Pictures and miscellaneous musings

As promised a few pictures to pass the time and create blog filler.

Now tell me, could you resist that face? Oh my Roo...

A very happy boy and a very happy dog

Lyd and her friend Aleina playing dress up with Lyd's great-grandmother's costume-junk jewelry Lyd acquired this summer on vacation. Look's very hippyish to me.

Last, but not least. Alien Kitty lives. This picture doesn't quite show his long narrow face, but the spots on the nose are crystal clear, and the ears are rather large, don't you think?

Other thoughts. Elections. I don't know why we bother anymore honestly, other than the fact that it is what our country was founded on, but we are so far from that now, it is unbelievable. Political parties don't really give a rat's ass what their constituents really think, do they? They pander, and cater, and then do what ever they want with their goal of keeping their party in power. I have no high hopes for anything coming out of these coming elections, and the next presidential race frankly scares the heck out of me. There are no candidates that have come out worth mentioning at all. It is all a comedy of errors, with the American people paying the price for the show. Right now I am really tired of all the commercials and bulletins relating to the elections. People telling me how I should vote or not vote, etc. There are some serious major issues this country must deal with, and deal with effectively. There are no easy answers, and the "solutions" are bound to piss some people off, but that will happen regardless of what solution route is taken. Right now, we need someone who is willing to take a stand and be a leader without fear of pissing people off. Leaders right now are so worried about offending or making some party, or group mad that they keep themselves hamstrung without solving anything. That is enough of my spouting on that subject. I could go much longer, but I will then just ramble on for pages, and pages.

The drive home today was glorious. The sun was dancing on the ocean like weightless diamonds across the surface. The air was warm, but had the edge of crispness Fall brings. I love Fall. The light is more relaxing than Summer. It begs you to sit down, enjoy the scenery, and drink a cup of tea while listening to Vivaldi. The leaves are changing color *for what that is worth in California*. I would love to see a true fall back east. Geoff is in North Carolina and must be getting some real Fall colors there.

My St. Louis Cardinals won tonight. They are ahead in the series 2-1. Go St. Louis! It was actually kind of a boring game, but when your team wins like that, it is okay. It sucks to get beat like that though. I am hoping they can finish it up in St. Louis the next two games and be done with it. Detroit can be tough though...we shall see.

Back on the computer front, my computer has now been assembled and is in the testing phase. I am so eager to get this crazy thing. It is my Christmas present...early of course. Off to bed.

Weekend Events

This weekend the kids and I drove up to San Jose to visit Leah. Hubby stayed at home because he was working Saturday, and besides, we now have a dog that needs attention so we can't just bail for a few days as before. Cats are much easier in that regard. Leah's oldest daughter turned two on Saturday. I hadn't seen the new baby yet, and she is now 4 months old! Time goes way too quickly, I am sure of it. We left Friday evening around 5:00 pm or so. Traffic was terrible from Pismo Beach on past Paso Robles. There were accidents left and right. It was crazy. The kids watched a movie for part of the ride. I always swore I would never get one of those, but for long rides, it is so worth it. I don't let them watch the entire trip, but it is good to break up the monotony for them in the car.

We arrived somewhere in between 8:30 and 9:00 pm. The baby was asleep, but the two year old was not. She was fired up and very ready to play with my kids, who in turn were so thrilled with being out of the car that playing was just the perfect ending. They all laughed and played for an hour or so. Lyd read books to Charli (the 2 year old girl). Charli enjoyed that immensley. Charli also, for reasons unknown to me, identified Lyd as "Aunt Melissa" (who is me, by the way). It was funny as heck. It took Charli's mom a little while to figure this out. But when I told her what was up with the names she asked Charli to sing a song to Aunt Melissa and Charli walked right over to Lyd and began singing her heart out. Roo, had no name, he was simply Boyyee. It didn't seem to offend him in the least.

We all went to bed eventually. I didn't sleep very well that night. It always takes me a day to settle into some place new. The kids slept like champs and were quite refreshed for the next day. Charli had a birthday party at The San Jose Zoo/ and Park. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast. The zoo is pretty small, but the park is really quite nice. Lots for kids to do, rides and so forthe as well. For them, it was a splendid day.

On our way back from the zoo/park I got my phone call from Brad. I got his address at bootcamp. We couldn't talk very long, and he was very frustrated about that. Apparently he should have had more time to talk but something went awry and he didn't have much time at all. He was really upset about that. I don't know if the guys in his troop screwed up and had time taken taken away (he called them dillholes so I am guessing they did), or that he was last because he was troop leader and the guys in front took more than time than they were supposed to. He is the leader of his flight (group of people he is in bootcamp with). He was happy with that. He said he liked it there and was actually enjoying it. I know it will get to him some days, but he will press through it. I am sending him letters often. I also sent him a phone card, but know he can't use it yet. It will come in handy at some point though. I am going to attend his graduation. I am looking forward to that.

