Tuesday-11:15am

Well, it is now 12:30pm.  I just spent an hour trying to add a video of Ian from Leah's dropbox--after it finally said it was copied it totally disappeared when I tried to put it on the blog.  *sigh*  I have no clue as to where it went.  I don't think there's any way I can put videos on my blog unless they go onto youtube first...even if it tells me it's possible by giving me these options on Blogger.  They lie.

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So...instead of Good Morning I guess it's Good Afternoon--LOL!  I totally forgot to take pictures when McFamily was here and when I was over there...and Leah's video didn't work...but what can you do.  ;)  

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I did take a few sky shots.  

We had above freezing weather on Saturday and Sunday!

Sunday it got up to 43 degrees!  But on Monday morning it was 9 degrees and the exceedingly brief thaw was over--LOL!  Didn't stop them from working out there on Monday.  

Looks like they are either building something in the field behind the garages or using it for storage space for the building going on across the road.  

This is a semi load of lumber being dropped off.

And I see lots of trucks roaming about back there.

But it's cold and the windows are closed so they're not as noisy as on a summer's day--LOL!  I feel sorry for all the people who work outside up here in this weather, though.  Karma, as long as her world is quiet and we have no company...is perfectly content.

This morning...we've had another dusting of snow.

It's 22 degrees, so a bit warmer.

Dark skies blanketed in gray.  Caroline comes this afternoon. 

Since it was so warm this weekend, McFamily came by on Sunday evening to pick up Phil.

Leah brought a pot of black dirt, soaked it, and I cut some tendrils off Phil and shoved them into the damp dirt.  

Baby Phil.

I hope it takes root.  They plan to just house Phil for the winter upstairs on Dagan's desk and then take him apart in the spring outside in the back yard...but Leah didn't want me to go all winter without a plant...hence the pot of dirt.  ;)  Phil will be thrilled to have a sunny west window for the winter, that's for sure.
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I took this pic of my thermal cup when I started this blog (because I have forgotten to take many pics lately...of anything) for the ladies over at Elizabeth's for T Stands for Tuesday. 

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Okay, it is now 5pm.  I have been in a technological tailspin all day.  First of all I tried to copy a video from Leah's dropbox.  Took an hour to copy.  Went to add it to this post and it vanished.  No clue where it went.  So, I guess there's no way I can add videos unless I get them up on youtube first.
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Okay, then I went to go to Elizabeth's website so I could add a link...and all my pages went white...blank.  I had had a box come up when I was moving pictures from my camera to the laptop before I started the blog--telling me my iphoto disc was almost full.  ??  Never have seen that before.  But I continued on, of course.  After all, it said "almost" so I thought I could deal with it later, right?  Well, when it went to open Elizabeth's blog post another box came up and said something about my startup disc being almost full.  ??  Never have seen that before, either.
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But then...all my pages went white...blank.  And that was all she wrote.  I was able to run a complete virus scan (that took another 2 hours and 57 minutes) but it said my McLap was clean as a whistle.  But after the scan was done...I was able to shut it down and restart it...and now it's working just fine, apparently.
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The reason I ran a scan is that I wondered if I had picked up something from spam...because of the technological issue I planned to talk to you about in the first place--LOL!  Many of you bloggers may have noticed that I haven't commented on your blogs for like a month!  This is what happened...
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I didn't notice for quite a while, but eventually I was wondering why people weren't blogging...and why I was actually able to keep up so easily with my inbox.  LOL!  I have always had some glitches with the "follow by email" FeedBurner system.  There are a few blogs that I signed up for that I never got any post notifications...ever.  Even though if I try to sign up again it says I am already subscribed.  And sometimes I will not get anything for like a week or two from a blogger and then suddenly get an email with multiple posts included.  So, naturally, I blamed FeedBurner when I went to check on some bloggers and--yes--they had been blogging all along!  Grrr!
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But then a couple nights ago I thought...spam?  I wonder if I have anything in my spam folder?
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768 blog notification emails in spam!!  Come to find out this has been going on since October 27th.  It looked like a did have a couple of spams from people I know wouldn't send me some crazy link (and I deleted them)...but those were personal emails, not blog posts.  Somehow google decided that every single email that came from FeedBurner was spam.  How it jumped to that conclusion, I shall never know...because the spam email wasn't from a FeedBurner address.  Grrr!
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So, that is why when I had McLap issues I did a complete scan.  Found nothing.  And now everything is working, but my dear McLap may be filled up almost to the brim over these last five years, I guess.  I'll have to have Dagan help me decide what to delete and how to store some of it offline and all that hoopla.
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But all this leads me to...
ONE: I want to know if anyone has received any weird spam mail from my address.
TWO: This is why most of you haven't gotten comments from me for almost a month.
THREE: I hope I will be getting all your blog posts again.  If you don't see me around putting in my two-cents-worth soon please let me know.  I might not be getting your posts.
FOUR: I did skim some of them...but I deleted all 768 emails over the last two days...no way I could possibly comment or actually read all of them.  If there's something you really didn't want me to miss, please let me know, okay?  I really wasn't being a bad blogger friend.  Can't believe I didn't figure this out for a month...but that is more an indication of my technological ineptness combined with my usual fibro fog than my lack of loyalty and interest.  ;)
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I am now...finally...going to be able to post this...I hope.  And since I am so late in the day to begin with...and I started uploading the Ian video from Leah onto youtube...I might as well wait and see if I can add a very happy ending to this cranky blog--LOL!  No matter how long it takes--since I am very late blogging today, anyways.
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6:45pm.  My video got put in a queue for processing on youtube.  That's never happened before, either.  What a day!  I did talk with Dagan and Leah (speakerphone) and they are pretty sure my hard drive on my laptop is full and that is causing issues and why it's gotten so slow.  So next week we'll purge my laptop.  Boy!  Seems like I'm purging everything these days--LOL!
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7:30pm--success!!
Ian was worth waiting for--LOL!  ;)  
What a day!!
I think Ian would totally agree with today's quote.  ;)
May we all wake up with such pure joy!  
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"Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly."
George MacDonald 

