Friday, October 27, 2006

Time for the book to travel again!

Once upon a time I was lurking over at thepinkdiary and noticed that Kalani had found a copy of...





on one of her flights. She already owned a copy so she offered it up to the blogosphere. Well imagine her suprize when lots of people had wanted the book (she figured that everyone had already read it.) So she ended up having a drawing for the book and guess who won it?


Little old me!

So in honor of her generosity I agreed that once I was done with it that I too would offer it up to the blogosphere.

So here are the rules...

If you would like to read the book you have to agree to pass it on when you're done...and leave a comment that you want it right here. That's it. The rest is up to luck. I'll assign all interested parties a number and then draw a number from a hat (or use a website to do it for me) and let you know who has won. You'll email me your address and I'll mail it. Tah dah! easy smeashy.

Good Luck!

So far I'm showing that Tracie, Goofy Girl and Samantha are interested. Anyone else? I'd like to get this moving soon...so speak now or forever hold your peace.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Just for you Kukka!

Kukka-Maria said...
Llama, schlama. What about kitties?


So just for you Kukka, because we love you.

The Kitty Cat Dance

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Thanks Jen!

My good buddy Jen decided to get a song stuck in my head today. Oh she wasn't just picking on me...she shared this with everyone else too.

So now in the interest of sharing my good fortune, I present THE LLAMA SONG!

And in case that's too fast for you...here are the words!

Here's a llama
There's a llama
And another little llama
Fuzzy llama
Funny llama
Llama llama duck


Llama llama cheesecake llama
Tablet brick potato llama
Llama llama mushroom llama
Llama llama duck

I was once a treehouse
I lived in a cake
But I never saw the way
The orange slayed the rake
I was only three years dead
But it told a tale
And now listen, little child
To the safety rail

Did you ever see a llama
Kiss a llama on the llama
Llama's llama tastes of llama
Llama llama duck

Half a llama, twice the llama
Not a llama farmer llama
Llama in a car
Alarm a llama llama duck

Is that how it's told now?
Is it all so old?
Is it made of lemon juice?
Doorknob ankle cold
Now my song is getting thin
I've run out of luck
Time for me to retire now
And become a duck


Wanna know more about the Llama song? Click here. Wanna kick my butt? Sorry I'm not home right now. :D

Posted for the techies who might understand all of this

Here's a list of all the stuff that was fixed on my computer.


There was a graphic here showing how fragmented my computer was...it was all RED!

Blue = defragmented
Red = Fragmented
Green = System Files

36 viruses removed,
Virus List : F-bot, w32.Spybot, Troj-Pig , w32/naci!tftp Password and identity theft, Troj-Dropper.

18 Registry issues Critical corrected with Hijackthis.
RegClean = BAD DO NOT USE

Spyware threats removed 29 totals;
Spybot S&D removed 16
Ad-Aware Removed 9
CWShredder removed 4

Other Viruses caught with Kaspersky 4 And removed.

No anti-virus on system added free version of AVAST please remove and install Norton or other name brand Anti-virus

No Firewall detected recommend a Router to correct that and protect the system
Purchase Router connect Ethernet cable from DSL modem to internet port on router then connect another Ethernet cable **usually comes with router* * from one of the four ports on the router to network card now in system.

Installed 74 of 78 patches from Microsoft 4 patches not installed related to office require office 2003 cd in drive to perform patch up date.
Turned off auto-updates from Microsoft this means that once every two weeks you will need to run windows update manually.

Installed Network card in system for better network stability. YAY!
Configured Internet Explorer:
Temporary Internet Files Settings to 50Mb no more then 200Mb was at 18GB this means that IE was causing network issues.
Cleared Temporary Internet Files
Set all settings back to Default Security, Cookie collection.
Cleared forms and passwords from auto-complete to correct internet password and account issue.

Friday, October 20, 2006

I'm back!

