The Culprit

I finally found a picture of the evil fly that tormented me in Michigan and Minnesota when we were camping. We have them here too, I found a few on a walk the other day. They are horrific and will not leave you alone. They are a type of deer fly and are attracted to dark colors and carbon dioxide so that is partly why they fly around your head.

We really need to get some rain around here soon, I am spending a ton watering everyday and we are starting to get lots of horse flies, and mud bees due to the lack of water....check out the link on this guy (it is in the title of this post) and see how horrible it is for yourself.

Some Good News

Well, today is hot tub maintenance day. After the soaking we all did after our bbq the other weekend, with sunscreen and bug repellant on our skin the water in the hot tub is pretty disgusting. It is due for the 3 month change out anyhow, so I am in the process of draining the tub.

Since I have to pull the panel off to do the draining, I figured this is as good a time as any to take the stereo out and test it. The history of it is that when we had the lightening strike in the yard in April, the static charge in the air fried out a few things. We have twenty three lights that were effected by the static (and they range from 6-18 dollars), and then the power converter for the stereo (which is 150 bucks) was also blown. Because it was blown, I couldn't tell if the stereo was out as well without taking it out of the hottub and hooking to one of our car batteries (the hot tub stereo is a car stereo).

So anyhow, I took the stereo out and tested it on our truck just now...and it works fine!!! I was able to eject the CD that has been sitting in it for 2 months too....yeah!!! At least I don't have to replace that 350 bucks...

You Have To Wonder

Last week, when N Korea test fired missiles into the Sea of Japan, commentators and analysts all agreed that it was a grab for attention because so much attention was going to Iran and the war in Iraq/Afghanistan, and not to N Korea.

So now, I am wondering, with the issues that have developed this weekend between Israel and their neighbors and how much coverage it is getting, should we be expecting N Korea to test fire again soon so that the attention will move back in their direction?

Making a Dent

Yesterday after finally getting up at a decent hour, I was able to get some exercise in first thing. Then I started tackling a project I have wanted to do for sometime. Our patio furniture is made of teak wood and due to being in the weather all the time, each year it has to be powerwashed and then I oil it to keep it looking like new. So I dragged out the powerwasher and started working. I was able to get all of it clean rather quickly.

Of course, at one point the powerwasher's spray hit the patio itself, and then I had a clean spot. Obviously, once I had a clean spot, then I had to powerwash the patio too...

Now I need to move the table and chairs to the garage because we were supposed to get rain and I can't oil them if they are wet. I don't plan to oil them today anyhow. I am trying to work on my "to do" list in a reasonable and methodical manner so as not to overwhelm myself but still allow things to be completed. The oiling is on the list for another day. One step at a time...that is my motto or I will get buried in my own enthusiasm and procrastination.

Ahhhemmmm!

My class has been out since the beginning of May and I still have not gotten feedback on my multimedia site. After repeated emails in May, I finally heard from the instructor and they were posting comments to our portfolios....it is now July and there are still no comments, and we didn't get anything in the mail like he said either. I have my grade, I just want to know why I received the grade I did on the multimedia site specifically. Grrrr....I hate waiting for feedback.

Catch Up

I feel like I am playing catch up. I have things to write about but not time to write them. Some of them are fiction, some of them are memories, and some of them are just me venting...

I finally ordered prints from my digital pics last week. I had not ordered prints (with the exception of my trip to the west coast in May) since Christmas....so needless to say, I got a huge order of prints and I am actually getting them in the photo album today (amazingly enough). I am putting the ones from the NY part of the trip in a different "travel" photo album because that is just what I do. Anyhow, that is taking up part of my livingroom floor right now.

Earlier, I had reconciled another bank statement that came in the mail and I just need to do the computer part of it and then file all the stuff I have gotten this week that needs to be filed. I am trying to do my filing as it comes so that it is not so much later on.

Since J left on Sunday, I have also managed to get a movie in each night that I know he wouldn't want to see. I tend to move "my movies" to the top of the Netflix list when I know he is going on a trip so I can knock a few of them out while he is gone....so I am making progress on that for sure.

I went up in the attic this afternoon (oh my gosh is it hot up there in the middle of the day) and checked the mouse traps....no new mice to report, thankfully because if there were, they would have been from a few days ago and I imagine it would have been very gross.

I made couple of cards yesterday but just am not feeling inspired in that department right now. Need to get on it really because I have a few birthdays that are looming over me, once I get started, I usually start getting lots of ideas. I have been wanting to bead again more, which is nice since I have tons of beading stuff that I haven't touched in ages.

I am getting things done, and that feels good. I just wish I could get motivated to work on some of the other "works in progress" I have hovering in the background.

Strange Dreams

My schedule is kind of messed up. J is not here getting up early so I have been going to bed really late and then sleeping in. This is not normal for me these days (even though I think I am naturally a nightowl) so I am not completely asleep in the morning time and keep having dreams that I remember.

The other morning, I had some kind of dream that had the song Ridin' from Chamillionaire in it. I ended up with that song in my head all day long even though I can't remember any part of the dream.

The next night, I dreamt that J and I were on a road trip in our truck and got lost in a bad part of some town. We decided to park and try to find a phone (bad idea). We walked through some scary neighborhoods and buildings and then decided to head back to the truck. As we were coming back, we got separated and the path back had all these girls from gangs hanging out. I didn't want to go through that area because I was afraid they would beat me. I went through a building that led to the parking lot the truck was in and all these people were coming out of the building in the opposite direction from me with my stuff in their arms and draped over their shoulders. I realized this rather quickly and started yelling at them that it was my stuff and why would they do something like that. I was grabbing stuff back from them and giving them a hard time for stealing (wasn't afraid of them at all). I felt like a mom scolding kids. Anyhow, eventually with my arms loaded, I made it back to the truck, which had be completely gutted. No tires, no windows, dents everywhere....I couldn't believe it and then I woke up.

This morning I had some weird dreams about weddings and family...it is all kind of vague right now but I am sure parts of it will come to me throughout the day. I need to get to bed early tonight and get up like a normal person tomorrow so I can get out of this loop of nightowlness...I feel like I have wasted half my day when I sleep in. It is warm enough here that the only times to really get stuff done outside are early morning and late evening...when I sleep in, the early morning part gets wasted. I need to siesta in the middle of the day instead of sleep in....hmmm wonder if I can work that?

It's Back

The absolutely horrible toenail fungus ad is back on my mail with Yahoo. I hate that ad...so much so that when I saw it this morning, I actually clicked on the ad feedback link at the bottom of the page so I could tell them so.

The thing that gets me about Yahoo's ads is that they don't mix them up. That horrible big, flaking toenail that lifts up so you can see the fungus and then gets bigger just in case you really can't see it, will be on my mail for a week everytime I look at mail....no relief.

So I gave them my opinion...especially since they are running a second toenail fungus ad in a banner across the top of my inbox....at least the first on is only on the main page, once I am in the inbox, it is gone. Grrrr, and they are not even the same company. Oh, and one of the questions is, "How relevant is the ad to what you were viewing on the web?"....NO AT ALL. My mail has nothing to do with toenail fungus.

New Stuff Issues

I am using the "recently updated" option on blog rolling for my links list. This is awesome I think because it makes it so much easier for me to keep track of new posts on some of my favorite blogs. Downside is that it doesn't seem to work on all blogs. I think that the typepad blogs and those that are self owned (except Chatty's) don't update correctly and therefore end up at the bottom of my list...don't know if there is a fix for this.

Has anyone else noticed this?

A Mouse In The House

Friday night, J and I were rudely awakened by a scritching noise in one of the interior walls of our bedroom. We would bang on the wall, it would go away and then come back just as we were falling to sleep again. This was around 1am in the morning. I finally just put earplugs in because I needed my sleep and wasn't going to be able to do anything about it until the morning and J ended up on the couch because he can't sleep with earplugs and the noise was driving him nuts.

We were having friends over on Saturday afternoon, so we already had more than enough to do before the scritching started. In the morning, we started to investigate. We assumed it was a mouse or small rat as we don't have any holes that a squirrel could get back in through (see this post).

Well, J went under the house to check it out since the noise we were hearing was near the floor and didn't see any evidence that something was getting in down there. Then he went up into the attic and did find two holes in the plywood above that wall that looked like they originally were going to run wires through it and then decided not to use them. He could see some evidence of small rodent traffic. Since it is an interior wall, there is little to no insulation and that is how they are getting all the way to the bottom. I was horrified that we had a mouse...I guess I figure if you keep a clean house, you don't get them but I am wrong apparently because our house is clean.

