Crazy Times

I've been absent from here a lot more than usual lately. First I had a "Windows has encountered an error and must shut down" | "Windows is restarting" loop. I couldn't back up my files, because every time I'd restart the computer, it would go into this loop. Every three to five seconds it would do it, and no matter what I tried, nothing worked. I even had help from Eric and Patti, both of whom told me what to do through texts. Finally, I just formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows. It seemed to do the trick.

Then, about two or three days later, my connection started dragging. Most pages wouldn't load at all. I tried shutting down the program I thought was causing it, but I still had the problem. Nope. It didn't work.

So, once again, I formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows...after backing up what files I needed to. In fact, I just finished. I'm in the process of updating Kaspersky now...or soon will be, at any rate.

I had a good Mother's Day. It was quiet and boring. For once, I didn't let the computer problems frustrate me. LOL! Jeff and I bought Chelsey a slow cooker cook book. Before I wrapped it, I looked through it...and promptly told Jeff that I wanted one. He was open to that, and we went to the store last night and bought me one. :)

I talked to my mom last night before we went out. She's coming here on the 21st...Chelsey's birthday. Jeff won't be able to do any medium or heavy lifting, so that leaves me to load her wheelchair and super heavy luggage into the trunk...and to push her up the back ramp. Oh, joy! :P It will be good to have her here.

I just hope we can knock out the fleas by then! I got bit twice on the arm yesterday. We're planning to get generic Frontline. I'm not sure what else. I'd like to go down to Petco and see what they have that Walmart doesn't. It's at the point where I want to find another home for Nikita. She's a good dog. I just can't take the fleas anymore! O_O And as if the fleas aren't bad enough, my skin's been really dry and itchy. Anyone know of a really good lotion that's not greasy?

Oh, and about Jeff. He'll be having minor outpatient surgery on the 16th. He's not looking forward to it, of course, but it has to be done. I have to stay at the hospital, so I plan to take my laptop with me. Chelsey will drive us there, then pick us up when it's done. He'll have about a month of recovery. The first two weeks, he'll be able to do light lifting. The second two, he'll be able to do medium lifting. I sure hope they tell us what that means exactly. What constitutes "light" and "medium" lifting?

So, that's the crazy life I've been leading lately. What's up with all of you, my peeps?

Lois

Happy January 5th!

Happy 11th Day of Christmas!!! :D (The 12 Days of Christmas go from Christmas until January 6.)

It's been a long time since I've posted a "real" post, I know. I just haven't been up to much that's noteworthy. But here's the lowdown, anyway:

1. I've been practicing my knitting. I've learned how to cable, but it doesn't always come out as it should. I need to get a lot more practice in before I'll be "experienced," but I can do a simple cable without too much trouble. I'm currently working on a scarf that will have a little bit of (simple) cabling in it. It looks great, so far. :)

Knit Sample - Click to view larger

2. I've begun the first (quick) edit of my screenplay. I got rid of a scene, and I'm thinking of changing most of the flashbacks to just mentions. My hero's background and connection to the antagonist will be revealed, but only in a few short sentences. I need to scale back this screenplay by at least 30 pages, so there are things that will definitely have to go.

3. I've got a folder full of photos I need to edit. I hope to have them all edited by this weekend so I can post them.

4. Our Christmas and New Year's celebrations were good. We went to the kids' apartment both times and had fun, then had quiet evenings at home afterward. (And I have to say that Eric makes a mean mocha. It was so good I couldn't stop at a small cup. I had to have two-and-a-half mugs full. As a result, I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight on New Year's! :P)

5. I finally undecorated the Christmas tree yesterday. Jeff took it down last night and cleaned up the pine needles. Now I can babysit Josiah in there where it's more child proofed. :)

6. Jeff ordered a new washing machine...the Samsung I've been wanting! :D It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, but the store hasn't called us about it. Jeff may end up calling them after work if they don't call me by then. We did some laundry on Monday night with the hope that it would be our last night at the laundromat.

7. We bought several new fish and frogs from PetCo. We bought a neon tetra, a black neon tetra, a Chinese algae eater, two fancy guppies (both with blue on them) and two dwarf African frogs. So far, the neon and the guppies have died. :( The rest seem to be doing well, but we've frozen the three that died and we'll return them within thirty days. We're just waiting to see how the rest will do. I'm sure the frogs will survive. They seem really hardy. I'm more concerned with the black neon and the Chinese algae eater. The nice thing about having the algae eater is that he's really making headway on the algae in the aquarium. We had a ton, and he's cleaning it up nicely. :) I sure hope he survives!

