Keep Smiling!

So I had a go with Herbert this afternoon. (Herbert is my lawnmower, BTW.) I still haven't fixed George ... the other lawnmower, yet. (I'll explain the reason behind the names some other time.) I've never bagged grass in my life. I'd never CUT grass in my life until about a year and a half ago. Now, I've got just under an acre yard to take care of ... I love it!!

I decided I wanted to get up some of the old leaves and weeds that are invading the front yard. My good Bermuda grass isnt growing too well, there's actually very little of it, so I decided to bag the weeds and leaves instead of mulch like I usually do. Because I've had the yard sprayed, it's mostly dirt, dead stuff, and new baby bermuda-grass, so I just wanted to mow in areas.

I figure out how to set up the bagger, on Herbert. The bagger is situated directly behind the lawnmower. Directly in front of where you stand, when you push the lawnmower. The bagger is ventilated, so the grass stays, the dust and dirt flies out. The cuttings need to breathe? I dunno. The cut grass stays happy and safe in the bagger. You, however, get covered with the dust and dirt.

So I cut the small areas I wanted to cut, but was walking in clouds of grey and brown dusty smoke. Of course, being a nitwit, I wasnt wearing a facemask or sunglasses (what I wear as safety goggles) ... so when I was done, it looked like I had just climbed down a chimney... on top of having breathed in all of the grit and grime. LOVELY! *sneeze* I'm going to be feeling nifty dandy for the rest of the day, even after a shower ... *cough*

I need a man around the house to do this ucky stuff for me... *pout* *whine*

Sometimes, you're not so brilliant when you're tired. You come up with what seems to be a completely logical idea, which of course goes awry.

In the middle of the night last night, I woke up to the tune of a mosquito buzzing around my ear. First thing I did was tuck my covers around every inch of my body, hoping the mosquito couldn't find it's way in. Then my poor sleep-fuzzied brain started to wonder if this one mosquito could bite thru fabric. I tried to force my mind to focus on 'what would keep the mosquito away?' It came up with the answer ... 'One of the Citronella Candles from the back deck.' (side note: "for outdoor use only")

I got the candle, lit it, put it near the bed ... watched the pretty flickering candlelight for awhile ... and fell asleep. My original plan was only to keep it lit for about 15-20 minutes ... just enough for the smell of citronella to make the mosquito change his mind about snacking on my body.

Two hours later, my nose started to process a most horrible aroma. Brain tried to ignore it. Nose and Brain reached an agreement that they should wake me up, because Stomach was starting to lurch.

To sum up: BAD IDEA! IT WAS JUST ONE STUPID MOSQUITO!!!

I am so WEIRD! I was driving to Agility class this morning ... it was a nice, breezy 76 degrees so I had the car windows down, it was absolutely beautiful out! I had 'Nickel Creek' playing on the CD-player again, arm hanging out the car window driving down the small country highway.

All of the sudden, I looked out the car window and noticed my thumb. There was nothing unusual about it, it's an ordinary thumb, and it was doing normal thumb-like things ... but it just struck me as hilarious!

This is normal for me. I find humor and amusement in the oddest of things, and I could never even begin to explain myself.

My 'rents called tonite. Talk circled around to the park about a mile from their house, where I grew up ... community pool, pond, playground, baseball fields, tennis courts, track, picnic areas ... spent a lot of time at the park when I was a kid.

Mom mentioned something that I had forgotten. How I used to ride my bike up there with my fishing equipment, to fish in the pond. Now, the pond was a scary thing ... the kind of place you expected to see mutant fish with six eyeballs and feet. I never caught anything. Except myself, once.

I was about 10 years old when a tornado came to town (a normal event, growing up in the midwest), and the emergency 'severe weather' sirens went off when I was fishing with my best friend. I had the brilliant idea to try and ride my bike home (she went to the park office to call her parents for a ride). Every time I tried to pedal in one direction, the wind would pick up my bike and send me in the opposite direction. The hook and fishing line became loose on my rod, and got caught on the knee of my jeans, and I got tangled.

A lady "came to my rescue", saw me fighting with my bike and fishing rod. She -FLIPPED- when she saw the hook attached to my knee. She ran around screaming "It's stuck in your skin! We have to rush you to the emergency room! We have to get you to the hospital!" The emergency sirens were going off, the sky was an awesome brownish-green color, I just looked at her, shook my head, and tried to get back on my bike. About this time, my best friend's mother arrived and we got home safely and removed the hook from my jeans ...

So *I* was the only thing I ever caught at that pond.

