SomedayQuilter: Blog

Anyone Remember This?

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:34:37 GMT

Anyone else out there remember stuff like this from the 1970's & 80's? I was cleaning out some old boxes of papers I'd collected over the years and ran across this.

God Is Like . . .

God is like Coke - He's the real thing.

God is like Pan Am - He makes the going great.

God is like General Electric - He lights your path.

God is like Hallmark Cards - He cares enough to send the very best.

God is like Tide - He gets the stains out that others leave behind.

God is like VO Hair Spray - He holds through all kinds of weather.

God is like Dial Soap - Aren't you glad you know Him? Don't you wish everyone did?

God is like Sears - He has everything.

God is like Alka-Seltzer - Try Him, you'll like Him.

God is like Scotch tape - You can't see Him but you know He's there.

- Barnwell (S.C.) People-Sentinel

Being There For A Friend

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:21:41 GMT

This past week my best friend's mother died. The funeral was today. She had Alzheimer's and had been slowly disappearing both mentally and physically. D showed such love and patience with her mother and had found very good care for her. They were very close and this will be a difficult loss and yet at the same time it was an answer to my friend's prayer that something would take her mother before the Alzheimer's totally took every shred of who she had once been. Although she had shrunk to a mere 60 pounds and maybe 4' 8" and had been robbed of most of her memories and abilities, she could still respond to questions and prompts and knew who her children were. We had just taken her to lunch with us last Tuesday and upon returning to her room she told D that that would probably be the last time as it was just too tiring. On Friday she slipped into a coma like state and died Saturday morning. D gave me 40 pictures of her mother from throughout her life which I scanned and made into a slide show for the service today. It not only gave them a visual reminder of her, but helped them to get past the awful or just plain weird things that this disease made her say and do, and help them remember what she had truly been like.

D and I have known each other since high school (over 40 years now) and although we were always good friends, it has been in the last ten years that we have truly become best friends. With the children grown and gone we've had more time to get together and our husbands have become best friends as well which makes for a really nice foursome for dinner, or cards or a trip to the beach. We've also come to value our friendship enough to make allowances or not let little things bother us like they might have when we were younger.

She sometimes feels like she's always the one asking my help (such as the slide show or transportation or .....) and that I'm never needing help in return, but I beg to differ. She is the one who has been my emotional support these past few years. She is the one that when the depression was so bad and I almost never left my house, she insisted I go shopping with her so I could help her find what she needed. The one who can always make me laugh. The one who invited me to go to TOPS with her when I complained about my weight gain after thyroid surgery. The own who gently nudges me to go or do or enjoy. The one I took a 4 week road trip with two summers ago and had a blast. The one who loves me even with my imperfections. In short - she is my friend. I love you D.

Our First Grandchild

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:54:25 GMT

Our son and daughter-in-law were blessed in July with a healthy baby girl. Their first child and our first grandchild. She's a petite little thing, weighing in at 5 lbs. 9 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. She has a good set of lungs, is very alert, strong and hungry, hungry, hungry. When she wants to be fed or to have her diaper changed, she wants it now. I had mentioned to them that her daddy had been very demanding as a baby (that hasn't changed). Can we all say payback? She was very active in the womb so we shall see if that continues now that she's out here in the world at large. Hopefully she won't be too much of a handful since I'll be helping to care for her when my daughter-in-law goes back to work. I don't know how soon that will be though - she's really loving the mommy role and 3 months is going by fast. She's thinking of asking her boss if she can use some of her sick time for another couple of weeks off.

My daughter and son-in-law flew out to spend a week visiting with their new little niece and my husband is already wrapped around her little finger. We're all enjoying her very much.

Happy 4th of July

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:00:14 GMT

Let freedom ring! We are so blessed to live here. There are a lot of wonderful places in the world, but none with the type of history and freedoms that this country has had. I hope you have a fantastic and safe holiday celebrating our country's independence.

Times Change

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:09:39 GMT

Times change and so must we. The more things change the more they stay the same. Which is true? Are they both true? Is it only our surroundings that change and we stay the same or do we by necessity change in order to adapt to our changing environment? Is it only the way in which we interact with our surroundings that changes or does our inward, fundamental character change as well?

I believe that both statements are true. We do have to change and adapt as things around us change. Sometimes those changes can be quick and necessary as in a matter of survival, or sometimes slower because we're resistant to the changes or need time to adjust and change our thinking. We are born with a particular personality that has both positive and negative aspects to it. Our environment (parents, siblings, teachers, friends and the world in general) interact with our personality based on their own personalities and bring out the positive or negative in ours. They help to shape our thinking, our character and how we react to what goes on in our world.

