Monthly Archives: May 2011

The First Day of Summer Vacation and Other Matters

Posted on May 31, 2011 | 6 comments

Hi Everyone!

I hope each of you had a great Memorial Day weekend!  We did; we didn’t do anything special, but we got to go bowling, nap, shopping, nap, attend church, nap, eat out, nap – you get the idea! 

Today marks a change in the rhythm of our lives for the next two and a half months – Kayla’s summer vacation starts today.  Until I taught, many moons ago, I didn’t realize how much teachers look forward to summer vacation.  Until Kayla started Kindergarten, I also didn’t realize how much parents enjoy summer vacation, too.  I don’t have to fuss about homework; bed time, while still important, is not essential; and getting Kayla ready in the morning amounts to being sure she is dressed properly instead of the list of things we have to have ready for school. 

Specifically for us, too, summer vacation is different because I take Kayla to a day camp near to where I work, which means that she and I ride to and from work together.  I am looking forward to the extra time with her, although I have to resign myself to the fact that I will be listening to the Disney Channel radio for the next two and a half months, also. 

  •      Rememborizing

On the way to the bowling alley this weekend, Kayla was trying to tell us that she either remembered something or had memorized it, I am not sure which, but the word that came out was “rememborized.”  She tried again with another variation, and finally got frustrated and said “Whatever,” which in 9-year-old parlance translates to “you know what I mean so let’s get past the pronunciation and on to the discussion.”

  • Santa Claus

When we went shopping this weekend, one of the things we needed were new white church shoes for Kayla.  We noticed Sunday that her feet were hanging off both the front and the back of her old church sandals.  (She is in the middle of a growth spurt.)  As we were walking into the store, out of the blue, Kayla started talking about maybe buying some underwear also, then, remembering that she had gotten some from Santa for Christmas (yes, folks, she got a lot of other things too, and they were all toys), stopped in the middle of the road  and asked Mark and I, “How did Santa Claus know my underwear size?”  I asked her if Santa knew whether she had been good or bad, why couldn’t he know her underwear size?  She answered, “That’s just embarrassing!  

  • The Treadmill 

For Father’s Day, I got Mark a treadmill.  It came last week, a little early, so he took some time yesterday to put it together, with Kayla’s help.  She did a very good job helping him, both in reading the directions, handing him the necessary parts and sometimes getting to handle some of the tools, like the wrench and screwdriver, and even the drill (used as a screwdriver) once or twice. 

Once Mark and she got it put together, it was time to try it out, briefly.  Each of us spent about two minutes on it, just to see if it worked.  What we didn’t expect was the dogs’ reaction to it.  Tyra ignored it, but Mandy was mesmerized, and Darwin, unwilling to let his twin enjoy something without him, decided he would be mesmerized, too.  I thought maybe it was just a one day thing, but this morning, when Mark got up early to use the treadmill, the two dogs camped out by the treadmill yet again.

Mandy, Fascinated by the Treadmill

Mandy and Darwin Mesmerized by the Treadmill

You never know exactly what is going through the minds of your dogs at any particular time, except maybe feeding time, but I sure would like to know what they are thinking while they watch the treadmill! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Please stop improving my life! (Part II)

Posted on May 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

Happy Memorial Day!  Please take a minute sometime today to remember the reason for this holiday.  On the left of the blog page is a link to a poem I wrote about Memorial Day. 

Now, on a lighter note….

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Imagine, if you will, a regular working day Monday.  I come be-bopping up the stairs to my office  (all right, I don’t be-bop up the stairs – I usually walk up sedately wishing I could have somehow stuffed just a little more caffeine into my system, but that is beside the point), log on to my work computer ready and eager to work, and am presented with a message that brings everything to a screeching halt. 

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Now, I cannot tell you precisely who the message will be from – the three main culprits are Windows, Apple and Adobe – but it always presents me with a choice that I am just not ready to face that early in the morning – whether to install updates to software on my computer.

