What's With The Handbasket?

Well, maybe only Partly Back

2010-08-26T06:14:00.003-04:00

LOL - two weeks already and I still haven't stopped back in to post. Where does the time go?!
Things are good - more birds, new boyfriend (well, not so new - we've been together for a year!), new household member (daughter's friend moved in with us back in April or May), and I finally painted the living room. It's purple, and I love it!!!!

Hello Again

2010-08-10T06:27:00.002-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been a year since I've posted here.
Thought I might come back to it - we'll see how I do, as time allows.

Nothing really earth-shattering to say this morning - still waking up,

but it has been a good year! :0)

So Good Morning, nice to see you, and I'm back! (God help us all). ;-p

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

2009-08-03T18:37:00.002-04:00

I'm home from work, washing dishes, and out my kitchen window I see this:

and this:

So I went to the front window for clearer pictures:
(yes, my kitchen window needs to be washed)

It's my house! Yet they're all giving me a look like "what, lady?! We're chillin'"

Watch This Space

2009-07-29T06:50:00.002-04:00

Wow, I've been away for a really long time...

I think I'm going to try to start posting again. Oh, lucky you. ;-p

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have today.

Please pardon the pause whilst I consider what to ~~bitch about~~ write about.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T07:32:00.003-05:00

Ahhhh, I love the feeling the day after Christmas. All the preparing & scrambling is over with, the kids have their new "stuff" (I do too!), and can spend some time enjoying it, and we're still on break from school, so we have a few days to do what we want with, without that looming deadline.

Today we're going to the "big" mall for some after Christmas shopping, and bringing a couple of friends along, so it should be a fun day.

Last weekend we went to Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure - that was a lot of fun. I still like Disney's Epcot best, but the girls had a great time on all the crazy rollercoasters, and we all love Seuss Landing. :-) There was also a live show in Whoville - a musical "Grinch" story. Pretty cool!

Now we're looking forward to New Year's Eve and 2009! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, and staying warm (or at least comfortable!), and happy and healthy!

Christmas is HOW soon?!

2008-11-30T13:05:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post - I've really been neglecting my blog...

I recently realized how close it's getting to Christmas, and I hadn't done a thing about it!
Usually I'm DONE by now...

So now I've got to scramble & get it together! So that's what I'll be busy with for the next few weeks!

Guess my New Year's Resolution may be to get back to keeping up with my blog... :-)

Day Trippin'

2008-10-04T05:56:00.002-04:00

I know I still haven't posted any of the other zoo videos - gotta get on that. One of these days.

But today we're off to Epcot, until late tonight/early tomorrow morning, meeting up with my sister and her daughter, going to the Food & Wine festival, hearing Starship play. Remember them? I knew them as Jefferson Airplane back in the day. God, I'm old! lol
Not sure how much of the food and wine thing I'll be doing, either - looking at the list of featured dishes, I mostly thought "ew". Not so big on wine, either, except maybe blackberry merlot. Sis doesn't want to look bad drinking alone. Big goofball! She didn't really appreciate my answer of "so don't drink". :-p

So that's today, and then tomorrow we'll be in Jacksonville, for other family/birthday visiting.

Got new tires on my car last weekend in preparation for all that driving - lol. (They were really needed - almost no tread on the old ones in front, and getting low in the back).

So that's my weekend in a nutshell. I hope everyone else has a great weekend. Have fun out there!

So Far So Good

2008-09-07T07:31:00.004-04:00

Well, here we are, halfway through hurricane season.

The usual parade of storms steadily marches on, and we keep an eye on them, hoping we don't see this:

Okay so far! :-D

Hello from (not so) Sunny Florida

2008-08-21T07:49:00.005-04:00

I know I haven't been here in a while, but I'm still around. :-)

Just sitting here today waiting for Tropical Storm Fay to get moving and move across the state (and my town), and get gone. At least she's not a hurricane! This link may only work while the storm's active, but if you want to see it:

Fay Updage Page

and cross your fingers that our electricity stays on. But if it doesn't, we're ready.

Everyone stay safe, and have fun wherever you are!

Day at the Zoo

2008-07-08T06:31:00.003-04:00

As our (since last year) annual tradition, the girls and I spent the 4th of July at the Zoo.

Our zoo has been expanding, and every year they add a new attraction, sometimes permanent, sometimes seasonal. This year's seasonal one is Stingray Bay, where you can watch, feed and touch the stingrays, which have had their barbs clipped. I have a video of them which will be in a (near) future post. :-)

We took about 200 pictures of the animals (and some of us), and I have 4 or 5 critter videos - seems all the animals were in the holiday spirit this year - not sleeping in the shade as they usually are by the afternoon.

This first video is from the enclosure that has fruit bats & several gorgeous birds. The bats were resting, but there's a Bustard in there who likes to be watched, and had something to say when we started to walk away, so we came back and recorded him:

Funny, isn't he? More (other animals) videos to come!

CATS!

2008-06-30T06:15:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, the girls and I went to Jacksonville to see CATS!

I had seen it in Boston when I was in high school (a loooooooong time ago), and all I remembered was the part of the song "Memory", when the singer belts out "Touch me - it's so easy to leave me..." The girl who had the part back then had the most incredible ability to project her voice, and when she sang that line, you could feel it, even in the way back rows.

My kids had only ever seen CATS in the movie format, so this was a new experience for them. They loved it - said the play was better than the movie - yay!
We love musicals, and of course this one is a classic. It was great - the actors had fabulous voices, and of course the dancing is great, and all the cat behavior in the background. It's just a fun show to watch.

Now we're keeping an eye on that theater to see when they have other things we want to see.
:-) It's easy enough to get to, even though it's Downtown Jacksonville. (Eek! Downtown in any real city is usually a driving nightmare - but I do have to say Boston is worse).

So, we have a "shopping list" of shows to keep an eye out for:
A Chorus Line
Phantom of the Opera
Grease
Chicago
HAIR
RENT

and we'll see what else comes up. Gotta support the arts, you know. ;-)

8th Grade Graduation

2008-06-08T13:10:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is the 8th grade Graduation for my younger daughter, along with all the other 8th grade students at my school. She feels almost like she's leaving home - she's been around my school for the last 9 years! Only attending school there the last 3, of course, but both of my girls used to come with me when I helped out in the summer, when I had a "10-month" job, and visited there other times. The building was very familiar to them.

For me, this feel like the end of an era...
Not only will both of my kids be in high school next year, but all the kids I've watched grow up from kindergarten on, through my kids, and parent volunteer stuff, and Girl Scouts & whatnot, will be gone as well.
I always get to know at least some of the new kids each year, but except for younger siblings of my girls' friends, this was the last year of kids who I was already familiar with, and kids who have been to my house. So I'll be watching my own baby, and all of the other "my" kids, get sent on to high school.

Note to self: bring camera, and Kleenex...

Rocky Horror

2008-05-25T10:50:00.002-04:00

My older daughter is WAY into the Rocky Horror Picture Show...

She watches the movie often, we have the soundtrack, and she watches video clips & interviews of the characters. She knows the whole "Time Warp" dance, and expects ME to do it too - lol.
She's actually gotten me sort of hooked on the whole thing - I know most of the songs, and I even enjoy listening to them. :-0

If you've never seen Rocky Horror, you should. It's an experience. ;-)

This is the DMV?

2008-04-29T06:22:00.002-04:00

I went to our local driver license & tag office last week, to renew my car tag and my license, which I'd been renewing by mail for so long, it had a layer of renewal stickers holding it together. The original issue date was 1989, when I moved to Florida, and the picture was from when I updated it in 1992 - I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, who is now 15 and a half! So yeah, it was time...

Our County Tax Collectors Office handles everything - taxes, tags, titles, permits, & licensing, so it's all in one building, and you can renew the tags & license at the same window, which is nice.

Anyway, my last visit to the DMV having been in 1992, when it was a separate building, and so slow they made the post office look fast, I went in the morning so the lines wouldn't be as bad, and brought a book, figuring I was going to be there a while. You go in, take a number, and wait to be called to a window. So I got my number, timestamped 9:22am, and was directed to a service window - with no waiting! Told the lady what I needed, she took my paperwork, asked me some questions, and had me walk over to stand in front of the blue-screen so she could take my license photo, which she could do right from her window. Cool! When I went back to her window, she told me to have a seat while my license was processing. I sat, read about half a page, and she called me back up - all done! I took my brand new license & tag sticker, paid the fees, and headed back out to my car. Looked at the car clock, and it was not yet 9:45am...

Wow! So the entire operation took less than 20 minutes! This was so much better than the DMV I remember! So whoever reorganized it, thanks! And hey, if you're looking for a new challenge, give the post office a call - they could really use your help...

What Part of No...?