I am awaiting my new computer. I am not very patient when it comes to these things. I am very much an instant gratification shopper, but I couldn't find the system I was looking for "over the counter" so I had to pony up and order one. My system if finally out of pre-production and is in the build stage of production. It took long enough for it to reach that stage, but at least it is there now. Keeping my fingers crossed that it actually comes earlier than their anticipated date. I didn't order any extra software or peripherals for the unit, so they don't have load all that stuff. Just the Windows XP software for me.

Nothing exciting, but an update nonetheless

Cats, Dogs, Computers, and Boot Camp

I realized in my last post I forgot to update on the family situation. Recall way back this summer when the kid's dad promised them pets? Well, said pets are now in our home, MUCH to CHAGRIN of our 17 year old tabby cat. She is NOT pleased at all.

First to arrive was the new kitten. Hubby to the kids to the animal shelter to get their pets. Lyd picked out a kitten in record time! There were apparently many, many rows of cats/kittens, but Miss Lyd picked on out in 30 seconds. There was one with a blue collar. None of the others had collars. She said, "that's the one I want, the one with the blue collar and the bell!" $58.00 dollars they were out the door with kitty in tow. I was at work while all this occurred. I walked in the door to be greeted by two VERY excited children! "We have a kitty, we have a kitty!" I was eager to see the adorable kitten...expecting to see a total fluffball like she had been showing me in books. Much to my horror was the ugliest kitten I had ever seen! LOL! This kitten was about 12-13 weeks old, so he was a little bigger than what you picture as a first home kitty. He is black and white with the biggest ears you ever saw. I am sure there is donkey somewhere in his lineage. He has a very pointed narrow face, with huge slanty eyes...(picture the classic alien head), very long legs, and a skinny tale. OH, and then to top it off, he has above his nostrils (but still on his nose) two black dots which make you think he has a nose of a pig. He is absolutely the poorest excuse for a cat I ever saw. LOL. My nephew Brad swears he is a real alien from another planet spying on the earth and this was they best they could do to emulate a cat. ROFL. There will be pictures coming, I promise! Lyd named him Jinga. Now, in the cats defense, he is very friendly, and lets Lyd take him anywhere, happily abides by laying in the doll crib while she reads him stories. He has a great personality, thank goodness. It would suck to have an ugly cat that was also a reall ass. He is fun, and loves to play and doesn't trash the furniture much, but he loves to pull the dead leaves out of planter for the big ficus I have...which in turn spreads dirt everywhere. ah well. He also loves to torment the older cat with his mere presence in our bedroom. She has pretty much kept her residence there now and in no way wants him sauntering in. He does though and she lets him know about it. We have had the cat 4-5 weeks now.

We acquired a dog about 2-3 weeks ago. Hubby went to look at dogs at the shelter. He was looking at a pointer earlier with Roo, but wasn't sure if the size was too big for Roo or not. Roo isn't real happy with big dogs. Well, they had a Beagle when he got there, and so after checking him out and seeing his behaviour, we have a Beagle now as well. He is deligated outside though. Our poor 17 year old miss kitty would have stroked out had we added a dog to her personal indoor hell now. The dogs name is "Bam" according to the handwritten scrawl that was on his collar. He is a bit plump, and didn't want to touch any dogfood at the onset. We figured out fairly quickly that he was quite spoiled and sat on sofas all day while being fed out of cellophane wrapped bags. Boy, do his ears perk up at that sound! We have ran a few pounds off him and he is now eating the dog food, but isn't overly pleased about it. He was pretty hard headed at first about trying to slip into the house and not listen to you. That didn't last too long, at least not with me. He gave a little "fake" snap when I grabbed his collar one time to get him off the outdoor furniture. He understood very quickly that (meaning the fake snap) wasn't allowed. He has adjusted well, and Roo loves him to death. He has several toys now and the kids outdoor playhouse (hand built from wood) is now his dog house (complete with covered porch). He seems to love it. the kids can still play in there, but they never did play in it much anyway, and the dog is very happy to share. Andrew has renamed him Shiloh in memory of his aunt's Beagle that was run over 4th of July weekend, though he still answers better to Bam.

