A Few More Pics

Sorry, no rock walls in this lot.  I'm scrounging out the few pics I took last month.

First is the pixelated dog



The pic was so dark, he pixelated when I lightened him enough to see his face. Heh.

A creek in the snow.



It's almost good - if there was more light it would really work.  Maybe next time we walk by...

And last of all - footprints in the snow.  They go out but don't come back.  There's a deep meaning to that somewhere, but right now I can't think what it would be.



Happy Friday Everyone.

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 11:01 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Weirdest Story of the Year So Far

Saw this over at Instapundit. 

Struck Down: Feds Refuse to Explain How Agent Injured Daily Caller Writer.

The writer in question blogs as "Jim Treacher" and is referred to by his real name (Sean Medlock) in the story. 

Ah yes, the Secret Service Department of State is acting all secretive and the story is changing wildly from the actual facts, but when I read this I had to laugh.  

From an email by Sarah Rosetti of the Department of State answering questions from the Daily Caller:

At approximately 7:10 PM last night, a jogger collided with one of the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service’s official vehicles.

The jogger was transported by ambulance to Georgetown University Hospital.

Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to the scene and conducted an investigation. Diplomatic Security has since learned that the jogger was cited for Jaywalking. For further details regarding the investigation, we would refer you to MPD.

I'm betting someone told Sarah he was a "blogger".  Having no idea what a "blogger" might be, she substituted "jogger".  After all it was an accident with a pedestrian and a vehicle, therefore, the pedestrian must have been a "jogger".  There is no such thing as a "blogger"... right? 

Stay tuned for more fun details (well not so fun for Jim Treacher - he has to heal up first).  But so far this has reached farcical levels in the first 12 hours.  I can't wait to see what DSS does next.  Since they managed to involve the press instead of a regular Joe Sixpack, it should be entertaining to see what other coverups Daily Caller gets in response to their RFC's.  (that's Request For Comment for you non-techies out there).  The possibilities are endless.

 

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Pictures - Surprise!

I know I haven't posted any pictures for a while.  I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to work on the few I have taken.  And I have to say I'm a wimp.  When the temps are around 10-20 degrees, I don't want to take off my mittens to take pictures. 

It's also been very very gloomy.  This first pic was taken under some very gloomy skies.  I had to lighten it considerably to make it even worth looking at... even though it's a rock wall and I know how you all love the rock walls.



There has been a little bit of sun off and on when we walk.  Still at that very low angle.  If it wasn't so darn cold, I would have gotten more of these.



The sun is slowly staying out longer and it's moving higher in the sky.  Maybe more pics before long.  We'll see.

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 06:37 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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What Made Me Suddenly Remember This?

No idea - none at all.  Where does this stuff come from and why does it suddenly pop into my head?    It's not like I don't have lots of other things to think about.  Weird.

I had a sudden thought which sent me searching on a Christmas present I got for my son way back in about 1992 or 93.  Of course I found a page about it... (the internet has at least one page about everything)

The Steel Tec Plane

He was about 8 or 9 years old at the time and loved messing about with fiddly little things and building stuff.  I figured it was the perfect project to keep him busy.  And so it was, on and off for a few months. 

One of the few multi-model sets was the 564-piece No. 7130 Mega Sized Planes and Copters set (shown below).

Yes, it was 564 pieces.  When he worked on it, he worked for quite a while, then he'd leave it sit. He never said anything to me about it, I'm guessing it required quite a bit of concentration, so he would work on it in spurts.  He did manage to finish the plane - pretty impressive that he stuck with it.  I figured he'd get bored and not finish it, but I was wrong.

One day my son and his friend (a boy who was a year older) were playing at our house.  His mom stopped by to pick him up.  We were talking and she saw the completed plane. 

She:  Oh I got "S" one of those last Christmas, they're very complicated aren't they!  I had to help him so much I think I did half of it.  Did you have to help your son a lot?

Me: *blink* 

Me:  Um... I didn't help him at all.  Uh... I gave it to him and he took it in his room and worked on it.   I figured it might keep him busy on days he couldn't play outside.  I didn't want him to finish it too fast. 

Her: *blink*  Her really?  Not at all?

I still remember the surprised look on her face.  I don't know if she believed me about the "help" part.  But all I could think was... Help him?  Doesn't that rather defeat the purpose? 

I could be wrong about that.  I looked on it more as a time filler for him that he would like.  It never occurred to me that he wouldn't be able to put it together on his own. I was just hoping the size of the set would keep him busy for about 6 months.  
 
