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Whoa! This is it! It's over! Good by 2009.
Hello the New Year! 2010~~
A final signage for the year~~
Why it pays to have a spare tire and a lug wrench, and know how to use them...
December 30, 2009 Wed
Getting close, now.
I am so reluctant to face it.
Another year, another dollar, another day closer - and what d'ya' get?
2010!
We are so there with the deeper in debt part.
Click for the original Ernie Ford song - Sixteen Tons
We are having so much fun with this gadget - called Flextunes. One sets an Ipod or similar device in it, and it plays the tunes. It plays from our I-devices, Blackberries, Walkmans, etc.
It is the perfect solution to using the 'old' Ipod that Evelyn gave us - the one that will no longer
accept a recharge. It gets power from the unit, and must hold six hours worth of tunes - of which, some
are actually of my choosing... ie, we had to download Itunes, learn how to use it, etc.
It ain't the same quality as a Bose unit, (hundreds of dollars) but then again, it only ran under fifty bucks, and makes great background music.
Thanks to sister Mardi - a shot from inside the newly refurbished
State Theatre in
Traverse City, MI.
December 28, 2009 Mon
thanks to Remit~~ brought along his camera~
Another guy with a good eye!
December 27, 2009 Sun
Christmas - gone for another year. And, soon - another year gone, too.
It has been a good one. The end of the year makes us want to look back, a bit~
Barbara and Ann, and chickens - a few years ago~
Two great books from our public library - Thom Hartmann's Threshold, and The Sellout, by Charles Gasparino. If you wonder about environmental issues and need the big picture - these guys have it.
December 25, 2009 Fri
We Wish You a Merry Christmas??•*¨*•.¸¸? ¸¸.•*¨*•?? ??•*¨*•.¸¸?
¸¸.•*¨*•??We Wish You a Merry Christmas ??•*¨*•.¸¸? ¸¸.•*¨*•?? ? ? ?
We Wish You A Merry Christmas??•*¨*•.¸¸? ¸¸.•*¨*•?? ??•*¨*•.¸¸? ¸¸.•*¨*•??...
And A Happy New Year!??•*¨*•.¸¸? ¸¸.•*¨*•??..
December 24, 2009 Thu
Didn't get very far with yesterday's post. :)))
Bright and sunny - about forty. No snow this year, it would seem. Maybe after New Years.
Hope you are ready for the big day, tomorrow! We are heading out into the crush yet one more time.
We are looking to find one of these for our back fence, you see...
So the dogs might more fully show their attachment to the garbage man.
December 23, 2009 Wed
Coming down to the wire - maybe you should be out shopping?
We still have a couple items to go, and must head out, directly. Sure doesn't seem much like Christmas - grey and forties, a typical WA winter day. But, this is it - the real deal - Holiday season, 2009. All over in two days.
Then the final countdown to 2010. Whoopee! It will sure be great to be another year older...
We went to the collision shop yesterday to remove the last of our personal items from Ann's Toyota. Kinda' sad, seeing it sitting out there in the back forty, all forlorn, wrecked and abandoned. Sure has a swell paint job, though.
December 21, 2009 Mon
Feel like Christmas yet?
Here, more to get you in the mood, even...
Lily, at her christmas post - under the tree~
From Linda, here is Cody - also looking pretty much like Christmas~
Speaking of which, the insurance lady asked if it was a V-eight? I don't think so (the manufacturers usually brag about that sort of thing with an emblem somewhere on the exterior) but I wasn't sure, and told her I'd have to look.
That did a whole lot of good. Looking at the engine from the top, under the hood, doesn't tell you very much. No spark plugs visible, spark plug wires, no intake or exhaust manifold. The ground was damp and it was dark - so we didn't do the next thing - which would be too look from underneath and try to spy the exhaust pipes.
Maybe it's in the manual...
He asks, 'Which way is the bus going?', and mentions that 90% of all pre-schoolers know the answer.
Which way? To the left, the kids say - because you can't see the door...
December 19, 2009 Sat
Happy weekend.
Still pretty damp around here, though remaining mild - 50's. Sure would like to get out on two wheels.
Two newsy items. Ms Evelyn has wrenched her ankle severely enough to require crutches and a brace. That's the bad news.
The good news is that Ms Ann found her replacement vehicle - and it isn't another truck!
Instead, an '06 Chevy Trailblazer~~ former lease, with less than twenty thousand miles on the
odometer.
December 18, 2009 Fri
From Kurt - thanks~
A boat oops, and a cat oops...
Speaking of which -- here are some graphics relating to this particular blog.
Believe me when I say, we have no idea who looks at these pages. The above graphics give you an idea...
How did people on the other side of the world find this blog?
This is the reason, for the chat box -- the whole idea behind, Say Something --
Otherwise, we have no idea that you are out there...
December 17, 2009 Thu
Missed a couple days, there - gloomy they were, too. Normal winter is back - 40's and grey.
It is now official - Ann's Toyota will be considered a 'total' by the insurance company. This is
the 'loaner'~ taken a couple days ago while it was trying to snow. Didn't stick.
Under the heading, Information You Really Need - thanks to Doreen and Nancy
REMEMBER THIS AT CHRISTMAS TIME
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.
Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should've known... ONLY women would be able to drag a fat-ass man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.
December 14, 2009 Mon
OK - a few more ballet pix, mostly by Ann~~
December 13, 2009 Sun
We want to mention how very superb the ballet was, and how exquisitely Evelyn has honed her talents
over the course of the last few years. She is amazing to watch - and the rest of the crew ain't too
shabby. Pix will follow. We'll try and find a couple to hold you...
