Friday Fragments (Pictures, help, banking, frozen, books)

Friday Fragments is hosted by Half Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. I have a few this week:

Hi dad!

Abby With Santa

Abby visits her vet (the one that saved her life after being attacked) almost every day on her walk and they all enjoy petting her, giving her treats, teaching her new tricks and even photographing her. This week, one of the receptionists took her picture by their CHRISTMAS tree and emailed them to us.

Please give me the treat now.

This is the one I am using as my screen saver at work.  She is very still here because she is waiting for the treat she is expecting to get soon.  They are so nice to us there and they all love Abby! 

Banking

I went to the bank this week to deposit my bonus check. I fill out the deposit slips, a small portion into my checking, with the rest cast back which I put into my savings. I look at my checking balance which said I had a negative $1.46 available in checking (due to the hold placed on the check).  Good thing I noticed! This is so crazy, to make a deposit and not have anything available in checking because it was a big check? Good thing I went at lunch instead of on my break because the teller went to lunch and I had to get that hold switched to my savings instead.

Frozen

It got so cold that our garbage can lid was frozen closed! There was a layer of ice all around the lid so I finally went out and used the handle of one of our small summer clippers to chip it off.

Help!

Work got crazy this week with the pressure of sending out company "holiday" cards. (I hate that term, but that's what they were--no mention of Christmas anywhere!) Fortunately, when I put out a call for help because I could see there was not way I could get them out on time, five other secretaries came to help me out. What a relief I felt when I saw how fast it was going with their assistance. Look around, is there anyone you could help with something?

Books

Dark Justice by Brandilyn Collins (a Christian fiction suspense novelist) was one we both liked about mothers and daughters who accidentally come across a flash drive that makes them a target for terrorists. See our review.

And, for the "holidays" I read a thought provoking book about the war for Christmas by Sarah Palin called Good Tidings and Great Joy--Protecting the Heart of Christmas that I can't get out of my head.



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Not Excited About Our New Trash Cans

Parma, Ohio changed waste pickup companies to Republic Services to do more recycling and now we have to all use two big heavy clunky trash cans.  At least they have wheels.

We already had six and now these makes eight! It was much easier to just throw all our garbage in those black plastic garbage bags because then we didn't have to drag them back or worry about them rolling around in the street on windy days.

The blue cart is for garbage and the green cart is for stuff that can be recycled: paper, cardboard, aluminum or steel rinsed food and beverage cans, glass food and beverage containers, plastic detergent and soap containers. For yard waste, we can still use our old cans or brown yard waste bags not to exceed 40 lbs.

I get home from work and still see all the cans lined up on our street without being emptied.  Great start with the new garbage service!  Turns out they went on strike!!!  


I'm glad Mr. Wonderful takes care of the trash so this doesn't really affect me, just an added task for him on garbage days.  We will continue to give our recycling stuff to Parma Heights Christian Academy so it's just one can he has to fuss with.  

Life just keeps getting more and more complicated it seems.  Does your city make you use special cans and sort the recycle stuff?

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We Go To Different Gyms Now

Downtown Fitworks

Convenience! We used to both have gym memberships at Fitworks. There is one very close to our church and only about 10 minutes from our house by car. We went every weekend and Gerard went through the week a couple times. I used to go with him on weekends (before we had a dog) and sometimes for an evening class during the week but would go to the downtown location almost every day at lunch time during fall and winter because it is in walking distance from my office.

Fitness 19

When Fitness 19 opened even closer to our home, we switched there instead because it was also somewhat cheaper. I found myself not going nearly as often and had to really push myself to go. It just wasn’t convenient for me. When I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, I had to stop working out for about a year. I actually missed it then and when I got the green light from my surgeon that I could go ahead and do weight lifting again as much as I wanted, I rejoined at Fitworks.

Parma location

Now, Gerard is still at Fitness 19 and I go to Fitworks either before work or during my lunch hour. On Sundays I will go to Fitworks near home sometimes after church while Gerard goes to Fitness 19. The key to choosing a gym is location . . . if it is not convenient; you probably won’t go very often. At least that has been my experience.

Fitworks is on Facebook. There are discussions and tips from their trainers there. What is most important to you when choosing a gym?

A Strange Sunday

Change Of Plans

Normally Sunday is a nice day of rest. After church we read, walk the dog, read blogs, maybe write some posts to schedule for the week. Sometimes we’ll watch a little TV. Last Sunday I had planned to have my Sunday School class over for a little party but when only two were coming and one of them had to leave an hour early, I decided it would be best to reschedule.

I Hate Tax Time

My desk getting tax stuff sorted.

That blue tax organizer that I need to complete for our accountant had been sitting on my desk for about three weeks now so I thought this would be a good time to dive in and start on it since I had a few hours free that I hadn’t planned on. Gerard went to the gym and I worked on our taxes for two and a half hours, and still wasn’t done but decided that was enough for one day. Then we watched a TV show and read for a bit. It felt nice to have some down time together.

