Meme

I did this meme back in the '06 days, but I thought it would be interesting today. 
With some editing.

1) Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.

"I've been talking to some people here at Houston.  We started re-evaluating the collision dynamics and trajectory when you found the core was hollow."

from In the Ocean of Night, by Gregory Benford.

 

2) Stretch your left arm out as far as you can and see what you touch.

An HP Officejet 6500. Ow.

3) What is the last thing you watched on TV?

NCIS

4) Without looking, guess what time it is.

6:30

5) Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?

6:25~~ Five minutes of Do Over!

6) With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

A gurgling aquarium, the AC..

7) When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

About 3 hours ago, to hang throw rugs to dry.  No rain!!

8) Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

The Joy of Cooking.  Tasty stuff in there.

9) What are you wearing?

Brown sweatshirt, jeans and fuzzy slippers.  (such a fashionista).

10) Did you dream last night?

Yeah, something about losing my car in this huge parking lot.  Frustration dream, again.

11) When did you last laugh?

Reading some of my old blog posts.  Probably not too funny for anyone else..

12) What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Diplomas, a bulletin board, a photo of the old farmhouse.

13) Seen anything weird lately?

In West Virginia? No, do you think?

14) What do you think of this quiz?

It's an easy way to create a new post....

15) What is the last film you saw?

Cowboys and Aliens.  Harrison Ford, not so much, but Daniel Craig, rrrowl.

16) If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

I'd hire a full-time housekeeper. No, a cook. No, a chauffeur. An accountant?

17) Tell us something about you that we don't know.

I'm actually a famous star.  Or not.

18) If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what

would you do?

I'd have all the world leaders meet and thrash out their conflicts mano-a-mano, with dull

butter knives.

19) Do you like to dance?

Not at all. Two left feet. Maybe more.

20) What do you think of Obama?

I think she's terrific and so is her husband.

21) Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

Draconia

22) Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

Apeteryx (a wingless bird with hairy feathers). Just thinking of his first teacher struggling to pronounce it gives me the giggles.

23) Would you ever consider living abroad?

Nope. West Virginia is about as "other worldly" as I can manage.

24) What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

"You look great for your age!"

And not to forget the all important bumper sticker;  "Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?"

Uh-Oh

And now for a moment of silence OK that's long enough.  My computer died, not my fault, it just sat there humming and doing nothing.  We tried several ways to revive it, but in the end I got my son's old (nearly new) computer for the cost of a new HD.  It is one terrabyte, and I had less than 320 mbytes before.  Unfortunately although I had backed up (regularly) my main files, I didn't back up my favorites bookmarks.  Learn from my error and back your favorites up from time to time, you'll be glad you did at some point.  Anyway, I eventually remembered that my MacBook had mostly the same bookmarks, so I used a flash drive to transfer them here.  So!!  I still have all of your addresses, and don't have to wrack my brain to remember who was where.

We have closed the pool, although it is still warm enough to swim in (mostly), fishing out the the falling leaves just overwhelmed us.  I really miss it.  The broken thumb is pretty much mended, although my grip is still a little weak.  As part of the new computer I have a new keyboard, which does not have the letter "B" on the b key; instead it has a small red "b" in a circle, which puzzles me.  Any ideas?  The keyboard does not have all the extra buttons, CD drives, Internet shortcut keys, and so forth, so I have to stop and ponder how to do things that were so simple before.  But as I then had Win XP and now have Win 7, the connection of the USB as well as the extra functions were not compatible.  A term I have been seeing a good bit of, these last few days.  I used to use a little program called HP Image Zone to do a fast and simple touch up on my photos, it is incompatible too now, and I can't seem to find something similar.  I guess I will have to use Adobe Photo Ready, which is way more complicated.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple photo editing program? 

I did get out my knitting machine and knitted up some practice pieces.  I still want to learn to knit by hand, the local Michael's will have two classes in October so I will try that.  The first class is "Knit" and second one is "Purl", don't you think that is strange?  I can do both now, but I don't hold the yarn right and I keep dropping a needle (not just a stitch, the entire needle!).  The diagrams in the book are only so much help, at some point I need a real person to help me.

