Getting Better

The 6 year old had a plan for getting better. To get better I need one more drink, one more nap, one more movie, and one more throw-up.

Nauvoo Rendezvous

We have arrived in Nauvoo and met up with Nana & Grandpa. It is a joy to be here where our ancestors used to walk. There is a rich heritage of people here. We will be visiting many places tomorrow of the 1800's. Talk again tomorrow.

Enjoyable Movie

We just finished watching Rudy. That was really amazing. It was good to see that he persevered in spite of all the obstacles at first from siblings, parents, classmates, etc. Then people started to expect that he would always get to the point he dreamed about. So when he finally started to think all was lost and there was no hope, the people who expected him to keep going helped him get back his hope and this pushed him the rest of the way.

It really speaks to all the people out there who have a dream and if they persist--even if they do not have the help Rudy had--they will get there (even though help will come if they recognize it). It is the Jack Rabbit Factor. It is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
I know, it took me long enough to see it. =)

Blue's Clues

I was just notified by my little knight that if I would watch more Blue's Clues then "I could do anything, that I want to do." Of course, this great piece of wisdom came right after finishing an episode with Steve.

The Lost Wooden Spoon Picture

I finally found a way to get pictures off of the camera without the cable. So here is the wooden spoon. I have worked on it since and will have to take another picture. =)

Apple iPod Touch

At work, in our IT department we have been using the 3rd generation of Apple's iPod Touch. We all absolutely love having our email and calendaring right in our pockets while helping people around the campus. It makes it incredibly easy to set up a meeting or change a meeting, which update immediately on the "Outlook" server so those sharing your calendar can see the new information.

It allows you to gather all your email from any account and show it in one list as well or just show a particular email's Inbox. I can have an automated report run which gives me statistics concerning the number of pages we have scanned into our document imaging system in CSV format. I can also open Word and Excel files sent via email. I also love reading the PDF files I can download or the one's I create myself.

While traveling I appreciate listening to audio books, podcasts, and music. It is an excellent tool. Now, we will be getting the new 4th generation iPod Touch and I am excited because it has a HD photo/video camera. I should be able to grab more impromptu photos and videos.

Makeup

The littlest angel in our family came out of her parent's bathroom with her hand over her mouth.
"Why are you covering your mouth?"
"I don't want it. I don't want it. I washed it off."
She didn't want anyone to see the red smeary lipstick she had been trying on and couldn't really get off. And now she realized she might get caught unless she could hide it. (This funny episode happened a while ago, however, I am not able to locate a picture!)

Customer Service?

Our passenger side turn signal fell off on one of our trips. I made a call to a Toyota dealership to see how much a new turn signal assembly light would cost. "I am sorry but our parts department is closed." "So you cannot look up the information for me?" "No." He wasn't even trying to be helpful. He didn't even apologize for the inconvenience. I felt that it was silly for a business to not be able to have this information available for their customers. So I went online and found the part I needed myself at Amazon's site and I made a purchase. Should be here Wednesday or Thursday.


I ended up bypassing them altogether. I think I am good at customer service and served myself. :) So There!

Another Wooden Spoon

I have been working on another wooden spoon for quite some time now. Here and there I have been finding time to shave a little more off of it. I started it shortly after the one I posted back in December/January time frame. So I have only carved on it while on trips or camp outs, and even though at times I have taken it with me places I was not able to get to it. This is an early picture of it back in February I believe. I will have an updated picture from September later on to show.

Fencing for Gold

Growing up I always loved pretending to find treasure especially in old places. My parent's home was an old home built in the 1850's or so. It had old stairs which went down below to a room with a dirt floor. This was where the water heater and other house things were located.
So there I am digging a hole for a fence post and I am remembering in my youth putting together a collection of digging tools behind the stairs so whenever my thoughts returned to buried treasure I could sneak back down and scratch away a bit more dirt from the floor underneath the stairs. I knew for certain that I would find someone's buried, long-forgotten treasure box. After all, I would hide my piles of gold coins in just such a place.
I never got that big of a hole because it seemed there were many rocks in the way. So while digging the fence post and running into too many rocks it triggered this memory of trying to find buried treasure.