2008-04-18T06:31:00.002-04:00

The other day, the girls' father called - NOT to tell his daughter happy birthday, because apparently he didn't remember that detail until she told him it was her birthday - but to make arrangements for the next weekend they'll spend time with him. (And before that part, told me he had thought about coming to pick up the last of his stuff - finally - but saw that we had company [?! - stalker much?], so he wasn't going to. The "company" was my daughter and her friend, but when I told him that, he still wouldn't pick up his stuff. Assclown.)

A little background here:
The girls don't actually like to spend time with him, but they're not quite ready to tell him to his face (or in court) that they don't want to. Well, the younger one isn't - the older one says she is. Also, he doesn't bother to see them nearly as often as he is allowed...

But when they "have to" see him, I drive them to meet him wherever (used to be his house - ack!), and then pick them up after (no overnights), because part of the visitation order specifically states that he is not allowed to drive them anywhere, ever, due to a history of drinking, and of DUI. This has not changed in the 3 years we've been divorced, and I didn't let him drive them before that, either. So.

After chatting me up (most likely to see if I was in a good mood, and (in his mind) more likely to give in, he casually says, "I'll pick them up and we'll go to the zoo.".

Uh, no.

So now the conversation went like this:
"No you won't."
"Yes, I will."
"No. You won't."
"Yes, I will"
"I will drive them to meet you anywhere you want to take them, but you can't drive them and you know it."
"I'm going to."
"No. You're really not. There is a legal agreement that says you are not allowed to drive them, ever, for a very valid reason."
"I know. But I'm still going to."
(WTF?)
"Then why are you trying to get around it? You will not drive them. Anywhere. Ever."
"Maybe I'll get a lawyer then."
(Oh, PLEASE do - I'd like to see how you'll explain why your drunk ass driving your children around is good for their well-being... and you will lose more than you bargain for - the girls are old enough to have a say in this now).
"That's fine, but you're still not driving them."
"Yes, I am."
"Maybe I'm not being clear here. You are not allowed to drive them, and until that is legally changed, which isn't going to happen, there is no way you are driving them anywhere, at any time, for any reason."

And I'm still not sure he gets it. Guess I need to learn not to be so vague, huh? Sheesh.

Checking In

2008-04-15T21:54:00.003-04:00

Just in case anyone thought I might have fallen off the planet. ;-)

I'm still around, still enjoying life with my kids & critters,

still very much in love, and still playing Guild Wars.

You know - all the important stuff. :-D

Some Good Reminders, and a Story

2008-03-31T21:46:00.003-04:00

(These are all from an e-mail message that's making the rounds, but I like the quotes, and the story is just really sweet and touching... such an amazing, real forever love...)

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of
all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided that since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On examination, I could see it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

Bug!

2008-03-21T20:09:00.003-04:00

Found this HUGE brown moth on the outside doorframe the other day. I thought it was pretty.

Here's a science article I found about this kind. And yes, I know I'm a geek. :-D

Baby Birds Everywhere!

2008-03-02T10:21:00.006-05:00

But not parakeet babies this time.
Remember those neighborhood chickens that roam the yards? We had a momma hen visiting our yard the other day, with her brood of cute little fuzzy babies. I recorded them for a few minutes, so if you want to see them, here it is:

Aren't they adorable? :-)

Yes, I Am A Great Big Kid

2008-03-02T10:11:00.003-05:00

At my work, there is a particular student who likes to discuss computer games with me when he visits my office. I've told him all about GuildWars, and he has been telling me about Runescape & some others. He asked me if I would sign up to play Runescape, and I told him that because my playing time is so limited, I really only play GuildWars when I can play online. He asked me if it was due to my work paperwork, and I told him that it was not that, but the things I need to do at home. I guess he hadn't noticed all the kid-pictures on my wall, or hadn't really registered them, because he asked me, sounding fairly surprised "You're a mom?". Just the way he said it made me aware that he didn't realize how old I am. I said "P, I'm almost 40". He said "Wow, but you still act like a 13-year old." :-D Now, coming from some people, this could have been an insult, but he meant it as a compliment. Then he told me his mom is that way, too. Still acts like a kid, and is fun. So that kinda made my day. Thanks, P!

I'm Late to Work Because...

2008-03-02T09:54:00.004-05:00

The other morning I got to work a little late, because as the girls and I were leaving the house to go to school, we saw an enormous hawk in our neighbor's tree - we have the really tall, hideous pine trees here. This bird was HUGE - like Great Horned Owl-size. We are used to seeing hawks & osprey here, and swallow-tail kites, but we've never seen a hawk that big. So we were fascinated, and watched the bird as we went to our car & got in, and started to back out of the driveway.

As she was watching the bird, my daughter happened to catch sight of the small tree that is just outside our fence. I heard her say "That bird is so - Hey! A cat!" Huh?
In the little tree at the fence, there was a small, fluffy black cat, looking like she wanted to get down but didn't know how to extricate herself - the tree is covered in dead vines. Plus the dogs were right at the fence, which is probably why she was in the tree in the first place. She had no tag, but two collars on, so we knew she belonged to somebody.

We pulled back into the driveway, and the girls talked gently to the cat as I went to get the ladder. I set it by the tree, and my daughter held it steady for me while I climbed up and helped the cat get unstuck from the tree. She was a sweet kitty, and very happy to get out of the tree - as soon as I had her out of the tree and held against my shoulder, she was purring up a storm.
I handed her to the girls, who held and petted her while I put the ladder away, and then they set her down in a patch of sun by the sidewalk (away from the road), figuring that she must live nearby. We're pretty sure she lives in the trailer park at the end of our road. She made a beeline for that end of the street, and stopped once to look back & meow at us, as if to say thanks. :-)

We saw here standing in the yard of the trailer park that afternoon, and later in the week, too, so she must live there. Anyway, we felt good, having done our good deed, and here's the odd thing:
That big old hawk, that was the reason we saw the kitty in the first place - we never would have if we hadn't been watching the bird - as soon as we got the cat out of the tree, the hawk flew away. Now, I realize it could have been watching the cat, hoping to have it for breakfast, but it seems to me it could have grabbed the cat at any time that morning, since she had likely been in the tree a while. We choose to believe that the hawk was there to show us the cat. :-D

(And I wasn't in trouble for being late to work - they're really cool about that, and they know that I stay late a lot).

Mooned!

2008-02-21T06:54:00.005-05:00

Heh. Not like that.

Last night there was a Lunar eclipse, which was pretty cool to see. It was very cloudy out, unfortunately, so we missed some of it, and couldn't videorecord the progression, but we did get some pictures. Not sure our neighbors knew what we were doing out there snapping photos, but I guess they're used to us, because nobody called the police or anything. ;-p

Here's a glimpse of the eclipse just getting started:

and then later, mostly shadowed:

I hope these aren't too dark for you to see, but they're all I've got...

You can't really tell here, but there was a neat reddish cast to the moonshadow (earthshadow?)

Anyway, we had fun watching it, and trying to capture it to share. :0)

More Babies!

2008-02-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know some of you have been waiting to see the newest baby parakeets, so here is a video of them in the nextbox. The blue one is the mama, trying to cover them up. One egg of the 9 in there didn't hatch, as of the date of filming. But because there were so many eggs, some of the babies are just about to leave the nest, while some are still partly naked, waiting for feathers!

See?

Cute, huh? :-D

Heeee!

2008-02-07T07:18:00.001-05:00

moar funny pictures

Winter or Spring?

2008-02-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, so cross your fingers for the big ol' rodent to predict a nice Spring Thaw.

Say hello to Punxsutawney Phil at his website. :-)

Yes, there's actually a club. Not as crazy as that club of old men who jump into the freezing water half naked each winter!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Good Music

2008-01-17T19:38:00.001-05:00

There is a relatively new music artist that I've been listening to, who I heard about through FlyLady , and I want to see more people find out about him. His name is Eric Dodge.

I have both of his CDs, and I've really enjoyed them. He also has a MySpace page that has some samples of his music on it - Everybody Wants To Be Loved is one of my favorites (I linked to it on my own MS page), and Why Not Today, and When I Was Your Age are great, but I actually like all of his songs so far.

If you don't hate country music, go check him out. He's good!

Back to Work

2008-01-08T19:54:00.000-05:00

Boy, was that first morning rough...
After 2 weeks off, all 3 of us had a hard time getting going yesterday (Monday) morning!
But we did it, and 2 days in, we're practically back to our regular routine. More or less. =)
It was nice to get back & see everyone, and to start getting back into the swing of things.

In other news, the baby birds are doing well, and we're keeping an eye on the six "round two" eggs. Cross your fingers that the parent birds will be satisfied with this group & stop laying eggs!
They need to take a break long enough for me to separate them!

The sounds all these little birds make are wonderful, though - I've always loved the sounds of parakeets! (Finches, too, but those little suckers breed every 3 weeks, and I am NOT about to start that!)

