Follow Friday - 50 questions

I found this at Thoughts of a Working Mom, so I had to do it! Feel free to C & P, and fill out your own. Leave me a comment, and I’ll come visit!

1. Where were you three hours ago? Still in bed sleeping.

2. Who are you in love with? My husband

3. Have you ever eaten a crayon? Not that I can recall, but I can’t be certain.

4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? No, no, no

5. When was the last time you went to the mall? Honestly can't remember.

6. Are you wearing socks right now? No

7. Do you have a car worth over $2000? Yes

8. When was the last time you drove out of town? Yesterday

9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days? No, but I have a Netflix movie to watch if that  counts. :) 

10. Are you hot? Hubbie thinks so! Oh wait, not talking about that kind of hot ... *sheepish grin*

11. What was the last thing you had to drink? MIlk

12. What are you wearing right now? Jammies

13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it? Car wash

14. Last food you ate? Chocolate fudge pop tarts. Shh ...

15. Where were you last week at this time? Home

16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week? Items for my DD's Brownie uniform & a T-shirt

17. When was the last time you ran? Can’t remember

18. What was the last sporting event you watched? If Taekwondo counts, last night.

19. Your favorite animal? Dogs

20. Your dream vacation? Paris or a beach; tough call

21. Last person’s house you were in? Mine

22. Worst injury you ever had? Recovering from a right tibial tubercle avulsion (bad knee boo boo)

23. Have you been in love? Yes I have and still am.

24. Do you miss anyone right now? no

25. Last play you saw? Can't recall

26. What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex? None, I am married

27. What are your plans for tonight? House cleaning

28. Who is the last person to send you a Facebook message or comment? Vickie

29. Next trip you are going to take? Taking DD to Nana's tomorrow

30. Ever go camping? Not recently

31. Were you an honor student in school? Yes

32. What do you want to know about the future? Nothing

33. Are you wearing perfume or cologne? No, the smell bothers me.

34. Are you due sometime this year for a doctor’s visit? Sadly, yes. Gyn. appt. next month. woot.

35. Where is your best friend? Don't have one.

36. How is your best friend? ??

37. Do you have a tan? No.

38. What are you listening to right now? Stupid dog barking incessantly

39. Do you collect anything? money??

40. Who is the biggest gossiper you know? Hmmmmmm

41. Last time you got stopped by a cop or pulled over? 2 yrs ago for speeding. Got a warning. 

42. Have you ever drank your soda from a straw? Yes

43. What does your last text message say? Sent - The AC is NOT on. My bad.  Received - Sheesh mom, lol

44. Do you like hot sauce? no

45. Last time you took a shower? Last night

46. Do you need to do laundry? Always.

47. What is your heritage? Mutt

48. Are you someone’s best friend? Yes

49. Are you rich? Yes, but not financially

50. What were you doing at 12 AM last night? Sleeping

© 2010, Nurse's Notes. All rights reserved.

Thursday Tantrum - - a bit of a rant

OK, I've figured out what to do with Thursdays.  I will either rant or toot someone's horn.  Today is unfortunately a rant.  I am a stickler for customer service, I admit.  If I can work with people and treat them kindly and with courtesy, I think it is not unreasonable to expect of others.  Lest you think me a heartless curmudgeon, let me assure you I am not.  I completely understand if someone is having a bad day.  With that said, on with the rant!!

For 3 years, I have used Norton products to provide antivirus protection for our home network.  In January, I upgraded to the "bells & whistles" premier edition without hesitation as I had no previous difficulty.  Then, I started having difficulties with the system.  Not being the brightest when it comes to technological issues, I did not immediately attribute this to the Norton product.  Over the course of the past 8 months, I have made various adjustments in an attempt to rectify the issue: purchased an external hard drive (placing all photos, music, iTunes library, etc on this), took it to my computer guy to delete extraneous files, etc.  Finally, last month, he says "hey, you have Norton, that's almost like a virus in itself. It REALLY slows systems down." Eureka!  So before I took the plunge to delete Norton, I downloaded a free antivirus software (plug for Avast here) and added an additional 2GB to my computer.  After this, I continued to have issues with the computer running slowly, freezing & crashing.  OK, enough is enough.

So the rant is regarding my treatment by the customer "support" staff today.  Of course, the individual assisting me was an individual not residing in these fair United States.  When I explained the issue, I was informed it had been greater than 60 days since purchase & therefore I was not entitled to any form of refund.  End of conversation.  Thank you for contacting Norton.  OK, my bad.  Next time, I will read the impossible to find, refund policy.  So I decide, whatever, it is an inferior product. I will uninstall it & just eat the loss.  Except, it froze when I tried to uninstall!!! ARGH!!!  I can't use it & I can't get rid of it; what is up with that?!!?!

