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2009 is gone and 2010 is here! As I've been thinking back on the last ten years (the last five especially).....oh, so much has happened! Our family has changed dramatically, friends have come and gone, jobs have changed and so much more!
In that year of 2000, who knew that...
...I would work at Southgate Fabriques for 7 years, starting out knowing so little and working my way to teacher, store manager and now owning my own business in that same field.
...the statement I made the summer before would be proven totally false. Yeah, I only stated so firmly to my sisters, "I enjoy sewing, but it's not something I would want to do every single day."
...my first plane flight would be to Washington D.C. for a Bernina sewing machine convention in 2001. And that was before 9/11 and all the security was of the utmost importance.
...I would buy my first sewing/embroidery machine - a Bernina 180, soon to be followed by three other machines.
...a car phone the size of a letter size sheet of paper would turn into a cell phone that could handle photos, texting, email and much more only being the size of a credit card. And that we have become so reliant on that piece of technology.
...Jena would graduate as a LPN and later as a RN (well, we did know she would eventually do that!), work at at the Women's Center in Dodge and then work at Meade Hospital, all the while loving her job!
...Krissa would decide print journalism was her field of expertise and would attend BJU.
...we would spend hours on the road taking Krissa to and from BJU and attending her graduation. I can so clearly recall Mom looking forward to that moment and then as it turned out, she wasn't here when she graduated.
...we would move in a three story house just down the road and Dad would remodel it to use as a rental house.
...Grandma and Grandpa would celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary and then Grandpa would only be with us for a few months after that.
...our family would be hit with a huge blow of discovering Mom's brain tumor and three months later watching her step into her eternal home. Only 10 months after Grandpa was gone.
...Krissa would move to Birmingham, Alabama (Mom would have loved knowing Krissa was in the same city where she lived for several years.) to intern at Southern Accents for 6 months.
...I would buy my very first laptop computer. And now to think I can't live without it. Well, not that original one.
...technology could change so much. To the point where it would be the basis of my business; from buying and selling to teaching online to students in other countries.
...watching Dad loose Mom would be the hardest thing I've ever been through. And how that loosing someone changes your entire outlook on life.
...I would unexpectedly find "someone just like me", named Joanna, in the most unusual circumstances, proving that God brings just the right person into my life when I didn't even know she was needed.
...Krissa would travel to California before settling in Lexington, KY, working for of all things - a farming magazine. She can't seem to get away from "the farm".
...Jena would move to Oklahoma City to fulfill her dream of working in a NICU at Children's OU.
...attending Camp Good News every summer would still be happening. Even though it's dwindled to only me, myself and I instead of all three of us.
...a certain person named Ryan would come into Krissa's life and our family would return to the happy number of five. (Becoming official this year!)
...and through it all God has remained faithful!
God has allowed hardships and struggles in our lives and yet in so many ways blessed us as well. As I look forward to the next year and following years after that, I can't begin to imagine what they will hold. Just as 1o years ago, who would have known the above. I'm thankful that even though I don't know and nor care to know, God does. And through the fun times and difficult moments, He continues to be the same unchanging, awesome God that He is.
Showing posts with label Computer Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer Technology. Show all posts
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Monday, October 5, 2009
24/7: My computer is always on and working!
Anyone who knows me has knowledge of my complete dependency on computers. Yes, I am rarely without one. In fact most of the time, I'm working on more than one; I've even been seen with up to four in front of me. But that isn't the point of this post. Most of you already know that.
My Dad for sure knows that. He sees me sitting at a desk in front of a computer just about every time he comes downstairs. Or sees me carrying around my laptop upstairs from the kitchen to the family room to the schoolroom. But that is not the true point of this post either.
The main fact here is that Dad knows how invaluable computers are to me, so nothing should really surprise him in that area. But I guess that's exactly what I did.
We were discussing how long it took to upload my class lessons every month and because this last one I taped was so long, how long it would take, etc, etc. So I told him that I have to start it, let it upload for a couple hours, check on it, start another, etc.
THEN, I proceeded to tell him how the best time to do it is at night. So I would start one when I went to bed about midnight. Then set my phone for 3 am, get up and check on it. If it isn't finished, I would set my phone and check it every hour until it was finished and then start the next one, etc, etc.
Well, after I said THAT, he looks at me with this unbelievable face and starts laughing. Well, chucking. Dad isn't one to really laugh (unlike us girls; I'm not sure where we got that from).
What's so funny or surprising about that? I've been getting up in the middle of the night to check my computer for months. Just like he gets up in the middle of the night to check on cows getting ready to calve. Only mine is much easier; I don't have to go out in freezing cold weather to check on my job-related, necessary uploading.
I guess I did surprise him with that bit of information. Maybe I'll just keep more details like that to myself in the future. :)
My Dad for sure knows that. He sees me sitting at a desk in front of a computer just about every time he comes downstairs. Or sees me carrying around my laptop upstairs from the kitchen to the family room to the schoolroom. But that is not the true point of this post either.
The main fact here is that Dad knows how invaluable computers are to me, so nothing should really surprise him in that area. But I guess that's exactly what I did.
We were discussing how long it took to upload my class lessons every month and because this last one I taped was so long, how long it would take, etc, etc. So I told him that I have to start it, let it upload for a couple hours, check on it, start another, etc.
THEN, I proceeded to tell him how the best time to do it is at night. So I would start one when I went to bed about midnight. Then set my phone for 3 am, get up and check on it. If it isn't finished, I would set my phone and check it every hour until it was finished and then start the next one, etc, etc.
Well, after I said THAT, he looks at me with this unbelievable face and starts laughing. Well, chucking. Dad isn't one to really laugh (unlike us girls; I'm not sure where we got that from).
What's so funny or surprising about that? I've been getting up in the middle of the night to check my computer for months. Just like he gets up in the middle of the night to check on cows getting ready to calve. Only mine is much easier; I don't have to go out in freezing cold weather to check on my job-related, necessary uploading.
I guess I did surprise him with that bit of information. Maybe I'll just keep more details like that to myself in the future. :)
Friday, April 3, 2009
Just a few of random morning thoughts....
What's on my mind this morning? Well, I have a mound of paperwork that I'm sorting and filing that I've put off for quite a while and that's rather mindless work, so my mind has drifted to a few other random thoughts....My blog sidebar - Yes, those of you who are faithful readers have probably noticed that my sidebar is badly in need of a tune-up! Christmas music is still up and it's April??? There are some broken images and links that need deleted/repaired and some additions to be made as well. I need to put that on my list.
Skittles, Scamper and Snickers - Those sweet little kitties of mine! I've decided to get Skittles spayed so this will be her last litter of kittens. And I need to take Scamper and Snickers in for their kitten shots. I'm also wondering *just what* the car ride into Dodge will be like??? Add that to my schedule.
Defrost the freezer - I just did this not too long ago. And that's what's so frustrating about it. I put a can of pop in there last week and left it too long (I didn't think it was THAT long, but it must have been long enough) and it left quite a frozen mess as there is frozen liquid all over the door and shelves. Work that into my schedule this month.
Digital scrapbooking - Yes, I know I mentioned that recently, but I can't get it out of my head. I'm just itching to work with some freebie themes I found online. Another of my goals this year is to learn Photo Elements and Premier Elements. I've already worked through some tutorials and swarms of ideas are rolling around in my head. Plus I'm considering doing a new theme for this blog and using some scrapbooking elements to create it.
Spring cleaning - Sometime in the next two months spring cleaning has to be done. Partly because Jen and Kris are moving out and we are doing some rearranging of rooms and furniture and what better time to clean from top to bottom than when the room is empty?! Plus I skipped it last year as we just had new windows put in and why clean new windows??? Plan and schedule spring cleaning.
Grandma - I'm headed to Grandma's house for a while this afternoon. She loves for us girls to come over. I need to remember to pack my computer to show her Krissa's apartment pics; she'll enjoy seeing those. And I need to drop by the fabric store in Montezuma to see if they might by chance have some fabric to match the bathroom towels. Oh, and that's the other thing - bathroom curtains. I still need to do that.
There's a few more thoughts rambling around in my head, but for now it's time to quit typing and start filing.....:)
photo from allposters.com
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Bits and pieces
Today has been freezing. I mean freezing cold! Dad just came in from checking the cattle this afternoon and said it was 13 degrees without the wind chill. With that cold wind blowing right by you, it's probably around zero. Whatever it is, it's cold!