Your element is Water: Understanding, intelligent,
quiet and calm. You know who you are and no one
can change that. Usually quiet but only because
your listening, don't let anyone think you
haven't got an opinion! Your not quiet because
your shy or sad, your usually quiet because
your thinking. Your answers are well planned
and helpful so people generally seek your
advice. Your the perfect balance between
solitary and outgoing. But sometimes you need a
little time to yourself to sort out your
emotions and figure things out. You understand
the phrase 'sticks and stone' and rarely let
things get to you, whats that important for you
to have to get so upset over? You know what you
want out of life but are simply taking your
time and enjoying things. To you your life is
fine as it is, you can always change things
later if your not happy.


.:-|What is your true element?|-:. -With Anime Pictures and detailed answers-
brought to you by Quizilla

This will be quick because I've been in a REALLLLLLY bad mood about it, and I'm not often in bad moods.

Work laptop harddrive was toast, they weren't able to salvage anything... and not having a full backup, I'm left with bits and pieces of all the work I've done for the past 6 months. So now I've gotta try to piece that together and make it presentable enough to my boss to say "Even tho the company is in a financial crunch, and I'm just a contractor so therefore, disposable .. and even more uselesss now that I've lost everything .. you still want to keep me, see?"

End of work update. *grmbl*

I was driving home from Wal-Mart ("Wally World"!) a few minutes ago, and saw a whole herd of cattle alongside the fence near the back country road I was on. I couldn't help myself, I had to yell out the window "Hi, Moo-cows!!", as I like to talk to any sort of animal. It reminded me of the first time I met a cow up-close and very personal.

Have you ever been licked by a cow? I have. It's an experience you will never forget. I was about 11 years old, and was visiting family up in New Hampshire. They had a handful of cows, goats, typical farm animals... my parents and brother were inside visiting with the humans, I was wandering around outside visiting with the animals (I've never changed *grin*). I had heard that my Aunt and Uncle had raised a calf by hand from bottle because the mother had died giving birth. They said the young cow was very tame, almost dog-like, and that the rest of the "herd" wouldn't allow her near. They named the cow Marshmallow (I dont remember the reason behind the name).

I climb inside a paddock, and see a reddish cow in the distance. I had hoped I could get a closer look at her. Out of curiosity, I shouted out "Hi cow! Marshmallow! Here, Marshmallow!!", and whistled. How was I supposed to know the cow would actually come when it was called? Marshmallow, the cow, not only came .. she GALLOPED ... full speed ... over to where I was standing. I thought I was going to be trampled. I'd never stood up to a stampeding cow before. Before I could climb back over the fence, Marshmallow reached me ... came to an abrupt full stop, stretched her neck, and stuck out her slimey slobbery grass-stained tongue. I got a full swipe. I was completely stunned.

I was in love, I was disgusted, I was charmed, I was horrified... and Marshmallow just wanted her head scratched like a puppy.

Moo-Cows are COOL!

It's 3:30am and I can't sleep. There's something on my mind...

Were smurfs two or three apples tall?? I think three, but that sounds too big ... *ponder* ... too big to hide under mushrooms from Azrael, the cat ... and if you saw something three-apples-tall, and blue, wearing white pants and a white cap yelling "Papa Smurf! Papa Smurf!" wouldn't that be a little conspicuous? It would be much more practical to be only ONE apple tall. And maybe invisible to humans, that way Gargamel the bad dude would have a harder time trying to capture them. I wonder why Papa Smurf or Brainy Smurf never came up with an invisibility potion? Or just a "Carebear:let's-all-be-friends,-smile-and-love-the-world" potion. What if the smurfs met the carebears? Oh, what a sickening world that would be...

*yawn* I hate it when I can't sleep ...

I had another bad day today. The kind of day that left tears of frustration in my eyes, as I left work. My laptop is -still- dead which means I still can't do any work, which means it's kinda hard to prove that I should be worthy of keeping my job! Worst yet, we couldnt find out a status on my laptop .. noone seemed to know. So I did absolutely nothing, which I'm sure the company was THRILLED about (Why do we need this employee, again?) ... tho I kept harassing one of the managers to give me something to do. ("Honest, Stan! If there's nothing computery I can do, I'll file ... I'll clean ... I'll build equipment ... I'll mop floors ....")

So I was upset when I left. Am seriously worried about losing my job in the next few months ... after being unemployed for 8 months last year, I dont want to go thru that again. Besides, I love this job ... or at least, the concept of it! *grin* I get to go in "sometime in the morning", leave "sometime in the afternoon", do some work from home, my boss is in Indiana and doesn't micro-manage us in the LEAST ... he trusts us to figure things out, and get things done.

