Back Online

Got me a laptop now, my old one with a new hard drive (Happy Valentine's Day to me!), and my office computer, rebuilt, was returned to me today, finally. Soooo, I'm back online - - but no Christmas 2009 or New Years 2010 pics, nor any January pics still... The scan on my 1TB drive has been running for over 6 days now?!? Soooo, yeah, back online = YAY! We'll see what I can get done now.

P.S. I'll say it again: If you haven't done so already, back everything you have to CDs/DVDs ASAP!

Living in Technological Hell for the Last 2 Weeks

1) After a week of scans and diagnostics, my personal laptop's hard disk was officially declared fried last Friday, and while I knew it was beginning to fail weeks ago, I had begun to frantically try moving everything I had on it to a very new, very large, supposedly very stable 1TB external drive kept in my office at work. There were only 350 picture files remaining on my laptop, all from November and December, all of which refused to move or copy from the laptop due to cyclic redundancy errors. In the end, after several data recovery scans run by IT and a certain saint-like, professional computer guru friend of mine, only 1/2 of them were successfully recovered; so far, it seems I've lost everything since December 20th, which includes our baby girl's first Christmas and our New Years pics.

2) Meanwhile, my office computer, which was purchased December 15 of last year, brand spakin' new, Windows 7, not even two months old, it began to do strange things as well, beginning nearly 2 weeks ago... but until last week, I couldn't say exactly what was wrong, if anything really.

3) And the 1TB external drive I had used to back everything up? Well, on January 27th, I had moved all our original January pictures directly from my digicam's memory card to the drive, plus back up duplicates of our Christmas and New Years taken from a 16GB jump drive I generally use for jpg back ups. Wednesday morning, January 27th, all those picture files and then some, they were all there, entirely intact. The following morning, they weren't to be found, and I have NO IDEA what the freak happened!!! And the 'data recovery back up' feature for the drive? The program files are corrupt. IT has been running scans on the drive since Friday the 29th, and the last scan took 4 full days to run. As of this past Friday, none of my pictures have been recovered yet, not a single jpg file.

4) The same day my 1TB drive went all wacky and all my pictures had disappeared, along with, might I add, 270 GB of additional office and personal data, , my office computer refused to recognize my login profile. I called IT for help that day, but they were short-staffed. After twiddling my thumbs for 2 days, struggling on an old loaner laptop, IT came to my office last Tuesday, ran some tests, deemed my office computer profile corrupt, said they could fix it, tried to fix it, rebooted the thing twice, and then they too were locked out of my computer. Everything else they tried, failed. IT took it away that day and I haven't heard a thing since.

I'm happy we have all our November pics and we have all that we'd taken up until December 20th, which includes Thanksgiving, when we had the angel boy-O here for 4 days and 5 nights. That's great, yes! BUHHT, I'm still super sad about our Christmas, New Years and January pics. [SIDE NOTE: On January the 29th, when I'd discovered the pictures had disappeared, just as I was about to burn them all to DVDs, I bawled and bawled, as if someone had died.] Those pictures included images of our baby girlie beginning to walk along our furniture, and her first trip up the stairs and her first trip down the stairs, her first moments of unmistakable dancing and singing, and the first time we found her standing against her crib rail in the morning, and her receiving her very first dolly, giving it a hug, and her first experience with snow and riding in a sled, and her first experience deliberately singing/making noise into microphone... We also had pictures of the angel boy-O singing and watching Signing Times along with his baby sissy, held on his lap. We had pictures of him kissing her goodnight, and pictures of him bouncing in a bouncy house with his baby sis sliding down the bouncy slide in his lap. And pictures of him trying to feed her while she sat in her high chair. We have theses memories still, but I want the pictures too.

For Valentine's Day this year, my honey-man bought me a replacement hard disk for my laptop. We'll see how the installation goes this week. And if it works, I'll have a lot of pictures posting to catch up on over at our family blog. And some kitty pics to share here. *sigh*

MY RECOMMENDATION: Back up ALL your photo files to DVD immediately if you haven't already done so!

"Please Don't Feed Andre Bauer" or, simply, "Andre Bauer, the A** Hole"

This is a bit old news I guess, but when I finally read last night about the latest from South Carolina's Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, I about hit the roof.

The following commentary from Bauer was offered in regards to free lunch programs provided for school children: "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that."