I hope everyone is settling into the New Year in good health & good spirits. :-)

The Baby Birds (Round 1)

2008-01-02T15:28:00.001-05:00

Round 1 because yes, there are more eggs in the nest. I'm going to put some fake eggs in there as these new babies hatch, in hopes that mama will stop laying...

But here are the first babies, all settled into their new cage:

Meet Obey (pronounced "obie", but from Sprite - Obey your thirst),
Mortimer, Winston, and Lymon (another Sprite bird) :-)
(just so you know, my kids named the birds - lol)

So this is stage one of their housing situation. In a couple of months, when we (hopefully) can tell the boys from the girls, we'll get one more cage, and put all the boys in one cage with the dad, and all the girls in another with the mom, and put the original cage with the nestbox away in the attic. Yay!

This Guy is Good!

2007-12-30T08:46:00.000-05:00

This is only one of his ventriloquism characters:

You have to check out the rest!

A Christmas Song

2007-12-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

Found this:

over at Dawn's blog today. Pretty cool!

Baby Bird Update

2007-12-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

See the baby on the edge of the nextbox "door"? He spent yesterday & the day before standing in there & trying to figure out how to come out the rest of the way.
Today, he finally made it!

A First Glimpse

2007-12-16T18:27:00.000-05:00

We got our very first baby parakeet peek tonight! While Roxie (the dad) looked on, and Zulie (the mama) was in the nestbox keeping a close watch, a little yellow & green head appeared in the nestbox entrance. Baby looked around a little, checking out the big world that it may very soon be coming out into, then ducked back in. I was able to get this one shot:

See the baby peeking out? That's the proud dad in front. :-)

Hmmm, guess it's time to start thinking about names...

This Is The Way To Shop!

2007-12-14T06:17:00.000-05:00

I love Christmas. I love the lights, love the music, love the "goodwill" effort, love the whole holiday season.

Except for shopping. I hate shopping, not just at Christmas, but anytime. Christmas shopping is especially odious, though, because the stores are ultra-crowded, people are way grumpier than they have any call to be (goodwill goes right out the window in shopping places, let me tell ya), and even the parking lots are completely insane. Hate it.

Usually I start my Christmas shopping very very early, so I can be done by Thanksgiving, and avoid all of that. This year, I didn't really get started until Thanksgiving. Yikes!

BUT. I've done almost all of my holiday shopping this year online.

I'm telling you, this is the way to go. Yes, you pay shipping, but these days it's cheaper than gas. No crowds, no traffic, no stampedes to the sale items (I avoid these anyway - I never shop on Black Friday or any other shopping insanity day), no carting kids who also don't enjoy shopping, no stress!

Yep. This is definitely the way to shop. :-)

Another One

2007-12-03T18:42:00.000-05:00

Here's another commercial that cracked me up:

I know. I'm not well.

Guild Wars on TV :-)

2007-12-03T18:41:00.000-05:00

In this commercial:

I love it!

Hmph!

2007-12-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

One of the middle school students - a boy - was in my office yesterday, and seemingly out of the blue, asked me if I have a son.

I told him no, I have two daughters.

He sort of hesitated, and said "Oh... I saw the Guild Wars poster on your wall there, and thought you must have a son."

I said "That's mine! I play that game!."

I'm not sure he believed me - he left the room shaking his head. Maybe it was just that the idea of girls (really old girls) playing such an awesome game really shook up his "guy" world.

Poor kid.

And Baby (Bird) Makes Three

2007-11-21T20:23:00.000-05:00

My parakeets - who, for the record, we thought were both males, have been sitting on eggs for just over a couple of weeks. Last night, one of the eggs hatched. We're not peeking, because we don't want to freak the birds out, so of course no pictures yet either, but we know that at least one egg has hatched, because we can hear the cutest little new tiny birdie peeps from the nest box. :-)
Maybe the second egg will hatch tonight or tomorrow (there are only the two). Hooray!

Yeah, What She Said

2007-11-12T13:33:00.000-05:00

CP, the beloved Certifiable Princess, recently explained in this post about online friendships, and how strong they can be, and how some people, no matter how you try to explain it, just don't "get it".

I was using HyperTerminal & ComitLite to visit online chat rooms & forums on local Bulletin Board Services (my favorites were Dragon Realm & The Beach) before AOL, CompuServe & Prodigy got big (and as far as I know, AOL's the only one of those still big), and made some lovely friends there, as well as the friends I've made online through blogging & online gaming.

Most of my "real life" friends not only don't get the internet friendships thing, they don't even get the attraction to the computer & the internet to begin with. So sad. Pray for them. ;-p

Chemistry. Good, But Not Everything.

2007-11-10T18:28:00.000-05:00

I figure even though I'm not ready to actually TRY dating, there's no harm in reading up on it. So for the last few months, I've been reading a few of the relationship/dating advice blogs that abound on the Web. One of my favorites is Evan's. He's a dating coach & a published author, and I like the way he answers the questions he gets.

Chemistry is mentioned fairly often in people's questions, and one of the answers Evan gave was sort of an "A-Ha" moment for me - essentially that chemistry is not, and does not necessarily indicate, compatibility. Wow. Now maybe some people instinctively know that, or intellectually realize it, but I have a feeling that I did neither. For me, it was a brand new way of looking at chemistry. It makes sense, now that I think about it, but wow.

The other thing that has shocked me as I've been reading these blogs is that people seem to, as a standard practice, have sex awfully early on in new relationships. Or just dating. Like anywhere from the first date, to within the first week, to within the first month. Now, I love sex, but I must be an extreme prude, 'cause that's certainly not what I hope to do whenever I do decide to start dating. Not that I've never done some of those things - I slept with my now-ex-husband on our very first date - but as Standard Operating Procedure? No way.

So I guess I won't be doing much long-term dating, huh?

Our Crazy Bird

2007-11-04T10:28:00.000-05:00

Our Goffins Cockatoo, Bandit, stepped on a cookie that was wrapped in plastic, and really really liked the sound it made!

See?

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T06:24:00.000-04:00

My ghouls and I are going to my friend's house tonight to terrorize her neighborhood. (Not really - just hanging out & trick-or-treating). The girl LOVES this holiday, more than any other. She decorates her whole house & yard, and just really enjoys Halloween.

Me, I like Christmas. But on Halloween it's fun to see all the little kids (and not so little kids) so excited to dress up and roam around. There are some really great creative costumes out there, too.

I hope everyone heading out tonight has a safe & spooky time!

An Accident Waiting to Happen

2007-10-22T18:35:00.000-04:00

That is maybe the nicest thing I can say about the drop-off area at my daughter's high school.

The drop-off area is between 2 small parking lots that must be used by staff & visitors, and each one one entry/exit, at the street side of the area, but not directly out TO the street - they funnel into the main entry/exit of the drop-off loop.

The loop is not very big around - maybe 10 car lengths, with a fountain/pond thing in the center. It's meant for a single line of cars, but the cars enter & file into 2 lines, which would be okay, except that there are always a few buttheads who think they're more important than everyone else, so they drop their kid and then zoom up the space between the two lines of cars, and create a bottleneck with everyone trying to exit at the same time where only one car at a time is going to fit. Not only that, but you have cars trying to enter from and exit to both directions on the road, at the same time, and there is nobody directing traffic there, either.

The worst part of all this, though, is that nobody looks where they're going! Now come on!
This is a student drop-off area. Which implies that there will be children getting out of cars & walking to the building's doors. It further implies that there will be moving vehicles in the area.
And yet, the kids get out of their cars and head straight for the doors without once checking to make sure there are no cars moving near them. And even worse, the drivers drop their kids off and start moving, without checking to make sure there are no kids walking in front of them.
WTF???

Yes, these kids are old enough to know better. They should " look both ways" before crossing the mini-street that is the drop-off. But even if it were adults being dropped off, any driver should have the sense to check the road in front of them before they take their foot off the gas.
Sheesh.

Oh. And to the people who are in such a big stinking hurry to get one or two whole car lengths ahead of where they started - no. You're not really that important. Go back to kindergarten and learn to wait your freaking turn. Thank you. That is all.

Madtv - Apple I-rack

2007-10-17T22:06:00.001-04:00

Oh My God, this cracked me up!
(Helps that it involves a major icon of geekdom, but there's fun here for you politicos out there, too) :-D

Full Moon, New Moon - Both Make People Nuts

2007-10-10T17:58:00.000-04:00

Wow.

Today has been a very interesting day. And yes, it's a new moon.

We had two fights at school today, apparently (I missed most of that, thank goodness), and not only were they pretty fierce fistfights, but there were girls involved. I know that's probably not all that unusual, but still, it always shocks me. AND one of the girls attacked a teacher after he broke up the fight. Sheesh!

Aside from that lovely behavior, there was an awful lot of crappy attitude from people who had no cause to be rude. All three gave me the opportunity to "flex my bitch muscle", which I don't feel the need to do too often. I'm generally very nice to people. Until they push me.