I went to the store, and purchased, along with a bunch of stuff for our BBQ, two mouse traps (he was sure they were mice by now). We didn't know how many but hoped it wasn't too many. I was horrified that we had a mouse...I guess I figure if you keep a clean house, you don't get them but I am wrong apparently because our house is clean and we have at least one. Seems that all the clear cutting and construction on our street is causing the wildlife to flee indoors.

He set the traps the next night, I slept with earplugs again, and in the morning, we had caught a mouse. The traps are still up there set (unless there is a dead mouse in one) and I need to go check them, but I haven't heard any more scritching. J is off on a conference trip...somehow this kind of thing always happens before he leaves, and I am stuck with mouse duty until he gets back (hopefully it will all be over by then).

There is an whole other story that goes with this one...it was not as easy as that, but I will post about it later.

I Don't Miss The Bugs

Okay, I live in a buggy state (ticks, chiggers, mosquitos, horseflies) and I am sure I grew up in a buggy state (mosquitos, yellow jackets, fleas, ticks), but I think you get used to them when you are in a place for a while. While on the trip we just took, we experienced a lot of bugs with behaviors that were irritating.

In Michigan and Minnesota, we found some ferocious mosquitos. They were a bit like the ones that we dealt with in Alaska. Slow but ferocious. We also ran into these horse flies from hell in Minnesota. I don't know what the hell the deal was with our truck but for some reason every time we would stop at a creek or lake to fish, a swarm of these buggers would show up and fly all around our truck like crazy. They wouldn't follow us, so as soon as we were away from the truck, we were okay but getting in and out was a trick.

Oh, I almost forgot, in both Michigan and Minnesota, there were these smaller horseflies, the orange looking ones, that would just harass me to no end. Even when I was coated from head to toe in deet, one would still try to land on my head. I could hear it buzzing around my ears and I am sure I looked like a complete idiot waving my arms all around and hitting myself in the head. I finally figured out how to get rid of them. I would run away, and then stop and turn really quick. I could catch it coming up behind me trying to land on me and I could hit it out of the sky. I don't know if I killed them doing that or if I just made them want to look for easier prey but it was the only way to get rid of them.

When we got to Nebraska, we knew we would be dealing with chiggers (previous visits had shown us this). During the two days we had the reunion, we were diligent about putting bug repellant on, but somehow that just made the chiggers climb higher. I had deet on my legs thinking I would be okay. Hah!!! No such luck. I came home the first day, and had a bunch of bites along my bra line, and one right below my belly button. So I put some ChigAway on it (which is mostly sulfur) and the itching went away. Next day, I tried to keep my feet up and not on the grass much. This worked to an extent. I only went home with 2 more bites. I didn't scratch them and kept the ChigAway on them and they were less bothersome. The thing about chiggers is that the bite stays around for a long time and will continue to itch during the entire time. We have already been home for a week and I was bit two weeks ago but still have itchy remenants. I am not having to use the ChigAway anymore but they are still a bit itchy. We have chiggers here but for some reason, they have never bothered me...dont' know why.

Travel Blog

I have finally started updating my travel blog with posts from my travels. I started with our trip to Tokyo because it was a short trip and I could do it all in a few posts. I'll move on to more extensive trips as time permits.

I found the travel blog site while doing research for my last class and signed up there but didn't start to log any of my travels because I just didn't have the time to get bogged down in another project. I would comment on the forums once in a while but no posts on my travels until this week.

Check it out sometime if you want. You can't search for me yet because I am still considered "new" for the next few days but you can click on my link on the sidebar and it will take you to my profile and the list of my entries. I plan to put my mom, sister, and dad on my subscriber's list (whether they want to be there or not...haha) so they will get updates when I add logs....anyone else that wants to subscribe is more than welcome to do so.

I guess I feel that I have made enough headway in some other things that were hanging over my head that I can take on this new thing....and perhaps it will get me writing more (which I have been slacking off on lately). Hasta luego.

Photo Problems w/Blogger

Is anyone else having problems loading photos to Blogger? The bird one below is just a fluke, I haven't been able to load pictures consistently for some time now and it is getting very irritating...

Spotted Bluebirds

I have seen the bluebirds in the yard and checking out the nest box the last few days. They have not started to build yet. I double checked the eggs in the nest I removed and stuck in another bush and still no hatching. When I first saw the parents, I thought maybe I had jumped the gun, but last year I waited forever for the 2nd clutch to hatch and the parents ended up not laying a third so I wanted to get that nest out of there as soon as I knew it was no bueno...

I put out new food and fresh water for all the birds today. We have had some heat around here so I know they appreciate it.

Happy 4th of July

Wanted to wish everyone a happy 4th. We are missing our traditional 4th on the west coast but we went to a little parade and festivities thing in town this morning and plan to head out for some fireworks tonight. I'll post pics from the morning stuff later. It was quaint and cute, which is what our town does best, I guess. They had a little country band at the end that was good, they played some great banjo, fiddle and bass songs that got some of the crowd dancing.

The 4th is almost as exciting for me as Christmas. As a kid, there was a lot of anticipation involved and I couldn't wait to get downtown in the morning. morning. We always went to the 4th of July parade in Ashland, Oregon which started with a flyover of jet planes from the airbase in Klamath Falls. That was always my favorite part of the entire thing. The parade varied over the years, from being a small town parade to something of a commercial wonder in the mid 80s, back to a small town parade again. There were decked out Dodge vans one year (with hot tubs and furry dashes complete), and big semis with advertising on the sides (not one of the better years). There was always a cool artistic element (which Ashland is known for), as well as kazoo bands, lawnmower/lawnchair brigades, and old style firetrucks with sirens and lights blaring.

After the parade, everyone would head down to the heart of Ashland along Lithia Park where tons of booths would be set up and there would be a stage for bagpipers, cloggers and other entertainment. You could get lost in the crowds, it got so busy some years. After you got your fill of booths and food, you would head farther up in the park to the bandshell where the city band would be playing marching songs all day long. You would find a shady spot on the awesome grass and just chillout...a little piece of heaven I think.

After dark, the fireworks would begin, and when I was little they did them off the hills across from Ashland and we would watch them from the grass at the Junior High but inevitably one would blow up low and the hills would catch fire (which would cause a delay in the show until it was put out). These days (don't know if they are still doing it this way since I haven't been there for a while), they let them off at the football field at the local college (less fire hazard). You can see them from almost anywhere in Ashland. As a teenager, I would walk to the field with my friends (walking was faster than driving in that traffic) and we would get as close as we could so your heart would pound when they blew up right over your head. I was always sad a bit when the grand finale would happen because I knew that the day was over and I would have to wait another year to see it again. I always loved 4th of July in Ashland, and if I lived anywhere close these days, I would be there every year.

In more recent years, when J and I moved to Washington State and my sister moved to Portland, we started hanging out in Portland for the 4th. We didn't get to see a parade but we would go down for the Blues Festival in the park along the river and then a great firework show from barges in the river. It was so much fun hanging out with them and their friends, we planned to do it every year. Maybe if we end up on the West Coast again sometime soon, we can celebrate the 4th in our old tradition or the new tradition, but for now, we will enjoy the day that we have here (sunny, bright and full of patriotism) and look forward to next years celebration when the day is through.

Blogger won't upload pictures right now....grrr!

Not Again

I swear, we can't seem to go a week where everything in our house is actually working....grrr. We came home on Wednesday and our Kenwood receiver seems to be not functioning. I did the troubleshooting from the instruction manual to no avail and I am just waiting for the holiday weekend to be over so I can call the manufacturer to find a local repair place because I am pretty sure this thing is about 10 days out of its warranty....ugh!

Sad Bluebird News

I got home after being gone for 2 weeks and the 5 blue bird eggs that had been in the nest for a week when I left were still there. For some reason, that second clutch just doesn't do well, I don't know if it just gets too hot or what. I took the nest out and put it in a nearby bush (I can't make myself crush the eggs or anything like that), and hopefully it is not too late in the season and they will build a last nest and lay some more eggs...don't know what I can do to help them keep them cool though...

Sound Of Rain

It was raining this morning when I woke up. I had left a window cracked in my bedroom for fresh air last night when I went to bed and I could hear the rain outside when my alarm went off. It sounded awesome...one of the most soothing and restful sounds I think.

We are in for a bit cooler weather for a few days and no watering...guess it gives me reason to get some schoolwork done today. The urge to venture out into the awesome fall weather is on hold until this passes.

Just So You Know

I am not a big AC user. I believe that half of the reason it feels hot and miserable outside is from spending too much time in artificially cooled places that shock your system each time you move from one to the other. Now this doesn't mean that I am in judgement of anyone that uses AC, or that I don't use AC myself, it just means that I try to limit my use. We keep our house at about 78-80 degrees F during the summer, which by some standards would be considered warm. I would go higher even but then the fish tank gets too hot and I don't want them to die. We live in a very warm and humid climate so a bit of AC is needed just to keep things in the house dry and must free.