From Print Shop 2.0 Professional

Why is this a problem?  First, I know my computer well enough now that I like it just the way it is, faults and all, and while most new components tend to run in the background on stuff I probably wouldn’t understand anyhow, every so often one of them completely changes the way something works, and I have to get used to my computer all over again.  Second, I don’t care if the message says I can continue to work while the updates are loading, my computer does as well at “mushy-tasking” as I do – which is to say, not very well.  I can notice a difference!  Third, at least 67% of the time, once the updates are finished loading, they want to restart my computer.  By the time that happens, I am right smack dab in the middle of something and really don’t want to restart my computer, nor do I want to have to keep telling my computer that every five minutes thereafter. 

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

I will give the software updates on my work computer credit for at least one thing though – they are up front with me.  They arrive first thing in the morning, tell me what they want, and then present me with choices.  My netbook is much sneakier.  It waits until I am trying to turn it off and then just announces to me that it is installing updates, and I will permanently destroy it and the entire Eastern Seaboard if I dare to turn it off without letting those updates get installed.  The problem with this method is that the netbook is my traveling computer, and when I am getting ready to unplug it, I usually am ready to head off somewhere else where there is not a WiFi connection.  I have so far acceded to its mandate to wait but someday I may not be able to do so, and then what will my netbook and the people on Eastern Seaboard do?

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Then there is the default method for forcing you to update –  “the other programs you like to use won’t work anymore if you don’t change your _____.”  This statement is usually followed by reassurances that I will be much happier with the new version of X than I was with the old version.  I have recently encountered something similar to that with IE 9.  I don’t know what version of Internet Explorer I was using before, but I kept having problems viewing certain web sites and finally gave up, bit the bullet and upgraded.   Unfortunately, after the upgrade, which took quite a bit of time on my work computer, the same problems remained.  Sigh.  I have my computer/software guru looking at it over the weekend.  The upgrade has, so far, gone fairly well on the netbook. 

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

I understand, in a way, why software manufacturers have had to ramp up their methods of getting us to upgrade, because, without some kind of coercion, I would still be running Windows 98 and saving data on floppy discs, but isn’t there a way we can all just get along?

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

So, please, software manufacturers, while I admire your zest for self-improvement, and the technological miracles you have wrought since my first experiences with Basic and Cobol back in the dark ages, can you find softer, gentler methods to coerce me into updating my computer and can you make things work the way they worked before you improved my life?  I would really appreciate it!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Poem for Memorial Day

Posted on May 27, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone!

I wrote the following poem for Memorial Day, which, for any readers not from the United States, is the day we set aside to honor the men and women throughout our history who died serving their country.  This poem is for all of them, but especially for my cousin Charles.  Please read it, and then forward to others so that we all take a minute during this three day weekend to think about its purpose.  Thanks!

Memorial Day:  A Beacon Lifted High

Nancy

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Please stop improving my life! (Part I)

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 9 comments

Hi Everyone!

How many of you are, well let us say, youthfully challenged enough to remember the VCR?  I could handle the VCR – I couldn’t program it, but at least I could use it.  You pushed the cartridge into the machine and hit play. 

Then came the DVD player – I still couldn’t program it, but as long as it was just the TV and the DVD player, I still could use it.  You put the disc in the machine and hit play.

DVD Player Photograph from http://www.wikipedia.org

Then came surround sound – and everything came to a screeching halt! 

I admit that I am technologically challenged, but once the time arrived where it took more than one remote to accomplish an entertainment task, I was in trouble.  After years of struggle, my husband finally took pity on me last year and bought a universal remote that is supposed to work by simply pressing a button on the remote that says what you want to do (for example, “watch tv” or “play a movie”), pointing the remote in the general area of the AV equipment, and everything that needs to turn off or on does so.  It works great for my husband, but I really don’t think it likes me, because I have a 50/50 shot of being successful with it.  Still, 50/50 is much better than a 100% chance of not being able to do it.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Now the DVD player companies are beginning to introduce DVD’s and televisions that can show movies and programs in 3-D.  Enough!  I have yet to see a 3-D movie that would be incomplete if I saw it in 2-D.  Let’s think for a minute people – isn’t being able to watch 100+ channels, download the movie of your choice from the internet or place your disc in the DVD player and watch it on your TV in super-duper high-clarity High-definition with surround sound comparable to that in a theater sufficient?  Do we really need something else to keep us glued to the TV and away from more profitable activities such as reading, writing or playing games?   I say no, and that it is high time for the technologically challenged people of the world to stand up and unite!

