Computers are such a pain

They make us change our passwords at work every 90 days, which is stupid--several studies have shown that changing passwords compulsively does nothing to prevent identity theft or hacking. At any rate, I changed it late last week, and upon returning to the office after 4 days, I couldn't remember what it was and succeeded in locking myself out. To reset it, it turns out I have to have my employee number (the university decided to stop using social security numbers, which is also dumb). I don't know what it is. You're supposed to have an ID card, which I don't have. I managed to look it up, jumped through the hoops, and got my password changed.

Well, I forgot that I had to change the stupid password on stupid Zimbra when I got home, so I stopped after 2 incorrect log-ins and went back to campus to get the piece of paper I'd written it down on. Brought it back, put it in, and got kicked out again. I don't quite understand it, since it took the password to get me online, but it won't take it for Zimbra. So apparently I'm going to have to look up my ID number again when I get to work tomorrow and change the stupid password again, write it down, and make sure I change it wherever it's supposed to changed on this computer. Maddening!!!

OTOH--I took Timber with me when I went back to campus. Put his regular collar with the tags on and a martingale collar, and hooked him up to a flexi lead, and he was wonderful. He listened to me, he came back to me when I asked him to, he didn't dash out and hit the end of the leash like a ton of bricks--I was so proud and happy I could hardly stand it. It was great. It would have been greater if my knees hadn't started to hurt.

Which reminds me--I surrender. On the way up the stairs in the building where I work, my right knee hurt a LOT and I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Not good. There is an elevator in the building, but no one uses it if they don't have to, and no one gets onto it unless they have a cell phone to call for help. I am not kidding. It's completely unreliable. But my point is that I now bow to the fact that okay, that knee probably does need surgery. *sigh*

Saturday

I'm sitting here trying to decide whether to get a new laptop. I really hate to put anything on the Visa card. I'm trying so hard to pay it off! But there are several good reasons to get a laptop.

It's been raining hard off and on since this afternoon. I took Timber for a walk this morning, and he was very good! He pulled just a little bit, but when he did, I would stop, and he would glance over his shoulder at me and come back, and as soon as he did, I'd start walking again. And when we encountered a guy coming the opposite way, I stepped off the sidewalk and asked Timber for a sit-stay, which he did very nicely. It was a very pleasant walk, and I was a proud mommy. Our hard work is paying off. Poor Taenzer, though, we only got about a block before the first spell of rain blew through and we had to hurry home.

The local farm store had a sale on a bird feeder pole with two fixed arms, a moveable arm, a mesh tray, and a plastic tray, so I ran out and got one. The really expensive ones are close to $100, but mine's not so expensive, and on sale it was only $20. A small problem--it's taller than the pole I had up, and I needed a stepstool to get the sunflower seed feeder up. Ah well, I'll just get a longer hook to hang it from, so I can reach. Another small problem: I can't get the lid off the sunflower feeder. I'm going to have to get someone to do it for me, and then tinker with the clips so that they still hold, but I can get it open.

I think tomorrow I'm going to go out and see if I can find a nice suet feeder and a pole baffle to try to keep the squirrels out of the suet. Hopefully all the nesting birds will like it for their babies as well as for themselves.

I'm also thinking of putting the pole I was using in the puppy pen and hanging a couple of feeders out there, so I can watch birds feeding while I'm out with the dogs.

I'm finally nearing the end of my 2009 calendar scarf. I have one pattern left to go. I have enjoyed working on this, with the different patterns and different yarns. I especially like the qiviut and the buffalo down. I'd like to work with them again; maybe I can find another sale.

I expect I'll do socks as my next project, if I can successfully combine one of my beautiful sock yarns with one of the many patterns I want to do.

And, oh yes, I got the lace scarf finally back on the needles and mostly made back to where I was when I originally dropped a stitch. It's going to be a nice little scarf, something I can wear to work, I think.

I also meant to tell about my sweet peas. Last year I did about 4 plantings of sweet peas before I got them to come up. Each time I faithfully soaked them for 24 hours before I planted them, and kept them watered, and hung over them, and eventually got half a dozen or so spindly little plants that bloomed sometime around in July. This year I put a packet in the ground, got them covered up, and thought, oops, I forgot to soak them; oh well, I'll just replant later. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago to find a long, thick row of sturdy-looking little sweet pea seedlings! I suppose that at this point I should thin them, but I'm really afraid to touch them--they're doing so well without my interference!

EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!

I have a good eek and two bad eeks.

The good eek: I saw a woodpecker at my sunflower seed feeder tonight. A downy, I think. Dumb bird--woodpeckers don't eat seeds! But he sat there on the perch and pecked away. That does it: I have to get another pole and a suet feeder. And suet impregnated with hot peppers, to try to keep the squirrel out of it.

