In the comments to the previous post there is some discussion of tracking by google. Thoughts of which tend to make me feel extremely paranoid.

Then I remembered this post from Ars Technica the other day.

Google already knows you're a 24-year old woman who loves wombats

And I checked to see what google thinks of me...

Your categories and demographics

No interest or demographic categories are associated with your ads preferences so far. You can add or edit interests and demographics at any time.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 12:51 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 141 words, total size 1 kb.

Over the weekend I upgraded my Mac from the Snow Leopard OS to Lion.  Then upgraded Mobile Me to iCloud. 

The only reason I did this is because Mobile Me is going away in June.  I didn't want to make the move until the initial uproar had died down, but didn't want to wait until the stragglers were doing a last minute switch.  I figured the middle of January would be a good time.

Luckily Don McAllister of Screencasts Online made a couple of tutorials to make things smoother for the rest of us.  I made 3 backups of my system, downloaded the Lion app from the App store. Made a copy of that and saved it to a separate drive, then installed. 

It all went so well I've been rather dazed.  Not only that, but my machine is behaving much better under Lion.  I think all the applications, with the "Lion ready" updates, didn't work so well in Snow Leopard anymore.

Of course the downside was the upgrade to iCloud.  It sucked.  Apple tells you to sign in with your Appleid.  This is okay if you are new to Apple and have no Mobile Me stuff.

If you have Mobile Me already DO NOT DO IT!  DO NOT!!!  Sign in using your Mobile Me account - trust me you will be very glad you did!

That was my big mistake.  My appleid and my mobile-meid were two different things.  I had to sit through about 3 hours of chat with an Apple Mobile-Me person to get it straight.  They knew what they were doing, but OMG it all takes forever on chat!  I got the 2 id's combined and it's all working finally! 

I have yet to see if Lion will continue to play nice... iCloud too for that matter.  I had no documents on Mobile Me so I think that works greatly in my favor. Many people had issues with disappearing documents. 

So I've now gone through the painful process. It's nearly as bad as when a computer dies and you have to get a new one.  It's why I wait as long as I think I can before doing anything. 

Let's hope that's it for a while. Whew!

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 03:26 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Okay so it's been about a week since I posted something.  And then I realized I don't have anything much to say even after a week.

I totally missed some sort of debate last night because really... who wants to voluntarily watch a bunch of idiots blowing hot air? 

I haven't had time to take any pictures lately or even look at those I took a while back.  Then again I have such a low attention threshold I almost never feel like going back and working on photos I took longer ago than last week.

I picked up flipboard for my iphone.  I can't decide if I like it or not. I haven't created an account because they won't let me do it on my big computer and I'm too lazy to try doing it on my iphone with the tiny keyboard.  So I open it and flip through the stories hoping something really interesting will be included.  So far nothing has really grabbed me.  I've seen other people tweeting how much they love it so I must be doing something wrong. heh.

After a conversation I had earlier today I keep thinking I really really need to write a book titled: A Geek's Guide  Do-it-yourself computer security for people who think nothing will ever happen to them. The prospect is daunting though and I don't know where to start.  Oh my.

Okay I need to get back to writing some code. I think I've procrastinated long enough.  Have a nice weekend.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 05:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Saw this tweet go out today via Twitter Support:

Some users are unable to upload a new #avatar. We're aware of the issue & working to fix it.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 01:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Tonight I am tired of computers. 

After setting up a server today and trying to set up access controls (the user can only do certain things and nothing else) I was wishing I could just tell the friggin' computer "this is what I want to let them do - nothing else - got it?"  At which point it would do all the nitpicky work and I'd be finished.

But then I realized as soon as we can tell computers this stuff, someone will figure out a way to tell the computer a long story, instead of giving it a command... something like Little Red Riding Hood... then they'd say "command shell". Then they would own your computer.  I call it Future Buffer Overflow.

I know this little post will lose me the last 3 readers who persist in reading... heh.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 06:16 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Still here. Grin.