ANYWAY, I got off the subject. The subject was 'Car Tunes'. So on the drive home from RTP, it was "Nickel Creek" that cheered me up today. I hadn't listened to them in ages! That, and the fascinating sky ... there were SO many varieties of cloud formations, as this weather front is coming in. I really wish I could paint the sky. If I could paint at all, that's what I would, at least.... all of the photos I've taken just don't do it justice. I don't have good camera equipment ... all of the photos just seem too two-dimensional. I would love to learn how to give it life on paper.

Update on the bad day: Computer hard drive on my work laptop is toast. I'm hoping I didnt lose everything. d:(

Update on agility class: Teaching went ok, kept to the schedule fairly well, got all the new material in, reviewed the old, but to me it felt 'sloppy'. C'est la vie ... I'm not a profesionnal. d;)

Update on baseball cap: Reason I brought that up was I got to play baseball with my friend's next-door neighbor's son yesterday when I took my dogs over for a romp. It was very amusing. I pitched a tennis ball to the kid (he's around 5 yrs old), and my friend's chocolate lab played catcher AND outfield depending on if the kid hit or missed. *grin* The other dogs all ran around going nuts, mostly ignoring us. It was fun ... me, the kid, and 6 dogs ... lots of fun! (My friend wasnt home ... I just go over and use her 2 acre yard, and play with her dogs).

As long as I've been on the internet (well, since '89 or so), I've always signed my smileys with my baseball cap. If anyone were to ask, I'd always say it was my St.Louis Cardinals Baseball Cap.

Well... shhh.... dont tell anyone ... it's not, really.

My Cardinals hat is really in the trunk of my Ford, kinda squished, filthy and rather unworn. On weekends, 'play days' (when I'll be outside with the dogs), bad hair days, on the rare occasion that it snows, or other miscellaneous days, it's usually my favorite grey "Poconos" baseball cap that I choose to wear. I also have a tartan "Scotland" hat that I'm fond of... it has St. Andrews Cross, a thistle, and other scottish symbols on it.

But if anyone asks... the baseball cap on my smiley is eternally a St.Louis Cardinals baseball cap. Good or bad, they'll always be my team.

d:)

I was just looking around my house and thinking about things I collect, so decided to start a list.

Things I Collect:
Rocks, crystals, gemstones, precious and semi-precious stones
DVDs
Candles
Dogs (Heh .. ok, so I stopped at 3) and dog 'stuff'
Pictures of friends and family
Disney Snowglobes
Pocket Dragons
Knives (yeah, ok, I'm weird)

Hmmmm..... I guess I've really cut back on "stuff" since I started moving around so much. I used to collect SO MANY things. I really cleaned out my belongings when I almost moved to England and had to plan on what I could reasonably ship over.

Okey dokey, it's Saturday morning and I have to leave for Agility class in about an hour. I'm only SLIGHTLY freaked because I have to teach the whole class this morning (I usually assist, and then teach one-on-one as needed), but luckily found out last night that I will have two assistants to back me up.

My Little-White-Willow-Bear-Coconut-Puddin'-Head (my 80-lb white german shepherd) has been sick the past few days, she's not happy that I'm planning on going to go "play" with other dogs. I haven't told her that I'm also going to the Johnston County Animal Shelter Open House, and possibly bringing my Mini-Aussie, or my Collie.

*sigh* I'm stalling. I need to be taking some notes on the lesson plan for class, since I'm a computer professional who doesn't own a printer (have I mentioned that I hate computers?).

I think.. yeah .. I'm pretty durned sure ... I had a REALLY bad day today. So as I sit here and watch "Men In Black" and eat Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, let me tell you about it.

Took my car to the shop for an oil change and tune-up. I dont recognize the guy behind the counter, I say "I'm here for an oil change." He says "There's no way we can get you in today", and dismisses me. I point to his appointment book at the same time one of the managers comes in and says hello to me by name (sad that I feel special at the garage, I've spent too much time and money there with my last car!!), and the manager corrects the associate and tells him that I'm scheduled, they'll get to it right away. I smile, thank them, sit down to read my book.

Next hour, uneventful. My car is happy, I come home. I had left my work laptop connected to my router so I wouldnt miss anything I needed to know about. Should have known better. Silly piece of ... computer ... had crashed.

I attempt to reboot, it wont boot up. I call my boss (in Indiana) and tell him I -am- alive, just not online, having troubles with the laptop that I'm going to be working on. He's cool. I perform basic trouble-shooting... there are some corrupt files. In order to fix/replace corrupt files, I need the WinXP CD. The CD-Rom drive is in RTP, I had swapped it out for the floppy drive the other day.

