I wrote the short story called “A Butterfly Looks Back” on Yahoo Contributor. I think many of you will find it has a very encouraging message. Please read it, and forward it on to others who might be encouraged also.
Here is the link: A Butterfly Looks Back.
Thank you very much!
Nancy
Good morning everyone!
At the risk of being labeled a hopeless nerd (I can’t, unfortunately, qualify for geek because my technological level of expertise falls terribly short), I will confess that one of the magazines that I get on my Kindle is Technology Review, which is published by MIT every other month. It covers technology breakthroughs, and by technology they are not limiting themselves to computers and cell phones, but include breakthroughs in medicine, energy, genetics, automobiles, physics, chemistry and anything else you can think of. They also manage to present material in a way that a layperson can, for the most part, understand. One section deals with new inventions, which may not be ready for mass production yet, but at least are up and running with prototypes.
Gadgets Galore!
In steadily working my way through June’s publication, I came across two inventions, one bewildering, one encouraging.
The Withings WIFI scale
We will start with bewildering first. A company called Withings, whose website is located at www.withings.com, has invented a scale with WiFi capability. That’s right, this scale will kindly, if you tell it to, post your weight, fat mass and body mass index on your Twitter or Facebook account for you. To be quite frank, the very last place I wish to share that kind of information about me is on Twitter or Facebook! Why you would even think that someone would want to do so is beyond me.
To be fair to Withings, the scale will, if you choose, discreetly post such information to more private places, like your smart phone or computer, where only you can see it; I can see some value in that. Even better, if my doctor’s office would purchase such a scale and link it to my records electronically, I could go to the doctor without ever having to see what my weight is! (I mean, face it folks, most of us know whether we need to lose weight or not; do we really wish to be constantly reminded every time we need to see the doctor for something like strep throat?)
One of Google's seven self-driving cars
The more encouraging invention is Google’s fleet of seven cars that it has equipped to be able to drive themselves. It consists of six Toyota Prius’s and one Audi TT. Some of you may recall that the self driving car is one of the inventions I am eagerly awaiting. ( See, Inventions I Eagerly Await.) Google has at least managed to create prototypes, although currently they are nowhere near ready for mass production and still require a driver to be able to override the computer system in case it gets confused. Still, Google has come a long way with these cars. They have equipped them with video cameras, radar, laser sensors (and of course, Google’s navigation system) so that the computer guiding the car will have a 360 degree view of the road, and be able to orient itself to the direction it is traveling and figure out where it wants to go. In over 140,000 miles of trials (I think – it may be more now), the cars have had only one accident – and that was when one of them was rear-ended by another car. In those 140,000 miles, they did require minimum driver intervention once or twice, but at least we are getting closer. I will watch the evolution of this invention closely so that as soon as they are available and affordable, I can own one.
There is, alas, no word out there regarding the driving vacuum cleaner. See, Differences Between Men and Women.
Sunrise
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Technology, working mom
Tagged Google, humor, MIT, technology, Technology Review, Withings, working mom
Good morning everyone!
My designated breakfast spot puts me at a place at our table where I can look over at the 10 bookshelves that line our fireplace, five on each side.
There are one and a half shelves dedicated to cookbooks. Anyone who didn’t know me would think that meant that I was extremely interested in cooking. Those who do know me are rolling on the floor laughing at the thought. Still, even those of us who cook because it is necessary, not because visions of gourmet meals dance through our heads at night, need a few reference books, which is where the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking come in. The rest of the cookbooks are there, I guess, in case I ever desire to elevate cooking from a necessity to a hobby.
DVD Player Photograph from http://www.wikipedia.org
One shelf contains all of our audiovisual equipment, which I would be absolutely unable to use were it not for the universal remote my husband thoughtfully set up for me. (It’s better than trying to start the stuff on my own, even if the remote does like him better than it does me. See, The Differences Between Men and Women.)
A Collection of Seven Nero Wolfe Books
The other seven and a half shelves contain adventures from a thousand lifetimes. On the top shelf is my Nero Wolfe collection (a grand name for the primarily paperback books I have bought over the years of every Nero Wolfe book I could find.) If you haven’t yet met Nero Wolfe, his right-hand man Archie Goodwin, his exceptional butler and cook, Fritz Brenning, and Theodore Horstmann, the grumpy gardener who tends the orchid collection on the top floor of the brownstone in New York City where they live, I highly recommend you do so. They are pure fun.