The first was a lady who called asking for records on a student who she said attended our school several years ago. They'd already asked, a couple of months ago, and we'd already answered that the student was never actually ours. Our school frequently gets confused with another school in another part of Florida, usually by these same agencies. Anyway, I told her that for any student information, she was going to have to send me a request with the parent's signature on it. She argued that they'd already sent that (a couple of months ago). I told her that yes, we got that request and responded to it, and that if the response was that he wasn't our student, that meant we had already looked, and we have no record of him. I told her that it was possible the student actually had been at that other school, and maybe she should check there. She was getting pretty snotty at this point, and was really resisting the simple task of faxing the request, but insisted it was our school, because that's what the mother said (the parents always seem to only write one word of the school name, and when you look up that name, you get a list that includes our school, which they always seem to pick - and let me tell you, usually the parents filling out these forms aren't that bright to begin with). So I told her if she was sure it was our school, she was welcome to send us the request again, and we would look again, but she wasn't getting any information whatsoever until I had the request in front of me. She didn't like that very much, but tough.
So she finally sent it, I got it, looked the student up (again) in the only databases he could possibly show up in, and there was absolutely no record of him, in any of our District's schools.
I typed up a note telling her so (to fax - no way I was calling this chick - I'd had enough of her), and suggested she try the other school, and included the contact information for that, and also told her she was welcome to contact our student services department at the District offices, and gave her that contact information as well. Then I called them to let them know they might hear from her, and why.

The second one was a man who came in asking to see one of our students. We had no information saying that he was authorized to do so, so we made him wait while we contacted the guardian, who told us if it was a specific person (and they gave us the name), then it was fine, but only that person. So we checked, and this guy wasn't that person, so we told him he couldn't see the student. He went all huffy at that, and wanted to see the Principal, who happened to be unavailable at the time, and he was being a butt to the girl who works at the desk, so I walked up, and I was actually sort of dressed up today (doesnt' happen often), so he asked me if I was the Principal. I said no, but held out my hand for his ID. I checked it, and he wasn't the "allowed" guy, so I told him that we had been told by the guardian to allow a certain person to see the student, but that person wasn't him, so he was going to have to leave, and if he wanted to see the student, he'd need to contact the guardian ahead of time to arrange it, and the guardian would let us know. He didn't like it, but he left.

The third one was actually a school District employee, who really should have known better, and I know they've been advised of school security rules, but they don't like to remember them if it's not convenient to them. He came into the office and asked if we had a vending machine he could get to. I told him yes, but that he'd need to sign in since it required walking in the halls where the students were, and then I could show him where the machine was. He got huffy at that, and grumped that he'd just get a drink of water then. I said that's fine, and he bitched that "no other school makes me do that" (sign in), which isn't true, because we all get the same rules from the District, and even the Superintendent signs in when he comes to our school. I'd had enough of people and their 'tudes by then, so I just told him "Those are the rules - deal with it."

Thank goodness there wasn't a fourth bad attitude person for me today, because that one might have been hit. I was done after number three. And really with all three of these buttheads today, I was just doing my job, but I'm usually much sweeter about it. I just don't like people trying to give me shit for doing what I'm supposed to do. And I react to it, and don't back down.

So, how was your day? :-D

There's a Timeframe For This?

2007-10-09T07:21:00.000-04:00

Seems like all of a sudden, people are very interested in my "lovelife", or rather, my lack of one.

Not long after I got my divorce (about 2 1/2 years ago), people were already asking if I'd met anyone or if I was dating. The answer has been a resounding "no". It's just not a direction I'm in a hurry to go in anytime soon. I've been asked out a few times, but I'm just not ready to go there.

Now, not only are they asking, they're telling me "it is time". Apparently I'm coming up on some sort of "dating deadline". Not only that, but I've had two people tell me that if I don't want to try dating right now, I should consider "friends with benefits". One suggested it, and one came right out and said it. Sheesh. She's concerned that I might have raging hormones that are not being addressed. I gotta say, though, they're not really raging. At most, they're maybe mildly rippling.

I'm just not open to complicating my life right now. My girls and I are enjoying having the house to ourselves, and don't really want to invite anyone else in. I see no problem with that - I figure that unless I'm slated to die soon and don't know it, I have plenty of time for dating when I'm ready (and if I am to die soon, I really have bigger things to worry about than getting laid). ;-p

I have plenty of companionship and/or company, and hobbies that keep me entertained. The only thing I really miss about having a "love" relationship is kissing. And I'm pretty sure I'll survive waiting for that until later. So for now, I choose to keep things the way they are. As far as I'm concerned, it is not time to change that. Just sayin'

I Love This Video - Furry Happy Monsters

2007-10-04T06:38:00.001-04:00

Music and muppets - what more could you want?

Just Fun Stuff

2007-09-29T17:31:00.000-04:00

A couple of fun things have been circulating lately.

One is a video clip from a news story about a shoplifting seagull in Scotland, apparently nicknamed "Sam" by the locals, who have also taken to paying for the chips the bird steals. :-)

The other is a video of a comedienne singing a song she made of all the things a mom might say in a 24 hour day, condensed into under 3 minutes, sung (sort of - she's not a great singer, but she's a crackup) to the music of the William Tell Overture. Too funny!

Here's a link to my YouTube Channel - scroll down past my own bird videos, and the 2 videos should be first in my list of favorites. The others are all Guild Wars related. There's a guy named Zack in Hawaii that used to put those together - he did an incredible job! He's currently working on a World of Warcraft project. Can't wait to see the result. Anyway, enjoy!

Slightly More Recent Pictures

2007-09-22T16:46:00.003-04:00

But not THAT recent - they're from over 20 years ago! LOL

Yeah. False Advertising. ;-p
There was peach wine in that papaya juice bottle...
Ooh! Wild woman, wasn't I? LOL
But look! That was my first pet bird!
His name was Nicodemus P. (for Pretty) Bird. :-D

Just a random picture, taken by a boy who wrote some very
sweet things on the back. No, I didn't date him. He was a nice guy.
The kind I probably should have dated, but didn't.

If I ever start dating again, it's the nice guys I'll be
looking for this time around, that's for sure!

And in case you're wondering if I still look like either of these photos,
I'd have to say the top one's the closest match. Without the "partying".

Many Blessings Upon Them

2007-09-13T06:27:00.000-04:00

The FPL team who got our power back on in under one hour during the storm here last night.

There was a lot of thunder & lightning, and heavy rain, when my daughter heard that "pop" of a transformer, and saw a shower of sparks at the pole in front of our yard. Out goes the power.

We lit candles, got out our "battery-free" flashlights, called in the outage, and settled down to wait, figuring we'd have to wait for the storm to blow over before they could do anything.

Not so. Less than an hour after I called, we heard a strange beeping sort of sound, and there in the pouring rain, in the dark, with thunder & lightning still going on, was the FPL truck coming along our street. A few minutes after that, the power was back on.

Huge thanks & good Karma to those linemen who came out & worked in that nasty weather, & in the dark! :-)

Embarrassing Childhood Photos...

2007-09-09T07:59:00.000-04:00

...as requested by Janet. :-)
(No baby pics - I entered this family around age 3 & was eventually adopted)

The outfits - kindly remember this was the 7o's... LOL

Me 'n' Santa

Easter - boy, I miss footy pajamas!

Halloween - I have no idea what this costume is supposed to be.

Boo Hoo ghost? Another Halloween

This is the only time in my life you will see me in such a short dress!

Yes, we were stylin' back then...

They finally figured out not to put dresses on me... (I was a total clutz)

Christmas! Yay!

What can I say? I love Santa!

In case anyone's wondering, with the oddly cropped pictures, I had to crop one of my sisters out of the pictures - she won't even e-mail photos of her kids, so she'd completely freak out if I posted any pictures of her. Plus we don't speak. I cropped my younger sister out of a couple too, only because I haven't asked her permission to post any of her. She's the one who gave me these pictures. This is a huge big deal, because up to now, the only pictures I had from my childhood were a few that I "stole" when I moved away. She rescued these "new" ones, and gave me some of them, and even made a DVD for me of others. The ones posted here are from the DVD.

Interesting Concept

2007-08-29T19:26:00.001-04:00

Have you heard of unschooling? Here's an excerpt from the article that link goes to:

Unschooling isn’t a new idea. Thinkers from Socrates to Jean Jacques Rousseau have touted the benefits of letting a child’s interests lead their education.

But it was John Holt who penned the term ‘‘unschooling’’ in the late 1970s. He inspired some families to abandon the school system for a looser approach to education.

Recently, the idea has been catching on. Estimates are hard to come by, but within the roughly 1.1 million home-schoolers in the U.S., it’s clear many are being unschooled.

Very interesting. I can see where the "unschooling" method would definitely not work for some kids, but for others it could be just what they need to really excel. I wonder if it would be possible to find a working balance between the two opposite ends of the education spectrum.
Maybe a system where half to three quarters of the school day is normal, structured academics - "the three R's", as it were - and the rest of the day is (not teacher led, but supervised) free exploration of a student-chosen area of interest.