Can't say much now as I've got a ton of real stuff to catch up on...piling up while I had no computer.

But I finally have my computer back! Yay! happy dance

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Technical difficulties

You may have noticed that I haven't been visiting you as much as normal lately... because I CAN'T!

I think it was on Monday that I noticed my little Window's Update thingy blinking and so I just clicked on it and said okay...not even checking what it said I needed to download. Well since then my computer life has been very slow.

I was having HUGE problems going anywhere where there were any kind of ads. Including everyone's blogs. And my computer has completely forgotten all my cookies and passwords!!! ARGH! I had to call a friend to see if she could hack in and figure out what one of my passwords was because I hadn't written it down on my cheat sheet. She suggested that I have the same password for everything. LOL

Most of my problems have cleared up by my changing my security levels to the lowest allowed. My computer seriously asked me "ARE YOU CRAZY????" A friend has suggested that I slowly increase the security level until I can get where I wanna go and still be safe...right now that level is Low or no security. BAH!

My biggest problem is that my email accounts on Yahoo are not allowing me to use the Reply, Delete and Move buttons when I have a email opened. This is very frustrating because I can't reply to my friends with out copying what they wrote and then closing the email and opening a Compose window, copying their email into it and then replying. And then to delete, I have to do that from my email list instead of at the opened email window.

Just about ready to take this thing back to the computer geek and have him fix it...but that's $100 or about.

Lesson learned...Never Ever download another update from Windows...can't be trusted. Die MS, Die!

Monday, October 09, 2006

Busy week ahead!

Kalani over at the pinkdiary wished for me a relaxing week. Ummm... I don't think that's gonna happen.

Monday - met with LLL mom to help her become a Leader. Took 2 LLL help calls, the one was a friend of a mom who's baby died and now she's getting a breast infection. Poor thing. Took Darly to Gymnastics and sat in my cold car reading a book because the gym is way to noisy with all the extra kids running around. Went grocery shopping.

Tuesday - we are going to the US Olympic Training Center to take a tour. It should be chilly and fun. Then tomorrow evening I have a meeting with a lady who used to head up a homeschooling group here...we're excited to hear from her.

Wednesday - supposed to be park day, but a tour that we thought was on Thursday has been confirmed for Wednesday...YIKES! Hopefully that gets worked out. But if it's cold out, I think I would rather be in the candy factory...perferably over the hot stoves. heh heh heh

Thursday - the day we thought our tour to the Candy factory is. I hope that is still true. And Thursday night is Teacher's Night Out...I'm so outta there!

Friday - Pumpkin patch field trip, Birthday party at the pool (indoors of course!) and Darly has make-up gymnastics class.

Saturday - we don't have anything on the calendar...but we could go to Lowe's to build a project. Darly said she wanted to do that.

Sunday - Sunday school, Church service and then we're supposed to be making bookmarks that have the Lord's Prayer in Spanish to send to Mexico with the youth group. I'm just excited that Darly is finally old enough to be in the youth group. They don't do all that much at her age but it's getting more involved that counts.

And next week doesn't stop either.

Bone asked what's wrong with my car.
Well DH says that the right front tire feels like it's wobbling. Probably from when he hit the deer with it. And we know that the front driver's side headlight was knocked out of alignment. And then anything else that could be wrong with a car that's going on 12 years old. But it's still plugging along and DH says that we'll keep it until it's driven into the ground.

And Carmen wants a grown up slumber party. I kinda get that when we go camping with our friends. But my friends & I are planning to take a trip up to a cabin for a no kids weekend sometime...at least that's what she's been promising. I'm guessing that it will have to be in the spring as we're hitting snow season now. I need some more info on this cabin...must haves: HEAT and HOT WATER. I can't be cold.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments about our friends who passed away this week. And the comments about Iraq as well.

Weekend update

Since I've got nothing better to do right now (or I'm putting off doing something much more productive) I thought that I would tell you what I did this weekend.