I have another laptop, my own/home laptop, which I'm using to connect to the internet and surfing Microsoft's website looking for tips and advice. I can download files to it, to copy to the other laptop ... but NO ... MY laptop doesnt have a floppy drive, only a CD-Rom drive. So I get out my little USB/flash/thumb drive, save the files to it. Boot up my MAIN computer ... of the non-laptop variety ... stick in the USB flash drive to create a boot disk ... on floppy. Only it's Win98 operating system, not WinXP. So of course, I try anyway to format the floppy and copy the necessary WinXP files to create a boot disk for the work laptop.........

And so it goes, for the next 5 hours. I had to give up. I HATE giving up on problems. It's going to grind away at me all weekend. In my mind, I should be able to fix anything. AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE COMPUTERS!!!!!!!!! It was completely an accident that I started working with them, to begin with. Granted, sometimes they're kinda cool. But they're a pain in the patootie, and I'd much rather be working with people or dogs.

So my problem is postponed until Monday. d:(

And now my ice cream is all gone. *SIGH*

I am such a geek, sometimes. I think I was one of the very few people driving home from work yesterday, cruising at *mumbletycough* miles-per-hour, with the car windows down, hair up in ponytail, big genuine smile on my face, blasting WCPE – 89.7 The Classical Music Station.

I had been station-hopping, couldn’t decide on what kind of music I felt like listening to. I’d caught news and traffic from my favorite station, but just couldn’t decide on a tune. Flipped over to the classical station, and immediately felt relaxed. Was probably one of the ONLY people chillin’ during stop and go rush-hour traffic (well, ok, stop and go when I WASN’T doing the above-mentioned *mumbletycough* miles-per-hour).

This week, I’ve had to pretend to be a real person … driving in to work every day, facing rush-hour traffic... to sit at a conference room round table with my laptop for TripWire Enterprise training. My (local) teammates are in here with me. All five of them. The thing is, we aren’t really being trained to do anything. The first day, we did learn some new information … I went to TripWire for Network Devices training last October, so had a general idea of what we were going to be doing.

So, since then, I’ve been reading a book that I have in .PDF format, doing some web-surfing, taking occasional notes on the work/training stuff, chatting online, daydreaming, catching up on some other work, planning the next few weeks (drive to Missouri coming up), and just pondering life.

Gotta love computer training classes. d;)

I miss my piano. Every time I listen to the beginning of the song ‘100 years’ by Five For Fighting (like this morning in the car on the way to work), I want to sit in front of my piano and figure out the notes. However, my piano is in Missouri and I’m not. I’ve talked to my parents about shipping my piano out here, but everytime I start to save the money, something else comes up. I should just sell it and buy one here… but that is *my* piano. It’s more than just a piano. It’s not the physical value, it’s the sentimental worth. When I was a kid, I could lose myself for hours sitting at my piano when noone was around. Playing it transported me to a safe, secure place. I believe that’s what New Agers would call “My Happy Place”. *grin*

Another fond memory of playing piano (this time, not my own) was at camp in Michigan where I used to work summers. There was an observatory on the cliff of a large dune, overlooking a sandy beach and Lake Michigan. This wooden structure was octagonal, was mostly surrounded by glass, and had a deck that wrapped around the outside. There was a piano in this one-room building. I could sit in there, play the piano, and watch the sunset on Lake Michigan, or could see storms blowing in across the lake. There were days that I never wanted to leave. It's one of those memories that is engraved in your mind like a favorite movie, you can replay every sight and sound, feeling and emotion.

If you've never heard 'The Llama Song', you simply must follow this link -->

http://70.85.12.163/albino_flash01/thellamasong(www.albinoblacksheep.com).swf

Are you in a bad mood? Having a crappy day? Llama Llama Duck!

'The Road Not Taken'

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


-Robert Frost

Today! Today, I faced The Extreme Challenge. Something I have never done before ... a mountain I had yet to climb. I met the challenge head-on, and succeeded!!!

I took all three of my dogs to the vet ... AT ONCE!!! I have a white german shepherd, a collie, and a mini-aussie. All three have ... unique ... personalities, especially at the vet. One is HYPER-NUTS, one is scared to death, one is shy/curious/friendly.

