An Issue of Power

For the past month or so, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my computer.  I haven’t said much about it (but in all fairness, I haven’t said much about anything lately!) but it has really stressed me out. 

When I did mentioned my computer woes,  Jay suggested, from personal experience,  that the problem might be with the power cord.  Still not having prepared myself for the thought of sending off my computer for several weeks,  I was more that willing  to grasp at any straw.  I asked Shaun if the problem could possibly be the power cord. 

My Beloved thought I was brilliant for coming up with such an astute diagnosis.  (Naturally, I went ahead and let him think that it was all my idea.  I’m sure I’ll be falling off my pedestal just as soon as he reads this) and went rummaging through his huge collection of power cords and other…stuff. (which resulted in him doing a bit of Spring Cleaning and bringing in three huge boxes of electronics for his co-workers to scavenge through)

I was thrilled when we plugged the new cord in and my computer once again worked…at least for a very short time.  I had made the tragic mistake of turning my computer off.  (Apparently, something one should never do!)  To my horror, it refused to reboot. 

it had done this a few times before, so I knew that if I tried over and over and over again (We’re talking hours here) it would finally stop hanging..  Only this time, something odd happened.  A blue screen filled with white words flashed by so quickly that I had no chance to read it, then the computer went into some strange loop where it would try to reboot then flash the blue screen at me.  KT and I made it a game to see if we could make out any of the words. 

We finally came up with a phrase (I’ve forgotten what it was) that told us that  my hard disk had died.   A new hard drive didn’t fix anything, nor did new memory chips.  (You do realize that I wasn’t the one doing this fixing, don’t you?  I think it’s already been established that I’m not the brilliant one!)

We had pretty much given up hope when the nice man in brown shorts brought us the new battery we had ordered.  Despite knowing it was useless, Shaun put the battery in anyways.  To our amazement it worked. 

Shaun fully expected me to start jumping up and down for joy.  I couldn’t do it.  I was just cringing….waiting for the next Bad Thing to happen to this poor computer.  It baffles my mind to think that these troubles have come down to a failing power supply.

I’m almost ready to do the Happy Dance…

Mornings

This was one of those extremely rare mornings that my youngest daughter cheerfully hopped out of bed the first time I called her.  She quickly dressed, did all of her chores and then at down to eat a leisurely breakfast.  The entire time she was chattering on about this and that…and mostly marveling at how much time she had.  She was so amazed at how much nicer her morning was going when she didn’t have to rush.  (My caffeine starved brain was simply marveling at how much more pleasant she was!)

I had to laugh when my girl calmly informed me that I only had four more minutes until I needed to be ready to go.  When those four minutes were up, I was dutifully ready to go with my keys in hand.  Mimi, however, started frantically running around trying to remember where she had left a certain pair of shoes. (Mimi considers herself quite fashionable and wasn’t willing to wear any of those other shoes neatly lined up on the shoe rack)

I just shook my head and told her that I was going to warm up the car and that she had better hurry.  It wasn’t too long until she breathlessly plopped into the passenger seat of the MomMobile.  I quickly (but safety) drove her down to the bus stop…just in time to see it drive away. 

It wasn’t a big deal to follow the big yellow bus to the next stop.  It was a big deal for Mimi though.  She just knew that everyone was watching her get on at the wrong stop.  (Don’t you just miss those teen years????)

After such a tragic ending to such a wonderful start, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be until my girl will eagerly hop out of bed the first time I call her. Sigh…

Pay It Forward

When I met up with Carol the other day, she had a special gift for me.  I had been one of the “winners” of her Pay It  Forward post from about a thousand years ago and she thought it was time to award me my wonderful gift. 

I’d love to be able to say that I’m one of those people that is always winning something.  Sadly, I’m not…  I’m one of those people that wins something wonderful every once in a while.  (And by something wonderful, I do not mean  A Major Award.)

In this instance, I won two beautiful sets of handmade earrings.  Thanks Carol!

 

 (These photos don’t even begin to do them justice)

Now if you aren’t aware of the Pay it Forward blog movement, it’s a fun little meme that instead of answering some questions, you give three lucky recipients some sort of gift.

So here are the official “rules” of this meme (Of course there are rules…why would you doubt that?)

