Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I DID IT!

It's all Brad's fault. If you have trouble with my new site, talk to him. :) Just kidding. Better try and talk to me first. Then, as all chain of commands go, I'LL talk to him...! Thank you, Brad for all the hard work and help.

Please change your bookmarks and come see me at my new "home"!

http://thetornpages.com/

I'm so excited! Can't you tell?

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Monday, February 19, 2007

For Jen


No, they aren't socks*. Yes, they're upside down. They're stocking caps for premie babies! My mother gave me the pattern and the information. There is a place you can send them to Africa where the babies are all much smaller than they are here in the U.S.
Or, in my case, I am sending them to the hospital guild for the premies born here. They took such wonderful care of my premie 30-some years ago. It's taken me awhile, but I'd like to repay them in some small way. So, six down and who knows how many to go?
*These are my first attempt at knitting something that isn't square or rectangular.

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

Season's Change

Thinking about making a change with the seasons. Might be switching away from Blogger. I'll keep all four of you informed.

In other news, something has me so pissed off right now I can't talk about it. Soon. I promise.

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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

This 'n That

I have been one busy lady. Don't believe me? Ask Hubs. He's got the garbage to prove it.

My home office is still organized and wonderful. Trust me. To be able to say that a week or so after having completed the project is truly a miracle. I'm trying very hard not to slide back into my old habits. So far, so good.

The "bonus room", as the builders and construction plans all call it, has finally reached the point where it can be used! This is the large room that is over the garage that is designed, in our case, for storage and for my crafts (craps, as Hubs calls it). I think I've mentioned this a time or two, but I have waaaay too many interests. Besides being an avid reader (can you say, about 3 books a week?) I also am "into" computers, WoW video game (World of Warcraft for the uninitiated), rubber stamping (aka scrapbooking, but I'm not that organized), crocheting, knitting, cross-stitching, sewing, painting and uh... oh, yeah, blogging. We've now lived in this new house two-and-a-half years. I am just now getting all the boxes unpacked upstairs and all the craft stuff put back into shelves and bins and drawers and what-nots that make them easily accessible and available for use.

Hubs and I have an agreement. Since we live in the country, we have a dumpster for our garbage. It resides a ways from the house (who would want one right outside?) and we just call our local garbage guys when it needs emptying. My end of the deal is to take the trash out to the garage and line the wall next to where he parks his pickup. His end is to then load up his pickup and take it the rest of the way out to the dumpster. He says he can always tell when I've been cleaning house by the level of garbage he faces when he comes home. Needless to say, it's been quite a bit lately. Have you ever moved? Have you then later been embarrassed to realize all the JUNK that you moved that you then throw away? Oh... okay. Me neither. *blush*

I noticed on Sunday that the neighbor had about 10 pickups in his driveway. Guess that explained all the shooting. I haven't figured out what his thing is yet. He came from out of state (I won't say from where as I've met some really nice people from there and although my state likes to make jokes about this state and it's become quite the rivalry... I'm not going to blame them for one asshat). He has a business in town and sells Carhart brand clothing and who knows what else - I refuse to go into his store, so don't know for sure - have to rely on what Hubs has told me. Because he's from out of state I can't decide if these are all new friends, possibly customers that he's got coming out for some "hunting", or old friends from that other state. (Keep in mind, they aren't actually killing anything that I know of, just clay pigeons.)

I haven't been working at my paid job due to 1) lack of work 2) lack of motivation 3) weather and 4) too much other stuff going on. However, I did go into work on Sunday to box up the external hard drive that I couldn't get to work and the company is shipping back...finally... for credit on a new, brand-name, plug-and-play model. They were set for Monday pick up and the weather was to get pretty nasty so I went in Sunday to get it done. At any rate, I walked in and found my new monitor had arrived! Yippee! So, managed to get it all hooked up and the old one ready for recycling - as well as dusted. Yeah, did I mention I'm the maid? Just kidding. We all keep our own space clean, tho' and the guy I share space with and I have an agreement - I'll dust if he'll vacuum. Got that chore done for the month!

Last, but not least, the weather. It's yucky, but not as bad as they were saying earlier in the week. It is right now snowing and blowing pretty bad - but they're saying we're only to get about 5". Earlier they thought about 9". It seems Missouri is getting thunderstorms and the moisture they've been getting took all of the extra moisture out of the snow, so not so much now. Doesn't hurt my feelings. At least we aren't like the people out east facing 100+ inches. That's just nuts. Any time you have to go up on your roof to shovel, it's not a good thing. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'm the one who has been asking for it. Moderation, people!