I am in a bit of mourning now. My Nephew Brad is no longer working with me. His last day was last Thursday. I miss him terribly. He left yesterday for Basic Training for the Air Force. He actually gets on a plane and heads off to San Antonio in about two hours from now. I have talked with him all I could. He is so much fun. I understand his need to do this, and it will be good for him. I am not excited about prospects of heading to Iraq, but that will be almost guaranteed I am sure. He is in a good mindset to do this and do well. He wants to get everything out of it he can and get his education completed as well. I wish him the best, and know he will do well. I am following all his training on AirForce.com where they have Boot Camp broken down into weeks and what they do during the training. He called me a short bit ago to let me know that he was selected as the leader of his group of people heading to TX now. He gets one phone call once at the air force base on day three, and it is only three minutes long to give his contact information. He has selected me as the recipient of that call...he said I am the one most likely to answer my phone and be responsible enough to get his info to those that need it. LOL. So, Thursday and Friday I will be having my phone on my ear practically with pen and paper in my pocket at all times. Can't waste those fleeting minutes.

I also took the dive and ordered myself a new laptop. my old one is OLD, in fact it is so old, I let my kids play their computer games it now. I am excited! I wanted it for gaming and managing my photos, as well as work stuff etc, etc, etc. I pushed my financial limit and got everything I could right now because I know this will have to last me a very long time. I did pass on making super wazoo to purchase the 4 year warranty and 4 year accident coverage. With kids and animals, the accident coverage is worth it's weight in gold. I did not get a Mac. I was inclined to so so, but I have never had one before and after talking to the computer nerd crew here at work in computer services they recommended a Mac until I was telling them I will gaming quite a bit with this computer, then they switched me to a PC based laptop. I am not sad though, I was leary of switching to Mac just because of my inexperience. So, I should be receiving that by early November! I just may have to be home ill the day it is expected to arrive. It has a 17" high resolution monitor. I am practically drooling while I type about it. Oh, I had to order one because I just wasn't happy with an "over the coutner" model. Though, I could have ordered one from Costco.com with what I want, but that doesn't come with the 12 month no interest. I love to use that when I can. I pay it off before the 12 months and don't have to fork out a truck load all at once.

I think I am done rambling.

BACK!

Sorry for being gone for so long. I fear I have lost any readers I may have acquired during my short spurt of posts. It was just too impossible for me to post at all. I do 99% of my blogging at my lunch hour at work. Well, work for the last month or more has been so very busy that I barely have time to sit down, letalone take time to post on my blog.

We are officially in our new portable buildings. Things got behind schedule and we were moving all our chemistry stuff in while contractors were still installing electrical and plumbing and numerous other items. It was awful. We were climbing over one another, cussing one another for their existence in "my work space". We moved in three (working days) before labs actually were slated to start. Saturday and Sunday quickly became "working days" as well just to get labs ready for the day. It was crazy. I should have just set up a bunk at work and lived there for about 5 days solid. Overall, considering the task, things went okay and labs have been productive ever since the 18th of September.

Just because labs started doesn't mean there still isn't tons of stuff to unpack and organize. That is slowly getting done and things are shaping up more and more each day. I have to say, I would have absolutely died if my nephew wasn't helping during all this. He has been an excellent worker and constant source banter back and for the which seems to serve us both very well. He will be leaving soon though. He leaves for basic training in Texas for the Air Force October 17th. I will miss him terribly. I will have cake and a small party here at work for him next week on his last day here.

I am having a BBQ for him at my house this weekend. I called and left messages with folks, but so far I haven't heard from anyone about whether they are coming or not. I will have the BBQ nonetheless, but it would be nice to know how much stuff to purchase for said event.

Kids are doing great in school. They got progress reports on Wednesday. Lyd had her usual A's in everything except a B+ in Reading, and her usual D+ in penmanship. I, personally, don't think her penmanship is that terrible. Heck, I see college kids here at school with far worse than hers! So, I refuse to stress over that one. Roo had all A's in everything except for his penmanship, which was a B. I knew he would have a higher grade than Lyd ever did because he does write better than she does. I took a Friday off last week and went with Roo on his field trip to the Apple Farm to pick apples. It was quite a fun day all around. It was nice to take a day off work as well.

Now, I pulled a first here at work yesterday. Brad and I had worked our butts off and had put in way more overtime than should be allowed, so we took it upon ourselves to take a 2 hour break. We hooked my DVD player to the data projector and proceeded to watch "The World's Fastest Indian" starring Anthony Hopkins. I had threatened it lots of times, to watch a movie on the big screen in class, but never did it, until yesterday. OMG! It was fabulous! We felt like we were watching it at a movie theater. There are no windows in our building, so we didn't have any "light pollution" to spoil the picture. It was also a very good movie. One of which I highly recommend.

Got to run for now.