Although our personalty is there for life, how we operate or react is not. We can choose to accentuate the positive and have the negative take a back seat. We can change or improve character traits. We can change how we look at things and how we react to things. Is it easy? No, or we would see more people doing it. Is it impossible? No, because we do see people doing it. Basic human nature will always be with us, good and evil will always be with us, but that is not a license to give up or to say change is impossible.

Well, I'm off to see if I can play up the more positive aspects of me and downplay the negative. Maybe, just maybe, I can turn someday into today.

Talking about Changes to Lists on Spaces with the last release

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:52:35 GMT

As promised the Spaces Team continues to make changes and hopefully improvements. I say hopefully because sometimes I like the change and sometimes I don't and many times I like part of the change, but not all of it. Luckily (in a way) no change is permanent and they do seem to continue to work out bugs and improve on something based on our comments. I really, really hope that they'll improve the sandbox. I like the ease of it now and the ability to have as many as we want, but I do not like the inability to eliminate the module background. Sure, you can get rid of the title and border, but the background is still there and wider on the right side then on the top, bottom and left. Consequently my banner no longer goes from edge to edge of my space and even though I made it smaller to fit in the box, it's not centered (I have the centering code in there). sigh

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Changes to Lists on Spaces with the last release

You may have noticed that we recently made some improvements to our Lists feature. We think lists are a great way to express ideas on your space – especially for those times when you’re not in the mood to write a full-fledged blog entry. Here is a quick breakdown of the new stuff (in list format of course)…
3 new ways to use Lists to enhance your space:
1. Music Lists on the Homepage -  For the first time ever you can display a full music list on your spaces homepage (previously you could only display a list of your music playlists, with no actual song details). To create a new music list select Customize > Lists > Music List Add. Newly created music lists will automatically appear on your homepage. To add an older music list to your homepage look under Customize>Lists and click “add” next to the list name.

Note: if your older music lists are not appearing in the Customize box, try visiting one of your music lists pages. To do this, click on the title of any of your music lists to go to the full page, and then return to Customize and refresh the dialog box - this will allow for a data migration on our end that should populate your Customize box.

2. The Music lists index –  You can display a list of your music lists with this newly renamed module. The Music lists index will automatically be populated with any new music list you create. This module can be added and removed via the Customize box.

3. The List Item Picker – we made enhancing your lists with album, movie, and book art even easier. We’ve created a way to search our web service partners at Amazon and MSN Entertainment to ensure that you can add the artwork you want to your list item.
To use the new search, add or edit any list item and click the Search button. We’ll then show you the top ten matching results. Simply click the artwork you want for your list item and click Save. To get more details on an item in the picker mouse over the item to view a pop up box with more information.
Tip: if you can’t remember what album a song is on - type in the song and artist, then click on the album titles to go to Amazon to investigate. This feature and the ability to add cover art are only available in Amazon supported markets (US,UK, France, Germany, and Japan) and MSN Entertainment markets (US).

In addition to the new functionality listed above we made some small design changes to make the lists more look more consistent in the homepage view and updated the code to improve performance. Look for more new list related features in the months to come and as always, let us know your thoughts and what else you would like to see with lists on spaces.

Abdul, Eric, and Wendy (the Lists feature crew)
Technorati tags: Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft, Social Networking, Blogging

Talking about the Windows Live Messenger campaign

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:40:47 GMT

I sincerely hope that this really will make a difference. It's such a small thing, putting a button on your space and maybe only gathering pennies toward your particular cause, but as the saying goes - every little bit helps. I've chosen MS because I've known several people with it and it's such a hard one to diagnose. I guess you could say it's personal.

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Sadie

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:09:11 GMT

Well, Sadie has proved once again that she is one lucky dog. Or is it unlucky? The reason I say that is that she seems to have been a bit accident prone over the years, but also comes out none the worse for wear each time. Last week she tangled with a car and came out of it with a couple of scrapes. She was out front with Big Bear while he finished up some work in the yard, saw something (cat) across the street and darted into the street just as a car was going by. She hit the car rather than the car hitting her or it would have been a lot worse. She has a skinned spot under her chin and one on her left leg and was undoubtedly a bit bruised and sore. I took her into the vet and he checked her over, gave me some cream for the scrapes and an anti-inflammatory/pain reliever. $91.50 later we went home and she stayed pretty quiet for the next two days. By the end of the second day she was back to her normal prancing step, jumping up to follow me with no problem at all. Big Bear says she's not going out front with him any more unless I'm out there to watch her.