If you’d like to participate, leave me a comment. I will pick 3 commenters and send them….um….something.  It won’t be earrings and it won’t be a Major Award (unless, of course, Jay wins because he would probably like a Major Award!)  It might even be store bought… (I’m posting the rules,  I can make them up as I go along.  So there!) If I know you well enough, I’ll try to pick something based on what I know about you.

You do need to be willing to send me your have to send me your “snail mail” address. (BWWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) Then, you’ll need to make a similar post on your own blog, offering to pay it forward to 3 more bloggers who comment on your site. (You don’t have to do this until you receive the scary charming gift that I am sending to you)

On the other hand, if you decide to leave a comment, gushing about Carol’s beautiful workmanship, but you do not want to play, please tell me so in your comment.

I’ll give you until…oh Monday at midnight? Then I will pick three random numbers and see who wins!

Good luck!

Woe Is Me

I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but my Beloved Laptop has been giving my some major trouble lately. It started innocently enough when the battery started to die. I could no longer happily sit using my laptop while the girls were doing their late afternoon activities. I could understand that, it was a pain, but I knew that batteries are not known for their longevity.

I think the batteries started talking to the power cord, because suddenly, the computer no longer wanted to charge with the power cord. My Inhouse Tech Support (who is quite grumpy when asked to trouble shoot these types of problems…ok any type of computer problems) was convinced that I had broken off the little thingy that sticks out inside the power hole (see, I can be techie too!) When I showed him that it wasn’t broken off, he just shrugged his shoulders and told me to send it to the factory. (WHAT factory????) I managed to figure out a way to very delicately place the plug in so that it would charge my laptop. Of course, this very delicate way seems to changed often.

I wasn’t real thrilled when the screen started going black on me for no particular reason. I managed to fix this by swearing at it a bit (because that always helps!) and clicking on random spots until it cleared up. Emails that I had sent disappeared with no record of being sent and certainly not received. (My apologies to anyone that thinks I’m ignoring them) Then my computer decided that it would be fun to start turning itself off at random times…and then refuse to reboot for hours.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that perhaps my computer wasn’t just being difficult, but was in fact, quite ill. Late yesterday, it fell into a deeeeep coma. (I refuse to say it died..I’m just not ready for that)

My Inhouse Tech Support graciously took a few moments out from playing WoW to set up an account for me on the girls’ computer. (Thank you!) Yep, I have to share a computer with my children. My children that firmly believe that they shouldn’t have to share a computer…that they totally deserve to each have a laptop of their very own. (I think it’s going to be fun kicking them off just to mess with them. Oh wait…it that bad?)

So this morning, I have been reacquainting myself with this old desktop computer. I’ve learned that I can get email, but I can’t send it. (Queen of the Workaround, I realized that I can used my Hotmail account that I kinda forgot about to email people with) All of my pictures are trapped inside the Sleeping Dragon that used to be my Beloved Laptop so I’m still not going to be able to show off our South Carolina adventure. And well…there are lots of little things that are frustrating me (have I ever mentioned how much I dislike change???)

At least now, I should have a stable computer to work with (and blog on!) even if I can’t tuck it under my arm and haul it around with me…

 

Nearly a year later…

No, I’m not really talking about the last time I posted, but that works too…

About a zillion years ago, I came across a blog called The Northwest Ladybug.  Something about this blog, just sucked me right in so I marked it in my Bloglines (no I haven’t managed to switch to the other one that everyone seems to use) and started lurking in on Carol’s life.

Now, the  Pacific Northwest is a huge area.  As far as I can tell, it starts down in Oregon and then goes all the way up the coast through Washington up to (or depending on who you talk to including) Canada.  Then it goes east to include Idaho and parts of Montana.  Like I said, it’s a big region.  

Despite knowing that Carol could live anywhere, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that she lived somewhere near my neck of the woods.  Her photos of the area looked eerily familiar,  the places she talked about… It just made me wonder…

Then one day, she posted this about her garage sale.  I was in shock…I had just resisted stopping there as I passed that house on my way home.  Carol was my neighbor! (At least now I knew why everything looked so familiar!)

My first impulse was to stop reading her blog right away and just pretend that I didn’t know anything about her.  It just seemed kinda creepy to me…like I was a stalker or something.  Then I realized that I didn’t want to give her blog up.  Eventually, I decided I had to out myself. 

Carol took the news that she had a stalker very well.  In fact, we emailed a bit, talked on the phone, and made plans to meet up for coffee or go for a walk around the neighborhood in order to get to know each other better.

