Blah, Blah, Blah

The hubby is on the phone with Dell tech support at the moment. I took the big comp, affectionately known as The Beast, into work the other day after it started being seriously slow to respond. Big monster machine, 4 gigs of ram, quad-core processor, SLI graphics cards. Not supposed to be slow. In fact, at one point it was too fast and we had to dumb down the SLI settings, lol.

So The Beast sat at work from Monday until today, with our awesome techs trying to figure out what was going on. We'd already ruled out virus (I'd run scans with Trend Micro, Malware Bytes and Super-Anti Spyware before I even took it in), so the first thing we did was test the hard drive. It passed all the tests. So then we looked at graphics cards. WOW. They were toasting. But then, just to check, they stuck a different graphics card in and it was toasting too.

So then they installed my SLI on a different drive and they were fine. Hmmm. It was stump the tech week, lol. So then we waffled back to hard drive. Woot, warranty has 37 days left on it. So last night the bossman left it running the in depth diagnostic and 13 hours later it failed. YAY! This is a good thing, lol. Because now we have an error code to take to Dell. It's memory issue, though whether it's ram or the graphics card memory, the code didn't tell us.

And this is why hubby has been on the phone with them for an hour. I'm pretty sure they are going to reformat as he came out a few minutes ago asking if we had operating system disks. But that's ok. Everything is backed up to an external hard drive.

Although, reinstalling WoW will take an entire damned day, lol.

UH-OH. Apparently the phone went dead or he lost the tech, 'cause hubby is pissed now. And trying to call again. Yikes.

Son of...!

I have shit luck with phones :( I just went to put my laundry in the dryer and saw my keys peaking out at the bottom and immediately thought, "Oh crap, my phone's in there too." Sure 'nuff. So I am trying the rice trick that worked for Iron Needles. I don't hold out that much hope though, since the thing went thru the entire cycle instead of being quickly fished out. I haven't even had this phone a month now, dammit.

I'm thinking someone is trying to tell me something...

And on top of that we played in the pool today and I didn't even think to suncreen my legs. So now they are fried. Huh. Just like my phone.

On a funnier note, this is spoof is better than the original, lol.

Crap!

A while back at the Estes Wool Market we bought a needle felting kit. My idea was to make the flowers to give the never ending knitting bag some pizazz. I thought the kiddo and I could do it together but the kiddo decided to try it all by herself, messing the entire lot off and pissing me off royally.

I took what I thought were the remains of the kit away from her and stuck it away in the hopes of salvaging something. Well come to find out, the kiddo had dropped a needle and it never made it back to the kit. Apparently hubby had asked her several times to put the needle away, picking it up from the floor and putting it on the coffee table each time.

You know where I am going with this don't you?

Yeah. Tonight as we were putting the kiddo to bed hubby went to grab something for her and stepped on the damned thing. Luckily he had a tetanus shot fairly recently so that's good but crap! He's lucky it didn't go straight thru his foot!

Too cool!

When I was a teenager I loved Converse All-Star high top tennis shoes. "Chucks" came in so many different colors that you could always find a pair that appealed. My two best friends and I had them. Karleen had green, Janet had red and mine were bright yellow. I truly loved those shoes, lol.

I see Chucks all over the place now. Some are fun, but I missed being able to get them in every color of the rainbow (and then some!). And they certainly aren't the cheap shoes they once were. (Though they are still incredibly cheap compared to regular name-brand shoes now). A basic pair will cost you about $50.

But why go basic when you can now CUSTOMIZE your own pair of Chucks?? In just two to four weeks you could have a pair of Chuck's in whatever color you want, patterned, solid, multi color.... So the purple shoes I've wanted for years are now within my reach. And not only are they purple, they are now mostly white and black animal print, with a purple tongue and heel stripe, with lighter purple laces. The inside of the shoes is Sweet Lavendar. Woot!

My daughter created a pair of multi-pink ones, with blue heel stripe and laces, lol. And did I mention you can can your name on them?? She loves them so much she's actually willing to pay for them herself. I told her we need to go try some on in store so we know what size first and so she can find out for herself that the main drawback to Chucks is that they aren't really comfy.

Laugh out loud

Now I grew up in the 70s, with an older sister who danced professionally (get yer mind outta the gutter, lol), she taught jazz and tap for a local studio and being a dancer, she totally loved disco. The very first 8 Track I ever owned was Abba. I still love Abba, (the rest of disco on the other hand can go away forever, lol) even though I came of age in the 80s and love that music as well.