Fortunately, after the computer froze & crashed again, and a couple more attempts I was able to uninstall this gem.  So, since this is my blog, I would like to say: I will think carefully about purchasing ANY products from Norton in the service.  The product doesn't work, causes innumerable system issues, technical/customer support is nonexistent, and the site is difficult to navigate to find any helpful information.  I don't need the aggravation when there are free products that are EASY to use.

Was my reaction over the top?? What are your thoughts on poor customer service?

What do you do when you have issues with a product purchased on the internet?

Wordless Wednesday

OK, just wondering who thinks this sounds good?

Trivial Tuesday - are you smarter than a sixth grader?

First, I would like to give a great big shout-out to @mrsnotouching, who is my 100th follower; thanks!! We traded favors, lol. You'll have to ask her ... ;)

I thought we would do something fun (at least to me) today. Trivia!! Before you click and run, I got this question from www.schoolfamily.com; it is from the sixth grade curriculum. Easy peasy, no? OK, here is the question:

 If triangle ABC is similar to triangle DEF, what is the length of side EF?

1. 12 inches
2. 4 inches
3. 2 inches
4. 1 inches

What do you think? This is the honor system; no cheating :). Please leave your answer in the comments; I will post the answer this evening. Argh, the suspense!!! 

Are you smarter than a 6th grader? 

Monday Madness - Gold bullion stolen from Florida treasure museum

Hello! I am trying a new schedule & content due to the resumption of university classes today.  I will try to continue to post Monday through Friday, but will definitely post twice a week (probably Monday & Thursday).  Please be patient as I figure out what I can successfully pull off. Regarding the new content, I've noticed other blogs have "themes" for particular days.  As I've never been a nonconformist, I am following suit.  Hence, "Monday Madness" will be excerpts of an article that I find entertaining, odd, irritating, or otherwise worth discussion; I will add my two cents witty commentary (in pink).  I hope you find this addition interesting. If you find it loathsome, please send me an e-mail.  Without further ado ... today's Monday Madness.

Gold bullion stolen from Florida treasure museum (courtesy of Reuters @ www.reuters.com; full article @ http://tinyurl.com/2bdv5tb)

The 74.85-ounce gold bar was stolen on Wednesday from the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida, in what executive director Melissa Kendrick called "a very quiet smash and grab." (not exactly pocket-sized @ 4.68 lbs)

The 11-inch (28-centimeter) gold bar was inside a glass case with a small opening where visitors could stick a hand inside and lift the bar to examine it. (again, not pocket-sized. Seriously though, "an opening where visitors could stick a hand inside!?!? Whose bright idea was that? Perhaps someone who is now unemployed?)

Gold has hovered near historic highs after hitting a record $1,266.50 an ounce in June, but the stolen bar's $550,000 valuation reflects historic value far beyond its melt-down worth.

Kendall said the bar had several distinctive markings, including Roman numerals signifying it was 16-karat gold, a symbol identifying its owner, and a series of dots indicating what taxes the owner had paid to the Spanish crown.

"It's a one-of-a-kind piece," Kendall said. (so unique, we wanted to make sure just anyone could touch it ...Doh!!)

Again, let me know your thoughts on the new format, please.  

Regarding the article, as I ask my kids "what would you have done differently?" 

Have a great week!!

Follow Friday - The ABCs of Me

If you are checking me out to follow, I thought you might like to know more about me (or not, but it's my blog, so sorry)

Jen @ Thoughts of a Working MOM did “the ABC’s of Me” and I thought it was a fun tag so….I just had to do it.


Here’s mine!

Age: 45
Bed size: King
Chore you hate: Cleaning the litter box
Dogs or Cats: We have both + 2 hermit crabs.
Essential start your day item: Coffee
Favorite color: blue
Gold or silver: silver
Height: 5'7"
Instruments you’ve played: trumpet, baritone, french horn, drums, flute, clarinet, saxophone, viola, violin
Job Title: Registered Nurse
Kids: 1 boy, 1 girl, (1 husband)
Loud or Quiet: Quiet (too bad you can't always get whatcha want!)
Mom’s name: Sandy
Nicknames: TP, Tam
Overnight hospital stay: yes
Pet peeve: rudeness
Quote from a movie: "As you wish" (name that movie)
Right or Left handed: Right handed.
Siblings: 2 brothers, 1 sister (dead)
Time you wake up: 6:30 - 7:00am
Underwear: yes :)
Vegetable you don’t like: brussel sprouts (wrote a paper on this in college, got an A)
Ways you run late: waiting on kids, primarily
X- rays you’ve had: knee (x2), (mainly a CT scan or MRI girl, myself)
Yummy food you make: bread
Zoo favorite: monkeys

Thursday Throw-together

Aack, I thought the manic Monday was supposed to end on Monday. Guess not. Le sigh.  Ok, here's the skinny.  I know you can't wait to read all about it!!

