Honesty

I stole this idea from One Wink and thought it was an interesting exercise. The idea is that you write down ten things that are honest statements addressed to ten separate people. One for each person. Things you can't or haven't told them face to face. You don't say who they are for, you just list them. They don't have to be earth shattering. There they are, as they are.

1. I am so sorry I hurt you. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do and I never really got a chance to explain that to you where you would actually listen and understand. The lack of closure has always been difficult for me.

2. I wish I could have gotten to know the real you better. I felt like you didn't love me enough to try. You loved yourself more than anyone and that is sad for all of us.

3. I wish I could find you and we could get to know each other again as adults. I wonder if we would have anything in common. I hope you are happy and healthy in your life.

4. I feel a lot of guilt that we are not in touch anymore. We always said we would be friends and it is hard for me to feel like we aren't anymore. I am sure I am expecting too much but it is just something about my personality that I don't have a lot of control over.

5. You really hurt my feelings when you replaced me. I know it wasn't intentional but it still hurt.

6. Ending your life was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and I still worry if I made the right decision for you. I hope you always knew that you were loved and considered as a member of my family.

7. You were one of the first people to make me feel bad about myself and I don't know if I have ever gotten past it. You were also one of the first people that convinced me to look outside the small world I inhabited and realize that there was more to life.

8. I am glad that I didn't stay with you longer than I did. You had hangups that you passed onto me and were abusive at times. I wonder if I would have continued down a really bad road if I had continued to see you.

9. Please don't pretend to know me better than you do. You are not in a position to judge me or those I love. Things are not always as they seem.

10. I have always been thankful to have you in my life. You were there for me at times when no one else was and being able to talk to you helped me to keep my sanity. I know I don't express my appreciation enough. I hope you know how much you mean to me.

In Geocaching News

I set out a new cache this week. It was published yesterday on the Geocaching site. It is a multi cache...my first of this type. I like to go to caches that require getting out, and I like them to be trading caches so that is the type that I put out. This particular cache was going to be placed in an area that could be approached from two different directions, one much shorter than the other. I think half the fun of caching is to get out and away from people and things and just enjoy the outdoors so I wanted seekers to have to come the long way (mean, I know). In order to do this, I pretty much had to make it a multi cache so that the first coordinate would be close to the parking that I wanted them to use. The final location (there are 2 stages in between) is a bit over two miles which will require some time, unless they bike (which is allowed on this trail). I put one of my travel bugs in it...one that wants to get to Portland Oregon, along with some other fun stuff.

I also found my second green jeep travel bug (from the 2006 Jeep Geocaching Challenge). I haven't been entering the contest (as I find entering contests mostly just gets you on everyone's junk mail list) but I do like to find the little boogers. I will drop this one off in a near by cache soon. Who knows, maybe I will even put it in one of mine...

The weather is starting to cool down here and the bugs are starting to go away...which makes for a much better caching experience. My sister is coming to visit me in November and I am hoping to at least take her to find all three of my caches...perhaps she can find a travel bug to take back with her to the west coast.

I am already thinking about where I might want to put my next cache...it will be a trading one too but finding places that require a lot of walking is hard to do...our parks are just not very big...oh, well, I am sure I will come up with something.

FAQs

I found this cool site today by accident called FAQ Farm...you should check it out if you have time. They are developing (growing) an FAQ site and people can ask or answer questions there to help the project. I ended up there while finding a e-card for someone and you can click on the "answer question" link and just read questions that have been asked and answer one if you want. You don't have to be an expert and you don't have to log in (unless you want your answers to have your name associated with them). I just answered a question from a 16 year old girl that wants to get pregnant and who's boyfriend is okay with it...she wanted to know what to do.

Activists unveil stealth browser | CNET News.com

This sounds awesome...I am assuming it is the real deal and that it is not a trojan horse for transporting a virus or something. Has anyone tried this out that can comment on how well it works?

WTF

Fla. teens charged with homeless attack - Yahoo! News
3 Kids found in fetus theft case - Yahoo! News
Man stabs toddler, wife in La. traffic - Yahoo! News

What the hell is wrong with people!!!!

CS Woes

Wow, customer service has been hard on me the last few days (weeks).

First, I have been trying to get hold of Kenwood to find out if there is another receiver that is comparable to the one that I lost to the lightening strike. Today, after two weeks of emailing them, they finally emailed back to say that they don't have record of the model number I am referring to and that they are no longer going to make home audio equipment for the US...ugh!!! I finally, after doing some research on the Internet had to get on the phone with them so that I could determine if a certain receiver I was looking at buying would be too much for my current speakers. Turns out they do have the model number in question, apparently the online service is not updated frequently. Isn't the point of having online customer service to help keep the company from getting tons of phone calls.

