calliewin

Craig Ferguson

2010-03-01T19:01:19Z

Went to see funny man Craig Ferguson with Kittybleu this weekend. He was performing at the casino just over the border into Oklahoma on Friday night and in Austin at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. Since she's a huge fan of him, and I think he's really funny, I didn't mind making the trips to see him.

I won $45 at the casino (dumb luck on a slot machine made most of that). I'm not really much of a gambler, but that was nice. And in the show, Craig brought a couple of the performers he usually has on his show. His warm-up standup guy, Randy Kagan, was very funny too. Good show. And we had plenty of time to get there, as it turned out. (Didn't know how traffic was going to be, but we dodged the worst area by taking back roads she knew before hooking up with the interstate.)

Saturday we headed out at about noon. Except of heavy traffic getting into Austin, it was an easy drive. We took my truck, and it did really well, averaging almost 20 mpg. But we were so early getting there, we didn't know what to do, when we couldn't find a parking place near enough to the theater. We decided to get a hotel, and ended up at a Courtyard Marriott, which was just a few blocks away and nice. Was able to park the truck and do the rest by walking. We decided to have dinner early, but the place we picked (Roy's Hawaiian Fusion) was not serving dinner till 5:30. So we decided to wait till then, and went for a walk down by the river. Quite lovely really, and the weather was fantastic. (sunny and mid to upper 60s).

The meal was fabulous. Pretty much first class dining. We chose it because of the Hawaiian angle. Even the salad was amazing.

We got to the theatre in plenty of time and took our seats. Not as nice as the front row we had at the casino because of the heads in front of us, but the Paramount is a great theater and the acoustics and smaller size (it was sold out) were great. The moron in front of me was so annoying, though. We were pretty far back (row Q) and she moved her stupid head constantly, even though the guy in front of her was not moving his. I wanted to slap her and tell her to pick a side! I'm sure the people behind me had the same trouble with me, only I had an excuse. And Craig goes back and fourth across the stage, so it made for a frustrating view. But he was funny, and seeing the same act two times in a row, really made me notice the differences. It was fun.

We didn't think there was any chance of meeting him, so we only wandered slowly out after. We were down the block when she remembered something she wanted to say to Randy (who was selling DVDs and such at the lobby of the theatre) and headed back. My feet were hurting, I was tired, and needed to go pee, so I just went on back to the hotel. Well, she actually got her chance to speak with Craig, but it was bad timing and she didn't get more than to just tell him she'd enjoyed the show. No picture or anything. Better than nothing, but she was disappointed.

Sunday, we got up late, left the hotel, and went up to the capitol, which was open. We waited long enough (till noon) for the gift shop to open after wandering around a while. It's a neat place. LOTS of TX history there. I hadn't been in it in probably 25 years.

After that we went and had "breakfast" (Sunday Brunch) at the hotel behind the theatre, then headed home. On the way we listened to the first two discs of Craig's audio book about his life. Good road trip!

A bit about the snow.

2010-02-20T01:54:28Z

The downside to all that snow was what it did to live oaks and some other trees. The live oaks growing along the road or out on their own did pretty well, but the ones in peoples' yards lost a lot of limbs. (Mostly the limbs just broke and have to be cut down.) Half the yards around here have limbs piled up along the sidewalk, and some took out their whole tree. Our neighbor looks like he's barricaded his house the limbs are piled up so high. (They took the whole tree out, which I think was unnecessary and a shame.)

Anyway, the is is a possibility of more snow this coming week. Maybe we'll break that record, too! (For the most snowfall in a winter. We're like 2 inches shy of the current record here.)

Snow pics

2010-02-20T01:49:00Z

As promised, here are a few pictures from the big snow we had.

This was looking out at the street from the front porch.

Here was the sunrise looking out the back yard.

And here's my girl Lilly running in the snow.

Snow

2010-02-11T16:20:47Z

Again! It's turned out much more than I expected. They said it would start after midnight but it hadn't started when I got up. Still, this morning I got up to a winter wonderland! My 20-mile drive to work was a bit slushy the first half, but then just wet. And I missed the accident that happened somewhere behind me. I heard one of the freeways I take was way backed up. Leaving early helped!

Anyway, so I took my camera (post pics later), got out the big one up here at work, and some of the workers built a snowman on break! Very cute. Only here would the snowman (or snowcat as it turned out to be) have connector caps for eyes, a parts tube for a mouth, and parts bucket for a hat! Definitely something for the newsletter.

It's strange, too, that we've had so much snow this year. And there's probably 4 inches out there on the grass. Lovely. Supposed to snow more this afternoon. (It's still going a bit out there.) Too bad it's not Friday because it's likely to be really icy tomorrow morning. We'll just see.