Maybe this could be done in a private school - I'm pretty sure there are too many obstacles for it to be attempted in a public school setting. There's no way to have 25-30 kids in a class each following their own path of exploration, and still have proper supervision, not to mention covering the costs of all the supplies that might be necessary to allow real exploration of so many possibly diverse ideas, or the issue of parent permission.

But, even with all of that, as with homeschooling, I still think it could be a worthwhile endeavor, for someone who is properly equipped to do it right. Done poorly, homeschooling, unschooling, or for that matter, traditional schooling, can be pretty much useless, but done right, either schooling method can be a very good thing. The article about unschooling mentions:

... some universities like Stanford and MIT have welcomed some of these unconventional students.

For Roya Sooroshian, getting into college wasn’t a problem. She’s been unschooled since the fourth grade. She passed the high school equivalency exam at 15.

That's fairly impressive.

So, read the article if you haven't already, and tell me, what do you think?

Hello From Epcot

2007-08-19T08:47:00.000-04:00

Hi!
We're at Epcot (in Disney World) this weekend - yay!!
Epcot is our favorite Disney Park - we love the World Showcase. Our favorite countries to visit here are Japan, Morocco, and Italy. My older daughter also loves France - the perfume & makeup stuff. The younger one likes Japan best. We like Germany, too, except for the restaurant - the smell of bratwurst is not for us!
My sister says they're talking about adding some countries, so I'm hoping for Spain & Russia!
We'll have to wait and see.
We're off to Downtown Disney today for shopping - did all our "world traveling" yesterday. :-)
A fun & happy weekend to all!

Fuzzy Logic Productions

2007-08-18T06:34:00.000-04:00

I'm learning how to use Windows Movie Maker, just for fun. I love the in-game movies people make with Guild Wars, EverQuest, World of Warcraft, etc., and I wanted to make some of my own. So I downloaded Fraps & GameCam to try out, but so far I haven't gotten them working. I'm not entirely sure my computer can handle running both the game and one of the capture programs.
It meets the system requirements they specify, but just barely.

SO, until I can get the programs running, I've been playing with Movie Maker with video clips of my birds. And then I'll see what else I can come up with. Ooh boy, I'll bet you're looking forward to that. Hahaha.

So, for your viewing pleasure (& if you have your sound on, you may want to turn it down - the volume on YouTube seems to be high by default), here are the links to my very first movies, posted on YouTube -
Here are:

Bandit, my Goffin's Cockatoo
just being herself - hanging out on her "bar", trying to make a birdie pocket out of my apron that's hanging nearby (her usual pocket is the front of my shirt - she sticks her head in there, and camps out) and also playing with some "shreddie" - toilet paper that she shakes out, tears up, balls up, puts on her back, picks up, puts back, etc. She's a mess! :-)

and

Marley, my African Grey
also just being himself - checking out "the bar", on one of the few times he's left his cage so far. He's very shy, and prefers to stay in or on his cage. We're working on that. He's a very sweet bird, and talks up a storm, although he didn't talk in this video. He was too busy being nervous about being 'so far from home'.

Enjoy!

My Tyrian Community

2007-08-11T21:23:00.000-04:00

You scored as Ascalon, Your will and heart are strong, much like the people of Ascalon. You have endured great hardship, but you remain steadfast and true. You persist in the face of opposition, for you know that your strength of will shall carry you through.

Ascalon

92%

Istani

88%

Shining Blade

83%

Kurzick

67%

Kournan

58%

Luxon

54%

White Mantle

33%

Vabbian

29%

Which Guild Wars populace do you belong to?
created with QuizFarm.com

I'm Back!!!

2007-08-11T08:55:00.000-04:00

Well, the Re-scheduling went a lot faster than I expected! Since I had to dump most of what was there from the first time, I took the opportunity to make some changes to codes, which helped with sorting out the groups going into electives & whatnot. So the resorting of the kids into classes seemed to go a lot smoother, and now all I have left to do (as far as mass scheduling goes, anyway) is to rebalance a bit where I can, because there are always intances where a teacher has a class of say, 9 kids in one period, and 28 in another, and some of those can be reworked.

But the huge part is done, and now I can go back to what I was working on the last time I was "done". LOL

Yippee! :-)

Oh, This Should Be Fun

2007-08-01T13:27:00.000-04:00

Well, the next 2 or 3 weeks look to be a little intense for me, as far as my job goes. There are some major schedule changes that will have to be done, due to changes in staffing, which are due in turn to enrollment numbers. So. What that all boils down to is that the work we've been doing all summer, and had all summer to do, now has to be started over & redone in the space of the few weeks we have left before school starts. Eep!
So yeah, I'm going to be a little busy for while. But really, I'm not too stressed over it at the moment. The same sort of thing happens every year, from what I gather, just not usually as extreme as we're having to deal with this year. I remember last year we had some major issues to fix, too, which were more due to other people not thinking things through, so all in all, I'll take this year's sort of issue if I have to have one! This one can't be helped, really, except for maybe the zoning to have been done better when they did it, but it's too late to cry over that one.
So, I'll be MIA for a bit, but not to worry. I'll be back. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! ;-D

Where Does The Time Go?

2007-07-24T06:17:00.000-04:00

Time keeps flying away.

The girls and I went to the HP book party, had a great time. Looooong night, but it was fun. Then the next morning we drove to Orlando to meet up with a friend from Massachusetts, and her family. Had a lovely visit with them - it was amazing how much the kids had grown since the last time we'd seen each other.

Haven't had much time to play with the Wii yet (I haven't - the girls have), but I did set up Wii Connect 24, so it's connected to the internet. That way it checks online for software updates, and we can check weather & news on it. Pretty handy! Yeah, I know I can do that on my computer, too, but still.

And as if we don't spend enough time playing games (never!), my daughter introduced me to this little gem. I find it very relaxing (probably because of the music on it), and it's just an enjoyable little game. My best score so far is 261, which is probably about the lowest you can have & still finish the game, but that's okay. :-) I've tried out some of the other games on that site, too. There are a lot of nice, fun, non-bloody games in there, along with some ickier ones. People are very creative! Go check it out!

A Movie, A Book, and a Wii

2007-07-17T18:39:00.000-04:00

The girls and I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie last weekend - we enjoyed it. My daughter, who remembers every detail of the books she reads and gets very annoyed when the movies don't follow exactly, had some things to say about the pieces that were left out of the movie, but it was mostly well-done, and you can't put everything in, anyway, or the movie would be six hours long!

We're going to the Midnight Magic party Friday night, in anticipation of book seven. I'm not sure whether the girls have decided about dressing up - one was torn between being Tonks & someone else, and the other just hadn't created an outfit yet. I will be in my normal "muggle" clothes. :-)

We got a Wii !!!!!!!!!!!
What fun!!!!
We have the Wii Sports game that came with the console, and Wii Play, which has 9 other games.
It was easy to set up, and to get used to the controls. Our shoulders & arms were sore after that first day, but what a blast!
Hey, maybe we can create a full-body toning workout here. Use the Wii for upper-body stuff, and alternate with DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) on the PS2 for the legs. Hmmmm.
"How to get fit playing video games" Cool! LOL

Yep, I'm a Magic Girl :-)

2007-07-07T07:58:00.000-04:00

You scored as Elementalist, You are an Elementalist: You are the main magic behind any team. You are a master of the elements, and a powerful mage fit for most teams.

Ranger

60%

Elementalist

60%

Mesmer

55%

Monk

40%

Necromancer

40%

Warrior

15%

Which Guild Wars Profession Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Now, I Ask You!

2007-07-05T12:59:00.000-04:00

Does this make any sense to anyone????

In the county where I live, it is illegal to use fireworks. Okay, that I understand - they're dangerous, and they're a major fire hazard in a place where the fire risk index is usually very high right around the times that people want to use fireworks.

However, it is perfectly legal to purchase fireworks.

HUH???

What exactly would be the purpose of that? Other than for the seller to make money, obviously.
And maybe the legal system, because if you're caught using those legally purchased fireworks, there's a fine.

Wouldn't that be sort of like selling cigarettes or alcohol to underage people, and saying, "Okay, now you can legally buy these things, but you can't use them." ?

I just don't get it.

A Surprise Visit

2007-07-04T09:22:00.000-04:00

Walking past my window the other morning, I saw this:

I'm not sure how often they come, but my dogs don't seem to bother them, or vice versa...

They actually seemed more concerned about me being out there!

Mama herded them out of the yard while I was taking these photos.

But they came back the next day, so I guess they like it here!

Phase Two (and some beans)

2007-06-24T12:33:00.001-04:00

Now that the grass in growing in the first section of the yard that I did, I'm ready to start the next one. I mowed the yard this morning, then raked & fertilized the next section, & I'll water and seed (and water again) this afternoon/evening. Slow & steady, right?

