Category Archives: Just stuff…

Anniversary!!

Posted on August 22, 2011 | 12 comments

Hi Everyone!

Today marks the six month anniversary of my blog.  I want to thank each of you who subscribe to it, read it regularly, comment on it and forward posts.  It really makes a difference knowing that someone out there likes to read what I write.

In six months, I have reached 58 subscribers through e-mail or WordPress and five to 9 subscribers (Feedburner changes its mind daily) through an RSS feed.   Including this post, I have written 136 posts and had 10,821 views.  Those numbers are way beyond my wildest dreams when I started writing on February 22.

The First Picture I Put In A Post

I have, in that six months, taken three trips I have had the privilege of sharing with you, one to Key West, one to Pensacola, and one to Destin. 

The Hemingway House African Tulip Tree with the original Key West lighthouse in the background

I have cooked cheese grits for my daughter once, and only once (see, Cheese Grits and Pugliese Bread and Cheese Grits, the Sequel.)  I have added at least three more rules to my list of “Rules I Never Thought I’d Need.” (See, Just When I Thought I Could Retire the List and Of Kongs and Water Squirting Implements.) 

I was able to share some of the beautiful Southern spring with you, a little bit of the better part of summer, and am looking forward to fall when I can show even more. 

I also have had the privilege of introducing you to the wonderful women I work with at my office, while reserving the privilege of introducing you to the other wonderful women I work with in the Birmingham office as well as all of the wonderful men I work with.  (See, A Tribute to the Women of Main Street.)

You even have given me the courage to start a second blog, The Football Novice, something I never would have dreamed of doing six months ago.

Most of all, I have tried to share with you the wonderful chaos that is my life as a wife and mother with a full-time outside job and three crazy dogs.  I hope I have made you laugh along the way, and can’t wait to share more with you as time goes on.

Tyra: Crazy Dog No. 1

Mandy: Crazy Dog Number 2

Darwin, Crazy Dog Number Three

Have a great evening everyone!

Nancy

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Underappreciated Tasks In the Modern World: Garbage Collection

Posted on August 17, 2011 | 4 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Those of you who read yesterday’s post, Now the second day, will remember that by the time I pulled out of the driveway headed to work I was somewhat discombobulated.  This sensation only increased when I realized that the garbage can was not out on the curb for trash collection.  I should have realized that yesterday was garbage collection day, because I had been given a clue – the sunrise pictures I took yesterday included photos of my neighbors’ garbage cans out on the curb.

A Clue for the Clueless!

However, I did manage to forget, so was aghast to see the garbage can in the driveway as I pulled out.  In our household, going two weeks without garbage collection usually leads to a certain amount of desperation.  No matter how hard we try, we just can’t cram two weeks worth of stuff into the bin.  Fortunately, I found out this morning that my ultra-organized husband had not only put the garbage can out on the street for pickup Tuesday morning, but had gone ahead and taken the can back in since it had already been collected by the time he was ready to leave for work. 

Horse Drawn Garbage Cart

The idea that garbage collection is a necessity is a relatively new one in human history.  For centuries, humans did not worry about waste disposal; they either piled the waste in one spot, burned it, or, most common in cities, just threw it in the streets.  Interestingly, it was Benjamin Franklin (surprised?) who formed the first street cleaning service in 1757 and who encouraged the public to dig pits to dispose of their waste.  It wasn’t until the late 1800’s to early 1900’s before cities started to really focus on waste collection.  Even then, as the photograph above shows, there was not a lot of concern about where trash was dumped; it was dumped in any open field, wet land or watercourse that seemed convenient. FN.

One of the first motorized garbage collection trucks

Once the internal combustion engine was invented and harnessed for transportation, it didn’t take very long for the garbage collection truck to be invented as well.  The truck above is from the early 1900’s.  It posed problems for garbage men, though, because it required the person picking up the trash can to lift it over his head.   

The rear-loading garbage truck was invented as early as the 1920’s. 

Ad for 1920's rear-loader

A similar model is still used to pick up my garbage today, although hydraulic lifts and other mechanical improvements have been added to make it easier on the garbage collector.

The garbage truck I am most familiar with

Between the 1920’s and today, of course, many other forms, shapes and sizes of garbage trucks were tried out.  The next one is one of my favorites; using it taught the garbage industry that bigger is not always better!