Supernatural

2010-02-08T16:17:25Z

I just got through reading some comments about last Thursday's SN episode. (Don't remember the title.) One fan said she thought that the casting was fantastic that John and Mary were perfectly cast as the younger versions. I agree about Mary. The actress is fine, but the guy playing John? We've seen him a couple of times now, and I cannot make the jump that in four years, this guy will look like Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Absolutely no way. He's not remotely rugged, and his voice is completely wrong. It's bad casting really. Only when he started to get angry was there even the slightest glimmer that he could be John. I figure I'm in a minority on this. Nothing wrong with the actor for any other role, but he's just not John Winchester, and never will be. And that, of course, ruins my suspension of disbelief. I just tell myself it's a "re-telling" of the events using an actor instead of the real person.

I didn't post any of that on her site, because I hate to post negative comments!

The episode, though, was great. Neatly done.

Life & Death and Supernatural

2010-01-29T16:15:48Z

Well, it's been over a week since we lost Pixie. I'm doing better now, though I still miss her a lot. At least I don't feel like bursting into tears now. And yesterday I went to a funeral for our human resources lady's son. Only 47 when he died. She lost her husband couple of years ago, and depended a lot on her son. I'm worried about her. Not to belittle my own grief over losing my dog, but I can't imagine the extent of what she's going through, and I'm worried about her. At least she has family around her.

So then, last night SN was on, and it was a fun episode, even with the serious stuff thrown in. Jared played the kid inhabiting Sam's body so well. I only wished he'd have kicked the kid's butt at the end instead of letting him off so easy. The kid was playing with some stuff he had no idea how serious was. I don't see him learning his lesson. And Dean was fun to watch, but I agree with one fan who pointed out that Sam immediately knew when Dean was not Dean (shapeshifter impersonating him), but Dean didn't figure out about Sam, despite huge clues. I chalk it up to his being so adrift emotionally, he just doesn't feel he even knows Sam any more. Kinda sad.

Also, I think they implied that Dean would go back to hell. Or maybe I'm getting that from people's comments. Maybe the demons just wanted him dead so he couldn't be Michael's vessel. I would think with Lilith dead, his contract was void, so no more hell.

Speaking of hell, I just read Inferno, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, which was based on Dante's Inferno, which I have not read. Very interesting concepts. I should probably read the Dante work now!

Sad News

2010-01-18T16:30:46Z

Well, as of a few minutes ago, Pixie is no longer with us. We suspect congestive heart failure. This last year she began this low coughing occasionally, and I'd been told it might be a collapsing trachea, which happens in some older small dogs. She seemed to feel okay, and since she turned 15 last summer, I didn't want to take her to the vet any more than necessary as it stresses her out so.

Then last Thursday, I think she had a small stroke, and it's been down hill since. Except she did go for a walk with me (and the other two) on Friday and seemed okay. But this weekend her breathing became labored, and she coughed more. This morning, she even went out to the bathroom, but she seemed so out of it. Seeming that she didn't quite know what to do but just stand there. I got the call from mom this morning at 10:12 saying she'd passed on. The good thing was that mom was holding her, so she didn't die alone, and it was fairly quiet a death. Several wheezing spasms, then long periods between breaths, until finally none. All-in-all, she went fairly quickly.

We'll miss her, but she's better off now, and I know she's with God.

Gila Report Done!

2010-01-10T18:39:19Z

Okay, I finally finished it. Hope there are no mistakes. After I uploaded it, I found one, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few more. It's a fairly large PDF, but it can be downloaded or viewed on line. Lots of pictures of that beautiful, rugged place!

Gila Wilderness 2009 Report

The latest on my Gila report

2010-01-08T16:21:51Z

I'm finally making some progress on my Gila Wilderness report. I think I've got some creative energy flowing, and after updating my websites, which was creative in a way, I still wanted to do something (and writing just wasn't happening). (Although, I did write a little on New Years Day—finished a section.) Anyway, I got through 5-29-09 last night and have only to caption the last group of pictures. The report has long been written, it's putting in the pictures that takes so long. I'm using an old version of FrameMaker, and it did not like the amount of pictures I had for this section. I had to break it up because it wasn't saving properly. I sure didn't want to lose all that work!

So, this leaves two more days, neither of which have that many pictures to insert. I'll have to do some work on the page numbering, then it's PDFing time. I do have Acrobat 8, so that should make it easier. I'll be posting a link for downloading it here and on Facebook soon.

I don't intend to do the same thing for the Hawaii trip. It's way longer and would have twice as many pictures.