December 12, 2009 Sat
Good news -- temperatures broke 30 today. Giving us a pleasant day to attend a most enjoyable
ceremony. Two very close friends, tied the knot, as they say. Thanks to Ann for the photo help~~
December 11, 2009 Fri
We will try and remember to get a picture of Ann's rental car. It's a smallish Chevy something that looks rather like a PT cruiser. We have been informed that rear visibility leaves something to be desired - why are we not surprised?
The year is winding down. I'm sitting here instead of installing the Christmas lights on the front porch. It's in the mid-30s and the sun is trying to come out - that's like spring in Michigan, which is where we're from. Back there, they have snow on the ground. I'm glad that we don't - even if it does tend to promote Christmas spirit in people from the Midwest.
Hopefully, that recent period in the deep freeze is over. I'll spare you any more pictures of ice on the dog's water dish.
Instead, how about this? Have you heard the expression, RAM? This is not referring to goats or sheep. This is computer talk, as in -- my computer has 4 GB of RAM. (You wish!) We'll discuss gigabytes at a later time.
What you see here is RAM -- random access memory. In your computer -- the more the better.
Each of these is called a stick of RAM, and they come in various denominations -- we needn't go into
that, either. Cute, ain't they? Pricey Rascals, too.
For the record, the two types of memory -- ROM and RAM. Your computer does its basic stuff using ROM -- read only memory. We, the users, have no access to ROM. Still, as always, the more the better.
RAM comes in even numbers, originally in megabytes -- or even kilobytes. A first home computer (still owned) that could be programmed, had 8K of memory. The computers that took men to the moon had 256 kilobytes of memory, which they made for up by having multiple computers.
So, early on, 64K of memory soon became 128. And the doubling process continued -- 128 became 256K of memory, all this is in home computers. When 512KB doubled to 1024 - one megabyte was born. The doubling continued, until reaching 1000 MB - which is a gigabyte.
Ram continued to double, by the 90s becoming 512 MB in a home computer. Many of the machines I take in still have only 512 MB (one half a gigabyte) of RAM, because that's an easy way for manufacturers to save money. RAM is still expensive.
These days, entry-level is considered 4 GB of RAM. That is, your 512 MB doubled to 1 GB of RAM, (1024 megabytes) which doubled again to two GB, and will soon become four gigabytes of RAM on an entry-level computer.
Do buy a new computer in 2010 with Windows 7 -- if you're a Windows person -- it's a positive step up,
and finally -- an improvement on even XP.
Windows 7 is not as memory intensive as was its predecessor, Windows Vista -- but still try to get a
computer that has at least 2 GB of RAM.
Why is this important? Because everything you, as the user, does on your computer -- you do in Random Access Memory. Read and write memory, is another way of saying it. Stuff that happens in RAM is what you do on your desktop. The more windows you have open, the larger files you are dealing with, the more RAM you need. Audio and video files, and of course pictures -- gobble up huge amounts of random access memory. In the immortal words of my absolute best financial advisor, Hank Marx, "Spend it like you got it". This applies to the amount of memory ( RAM ) in your next computer.
Before Notebooks and Netbooks, it was important to 'Take Notes' at college lectures...
Ann attended the memorial service for the four police officers gunned down by a madman.
The service was impressive -- held at the Tacoma Dome.
Do you recognize anyone?
Thanks to Richard - trying out his new camera on yours truly...
We are not sure how this collection got started --
The cold snap continues, making any outside work truly uninteresting.
Ann's truck has made it into the body shop. As yet, we have no estimate.
Evelyn rehearses daily on bruised and bloody feet -- the tariff, for being the best ballerina
(admitting to a certain amount of prejudice)
in this year's Nutcracker, which will come off this weekend one way or another.
December 09, 2009 Wed
Record heat waves in the summer, and now record cold snaps in December - this isn't the great Pacific Northwest we know and love.
It was in the low teens last night, and that's about as cold as I ever remember it since I've been here. 14° sticks in my mind, as the coldest it was a few years ago when I was happy to note that none of the pipes froze. We still have water today... but the ice is thicker on the dog's dish.
Also, being an entry-level computer -- not much room to expand the memory. We were able to double it, with salvaged memory that was lying around the office. Yes, we are that good...
:)))
This stitch of the office area makes me look twice as busy...
There is a certain lack of working space in my office...
What if your day in the office looked like this?
December 08, 2009 Tue
Whoa! Things have turned chilly, here in the great Pacific Northwest. I force myself to recall that chilly temperatures do actually occur... but these last few days below freezing have certainly received my attention.
This photo represents breaking the ice, as it were, off the dogs drinking bowl -- two days in a row~~
Granted, we have become spoiled. This is a rare cold snap, but not unheard of by any means. It was only a few years ago that we left a sink and a toilet outside when it was well above freezing, only to end up losing them to a sudden overnight freeze...
Ann has returned from shopapalooza.
The girls did well to rise above circumstances.
Circumstances being the fact that Ann was rear-ended on the way down with this resulting damage to our recently repainted truck. Negotiations are under way to effect a repair. Stay tuned.
Sister Mardi sends along this photo from her recent retreat near Lake Tahoe~
December 05, 2009 Sat
Yes, the month is starting out a tad hectic...
Firstly, thanks to Remit for snapping this
at S.U.E.~
The Tidal action in the channel to the marina, as well as the action of all those propellers,
necessitates frequent dredging to keep it deep enough. Fortunately, the channel is like a two-way street,
and they can close one lane at a time...
I think I'll be selling these online this Christmas season to make a few extra bucks.
December 02, 2009 Wed
December 01, 2009 Tue
OK! Here we go - counting down to the end of the year.
Sure was nice having my darling wife home for a long weekend. Now I am so spoiled...
Collected a few things over the last few days - just didn't get them logged on. So, w/o further ado~~
Thanks to
cousin Betsy Marx, for this
shot of her dad, Hank ~ in 1964
These two make us a trio...