Saturday was a Girl Scouty thing that one of the girls in our Troop needed a ride to get to. Her mom couldn't take her because something else came up. So I said that yeah, we could swing by since it was on our way and get her... then I came up with a brilliant idea!

Why don't I see if she could just sleep over on Friday night and then we could just go straight from my house. The mom was up for it, so I took GSG home with me. On the way we stopped at the grocery store to get pizzas since I hadn't planned on a dinner and all kids love pizza.

The sleepover went great. Darly & GSG had a blast and GSG must have thanked us about a squillion times for having her over. She was very sweet.

Saturday morning DH & I were having breakfast and Lilly starts getting all excited about something she sees in our backyard. DH goes to investigate and Lilly starts barking. Then we notice that it's a squirrel! Wow! We have NEVER seen a squirrel in our yard or neighborhood before. Lilly woke up the girls of course. Which was a good thing as I was about to go wake them up anyway.

So we go to the Girl Scouty thing and this event was WAAAAYYYYY bigger than anything that I was expecting. I mean I expected there to be eleventy squillion Girl Scouts there, but I didn't expect for there to be that many "tag-a-longs" (aka Girl Scout siblings) and even regular people...we didn't have the whole place to ourselves. So we ended up being there for the entire day...here I was thinking this would last about 2 hours or so. HA HA HA HA! I didn't pack a lunch and I left my money in the car...so we had to wait until we were done to go eat. The girls were really very good about the eating thing... but by the end we were all like way to tired to hear the speaches the folks were giving out. So we decided to skip the last 4 or 5 booths (btw: did I mention that there were a whole bunch of booths for the girls to stop at to learn about different topics so they could earn steps toward 5 badges? One badge they were given outright, another was completely earned and the others they got at least one of the 6 required steps towards. In fact Darly & I were able to complete an additional badge just by talking about the other steps.) The booths that we skipped were sites that you would normally see if you visited this place. So I just told the girls what I knew about the booths as we were walking back to the car. So we got to the event at 10:30am and did not leave until 3pm.
I then took the girls to Chic-fil-a for lunch and then we headed to GSG's house to take her home. Darly & GSG played in her yard while I talked to Mom about our day and her day and a whole bunch of other stuff too. I was bushed! We had leftover pizza for dinner.

This morning we got up for Church. Darly & I went to Sunday School and learned the story of Moses & the burning bush. And the kids got to watch a really cool experiment. You put a small candle in a pie tin of water. Put food coloring in the water to make it more visible. light the candle and place a small clear glass container over the candle. Watch what happens.
I had the kids guess what they thought was going to happen...none of them knew. Do you?

We then went to service... and got some bad news. One of our members is going to Iraq on Tuesday. I was actually wondering when he was leaving because his wife had told me that he was going back during Vacation Bible School...that was when they found out he was leaving. So we all said a special prayer for him and his family. I'm sure that everything will be all right but I get so weapy about these things.

And then we found out that two members had died during the week. The one member I was expecting as she had been ill for a long time. But she's the office manager's mom so I expect that things will be hetic for a bit. The other member we knew was sick, I just didn't realize how sick he was. The Church had just honored him for being an Adult Sunday School teacher for a long time and he had finally retired from doing that. Our one pastor was in tears about him which of course made me get weapy again...I can't watch other people cry.

After Church we came home for a quiet afternoon. I found out that a book I'm currently reading is due back to the Library this Wednesday and I can't renew it because someone else wants it. Luckily I don't have too much more to read. I think that I'll be able to get it finished...possibly tomorrow night.

Tomorrow morning I have to meet with a person who will hopefully become my LLL co-Leader after our meeting. I've been waiting for a co-Leader for a long time so I hope it all works out. I'm hoping that I can back off a lot from how much I'm doing so perhaps I can enjoy it again or retire from it.