So when I saw the adverts for Mamma Mia I really wanted to see it. So when I found it at the library the other day I snatched it quickly. I didn't expect to giggle my butt off, lol. All three men were thick as a whale omelet! Hahaha. Pierce Brosnan can not sing, but it was funny as heck. Part of it was the music, but it all was too cute. About halfway through the kiddo decided to sit and watch as well. Now she wants to watch the whole movie too.

Even the hubby was in the other room singing along, utterly horrified to realize just how many words he knew to the songs ;)

I've dug out my Abba Gold CD and we're having a sing-a-long, lol. ;)

Over-rated?

A recent survey by a travel site found Paris to be the most over-rated city in Europe. And tourism has fallen drastically this year due to the economy. So now Paris is trying to win back tourists with a smile.

It's been years since we went to Paris. My overall impression of Paris then was that it was a beautiful but dirty city. People take their dogs every where but don't clean up after them. (And so far everything I've seen about the city leads me to believe that it's still this way in 2009). I found that absolutely disgusting. It's quite hard to enjoy the view when you have to constantly watch where you step! London was that way the first few times I visited, but since then people have learned to pick up after their pets and it's much nicer.

But it is truly a beautiful city. The Louvre is absolutely a splendid building from the exterior (well, except for the garish glass pyramid out by the entrance, lol) and spectacular on the inside. It's been many things through the years, once a fortress protecting the city and most notably the palace of Louis XIV. After the French Revolution the Louvre was dedicated to becoming a monument to the arts and science and the museum was born. I could have wandered there all day, between looking at the art on display and the architectural details of the building itself (Unfortunately we were with my in-laws and my f-i-l had a bad hip at the time so our trip was much shorter than I'd have preferred).

As to the French themselves, I honestly didn't get the rude vibe that so many people associate with the French. Well, except maybe at the chemists when I stopped in for cold tablets. But the restaurants and the hotel we stayed at had friendly people. One little restaurant all but dragged us in off the street they were so happy to see us, lol. We didn't do a lot of shopping, so I can't speak for most of the shops ;)

And oh my, but the bakeries are to die for! Everywhere we went there was a bakery on the corner with mouth-watering treats in the windows. The pastries we were offered for breakfast were absolutely lovely and the bread! Yum! Strangely though, I think other than the bread and cheese, none of us ate a "typical" French meal. Picky eaters all us of, so no snails for us, lol.

Would I go again? Yes, someday I would love to go with my daughter. I'll be the one on the ground holding my breath as she gets too close to the railing on the Eiffel Tower, and waves at me lol.

So much drama

Once again I am fed up with WoW. This time it's got nothing to do with the game and everything to do with the people who play. I'm in a large guild. Most of the time, that's a good thing, but there are a few members who are inconsiderate and only interested in themselves. Such was the case last week when we were scheduled to raid. It's always a pain in the ass getting 25 people together and takes forever, but most of the time the fun out-weighs the hassle.

Not so that night. There were other issues and we were late getting started. Then a few people who were signed up to go showed up 20 minutes late and still expected to go. After arguing about that and deciding who could go and who couldn't I lost all patience, burst into tears and begged my hubby to sub me out.

He had been arguing with one of the late people because he thought it was rude of them to be late and expect everyone to wait. So I left, obviously upset, and he then left to calm me down. So a bitchy post ended up on the message board about people "logging out when shit doesn't go their way." Obviously directed at hubby, since he was the one openly opposed to letting the late person go. Good-fucking-grief! I started to write a bitchy mail to the poster, someone I used to like. But what's the freakin' point?

The whole experience has soured me on raiding now. Hell, honestly it's soured me on the guild in general. There are a few people in there I like and if it wasn't for them I'd have left that night. So from now on I shall chat with the people I like and ignore everyone else. Who needs a freakin' game that stresses you out enough to bawl your head off?

Anyhoo. I am having a massive bout of insomnia tonight, so I'm going to go surf the web for a bit.

Crappy news

Just got the crappiest news. My friend, A from the previous post, got notice today that he's being let go. I think he has two months and then a month of severance. If in the next two months our other assistant manager leaves, he gets to stay. I'm holding on to a bit of hope that that happens. See, the other assistant has been in a different store running it while the manager's been sick. And from the sounds of things, he may not be ready to come back right now (which is probably why A gets to stay for 2 months instead of being let go now).