Posted by: cin at December 02, 2011 10:09 PM (DBAeF)

2 Me too!

Posted by: Mary at December 03, 2011 12:49 AM (/5Cnu)

3 I came here because I bought Trey Ratcliff's HDR course. Poking around in the forums, I found some of your posts, followed your links and liked what I saw.
I don't plan on going anywhere.
In the meantime, however, I like the concept of trying to give the computer more information than it can handle vis-à-vis voice to voice recognition software to create a buffer overrun. It's the makings of a great short story or maybe even a Leverage plot.

Posted by: ProfessorTom at December 03, 2011 09:28 AM (soZ5a)

4 Hi Ladies... can't believe you persist in reading when I've been so neglectful lately. LOL.

Welcome Professor Tom.  I used to post quite a few photos but then I got busy working and all that has been kicked to the curb for a bit. Not sure exactly where my time is going but it does seem to be gone for the most part and I haven't had much time to do anything with pictures - which is rather sad.  I hope I can get going again soon. 

Posted by: Teresa at December 03, 2011 11:43 AM (jxg4K)

5 I like your nerd-posts. Also, I come here for the waters.

[Renault: "The waters ? What waters? We're in the desert."
Rick: "I was misinformed."]

Snort.

Posted by: sheri at December 04, 2011 06:29 AM (7FREh)

6 I hope the waters are very um... watery. LOL.

Posted by: Teresa at December 05, 2011 01:20 PM (jxg4K)

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Saw this headline today:

Mass. Gov. Patrick aims to lower unemployment

And my first thought was... so he's going to shoot the unemployed because that would certainly lower the unemployment rate. 

I blame The Bloggess.  I read this and laughed so I am certainly going to hell.  Then I read a bunch of the comments which made me laugh even more (especially #25 about Pittsburgh).  So what do you expect when I then see the headline above... it's all in how you look at things.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 02:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I follow Car Talk on facebook. They posted a link to this article from Cars.com

Study: Women More Likely to be Injured in Car Accidents

Here's the bit at the end that I found baffling...

Still, if you’re operating vehicle without advanced airbags, it’s important to take into account the heightened risk of injury if you are a female driver.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 12:43 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Y'all thought I was kidding...

Check it out.

Doesn't look ready for prime time, but that never stopped anyone.  heh.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 09:41 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 I didn't think you were kidding.  I'm still trying to figure out if the iCloud is secure or if I should continue backing up to my computer... LOL!

Posted by: pam at October 23, 2011 07:57 AM (VZULe)

2 My advice - if you have a computer backup for your system that is working... keep backing up your i-device to your computer.  At the moment iCloud does not offer a way to back up to both your desktop and iCloud at the same time.  At this point it's not the security that is at issue, it's the reliability of iCloud that has not been proven over time. 

If you think you can remember to do it (aka give yourself periodic reminders) you can backup to iCloud and periodically plug in and do a manual backup to your own computer... but how many people remember to do that? 

Add to this you only get 5GB free storage and that may be the deal breaker for many right now.  I'm in wait and see mode for much of these changes.

Posted by: Teresa at October 23, 2011 11:18 AM (jxg4K)

3 Seriously...the only way to save your stuff is to back it up to a device that you can unplug or unload, and put in your pocket, and walk away with it. Might have to put it in your "pack", but at least you've got it.  I would never depend on the "Cloud", whatever the flavor...also, 5 GB is nothing. You put your stuff out there, and someone / sometime will read it.

The only people who remember to do backups, are the ones that have lost everything before. Kinda like experiencing a house fire.

If people believe their data is "secure" in the "Cloud", they're crazy. Once you put it out there, it's there forever.

If people can't remember to do local backups, they shouldn't have a computer. Just schedule 'em for the middle of the night might work, ya think?

Just sayin'.

