They play

The new toy I bought a couple of weeks ago is a big hit. The only one not playing is the ostracized "Moose". For whatever reason.

Colorful backgrounds

Oh, these were so fun to make. I had no idea they were so easy. Well, it does get tedious after a while, but I like color. I got this tip from Tech Republic. I hope they don't mind me posting it here.

This tip was provided by Jacky Howe.

1.The first step is to open Paint
2.Click File | New
3.Click Image, and then select Attributes
4.Change the Width to 1, change the Height to 2, and click OK
5.Click View | Zoom | Custom, select 800%, and click OK
6.Click on the color Red, and then click in the top of the new image
7.Click on the color Yellow, and then click in the bottom of the new image
8.Save the file, and set it as your background

Note: You can make the Height 3 and select 3 colors. Just drag the bottom of the new image down to expose the pixels. Have a play, and enjoy your creation!

What always had me stumped (when I looked at backgrounds online) was that they were tiny little dots and squares of pictures. I had no concept that they would stretch out into lovely backgrounds on my desktop. Now I know better. Some of course are far too colorful for desktops because they are too distracting. I just got carried away with the colors.

So much food

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

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

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

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

Sweet!

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

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

At the party

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

But what will I call myself, now?

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

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

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

Stretching those dollars

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

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

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

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

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

Leaving (Ohio for) Las Vegas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

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

Better reception

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

Yikes!

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

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

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

Turn to page 25.

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

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

Post the third image.

This is what I got.

A Patch of Blue

Another shot of the state park

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

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

Driving out of the lodge park last week

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

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

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

The lodge

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

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

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

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

Her cell phone just keeps on buzzing with text messages.

Angst

Maybe summer 2005?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Help me!

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

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

Still here

Close up from September 2008

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

Elephant Sage

Pittsburgh Zoo August 2008

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

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

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

Swingset Chain

At a school play ground a couple of summers ago.

Dry Eyes

Pond scene from fall 2008

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

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

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

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

The Bar Scene

Drink glasses hanging over a bar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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