Bad eek #1: Remember I was so proud about installing the new hard drive in my laptop myself? Well, it won't turn on. It does turn on, but the hard drive won't engage. My computer-repairing person says he thinks something in the motherboard is fried and I should just give it up and get a new laptop. *sigh* I'm thinking about it. I can use the desktop, but I'd prefer to use a laptop for a number of reasons--floor space, ease of updating (I can tote it in to work and use the wireless), and ease of toting around--I'm thinking of doing some genealogical research at my mother's home town this summer, and having a laptop would be so much easier than hauling around a lot of paper. But I couldn't buy it with cash, I'd have to charge it, which I'm reluctant to do. So I'll have to think about it a little more. Tiger Direct has a nice Gateway with 4 Gb of ram, 320 Gb hard drive, Windows 7, AND a phone modem hookup for under $450--that's a pretty good deal.

Bad eek#2--I've been knitting a lace scarf for my outside knitting, which is madness of course, and tonight I dropped a stitch and have wound up unraveling about 3", trying to catch all the stitches in one row--any row! Argh! Very frustrating!

But I am pleased about the woodpecker. There weren't any birds at all, and then all of a sudden there were the two chipping sparrows, a couple of purple finches, 4 cardinals (in turns, not all at once), and the woodpecker. I love watching birds at feeders. I'll have to start keeping the camera closer to the window.

SNOW!

I haven't seen any figures, but judging from what I shoveled off the sidewalks and driveway yesterday, I think we must have gotten another 6 inches, on top of what we already had.

I think I'm getting tired of snow. It wasn't so bad last week, when I could sit inside, sip hot drinks, knit, read, watch DVDs, and snuggle with the dogs, but now that I have to go outside and go to work and navigate badly-plowed parking lots to go shopping, I'm not so thrilled.

At least it's a very light, powdery snow, so easier to shovel than if it were 6 inches of heavy, wet snow.

Pictures later, I think. Tuesday I reloaded Windows onto the laptop and yesterday I reloaded the drivers and etc., and then downloaded the various free programs I use off the net and updates to everything. I hope this is going to clear up all the problems I've been having with it! I couldn't get the e-mail to work, but they're going to update stupid Zimbra tonight, so I'll fuss with it tomorrow. But that shouldn't keep me from loading pictures.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
Outside it was raining
Inside the Ts napped
Sad but not complaining.

It is SO wet outside. I suppose it's better than 16" of snow--and it's definitely better than ice in any amount! But really. I think we have enough rain for the time being; we really don't need any more.

Taenzer particularly is unhappy. She's such a physical dog that not getting time to run really gets to her--like any athlete or dancer who's unable to perform. She needs to use her body and it messes her up when she can't.

I managed to download the pictures we took Sunday, but the laptop is working so slowly--I think I'm going to have to transfer them to a flash drive, and then to the desktop, and try to post from here. They didn't exactly turn out the way I'd hoped. There's one where they only look put upon and abused. In the other one, Timber looks like he just found out there's no Santa Claus. Not exactly the effect I was after, though it is pretty funny. Poor boy!

I'm cat sitting two sets of cats over the holiday. Last night when I arrived at one house, I discovered a pane had been broken out of one of the basement windows. The glass was all outside, so I don't think anyone had tried to break in, but I had to dash home and get some cardboard to put over it--luckily, I had a couple of boxes that dog food had been shipped in, so it was heavy-weight and I doubled it, and tacked it into place with some nails I found. Then I counted heads, and to my relief, all three of the cats were still inside (no doubt they found it entirely too wet to go out!). At the other place, the 2nd cat came out for the first time. He had to know I was there--I was singing Christmas carols as I got their food ready--but still when he saw me his eyes got all huge and he leaped back with this "OMG! A STRANGER!" expression on his face. It was pretty funny. Today, with the help of some judiciously-tossed treats, he came up and took a treat from right beside me. I didn't try to touch him--maybe tomorrow.

I have to stop by the office tomorrow and print out the last pattern for the 2009 Calendar Scarf. I was going to today while I was out taking care of cats and running errands, but I forgot my keys and didn't feel like going back after them. It turns out the scarf takes about 1200 yards of fingering weigh yarn, so I'm going to rummage through the stash and see if I have anything as breathtaking as that lovely cashmere yarn I did the 2008 scarf with. Probably not, but I didn't know I had the cashmere until I went looking.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

calendar scarf bump

So here I am on Day 17 of the 2008 calendar scarf, and I'm stuck. I'm one of those people who much prefers to work off a chart--a line of k2 yo sl1 k2 psso yo etc. makes me go cross-eyed, and when it's a LONG line and I don't have a picture to compare my work to, it's just awful. I lose my place and get terribly confused. Worse, this is a real knitted lace pattern--I think that's the right term; there's knitted lace and lace knitting, and in one you alternate pattern rows with plain rows and in the other each row is a pattern row. This is every row is a pattern row.

