BACKUPS

How many backups does a person need?    I was reading an article on  CNET about the life of your external hard drive.   I have an external hard drive and it has a lot of pictures and music stored on iTunes, as well as a lot of genealogical data.

I also have things stored on CD's and a Flash Drives.  Is that enough.  Do I need to print and store things on paper as well?    Most of my things can be reproduced but it may take a long time to redownload things from Ancestry and Footnote.  

I had stored a lot of emails on my computer only to have the hard drive fail.   I had never copied them and now I store them on the ISP site. 

What does everyone else do,  how do you store your found information.   I could make paper copies but will they get pitched after I am gone?    How long do CD's last, and how long do Flash Drives last?

 

   

WONDER IF IT WORKS ????

I found and added the Ultimate Web Translator and it was very east to do, BUT< does it work?   I clicked on one of the languages and what came up was a white, blank sheet.  Now, did it do that because I was on the computer and email that I have associated with the blog or is it not working at all ?????    I guess I will have to find someone to help, maybe the kid will do that!!!!

 

VITAMIN D

Well, knock me over with a feather.... Went to the doctors for my yearly check up. It was time to draw blood work. He had mentioned that there had been information lately stating that the medical powers that be were recommending people to have a Vitamin D level drawn, this is because a lot of people were low in this essential vitamin.

I had mine drawn and much to my surprise it was very low. I do not sit in the sun because of the damaging effect on the skin, but I was not getting my share of Vitamin D which is manufactured by the skin with sun exposure. Read about it here: VITAMIN D FACTS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. I have been reading and it aids in the absorption of calcium and aids in the bone health. Some people think it also is used by the muscles. If a person had muscle pain, fibromyalgia and arthritis it may be linked to lack of Vitamin D.

So, what I need to do. He is prescribing high dose Vitamin D for six weeks and then on a supplement for my lifetime. Maybe I should sit in the sun a bit....

NEXT TO THE LAST DAY OFF

 This is Henry and Lucy doing what they do best.  I read an article and it stated that cats spent most of the time sleeping............

PF Changs restaurant was very good, and it was packed.   I am glad Emily had called for reservations.  Since it was her birthday she did not have to pay the bill.

Tomorrow is the last day of my time off.   We had talked about retirement but  both decided, due to current economic conditions, it is not the time....When I retire I will take my place up on the couch with Henry and Lucy, snoozing all day...LOL

TODAY IS HER BIRTHDAY !!!!!!

Today is Emily's birthday and she is twenty seven. She chose to go to dinner at PF CHANGS. When it is someone's birthday they get to choose where we will go....Her first REAL restaurant came when she was six and wanted to to go CASA LUPITA, up until that day it had always been McDonalds...It has been expensive ever since.

THOUGHTS OF OTHERS

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed,
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
  -Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress....
But then I repeat myself.
    -Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
    -Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
    -.George Bernard Shaw

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
    -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.  
-Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
    -P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
                 -Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
    -P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
    -Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
               -Pericles (430 B.C.)
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
   -Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
    -Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
    -Ronald Reagan

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
    -Mark Twain

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress.
    -Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
    -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
   -Thomas Jefferson

CHECK THE WRITERS FEATURES

I was bored and decided to check out the little tabs on the top of Live Writer. Well, the template changed and now I have no idea how this will look.... The brochure from the local community college came and what I need is a class entitled "Now That You Screwed Up Your Computer What Do You Do?" They did not have one and Chuck said I should go and get a degree in Software Engineering. If I were younger, that could be an option. Software did not exist when I finished High School, actually, neither did computer. New problem, I tried to insert a pictue and all I got was HTML. I need to undo whatever I did, but first I have to figure how I did it.........

MY WEEK OFF, SO FAR….

 

On my Windows Writer I wish I could find an option that would let me set the type and not have to go in a change it every time I write.   If I add a photo, then I again, have to go and change it again.