A relief showing Polybius (I think)
I also have books that were written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. My favorite of these, so far, is the history of Rome written by Polybius, a Greek general who was a friend of Scipio Africanus (the Roman general who defeated the Carthaginians in Africa). Polybius was originally taken as a hostage to Rome, ended up becoming Scipio Africanus’s friend and participating in the Carthaginian campaign, then was allowed to return to Greece. Polybius believed in telling the facts, and nothing but the facts in the history that he wrote. He died at the venerable age of 90 when he took a fall from his horse while hunting. Any ancient writer/general with such a full life deserves to have his book at least sampled.
Cover of The Arms of Nemesis, by Steven Saylor
I also have most of the books written by Steven Saylor, a mystery writer whose mysteries are set in Rome during the lives of Cicero and Julius Caesar, and Colleen McCullough’s fictional series on Rome. Both series are good; it is interesting how their portrayals of the major historical figures of the era are very different.
Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy
Lest you think we are stuck merely in the ancient world, we also have a set of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novels, several books about American history during the American Revolution and its aftermath, and the biographies of several presidents. My favorite presidents are John Adams and Theodore Roosevelt, and they are well-represented on the shelves in front of me.
Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt
Kayla has a couple of books in this set of bookshelves, but most of hers are in the well-filled five shelf bookcase in her room. Several of my old science fiction/fantasy favorites are in the fireplace bookshelves, including The Dragon and the George, and James P. Hogan’s Series on the gentle giants of Ganymede, but more of those are in the bookcase in the study that Mark built, and the bookcase in the spare bedroom where I have squirreled away many of my oldest and dearest favorites. (Most of my science books and Christian books are in the study bookcase also.)
Picture of Edward Gibbon
Oh, and I have an unabridged set of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, all six volumes. I have only managed to read Volume One through from cover to cover, but before I die I intend to make it through Volumes 2 through 6.
Picture of Louisa May Alcott
A very well-worn paperback version of The Three Musketeers is up there, along with several of my childhood favorites by Louisa May Alcott, a small smattering of romance novels and one volume containing the complete works of William Shakespeare. Willa Cather’s Death Comes to the Archbishop, a favorite of mine, graces a shelf between The Mapmakers and The Neanderthal’s Necklace.
Quill Pen
We take for granted how powerful the written word can be; how it can transport us away from our current life into lands and times far away from where we are now, or even places that never existed, but we wish did. The written word makes us think, entertains us, stimulates our imagination and introduces us to countless lives and worlds we never would be able to experience otherwise. Looking at my bookshelves, I am glad to have to have my own small treasury of that magic, and look forward to participating in it for the rest of my life.
I would love to hear about your favorite books and the books on your bookshelves, if you have time to comment.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged books, cookbooks, daughter, family, humor, Nero Wolfe, Polybius, working mom
Good morning Everyone!
To those of you from North Carolina northwards who have been coping with Hurricane Irene and its aftermath, the thoughts and prayers of many Alabamians (including me) are with you. I hope the flooding will be much less severe than the experts currently think it will be.
Hurricane Irene when it was over the Bahamas
Sitting through a hurricane, even inland, is never any fun, and the days following the hurricane, at least until the power comes back on, can be very long also. I found that, even though my brain knew nothing would happen, I still would flip light switches on as I walked into rooms. I will pass along this tip from my sister: almost everything can be cooked on a grill, and you might as well go ahead and throw a huge block party once you reach the point where everyone’s meat has thawed in the freezer to the point of no return. (She lives in Huntsville, where the power was out for over a week following the terrible tornado outbreak in April. ) Also, coffee can be brewed in water you bring to a boil over a grill. (Very important tip!)
Campfire Coffee Pot
I have been through two hurricanes, both inland, the most recent of which was Hurricane Opal. Hurricane Opal made landfall on the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, and swept on up through the State of Alabama. At the time, we lived in a small town about five hours driving time away from the Gulf; Opal was still a Category 1 hurricane when it swept through our area.