The Godzilla of Garbage Trucks

My family has not had to resort simply to imagination to experience what it would be like today if there was no garbage collection.  The first two years we lived in our house, our neighborhood was so new that when replacement drivers would come in around Christmas time, they just forgot about us.  You don’t realize how desperately important trash collection is until you go three weeks without it with a five/six-year-old girl at Christmas time.  By the time we heard the garbage truck that second year after Christmas, Mark and I both flew out of the house, chased it down, and held the garbage men there in conversation while we not only got them to empty our can, which was full to overflowing, but also sweet-talked them into taking the other seven garbage bags we had been forced to store in various and sundry places.  Actually, there wasn’t a lot of sweet-talking involved – we just kept grabbing bags and chucking them into the garbage truck opening like madmen.  Fortunately, by the third year in our house, even the replacement drivers knew where we were (or word had spread that the crazy people at our house would chuck garbage into the truck no matter what if you skipped us) and we haven’t had the same problem since.  However, I have never taken garbage collection for granted after that!

Other garbage trucks from years gone-by

So, today or the next week, if you get behind a garbage truck, or when your own local garbage man comes by to collect your trash, give them a friendly wave, and a kind thought.  Without them, our homes would be messier, smellier places and they deserve our thanks!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

FN.  The pictures and historical information above came from Ace Disposal:  The History of Garbage Collection.

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You Can Subscribe To My Blog On Kindle!

Posted on August 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to remind you that you can also get my blog on Kindle, if you prefer.  Unfortunately, there is a small charge, 99 cents a month (not my choice), but Kindle downloads and keeps about 10 entries at a time on your Kindle, saves the older ones and unlike e-mail, will let you see the images as well as the words, although the images will be in black and white.

If you are interested, here is the web page:  Tales from the Mom-Side Kindle Subscription.  If not, hey, I’m just grateful you subscribe and/or read this any way you can!

Nancy

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Now the second day…

Posted on August 16, 2011 | 12 comments

Good morning everyone!

Good morning!

I have to blow off  some steam today.  Anyone who has, or has had, a girl child between the ages of 9 and 16 will understand. 

The first day of school apparently went very well – no homework, except for spelling, no conduct numbers and people we like in our classroom made for a very good day. 

The second day has started out rougher.  She is now on her fifth or sixth outfit – each one has something wrong with it, with six minutes left before she has to leave the house.  Let’s just say if Mandy finishes eating her food before you’re dressed, you know your dressing process is taking way too long. 

No-no, having finished her food, now turns her attention to an envelope from the coffee table

I think she finally acquired an outfit, but is putting on her sneakers at a pace that would put molasses to shame.  I still have yet to see her emerge from her bedroom with a complete outfit on.

This delay means that Kayla will miss first breakfast here at the house, but not to worry – now that school has started, she also gets breakfast at the after-school center where she catches the bus and at school, so she won’t go hungry.  I, on the other hand, have felt three more grey hairs pop out on my head since I have been repeatedly exhorting her to get dressed. 

She finally emerged from her bedroom, fully dressed.  (Do I hear a sigh of relief from the galleries?)  In doing so, she tried to quietly slip out of the house with two book bags – the small one she insisted on buying with her own money when we went shopping for school supplies and the large one from last year which we told her was still in excellent condition and would work better anyhow.  I think she was hoping we would neither notice, nor comment.  Why she would think that given the two parents she has, I don’t know. 

Sunrise over the lake in the morning

While on the surface, it has been a rough morning, deep down everything is okay.  We are healthy, together and taking care of each other, so all will ultimately be good.  Still, tonight – THE CLOTHES GET LAID OUT FOR NEXT MORNING!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Football Follies

Posted on August 12, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!

Picture by Torsten Bolten, on Wikimedia Commons.

Last night was a big evening at our household – the first televised pro football game of the 2011-2012 pre-season popped up on ESPN.  All three of us love watching football; Kayla more out of self-defense than anything else, since she has learned that if a live NFL football game is on, we will be watching it.  Mark is a serious student of the game, but I am much more of a dilettante. 

I know basic aspects of the game, such as the fact that the object of the game is to take the oblong shaped ball down the field to cross your opponent’s goal line, that a touchdown is worth 6 points, a point after kick is worth 1 and that you can, if you choose, to “go for two” after the touch down instead.  A lot of the finer rules escape me.  For example, I know it is a bad thing if anyone moves (besides the one special dude who always gets to run the width of the field) before the ball is snapped, but I continually get lost between false start and encroachment.  The difference is whether the defense or the offence does it, but I do have a hard time keeping it straight. 

I know the names of certain positions, but not all.  For example, I know what a quarterback, center, running back and wide receiver do, but I really couldn’t tell you the difference between a nose guard and a tackle (although I should be able to).  I get a little confused about the tight end, because he seems to be sort of a running back, receiver and member of the offensive line, all rolled into one.  I also know the names of certain players, heavily weighted towards those players who played for Auburn University or in the SEC, including Jason Campbell, Takeo Spikes, Heath Evans, Peyton and Eli Manning, Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown, Sean Alexander and a host of others, and I am eagerly awaiting the debut of Cam Newton, Nick Fairley and Lee Ziemba onto the NFL stage.