She turned 11 years old this month and shows no signs of arthritis or any other health problems. She's as nimble and springy as ever and does not seem to show many signs of aging other then gray hair and a little less energy. She has been a little quieter this past year, but that has been due to her missing our other dog and wanting to stay in the house with me. She's been like my shadow since Cody died. He was not quite 7 and became quite ill (vet thinks it might have been cancer). Even before that though he had been having problems with his joints and stiffness. Part of the difference probably lies with their size and breed. Cody was a 100 lb. yellow lab while Sadie is a 50 lb. mixed breed. Her mother was a lab/rottweiler mix and I figure that dad must have been a border collie because she looks and acts a lot more like a border collie then either a lab or a rottweiler. The only thing she seems to have gotten from mom is the big deep bark and the all black color. She's a bit stubborn too, I was able to teach Cody not to go past the curb, but Sadie doesn't always want to adhere to that (obviously). Cody's ball could go rolling into the street and he would stop at the curb and wait for one of us to go get it. :o) Big Bear just loved it because he could wash the car, mow the lawn, etc. and Cody would just follow along dropping the ball at his feet.

Good News

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 07:49:58 GMT

Although the Thanksgiving weekend brought sadness with the loss of a family friend in a boating accident on the Willamette River(and they still haven't found his body) it also brought some good news. Our son and daughter-in-law announced that they are expecting. This will be their first child and our first grandchild. We're very excited and they've asked if I would help care for it when she returns to work. The baby is due in July and she'll have 3 months maternity leave. They live just half a mile from us so I'll get to be the hands on Grandma I've always hoped to be. I hope I'm up to the task energy wise. I was a young mom, but my kids are late having their kids so I'm going to be an older grandma. It's inspired me to start sewing and quilting again. I want to make lots of wonderful clothes and blankets and toys for this new little one. Of course, that means I have to get organized and clear out all the boxes and junk so I can even get into my sewing room to clean it up and do all that sewing.

Stormy

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:10:22 GMT

It was a wild ride home tonight, but not the worst I've been in. I went into Portland this afternoon to take my cousin into the Doctor (it turns out she has walking pneumonia). I then took her to the grocery store and pharmacy before finally getting her back home and then stopped by my brothers. It was 6:30pm and dark when I headed home and the storm was hitting a little earlier then predicted. It was already getting pretty windy and pouring rain, but my route wasn't too bad because at least all the lights were still working. I could hear on the radio that several roads around the Portland area had lights out and trees falling. They predict 60 mph winds through the night and the coast was already having 100 mph winds with 30 foot waves. It's supposed to let up by morning.

Having lived here all of my life I can say that it's pretty much normal to have this happen a couple of times each fall or winter. Every few years we have one that's a doozy and causes a lot of damage. November set a new record for rainfall. The previous record was set back in 1942. Needless to say the rivers are high and there's been some flooding. Tillamook (along the coast) always seems to get the worst of it. It's a low lying area and has a lot of dairies and they had quite a bit of flooding and lost some cows.

Oregon's terrain and winter weather is definitely demanding respect right now. There are 3 experienced climbers missing on Mt. Hood and this latest storm is continuing to hamper rescue efforts. A California family got lost on a forest road (wrong turn) while traveling through Oregon and got caught in a snow storm. They had been missing for about 10 days before they were found and the father had tried to walk for help and died. Two other families got stuck or lost while Christmas tree cutting and were found safe. Last month a little boy went missing in the Crater Lake area just as the snows had started and I don't think they found him. We don't like to hear it or think about it, but it happens every year just as the drowning's do in our lakes and rivers.

Thanksgiving weekend brought that home to our family and friends. Our nephew bought his first house this summer and wanted to host the family get together. His mom & dad and the rest of us brought the food and we had a good time. He proudly showed off his home and his new fishing boat. On Saturday my brother-in-law, nephew and two of their friends went fishing on the Willamette. The boat capsized and they hung on to the little bit of hull showing above water. The water was only 47 degrees and the river was running high, fast and full of debris. My brother-in-laws best friend let go of the boat in an attempt to swim for shore and did not make it. They still have not found his body. The other three were rescued after about 30 minutes and my nephews core body temperature was 93 degrees. They were all sent to the hospital and warmed up and checked out. The friend that was lost was a great guy and very well liked. He will be missed.

Hi there (said sheepishly)

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 03:23:23 GMT

Thank you so much for your concern. It feels good to know people care and it also makes me feel guilty (good thing - you know, accountable). I've been on a game playing binge, which means I spend hours playing games on my computer (mindlessly), sacrificing e-mail and blogging which takes hours in itself and takes more thinking, which of course takes more effort. I have a tendency toward addictive and compulsive behaviors (adhd). I'm very distractible and have trouble focusing or concentrating at times and yet can zero in on something like games or researching and be at it for hours.