So following along with these beliefs, I tend to not use the AC in my car much. I have several reasons for this, one of which being listed above, but also because I figure it eats gas (which is expensive enough as it is), and because it makes the car work harder (and on older cars, can cause overheating). J and I pretty much didn't use the AC for the entire trip out to NE and while we were there. It was usually in the mid 80s and it wasn't necessary. There was a couple of days in Michigan and Minnesota where it got into the 100s but you only really noticed it when we were sitting still.

Anyhow, we were discussing AC use at Grandpa's house in NE when J's aunt told us that she had read that using the AC in the car didn't hurt the gas mileage any worse than the drag from driving with the windows open did. I figure this could be true and that it is possible as well that newer AC units are probably much more efficient than when I first started driving. So J and I decided to test it out on the way home.

We used the AC (even though it wasn't that hot) pretty much the entire way home (about 1200 miles) up hills, down hills and in some stop and go traffic and I am here to report that we got the same gas mileage on the way home as we did on the rest of the trip (between 25-29mph). It was nice to have the windows closed because I didn't have to deal with tickling wispies and we could both hear the stereo much better. Anyhow, I just thought you would want to know in case you have be denying yourself to save gas.

Note: We drive a small 4 cyclinder truck with a canopy on the back, and 29 mph on the highway is the listed estimated gas mileage for the vehicle. We also didn't run the AC at full blast, once the car cooled down, leaving it on the lowest setting was plenty cool for us.

Relief

When we got home yesterday, there were several messages on our machine. One of them was from our water company. As you remember from this post, we had technical difficulties when we were both gone in May and we received a huge water bill because of it.

Well the letter I sent in paid off. They reduced our water bill by 350 dollars....I couldn't believe it. That is much more than I was expecting. Now I have to finish our claim with the company whose product failed to get the remaining out of them (not to mention cost of the items themselves).

I guess sometimes a little follow through is all that is needed...wish I could be more active in following through in other aspects...haha (referring to the 101 projects I have going on right now).

Tears

I hate goodbyes....

Family Reunion

Well, the reunion is over and all is well. We are getting ready to leave Nebraska tomorrow and head towards home.

From my last post, we had landed in Nebraska onWednesday night. We went out to dinner with Grandpa and Jo and then had a game of cards before heading back to the hotel. On Thursday we played golf with Grandpa at his club and got all the golfing muscles working again. It was great fun. Some family was expected to show up that night so we hung out near the house waiting for new arrivals. Turns out we even had family come that we didn't know were going to be able to come. It was a great surprise. We ended up putting a few leafs in the table and setting the table for 10 by the end of the night and had a great visit.

On Friday we played golf again but this time at a different place, it was a nice course with lots of hills on it. After golf, I went with Grandpa to Omaha to pick up a couple people that were flying in, and then we all went out to dinner at this cool restaurant and had some terrific prime rib and conversation. I took lots of pictures while we were there because it was almost like a mini-reunion as almost everyone got in that night. Many of us headed back to Grandpa's after dinner but didn't stay late as we had an early tee time the next day with the reunion picnic to follow in the afternoon.

On Saturday, much needed rain showed up (almost ruining the golfing plans) and made for a cooler morning. We still played golf and it was actually almost perfect. The early cloud cover kept things nice and cool. We played a scramble format so our big group would move quicker through the course and so we could have a little competition. It was a fabulous time. After golf we went back to the house and got ready for the picnic which we had moved from the park down the street to the house for logistical reasons. J's sister had done all the food preparation and we would have all starved if it wasn't for her. She did a terrific job and didn't even seem to be stressed at all (I probably would have lost my mind). Everyone had fun and lots of food. J's mom wasn't feeling too hot on Saturday (although she did play golf with us) so I made sure to take lots of pics and video so she could see everything. Hopefully when I get home and look at the footage and the pictures, we have something to work with.

On Sunday, we played golf again at granpa's club in the scramble format. It was a lot of fun and my team ended up winning. We didn't get to warm up much so my first half was a bit iffy but my drives came back by the second 9. A few people had to leave on Sunday so the goodbyes started then. After golfing we had some lunch, and hung out playing cards and exchanging stories. Sunday evening even more people had to get going but we were able to get a spreadsheet started with contact infor for everyone so hopefully that will make it easier for all of us to stay in touch.

On Monday, the few of us that are still left got together for lunch and dinner. Grandpa didn't play golf with his league since he had been playing so much this week. We played some cards and got things organized for our trip back home. Tomorrow morning we are meeting everyone for breakfast so we can say goodbye and get on the road. I don't know how far we will drive but we want to get some miles under our belt. I have 4 new states to find geocaches in, and that will require some research on the Internet. I think I am only covered for half of the trip so far.

I'll update more as the trip winds down. Sounds like we are getting lots of rain on the East Coast so I am thinking that our sun here might be the last for a while.....hope not.

Quick Trip Review II

Okay, we are in Nebraska and I have Internet so I will update our trip thus far.

Day 6: Headed out from Gaylord Michigan early in the morning North and cross into the Upper Penisula of Michigan. We stopped in Macinaw and in Sault St. Marie on our way through the UP. We saw a 300 foot ship move through the locks in Sault St. Marie that go between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. I had only seen Lake Michigan in the past so this trip allowed me to see four of them (the glance at Lake Erie didn't really count). We stopped late to camp for the night, and had some fun throwing the fishing line in along a small river near our campsite.

Day 7: Left Michigan, traveled through Wisconsin pretty fast, and entered Minnesota. We ventured into the area that J used to live in and fished at some of his old holes (and caught a few too, although we let them all go). We ended up heading a bit south near the end of the day so we wouldn't have such a long drive the next day. We camped near a lake and battled the mosquitos but still had some fun fishing and hanging out.

Day 8: Got up early, left the area pretty quickly so we could get on the road. Finished up in Nebraska by the end of the day. Ate dinner with Grandpa and his girlfriend and played some cards before heading back to the hotel.

Day 9: No traveling today, will be in Nebraska for 6 days and will have a family reunion on Saturday. Plan to get some golf and visiting in with Grandpa today.

I guess I should mention too, that I have been geocaching along the way, and have managed so far to get a cache in every state we have visited. Most of them haven't been great caches (a lot of rest stop park and grab micros) but that is okay since I am just looking to cover each state and we can't venture too far off the road when we are trying to cover 400+ miles a day. I will get a few while we are here in Nebraska, in fact I have a travel bug I picked up that I need to drop off.

So that is it for now...I'll try to get some more exciting posts done while we are here since I will have consisted Internet access for a few days.

Quick Trip Review (So Far)

1st day: Drove about 400 miles, slept in Aberdeen Maryland at a nice hotel and had great Italian food at this small local restaurant.

2nd day: Drove to Newark International Airport to park the car for our visit to the city. Took the train into the city, walked a bit to get to the hotel. Dropped off stuff, visited the Empire State Building (with no crowds on a Thursday afternoon), stopped at a pub for some beer and snacks while watching some World Cup soccer, then went to the Circle Line tour and did a harbour tour that was a lot of fun. Took the bus back to the hotel and then headed out to Times Square for some sightseeing, dinner at Yoshinoya, and having a few drinks while people watching.

3rd day: Slept in, and headed to the subway terminal for a metro fun pass for the day. Took the subway to Central Park and hung out for a while, then walked to Rockfeller Center and along 5th Avenue. Had some lunch and watched soccer at a restaurant/pub on 5th Ave. Then took the subway to the WTC site, Battery Park, Wall Street and the Stock Exchange, Union Square (where we went to a pub for some beer and snacks) and checked out the Farmer's Market. After that we headed to the room for a bit, and then out for dinner and some more at Time Square.

4th day: Got up early and headed back to Newark to pick up the car. Drove upstate and finished up at Niagara Falls by late afternoon. Checked out the state park on the American side (taking photos and video) and then headed over to Canada to see the other side. It was amazing to see. We got some dinner at the park there (very reasonably priced I might add) and ate with one of the best views ever imagined. At nightfall, the Canadians turn on some cool spot lights so you can still view and photograph the falls. We hung out for a while and then decided to just find a room there.

5th day: Slept in and headed from Niagara Falls across the Ontario Penisula to Michigan. Managed to get 2/3 of the way up the state towards the Upper Penisula before deciding to call it a day. Had some terrible rain along the way which killed our camping plans but we will have plenty more opportunities for camping before this trip is over. We'll be heading out to the Saulk St Marie Locks area before cutting across the UP to Wisconsin and eventually Minnesota.