From Print Shop Professional 2.0 with edits by me

Please, please write your local DVD manufacturer now and plead with it to stop the march of entertainment technology immediately!  Let’s draw a line in the sand and stop with Blu-Ray.  Period.  Then the innovators and inventors of this world can turn their attention to more important topics, such as energy, medical research and the riding vacuum cleaner.   

Tomorrow’s topic:  Software manufacturers that improve my life, and why they shouldn’t.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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New story published on Yahoo!

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 8 comments

Yesterday, I learned that Yahoo Contributor has published a very short, funny science fiction story I submitted. Here is the link:

The Model 3300 Robotic Clone Return

Please read it, and if you like it, please forward the link to others! Thanks!

Nancy

P.S.  This is not my post for the day, just an announcement!

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The Non-existent Mom Cave

Posted on May 25, 2011 | 10 comments

Morning All!

The post yesterday over at The Big Sheep Blog  was about “The Man-Cave Classifieds.”  After reading it, I started wondering about the concept of the Mom-cave, and decided it could never work.

Wikipedia has a page long entry devoted to the definition of the man-cave, its purpose, and its design.  According to Wikipedia, “A man cave, sometimes a mantuary or manspace, is a male sanctuary such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, or basement.”  (To my friend over at The Big Sheep Blog – I know you don’t like the phrase “man cave”, but “mantuary” to me is even worse!  Just the sound of it is jarring, like nails on a blackboard.)   Over at The Urban Dictionary, where apparently people supply their own definitions, one particularly thorough definition was listed as follows:

A room, space, corner or area of a dwelling that is specifically reserved for a male person to be in a solitary condition, away from the rest of the household in order to work, play, involve himself in certain hobbies, activities without interruption. This area is usually decorated by the male [who] uses it without interference from any female influence.

Having read through some other definitions, there seem to be two key components to  the “man cave” – 1) it is decorated solely by the male, and 2) no interruptions.    I find one of these requirements peculiar and the other unenforceable.

The decoration part is confusing to me because, in our house, decorating decisions are arrived at (mostly) jointly.  It may take us a while to agree but once we do, we can be certain of two things:  1) whatever it is will look really, really good, and 2) it will be one of the more expensive of the class of items we have been reviewing.  We don’t deliberately go for expensive; it just seems to happen that way.  We each have two areas which are supposed to be off-limits to others, too – Mark’s is the garage, where he keeps his tools, although both Kayla and I could be cited for trespassing on a continuous basis and mine is my craft closet, which Kayla visits at least once a week during the Sunday nap ritual and anytime else she needs something she knows I keep in there. 

I wondered whether, since the concept of the “man-cave” seems to be on the rise, the time has come for the invention of the Mom-cave, but decided that it would never work.   The second component, non-interruption, is where the concept of a Mom-cave would fall apart.  (In our house, with three dogs and one child, the Man-cave would not fare any better.)    

I know this because I tried to imagine how a Mom-cave for sewing might work in my house, picking a Sunday afternoon session for two hours while my husband was taking a nap.  In doing so, I counted three interruptions and one final forced entry with intent to stay by Kayla, two forced entries by the three dogs, and numerous stops and starts to retrieve any scrap of fabric, needle, or other sewing appliance that either of the Twins of Trouble (Darwin and Mandy) thought looked attractive enough to chew.  At the end of the two hours I was supposed to have in isolation to sew, the small room I would be using (the guest bedroom) would contain myself, sewing stuff spread over the bed, one 9-year-old daughter, one very long dog, one very large dog, and a sweet old dog who will not have given me a particle of trouble the whole time, and my grand accomplishments would be limited to the set-up and threading of the machine, and the sewing of one or two seams. 