I need to set up a calendar and to-do list and schedule so that I have structure. This structure would allow me to accomplish more and actually get things done that need to get done. Believe me, I understand the concept, the problem has always been my refusal or inability to follow a schedule once I make it. I do so enjoy creating rather then maintaining. I shall, however, try again. Maybe more want to's and less have to's will help. I would certainly appreciate your prayers in that direction.

Weimiegirl - I know you'll recognize this as the letter I sent you. I decided it might be good for my soul to post it for all to see. Love and Hugs, SomedayQuilter

Bill's weird people

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:40:42 GMT

This is a copy of the e-mail I sent Bill. Afterall, why write something twice. ;-)

Bill,

Those weird people you're always running into sometimes know what they're talking about! This was on the front page of the Oregonian yesterday and there was a follow up in today's paper.

Oregon sleuth solves E. coli mystery

An expert in food-borne disease traces an out break to spinach while doing phone surveys

E. coli outbreak

Oregon was the first state to pinpoint bagged spinach as the source of a nationwide outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7. Altogether 114 cases in 21 states were confirmed as of Monday.

The follow up today says 131 cases have now been identified and one death (77 year old woman in Wisconsin). The FDA is swarming all over the spinach fields in Salinas, CA and the packing facilities. Farmers are plowing under their fields and laying off workers. There's normally another month to the season, but some are already plowing it under and getting ready to plant broccoli, cabbage, etc.

I guess Popeye's favorite isn't going to get eaten much for awhile.

SomedayQuilter

Painting

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:35:47 GMT

Last summer Big Bear and K built us a new shed in the back yard and used the horizontal hardiplank siding that we're thinking of using on the house. The house was built in 1971 and has the vertical t-111 that was so popular in the seventies. It's in desperate need of paint and the old aluminum windows need to be replaced as well. We can't afford to do the windows or replace the siding right now so we may have to just go ahead and paint it. What I'd like to do is make the windows bigger and put the horizontal siding on. It would give the house a whole new look.

In the meantime I've decided on the colors I want. We hadn't painted the shed yet so I've used that as a way to try out my colors to make sure I really like them. I picked a medium grayish blue for the siding, white for the trim and burgundy for the doors. With the shed getting full sun most of the day and me not being a morning person I wasn't getting very much done on it, but it's nearly done now. I have a little trimming to finish on the blue and some touch up on the white and now that the cooler weather has arrived it will be a race against the rain.

The house has a lot of brick across the front and it needs some repair, but I do want to keep it. I've always liked it and it's very unique. One of the bricks is light gray in color and the other is pink with burgundy flecks. I'm hoping it will look good against the darker blue. The current color is a lighter blue with no trim color and pink for the doors. Very much in need of repair and updating, but I'm sticking with my bent for color and in particular blue. I don't like the baby poop browns they're using on all the new housing and don't want my house to look like everybody else's anyway.

Big Bear sanded the front door for me and I put 2 coats of the burgundy on it with 2 more to go. It's darker than I originally wanted, but I think it'll work.

The rain arrived while I was painting the front door, but it's under a corner overhang so that was no problem. It was a problem for a poor honeybee though. I went back to my painting and he eventually dried off enough to take off.

Expanded #2 of my 101

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:13:24 GMT

I'm of german descent on my father's side and the british isles on my mother's.

I am an American through and through. Not only because I live here and appreciate the freedoms and opportunities that the United States offers, but also because I was born here. However, even for those of us that still live near where we were born our roots or heritage lie in some other country. If we're first or second generation Americans that can be pretty easy to trace and we may even still retain some of the customs, language or foods of that country. If our family has been here for several generations it can be much harder to know what the country of origin was without some searching and chances are you're going to find that there's more than one. This can be especially true if your families were not ones to hand down the stories and traditions of the old country and over time became distinctly American. This is not only true for those of European descent, but also for those from any of the continents. You might know that your mother is chinese, but if her family has been here many generations do you know which province they were from? You get the picture.

My father and his parents were all born in Oklahoma and yet were full blooded german. My father's grandparents on both sides had immigrated here from Germany at around the time that Oklahoma became a state and settled on farms in a german community there. You will find to this day that most new immigrants are going to gather with family and friends or at least with others that share a common language and culture. My great-grandparents spoke german. My grandparents spoke german and once they started school, english. My father spoke english but understood german. I speak english and only know what german I can remember from high school classes. You can see the progression. My father was a very quiet and stern man who did not speak very much about his growing up. When he was six years old and his brother was 3 months old their mother committed suicide and their father was unable or unwilling to deal with it all. My father was raised by her parents (which is why he understood german) and his brother by an aunt and uncle. I am named after her.