So I ripped it out twice last night and having struggled through 10 rows, it looks like I'm going to have to rip it out again.

Grrr.

It also looks like I'm going to have to get professional help with the laptop--it was running so slowly that I decided to run the antivirus program again, and once again it's taking more than 24 hours, which is ridiculous. After surgery on both the laptop and Timber, I really don't have any spare money, but I miss being able to post pictures!

Predictions around here, btw, were for a terrible blizzard, with 6-12 inches of snow and howling winds. So far we've had rain. Lots of rain. Now they're predicting thunder. In December.

Okaaaaaay....

Achoo!

I've completed Day 7 of the 2008 Calendar Scarf and had planned to post a picture of it this morning, but my laptop has managed to pick up a virus. Yes, I had an anti-virus program installed, and yes, it was running in the background (at least so it told me), and yes, I had updated it, but it's still got a virus. I've got the program running a scan now, but I won't be surprised--though I'll be very annoyed--if I have to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. It's especially annoying since this is a paid-for antivirus program, not a freebie. Grrrr!

I'm very much enjoying knitting this scarf. The yarn is absolutely delicious to work with, and it's fun to knit a variety of patterns. And it's not hundreds of stitches, like a big triangle or square shawl, so I can always finish a row and don't have to worry about where I left off.

I'm wearing my favorite gray lopi sweater this morning, not so much because it's freezing cold (because it's not) as because I needed to wash the other sweater I've been wearing and it is too cold to substitute a sweatshirt. I love this sweater, and getting it out for the winter is like greeting an old friend.

Yesterday was sunny and comfortably warm, so we spent a lot of time outside. I'm reading a book about the history of the cult of Mary, which is really interesting. We also ran a few errands. I set up Timber's surgery for next Wednesday. I know he'll be fine, but we'd still appreciate successful surgery and quick recovery vibes! I'm really curious about how his hip x-rays will turn out.

Rainy Thursday

Very. Rainy.

As in Pouring.

At least it's not 3 feet of snow, like Colorado.

I was going to go meet my sister tomorrow, and we were going to just hang out and do sister things--show each other our knitting, go to a yarn store (or two), go to Barnes & Noble. But she e-mailed me today to say she couldn't make it. I'm really disappointed. I was really looking forward to it. Also to getting out and driving!

Ah well. We'll set it up for another time, I hope.


I guess I'll do what I usually do when I take a Friday off--pay bills, run errands, buy groceries. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'll find a movie to put in the player and work on my nephew's sweater. I'm sort of stuck on the first sleeve--I've ripped it out 3 times so far, which I guess is what happens when you're making it up as you go. If you don't like it--rip it out and try it again.


Oh yeah, I got an e-mail from the guy fixing my computer to say they ordered the part last Tuesday and just heard today from the vendor saying it was unavailable, so they've ordered from another vendor. *sigh*

I took the dogs out (individually) last night after dinner to work on their walking, and decided that I'm going to have to train them to sit at the top of the front porch steps and wait for me to get down to the bottom before they go. They get so excited, and the leash isn't quite long enough, and my knees are giving me such problems that one of them is going to just drag me down the steps if I don't teach them to wait.

Meanwhile, I found that if I ask Timber to do things--sit, come to heel, down--he pays more attention to me and does a better job of walking politely beside me. Taenzer does fine with a click or a "yes!" and a treat every few steps, and we're doing pretty well--we made it two driveways down last night! But Timber really needs more help to focus, I guess.

I'm not a very good clicker trainer, but I like trying to find a way to communicate what I want with rewards. Letting the dog hit the end of the leash is negative reinforcement, I'm afraid, and for P+ trainers it doesn't mollify matters much that I'm using a rolled leather collar and not a choke or prong collar. STill, my neighbors and friends think I'm looney not to use more traditional training methods, so I'd really like to make this work this way, if I can.


Sheesh, it's raining so hard it sounds like someone's pouring a giant bucket of water over the house!

Guess this stuff works!

When I lost weight last spring my blood pressure went down and I stopped taking my bp meds. I monitored it daily, thanks to a kind friend (thanks, Jennifer!), and it would get a bit high-ish--138/80, for instance--but I learned that knitting and loving on the dogs would bring it down--one time I brought it down to 112/80. So I felt like I was doing okay, and so did my doctor.

Well--I've regained 20 pounds, and with the increased weight my bp has been inching back up. Yesterday it was 128/80 when I woke up and 155/81 at noon, so I called the doctor. Didn't see her, but a lab tech took my bp and sent a note to the doctor, and before I went home I got a call that they'd called in a prescription. I took one pill when I got home last night and another this morning (supposed to take it 2x a day).