2010

2010-01-04T18:34:52Z

Well, the new year is here. In many ways 2009 was not a good year. Especially economically. But for me, it wasn't half bad and had some serious highlights. I did have a pay-cut, which was recently re-instated. It wasn't a bad one for me, but the production folks here, had had to go to a 4-day week--big slice out of their income. Fortunately, all is back to normal at the moment.

I hear we're in for a cold week. I think this winter has been a pretty cold one so far. We had 3 snows in December, which is very unusual. None were heavy, and the first and last ones didn't stick for long.

I bought a new tv for my bedroom after Christmas. Nothing wrong with the 25" CRT style tv I had, but I wanted an LCD in there, so I ended up with a 26" Sony Bravia. (Anything larger would not have fit in my space.) Mom got my old tv for her bedroom, so she went from a 21" to a 25". Nice upgrade for her. Plus, it's a good tv. So, now I've been watching Stargate: Atlantis on a wider screen. I don't have any high def in there, but at least it'll be ready for when I have. I was able to get it thanks to my dad and sister, who gave me money and a Best Buy gift card, respectively. Merry Christmas to me! Kathleen was with me, and she and I went out yesterday and just had a nice lunch and poked around at the bookstore and Best Buy. (She wanted to see what an external harddrive was, so she could extend her DVR's capacity. I wonder if it'd work with ours? It needs more memory, that's for sure!)

New Years day was pleasant also, as mom and I went out to eat and to the bookstore and to Walmart for some containers and stuff. Lots of people out. Now I just have to bundle up a lot more later this week to get through the coming cold.

White Christmas

2009-12-26T02:30:22Z

Well, it definitely was a white Christmas. And all went very well except that my sister and her family had to leave his car on the side of the road a mile and a half near their house on the other side of town because they just couldn't make it up the hill. (They weren't the only ones, there were quite a few cars parked on the side of that road.) When we went over today, the roads were much better.

Here's a few pics I took this morning.

Our front gate.

Mom's bonsai trees

Lilly in the snow

SNOW!

2009-12-24T22:12:53Z

Well, amazingly enough, it's been snowing all day! This is the closest to Christmas that I've ever seen snow. Don't know that any will still be on the ground come tomorrow, but still—Christmas Eve and it's snowing! Yay! Now if Julie & her bunch can make it over okay, it'll be perfect! There's probably an inch at least on the ground right now. It's blowing a lot, and it was really melting at first because the ground was wet from rain last night. So how deep will it get? I'm hoping about 4 inches, but I'd be surprised if it was that much.

Anyway, we may just have the first white Christmas since 1926 in our area!

Movies

2009-12-21T16:28:14Z

I saw a couple of movies, well maybe three actually, this weekend. First (and this isn't the one I planned to comment on, but since I saw it, I'll mention it) was Stargate: Continuum. I'd seen it before, and now, having seen all of the series & the other movie, it was good to be able to watch it with all that foundation. Plus I love the guy who plays Ba'al. He's so wickedly good-looking and charming. Yum! Anyway, fun movie to watch.

The one I initially intended to comment on was Watchmen, which I rented. Jeffrey Dean Morgan (JDM), who played John Winchester on Supernatural, was in this, so I wanted to see it. Well, while he was certainly the right man for the part he played, and I enjoyed that, I didn't care for the movie at all. Way too long, didn't care about anybody, and the altered history was confusing and kind of annoying with all the political figures they had in it. Plus the whole thing that created the blue man was done two more times in the movie, and none of those people who died came back as he did--how come? Also, there was this big feline creature, kind of like a blue tiger with seriously tall ears. What was that? And where did it come from? Dumb plot, and a disappointing 3 hours or however long it was.

The final movie I want to mention is Avatar. I went to the theater for this one, because I knew it would need to be seen on a big screen. Turns out it was in 3D. First 3D movie I've seen in 3D since the days of the blue & red 3D glasses. This one did not capitalize on the effect to make you dodge or anything. They just wanted it to look more real. And did it ever! I think it would have without the glasses, but it was stunning visually. The plot was nothing new, in that you had a big bad corporation trying to oust an indigenous population from its home so they could exploit the resources. But the whole avatar thing was really clever and cool, and extremely well-done. I loved how the native people were so much bigger than the humans (that made it more real somehow), and the visuals of the animal and plant life were just incredible. The characters were good enough to draw me in a bit, and though I didn't grow attached to any in particular, I did care about some of them. I found the destruction of the trees hard to watch. I also figured how it would probably end for the main character, because he just HAD to become his avatar somehow. Once they tried to save the doctor, I knew how they'd do it. Even so, it was a film I'd certainly watch again, and will get on video when it comes out. (Maybe by then I'll have a Blueray player, because that would definitely be the way to go with this movie.)

After seeing Avatar, I don't think there is any science fiction book I've ever read that couldn't now be made into a movie. They can do anything, make anything look real. So cool!