We have taken tons of photos and video so far but posting any of it will have to wait until I get home and have access to my other computer (so I can transfer everything). We are having a ton of fun so far and I haven't had any emergency calls from home so I am assuming the cat and fish are doing okay.

Just wanted to get an update in so no one would think we had dropped off the planet. Will update more as we go and I get Internet access.

Hotels

It makes no sense to me. Hotels are built specifically for sleeping and when people come in at night, they pretty much realize that and try to be quiet....so explain to me, why at 6am the same rules don't apply? Doors slamming, cars revving, people shouting all at 6am for some reason. It is now 7:30am and all is quiet again....hmmm.

Father's Day Trials and Tribulations

Okay, I bitched about this last year in this post but it came to me again this year and I just have to revisit it. I was forced to buy cards for Father's Day this year, even though I have small fortune in card making supplies in my possession. I just ran out of time and had to resort to the card aisle at Hellmart.

While I was there, I realized exactly why I make most of my cards these days (even as limited as they are). The cards offered for Father's Day were absolutely horrible. The same idiotic jokes on the "humorous" ones and the same dumb assumptions of golf, mechanics, remote control ownership, and the farting and snoring laziness that all fathers apparently partake in.

I was forced to pick 7 cards from the lacking selection and to anyone that might be reading this that receives a card from me...you have my apologies in advance...I had no choice.

Bluebird Status

The first clutch fledged when I was on the west coast but we currently have a second clutch of 5 eggs, and they have been in the nest for about 9 days now. They will be hatched and almost ready to leave the nest by the time we return home from our excursion across the US...I hope they do okay.

Feeling The Crunch

Updated before leaving at 1pm with the last of the DONEs...I'll pay bills on the road, and the geocaches will have to be on the road too....grr.
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Updated at 7:52am with more DONEs....I just might make it.
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Updated at 9:46pm with more DONEs....
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Updated at 7:15pm with DONE after the ones I have finished already....we'll see if I get everything done.
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Okay,

I have about 24 hours before we leave on a 2 week vacation. This is a driving/camping/touristy/family reunion kind of vacation. Should be lots of fun.

Thing is, I have about a million things to do before we go and I am not getting much checked off the list today.

Absolute have to do before leaving house (or else we can't go):

• Set up cat food, litter box and water (plus vacuum floor). DONE
• Check hot tub chemicals, and strap down top (so neighborhood kids don't drown in it while we are gone). DONE
• Get fish pellets for fish and leave out with note for friend who is feeding them every three days. DONE
• Pack up camping gear. DONE
• Pack regular stuff (clothes, toiletries).DONE
• Pack golf clubs, cameras, laptop and Ipod. DONE
• Color hair.DONE
• Spray campdry on slicker. DONE
• Finish letters for water boy and fish feeder friends. DONE
• Show water boy what to water. DONE
• Post office to mail stuff and put mail on hold for two weeks. DONE
• Set plants and sprinklers up for water boy. DONE
• Pay bills that might be due while gone.
• Clean fish tank.DONE

Really need to do but can get by without (although I'll worry about it a lot while traveling):

• Get toilet in bathroom fixed (simple trip to Lowes for this one). DONE
• Plant petunias in pots in backyard so they don't get wasted sitting in their original nursery containers. DONE
• Grate soap near gardens to keep deer away.DONE
• Put veggie food on garden. DONE

Should do so I can leave stress free:

• Research geocaches and figure out which ones I want to do along the way. I am done through NY, NY but not any further than that.
• Update virus software and Windows on laptop (could do this on the trip somewhere). DONE

The garden stuff I was going to kick out this morning first thing has been put on rain hold (we are getting some weather from that storm in Florida). So I guess I will be running a few errands here in a bit, the cat, fish and hair color will be done tomorrow before leaving, so that leaves the rest of the stuff to be checked off....as usual, way too many things to do and not enough time to do them in....oh did I mention that I am trying to get a bit of World Cup soccer in amongst all this? Welcome to my world. I'll let you know what I accomplish.

Blogging Updates

Well, I finally did it. I set up my blog roll and installed it on my blogs (at least on the three that are on blogspot). I am looking forward to when I have to update again and not having to change it everywhere...oh, and I added links to a few that I started reading recently. Figured this way, I don't have to look them up in my favorites all the time. We'll see if I am able to keep up with them all.

I wish it was a bit more indented but I definitely like the "New Stuff!" labeling and the fact that it moves blogs to the top that have been updated...will make staying caught up much easier for me. Downside is that if you don't update, you move down...don't want that to happen to anyone but that is how this thing works. Had some trouble getting the preferences to work the way I wanted so I am not messing with it anymore...it is like it is for now.

On another note, I have a couple of notes for bloggers that I read or used to read. Graculus, I am still reading, I am just not commenting...can't seem to muster getting yet another password (the blog is looking pretty good by the way). Kate the Peon...I was reading but can't do the password thing for yet another blog. I understand completely why people have to resort to password protection so please don't think I am being critical, I am just explaining my absence from reading. Betty if you ever come back, drop me an email with the site location...loved your stuff even if I didn't comment much.

That is it for now...

World Cup Soccer

The World Cup is in day 3 today. We have been watching what we can when we can and it has been great so far. I will miss part of today's last game because I have a game myself to attend to, but I did manage to get most of the games this weekend in (or at least highlights).

Too bad I can't play as well as those guys...our team could use it. We had a bbq at one our friends yesterday and they play soccer too. We used to play with them when we lived in the same area before. I hope to help them get connected with some players around here and perhaps we will all get some playing in again.

ABC and Espn seem to be covering the games pretty well, and the broadcasts have not been limited to only US matches so I am thrilled. We'll see who comes out on top of this one this year.

Camping and Fishing

I went camping overnight last night with J about an hour from here near a lake. It was a nice little escape.

I headed up that way in the afternoon (J was working up there already). We met around 4pm and set up camp at the state park. Then we headed out to find a couple of geocaches, grab some dinner and meet some friends for some fishing. The geocaches were only micros but at least they were in a cool park I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Around 7pm we met up with a couple of friends, one of which owns a pontoon boot. We went out on the lake to catch some catfish but since the dam wasn't running water out, we ended up just spending some time catching some brim and hanging out. It was a lot of fun and when we finally did get back to camp it was after 11pm. We had parked one car on the inside of the gate so we wouldn't have to walk the 3 miles to the campground from the outer gate. Worked out well for us.

We slept in a bit in the morning and then broke camp and headed for breakfast. J had to work some more, so I went to find a couple more geocaches and then headed back towards home. Overall, it was a nice little trip, not too much rain (thank goodness for tarps) and cool enough to be enjoyable. I hope we get to do it again soon but I think by the time we get home from the family reunion in Nebraska it will be too hot to camp again until the fall...

Senate Rebuffs Same-Sex Marriage Ban - New York Times

Good news, reason has won out once again.

Construction Woes

The second house across from our house is almost done now...propective buyers have already started looking at it. First picture is what the lot looked like in January when they first cleared it, and the second is what the house looks like so far.





A couple of days ago, I got a notice from the city that another house was going up next to the one pictured above and then yesterday they started clearing yet another lot down the street. Here we thought we were moving into an older wooded neighborhood and now they are starting on the 6th new build since we moved here about 1 1/2 years ago. Just call this construction alley...

Friday Night

J and I went out to dinner at the sushi restaurant in town. I was supposed to go there with a friend for lunch that day but we didn't, and I think J was bummed that he was going to miss it, so it worked out that we ended up there for dinner instead. We had some great sushi and conversation with one of the ladies that works there. I was able to use my limited Japanese, which is probably getting rusty these days.

Anyhow after a fabulous meal, we decided to stop at the local Irish pub next door for a beer before heading back. We saw our neighbor's truck parked nearby so figured we would see them inside, which we did. We hung out for a while, ran into another guy we know, and caught up with everyone.

At one point these two 50ish aged women (who I am sure were perfectly nice) came in, in the worse outfits I have seen in some time. They were wearing tiny tank tops (with technically enhanced boobs), short short miniskirts and plastic shoes that flashed little lights in the heels when they walked. Now, normally in a bar, this might not be a bad thing, however they stood out a bit at this place.

W (neighbor) and I were laughing at the scene the entire time. Part of the fun of that Irish pub is that it is so not typical. While yes, it has Guiness beer and you can order an array of Irish food (although I don't know if anyone that works there is Irish or not), on Friday nights, the DJ plays a lot of hiphop, and there are lots of older countryclub men and tourists hanging out trying to be hip. Part of the reason I go there is for the people watching opportunities. On this night, besides the girls in plastic shoes, we had at least 1 sweater vest, and then this guy came in straight off the golf course I guess because he was wearing a polo shirt stretched over a little gut, bright red plaid pants and golf shoes. It is just great to see these guys out trying to dance to "Push It"...hee hee.

