Author: Dackel Princess

Isn’t She Lovely!

I was lucky to be able to go down yesterday and spend the day with Mandy and her baby to be! She is looking so lovely, and yes, she is truly glowing!

Feb 19 2012

We went out for brunch, and then went to Babies-R-Us and spent about an hour and a half registering for various things. Oh what fun that was! I found several absolutely adorable things on sale and so I picked them up, and slowly but surely, Baby-to-Be is getting quite the frilly little wardrobe! What fun!!!

As I watched her in the store I recalled the times so long ago, when she was a baby. I kept thinking, “Wait a minute, that was yesterday!” Now she is grown-up and a woman! No longer a baby. Where did that time go?

Feb 19 2012 (5)

I drove back home, stopping to exchange a sweater I did not like, and then I had to help Hubby find a Hotel for the night before our trip. It took us two days, but we finally got the room booked without having to sell a kidney!

I made dinner, did all of the usual, before collapsing in my chair! It’s been an incredibly busy weekend, and I sure hope the doggies let me sleep late!

Saturday Frustrations

So, I am pulling my hair out! It seems that if I want to go back to Windows XP, it will cost somewhere over $200.00. And my little laptop doesn’t have enough RAM to accommodate an upgrade to Microsoft 7. So, what’s a girl to do? I may wait a little longer, and then my laptop will die, and I will get something else. I admit that I am thinking about switching to Apple. It seems that they have stayed loyal to their customers.

Here is the biggest Vista problem I have right now. I cannot get my computer to talk to the Network so that I can use either one of our printers! It’s like living in a vacuum!

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon trying to get it all working, but couldn’t. I switched gears later in the day, and wrote my report. I also made dinner, and cleaned it all up.

Now I need to walk away from this silly machine, read for a while, before going to bed. I drive down to visit with Mandy tomorrow, and Hubby and I also need to find a room for the night before the cruise. We called to make sure our friend remembered we were coming, only to find out that he didn’t! Yikes!

So now to find a nice room that will not bankrupt us, for the night.

Between now and the day we leave for our vacation, it sure will be a busy time. So glad that when I called our house sitter, she is all set to move in!

Friday Fill-Ins (A Day Late)

Friday Fill-ins mb skijpg

And…here we go!

1. Finally, I have my computer back, and I have found more questions than answers on it!.
2. Windows Vista is a royal pain and sure takes some getting used to!
3. Dad says: hurry up.
4. MB is my favorite nick name for me.
5. It took a long time, but after 12 years I have a brand new love seat for me and the dackels in our family room.
6. I sleep with three dackels and Hubby though I wouldn’t have it any other way.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to shutting the computer down and reading my book, “The Descendents”, tomorrow my plans include laundry and Sunday, I want to drive down and have brunch with Mandy and perhaps feel my grand daughter move! Won’t that be something special!!!!

And We’re Back

Yesterday I go the call. The laptop was ready to be picked up. Vista working system and all. I am not exactly thrilled with the new working system, but it goes like this.

I wanted Windows XP when I got this laptop from Toshiba a year and a half ago. I also wanted the rescue discs. All arrived as requested, and I never thought to check out the back up discs.

Flash forward to this past weekend when my laptop was hit by a nasty virus, which systematically went through the machine, hacking all my links. Rendering it almost useless.

I brought it in to be backed up, and then have the hard drive wiped and reloaded. I was so happy, because it would make everything so much easier for me with a clean machine!

Except, I did not count on the fact that my computer’s back up disc’s were Window’s Vista. Yes, I bought a machine with XP, but originally the machine was a Vista machine that someone in China had loaded XP onto.

My computer person assures me that all is well. Nothing really is different (HA! It sure is!) and that even her 80 year old father can master Vista. What I am finding is that Vista is a challenge. I’m not really sure I like it. I am willing to give it a few months to learn it, and after that, if I still hate it, I will buy the upgrade to Windows 7.

The biggest problem right now is that while I work on the computer to get all the systems reset, I can’t read my book “The Descendants”! I am really enjoying that. It’s a great read!!!

Are We Off The Air?

If you are reading this instead of another post, it means that my laptop is still in the Laptop Hospital getting it’s hard drive fixed! I have tried to down load everything and back-up all my documents, but it will take a while for the shop to get the problems under control. They said, if all goes well, I might get it back on Wednesday night!

So i will see you all on the other side! Wish me luck!

Update: the laptop’s recovery discs are Windows Vista. Not XP! Not happy but hope I can work with it. I guess now is time to start learning new things. The machine should be back on Thursday or Friday.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. George Washington-Abraham Lincoln-Thomas Jefferson…who would you most like to meet and why?

Abraham Lincoln. He had such a hard life, and yet, he kept persevering. He accomplished so much during his presidency, as well. I would also tell him to stay home from the play!

2. What’s your favorite chain restaurant?

I tend not to like chain restaurants. I like family owned places. But up here in New England we have a chain called “The Weathervane” and it has so many yummy seafood treats!