So at least I did find out that I can buy the one I was looking out without having to worry about my speakers getting blown out and I have already made my purchase online...hopefully it won't take long to get here because my entire sound system in the living room is pretty much crippled without a receiver.

Note: I generally do not like to call companies if I don' t have to because my experience has been that those answering the phones have, in many cases, never even seen the product much less know anything about it. They are hired merely to quiet irrate customers with their page turning and "yes ma'ams and no ma'ams".

Okay, on to number two, the spa people...grrr...these people are very irritating. How is it that the more you spend on an item, the farther from reality the customer service people get? As you know from previous posts, our lights, and power supply to the stereo (both in the spa) were destroyed during the lightening strike to the tree in our yard this spring. I have been trying to get an estimate for parts plus shipping from the spa people for over a month. They keep emailing me back that I don't have a certain light in my spa that I have. It is in the manual, in the schematic and on the damn tub!!!! I am about ready to take a picture of it and email it to them. At this point, they have stopped responding at all (don't tell me to call them, did that first and it didn't work either). So yesterday, I wrote a regular letter that I am sending in the mail to the corporation today. I hope it works to get my part list so I can get this thing fixed before we move again.

Lastly, I got an email from Geocaching.com the other day that one of the travel bugs they mailed me has a faulty number on it. They want me to deactivate it, and they will send me a new one with an extra gift for my inconvenience...this is fine, in fact great, if the TB in question weren't the one that I have just finished logging all 64,000 caching miles on....grrr. I emailed them back hoping that they can just change the number on the one I have to the new number on their end so I don't have to relog my entire life of geocaching again, but of course I am still waiting for a response to their email.

Oh well, I have other things I need to do today, so I guess the email and mail can just wait without me...good thing I don't have to be here to supervise it.

Try It, You Will Like It

My mom just sent me this cool link and rather than try to pick on to put on my blog I thought I would just share the link so you could find your own favorite...I have always been fascinated by this kind of stuff.

Enjoy...http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/mot_feet_lin/index.html

Keep hitting the next button so you can see all of them...

It's Coming

It is starting to get cooler at night...last night I didn't sleep well because I was cold. We only have a sheet on our bed during the summer and I guess I am going to have to face the fact that summer is over and fall has begun.

It was in the 40's last night (a fluke thing) but it isn't supposed to get out of the 60's at night for the next week and then back into the 50s at night for the week after that (mind you it will still be in the high 80s during the day) so I guess I will have to figure out a medium level for our bed since putting our down comforter back on will definitely be too much.

Grr...I hate losing sleep because I am cold.

Spectators

Recently, I have noticed that spectators in the sport of golf have taken it upon themselves to regulate the sport.

In at least two different instances* in the last few weeks, a player has either been penalized, investigated or disqualified because a spectator (at home) has called into the network or tournament to claim that they witnessed a rule violation on TV.

Now it doesn't completely surprise me that people call in, because people are weird that way, but what surprises me is that the regulating officials at the tournament listen.

That would be like someone calling in during the last quarter of a football game to say that number 71 was offsides in the first quarter but the refs didn't catch it. It is ridiculous. I think that the PGA, the USGA, and the LPGA need to figure out a way to deal with call ins. The reason that there are officials on the field of play is so that they can catch this kind of thing as it happens. The fact that viewers at home are using what is essentially "replays" is bogus and they need to address it.

*Two instances that I have witnessed, there may have been more. None of the alleged violations were on purpose, they were either accidental double hits out of a sand trap, or a misinterpretation of the rules.

Web site linked to Montreal shooting defends Goths--Reuters.com

I think it is messed up that the media is trying to connect this blog site to this kid's messed up head. Being "goth" had nothing to do with whatever mental issues Gill might have had.

I find it funny that they don't point out when other bad people have Blogger, Typepad, or Myspace accounts or profiles but because this looks like "interesting" news, they make a big deal out of it....there is a lot of crap out there all over the net and I don't think the fact that this kid was a member of this particular site makes him anymore susceptible to being a murderer than if he were posting his dislike for people on Wordpress.

U.S. E.coli outbreak is linked to spinach - Yahoo! News

Make sure you are washing those prepackaged salads...even though they say you don't have to.

Small Bed Project

Last year, J and I put in a new section of sidewalk to our front walk because the location of the mainwalk didn't work well with parking in front of the garage and having two cars. We were forced to walk over the yard rather than on the sidewalk to get to the front door. The project didn't take long and when we were done, we had this little triangle of ground that we just covered in pinestraw for the time being. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it and got it done on Saturday morning.

