I got nuttin'

I got nuttin' you guys. So I slapped a picture of Slade being bored here. I have been reading books on my nook and not spending much at home time on the computer. I am planning one last malware post about how to avoid the suckers but I want to get it right (or as right as I can) before I give any advice.

As I say - I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night. LOL!

Oh, and crazy me volunteered to host the Labor Day cook-out for the family. This Sunday. I have to buckle down and find that damn camera battery charger. Grrrrr! It is my chance to have my Independence Day party do-over!

That's my story....

Well, I left all of you yesterday stating that I was going to go and try to make some headway on my mess of a house. I swept the new floor. Cat grit and dog hair galore. Where does it all come from? I looked around for the dustpan. Nowhere insight. 

Sigh. Well, you know what that means, right? I have to stop Right then and there. I can't go on. I just stop. The best I can figure is when I sweep the floor I lay the dustpan in the trashcan for a lack of a better place to set it down. Well, it must have gone out with the trash.

I can't do another thing until I get a new dustpan. Sigh. I went shopping last evening. The last thing on my mind was a dustpan. I did not get one. Yuck, yuck.

I have a few (not many) instances where I say to myself "Well, that is one downside to having put a wooden floor in". This was one of them. I can pretty much guarantee you that I would not have inadvertently placed the vacuum cleaner in the trash can and threw IT out with the trash. Well, I am fairly certain.

And just for the record - I have another dustpan downstairs, but HEY! What belongs downstairs STAYS downstairs. If I move it, then when I am sweeping kitty litter downstairs the dustpan will be upstairs. If I march up and get it I will get distracted by fifty million things and I will never get back to what I was originally doing. Hmmm. Is there something about a messy house and ADHD? Why, I think there is!

And doesn't it figure? I purchased a tomato (as ripe as I could find) in the grocery store  yesterday. Hey! At least I don't buy zucchinis there! My sister pops in with a bag full from her garden - or somebody's garden.

Zucchinis. You know the joke, right? My standing zucchini joke? No? Okay. 

How can you tell if somebody does not have any friends?

I don't know, how?

They buy their zucchini in a grocery store! LOL!

Ahh, I crack myself up.

Recidivism

You have to check out this prison in Norway. My first thought was "No freakin' way!" I know some people that would commit crime just to live a life of luxury like that place. Well, I hope I don't know them, but can you imagine? There are some people so desperate that I believe they would commit crime just to have the comfort of that prison.

Then I thought about it and I read about it and I was "almost" convinced. Notice I said "almost".  I am not convinced. Sorry, call me a cynic. I don't think it would work. Maybe in Norway. I've never been to Norway. Maybe they are all Pollyanna's over there. I don't know.

I do not believe it would work here or in many countries.If it works for them - great. I have yet to find research on the prison - if it is working or not. It is still too new (having opened a little over a year ago) to determine whether it works or not.

It features a dorm like atmosphere. Private bathrooms. A sound studio. Flat screen t.v., refrigerator. Wait, I love this one. They teach the criminals to cook. With plastic spoons? I'll bet not! Can you imagine a criminal with a serrated knife slicing a tomato and the guy next to him splashes him with batter? Half of the guards are women - and the guards carry no weapons.

Now, let's get this straight. A woman guard - no weapons. A criminal with a serrated knife, a hot tea kettle, a hot griddle,  a hot frying pan and my personal favorite weapon - a roasting fork. Don't ask! And didn't we all learn what damage a meat thermometer can do when we watched "A Perfect Murder"? Nuts!

Which brings me to movies. Heh, heh. I caught an oldie the other night. I did not finish watching it. I could not finish it. It was so silly. It is rated 7.2 on the imdb scale. Dang it. Maybe I should have watched the entire thing. It was "The Long Hot Summer" with P Newman. The first thing that bothered me was Woodwards hairstyle. I could not stand to look at her she looked so silly. This is a classy lady and very beautiful but I could not watch that movie because of that hair. Sorry. 

This movie was made the same year as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and the similarities were ridiculous. Wouldn't you say that O Welles and B Ives could be twins? Anyway both movies were about the old south plantation and the "big daddy" who ran the homestead and treated everybody like dirt except for a select few. Such as busty women and cheating men. I can just barely watch "Cat" and it is rated 8.0 in imdb.