I don't know why but that conversation still makes me laugh. 

It also makes me wonder about how much kids can do when you hand them something and say, "here you go, have fun" and leave them to it.

Then again I was never much of a hovering mom. 

Posted by: Teresa in FUN at 12:59 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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For A Giggle

Go to google.com

Type (or copy/paste) in:

"Where is Chuck Norris"

Click I'm Feeling Lucky

Now - don't you feel better.

Posted by: Teresa in FUN at 02:39 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Some Techie Bits to Finish the Week

Unless you've been completely out of touch this week, you've probably heard that Apple has a new toy soon to be available.  I don't need one, but it would be so fun to have one.  I'm all about the toys.  However, it's always best to wait and let them work out the bugs before dashing out to buy the latest and greatest.  Must be sensible... at least a little bit...

***

Speaking of toys, I have an iPod touch.  I love it.  It does exactly what I want it todo.  I have my contacts and calendar on it also my todo list (Things) and my podcasts, audiobooks, etc.  What do I dislike?  The onscreen keyboard.  I just can't get used to it. However almost everything I use on the iPod can be updated through my connection to my iMac. I try to type in my Mac and sync whenever possible.

Then I have my cell phone the LG Env3 which I use as a phone and a text messenger.  Best thing about it is the 2 different sets of keys - the outside number keypad and the inside qwerty keyboard.  They are excellent.

I have found that division of labor is the best thing in the world.  The batteries on each of these devices last quite a long time.  I LOVE the keyboard on the env3 for texting, I love the screen resolution on the ipod for looking at my calendar, etc. 

All the complaints people have when they try to combine these 2 types of devices - I don't have those problems.  So I carry 2 devices - they're in my purse.  It's not an issue 99.9% of the time.

I used to think I could make all these things work on one device. But the battery life sucked and they were kludgy.  Someone  may eventually get it all to work well together.  In the meantime I'll stick with my separate systems - it works better for me.

***
I really love my iMac.  It has taken some little effort on my part to learn various things about it like keyboard shortcuts, but all in all it's a great machine.   

However, I'm not a fan of the Safari browser.  It doesn't do fonts right for me.  So I use my Firefox browser nearly all the time. There has been the occasional download that doesn't work correctly unless I use Safari (rather like some sites don't like anything except IE).  Since I don't download much it's seldom an issue.

So I have all these bookmarks in FF and I wanted to sync them to Safari (just in case - in case of what I still haven't figured out it just seemed to be a good idea).  I downloaded Xmarks to do this. It did work to sync everything but created a "typing lag" that was driving me nuts. It would sometimes type normally and other times I'd type an entire word... wait.... then it would show up.  So I dumped Xmarks.  Seems to have solved the problem. 

****
Well, I'm off to get thai food for dinner. Then I'm going to have a glass of wine and try to forget this last week which has been a royal pain all the way around. 

I'm going to see if I can actually do some other stuff besides troubleshooting that would be a novelty.  Getting to my blog reading would be even better.  But first - dinner!

Posted by: Teresa in WebTech at 06:21 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Giving Vegans and Vegetarians Everywhere A Bad Name

PETA seems hell bent on making themselves into the butt of all jokes. They have people working overtime in this endeavor. Either that or they have decided "any publicity is good publicity" and "I don't care what you say, just spell my name right".

Today LeeAnn linked to the first PETA related public relations idiocy. Go read it - especially if you need a laugh.

Then blogless friend Mirmie sends this gem.  Yes folks, they have gone completely and utterly insane.

An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.

I know a few vegetarians and vegans.  They seem to be sensible people.  I know people who subsist on a diet of ding dongs and soda.  And others who try not to touch carbs even with a 10 foot pole.  I have no issue with anyone's diet as long as they let me eat what I want to eat.

PETA thinks they know what's best for everyone and they want to be in charge of what you eat.  I wonder what they'd say if I decided I wanted to be in charge and I insisted everyone had to eat steak at least once a day! 

Wouldn't they have a cow over that... so to speak.

If you'll excuse me, in honor of these two delightful media excursions PETA has made today, I'm headed to my kitchen to get a chuck roast cooking in my slow cooker.  It should be an excellent meal.  I'll drink a toast to PETA while I'm eating it and thank them for the reminder that it was time to get dinner started.

Posted by: Teresa in Idiocies at 02:15 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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It's All About the Water - Or Not

The rain is coming...

Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson!