8. I've ordered a subscription to Script Magazine and am eagerly awaiting my first issue. I also ordered a single issue of Knit Scene. I can't wait for that one, either. It looks like it has some great patterns in it. The one that caught my eye was a cardigan...a really nice green cardigan with deep pockets! :)

9. My mom's still here and doing well. She's heading back at the end of January. I don't think she's looking forward to going back to the land of snow (we don't have any here, but there's a bit of it back east), but I'm sure she'll be happy to be home. :)

10. I gave my desktop PC to Eric and Chelsey. They can do whatever they want with it. I don't want desktop PCs anymore. I'd rather stick with laptops. I'm hoping we'll get another laptop at some point. We'll see. I saw that Virgin Mobile has unlimited wireless, and it is unlimited--unless you watch lots of movies and TV online, which I don't--and I'm hoping we'll get that soon. We shall see...

11. The kids gave us a ham that Eric got as a bonus from work. They don't like ham. Well, I fixed it last night, and we gave the bone to Nikita. We left some meat on it, and she loved it! She hasn't actually finished it, but when she has it, she won't let anyone near it! :P She has a beef knuckle bone that we bought at Walmart, but she likes the ham bone much better.

12. We're going shopping tonight. We've got to pick up my mom's meds, plus a few other things. It's a very small list, thankfully, so we won't be going overboard. Good thing, too, since our bank account balance is lower than it's ever been! :/

13. I've got three or four seedlings I need to plant, too. One is a Wandering Jew. I'm not sure what the others are. I guess we'll find out! :P I "mowed" my grass yesterday, too--my grass in a planter. It was getting tall, so I had to trim it down. :)

And that's pretty much everything that's going on here. I haven't been posting because I haven't really had much to say, but hopefully, this weekend I'll post those pictures I mentioned.

I hope 2011 is kind to you all and that it's your best year ever!

Lois

OMG! A Real Update!!!!!

Wow! I just realized yesterday afternoon that I haven't posted anything but the devos and my Nanowrimo progress in a long time, so thought I'd post something today.

In fact, there hasn't really been much going on here, which would account for my not posting anything lately. The biggest news is that our washing machine has gone kaput. We've used the laundromat for the past two weekends, washing them there and bringing them home to dry in our dryer, which is also, I'm sure, on its last leg. And Jeff has a makeshift clothesline outside on which he hangs his jeans. I won't let him hang my clothes out there.

Speaking of Jeff, he's still working, but he's not bringing home the pay he was making before the layoffs. I guess that won't happen until sometime in January...if we're lucky. Things are pretty tight right now. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be pretty lean.

The kids' check engine light has come on, so they're taking it easy on their car. Eric's still making it to work, but they're not driving all the way out here to do their laundry (and of course, why would they want to when all we have is a dryer anyway?), so they've been using the same laundromat we use. They seem to be doing well. We took them to the grocery store on Saturday, then visited with them for a few minutes afterward. We'd totally forgotten about the groceries in the trunk! :P

I saw some picture's of Leah's baby, Cyrus, on the Internet. He's so cute! :D

This past weekend, Jeff stayed inside with the laundry while I went out to the car to write. It was his suggestion. It seemed I'd barely gotten started when the laundry was done! :P

I've been cutting back on carbs lately. I think I've cut the amount in half, at least, and probably more. I'm not really counting them. I'm just being more mindful of how much I eat, and if I fix something that has lots of carbs (like potatoes or pasta), I take a lot less, or I pass on it altogether. I'm certainly not going hungry, and that's a good thing. I'm just hoping I can lose some weight this way. It will take time, but I need to do it. I feel much, much better when I'm thinner.

I added 2,266 words to my novel last night at the write-in. That brought my day's word count to 5,354 and my novel's word count to 32,982! Today, I'll be getting into some more interesting writing, and I'm really excited about it. I should have no problem reaching 40K by Friday afternoon. :)

Oh! My betta died. :( He was doing so well, then the temps took a nosedive and he just couldn't handle the colder temperatures. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what the problem was. I was changing his water every week and refilling it with water from the large aquarium. All the other fish and frogs are doing great, so it can't be the water. I don't think I'll be getting another betta until the spring. Hopefully, by then, we'll be able to afford a small aquarium with a heater.

I've begun reading 'Salem's Lot, by Stephen King. So far, it's really good, but the scariest thing has been an encounter the main character had with a ghost(?) when he was nine. He was telling the story to someone else. It wasn't really that scary, but I'm sure the book will get a lot more so as I continue reading. :) One thing I really like about King is his ability to describe everything without making it feel dry and boring. He's really, really good at it.

I've also discovered the music group, 30 Seconds to Mars. I mostly listen to Christian rock with a little secular music mixed in. I stumbled across 30 Seconds to Mars one day and I fell in love with their sound. :) Disciple and Manic Drive are still my favorites though, followed closely by Forever and 30 Seconds to Mars. ;)

Well, I've got to get off here and get to writing. Here's hoping the rest of your week is a great one!

Lois

Crafts, Fish, Writing, Etc. (28 September 2010)

Sorry this is so late. I've been busy.