Jena left for Oklahoma City this morning. She is spending several days with Briann, one of her friends from the hospital, who is going to college there. They plan on doing some shopping and spending some good times together. They should have plenty of time considering that she's not coming home til Friday.
Last week we had our Kid's Club Christmas party. It was such fun and the kids enjoyed the last evening of the year! And it's nice for us to have a Christmas break. I've got some pics and other details to share, but since Jena has the pics on her camera and of course her camera and computer are with her down south, I can't post them. But I will soon!
Speaking of her computer...everyone who has a computer, listen up! (Kinda silly remark considering that you must have computer to be reading this! :)) Be SURE you have antivirus software on your computer! I spent several hours last week trying to get all the virus and hacks off Jena's. Her computer was so bogged down with all of it, that it kept doing weird things as suddenly freezing, shutting down, etc. To make it even more difficult, it locked me out of the Internet, which made it all the harder trying to track down the problems and fix them. There's still a bunch of work left to do on it to get it back in running order, but at least she can get online and do a few things.
So keep your antivirus software up-to-date. Yes, it does cost $40-$100 every year, but it is most certainly worth it! Especially if I'm the one who has to do the repair work. Did I mention that I charge $100 an hour for computer repair? :) Trust me; it's much more cost effective to prevent the viruses as much as possible in the beginning than trying to fix it later!
And for those of you who use Internet Explorer, switch to FireFox. I know it takes a bit of getting used to, but it is well worth it. Most of us, me included, just use IE because that is what is on every computer that we buy. I got so frustrated with IE and finally completely moved over to FF, which is much easier, much more secure and has more fun options to it's browser. Most certainly worth it!
Well, Dad and I went to church this morning, ate at Arby's for lunch and have been home for the rest of the day. I've watched my game of football for the day. Took a nap for the week (Sunday is about the only day I allow myself to take a nap in the afternoon!). Planned my Sunday School lesson for next week. Now I'm ready to finish up a few Christmas cards and by then I'm sure the day will be nearing the end.
Jena left for Oklahoma City this morning. She is spending several days with Briann, one of her friends from the hospital, who is going to college there. They plan on doing some shopping and spending some good times together. They should have plenty of time considering that she's not coming home til Friday.
Last week we had our Kid's Club Christmas party. It was such fun and the kids enjoyed the last evening of the year! And it's nice for us to have a Christmas break. I've got some pics and other details to share, but since Jena has the pics on her camera and of course her camera and computer are with her down south, I can't post them. But I will soon!
Speaking of her computer...everyone who has a computer, listen up! (Kinda silly remark considering that you must have computer to be reading this! :)) Be SURE you have antivirus software on your computer! I spent several hours last week trying to get all the virus and hacks off Jena's. Her computer was so bogged down with all of it, that it kept doing weird things as suddenly freezing, shutting down, etc. To make it even more difficult, it locked me out of the Internet, which made it all the harder trying to track down the problems and fix them. There's still a bunch of work left to do on it to get it back in running order, but at least she can get online and do a few things.
So keep your antivirus software up-to-date. Yes, it does cost $40-$100 every year, but it is most certainly worth it! Especially if I'm the one who has to do the repair work. Did I mention that I charge $100 an hour for computer repair? :) Trust me; it's much more cost effective to prevent the viruses as much as possible in the beginning than trying to fix it later!
And for those of you who use Internet Explorer, switch to FireFox. I know it takes a bit of getting used to, but it is well worth it. Most of us, me included, just use IE because that is what is on every computer that we buy. I got so frustrated with IE and finally completely moved over to FF, which is much easier, much more secure and has more fun options to it's browser. Most certainly worth it!
Well, Dad and I went to church this morning, ate at Arby's for lunch and have been home for the rest of the day. I've watched my game of football for the day. Took a nap for the week (Sunday is about the only day I allow myself to take a nap in the afternoon!). Planned my Sunday School lesson for next week. Now I'm ready to finish up a few Christmas cards and by then I'm sure the day will be nearing the end.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Perhaps I'm doing one too many things at one time?
Considering that I...
...sent an email to the wrong mailing list while shipping orders, answering email and printing sales sheets.
...burned my finger while cleaning the kitchen, talking on the phone and boiling potatoes.
...let the potatoes boil over on the stove, leaving a burned ring to scrape off while sorting laundry.
...somehow managed to let the potatoes boil over again, the gravy bubble up and overflow (leaving a huge burned mess on the stove!) while starting the third load of laundry.
...spill my pop while opening the can, pouring it into a cup, walking across the basement and turning on the light switch.
I think I'm trying to do one too many things at once. Maybe. Just perhaps.
So I've decided to sit down at my computer and just answer email from over the holiday weekend. Just answer email.
Oh, yeah, while listening to Christmas music, placing a fabric order, scheduling blogging posts, peeking in on facebook, downloading photos and let's see...what other programs do have open on my computer? Oh and last, but not least....the last load of clothes in the dryer!
Whatever happened to the "Just answer email?"
...sent an email to the wrong mailing list while shipping orders, answering email and printing sales sheets.
...burned my finger while cleaning the kitchen, talking on the phone and boiling potatoes.
...let the potatoes boil over on the stove, leaving a burned ring to scrape off while sorting laundry.
...somehow managed to let the potatoes boil over again, the gravy bubble up and overflow (leaving a huge burned mess on the stove!) while starting the third load of laundry.
...spill my pop while opening the can, pouring it into a cup, walking across the basement and turning on the light switch.
I think I'm trying to do one too many things at once. Maybe. Just perhaps.
So I've decided to sit down at my computer and just answer email from over the holiday weekend. Just answer email.
Oh, yeah, while listening to Christmas music, placing a fabric order, scheduling blogging posts, peeking in on facebook, downloading photos and let's see...what other programs do have open on my computer? Oh and last, but not least....the last load of clothes in the dryer!
Whatever happened to the "Just answer email?"
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A last minute quick trip to Houston - Part 2
Quilt market presentation sessions started on Friday, so we arrived at the convention center without getting lost (I was the one driving, so that explains why were didn't get lost! Although someone else might disagree with that! :)). We picked up our name-tags, met up with some Bernina staff, helped set up sewing machine for classes and then hung around the convention center for the rest of the day.
Saturday we walked and walked and walked the aisles all day. George Brown Convention Center is huge and there are rows and rows of vendors with their individual displays of fabric, patterns, notions, magazines and anything else related to quilting. One thing I do love about going to market, beside the fact of being able to see the newest fabrics and notions, are all the samples that decorate each booth. Just the samples and different techniques used give me so many ideas for various projects!
You can read more on the quilting/embroidery aspects of our trip on my embroidery blog here and here.
Joanna and I
We went back to High Fashion Fabrics Saturday evening since we now knew just how to get there. Actually it was a little different route since we were traveling from the convention center instead of our hotel. But I had planned ahead and that morning before leaving the hotel, pulled up several tabs on Google Maps for how to get from the convention center to High Fashion and then how to get from High Fashion back to the hotel.
It was only a couple of blocks from the convention center so we found it without any problem, but getting back to the hotel was a different story. I had that map on the computer, but for some reason the streets we were passing were not on that map! We ended up driving back to the convention center and then back to our hotel. We discovered that in our map planning for the week, we were so excited to get to where we were going that we always had a map of how to get there, but not always a map to get back. You would think that you would go back the way you came, but in downtown Houston there are so many one way streets that that is not always possible!
There's several things we learned about Houston - (1) their streets are just strange with all the one-way directions, (2) they have really short blocks, (3) they have the longest red lights we have ever been stopped at and (4) they have u-turn only lanes! The u-turn only lanes are quite hilarious because u-turns are legal in Texas anywhere. So why would you have u-turn only lanes??
At the convention center, you have to turn left at a stoplight to enter the parking garage. We always stopped at the light and it would take forever to turn green. In fact we never did see that light turn green - ever. The car ahead of us finally turned left on a red light, which I proceeded to do as well since the light was not changing. We learned later the guy in the car ahead of us asked a policeman if that light ever turned green, because he never saw it change either. The policeman said yes, it did and if you turned on a red light, you could get a ticket. So the better thing was to go to the next intersection (remember blocks are short, so it was only a few yards) and make a u-turn and then you would be turning right into the parking garage. So that's exactly what we did!
Really you can't fault us for all the traffic difficulties we had; it was the city we were in. Between all the one-way streets, short blocks, long red lights and u-turns, the city of Houston was definitely the cause of all our driving around.
