Thursday, January 31, 2008

Snow and MORE snow

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We have had a LOT of snow and cold and freezing rain down here at sea level or as they say on tv...the LOW LANDS. But what we have as rain down here, turns into SNOW in the mountains. We have 5 cross cascade passes in Washington State, and 4 out of 5 of them are closed right now due to snow. This is very unusual. Snoqualmie Pass is our lowest pass, at 3500 feet and is the major cross cascade pass. I-90 crosses here. Right now there is so much snow up there that the WSDOT is working around the clock trying to keep the avalanche danger down. for the past 48 hours there have been two MAJOR natural avalanches, shutting down both directions of the pass. Normally when this happens, Stevens US 2 is open as is White Pass, US 12. North Cascades SR 20 closes in November and reopens in spring. And then there is I-84 at the Washington Oregon Border. right now, ALL are closed except US -12, which is restricted to small vehicles only. WHEW! this leaves us isolated again. We have a lot of freight using the interstates, E-W and they are all lined up on both sides of the pass waiting for snow removal to finish. Latest word is MAYBE 4PM. MAYBE not until tomorrow morning.

Snow is not unusual for us, but the HEAVY snow is! in the pasat week they say the pass has gotten 4-6 FEET of new snow. And more on the way. In the lowlands, we are getting rain, and sleet. The temperatures down here are hovering around 38-40 F.

At least right now the wind has stopped. We are having sun breaks, and while the sun is out, the rays are very warm. The cats all have a window or a piece of furniture and are stretched out soaking it up.

THe birds have cleaned out the feeders over the past two days, so I need to fill them back up and replace the suet for the chickadees, the kinglets and the woodpeckers. THe Juncos love the millet and the sunflower seeds. The doves eat anything.

My new neighbors have 4 cats that they let run outside all the time, so needless to say I no longer have my squirrels visiting. I miss Lola!! :(
I will say that these cats are soooo friendly. THey crave attention. THe owners are only here on the weekends, and they have a cat door in the garage door, so they can go in and out and get out of the weather, but there was only mama and 3 kittens in July, but now the babies are grown and they are still here. They are all named after motorcyles! mama in Jawa, and the babies are Apprello, Cotton, And Indian. And they RUN towards you when they hear a human voice. I feel so bad for them, and I love kitties, but I DONT let my cats out AT ALL, and I dont want them in my back yard! I may have to sic Sadie on them.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

On to SOCIAL SECURITY

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I am getting ready to Open Auditions for my Play SOcial Security which opens in APRIL 2008. I have not directed in over a year, so this is going to be a time consumer for awhile.

This is the story of 2 sisters, one of whom is married to a NEW YORK Art Dealer, and the other is married to a Long Island Accountant. MOTHER lives with sister # 2, and is being sent to live with Sister # 1 because there is a crisis in Sister #2's family.

THis is a very funny play, with Mom coming into the elegant apartment of Sister #1 complete with curlers, walker, dirty housecoat, and a case of Sour balls of which she only half finishes, then spits them everywhere.

Enter Maurice who is an elderly Artist, and Love Blooms between Mom and Maurice, which also rubs off on Sister # 1 and her husband. Love and Sex and relationships between all family members are looked at in this two act comedy by Andrew Bergman.

I will be very busy between now and May huh?

In order to publish pictures, I had to download PICASA (which I did not want to do as it takes up TONS of space, and found all the pictures that I thought I deleted off my hard drive!) and then open it, find the photo I wanted and then click the blog this button, which then opened my blogger dashboard, had to sign in and then save as draft and then edit and write and publish. It used to be so easy, now there are a lot more steps to go through, but at least I can post pictures again.

(WHEW!!)

CRITTERCHICK...YOU ARE SORELY MISSED!!!! :(

Sunday, January 27, 2008

testing....


HMMMMMMM Just might have backed into a bandaid!

The eagles are returning and pairing up. I took this one in Adak, AK>
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Saturday, January 26, 2008

STILL BROKE!!!

Or rather brokEN!! I have been reading the questions that other people havee asked and it appears that blogger does not bother answering their emails. If Blogger was taken over by GOOGLE and GOOGLE is making money hand over fist, and is listed as the number one place to work, maybe one of their CEO's should take a real hard look at what their tech guys are REALLY doing, to make it such a great place to work. Obviously it is not CUSTOMER SERVICE!! I think If I was in charge, I would make it MANDATORY to answer all emails within 48 hours! AND NOT BY MACHINE EITHER! A PERSON! I have liked Blogger for 5 years now, and had no reason to want to change, but I just may have to think about this again. are any of you having a problem commenting on Blogger? On MY site? (I know I did on OTHER peoples who were using the Blogger comments. I use Haloscan. Quite a few blogs are missing too... interesting reading there. click on help and read...(Not that it really HELPS you, but at least you know you are not in this soup alone!!!) GRRRRRRRRRR

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Miss Granola has been busy!!