Jeff and I bought a male betta this weekend. He's a Crowntail betta, same as the female I had. We also bought him his own little tank, which I'm taking care of in the bedroom. So far, he's doing well, but I've heard that I should feed him every other day, instead of every day. From what I've seen of him, I think that's true, as he doesn't eat much. Anyway, he's beautiful. Here are some pictures:







The kids bought some more fish last night, and it seems they're all pairing off. It's really cute. And we think one of the black tetras they bought last time is pregnant. I wonder if there's some way to put the eggs/ fry in a separate dish to keep them safe for a couple of weeks...

I finished Cyrus's afghan last week, so we went to Hobby Lobby to get some yarn so I could start on Josiah's. We went back to Hobby Lobby yesterday so I could get another skein. I bought bright golden yellow with a coupon for 40% off. I have a theme for this afghan. I'm calling it "Sea and Sky," and the bottom 1/2 - 2/3 will be made from the colors of the ocean (green for seaweed and other aquatic plants, dark blue for the deeper water, and teal for the surface water), then I'll use green again to separate the ocean from the sky, then I'll start on the colors of a sunset for the sky part of the afghan (golden yellow, orange, red, reddish purple, dark blue). So far, it's looking pretty good. Again, here are some pictures:









And, of course, I can't post this without adding some piccies of the baby afghan. :) Here they are:







Eric gave me a pair of camouflage shoes he and Chelsey bought for Josiah when he was a newborn, and they want me to send them to Leah when I send the afghan. Here they are, as well:




Aren't they cute? :D

I did a lot of rearranging around the house yesterday. I moved a bookcase into the bedroom. The betta tank is sitting on top of that under a lamp. I also got rid of one of the folding tables, and it will likely go into the living room soon so my mom can use it while she's here. And I moved my favorite little table next to the bed (on my side). Juggling things around allowed me to free up a bookcase for the kids, which currently still sits in the guest room. I would take pictures of all this, but I doubt anyone's really all that interested in it. ;)

Speaking of the kids, I have great news! They've been on a waiting list for a while now to get into an apartment, and they just got word that they can move in soon--as in a couple of weeks (or so). They went to see it, but it was having some maintenance done to it. Still, they'll have their own place! :D I've been going through our things to see what we can give them. I'm not done yet, but at least it's a start. :)

We bought an Asparagus Sprengeri at Walmart on Saturday, and I'll be planting that in the glass container I bought last week. I plan to plant it today, making it an open terrarium. Here's a picture of that:





I also bought a cute little scarecrow for $1, and it's staked in my grass planter. Here are two pictures:







And I knitted a cozy for my large French press this weekend. I also knitted two cup warmers. One is very large, one is small. Here's a picture of the cozy and the small cup warmer, and it's the last picture for today.





I plan to work on my modern fantasy today. I've got the basic outline, I just need to read it, take notes, then begin tweaking it.

I'll work on the afghan later this afternoon. I also need to start work on my contributions to this year's goody bags for the Nanowrimo Kick-Off Party. I can't wait! :D I'm giving tea again, and I need to design the tags, then start assembling the bags.

At some point, Jeff and I will have to go back to the library, too. I put two audio books and two other books on hold.

Have a great week!

Lois

Back to Work!

I haven't been on here in a long time, but I'm ready to try again. I've cut my work load back, so it should be much easier for me now.

 

Today, both Jeff and I are starting back to work. He is starting at the greenhouse (he was laid off for two months or so), and I'm resuming work on my writing (I took a longish break). 

 

I have ideas for a screenplay rewrite, and I've got to get them all down. My old idea, while I loved it, it just didn't seem like movie material. It seemed more like a novel in screenplay format. I'm going to change it, make it better...make it bigger. I can't really explain it better than that. I just need to get to work on it as soon as possible (as soon as I finish up online).

I've been working on a baby afghan. Here are three pictures:







I also knitted some hand warmers. I've tried knitting with double pointed needles before, but always got frustrated and quit. This time, it was fairly easy, for some reason. Here's a picture of one of the hand warmers:



Jeff and I went shopping for new shoes this week, too. He found some shoes for work, and I found some to replace the ones I've been wearing. Here's a photo:



I've finally taken a photo of the other Fittonia bowl terrarium I planted. Here's a picture of that:



And the last picture of the day is a funny one I took of Jeff and Niki:



So, this past week, I've done a lot of crocheting, a little reading (I've resumed The Faery Reel), and a bit of shopping. For the most part, it's been a pretty good week.

Oh! But our Mollies died. :( We're going to give it another week or two before we get anymore. One of the plants doesn't look too hot, either. Jeff thinks it has something to do with the nitrites. He keeps testing the water quality every few days. Yesterday, he added some kind of stuff to help regulate the nitrites, and hopefully it will work. Two of the Molly fry died, and he put the last one in the aquarium, but the Betta found it and ate it. At least she's doing well! :P So, all we have left are the frogs and the Betta, and they all seem fine. The Ghost Shrimp mostly disappeared, but we saw one dead on the bottom (Jeff removed it immediately), and we saw the tail of one up against the filter's intake. I think it's safe to say that they all died, as well. Maybe they'll do better next time...

Lois