Sunday morning we dropped by the convention center one last time to say our good-byes to Jeanne, Debbie and others at the Bernina booth and then headed for home. 12 hours is not nearly so long when you have someone to travel with and spend the time visiting and sharing. Not only did we enjoy the time spent in Houston (except for the driving around in circles part!), but also the encouragement we are to each other! It's amazing to see how God brought us together less than a year ago and how our friendship has grown since then.
me, Jeanne Delpit from Bernina, Joanna
Joanna and I are alike in so many ways; we are both uniquely normal. Not only are we unusually young to be sewing/quilting/embroidery professional teachers and to also be so involved in that as a hobby as well as a business, but even in our personalities and thinking we are very similar. I'm so thankful God brought such a wonderful friend into my life and the encouragement and challenge we are to each other both in our sewing endeavors as well as in our spiritual lives!
We have some fun memories from our trip such as my making plans to make plans (I have a feeling someone will never let me forget that!), stumbling upon Sally's Beauty Supply, driving around Houston and a few other details that only seem funny to us. But as Joanna told me on the phone in the very beginning, she didn't think I would look back on the time spent in Houston and regret going. To which she is exactly correct!
Saturday we walked and walked and walked the aisles all day. George Brown Convention Center is huge and there are rows and rows of vendors with their individual displays of fabric, patterns, notions, magazines and anything else related to quilting. One thing I do love about going to market, beside the fact of being able to see the newest fabrics and notions, are all the samples that decorate each booth. Just the samples and different techniques used give me so many ideas for various projects!
You can read more on the quilting/embroidery aspects of our trip on my embroidery blog here and here.
Joanna and IWe went back to High Fashion Fabrics Saturday evening since we now knew just how to get there. Actually it was a little different route since we were traveling from the convention center instead of our hotel. But I had planned ahead and that morning before leaving the hotel, pulled up several tabs on Google Maps for how to get from the convention center to High Fashion and then how to get from High Fashion back to the hotel.
It was only a couple of blocks from the convention center so we found it without any problem, but getting back to the hotel was a different story. I had that map on the computer, but for some reason the streets we were passing were not on that map! We ended up driving back to the convention center and then back to our hotel. We discovered that in our map planning for the week, we were so excited to get to where we were going that we always had a map of how to get there, but not always a map to get back. You would think that you would go back the way you came, but in downtown Houston there are so many one way streets that that is not always possible!
There's several things we learned about Houston - (1) their streets are just strange with all the one-way directions, (2) they have really short blocks, (3) they have the longest red lights we have ever been stopped at and (4) they have u-turn only lanes! The u-turn only lanes are quite hilarious because u-turns are legal in Texas anywhere. So why would you have u-turn only lanes??
At the convention center, you have to turn left at a stoplight to enter the parking garage. We always stopped at the light and it would take forever to turn green. In fact we never did see that light turn green - ever. The car ahead of us finally turned left on a red light, which I proceeded to do as well since the light was not changing. We learned later the guy in the car ahead of us asked a policeman if that light ever turned green, because he never saw it change either. The policeman said yes, it did and if you turned on a red light, you could get a ticket. So the better thing was to go to the next intersection (remember blocks are short, so it was only a few yards) and make a u-turn and then you would be turning right into the parking garage. So that's exactly what we did!
Really you can't fault us for all the traffic difficulties we had; it was the city we were in. Between all the one-way streets, short blocks, long red lights and u-turns, the city of Houston was definitely the cause of all our driving around.
Sunday morning we dropped by the convention center one last time to say our good-byes to Jeanne, Debbie and others at the Bernina booth and then headed for home. 12 hours is not nearly so long when you have someone to travel with and spend the time visiting and sharing. Not only did we enjoy the time spent in Houston (except for the driving around in circles part!), but also the encouragement we are to each other! It's amazing to see how God brought us together less than a year ago and how our friendship has grown since then.
me, Jeanne Delpit from Bernina, JoannaJoanna and I are alike in so many ways; we are both uniquely normal. Not only are we unusually young to be sewing/quilting/embroidery professional teachers and to also be so involved in that as a hobby as well as a business, but even in our personalities and thinking we are very similar. I'm so thankful God brought such a wonderful friend into my life and the encouragement and challenge we are to each other both in our sewing endeavors as well as in our spiritual lives!
We have some fun memories from our trip such as my making plans to make plans (I have a feeling someone will never let me forget that!), stumbling upon Sally's Beauty Supply, driving around Houston and a few other details that only seem funny to us. But as Joanna told me on the phone in the very beginning, she didn't think I would look back on the time spent in Houston and regret going. To which she is exactly correct!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
A last minute quick trip to Houston - Part 1
This morning I opened my notebook in church I use for taking notes and notice that I'm dating today's for November 2nd and my last page was October 12th - three weeks ago. And just now as I looked at my blog, my last blog post was October 19th - two weeks ago. After a couple of crazy weeks, I think I'm back on schedule! :)
Joanna had planned to come out to my house and spend a few days with me the week of October 20th. Oddly enough we chose the week to get together the same week as the Houston Quilt Market; totally unplanned by the way. :)
So Tuesday afternoon, I'm sitting in front of my sewing machine, hemming a pair of jeans and my phone rings. Joanna is on the other end, saying that she thinks we should travel to Houston this week to attend quilt market. I, being the planned and scheduled person that I am, told her that's a crazy idea! We have to plan those things in advance.
I mean, I hadn't planned to go to Houston. We had no hotel hotel booked and finding one a couple days before/during market could be a hopeless possibility. Plus I had a funeral dinner to help with the next day, Sunday School to teach on Sunday and quilting class to teach on Monday. And on top of that, a 12 hour trip to Houston just wasn't in my plans.
After talking the issue back and forth for a while, planning what we would need to do, contacting Jeanne at Bernina to get into market, making sure it was ok with Dad (Who, to my surprise didn't think I was totally crazy (only slightly!) for a last minute trip!) and getting substitutes to work for Joanna on Monday and me to teach SS, I agreed to go. I have never in all my life made such a long trip adventure with less than 24 hours notice. I guess there is always a first and I have to admit it was exciting with all the last minute details. Although I still like to plan it or at least plan to plan it!
Wednesday morning came and I felt like I was constantly running from one thing to the next. As soon as I discovered we actually were leaving, I started running around trying to get packed, orders shipped, email answered, hotel booked, our route planned and whatever else done that came to mind. By the time I finished packing, finally found a hotel room, attended the funeral, helped with the dinner (which was a large and busy one!), came home, loaded up the car and started traveling, I felt like I had been on a 24 hour marathon.
And to think 24 hours before, I was calmly hemming jeans, not having a clue we would be driving to quilt market! :)
We arrived at the hotel we booked in Houston on Thursday afternoon, only to discover it had outside doors, didn't look the greatest and wasn't in the best area of town. Since our room was not yet ready, we went back out to the car, hooked up to the net (wireless Internet is fantastic!), booked a different hotel and looked on Google for directions to get there (Thank goodness for computers, the Internet and cell phones!).
Once we checked into the hotel where we decided we would stay (it was nicer and in a much better area of town in addition to inside doors!), I called and canceled our room at the previous hotel. When I called Dad and told him we were checked in and what we had done, he just couldn't believe it! But just see how technology can be used?! He said he prefered a paper map to which I totally disagree! :)
We decided to visit a couple of fabric shops and what an adventure that was! We pulled up several browser tabs with Google maps for how to get to each one, took my computer and hopped in the car. We found It's A Stitch without any problem, but when it came time to find High Fashion Fabrics, that was a different story. We ended up driving around all over the same area over and over for about two hours, partly because (1) we didn't go far enough on the M street the very first time, (2) we ended up off the map half of the time and (3) the streets are just strange in Houston.
Plus it was rush hour so traffic was increasing, it was starting to get dark and my car kept dying. We decided my car didn't like Joanna since she was the one driving! It would always start again, but it was rather annoying, especially when you didn't know when it would happen. We did finally find High Fashion, but by the time we arrived they were closed. Yep, that's usually how it works!
We started back to the hotel, taking what I thought would be a short cut, but it turned out we ended up going in several large circles. And then we were totally off the map, so it was just a guess what street we were supposed to be on and what direction we were supposed to be going. And we were so excited about getting to the fabric shops, that we didn't even pull up any Google maps for how to get back. Brilliant, yeah I know!
By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we were ever so glad to be there. Looking back on that adventure is funny now, (Especially since Joanna was laughing at me holding my computer upside down and sideways as I gave her directions! She thought it was so funny seeing it instead of just reading about it!) but at the time we were so tired of driving in circles. My mind was so spent after all that trying to figure out where we were, I couldn't even name the streets anymore. I just told Joanna to turn on the H street or turn right right here, even if we had driven on that one several times already. And that just made the situation all the more funny several days later.