This morning it was 102/79 at wake-up and 112/80 at noon.

I still want to lose the weight, but now I don't have to worry about having a stroke while I do it!

My laptop isn't back yet, alas. I want to put up some knitting pictures. I hope the guy gets it finished soon.

Puppies and 'puters

My laptop has blown its power jack. I'm trying to decide whether to spend $150 to get it fixed or get an off-lease/refurbished one for about $325 from Tiger Direct. Meanwhile I'm making do with the desktop, which refuses to read anything I plug into the USB ports, including the camera, so no pictures for a while.

It has come to my attention that my dogs require further training in order for the 3 of us to be able to go out in public together. I've reached the conclusion I need to do some individual training with them, to get the behaviors I want down solid before I try to take them places together. My plan is to start by microwaving a chicken breast to cut up and use for treats. Then I'm going to give Taenzer Rescue Remedy about 10 minutes before we go out--she gets so wound up and anxious, she needs a little help relaxing so she can focus.

Then I'm going to take pieces of chicken breast (which they both value very highly), the clicker, and one dog on a leash, and we're going to go stand on the sidewalk in front of the house. Just stand. They can wander and sniff, but whenever they look at me, click-treat. When they start checking in with me fairly regularly, we'll try going a few steps. I don't necessarily want them strictly at heel, just not clear out at the end of the leash and, in Timber's case, not right in front of me. Although part of his problem is Taenzer crowding him, but we can work on that later. Right now the plan is to get me and one dog to the end of the block and back without the dog hitting the end of the leash. Once they can do it alone, we'll try both together.

I also want them to sit absolutely automatically as soon as they hear the word--or as nearly as possible--so that they have an alternate behavior to jumping and barking when someone asks if they can pet them. :-P That's something I'll need to work on individually, too.

The idea is that all three of us can go walking in public and have it be a pleasant experience for everyone involved.

Tonight when I was out with the dogs, a young border collie--obviously purebred--showed up out of nowhere--hung around, driving my two nuts--found a tennis ball and when I climbed over the gate, pushed it into my hand.

The street I live on is busy and the one in back of me is the main drag through town, so I couldn't just leave him outside, and nobody came looking for him, so I managed to get him in the house. He's a young guy, probably not more than two or three years old, so he got a little excited and marked a few things (including my knitting bag, but I don't think he got anything inside it). I finally got him into Taenzer's crate, where he was both confined and safe from my dogs bugging him. Taenzer got all anxious; Timber was excited/miffed/both that there was another boy in the house! With his ball! Eating his food! (never mind that his actual meal was out in the kitchen where it always is) Getting attention from his mom! But this guy settled down, leaned against the crate so I could pet him, gave kisses (once I got him in the house, I thought, belatedly, "Well, he *looks* healthy..."), was just generally very sweet and gentle and friendly.

He wasn't wearing a collar, and of course both the vets and the animal shelter were closed, so I couldn't call them to see if he was microchipped. He had some burrs, the little round sticky kind, around his head and ruff, but other than that he looked healthy and well-cared for. Well, and his gimpy rear leg--made me wonder if he might ever have been hit by a car or something. He's a very classic-looking BC, black and white, mid-length fur with a bit of a curl, a white collar and blaze, prick ears. Taller than a lot of BCs, and very leggy, and definitely the BC "eye"! You should have seen him willing that tennis ball to move!

I called a friend who came over after she taught class tonight, and we took him out to the animal shelter--they have crates out front where you can leave animals. I taped a note to the crate, explaining where I found him and leaving my name and work phone number. I hope he'll be okay. Of course I was trying like mad not to cry--I felt like I betrayed him by leaving him--but we could hear people inside cleaning--they didn't come when we knocked, but they'll see him when they come out, surely--and like my friend says, it'll be easier for his owners to find him there than if I have him. And my friend has a BC of her own and was taken by how *sweet* this guy was--he was SO sweet--and she was talking about maybe adopting him if his owner doesn't claim him. And I fed him something while he was here--my dinner... Well, he didn't want to eat the dry dog food, and he was *hungry*, so I cooked him the chicken breast I'd been planning to eat and then gave him some cottage cheese. He thought those were just fine.

When she called I had just taken him out to potty, and let him loose in the house to see how he'd do with my two, and Timber had him flattened to the floor--all body language, no growling or shoving or anything. It was funny to see Timber, who Taenzer controls with a glare and a lift of the lip, so excited and "macho." My little boy. He wasn't being mean or bullying--well, much--he was just *excited*.

Between the visitor and wrestling all day with reformatting two different computers, I'm wired, and trying to relax a little bit so I'll sleep when I go to bed. (Have I said that I had to order a copy of Windows, install it, then run the recovery CD, and then start putting stuff back on the laptop? I took it in to work today to download things using the university wireless system--much faster than dial-up--which turned out to be a good idea, since my work computer froze up yesterday and they took it off this morning to reload Windows onto *it*, so I used my laptop for various work things once I got it running. I think they left some stuff off, including some software I paid for personally. Grrr. I hate it when other people mess with my computer.)