That, my friends, is why the concept of the Mom-cave will never take root. 

In the interests of full disclosure, I can take a weekend nap without interruption if I bring Tyra and Mandy into the bedroom with me, and lock the bedroom door so that Kayla can’t slip in for us to argue about whether she has to let me sleep or not.  At least, that is, until Mandy decides it is time for me to get up, which usually ranges anywhere from two to three hours or sooner if she senses anyone else eating anywhere in the house, at which point she starts walking on my hair.

Have a good day everyone!

Nancy

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Dance Recital

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 8 comments

First Pre-Recital Picture

 Good morning Everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend!  I will give you fair warning about today’s post:  this is a Proud Parent Post, heavily laden with pictures of Kayla, because Saturday was the day of Kayla’s dance recitals.  The recitals are an EVENT!  Her dance studio has two recitals, one at 2 and one at 6:30 that last about two hours each.  There are classes in baton, jazz, tap dancing, ballet, and gymnastics for girls from age 4 to age 18 or 19 (seniors in high school.)  The teacher does an amazing job of scheduling things so that each class has a chance to perform their routines. 

There are at least three dance studios in our small town, and I think that each one picks a Saturday in May to rent the high school’s auditorium, but our recital is usually the last one.  It is an annual rite of passage from spring into summer.  (Yes, I know the calendar says it is still spring, but down here, we consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, and as of this week have already had temperatures soaring into the low to mid-90’s.  Most of the schools in this area finish for the year in the next week.) 

Darwin Barges In

 My Mom came to visit for the recital, and took a picture of the three of us, with Kayla in her baton costume.  She took the first picture, then was lucky enough to get this one of Darwin barging in to the photo also.  Every once in a while something happens to remind me how very tall he really is, and this was one of those times.  I would guess from this picture that he is at least 5 feet tall when he stands on his hind legs! 

Anyway, with Darwin’s help we were able to get out the door and to the auditorium by 1:00 p.m., when the doors opened for audience seating.  Past experience has taught us that if you don’t show up an hour early, then you will not be able to get very good seats, and we needed end seats so that I could scoot in and out to help Kayla with her costume changes.  Since I chose to sit on the first floor of the auditorium, so I could sit with Mark and Mom, each time Kayla’s costume needed changing, I rushed up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the high school to reach the changing room, then rushed back down to get back to my seat in time to see her routine.  The multiple trips reminded me why I really hate elliptical training machines, Stairmasters and all other exercise equipment of similar ilk. 

I put Mark in charge of the camera because getting pictures during the recital is tricky between the lighting (dark in the audience, light on stage) and the movement.  He got this photo of Kayla during her baton routine.  If you look on your left, you can see the baton twirling around in a blur. 

Baton Routine

 The next routine was her tap dance routine.  She was concentrating!  (The tap dance and the closing routines were the only repeats between both recitals.)

Concentrating on her tap dance routine

 The first recital ended at 4, so the four of us (me, Mark, Kayla and Mom) hopped over to the local Pizza Hut for a very early dinner, had time to run back to the house for about 20 minutes to change costumes and freshen up her hair and make-up, and then get back to the auditorium at 5:30 for the 6:30 show.  By 5:30, a good part of the auditorium was already full, but we still managed to find end seats.  I estimate that there were between 150 to 200 people present at each of the two recitals.  For this second recital, her first routine was the jazz routine. 

Jazz

 

Jazz 2

It wasn’t until the very end of the routine that she saw Mark, who had slipped up the aisle, taking pictures, but after that suddenly she relaxed and starting smiling.  You can see this in the picture Mark took at the end of her gymnastics class’s  routine…..

Final Gymnastics Pose

And in her ballet routine…..

Ballet Dance

And in the closing!

Closing Routine!

 

So kudos to Mark for the pictures he took and kudos to Kayla for her time and effort in dancing!

Have a great day everyone!
 Nancy

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Blast from the Past: 2008: Stories, Spell Check and Scorpions!