Anyhow, we stayed for a bit and then headed out. W wants us to try this other place out next week...we'll see if we can swing it or not.

Blogger Down?

I tried to post something yesterday but I think Blogger was having difficulties...I couldn't even get my page to load, much less check out anyone else's. Seems to be working now though...

Cache Owner

Well, recently I adopted an abandoned cache from another geocacher, and today, I placed my first one. It is located in the same preserve as the adopted one (in fact I was out there mostly to work on the adopted one, it needed some attention), but much further in.

I made it a bit more difficult than some of the "park and grab micros" that are so common around here. Mine requires a mile hike into the woods to get to it but there are trails that can be followed and the whole walk is definitely worth it.

I'll hopefully get published in a couple of days and we'll see how soon someone finds it. Now I need to go get some more containers since I used both of the ones I bought today updating the old cache and hiding this new one, and I have a few more spots I can think of that it would be cool to hide a cache in. I probably should invest in some stickers from geocaching.com as well.

Final Draft

I finally got the landscape planting completely done, and mulched so I took some pics today. Unfortunately a lot of the spring blooming is over but I think it still looks pretty good and the summer blooming is just around the corner. I cut a few gardenia flowers today and put them in shallow dishes with water throughout our house and it smells heavenly.

This is the before picture looking towards our neighbors on the west side of our house.

After picture from basically the same location but a bit further back.

We pulled the birdbath and feeder out while we did the work. The azaleas in the foreground of the before picture were pulled out and then put back in in a better spot and we moved the little dogwood on the left of the before picture a little further left, so it would get more sun and we would have room to do the plantings like we wanted.

This is the before picture looking towards the back of our property line.

This is the after picture from the same angle.

We planted some shade loving plants on the right side of this picture (which are all under the tree that was hit by lightening and might have to be removed) and then sun loving plants in the rest of it.

The list of plants (and I am sure I am butchering their spellings) are:

Gardenia (2 types for 7 plants total)
Wax Myrtle (2 plants total)
Silver Berry (1 plant total)
Several different Azalea (5 plants total)
Lorepetulum (5 plants total)
Nandina (2 types for 6 plants total)
Day Lily (20 plants total)
Purple Fountain Grass (3 plants total)
Japanese Pieris (2 plants total)
Little Richard (3 plants total)
Hosta (2 types for 5 plants total)

Once we got the bird bath and feeder back in, it really started to look nicer and then the final touch was finishing up the mulch which really completes it. I am thrilled with the way it looks and the plants all seem to be doing great (even the Silverberry that had some issues early on).

Routines

Does anyone else but me have routines that they do (for small things) everytime and if they have to differ from that routine, it messes them up? Like if I don't do the same thing my body is programmed to do each time, I might forget a segment completely.

The routine I am thinking of currently is my drying off routine. When I get out of the shower, pool or whatever wet object, I have a specific routine I use while drying off. Everytime...no variation, unless I am interupted by something or I have some sort of reason for not following it (like a wound or injured area). If I have an injured hand, then the whole thing gets thrown off and trying to do the same routine with only one hand is difficult.

Normally, it is not really something I think about, I think it is just muscle memory from doing it so many times. The routine varies only if I don't wash my hair but that only affects the beginning. I can get going in the same routine after bypassing the hair in the towel bit. But if I get interupted or have another reason that requires routine variation, it causes me to have to think about it so I don't end up forgetting to dry my back or something. I had a cut on my left hand the other day and not only did it mess up my drying off routine, it messed up my shampooing, soaping and shaving routine as well....guess that is what made me think of this.

It is strange how you can get so used to something that you can go through the entire thing without even thinking about it, like breathing almost. Unfortunately, I know a few people that do this while driving....the not thinking about it part, not the drying off part...haha.

And The Hits Keep Coming

Yesterday I got a 500 dollar water bill from our public utilities. Seems our nifty electronic timers for watering the landscaping locked in the open position while J and I were both gone for who knows how many days. It was running nonstop when J returned a few days before me.

The water usage portion is 250 and then the sewer part is 250...but I called them about it, since most of that water didn't go in the sewer, it went in the ground. They said to go ahead and write a letter stating what happened and they can probably reduce the sewer down quite a bit. I hope so...letter is already in the mail to them.

I also contacted the manufacturer of the timers because they are not supposed to lock in the open position and I think that they need to pay for some of that water usage as well, but we'll see if that happens. Needless to say, even if I just got a faulty one, I don't trust using either of them again while I am gone so I plan to return them soon. They cost 30 bucks a piece and didn't save me a dime in water or landscaping....grrrrr.

Weekend At The Beach

Well we are home now. We had fun, it was much nicer than I was expecting and the area we were in wasn't crazy with crowds. Here are a few of the many pics I took while there. They are not in any particular order.



The house we rented was away from the water so it was a nice retreat from days filled with sun, surf and sand. I didn't think to get any shots of it but perhaps we will stay there again and I will then.



The drive down was shorter than the Internet claimed and we even got a few geocaches in along the way. The trip back was a bit longer but we took a different route to see other sites.



Overall, it was a great trip, and I am looking forward to heading back down there in July for another few days.

Another List of Updates

In this post a few weeks ago, I have an update on several things that were on my plate...now things have progressed and I thought I would do it again.

Couch Situation:

The manufacturer got on the retailer and they sent the repairman out and he fixed the couch in about 30 minutes. I received a little couch education and the retailer is on my bad list. I plan to drop a little bomb on them in the near future for their lack of customer service (the only reason they fixed the couch is because it is covered by warranty from the manufacturer, if it had come out of their pocket, they would have completely blown me off).

Computer/Internet Situation:

The CPU stopped beeping so I have not taken it apart to put the thermal gel under there since it doesn't seem to be overheating anymore. Once I got back from my trip to the west coast, I installed my broadband wireless router and now I have wireless internet and networking for my laptop. It is so nice to be able to print from my laptop directly. The Linksys router I purchased works great and I have to say I have always been happy with their products.

Landscaping Situation:

I need to finish up a small amount of mulching in the main bed, and then do some maintenance on some of the other beds. The plants all did fine while I was gone and there is a new growth showing. J decided to put in a little garden on the other side of the backyard and we have tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers making their way into the world. The big pine tree that was hit by lightening is probably going to die eventually. The arborist I spoke with said to keep an eye on it because it will be noticable when it happens and then we need to get it out before bugs can infest since they can also attack some of the healthy trees in our yard. I am bummed that we might lose it, but for now it is doing okay, putting out new growth and getting on with life.

Soccer Situation:

Missed two weeks while I was on the west coast but have played twice since then and my pulled quad seems to be fine. I am not kicking it as far as before, but I think I have to work back up to that. I will miss our game this weekend because we are going to the coast for the holiday, so I won't have soccer again until practice on Wednesday next week.

School Situation:

I am finished, actually finished before I left for the west coast. I did well on most of it, haven't gotten any feedback from the teacher on what could have been improved upon regarding my site, but I did get an A in the class overall. I am off for the summer and have the one class to take in the fall to be done with my Master's.

Photo Project Situation:

Still haven't moved on this one. I did get all the pictures done from my visit out west and hope to get prints in the mail today. Will tackle this one soon so I can get my Grandma's pictures back to her.

Fitness Situation:

Have started logging my workouts on "My Happy Medium" again, and have been pretty good about getting some exercise since I have been home. I need to be more diligent on portion size and I think I might actually lose a few pounds. I didn't work out as much as I would have liked to while I was traveling but I also didn't eat too much either. I think I had lost a bit of weight before the trip with my poison ivy episode...haha.

New Hottub Situation:

I need to treat our hottub cover so it doesn't dry out and crack but there are more pressing issues. I had an electrician over yesterday because it seems that the lightening strike to the tree did affect the hottub. We are pretty sure it blew out the power converter for the stereo as well as possibly the stereo (I need to hook it to a car battery to test it). It also blew out some of the LED lights around the rim of the tub. The electrician thinks that is mostly a static thing, not a strike, or the hottub circuit board would be gone as well. So I have to get some things checked out today so we can get a damage report started. If we end up having to pay to remove the tree, then I can also have the hottub stuff added and perhaps do more than our deductible.

Miscellaneous:

I still need to powerwash the house from the pine pollen fall earlier this spring, and I also need to powerwash our patio furniture. There are a few flowers that need planting and some mulching, and pinestrawing that needs to be done as well. I am a bit behind on my card making, and have travel videos to work on along with a plethora of other things. My plate is never empty.

I better get this day started since it is the last day this week I will have time to do anything, as we are going away for the weekend (I know, it might be a nightmare, but it could be fun too).

