like some eerie B-rated horror movie. If the kids aren't traumatized I would be surprised.

As I sat there, I was reminded of my previous 4th holidays when I would have the big party for the family at my house. It was fun but a lot of work. I don't miss it. At all. (I now do Labor day at the park). I always had them come to my house because they could watch the fireworks from my lawn, but really - the trees have grown too high. I guess after ten  years - they tend to do that. I can do without all the work and the expense, too. I always overdid it - that is my custom. It is genetic. And the alcohol. I don't miss the fact that things can always get edgy when there is alcohol around.

And the weed. I have some family members who smoke weed. It doesn't bother me - they are discreet and smoke in the garage so they don't let the children see or smell. The smell comes out anyway. I can remember one time sitting in a group and chatting with family and I said "Whew. I smell a skunk."  My next sentence was "Where is Jock, Susan and Larry?"  (Not their real names). After a two second pause we all looked at each other and just busted out laughing. Because I smelled the skunk (a lot of times weed smells like skunk) and they are the three that smoke it and that is exactly what they were doing.

I enjoy the quiet times because I have had so many crazy and loud times. There will be more loud and crazy. It is just nice to sit and relax and not have to converse. With anyone. I got to see my beautiful pink fireworks. They are my favorite. Not the red ones, but the pink ones.

I thank the military and the US for my independence and to spend it the way I want to. That is freedom. We have the choice. Some paid dearly for this privilege we are enjoying and I am so grateful to them.