My mother is a bit more of a guess (at least until I look up the family tree stuff my grandmother did). I know that her father was of Irish descent and her mother was of English descent, but I also remember her saying something about Scottish and Welsh, too. There's also the problem of them having been here for several generations so I'll have to look into it more. My mother was a very outgoing person and talkative, but the family stories were more of events and personalities and everyone for the past several generations had all been born here. Plus there wouldn't have been as much difference in the language, customs and food. I get my middle name from her mother.

My father wound up in Oregon after the war and met my mother when they were both working for the same car dealership. They married in 1948 and made Oregon their home.

Smiley Central

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:00:08 GMT

Just in case some of you have wondered where I and TheGreatPretender among others get those really cute and cool emoticons - we get them from places like Smiley Central. Although I'm appreciative of Scott & Jason doing a plug-in for live writer that at least gives us the basic messenger smileys (emoticons) I do wish for more. I find myself debating whether to use the built in blog writer or live writer even though live writer has so much to offer. Basically it comes down to pros and cons:

built in blog writer -

upside 1. when you're in edit mode it's easy to just hit add and type in your blog. 2. I can use all the cool smileys from Smiley Central.

downside 1. almost non-existent font choice. 2. the add photos button only does itsy bitsy ones down at the bottom. You have to go to extra work and a hosting site to put large ones in your blog.

live writer -

upside 1. uses the vast collection of fonts I have on my computer. 2. lets me easily insert pictures, maps, tags, flickr, etc. 3. the view is exactly what it well look like when published. 4. lets me publish to any number of different blogs including non-spaces ones, all from one writer.

downside 1. separate application and slow to load. 2. only has very basic messenger smileys (with the new plug-in) and won't let me use Smiley Central.

I know it may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but just look at the cute ones I found today.

Are those not perfect for me, or what? Quilting, gardening, scrapbooking.

Live writer is a really fantastic tool and is still in the beta phase, so please, please, please can I have my smiley central emoticons? Some of us are just very visual by nature and enjoy the fun and color of them and the meaning they convey.

Smiley's in live writer

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:20:55 GMT

Woohoo! A couple of guys named Scott and Jason wrote a plugin for live writer that lets you put emoticons in just like the blog writer did. Plus - it works for other blogs as well as live spaces. You can read more about it here: Insert spaces emoticons into live writer.

Steve Irwin dead at 44

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:49:03 GMT

My sympthathies go out to his wife, children and close friends. They have lost someone they knew and loved deeply.

The world at large also mourns for we have lost a larger than life personality that deeply believed in what he was doing. His commitment and compassion for animals and the environment along with his hyperactive antics certainly made his documentaries entertaining to watch and made him a household name as "The Crocodile Hunter". He is probably Austraila's best known figure and will be sorely missed by all, but especially by those at the Austraila Zoo in Queensland.

He was filming a new documentary or series on deadly sea creatures when he was stung by a stingray. The news has said that the stingray's barb went into Steve's chest and his heart and that he probably died instantly. His friends and co-workers tried desperately to revive him, but to no avail. Yes, he took risks, but that's what you do when you live life large and believe in what you do. He accomplished a lot, we just wish he could have been around a little longer.

Miss Kitty is happy

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:22:38 GMT

D and K arrived home on Friday. Miss Kitty was hiding under the bed, but after a bit D managed to coax her out. Miss Kitty wanted D to pet her, then she wanted out, then she wanted back in to be petted, then she wanted out and so it went, back and forth. I think she just wanted to make sure the door still worked. ;-) On Saturday they took Big Bear and I out for a very nice dinner as a thank you for taking care of their place while they were gone.

We've had a very laid back weekend. Did a little bit of yard and garden stuff on Sunday afternoon. Gave the neighbor some tomatoes and they in turn gave us some apples (hopefully I'll get around to making a pie with them). Today Big Bear put new air filters on both vehicles and even washed them! I did some painting - I'm trying out some prospective house colors on the shed. I figured that painting the new shed with the colors I had picked out was a good way to make sure I liked them before buying enough to do the whole house. I'm happy with the blue (medium grayish blue) that I picked for the siding and the white for the trim, but am not happy with the color I picked for the doors. I wanted a burgandy and that's what it looked like on a small chip, but it's way to violet/magenta. Luckily I painted a bench on the patio first to try it out when I saw how magenta it was. Even though it darkened a lot once it was dry it's still not the color I was after. I'm going to have the store add some more black and brown to it and see if that does the trick.

Tomorrow I'm going over to a friends to help her tie some baby quilts that she donates to a hospital. Maybe I can actually remember to take the paint with me and get the color corrected.

Blogging?

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:41:54 GMT

My how things change. A few months back I knew virtually nothing about blogging and now I'm hooked. Oh sure, I had heard of it and knew it was a web log or journal or diary written by anyone who wanted to do one and read by anyone who wanted to take the time to do so. I just couldn't figure out why the average person would want to do that.