Ya'll need to go over to DOnna's place at http://chemystery.livejournal.com and look at the wonderful yarn she has been spinning. I would put the magic link and a purtty picture up here for you all to see but dumbass BLOGGER still has no edit bar on my posting page. I have tried EVERYTHING. I cant even switch from compose to html posting anymore. just plain old vanilla. Any way, please stop by Donna's blog aka CHEMYSTERY aka omnipotentbenevolentempress. She does not update often but when she does.....

Mean while, I am trying out different squares to make an afghan with, and can't find the one that strikes my fancy. THis one will be for ME! I am getting a used sofa next month, and it is dated, so it needs an afghan over it. Can't wait.

It has been so darned cold here for us. In the 20F nights and 30's days. BRRRRR Needless to say I have not gone swimming this week. I would be a popsicle driving home. I know, bad excuse...I will go back Monday. I Promise!!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Schroeder

I would love to post a picture of my Baby boy, all grown up with a full coat grown out, but stupid BLOGGER won't give me back my edit bar so that I can!! SO until it does, you get plain vanilla posts!! GRRRR

Schroeder has calmed down somewhat since his "operation" but he still bites when ever I pet his tummy and anywhere NEAR his "package" place. Not little love bites either, big CHOMP BITE MOMMIE bites. He does still want his loving at night though. AS soon as I turn off the evening news and start reading my book, he jumps up and lays on the book and purrs so sweetly! then I slowly move the book over, and he quickly plops on it again. Loves this game he does!!

Tonight, I heard MOANS coming from the living room, and it sounded like someone was dying. I jumped up and ran in to see what was going on, and he SCREAMED! and promptly barfed up his first fur ball! Talkabout a sissy boy!! once that was over, and he realized that he would live, he looked at me as if to say...WHAT!? and slowly walked away looking back over his shoulder at the tiny little barf ball he spewed out. Boys are such sissy's aren't they?

Saturday, January 19, 2008

GAK!!!

STILL no edit bar on here!! I guess they dont answer their support mail!!
I just want to put a picture on my post!!

Well today is PLAYDAY and I am READY!!! Now I need to figure out how to get this spray adhesive off my hands. We have a hard decision to make cutting these twelve down to 5!

A Bad Year For Tomatoes
Christmas Belles
It Runs In The Family
Leading Ladies
Glorious
Cover of Life
Night Watch
King O' The Moon
Gypsy
Kiss Me Kate
Peter Pan
Fiddler on the Roof

THe musicals are the hardest, as everybody wants them, but nobody wants to direct them as they are all hard to do. I would like to see Kiss Me Kate or Gypsy, and MAYBE Peter Pan.

And for the Non-musicals

Cover of Life
Night Watch
King O' The Moon

But I only have one vote. It will ultimately be up to the board to decide, once the members vote and narrow it down, and the call for directors goes out. If no director is interested, then we pick something else, and that is how the directors get what they want to do! Screwy I know....

I went up and spent the day with Tim yesterday. He is getting restless. He is allowed to go to work, and back and NO WHERE ELSE. He can go shopping with me, but He has to put down exactly WHERE we will go before we leave. Since we dont know Bellingham that well, it is hard. We went to Vallue Village and Goodwill to find some work clothes, and then McDonalds drive through. He is starting to think all these rules are stupid...and that will be where he fails if he does! I told him I dont care if they are stupid or not, STAY LEGAL!!! and you can still think they are stupid, but DO THEM! (Shithead!) Cinco de Mayo is his release date, and the parole officer is coming to inspect my house on Tuesday! Now why am I worried I wont pass inspection? HECK I DONT KNOW!!

I need a new camera! My wonderful Sony cybershot, has lost the flash! It goes off, but just barely lights! takes GREAT outdoor pictures, but not indoors. WAHHHH!! I Loved my SOny! Now I want a SOny SLR Digital! 10.2 Megapixels. Will I get it? RIGHT!!!! not.

It has been right on the verge of snowing for a week. 36-40 but not 32!! Darn!! I want snow!!

I come home tonight and tomorrow I clean house and get ready for the Parole Officer, then I can relax and get ready for AUDITIONS for Social Security Feb 3-4! THen I will be busy until April 24! then relax again, until Tim comes home. THen I can get my honey-do list ready for him to work on! Lots to kepp a strong son busy for awhile. New roof, new woodpile, new garden, clean garage....HEHEHEHEHEHEHEH

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Still broken

I am beginning to think my computer is possesed! It turns itself on and off in the middle of the night, almost like someone else is controlling it. I cant get to my gmail page at all. I have to check my gmail through outlook express which is fine, but I cant delete the spam folder and some emails are legite and get sent to the spam folder. I can get to google, but not gmail. It is so weird! and I no longer have ANYTHING above this compose box....NADA no html, no link icon, no camera icon, to fonts, colors NOTHING. And of course as with anything that is widely popular, the help desk is non existant.