Posted by: Yabu at October 23, 2011 03:40 PM (k2zTG)

4 Well, the way to really backup well is the 3-2-1 rule.  The data must live in 3 places. Two of those places must be off the main computer and one of those places must be offsite.  So, you would have

-- your original data on your computer. 
-- a backup hard drive that lives on your desktop or closet
-- an offsite backup either to an encrypted cloud storage or a hard drive you have moved to someplace like a bank, or your office or a friend's place.

One copy is not a backup - hard drives fail far too easily and so do CD burns and that kind of thing.  The local backup copy is there for ease of use - it's right there... but if your house burns down or someone breaks in and steals your stuff or if there's a tornado, flood, what have you... that last backup offsite is your insurance that you can get your data back. 

Most good backup services offer you the ability to encrypt your data before it's ever uploaded.  They also tell you if you lose your password, you won't be getting your data back because they can not decrypt it for you.  I use Crash Plan - I like them.

Posted by: Teresa at October 23, 2011 07:48 PM (jxg4K)

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We were down in Boston over the weekend. Got 2 days of sailing in and stayed in the city on Saturday. Might be the last 2 days of sailing this season, so we didn't want to miss the great weather.

We knew about the protestors, we even saw one of them walking along with his sign (although not holding it up since he wasn't with a group). Little did we know there was also a movie being filmed (RIPD). And since it was a holiday weekend there was also a parade. Whew! Add the warm weather and you can see why we were happy to get out on the water and away from the crazy.

I have pics that I haven't uploaded yet.  They aren't very good since they're iphone. Some might be interesting.

The movie seemed to have taken over everything in our part of the city.  I didn't see any of the "stars". This was a good thing as far as I was concerned because there were too many fans hanging around waiting to see their idols. All we wanted was to find a way around the closed streets... get to the hotel, get to Starbucks. It was annoying mostly.

I have never seen so much large equipment all in one place when they aren't trying to fix a road or build something. Blocks and blocks of semis with equipment, all kinds of cranes, lights, fans... they trucked in everything. There were security guards all over, every corner you'd be able to trip over at least one usually more. I was wondering why they were around since they appeared to be more concerned with chatting on phones or talking with friends who stopped by than actually watching anything. I should look into a gig like that.

There are many many many many extra people milling about a movie set. The primary activity appeared to be (once again) standing around and talking. If they all get credited at the end, no wonder it takes 15 minutes just to show all the names. There should be a category called "Best Conversationalist".

Luckily sailing was great. The restaurants and most of the bars were great. The exception was the hotel bar. It had reserved tables... spend level was minimum $60... Okayfine. We left and went down the street to another bar for a last drink. Maybe they made some money on the reserves... maybe the big stars came in later. All we wanted was a last drink and a place to sit. We found it. I mentioned this since the hotel insisted on sending me one of those surveys (how tiresome those are)... I told them it would have been nice if the table charge had been mentioned when the bar was being presented as a place to go at the hotel... I'm guessing nothing will come of that.

In the meantime... speaking of movies. It seems the Zombies are trying to make sure Brad Pitt's new movie does not get filmed.

Police seize weapons from Brad Pitt film

Personally I figured the police were annoyed because the film crew wouldn't let them talk too...

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 09:41 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Here were a few things I was noticing while waiting for our flights.  I can't help but write them down because it's fun.

-- OMG geeky guy next to me in geeky deep philosophical coding conversation on phone. Let me gag him!

-- If I ever wear big white tennies to travel my husband has instructions to shoot me.

-- Geeky guy just exclaimed "Gate 19!" hung up on his friend, jumped out of his seat, walked off leaving his computer, half eaten sandwich, and bags to check gate change. Wow.

-- Why is there always one person who won't sit down when we're trying to get going? Why?

-- No kids on this flight. I'm sure that's a first ever!

-- Southwest has much nicer terminal areas than United. Much.

-- What is with people just stopping either directly after walking off the jetway or in the middle of the main walking corridor blocking traffic when they exit the plane? Idiots.

-- Pilot talking on intercom. Sound is so bad we can't begin to hear him. So what's the point?  I guess this means we'll be landing soon. Excellent.