By the way, was the TV show "Dallas" modeled after this "Cat" movie, or what? The NEW DALLAS starts the summer of 2012. Have your sound on before you click the "new" link. :)

Okay, I am having way too much fun with this. I have to stop and go get something done. My house was hit by that never-ending tornado. I am domestically challenged and I try to make up for it on the week-ends. I think I have company coming in today. They did not say for sure. It's family so - no worries.  

I need to go grocery shopping desperately. I have half a loaf of bread and about 1 cup of milk. Three cans of mushrooms, one box of noodles, two cans of whole tomatoes. That is about all. Maybe some crackers and a can of soup. LOL! Since my daughter moved out in May, I have done very little grocery shopping. Why bother?

Last part - So - why malware/spyware?

Forgive my crude picture.I could not find what I was looking for on the Web. So, I slapped one quickly together with MS PowerPoint. This is a sample of what a warranty card would like like back in the old days. You fill in the bubble next to your answer. This type of question, you were to only fill in one bubble. They also asked questions like what hobbies do you like and gave a list of fishing/golfing/sewing/knitting/gardening, (on this question you could fill in as many bubbles as you wanted), and they asked if you were married/separated/divorced.

Back in the late 80's I did some keypunching at a consumer company. What I discovered there was that when they sold a product, they sent a warranty/registration card with the product in a box. If a consumer filled out the card and returned it to us, we (I) keyed their personal information - name/address into a computer program and if they were stupid detailed enough to fill out the personal information, I punched that into a computer, also.

Then I ran a program that wrote that data onto a magnetic tape and it was sold (yes, they made money off of this) to a company that used that data to target consumers with magazines/ads - all sorts of things to try to get them to buy more, more, more!

So, that is when I began to only fill out my name on warranty information cards. That way, if a product failed - I would still have my warranty but the company was not able to profit off of my personal information. And, profit they did. We sold millions of products and millions of warranty cards came in. I was paid by how fast I typed. The computer would record my keystrokes and I was paid by the hour/keystroke. I became very efficient.

Anyway, that is sort of like malware on the computer today. These slick little programs infect your computer and monitor what you type - gather that information and try to entice you with ads that fit your lifestyle, income, etc...

If you browse web pages with plants/shrubs/bushes on them - you may start seeing e-mail messages directing you to a seed/plant/shrub distributor.

That is the main reason for spyware/malware. Like it or not. Greed.

I felt it

The earthquake, that is. I was sitting in my office which happens to be on the second floor of our building and it felt to me like a rolling sort of feeling - almost like a Ferris wheel or carnival ride. The worker next door (I've written about her before - The Alarmist) jumped up and was screaming "What was that?! What IS that?!" I just calmly watched her (this is why I did not look outside or at any of my things). After the second roll I figured it was an earthquake.

My thoughts were "If I can feel that little bit of a roll here in Ohio, who got the epicenter? Who got the big one?"

She kept yelling down the hall to her manager "Did you feel that?! Is that an earthquake?!" He did not immediately answer because he happened to be on the phone. His phone partner felt it also, and she was over 10 miles away. We surmised it had been an earthquake.

If his phone partner felt it, had my daughter? I went to call her but she was already calling me. I answered "Did you feel it?"  Okay, I got caught up in the Alarmist's excitement. My daughter was all excited. She and her beau had felt it. They were both in the upstairs of their home in the computer room and their monitors and walls had swayed. Her beau thought the house was falling down.

After talking to her, I sent a text to my "family group" of 15. I got about four that responded quickly saying "Are you nuts? Are you losing it?" and a couple that said "Where?"

I looked on-line and connected live to the local radio show. They confirmed an earthquake had struck and that some DC buildings were evacuating. So, I surmised it hit near DC. The very first report was 5.8 on the scale.

Then I got a few texts that said "I didn't, but so and so did!"

After talking to people all day about it I came to conclude that those in an elevated floor of their building had a better chance of feeling it. In my area. Some in the area - it didn't matter where they were - their entire building shook. Still another building a mile away - the workers felt nothing. Perhaps it also depends on the strength of the structure of the building. Makes you wonder.

It is also kind of fascinating to talk to people because an event like this brings out some wonderful stories. "When I lived in California..."