Satellite view of Hurricane Opal
I don’t know why, but the morning before Hurricane Opal arrived, I happened to catch a weather report and pay attention to it. (Living that far away from the coast, hurricanes were something we made a note of but they normally didn’t impact us.) The weather people were saying that this storm was going to be different, and that even in our area, homeowners needed to bring in loose objects, such as lawn chairs and potted plants, which the wind could use as projectiles once the hurricane arrived. So for the first (and so far last) time ever, I went home at lunch and brought every single potted plant and lawn chair in the house, and got Mark, when he got home, to tie down the porch swing and table. Then we waited.
Shadow and Woof
Really, I should say, then I waited, as Mark and both of my faithful protectors at the time, our dogs Shadow and Woof, were fast asleep by 9. I didn’t get to sleep, and then at 10, before there was any wind or rain, the power went off. About an hour later, the rain started to pour down. I started to hear an unusual sound, so I went to check on it, and it turned out that the rain was leaking into the house through the free-standing fireplace we had at the time. (This was the first house we had ever bought.) I pulled out towels and cups to catch the rain, and then went back to bed. I never really did get much sleep; I can remember looking out the bedroom window watching the pine trees outside bending to the point that their tops were horizontal to the ground, and hearing a persistent thumping somewhere against what I thought was the house. I also remember wondering if the huge sycamore tree we had at the side of the house would hold out. The dogs never did wake up. Mark says he did and watched the trees for a while too, but neither one of us said anything.
Sound sleepers!
Morning finally came, as it always does, and the storm had already blown through. (At least one saving grace of Opal was that it was a fast mover.) There was a lot of damage around town; oaks, especially, had been blown over onto houses, as well as many other kinds of trees. We were fortunate; not only did the sycamore tree stay standing tall, but the thumping turned out to be our tied down outdoor table, which had managed to flip itself over the deck rail during the night. The thumping was the sound of the table hitting the deck, not the house. The deck survived just fine. We were without power for probably five days, but it could have been so much worse. (I will admit, however, that by day three I was starting to get really frustrated.) Areas along the gulf, like Panama City Destin, Florida suffered so much more damage. It would be interesting to know what Kayla had to say about all of it, but Hurricane Opal came through before she was born. Given her fear of thunderstorms, if she had been there, I don’t know if we ever would have been able to get that child to go to sleep again!
A boat washed ashore by Hurricane Opal along the coast
So that, y’all, is my big hurricane story. I hope I never have another one to tell, but you never know. Have any of you ever been involved in severe weather before or were in Irene this time? I would love to hear some of your stories if you have time to share.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged daughter, dogs, family, hurricane, hurricane irene, hurricane opal, rain, working mom
You know it’s bad when your 9 year old daughter tells you that you need to go ahead and take your nap so that you won’t be so grumpy! Yes, she really said that, and the sad part is that she was right!
Hope all of you are having a great weekend!
Nancy
Posted in Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom
Tagged daughter, family, humor, working mom
Good morning everyone!
One of my favorite hobbies is counted cross-stitch. My friend, Vonda, introduced me to the craft back in college, and I have been doing it ever since. Counted cross-stitch is a form of embroidery which, strangely enough, uses cross-stitch in order to form pictures. In counted cross-stitch, you are provided with a chart and a list of colors for your embroidery thread that you use to make a picture.
Clockwise, from left: Original Picture, Chart, Completed Cross-stitch
So, for example, in the picture above, the post card on the left is the original picture. On the top of the picture is the chart, where someone patiently translated the original picture into a counted cross-stitch chart. On the bottom right is the completed counted cross-stitch portrait. The only thing missing is the list of colors. The fact that my daughter has not yet taken up this craft is not her fault, but mine – I have a patience problem when it comes to teaching it to her. Still, one day I hope to have enough patience to work through a project with her.
Part of a series of Christmas Ornaments I made
Just like pixels on a computer screen, a counted cross-stitch chart can be used to make just about any picture that you would want. That is part of the fascination, because, with the proper chart, I can make everything from small Christmas ornaments, up to large adaptations of works of art, depending on my mood.
Four Christmas Ornaments I Made
You would not think that such a hobby can be hazardous, but it does have its perils. Mark and Kayla have long known that if I am working on cross-stitch, and they wish to hug me, they need to approach warily – I have a (possibly bad) habit of storing needles conveniently on my shirt or shirt sleeve while I change thread colors and the unwary person who approaches me for a hug can unfortunately get pricked.