There you have it! So, what's been going on in your world? What's that you say? I have to go read your blogs? I thought you were going to say that.

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

BANG! BANG!

That's how I was awakened this morning by the neighborhood gun nut. I can't believe this guy... even he's reached a new low (pun intended). The temperature is -5 (without counting the windchill). He's out there, shooting away ... at ... who knows? I knew he was an Asshat, I just didn't know how big of an asshat he was!

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Friday, February 09, 2007

Tic Toc

That's about all that's going on around here. Clock-watching. Waiting. I hate waiting. How about you? I used to be more patient. I don't think it was in my youth... oh, maybe it was. I didn't mind so much waiting in lines or waiting for things to happen. Do you suppose that it all ties in with the older we get the less time we feel we have and the less we want to waste it on a line somewhere?

*Gasp* ... does that mean I'm getting old?

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Tuesday, February 06, 2007

You've GOT to be Kidding Me



You know how I just got a new computer at home? Well, ignore that for a minute. It's fine and I love it. Remember how I just got a new computer at work? Yeah. Let's talk about it. When the Company I Work For got me the new 'puter, they didn't get me a new monitor. Why? Because I'm half blind and they'd already put out the bucks for a nice, flat panel, 20" monitor and they didn't feel the need to do it again. Not a problem. I thought. Until yesterday.

Go ahead, ask. "What happened yesterday?". Yeah, innocent questioner you. HA. I repeat. HA.

Yesterday morning as I was minding my own business and working away like the busy worker clone that I am, I hear a slight "pop" and then... wait for it... my monitor screen goes blue. Blue? Yes. Not the BLUE SCREEN of DEATH. Nope. This was more like the orange tint your old Polaroid pictures get after 20 years in a cardboard box in the depths of hell known as the attic. Except, instead of having a lovely orange cast, everything was blue. Blue was the new white.

Remembering when I got this monitor new, I realized what must have happened. I remember playing with the settings. (Don't give me that look... you all do it too.) I remember it having a particular feature that you could set the 'lighting' for daytime or night - and then for text, movies or pictures. I distinctly remember the night-time settings as being... blue tinted. Uh-huh. My monitor has gone to the darkside. I tried playing with settings, but to no avail. Nothing would give me back my white whites.

I hooked up a co-worker's monitor, just to be sure it wasn't some setting I'd accidently changed. Nope. With his screen attached I once more had white whites, red reds and green greens. It was all the way it was supposed to be.

I'm home for a day or two. I have a new monitor on it's way. Another 20" flat panel.

Now, if I could just get the damn external hard drive they got me for backups to be recognized by the computer, I'd be set. Technology. I love it. When I don't hate it.

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Monday, February 05, 2007

B-Day Wishes

...go out to Brad! Go wish him a Happy Birthday and tell him Sue sent ya!

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If I'm Awake It Must be Monday

Did everyone survive the Superbowl? Did you all get your wish? Me? I am so not a sports fan...

Daughter had some co-workers over to watch on the big screen. Hubs watched awhile with them, then decided young women yelling loudly was too much for him and came back upstairs. I played some WoW, read a book, watched some re-runs of "The Closer" that TNT was running all day. I bounced back and forth a bit to check the score and occasionally caught an over-priced commercial. All in all, it was a pretty laid back Sunday.

Now it's Monday and I can't figure out why I'm having such a terrible time waking up. It wasn't like I over-did it yesterday. Could it be the -4 degree temperature outside this morning? (I don't even WANT to know what the windchill is. Let's just say, the dogs were outside about 15 seconds this morning. It must be cold.) Amazing as it sounds, and as illogical, it is supposed to snow later today and tomorrow. Only a couple of inches. Normally, this is too cold to snow. I know, it sounds weird, but trust me... that's how it works. Hubs tells me the weather predictors are saying when it warms up a bit in the next week or so, we're supposed to really get dumped on. You just know I'm smilin' inside, right?