Current goings on

2009-12-17T18:17:04Z

I actually got Christmas cards done last night. Last year was so crazy, I didn't get any sent out at all, so I tried to make up for it by sending out a letter with pictures telling about my year, more or less. It was fun to write that and put it together, harder to pick pictures. One other good thing is I'm almost done shopping. I just have Tom, and the critters left.

At work, I passed one website hurdle. I got the search engine box put up and it works (thanks to Google). The boss didn't want ads so the company has to pay for it, but it wasn't too hard to get on there, partially thanks to the Dreamweaver classes. I was able to get it position where I needed it to go as a result of stuff I learned in class. I still have two major hurdles, though: getting the Flash video I made to stop after a couple of plays, and getting the request for quote form setup. The form shouldn't be too bad, but everything I've seen so far about Flash requires some coding. Granted this video is just some simple text fading in and out, but getting it to stop seems to require programming. Ugh. We'll see. I might be able to swipe code from another site and figure it out that way. The help hasn't so far.

Unrelated to any of that, I'm planning on seeing Avatar this weekend. It looks fabulous, at least visually. From what I've seen, the plot is probably not that original, but it still looks fantastic. Someday I hope the Anne MacCaffrey dragon rider series will be made into movies. They've now got the technology to do it right. I would just hope they had a script that captured the feel of the books. And if they wanted to grab people, they'd need to start with the first book of the series that she wrote. I think starting from when they colonists landed on Pern would be a mistake. You wanna grab people, start by showing them the magnificent dragons! And I think they should look like the Michael Whelan paintings, not like the Dragonheart dragon. Not because I didn't like him, I did, but because Whelan's work seems to depict them more like they are described in the books. Funny thing is, initially I didn't like the Whelan dragons because the first two books I'd read (Dragonquest & Dragonflight) had older covers with scalier dragons more like the Dragonheart one. But Whelan's version grew on me. (Probably because I loved The White Dragon so much!)

Okay, that's enough blathering for one post!

More Stargate stuff

2009-12-15T16:27:07Z

Okay, I lied. The more I think about it, the more I realize I HAD seen the Atlantis pilot. But this was well after the show started, and before I got into SG1, so I did not know who some of the people were. It only FELT new to me the other day, but parts were really familiar.

Anyway, I've started watching Atlantis now, and I watched Ark of Truth the other day, thus tying up the Ori saga neatly. I'm really enjoying watching Atlantis, because I really haven't seen that many from S1 of the show, apparently. So far, they've all been unfamiliar. (For sure, this time.)

Another Stargate note: I' love Universe, especially Destiny. What a totally fabulous ship! When she was blazing through the atmosphere of that gas giant, I fell in love with her, and then again going through that star's corona to pick up fuel. I suspected that was what was going to happen because the ship had been out there all that time, she had to be aiming herself at the star for a reason. I thought the writing there was a little weak that nobody seemed to figure this out. (Except Rush. Can't stand him. Cheered when he got left behind, though I suspect that's going to come back and haunt Young.)

I also love Eli. He's a fan, a Star Wars fan in particular, and he seems to feel the same way I do about those films, liking Empire the best, and not wanting to call it Episode 4! Yay, Eli! Plus his enthusiasm for the newness and strangeness is too fun. And he's a good guy, honest and moral. What's not to like?

Overall, the lighting is a bit too dark, and camera work is a bit too rough, but nowhere near as horrible as that on the recent Battlestar Galactica series. I enjoyed that show, but the jerky, jumping in and out, constant motion of the camera was beyond annoying. I wanted just tell them to hold the freaking camera still! Universe isn't anywhere near that bad, but it is a little distracting sometimes.

So anyway, I have Continuum to watch and the rest of Atlantis. (I'm keeping my eyes open for S5, but I have the rest, and am not quite halfway done with S1.) Gotta love that stargate!

Various

2009-12-04T18:50:49Z

I intended to get back here before this, but as it happens, I've been too busy. The main purpose of posting now is to update about Stargate: SG1. I finished all 10 seasons last week. I felt adrift afterwards. I had watched the show pretty consistently the last two years it was on, more consistently than I'd realized because as I watched the DVDs, I only saw one from S10 that I had not seen before. Still, it was nice to go through and have it all play out in order, with my having the background behind everything. Loved the show. I missed it terribly all week!

In withdrawal, I watched the remake of The Prisoner, starring Jim Caveziel. It was strange. (So was the original series.) I can't say whether I really liked it or not. Thought-provoking, definitely. But I think they left one or two things unexplained that should have been explained.