3. I spied this question on the Bears at Home blog last week and she gave me permission to steal borrow it-

When you look back on your life, do you imagine you’ll think about the goals you failed to meet with regret? Or will you look at what you accomplished and say: it was good?

Good or not, I am hoping I learned from it. We cannot always meet out goals, but learning from what we experience is so important.

4. Grapefruit-take ’em or leave ’em? Given the choice between an orange and a grapefruit which would you choose? Would you prefer it served as is or squeezed into juice?

I LOVE grapefruit! I eat 1/2 every day. Except right now, I must not eat any for a whole month while I am on some medication!

5. When was the last time you cleaned out a closet? Is there a closet in your home that currently needs cleaning? What are you waiting for?

I want to go through my own closet this week because I need to find out what fits before I go on vacation.

6. You get to have lunch with three famous people…who would you like to see round your table?

This is tricky. Are famous people any more real or interesting than my friends or family? I think perhaps, Prince William and his bride, Kate. And toss in Mark Harmon, just because I think he is gorgeous!

7. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your ability to parallel park?

It used to be terrible, but now I have been making myself do it, and I have gotten very good! So a solid 8!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I feel so blessed to have my family and friends in my life. They support me when I feel down and share my joy when I am celebrating. I wish I could share that little biy of widom with peopl. Ooops, I just did!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

What I Did Last Weekend

Miss Marple 2

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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I was feeling oddly reminiscent this weekend, and often found my self thinking about my grandmother, Grandma Honey. In so many ways she was my role model, and someone who definitely made sure I understood the rules of life. How I wish she had still been alive when I could have used her advice the most.

So I wrote about her, and then I wrote about things she would have said, if she had still been here. Somehow, I felt comforted.

Friday I was not too busy, so Hubby and I went off to see the movie “The Descendants”. Great movie, with George Clooney in the best acting job ever for him. In fact the movie touched me that I came home to see if it was a screenplay or adapted from a book. Lucky for me, it came from a book! I checked Amazon, and down loaded the book and started to read. I read in between doing the laundry all day Saturday. I was lazy about doing the laundry this week, so I had 6 loads to do, which is almost unheard of for me.

I washed dried and folded everything, and put it all away, then cooked our dinner last night. Baked potatoes and a London broil steak. Good.

Sunday morning, Hubby dragged me out of bed…no kidding…and forced me to go and ski. Now it was 4 degrees (f) and there was a stiff wind. He stopped to get a quick breakfast at McDonalds, and soon we pulled up at Gunstock.  It was crowded and cold and rather miserable. It was the kind of cold hitting you between your eyes, piercing your head, like an ice cream headache, but with out the ice cream!  However, I skied, and when my toes and fingers were numb, we went back to the lodge, changed and then off we went to get the grocery shopping done.Tonight I still feel a bit numb.

When we arrived home, I started to make lunch and I clicked on the propane stove and NO PROPANE! We were completely out. Hubby was worried we might starve, or be forced to eat peanut butter, but I assured him that I have many ways to cook a meal. Rotisserie grille, electric frying pan, toaster oven, microwave, and crock pot! I managed to make mashed potatoes, butternut squash and salmon pin wheels for dinner. Not a problem at all.

Then things kept going wrong. My laptop computer mouse died, Norton anti virus was defeated and suddenly I had viruses controlling the computer and I couldn’t get things under control for several hours. I was a wreck!

I am also feeling sad about Whitney Houston. So much talent, and yet all those insecurities eating away at her. She probably never knew that she was loved. Sad.

So that wraps up my weekend. It was busy and crazy and most of all…COLD!

Have a good week everyone!!!

Value

Recently an acquaintance of mine has been presented with a difficult situation. She has lost sleep, cried tears of sorrow and asked for God to ease her pain.

Not knowing exactly what to say, I began to think, quite deeply about the value of people in our lives. Sometimes it is difficult to see their value, and other times, it’s very ease.

Back when I was born, my other Grandmother thought my parents were quite reckless to have another child. Three children! Oh dear. In fact she saw so little value in my birth, that she did not tell her family back in Canada of my birth. My great aunt Mamie, and I met when I was 30 years old! Mamie was 92!

I was talking to my mother about it on Saturday and we agreed that the fact that she had my sister and me has been a real blessing to her in her old age.

You see, sometimes we can’t see the full value of the people in our lives when, perhaps we should.

My acquaintance, is finding that as much as she loves and cares, her feeling are not being returned. In fact, the people involved are being cruel and find no value in her at all.

I told her that God doesn’t make junk. There are times we are tested, and we have to persevere. After all, we ourselves know, we have VALUE.

For many years, I was angry at my mother for bitter words we had exchanged. I didn’t visit, I didn’t call. I was cruel.

But then, I began to see the value of my mother. She will be 83 this year. I’d better stop being so haughty, and start finding the love, because if I don’t she’ll be gone and I will never have the chance to tell her…

Mom, you have value to me in my life.

So, my advice to my acquaintance was to give the worries to God. Let the Lord handle it. You cannot make someone like you, even if your feelings for them are pure. Some people will, sadly, never know the value of those who love them.