We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground even after several days of mid 30's temps.  It's heavy wet packed snow.

Rain is coming tonight - 1 to 3 inches.  Temps going up to the 50's. 

Warm, rain, frozen ground, melting snow - what could possibly go wrong?

Joy.

Maybe I should stop at DSW and buy rainboots tomorrow so I can wade back into my house.  That's always assuming the house isn't simply washed away.

I think it's too late to build an ark.

Ho-hum.

****

In other news my daughter called tonight to chat for a bit. 
Me: How's your brother?
Her: Oh he's fine, I saw him yesterday, B (his girlfriend) is in Florida.
Me: Florida? 
Her: Yeah, I think she's down there with her mom.
Me: You know, you got the short end of the deal in the mom department.  I never take you places.

***

I think I'll go read now.  It's shaping up to be a very very long 2 days.  If I survive until Wednesday things might slow down a bit. We'll see.  Wednesday is the current goal - just get to Wednesday then we'll worry about the rest of the week.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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They Define the Words - JUST DO IT

Team Rubicon. 

If you want to get things done in Haiti - don't bother with the big organizations - they're all sitting at the airport  along with all their supplies while the Haitians suffer.  Someone told them that it was too dangerous to venture out. 

This is what can be accomplished when you get a bunch of people together who don't know the meaning of the words... "we'll wait til it's safe".

If you have a few dollars to spare, they can use any help.  They can use all your prayers. 

You can follow their progress over at the Team Rubicon blog section at Blackfive. 

Posted by: Teresa in Military at 05:04 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A Couple of Really Cool Things I Ran Across Today

First - if you know someone with diabetes tell them to keep their eyes peeled for this upcoming epic improvement in their daily lives.

Got diabetes? No more pricks, just breathe on this

"Instead of poking your finger to get the blood, you can just breathe into it and measure the glucose in the breath condensate," he said.

That is just so incredibly cool! I hope it's available very very soon. It would dramatically benefit so many people.

Let's hear it for science!

****
Now for something completely different.

Tamron Launches YouTube Series for Newbies

Tamron makes camera lenses for DSLR's. 

If you have a camera - especially a DSLR but I'm guessing even point and shoot users might get some real value from this - go watch the first one. It's a short introduction and looks promising.   I subscribed, you may want to also. 

Happy Friday everyone.

Posted by: Teresa in FUN at 06:44 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Lame, Lame, Lame

Yes I've been so lame on posting lately.  There have been far too many things going on and not enough time to do them.

Major melt downs of things I thought were completed.  Lots and lots of work.

By the time I reach the end of the day I'm too tired to think. 

So, there it is.  I hope things slow down and stop falling apart.  It would be nice to have a break.  If not I just keep working through it until it all gets done. 

Posted by: Teresa in Ho-Hum at 11:24 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I Did My Part

I voted today. Now we await the outcome. 

It's snowing here - again - the roads are slick. Even with my 4WD I had issues on my road.  The polling place is straight up a steep hill. 

By the time I got there (about 10:30am), I was  number 598 on the electronic ballot counter. There were lots more people behind me.  It's not even noon yet!  It was a steady stream of cars headed up the hill. 

There was only one thing on the ballot.  The Senate election. 

That's pretty damned impressive if you ask me.

I'm very happy to see such a terrific turn out.  Nothing is worse than apathy and no voters. 

If you live in MA - have you voted today?

Posted by: Teresa in Politics at 11:32 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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More Travel Stories

Possibly tomorrow. 

I'm off for a one night jaunt to Cleveland again.  Just like last year.  It's some face time - people I work with only over the phone and email - and this, while inconvenient as far as the travel goes, is a good thing. 

Luckily for me I am NOT flying out of Logan this weekend as once again the Prez has decided to grace the city with his presence.  I'm hoping for only a short airspace delay going to the Providence airport rather than the total airport shut down that accompanies AF-1 landing.

We shall see.  It's all blog fodder folks. 

Posted by: Teresa in Travel at 11:15 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Absolutely Positively

My favorite commercial. No matter how many times I see it, I still giggle like mad.



Stolen from LeeAnn who posted it before I did. (mainly because I kept forgetting once I got to my computer)

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Guess We'll Find Out Next Week

If you haven't heard, there's a big election coming up next Tuesday in the State of Massachusetts (or Massachusettes if you happen to be Martha Coakley). 

Here is a little observation from my husband (since he mentioned it the other day, I've been looking too and I have to say I agree with him)...