Blog Passwords

I have noticed recently that lots of fellow bloggers are being forced to password protect their posts. I understand why this has to happen and I am sure it is frustrating for the blog owner that it is required because apparently a few people can't "play nice with others".

Regardless that it is necessary for some owners, as a reader, I hate it. Mostly this is because in my Internet life, I have tons of passwords to remember and for some reason the blog ones are always the ones I lose, so I am continually having to ask for them again. So I guess if I disappear off your counters, it isn't because I don't enjoy a great read any longer, it is just because I lost the password, once again. Sorry.

Summer Solstice

I remember as a kid not really noticing the summer solstice much. I really didn't notice when, in the summer, the days started to shorten up... seemed like they were all long and lovely. Summer was just so huge and by the end of it, we were telling the "grown ups" that we were bored, and they were praying for school to start so we would get out of their hair. I actually remember having so much time on my hands that I didn't know what to do with it all. Gone are those days.

Now, perhaps because I am older and have more to do everyday, or because I just pay attention to the news now, I am keenly aware of the summer solstice. This bums me out because I really think it should be in August rather than in June. It is depressing to me to think that the days start their downward swing towards shortness as early as June. Summer is supposed to be about long days and I think August would be a much better month for the solstice to be in. So who do we talk to about getting this fixed?

We Be Wireless

Well, I finally got off my lazy butt today and hooked up my wireless broadband router so I could access the Internet on my laptop, share files with my pc and print without having to use my usb thumb drive.

Things were going smoothly until I enabled my security preferences and then everyone when to their own corners to pout. A few tweeks, some sweet talking and a slight change in names seemed to do the trick. Who knows if all parties will be talking after the next reboot but for now, we are up and running and I have transfered files back and forth, everyone can see each other, my test print worked and but not least, I am posting here from my laptop in my living room....whooeee!!!!

This was one more thing on my list that can be checked off....since getting out of school, I am making some headway on those items.

Reading Update

Updated Mishka's Reading today with books that I have read in May so far....hope you enjoy.

Happy Birthday Aunt L

I just wanted to wish one of my favorite aunts a wonderful birthday. She and my mom have been friends since they were in grade school so even if they hadn't married brothers, she would have been a huge part of my life.

She and I have been friends for a long time, sometimes I was able to talk to her when I couldn't talk to anyone else. Currently she is in college to get her nursing degree and I couldn't be prouder of her.

Thanks Aunt L for all you have done and I hope you spend some time today just on you. We love you!!!

Not What You Want To Hear

"We don't really need that part anyhow."

Said by pilot of my flight from Portland to Minneapolis yesterday after our plane stalled before taxiing.

We were backing away from the gate, just like normal, and all of a sudden everything in the plane went off. The flight attendant was in the middle of the seat buckle explanation and didn't miss a beat. There were no lights, no sounds, no air and no engines....

We sat for a few minutes like that, while the flight attendant continued with the security briefing, and then stuff slowly started to come back on. At one point, they even turned the heat on (although it was already sweltering in the plane). The pilot came on and apologized for the heat, told us that they had to run through their checklist to make sure everything was okay. Seems that while we were backing up, the auxillary power supply that they use to start the engines and air while at the gate (and then usually turn off during flight) cut out and for some unknown reason shut everything down.

After the checklist was complete, we took off like normal. They assured us that the plane was safe and the above quote was mentioned. I thought to myself, "Well at least we don't REALLY need it".

About an hour before we landed in Minneapolis, the pilot came on and informed us that those passengers that were continuing on to La Guardia would be actually changing planes in Minneapolis. Makes me wonder if all wasn't as well as they were trying to play it off as being.

This is the third flight I have taken that I didn't have complete confidence in the aircraft....fortunately, none of the experiences have ended badly.

Almost Done

Well, I fly out tomorrow for the East coast. I will miss my family and friends on this side of the US but will be glad to get home, sleep in my own bed and see J, who has been home from his business trip for several days.

I have made many observations while on this trip that will develop into future posts, I am sure, but I have not really had time like I thought I would to blog on the road. I need to get writing and get some of this stuff down on paper (actually my laptop) before it all starts to squeak out of my memory.

I did get my grades from class and it looks like I will be getting an A. I got a 97 on my multimedia site and that feels great. Now I have the summer off from school to concentrate on other "To Do" list items, and then one more class in the fall to be done with my program. Whooooeeee! I am almost there. I guess that means that I will have to get a job....:(

80 Years Old

Happy Birthday Grandma!!! You are absolutely the best.

We celebrated with a big party on Saturday, but today is the actual day. I think the party was great and we had a lot fun and were able to catch up with all sorts of friends and family. Some of J's family that lives in the area was able to make it too, so I was able to see them for a while as well. It was great.

My sis and I drove back up to Portland yesterday afternoon after doing some geocaching in and around Jacksonville Oregon. It was a very educational as both caches were located in or near really old cemeteries. Amazing history.

It was hard to say goodbye to the grandparents...grandma kept telling us to come back soon. I hope I am able to. I miss them a lot and wish I lived closer. Maybe in the next year or so we will end up back on the west coast for a spell. That would be nice I think.

Whew!!!

Well, school is behind me for the semester. I finished up my project a day early which allowed me some time to get everything else done that I had to do before leaving on my trip to the NW.

As it stands now, I think I will do well in the class and I am on my trip without schoolwork hanging over my head...a great feeling. I can pretty much do whatever I want (with the exception of blowing off my house maintenance in WA) and it feels great.

So I am in Portland for a day or so and then head down south the help my grandmother celebrate her 80th birthday this weekend, then it is back up this way to head to WA next week to work on my house and see my dad...hope everyone else has a great week....see you.

Poison Oak/Ivy

It seems that I have managed to get into one of the above in the last few days...I usually react very badly to Poison Oak (have never been around Poison Ivy much, but it grows here I guess). Not sure which one I have but I am guessing that their rash is similar.

Anyhow, I just went to this cool site because I wanted to double check that any oozing would not cause it to spread (which it doesn't by the way). The reason I was double checking was because I am not sure when I touched this stuff, and where I have it is really weird (on my forearm, one side of my neck, and my belly). None on my hands or feet...and it seemed like it was spreading a bit (meaning I had not gotten the oil completely off of me or something in my house has it still and I was reintroducing it to my skin). This case doesn't seem to be too bad, I usually get it a lot worse so I am not too worried but I don't want to keep picking it up, so I moved to preventative measures this morning.

I have found that wiping down things with either rubbing alcohol or clorox wipes clears up any oil I might have left on a door knob or light switch. Since I don't know when I got it, I threw any clothes I have worn (including jackets) in the last few days into the laundry as well as all bath towels and bedding. I think I have the house pretty much disinfected and now I just need to do a ton of laundry.

From reading the site, it seems that clorine and hot water are helpful in reducing itching and drying it up fast and being that I have a hot tub in back, I think my soaks are going to be more than theraputic for the next few days...haha. I have been using Caladryl Clear which works pretty well for me during the day as well. I might even get in the hot tub right now just to see if it helps dry this stuff up. I have a trip in a few days and being covered in rash and itching doesn't sound like fun, not to mention that it looks terrible...

Updates

Here is a list of updates from posts that I have made recently...

Couch situation-
Currently waiting for the technician to call me to schedule a date to come and repair the couch. Have had to call both the manufacturer and the retailer several times to keep the ball rolling on this one. I am hoping to have this done before I leave for the west coast next week but otherwise will schedule it for after.

Computer/Internet situation-
I installed the new ethernet card in my computer yesterday. Disabled the old one in the BIOS and in the system settings in Windows. I had a technician from our cable company come out and test our lines. He was able to find a couple of small problems but mostly we have a pretty good signal. I cleaned out the interior of my computer case before closing it up and discovered a lot of dust on my CPU fan. I uninstalled it and cleaned it but didn't have anymore thermal gel with me so when I put it back together, I started getting beeped because the CPU was overheating. Purchased some thermal gel last night and plan to fix that issue today. Otherwise, the PC is back on the Internet using the connection in the office and all seems well. I will install the wireless router soon so I can configure the security and get the laptop back up on the Internet but for now, I have too many other things to do before my trip so it will wait.

Landscaping situation-
I have finally purchased the last of the plants and will have them in the ground before I leave. I have had some watering issues that are on going (trying to find the best scenario to have the area watered while I am gone). Normally this time of year, it wouldn't be a worry because we would get lots of rain but we haven't been and I don't want everything to die. I will have it figured out before I leave. Once I get these last plants in the ground, I will get some mulch and that will help the area retain water as well.