*sigh* I feel bad, and I'm trying to talk myself out of it. I hope he'll be okay. Please think good thoughts for this lost BC boy.

Sunday

Mm. Yummy dinner: tilapia, frozen spinach, canned sliced mushrooms, a spoonful of cottage cheese, and some parmesan. Tastes rich, but isn't heavy. Taenzer liked it too. :) (she got to lick the bowl)


I had to give up and order Windows XP for my laptop. My friend at work who's good with computers helped me out, but eventually we hit a wall where apparently the only solution is to do a "clean install" of Windows XP, and then reload the drivers and programs. Thing is, all I got with my laptop was the recovery disk, no Windows. So I ordered Windows from TigerDirect. They're fast, so I'll probably get it tomorrow or Tuesday, and will probably spend a lot of time next week installing and downloading.


Er--as long as the hard drive isn't damaged. That's still a possibility. I've got my fingers crossed.


Oh, and as long as I was spending money I don't have, I caved and ordered a new digital camera, so I hope to be able to start posting pictures here again pretty soon. I decided to get another Canon since I liked the first one so much. I hope the autumn clematis is still looking good when it comes--I promised to post a picture of it for my friend Jane, who planted one in her yard this year.


I did some laundry today and changed the bed, and did a lot of knitting--the striped sweater outside and the tweedy sweater inside. I had the first sleeve nearly done on the tweedy sweater, but decided I didn't like the way the decreases looked, so I ripped it out and started over.

Fall gives me wanderlust. I sure wish I still had Stella and could go visiting.

TWELVE. HOURS.

That's how long it took my desktop to run a Norton Antivirus scan yesterday. Twelve hours.

I run a scan every Friday night, usually set it going before I go to bed and it's usually done by morning. I cannot imagine why on earth it takes so long for it to run.

I was supposed to be editing yesterday, but I could neither read it off the flash drive, since my laptop doesn't have Word, nor does it have the right kind of port to hook the printer up to so I could print off, say, a chapter at a time. So that was a day lost.

Today I went in to work and got my boss's table done and forwarded to him by 2:00, so he should be a happy camper.

This weekend is my little town's summer festival--from now until the end of the summer, every little town in the area will be having Heritage Days, Sodbuster Days, Pioneer Days--so since it rained all day and it was too wet to take the dogs out into the dog pen, I put on their collars and leashes and walked them up to the courthouse square. They were pretty good, but we didn't stay long, either. Timber looks at everyone who walks by like they're his long-lost owner and Taenzer gets really stressed out. I WISH I had my boss's energy level--or even a normal person's energy level--so I could get them out and work with them individually. Timber needs to learn to focus on me when we're out, and Taenzer needs to learn to trust me. I don't know, it might be too late for Taenzer; she's nearly 5, and that set of behaviors is pretty well developed. At least neither of them was so stressed they couldn't take a treat; I guess that's something.

I was asked if I was going to take them up to the square tomorrow, but I don't think so. It's only 81 here right now, and I was sweaty-hot when I got home--tomorrow would be worse unless we went really early in the morning.

The people next door look to be having a garage sale tomorrow, which means Taenzer will spend the morning barking at people unless I pull the shades so she can't see them.

I'll post some pictures of the asiatic lilies tomorrow--they're looking pretty spectacular, even if 90% of them are cream-colored. I was thinking they might look good against the bush honeysuckles along the west side of the yard, where they could glow against the dark background. I suspect they'd be willing to naturalize--if I got someone to till that strip and worked it full of manure and leaves before I planted them, that would probably make them happy.

On a happier note, the person I was plant-sitting for overpaid me big-time. We had a discussion about it, but I let her win, and was able to use it as part of a great-big payment on one of the credit cards (along with the rest of the roof money). And I've been using my debit card to buy the dogs' food with. I'm not saying this is the beginning of financial stability in my life or anything radical like that, but at least I'm trying.

Which reminds me--I need to order some food for them--Pet Food Direct takes for-freaking-ever to deliver.

bad things, good things

I'm getting really annoyed with computers. The glamor has worn off. I hate Zimbra. I'm not overly thrilled with Microsoft Office 2007--I don't know who thought those freaking "ribbons" were more intuitive than the old Office but they were WRONG--it was just Microsoft wanting to sell new software. Now I see they're about to take Windows XP off t he market, so you HAVE to use Vista, and I haven't heard one good thing about Vista. I can no longer listen to NPR music or program playbacks because I have dial-up, and they've changed the program that runs that stuff so it won't work on dial-up. Thanks, NPR. Glad I didn't give you guys money last week--I need it to pay for broadband. Grr.