So what to watch now? I have S1 of MacGyver, but am not in the mood yet. Instead, I got hold of S1 & S2 or Stargate: Atlantis. I didn't get in on this one from the start (though I'd intended to), and thought somehow that I'd seen the first episode. Well, I was wrong. I had definitely NOT seen the pilot! I started it last night, got to see about half before breaking off to watch Survivor and Fringe. I'm looking forward to seeing this show all the way through, because I missed quite a few, and not just at the beginning.

In my withdrawal, I also ordered Stargate: Continuum and Stargate: Ark of Truth, both of which I have seen, but now they'll make more sense to me. (It's not that they didn't make sense, but I didn't know the history behind some of what was going on, especially in Continuum.) Fortunately, these weren't expensive. I have to get the rest of Atlantis now, so will be trolling various places for the sets. (Maybe Sam's will get some in for Christmas.)

Thanksgiving turned out quite nice. We had a pretty quite day around the house on Thursday, and did the big dinner on Friday because my sister was off work. The turkey from Howell, turned out great again this year. I've been eating it for days and haven't gotten tired of it yet.

On a side note, I took some Dreamweaver CS4 classes the last couple of weeks and have the advanced class two days next week. These are continuing education courses. My company is paying for them to facilitate getting the new website done, which I've been working on. For web design, Dreamweaver is terrific.

More later. Maybe. ; )

Back from paradise

2009-09-30T12:56:23Z

Aloha!

Okay, I got back from Hawaii on Monday. Had a FABULOUS time! It's so beautiful there, and so much to do. Real quick... 3 days Oahu, 7 days Maui. I got to do a bunch of firsts, including making one life-long dream come true. And it was WONDERFUL! I got to go scuba diving for the first time. It was a Discover Scuba lesson in the pool, followed by a one-tank dive in the nearby coral reef out from the resort shore. (Ka'anapali Beach). Once I get financially recovered from this trip, I'm taking the PADI classes to get certified. I always knew I'd love it, but it was the ultimate. The fish, the coral, the big green sea turtles, the whole experience was incredible.

Other firsts include: night swimming in the surf (at beautiful Waikiki Beach), submarine ride (Atlantis Submarines, they take you out to the coral reefs and a sunken ship), Zip-Line through the Eucalyptus forest (what a fun thing this was!), powered hang-gliding ride, helicopter ride.

It all amounts to 6 firsts. That's a lot for one vacation. I'll be doing a more complete write-up of course. (I know, I still haven't posted my Gila Wilderness trip. I got bogged down putting in pictures, but I WILL finish it eventually. The writing part was finished back in June!)

There's a lot more, of course, but that's all I have time for now. I loved Hawaii. I'd move there if I could!

Also, still recovering from the jet lag, and I've been having weird disorientation when I wake up in the night. Don't know where I am! Last night I even got out of bed, looking for the door to the bathroom. I must have been still mostly asleep. It wasn't until I gave up finding it in what I thought was a hotel room and opened the bedroom door and looked down the hall that I realized I was at home. Even then, I had to look for a moment before comprehending what I was seeing. Very strange!

A little catching up

2009-09-15T13:13:53Z

Don't have time for much. I'm getting ready for the next trip. This one is a more classic vacation than the last trip! No being out of touch with civilization for 5 days, but I will be off the continent.

Supernatural's season premier was EXCELLENT! Well worth the wait. (It's killing me that I probably won't be seeing the next 2 eps when they air, but I'll have the DVR set, and my fingers crossed that it gets recorded.)

Anyway, it seems that Dean and Sam are not good with each other now. Sam is paying the price for his arrogance. I don't blame him for what he did. He had the demon's hooks in him pretty deep from the time when Dean was dead. He couldn't see beyond the crap that she fed him. Nonetheless, I'm in total sympathy with Dean's feeling betrayed, and I hope he'll forgive Sam eventually. Poor Sam! Poor Dean!

And Bobby! Wow, I did not realize he was possessed when he told Sam off. I thought, wow, he's really being harsh, maybe he'll lighten up after a while. So as soon as he turned out to be possessed, I knew that hadn't been Bobby's real feeling. Whew! And what strength to do what he did! I thought for sure he was going to die.

And Castiel! I LOVED that whole thing when he showed up and kicked butt. I also really loved how he intimated that his orders came from higher up, God has not left the building after all. It was a fine episode, down to the humor, though black humor it was when Chuck pulled that molar out of his hair. And the fangirl was funny, though they lifted some of that right out of Galaxy Quest, which is one of my all time favorite movies. (The whole thing where she tries to tell Chuck she knows it isn't real, then he says it is, and she says she knew it. Blatant copying! But I'm going to give Kripke & the writers the benefit of the doubt and believe it was an homage to Galaxy Quest.)

Anyway, I'd better get on to work!