Friday-9:30am

Good Morning!

We've seen blue sky a little more often since Tuesday. 

This morning it says "18 degrees--feels like 2 degrees".  Must be windy out there. 

 I actually got behind and worked on two weeks of the Paper Project at once.  (Yes, I have gotten in every week for four weeks--whoohoo!)  The third week was--left to right: Rhodia webnotepad, ivory, grey lined, 90g; Classic Rhodia, white, violet lined, 80g; R by Rhodia, ivory, grey lined, 90g. 

My favorite was the R by Rhodia, but they were all excellent.  The webnotepad and the "R" were so smooth!  (I already use the "R" writing pads regularly.)  The Classic Rhodia has just a touch of tooth to it.  Fantastic papers for fountain pens.  I would personally prefer blank sheets because all the lines are a bit wide for my taste.  The Rhodia webnotepad was even wider than the other two.  I prefer to buy blank pads or journals and then use my own writing guide behind the blank sheets. 

They all had some bleed through with the regular ultrafine Sharpie I threw in this time.  Certainly not unexpected.  Regular Sharpies bleed through just about everything... 

...except for the index cards that came in week four--which was why I decided to test a regular Sharpie.  The big pink graph paper is from a Clairfontaine Multiple Subjects notebook, pastel (pink), violet grid, 90g.  Then there were two Exacompta Index Cards, pastel (yellow and blue), grid, 205g. 

As I said previously, I'm not used to writing on grid paper and have not been won over yet...although I do prefer the narrower line spacing--LOL!  The papers performed excellently with fountain pens, of course, but discovered I'm not a fan of writing on pink or blue paper.  The yellow was okay, though.

The blacks look okay on any color.  The red shades and purples look even brighter on the pink paper--as well as the blues looking deeper on the blue paper--so it depends on what color ink you're using, I guess.  Maybe my old eyes just preferred the contrast that made it easier to read on the yellow--LOL!  Anyways, that was the last two paper tests from Exaclair USA.  :)

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I caught Karma with the flash a couple evenings...snoozing under the table on a chair... 

...and in the red TV cabinet, 

When I remember, I've been opening the doors overnight to air out the cabinet because Leah is sensitive to odors and scents.  Karma thinks this new cabinet is hers.  Afraid not!  But she can enjoy snoozing in there for now.  ;) 

This afternoon I am heading over to McFamily's.  Leah and I have Christmas projects to work on.  :)  The sun is shining and there is pale blue sky visible today.  Karma just settled into her deep brown bed on her chair.  Cozy sounds really good, but I am off to brave the elements today.  Have a good one!!  :):)

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"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray."

Rumi

Tuesday-12:30pm

Good afternoon!  Yes, I am quite behind schedule today.

We've had a dusting of snow and some very cold weather.  Single digits.

South of us in the Twin Cites they got pretty dumped on but it missed us up here.  We've mostly had cold, gray skies...

...but did see some blue sky a few times this past week.

I spent Saturday over with McFamily.  Gramma got to watch Ian while Mama and Daddy put up Christmas lights outside on the house (about 20 degrees so they had to come in and warm up a few times) and shift things about in the garage so they can get both cars in there this winter.
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Ian really likes to be sitting up these days...or practicing his standing.  Loves his little jumpy seat contraption.

We were having a great time yucking it up...so I grabbed the camera.  

Thought maybe I could encourage him to do the raspberry for you, but he was more interested in the camera and trying to converse with Gramma--LOL!

I even stayed around for bath time!   