And he says he wished he'd used a different metaphor and hadn't intended to offend anyone?!? If you ask me, his choice of 'metaphor' makes his feelings about America's poor all too clear. Breaking the cycle of welfare dependency is an extremely valid social issue, but what Bauer said, it doesn't address that issue at all, but an entirely different attitude.

Why I Love Mah Honey-Man ~ Reason 48

We ate Nutty Bars for dinner...

I'm a Sap...

I love the movie Family Man.

A Real Rainy Week!?!

Constant drizzly, rainy days, one day after another day, they're not something that really happens in Las Vegas - - any rainfall is either insignificant, or it brings on a short-lived flash flood due to our crusty desert conditions, but for the last 4 days, we've had dark and cloudy, wet and rainy days and without much flood drama. I'm sooo LOVING the unusual weather!

I do realize that not everyone is exactly 'loving' the wet weather spread across the U.S. right now, and I'm seriously hoping those hard hits areas will experience some relief and fast! I was listening to NPR on the way home the other night, and heard how many eastern and midwestern states and cities have surpassed their snow removal budgets for the year in less than two months' time!?! Having learned how to drive as a teen in Iowa, knowing what their icy and slushy winter roads can be like, I remember how snow removal is a real safety issue. And don't get me started on California and the flooding they're experiencing, as if that state hasn't got enough challenges to deal with.

Makes me worry - - The U.S. has been struggling for decades to take care of its own. Sure, many of us have our needs met and then some (like me), but there are THOUSANDS - or rather MILLIONS - who don't have their basic needs met for whatever reason, and in today's day, in our modern society, I don't know how or why this is possible. Improper resources management?

In the meantime though, I'll be grateful for the much needed rain we're experiencing here. And I'll enjoy it as well.

Rainy Day

It rained today. No downpour, but a nearly constant drizzle throughout the day, and although it ruined our plans for a hike at Red Rock this morning, I enjoyed our having some weather here. Rain is rare thing in Las Vegas.

The sun went down almost two hours ago, and the house feels cold right now. I'm feeling thankful that I had the idea to bring out our flannel bedsheets from the linen closet this past Saturday night. The boy-O flew home today, late afternoon, so there's a severely subdued mood about our home tonight, as usual the day he leaves us, but our baby sweet potato girl went down for bed without a peep nearly an hour ago, and once I post this lil' post of blather, I'm looking forward to heading upstairs to take a nice, hot bath while I read my latest Brazelton childcare book on discipline. I plan to hop into bed, into those flannel sheets, by 9pm.

I'm so grateful for our home and our good health and our good fortune, and for all our friends and family. I'm grateful for our life together and all that we have and enjoy. I wish we had more time to enjoy it all.

I don't feel psychologically ready for this week to begin. I don't even want to think about tomorrow. The weekends always fly by way too quickly, especially the ones during which we have the angel boy-O. I miss him already.

For Eleven Hours Straight

Our baby sweet potato girl slept from 6pm last night until 5:15am, and 30 minutes from the time she'd woken up, she was asleep again and didn't wake until 7am. She has never slept that much, for that long without interruption, not ever.

We Should Be in Bed...

...but instead, I'm dinking around with my blogroll for the first time in a couple months (I have over 35 posts to read from dooce.com), and my honey-man is standing with his guitar in front of his laptop which is placed on a kitchen counter, and he's playing along with Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" while it plays from his iTunes.

And now he's begun to happily strum and pick ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky"...

Did I mention already that we should both be in bed? I think we're both a little wired tonight, excited for the boy-O's arrival tomorrow.

Busy Weekend Planned with the Boy-O

The angel boy-O flies in tomorrow around 5:30pm, and we've got a fully packed weekend - - nothing super major, but it's gunna be non-stop.

As soon as he walks in the door tomorrow night, we'll have dinner on the couch with a dvd - - one of his favorite things to do... always involves lots of microwave popcorn too! Saturday, after what will be a big breakfast at home, we have plans from 10:30am until 4pm. We'll then be home for dinner, and thereafter, the boy-O and his dad will be spending some father-and-son time together at a 7pm UNLV basketball game. I could be wrong, but I think it may the be the boy-O's first college arena basketball game ever. Sunday morning, we have a brunch date with friends, followed by a mid-day movie matinee. And my sister will be joining us for dinner around 5pm that Sunday night. And Monday morning, we'll be meeting friends at Red Rock for a morning hike followed by a picnic lunch together. We'll then have to get the boy-O to the airport by no later than 1:00pm in order for him to fly out on time around 3pm, headed back to Utah.