Dammit. Yesterday we were all happy about the fact that the other assistant would be coming back soon so everything would go back to normal and everyone could relax a bit. Instead we are losing two people that I genuinely like, A. and another guy who always has a smile on his face and is truly a nice person.

And of course, corporate timing sucks, since just 4 days ago A. and his wife were all excited and happy because they've just bought a house and are moving in soon. They rented all this time because they weren't sure where they would stay until A. got transferred to our location :( I hurt for them, I really do, because I remember the kick to the head it was when I was told that my previous employer was closing.

And you know what the worst thing was? They told him and then expected him to be fine with working the rest of the day. Arseholes.

Oh rats!

Remember this post? (Read more to get actual link, lol). It was a bit over a month ago when I posted about my dead phone. Well, last night the display on my new phone (a month exactly to the day I got it!) just died. I tried to answer it and I had a blank white screen and I couldn't answer it when I pushed the talk button. I can send and receive calls with it now, but no texting again.

So I called customer service, in non-English speaking country of course, and after 20 minutes of, "Can you at this time turn your phone off then back on, please?" and "At this time I am entering more information into my system." I was promised a new phone and more minutes. I can continue to use (lol) my phone until the new one comes and I don't have to return it. I can expect to receive my new phone in 5 - 10 days (!!). At that time I must call the customer service center to activate my new phone and transfer my minutes. I also plan on asking for a credit for the ringtone I purchased a month ago and will now lose :(

And a good time was had by all

For a bit there it seemed the 4th of July was going to be washed out. It rained like crazy for ages and all I could think was" Ewwww, I don't want go sit out in the rain." Of course, the kiddo hated the idea of missing the fireworks and around 8 PM the rain finally stopped. But it was still wet, lol. Then a friend from work invited us over to his house to watch the fireworks. So off we trooped, and we had a great time. We walked a bit up to the lake and watched the fireworks, then went back to his family's house and the kids all played with sparklers and Pop-its, while the neighbors shot off more fireworks.

It was a lot of fun, and the hubby got to meet A and his wife, so that was cool. Now he really knows who I am talking about when I mention A, or when we are playing WoW and A does something silly ('cause he is a silly man, lol) that makes me grumble and call him a doof ;)

Surprise!

As Neil says in my favorite The Young Ones episode, "Well Mike, it's my birthday."

Of course then Mike says, "Now you knew that already, and we don't care, so where's the surprise?"

But someone does care that it's my birthday. My LYS offers 15% off anything during my birthday week, so guess where I am going tomorrow?! My mother sent me money so I think I shall head there to spend it ;)

Ummm.

Hello! I'm such a slacker lately, lol. There's been some reading going on, and some knitting on the giant Booga/yarn bag. When I started that I wanted something easy to travel with. Now I have to say it's just tedious, lol.

The Estes Wool Market was lovely. As usual the vendors were friendly and helpful. The yak yarn was scrumptious as was the Brooks Farm Yarn and the Plain and Fancy Sheep and Wool Co. wool. I handled a lot of yarn, lusted after several skeins. But in the end, I went home with only a dry felting kit. Honestly, I still have P & F from two years ago, and BFY from last year. Not to mention skeins and skeins of cotton, and the miles of green Cascade being turned into the giant Booga (the dry felting kit made flowers, which will eventually adorn the Green Giant, making it not so totally green, lol!).

I have sock yarn, enough for two pair, one for me and one for the kiddo. And a gorgeous skein of lace weight. Really, as much as I lusted for the red BFY, I couldn't justify spending the money on something that would sit in my yarn bag :(

Oh! Hello there.

Didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Oops.

The Estes Park Wool Market is tomorrow! Woot. I actually did a print job for the alpaca folks yesterday, they'll have a few cria there so I'll be sure to take the kiddo to the alpaca tent :) (Like I would miss it, the alpaca tent is one of my favorite places because I love alpaca yarn, lol). I need to print out my coupon today for Bijou Basin Ranch's yak yarn. I can't wait to get some of that lovely soft stuff under my fingers :)

So. I read the new Anita Blake book. Not the worst one I've read, not the best. But I do think that LKH is trying. I got to the last third of the book before she popped any graphic carnal scenes in, and honestly, the bit of the book that everyone's been bitching about was presented as a fait accompli, rather than a detailed scene. It's still a bit icky to think about but I was waiting for a play by play and cringing at the thought of that. This book was not nearly the train wreck the last several have been, so I'll keep reading, though I'll continue to borrow them from he library.