And just think - all of that was before quilt market even started! More to come from our trip...
Joanna had planned to come out to my house and spend a few days with me the week of October 20th. Oddly enough we chose the week to get together the same week as the Houston Quilt Market; totally unplanned by the way. :)
So Tuesday afternoon, I'm sitting in front of my sewing machine, hemming a pair of jeans and my phone rings. Joanna is on the other end, saying that she thinks we should travel to Houston this week to attend quilt market. I, being the planned and scheduled person that I am, told her that's a crazy idea! We have to plan those things in advance.
I mean, I hadn't planned to go to Houston. We had no hotel hotel booked and finding one a couple days before/during market could be a hopeless possibility. Plus I had a funeral dinner to help with the next day, Sunday School to teach on Sunday and quilting class to teach on Monday. And on top of that, a 12 hour trip to Houston just wasn't in my plans.
After talking the issue back and forth for a while, planning what we would need to do, contacting Jeanne at Bernina to get into market, making sure it was ok with Dad (Who, to my surprise didn't think I was totally crazy (only slightly!) for a last minute trip!) and getting substitutes to work for Joanna on Monday and me to teach SS, I agreed to go. I have never in all my life made such a long trip adventure with less than 24 hours notice. I guess there is always a first and I have to admit it was exciting with all the last minute details. Although I still like to plan it or at least plan to plan it!
Wednesday morning came and I felt like I was constantly running from one thing to the next. As soon as I discovered we actually were leaving, I started running around trying to get packed, orders shipped, email answered, hotel booked, our route planned and whatever else done that came to mind. By the time I finished packing, finally found a hotel room, attended the funeral, helped with the dinner (which was a large and busy one!), came home, loaded up the car and started traveling, I felt like I had been on a 24 hour marathon.
And to think 24 hours before, I was calmly hemming jeans, not having a clue we would be driving to quilt market! :)
We arrived at the hotel we booked in Houston on Thursday afternoon, only to discover it had outside doors, didn't look the greatest and wasn't in the best area of town. Since our room was not yet ready, we went back out to the car, hooked up to the net (wireless Internet is fantastic!), booked a different hotel and looked on Google for directions to get there (Thank goodness for computers, the Internet and cell phones!).
Once we checked into the hotel where we decided we would stay (it was nicer and in a much better area of town in addition to inside doors!), I called and canceled our room at the previous hotel. When I called Dad and told him we were checked in and what we had done, he just couldn't believe it! But just see how technology can be used?! He said he prefered a paper map to which I totally disagree! :)
We decided to visit a couple of fabric shops and what an adventure that was! We pulled up several browser tabs with Google maps for how to get to each one, took my computer and hopped in the car. We found It's A Stitch without any problem, but when it came time to find High Fashion Fabrics, that was a different story. We ended up driving around all over the same area over and over for about two hours, partly because (1) we didn't go far enough on the M street the very first time, (2) we ended up off the map half of the time and (3) the streets are just strange in Houston.
Plus it was rush hour so traffic was increasing, it was starting to get dark and my car kept dying. We decided my car didn't like Joanna since she was the one driving! It would always start again, but it was rather annoying, especially when you didn't know when it would happen. We did finally find High Fashion, but by the time we arrived they were closed. Yep, that's usually how it works!
We started back to the hotel, taking what I thought would be a short cut, but it turned out we ended up going in several large circles. And then we were totally off the map, so it was just a guess what street we were supposed to be on and what direction we were supposed to be going. And we were so excited about getting to the fabric shops, that we didn't even pull up any Google maps for how to get back. Brilliant, yeah I know!
By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we were ever so glad to be there. Looking back on that adventure is funny now, (Especially since Joanna was laughing at me holding my computer upside down and sideways as I gave her directions! She thought it was so funny seeing it instead of just reading about it!) but at the time we were so tired of driving in circles. My mind was so spent after all that trying to figure out where we were, I couldn't even name the streets anymore. I just told Joanna to turn on the H street or turn right right here, even if we had driven on that one several times already. And that just made the situation all the more funny several days later.
And just think - all of that was before quilt market even started! More to come from our trip...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
What happened if the Internet crashed?
That was the topic of our supper conversation last night. Jena and I were on the offensive side of if the Internet disappeared, we would be in huge trouble. Not just us personally, but there would be major problems in this world because we are so dependent on the online world.
Dad, being the practical person that he is, said you could most certainly live without the Internet. Life would continue. Of course, you have to understand that he only visits about three online sites: the weather, cattle markets and grain markets. Simple for him to revert back to non-online life. (Just a note here - for some of us, ahem, life would just NOT continue without the Internet.)
This whole conversation started because I found a bookcase full of Mom's old nursing books and Dad's old horse books while I was organizing downstairs and was asking Jena if I could just toss the nursing ones. Mom kept them just because she could never bear to part with them, even though she rarely used them. Jena said toss them since she has her own updated nursing books and even then, she usually searches the Internet before looking at her books.
Then Dad remarked that if something happened to the Internet, we might want/need those books. Well, if the entire Internet crashes, the last thing we would be concerned about would be researching nursing or horse books. Yep, we would have much greater concerns than that.
Jena and I talked about how rarely we opened a paper book for research; if we want to know something, Google holds the answer. I can't even recall the last time I opened a dictionary or encyclopedia in book form. Even in my quiet time, studying for kid's club or preparing for Sunday School, I look to online Biblical resources.
Really the Internet holds so much more information that could be printed in books and takes up much less space than books ever could. In addition to that, the search feature is so much faster and easier online than looking through a book. That's not to say that all books can be replaced by the Internet, because there are some wonderful books that I'm keeping, but as for research books - I'm all in favor for looking online!
Jena and I are in total agreement to that fact. Now we just have to convince Dad......
Dad, being the practical person that he is, said you could most certainly live without the Internet. Life would continue. Of course, you have to understand that he only visits about three online sites: the weather, cattle markets and grain markets. Simple for him to revert back to non-online life. (Just a note here - for some of us, ahem, life would just NOT continue without the Internet.)
This whole conversation started because I found a bookcase full of Mom's old nursing books and Dad's old horse books while I was organizing downstairs and was asking Jena if I could just toss the nursing ones. Mom kept them just because she could never bear to part with them, even though she rarely used them. Jena said toss them since she has her own updated nursing books and even then, she usually searches the Internet before looking at her books.
Then Dad remarked that if something happened to the Internet, we might want/need those books. Well, if the entire Internet crashes, the last thing we would be concerned about would be researching nursing or horse books. Yep, we would have much greater concerns than that.
Jena and I talked about how rarely we opened a paper book for research; if we want to know something, Google holds the answer. I can't even recall the last time I opened a dictionary or encyclopedia in book form. Even in my quiet time, studying for kid's club or preparing for Sunday School, I look to online Biblical resources.
Really the Internet holds so much more information that could be printed in books and takes up much less space than books ever could. In addition to that, the search feature is so much faster and easier online than looking through a book. That's not to say that all books can be replaced by the Internet, because there are some wonderful books that I'm keeping, but as for research books - I'm all in favor for looking online!
Jena and I are in total agreement to that fact. Now we just have to convince Dad......
Friday, August 22, 2008
Why did it take me so long????
You would think I could figure out a simple matter such as this, but it took me almost two weeks of wrestling with it before it finally clicked in my head!Ever since I bought my ipod, I knew it was missing something: wireless technology. About every piece of computer equipment I have now is wireless and those little wires connected my ipod to my ears just get in the way at times. Why can't they invent a device to make my ipod bluetooth compatible??
I thought they had and kinda sorta they did, just not according to my standards! You see I wanted something small that will fit in my ear so it's hidden and I won't look totally ridiculous when I'm wearing it as I am shopping. Then I won't have this little white wire connecting my ear to my pocket! :)
I came across this bluetooth adapter that plugs into my ipod port and would make it bluetooth compatible to a stereo headset, so of course I was thrilled and bought one off of eBay. Just what I had been waiting for!!! Perfect!!! I was so excited and could hardly wait for it to get here!
Received it in the mail and tried over and over to connect it with my bluetooth headset. I tried everything over several days time and could not get it to connect. I even resorted to reading the directions and still no success. Ok, maybe the bluetooth headset I had wasn't able to pair with the device, so I ordered a different one and tried it. (Thankfully I did need a different one anyway, in addition to the ipod issue!) Surely a phone, headset and ipod bluetooth adapter all bearing the Motorola brand would connect to each other, right?