Curtis Painter (7) and Peyton Manning (18), picture by Chris Staley from Wikimedia Commons

There are certain key points of the game that are hard to miss.  In particular, I think that a good offensive line is probably even more important overall than a star quarterback, running back, wide receiver – none of the last three can do what they need to do if the offensive line isn’t in the trenches slugging it out for them.  I think the star quarterback, running back and wide receiver would agree with me.  The same is true also of the defensive line.  You can predict the winner of a game by whichever of the two lines wins the battle in the trenches. 

I have decided this year to learn a little bit more about this game that I love to watch.  My goal for this season is to learn the names of each position on the field and what they do.  Unfortunately, last night I didn’t make this decision until I was into my third game of BeJeweled on the iPad, so I lost the opportunity to learn anything beyond the fact that the ESPN announcers felt that the lack of a full length training camp was very, very bad for the rookies.  They referred several times due to the fact that they believed that this rookie class would be the “lost rookie class of 2011.”  The rookies didn’t look particularly lost to me; it seemed that they had found the stadium and locker rooms just fine! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Out of Our Gourds for Gourds

Posted on August 11, 2011 | 4 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Mom and Kayla Working on Their Gourds

This weekend, my mom, who is visiting, Kayla and I had the chance to work on a craft project together.  My mom brought up two huge gourds, which she had allowed to dry for over a year, which she wanted to paint; one is to be a Christmas decoration, painted like a Santa, and the other is to be a Halloween decoration. 

The Picture They Knew I Was Taking

Well, I got a little curious, because it seemed odd to me that a plant would be developed solely for decorative purposes, and Mom couldn’t think of any food purposes behind the gourd, so I did what any reasonable 21st century individual would do – I googled “gourd.”  I found out several interesting things about them. 

The Picture They Did Not Know I Was Taking!

First, they are related to cucumbers and melons.  I wouldn’t have guessed either relationship, although had I seen the scientific name for the gourd family first, Cucurbitaceae, I might have been able to guess at the cucumber relationship. 

Hmmmm - Doesn't look much like a cucumber to me!

Second, they were brought to the United States around 10,000 years ago with the peoples who crossed over the land bridge which then existed on the Bering Straits.  Genetic tests have shown that the American bottle gourd is most closely related to the Asian bottle gourd.  The Asian bottle gourd is descended from the African bottle gourd. 

The gourd is not quite as big as Kayla, but close!

Third, and I find this most interesting, the gourd was the first domesticated plant in the Americas.  It was not grown as a food crop, but as a container.  The gourd itself is the fruit of the plant; its shell is strong and buoyant, and has been used for thousands of years as containers, for musical instruments, and fishing floats.  FN. 

Gourd fronts with finished base coat

Fast forward about 10000 years to my dining room table, where our gourd painting experience had begun.  Mom had downloaded directions on how to paint the Santa Claus from the internet, and had a much smaller example of what she wanted the Halloween gourd painted like, so art class was officially in session. 

Gourd Backs

We spent about three hours on Sunday afternoon working on them, and didn’t get much further than the base coats, but we had a lot of fun doing it!  I can’t help but wonder, though, if the gourds feel that they have taken a step down, from valued container or musical instrument, to simple decoration, but perhaps they are just grateful to still be useful even after 10,000 years!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

FN.  See, “An Asian Origin for a 10,000-year-old domesticated plant in the Americas, ” from the Dec. 20, 2005 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America for further information if you are interested.

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Legal Laughs

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Every experienced attorney and judge has had one or two cases that they couldn’t wait to get rid of.  When it is over, we are immensely relieved.  One judge’s relief boiled over into the following order which is making the e-mail rounds in legal land:

The herein matter having been scheduled for a trial by jury commencing July 13, 2011, and numerous pre-trial motions having yet to be decided and remaining under submission;

And the parties having informed the Court that the herein matter has been settlement amicably,  FN.  [The Court uses the word ‘amicably’ loosely.], and that there is no need for a Court ruling on the remaining motions and also that there is no need for a trial;

And such news of an amicable settlement having made this Court happier than a tick on a fat dog because it is otherwise busier than a one-legged cat in a sand box and, quite frankly, would have rather jumped naked off a twelve-foot stepladder into a five gallon bucket of porcupines than have presided over a two week trial of the herein dispute, a trial which, no doubt, would have the jury more confused than a hungry baby in a topless bar, and made the parties and their attorneys madder than mosquitoes in a mannequin factory;

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by the Court as follows:

1.  The jury trial scheduled herein for July 13, 2011 is hereby CANCELED;

2.  Any and all pending motions will remain under submission pending the filing of an Agreed Judgment, Agreed Entry of Dismissal or other pleadings consistent with the parties’ settlement;

3.  The Clerk shall engage the services of a structural engineer to ascertain if the return of this file to the Clerk’s office will exceed the maximum structural load of the floors of said office. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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Acronyms and Adobe

Posted on July 28, 2011 | 2 comments

Good evening everyone! 