Just finished book 3 in the Twilight series. I keep reading out of stubborness now. I do not at all see the fascination that these books have for so many people. I thought the first one okay, the second boring and the third a bit better but still not great. I honestly don't really care much for Bella. She's very unappreciative of the nice things other try to do for her and that bugs me. I find her rather self-absorbed as well. And the thought that the author has now decided that she killed off the cash cow too early and feels the need to retell things through Edward's eyes, well I find that absolutely ridiculous.

Right now I need to go shower and go get my hair cut, it's making me nuts, lol.

Bored

I'm feeling very blasé about everything lately. I've read two decent books in the last few weeks, one a non-fiction book about life in Utah during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The other was the most recent Nora Roberts book and now I'm just annoyed that I have to wait another 6 months to get the next installment, lol.

World of Warcraft is making me crazy. I think I've geared my druid about as well as I can for the moment and I am heartily sick of running the same damned instance over and over. I'd like to gear my alt, but honestly see no chance at that as death knights are so damned common now. and doing the same damned dailies all the time isn't helping either. None of the recent content is doing anything for my general boredom with the game. I hate jousting with a passion. And now I hear that they are expanding the tournament. Oh goodie.

Even the guild I'm in is making me nuts. They go on and on about gearing mains and every time I turn around someone's whinging because they want to gear an alt. And it's ever so cliquey. But the stupid thing is, if I go play on the other realm that I have a character on I get annoyed because my guild there is so small it's too quiet, lol.

I think I am just going to step back for a bit. I'm not signed up for anything until Friday, I think I'll just take a break until then. Maybe I'll knit a bit again. I actually knit on my big Booga the other night. It was nice. And Estes is coming. I can hardly expect my hubby to be happy about me spending money on wool if I never knit anymore, lol.

People make me crazy

I support freedom of speech, I really do. But for crying out loud some people just need to remember back to what mama told them, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Why do some people seem to get off on flaming? LKH's new book comes out today. And there are already nasty flames on Amazon about LKH herself and the book. Most of which come from people who haven't even read the book yet. They are basing their remarks on one person's rant. Maybe you should read the book before you make up your mind? Then again, I think most of the people that post are just determined to hate on LKH because she took Anita on a different route than they wanted.

Yes, I think that the last several books were not to my taste, I do think they've turned into erotica more than the AB books we used to know and love, but at least I'm willing to read the new book for myself before I decide about it. And really, if these people hate LKH and AB so much now, why do they waste their time on them?? Just shut up and don't buy the book.

I gots luck!

But it's all bad, lol. At least where cell phones are concerned. My first cell was a cheap little Nokia phone, it was brilliant. But when my hubby's phone was stolen out of our car (we use Net10, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been!) I decided that I wanted something new and gave him my phone and got a new LG phone. I lasted 3 months with that one. The reception was awful, if I moved at all while talking it would lose the call. I finally ordered one online and got a Motorola, which I loved.

Then came "the swim". One day at work it slid out of my pocket and into a place no phone should ever go. I rescued it, pulled it all apart and let it all dry out and a few days later it was fine again. Except the battery needed charging every night. If I forgot I would end up with a dead phone. So I bought a new battery. Unfortunately, the new battery somehow fried my phone! It still works but I have no display, which of course means no texts, and no ringer, since I last put it on vibrate at work, lol.

So today I ordered a new phone. I got another Motorola because until mine went swimming it was a great phone. This time I will make darned sure it stays where it belongs, lol.

Teachers

As the school year winds down again I think about my daughter and her teacher, and how much she will miss her dear teacher. Last year on the last day of school I picked my kiddo up and she was in tears. All of the kids were. They were a family you see, and they were being split up. For two years the kids had the exact same classmates and the same teacher. My daughter still talks about how much she misses Mrs B.

I expect some tears again this year, but not so bad. The kiddo actually had two teachers this year, so I don't know if the attachment is quite so strong. We shall see.

Anyway. It's made me a bit reflective on my old teachers, teachers who meant a lot to me or just were memorable.

There's Mrs. Mock, who was probably a nice lady, but we got off on a bad foot in third grade and never quite recovered. My fourth grade teacher was nice enough, but I've blocked a lot of that year out as my dad had recently died and it wasn't such a hot year.