Note: They were talking about replacing those waterfall faucets.  You can't take them apart to clean them and they get gross inbetween there.  We all love the red and black sinks!
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After Ian went to bed Leah cut my hair for me--ahhh!  I don't think I got home till after 11:30pm.  A really nice day!  
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I was in pretty rough shape on Sunday and Monday, of course.  No surprise--LOL!  The extra long visit was totally worth it.  ;)  Feeling better today and finally slept decently...so today I am doing laundry and Caroline's boss will be here pretty soon (Katie got sick and had to reschedule from last Friday).

All you ladies over at Elizabeth's T Stands For Tuesday--take note that I am back, once again, to my trusty, very old Thermos cup.  You may recall I had troubles with the new Contigo cup dribbling on me?  (For those of you who don't know, I have a bum left arm--muscle damage from a job over 20 years ago.)  Well, I learned how to, little by little, keep twisting to get it tight enough not to dribble...but then...I couldn't get it back off again--ROFL!  So, it is now over at McFamily's where I will always have help.  :)  It holds like 2 1/2 cups of coffee and keeps it warm for a long, long time...but I need assistance to use it--LOL!
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Karma finds my antics quite amusing.  

Anyways, I haven't much else to report.  Let's just say it wasn't a very productive week for me.  One of those hobbling about weeks.  But Leah and I do plan to work on some Christmas projects this week.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.  
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The sun is trying to come out.  Karma's snoozing on a chair next to me.  I have to go switch clothes in the washer and dryer.  It's 21 degrees (-6C) and getting sunnier as I've been chatting with you all. 
Life is good! 
Have a wonderful week!!  :):)
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"As the Sun shines upon my heart, so may my heart shine upon others!"
The Upanishads

Tuesday-10am

Bit of a late start on this freezing morning (20 F or -6 C).  Dark day.  Up too late.  The bed was warm.  You know how it is--LOL!  

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Anyways, good morning!  Leah and I have had trouble with our shared drop box.  She puts pictures in it and I never get them for some reason.  Leah's working on fixing that but, in the meantime, she emailed me her picture of Ian smiling and laughing when they got home from our voting excursion last Tuesday.    

Just as an aside...

I am curious as to why this person usually parks this far back from the sidewalk.  ??  I thought my depth perception was bad--LOL!  

Well, I did my paper testing on week #2 of the Paper Project. 

For those interested--these blank papers are, from left to right: G. Lalo Verge de France, white, 100 g; Clairefontaine Triomphe, white, 90 g; Clairefontaine GraF it, white, 90 g.  All performed beautifully, of course, and there was no bleeding or shadowing--not even with the 1.5 Parallel Pen.  

I am intimately familiar with the Clairefontaine Triomphe writing tablets because I have been using those for several years.  The paper is soooo smooth that any pen just glides effortlessly across the page.  Little longer drying time but I write with fine & extra fine nibs and do have ink-patience (and a cute rocking blotter--lol!) so it's never been an issue for me.

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The G. Lalo Verge de France (notice I spelled Rhapsody correctly this time--lol!) is very different than the rest.

G. Lalo has this softly ridged grid like a hand-laid paper.  Very fancy.  Seems very absorbent, dries quickly, and has a lot of tooth--but still has no bleed-through.  The slight bumpiness took some getting used to but, then again, I am used to the almost slippery-slick Triomphe and Rhodia writing tablets.  

Can you tell I am having a great time playing with papers--hehe!  I just got week #3 in the mail!!  Whoohoo!

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McFamily arrived last night.  (They went visiting for the weekend and bumped to Monday.)  I thought they were coming to pick up Phil...but they worked on putting more red furniture together instead.  TaDa!!  The choice was probably more than okay with Phil being as the temp was in the teens.  (How did it get this cold this fast?)

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So now the second end table is together.  (These are so cute I can hardly stand it!)    

Notice the new Contigo raspberry insulated coffee cup for T-Stands For Tuesday.  :) 

Yes, I'm trying another brand.  This one doesn't wobble...but the cover is tricky for me with my weak/bum arm.  I have to screw it on very tightly or it dribbles on me.  So if you have arthritis or any weakness in arm/wrist strength--then I wouldn't recommend this brand.  I think I'll get used to it, though, and how it is supposed to feel when closed tightly.  If I let it sit a couple minutes and tighten again before I drink I have better luck--LOL!  But it sure is pretty and holds a lot of coffee and keeps it hot for a long time.  ;)

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And finally...

drum roll, please... 

Yes!!  They got the TV stand together, too!! 

How awesome is this!!  See the hole in the back for all the cords? 

Left it wide open to air out all night because it does/did have a strong paint/lacquer smell to it...(noticed cat hair inside this morning)...but I love it!! 

