Links to check out

When I read all the blogs I read (the ones on the right side of the page - all of those I read almost daily), I will usually follow the links they give in posts and read the blogs they read... and that could go on and on. Especially when I'm bored at work. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell my boss. It doesn't happen very often, mostly during holiday times when there isn't much going on.

Anyway, when I find ones I like, I add them to my favorites. I don't always get to go and visit their blogs, but I do lurk through them every once in a while. So, I thought I might point them out to you so you can check them out and maybe find something else to read on those days that you are bored and looking for something to read. And on those days when you come here and find that I haven't posted in a week or a month or... whatever.

(Side note, I would like to point out that this is my SIXTH post in as many days!!!! Huzzza!)

*NOTE* This post was written on 9/25/08 and scheduled to post on the 27th. Because there is already another post scheduled for today. And I didn't want to double post and overload ya'll. Now that I know (after 3 years of writing this!!!) that I can schedule posts, maybe there will be more of them! Kinda feels like cheating. But it makes it much easier to sit down on a Sunday and write posts and have it all done with! Then wait on the comments. *snicker* OK, on with the post...

Anyway... here are a few links. But first!! Just to remind you... (and to let any new readers know - I don't want to deprive them) the first blog I check every day, and several times through the day... is Pioneer Woman. I absolutely love her blog. After seeing me check it for the umpteenth time one day, Jeff said, "you should just see if you can go live with her." Ha! You don't think I haven't already tried? Sheesh. I'm sure she gets several requests for that. Could you imagine living with her and being surrounded by all those cowboys? Ooops, sorry Jeff, but it was your suggestion. I just meant they would be good for ... keeping things running right and getting the cows. Yeah. That's it. I have also tried a lot of her recipes, and have loved every one.

Also, I'm not quite sure how I found her, but Smitten Kitchen is another good site for recipes. Even when she is making something I don't really like, I still love reading recipes and what she writes. Yeah, I'm weird like that. I used to get the Taste of Home magazine at home and when it came, I read it from cover to cover. Love it. However, I never did much cooking from it. I really want to try Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Peanutbutter Cake. If I do, I will invite those of you who live near me to try it. If there is any left after Jeff and Conor see it.

Another one I found through a series of links (possibly through Smitten Kitchen), and another food blog - thought it is not all about food - is Orangette. I so want to make that Honey Ice Cream she has in her latest post.

A non-food blog, but someone who is very crafty (I *so* wish I was a "crafty" person, I just don't have it in me yet!) and very fun to read (it's not all about crafts!) is gigglepotamus. She is the wife of Poop and Boogies author, and she is just as funny and fun to read as he is, IMO. She is currently pregnant with her 3rd son, and you have to admire her living with 3 boys already - now there will be a 4th. I'm sure the funny stories will only get better. :) Oh, and their boys? They are soooo cute.

Anyway, just thought I would share some of my "go-to" blogs when I get the time to go reading after I have finished clicking through the ones linked on my blog. I'll probably update my links and add these someday... but not right now. :) Go click and enjoy! You might find something good to fix for dinner, too.

Oh, and any of you male readers? If you need advice on how to ... uhhh... attract a woman? Read Pioneer Woman's story about how she and her husband met. That story has had to make every woman who has read it weak in the knees. Oh, ok, here is the link directly to the chapters she has posted.

Also, if you haven't read Pioneer Woman by now? It will take you months to get through her archives and you should just start now. Yeah... I know. Is there a self help program for addiction to blogs? BA? Blogs anonymous?

Allie's School Pictures

This year the photography company offered a CD of the school pictures in various shades. So far, Allie is the only one who has had her's taken, and we already have them back. I was thinking I might dig out some of my old High School pictures to compare them to Allie's someday.

Which shade do you like the best? I will post Ceara's and Conor's as soon as they get taken and given back. Conor's pictures were delayed due to the hurricane winds closing the school on that day. =\

Photoshop Creations and others...

So, here is what I played around with while we didn't have internet, but we did have electricity. This birthday was 2 years ago - 3/29/06.

And here is an old picture I found of the kids... before I had a digital camera. It just seems to be missing something.

Here is a collage I did of a lot of the cakes I've made over the years.