I figured it was more for people who wanted to voice their opinion on issues of the day, or politics, or for writers or businesses, etc. I found it kind of odd that people would write about their day to day lives and even odder that someone who didn't know that person would want to read it. What I didn't realize was how interactive it can be and how much I would enjoy "getting to know" people through their written words.

There are so many different types of blogs and the serious and informative ones are certainly important and have their place, but the ones that I have come to enjoy the most are the ones written by everyday people who have a gift for telling stories of everyday life in such a way as to make you laugh, or nod in agreement or feel emotion of some kind because it's stuff you can relate to. I've never been much of a writer, but I have thoroughly enjoyed setting up my page and learning lots of new stuff in the process and meeting lots of great people. The bonus is it's making me write. Because how can you have a blog and not write?

Willamette River Pictures

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 01:55:14 GMT

This is Portland from the Willamette River. The river divides Portland east and west and runs north and south. It is the only river in the USA to begin and end in one state. It starts in the Cascade mountains and ends at the Columbia which then flows to the Pacific Ocean. Of the navigable rivers that run north and south it is the second largest in the world, the largest being the Nile in Egypt.

The Rundown

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:30:26 GMT

Saturday 8-19 - D and K leave to visit their kids in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Big Bear and I are in charge of keeping an eye on their place, watering flowers and checking on Miss Kitty. She is an indoor/outdoor kitty who is used to being outside during the day, but will be kept indoors for the two weeks they are gone. They live on a very wooded 2.5 acres so leaving enough food and water out for two weeks is not an option (all kinds of critters would be up there eating it and it would be gone in a day). Besides the food issue, she has a wound on her side (probably another animal) so we wanted her in the house for safety and to keep an eye on the wound. Miss Kitty is a very skittish cat, but a very loving and gentle cat. She was a stray that somebody threw away as a kitten and it took D 6 months of feeding her on the deck before she allowed D to get close enough to pet her or let her into the house.

Sunday 8-20 - We make our first visit to water, etc. and Big Bear promptly lets Miss Kitty escape out the back door. There's no getting her back so we finish the watering and head home.

Monday 8-21 - Big Bear feels bad about Miss Kitty and stops by their place on his way home from work. He sees her but she won't come near him.

Tuesday 8-22 - I go over in the late afternoon and in addition to doing the watering I take my dinner and just sit around for awhile hoping she'll show up. She'll usually come to me, but I was there nearly 2 hours and never saw her.

Wednesday 8-23 - D calls and I do not want to answer the phone and tell her we lost Miss Kitty. She calls again and I answer and face the music. Big Bear gets home from work and is really stressing about it. I tell him stressing about it isn't going to do any good and we'll wait until evening to try again since that's more likely to be when she's used to coming in. We go over and I have Big Bear stay in the house so he doesn't frighten her and I go outside with a handful of food to see if I can find her. Well, what do you know, as I exit out the garage there she is. She scurries off and looks at me from a distance. I bend down and dribble some food out of my hand while gently calling her. She comes over to me to get petted and I scoop her up and head into the house. She was much more interested in the attention than the food. All is well and I call D to tell her.

Thursday 8-24 & Friday 8-25 - The weather is cooler and Miss Kitty inside so no need to go over until Saturday. Friday morning I went to my TOPS meeting and Friday afternoon Big Bear and I joined our son & DIL for a cruise down the Willamette River on an old sternwheeler followed by dinner at our local pub & grill. A very enjoyable afternoon. I was taking pictures like mad when suddenly the camera quit. Dagnabbit, the battery was dead and I hadn't brought the spare. Oh well, from then on it was just enjoy the ride.

Saturday 8-26 - Went over to D's place and did the watering and checked on Miss Kitty. I couldn't coax her out from under the bed. She obviously does not like being cooped up in the house all by herself, but I could tell she's been eating so will assume she's O.K.

What's Your Five?

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:39:50 GMT

Name 5 things in your freezer.

Corn
Chicken
Boneless Pork Chops
Strawberry fruit bars
Healthy Choice fudge bars

Name 5 things in your closet.

Shoes (most of which need to be thrown out)
Clothes (most of which don't fit anymore)
Belts (will any of these ever see the light of day?)
Purses (why so many?)
Hats (haven't worn them in years, but maybe Someday)

Name 5 things on your desk.

Nikon D100 camera
Stacks of software CDs
Cell phone
Mess of papers
Empty glass

Name 5 things in your vehicle.

Towel (to cover hot leather seat)
Big blanket in the back for dogs
Plenty of CDs
Flashlight
Dairy Queen napkins

Name 5 things in your purse.