Here's the yard so far:

The green part in the back is the new grass from Phase One. :-)

And here's a beans photo for Janet:

And one of the whole garden:

So things are moving right along. :-) And I'm still finding plenty of time for Guild Wars! Yay!

Access Denied

2007-06-22T06:18:00.000-04:00

My daughter wanted to sign up for an MSN instant messaging account (it's mixed with other Microsoft services, apparently), and so "Microsoft Online Services" sent me an e-mail with a link to either give or deny permission. So I looked around to see exactly what it was she was signing up for, and decided that as long as she keeps her security software updated, and keeps in mind our "rules of engagement" (my kids & I discuss online safety quite often), then okay, I'd give her permission. I clicked the link, and the site told me that in order to answer the permission request, I'd have to sign up for my own "Windows Live ID". Okay... I don't really want it, but fine. So I went through that process, made my ID & password, and finally got to the part about giving my daughter permission to use the services. BUT, in order to "prove" that I'm an adult (don't have to prove I'm her parent, apparently, just that I'm an adult), they wanted my credit card information.
Say what?
Now, I'm comfortable enough with online shopping, and use my cards fairly often for that, and for online bill-paying, but as proof of age? I think not.
Needless to say, my daughter will be sticking to Yahoo & AIM, and can use either one under Trillian (which she could also have used MSN under, but won't be).
Now I've gotta go back & cancel my Live ID account, if it was actually created after all that, because I certainly don't want a bunch of Microsoft ads in my e-mail. I used one of my seldom-used e-mail accounts for the signup, but still. What a racket.

Is That? Can It Be? Is It? It IS!!! It's GRASS!!!

2007-05-31T16:32:00.001-04:00

See it??? See the new baby grass?! Yay!!!!!!

Extreme close-up :-)

This is the amaryllis & the "little plant" that used to be hidden under the monstrous "big plant" - both the big & little plants came to us together in a little dish garden - the big one tried to take over, but I think it's finally gone.

Daughter's garden, coming along nicely.

The bouganvillea. This is a single plant, we planted as an experiment (to see if it would live). It had its first flowers a few weeks ago - I didn't get to take pictures, but they were a pretty raspberry color. There were 3 of 'em. We only planted this within the past year, so there should be more next time around. I'll get pics then. :-)

Nothin' Yet...

2007-05-29T05:56:00.000-04:00

No new grass yet, that I can see...
Although the little bit of existing grass is looking quite pleased with all the watering!
Daughter's garden is growing very nicely, and the bouganvillea is doing well, too.

Saw "Pirates" 3 this past weekend - we liked it much better than the 2nd one.

Nothing else going on - the kids are settling into summer, I'm settling into work - it's different there in the summer - lots to do, but quieter, and the girls & I are making plans to do fun things every so often. And I'm still playing Guild Wars. :-)

I Did It! Really!

2007-05-22T06:52:00.000-04:00

I finally started the grass seed, this past weekend! Had to rake first - got the blisters to prove it! I tried to take a picture of my hand showing the blister between my thumb & index finger, but it didn't work. LOL That morning, after I raked, I used a hand-held crank spreader to spread the fertilizer, then watered that in, and then in the afternoon I spread the grass seed, and watered that down really well. I'll water every day this week, I think, and then a little less often. I only did half of the big side of the lawn, to see how it goes, then I'll do the rest, also in patches. Easier to water it that way - I don't think I could water the whole lawn enough all at one time.
I also cleared out that huge palm thing by my porch - I think I finally killed it. Now I can see the little plant that I like, that was under it. And my amaryllis is growing, and so is the bouganvillea along the other part of the porch skirting. I'll post pics of those later - forgot to take any.
I have a couple packets of seeds that I got from somewhere - one of moonflower, and 2 of morning glory, so I may plant those along the skirting as well. We'll see!

Here's a picture of the grass seed getting its first watering:

Cross your fingers! :-D

Mystery Solved

2007-05-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

Remember the lamp-post that was lying pointed away from its house?

Later, it was up (sort of) for a little while, kinda tilted, and supported by a stick, but UP.

Then it was down again, pointed the other way, and later still, it was still down, but pointed away from the house again.

Anyway, yesterday, we discovered the reason for all that lying down -
it must have been on bed rest!

Look!

It's a baby light-post!!! :-D

Yard & Garden "Before" Photos

2007-05-11T19:12:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures I promised to show the garden & yard progress. There's no real "before" one for the garden, but it was your standard 2-years neglected, dead garden patch before my daughter dug it all up & set up her new veggie garden.

Not sure if you can see them, but there are plastic forks all over the patch. We "planted them to try to keep our dog out of the garden. It didn't work. But see her little bean plants in the middle? :-)

The front yard. Before grass seed, obviously. And I still haven't done that part yet.

This is the side yard. It gets the most sun, and the most "dog-traffic". I'll be seeding it last...

TMI (I've been tagged)

2007-05-09T07:13:00.001-04:00

Janet tagged me with the "7 Random Things/Habits About Me" meme.

Here goes.

1.
I always keep kleenex nearby. Well, not exactly kleenex - usually it's a roll of toilet paper, but I use it as kleenex. There's a roll in every room in my house... plus I keep (actual) kleenex in my purse, and in my car, and on my desk at work. What can I say - I have year-round allergies.

2.
I blow on my food before I eat it. Every bite, whether it's hot or cold. Even ice cream. Cracks my best friend up. I was never even aware of it until she started asking me "is it hot?", with that evil grin. ;-)

3.
I hate shopping - any kind, for any reason.

4.
I don't watch TV. However, I do watch a couple of TV shows, on Netflix. And lots of movies. I do love movies.

5.
"Midnight cookies" is a real, actual item on my grocery list. I wake up in the middle of the night pretty often (I have definite sleep issues), and I like to have a glass of milk & a cookie before I go back to bed. Supposedly something like that can help you go back to sleep, but I just like 'em.

6.
My bird has me totally trained. I respond to him automatically, either by repeating the sound he makes, or answering what he says. Kinda backwards, huh?

7.
I have post-it notes & scraps of paper everywhere. I have to write stuff down if I need to remember it, so I've got notes of things to do, notes about my Guild Wars characters & what part of the game they're in, notes of events I want to make plans for - just everything. Sometimes I use a notebook, but mostly it's just little pieces of paper. Meh. It works. :-)

I can't really tag anyone with this one, because any of the people I would tag have already done it. Yeah, I just don't know (or keep in touch with) that many people. Kinda non-social, am I.

Garden & Yard Update

2007-05-06T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I helped my daughter dump the soil into the garden, and she spread it and then planted the rest of her stuff, along with a whole mess of plastic forks (handle up) to keep the dog out of the garden (don't worry - he doesn't jump in, he steps over the little fence), and we set up the sprinkler to water it. While that was watering, I cut down that crazy huge plant by my porch, so now we can see the little one that was under it. I trimmed some trees (eye level branches, not anything extreme), cleared out some brush, and mowed the lawn. Then it started pouring down rain, with thunder & lightning, which I never mess with. So the fertilizer & grass seed will have to be started later. But we did get a lot done today, so I'm happy.

Still Around

2007-05-06T08:53:00.000-04:00

I'm still here! The birthday party went well - the girls had fun, and I enjoyed watching them be crazy. :-) Other than that we've just been busy with regular life, and the end of the school year (and in my job, that and preparing for next year, with scheduling & stuff), and finals and such.
My older daughter has started a garden, which is pretty cool. So far she's got carrots & sweet peppers and beans growing. She couldn't plant anything else until I got more soil - I had no idea we needed that much, so the first batch only covered about 1/3 of the area she had cleared & fenced.
Now we have enough, so she'll be working on her garden, while I mow the lawn (weeds) & make my first attempt at growing some grass in the yard. I'm only doing one area of the lawn at a time, to see if it takes. Wish me luck!

Pretty Pretty Princesses

2007-04-28T07:36:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be surrounded by 12 & 13 year-olds today! Okay, I suppose most days I'm surrounded by kids that age, working at a middle school and all - LOL! But today my daughter is having her birthday party. Her choice of activity was to have a "dress-up" party. The girls will all get fuzzy hats & matching fuzzy purses, a bunch of plastic "jewelry", colorful boas, and of course lots of treats. And we're having pizza, and cake & ice cream, naturally.

We tend to do fairly simple, small group parties around here - and we have a blast! When my other daughter turned 13, she chose to go to Dave & Buster's, just us and one adult friend we all love. It was tons of fun! And when she turned 14, we had the "big little kid" party I told about in this post.

So we have fun in our own sometimes unconventional style, and we love it!
I hope you have fun in whatever you're doing today!

It's A Bird's Life

2007-04-21T07:43:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of new pictures of the birds:

We decided to try Bandit's "bathtub" in the sink, because when I put it on top of her cage, she lifts the edge & dumps it over!