-- Woman in front of me has fully reclined her seat but keeps tossing about on it like she can't find a comfortable position. Waiting for the seat back to collapse onto my lap.  It's only a 2 hour flight - not an all-nighter!

And thus some of the thoughts that flitter through my head become an eventual blog post. 

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 09:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 That one person who won't sit down? Oh yeah, I know who you mean. What gets me is they STILL don't sit the hell down even when the flight attendant comes on the PA 2-3 times, "Please be seated so we can leave on time." Hint? Ya think? GAH. Those people infuriate me. They need clues, and badly.

Same with the people who stop and block traffic in the jetway, or decide to have a big ole pow-wow with family members at the bottom of the escalator. Grrrr.

Seat reclining idiots. Like it's SO much more comfy to recline that extra 2 degrees? I keep thinking the seat-reclining idiots will realize that no one else is reclining and feel guilty about doing it. But there's always that ONE seat-reclining idiot, and yes, he/she is always right in front of me. I usually scream loudly when they first recline, hoping they'll realize they just clocked my kneecaps. "AAHHHHHHGGGGH!" I go. All dramatic-like. Sometimes it gets their attention, but they don't "care." Because they are "selfish" idiots. I just hope karma gets 'em.

Well, thanks T, for getting my BP up with this post. Heh.

Posted by: sheri at September 28, 2011 06:12 AM (7FREh)

2 LOL - well, didn't really mean to get the BP into the stratosphere.  I do like blogging the oddities of travel though.  Irritating but fun stuff. 

Posted by: Teresa at September 28, 2011 08:59 PM (jxg4K)

3 Two things:
1- United, in addition to not having awesomer terminals than Southwest, also breaks guitars. I've always had crappy luck with air travel. Either the luggage is lost, or the flight's delayed. It's always something. United and El Al (natch) are the only two airlines that have not screwed me up, down and every which way.
2- A dooshbag seat reclining / Hairboy story: We flew together once, from EWR to SAT, for a blogmeet and, while we were sitting in the Continental terminal making small talk, it came up in conversation that whenever he flies, without fail, the plane's one seat reclining dooshbag always manages to sit in front of him. Whatever. I didn't think anything of it. So there we are, on the plane, and within 30 seconds after takeoff -- bam! -- the seat in front of him goes down, right up against his knees, and the face he made: priceless.
Personally, I prefer sitting upright. Then again, I prefer not flying at all, but one does what they have to do.

Posted by: Erica at September 28, 2011 11:31 PM (PY2l4)

4 Waaaah...I don't know how to make HTML hard returns.

Posted by: Erica at September 28, 2011 11:32 PM (PY2l4)

5 Southwest Flight Attendant: "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, take a seat we gotta go". They (SW) got sued over that one. Unbelievable.

Posted by: Yabu at September 29, 2011 08:18 AM (qX1hg)

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About once a year or so reporters feel obligated to tell us how technology will ruin our lives. This time, it's the "smartphone".

Sleep with your iPhone? You're not alone

While smartphone users worry about mobile hacking and other security threats that are making news these days, psychologists and others are concerned about another equally troubling issue: the growing obsession among people who would much rather interact with their smartphones than with other human beings.

For some, the anxious feeling that they might miss something has caused them to slumber next to their smartphones. More than a third of U.S. adults -- 35 percent -- now own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center, and two-thirds of them sleep with their phones right next to their beds.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 12:46 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 We finally lost the landline tech altogether, and have only a cell phone for the "home" phone. I mounted a little pocket on the kitchen wall over the attachment plate for the old phone, and hung the cell there. I still don't want it in my bedroom.

Posted by: Rev. Paul at July 27, 2011 02:27 PM (0DZhf)

2 We have always had a landline in our bedroom. In the middle of the night it's better than stumbling around the house trying to get to the phone.  Because you KNOW if it rings then, it's an emergency. Like when my dad was taken to the hospital and they couldn't get hold of my sister. 