The Langoliers

2009-09-01T17:22:53Z

A few days ago, I was going through a shelf in my closet and I ran across a copy of my book, which is a sequel to Stephen King's The Langoliers. It's a sequel to both the movie and his novella, but a bit heavier on the movie side as that's what inspired me, and it was way too intimidating to think of following his writing.

Anyway, it'd been years since I'd read it. The movie (mini-series) aired in May of '95, and I published the book in early '96. Since it had been a while since I'd delved into that world, I got curious and decided to read it. Not that I really had time, but when I read something I enjoy, anything else I have time for gets pushed aside.

And how fun was that!! In no time,I was back in Craig's head, or Brian's or whoever had the pov of the scene. I don't tend to do multiple povs in my writing any more, but it worked in this one because the transitions were clear, not frequent, and deliberate. But this was written over the course of 4 months in the summer of '95. That's 14 years ago—holy crap! To this day, I've not had another writing experience like it. None before or since had the amazing power this one did. When I write I usually know more or less where the story is going and roughly how it will end. I had only the vaguest notion, though on this one. I planned scene by scene and wrote each, not able to go very far ahead. I'd be wondering, though, what is so-n-so's purpose??? How is this going to work? and it always came to me just when I needed it. It was so powerful, that I couldn't let go of the story or the characters for six months after I'd finished. In fact, I wrote a couple of extra scenes for things that happened after the book ended. (I had to read those, too, last night! And I spent the evening and this morning with a new scene in my head—a continuation really of one of the others. Last night, I thought, I'm gonna write that scene, too, but now I think I won't. I think I'm done.)

The frustrating thing about this whole experience, though, was the lack of people to share it with. I found a King group on line, and that turned into a disaster because of the bullies In that group. I'd merely wanted to sell (at cost) copies of the book. They thought I should give it away for free, or post it on line. Like hell! My zine background is hardcopy only. I wasn't about to give that away after all the work I'd put into it to those undeserving jerks. I gave up on that, have shared it with a few people, other than the initial few. The one I found was the last saleable copy I had. I'm still not publishing it on line. That's not what I wrote it for. (I have two stories out there that I wrote with the intention of posting on line, so it's not that I won't do it at all.)

Anyway, it was so cool to get back into that, and I wish I had someone to talk to about it! Incidentally that book is the only thing of my writing that my parents ever read. They both could not believe I wrote something like that. I loved that book, and that world, and that experience. I'm sure I'll visit it again someday. In the meantime, I think I'll go see if anyone else was inspired to write fanfic for The Langoliers.

Wildlife

2009-08-12T14:00:07Z

Nope, not my life. Encounters with wildlife instead. Some say things come in threes, well these incidents did.

#1 Thursday, August 6th
My mother brought one of the birdfeeders because a bird (she thought a wren) had gotten trapped inside. The feeder is a wide, short cylindrical type and inside there are four little vestibules where the seed spills from the big interior to an opening for the birds to reach it. Well, not for the first time, a bird got itself trapped in one of the vestibules. The last time my mom managed to get it out. This time, she brought it to me, and I could see right away that it was a sparrow hen and she was unable to turn herself around and get out, and the lip of the outside of the vestibule made her think she couldn't back out, I guess. In any case, backing her out was the only way, so I got her tail out, but she was scared and held on with her feet to the lip. It was tricky to get her feet out, but once I did, I was able to extract her fairly easily, take her to the backyard and turn her loose. Poor thing, no telling how long she'd been stuck in there.

#2 Friday, August 7th
When I was walking the dogs as I started to round the corner by the girl's softball field back area, I heard two women talking about a hawk, and one of them said there were two dead ones on the ground. Right away, saw that what they were talking about was a hawk trapped in one of the batting cages. They were trying to shoo it out, but it couldn't get through the netting. One of the two women was older than me and thin, and the other probably late twenties early thirties and somewhat heavy. Nonetheless, they'd both climbed the 6 foot fence at the gate and gotten in there. I tied the dogs up by the gate and followed suit. No way could I get my the toe of my sandal in the chain-link fence, but was able to step up on the gate cross bar and get over. First time over a chain-link fence in many years!
Anyway, the two women were at one end of the cage (entrance) an the hawk was at the other hanging from the netting. The younger woman was afraid of the hawk, (I looked it up later, it was a marsh hawk) and thought it might rip me up if I got too close. The poor bird was exhausted and stressed, and its feathers messed up. (That was my main concern for it, and I hoped that some preening would be all it needed to do to restore their usability. I hope none were broken as it could inhibit the hawk's ability to hunt.) I looked around for something I could throw over the bird, but there was nothing. So I began trying to urge it toward the entrance where they were holding up the netting. The younger woman said something about my not scaring it over toward her. As it happened, the bird flew to the ground, and I was able to lift up the netting, and it went right under it, flew up to the fence around the softball field and sat there a moment. It was gone next time I looked. It was really good that I didn't have to handle it, since that would have stressed it out even more, though I would like to have gotten a look at its flight feathers. I would have had to have taken it home and called a hawk rescue or something for their advice if that had happened.
As to the "dead ones" on the ground, those turned out to be dead rabbits. They were little more than skeletons and some skin, and looked to have gotten tangled up in the netting on some kind of frame that had fallen to the ground. (When I passed by there day before yesterday, the frame had been righted, but I could still see the dead rabbits hanging from it. The people from the school really need to be more careful. Poor bunnies!)