Anyway, it was my first earthquake. I figure all the way to 51 and have never felt one before - I am pretty darn lucky. This rolling motion was about as much as I ever want to experience, thank-you very much.

I found it

I finally found my Nook. It had been missing since shortly after the floor was put in - the end of June. What can I say? I am domestically challenged.

I have transferred quite a few pdf files over so that I can read them when I am away from the computer. I used to print them out (gasp!).

Yes, they are all boring work-related files.

Okay, so that makes my spare laptop from work (left it at a remote school - got it back), my nook. Now, I need to locate my battery charger for my camera. Sigh. Always the stupid battery charger with me!

Oh, the horror!

Don't do it. I know it isn't your type of movie anyway. I saw E Page in two films and liked her, I also thought that R Wilson would be pretty good since I have watched a few episodes of The Office. Heck, his bio states that he played the clarinet and bassoon in school. So did I! This made me smile because like me, he would have had to learn treble clef for the clarinet and bass clef for the bassoon. I wasn't the only one!

And, I love the name Rainn. But, I would name a girl that - but so what!

But - Oh, dear. I had no idea it would be that awful. Gross does not even begin to describe it. K Bacon, what have you reduced yourself to? His acting is superb as usual, but the film was "ick".

If you like people getting bludgeoned in full detail with blood squirting out all over the place; if you like to see people getting their heads "literally" blown apart - then this movie is for you. It certainly is not for me and I wish I had not pushed that "buy" button on my remote control.

God awful. Super. Save yourself and don't watch it.

Malware - Part 3

Again, let me reiterate the fact that I am by no means an expert on the issue. I don't claim to be. What I do tend to be is patient and capable of explaining technical jargon into laymen terms. That is what folks say to me. That I explain things to them that they can more readily understand.

My brain is going a million miles a minute this morning. Is it the coffee? is it fluctuating hormones? I have no idea. As I research this malware - Part 3 was to be "How they infect" I started pasting notes into notepad and there is just so much to tell all of you.

I need to slow down or I am going to lose you.

Big breath.

The first line in my notes reads "Gator". When I was troubleshooting somebody's "Internet connection" as being slow or problematic I would routinely look in their taskbar for that god-awful icon of a gator or weatherbug. 

What is the taskbar? It is that blue or gray bar (usually) at the bottom of your screen that lets you know what time it is, what day it is and what software is running in the background and what windows /tabs you have open and where to find your START button. This may have all changed with Windows 7. I have not worked with Windows 7 long enough to see what it has at the bottom of the screen. Also, if you run a Mac this post probably does not pertain to you.

Now, why would the two programs bother me? Because back in the day they were adware/spyware programs. A sure sign that the end user had fallen for the gimmick while surfing the Internet that "weather bug" could save your life! It would alert you of any dangerous weather in your area or coming your way. It was cute, it gave you the temperature at a glance. Sigh.

What the end user did not realize is that it also monitored every move they made on the Internet. Search for the word "cell phone" and you can bet money that you would start receiving popups that tried to entice you into purchasing a cell phone. That is why when you are surfing the Internet and a few hours or even minutes after you research a product you start seeing pop up ads in your browser. And you think "WTF?" How do they know? Well, it is machine code. Quick and dirty. Lightning fast. This little "free" and cute program called weather bug seems harmless enough. It just wants to save your life, eh? 

You can read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeatherBug

Secretaries in the school would panic and tell me "Don't delete weather bug! My principal said we have to  keep that to alert us of impending weather!" Double sigh.

And I can't write a post on malware without mentioning the evil of all evils. Gator. I was relieved to see this little icon disappear from end user's taskbar through the years. Until I did some research for this post. I just discovered that Gator has changed it's name to Claria. Some of my research may be outdated but it is still a good read and will help to educate you on what malware and drive by downloading is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gator

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/spyware.html

http://www.pcpitstop.com/gator/default.asp

My second note in my list says "Privacy Policy". How many of you actually read this when downloading software? Pages and pages of legal jargon that will make you go blind. Nobody? I didn't think so. You can read about it some more here:

http://www.safeshopping.org/privacy.shtml

I had more stuff in the list, but this is enough to digest for now. One little analogy I would like to mention. When you drive your car (I am always comparing operating a computer to operating a vehicle), sometimes you get careless and you hit that chuck hole. You try to avoid this but once in a while we get in a hurry.

