Thursday-11am

This really is going to be short.  I have inherited Dagan's old laptop (only a couple years old and waaaay younger than any other electronics in this house).  I still have my McLap for backup, but I am trying to use this rust colored laptop and learn Windows and how to type. 

 The scroll doesn't work on the keyboard pad and I can't get it to work on the tablet version--so I can't even center my post.  And I have to reach up and scroll on the screen.  Next time Leah is here or if Dagan will come over maybe they can fix that.  It is driving me crazy!

Well, the whole laptop is driving me crazy, to be honest.  But I knew that would happen going back to windows.  The keys are all different and so many things are in the wrong places...I type and hit the wrong keys and whole sentences can disappear or I'm writing on the wrong line.  The delete and backspace are direct opposites from Mac to MS...along with a lot of other things...like the little corner X is in the opposite corner.

and I don't know how I just started writing beside a picture.  Leah put the picture of Ian on the laptop--with his new mower.  :)  The keyboard on this one folds all the way back on itself and then it turns into a tablet.

 

I am constantly touching something wrong and things disappear or pop up.  This is going to take a long time.  I am reading blogs, but rarely commenting.  This is why.  If I haven't replied to blog comments--this is why.  If I don't post for a while--this is why.  And now my pictures show up on One Drive instead of Dropbox--so that is all new, too.  I am lost in a new land.  Going to take a while for me to learn how to live in Microsoftland.  Try not to picture me crying...even if that has happened a couple times already.  Those of you who have been with me since the beginning may remember how I wanted to throw McLap out the window for months because it wasn't Windows--LOL!  So, I know that eventually I will adjust back.  But I also know it might take a few months.

The scroll won't work so I can't enlarge the print or change the color.  No quote--forget it.  Just wanted to let you know why I won't be around much for a while.  I shall be in lurker mode for some time.  I'll probably practice typing by making short comments here and there and answering emails.  I can't NOT answer emails.  :)  But I am not sick and Miss Karma is fine.

The end.

Took me half an hour to go back and fix this so you can read it--LOL!

Sunday-1:45pm

Since the family visit a week ago yesterday I've been sick with a sore throat/sinus thing.  Might be what Leah had.  I've been meaning to post but this came with a terrible headache and a bone-tiredness for a while there.  Never felt really full-fledged sick-sick, though.  Could still putter about a bit.  The headache was the most annoying--LOL!  Anyways--hello!  And sorry I didn't get back to comments from last post, but know that I appreciate every single one of them.  :)

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I love this picture Kathy got of my mom and great grandson, Ian.

We had such a nice visit.

Left to right is Leah, Ian in his high chair, Dagan, Mom, Blaine (brother), and Kathy (SIL).

It was a cooler day in the upper 60s--quite chilly for Mom, the Floridian.

We gabbed inside, had dinner from Ole and Lena's Pizza Parlor...

...and sat outside around the fire pit after Ian went to bed.  Blaine and Kathy found a box of books of mine--most of them from grade school!!  Got stored at their place years ago (likely by accident) when I had them take boxes of family pictures I was afraid to store in the garage of someplace I lived along the way.    

I'll show you next time.  Oh, and the saw--Leah forgot on our craft night Monday.  I'll explain in a minute, but first I wanted to show you the pictures Kathy sent me of the cottonwood tree Dad and I planted 60 years ago!  We were wondering if it had survived the wind storms in Minneapolis.  They stopped in Fridley on their way home--just to look and take pictures!!

It's the huge one on the right.

Still towering over the neighborhood.  ;)

Blaine and Mom in a cottonwood gaze.

I guess a big branch did come off--hard to see.

But the little sapling against the foundation of the house really took to being planted and watered...and loved.  It still whispers and sings in the wind.  Makes me so happy just to see it is still alive and flourishing.

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Karma's world has been changing.  But she took to the new litter box set-up better than the new throw rug by the patio door--LOL!  Who can figure the Karma mind.  

Caroline told me about the Litter Genie.
Pretty awesome!
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Monday Leah brought her saw...

...and cut out the Karma entrance in a nice big new plastic tub.