DH wants to get my car fixed tomorrow. I'm worried about how long that will take as I've got a busy week scheduled and I can't be without my car...at all. I suggested that perhaps I should rent a car (after we find out how long it will take of course.) And he's not willing to do that. So I look at my schedule and see that I don't have any days free this month until the 30th! So DH starts giving me a guilt trip about my car falling apart... he should have mentioned that I needed to schedule this before I scheduled everything else...or we should have take it to get fixed while we were in VA. Oh well

Thursday, October 05, 2006

As if I needed anything else to help me waste time...

Lookie what I found today...

Deleted by editor to save loading time on my page... it was a copy of BeJeweled.

Well you can't say that I didn't ever give you any bling. :D

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Why is it so cold everywhere???

If you're a frequent reader here you might have caught in my last TT (sorry there won't be one this week as I've got guests coming over and no time) that DH & I were freezing cold at many of the places that we visited on our Vacation.

And it's not just in Virgina that we are cold...it seems that every time we go inside a building that it is cold. We weren't cold before (okay, that was years ago)...so what seems to be the problem now?

I have a friend who seems to think that perhaps if I put a little more meat on my bones that I wouldn't be cold all the time. I'm not aneorexic and I'm not unhealthy (ask my doctor that I hardly ever visit) so I'm not putting on weight to stay warm...sorry. And even when I was heavier (stuck in Korea fat) I was still cold...so I'm not buying that argument at all.

DH has taken classes in heating and air conditioning (HVAC...I don't know what the V stands for!) and we have noticed that in many buildings they have the registers placed too close to eachother. So that's part of the problem...everywhere you go there's cold air shooting down on you...burrr!

And I'm not the only one who feels this way. My mom brings a coat (in the middle of summer) with her when she goes out to wear inside...okay, yeah mom is built like me too...but she can't be the only one.

Anyone else cold inside buildings? Chime in...

Monday, October 02, 2006

My Williamsburg Vacation Part two

First I need to say that despite all my ranting in my TT that we did have a terrific time in Williamsburg, Va. And I hope to return there someday to see all the stuff we missed.

On day two of our vacation we went to Colonial Williamsburg. We started off spending way too long in the Visitor's center getting our tickets...the guy there really talked our ear off selling us what we already told him that we wanted. LOL!

We then went to take a walking tour of the town. Well because they were about to begin a play at the Play Booth Theater our tour was cut short by our guide who didn't want for us to miss the play. Darly wasn't all that impressed by the play and we probably should have left earlier, but it was fun for DH & me.

We then headed over to the Govenor's Palace for a tour. That's DH & Darly in front of the Palace. For more pictures of the palace go to this link Williamsburg tour then click on the palace (you'll know it because when your cursor passes over a building the name pops up.) Then click on the Learn More that pops up in the white box. More info and pictures will come in the next box. You can do this for most all of the town. Their pictures were much nicer than mine. :D We had to make sure to visit the Palace Kitchens before leaving though.

After the Governor's Palace we walked along the Palace Green until we got to the Duke of Gloucester street. From there we began to think about what to do for lunch, but the Fife & Drums were coming. So we stopped in front of one of the many taverns and waited until they passed us. This is where I got upset about people walking into my perfect shot!

We had lunch at Chowning's Tavern in the garden. The Barbeque sandwich was very good, but it hurt a lot to pay $5.50 for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a bag of chips. ouch!

After lunch we went to the Courthouse. Where we learned a little bit about law in the colony. Our guide told us how the sherif had to put a 500 pound bond in order to hold his office and that if anyone felt that he had not preformed his job properly he would have to pay that person a settlement based on the judge's decision (but since the judges took turns being sherif, that didn't happen often.) We also learned about being on a jury. That a jury once sequestered were not permitted any food, drink or sleep until an unanimous verdict was reached. In once case it was found that three jurors had snuck in food. One some jerky, one some bread and the third an orange. After the verdict the judge promptly had the three men arrested for contempt of court. But the man with the orange got a lesser fine because it was found that he only smelled the orange and didn't eat it.