Maxalt for migraines
Postage stamps
Keys
Sunglasses
Handkerchief

O.K. Chris, if you haven't been tagged yet, you're it. And how about you too, Bill?

Testify to Love - Avalon

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:35:36 GMT

Testify to Love - Avalon

All the colors of the rainbow

All the voices of the wind

Every dream that reaches out

That reaches out to find where love begins

Every word of every story

Every star in every sky

Every corner of creation lives to testify

For as long as I shall live

I will testify to love

I'll be a witness in the silences when words are not enough

With every breath I take

I will give thanks to god above

For as long as I shall live

I will testify to love

From the mountains to the valleys

From the rivers to the sea

Every hand that reaches out

Every hand that reaches out to offer peace

Every simple act of mercy

Every step to kingdom come

All the hope in every heart will speak what love has done

Pipe Dream

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 22:40:04 GMT

Here's an interesting entry from the book Why You Say It by Webb Garrison

Pipe Dream

Should you come up with a really novel idea or plan, chances are that those who first hear of it will pooh-pooh it as a "pipe dream."

In its earliest decades, the pipe dream was so far out that it seldom made contact with reality. That's because it was produced by opium, brought to England and Europe by merchants who penetrated the Orient and began peddling the stuff yielded by some kinds of poppies.

Pipe dreams influenced several notable literary figures, with Samuel T. Coleridge being high on the list. But by and large, fantasies produced by opium were that and nothing more.

Ah, the wonders of meds

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 04:10:02 GMT

It's 8:45 pm on Saturday and I feel like myself again. My wonderful, wacky, addicted to the computer, messy, happy self. It's wonderful when the meds actually work. When I woke up this morning the room still spun a bit, but the nausea was almost gone. I took pill #3 and by this afternoon the nausea was totally gone and when I took #4 at 8pm I was feeling totally normal (well, as normal as I get anyway). I know some of you have had vertigo before and mentioned that the episodes can come and go for awhile, but I'll just take them as they come, if they come.

Below is an aerial shot of Mt. Hood and the surrounding Mt. Hood National Forest. The second photo is one I found on the internet and is the view you get from Portland.

Doctor, Doctor

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:20:57 GMT

D came over this afternoon and took me into the doctor. He gave me two prescriptions for the nausea (one pill, one suppository). They both cause drowsiness, but hey - drowsy trumps nausea anyday. Yesterday was not pleasant and today only slightly better (probably because I didn't push it for fear of a repeat of the day before). It must have looked pretty ridiculous, me standing on the patio vomiting surrounded by 3 dogs staring at me and the puddle and between each retch me hollaring NO so they wouldn't eat it. Luckily they all three trust me and obey my firm no. I then herded them into the house and headed for the bed. Ranger didn't seem to think I should be lying down and proceeded to jump at the bed to get me up which by the third shake I certainly was. UP and into the bathroom for another round with nothing left on my stomach. At that point I ushered them back outside, cleaned up the you know what and went to bed. I didn't care what they dug up or chewed up in the yard. I sure hope I wake up tomorrow with this stuff gone.

Vertigo

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:23:16 GMT

I woke up this morning with vertigo! It is not fun! What causes this stuff? This is the first time I've had it bad enough to realize what it was. I now realize I've had mini versions of it most of my life, I just never put a name to it before. By that I mean I would feel dizzy or like stuff was moving when it wasn't, but it would only last a few seconds. I'd think "Wow, that was weird" and go on about my business (probably thought it was flashbacks to my hippie days).

I went to bed at 11:30pm last night (early for me) as I was going to meet with 2 other women this morning for a bible study on James which I was supposed to lead, but with the whole room spinning and feeling like I was about to vomit, I decided it was probably better I not be driving and I cancled it. Gee whiz, I just got done with a five day migraine yesterday, enough already! At least with the migraine I now have medication that allows me to function albeit a little groggy.

I woke up at 3:30am and got out of bed to go pee. The toilet is only a few steps away and I was groggy, but by the time I sat down I was thinking "Man I feel nauseated and dizzylike". I got back into bed and suddenly the whole room is spinning. I'm going "Whoa, this is weird. I hope it goes away by morning." At 5:30 I wake up enough to roll over and the whole room is spinning again! "OH NO, is this what they call vertigo?" At 7:30 I wake up for good and move my head just enough to see the clock and the numbers are moving so much I can't tell what time it is because - you guessed it - the room is still spinning! I layed there for a few minutes debating what to do and finally decided to get up and see what happens (I didn't like the idea of spending the whole day in bed if I didn't have to, afterall the computer would miss me). Well, lo and behold, standing upright and walking around was ok. That is until I took a shower and blow dryed my hair. Evidently I was moving my head too much in the process and suddenly I'm holding onto the counter and feeling like I'm going to throw up. I got dressed hoping it would pass quickly, but 20 minutes later I was still feeling like I was going to throw up and keeping my head still so the room wouldn't spin, so I called my friends and cancled the bible study.