I have a shower-curtain rod across the space between the cabinets by the kitchen. Bandit hangs out there to "supervise dishwashing or cooking. She has torn all the plastic off of it, so now it's a plain metal bar, but it's her favorite hangout when she's not on me.

Marley likes to stay on or near his cage, but has been stepping onto my hand at least once a day, even if it's only to move from the cage door to his "bedtime" perch. But once in a while he decides to come out for a very small adventure.

Here he is, deciding whether he wants to investigate more or go back to his "house".

(He decided to stay a while - until he wanted to go back in, every time I gave him my hand, he'd step on, then turn around & step back onto the bar!)

(I don't think he really appreciated the picture-taking, though!)

Network Blues and A Chuckle

2007-04-19T05:56:00.000-04:00

Ack! My network has been down for a bit - thought it was the modem, so I replaced that (or rather, swapped it out at the cable office), but had the same problem. Swapped out the cables & the splitter, and took out the "surge protector" that I had on the wall outlet - It's very old, and probably hasn't worked for years. My cable lines were running through that. Everything else is plugged into a normal battery backup/surgepro. Once I was finally connecting, I had to call to find out my account # & install the Comcast software (they're taking over Time Warner Cable, but it's not all switched over yet), to reset the modem. Otherwise, any page I tried to go to just went to the Comcast.net home page. So all of that's done, and I'm back online. Yay!!!
I need to catch up a few things, and then I'll post a couple of cute pictures of the birds. :-)

Here's something that was e-mailed to me, that I found amusing (you have to do this):

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps," above the search bar...
3. click on "get directions"
4. type " New York " in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type " Paris " in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions"
7. scroll down to step #23

I'm Pumped!

2007-04-06T08:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, lousy play on words, maybe, but I'm very happy about my most recent home improvement!

I have well water here, and it will be some time before I can afford to switch to city water. But the pump and tank I had were SO old & decrepit - I should have taken a "before" photo of those so you could see how bad they were. The tank was all rusty & gross-looking, and the pump whined & screamed like it was going to blow up any minute. This was the reason I let my lawn die out this past summer - I was afraid to use the well-pump as much as I'd have to in order to keep the grass watered. So this summer, I may just have pics of an actual living grass lawn to show you! (If I can get it to grow from seed, that is - I'm not doing sod).

I'd already had bearings & such replaced before, but really, it was obviously time to replace the whole mess. I was pleasantly surprised by the cost, too, so that was a nice bonus.
Anyway, here's my new well pump & tank:

Now to get the well-house rebuilt! It's sorta falling apart. The roof section is very sturdy, but the rest of it, not so much... Oh well, one project at a time!

For Janet

2007-03-26T17:56:00.000-04:00

Janet was asking me how I've been, and if I was going to post some bird pictures soon ('cause I said I would, oh, at least a month ago, now - I know, I suck), and since I haven't managed to do that yet, how about a couple of pictures of my bearded dragon? His name is Barley, and even though he looks all prickly & grumpy, he's actually very docile & laid back. He's cool. Poor guy had to go to the vet not too long ago, and then spent the next week (plus) having to take antibiotics. Yah, you can bet he loved that. He has forgiven me, though. :-) Here he is:

Isn't he handsome?

.............. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-17T08:26:00.000-04:00

An Old Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

Which Tiara Should I Wear Today?

2007-03-12T16:44:00.000-04:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Reverend Countess Jen the Paragon of Porton Down
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Grace Lady Jen the Formidable of Deep Throcking
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Royal Highness Jen the Introspective of Mabe Burnthouse
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Most Serene Highness Lady Jen the Unlikely of Similar Ealand
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Couldn't decide which one I liked better. The last one, I think. Yep. That's the ticket. ;-)

An Answering What?

2007-02-26T17:22:00.000-05:00

So how is it that the people who make calls for BellSouth, the telephone company, don't understand the concept of "answering machine" or "voicemail"???

Every so often I come home to this message (or one very much like it) on my answering machine:

"Hello? Helloo? Joniphor X[my last name]?" [[and HOW do you manage to prounounce "Jennifer" so badly, I'd like to know!]] "Hello? Hellooo? Hello? I'd like to speak with Joniphor X? Hello? Hello? Hello? [pause] Thank you for being a BellSouth customer."

I mean come on already! My work uses an autocall system, and even it can tell the difference between a live answer and a machine. Sheesh!

Now That's More Like It!

2007-02-22T06:19:00.001-05:00

Thank goodness! The temperature around here is getting back to normal Florida weather.
It's 55 degrees right now (around 6am), and the afternoons the rest of this week should be in the 70's. This is ever so much better than the freezing temps we had last week!
This is why I live in Florida! :-)

Drive Me Crazy

2007-02-11T08:38:00.000-05:00

No, this post isn't about anything fun that the title might be suggesting to you. ;-p

This is a complaint post, so if you don't want to read my rant of the day, stop here.

I would like to know what possesses people to drive in the center of the freaking road! There are two lanes on a residential street for a reason, people! The fact that someone drives a big honkin' Armored Personnel Carrier or whatnot that should have stayed with the military, does not give them ownership of the entire damned road. If I'm turning onto the road that you're about to turn off of, I of course have to wait for the oncoming traffic to clear, but why should I then also have to wait for your selfish ass to leave the road before I can get onto it (the road that is, not the ass!)?
Or my other option is to turn anyway, squeezing my car onto the road & hoping your mirror doesn't take out my roof... WTF? Drive on your own side of the road!

The second half of my complaint, and it's probably mostly the same people doing this, is the ones who drive around a speedbump instead of just slowing down & going over it, like they're supposed to, which is the whole point of the damned speedbump being there in the first place!
We have a 25-mile per hour, local traffic only road near my house, where speedbumps were added after a child was killed by a driver doing 60 on that road. They're pretty mild speedbumps, so even at 25 mph, I think they wouldn't damage a car, but you're supposed to slow down to about 10. Yet apparently that's too much effort for some people, so they drive around it, even with someone on the other side of the road. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

And don't even get me started on people who don't stop at stop signs...

Watch The Birdie!

2007-02-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

He's IN!!!

Turns out the ultimate enticement to get into his new cage was tortilla chips...
He doesn't normally eat "people snacks", but those, he loves.

Marley in his new house (below):

Later, when he's had time to get used to the new cage, I'll post a picture of the convertible play top opened out. I didn't want to freak him out by opening it up just yet.

and here's Bandit in (well, ON) her house (below):

and so they don't feel left out, and you can see them, Sophie the (male!) lovebird, on the right (okay, they're little birds, so look hard and you'll see them), and Roxie & Zulie the parakeets on the left. Roxie is the yellow/green one, named Xerox, because he was found, & came home in a Xerox box, and Zulie's real name is Azul (blue). She's the blue one, obviously. :-) (below):

So that's the birdie crew. They keep us entertained! :-)

Public Service Announcement for Bird Owners

2007-01-31T06:16:00.000-05:00

If you have a pet bird, especially a parrot, this tip is for you.

If you ever buy the bird a new cage, and take it home in the box, 'cause it won't fit in your car assembled, I advise you to take a really good look at the one like it in the store. Because when you open the box up, take the pieces and the 3 or 4 different kinds of bolts out, and find the directions, here's what you'll be looking at:

That is the full extent of the instructions.

But don't worry - if you swear at it enough, the cage will come together. Eventually.

(Now that it's together, I need to put in the dish holders & door latch, then the dishes & toys, and then of course, the bird. It may take him a while to make the switch, but once he's in his new "house", I'll post a picture).

I'm a Grownup!

2007-01-23T06:03:00.000-05:00

Well, sorta. Heh.

Odat posted these 25 signs that you're grown up for good, and I gotta say, all but the computer one are pretty much on the mark... (I do still spend a lot of time on my computer playing). So yeah, somewhere along the way, I guess I grew up. Darnit. :-p

False Alarm

2007-01-16T06:09:00.000-05:00

Hooray! It wasn't mono! Daughter started feeling better on Friday - still very tired, but much better than she had been all week. We didn't get the strep test results (negative) until yesterday, but by then she was almost back to normal, and so she didn't need to be tested for mono anymore.
Her sister was sick Thursday & Friday (still has a little cough), and then it was my turn. I just have a cold though - nothing crazy.

So it's been a long, wearying week, and I think it's safe to say that all three of us are happy to be getting back to our normal routine...

And Didn't Even Get A Kiss For It...

2007-01-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

No, this post is not about anything you're now probably thinking it is - LOL!

My daughter had to leave school sick on Monday, and has been at home ever since. Poor kid's been miserable. We went to the doctor yesterday, who tested for strep, because she has all the "classic" signs of it, but the rapid-test came back negative. So they did the 2nd test that has to be sent off to the lab, and we wait to see what that one says. If it's negative, and my daughter is still feeling bad, the doctor wants to do the bloodwork to test for mono.