I visited the Milliner & Taylor shop where the ladies were working on stays and discussing how the fashion of wearing wigs is ending and soon men will go back to wearing their real hair...but don't tell the wigmaker! Whom we visited next. (Darly & Dh didn't want to see the Milliner. The Wigmaker was very interesting telling us all about her trade while working on a wig. She told us that many things were used to make and keep wigs in order...including urine to bleach the hair for a wig. She said the the custom of powdering a wig was so that it would sparkle in the candle light and that a wearer would have to brush the powder off their shoulders many times during an evening and to have more powder applied as well. And the term "Powder Room" actually comes from the room where men would retreat to have their servant re-apply powder to their wigs...not for ladies to powder their noses.

The Revolutionary City was beginning at 2:30 with the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Capitol. So we went down there to hear that.















Darly was getting tried at that point so we begged her for one more building. And we went to see the Public Gaol. We learned that it's pronounced Jail and that this was not someplace that you were went for punishment. The Gaol was where you were put while you awaited your trial for a serious crime like murder/manslaughter or theft. Your time in Gaol could be anywhere from a few days to 4 months depending on when the last session of court was held, every four months. If you were found guilty (these trials were held at the Capitol...lesser offenses & civil trials were at the Courthouse) you were most likely sentenced to death. However for some lesser crimes like manslaughter & theft you could plead for mercy and get you hand branded instead of death.

After the Goal we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the very cold pool and very hot tub. Oops on the way back we stopped at the Visitor's Center and snapped this picture of Darly & Me next to a map of the town.















On Sunday we headed for Jamestown. I figured that the Historic Jamestown part might be boring for Darly. So we headed there first because I wanted to see it. We tried to hear a volunteer's speach about the digs that have been done on the island but the wind was so loud that we had a hard time and ended up just walking around on our own. We learned that the Jamestown Fort is still curently being explored and they've found the location of many of the original buildings only very recently in 2004. The two buildings on the island, the Church and the museum are build on top of original buildings and they've put in glass so you can see the original foundations. There are also many graves under the Church and I got a picture of this one















We then headed over to the Jamestown Glassblower and got to watch the guy making some glass bottles. That was my second time seeing glass blown...the first time was at Disney World as a kid and he was making little swans. At Jamestown the blower was making vials that you could buy in the gift shop.















After Lunch we went to the Jamestown Settlement. Darly had a lot more fun here as she was able to do a lot of hands on stuff. In the indian village she was allowed to help tan a hide
and to talk to the intreperters. Since the Settlement is intirely recreated the kids are allowed to touch everything.


We got to go onboard of two of the ships














(could have done the 3rd but we were running out of time as it closed at 5pm.) and visited the recreation of the Jamestown fort.












In the fort we spent a lot of time talking to the blacksmith who gave us a nail that he had made earlier that day...it wasn't a good nail as they sell those in the gift shop, but he really like us. :D

Monday was our last day so we hurried over to Yorktown (got lost) and visited the Yorktown Victory Center. Here we got to talk to the soldiers in the Continental Army Encampment and the surgeon offered to pull Darly's 4 loose teeth. She wasn't too happy about that! We also learned about Army kitchens and visited many of the tents there. The enlisted guys were 6 to 8 men in a tent while the officers had nicer quarters. The general had his own tent that was 4 times the size of an enlisted tent.

Also at the Victory Center was the 1780's farm, where Darly got to do some chores (sweeping and making beds) and we got to visit the kitchen to see what was cooking for lunch. We almost had a chance to bring in the eggs but the hen was still sitting so it was advised that we leave her until later.

Unfortunately we had to hurry off to the airport to catch our plane home. I could have easily have spent another two days there to do everything that I wanted to see... but I may have had to leave Darly & Dh at the hotel pool.

I hope that we get to go back there someday.

And for Dawn... Fall Colors ;o)