I’ve just been through one of those few times when my day job takes over my entire life for a short period of time.  Mark and Kayla are always wonderful in their support for me when I have to do that; the dogs are okay with it as long as they get fed every morning.  However,  now that it’s all over and I have taken a deep breath, everything shimmers back to normal. 

Shimmer

Still, even in high pressure situations, there is humor to be found.

In Alabama and most federal courts, e-filing is now required; this lets you file briefs and exhibits electronically and gives you until 11:59 the day something is due for it to be timely filed, but, as one district court clerk’s office has politely explained  in their e-filing rules, “While a filing is timely as long as it is filed prior to 11:59 a.m. the day it is due, the clerk’s office strongly recommends that attorneys e-file during working hours, when someone will be able to help them if a problem should arise.”  Unfortunately, I was not able to heed their advice this time, but it all came out right in the end.

The briefs I were working on were in an area of the law that uses a lot of acronyms.  Because it is easier to refer to NHTSA rather than the National Highway Safety Transportation Agency, and to the FHSA rather than the Federal Highway Safety Act, and the  STATSER rather than the Smith-Thomas Act To Support Edamame Research  (all right, I made that one up), in certain areas of the law you just have to resign yourself to the acronyms and try to keep up with the scorecard as best you can.  So Monday night, while I was studying  notes someone had made for me to help with these responses, I came across the following phrase:   “since then a LOT has been done to change the design.”  I spent five minutes trying to figure what on earth LOT stood for, only to realize that LOT stood for, strangely enough, the word “lot”, with emphasis.  Things started to fall into place then.

For technical reasons I have tried to understand, but decided that it is simply better to accept, the documents that we file, as well as the exhibits, need to be filed in .pdf format, the kind of file that you use Adobe Acrobat to read.  When we need to refer to deposition testimony [FN]  in a response, we have to find the deposition, print out the pertinent pages, then scan them in to convert the group of pages  into a single file in .pdf format.  (Most courts do not permit you to file the entire deposition; only the pages you are referring to.  A few courts are different.)  Many of the court reporting services now automatically send you depositions in electronic format, which makes this process a lot easier. 

I had called the Birmingham office yesterday afternoon to check that all the depositions were available electronically.  (The original office, where I work, is about 65 miles away from the Birmingham office.)  After I was assured that they were, and got a mobile phone number from Christine in the Birmingham office staff in case there was a hiccup, I turned back to proof-reading and finishing my writing. 

 Fast forward three hours, to when I was finally ready to start putting the exhibits together for filing.  I opened my Adobe Acrobat Reader and plunged into the correct file on the server – only to discover that nary a deposition was to be found!  After a heart attack and a round of adrenaline that didn’t go amiss anyhow since I needed a pick-me-up, I started looking around a little bit to  figure out what was going on so I wouldn’t have to call Christine at 8:00 p.m. and have her return to the office.  After another five minutes, I realized what the problem was.  I had the Adobe Reader program set to where it would only show me Adobe files in the file directories.  Once I changed that setting to “all files,” the depositions I needed magically appeared.  I gave a sigh of relief, and the gathering of exhibits could continue.

Relief!

Technology:  can’t live with it, but sure can’t live without it!

Have a great evening everyone!

Nancy

FN.  For those who don’t know, a deposition is an out of court questioning session where the questionee is under oath.

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Where are They? Inventions I Eagerly Await

Posted on July 22, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning Everyone!

While I have my issues with technology (see, Please stop Improving my Life I and II), there are certain inventions I eagerly await. 

I already mentioned, in an earlier post, the riding vacuum cleaner (Differences Between Men and Women)but there are a few more I think the inventors of this world should be working on.

1)  A car that drives itself where I want it to go.  In the last two days, I have driven about five hours total.  How nice it would be to have a car that just took care of all the driving, and let me use that time productively for things like napping, cross-stitch or playing computer games.  However, this is merely a short-term solution to commuting problems, as I believe the second invention is the long-term answer.