In other news, I expect a pat on the back. Okay, I'll do it myself. The office is CLEAN. It is ORGANIZED. It is a miracle. The bookwork? Well, I have a day or so to finish, but I see the end in sight. Also, I cleaned out my pantry cupboards. You may not think this is a big deal, but trust me. I moved cake mixes and jello (to name just a bit) from the old house two years ago, probably never looking at the expiration dates THEN... and, yes, if it expired in 2002 I'm probably not going to be wanting to make it. Shaddup. Soooo... Hubs comes home and immediately states "you've been cleaning". Does he have ESP? No. He knows because we have a little arrangement where as I put garbage sacked up in the garage, then he loads it into his pickup and hauls it down the drive to the dumpster. (We live in the country, remember?) It doesn't take a genius to realize when he gets out of his truck and the whole wall is lined with garbage sacks two deep that there has been some serious cleaning going on in the house. What can I say? I'm a packrat. I admit it. However, once in a blue moon I get a wild hair and start pitching things. I have to be in just the right mood, or I look at something and think "I could do...(fill in the blank) with this." When I'm like that, there is no sense even thinking about cleaning. At least, not the pitching out part. (I would like to take a moment in advance to apologize to my children for whatever they are going to have to sort through and get rid of after their mother leaves this earth. I hope that sometime between now and then I have the energy and the will power to get rid of most ofthis shit.)

Enough rambling. Happy Monday everyone!

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

You Never Stop Being a Parent

This isn't going to be a newsflash to anyone who has older children, but to those of you who have babies or toddlers or god-forbid-teenagers or who maybe haven't taken the plunge into parenthood quite yet but are thinking about it - it never ever ends. Not when they become 18, not when they graduate from college, not when they get married, not even when they have children of their own. They are always your babies, in your heart.

A bit of poor communication this week resulted in this being brought home once again in the most gut-wrenching way. A night was spent in worry and frustration as temperatures outside plunged below zero and people weren't where they were thought to be and gravel roads were driven with one eye to the road and the other to the snow-filled ditches. All was well and communication was re-established by ten o'clock the next morning, but this mom didn't get any sleep Thursday night. At all. Those are the times when an over-active imagination and love of all mystery-murder-CSI-type shows came back to bite me in the ass.

It's a fine line to let your children live their lives and yet keep an eye out for their safety and happiness. It's hard to know that they are self-sufficient and yet feel if I were the one in the snow-filled ditch with a dead cell phone and sub-zero temps and only ice covered cornfields between me and civilation, I would hope someone would miss me and come looking.

I've been accused of being over-protective at times. As I've told my children many, many times... "If we didn't love you, we wouldn't care". I know this was just a case of mis-communication. I know it's not going to happen again. Still... it's a sleepless night that will take awhile to get over. You just don't spend sleepless nights with a baby's ear infection or a toddler's bad dreams. You don't only sit up worrying that your teenager is hanging with a bad crowd or that the last time you had a fight there were hidden messages between the lines.

It really never ends. I wouldn't want it to. It's called love.

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Maintaining

  • For those of you who have been trying to e-mail me and can't get me, I'm not sure what's going on unless you have my old e-mail address (it got changed awhile back, not by anything I did but the company changed hands). Also, I noticed it wasn't in my profile anymore. Don't know when it went away - maybe when I updated Blogger? At any rate, I'm all back and operational again. To save you looking it up, it's sesnyde at hughes dot net. You are smart enough to put it in the right way. (If you aren't I don't want to hear from you anyway!)
  • About the time I bitch about it being cold, it gets colder. Yeah. This weekend there are days we are supposed to have windchills of -30 something. Needless to say, you won't see me far from the fireplace! It has to warm up a bit to snow...
  • I'm still working on getting everything loaded into the new 'puter. Does this mean I have too much stuff? Possibly. We won't discuss that. Haven't even tried WoW yet. Afraid it will be too wonderful and I won't get anything else done, and I have a few things I absolutely have to get done first. At least, that's what my tax man says.
  • The office is almost done getting cleaned and organized. I may even post a picture when I'm done. I ran out of hanging file folders last night, so not quite there. Have to make an office supply run today. I love me some office supplies. The only reason I can figure is when I was little and my parents would go bowling every friday night, I was sent next door to my grandmothers' house. She was a widow and worked in the state auditors' office - as an auditor. Rather ahead of her time for that day and age. At any rate, when she would babysit me, one of the favorite games I played with my grandma was... you guessed it.... "office". So, I figure maybe that's where my love of all supplies office comes from. Proudly, I can say I've passed it down to at least one of my children.
  • Ironic that the post about the weather gets the most comments I've had for weeks. Hmmm... what does this say about my level of posts?

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