Off this week, one of the jobs I HATE and DESPISE is defrosting the freezer.   We bought a freezer that you have to defrost because it was cheaper than the frost free type.    I noticed a savings about $20 per month.   That is a lot of money.   

In the bowels of this freezer I found a ham bone from some Christmas, I pitched that.   Who knows how old it was, not saying much for the housekeeping there.

I have been washing sheers and curtains.   We live in a small split entry Ranch home.  It has long skinny windows.   There are hundreds of thousands of this type of houses all over this country.  Why, can I not find curtains or draperies that will fit.   Everything is 54 inches wide and up to 93 inches long.     Why don’t the manufacturers make what is needed.     I have some that were made by Country Curtains but they also have a limited number of colors and styles.   Still a few more things to wash this week.

Today was my flower buying day.   I went to the greenhouse and bought my plants.   I also got some Rosemary,  Oregano, Basil, Parsley and I have Chives and Tarragon  that came back up this spring.   I have to see what else I can plant in my pots.    Hope to get it done tomorrow.

I decided that psychologically I am ready for retirement.    Chuck is too…..

 

HOW TO HAVE FUN WITH A CAT

Within the past hour I found out how to have fun with a cat. It is very easy, what you need is an ice cube. Or a few ice cubes, depending on how much fun you want the cat to have. Place the ice cubes in the cats water dish. The cat will try for a long time to get the ice cube out of her dish. Then the cat will wonder where in the world that new toy has gone.

Good fun was had till the ice cubes melted...

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY

When I woke up today it was foggy and damp.  Well. it turned out to be very sunny.  

Yesterday I  was on beeper call.   That means I was to back up for surgery.  First call stays in the hospital and second call is back up from home.  There were four scheduled cases and I got called for an emergency pacemaker.    He was in heart block, his pulse was ranging in the 30’s and 40’s, it needed to be done ASAP.

Being “on call” on your day off is a bummer.    It is your day off , but you are committed to the hospital.   You get paid if you get called in.  The worst part is the randomness of the situation.    You can not start anything major because you may have to leave at a moments notice.   You can not have a glass of wine, or plan anything that takes a long preparation to cook.    But it IS your day off.   Fortunately, I only have to do about 4 weekend days a year. 

        

I am playing with the colors of the blog.   I got tired of yellow, I see a lot of colors but I wish there were some way to customize the color.   I would like to make it a bit paler.    Maybe in the bowels of the program is an option to do that. 

The picture above was taken at the Phipps.   They had an orchid show.   They change exhibits every few months.   The one now looks like space aliens,  guess I will go and see how it really looks.

QUOTE

"No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor."

Samuel Coleridge

I have to disagree with Samuel. In my life I have met many people who are completely devoid of a sense of humor. And of those people I seriously wonder about their childhood.....what kind of a life have they had that they find NOTHING humorous in their lives ?????

QUOTES
"If someone tells you he is going to make 'a realistic decision,' you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad."Mary McCarthy

"Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinion of others." Sir Henry Taylor

"A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key." Paul Valery

Most of us keep the inner madman under control.

MOTHERS DAY

Here is Emily pictured with her two grandmothers.   Both taken probably about 15 years ago.  It looks like both women were sick at the time.   My mother, Gerda, was undergoing chemotherapy and  my Mother in law, Lois looks extremely pale.   She was diagnosed with  cancer a few months after Gerda died.  

I find it extremely sad that they are both gone.    Tomorrow we will go out for dinner at  SAWA JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE.  We ate there last Mothers Day.   Last year we had gone out and everyplace was jammed packed.  Forty five minutes to one hour wait.  SAWA had just opened at that time, and I said to go there, because not many people would know about it, and sure enough, it was not crowded.    The food is good, along with the entertaining showmanship

SPRING IS HERE…….