Posted on May 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Good morning everyone!

This morning I thought I would share some stories I wrote down in some letters back in 2008, when Kayla was 6 and in kindergarten.

From April 2008:

One morning, Kayla burst out into tears in the bathroom. Mark caught that call. When he went in to check, she told him that she was crying because she had brushed her hair but it didn’t look like she had brushed it at all! (Item: the hair looked fine.)

Two Sundays ago, she and I were awake and watching TV in my bedroom because Mark was asleep on the couch and I was trying hard to keep everyone (child and dogs) quiet in my room so that he could get a full nap in. I had to go into the other room to get something, and when I came back, Kayla was just walking away from my bathroom sink. I asked her what she was doing, and she said brightly, “I was going to get into your makeup, but then I decided that I didn’t want to get into trouble!”

From April 2008:

I did the funniest thing on spell check on one of my briefs the other week. I had to use the name “Schnitzler” a lot in the brief.  Schnitzler was one of those words that, to save my soul, I could not type correctly the first time, so rather than re-type it over and over, I used “SS” as an abbreviation, with the thought that when it was finished, I would use “find and replace” to replace the “SS” with Schnitzler.  FN.  It worked like a charm, except that I got slap-happy pushing buttons and ended up telling the computer to change every “ss” to Schnitzler, which left me with lots of words like “Congreschnitzler” (Congress), “ischnitzlerue” (issue) and “paschnitzler” (pass.) Spell check almost had a nervous breakdown before it was over with!

From June 2008:

The past week has been a week of weird wildlife encounters. Last Thursday, I looked out of the window after Mark and Kayla left, and saw a huge turtle on the side of the road – its shell had a diameter of at least 16 inches. I couldn’t help it; I took a picture of it.

Turtle, 2008

Yesterday, which was Wednesday, I started my day being stung by, of all things, a scorpion! Mandy, who has decided that one of her missions in life is to be my little alarm clock, waking me up by 5:20 whether I need it or not, harassed and harangued me until I got up, fed her and the other two dogs then went out into the garage like I normally do to get my Diet Coke. When I walked back in, something bit/stung my toe, and it really hurt! I couldn’t see what it was but jumped around and started screaming , which woke Mark up in a flash (Kayla slept through it) and brought him into the den to check on me. We sat down and looked at my foot, but unlike a bee sting, we couldn’t see anything. Mark announced that it must have been an ant that bit me, and went back to bed. I walked back over to the area where I had been stung, turned on the light and saw a brown form on the brown wooden floor that looked like a scorpion. I looked again, because I thought maybe it was just a leaf that the dogs had drug in from outside, and realized that it really was a scorpion.

 So next I did what any reasonable woman with a husband at home would do – I went back into the bedroom and got Mark! He looked at it, and not only agreed that it was a scorpion but also realized that it wasn’t dead yet, so he killed it for me. Never having been stung by a scorpion before, I was not at all certain what I should do, so I went and looked it up on the Internet. The information I found said that most species of scorpions in the United States are not poisonous, except for one species in Arizona. However, even so, you can have a reaction to the bite of one if you are allergic, and some of the symptoms of that type of reaction are an elevated heart rate and anxiety.

That symptom list was not helpful;  I already had an elevated heartbeat and anxiety because I had just been stung by a scorpion! It all turned out okay, although it will be a very long time before I walk anywhere in the house without my slippers on.

And on that unusual note, I will bid everyone good day!  Have a great weekend!

Nancy

FN.  To prevent any unpleasantness, the name “Schnitzler” is  changed from the actual name, but you get the idea.

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A Tribute to the Women at Main Street

Posted on May 19, 2011 | 6 comments

Hi Everyone!

I haven’t talked a lot about my work, so today I thought I would show you the building I work in, and the stellar ladies from our Alex City office who help to keep me straight. 