I'm on the computer this AM, merrily checking my e-mail, Twitter, etc.  Then, blue screen.  That's all. Yikes.  Ok, no big deal, just a glitch. Right?? So I shut down, restart & run a scan.  About 2 minutes into the scan. Boom!! No blue screen but ... TOTAL SHUT DOWN!!! What is going on?!?! OK, still no reason to panic.  I have to go to the university to pick up books for the fall semester; I'll have the guys in the computer check it.  They know so much more about this than I do. Right?

Wrong.  I am at the moment sitting in the computer lab, running a second scan with Avast antivirus.  I ran the first scan with Norton (btw, this is also what caused the total shutdown earlier. Word to all the Norton users), which ran in no time & showed no viruses.  OK. So the computer guy says "it was probably just a thing". A thing!!! What in the world is a "thing"?!?! BTW, the Avast scan has been running for 10 minutes & is only 9% complete.  Why was the Norton scan so quick?

So, with that said, I am frantically typing away to get this post up before my computer freaks again.  If I vanish into the nether regions of the cyberworld, you'll know why.

So, how's your week?  Are you have any similarly exciting events happening?

Tuesday Triumph & Tragedy

It's Tuesday, one day closer to the weekend.  More importantly, the last day of my children's freedom summer vacation. Yes folks, school starts tomorrow here. We have an even split -- one child (DD) is excited, one child (DS) is not.  This is not surprising because DD is 7 & DS is 16, lol. To the best of my knowledge, there is not much that is exciting for a 16 y/o male; evidently due to the resultant loss of the "cool factor" with any show of emotion.  So, back to the title of the post... A school related triumph was the successful, albeit grumpy, awakening of DD @ 7:00.  A school related tragedy was the unsuccessful awakening of DS @ the same time (or @ 7:30, 7:45, 8:45); he finally dragged himself to quasi-consciousness @ 9:15.  This is tragic simply because somebody is going to have a rude awakening (literally & figuratively) tomorrow @ 6:30AM. Sigh.

On a more personal note, my triumph which I am most exultant about: I AM EXCUSED FROM JURY DUTY!!!! Huzzah! That is all.

What are your tragedies or triumphs this week?  How do you cope with tragedy or celebrate triumph?

Just another manic Monday??

This is the last "summer" Monday for the year. Since school starts this week, I know next Monday will definitely be more manic than today.  However, I'm feeling a bit frazzled, nonetheless. Since I hurt my knee last week, it seems to take me FOREVER to get things done.  Sigh.  Did I mention I'm just a smidge impatient.  Plus, I'm very independent & being dependent for others to do things to my liking is also not my favorite thing. Again, sigh.

Is your Monday manic? What do you do to destress?

Since my friend Stephanie, got this stuck in my head, I now graciously share with you ... Enjoy

Follow Friday

Rules: follow host blog & any others you wish. This hop is from Quality Time (just click the button).  Please leave a comment to let them know you are following.  Have fun!!  This hop is from Quality Time (just click the button)

Thankful Thursday

Stole this idea from Mrs. B. @ Who I Am (http://tinyurl.com/2dj33sm)


Things I am thankful for:

• Aspie meltdown averted in a semi-public place
• The start of school & some type of routine
• The generic ~ God, family, friends, wisdom, & good health. Seriously thankful for all of these :)

What do you have to be thankful for this week??

Wordless Wednesday ~ where I'd rather be

Do you have anywhere you would rather be today??

Guest post

Good morning, all. Today, I'm guest posting @ gatherinspirit.com.  Those of you who follow me on Twitter may already be aware of the TN family who is in great financial need.  The post gives more details about their situation in the dad's own words.  Please check it out.  If you cannot help, please pass the information to others. Every bit helps.  If we can promote saving a woman's uterus (@savetheute), we should be able to help an entire family.  Blessings to you all!!

http://gatherinspirit.com/2010/08/helping-a-family-in-need/

Monday Mayhem

Well, nothing to start off the week like a little Monday mayhem. Namely  "unauthorized account access" (to quote MSN), or "hacking" (in the vernacular) of my Hotmail account. Yippee!!  OK, tip for anyone I know. I never simply send a link; I ALWAYS have something to say, lol.  Anyway, hopefully the problem has been resolved.