We all survived, AND my migraine didnt come back ... I was very proud of my Canine Kids on the drive home. d:)

Nothing like trying to assist a dog obedience class outside in the humidity, when you're good and stoned on migraine drugs. Had a whopper migraine yesterday afternoon; begged and pleaded with it to go away by class-time, but did it listen? Noooooo! And I had tried every trick, too. Prescription drugs, nap, shower, compresses, you name it... Guess I'm not a very good migraine trainer. d;)

Unfortunately, I remember very little of the class. LUCKILY, it's a very good class ... the handlers are catching on quick, and seem to be working well with their dogs. It's a nice, small class ... 6 or 7 students (depending on how many come) so can USUALLY give more one on one attention, when I'm not busy staring up at the sky in a drugged stupor. d;)

That's one of my tricks when a dog (in last night's case, a staffordshire terrier ... yes, a pitbull ... ) is jumping on me and shouldnt be. Completely ignore the dog, and I'll discuss the sky with the handler. If there are clouds, why, what the weather is doing ... well, yesterday I didnt even realize that the dog had quit jumping. Just kept staring up at the sky. The dog had moved in to a sit (what I had wanted to accomplish) and was waiting obediently for attention and I was off in la-la-land up in the sky ... *sigh* Drugs. Hate 'em.

I love watching BBC tv shows. Eastenders is a great soap opera,
Monarch of the Glen is wonderful, tho the series is coming to an end.
There's
My Hero which is a hilarious comedy, and speaking of comedies, there is the sci-fi classic favorite RED DWARF!! Older classics include Are You Being Served , Father Ted , and Keeping Up Appearances.

HOWEVER, while watching British TV or spending any time in the UK, you'll hear many-a-word that is not common to our American tongue. They have some pretty cool words of their own!! Check this site out, and learn a few ... impress your friends ... they wont know what you're saying, you'll have your own secret code, and best of all, it's in "English"!

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm - Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK.

I stole this questionairre from a friend's LiveJournal entry, and changed the answers the other day at work, when there wasn't anything else left to do but kill some time. d:)


1) My uncle once: told my parents that I would need glasses when I was older (I was a baby). I did.
2) Never in my life: have I willingly killed an animal.
3) When I was five: I kissed boys.
4) High School was: hard at the time, but I had A LOT of good times.
5) I will never forget: how to ride a horse.
6) I once met: Vincent Price.
7) There’s this girl I know who: can touch her ear with her toes.
8) Once, at a bar: I danced with a man in his 70s or 80s who was naked from the waist down.
9) By noon I’m usually: starting to think about lunch.
10) Last night: I assisted the first obedience class of the spring.
11) If I only had: the winning lottery ticket.
12) Next time I go to church, I: will probably put some money in the donation jar.
13) Terry Schiavo: is dead. When I die, I will have a DNR, and please note: I AM AN ORGAN DONOR, PEEPS!!!
14) What worries me most: right now, keeping my job.
15) When I turn my head left, I see: my "get fuzzy" page-a-day calendar and my "garfield" page-a-day calendar.
16) When I turn my head right, I see: a rose quartz, and my backpack.
17) You know I’m lying when: I dont look you in the eye.
18) What I miss most about the eighties: two things - the music, and my naivete'.
19) If I were a character written by Shakespeare, I’d be: I dunno... did Hamlet have a dog?
20) By this time next year: I'll be 35 1/2.
21) A better name for me would be: Care-all
22) I have a hard time understanding: why people hurt each other.
23) If I ever go back to school I’ll: study!
24) You know I like you if: I willingly hang around you for any length of time.
25) If I won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: whoever helped me the most!
26) Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens &Geraldine Ferraro: have nothing in common?
27) Take my advice, never: smoke a 'cigar' made up of rolled-up paper towels. Or at least, don't inhale!! d;)
28) My ideal breakfast is: Pancakes or waffles, with a side of nice crisp bacon!
29) A song I love, but do not have is: "Shine" - Collective Soul
30) If you visit my hometown, I suggest: touring down-town.
31) Tulips, character flaws, microchips & track stars: are things I dont really think about, tho my animals are all microchipped! d:)
32) Why won’t anyone: give me a billion dollars??
33) If you spend the night at my house, don’t: complain about the animals! Dont even bother to come over. They're not going anywhere.
34) I’d stop my wedding for: an emergency regarding my friends, or my pets.
35) The world could do without: neglect.
36) I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: hurt a friend.
37) My favorite blonde is: no clue, who knows who is actually a 'real' blond these days?
38) Paper clips are more useful than: pocket fluff, unless you are MacGyver.
39) If I do anything well, it’s: make people smile.
40) And by the way: I'm pretty good at communicating with dogs, too.
41) The last time I was drunk, I: dont remember.

Hi - I'm testing out this blog thing. Never had one before. This is a new thing to play with.

Hmmmmmm................................