Now, I bring my cell up there, turn off the sound, and lay it face down for the night.  It's a secondary emergency device if the landline is down or out, I can always text or call if I need to. 

I don't ever look at anything on the phone when I'm in my bedroom, just have it handy for if it's needed. If it was my only line, I'd leave the sound on for phone, but turn off all other sounds.  But that's just me. heh.

Posted by: Teresa at July 27, 2011 02:49 PM (xE2iU)

3 I sleep with my iPhone, of course.  It's my alarm, music to fall asleep to, Netflix if I want to take in a show while getting ready for bed...  but I rarely check my email for Facebook.  Okay... rarely means sometimes, but there's no related anxiety.

Dadgum researchers.

Posted by: pam at July 27, 2011 04:52 PM (i3Kno)

4 iPhone next to the bed, sound off, face down. Yep. Landline is still there but the only time it "rings" it's telemarketers and other "loosers." And the "ring" is "silent." I'm running out of "sneer" quotes so I'm leaving "now."

Posted by: sheri at July 27, 2011 05:21 PM (Dlmrk)

5 I dropped my land line about five years ago...didn't need it anymore. I put my iPhone in my bedroom at night, sometimes, turned way down, just in case I need to call 911 to report I've just killed an intruder. Stretch is the ultimate alarm. Nothing gets past him, and I mean nothing. Heck, he hears the mailman four blocks away. Also, no way you can oversleep when you're sleeping with a dog.

It is turned way down because, generally, the only calls I receive in the middle of the night are from drunk dialing friends. I'll return the call tomorrow, if you know what I mean.

The way I see it, not much I could do about an emergency until morning anyway. Most of my people live out-of-town.

Posted by: Yabu at July 28, 2011 07:47 AM (ezDPm)

6 Yabu, since I have kids who live in a different city - last thing I want is to wait until morning to find out there was a emergency...  Even if I couldn't be right there, I'd be making plans to get out of Dodge on the first flight headed that way...

Otherwise I think the story should have ended with

Get off my lawn! 

It would then be perfect.

Posted by: Teresa at July 28, 2011 01:58 PM (xE2iU)

7 I hear you and completely understand. When my phone goes off in the middle of the night...I always hope it's a drunk dialer. What did people do before the latest and greatest communications?

Down here we say, "get outta my yard", just so you know, ain't no lawns down here, just yards. Bwahahahahahah!

I truly understand...gotta answer the call, unless the display says "Drunk Dialer".

Seriously, when my phone, or the Juju Woman's phone "rings" in the middle of the night, it tightens us up. I received a call a couple of weeks ago from the drunk dialer only to be told that a good friend of mine who lives in a different city had taken his own life. That's another story. Could it have waited to morning? No. We were packed and ready to leave as soon as possible.

I'm getting better at it, but the problem I have is remembering to put my cell on the bedside table. Gotta answer all of 'em.

Posted by: Yabu at July 29, 2011 09:46 AM (ezDPm)

8 Luckily I don't get too much by way of drunk dialing calls.     So when the phone does ring of course panic is the first thing that happens.

So sorry about your friend.  There's nothing worse than getting that kind of news. *sigh*

Posted by: Teresa at July 29, 2011 01:08 PM (xE2iU)

9 I kicked the phone out of the bedroom years ago.

Talking is simply not what that room is for.

Posted by: Harvey at July 30, 2011 07:51 AM (pTueD)

10 I have a landline for those awful 5AM phone calls we get when something goes sideways.  My husband keeps his cell on his dresser plugged in and on... the answering service calls that line when he has an emergency.  My phone I turn off and plug in to charge every night in the kitchen.  I need time to decompress...

Posted by: Bou at July 30, 2011 08:52 PM (NZHwq)

11 Bou - those are the calls we all dread, but have to leave the phone on to receive.  *sigh*

Posted by: Teresa at August 01, 2011 09:53 PM (xE2iU)

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Seen on the intarwebs:

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 02:29 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm not sure what time it starts... no one told me. No mention of timezones either. But the rapture is nearly upon us.