Soccer situation-
Don't know if I said anything about this last week but I pulled a muscle in my quad and can't seem to find a wrap for it (will have to go to a sports store in another town for it). Fortunately because of rain, our practice was cancelled yesterday so my leg is getting a full week to heal and then I will have one game before I leave. The trip will give me two weeks to heal as well and that will be good.

School situation (I guess I haven't really blogged about this much)-
Well, as usual, I am behind. This is due to my own procrastination and poor time management but I think I can still pull it out if I focus this week (I should also mention that I have a lot of other things on my plate as well). I had to rescope my project once again but I think it will turn out better because of it. I just need to work on some of my required elements so I can get those out of the way and not be down to the wire dealing with them. Fortunately this class is very laid back so I am not worried about completely screwing it up.

Class has been a lot of fun and I am learning tons. We are building multimedia websites this semester and there are no tests, no papers, and (best of all) no groupwork. I can't complain at all.

Photo project situation-
This is still ongoing. I had hoped to be done with this by the time I was flying back out to the west coast, but it is just not going to happen. I'll finish it up when I get back and then send everything back to my mom or grandma with insured mail.

Fitness situation-
I have been pretty good about getting some exercise and keeping the portions under control but I don't know that I am actually doing enough to see dramatic results. None of my clothes feel super big but they aren't tight either so I guess I can't complain and I just need to stay motivated. The warmer weather has made walking much more pleasant.

Miscellaneous-
I have still not replaced my favorite fish that died. I have lots of yard stuff to do that is completely unrelated to the landscaping (like I have a truck full of pinestraw that has been there for over a week). I have several internal house projects that I would like to complete but for now, I think I have enough on my plate until I finish the semester and fly to the west coast. Most of it can wait until I get back.

Okay, so that is it...basically I have way more to do than time to do it, so I better get off here and get started with my day.

Utterly Ridiculous

I found a cache yesterday inside one of these...

hidden inside one of these.

Five Chicks

Our first clutch of bluebirds hatched this weekend, ...they are so cute in an ugly sort of way. They will be ready to take flight in a few weeks, but I probably won't get to see it (didn't get to see it last year either). I need to put a suet feeder out so that the mom and dad are not having to go as far for food.

Technical Difficulties

I have not been online since Saturday.

We had a lightening/thunder storm here on Saturday morning. I was not home, I was at a friend's nursery helping them out. It was a typical storm, nothing too crazy. I figured since our power had gone out everyday last week that when I got home, I would be reseting clocks and rebooting my computer. When I got home, my clocks were fine but the computer was off so I rebooted it. I have just about everything in this house on surge protectors, including the digital cable box in the livingroom. The only thing not protected from surges was the coax coming into my cable modem, only because the surger protector in that room doesn't have a coax jack.

While I was waiting for the computer to reboot, I went out to check on the cat, and she was in the sun room but was acting really weird. She kept wanting to come into the house. Strange since she loves the sun room. I just figured that the storm must have scared her a bit. Anyhow, I went back to the computer, and while it seemed to be working fine, I couldn't get on the Internet. I checked the connections, rebooted both the cable modem and the computer a couple of times. Nothing. I go into the family room, and turn on the TV to make sure the cable is on...it is fine in there.

So, I call our cable company and start an hour long process of checking everything to see what is going on. It seems that they can see my modem but there is no talking going on between my modem and my computer. The diagnosis is that either my ethernet card went bad in my computer, the ethernet cord went bad, or the ethernet port on the modem went bad. I can get a free replacement of modem on Monday. I test the system on my laptop with the same results so we figure that my card is okay, that it is just either the cord or the modem.

On Sunday, I go and get another cord, figuring I can always use a second one if that is the trouble, but would hate to wait to switch out the modem if that is not the problem and it could be fixed simply with the cord. The new cord does not bring about any better results. While I am the store buying the cord, I also pick up a broadband wireless router so that I can use my wireless card in my laptop in the rest of the house, and network to my printer without having to use the thumb drive everytime I want to print or upload to the Internet.

In the meantime, I have started using the dial up access so I can at least check email until Monday. I leave on Sunday afternoon to play soccer and when I get home, I start watering. I am in the back yard and I notice this really weird looking piece of wood sitting in the raised flower bed. I pick it up and it is this long piece of bark. I look over at this 60 foot tall pine tree we have in our yard, and there is a spiraling three inch wide barkless stripe down the length of it, and the ground below is covered in bark. The porch (which is about 25 feet away from the tree) is covered in bark too. We didn't think this was odd at first because it had been really windy on Saturday. Anyhow it seems that this tree was struck by lightening on Saturday when I was not home and blasted a ton of bark off our tree along with scaring the sh1t out of our cat. I am so sad I was not here for it, because I can imagine it was quite the crack when that thing hit. The tree looks fine minus the stripes of nakedness. I will check with my nursery guy to see if it is going to die or be a hazard to the house. Now I know why the cat was acting weird (she was in a glass room only about 30 feet from that tree, and I know why my modem was fried (which in all the power outages we have had, has never happened before).

So today (Monday), I go to the cable company and get the replacement modem. She gives me an extra cord. I get home, and hook everything up and the box is still not working. At first I couldn't get it to even flash that it was receiving but after playing with the jack a bit, I get it to receive but it still won't connect my computer to the Internet. I call the cable company again, and we start walking through all the scenarios. She tells me that the signal quality is really low for that jack. I take everything into the other room and hook my laptop to the modem and am finally able to get it up on the Internet. Looks like we need to have the technician come out on Wednesday to check our lines and make sure that they didn't get fried internally.

So once I got it working, I decided to stretch the cord to my PC and see if I could get it up on the Internet....nope. Seems that the ethernet port on my motherboard is toast, I guess I am lucking I didn't lose the entire board. So I need to check and see if I have an extra slot so I can go buy card to put in so I can have Internet back on that computer. In the meantime, I have plugged in the broadband router to the cable jack in my bedroom and without any kind of setup, my wireless card on my laptop is functioning. Guess this will have to do until the tech comes on Wednesday to fix my lines and I get a new card for the PC. I will just have to limit my use to non vital things since I wasn't able to set up the security features on the router yet...won't be able to do that until I can connect it to my computer.

Graveyard Visit

Yesterday, I stopped by this unique graveyard that happened to have a geocache in it. It was a dreaded micro but I wouldn't have seen this cemetery otherwise, so I can't complain too much. This was a pretty old graveyard, most of the people had died in the 1800s and many of the markers were just rocks that had no writing on them.
The big stone marker in the middle of the above shot was very interesting. It was just a big rock but then had a plaque in the middle with writing on it.
Up close the marker was interesting in itself. It was very old and the writing was cool to check out.

I enjoyed my visit to the small unknown cemetery, hope you did too.

Updates

Updated both Happy Medium and the Reading List today...have gotten behind lately but still try to post something when I can.

Responsible TV, What A Concept

I am so excited to see this new show from TLC (part of Discovery network) airing this year...I hope that people will tune in and learn something. It is about time that families take some responsibility for the health outcomes of their members.

The show is called Honey, We're Killing The Kids and it is on Mondays at 9pm. They find families that need help making good choices in nutrition and health areas, show them pics of what their kids will look like if they don't make some changes, and then for three weeks a nutritionist helps them change their ways while still making it fun. At the end if they have been successful at adopting her plan (or portions of her plan) she shows them again a future pic to see what the changes will accomplish.

I think this is so perfect because when I heard a women was trying to sue McDonalds, a while back, because her child was obese from eating there, I had to ask, who the parent was and who was actually making the food decisions for that child? No one is holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to eat fast food everyday.

Check out their website, they have some cool interactive and informational stuff.

Teachers beheaded in Baghdad in front of students - Yahoo! News

"A ministry official said he believed the attacks were aimed at: 'intimidating pupils and disrupting learning.'" Wow, you think?

Total Honesty

Okay, I hate to admit it but I saw part of a Maury Povich show yesterday. I was at my friend's house (she is just moving in) and the power went out in this fantastic storm that came over. When it came back on, somehow her cable box defaulted to whatever network was showing Maury yesterday afternoon. The show was titled something like "The 10 Top Paternity Shows Ever"...it was a piece of crap but somehow I ended up watching the end of it.

Thing I don't get about these shows is where they find these people from? I mean, why would a girl who has apparently slept with more than just her boyfriend/husband, get on national television telling everyone that she is 100% sure that so and so is the father of her kid if she knows that there is a possibility (because of whomever else she slept with) that the kid is not his? That just makes no sense to me. She knows that she is taking a chance at making herself look like just as much of a j@ck@ss as he might be.

In a couple of the cases the girl was telling the husband/boyfriend that the two kids she had while with him, weren't his...nice. And you say you care about this person that you would do that to them on national television? One boy was only 21 and he had 6 kids from 5 different women, but was only taking claim for 3 of them. Apparently he had never heard of a condom...he'll be paying everything he makes in child support for the rest of his life.

