Author: sassysheisme

I seek to live, breathe & work creatively. Late bloomer. I survived breast cancer and so much more. I will meet each challenge w/determination, badassery & sass!
Posted in kids
Posted on by sassysheisme

SQUIRREL BEER TONIC (TAKE TWO)

I did not get to check on the Squirrel Beer Tonic as planned. The kids started out the day at orientation at school, came back at 9 a.m. and we settled in for the day. The ozone is horrible right now, and it rained, so we stayed indoors. Thank you, Lord, for Animal Planet. All three of us now know what to do if our Koi fish gets a tumor, and that there are vets at some school in Pennsylvania who can treat the fish’s symptoms. (Koi fish are Japanese goldfish on steroids if you didn’t know). If the fish had died, (these kids were so tired and wound up) I don’t know what I would have done with the kids. Had I developed an attachment to the fish, I might have been worried about myself at that point.

Posted in kids
Posted on by sassysheisme

SQUIRREL BEER TONIC

Today I babysat two adorable kids. Alexandra is 7 and starts second grade Thursday. Ian, 5, will enter kindergarten. They returned this morning from attending a relative’s wedding in England (Dad is from Cornwall) and of course, their little internal clocks are off by about 7 hours. Apparently, they got up at 2:30 this morning…but stayed in bed, at the request of their mother until 4:30. I arrived on the scene at 7:15 (that’s really early for a night owl like me) and they had been up nearly 3 hours, had breakfast, and were in full gear. Morning children + non-morning babysitter = somewhat controlled chaos.

After lunch at 9:15, we played for a while, then tried to watch a movie on the new TV. New TV doesn’t play nice with widescreen DVD’s and Shrek’s head was cut off in several scenes. Alexandra, usually quite the patient tender heart, refused to watch the movie under these circumstances. I thought if I took them outside and wore them out, they might take a nap. HA HA

The kids have a nice play area and under the platform for the slide is a nice picnic table. Once we were outside, Alexandra got a bucket and started picking up fallen nuts (I have no idea what kind of tree this was) from the driveway. She managed to find almost a bucket full, then hauled it over to the picnic table. She filled another bucket with water while Ian filled another bucket with wood chips from the play area.

Alexandra put a few nut shells in the water and stirred them with a stick (the stick adds its own flavor, you know) and then put all of the nuts in and flushed the water out, (the distillation process) and then repeated the process. I asked her what she was making and she said, “Squirrel Beer Tonic,” which helps suqirrels with tummy aches. I see a big career involving chemistry for this one.

She added some flower petals (the secret ingredient) and then added wood chips for that wood aged taste. It’s firmenting overnight. I’ll let you know how it turns out…

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SIX MONTH BLOG ANNIVERSARY

Today I’ve been blogging for six months! Thanks to Ahjie for the “suggestion” I start doing this. I really enjoy it!

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READ THE DIRECTIONS AND EMPTY THE BOX

Three weeks ago, Jene’ purchased a PUR water filter for our kitchen faucet. The filter has sat on our counter all this time because we needed an adapter so the filter would thread onto our faucet.

Tonight, Jene’ and I stopped by the hardware store and she purchased the adapter. She had already read the directions (she says the directions said, “Get an adapter,”) … and so she put the thing together, I tightened it on, and voila! We have purified water straight from the faucet.

Jene’ just died laughing downstairs… a sustained fit of laughter that made me curious enough to go downstairs and make sure she was okay.

Turns out there was an adapter for the faucet in the bottom of the box. I guess the directions failed to mention it was provided inside.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Read the directions and empty the box! LOL

(No, really, Jene’ is usually the one I ask how to do things because I know she does read directions… and I’m the blonde one!)

Posted in technical difficulties
Posted on by sassysheisme

COMPUTER OWNERS’ PLEDGE

I will download virus protection software and run it at all times.

I will check Windows Update on a weekly basis and download all the security packs suggested.

I will do a backup (at least once a month) of documents, pictures, my address book, and other things that are a pain in the bum to replace and reassemble.

I will toss my cookies, delete my temporary internet files, and do other maintenance on my computer on a regular basis.

I will resist the urge to purchase an Apple computer in self defense.

I will hug all IT personnel the next time I see them walking down the hallway after saving my computer and all my hard work on the job…again.

I will hug my rooomate/friend/brother/neighbor who fixes my computer at home… again… every time I forget to do one of the above and a virus or worm bites me in the bum.

If I fail to do any of the above, may I never log onto the internet again.

Repeat as many times as necessary… (because my roommate is tired from fixing everybody’s computers this week! So far, she’s saved 23… and 24 will be saved as of Saturday)

I already adhere to this pledge (though I didn’t until I bought my current computer), but this is for all the people who woke up Tuesday and found that their computers wouldn’t work. I’ve already experienced the horror of almost losing everything on my computer… and I will do everything in my power to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I also just want to say that all the people who have issues with Bill Gates need to get a grip and leave me out of their fits of petty jealousy or whatever it is they think they’re accomplishing.

I’d love to run into one of these hackers, punch them in the face and say, “Hack this!”