That being said, I'll change the subject. All my white hyacinths are blooming this year, and they're beautiful--glowingly white. There are also pink and blue ones, not planted by me, blooming now too, and the fragrance is out of the world. I love the scent of hyacinths. I have some garden pictures; I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

I've been able to get the dogs out twice each evening this week--I take them out for an hour as soon as I get home, bring them in at 5:30, feed them at 6:30 and take them back out at 7:30. I'm pushing it a bit--there really should be a little more time between exercise and food to minimize the danger of bloat, though neither of my previous bloat dogs had been exercising or eating when they bloated. At any rate, they're happy to be out, and that makes me happy.

I've put the garden cart and a giant plastic pot in one corner, and Taenzer is having a blast smashing her ball into them. Somehow she manages to get the ball behind the cart, and then she has to figure out how to get it back. Mental exercise. :) She's happy to have her two new tunnels, too. She rolls the ball through the tunnel under the tree, but not the one by the garage, which is weird. Timber mostly sits or lays in the grass and chews on his ball, but once in a while he trots over and bashes Taenzer's ball with his ball, which is pretty funny.

Taenzer has a new game, too: She uses whichever jolly ball Timber isn't chewing on to bash her hard plastic ball with--sort of like doggy baseball. Clever girl.

Poor little Timber's seasonal allergies are acting up. He did so much licking of his legs and feet and scratching last night that I gave him a Claritin, which I think helped. I've been putting lanolin on his poor dry little nose, too, which helps a little--of course he licks it right off. I try to give him something to eat right after I put it on so it has a chance to sink in a little before he licks it off.

Speaking of legs, I've been keeping up with my exercises, and my knees are feeling much better. It could also be the weather--they're sensitive to the weather--but I'm so happy to be feeling better. Now if I could just lose 50 pounds, so they wouldn't have so much to tote around. I weigh more right now than I have in the past six years, which is no doubt why my knees started giving me trouble.

I'm working on three pairs of socks. Now that it's warmer I can do small knitting outside again, so I'm working on the basketweave sock when I'm sitting with the dogs. I'm working on the spring lace sock in the living room, and should finish the first one tonight. and I went back to the Flickering Flames socks and am working on the 2nd one at night in the bedroom. One of these days I'm going to have three brand new pairs of socks to wear--can't wait!

Beware the Ides of March!

(I just felt like being literary. :)

I've got some photos I want to download, but for some reason, ever since I set the computer up on the new cart none of the USB ports will recognize the camera. Or my external drive. I've been going through all kinds of contortions trying to nail the problem. It's not the USB ports--they read my travel drive, MP3 player, and printer. It's not the cables on the camera or external drive--they work fine on my laptop. I've updated the USB drivers and the camera driver. I switched out the monitor to see if somehow the new monitor was messing things up. Nada. I don't know what else to check.

I guess I can download the pictures to the laptop, transfer them to the travel drive, and then download them from the travel drive to the desktop, but I don't know how I'm going to do my monthly backups. I like to keep my photos and genealogical stuff backed up since they change so often and losing the material would be basically catastrophic, personally speaking. Maybe it's time for me to learn how to burn a DVD--I guess I could keep one for photos and one for the genealogy. Except you can't reuse them, can you? Well, I'll figure something out.

It's gotten cold again--not for long, but it's also snowing (!) with some rain to follow, which will make the leaves I was going to rake wet. Or wetter. The top layers are dry but the lower layers are still pretty wet. And the puppy pen will be wet and messy. Again.

And I'm exercising. If there's one thing in the world I cordially loathe, it's exercise. But I started PT yesterday, and have to go 3x a week for the next 4 weeks, and do these exercises for my quads at home--twice a day if I can manage it. The physical therapist was impressed by how off track my kneecaps are. No doubt this is why it became more and more uncomfortable for me to ride in a saddle (not that I've ridden any lately)--I used to kick my left foot out of the stirrup because it bothered that knee. Anyway, after doing the quad exercises yesterday I thought oh heck, I might as well do something for my arms and see if I can strengthen that shoulder that's bothering me, so I got out the dumbbells and waved them around for a while. Next thing you know, I'll be doing crunches.

I wish I could ride (she said wistfully). That's the only type of exercise I've ever loved. I was never a trained rider, but I think riding a horse bareback uphill and down, ducking branches, jumping logs and creeks, etc., gives you plenty of chance to use your body, and then there's grooming and cleaning feet and so on before and after. And there's nothing like riding a horse you have some connection with, so that you can read each other and trust each other. (*big sigh*)

And oh yes, I have to try to load time onto my Tracfone again. Somehow I messed it up last time, and the Tracfone support folks weren't too helpful.. (Why do companies bother with "support" when they never provide any? Think of all the money they'd save--and probably a lot of frustration and ill will from their customers.)