I bought a step that is actually used for humans to get in and out of the bathtub.  I figured it wouldn't move around on her--and it doesn't.

With the step in place we were able to cut the hole much higher so that now she doesn't back up and pee over the entry hole--LOL!  And she has plenty of room to dig and dig!

I haven't had to change the bag yet in the Litter Genie Plus, but I really like it so far.
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Monday night Leah helped me finish off taping together some super simple cards. 

You may remember I got some 12 X 12 scrapbooking paper on sale a while back.  Well, if you have a pretty paper and just cut out a piece for the card front, you can get six cards from each sheet!  So now we are all excited to make some easy-peasy cards and as soon as I am able to go out and about we want to hit all the craft stores for paper shopping!!  :)  I am soooo looking forward to that!  Been so very long since Leah and I have been craft shopping.  Could even be going on two years?  

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Yesterday we had a very sudden, violent burst of rain and hail. 

It didn't last that long, but the grass was green and white speckled for a little while...

...and THIS cracked me up!

All that hail came down the drain pipe from off the roof!  Looks like a white ice pyramid!

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Leah sent me pictures of Ian checking out hail.

(It was luchtime.)

Cold!

Well, the headache seems to have finally taken a hike as of yesterday.  I had so much to do that once I got going I couldn't stop!  No lie!  I was up till after 5am this morning!!
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Balanced the checkbook, wrote out bills, worked on the bullet journal and set up the basics till 2017!  Went through the new cookbooks...

...to make a list of ingredients.  Been working on my grocery list for Caroline for September but not finished yet.  Plan to spend more on groceries this coming month so that I can do more experimenting with recipes.  Can I really make something sweet and satisfying without butter, eggs, oil...?  Can I actually give up my coffee...one day...in the distant future?  (That's even more doubtful, isn't it? LOL!)  Success or failure...I'll let you know.  Not jumping into a new way of eating with both feet ever again after that last horrible fiasco.  Just sticking a toe in the water.  :)  
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I figure that if I even became 50% WFPB (whole food plant based) that would be a vast improvement, right?  If I ever made it to Vegan, that would be a miracle in the first place--LOL!  And WFPB is a step beyond Vegan.  Just trying to eat healthier.  Would like to get off of my blood pressure pills and feel better.  I've seen the WFPB diet work for people I know, so that's the motivation to keep heading in that direction.   
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Okay--I do have some McFamily videos and pics from Leah, but this is enough for today.  I was going to make it really short and sweet--just to tell you I've been sick--but can I ever make a short post?  LOL!  Well, you're basically all caught up.  I'm doing laundry and diving back into the food list and recipe books.  Need to climb a stool and inventory my spices.  Busy--busy!!  Even being sick, well--I wasn't as wiped-out-sick as I used to get this past year.  Wasn't even as sick as Leah, I don't think.  (*knock on wood*)  So, that's a real plus.  I even got all caught up on letters owed this week, too.  

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Well, Karma's sleeping in the chair beside me at the kitchen table.  Morning doves are out pecking at the remnant seeds.  Back up into the 80s today, but I was able to have the place opened up for most of the week!!  Fall is definitely in the air.  My favorite time of year.  :)  No matter where you are on this big blue ball the seasons are probably beginning to change.  The world keeps on spinning...and we keep on smiling!!  Have a fabulous week!!  :) :)

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“Love is the substance of all life. Everything is connected in love, absolutely everything.” 

Julia Cameron 

Friday-2:30pm

Good Afternoon!

I hope I can get this posted before dinnertime--LOL!  My laptop is so terribly, terribly slow the last two days that is has taken me 45 minutes already just to load the pictures for today.  I did do the online speed test and it was great--so it is just the old McLap who now runs at 90% of her battery, plugged in and dies as soon as you unplug her.  Well, she lasts maybe 30-60 seconds.  One of these days I may disappear for a longer period of time, but I will try to let you know I'll be gone by posting on some other contraption around here--LOL!  But if my Mac dies, it is going to greatly effect my blogging abilities.  Even email frequency, for that matter.  MS is a whole other world, you know, and I am extremely unfamiliar with it anymore--LOL!