This weekend is going to fly by, I know it. Always happens, but it always goes too fast when the angel boy-O is here.

"Hey There, Mr. Blue!"

I think our baby sweet potato girl has a favorite song - - and of course, her ELO-lovin' father is thrilled!

Happy Birthday to Moi!

I'm 35 years old today - - when am I gunna feel like I'm an adult?

Oh, Wait, That Was an Inadvertent Lie

CORRECTION: There are a couple major unfinished projects yet to deal with. I have about, oh, a hundred or so holiday cards that haven't made it to the mail yet because I still haven't finished addressing 'em. Yeah, but I figure if they make it in the mail before this year's end, that's WAY better than last year: We never sent any last year. Annnd, well, so there's the cards thing, and well --this one makes me feel bad, but I know I gotta cut myself a break or I'll melt into a whiny puddle-- I failed to finish our presents for the grandparents and siblings. See, due to a restricted budget this year, we'd opted to take advantage of the cuteness we have on hand and to make Christmas gifts for our friends and family. Excellent idea, right? No really, it IS an excellent idea, but like I said, I'm operating a week behind schedule.

SOME BACKGROUND INFO: The angel boy-O used to 'collect' pine cones galore, but his collection had to been restricted to a very tall, very large glass canister-like jar kept at the bottom of our stairs. Mind you, although restricted in size, what he'd collected could have easily filled a couple paper grocery sacks, and that's a fact... Well, he has a rock collection too, which is also restricted in terms of its size, also stored in large, lidded glass jar. Over this past summer, he wanted to add more rocks to his already full jar, and I'd told him he'd have to pick and choose which ones he wanted to keep in order to make room for the new ones. [SIDE NOTE: If this 'pick-n-choose-which-can-stay-and-which-will-go' approach sounds mean, please believe me: If we didn't restrict his collections somehow, they would take over every nook n' cranny of our home! The boy would keep every rock and every bottle cap he sees!] So, rather than have to go through his rocks at all, he decided to sacrifice his entire pine cone collection, a collection I'd grown fond of, I gotta say. So yeah, he bagged up all his pine cones and headed for the trash, and then, after he'd gone to bed that night, I removed them from the garbage before the trash would be set out for garbage day -he never knew this, by the way.

So anyhow, I was trying to figure out how we could make something meaningful to give to our friends and family, and I wanted it to represent not just our baby girlie, but our angel boy-O as well despite his absence from our home. And I could not think of anything, at least not until our baby sweet potato girlie was sent home from preschool one day with a baby-hand-painted pine cone Christmas ornament, including a photo of her attached to it, taken when she was in the midst of her paint-covered creative efforts. And voila! I instantly knew what we'd do for everyone! Baby-painted pine cone ornaments, and soooo, our baby girlie has been helping mommie paint her big brother's discarded pine cones over the last couple weeks now, which we will give as lovely lil' holiday ornaments! Brilliant, yes!? --except she can only manage painting 5 pine cones at any one time, and we've learned the most it can happen is once a day, only every other day at most. We've had FOUR "painting of zee pine cones" sessions so far (more like three n' a half), and the last session, she was like, "What? More of these pokey things? Again? Are you kidding me?" and she didn't last more than 5 minutes.

Yeah, so it's taking a while....

The Eve of Christmas

Wow. So we've determined our household has been operating about a week behind the calendar. Yup, a solid week behind schedule; it should be Christmas a week from now, not tomorrow!?! Don't get me wrong, it's not that we have a ton of stuff left to cross off our to-do lists. We're actually in okay shape compared to previous years come the holiday time; the house is all decorated and all clean; mopped and vacuumed, dusted, etc., and the laundry all caught up and put away. Every holiday candle holder in he house is loaded n' ready to burn a candle, and we'd located the 20-odd Christmas albums we own several weeks ago, so there's been a steady rotation going for the last couple weeks. All the presents are wrapped and under the tree --something that's so not our norm by Christmas Eve night. And all the shopping that could be done is done, including our grocery shopping, but man, it can't be Christmas already!?! I haven't done any baking yet, but that's because I'm only taking stuff to Utah, and that's not until next week. Otherwise, we don't need the sweets this year, so yeah, no bakin' or candy makin' this week. Even still, we're just not ready. I don't know how to explain it, but, we're just not ready. [A related 'corrective' post included HERE]

