OFFLINE

Finally, we're back online. We lost our DSL connection about 5:00 Friday afternoon and we didn't get it back until midafternoon today. I talked to the support line off and on for at least an hour before they said that they couldn't help us. We were snowed/iced in and I didn't go to work again on Friday because of the forecast. I was listening on the radio for cancelled school or bus routes and never heard any, but I still made the call to stay home because of the dangerous weather that was forecast. I found out today that the out of town school buses weren't running and attendance was way down. The announcement wasn't made on the radios until almost time for school to start. Not a good thing. Anyway, I don't feel guilty about staying home anymore.

Needless to say, I was starting to get some cabin fever, especially with no Internet or email. I started to get carpal tunnel pains from playing my Playstation and I finished one or two books. I'd run out of flour last week and never got a chance to buy any, so there was no baking of any kind. I did listen to our basketball games on the radio. Our girls lost their second game and were out of the tournement but our boys won all of theirs and are district champs again. GO STARS ! Anyway, it's great to get back ONLINE.

Ultimate Bible Quiz

I got an 87% , which isn't bad consdering its been a long time since I've read the Bible. Click on the words Ultimate Bible Quiz if you want to best my score.

Snow Day

I tried to go to work today, honest I did. I got up and showered, dressed for work, started the car and got all the way to town and a little beyond before turning back. I made it OK through the drifts on our road down to the highway and stopped at the highway to call Bill and tell him that I'd made it that far when I realized I had forgotten my glasses. I couldn't see the phone display very well. But I kept going. I drove through Ashland and it didn't seem too bad. Then I got past Ashland and the highway itself was drifted badly on the shoulder and somewhat drifted on the driving lane itself. Then I saw the hill leading out of town and lost my nerve. I probably could have made it to work, but the forecast was for continued snow and blow and I wasn't so sure about the way home. Our road was already pretty bad and another day of snow would not make it better, so I turned around and drove home, only the second time in my life that I've ever done that.

I'd already scheduled to take tomorrow off. I had delusions of taking a trip to Miles City or even Billings and just shopping around for a new spring outfit or something. So I guess tomorrow is as good a time as any to fire up Turbo Tax and get started on the taxes.

ps. It is a pretty view from inside at least.

DareDevils of Niagra Falls

October 24th 1901
Annie Taylor was the first person to conquer the falls in a barrel. After climbing inside her airtight wooden barrel, the air pressure was compressed to 30 p.s.i. with a bicycle pump.


ps for more on the story and pictures, click on the title.

T.G.I.N.F.

Thank Goodness It's Not Friday. . . it's Saturday and the sun is shinning for the first time all week. Friday started out to be a good day. I'd gotten up early enough to play my video game for a little while and time to throw some leftovers in the bag for lunch. My car started without any trouble and then I looked at the gag gauge and remembered that I was supposed to get gas before going to work. I'd been avoiding stopping for gas because the weather had been so nasty. I decided that I'd better get gas in Ashland rather than wait until I got to Lame Deer even though the price is $.12 more. So I pull into the gas station and pull the lever to open the door to the gas cap. It didn't open. I got out to examine it and it was frozen over and sealed shut. I called work and told the secretary that I would be late and went home to get my hair dryer and melt the ice. It didn't take to long, but I haven't used my hair dryer to dry my hair yet, I hope it still works. I filled up with gas and made it to work only 45 minutes late. Then I was getting ready to leave at the end of an otherwise uneventful day and I was called into an administrative meeting where a colleague was getting suspended for a week. I was just a witness, but it wasn't a good way to start the weekend. But the sun is shining today and maybe we'll just get out and enjoy it a little bit.

Shhhh!

This little action figure sits on my workdesk just above my keyboard. She's Nancy Pearl a famous librarian. She's the one who said that after you turn 50 you're no longer obligated to finish a book you don't like, even if some one you do like gave it to you.

PS Click on the title to learn more about Ms. Pearl

Condiment? or Veg?

I'm referring of course to ketchup. I used to have one day at the end of the quarter that I called condiment day, to give the students a day to "catchup." I doubt that any of them understood the weak pun, but I enjoyed it. It has been a while since I've blogged, mostly because there's nothing very much to say. The big news from my library is the "genrefication" of the fiction section. My student assistants and I separated the fiction into general fiction, mystery, sci/fi-fantasy, and horror-suspense. I decided to give it a try since that's how most students ask for books. "Where are all of your scary books?" is what they ask. Usually by the time I would dig out a few from the stacks, the students were saying, "Never mind." I hope it makes it easier for the patrons to find what they want. I'll let you know.

We had a nice visit with David, Ken, Pete and of course Dad. David was in town for a family visit and Ken came down from Helena and Bill and I drove in on Saturday. Of course I forgot my camera, but the guys had theirs, so I'm counting on them for pictures. It was the end of the coldest week all winter, so I wasn't sure of the travel conditions, but they turned out to be really good, for any season. One day this week it was down to -22 and today it was +43.

The begining of February brings fresh memories of Jimmy, since it is his birthday Saturday. I remember his boundless energy at family gatherings and how he always made time to play with the kids when they were little. I miss him.

Ouch!

So some juniors came into the library the other day looking for materials for their history class. "What do you need I asked?" "Stuff about the 60s they replied." Ouch! My childhood is now history. Does that mean I have to grow up now?