In other Monday mayhem news, took DD to the eye dr.  She needs glasses. Good news, it is only for "distance" (like reading the board); bad news, she has Asperger's.The reason that is bad news: how many inches away does the work have to be before she wears/removes glasses.  Why can't she just wear them all the time?!?! I understand the eye doctor's reasoning, just see this causing undue stress. Sigh.

Have you ever had an account hacked? If so, what was the fall-out??
Have you or your child ever needed a medical device only part-time; was it confusing?

Time off

Hello all.  Just wanted to let you know I am taking the week off to complete some long-overdue projects since the summer semester is over.  One of which is to work on the blog, so hopefully it will have a new look when next we meet.

Thanks again to all of the awesome ladies who guested for me while I finished my Statistics class (got a B+, BTW!! Woot!)

Gah-mah’s Arms

Today's guest is a Twitter friend, Sandra Heska King.  Here's a bit about her. Sandra (AKA Sandy or even Snady, the result of a typo that stuck) lives in Michigan in the same 150-year-old farmhouse her husband grew up in. She is mom to two grown adopted children and grandma to Gracee and Lillee. Snady is a passionate chocolate lover, avid Detroit Tigers fan, Bible teacher and inspirational writer who keeps her
nursing license intact. Website: Sandra Heska King

She lies spread-eagled in the Pack-n-Play.
So vulnerable. So dependant.
I want to pick her up. Cradle her. Drink deep of baby. I want to savor the scent of formula
and lotion and sweat and damp diaper.
I want to stroke her hands and her feet. I want to smile and coo and sing.
My arms ache to hold her.
While her needs are simple and her wants are few.
Because I know how fast time passes.
When her little body will no longer fit neatly in one arm. When her legs will dangle off
my lap. When I won’t be able to even pick her up. When she’ll squirm away or avoid my
touch.
When little things won’t mesmerize her. When she’ll seek bigger thrills.
When she’ll smell of peanut butter and bubble gum and cotton candy and popcorn.
Of hair spray and perfume. (But please, dear God, not cigarettes or alcohol or blood.)
When she thinks she knows all, needs nobody.
But still so vulnerable.
My arms ache from holding her.
I gently trace her jaw line with my index finger, cup her face with my hand. It fits in my
palm. She stirs, and I pull back. She needs to rest. We’ve had a busy morning.
Walking, bouncing, rocking, rattling, bathing, talking.
Yes, she talks. Even at only seven weeks old. And she has a lot to say.
“Ooooooh! Ahhh-oooh. Goo-wah. Eeee-yah!”
And I know she said, “Gah-mah!” Yep. I heard it. She did.
For now I stand guard. Hover while she sleeps. Wait until she wakes.
I tuck this moment under my heart.
I wish I could tuck her under my wings. Hide her from any hurt or pain. But I know I
can’t. At least from everything. I couldn’t with her mom. I can’t with her sister. I know
she’ll pass through refining fires.
But I remember that I must let her go. To the One whose ways and timing are perfect.
And I can pray. That she won’t be burned. That she’ll make good choices. That life’s
punches will make her stronger. That she will know and cling to the One whose feathers
are broad. That she’ll rest in the shelter of His wings. Totally dependent on Him.
And that she’ll know that no matter how old she gets or how tall she grows, “Gah-mah’s”
arms ache to hold her.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:1-4 (NIV)
Copyright © 2010 by Sandra Heska King

Light vs Darkness

This is has always been a theme over the ages! Night and day, summer vs winter, good and evil etc. We've heard them all but what does light vs darkness mean to me as a woman, a mother, wife and well plain old me?
For me, the differences between them are  great. It means the difference in my attitude and the attitudes of those around me. The light and dark is shown to me as the day turns into night or as a bright sky turns into a stormy one.  Each of those changes is amazing and new, clear and refreshing.  Imagine if there were always daylight? Some places in the world get like that during the year. I do not believe I could ever live there, because I need the change.
Even in my relationship I am a night owl and my husband an early bird! Yes this makes it tough, but we've worked it out over 15 years. I enjoy being up all night and sleeping in the warm sun, but there needs to be that change between the light and darkness.  I can even see the difference in our children from summer to winter, their energy levels change, their outlook, and attitudes as well. They become more active in the summer vs the winter, we all seem to change during these times. It seems that it is how we were made to live it out, to deal with the light vs the dark, warm vs cold etc.  How do you deal with these changes?
As I am writing this post I look across the room and in the corner there is a keyboard leaning against the wall. I took a photo but the flash voided out so much of what I saw! I saw the shadows over the keys cast by the light from another room, beaming into my darkened bedroom. I see the beauty of the keys and how they form a ladder of light from top to bottom. What types of things in your life bring the light vs darkness out? What type of person are you?

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