So are you headed to the Pearly Gates? If so the TSA is already ahead of you

@TSAgov Agent Smith In case of a Saturday rapture, please form a single-file line in front of the Pearly Gates for your security check.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 10:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Cute. 

At least those of us left behind will have more job opportunities...

Posted by: pam at May 21, 2011 11:20 AM (i3Kno)

2 Do I still have time to get my nails did?

Posted by: Kim at May 21, 2011 02:12 PM (DRr3p)

3 Pam - very true - at least if you believe all these people who think they'll be chosen

Kim - I'd go for it.  This rapture thing seems to be taking its time...

Posted by: Teresa at May 21, 2011 03:08 PM (xE2iU)

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It's about 4 days between blog posts.

So what's new? How are ya?

Me? Just dandy.

My excitement for the week was reporting my SBUX card missing. Right after I got the email saying they were sending the new one, I found the card. Naturally. I have no recollection of putting it in with the paper money. I have never done that before. Weird.

Speaking of SBUX - I don't know what it is lately, but it seems every day for the last couple of weeks I've gotten in line behind a person reluctant to advance to the register. You know the ones - they leave a HUGE gap between themselves and the person in front of them so you have no idea if they are even in line. I want to take my shoulder and shove them forward.

We did go walking over the weekend. It's on my todo list to upload the pictures tomorrow. I had to spread things out so I can relax a bit.

That's about it for now. Time to get off the computer. I leave you with a pic of a tree with a fuzzy trunk.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 10:37 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Our house has a finished basement. I work down there... or maybe I should say here since I am sitting in the room itself as I type this.  The room (formerly a bedroom for the previous owner's son) has a bathroom attached - en suite if you watch House Hunters International - heh.  The bathroom is an inside room, no walls against the outside of the house.  One wall borders the walk in closet for the room, the other 2 walls border the unfinished part of the basement where the heater lives. 

It's not a large room, toilet, sink with some good counter space, a shower (no tub), and a linen closet.  There is a small rug in front of the sink area. 

I mention the rug because the rug is the first problem I noticed. 

I walked into the bathroom yesterday morning and the rug was laying at an angle in front of the toilet.

Odd.

I knew I hadn't moved it. I figured my husband had for some reason although I couldn't imagine why.  I bent down to pick it up and it was soaking wet.  Wet like someone had taken a pitcher of water and upended it on the rug.  Of course I started looking around.  There was no sign the water had overflowed the toilet. I looked under the sink. The floor of the cabinet was completely dry. I looked around the edges of the sink cabinet.  No sign the water had come out from under the cabinet, the wood was dry.

Freaky. 

That evening I told my husband what happened.  He grabbed a flashlight and headed into the bathroom to look around. He saw no problem with the plumbing on the back of the toilet, no sign either that the sink was leaking. The walls all looked dry and unstained.  Then he looked in the shower. It never occurred to me to look there since there's tray with about a 4 inch edge - how could water get from the shower to the floor?   It didn't seem probable.

Wrong?

Or maybe not. There was a small puddle in the shower and the drain cover was askew... except we don't use that shower so where did the water come from? Why had the drain cover moved?   Then he looked in the linen closet and found the entire floor wet.  I never even thought to look in there. 

The rag bag and a couple bags with old bed linens reside on the floor there.  I pulled them out.  Got rid of the dead bugs that had accumulated since I last cleaned it and got to work getting it washed and dried again.  There's a drain clean out down there, but no sign of leaking around it.

In the meantime my husband checked the unfinished part of the basement.  Along the wall, between the shower and the sink, water had leaked out of the bathroom. 

But where did the water come from?  How did it get there?  It had to have happened over night. My husband suspects somehow water backed up into the shower due to a clog which eventually gave way.  He looked closer at the shower drain. It's very possible the drain around the shower leaks.  Since we don't use that shower, we'd never know it.