The Magic Word

There we are sitting at the table and the littlest angel states, "I would like a glass of water." The eldest prince replied, "Say the magic word."
Immediately we all hear, "Bippity-Boppity-Boo!"
(Lots of laughter)
"No. . . . the other magic word."
"Please?"
"Yes."
"I would like a glass of water, please." :)

Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival Commercial

I just finished working on this commercial for the Old Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival
Enjoy!

The Great Auction

The other day we were treated to an auction. We did not have to go far to participate in this auction which is a blessing considering all the auctions in the paper that are way out in the country (with have specific directions on how to get there.) Alas, we have yet to get to a real auction, nevertheless we had our taste of auctioneering right here on our own property.

We gathered up our buttons to be able to enter the auction and receive our pile of credits which we could use during the auction from the auctioneers. They had an assortment of rare, one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted items.

At first we were all getting used to bidding and seeing who all was interested in a particular pencil holder with a hand-drawn illustration fastened to the outside, artwork, plant pot holders, a pillow with real sheep wool for stuffing (meticulously washed & cleaned), more sheep wool for sale if you wanted to make your own pillow, paper-chain necklaces, wooden swords & staffs (from another auctioneer not originally listed), etc.

I purchased a rain washed illustration which looks amazing considering the technique. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:



I also purchased a nice black-crayon made scratchboard farm design.

The $12.50 Computer

So I am writing to you on my new $12.50 computer. It is a new to me computer, athough I used one of these kinds at work about 4 years ago now. So the university had an auction and these older computers, 40-80 GB Hard Drives, keyboard, mouse, Mostly 17" some 19" monitors, 1GB Ram, VGA out, etc. type of computers sold first for $25 a set. Then when everyone stopped saying they would like a computer at that price, it went down to $20 and then $15, and finally $12.50. Of course, by this time the nicest ones were taken. I was not even at the auction at the time this computer was purchased and did not even try to bid on the computers.
So how in the world did one "fall in my lap"? Well, someone I knew thought, I will buy two of these computers for a total of $25, worst case senario one of the components won't work and I will just have to buy RAM or a new Hard Drive to get it up and running. And I will give one of them to my friend (me) in exchange for help in getting the computer setup.
So these didn't have any software on them and so I installed Ubuntu (a version of linux) on them and here we are with a $12.50 computer. It is fancy enough for a computer and does extremely well with this incredible and yet free (other than time spent understanding and learning a new Operating System and downloading gobs of different software people have developed for linux/Ubuntu.) Of course, it is another computer in our house. . . =) I hope the queen doesn't mind too much.

Anyhow, I added some images into the photo application on the computer called F-Spot Photo Manager. It looks to be very excellent. I am still learning and have already had to use a command line to get my password reset, because I didn't remember it after setting up my generous friend's computer (the one who bought the 2 $12.50 computers).


Here is our Ammon and the Lamanites FHE by the boys. The elder told the story and the younger acted out the part sword and all. I am sure there will be more fish stories/pictures posted on someone's blog because of the great success they have been having near our house. Well good night.

A Year's Supply of Shampoo!

I like having extremely short hair. Some of my hair style is by choice and part of it is just naturally not there any longer. One reason I really love having little to no hair is that one bottle of shampoo, no matter the size, is enough for a year's supply (or more). I just have to keep all of the rest of the family away from it. In fact, each time we buy another bottle of shampoo the supply of shampoo for my hair grows exponentially.
So here's a little post for having little to no hair. =)

Movie Stuff

We watched the extended family picture video and everyone in the castle liked seeing themselves and everyone else. So pony girl decided to take some shots and make a video to send back out to everyone. We have the initial footage on the computer and hope to have something posted Saturday? Hmmm.
It is very cold here now. Should be zero degrees tonight, however, the major parts of the storm which was supposed to hit our area went around us. We are blessed to have snow for sledding and yet not too much of it to cause trouble.
We recently watched the A&E version of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. It was very good and was nice and long.
Happy Twenty-Ten to all!