And here are some collages that Jeff did using a different photo creation thing. I forget the name of it though. Pictures from the Irish festival we went to:

The Butterfly show he took the kids to:

And his collage of some of my cakes:

So, I learned a little bit, but I have so much more I need to figure out!

Slander? I'm on a roll...

Is it slander if I post something negative on my blog about a certain watch company that totally sucks? I guess I can avoid naming them - but they are located inside the mall in Dayton at a kiosk. Let me explain to you why I don't like them and have told everyone I know not to ever use them.

After my brother died two years ago (Sept. 15th), I was at his house, and his mom let me go through some of this things to decide if I wanted any of them. One of the things I got was a watch. It didn't work at the time, it needed a battery, so I took it to the watch place in the mall to get the battery replaced.

They cracked the face of the watch while trying to put the battery in. They offered to fix it and told me it would be 4-6 weeks to get it repaired. So, I waited the 4-6 weeks and called. Seems they didn't have the ability to fix it, but they were sending it off to various places to see if they could find someone else to fix it for them.

Never once did they call me to give me an update. I was always the one to call them. And every time they had some story about how they were still trying. Every time they said they would call me when they got some news.

Finally, almost 2 years later (the day I took it to them was 10/12/06), I called them and said, "Just give it back. I don't care if you fixed it or not, I just want it back." I was told they would have to call me back.

When I did receive a call back, it was to get a discription of the watch because they couldn't find it. They had some watches in thier "training drawer" and one of them matched the description, so she sent it to the Dayton Mall location so I could stop in and see if it was the correct one. (She worked at another location.)

I went to the shop a few days later to see, and sure enough, it was the one they broke 2 years ago. It was still broken, and the battery they had put in 2 years ago was dead. I requested a new battery be put in it.

The guy working there was totally rude to me - like he had a chip on his shoulder and was expecting me to be rude or something. He put another battery in it and I began to walk away. I tried to put it on and found that the metal piece to connect it was missing. So, I walked back to the kiosk and said, "This WAS NOT broken when I brought it here 2 YEARS ago. All it needed was a battery. Now it has a cracked face and a missing piece from the band."

"Oh, that's what that was." He picked up the metal piece and handed it to me. I was livid, but I just walked away.

I showed it to my boss who said, "Make them pay for a new watch." But I don't want a new watch. I have watches. I want this one because it is my brother's.

I went to a hardware store and got some liquid cement and glued it back together. It's definitely a man's watch and looks a little wierd on my wrist, but I do wear it. Broken and all. It still tells time, so it is serving its purpose. I don't care that it's a man's watch.

Yeah, I could probably do something about it, contact them and demand money or whatever. But what purpose would that serve? It won't fix the watch and that is all I wanted anyway.

Moore is better!! *smirk*

So, my favorite coworker, my go-to person for venting at any time, is being hired by the customer he works for. They are so lucky to get such a great person , and I'm gonna miss working with him very much. He would be my "work bud" in my comments.

Anyway, we had a pizza and cake party on Wed of last week to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of being bought. He came down for the party (his work site is quite a bit north) and gave me a "farewell" gift.

A coffee mug (and he didn't even know I collect them!), a pen, and a sign for my cubicle. The mug is engraved:

In case you can't read it (I tried to get a readable picture, I swear!), it says: Katie "Moore is better"

And here is the sign:

Since I deal with a lot of grouchy, irritable, and mean people, I could make some money off of this! heehee

One of our sales guys already came to my desk and when he read it, he said, "I'll be right back with my wallet."

Of course he was joking and didn't, but... it's funny anyway.

I'm gonna miss my work bud. I hope he knows I am still gonna call him and vent!! *sniff*

Storm Damage

Well, I have Internet... for now. It's like they are teasing us. It came back on Sunday afternoon, only to go out again Sunday evening. Then back on again. Or maybe they are irritated with me for the number of times I called for a status and they are punishing me... I was nice, though! I didn't yell at them.

Anyway, it's on for now, so I thought I would share some tree pictures from my grandma's house.

Here is the pole that fell in her yard (she has a lot of land, so her yard is pretty big). You can see the two trees down in the distance of this photo as well.


Here are some closer pictures of those two trees:

Grass, roots and all. Took down the fence that was there as well.

All throughout her woods, trees were blocking the paths.

