Tuesday, November 30, 2010

How Many Mondays Are There In One Week??

Another very long day....sometimes you gotta wonder if a holiday weekend is WORTH it! It is, of course, but sometimes you wonder.

I've really been impressed with my little netbook so far. I have a new chip to install in it that will double the RAM, and if I'm not too tired after dinner tonight, I'm going to go ahead and install it. I have to say that it's not bad as it is, but faster's always better, right?

Mom went in for a CT scan today and goes tomorrow to see her surgeon to schedule surgery. She has an abdominal aortic aneurysm that they've been watching for changes for a little while now. The last tests she had run showed that it has increased in size, so it's time to repair it. She doesn't seem to be worried about the surgery, just anxious to get it done and over with. I agree, and I'm glad they're going to go ahead and do the repair now while her health is good otherwise.

The surgeon is hopeful that they'll be able to make the repair by going through her femoral artery instead of doing an open abdominal incision. They'll know more after reading the results of today's CT scan, so keep your fingers crossed.

And so, I'll close this little entry in preparation of upgrading my RAM. Have a good evening, everyone!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Holidays and a Special Birthday Celebration

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was good, comparatively quiet, but good.

I was off work Wednesday through Sunday, which was really great. I didn't do a lot on Wednesday, mostly just household drudgery. I can never believe how much dust can accumulate in my apartment. I'm considering just making friends with the dust bunnies and letting them have their way! *LOL*

On Thursday I went down to have Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Dad. They don't care for turkey, so Mom made a wonderful pork roast with yummy trimmings. We all ate too much, but that's traditional, right? After dinner I knitted while Mom and Dad napped a bit in front of the TV. Not a bad way to spend the holiday.

Friday I got some more knitting done, including blocking a sizable scarf I made for a Christmas gift.

Saturday we went to my great-Aunt Orpha's 100th birthday celebration. It was just wonderful! They had it at the Meadowview Convention Center. The food was great, and she had a good crowd. I didn't count heads, but they were expecting around 125, and I think they were all there! Aunt Orpha really enjoyed herself, and a good time was had by all.

Sunday I didn't do much of anything; I knew that Monday would be rough returning to work, so I took it pretty easy.

Sure enough, when I went back to work this morning it was really busy all day long. However, I had something to look forward to: I'd received notification that my Christmas gift to myself had arrived and was ready to be picked up at the Site-to-Store area at Wal-Mart. I bought myself a nifty little netbook. In fact, I'm typing this entry on it while waiting for the battery to charge. I think it will come in really handy for taking things to show Mom and Dad (since they're not online) and for using out on the deck when the weather's nice. It's so teensy it looks like a toy! *LOL*

Well, the battery's nearly charged, so I think I'll close now and get a few more items downloaded that I wanted to put on this bitty little computer.

Have a good week, everyone!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Eastern Standard Time

We switched from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time last weekend, and I'm having an unusually difficult time adjusting to it. Normally, the switch from DST to standard is easier because "spring ahead, fall back" actually gives us an extra hour's sleep that first Sunday morning. But I'm having trouble staying awake until bed time, which means I'm waking up about 4:00 am, which is causing me to want to go to bed by 8:00 pm. *ICK*

Oh well, I'll adjust eventually. I always do. :-) Since I gave up on Dancing With The Stars I've had more time to watch more interesting things, like documentaries I'm finding on Netflix. I started a good one last night about Stonehenge. I thought I was really interested in it, but woke up at 4:00 this morning in the recliner, so I must not have been quite as spellbound as I thought. *LOL*

I had a touch of a virus over the weekend, so I got in some "knitting in the recliner while watching movies" time. I'd received a Netflix disk last week and finally got around to watching it. It had been in my queue for some time: "The Best of Carson". I'm not sure who decided what the "best" of Carson was, but I didn't agree. :-( There are several disks in the series, and I deleted the rest of them from my queue. There was only one good clip on it, and I'd already seen it about a thousand times or so. Live and learn, right?

I mentioned earlier that I'd given up on Dancing With The Stars. I am actually still recording it on TiVo and watching it the next day just to see the parts I want to see (basically Derek Hough). On Tuesday morning before I went to work, I watched Monday night's 2-hour show in just under 30 minutes. HONEST! Then yesterday morning I watched Tuesday night's 1-hour show in less than 15 minutes. I knew there was a lot of "filler" on that show, but WOW!

Unless I change my mind, I'm not going to bother at all next season. If they want to change the voting procedure to make it more of a TALENT competition I'll reconsider. Enough griping.

The weather here has been absolutely GLORIOUS the past few days. Sure makes it hard to go to work and sit in my little windowless dungeon all day. Especially since it's almost DARK by the time I get home from work now. *pout*

Okay, I've fussed enough for one day. Hope the day is as glorious in your neck of the woods as it is here!

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Adios, DWTS!

Okay, I'll start this by saying that I started watching Dancing With The Stars last season because Mom enjoys it so much and it's fun critiquing the performances with her. I kept watching it this season because I think Derek Hough is as cute as a speckled pup under a red wagon and I love watching him dance.

But.....it's.......OVER!! Things progressed about as I expected until Week 5. I was no huge fan of Florence Henderson, but HONESTLY! She was eliminated, and they left Bristol Palin on there after that horrific "jive" that started out in a gorilla suit??? Oh, puh-leeeze! I comforted myself with the knowledge that she would surely be eliminated in Week 6, and waited patiently.

Week 6: Bristol actually improved a little, but still was not giving a "performance". Who was eliminated? Audrina Patridge, who I believe should have gone to the quarterfinals at the very least.

Week 7, this week: Bristol was truly awful and wound up at the bottom of the points board. Who was eliminated? Rick Fox. RICK FOX. The man who scored a total of 61 points, putting him in a tie for second place with Kurt Warner. The man who was only 3 points under the two contenders who were tied for first place. RICK....FOX.

What on earth is the American public thinking???

So that it for me. I quit. I was already growing weary of the contrived "drama" on the series, all the scenes of weepy exhausted "stars" whining about how tough they were having it. All the "feuds" between stars and their assigned dancing pros.

Enough already. I've thought all along that they could cut out all the audience voting baloney and make this a pretty good show. But noooooooo, it turns into a popularity contest instead of a true competition based on achievement.

Can I do anything about this? No. But I don't have to subject myself to it any more. Sorry, Derek, I'll miss you lots, but I'm outta here!