There are almost no "Coakley for Senate" signs posted in the yards in this area. None on the roads I drive on!  My husband said he passes one house with a sign. One!

To understand how incredible this is, you have to have lived here for a little while.  These people take their signage very seriously.  Every election has them posting signs - usually many signs for the same  person (in case you miss the first 5 or 6).  I have seen anywhere from 5 to 10 signs in the yards of the local Democrats announcing to the world who they want to be elected. 

I have seen Scott Brown signs, but all the usual suspects who had multiple (one might even say prolific) signs out for Deval Patrick and Obama/Biden... their lawns remain silent! 

Does this mean anything?  I have no idea.  It could mean that the Dems will have to come up with quite a few extra dead voters to get Martha elected.  Or it might be that it's just too cold for these peeps to head outside and pitch signs in the snow....

Right...

We'll know soon.  It's certainly interesting.

Posted by: Teresa in Politics at 02:57 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Do I Dare Think - Nearly Back to Normal?

Not sure if I should be cautiously optimistic or if this is the lull before the storm. 

Refrigerator is fixed.  Yay!  Turned out to be the thermostat.  Whew!  I think we've got a few more years before having to decide whether to fix or replace the thing.  It's working now and that's excellent.  The repair man was terrific.  Very professional, had all the stuff he needed, knew exactly what he was looking for, fixed it without complaining about how hard it all was, didn't talk to himself, just did his job and did it well.  Took him 40 minutes to diagnose, pull things apart, fix it, and put it back together.  Most excellent!

After complaining to the eye doctor's office about the prescription change on my contact lenses, they ordered me a new set of the correct strength for my left eye.  It was delivered today (that was fast).  I just had to drive over there (again) and exchange my 4 boxes for their 4 boxes.  That will be the last time I think.  I'll be looking for a new eye doc for next time.

The heater is still working.  We decided to hold off calling the repair guy to come back and fix that annoying noise when the blower starts up until my husband can look at it.  It may be something he can easily fix.  In the meantime, the heater is working - that's the important thing. 

We have yet to hear from the window people. They were all gung-ho when my husband first called. Then... nothing.  He'll try calling them one more time. He can't wait to say "Remember me?  I called you at Thanksgiving!".   After that I guess we'll go looking for other window repair companies.

Now I'm just tired.  Time to step away from the computer and give the eyes a rest. 

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 10:22 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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So Where Did I Leave Off? [updated]

Oh yeah, last Wednesday... that was before the heater decided to stop.  Called the oil company who sent out someone right away.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be the circuit board and he didn't have one.  So he hard wired the thing.  That meant we had to use a manual switch to turn the furnace off and on.  New guy got here on Friday and replaced the board.  Now it buzzes every time the blower starts.  Guess I'll have to call them again tomorrow.  Oh joy.

***
UPDATE: Well, after a phone call, it turns out that the eye doctor herself wrote the prescription the same for both eyes... right after telling me that nothing had changed.  Sheesh.

The scripts are close in strength, but not quite the same.  The office lady suggested that was how it was supposed to be so I tried it.  I've got a pair of the lenses in and I'm feeling seasick.  I can NOT do monovision (which is one eye not corrected quite to the level of the other eye) so everything looks off to me.  I called and requested that they please change the contacts back to the previous prescription - I can't deal with this!  Good Grief!

***

Tomorrow will also be the day that I go back to the eye doctor's office.  The office staff have finally done it - pushed me past being understanding about mistakes. 

Last year it was the 4 extra visits to get a new pair of glasses.  They would call and say "your new glasses are here, you can come pick them up!" I'd drive all the way over only to be told "oh sorry, they're defective, we'll have to send them back".  Since the defect was on the lens itself and was easily seen, I was not happy to find they made me come all the way over to the office (about a 10 mile trip) before even checking the glasses - especially after the first time it happened. 

This year they gave me an appointment on January 4th. When I arrived I was greated with "We never do Monday appointments, yours is tomorrow, January 5th."  Got to the appointment Tuesday (which apparently suited them), eye exam done, new contact lenses ordered.  They arrived yesterday.

Today I opened them...  They ordered 2 years worth of lenses for the right eye instead of 1 year of lenses for each eye. (my eyes are not the same prescription)  Now I'll have to drive back over there, return half the boxes and have them reorder a set for my left eye. 

In the meantime I have no contact lenses to wear and I'm stuck with glasses.  I think I'll be looking for a new eye doctor.  As nice as the doctor is, I can't take the staff incompetence any more.