Well, not quite. The phone and headset, no problem, but not the ipod.
Finally I went back online, did some more research and checking and ordered a different kind of adapter to connect to my ipod from another company.
After a several day wait, it arrived in the mail and I again tried pairing it with my headset. No connection made. Ok, reread the directions. Still nothing. Ok, try Jena's ipod since it is newer than mine. Nope, that's not it. Hmmm....I'm stumped! Ok, stop, think on it for a couple of days, recharge every device I now own and try again later.
So one evening this week I set aside a couple of hours and decided I was going to figure this thing out and get it to connect or figure out why it wouldn't. I sat down with my computer, two headsets, two ipods, two bluetooth adapters and multiple sheets of instructions.
I tried connecting anything and everything and I could not pair any ipod with any headset. I kept looking online, reading, typing questions into Google, jumping from page to page trying to figure out why in the world I couldn't get a connection.
Finally it hit me as I reread the listing for the adapter I bought: Ipod Bluetooth Stereo Adapter.
In a word....no. Just plain no.
That's why I said before, "they did, just not according to my standards". To make these little adapters work correctly they will only pair with a stereo headset such as this or this. Which I would feel much less awkward with little white wires connecting my ear to my pocket than one of those on my head while shopping at the mall.
At least I did figure it out. Anybody need a bluetooth ipod adapter or bluetooth headset? I seem to have collected a couple extra!!! :) So much for my brilliant idea.....
Maybe I should start searching Google for a way to stream stereo audio into a mono device....hmmm....or maybe I should just give up considering how much time I have already spent on this issue. Yep, that's probably the best idea.
Well, not quite. The phone and headset, no problem, but not the ipod.
Finally I went back online, did some more research and checking and ordered a different kind of adapter to connect to my ipod from another company.
After a several day wait, it arrived in the mail and I again tried pairing it with my headset. No connection made. Ok, reread the directions. Still nothing. Ok, try Jena's ipod since it is newer than mine. Nope, that's not it. Hmmm....I'm stumped! Ok, stop, think on it for a couple of days, recharge every device I now own and try again later.
So one evening this week I set aside a couple of hours and decided I was going to figure this thing out and get it to connect or figure out why it wouldn't. I sat down with my computer, two headsets, two ipods, two bluetooth adapters and multiple sheets of instructions.
I tried connecting anything and everything and I could not pair any ipod with any headset. I kept looking online, reading, typing questions into Google, jumping from page to page trying to figure out why in the world I couldn't get a connection.
Finally it hit me as I reread the listing for the adapter I bought: Ipod Bluetooth Stereo Adapter.
Yes, stereo adapter. How many times did I read that little six letter word and it didn't click??? All the times I tried connecting, rereading the directions, researching Motorola's website, purchasing these headsets and adapters online...did it ever dawn on me that the headsets I had were...um...mono, not a stereo headset??? (Non-technical meaning: A stereo audio connection is two lines of lines of streaming audio, but mono is only one line of streaming audio.)
In a word....no. Just plain no.
That's why I said before, "they did, just not according to my standards". To make these little adapters work correctly they will only pair with a stereo headset such as this or this. Which I would feel much less awkward with little white wires connecting my ear to my pocket than one of those on my head while shopping at the mall.
At least I did figure it out. Anybody need a bluetooth ipod adapter or bluetooth headset? I seem to have collected a couple extra!!! :) So much for my brilliant idea.....
Maybe I should start searching Google for a way to stream stereo audio into a mono device....hmmm....or maybe I should just give up considering how much time I have already spent on this issue. Yep, that's probably the best idea.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Garage sale shopping made much easier with the help of Google
10 years ago the Internet was a brand new thing in our house. With only one computer for our entire family of five (I'm not quite sure just how we survived, but apparently we made it!), our online adventures were just an email check once or twice a week and that's it!
Compare that to now, where we have more computers than we do members of our family. And you may be thinking, "You can only use one at a time. You only have one pair of hands to type on one keyboard at one time." Sorry to say, but that just has no validity to it. If you could take a peek at me now, you'd see me surrounded by three computers, all on and all in use. But most of you who know me, realize that's no great surprise.
And the Internet is not just a once or twice a week email check with a dial-up long distance phone call that we had to limit to only a few minutes. The Internet now is apart of my daily life (no big surprise there, huh?).
But seriously, once upon a time when I needed to know how to spell a word, I opened a dictionary. When I needed a phone number, I opened up the actual hard copy phone book. When I needed to know how to get to X street, I spread out a paper map, trying to figure out which way was up (or to make it much easier, just ask Dad). When I didn't have all the information I needed for a school report, the set of encyclopedias in the bookcase had the answer.
But now, there's only one word for the answer to all of the above: Google. Yep, I can type just about anything in that text box, hit the enter key and in less than 2 seconds have a list of answers at my fingertips.
The Internet and Google have changed so much of what we do. Which brings me to the real reason for this post: Did you know you can now plan your garage sale shopping with Google?
When I read that, it just brought back so many memories of garage sale shopping with Mom. I can just imagine the "planning" that would now go into Mom's garage sale hunting with the use of Google.
Mom loved, just loved "garage sale hopping" as she called it. As spring drew near every year (her favorite time of year), she would eagerly anticipate getting up early on a Saturday morning with the garage sale list cut out of Friday's newspaper and a map of Dodge City (ummm...that was a paper map, not a printed Google one...:)). With three tag-along girls, Mom would plan out her morning of hitting the best sales in one area and then moving onto the next.
It's been I-don't-know-how-long since I've actually been to a garage sale. But I can remember those times my sisters and I went with Mom. She would find all kinds of things, some of them we still have to this day - computer desk, clothes, shoes, bookcases, and so much more.
We would start early in the morning, go from sale to sale and be back home by noon or early afternoon. The best part would be when we got home. We carried in all our "treasures" and laid them out in the family room for Dad to see what we found.
Those of you who knew my Mom, know that she always was looking for a bargain and just about didn't buy anything unless it was on sale. So she would begin to outline for Dad what she bought, why she bought it, what she planned to use it for and the best part of all - how much she paid for it and how much she saved by finding it at a garage sale!
Mom was very thrifty and that is something we often talked and teased her about. We always said, "Mom didn't buy anything unless it was on sale." So when she came home with a few extra groceries that we normally don't get, we knew she only bought it because it was on sale. After every shopping trip she would look over her receipts to make sure she was charged the correct amount for all her sale items.
I'll never forget one of the first times Dad and I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, only a few weeks after Mom was gone. As we climbed back into the van after piling the groceries in the back, Dad hands me the receipt and asks me if I want to check it out, making sure we were charged the correct amount.
I responded with, "I think everything is ok because I bought hardly anything that was on sale and that's where the majority of errors are made." When Jena heard that, her comment was, "THAT'S where you made your first mistake.....you didn't buy anything on sale."
With Mom having been gone only a few weeks, the pain of losing her was still fresh, but that brought some smiles to our faces. Because that was so very true. And everytime I remember that conversation, I just can't keep from smiling.
So very true, so very Mom, so very good memories - garage sale hopping, bargain shopping and all!
Compare that to now, where we have more computers than we do members of our family. And you may be thinking, "You can only use one at a time. You only have one pair of hands to type on one keyboard at one time." Sorry to say, but that just has no validity to it. If you could take a peek at me now, you'd see me surrounded by three computers, all on and all in use. But most of you who know me, realize that's no great surprise.
And the Internet is not just a once or twice a week email check with a dial-up long distance phone call that we had to limit to only a few minutes. The Internet now is apart of my daily life (no big surprise there, huh?).
But seriously, once upon a time when I needed to know how to spell a word, I opened a dictionary. When I needed a phone number, I opened up the actual hard copy phone book. When I needed to know how to get to X street, I spread out a paper map, trying to figure out which way was up (or to make it much easier, just ask Dad). When I didn't have all the information I needed for a school report, the set of encyclopedias in the bookcase had the answer.
But now, there's only one word for the answer to all of the above: Google. Yep, I can type just about anything in that text box, hit the enter key and in less than 2 seconds have a list of answers at my fingertips.
The Internet and Google have changed so much of what we do. Which brings me to the real reason for this post: Did you know you can now plan your garage sale shopping with Google?
When I read that, it just brought back so many memories of garage sale shopping with Mom. I can just imagine the "planning" that would now go into Mom's garage sale hunting with the use of Google.