This is the front of our building:

Building Front

Our building, the white triangular-shaped one, began life as the First Presbyterian Church around the turn of the century.  Since then, it has been many things, including a doctor’s office and a bank.  (One of the relics from the bank era is a room-size fireproof vault on the bottom floor.)  We first moved into the basement floor in 1991, while the upper two floors were occupied by another firm.  We merged with them in 1992, and then about 10 years later began an extensive renovation that resulted in the exterior you see in the picture above.  The renovation also included make-overs for the side and back of the building.

Building side

 

Back of Building

 

Like many small Southern towns, our downtown has lost some businesses, although Alex City has done better than most in trying to get, and keep, other businesses to replace those that have gone away.  Our choice to renovate the building and stay in downtown rather than moving out to the four-lane highway was in part a statement of belief in Alex City and its downtown area. 

Every working woman, whether you work solely inside, or also outside, the home, needs a support structure, and the women in my Alex City office are part of mine.  (To the guys in the Alex City office, the investigators and all of the people in Birmingham, you are part of my support structure too, but none of you were present on the same day that I had my camera at the office!)

All of them are mothers, two of them are grandmothers, two have children younger than Kayla and two have children older than Kayla.  I learn an awful lot from them, and when I need them, these ladies will circle the wagons around me. 

My office is on the top floor, the floor behind the fake window on the top of the front of the building.  Next door to me is Lauren, who has known me through work since our firm opened in 1991.

Lauren

Lauren is our bookkeeper, and has the distinction of being the grandmother of twin boys in Michigan.  (She has other wonderful grandchildren in Alex City, but I find the idea of twin boys fascinating!)  She is level-tempered, exceptionally organized – you can ask her for a receipt from four years ago and she can produce it in less than a minute – and diligent to the highest degree. 

Kim

Kim is one of the other attorney’s right hand man, and we have worked with each other at least 10 years, if not more.  (I think it’s more.)  She is down the hall on the left from both my office and Lauren’s office.  No matter how bad she feels, Kim usually has a smile ready to greet anyone, and is willing to laugh at bad stories told by co-workers who write blogs! 

Hanlon and Kathy In Our Reception Area

 Kathy, the lady to the left in the picture, and Hanlon, the lady on the right, work for one of our other attorneys.  Both of them have organizational skills which leave me awe-struck.  It is a level of organization I can’t even imagine!(Since I lack organization, I very much admire those who have it.)  Both of them help keep the second floor a pleasant place. 

Hanlon at her desk

Moving on down the hall, Amanda is our newest attorney and someone who has made my life a lot easier.  She is working on some of her own cases, and on some cases with other attorneys, but she also gives me a lot of help with the research and writing end of things, which is an immense relief.  I have known Amanda for years – she worked for us as a runner during high school summers and as a law clerk a summer or two during law school – so it was a natural fit to bring her in as our ninth attorney – and I am very glad we did!

Amanda at work

 Our receptionist, Angela, was unfortunately away from the office the day that I was taking pictures and is our newest employee in the Alex City, having only been there a couple of months.  However, she has to me the other name of She-Who-Makes-Sure-I-Have-A-Diet-Coke-Before-I-Go-Upstairs-In-The-Morning, which makes her very special!

Carla

Carla’s office is on the bottom floor, far from the madding crowd.  To make up for that fact, it is extra big, although I don’t know if she thinks the extra size is a blessing, or a curse.  Carla used to be my assistant, until she was moved over to another attorney, and I miss her.  She can properly attest to my lack of organizational skills!  Her daughter was our baby sitter for a while, and while we were happy for her when she got a full-time job at the hospital, there also was a great deal of sadness in our house because we miss having her as a baby sitter. 

So, anyway, these are the ladies I work with in the Alex City office almost every day.  There’s not one of them who wouldn’t come to my rescue at the drop of a hat, not one of them who is not extraordinarily gifted in her own way.  Thank you ladies very much for making my workplace a pleasant place to work!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Latest Art Picture

Posted on May 19, 2011 | 2 comments

Hi Everyone! This is just a quick note to show you the latest painting I finished in art.  It was my first acrylic.  I will add it to my art page shortly.

Nancy

Blue Birds

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