I guess it  is really is here.  When you go out and about you see spring flowers all around.     Last weekend I took pictures of my back yard and this week there is so much more greenery.  My sisters and I went out last Saturday and I took this pictures of the pansies.

This week at work was uneventful, and I like it that way.    We are busier each week, I have often wondered where they all come from???    There seems to be an endless supply of gall bladders to be removed.

We did a little shopping and had lunch out.   This weekend I have not a whole lot planned.   The Penguins are playing in the playoffs and the traffic will be awful.    It seems to me that these sport seasons last way tooooooo looooog.

It will be snowing in October and they are still playing baseball, the hockey playoffs extend until summer.  I really am not interested in sports and I do not watch, but they sports interfere with my driving and I get stuck in traffic I get irked.

RAINY WEDNESDAY

Today I had off.....went for a hair appointment, the grocery store and home. I found out later that in my local grocery store there had been a fire last night. I bought lettuce and other vegetative matter, and the place did not smell like smoke. The news said it was an electrical fire.

Chuck had off too, and he got the grass cut before the rain began. Tomorrow we both work and who knows what the day will bring. I have downloaded Foxfire as an Internet browser. That is what my daughter uses, and so far I do not see anything new and exciting about the browser. I have been trying to move my favorites from AOL to another site. I think it is called www.linksagogo.com ???? But it tells me to do something in AOL and for the life of me I can not figure out what it wants me to do, so I sent them an email....It tells me to create a new folder and move the favorites, but it does not tell me exactly how to do it. I tried under the AOL instructions, but it doesn't work. I hope they answer.

Emily did a clinical in the local Urgicare type at the building that the Nursing School is located. She said they were busy all day and she like it there. Maybe she will be a Nurse Practitioner.....Her first year is almost finished and next year at this time, she will have accepted a job and on her was to graduation and off my pay roll.....Yeahhhhhh...

MY BROTHER IN LAW SAID.....

Yesterday AOL started acting up again....it was giving me messages it needed to be updated and would start updating all by itself (HAL????Are you in there???) The downloads could not be stopped.

My B-I-L, aka computer guy, said to get rid of AOL. It has too many applications added and so I deleted the programs AGAIN....and back into the bowels of the computer and deleted many more......if I could get my favorites off of AOL it would be ADIOS. One option I have (this will take a long time) is to go to the other lap top. Click and send each address to my hot mail address and put them on IE.

Lets see.....this will take awhile. AOL has a pfc (Personal Filing Cabinet) program that only works with their software. So, I can only open it with AOL. Makes me crazy.

BIL said that the some viruses, can hide and replicate itself. I do not know its name, all I can think is whomever developed it must have really be royally peeved at AOL. I can think of other P words to insert at the peeved part.

So back to my angst with AOL. If this problem can be found in the computer forums why has it not be a priority with AOL to solve this, I guess it is the money aspect, it cost money to solve problems, and they would rather not spend it.

I deleted everything associated with AOL on this compter, but I am sure, there is something lurking below the surface to raise it ugly head at some point in time. GRRRRRRRRR

THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, COMMENTS

The photo below and this one was taken some where in Georgia, I think!!!!!! A few years back my friend Ruth and I went to a botanical garden in Athens (I think) Georgia and it was quite beautiful. All I know for sure is that they are not in my house....LOL

I kill all my plants....Chuck said he was going to send my picture to the greenhouses and plant stores and tell them DO NOT SELL PLANTS TO THIS WOMAN. I kill them with kindness, not neglect.

On my two posts about my mother last week I had mentioned it was her birthday. My dear sweet sister, Shawnna, called to tell me it was the anniversary of her death, and her birthday was January 15.

I told my sister I was going to ask my PCP if I needed Aricept the next time I go to see him.

AOL keeps sending me "Security Updates" to install in my computer. I am a bit suspicious that they are viruses and going to reintroduce my havoc on my computer ???? I am opting out on AOL's downloads for now. I got it working and I am not going to do it AOL...