I suspect our water treatment system did it's weekly back wash, which it does about once a week in the middle of the night, and that's where the water came from.  It backed up into the shower tray and leaked around the drain, soaking the floor.  I might be wrong about that, but it's a theory.

Still... not being 100% sure, it's very unsettling.  We've had many past experiences with water in basements - none of them good.   Because we aren't sure what is going on, we will await events.  If it happens again we'll have to bring in a plumber.

I'm not optimistic.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:23 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 As Scooby Doo would say, "Ruh-roh!"

Good luck.

Posted by: Jack at April 15, 2011 10:21 AM (VpPTf)

2 Ha! Yes he would say that. So far no new mystery water... stay tuned.

Posted by: Teresa at April 15, 2011 03:20 PM (xE2iU)

3 How very odd.  Hope you find the cause, because that's the sort of thing that can keep one awake at night... or maybe just me...

Posted by: pam at April 15, 2011 04:05 PM (i3Kno)

4 LOL - the threat of water anywhere in the house really does keep us awake at night. We've already had a house that flooded twice so it's not something we disregard. OTOH so far so good... we'll just hope now.

Posted by: Teresa at April 15, 2011 09:15 PM (xE2iU)

5 I've gone through the mystery water before...gotta find the source. Easier said than done. 

Posted by: Yabu at April 18, 2011 08:33 AM (RDdNW)

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So I went to get my hair done today.  As usual, while waiting for the chemicals to do their cookery on my head (and very likely leach the life from whatever few brain cells I still retain), I sat down to read.  This time I brought my Kindle, yay I remembered my Kindle before walking out the door!  Most of the time I forget to bring it. Thus I end up looking in fascinated horror at the magazines available which consist of things like "People", "Us", "Okay", "Vogue","O", and on and on.  I marvel at the fact that people will actually spend money on them and I marvel even more at the fact that people read them.  Scary.  I look at the pictures and that's enough to freak me out until my next visit.

But I digress.

I was sitting at a table, looking like a radio antenna or some other type of weird receiver with all the aluminum foil on my head, and trying to read.  Unfortunately there was a stylist with her chair close to the table.  She and her client were talking away like mad (perfectly normal).   The problem is trying to concentrate on reading when 2 people right next to you are talking.  Not possible for me.

Then I started thinking of how often the conversations are about dire medical problems. The discussions are detailed and surprisingly graphic as one woman tries to outdo the other.  I have come to the conclusion this is a type of therapy for people. Rather on the cheap side if you think of the cost of seeing a therapist. A bit freaky when you think of how much information people are spewing to the world at large.  The only thing worse is when the lone male "stylist" talks politics with his men customers.  I loathe listening to half baked political theory. I loathe it even more when I can't escape.  I want to walk up to him and ask if I can switch him to the sports station. 

However, I do have a suggestion for the upcoming holiday season.  If you are at a loss as to what to write in your Christmas letter, just head over to your nearest salon.  Do some sort of hair treatment that will tie you down there for about 3 hours.  Take notes.  Instant Christmas letter guaranteed to be remembered by all your family and friends for years to come.

Just sayin...

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 05:13 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 I envy your ability to notice & remember such events. We all have them, but most of us dismiss them a.s.a.p. You capture the essence & annoyance factor so well.

Christmas letter ... heh.

Posted by: Rev. Paul at April 08, 2011 06:31 PM (y+0ce)

2 I know exactly what you mean... of course.  And since I'm due for another cut/highlights session soon, I too will once again be privy to the intimate details of strangers lives.  It's odd but at the same time comforting... there's a sense of family in shared pain, whether it originates from emotions or gallbladders.  I look around the salon and feel that we're all sisters... somehow.

The magazines?  Haven't bought more than 10 since my Cosmo subscription in the 80's.  I wanted ALL the secrets to womanhood! What's sad is that I thought they might have them. 