At this point Ian needed to go back home and start getting ready for bedtime.  Gramma got to give him a bottle and hold him while he took a short snooze...so, once again, arms full of baby and no pics--LOL!  We need to get a video, though.  His latest thing is giving the raspberry!  Was cracking me up.  But Dagan and Leah warned me it's not as funny if he does it with a mouthful of milk or sprays you with a juicy drool raspberry--ROFL!  Good thing Gramma is washable, eh?

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Anyways, next time they come over we'll be doing the furniture switch...which involves all the mystery cords and boxes that keep Netflix and I the BFFs that we are.  ;) ;)  I'll pray for some above-freezing weather for poor Phil's move...and I do plan to tackle the scary sewing machine...soon.  Caroline got the flu and switched to Thursday, poor thing.  We are hitting single digits this week...maybe we did already?  I have matching end tables.  I plan to visit McFamily this week so Leah and I can start stamping Christmas cards.  Life may be very cold, but it's good!  That's what's happening up here in Fargo.  

Happy Tuesday!!  :):)

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"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought."

Peace Pilgrim

Sunday-9:30am

It's a filtered-sun morning.  I caught a dirty-cloud afternoon one day this last week.

Leah picked me up and we went to vote on Tuesday. 

I promised Ian my sticker if I got one. 

We've had a lot of cold, cloudy days.  In fact it's 25 degrees right now (-4 C) and it sounds like we'll be lucky to hit 30 this whole week (-1 C). 

Last Wednesday evening it snowed.  I tried to take a picture when it first started. 

It did snow enough to put a white fluffy layer over everything.  By the time I remembered to take a picture the next day it was already mostly melted away. 

Winter.   

Well, I did get the new sewing machine unboxed. 

The big white thing in lower right hand corner is the carrying case I bought to go with it.  

The machine is mostly plastic.  Feels so different than my old metal one. 

I have to confess that I am feeling overwhelmed and intimidated.  Have picked up the manual half a dozen times and gone into brain freeze.    

Has that ever happened to you?  It's like my mind can't focus.  I can read a sentence or paragraph over and over and not retain anything whatsoever.  I remember this happening to me in college or even way back in high school when I went to tackle a book in a class that I knew was going to be really difficult for me...like Spanish.  (Yes, had Spanish in both high school and college but to this day can only remember a few colors, numbers, and a mere smattering of words...like meatballs--duh!)  I felt like this when I first got my McLap, too.  Everything was alien to me with a laptop...the keyboard, the little touch box thingie...took me a long time to get used to it.

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Now, the alien computerized sewing machine sits at my table...waiting for me to force myself into pushing past the brain freeze.  This week.  I have to do it this coming week.  And I pray we become as good of friends as me & McLap.  (Which, sadly, means I only knowing the functional basics and nothing more.)  

This week....

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Meanwhile, on these dark days...   

You'd have to enlarge this to see that the automatic lights outside and on a few buildings were coming on...and this was at noon!!  And as you can see the movers of the earth are busy pushing dirt about before it freezes up...all across my horizon.  Will be a lot of building next year.  

The floor is colder.  Miss Karma spends more time up in her warm brown bed.  

I made up a dozen bookcards with the paper-towel "papers" for covers.  Used all the ones I had added color to before I glued them together. 

Got down all four sewing stuff banker boxes from my bedroom closet.  Doesn't Karma look more relaxed. 

We did have a couple glimpses of blue sky and sun, too, this week. 

McFamily went visiting this weekend.  They plan to come by to pick up Phil tomorrow night. 

Phil is slowly dying in my dark bedroom.  I keep picking yellow and dead leaves off of him.  He would not fare well all winter in there...and he's too big for the new desk hutch which is narrower.  I hope he survives the move to Dagan and Leah's.  We figure if Leah trims him down he could probably make several baby Phils...and I would definitely like one of them.

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Oh, and I forgot to tell you!  Cashwise delivery finally worked with my EBT card this month--tada!!  Now it's just a matter of the corporate web team getting all the products back online and (possibly) fixing the website issues--LOL!  The natural foods department is obviously not high on their priority list...and the website is still worse than their old one...but I can finally get deliveries again, at least.   That's a relief!  

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Been busy cleaning, purging, baking, cooking...  

Took me a whole afternoon to go through two drawers in the soon-to-be-removed other end table.  Everything needed to be thoroughly examined...several items needed new spots...and, therefore, some needed new containers...which sidetracked me in the bedroom for over an hour...then I found the forgotten laser pointer...which led to recharging batteries...and torturing Miss Karma...  

Yes, I am a world class putterer.  But I am busy.  And I am slowly getting things done.  Really.  :)

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Now I just need to push through the brain freeze with the scary-complicated new sewing machine...  ;)

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  I had to find a self-bolstering quote for me for today.

Dive in and have a great week. :):)

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"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

Duke Ellington