Then there was Mrs. Carter in 5th grade. From her I gained a love of all things piggy. Mrs. C collected pigs and her classroom was full of them. But what made every kid want her for their teacher was that every one of her 5th grade classes had a class piglet. Yep, we had an orphan piglet that we fed and cleaned and played with all year long 'til it was strong enough to go back to the farm it was born on. To heck with hamsters and guinea pigs lol.

In 6th grade it was Mrs. Rauschenburger. She was the teacher who finally realized just how deep my love of reading was and she fostered it, recommending books and allowing me to stay in from recess and read.

After that my memory gets hazy. Starting with high school, I switched schools three times in 4 years. And you spend less time with each teacher, so while I had favorites each year they were never really special.

There was the junior high teacher who had dated my sister in high school. Weirdness.

And the first English teacher I ever had who didn't consider me his pet and yelled at me for talking all the time, lol.

And the algebra teacher who told everyone the first day of class that there was no such thing as a stupid question. Then several days later when I asked him to repeat something he gave me a death stare and told me, "I just went over that, I will not repeat myself, again!" I dropped that class that day.

The next teacher I had that made an impact on me was a college prof. He was passionate about his subject and a tough teacher. You either loved him or hated him. I loved him, his passion for the field, his ability to make us all think. The first class I had him for he terrified me at first. By the end of the semester I was hooked. I scheduled myself deliberately for his classes for the next year and a half and I did well. If I may pat myself on the back, I think he liked me as well. I was the first and only student of his to get a 100% on one of his exams and he appreciated that.

After that semester we all went off for summer break. Come fall I entered a class with follow journalism students and one of them asked if I'd heard the news. My favorite teacher in whole university had had a heart attack over the summer and died.

I never had another professor I liked quite so well. My enthusiasm for the subject waned until I was just going through the motions, ready to graduate and be done with school. By the time I walked across the stage at graduation I knew I'd likely never work in my field. (There were several other reasons for that, not just his death, but that certainly sparked the malaise that filled me back then).

I hope that my daughter is lucky enough to find some teachers who mean as much to her as some of my old teachers meant to me then, and that as she grows up she will think back kindly on some of them and smile.

Boooo :(

You might not know this, but I graduated with a degree in journalism several years ago and I'm a huge fan of the First Amendment, which is supposed to guarantee freedom of speech and expression. I'm also a big Greenday fan.

So what the fuck is up with Walmart? It's a long-standing policy of Walmart's not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker, so musical artists are given the choice of offering a cleaned up (CENSORED) version or not having their CD sold at the big box stores. It's a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.

AND Walmart still sells R rated movies, with swearing, violence and mature content. Many of these DVDs have unrated content on them that goes beyond an R rating. They also offer up video games with mature ratings. Hypocritical much? Who made Walmart the musical morality police, anyway? How about you let me decide to buy for myself and my child? It's my decision to make, not some big corporation's.

Good for Greenday for not bowing to pressure and refusing to censor their new album. From now on I will buy what little music I buy elsewhere. I don't think artists should be forced to offer dumbed down versions of their CDs, just to get in to the world's largest retailer.

Go support your local music store and buy the CD the artist meant you to have in the first place. And there's always iTunes ;)

Excellent weekend!

My bestest buddy and her son were here for two days. Too short really, but good fun. We ended up in Estes Park, playing in the snow. That would be Trail Ridge Road, btw. It's not officially open, but it's open a fair way up. We also went to Bear Lake, which is covered in snow as well, lol.

And speaking of Estes, we are less than a month away from the Estes Wool Market. I can't wait, I love the Market! And this year I think I might just have to buy some Yak yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. They were at Estes last year and it was sooooo soft but I had to choose between them and Plain and Fancy. :( But this year the owners of Bijou Basin have put up a 15% off coupon, woot! This is their year, lol. (And I have two skeins of Plain and Fancy tucked away from last year, time for something new!).

Hmmm

I needed a change for my blog design, and I love the designs from the Cutest Blog on the Block, but none of them really fit me. This one is too pink. But I'm too lazy to design my own, lol.

And busy. My bestest friend from high school is coming to visit me this weekend. Which is brilliant, but made me realize that my guest bedroom is full of plants and craft items and sans bed! So I've spent most of the morning packing up scrapbooking, knitting and soap making supplies and cleaning up the fallen leaves and blooms that accumulate near plants. The spare room now has a bed instead of a craft table and sheets (finally found a matching set of full sized sheets lol, it's amazing how much of my stuff is still in boxes after more than a year!).

Anyhoo, I'm off to get cleaned up so we can go play for a few hours today now that that's done. Have a lovely day!