That was back in July, and we finally managed to meet for lunch…yesterday.

When I walked into the restaurant, I immediately knew who she was (after all, I had seen a zillion pictures of her) As we sat down to chat, it was like meeting with an old friend!  Real Life Carol is exactly the same as Blogger Carol.  She is warm, caring and funny.  I really enjoyed her company.  It was amazing how comfortable I was with her right away.  We had tons of stuff to talk about  on all topics.  Then suddenly, it was time to go…the hour the hour had just flown by.  

Now that we’ve finally met up in real life, maybe we’ll be better about doing something again…at least before another year is up!

Next post, I’ll tell you about the special Pay It Forward gift she gave me.  Now, if you will excuse me, there are 636 posts on my Bloglines…I’m guessing I may not see them all, but I’ll give it a shot!

A walk through the swamp

I’ve always lived in tourist areas.  There is always, always something fun and interesting to do.   So visiting somewhere with pretty much nothing to do is rather interesting…especially when those you are visiting still have to work during the day.

My parents, who drove their RV up here just to see my brother and his family me, came up with a brilliant idea to take us to see the Congaree Swamp.  I was intrigued, but a little nervous about that plan. 

First of all, I was unaware that South Carolina even had a swamp.  I always thought we kept them all in Florida and the bayous of Louisiana.  Second of all, aren’t swamps the place you take people and then never hear from them again? Hmmmm….

Fortunately, the swamp we were headed to was actually a State Park and they have very strict rules against feeding guest to the gators. (Whew!) When we first entered the boardwalk that wove through the swamp, I was highly unimpressed. It looked like we were just heading into the woods…it was pretty, but it was no big deal.

As we walked further in, I started to notice these things poking up from the ground that brought to mind some sort of alien life form.  Mom was quick to inform me that they were called “knees” that were thought to help the cypress trees breathe.  (Mom never did have much imagination!)

The further in we walked, the more swamp-like (not to mention spooky) it  became.  The water started pooling up and we could see thick black muck underneath it.  We could now see dark green moss growing up to where the water had come up to in the last wet season.  (I’m not really clear on where the water comes from, my brain wants to connect it to the tide table somehow)

We had to be careful for snakes dangling down from the trees above us.

You probably think that’s a tree branch like Mom did…Dad and I knew better.  I preferred to play it safe and just pretend to gaze at all the Spanish Moss hanging down while secretly watching out for Attack Snakes.

Nestled in the middle of the swamp was a steel box that had once been used by bootleggers.  They used distilled “corn squeezings” through copper tubing and cleverly hid it among the trees, guarded by vicious snakes and ‘gators.

Another swamp hazard lives in hollow trees. Six species of bats inhabit this swamp.  Fortunately, they only come out at night.  When they do, they consume over 600 insects per hour.  And trust me, there are a lot of bugs out in that there swamp.

Despite my reservations, I found that the swamp is really a magical place. I’m really glad that we went.

And I’m really glad that we managed to avoid that hungry gator lurking around in there…

Our plane had a flat tire

If all was going as planned, I would be in South Carolina now.  Instead,  Mimi and I are stranded in Billings, Montana.  (I guess I can cross this off as being in yet another state?)

On the plus side, Northwest Airlines is generously putting us up in the tallest hotel in the entire state! If that isn’t impressive enough, it also happens to be the tallest brick and mortar building in the world!

I’d write more about this fascinating place, but I have to get to bed as our new flight leaves at 6:00 tomorrow morning. UGH!

Life is always an adventure with us!

Lost in the Monster Closet

When we first moved into our house, we were fascinated by the tiny little closet that had been built under our staircase.  It looked like a normal closet door, but when you opened it, the room was long, narrow and sloped down towards the back.  This special closet was also the only room in our new home that had no windows. 

Naturally, we chose to keep this little room empty and climb in there a couple times a week armed with a flashlight and a few good ghost stories.  We loved scaring ourselves silly in the room that quickly became known as the Monster Closet. (Isn’t it a wonder that our kids seem to be turning out fairly normal?)

Over time, the lure of the Monster Closet started wearing off.  We gradually started to use this closet to actually store things.  The new monsters of our closet are now suitcases, old comforters and swimming towels.  Oh, and all of our Halloween stuff, ’cause they are monster-like.