My honey-man normally creates a grand French Canadian inspired meal for Christmas that has him in the kitchen for a day, cooking away, but this year's holiday really snuck up on him -or us rather- real super fast. I knew yesterday morning when we got up that he had NO IDEA what the following day was, and when I told him, he looked like he'd been struck dumb, utterly confounded. This morning we decided to hold off on the Montreal feasting tradition and wait until the angel boy-O joins us on Sunday the 27th.

I think this year is just so new and different for us. For instance, this will be our first Christmas spent in Vegas, which isn't a shocking piece of trivia for my honey-man, but for me, well, I've lived here for TEN years now, and I've never spent Christmas here, nor in my own home, not ever! And of course, this will be our baby girlie's first Christmas, and that's very exciting, even though we know she won't ever remember a bit of it. It feels a bit odd though to celebrate the holiday season with our new darling babe now, but without our other darling babe included.

Sugar Time for KiKi

The past two nights in a row, my sweet lil' Otis has tried to take a chunk outta my right wrist with his kitty teeth! Now, before this week, I could have counted on one hand how many times Otis has ever tried to bite me - - and it has only ever happened when he's feeling neglected; it's his way of saying, "Hello! Love me now, OR ELSE!"

See, the last two nights, I guess I was focusing more upon taping my fingertips against the colorful glowing thing I often have set in my lap --a place he's believed to be rightfully his since he came to live with me 6 years ago-- than upon his fuzzy backside. And well, in the years before now, he could totally handle sharing some lap-space with the glowing whirring thing, just occasionally perturbed by the finger clicking and the 'mouse pad' taps beneath his chin resting upon either wrist of mine, but now? Now has to be doubly patient.

It began 18 months ago... First it was 9 months of sharing lap-time with the glowing thing AND a "baby bump" that gradually, steadily grew, and altogether took over my lap near the initial 9 months' end (and it even kicked at him repeatedly). And for the last 9 months? Well, Oatie's lap-time has been severely cut, doled out between the glowing thing, and a now ever present, relatively new, and very noisy, wriggling, squirmy thing that actually moved in 9 months ago! Yes, the squirmy thing seems to be here to stay.

Otis has done very well, too, with the noisy, squirmy thing, but its obvious he longs for the days when he reigned king-supreme over my lap, when he collectively spent a couple hours in my lap each day, even if those hours were spread throughout a days' time, over breakfast and dinner and the evenings and bedtimes. He just doesn't get much concentrated lap-time anymore, and well, to make matters worse, the taping on the glowing thing has reached an all time high, so he's noticed, with all my working from home.

And it was bad enough a couple months ago, but now that little noisemaker routinely chases after him on all its fours, and it goes after his tail and pulls on it harder than ever. Oh, and he's had to endure countless naptime interruptions as well... blasted lil' noisy thing.

Anyhow, long story short (too late), Otis apparently needs to tank up on some sugar from his mommie, so tonight, after putting the wriggly thing to bed, I let Otis reclaim his lap-space for a solid 2 hours, while the glowing thing only sat on the coffee table playing through the last two episodes of "Glee" from online. And I swear he was purring for 2 hours... and now he's content to sleep beside me while I work (and blog), my sweet lil' kitty-cat.
P.S. I nearly wrung his sweet little neck though, last Monday night, when he'd bit me. I was about to send a Christmas email to a number of friends and family, and I just had to attach three professional jpeg images of our baby girlie sitting with Santa Claus, taken at Town Square (and that is another story in itself that I will not get into right now). When Otis bit me, I was so surprised and stunned, although I had sensed and knew he was irritated with me and all my typing while he was trying to cuddle, but nonetheless, I jumped up from the couch and, consequently, I dumped my laptop on the floor and the usb drive with the jpeg files busted off in two pieces. And of course, I hadn't attached the files yet, nor had I made any copies. Yeah, dammit. The swearing that ensued thereafter was explosive. Humpht. My sweet blasted kitty!