Mom loved, just loved "garage sale hopping" as she called it. As spring drew near every year (her favorite time of year), she would eagerly anticipate getting up early on a Saturday morning with the garage sale list cut out of Friday's newspaper and a map of Dodge City (ummm...that was a paper map, not a printed Google one...:)). With three tag-along girls, Mom would plan out her morning of hitting the best sales in one area and then moving onto the next.
It's been I-don't-know-how-long since I've actually been to a garage sale. But I can remember those times my sisters and I went with Mom. She would find all kinds of things, some of them we still have to this day - computer desk, clothes, shoes, bookcases, and so much more.
We would start early in the morning, go from sale to sale and be back home by noon or early afternoon. The best part would be when we got home. We carried in all our "treasures" and laid them out in the family room for Dad to see what we found.
Those of you who knew my Mom, know that she always was looking for a bargain and just about didn't buy anything unless it was on sale. So she would begin to outline for Dad what she bought, why she bought it, what she planned to use it for and the best part of all - how much she paid for it and how much she saved by finding it at a garage sale!
Mom was very thrifty and that is something we often talked and teased her about. We always said, "Mom didn't buy anything unless it was on sale." So when she came home with a few extra groceries that we normally don't get, we knew she only bought it because it was on sale. After every shopping trip she would look over her receipts to make sure she was charged the correct amount for all her sale items.
I'll never forget one of the first times Dad and I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, only a few weeks after Mom was gone. As we climbed back into the van after piling the groceries in the back, Dad hands me the receipt and asks me if I want to check it out, making sure we were charged the correct amount.
I responded with, "I think everything is ok because I bought hardly anything that was on sale and that's where the majority of errors are made." When Jena heard that, her comment was, "THAT'S where you made your first mistake.....you didn't buy anything on sale."
With Mom having been gone only a few weeks, the pain of losing her was still fresh, but that brought some smiles to our faces. Because that was so very true. And everytime I remember that conversation, I just can't keep from smiling.
So very true, so very Mom, so very good memories - garage sale hopping, bargain shopping and all!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
What happened to that empty inbox?
You know, it was only a short time ago that this Inbox was completely empty. Yes, completely empty! Everything answered, everything filed, everything sorted.
And now just look at it - 116 messages that need to be deleted and filed. And that is only since a little over a week ago with no spam included! At least the replied to part is taken care of....I think.....
And now just look at it - 116 messages that need to be deleted and filed. And that is only since a little over a week ago with no spam included! At least the replied to part is taken care of....I think.....
Thursday, April 10, 2008
You would think out of all the cords we have...
....I would be able to find the one I needed! Nope!
Let me give you a little background info regarding this cord searching process.
You see, sometime my mind operates in two different worlds (1) business and quilting and (2) family and everything else. And while most of the time my mind is flipping back and forth between the two almost constantly, there are occasions that I'm only existing in one world. Big surprise, huh? :) Btw, that was a rhetorical question and doesn't need to be answered!
Like last Thursday night.
I'm vice-president of our local quilt guild and that means a certain amount of responsibility, keeping track of certain things and being responsible for some programs if needed. I was in charge of last month's meeting where we did this neat little thread catcher and volunteered myself to do May's program as well.
Actually I kinda have to do it because we are watching a quilting instructional dvd and I am about the only one in the group who has a computer, projector and speakers. So when our president confirmed with me at the end of our April meeting about our May movie-watching meeting, I said I had everything and we were all set to go.
And then as I was lying in bed that night thinking about next month's meeting, it suddenly dawned on me!!!!
Thursday evening, May 1st, quilt guild meeting.
Krissa's graduation in South Carolina, Saturday, May 3rd.
Trip from Kansas to South Carolina: 2 days.
And....um....leaving Thursday morning....which, ahem, means I will no longer be in Kansas Thursday evening.
Now, just what was I thinking?!?! Krissa's graduation has been planned for years (seems like it, anyway!) and I had told multiple people who asked me about her that week she was graduating on the 3rd and we were driving Thursday and Friday.
See how my mind was in two directions? The problem is that the directions didn't intersect until that night. Yep, that was most certainly the problem.
So now, in light of all the above information which I am sure you were just dying to find out, I tried hooking up everything using my dvd player instead of my computer for playing the dvd. You see I can let go of my projector and speakers for the guild to use at the May meeting, but not my computer. And I have all the connecting cords to make the computer talk to the projector and the speakers, so that wasn't an issue, but I wasn't sure about the cords with the dvd player.
And since I'm going to let them use my dvd player instead of my computer to hook up to the projector and speakers, I have to have a different cord for the audio speakers to hook into the dvd player. Which I was sure to have since we have so many computer/dvd/vcr/tv cables hanging around our house.
But nope, I just need one more cord. But once I get that, then I think I'm set! I'll do a practice run with everything to be sure all is in working order and then hand it all over to our guild president for the movie-watching adventure!
And as for me that Thursday evening...I'll probably be in the van driving east, with a laptop computer in my lap.
Let me give you a little background info regarding this cord searching process.
You see, sometime my mind operates in two different worlds (1) business and quilting and (2) family and everything else. And while most of the time my mind is flipping back and forth between the two almost constantly, there are occasions that I'm only existing in one world. Big surprise, huh? :) Btw, that was a rhetorical question and doesn't need to be answered!
Like last Thursday night.
I'm vice-president of our local quilt guild and that means a certain amount of responsibility, keeping track of certain things and being responsible for some programs if needed. I was in charge of last month's meeting where we did this neat little thread catcher and volunteered myself to do May's program as well.
Actually I kinda have to do it because we are watching a quilting instructional dvd and I am about the only one in the group who has a computer, projector and speakers. So when our president confirmed with me at the end of our April meeting about our May movie-watching meeting, I said I had everything and we were all set to go.
And then as I was lying in bed that night thinking about next month's meeting, it suddenly dawned on me!!!!
Thursday evening, May 1st, quilt guild meeting.
Krissa's graduation in South Carolina, Saturday, May 3rd.
Trip from Kansas to South Carolina: 2 days.
And....um....leaving Thursday morning....which, ahem, means I will no longer be in Kansas Thursday evening.
Now, just what was I thinking?!?! Krissa's graduation has been planned for years (seems like it, anyway!) and I had told multiple people who asked me about her that week she was graduating on the 3rd and we were driving Thursday and Friday.
See how my mind was in two directions? The problem is that the directions didn't intersect until that night. Yep, that was most certainly the problem.
So now, in light of all the above information which I am sure you were just dying to find out, I tried hooking up everything using my dvd player instead of my computer for playing the dvd. You see I can let go of my projector and speakers for the guild to use at the May meeting, but not my computer. And I have all the connecting cords to make the computer talk to the projector and the speakers, so that wasn't an issue, but I wasn't sure about the cords with the dvd player.
And since I'm going to let them use my dvd player instead of my computer to hook up to the projector and speakers, I have to have a different cord for the audio speakers to hook into the dvd player. Which I was sure to have since we have so many computer/dvd/vcr/tv cables hanging around our house.
But nope, I just need one more cord. But once I get that, then I think I'm set! I'll do a practice run with everything to be sure all is in working order and then hand it all over to our guild president for the movie-watching adventure!
And as for me that Thursday evening...I'll probably be in the van driving east, with a laptop computer in my lap.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Wait...can that actually be correct? o messages?!?!
I actually went through the email in my Inbox, filed what needed to be filed, deleted some, answered what I needed to and I actually only have 6 emails in my business Inbox!
As exciting as it is to have all my email organized and filed away, it still is always great to hear that little chime when a new email appears! After all, who doesn't like receiving email?!?!?!
And my personal email addy Inbox is actually....wait a minute, did I read that correctly?....0 messages?? Whoohoo!!! Yes, that's right. I should have taken a photo before because the list was mighty long with emails dating back to.....oh my, yes, it's true.....October 2007.
I had a ton of emails sitting in my Inbox waiting to be filed, mainly because I've been doing some business with a company and there's been many, many emails back and forth within the last two weeks, probably around 60-70 emails being traded back and forth.
And then there's been quite a few emails between a certain someone and myself this week filling up my Inbox. So since I'm sure that certain someone will be reading this...you can see my Inbox now sits at 0 and I've been keeping up with my email!! :) LOL!!
I had a ton of emails sitting in my Inbox waiting to be filed, mainly because I've been doing some business with a company and there's been many, many emails back and forth within the last two weeks, probably around 60-70 emails being traded back and forth.
And then there's been quite a few emails between a certain someone and myself this week filling up my Inbox. So since I'm sure that certain someone will be reading this...you can see my Inbox now sits at 0 and I've been keeping up with my email!! :) LOL!!