Starting point

J did the prepwork buy raking off the pinestraw and taking out some of the dirt. I wanted to put in two different grasses that would stay alive and green all year, would be low maintenance and not impede movement from the driveway to the front door over time. So I picked to do a border in dwarf mondo grass and then put variated liriope in the center. The liriope is taller than the mondo grass but won't get much higher than its current 12 inches and it gets cute purple flowers in the summer. I had 14 dwarf mondo grasses that I wanted to go around the outside edge of the bed. They will eventually grow together to create a solid dark green grassy border that stays green all year long. I wanted to make sure I had them spaced out right before proceeding. I ended up planting the corners first and then moved in from there. I had to take out a bit of the dirt as I did and we used it in another spot in the yard.

Laying out the mondo grass

This is what the bed looks like after I got all the plants in and watered. I still need to put some mulch down, and I left some space between the liriope so I could put in seasonal accent colors or decorations. It should be functional but also nice looking all year long.

Finished product

Q and A

Borrowed this from S. Jones (see link on sidebar)

How long have you been blogging?
Online, since February of 2005, in hard copy (journaling) since I was a kid.

How many times have you taken a break from blogging?
Never, if anything, I keep adding to it (4 blogs so far)

How long is the longest you’ve gone, so far, without posting on your blog?
A week maybe because I was traveling and not able to use the Internet.

How many fellow bloggers do you keep in touch with, through your blogs, on a regular basis?
Of the ones I have linked and read regularly, 3 are family, and at least 2 are face to face friends so we email and such, but everyone else is generally limited to communication through our blogs/comments.

Have you ever met, in person, a blogger on your blogroll?
Yep, one of them. Mindsprite.

How often do you update/change the ‘extra’ stuff on your blog?
When I first started out, I did it a lot but as my blog has grown, updating the template takes some time. I finally converted my links to Blogrolling so I can update all my Blogger blogs at once whenever I want. I am itching to change up my entire template but for now, it is pretty stable.

Do you think you’ll be blogging for years to come?
Oh yeah...in fact I am thinking of start two more, one for journal excerpts from when I was a kid and another that I can be completely anonymous on (this one is read by a lot of friends and family who know me so I am a bit hesitant in some areas). I don't know if I have time in my life for all of this, but writing has always been a passion, so I am sure I will figure something out.

Check It Out

J and I were watching the history channel last night and they did a few documentaries on 9/11 related things. It was hard to watch but I felt like I owed some time to it, since I hadn't really thought about it all day. I had gotten the call on Monday morning at 3:15am to come to my friend's house because the baby was coming. I had volunteered to stay with their other kids while they were at the hospital. Needless to say, my day was filled with PBS kids and coloring, not a lot of 9/11 coverage there..... Anyhow, during the course of one of the shows (about the 14 survivors from stairway B), I got out this coffee table book that we own on 9/11 to see if it had anything in it about them (I didn't realize there were that many survivors). It did have a bit about them in the back (apparently they were saved the first day so that is why the news didn't make a huge thing out of it) Please note that during 9/11, I lived in Japan so my coverage was spotty at times.

Anyhow, after looking over the book a bit, I thought I might post something here about it because it was nicely done, some of the sales go to the victim families and it is educational. It is called One Nation and it is done by Life Magazine. It is coffee table book sized. If you like history and are interested in this subject, it is a good book to read or own.

Time Out

Whew!!! I have a ton to blog about but time has been crunched the last few days. I'll fill you in when I wake from the sleep of the dead tonight (I hope). I am bone tired and going to bed early....will blog faithfully in the morning.

Back On Track

Feeling better the last two days and am starting to knock off some todo items (except reading my school book which I really need to do).

This cold wasn't too bad and I am thankful for that...nothing like being sick in the summer (yes it is still summer here in the SE).

I have a lot I would like to blog about but I feel like I am shirking other duties right now so it will have to wait...grrr...

Not So Hot

Had a tough night dealing with my sinuses trying to suffocate me and the "new" Sudafed keeping me awake.

I developed a bit of a head cold on Monday (ignored it all day) and yesterday and today have been down days trying to kick it before it completely takes over my week. I can't afford to get behind in school but the last thing I want to read when my nose is stuffed and my head is pounding is informational technology management texts...it might just be me but that is the way it is.

Regardless, I am feeling better this evening (maybe because I have been lowkey) and I am hoping tonight will be more restful and therefore more productive towards recovery. I even missed practice tonight. I am trying to hold out from taking Nyquil because, even though it will knock me, I usually wake up from it feeling worse than I did when I went to bed. I don't have all the symptoms anyhow so it would be overkill.