DO NOT PATRONIZE BLOCKBUSTER!!!!! THeir ability to help you out if there is a problem is less than satisfactory. I had tried their FREE on line for a week promotion, and obviously gave them my bank account number. (????) so for 6 months they have been debiting my account for 19.98 every month. Now mind you I have not USED them except the very first WEEK which was FREE. I have a bad habit of not looking at my bank statement, and when I did this week, I noticed a debit to blockbuster. I went back and checked the rest of the statements and sure enough there they are. every month since July of 2007! I called, waited for 20 minutes and finally got a nice young lady who said it was my fault for not following up on the debits. Yeah I KNOW that, but you also have no record of me ever renting a movie in the past 7 months either. so she would only refund me 3 months worth, and refused to give me to a supervisor or a manager. SO I AM BOYCOTTING BLOCKBUSTER for taking advantage of the sick and infirm, and possible mentally challenged Senior citizens! (ok, that MAY be a stretch, but that is what I felt like after dealing with the nice young lady who will one day be an old fart too!) GRRRRRRRR

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Is it just ME?

Does anybody else have a problem trying to post pictures on Blogger? THere used to be an edit bar right under the title box, just above this post box. There used to be an icon with a camera, and I would click on that and up would pop another box to direct my picture into. Now there is nothing!!!! has not been for about 3 weeks. Oh WAIT, there was once that it popped up but not since. I am getting really pissed!!!!

Next subject...On CSI, And WIthout a Trace and NCIS they show the director, or cheif or whomever, sitting in their offices, alone and drinking alcohol. Now I don't know what Navy they are writing about in NCIS, but the NAVY I worked for that was totally against the rules!! ANd any police dept I know of would not allow drinking on the job either. Are they taking poetic license or have times really changed?

I think my hair grew about 1/8 of an inch...HURRY!!!!

I have been in severe pain this week. my back is soooo sore. I got into the pool Yesterday and instant relief! I spent an hour and a half working out. I will say that the instructors have been different, and the workouts really different, so they may be doing something that is not good for my back.

I am almost done with the PLAYHOUSE creating that I have been doing this week. I just have the posters to finish, and I am ready for the 19th! (Whew)

I also am getting ready for auditions for my show. Feb 3-4 and then I will have a cast! Whoo-hoo.

I apent all weekend moving all my JPEG files off my hard drive onto CD's, wow, That really made a difference, but now I cant find anything. I guess I really should do this once a week or so, and ORGANIZE them into sensible folders huh?

I made a crock pot full of Split pea soup, using left over ham, and Onions, and I cooked it on Low for 24 hours, and then I looked. OH GOD!!! It is brown, and burnt, and scorched, and lumpy like really bad baby poop! I smelled it all night long, and really wanted some and some corn bread. I threw it out. Guess I will go make some scrambled eggs. sometimes I just can't cook! othertimes I cook really really GOOD!

Or I could go bake a cake...Chocolate! WIth Chocolate frosting!! Yeah, that's sounding really good. wonder if I have a cake mix....

Monday, January 07, 2008

Another boring Monday...

Actually I have been busier than heck trying to get everything done that I need to do around the house, and for the Playhouse. My computer also slowed WAAAAAAY down, and I have been working night and day trying to get it to go faster. I tried de-fragging, but it didnt need it, I ran all the virus checks, spyware etc, re-booted, did scan disk, yadayada. I kept getting an application hang! I have no idea what causes that...old age?
I finally got the idea to remove ALL of my JPEG files (tons and tons) and copied them all to cd, and then deleted them off my hard drive. I run a little faster now but I am still crossing fingers. I tried to restore, but I could not go back any further than Jan 1, and it was running slow then too, so..........I need a resident geek!

I did not hear from Tim this weekend. :( see how soon they forget about their mommies? I got a collect call every Saturday, but this weekend was sposed to be his first 20 hour Pass, and he did not call. DEAR GOD PLEASE KEEP HIS ASS OUT OF TROUBLE!!

I got a years pass to the swimming pool for Christmas, so I have no excuse now for not going.

I also had my hair cut. SHORT! REALLY REALLY SHORT!! TOO SHORT!! I look like a Dyke!! :( It sticks straight up in the back just like alfalpha on OUR GANG. AH well, it will grow, and it is easier to wash the clorine out of now. Just a big big change for me. IT WAS Shoulder length, and now the LONGEST part is 2 inches!!

For those of you that do not read Phyllis' blog, My Brother Mike had a clean brain scan!! THANK YOU LORD! So all we are dealing with is the abdominal cancer, and the treatments.

I certainly hope this year gets better and better!

On to cleaning house!!

GREAT JOB IOWA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Brent you done good)