Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tuesday-11am

What have I been doing since last we spoke?  
Shredding paper.  
 You may remember back when I finally cleaned my files and my desk that I had this entire box filled to the brim with papers that needed shredding.  Well, I do eventually usually get around to my various projects.
 I'd take big clumps of paper out of the box and shred till the shredder got warm (doesn't take long).
 I finished the first bag on Sunday.
 Yesterday was a cloudy day.  We had a visit from a couple crows!
 They were checking out the big puddle in the parking lot.  I don't know why crows get me so excited, but I just love to see them.  I used to see them a lot when I lived in Moorhead.  Sometimes one or two would follow me as I was walking to the college...for blocks and blocks.  :)  Was delightful to have a short visit.  Not that they know I'm here, but it always makes me smile to see them.
 Yesterday I got a couple really fun things in the mail.  My brother and his wife usually send me a Target gift card for my birthday.  Isn't this butterfly card just one of the wildest plastic cards you've ever seen?  Thanks, Blaine and Kathy!  The card was beautiful, too.
 Then...Tracey Fletcher King was complaining on her blog one day about how she hates snail mail because it's just bills and junk mail.  Well, you know how I LOVE snail mail with hand written letters and handmade cards...I asked her for her address so I could send her something fun.  (She LOVES tea and I had a set of tea related stamps I have thought of since I met her last November.)
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Well, Tracey--this talented Australian artist--made me a card!!  (Kind of embarrassing that I rubber stamped a card for her, but I am not an artist.)  She also attached gorgeous little paintings to the envelope.  (Am covering addresses with her card.)  These are the two flowered cups on the front on the envelope...
 ...and these are the set of four teapots on the back.  Isn't the card lovely?  The mat under the cup is so colorful.  Her work is always bright and cheerful--and makes me smile.  Thanks, Tracey!!  I am absolutely delighted!!
 Meanwhile, back to the shredding--LOL!  I finished a second bag yesterday...
 ...and started on a third.  That is the last of the box of paper on the table and I hope it all fits in this third bag and I can finish today.
 You can bet Karma does, too.  She has not been able to get in her afternoon beauty sleep since Saturday--LOL!  Karma is both intrigued by what I'm doing and greatly annoyed by the sound of the shredder.  So she alternates between staying in the room to keep an eye on the goings on and hiding under the bed to catch a few winks.
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This morning we had a bit of filtered sun for a short time.  Karma went out on the porch to catch a few half-rays.  It didn't last long.
Totally clouded over and grey, but it's 52 degrees out.  Feels a little warmer than it has been because the wind finally died down.  That beating dryer flap kept me up half the night.  The wind finally died down and then I slept in this morning...ahhh!  Silence really is golden.  ;)
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I see raindrops on the window.  More light rain.  Mother Nature seems to be making up for all the snow we didn't get this winter.  Which is good!  Good for the farmers.  :)
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Blogger.  
I saw the announcement that Blogger will have a new look in April.  Thought maybe, for once, I'd go ahead and switch over instead of waiting until they force me into it.  But then a box came up...I knew there were a ton of choices ahead...I was tired...and wondering what the heck had gotten into me...so I clicked not now...thinking I had backtracked to the old form.  Well, not in the blogger dashboard, I didn't!  *sigh*  
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They have a different way to load photos now.  I used to be able to cut and paste and move them around before I started writing the blog, you know?  I tried and tried and tried.  I cannot figure out how to move a photo anymore.  I deleted the blog post entirely.  Thought I could start over, right?  Oddly, when I started a brand new post and clicked to add photos...all the same photos were still there from last time!!  So frustrating!
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I had to delete that post, too, and then completely shut the whole computer down and restart it to be rid of those first pictures I had chosen.  Awk!!!!  You can choose more photos at a time, but you had better have them sorted and in the exact order you want them in the first place, I guess.  At least I have to because I cannot figure out how to move them.  And, of course, everything looks very different and there are new icons. 
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Old dog had a bad morning with Blogger--LOL!  
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Well, today I shall shred.  
Tomorrow Ruby will arrive!  
So, I'll probably be back this weekend.
Have a great day!!  :):)
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"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough."
Emily Dickinson

25 comments:

Friko said...