Last of all, I have to to go Walmart. I think I mentioned that this latest bout with depression has upset the dogs, and Taenzer has been partly expressing this by pooping on the rugs. I like to have non-skid rugs or runners down, partly to protect the floors and partly to protect the dogs' joints! So I need to replace a couple, and I just couldn't find what I wanted at K-Mart. I really tried, but they didn't have anything that looked good with what's in my house and was serviceable and inexpensive.

Hey, Shay, this pic's for you. Back before the bursitis in my elbow made me stop doing needle tatting, I made this doily. It's neat because it's both crochet and tatting. Probably a size 5 thread, variegated as you can see. I just love it. It's never been properly blocked, so all the little picots don't show up properly, but I thought you might like to see it. One of these days I'll figure out how to load a picture onto Blogger so when you click on it you get a full-size picture; I've seen it done on other blogs.

Computer fun

Heehee! I'm so easily amused. I've been playing around with my blog all day. Right now I've got the laptop outside and am picking up a wireless signal from the laundromat across the alley. Anyway, I got a 3-column template set up, then discovered that if I wanted to add anything, like a picture, I'd have to insert it with HTML. Ack. That's too much of a pain. So I'm going to have to think it over.

But I did manage to get drop-down menus for both archives and labels, so that helps the look of the blog a bit, I think--not so cluttered. I haven't quite figured out how to get the in-progress bars on, though. I'd love to have them set off in a box, but that looks like another manual HTML fix. I can load them each as a picture with a caption, but I don't really like the way it looks. (*pout*)

Nevertheless, I'm having great fun. I've got to finish stenciling the rim of the picnic table and get three coats of clear polyurethane on it so I can move it outside and work there. Now that I can hook up to the internet while I'm out here. (there are days that I just love technology)

I really haven't done anything else today. I should have run errands, taken the AC out of the bedroom window, and done dishes. Oh well, I can do them tomorrow. Maybe right now I'll go look at widgets.

(skipping off into the distance...)

The Forgottonia University Computer Committee should be FIRED

That's FIRED, FIRED, FIRED. Canned. Terminated. Tossed out on their butts without severance pay.

They've switched us to a web-based e-mail, with no choice about whether we want to use it or not, and it is absolutely the pits. It's supposed to be this suite thing, where you can schedule meetings and do votes and stuff, but guess what--you can already do that in Outlook, which they just paid a zillion bucks to update from 2003 to 2007, and Outlook coordinates with the rest of the Office suite, which definitely has advantages (and don't get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of Microsoft anything). Additionally, it's open-source software and it seems to be still in the beta stage; it's supposed to have all these wonderful features but you can't even change the font when you're creating a message, it doesn't even freaking tell you when a message has arrived. You go to a place called "Bugzilla" and vote on what features you'd like them to work on. It's extremely awkward to move around in, and on dialup it is worse than Yahoo mail; it's slower than molasses and has to refresh the screen for everything you do. Or try to do.

Being force-changed to Office 2007 was bad enough, but this is about a million zillion times worse. I am, at the moment, still using Outlook to send, but they've set it up so all my in-coming mail goes to that stupid Zimbra (that's what it's called. Have you ever heard anything so stupid?). The only thing I can figure out is they're trying to get people to cut back on their e-mail.

I hope they didn't spend more than about $27.50 for this stupid program.

Geez louise.

This just may push me over the edge. I've been thinking about having my landline disconnected, using my pay-as-you go cell phone for phone calls, and getting broadband for the computer. It would save me about $25 a month and I could use the software I want to use.

Sunday morning miscellany

Well, I finally got the new .NET Framework downloaded--*finally*--and got Family Tree Maker 2008 to load, BUT--now I can't get it to recognize that I'm connected to the Internet. I was browsing the genealogy board on Ancestry, and there's considerable dissatisfaction with this version--the concensus seems to be that it's more like a Beta version than a finished product.

It does take a l-o-n-g time to load, no doubt about it. I like the new page set ups--it's much easier to see information about a person and his/her family at a glance, instead of having to switch back and forth. I like the timeline feature for individuals. I love the relationships tab, which shows that person's parents, siblings, spouses, and children, all in one screen. That's great. I think the mapping feature might be interesting and even useful, but it doesn't work without the Internet connection, which the stupid program refuses to admit is there. I've also seen on the board that the web searches are better, but of course I can't get that feature to work, either. Grr.

Luckily, I did NOT delete FTM 2006, so I still have a working program. I just wish these guys hd got their act together *before* they took my money. Ancestry has a bit of an arrogance problem. It's almost indispensible as a source for on-line researchers--and they know it.