Plastic Canvas Ornaments, in a "folksy" style
There are a couple of very good cross-stitch magazines produced in the United States, but, owing to the greater popularity of the craft in the United Kingdom as well as their centuries head-start on the topic of embroidery in general – let’s face it, royal women were working on embroidered tapestries and other types of embroidery in the United Kingdom before the Americas were even a rumor in the mind of the European world – the cross-stitch magazines from the United Kingdom are exceptionally good. Although it is fairly expensive, due to shipping, to subscribe, I do buy some at a book store occasionally.
More complicated cross-stitch ornaments
The British magazines almost always come with an extra gift, so they are sold in the bookstore wrapped in a plastic cover that includes both the magazine and the extra gift. Having had the rare chance to go by Barnes & Noble and purchase a couple of new magazines earlier this week, I was anxious yesterday to steal about five minutes to look at them. I got in a hurry ripping the cover off of one of them, though, and as I did so, the magazine flew out of the plastic towards my face and hit me right below the eye with the bottom corner where it is bound. It has left a small (vanishingly small) scratch underneath my eye, and a nice straight black and blue line that would elicit inquires were it not for the fact that the circles under my eyes are so dark already it is hard to tell the difference!
That's the one that got me!
Am I going to let this newly discovered peril stop me from engaging in this craft that I love? Of course not! Still, I intend to open cross-stitch magazines a little more carefully in the future.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Nancy
P.S. Please forgive any typos today – I am trying write this with my daughter playing “scream at my imaginary class as loud as I can” in the same room with me. This activity does not create ideal conditions for concentration on my part!
Posted in On the Home Front, working mom
Tagged counted cross-stitch, daughter, family, humor, parenting, working mom
Good morning everyone!
I had trouble focusing this morning, so we will take a break from carefully crafted paragraphs and anecdotes with beginnings, middles and ends, and venture into the realm of randomness.
1) You never have a good hair day the same day as an important meeting.
2) A child possess an innate ability to pick out the most annoying toy in his or her arsenal to play with at any given moment. Usually, that toy was purchased by someone other than the child’s parents.
3) Pay day always seems about two days too far away.
4) Light bulbs always blow in threes, unless you have more than three reserve light bulbs. Then the light bulbs continue to blow quickly until you have exhausted your reserve and there still is one light out.
5) Mid-life female hormones and the antics of a 9-year-old child can be an incendiary combination.
6) You never run out of spaghetti sauce in your cupboard until the day that spaghetti is your only option for supper. You think.
7) The urge to buy something increases in intensity geometrically to the amount of money not available to buy it.
8) Nothing is certain except death and taxes – and the unpopularity of both.
9) The Auburn football team always does better as an underdog. Thank you, Associated Press and Coaches polls!
10) Is there a limit to the number of shows that can be made about Bigfoot, Nessie and UFO’s?
11) Reasoning with a recalcitrant computer is counter-productive; shooting it with a shot-gun is therapeutic.
12) The only time a child will choose the option that you urge him or her to take is the time that you try to use reverse logic.
13) Everyone is interested in the kitchen from the time supper is served, until the time dinner is over. Unless you are No-No and Bad Dog – then your interest peaks after dinner is over, when you can illicitly scan table and counter tops for left-over food, and before someone comes to clean the kitchen and takes all those out-of-bound leftovers out of reach.
14) You can learn to ignore the sound of a dog barking. You cannot, however, learn to ignore the sensation of a dog standing on your hair to wake you up.
15) Being a fan of the San Diego Padres and Chargers, Chicago Cubs and Bears and the Washington Redskins since the mid-1970s quickly teaches you not to bet on sports.
16) I am a very blessed woman. Thank you Mark and Kayla, my friends and the dogs for making my life wonderful.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Cooking, Football, Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged daughter, dogs, family, humor, parenting, working mom
Hi Everyone!
This isn’t my post here for the day, but I did want to let you know that there is a new post out on the Football Novice, Downs – the Rule of Four.
For those of you who like football, I would really appreciate your taking a look and posting comments on the site about how you think I could improve. This second blog is a new adventure for me, and I want it to be helpful to new football fans. Thanks!
Nancy
Posted in Football
Tagged basic football rules, football, football downs, The Football Novice
Good morning everyone!
Conversation from this morning:
Kayla (reflectively, from the other room): Mom, you know how I can’t drag the dogs into the bath with me? (Rules I Never Thought I’d Need # 8 )
Mom: Yes.
Kayla: Is that true for showers, too?