Drat Blogger, they've only just changed their set-up. I'm not good at fiddling about with things.

What a lot of paper you have to shred. Where does it all come from? Mine all ends up on the compost; I wet it and decomposes perfectly.

TexWisGirl said...

i switched over this morning, too. knew it would be coming eventually to force us to the new interface. (you can switch back temporarily, if you want, by clicking the little cog button in the upper right corner of your screen and selecting old blogger interface - but might as well stick it out and learn the new way.)

Jenny Woolf said...

What a cool card! how lovely to get that in the mail!
The new Blogger interface. You know I hate to learn all that stuff - it's boring and I don't want the new facilities and I don't have time to spend on stuff I really, really don't need or want. But looks like I'll have to - if I'm to continue my blog.

Toriz said...

*Stamps foot in frustration* Why do they have to keep fiddling? I hope my Jaws can deal with it; I really don't have the money for the update!

YAY for getting snow and great mail though! :)

Happy birthday for tomorrow! :)

Dee said...

Dear Rita, . . . Like you, I have a lot of old papers with my social security # on them that need to be recycled. Unlike Friko, I do not have a compost heap. So I can see now from your posting just how much time this is going to take me!

I'm glad Karma found the sun's rays.

Thank of sharing with us the card and its tea cups. Lovely.

Peace.

Megan Adamson said...

I LOVE "snail-mail"! Receiving letters seems to be a dying art. It seems that now I can't even write my signature properly!
As for shredding paper, well, we have a thing for making briquettes. First you wet the paper, then let it dry thoroughly roughly in the shape of a brick. They burn for hours. It's not a new idea, my Grandmother showed me how to do it.
Hand-made is much nicer than shop-bought. It shows that someone is kind enough to specially make something just for you!

http://ladyofmuse.blogspot.com/

Beth said...

The card is beautiful!!

I guess I am going to have to switch over to the new format soon.

I use Windows Live Writer for my posts. I hope it doesn't screw that up.

Tracey FK said...

So glad you enjoyed the card and I share your blogger pain... It came up with a new interface a while ago didn't it...is there another one... this drives me mad, but at least it explains why it has been so temperamental lately... as we all know Blogger is Male and all males don't cope with change so that explains it... hope you have a wonderful day and that the shredder decides to shred more than 10 pieces before it overheats... why do they do that...and have some gorgeous weather...xx

Desiree said...

I always have to cut and paste the photos in the html editor part, they never are in the order I want!

I have gotten through a lot of my shred papers too lol great minds!

and thank you for the card I got it today, was a nice sunny surprise for me here sick with some funky sinus crud and skipping out on work for a day trying to get better!!!!

DJan said...

The pictures onto the blog have been funky for a long time. I have several times tried to move one and found I couldn't do it. And what is even more frustrating is that they ALL go into my Picasa album, every one. I have to delete the duplicates if I don't want them to get overloaded, it seems. I like the thought that Blogger is male. Explains a lot. :-)

Desiree said...

oh well that stinks I was hoping I somehow already had the new version and that was as difficult as it was gonna get rawr!!!!

betty said...

I clicked on the button to get the upgrade for Blogger, but I haven't tried to post a post yet so I'll see how that goes. I know my dashboard is different, still trying to get used to it.

We are the king and queen of shredding here with all we have had to shred from hubby's parents who never threw away any papers in their entire 64 years of marriage. But you are right, you can't shred too much at a time because the shredder does get hot. It can be overwhelming at times, so glad you are getting your shredding down slowly but surely!

What a cute card your friend sent you! Enjoy your time with your visiting friend!

betty

Queenie Jeannie said...

Blogger is just being a PAIN! I hate when they "upgrade" things because things never work out, or at least not for me! I'm still having issues leaving comments, and have to refresh the page on most blogs still. Ugh! Leave well enough alone, Blogger!!!

Enjoy your company and Happy, Happy Birthday!!!!!

Crazy Life of a Writing Mom said...