That's right, the so-called "kissing disease". And no, that's not how she got it, IF that's what she has. It could also be one of any number of non-specified viruses that cause the same symptoms as strep & mono. So we're basically in "wait and see" mode right now. And crossing our fingers that it's one of those random, will-go-away-soon viruses, that will let her get back to normal in a few days. Wish her luck!

Oh My!

2007-01-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I always knew my devotion to Star Wars would mean something in the end...

Back To Reality

2007-01-02T16:53:00.000-05:00

It wasn't easy to get up early this morning, and go from this:

To this:

It's a darned good thing I love my job! ;-p

HNY

2006-12-31T09:27:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!!

May 2007 be good to you!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T06:34:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and enjoy!!! :-)

Well, That Was An Adventure...

2006-12-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

What with all the Christmas rush, and my brother being in the hospital, I had forgotten to blog about our little Walmart adventure a couple of weeks ago...

The girls and I went grocery shopping that Saturday morning, as we usually do (though most times it's just me). The store was crazy busy, due to the holiday shopping, I guess - it's not usually that bad when I do my food shopping.

We were just about done, getting the last couple of things from the frozen aisles, when we smelled something that smelled just like burning hair. Eww. We looked around, but didn't see anyone looking too panicked about it, and couldn't see any smoke or anything, so we finished shopping & walked over to the registers. We usually use the Self-checkout lines, but when we got to those, there were 4 or 5 Walmart employees standing near them, looking at the top area of one of them. Still no smoke, but the smell was stronger there, so we weren't about to risk trying to use one.

We went to the other end of the registers, to one of the regular ones, & got in line. Right when we got up to where we could unload the cart & pay for our stuff, they started evacuating the store.
Damn. Soooo close. We had to leave the cart there while they cleared the store, so we went outside and waited. If it wasn't too long, I wasn't leaving without going back in for my stuff - after I had spent 2 hours shopping, because some of what we had gotten was Christmas presents.

They had us get all the way away from the building, so we sat in our car and waited, while the 3 firetrucks sat at the entrances to the store, and we watched the firefighters look for something to fight. They walked around on the roof, and looked into some areas that must have been access doors or something, and I'm sure some of them were inside the regular part of the store, checking it out.

After about 30 minutes, those of us who hadn't left were able to go back in & get our stuff. The cold food was still cold, so I didn't end up needing to swap anything out like I thought I might have to. The employees had to do a sweep of the store, and bring all the abandoned carts up to customer service. I bet they spent the rest of that day putting stuff back, too.

I have to say, as much as people rag on Walmart, the people working there handled the evacuation very well - they got it done quickly and safely once they knew it had to be done, and then got right back to work as soon as we were all allowed back in, and kept a decent attitude, even though they knew they were going to have a shitty afternoon picking up after all the people who had just left the carts full of stuff everywhere.

So that's our little adventure. I think I like regular boring days better. ;-p

Update - It Worked!!! Joey's Home!!!

2006-12-18T08:11:00.001-05:00

A big thanks to all of you who sent good thoughts! It worked very well - not only did they move my brother out of ICU, but they released him! He is covered in aches & pains, and he has a lot of physical therapy stuff to do, but he's home. Yay!!!!!!!

They said that he's out of danger, and will heal over time. Now that the big (scary) injuries are out of the way, and he's off the heavy painkillers, he's finding that other stuff hurts, like his shoulder, which may have a torn muscle (I think he's going to a doc today to check that out).

So now he's got some work & some healing to do, but all in all, he's going to be okay. :-)

Prayers & Good Thoughts Requested

2006-12-15T06:08:00.000-05:00

My brother Joey was in an accident last weekend. He's going to be okay, eventually, but right now he's in ICU, and could use a little good energy sent his way. He's not responding to treatment as quickly as they had hoped, apparently, and has only just been able to be taken off the respirator.

He bruised his lung, and may have pneumonia after being on the respirator for so long, but they can treat that. He also has a head injury. Not as bad as the one he had several years ago, but still a head injury. So right now he's on lots of pain medicine, and is of course being watched closely & having lots of tests and all. They're hoping to move him out of ICU soon, though, to a room, and then it's a day by day thing regarding when he can be released. After that, he'll be having a lot of outpatient treatment. Physical therapy, etc. Apparently it will be a long recovery.

So any good thoughts, prayers, vibes you can send his way will be appreciated! Thanks!

Is This a Meme?

2006-12-10T08:12:00.002-05:00

I've been tagged!

Survivin tagged me with orders to post six weird things about myself. So here goes:

1. I have the Gemini twins thing in spades; a lot of personality traits that I have, I also have the exact opposite ones. Not multiple personality or anything, just an odd mix of traits.

2. I love to sing (but not in public). Not saying I can, exactly, but I really love to. My kids and I constantly sing in the car, and I even have a little karaoke machine at home.

3. I am more comfortable around animals than I am around most people...

4. When I eat a plate of different foods, I can't "mix & match". I have to eat all of one food (all of it that I'm going to eat, anyway) before I can move on to the next. (Unless it's already mixed, like in a salad).

5. I fall in love very easily - fast and hard.

6. I fall out of love just as quickly...

So that's me. Okay, I think I'm supposed to tag 6 people now, so I'll tag:
Mr. Fabulous, CP, Janet, Guyk, Mike, and NML. :-)

39 Degrees! Eep!

2006-12-08T06:02:00.000-05:00

39 Degrees.

It's not supposed to be that cold here, dammit - this is Florida!!!

Okay, that does it. I need to find a place where the temperature stays somewhere between, say, 70 and 75 degrees, but where I don't have to live in a hut & carry a machete, or have a guard lion because a guard dog would get eaten...

Oh, and it must have internet! ;-p

HOW MANY Shopping Days left?!

2006-12-07T19:35:00.000-05:00

Holy Cricket! Christmas is just around the corner, isn't it? Sorta snuck up on me this year. (Pfft - like they moved it or something, right?) Jeez, usually by this time, I've sent the cards, done the shopping, put up the tree & let the kids decorate it, and have shipped packages or am getting them ready to ship. Then comes the wrapping of the stuff that doesn't have to be shipped.

This year? Not so much. I have the cards, the labels are printed & the stamps ordered (cute snowflake ones), but not a one of 'em is sent yet. I only have about half of the shopping done, the tree is in the living room, still in its box, and I'm just now getting ready to find the boxes to fit what I need to ship, and I still have to finish shopping, too. Guess I'd better get crackin', huh?

But I love Christmastime, so it's cool. :-)

I Miss...Kissing

2006-12-04T06:19:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about this lately, for some reason, and I've decided that of all the things involved in having a relationship - a good one, I mean - the only thing I really miss is kissing. Kissing that starts off sweet & gentle, then slowly becomes more fiery & passionate. Now, I realize that there's a lot more to a good relationship, and maybe one day I'll want to try to have one, but not yet. I'm still happy being single, thanks.

The other things, there's a way to get around.
Companionship? I have kids, I have pets, I have friends.
Sex? Use your imagination. ;-p
Help around the house? I've always done most things for myself anyway, or I can pay a professional, or there again - I have kids, & friends.

But I do miss kissing...

No Hurricanes Here!

2006-11-30T17:15:00.000-05:00

Yay! Hurricane season is, for this year at least, over!

That gives me 6 months to look into different types of hurricane shutters, see about an autotransfer switch for my generator, maybe take the generator out of its box & set it up...

Don't know if I'll actually do any of those things, but at least I have 6 months to think about it. ;-p

Tennessee 2

2006-11-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

More pictures:

This was along the drive to somewhere. (Everything was quite a drive to get to - we really were up in the mountains!) :-)

Why they're called "The Smoky Mountains"

another picture of the stream

We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg. All the Christmas lights were on in town - it was pretty.

This was at the horse ranch where we went riding. Another great view!

We ended up deciding not to go to Dollywood this trip - there was enough to do as it was, and not enough days to do more. We had a great time, though, and could really see the attraction Tennessee holds for so many people. What a beautiful place!

Tennessee 1

2006-11-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Lots of pictures!

Sun setting on the horse ranch

This is where we had Thanksgiving dinner. Inside is all solid, new-looking wood - beautiful - and the food was excellent. The dog you see running toward my daughter is Jedi, one of the farm dogs. He was a very friendly dog. He went with us on our trail ride, too!

Mama and baby posing for a picture before going into the stable for food.

The view from Nancy & Joe's house. That pond down below is part of their property. The house is at the top of a hill, and has a great view all around.

This isn't the house where we stayed - it's more family. They have a "bird ranch" here; an old barn full of rescued birds (parrots mostly), and they also have 17 rescued dogs. They stay busy.
The house where we stayed also has a gorgeous view, but my favorite view of all is from my sister's property. I didn't bring my camera when we went there, but of all the places we went during our trip, that was the one that made me want to live there. :-)
(Gotta do something about that darned cold weather, though!)