A Rose by any other name?

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Countess-Palatine Ann the Essential of Helions Bumpstead Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Farmer's Almanac? or Catomac

A lot of people supposedly depend on the Farmer's Almanac to tell what the weather will be like. I don't. I have a cat. A cat will tell you what the weather is like if you just know how to "read" it. If the cat is curled up on the bed with his entire face hidden in his paws and tail - turn up the thermostat. If the cat is stretched out on the bed with his feet in the air and his tail stretched out - turn up the air conditioner. If the cat waits patiently by the door for it to open and then runs down the hall to his litter box instead - plug in the car. If the cat mopes around the house because it's too cold to go out - either bundle up twice or go back to bed with a good book. It's Saturday - I'm going back to bed.

RSS

Does anyone use an RSS feed? If so, which one and do you recommend it?

Final Fantasy XII

WARNING!!! THIS POSTING CONTAINS A RANT!

I was reading the paper yesterday and someone was badmouthing video games and said that they were mindless and stupid and kids were better off not playing them at all. I agree that kids need balance of social play, physical play with lots of work thrown in, but really I couldn't help but think that the person making the comment had never played a video game, or had played and lost badly! I've been playing video games off and on for about 7 or 8 years and I really enjoy it. Right now I'm playing FF XII and it is anything but mindless. It has a very complicated battle system that takes a lot of strategy and you really need patience and perseverence to win even one battle. I've joined an online forum of other people who play the game to ask for advice and even given some advice if I could. It is a social community, based on only one thing, but it does use my communication skills. I've seen people be very kind to others they don't even know and to offer advice on writing skills if the question wasn't clearly stated. It is a moderated forum and very civil in content.

I'm not saying that all video games are created equal or that all games are for kids. I am going to say that people who are writing laws and giving opinions should specify which game they find stupid and mindless and they should speak with some personal experience if they are going to offer opinions. {end of rant}

Froggy Doo?

Raise your hand if you remember Froggy Doo. Did you know that someone is making a movie about the summer that Froggy Doo was "kidnapped?" The movie is called A Plumm Summer. This post isn't a review for the movie, but if you look at the picture you can see why I think of Froggy Doo every time I switch glasses. Yes, I've reached the stage in life where I need more than one pair of glasses. The little glasses on the table are the my new bifocals. I can read OK when wearing them as long as I am sitting at a table or desk. Who sits at a table or desk to read the latest thriller? Not me. I kick back in my recliner near the window and read until I fall asleep. With the bifocals I have so much trouble reading that I usually give in and play my DS. So I've given in and switch to the big, ugly pair of "reading glasses when I want to finish a few chapters. Whose going to complain? Froggy Doo? Hah! Fooled him, he can't see at all without my glasses.

Furnace - Round 2

Well, the inevitable happened and the furnace broke down again. Luckily we had the new part and after a few hours of fussing with it, it looks like Bill's got it going again.

A Christmas Image

Irony or . . . . poetic justice?

So my husband's birthday was on Wednesday and as it turned out I had to be at work really late on Wednesday. So as a kind of birthday present I took a personal day off on Thursday to do something special. We hadn't decided what to do yet. Maybe go Christmas shopping on a weekday and avoid the holiday crowds, maybe work on a project that keeps getting put off. Or if the unexpected happened we'd be setting up a new computer.

About 4:00 pm on Wednesday, while still at work we found out about a couple of semi trucks that had jacknifed on the road between work and home and the road was closed. No problem, I just took the back road and got home a little later than expected. No problem, I had the next day off, right? Well, about an hour before going to bed on Wedesday night, we turned the heat down. At bedtime, however the furnace was still blowing away and turning it down even more made no difference., it was still uncomfortably warm. It turned out that the only way to turn the furnace off was to turn off the breaker.

So, the special day turned into a day where my husband spent the day testing various things and doing internet research to figure out what was wrong with the furnace. Thankfully, we've had an unusually warm spell and could leave the furnace off most of the day. I spent the day reading, playing my video game and baking some "birthday brownies."

Irony or . . . . .poetic justice?

Midland??

According the the quiz (click on the title) I have a midland accent. The first time I took it I had a Boston accent. That didn't seem right to me so I took it again and changed one answer and voila, it's midland. What's yours?

Celestial Journeys

Click on the title above to visit a new family blog about ???????

DSL

I've joined the DSL generation. The phone company dropped off the DSL connector or whatever it is and I've got my laptop plugged in to do this. It is a very much faster connection, but I'm not used to the flat keyboard and I keep hitting the wrong keys, so I won't write any more. I've been able to see the video on Nathan's blog and pictures load much faster so I may use more pix from now on. I've got the laptop on the same comptuter table as the old comptuer is on and I keep reaching for the mouse and moving it around only the cursor stays in the same place. . . on the laptop that is. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow to show you what I mean.

TTF"N

Cranberries on the side.. .once the turkey's gone.

I made a large batch of cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner. I only took a small jar to Billings to eat with the turkey though, so now I have a large jar to myself. I had some of it the other day with french toast. It was surprisingly good with the maple surple mingling with the cranberries. Tonight we had a bowl of soup and a gorilla cheese sandwich and the cranberries made a tasty dipping sauce for the buttery toasted bread and the gooey melted cheese. Anybody have any other tasty ideas for cranberries on the side after the turkey's gone?