This can be similar to clicking on a pop up inadvertently. Do you ever notice that sometimes when you go to browse and you are reading away and you move your cursor up the screen to click on a link or a picture or to go somewhere else,  and a split second before you click -  a stupid pop up jumps up and you click it instead of the link or picture you intended? That is NO accident. The software is designed that way to get you to click on that pop up. And, poof! You may have just become a victim. That one little click may have installed spyware or adware on your computer. Like a chuck hole the damage may not be apparent right away but come later over time.

I know. What is an end user supposed to do? Drive carefully. Browse carefully. There is a reason that browsers update their programs. Because malicious individuals with malicious intent always find a way to worm their way into the code of the browser and take advantage of the average surfer. Update or check for updates on your browser often. Most browsers will alert you when there is an update to their product. If not, you can usually find it under the "Help" pull-down menu or in the Tools area. To find what version of the browser you are currently using, click on the Help pull-down menu and choose About Firefox (or whatever browser you prefer to use).

Ditch IE. That's right. I said ditch Internet Explorer. It is the most used browser in the world and the one most targeted by malicious code writers.

I hate toolbars - Malware - Part 2

Toolbars are evil. If you have problems with your computer and you have installed a toolbar (Yahoo/Google or other) you may have unknowingly installed a malicious toolbar that disguises itself as a legitimate toolbar. How do you know the difference? I have no idea. I steer completely away from them.

For part 2 of malware I have cheated. The definition of malware (and other yucky stuff) is better described at this link:  http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2004/11/malware.ars

I use malwarebytes and scan my computer about once a month. I find very few problems, I think Norton has started taking care of everything, I don't know. The link for the free software is here: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Download or buy. I don't buy, I have been happy with the free one. I am not certain what the purchased copy would entail. Maybe it shows you pictures of them slapping malware creators around. Hmmm. I might pay money for that. 

Malicious software (malware). In a nutshell and with that link above you should be able to research the definition. I did a little bit of part 3 also (how they infect) - with bogus toolbars. Part 4 will be why they infect.  Then part 5 - what you can do (malwarebytes.org). If I make it that far. I may get bored (I think I already am).

On another note - I did have to go to that school today. The tech person (she) really ticked me off. She was so helpless. She has been doing this job for years, now. She lost her help and school begins next week so I imagine her panic mode is due to stress or a big chip on her shoulder or both. She wanted me to come down and wave a magic wand. It was not going to happen. Lightning storms are a bitch on electronics. School administrators - that is the cold hard fact. You buy cheap equipment, it fries like bacon in a hot skillet. This school is full of cheap equipment. I am sorry. I know they need (want) to save money - but it never pays in the long run to buy cheap stuff. Especially electronics.

HP (hewlett packard) makes switches with a lifetime warranty. LIFETIME warranty, folks! Needless to say, I rarely have to send one back because it does not die or fry. I actually do not even think they are that much more expensive than some of the generic models. Most of the cheaper ones are out of business. There is a reason for that. 

Back to the tech. She was negative on every suggestion I gave her. I was not even able to finish my sentences before she was nay-saying it with "Can't do that!"  or "No, they won't have it!"  Finally I threw up my hands and said "Then, I can't help you."  She will probably call my director and say I was unwilling to help. That is her method of operation. 

She gets no extras from me or my co-workers. We are tired of listening to her whining and her negativity. If somebody is willing to try and work with me I will bend over backwards for them. I will research a problem into the wee  hours of the night. I will read until my eyes are dry and I can't hold my head up. Not this lady. I smiled all the way out to my car. I really wanted to scream "YOU STUPID BITCH!"  I waited until I was 100 feet down the road and then screamed it out to my windshield.

Sigh. Tomorrow is another day.

I got sidetracked

I am still researching the malware issue. I do not like to talk about something unless I do my research first.

I got sidetracked anyway. Today I got a call from a school. The tech person thinks they have a fiber connection problem. I asked her if she would take one of the questionable fiber cable and plug it into a working transceiver. She said she knew nothing about fiber and wouldn't touch it.

For the record - the equipment I am responsible for is working fine. I am not responsible for this schools' fiber optic cable connection. She got huffy with me. As they tend to do when the pressure is on. She lost her help and school starts in one week. She is under pressure.