Transporter

2) The transporter from Star Trek.  It is hard to believe that something envisioned in the 1960’s has yet to be invented.  Of course, I realize there are some fundamental rules of physics that have to be gotten around, re-explained, or discovered, but still!  Instant transportation from one place to another is worth it.  Just think how much more time we could spend doing important things like tail-gating at football games, standing in line at Disneyworld (rather than spending time driving to Disneyworld) or shopping for the latest gizmos instead of the time we spend commuting. 

Climate Control Device!

3)  A personal climate control machine no bigger than a pedometer.  At this time of the year, those of us in the Southeast spend a great deal of time calculating our routes so that we end up spending as little time as possible out-of-doors (unless the beach or lake is involved) to allow us to remain in air-conditioned comfort.  I don’t know this for certain, but I expect those of you who encounter extremely cold weather during the year do the same with heat.  Imagine if you could clip something about the size of the pedometer on your waist, set the temperature, and enjoy that temperature all day long, no matter where you are.  I think that would be really cool (no pun intended!)

Country Cooler Drive Thru Convenience Store, Hollister Florida

4)   The drive-through grocery store window.  (Apparently, this concept is in the testing phase; an internet search revealed that an increasing number of convenience stores, especially in Florida, are trying this out.)  Every parent who has ever traveled to or through the grocery store with young (or even not so young) children can understand the appeal of being able to call the grocery store in advance, tell the clerk exactly what you want, pull up to a window, receive your items and pay for them, all without having to do the “No” song through the aisles.  No, you can’t have Oreos; No, you can’t have Cocoa Puffs; No, you can’t have rutabagas (you don’t even know what they are); No, you can’t have that cheap $5 toy that will fall apart as soon as we get it home; No, you can’t have your fifth package of mints this week (that’s for my daughter).

It also is helpful for those who, like me, enter the grocery store for milk and lettuce, fall into a strange trance, and emerge on the other side with two carts full of groceries and no idea what they are or how they got there!

5) An integrated clothes cleaning system that will sort the clothes, wash the clothes, dry the clothes  and fold the clothes or iron them as needed.   My current system, my 9 year old, leaves something to be desired.  (Just kidding – we don’t let her iron – yet.)  I am willing to continue to put them away however.  

6)  A computer that will allow me to win an argument with it.  Currently, once it starts beeping and sending me error messages, the computer wins. 

7)   Failing that, a computer that will do what I want it to do, not necessarily what I tell it do. 

8)   A money tree.  If it was prolific enough, I would be willing to share! 

Any inventions you might like to see?  Future inventors of America, take note!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Blogging Lessons I Have Learned

Posted on July 14, 2011 | 16 comments

Good morning Everyone!

This post today will be my 108th post.  I have been blogging since February 22, and this is as good a time as any to take stock of what I have learned since then.

1)   It is wonderful to be able to write something someone else reads and have them say, “I like that!” 

2) I have written approximately 54,000 words in 108 posts which have included 516 images.  Each post has taken (on average, unless lots of pictures are involved) 45 minutes or less to write.  That is equivalent at least to a novella! 

3) I can sit down every day and write.  In fact, I enjoy doing it.

4) SEO does not involve a corporation’s management structure, bounce rate is not a basketball statistic and “keyword” and “password” are not equivalent terms.

5) The “site stats” page on WordPress is addictive.

6) So is getting Freshly Pressed.  It happened to me once, (Rules I Never Thought I’d Need) and I still harbor a faint hope with every post I make that another one will get Freshly Pressed some day…

7)  There are lots of extremely interesting people from all over the world who read this blog.  I have had the chance to get to know some of them.

8)  My family and friends read this blog almost every day –  devotion above and beyond the call of duty.  Some people who didn’t know me originally read this blog almost every day, too, which is really amazing!

9) My daughter is an exceptionally good sport to let me write about her.  The dogs don’t really care what I write about them.  Mandy is much better at finishing her food now that I write beside her while she eats.  (Dog Rules)

10) Toasted bagels with peanut butter and typing on a keyboard are a messy combination. 

11) Someone out there keeps searching “husky-basset hound mixes.”  Whoever you are, I would be really interested to know why.  I thought we had the only husky-basset hound mix in the world. 

Mandy, Our Husky-Basset Hound Mix

12) No matter how many cameras you have, (I’m at 3 right now), you still can manage to forget to bring one when you need it.

13) Even the most mundane things are funny, if you look at them the right way.  (Light Switches.) 

Hall Light Switch

14) I love to hear from you, and am very grateful to every reader who has taken the time to comment on a blog. 

15) Pens continue to disappear at an alarming rate at my house.  (Of Waves and Pens.)

16) Life is beautiful and it is fun to share!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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