As exciting as it is to have all my email organized and filed away, it still is always great to hear that little chime when a new email appears! After all, who doesn't like receiving email?!?!?!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Don't do what I did...
Computer batteries...got to have them! Last summer I ordered a new computer battery for two reasons - (1) I didn't want to be without one if this one gave out and (2) this one was holding power for only about 45 minutes, so I wanted one with a longer life time.
I received the one I ordered, inserted it in my computer to make sure it fit and my little battery light lit up. It did. So I packed it away for when I would need it in the future. I wanted to continue to use my old one until I could stand it no longer.
Last week I decided it was time to get out the new battery as my current one was only holding power for about 15 minutes. I put it in, let it charge overnight and the next morning it wasn't charged at all.
Ok, I didn't have it in correctly. Put it back in, make sure the little arrow is saying it's charging and I came back several hours later with still an uncharged battery.
Next option: give it to Dad to fix. After all he fixed my electric cord, so why couldn't he fix a broken battery? After messing with it several times, Dad could not figure out why it wasn't working, so his suggestion was to just get a new one saying, "They aren't that expensive, are they?"
Ummm.....yes, they are. If any of you have replaced computer batteries you know they are anywhere from $50-$150.
But I don't know what else to do, except to order a new one. Since I ordered this one last summer and most return policies are only 30, 60 or 90 days, I very much doubt I would be able to return it since it's now been almost 8 months. But I am going to hunt up my receipt and email the company, explain the situation and see if they will replace it.
For an item that cost me around $80-$90 (which is a bargain) as I recall, it's worth an email to see if they will replace it.
If you ever get a new battery, be sure to plug it in, fully charge it and make sure it holds the charge within a couple weeks of receiving it. I know I will from now on.
I received the one I ordered, inserted it in my computer to make sure it fit and my little battery light lit up. It did. So I packed it away for when I would need it in the future. I wanted to continue to use my old one until I could stand it no longer.
Last week I decided it was time to get out the new battery as my current one was only holding power for about 15 minutes. I put it in, let it charge overnight and the next morning it wasn't charged at all.
Ok, I didn't have it in correctly. Put it back in, make sure the little arrow is saying it's charging and I came back several hours later with still an uncharged battery.
Next option: give it to Dad to fix. After all he fixed my electric cord, so why couldn't he fix a broken battery? After messing with it several times, Dad could not figure out why it wasn't working, so his suggestion was to just get a new one saying, "They aren't that expensive, are they?"
Ummm.....yes, they are. If any of you have replaced computer batteries you know they are anywhere from $50-$150.
But I don't know what else to do, except to order a new one. Since I ordered this one last summer and most return policies are only 30, 60 or 90 days, I very much doubt I would be able to return it since it's now been almost 8 months. But I am going to hunt up my receipt and email the company, explain the situation and see if they will replace it.
For an item that cost me around $80-$90 (which is a bargain) as I recall, it's worth an email to see if they will replace it.
If you ever get a new battery, be sure to plug it in, fully charge it and make sure it holds the charge within a couple weeks of receiving it. I know I will from now on.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The week in review: locked keys, army of God, Grandma and cattle
This week seemed full and eventful until this afternoon. I guess every week is full and busy, so I'm not quite sure why I'm say that this week was that way, but anyway here's a bit of my week!
Monday - I taught my afternoon/evening local quilt class in Dodge City. It was a longer day since our class in the evening finished a little later than usual and I didn't get home until 10:30 pm. Partly because as we were packing everything up in my car, I locked my keys in my trunk. And...um...that happened not 10 minutes after another gal handed me my car keys saying that I should hold onto them because she locked her keys in her trunk a couple weeks ago. She gave them to me and guess what I did??? Yep, locked them in my trunk! And do you know how hard it is looking around for car keys in the middle of a dark parking lot? Let's say I was glad to get home! :)
Tuesday - An uneventful, normal day spent at my computer. Despite the fact that this was the day I became so frustrated at my Internet browser, I was able to get lots of computer work caught up.
Wednesday - This was our last night for studying the armor of God for kid's club. We did a review game, breaking up into two teams with each team answering a correct answer getting to tape armor on themselves. Quite exciting to be able to tape a helmet to your head, belt to your waist, shoes to your feet and sword in hand! The kids enjoyed it and hopefully learned lots. I have our finished army photos that I'll post this weekend. Next week is Spring Break, so we won't have kid's club.
Thursday - I actually spent the day sewing and embroidering on my new quilt! Exciting, exciting!!! It's actually the same quilt pattern I made last year, but with new fabrics. Since I am teaching another online class starting in April, I am stitching another quilt.
Friday - This morning was a rush to get dressed and ready, answer business email, get all my orders shipped and put lunch together in the crock pot before I had to take Grandma to Dodge at 9 am for a Dr. appt. I had to rethink my thoughts on switching to Firefox as when I was rushing to get shipping labels printed, my FF browser froze twice and I ended up switching back to IE to finish printing labels.
Anyway, I did manage to get everything done before Grandma was here a little before 9. She is doing much better since her accident, but needed new glasses since hers were a little mangled and lens less. Did her eye appt., picked out new frames, ran some errands and made it back home by 2pm.
I came home and Dad said that a cow had twins last night and both were dead. Why, he doesn't know. But that's the first calf we lost this year. And the first time we have had twin calves in 7 or 8 years. We've only had one pair of twins and we named then Snaps and Snoops. Cute, huh?
That was back years ago when us girls had names for each and every cow and named every new calf that was born. We came up with some fun and exciting names such as Whitey (never forget her...she chased Dad and us girls up a fence more than once), Peaches, Apple, Bossy, Skeleton, Fuzzface, Baldy, Pumpkin, Popcorn, Blackie, Big Mama and the list goes on....
We had a little book where we kept names written down and when a new calf was born, we'd pull out that book and choose a name. We did that for several years and were able to keep track of which calf belonged to which cow. That was much more exciting than how Dad identifies cows now, such as #43 or black cow or blue ear tag.....:) And he doesn't even bother with naming the calves! Fun times and great memories! :)
Monday - I taught my afternoon/evening local quilt class in Dodge City. It was a longer day since our class in the evening finished a little later than usual and I didn't get home until 10:30 pm. Partly because as we were packing everything up in my car, I locked my keys in my trunk. And...um...that happened not 10 minutes after another gal handed me my car keys saying that I should hold onto them because she locked her keys in her trunk a couple weeks ago. She gave them to me and guess what I did??? Yep, locked them in my trunk! And do you know how hard it is looking around for car keys in the middle of a dark parking lot? Let's say I was glad to get home! :)
Tuesday - An uneventful, normal day spent at my computer. Despite the fact that this was the day I became so frustrated at my Internet browser, I was able to get lots of computer work caught up.
Wednesday - This was our last night for studying the armor of God for kid's club. We did a review game, breaking up into two teams with each team answering a correct answer getting to tape armor on themselves. Quite exciting to be able to tape a helmet to your head, belt to your waist, shoes to your feet and sword in hand! The kids enjoyed it and hopefully learned lots. I have our finished army photos that I'll post this weekend. Next week is Spring Break, so we won't have kid's club.
Thursday - I actually spent the day sewing and embroidering on my new quilt! Exciting, exciting!!! It's actually the same quilt pattern I made last year, but with new fabrics. Since I am teaching another online class starting in April, I am stitching another quilt.
Friday - This morning was a rush to get dressed and ready, answer business email, get all my orders shipped and put lunch together in the crock pot before I had to take Grandma to Dodge at 9 am for a Dr. appt. I had to rethink my thoughts on switching to Firefox as when I was rushing to get shipping labels printed, my FF browser froze twice and I ended up switching back to IE to finish printing labels.
Anyway, I did manage to get everything done before Grandma was here a little before 9. She is doing much better since her accident, but needed new glasses since hers were a little mangled and lens less. Did her eye appt., picked out new frames, ran some errands and made it back home by 2pm.
I came home and Dad said that a cow had twins last night and both were dead. Why, he doesn't know. But that's the first calf we lost this year. And the first time we have had twin calves in 7 or 8 years. We've only had one pair of twins and we named then Snaps and Snoops. Cute, huh?
That was back years ago when us girls had names for each and every cow and named every new calf that was born. We came up with some fun and exciting names such as Whitey (never forget her...she chased Dad and us girls up a fence more than once), Peaches, Apple, Bossy, Skeleton, Fuzzface, Baldy, Pumpkin, Popcorn, Blackie, Big Mama and the list goes on....