Knowing that we are leaving for our trip first thing tomorrow morning, I decided it was time to venture into the depths of the Monster Closet.  I knew that it wouldn’t be too scary as I had seen the  black suitcase right by the door.  

As I started hauling that suitcase out of the closet, it started stretching.  Seriously, if my girls were home I would make them both curl up inside of it so you could see how big it really is.  (I tried to put all five cats in there but as soon as I turned my back a couple of them would jump out…so you get nothin’) Notice how I’m not saying a word about the reasoning for someone who would buy huge suitcase like that?

I had no choice but to climb back in the closet to search for another suitcase.  I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but there is a mountain of old comforters and towels (I guess it’s time to make a trip over to the Humane Society…they can always use them)  I started my climb and ended up sprawled on my tummy at the top of the  mountain in order to reach the older suitcases at the very back of the closet.  (I think I may have taken a little nap while I was perched up there…it’s pretty comfy!)

My goodness, do we have some ugly luggage! I found an old hard-sided green suitcase that I’m pretty sure belonged to my grandparents at one time (It’s kinda cool in a retro sort of way), a hideous tapestry thing that used to be my mothers, a quartet of multicolored  rolling…things, and the dusty old normal-sized suitcases that I was looking for. 

I had been flinging all of these various bags behind me down the mountain as I came across them.  When I turned around to make my descent I realized that I had blocked myself into the room as the door opened in. 

I’m not too proud to admit that I had a small moment of panic.  What if I were actually trapped in there forever? It’s entirely possible that nobody would ever find me.  I would become one of those people that simply vanished.  Nobody would ever know what had happened to me until next Halloween…

Fortunately, I managed to safely escape the Monster Closet without too much difficulty.  Now, I’m staring at this monster of a suitcase, wondering if I would be better off using a plastic trash bag instead….

It’s Uncle Ricky!

My baby brother has always been a bit of a goof.  (Ohhhh the stories I could tell!) One of his strange quirks is to call and pretend he is somebody else.  We always know that if a strongly accented cowboy or a little old lady or an Asian delivery guy or…well whoever it would just be Uncle Ricky.   The funniest part about this odd habit, is that Ricky is always puzzled that we can so quickly figure out that it is really him calling.

Yesterday the phone rang and Mimi answered it.  She listened for a moment then  joyfully shouted out “Uncle Ricky!”.  I just had to smile when she started arguing with him about who he really was as he’s never willing to admit that he’s been busted. 

Mimi finally handed the phone over to me and I said hello to my brother.  Only…there was no way that my baby brother could ever produce the  deep, gravely voice that was on the other end of the line!

It turned out that Mimi had been speaking to the  step-dad of the girl that had come home from school with her.  He had called to introduce himself to me and making sure S had arrived safely.  Thankfully he had a great sense of humor and just laughed when I apologized and tried to explain my child’s strange phone manners.

A couple hours later when the dogs announced that someone was walking up to our door, the girls glanced out the window and saw that S’s step-dad had arrived to take her home.  Mimi ran towards the door to greet him as she felt she needed to apologize.  She opened the door and before she could say a word, he said “You must be Mimi, I’m Uncle Ricky!”

I think I really like that guy…

Out like a lamb?

I can’t help but think that Ol’ Mother Nature got March all mixed up.  This has been an amazingly balmy winter.  (Relatively speaking) So when the snow advisories started coming in, I just scoffed.  It’s already Spring, why on earth would we get snow? Besides, everyone knows that the month is supposed to go out like a lamb…even if it did come in that way.

When I glanced out the window this morning, I had to laugh at myself (and mutter under my breath about weathermen being lucky about finally getting it right) I happily watched the fat, fluffy flakes float lazily down from the skies.  I knew there was no chance that they would stick, so I was free to enjoy the snow without worries.

A few hours later, I noticed that the snow was still coming down…and sticking.  You’d think that I would be accustomed to our random snow storms by now…but I’m not.  I have to confess that I still get a little panicky when I see snow sticking.  (And Shaun thinks we will be perfectly happy retiring in a little cabin nestled in the Colorado Mountains…I guess I’ll have to gently break the news to him that I’ve just realized I need to be a snowbird.)

Fortunately, for my sanity the snow has pretty much melted.  Now all I have to do is stay away from all those media sources that insist we could get an accumulation of two inches by morning…and focus on the fact that one week from today I will be in Columbia, SC where it is currently eight-one degrees….