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Anyways, do you think going on Amazon Prime got my bird feeder here about a month ahead of time?  :) :)

I am just tickled with it.  The one side of the roof flips up for filling... 

...and it is supposed to hold about 5 pounds of seed. 

Can you see the plastic mesh on the bottom that is supposed to help when it comes to wind and rain?  And the triangular piece of wood in the center of the seed hopper?  That's supposed to help keep it from turning into a big old clump in the center of the hopper. 

Bit of an overhang against the weather.  Can feed from both sides. 

I am so new to this.  I hope this one will work well for my wild pets.  ;)

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Karma is not fond of the new rug by the door.  Here's she's watching birds come down for a landing...

...but they went over for a drink and splash first. 

Karma stays back behind the rug--LOL!   

Don't worry.  She can force herself to tolerate lying on the nubby rug when the door is open.

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Leah got sick with a terrible cold while on her girl's weekend, poor thing.  So I haven't seen her--but I have been working on cards.  We found out that we are disappointed with the Archival dye ink pads.  The color faded already.  (Sorry these are sideways, but I couldn't get back in to flip them because the thumbnails wouldn't open--or I didn't have the patience to wait five minutes for it to do so--lol!).

And look!  The ink bled through the card stock! 

 Oh well.  If you get one of these one of these years--maybe you'll remember our new ink disappointment.  ;)

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Loving the new carts!  Using them all the time.

Every afternoon the kitchen table has looked like this till evening...for many days.

Oh, you'll laugh!  See this stamp?   

Well, I can't see so well and need new glasses.  I stamped this and thought it hadn't stamped right.  With the MISTI you can re-stamp in the same exact position--so I stamped and stamped--ROFL!  It is supposed to look all blotchy like that!  Duh!!  Cracked me up!

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Anyways, I would stamp and watch youtube videos or movies or TV series on McLap...    

...and pile parts in the carts.  :) 

Was hot and sticky.  

Some days more sticky than hot. 

Yesterday I got a huge surprise!!  And I mean huge!  Iggy/IntenseGuy sent us (definitely also for Miss Karma's entertainment) two 40 lb bags of bird seed!!  OMG!  The top one is regular mixed seed and the bottom bag is all black oil sunflower seeds!

This just blew me away.  Iggy just lost his dad recently and here he is sending bird seed to Fargo?!  He has such a kind and generous soul.  Glad to be counted as a friend.  Just saying thank you doesn't seem enough.  :)

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I thank you.  Karma thanks you.  All the birds and little buddies thank you, too.  :):)

I finally finished all six sets of cards yesterday!!! 

There are three sets of Christmas cards and three sets of birthday cards.  Over 500 cards!

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Here's the two sets of Christmas scenery cards...

...and the hanging ornaments Christmas card. 

Two sets of birthday cards--cupcakes and birthday cake... 

...and the crazy cat ones. 

For now I laid them all flat in the four turquoise Ikea boxes.  And I tried to clean up the table messes a bit in the studio because I have family coming tomorrow for a visit! 

My mom (Jane), my brother (Blaine) and his wife (Kathy) will be here for the day.  At least I'll be in much better shape both physically and brain-wise than I was last year--LOL!  More with it this year. 

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Thought I'd take a shot of the other side of the studio as long as I was in there.  

Kind of half-organized chaos in that room.

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Anyways, I'll cross my fingers that this will post.  It's already dinner time in Florida-time, but I have another hour--LOL!  (That was for my mom.)

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I still can't believe we are finally finished with all those cards!!  I was pretty useless for months and sweet Leah did most everything.  We kept plugging away at it, even if it was at a snail's pace.  Patience, right?  Then I was finally feeling more human and able to hold up my end better.  If I wasn't so sore I'd do the happy dance--ROFL!  Going to take it easy the rest of the day...and remember to take pictures of everybody tomorrow, I hope.  ;)  

Have a rewarding weekend.  :) :) 

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“From adversity we can learn the value of patience.”

Dalai Lama