And the tree that has the swing on it is the one that fell on her house:

It was a split tree, so half fell, half remained. But the whole thing has to come down. No more swing tree. =(

My uncles, cousins, and step dad worked on this tree on Friday and got it off the house. It was tangled in the electric lines so they wanted to get it off the house so it didn't catch on fire if the lines became live before the electric company knew about it. There was a bit of damage to the roof, but nothing major I don't think.

Last night (Sunday night) a crew of men from North Carolina showed up and cleared the lines and restored power to their houses. According to my mom, when they turned them on there were some sparks on grandma's roof, but the men were right there to take care of it and there wasn't any damage.

Grandma offered them drinks and to feed them dinner, but they declined. She is one of the best cooks so they should have taken her up on it, although, I think it was a time constraint. There were more places that needed worked on.

So everyone is relieved to have their electric back and for things to start getting back to normal. There is still more cleanup to be done, but that is just a matter of time.

On the positive side... because you always have to look for the positives, don't you? Tons of fire wood for the winter. Just have to get it split and let it season. =)

I hope it all holds up!

Internet woes. =(

OK, because it is probably slander, I will not post the name of the company here - but my phone/Internet/cable company SUCKS. Yeah, I know they have a lot of work to do, and I totally understand that. But they could COMMUNICATE with their customers as to when they THINK they will be able to return service to certain areas. The power company is giving ETAs. And I see them everywhere when I'm driving through town. I have yet to see ONE cable vehicle.

They have a recorded message if you call them... "blah blah blah, we are working with the power company and as soon as power is restored, cable service will be restored..." which is total crap because I never lost power, yet I don't have my cable restored.

And they won't even talk to me. The auto thing says "goodbye" and that is all. All I want is for them to talk to me. A little one-on-one conversation so they can let me know that they haven't assumed that we have everything fine because our power never went out.

So they can't tell me that they are working in my area on such and such day... or that it's possible to have it restored by Sunday... anything. Yeah, I know... we shouldn't be so reliant on this stuff. And... yeah, we can survive without it.

Except Jeff takes online classes. His classes are moving on without him and he will have to try to catch up. One of the classes is a Linux Server class and he has a Linux Server set up at out house to use for the assignments. He can't just lug it around to other people's houses to do his homework.

He is also still looking for a job. Who knows who might have called this week to offer him a job, just to find a message that say, "we're sorry, your call did not go through" upon dialing our number.

And I need the Internet to prove my arguments with him! We talk about something... he disagrees with me and I CAN'T LOOK IT UP ON THE INTERNET AND SAY "HAHAHAHAHA I'M RIGHT!!" Which, we all know I am, but he just doesn't accept my word for it.

heehee

I'm thinking about calling another service company and saying, "If you can get out to my house and set it up before my cable company gets around to repairing, I will switch to you." Because, they will at least give me a date.

OK, so I will wait until Monday to do that. Maybe. ;)

After volleyball last night, I played around a little more with Photoshop. Maybe someday I will be good at it, but... it's just lacking. So NOT as good as Barb's. =( If I ever get internet again, I might show you what I have done!

I also don't have all of my templates and stuff that I got from Misty Cato - they were on my old computer. I do have them on an external drive, but I couldn't find them all when I was transferring stuff the other day.

I miss the Internet at home. It's just not the same at work. They block all the really good sites. I can't even go to youtube anymore to listen to music while I work. BooHooo.

OK, back to work. Can't be writing here all day, ya know.

Hurricane in OHIO?!?!

Since we were the recipients of up to 84mph winds on Sunday (in some areas), there are certain people saying we experienced a hurricane here in OH on Sunday. Seems Ike traveled north a bit to visit us. So, a lot of places have/had no electricity. We had electricity, just no cable/phone/Internet. We somehow got lucky.

Others in my family were not so lucky, and I have pictures to show of that... but since I don't have Internet at home I cannot share them!

So, no school this week because... they didn't have electricity either. But lo and behold, somehow my work was the only freaking building in the area that did not lose power. I woke up Monday morning, figuring that we wouldn't have work. I did the cursory drive to work though - dedicated worker that I am. (HA!) No traffic lights. No morning coffee from McDonalds. No business in site open. But I walk up to my office? Lights on. OK... so... we need the Internet to work too, that's probably down. No? Really? We get to work all day? Yippee!

