A tree next to our driveway died. It needed to be cut down – before it fell down into the power lines – and today Mr. Brett and Josus did just that.
This is a picture of Joe suspended from the crane arm in a swing, wielding a chainsaw:
He’s much higher up than it looks; the land slopes off sharply on that side of the driveway.
It took hours to cut the crown off and to finally get the tree down. When it finally fell, I felt the ‘thud!’ quite clearly through the floor. It was pretty heavy, to say the least.
Aren’t boys cool? They actually seemed to enjoy the whole process!
I fed them pork chops and frozen pizza and a giant salad with bleu cheese crumbled all over the top for dinner. After all, they’d made breakfast (scrambled eggs with veggies, hash browns, coffee with Bailey’s, corned beef hash, and veggie bacon strips) and cut down a whole tree, so cramps or not I owed ’em!
MarsWare Technologies’ WeatherPanel 2.0 is out!
The icon sets are fantastic; tapping on an icon from the Today view brings up a forecast screen; and it now supports animated icons! There’s a host of other yummy new functions too numerous to list.
WeatherPanel is now the most robust and stylish weather plug-in available. Check it out if you haven’t before or rush right over and download your upgrade if you have!
From Zone Alarm, an Internet Exploder online pest scan. Lovely.
I got my new toy today (DHL managed to deliver at about five to five) and I’ve been playing with it for hours.
The screen is brilliant. The cute little device is thin thin thin. The boot screen is adorable. It’s fast, it’s sleek, it’s just plain wonderful. I’m in love.
Oh the joy of a new plam! Woot!
The Movable Type Style Generator loads a new, random style every time you refresh. Nice for color scheme ideas!
Now why didn’t I find Learning Movable Type: Tutorials and Tips for Beginners six months ago, when I really needed it? Huh?
Driving back from Colorado, my cell phone rang. It was my brother, calling to say “Mom’s in the hospital; you should call her.” Since it was one in the morning local time, making it eleven in Portland, I decided to wait and call the next day.
I arrived at my computer after a break to see an IM from Jay, “Mom’s home now.” So I didn’t call. My mom and I almost never speak on the phone. We’re probably the most non-phone-talking mother/daughter team in the world. We can literally go years without speaking on the phone. Weird, huh? It’s not like we don’t adore each other, we’re just not phone folks.
Anyway, today Jay IMed me here at work saying ‘mom’s expected to be bed-ridden until January, you should call her’.
January? WTF? So naturally I stepped outside and called her.
She’s got the same thing Josh had: a viral infection in the fluid sac around her heart: a pericardial effusion. She said that quite recently she was so weak and oxygen-starved she was unable to both walk across a room and speak a sentence at the same time. She said she couldn’t inhale properly, the sac had swollen so much it was putting pressure on her lungs. She was unbearably weak. Now they’re wanting to have her in for an evaluation to see if she’ll be able to go back to work after the first of the year.
She sounds exhausted.
My beloved aunt Sue is there with her, to be her legs. I told mom I’d call them both back after work.
Josh, I’ve heard, is back in the hospital with his illness, or was again recently. Hope he’s all right too. Damn viruses.
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Last night I went out to dinner at Regina’s with Mr. Brett, Joe, Bo, and Tahmi & Jason. I had two cocktails, tuna medium rare with wasabi aoili, and a slice of key lime pie. Delicious!
I had lots and lots of fun, and I’m really glad all those fine folks came out with us. It was really great! Several random people walked by during the course of the evening and wished me a happy birthday. Birthdays are so fun! I wish I was having another today.
It was especially great that Brett was willing to go out; week night outings to Regina’s aren’t really his idiom, if you see what I mean. What a great hubby. We didn’t get home until ten, which is way past his bedtime! I love him oodles.
All in all, a lovely birthday. And now I’m 36. Whodathunkit?
In which there are two Wisbar Advance 2.0 themes.
It’s fall! Leaves are turning, the nights are crisp! (Farmers are running heavy equipment all hours of the day on all sides of the farm…) To celebrate the season I bought McDeb’s great Autumn 2004 theme pack yesterday to help my PPC get into the autumnal mood. (Five bucks, ten themes, plus two wallpapers? Who could resist?)
I made WisBar Advance skins to go with my two favorites, numbers 2 and 10. Download custom Wisbar Advance skins for two of Deb’s ten Autum Themes here!
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What on earth did I do to deserve this? Honestly. I was just sitting in my Jeep, reading a few pages of a book, and, needing to adjust my hair I looked in the mirror on the back of the visor.
What I wouldn’t give for perfect skin! You know the kind, blondes usually have it: tiny pores, smooth, and typically the same color everywhere.
I have bumpy, splotchy, oily skin. I have huge pores. Probably it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things – I manage to get love and be happy – but wouldn’t it be lovely to be cursed with, say, giant ears and teen-model skin rather than giant ears and my skin?
(I think my ears are from my maternal grandfather. The nose, of course, is from dear old dad.)
On the bright side, I still get carded for everything. *grin*
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Instagram has become unusable crap, so please click the icon below to see my latest pics.
4 random books from my Library!