Posted by: pam at April 09, 2011 09:20 AM (i3Kno)

3 Pam - I'm tellin ya... take notes. At the very least there is a blog post.

Posted by: Teresa at April 09, 2011 10:47 AM (xE2iU)

4 I absolutely cannot imagine staying in a barber shop for three hours...unless I was drinking shots of whiskey. 

Posted by: Yabu at April 10, 2011 08:48 AM (RDdNW)

5 Yabu - I happen to think barber shops are vastly more entertaining than salons. I sat in my share when my son was young since he needed a haircut about every 3 weeks. Far better conversation. LOL.

Posted by: Teresa at April 10, 2011 10:20 PM (xE2iU)

6 I need to start getting my hair done. Blog fodder from other than the CardHole and Monkey would be nicely diverse.  Plus my hair looks like ass right now.
Re: the magazines... I put up in the display racks yesterday SIX big boxes of the suckers. Most of them "How to Be Gorgeous/ Bake the Perfect Pie/ Make a Quilt Out Of Old Hobo Bits/" and "See This Car? If You Had It, Girls Would Believe Your Penis Is Huge"  type magazines.

Posted by: LeeAnn at April 11, 2011 07:26 AM (dioqO)

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No wonder they’re in trouble… the Wisconsin Dems on the lam.

I mean really. They don’t want to vote on something so not only do they run away on a bus (a bus? seriously???) but then, in an even more mystifyingly idiotic move, they head to Rockford, IL of all places!!! Not that there’s anything wrong with Rockford, but damn… at least head to Chicago where you could make a long weekend of it and even look mildly sophisticated.

The entire demonstration is a #FAIL. They not only look like recalcitrant children, but dull unimaginative children at that. Thanks for the laugh guys.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 06:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Wow! Just what I always wanted… a facebook phone.

Right… I’ll run right out and buy one.

Or not.

Today at Mobile World Congress, HTC unveiled two new smartphones that will feature dedicated Facebook buttons for easy access to the popular social-networking site.

Yep. Now you too can have a phone with a dedicated button just for facebook. And it will “gently” remind you so you don’t forget to post those status updates.

Um… alrighty then.

If we were back in the mid 90’s I would have been just as bewildered if a cell phone company put out an AOL phone. But that’s just me.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:08 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This was bound to happen at some point. For that matter I'm betting it's happened to others but hasn't been caught yet.

Immigration Officer Sacked for Putting Wife He Didn't Like on Terror Watch List

An immigration officer put his own wife on a terrorist watch list – ­so she could not get home from a trip to Pakistan.

Even though the article gets all angsty about her waiting 3 years, I'm pretty sure she figured out he was jerking her chain after the first couple of days.

So how did he get caught?

The officer was caught out when bosses vetted him after he went for a promotion that required him to have a higher level of security clearance. They realised his wife was on the watch list and asked him for an explanation. ­He had no choice but to confess what he had done – and was fired.

Yes, a real bright boy. Just the kind you want in charge of your country's security. So you have to wonder, is our own Homeland Security any better? Who does watch the watchers?

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:16 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Just been pretty busy with a big meeting and work and email and... well, you get it.  Today I finished filing all the paper laying around in my office closet.  Scanned in some docs I wanted to be sure I had online copies of (I know shouldn't end a sentence like that but I don't really care today - heh). 

Then I got to looking at home office furniture. A most frustrating pastime for me. No one ever makes what I have in mind.  It amazes me that so many makers of office desks assume you have one computer... what if you have two?  Like I do?  Then what? 

I hate hutches - they are never proportioned the way I might need them to be - not to mention that a hutch would not work at all in my office.

I'm currently using a curved Ikea corner computer table.  It has no drawers and that's is an annoyance (always has been).  I've had this stuff for over 10 years.  I would be happy to change it if I could find something else I liked... but so far no go. 

Oh well. Time to end a pointless post that just says "here I am". 

Off to watch the Super Bowl.  Can't wait for the commercials!

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 05:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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