Sigh. I know I will have to drive the thirty miles one way to plug the cable in and test it. A huge waste of tax payers money if you ask me. If it does not work in the "good" transceiver then she is going to have to call in professional fiber optic workers to replace it.

The cable she will have to unplug is the round ones pictured above. You slide the silver cover down and turn it so that the notch slips off. There is no "electrical" bite or danger. As long as you don't look into the beam of light coming from the other end.

I know my manager will send me out there. Meanwhile, my work is falling behind. Stupid storms!

Malware mindset

Above is a map I lifted from the Internet. You can read the article here.

First of all, let me reiterate the fact that I am by no means an expert on the issue. I don't claim to be. What I do tend to be is patient and capable of explaining technical jargon into laymen terms. That is what folks say to me. That I explain things to them that they can more readily understand.

How many of you (especially those of you still working) run across a tech person who rolls their eyes and snorts when they see you using the computer or come to help you with a problem? It sort of makes it hard to ask them for help again, doesn't  it?

I truly want to help people. I truly empathize with the average end user. I've made some crazy mistakes with the computer and I never put anybody down. For a tech person to help an end user and "LORD" over them is rude and just shows how ignorant they really are. Disclaimer: I do rib friends and family. I can't help it. That is who I am. I laugh "with" them - never AT them.

Now, for the mindset. I feel that this topic is too massive to bore you to tears with one post. So my first post will be about your mindset. Fear. Fear of the unknown.

Let us step back into the past and think of the automobile. When it first came out on the market. Did anybody foresee all the accidents that would happen 100 years later with the advent of this machine that we cannot live without? Once you start driving a car, do you just say - "Oh, it's too dangerous, I am going to quit."  Not likely. Of course there are the few that do stop, but it is not common. Once we begin driving we are hooked. It is a necessity to live in our part of the world. 

The computer seems to have become a necessity, also. Like it or not. A lot of folks would say "Buy a Mac - then all your (virus/malware) problems will disappear."  Again, not likely. Reverting back to my automobile analogy what if people told you "Buy a diesel, your fuel pump problems will be a thing of the past!"  How many of us would ditch our gasoline-fueled vehicles and opt for a diesel? Eh? Yeah. That's what I thought. If everybody purchased a Mac (Apple product) then the devious attackers would just focus on a way to infiltrate that machine. Thieves find a way.

This ends my first post on malware. Your mindset. Is there a solution? Not likely. Just as there is no solution to the vehicle accidents that happen all the time. Your best defense is to be vigilant. You take a risk each time you drive your car. You take a higher risk if you drive your car without insurance. If you run your computer without anti-virus you are being foolish. I am not convinced that the "free" anti-virus programs are worth the risk. I could be wrong. I purchase Norton Anti-virus religiously and update it. I purchase the 3-pack license and put it on all my computers. Note: I am not an advocate of their 360 product, however they may have improved it since I ran it on my machine.

McAfee/Kaspersky/Sophos/Trend Micro and many other products are surely just as good. I prefer Norton because that is what I was first exposed to when I began working with personal computers. Problems? Sure. But they were ironed out and Norton went above and beyond to help me and then they throw in an extra 100 days or something equivalent to compensate you for your trouble. That's kind of hard to beat in my book.

With that being said - a virus is different from malware. Your better antivirus programs will protect against both.

To be continued.

Big Brothers

Isn't it nice to have a big brother? I like in the picture how the older brother is still supporting the back of his little brother's head and neck. This one is from my party on the 2nd of July. I don't think I shot the photo because the date does not look like one shown on my camera's pictures.

The Cloudmaker

When I drive to Coshocton I always look for the cloud maker.

The issue with this factory though, is the smell. Ugh! It stinks.Back in the mid 70's I worked as a short order cook in a restaurant. Every Friday we would get steak delivered fresh. It came in a cardboard box and blood always soaked the box. That smell has stayed with me for years. I believe this is the reason I could not eat steak for years after becoming an adult. Well, I also worked at Ponderosa Steak house for one summer after the cook job. (Long before the buffet era). I guess both combined turned me off of steak for about twenty years.

Now? I can't get enough steak! Yum! I'll take mine medium, please. NO SAUCE! If a steak is fixed correctly it needs no sauce. If I get a lousy tasting steak I will add a little Worcestershire sauce, but that is all. And then I won't return to that establishment.