We had a little book where we kept names written down and when a new calf was born, we'd pull out that book and choose a name. We did that for several years and were able to keep track of which calf belonged to which cow. That was much more exciting than how Dad identifies cows now, such as #43 or black cow or blue ear tag.....:) And he doesn't even bother with naming the calves! Fun times and great memories! :)
Internet Explorer or Firefox - Which one is best?
I have used Internet Explorer as my Internet browser for years, but this week I have just been a little frustrated with it. I know Firefox is a better browser, but I like some things in IE and am used to using it, so I haven't made the switch.
But this week I did. I was so aggravated with IE. I had several windows open (yes, they also had several tabs open) and all of a sudden, without any warning or reason (I'm sure there is a deep down, hidden reason which is totally beyond my understanding, but in my opinion, no reason) it just closes.
Yes, I'm serious, just closes. I'm typing away and suddenly am seeing my desktop. What happened, I had no clue. And it was no fun getting my windows back on my screen for what I was working on.
I have everything back up, get started typing again and in another few minutes, it happens again. I'm sitting at my computer, typing away and looking at my desktop.
Ok, I decided to quit for a while, do something else, non-computer related and come back to it later. Good plan. Except when I come back later and am very careful to only open one IE window with only a couple of tabs with different sites open, it still happens.
At this point, I am really, I mean really frustrated and I decide I'm moving my browsing to FF. I'm able to get all my windows open with multiple tabs and able to get my task accomplished in actually less time than it would have taken me in IE.
I've been using FF this week for blogging and it is so much easier to load photos and edit posts in Blogger than doing it in IE. There are other websites I would rather use IE for, so I guess I'm split between the two.
I still like IE for some things, but FF is much easier for blogging, so do I stick with IE and just deal with the hassles or do I start using FF and get more familiar with it. One of my drawbacks, I know with FF is that it will take me a little while to get my toolbars and such set up so my sites are easy to get to. But I can do that.
One thing I did like about FF was this little message:
My question for you: What browser to you use and do you like using it?
But this week I did. I was so aggravated with IE. I had several windows open (yes, they also had several tabs open) and all of a sudden, without any warning or reason (I'm sure there is a deep down, hidden reason which is totally beyond my understanding, but in my opinion, no reason) it just closes.
Yes, I'm serious, just closes. I'm typing away and suddenly am seeing my desktop. What happened, I had no clue. And it was no fun getting my windows back on my screen for what I was working on.
I have everything back up, get started typing again and in another few minutes, it happens again. I'm sitting at my computer, typing away and looking at my desktop.
Ok, I decided to quit for a while, do something else, non-computer related and come back to it later. Good plan. Except when I come back later and am very careful to only open one IE window with only a couple of tabs with different sites open, it still happens.
At this point, I am really, I mean really frustrated and I decide I'm moving my browsing to FF. I'm able to get all my windows open with multiple tabs and able to get my task accomplished in actually less time than it would have taken me in IE.
I've been using FF this week for blogging and it is so much easier to load photos and edit posts in Blogger than doing it in IE. There are other websites I would rather use IE for, so I guess I'm split between the two.
I still like IE for some things, but FF is much easier for blogging, so do I stick with IE and just deal with the hassles or do I start using FF and get more familiar with it. One of my drawbacks, I know with FF is that it will take me a little while to get my toolbars and such set up so my sites are easy to get to. But I can do that.
One thing I did like about FF was this little message:
The electricity flickered, which shut off my computer right in the middle of what I was doing and when I restarted FF, this is the question I was asked, "Would you like to restore the tabs and windows from your previous session?" WOW!!! I clicked the Restore Session button and what do you know - my windows and tabs that I had open appeared! I like that!!! :)
I think I will start using FF more and more and see how things go. I know it's the better browser, so I really will probably save myself some time and energy just switching over.My question for you: What browser to you use and do you like using it?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Can you fix this?
It never seems to fail. When I need something fixed, usually Dad can do it! Like today.
Last night for some reason I had trouble sleeping (I'm not quite sure why, since I usually am so tired, I don't struggle with lying awake at night). But anyway last night, between waking up what seemed like every 30 minutes, I heard a chewing noise. Yep, a chewing noise.
Before I go any further you have to know a few things:
--Skittles sleeps on my bed every night.
--She is not a kitten anymore, but still behaves like one.
--My computer sits at the end of my bed every night, plugged into the outlet next to my bed.
Are you starting to get the picture?
I sat up in bed, saw her at the end of the bed where my computer was and knew that my electrical cord was being torn apart. I reached down, unplugged the end from and my computer and felt sharp wires with empty rubber tubing. Not a good sign!
This morning the first thing I did was give Dad the cord and ask, "Can you fix this?"
And his response, "Was that the same one I fixed before?"
You see, not only has he fixed this cord once:
But twice:
And now the third time:
Hopefully this will be the last time Dad will be fixing this cord. There's only bits and pieces of the cord that is not covered in tape. I'm just glad Dad can fix it or I'd be without a laptop computer for a while.
From now on either Skittles or my computer has to go at night. Hmmm....hard choice, but I think it has to be my computer....:)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Typical bullets or little swirls????
Have I never posted bullets on this blog before? Apparently not because my bullets are nice little swirl characters instead of little round circles on my last post. And I would have remembered seeing those instead of typical bullets.
When I get a chance, I'll have to dig into the html code and see if I can get the bullet character changed back to normal. Until then....enjoy the little swirls!
When I get a chance, I'll have to dig into the html code and see if I can get the bullet character changed back to normal. Until then....enjoy the little swirls!
My typical IE window...
It just drives me nuts to only have one IE window open when I'm working on the computer. Most of the time I have at least one or two IE windows open and they have multiple tabs open!
I was thrilled when IE 7 came out with tabbed browsing. Finally I could have multiple windows open in only one window - so much easier to manage and taking less of my computer memory! Firefox had tabbed browsing before IE ever did and I really should switch over to Firefox, but I just can't make myself yet....
Let's see what I have open:
- iTunes - always open when I'm at the computer!
- IE with 9 tabs open:
- http://www.oneplace.com/ - I was listening to some Bible programs earlier in the day
- http://www.ebay.com/ - posting on my eBay blog for the week
- http://www.blogger.com/ - uploading a video to my embroidery blog
- http://www.blogger.com/ - writing about Grandma on this blog
- www.embtreasures.com/blog.htm - responding to comments on my embroidery blog
- http://www.youtube.com/ - uploading part 1 my newest sewing room video
- http://www.youtube.com/ uploading part 2 of my newest sewing room video
- http://www.youtube.com/ - responding to comments on my sewing video posts (that's the tab that you see above)
- http://www.constantcontact.com/ - sending out my embroidery newsletter for the week
- http://www.blogger.com/ - uploading window for the above photo
- http://www.realplayer.com/ - I was downloading some programs from the net into RealPlayer
I just keep switching forth between tabs until I get everything accomplished. I have to do that when I'm uploading videos because it takes a while (they're actually still uploading as I'm typing this post!).
Maybe, just perhaps, could it be taking longer because I'm doing multiple things at once on the net and using up bandwidth all at the same time? Probably true, but that's what my typical computer screen looks like!
Friday, February 8, 2008
For future information...
You know how you look and look for something one day; you need it desperetly but can't find it? Then a week later you find that thing you were looking for and could have saved you time when you needed it a week ago.
Well...it's two weeks later since I taped my quilt lessons upside down and I found what I needed. I discovered in my blog reading here how I can rotate video files in Windows Movie Maker.
And of course, it's not two weeks before I need that information....it's two weeks after I needed that information. Oh well, next time, I know exactly what to do.
But the great thing also is that not only can I rotate videos that have been taped upside down, but also those that have been taped sideways. I have a video tape of the skit some of the teachers/counselors did at camp 2 years ago that Krissa taped sideways. Now I know how I can change that!
I'm still glad I found that info, even if it is two weeks after I needed it!
Well...it's two weeks later since I taped my quilt lessons upside down and I found what I needed. I discovered in my blog reading here how I can rotate video files in Windows Movie Maker.
And of course, it's not two weeks before I need that information....it's two weeks after I needed that information. Oh well, next time, I know exactly what to do.
But the great thing also is that not only can I rotate videos that have been taped upside down, but also those that have been taped sideways. I have a video tape of the skit some of the teachers/counselors did at camp 2 years ago that Krissa taped sideways. Now I know how I can change that!
I'm still glad I found that info, even if it is two weeks after I needed it!
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