Posted in creativity
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THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Today, I went to the museum (it’s free on Thursdays) to see paintings and art by James Rosenquist. Here’s a little blurb about him:

An internationally recognized artist since his emergence on the New York art scene in the early 1960s, James Rosenquist (born 1933) was a leading player in the American Pop movement. He began painting as a commercial billboard painter in the Midwest. Rosenquist developed his own brand of the “new realist” style by fragmenting, combining, and juxtaposing images from advertising onto large-scale canvases. Through this technique, Rosenquist has created complex, enigmatic narrative and abstract paintings. You can see some of his paintings at http://www.mfah.org. Click on current exhibition. (We also viewed some cool ornamental gold pieces and tribal headdresses from all over the world).

Rosenquist’s style is sort of psychadelic Picasso and really isn’t my cup of tea, but next month’s exhibition has paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali… so I’m all over that one.

I had fun, though. It was cool in the museum and very quiet and I tried to imagine what was going on in Rosenquist’s head… I mean, about half of the paintings I saw featured lipstick… so that led me to interesting thoughts. I’m not sure it was Amy’s cup of tea, either, but hey, we were cultural for an hour and a half for free and that’s worth something.

Next week on the day I’m not working, I’m thinking about going for a walk at the zoo. The zoo costs $2, and without children, I can actually spend time at each exhibit and even read about the animals. If I go early enough, I should be able to avoid heat stroke. 🙂

Posted in weather
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BLACKOUT

One of the hottest days of the year… and…

It’s about 8:30 p.m. and I am in my room getting ready to blog about how hellishly hot it is and Jene’ is in her room transferring files and BOOM! The electricity flashes on and off, then back on again. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, except the a/c is running full blast, the dryer is on and the washer is mid spin cycle. Since this is an old apartment complex and the place is not wired for such electrical activity… the electricity stays off… in my half of the apartment.

My half of the apartment is also wired to run the air conditioner. The washer comes to a screeching halt. The dryer continues to run, after all, it is a different voltage and therefore separate. Jene’s room still has power, though it grows hotter by the minute as her two computers trade about 9 gigs of information furiously. The first call to the maintenance guy is taken at 8:40. Jene’ calls at 9:15, 9:40 and is about to call at 10:40 when the maintenance guy gets around to tripping the breaker. In Houston, especially during a heatwave, any maintenance calls for a/c are treated as emergencies, and usually, when we do trip a breaker, within 15 minutes it is restored. Needless to say, we were a little restless until the a/c was turned back on.

But now… we’re cooling off. Jene’s room had gotten quite toasty with her two computers churning and the dryer running below her downstairs. It’s getting better now, but the a/c will be on full blast for a couple of hours, I’m sure. I’m about to tempt fate and throw my clothes in the dryer and start another load of laundry (yes, in my jammies).

Good night!

Posted in weather
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SIZZLE, SIZZLE…

It’s now 7 p.m. and it’s still 102 degrees outside. When I got home an hour ago, it was 106. The only factor that even remotely makes me feel any better about this is that the humidity is under 30%. (This time of year, the norm is between 80-100%). In fact, this summer, the humidity has been below 50% quite often, which has actually made not having a/c in my car a little bit more bearable.

Today, however, by the time I got home, I was soaking wet, despite the low humidity. I got a smidge of sunburn on my arms through the windshield, too. I am so happy I have no hair on my neck now! (The ‘do got rave reviews at work today… from the women. The men looked at me as if to say, “I know there’s something different, but I don’t know what it is, so I’m not going to say anything.”)

My roommate, who is still car-less (see blog: Thursday, May 29, 2003) has decided to go to MicroCenter… which is about 2.5 miles from here. She will walk about a half mile to the bus stop and ride from there. She has to get a cord to connect her old computer with the new computer so old computer can go bye bye Saturday. It’s down to 101 degrees… I hope there’s a breeze. The sun is lower on the horizon, so now it’s 100 degrees. You know it’s hot when you’re excited to see it dip below 100 degrees…

It’s time to get some work done… I will blog atcha later!

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SHEARED

Three years ago, Jene’ convinced me to buy a “big girl bed,” which meant replacing my 11 year old twin mattress and elevated wooden bed frame (3 1/2 feet off the ground) with a new queen size bed. I have not regretted this decision, though I do miss all the storage I had under my bed.

Today, I got my “big girl haircut,” which means my shoulder length hair is now a short, short bob. I actually really like it, and the cut is very good and will grow out nicely, so I got my money’s worth (which wasn’t much because I can’t afford a salon haircut right now). I also had to finish off the damage of the home perm I got this spring which fried my baby fine hair. So, I’m down to mostly healthy hair and it’s easy to take care of… and it’s the shortest it’s been since I demanded my waist length hair be chopped off in the third grade.

The funniest part of this whole experience was the photo shoot we did in the living room so I could send out pics to friends and family. I made all sorts of faces, and had fun with it. Then I tried to send the picture out at the size Jene’ shot them at (high resolution) and they were oh, about 1.1 MB each. LOL. Nobody needs to see me that up close and personal! And, since I’ve had DSL for a few months, I also forget how long it takes to download one of those pictures! To all those people who received that huge file… I’m so sorry. Though I have this fancy new haircut, it did not decrease my blonde-ness at all.

Well, it’s time to go figure out what I’m going to wear to work tomorrow to debut the new ‘do…