#3 Tuesday, August 11th
I was just done watching "Full Disclosure" (Stargate: SG1 episode from the 6th season) when Kathleen called. There was a big snake in her dryer vent, and she was freaking out about it getting in the house. (She's phobic of snakes.) So I went over there, and the snake had come out, probably because she'd turned on the dryer and the hot air was blasting out. I'd brought one of those things you use to extend your reach in case it was a poisonous snake. It had gotten between a trellis and the wall, and it was long snake. I didn't recognize the type. I'm not well-versed in snake breeds, though I know the native poisonous ones on sight. I didn't know what kind of snake it was and if it was even a native. It was really quite slow and passive as I used the reach things to bring it out. I ended up picking it up like they do on tv, never putting my hands near it's head. It was certainly no pit viper, and I was pretty sure it wasn't poisonous. Kathleen got me a garbage bag and I put it in there. It didn't really like that too much and tried to come out at first, but then settled down. Only once did it ever open its mouth. It was surprisingly docile while I was handling it. I also thought it was a bit thin. Maybe this kind of snake had lots of loose skin or something, but I think it was thin.
So I took it home, put it in a bucket and looked in what books we have to see if I could identify it. Nope. I called the police then, and the dispatcher paged an animal control person for me, who called me back after a little while. I'd taken a couple of pictures (I'll post one later), and she asked if I could text her one. Well, I said I could email, and so we did that. I told her I didn't want to release it into the field if it was not a native species. She called me back, said it was looked like a rat snake. (I've since gone on line and looked at rat snakes, and yep, she was right.) I put it back in the bag, took Pixie and Lilly (Acacia was very sick Monday, was better Tuesday, but I didn't think she was up to a walk yet) and went out to the field and found a good spot under some mesquite trees in the brush. The snake, who quivered its tail a lot (in fear) did that when I opened the bag. I had to guide its head out of the bag corner, then it slithered slowly into the brush.
Another successful encounter! I was reading about them today, and they're great ratters. Since we've had rats in our neighborhood, I hope there are plenty in the field there for it to catch. I don't know how likely it is, but I suspect that someone in the apartments near Kathleen had had this snake in captivity and it got out. It would explain the thinness and how used to being handled it seemed to be. What I read about rat snakes is they're feisty and bad-tempered. Either this one was really weak, or it was used to people. Don't know. I just hope it's doing well now.

Getting there

2009-06-23T17:29:22Z

Gee, look how many times I said "post" or "posting" in that last entry! Sheesh.

I finished writing my trip report a week and a half ago, and now I'm going through pictures so I can illustrate it. There are about 450 pics, so it's taking a while to go through and process the ones I want to use. Then I have some figuring out to do, but it's looking like it'll be posted in parts, so it won't be a single huge file to open. I also have to learn how to link to a PDF so it'll open. Maybe they automatically do. I'll have to see.

Update

2009-06-14T04:37:21Z

Just a bit of a post for now. I'll be posting in some form, a report on my latest trip. I'm debating about posting here, or putting it in a PDF and posting a link to it. Not sure if I can do that on LJ. We'll see.

Friday

2009-05-22T17:04:59Z

This has been an interesting week. Lots going on. For one thing, tomorrow I embark on a new adventure. I'll go into that when I get back.

At work, this week was the annual sales meeting for the field engineers. Our department is a sub dept. of Field Engineering, and this year we had a significant contribution. Because of the new general brochure being finished, it was time to take a look at the company web site. So I've spent a good part of the last 2 weeks designing a new site. I worked up a PowerPoint, showed that to my co-workers and they had a lot of input, so I altered what I'd done and made a new version, which I showed at the FE meeting. I haven't given very many presentations in my life, just the ones since I've worked here, and it's always fun. They liked it, and had a lot of good comments. The next step is figuring out how the site will be done (by us or some outside agency).