Happy Happy Birthday!!!

I LOVE the card :)

Serena Lewis said...

I'll be back to comment on your post but, for now, I wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday, my dear friend. I hope your day is as special as you are. Love and hugs, Serena xoxox

Deanna said...

I know what you mean about shredding, shredding, shredding, Rita. I did the exact same thing a month or so ago. Not fun.

That card is so pretty!

We've had a mixture of sunshine and rain here. Temperatures are bordering on summertime warm.

I hadn't noticed blogger was changing. Darnit. I have trouble finding time to blog, much less time to make changes. Grrrrrr.

Have a wonderful day!

Furry Bottoms said...

Happy Happy Happy Birthday, Rita!!! :) :) :)

Intense Guy said...

Happy happy happy Birthday RITA!!!!

Anonymous said...

That card was lovely! I really wish they would stop changing things on blogger. It's hard enough for me to post without trying to figure out new stuff all the time. sigh... Oh well I guess I'll figure it out when the time comes.

AliceKay said...

What a very nice card, and yep, it sure was bright and colorful.

I shredded a big bag full of old bills and things awhile ago. Gotta get back to it one of these days.

I saw where Blogger was changing, and I've been sidestepping it as long as possible. I hate trying to figure new things out when the old way seemed so much easier. I've noticed that some of your pictures will not enlarge when you click on them. That usually happens when you "move them around". Good luck figuring out the new version. (wish me luck, too, because i'm pretty sure i'll need it)

We had a nasty thunderstorm blow thru this morning shortly after I got to work. It got so dark it seemed like nighttime. Then the lightning and thunder and pouring down rain hit. A couple of hours later, the clouds parted, the sun came out, and we saw a clear blue sky.

Happy Birthday, Rita. I hope you and Ruby had a wonderful day today.

P.S. Thank you for the nice card I received in my mailbox yesterday. :)

carol l mckenna said...

Wow! One busy lady ~ shredding and being organized ~ Wow ~ Good for Karma ~ he knows how to spend his time ~ This week has flown by and the 'puter' world is changing everywhere from google, blogger, twitter ~ definitely hard to keep with the speed at which they change ~ I am learning to be more of a 'turtle' ~ LOL ~ Love Tracey work and so glad you got some lovely snail mail from each other ~ always good to hear from you ~ be well ~ be happy ~ namaste, ^_^

Jennibellie said...

Oh no!! Now I'm dreading the blogger change!! I just get used to once set up on these sites and then poof! have to figure another, it's not good for a tech-phobe lol I love snail mail too, as you know - I'd have to spend a fortune without it lol Karma looks cozy catching some rays, that's what my pups doing right now but with some grey clouds ahead don't think he'll be enjoying it for long either, much love xxxx

Serena Lewis said...

I love the new Blogger interface and have been using it for months now. Judy has been using it for a while too.

I don't have a problem with images as I will usually type a paragraph and then place the cursor after the paragraph and select the Image icon to upload the image. It will place the image in the spot where the cursor is. Then it's onto the next paragraph and subsequent image. I've never been one for uploading all the images at once so haven't really run into your problem. I may have a play with uploading and moving images to see if I can help you.

OH, I desperately need to get some shredding done too. I have papers from ten years back. Like Karma, I don't think Cody would appreciate the sound of the shredder either. lol

I like crows too. Many people view crows as pests but crows play an important role in the environment.

Cute Target gift card! And what a delightful card and envelope from Tracey!! She is so talented, isn't she?

Have fun with your friend, Ruby!!

Love and hugs,
Serena xoxox

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

since i'm back tracking here...i already know you had a GREAT birthday...and visit with Ruby!! yay!! but i'll say it again...Happy Birthday Rita!! :)

and what do you mean you're not an artist?? you're creative, inspiring...and seem to always be doing something artistic!

happy sunday!

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

The card from Tracey is lovely. Here work is very inspiring, isn't it? The changes that Blogger made are frustrating for me. Changed to Google Chrome like they suggested, but still have difficulty with posting (the box where you compose the post is small compared with the older version). I'd like to have the old version back.