Still dealing with pain but not near as bad as before. In fact I thought the worst was over until I took a swig of my hot coffee this morning. Searing pain! I thought my head was going to pop off. LOL! I can laugh now because the pain has abated. Big sigh.

Tuesday morning I sat here (I had another vacation day - great planning!) and at 8:00 I called the dentist and they told me to come right over. As soon as I got there my pain disappeared. Don't you hate that?! I think the dentist thought I was a nut case. Except he has been seeing me for over ten years and I have never had to come in for an emergency before. Well, they took x-rays and that started the pain. I was near tears. He explained roots and gums and nerves to me and I just wanted to cry. In other words, he could not see anything wrong. He wrote me a prescription for an anti-biotic that aims for the tissues inside the body. I guess I will get that filled today and begin taking it. The z-pack is long gone. My ear still hurts but may just be a side effect of this tooth/jaw issue.

The dentist also mentioned another mouth guard. He made one for me years ago (about $500) that insurance did not cover. I may have used it one week. I hated it. This one would be spongier he said. We decided to wait on this.

Edith Ann

My grand great nephew and niece sitting in the Adirondack chair at the motel.

One of my nephews got a photo of me in the chair (Edith Ann style) when we first got there. He showed it to everybody. I pretended to delete it. He grabbed the cell phone off of me. I got my wish. Later during the night he jumped into the pool with the phone in his pocket. That photo will never see the light of day again. 

He was also escorted to his room by the security guard. It was 4:00 a.m. when he was in the pool. The others must have left him or got out when the security guard found them. They jumped the fence.

Think about it. 30 people. Most of us went to bed. I counted at least 2 bottles of vodka, one bottle of gin, one bottle of cinnamon schnapps, one bottle of bourbon and one bottle of something else I never did get the name of. And folks - this was before the real drinker arrived. She was running late and I heard tell she brought the makings for White Russians and cherry vodka. This is not including the beer.

It may be needless to say, but two nephews did not make it to the reunion at all. Hangovers I understand. I have been there. I am not proud of it. One year I drank so many long island iced teas at this motel I ruined the next day (for myself) when the family drove to the New River Gorge bridge. I was still on the floor in the motel room because it hurt to lay in the bed. That seemed to do it for me. I have not been drunk since.

But to not come to the reunion when you did not drink? I am having a hard time with this issue. My daughter and her boyfriend came when we were finishing the reunion. I was livid.

Anyway - remember Edith Ann?

Mayhem

This is a photo of our first family reunion. We had our third Sunday. It is some sort of controlled chaos.

Edit:  Well, I thought  I had scheduled this post to show up on Sunday morning, but when it did not and I checked, it said it was just a draft. Oh well.

So tired from the trip. My jaw is not better. I finished the z-pack yesterday and I am in a lot of pain. I am just waiting for dentist and doctor office to open so I can start calling them to see who can see me first and find out where in the heck this pain is coming from.

malaise

I did go to the doctor's office. The doctor wasn't in. (Sounds like the beginning of a cheesy song). When I called they said that a nurse practitioner could see me. I said "Anybody!"

She diagnosed sinusitis. Whatever. I was given the above. I am in pain and I am grouchy to say the least. The Advil takes the edge off but I do get sick of taking it. I have not taken any today and I have been up for over 2 hours. I don't like to take medicine on an empty stomach and so far I only have coffee in my stomach.

My ear hurts, my jaw hurts. I find myself clenching my teeth during the day and at night. I relax the jaw when I realize that I am doing this, I think it is a brace against the pain. One neighbor said (before I told her I was ill) that the right side of my face looked swelled and she asked if I had a migraine. I told her that I had an earache that had moved into the right side of my jaw and teeth.

I also have had a condition that I rarely find others having. My gums itch when I am ill. Like insane itching. Like a mosquito bite that won't stop itching. It drives me nuts! I have been know to brush them raw when they itch like this. All of this on the right side of my mouth. Only the gums on the top itch. Never the bottom. The bottom right is the area where I just missed getting a root canal. The dentist stopped at the last minute and said "I don't think we need to do a root canal".  Sometimes I wish he had and it would all be over now because this is the area I have a lot of pain and trouble with.