Also, during the week, we got 3 free meals. We went with the FEs to Red Lobster on Tuesday, there was the company pizza party on Wednesday, and then last night the FE dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Lanny's Alta Cocina. It was some fine dining! I drank too much, and I don't know if it was the wine or something in the food, but besides eating a big meal late and feeling uncomfortable from it, I woke up and kept waking up with my heart beating hard, like I'd just had a bunch of caffeinne. Made me a little tired today! But we all had a great time, and the food was so first class. (I'm sure it was pretty pricey.)

This week I also had to get the newsletter done so it'll go out on time the 1st of June. (I'm not coming back to work till the 2nd.)

I'm in S3 of SG1 now, and still loving it, though I didn't get to watch much this week, despite the fact that all the shows I regularly watch are now in hiatus. SN sure had a great finale. They really twisted things around for the guys, but it looks like they'll be back together at least. Don't know what's going to happen now. I don't tend to read other people's speculations, so I get more out of the show when it pulls a curve on me like it did with this one. Just gotta wait for September!

New stuff

2009-05-05T20:17:32Z

Okay, so it's been a couple of months since I posted. There have been a number of things occupying my time. Probably the biggest contributing factor was the diversion of captioning at the DS Forums. They have a setup where they or other subscribers post vid caps from DS episodes, and people post captions. Many times they're really funny, and I have a lot of laughs over some of the things people have posted. It was/is time-consuming because I want to see them all, and having not been there in probably a year or so, I was WAY behind in viewing them. Still am, but it's fun to go back and look, post captions or setups. I've still got a long way to go to catch up. I think doing this has been diverting my creativity from my novel because I just haven't worked on it lately. Tsk tsk.
Another big fannish thing to happen that absorbs time is Stargate: SG1. Nothing new about the show, but I'd only really seen a few eps here and there, mostly in the last few years of the show (after O'Niell retired). It was interesting, but not all that compelling. Yet I was curious and have long wanted to watch from the beginning. Well, thank Sam's Club for offering each season at the low price of $19 each. I bought the first two, and am almost done now with S2. I'm in love with the show! Seeing it from the beginning made all the difference. I know the show started out on a premium cable channel before going to Sci-Fi, but I have no idea how long it was there. We didn't get the cable channel, so that's why I didn't watch from the beginning before. After that, I just didn't want to come in on the middle. Catching SG: Atlantis almost from the beginning is the main reason I even watched the latter SG1 eps.
In any case, I'm so hooked. Teal'C, who I originally didn't like, I really like now. And I think I'm developing a thing for O'Niell. I'm going to be sick when I get to the part where he leaves the show. I know I'm really behind as far as the whole fandom goes, but who cares? I'm loving it now!
SN is still my top show, though, and with the things going on there, I'm blown away every week. Man, that is some show. And I thought I knew how to stick the knife in and twist it. The SN creative staff have it down to an art.

Friends in town

2009-03-05T18:18:54Z

Well, this weekend ought to be fun. My friend KN from Michigan is coming to town to visit, and she and our other local DS friends are all going to get together for dinner. No one's made a decision about where, yet, but it'll be good to see everyone.

On a side note, the printer I got at Circuit City the other day works great! I've been wanting to label the CDs I made of my pictures from the last DS fest once I found out I'd bought direct-print CDs. I just didn't have a printer that would do it. Well, I gave my old Epson (perfectly good printer) to my nephews and installed the new one last night. I created a label for the discs (mine and the one I had for KN) and they turned out great. I'd been holding off sending KN her copy because I hated to just scribble the content it with a Sharpie like I had to do for a couple of others and I'd been looking at getting a printer that would do direct print. I'd priced them and all, and this one was regularly about $150, but I got it for $60 at the going-out-of-business sale. Now I'm all set!

In unrelated news, I bought a roast chicken (lemon & pepper) at Walmart the other day. I get the ones Kroger has occasionally, but for various reasons, Walmart got my business that day. Anyway, it was pretty big, and I think the portions I got out of it were larger. But the thing about it was, it was so good! It's like it was cooked fresh, never having been frozen. The breast meat was juicy, not dry, and there was a lot of juice in the pan. I know it had been just cooked that morning (Sunday), but the portion I just now had for lunch was every bit as good as it was on the day I got it. I don't know if they're always that good, but I'd certainly consider buying one of those again. In the years since I did the LA Weight Loss diet, I learned that meat once frozen then cooked, is never as good as it is when it's cooked fresh. This is especially noticeable with white meat (chicken breast) that I eat a lot of. But I noticed this first with fish. The fresh tilapia when grilled is far better than that which has been frozen. Nowdays, I try to always buy the chicken fresh, and have found Pilgrim's Pride to be the best. It's seldom tough, and they don't inject the chickens with drugs. Poor chickens. They're one of my favorite animals. Makes me feel bad about eating so many of them!