Bumper sticker for the day: "Computers do not damage your thinky thingy."

Worshiping at the porcelain throne...

Sigh.  If it isn't one thing it's another.  The orthopedic dr. allowed my thumb was cracked in two places and put on a black splint with lots of serious velcro straps.  Of course I can't do Anything so I leave it off a bit more often than the dr. intended.

Something has my tum all upset, And since I feel better sitting up I can post here, even at 2 am.  I think the worst is over, though.  Still munching on saltine crackers.

Meanwhile, we are waging the battle of the wisteria.  It is lovely, don't you think?  It blooms ferociously in early spring, the bees just love it, it smells nice,BUT BUT BUT nobody told us it is the flowering counterpart of Kudzu!  The main great mistake we made was planting it along the lattice work that surrounds the pool.  It is a climbing specie and boy does it ever climb.  All along the deck side, the deck walking area, it even invades the pool, growing under the lattice and up and over the coping of the pool.  When it grows on the lattice it fractures it as it forces vines thru the gaps in the lattice that thicken to the size of a man's arm.  It also reaches up and grows on the trees choking them and spreads,  even to tiny branches that are used to bootstrap to all the trees around it.  So it is chain saw and hedge trimmer time, and removing the vines wearing leather gloves because it has thorns.  My daughter says in biology it is listed as a noxious invading weed, Choking out other species and will regrow from the roots several seasons, so you have to keep cutting. Our big mistake...  My major was chemistry and medical technology; the hubby is sociology, what do we know about plants?  And the guys at Lowe's know next to nothing.  It sure looked nice...

The other thing I have been doing is trying to re-learn how to knit.  I made several things the last time I got into it, and I'd like to do so again.  But the thing is, all the big things, sweaters, any pattern other than stripes, I do on the knitting machine.  So fast, so even, so frustrating when it messes up.  But other than a pair of mittens, I have not made anything using hand needles.  It is really slow.  And having my thumb broken is not making things easy.

Well, onward and upward!

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Boobs!  Proof that men can focus on two things st once."

Imagination

I'm going to have to cultivate the habit of leaving my camera out, accessible, so I can get some neat pictures to post here.  Last night there were these incredible cloud formations, thunderheads lit from behind by the setting sun.  The view didn't last long, and of course I couldn't lay my hands on the camera until it was mostly gone.  So you have to use your imagination...

Friday I fell and landed hard in a parking lot.  Besides my dignity, I also damaged my right hand.  I waited until yesterday (Tuesday) to have it checked out, and the x-ray shows that I broke my thumb.  Now I sit here pecking away at the keyboard one key at a time.  And you should see me inching my trackball across a page, oh it's a wonder the screen will wait that long for me to click on something.  Next week I go to the ortho doctor to have it evaluated.  Meanwhile I am in a half-cast, I can at least remove it to shower.

All because I tripped.

Prior to my face plant, I have been trying to knit.  I once knitted a pair of mittens (which I soon lost) and a sweater (too small), well, actually I only knitted 2/3 of it and my friend, bless her, finished it for me.  She is gone now, but I have several things she made for me that I treasure.  Anyway, I seem to have forgotten how to knit, and have had to refer to a beginners book and try again.  However that will be on hold until the cast is off, since I can't even hold the needle, and I don't want to lose what I already have done (on a practice piece).  I unearthed my boxes of yarn and my! there is a lot of it.  Luckily it doesn't spoil!  And some of them are especially lovely.  I'll put some of them together so you can see.

Today I go see the oncologist for my 3 month check-up and a check of my liver enzymes to see that they are marching along in there as they should.  Also to ask if my dizziness has anything to do with the cancer treatment.  Probably not, but still good to ask.

Anyway, back to bed for a while.  Hope those of you who soldiered on with Hurricane Isaac blowing around are doing OK by now.  I remember what it is like to hunker down in the house and wait for the storm to pass, 19 years in Miami gave us a fair sampling.  My thoughts are with you.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Incontinence Hotline...Can you hold, please?"