Now obviously paternity is not the only topic that is covered in these shows but it seems, more often than not, that every time I glimpse daytime talk shows like these in an attempt to find something interesting on television during the afternoon, it is on there. I don't know if that is because our country just has a lot of people producing children with unknown origins, or if we just have a bunch people that think 15 minutes of fame entails dragging all those that you say love through a national spectacle. I guess reality is that if there weren't people at home watching it, it wouldn't be on there (now I too have contributed to this mess).

What really sucks is that someday the kids of these people are going to end up seeing these tapes and have their lives shook up once again.

Templates

I so need to work on my blog...it has gotten boring but I just don't have time. I want to change up my template and I need to add blogrolling so I don' t have to update the entire thing (it has gotten kind of big) each time I want to change something on my side bar....ugh!!!

In Memory

My favorite fish died last night. She was one of the original ones J got me for Christmas 2004 and she seemed to have the most character. She had developed a growth on her back a few months ago, but seemed to be okay. It went down some and then last week a second started to grow on the other side. Yesterday she didn't seem to be doing very well.

I am sad to have her gone...I guess I need to go to the pet store soon and see if I can find another similar to her. Sucks when they die.

Spring Cold

I hate it when you have sh1t to do but feel like crap and would just like to stay on the couch with a blanket, a pillow, some hot tea, and a box of Puffs...

Apparently J had both allergies and a cold at the same time (explains the sore throat he was complaining about), and I managed to catch the cold part. Last night was horrible (no drugs) but tonight, I am Nyquiling it up and plan to sleep like a rock. Mix that with some C and some Zinc, I better feel better by the weekend...

Typical

Seems that the new video card that I had to buy for our computer before this semester started has begun to buzz...actually the fan on it buzzes. I am not sure why and I haven't had the time to get on the forums to investigate it. It is absolutely annoying...up until this morning I have been just tapping on the fan and it stops, at least for a while. This requires me to keep my side panel off or at least not screwed back in.

This morning, I tapped it one time in frustration and my system locked up. I rebooted and decided not to mess with it anymore until I have time to figure out why it is doing it...I think it is just a bad fan. So instead of listening to it and letting it drive me nuts, I have started streaming the Funky Monkey out of Tacoma Washington. It drowns out the buzz quite nicely. We used to listen to this station sometimes when we were living in WA and they are one of the easiest ones to stream. I am sure I will get sick of the music eventually have to find something else but I just couldn't tolerate the dumb commercials on Yahoo music so it will have to do for now. I need to bring a few good CDs in here too so I can listen to them on Itunes....for now the Funky Monkey will have to do.

Cleaning House

Spring is here and that means that J's adult onset allergies are in full gear. We were playing golf the other day and it was terrible for him...I think it was one tree in particular but I just felt awful for him. So anyhow, in an attempt to help at least create a "safe" zone for him, I am cleaning the house from top to bottom today. I have other things I should be doing but I hate to see him miserable.

So far, I have dusted/Pledged all horizontal surfaces in our house, changed the filter in our heating/cooling system, changed all three filters in our vacuum, vacuumed all carpet, swept all hardwood and linoleum floors, bleach mopped on my hands and knees said linoleum floors, done all laundry and plan to still wet swiffer the hardwoods once the linoleum dries. I am also turning on the air conditioning for a bit just to get some circulation going. The weather has been moderate lately so it has not been running and with the windows all closed to keep out the pine pollen, I am sure the air is a bit stale and has not been filtered in a while.

I am thankful everyday that I don't suffer from allergies (minus the occasional sneeze from dusting). Hopefully this diversion from the schoolwork I should be doing will be worth it and he will be sneeze free when he gets home tonight.

Five Eggs

I checked the bluebird nest last night and now there are five eggs...she must have been mid-laying when I checked the first time...now I can start counting the days until they hatch.

They're Gone

I finally broke down and did it. I went through the list of geocaches near my home and put all the stupid boring micros, that I haven't been able to stop myself from looking for, on my ignore list so they don't show up when I do a search for caches.

I have had this option for a while now but only chose to do it on ones that I had checked out and decided weren't worth looking for. This time, I just went down the list and if it was a micro and I had a basic idea of where it was and how stupid it was, it went on the ignore list. Any that had "park and grab" in their description were the first to go. Ones that had no description other than to tell me that I needed to bring my own pen and I was looking for a 33mm canister were also quickly gone. My only regret is that the owners of these idiotic things can't see that they are on anyone's ignore list. I wish they could, I wish that they would get the hint and stop ruining perfectly good areas to hide regular sized caches in by putting these dumb things in.

So my ignore list now has 48 items on it (there are more micros than that but I have found some already). They are all within 20 miles of my house. Seems like when I get some distance from this area, the trading caches come back to the surface. I need to get out and find a new one as I have a yellow jeep travel bug that I need to release soon.

New Eggs

Well, I think I was wrong on the robins, I checked what looked like a nest in one of our holly bushes and it is not really all that together. Kind of looks like an old nest and there aren't any eggs in it but the robin is still hanging out in that bush so perhaps it will build something or remodel the nest I checked out today.

In other news though, I checked the bluebird nest box today just for the heck of it and as you can see from the pic, there are three little eggs in it...don't know how long they have been there but hopefully they will hatch (last year we had a clutch that didn't) and I can track the chick progress before they fledge. I was really surprised to see eggs in there because I haven't really seen the bluebirds much (except when another bird tries to move into the box) so I thought perhaps they hadn't laid yet. Last year, mom bird was on that nest constantly after laying...hmmm. Oh well, I can be happy we have eggs and we'll see what the next few days lead us to.

Life

I got this in an email many years ago and held on to it because it rang so true for what I believe. What we do now with our lives and how we treat the earth and those around us is the the most important thing we can worry about. Whenever I need a reality check, I remember this little essay. Hope you enjoy it too. If anyone knows who the author is, please let me know.

LIFE

Life isn't about keeping score.
It's not about how many friends you have
Or how accepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend or if you're alone.
It isn't about who you're dating, who you used to date, how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all.
It isn't about who you have kissed,
It's not about sex.
It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have
Or what kind of car you drive.
Or where you are sent to school.
It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what kind of music you listen to.
It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.
Not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everybody else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are.
It's not about what clubs you're in or how good you are at "your" sport.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you."
LIFE JUST ISN'T.

But, life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.
It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It's about what judgments you pass and why. And who your judgments are spread to.
It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow, and spreading it.
But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could have never occurred alone.
Only you choose the way those hearts are affected, and those choices are what life's all about.

Obsession

Why is it that changing a toilet paper roll became such a hassle that we actually have to buy quadruple rolls with extenders?

Charmin's bear commercials drive me nuts and the fact that there is even a market out there for quadruple rolls is just silly.

Pitch Black

It just got very dark outside...we are in for a great storm...I am half tempted to put my truck in the garage because they are forecasting large hail, thunder, lightening, and possible tornados.

I love storms, in fact, I am sure I will be out video taping here in a few minutes if I don't lose my power soon. Whooeeee!! I guess I should have gotten my walk in earlier, but that is okay, we are supposed to have a break mid-morning and then be at it again this afternoon.

Golfing

I went golfing with J yesterday for the second Sunday in a row. We seemed to have had a bit of a hiatus during the winter and just started back at the range recently. These two Sundays have been the first rounds we have played since the fall. They were both fun, we didn't play fabulously but better than expected considering the time we were away from it.

Last weekend, J beat me by one stroke and yesterday, we tied....so if I keep it up, I could be winning soon. Last year, I beat him a few times but those were on days when he was playing just horribly. Yesterday, we were both playing decently so I feel better about that.

My drive is what saves me. I get enough distance that I make up for what I can't do in the short game. If I ever learn to use my pitching wedge properly, I might give him a run for his money. Even if I didn't do great, I did get on the greens in regulation more than half the time and I was in the fairway except on two holes...I guess that is a good start. I have decided that I really need to get regular at the gym since I am sure some more muscles would be to my advantage.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, the sun was out, and it was warm (mid 80s), and I got some color to my skin...yeah, pastey white winter Mishka is gone for the season.

To Do List

I am checking them off as fast as I can and it feels great. I balanced the checkbook for the last 4 months today, got up to date on our investment info, and finally organized and filed instructions and warranties for stuff that has been hanging over my head for ages....whooeeee!!!! Usually I am pretty good about the checkbook every month but the last few months, I have let the filing and organizing slide....bad me. Oh well, I am out from under the pile now, we'll see how long it lasts before something new has to be filed.

Now I just need to get on the 7 million other things on my list...exercise being one of them before I turn into a pile of goo.