At the time I saw the nurse, my throat did not hurt, but it does now. Another worry. As I age I believe I may be forming allergies. Sigh. I suppose I'll mention it to the doctor during my next visit. I get a stuffy nose often, my eyes hurt almost daily (not the red, itchy burning pain - a deep penetrating ache). They water like crazy sometimes, though. I don't sneeze but I often have an annoying cough.

I promised pics of the BBQ basket and I took some with my cell phone. Sorry if they are blurry or subpar.

I included a BBQ bug zapper, a hamburger press and the above apron in the basket. It is very heavy and full. I have to wrap it in cellophane yet and tie ribbons around it.

Here is the candy jar I made. Can you guess how many starburst candies are in there? I had to count them four times because I kept getting distracted. I figured two counts were the same and I went with that. Who is going to re-count anyway?

Basically, I am not getting much done in preparation for our week-end trip. I better get my rear in gear today. Time for toast and a dose of Advil. Is it just me or am I rhyming?

Toothpicks in the heat

I lifted this photo off the Internet. It took me a long time to find the hairstyle and I still did not get it exact. I work with many schools. About 45 separate districts. I work with the network technician and any help they may be fortunate enough to have. Although the photo above is a woman the hairstyle is similar to a guy I work with now and then.

He is as thin as a toothpick. We met on Tuesday at the high school to install some new equipment in his buildings. To save on gas I rode with him to the next building. No A/C. The little elementary building had no A/C running because the building is empty during the summer. The computer equipment was protesting loudly in a (90 degree Fahrenheit plus) little tiny closet.

I didn't give a rat's ass about the equipment right then.  I worked as quickly as I could. By the time I was done I was a mess. I was soaked with sweat. 

I am 51 and I believe I am starting the first stages of menopause. I was miserable to say the least. I saved the taxpayers a few dollars by riding with him but I swear - next time guys --  I may have to drive my own car.

Then on the way home from the high school I ran my A/C in my car full blast. 

I have had a very painful earache since Tuesday night. Sigh.

It is to the point where I feel that I need to visit the doctor. The pain woke me up Tuesday night. I've had cotton stuffed in my ear for two days. I always hated that feeling but do not care at this stage. My teeth on that side hurt something awful, too. They are very sensitive right now to cold/hot.

I do not have time for the doctor. I work in a another town forty miles away all day today. That leaves tomorrow. I have tomorrow off to begin my long week-end to prepare for my family reunion out of state. What do you think the odds are of me getting in to see her tomorrow on a Friday? Ha! I don't even think she works on Friday anyway. I have never had a Friday appointment. 

Then Saturday we leave for the reunion. I do not want a repeat of my fireworks party where I am sick and cannot enjoy the festivities. Ugh.

I can't miss today. I do not return to work until Wednesday of next week. This equipment must be installed today so that the school office can work. Administration staff works all summer to continue purchase orders, state paperwork and payroll. Just to name a few.

Besides, don't you just hate people who call off sick the day before their vacation or the day right after? I don't want to be that person!

Time for more Advil.

Rx

It is one of those weeks where the days zip by and I am not home in the evenings and time slips away and I get no computer time. I barely get time to do the necessities like taking care of the pets and washing clothes. There are not any dishes because I am not home long enough to dirty any except for a coffee cup or water glass.

I wanted to have my hair (roots) touched up before the reunion and I ran out of time to do it myself. I opted for a salon. A rare treat, indeed. Two main reasons. I don't get a migraine when they do it and it never goes "brassy" when they color it. Well, I didn't get the migraine.

I turn my cell phone off during appointments like this because I think that is annoying and rude to have a cell phone ring during anything like this. I finished and took my bright orange head out to the car and checked my messages. Hmmm. 3 missed calls and they were just five minutes ago.

My daughter did not answer her phone but her beau did. He handed the phone over to her. They were headed to the ER but since daughter was speaking to me on the phone and her beau was driving I assumed it was not too serious. She felt that she had a bladder infection and was passing blood.

Mom's don't hear much more in  a case like this. I just wanted to know one thing. Which hospital? It was the one in my town and I met them there. I was kind of skeptical of the ER visit because daughter has never been before and never had to wait while they see everyone else first.