I added the 5,000th person to my family tree last night, btw. If I ever post the thing online anywhere, it will take days of work to get it into postable shape, removing all the personal stuff.

At any rate when I wasn't fighting with computers and software yesterday, I was unraveling knitting. I frogged the Cannon Beach sock back to the ribbing--I'm going to try it with 6 scallops. I've decided I want a short, open vest to wear over a white t-shirt, so I frogged a sweater I'd started a couple of winters ago to get to the yarn I wanted. I'm thinking of making it modular, and have been thinking over the construction--four squares for the bottom, then two, or possibly four smaller squares for the top of the back. Then four smaller squares and four triangles? to get the v-shape for the front, and then reverse crochet all the edges to give it some stability and define the shape. (Elizabeth Zimmerman liked I-cord; I like reverse crochet.) I need to do some measuring and planning.

It might work to cut out pieces of newspaper in the various shapes and sizes, then tape it together and try it on. If it fits, I could use the pieces as templates.

It's a pretty yarn that I got on sale several years ago. It's a potluck yarn, with sort of Indian corn colors--copper, gold, shades of red, plum, shades of blue, a little green--a nice autumn color. The label says bulky weight, but I'd call it more of a worsted, or maybe heavy worsted. My knitting journal says I used size 10-1/2 needles. (Mental note: keep up the handwritten journal! It's invaluable to check back on for notes!)

Time to take the puppies out to play. I'm going to have to start taking them out at 6 p.m. instead of 7, also--it's getting dark much sooner, and there are positive swarms of mosquitos!

Everything's Relative

I wish I could make that into a pun about relatives and family and so on, but in this case, I mean it's all in how you look at things.

Timber's seemed a little depressed to me lately. I decided maybe he needed to (a) get out of the house and (b) have some quality Mom-time, so I crated Taenzer (who was horrified), put on Timber's collar, and off we went. First we went to the vet--which to my total astonishment was practically deserted--I mean, Saturday, right? The day all the working folks take their pets in? Not a soul. So we got Annie's thyroid meds, and I let him rear up and put his front feet on the counter so the girl could pet him.

Then we drove down to the Farmer's Market. Now, remember, this is Forgottonia, so it's not a big farmer's market; also it's getting toward the end of the year, although I hope there will be locally-grown apples and honey soon. At any rate, it was pretty sparsely populated, but enough that a couple of small kids and their dad (and btw, how nice to see a dad out with his kids!) stopped to pet him--and I got a firm hold on him first, just in case, but he was good, and I think too hyper-stimulated to think about jumping on anyone. Then a couple of ladies wanted to pet him, and once again he was very good. We walked around the Courthouse Square and he peed on every corner and lamp post and barrel of flowers (when he decided to be a little boy, he decided with a vengeance!). We worked a little on remembering Mom's at the other end of the leash--he tends to forget that--and worked on him sitting at street corners.

It's very odd--he makes very little eye-contact with me. Stella and Taenzer seek out eye-contact, but I'm lucky to get a glance from Timber. Obviously I need to do much more individual work with him, because I feel like there's no connection there between us.

But the point of the title is that practically everyone we saw, including people who didn't pet him, exclaimed "He's a BIG dog!" I kept looking to see who was on my leash. *lol* Although he's well within breed standards, as GSDs go these days Timber's on the small size--about 25-1/2 inches at the shoulder and within a pound or two of 65 pounds (Taenzer's about 25 inches and 60 pounds). Standard calls for males to be 24-26 inches, females 22-24), but my first two GSD girls were 75 pounds and there are plenty of people on GSD-L with dogs in the 80 pound range. To me a BIG dog is a Newfoundland or a Pyr--you know, something BIG.

But then it's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess--there was another dog there, a Yorkie that I'm absolutely positive wasn't as big as Timber's head. If that's what you're used to then yes, Timber's a BIG dog. (And btw, Timber was very good and didn't bark at that little tiny dog. But I didn't let us get very close, either.)

Taenzer had a spasm of anxiety when we got home, brought me every shoe and sock she could find, then climbed into my lap and licked my face: "Mom? Mom? You still love me best, right?"

Meanwhile, I'm fighting with computers. I got so tired of getting error messages when trying to load stuff with Internet Explorer on my laptop that I downloaded Firefox, which enabled me to download a copy of RealTek that actually worked, which means I now have sound on the laptop again. Now I'm trying to get a copy of .NET Framework that works onto the desktop so that I can get my new version of Family Tree genealogy software to work. I'm learning more about how computers work than I care to.

*sigh*

Well, okay, now I don't know what the heck is actually showing on my blog page. When I hit View Blog, I get my original non-formatted, no-explanation post. But when I go to the Edit Posts page and hit view for each individual post, they both come up, more or less the way I want them to look.

So if you got a double-spaced sock post and a post griping about formatting, you're doing better than I am!