Bathroom Project Before-After

I promised I would post pics from our bathroom project. We are finished and it came out very nice. We have experience now for the attempt to lay the same vinyl in our kitchen soon. See below two before pics and two after pics.

Before floor pic, see 80's brown squares...

Before vanity pic, sink and toilet are new, cabinet is not...

After floor pic, vinyl tile sheet came out well...

After vanity pic, a tad taller, but still nicely fits...

We really only wanted to update the bathroom and get it to match a bit like the remodeled bathroom in the master bedroom. The cabinets and floors are not identical (that is what happens when construction is not all done at the same time) but it is close enough. The bathroom feels less like an 80's bath and more like a new one.

Project List

Just to make myself face the music, I decided to create a list of the gazillion projects I have in some phase of completion but not completed. Hopefully this will motivate me to get some check marks checked off....

Old Projects (more than 2 years old)

• Crocheted blanket for my bed
• Cross-stitch for a friend
• Videos from travels
• Curtain hems for sunroom
• Roman shades for bedroom windows
• Refinish little table in entry
• Finish and put together small coat rack for wall

Newer Projects (less than 2 years old)

• Scanning in photos from my grandmother's albums
• Rebuilding her albums and sending back to her
• Planting new camilias on side of house
• Bed liner for truck

Newest Projects (within the last few months)

• Teak oiling patio furniture (1/2 completed) (once a year item)
• Matching and painting ceiling where J fell through
• Pinestraw front and back yards (twice a year item)
• Planting front walk bed
• Planting new liriope and cleyera
• Fixing receiver (1/2 done)
• Clean truck inside
• Mulching back bed
• Cleaning gutters of pinestraw (twice a year item)
• Fixing gutter problem in back
• Organizing most recent digital pictures
• Photo album from our NY trip
• Moving hostas from the lack of shade zone in backyard to a new location
• Contact hottub company for estimate on repairs from lightening
• Contact electrician for estimate on repairs from lightening
• File claim with homeowner's insurance for repairs from lightening
• Get estimates for some yard maintenance in WA
• Getting estimates for new countertops, linoleum for the kitchen and a new vanity and linoleum for the guest bath
• Eventually getting the above work done (1/2 done)
• Replacing the kitchen faucet (have it, just haven't installed it)
• Recycling
• Boxes to mom and sister

Items that come up out of nowhere each day (but need to be done regardless)

• Cleaning S's garage
• Stripping wallpaper border at S's house
• Putting leather protectant on couches
• Making new covers for pillows in living areas
• Recycling S's boxes
• Helping with unloading of moving van at S's house
• Spraying plants at L's house
• Wiping down walls in hallway and placing pictures back up

This list of course doesn't include the ongoing things, like cleaning house, school, laundry, exercise, cooking, card making, writing, geocaching and others (many others). I only included the things that actually have end dates and that once they are done, I feel like I accomplished something that doesn't have to be worried about again for at least several months.

First Day Back

Today is my first day back at school in my last class for graduation....and I am already behind. I have to read 3 chapters in our boring book, answer focus questions, homework questions, figure out what I want to do a research paper on, and start discussing a case study with my group members (yes we are going to be doing groupwork this semester, oh joy). On top of this, I have to discuss anything and everything in the conferences so I get the 30 percent for participation on a weekly basis....I can not wait until I am done with this program.

It seems that I am the only one in class that doesn't read IT journals for fun!!!! Who does that? I love computers but I am not obsessed with them, and sometimes I feel so out of place in this program. Yes I want to have the degree to help me out in life, but I don't really want a job in computer management. I just want to solve people's individual or network computer problems on a parttime basis, so I will have time in my life to do other things that are more enjoyable. I am not and don't think I have ever been, career driven.

Anyhow, that is a totally different subject which probably would lead me to therapy so we could switch back to my overall shock of reality that I met up with today when I logged into my first day of class. I better go because I have lots of reading to do and I know that I will have to nap in between each boring paragraph!!!! Wish me luck!!!!

Tiles

I don't know about you, but whenever I have tried to tile anything in the past, I have always wanted it to be straight and neat. I don't try to make it look "home done"...I want the most professional looking results I can get short of hiring someone else to do it.

So explain to me how come the vinyl flooring we buy to put in our bathroom has real looking tile but it is not perfect. It has that "home done" look and apparently that was what they were going for. I don't mind it because it does seem a bit more real that way but I just think that it is funny we would buy an imperfect "picture" of tile but if we were really tiling, we would want it to be perfect.