It's now 11:15am and I'm able to sit at the computer and type this, but I still don't feel good. Let's pray that this was a one time thing. I'd much rather go back to the 10 second 'wow that was weird' ones thank you. In honor of this post I used a font called Krazy Legs. Have a good day people.

Update: It's now 3:00pm and I still have it. I bent over to fill the dogs water bowl with the hose and almost fell over.

Talking about Shut the f**k up and start helping!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:38:23 GMT

I know you don't normally see political/world affairs stuff or offensive language on my space, but this is short, to the point and right on. It was written by Wes of Altered Spaces, someone you see referenced on my space a lot because of his blogs on help with spaces.

Quote

Shut the f**k up and start helping!

Yesterday I read an article written by Lord Stevens, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, about the current terrorism crisis in the UK. In his article he calls for "Passenger Profiling" for airline passengers and states that airport chaos could be cut by more rigorous checks for "young Muslim men".

Then today, I read an article in the Independent stating that Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, had responded to Lord Stevens by stating: "This is an extreme form of stereotyping."

Whether Muhammad Abdul Bari was complaining about Lord Stevens suggestion or not, his statement about stereotyping is correct. However, it's not stereotyping we need to worry about, because that's a secondary concern. Planes falling out of the sky and innocent people dying needs to be our priority!

I can understand the concerns of the Muslim community, really I can, but they need to acknowledge one simple fact. These "terrorists" who continue to attempt to commit mass murder of innocent people, and who are willing to die in order to achieve that goal, are claiming to do so in the name of Allah. Not only that, but the majority just so happen to be young Muslim men.

So how do we police this threat? Should the police be bugging the local Catholic Church? Should the airport staff be performing detailed rectal examination of Mormons? No, don't be bloody silly, they should be paying special attention to the Muslim community (and specifically young Muslim men), this is where the threat exists and that is where the police will find their "terrorists".

So rather than moaning to the world about how your community is being unfairly stereotyped and attempting to shift blame onto the government for all your woes, how about the Muslim community get's off it's a** and starts doing something to root out this evil?

Hello Fellow Spacers,

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:46:01 GMT

On the recommendation of WideAwakeWesley of Altered Spaces I have downloaded Windows Live Writer and am trying it out this very minute.

It has a publish button which when pressed will publish directly to your blog as a finished piece or as a draft and will work with blogs other then spaces, too.
It has a spell checker! Yea! I've made good use of a dictionary since I started blogging even though I'm a pretty good speller. I hate misspelling something and sometimes the word doesn't look quite right or I just plain can't remember so I look it up. This should help speed things up for me.
You can insert a link, a picture or a map.
The one improvement I would make is to have a button for font choice & size instead of having to go to the format menu. Currently you have to go to format, click on font and a separate box appears like when you go to internet options. The one I'm using right now is called comic sans.

Check it out and see what you think. It has other features I didn't mention.

Wes, Thank You for trying this stuff out and filling us in on it. BTW, I really like the new name you chose for your space (Altered Spaces).

A view of Oregon from above :o)

Talking about Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 04:01:10 GMT

I just downloaded the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta and it's lookin' good. You can have all your e-mail accounts and Rss feeds come into one place and I'm writing this in the e-mail program and it will publish directly to my blog. Is that cool or what?

SomedayQuilter

Fruits & Nuts

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:03:37 GMT

Hot diggity dog, it's official. I am now a member of Nisey's Fruits and Nuts Club. My official name is Crunchy Cashew. I just don't know what to say. I'm overwhelmed. It's so nice to know that my clumsiness and slightly quirky ways have not gone totally unnoticed even when so heavily blanketed with nice, happy and conservative. Of course it could be she's letting anybody in, but don't burst my bubble.

My stats page returned last night so I presume that most of the rest of you have yours now. Are you happy? Let's say altogether now - be patient, they are working the bugs out. I sure did miss it for seeing who had stopped by (or if anybody had). I have to laugh at the numbers though. They're so wacko since I was featured on Best of. Prior to being featured my count was 700 and now it's over 17,000! Who knows, maybe a few of the people that stopped by will have liked my space well enough to return.

I have a question for some of you. The fonts available in the blog editor are very few and not my favorties, but I've seen other fonts used in some of your blogs. Are you writing your blogs in another program (such as word) and then copying it over into the blog editor? I know that sounds very basic, but I just hadn't thought about doing it that way. I think I just answered my own question, duh!