My question to you: Is it progress that she asked before trying out the experiment or should I be dismayed that she had to ask at all?
Refrigerators - Public Domain Photograph by Paul Morse
About three days ago, the refrigerator in the garage finally stopped beeping. It had been beeping a sequence of five beeps every minute or so since around July 20. (See, The Beeping Fridge.) Last time I checked, which was this morning, the rest of the refrigerator was still working. So, did we break the beeper through lack of attention or did the refrigerator just give up on whatever it was trying to tell us since we refused to listen to it?
Vending Machine Pencils
Kayla did buy three pencils yesterday. (See, Pencils.) I did not see them or get a picture of them. Would it surprise any of you to know that none of them were the “winning” blue pencil?
My Firm's New Electric Pencil Sharpener, Exacto Brand
I found it ironic that yesterday, after writing a blog post about pencils that mentioned pencil sharpeners, I was unable to find either a manual or an electric pencil sharpener at work. Immediately, I asked that the situation be remedied, and now my firm is the proud owner of one electric pencil sharpener that will reside in my office.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in On the Home Front, working mom
Tagged daughter, family, humor, parenting, pencils, refrigerator, rules, working mom
Good morning everyone!
I was sitting here with no idea of what to write about, when my dogs and my daughter saved me once again.
Darwin Barges In
Darwin has a rope toy that he loves. It is the only thing thick enough and long enough that I have been able to find that lasts longer than one day around him. (Right now we are at three weeks and counting.) He had picked it up and was shaking it around in order to entice Mandy to play tug of war with him, when all of a sudden both of them raced off into the bedroom. I looked up as they raced back into our great room, only to realize that Mandy was leading, with something long and white in her mouth while Darwin was chasing her with the rope toy. I managed to save the bath towel from Mandy without further damage, although she has made it clear to me that she thinks I am just being plain unreasonable.
Mandy and Darwin Confer
Then Kayla sat down to eat breakfast, but immediately jumped back up again, ran to her room and returned to the breakfast table to announce that she had put her money in her pocket after all. Naturally, I was curious as to why she needed money. She told me it was because she wanted to get pencils from the pencil machine. (The school has acquired a pencil vending machine this year.)
Now, press pause on that thought for a minute, and travel back in time with me three weeks to our school shopping expedition where we bought two dozen pencils for her to use at school. Fast forward to yesterday, and view her book bag which at the time had one dozen pencils in its front mesh pocket that I could see, and another dozen in the front pocket without mesh which I found while checking her homework.
Electric Pencil Sharpener
With that in mind, you will understand why I was at least mildly curious as to why a child already overly gifted with pencils would wish to acquire more. She at first tried to tell me that the pencils from the pencil machine were already sharpened. That’s probably the wrong tactic to take in a family as blessed with the gift of kindler and gentler satire as we are. I gasped and said, “Oh no; you might possibly have to find a pencil sharpener in the school so you can sharpen a pencil.” She looked at me, and I added, “Even worse, you might have to use a manual pencil sharpener.” At that point I knew I won the logical argument, because the half-smile that plays across her mouth when she knows she can’t win the discussion but doesn’t know how to back out of it arrived.
Manual Pencil Sharpener
So then I said, “Let me guess. The pencil machine has pencils that are really pretty.” Straight faced, she told me that wasn’t why she wanted them at all.
My curiosity unsatisfied, I again asked what was the big deal about a vending machine pencil and she told me that every so often a student gets a blue pencil from the machine with the words “You Are A SeaCoast Winner” printed on it, and that if you took that pencil up to the librarian, you would get a prize. I asked her what the prize was, and she had no idea. It’s not that I really begrudge her spending her own quarters for pencils, but my poor pens are already vastly outnumbered by the pencils floating around the house, and I really would like to be able to save at least one or two of the pens. (See, Of Waves and Pens.)
A Winning Pencil Without the Right Words
Still, as a mom, you have to pick your battles, and I wasn’t willing to engage over 3 quarters when I am sure we have more important battles looming in the near future (can you say homework and reviewing basic math facts?) so having shown that I could have won the discussion if I wanted to, I let it slide.
Have a great day everyone!
Nancy
Posted in Just stuff..., working mom
Tagged daughter, dogs, family, humor, parenting, pencils, working mom
Genuine Blogger Award, 6/13/2011
Tales from the Mom-Side 