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.