The wait was over three hours. I told her it would be long.  I even took a break to go home to take the dogs out (my house is about 1/2 mile away) and got my cell phone charger. Even though my daughter was fighting an infection and was in some pain her beau and I spent about two solid hours going over our cell phones with updates and tests. 

With the reunion coming up I set up a group of texts to family so that I can keep them updated on our whereabouts during the drive down. For example, if our car caravan stops at lunch I want to let others know the time and location so that if they are within minutes of the restaurant, they can stop in also.

With over 10 cars going the same direction but not necessarily the exact same time and some drive faster than others and some of us have to stop more than others - I felt it would be nice to keep updates.

I sent a test text out Sunday morning. Out of 17 people, five answered right away. At 4 p.m. on Monday another five answered. All within a five minute time span. That leaves 7 not accounted for. One I know will never answer because I accidentally sent it to her home phone. Good luck with that one! I was a bit dismayed that quite a few got the message over 24 hours later. Well, that would not work. That is the reason we spent two hours performing software updates and tests.

Anyway, back at the ER. My daughter was diagnosed with a problem and it had moved to her kidneys. She was given medicine straight away and given two prescriptions. She is feeling much better, now. That was Monday evening.

While in the waiting room of the ER I observed people. There were two women in particular. One was robust and one was younger and thinner. Both had their tops literally bulging out of the tiny, skimpy shirts they were wearing. Both had small children.

Seriously. The robust one sat across from us for two hours and she had to bend over many times to pick up what her daughter dropped on the floor and I swore she was going to fall right out of her tiny top. I am still surprised I did not see a nipple. My daughter's beau and I gave each other looks like "Holy cow!" each time and my poor daughter was too out of it to notice anything.

The younger one was skinnier and had a younger baby but she was very exposed. I found it kind of amusing that the two with the exposed bosoms  were the ones with young children. As long as there are low cut tops, I guess the species will survive in some form or another.

Coming soon

This is the view from the top of the hill at our motel in WV. This photo was taken last year.

I broke down and bought the coffee. I had to go to wallet mart. I needed other (dry/paper) products. I rarely get my groceries there. I paid $9.78 for a 2 1/2 lb can. When I mentioned the price difference to the cashier she said "Yeah, but 'the grocery store'  has milk cheaper than we do."  She is correct. I guess it all evens out.

I picked up things for the BBQ gift basket that I am making for the reunion.

Gift baskets are a nice way to raise money for an event. Somebody creates a basket with a theme and there is a paper sack or a container for people to place a ticket in. They buy six tickets for five dollars or a dollar each and place the one half of their ticket in the container for that basket.  They keep the other half so they know the number on the ticket if it is called for the winner.

My daughter and I won a puppy basket and a movie basket at a fund raiser earlier this year. 

You can really get carried away. I will (of course) take pictures as I create and assemble the basket. My brother is doing a fisherman themed one, one sister is doing a ladies luxury basket, one a cookie basket, one a lottery and the other one a children's themed basket.

I found a nice basket at Jo-Ann Fabrics for $2. Marked down from $8. I purchased two of them and will give my brother one for the fishing basket. I picked up grilling chips, spatula and tongs, BBQ sauce and grilling seasonings and since Borders is going out of business stopped at Walden's (part of Borders) and found a book on grilling recipes for $4.

The object (at least for me) is to get creative with it and have fun! A lot of it is in the packaging and the display of the basket. The prettier and more attractive it is the better chance it has of getting more tickets.

What big ears you have!

A photo of Belle from a couple of weeks ago. She is changing rapidly. My daughter and her beau cannot see it because they see her every day all day. I see her once a week or so. Her nose is now twice as long, her ears twice as big, a huge tail, very long skinny SKINNY body and lovely almond shaped eyes. The vet says she will fill out. She eats like a horse, or like a growing German Shepherd puppy.

Ugh. my mouse battery is near dead. Sigh. I have a long list for the store today. Very long. I need everything. Double AA batteries and coffee for starters. Yes, my plan to drink coffee at work is fine except I did not take into consideration the week-ends. I had a wee bit left this morning and drank it all. Good to the last drop. I have the time to shop around today to find a better deal than I saw last week at the grocery store. The dollar store has it for $9.95 a 2 1/2 pound can. Maxwell House. Beats the grocery store price of $14.95. Sheesh!  Maybe I can find it on sale somewhere. Sigh. I hate shopping.