Meanwhile we are plotting to find the incoming power source and cut it ourselves. OK, so... we didn't really. But we all wanted to!

While I got to work, my family (Jeff and the kids) went to my mom's to help out with the cleanup over there. A tree fell on the garage and Jack's truck. A few fell at my grandma's house as well, but due to them being tangled in electric lines, they weren't trying to remove them yet.

After work, I went over and helped a little bit as well, but by the time I got there they were all wore out and ready to quit. So, we went home, I made some food and my mom came over to eat and take a shower.

The kids were off school on Tuesday and Wednesday as well - the electric got turned on at the schools sometime Wednesday night. Not sure if they have food to feed them or not, but... they went today.

So, what did I do with my evenings without the Internet to distract me? Well aside from dinner/dishes/laundry... last night I sewed. Yes! I do know how! Just because it is not something I do often, doesn't mean I don't know how. I took Home Ec in 8th grade, ya know. And yes, I'm well aware of how long ago that was, thank you very much, but it's not hard to remember how to take a needle and thread and poke it through material.

Besides, two pairs of my pants had holes in the seams that needed sewed. Yes, I was still wearing these pants with the holes in them... they weren't THAT noticeable and besides, I wear black underwear and the pants are black... so I don't see an issue with it. The hole was right on the seam and didn't gape open or anything. Sorry, may have been TMI (too much info), but hey, it's the truth.

Anyway, after I finished my sewing, I played with editing videos on my computer. What a HUGE headache. All those software advertisements that say "Make your own home videos on your computer, it's easy!" are lying. Or maybe I just didn't have the patience for it last night, I don't know.

I went through a lot of old videos, and they were so fun to watch. Allie walked in at one point and I said, "Someone else in this house has to learn how to edit videos because I have a lot that need edited and I just don't like it."

She said, "Me?"

"Either you, Jeff or Ceara - I don't care who does it, as long as it's not me. Seems like something that you and Ceara should be able to pick up quickly."

After all was said and done, I did get ONE video from my camcorder onto a DVD. But it isn't edited. And I had to leave it burning while I went to bed because it was taking forever.

Oh, and I didn't get to check if it worked or not. I'll do that later.

But I've had plenty to do without the TV/phone/Internet. I still want it back on though!

Completely off topic question... Why does spellcheck make me capitalize Internet? Is it really a proper noun? Because I think it should just be internet.

On the farm

A few weeks ago we went out to my aunt and uncle's farm for a birthday party. Seems like every time I go out there, they have done something new to their house or landscaping.

This time, they had remodeled what used to be a screened in porch that they basically used for storing stuff, and the downstairs rooms - living room and front room, kinda a sitting room. The porch is more like a sun room now, all white with wicker furniture. Beautiful.

And they added a door into their living room.

Where they redid everything n wood. Floors, walls, ceiling... everything.

Seems a little empty now, but I hear they are putting in a pool table.

Outside on the deck, John cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob on the grill. The corn came strait from their fields. So. Good. And I forgot to get some for freezing. I'll have to go back soon for that. There was also greenbean and potatoes inside on the stove.

It is so peaceful there.

There is a fire pit to sit around at night.

They have some stadium seats from when they tore down the old stadium where they went every home game to watch the Bengals play for years. They still go, but to the new stadium now.

They moved the trampoline down to the pond so you can jump off and into the pond. They also have a rope to swing out on.

It was Jonathan's birthday, and there was cake and a decorated cookie. The cake was very rich and very good.

The birthday boy was teased endlessly about getting a haircut with all his birthday money.

He also got some underwear that he put on over his shorts to model for us. The catcalls were endless.

After we ate, the kids and Maggie went swimming in the pond. They all took turns on the rope and the trampoline. Conor has always been afraid to jump into dad's pool from the edge, so I wasn't worried about him jumping off the trampoline into the pond.

He got up onto the trampoline and my mom said, "Tell him to get down from there."

"Don't worry, he's not going to jump off of it. He doesn't jump into water, he's too afraid to."

Then I turned back around in time to see him jump in the pond.

The second time he did it I got the picture. Then my camera's battery died and I couldn't get anymore pictures or movies. Guess he's getting brave as he gets older. I don't know if I can stand it.