***

As an extra special way to top off the weekend,  I got home from the grocery store today to find that the refrigerator compressor has now died.  Therefore I will be calling the refrigerator repair guy to get him out here and see how much that will cost to fix. 

Luckily I don't keep much food in the refrigerator.  I was able to move the major portion to the small bar refrigerator we have downstairs.  The freezer is still working but if it had died we could always put the frozen food outside where it's well below freezing.

***

We're still waiting for the window repair guys to get out here and put new glass in the basement window. 

It's just a thrill a minute here.  Stay tuned to find out what else might collapse.  The possibilities are endless. 

Posted by: Teresa in Ho-Hum at 11:59 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Looking Forward to the Beachfront Property

I think I need to really start fighting these eco-friendly people who want to stop Glowball Warmening. 

We are up high, we are about 40 miles from the coast.  We are at just the right place to end up with lovely beach front property if we can get all the polar icecaps to melt!   My property values would increase exponentially. 

I have been inviting my southern friends to head on up here where it's warmer.  I'd like to be able to offer them some beachfront sunbathing.  That would be a very nice treat for them after all the frigid cold they've been dealing with. 

Let's stop these "eco-friendly" people.  I don't find them friendly at all.  They are trying to make my life colder and more dreary. 

So here's the deal... bury the signs. 



Bury them deep.  We don't want others jumping on that ridiculous bandwagon. 

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 02:43 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Monday

A little bit more than half way through the day and there are already several people I'd like to strangle.  However, tops on my list... the Optometrist office person.

A few weeks ago I called and said - hey I need an appointment I'm almost out of contact lenses and that means it's time to see the Doctor.

She gave me 2 options.  January 4th or January 17th.  Okay - fine.  I chose January 4th because I was out of lenses (they never give me enough to cover the year which is annoying just by itself).

This morning I get up extra early, get out the door, get my Starbucks, then head to their office. I walk in only to find...

"Oh we don't ever do appointments on Monday, you are booked for tomorrow."

I bit my tongue and didn't yell.  I have no idea if she was the one who did the appointment or if it was someone else.  However, my note that I am entering in my calendar for next year will say... "repeat the date and time (while sitting at my computer entering it directly into the online calendar) but also confirm the DAY with the moron making the appointments!". 

Good Grief.  As if I have time to waste driving back and forth to this place. 

Last year I had to go back and forth 4 times just to pick up  a pair of glasses.  You would think that after the 2nd time the glasses had a problem they would have checked them out before calling to tell me they were ready to go... but no.  I had to go over there each time to find out that there were flaws in the lenses from the factory and they would need to be sent back.  The last time they called, I asked them to check specifically and tell me the lenses were fine before I went out.

And this is only the minor issue of the day. Sheesh!

Posted by: Teresa in Ho-Hum at 02:02 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Retrospective

I started this post several times.  This is the best I can manage so it will have to do.  It's not in-depth, merely a surface look.   Some people are really great at this type of writing (see Bou's post linked below) - I am not one of them.

****

If you stop to think about it (which I seldom do) quite a few things happen in 10 years.  Bou has a post with a recap of her life in the 2000's. 

Wow!

I'm not even going to attempt something similar.  There are a couple things that occurred in the past 10 years that I simply do not want to revisit in writing - I don't even like to revisit them in my head.

Therefore, I'll stick with some quick highlights of good things that happened in the preceding decade.  Let's see if I can sum up 10 years in a few sentences. 

Daughter graduated from college, is gainfully employed, lots and lots of friends, and has a terrific place to live.  One can hardly ask anything better. 

Son graduated from high school, joined the Army (saw quite a bit of the world from on high in a Chinook), is now in college, has a part time job, and a lovely girlfriend.

They've done well and they are terrific people. That's a wonderful thing to be able to say. 

Husband was employed, laid off, finished his Master's degree, found a new job. (we breathe a sigh of relief!)

I have been employed, took up blogging (almost 6 years ago) and later photography (this earned me the title of Stone Wall Czar).

My husband and I moved half way across the country 4 years ago which has been a fun and interesting change of pace.

I've met many a blogger - just check my sidebar.  People I would never have met before the internet came along and brought them into my life.  They have all made the world around me so much better.  Some have become very close friends - that's a wonderful marvelous thing. 

To sum it up in a single sentence... Life has been pretty great.

Let's hope the next ten years are even better. 

Posted by: Teresa in Life Stuff at 12:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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