Computer Time Cut Short And Abby Goes Wild

After supper, I went on the computer and around 8 p.m. our power went off. Apparently the ice storm knocked down some wires so with no power, we just went to bed (yes, at 8 o’clock). I couldn’t sleep though, not because it was so early, but because our dog, Abby Dabby Doo was acting very strange. She came up on the bed with us but would not settle down. First she laid between us with her head by mine. Naturally I pet her. Then a little while later, she climbed on top of me! This is almost a 40 lb. dog—not a little thing. Spunky was laying nicely on the edge of the bed next to me. Abby just kept moving around and would not settle down and I kept petting her. Spunky finally had enough and left to find a quieter place to sleep. Abby’s never acted like this before and I was beginning to wonder if I was dying or something. I’ve read that dog’s know when someone is dying. It was very strange. I am glad to report that I am still alive so it wasn’t that. I really think she sensed something was wrong though and didn’t know what to do.

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2 Things I Learned This Week #98 (blogging, accident, Gerard)

Submit Your URL To Increase Traffic To Your Blog

Over at A Book Inside, Still Need More Hits After Blog Jog Day? I learned that we can actually submit our posts URL to these three search engines: Here are the links to submit your new posts:
Google http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Bing http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
She gives more suggestions for increasing your traffic too.

Accident:  Fooled By Gerard--Happy Birthday!

Gerard's immediate supervisor, Bob, got in an accident Wednesday, getting a concussion, messed up shoulder and totaling his new car. How sad for him! He's single, shares his home with a brother and lives a few houses up the street from us. Gerard is off for his birthday today, but let me think that since it's such a small place where he works and it's their busy time, with Bob being out, Gerard had to work.  Fortunately, Bob was back to work yesterday.  I learned that Gerard can still surprise me. Oh well, I'm grateful it wasn't Gerard in the accident and that we are both off today to celebrate his birthday.  I canceled the eye appointment I made for him so will try to get him in again and I seriously considered not using my vacation day.  Good thing I decided to still take off anyhow!  I didn't find out he didn't have to work until it was time for him to get up this morning. He's a rascal!  Happy Birthday, Honey!

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For A Work Day, It Was A Good Day

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. --Psalm 118:24

I am still having "vacation lag." You know, wishing I did not have to go to work because I'd rather still be on vacation. Yesterday morning, I tried singing "This is The Day" to get me in a better frame of mind, and it helped. It seems as though some days are filled with hassles and a bunch of little things to do that sort of pile up. Yesterday was sort of like that, but at the end of the day, I felt good about how it went.

Taking care of business, paying my sales tax. Whenever I sell any of my author copies of my book, I have to go online and pay sales tax to the State of Ohio. It's kind of a pain and I usually put it off until the last few days. It seems like such a hassle for such a small amount. I owed a big $3.10 this time plus $1.00 for paying with a credit card. Anyhow, when I went to file, it said I had to call them to get a new password. Naturally, it was after business hours when I tried doing this so had to wait until the next day. Yesterday, I got my new password and was able to get this tedious task completed!

Making an impulse buy less damaging. This month for some unknown reason when I saw the email to upgrade my "My Life" membership to actually see the results for people I was looking for, a whole two, I did it. I really don't know what I was thinking other than I thought perhaps I might use my old high school contacts to promote my book. When I realized it cost $83 for the year, I was very angry with myself for getting sucked into this. I noticed in the very small print that if I canceled, any unused portion would not be refunded. After sending a couple emails with no response, I finally decided to give them a call yesterday and beg to at least change it to only three months which they did. The customer rep was very nice and understanding and said they would put through a refund of the difference in cost. I was relieved and happy about this!

Good news from the doctor. Then when I called my doctor's office for the results of my Ecko and blood tests, I got good news--"Normal" on the Ecko test and "Perfect" on the blood test. That's what I wanted to hear!

Surprise in the mail and reading enjoyment. It was a beautiful day and so that's always a good thing! I'm currently reading Echo Park by Michael Connelly and I got to a good part in it yesterday so read quite a bit. I also got a nice surprise when Gerard met me on the way home from the bus stop. He said I got a book but I didn't remember ordering any book. Then when I saw it was The Language God Talks I remembered that I had won that in a giveaway on someone's blog. I had to go back through my emails to find out who to let know it arrived.

Spunky Doodle quality time. I also got a new VISA credit card in the mail from Chase that I had no recollection of requesting and promptly called to cancel it. Spunky Doodle helped me make the call and laid next to the phone letting me pet her real nice. It helped keep me calm and I just love it when my cats come around letting me pet them like that.

In reflecting on my day, it was a very good day, especially for a work day! I got a lot accomplished, some good news and had nice relaxing time. What about you? Have you had a good day lately?  Do you have any tasks that you have been procrastinating on--get to them and you'll feel better!


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Karen’s Day Off Was Very Unusual by Guest Blogger--Spunky Doodle

Strange things happened on Karen’s day off. First of all, I spent the night before inside the hallway linen closet. When she took out the blanket, Manny jumped in and she left the door open so he could get out. Naturally, I could also get in and did. Somehow though, the door got closed with me inside! I didn’t mind too much because it was nice and dark and I had lots of blankets to lay on, but I wasn’t able to join Karen on the bed. She was very surprised when she opened the door to put away the blanket in the morning and out I walked.

Karen did something very unusual this morning. She dusted! (She NEVER dusts.) She dusted off the CPU unit and when she pulled it out to dust it, I went behind it where all the wires are attached and got to explore this new space. Of course she was telling me to come out of there the whole time, but I didn’t come out until I was good and ready. After all, I’m not a dog, I’m a CAT! She thought perhaps the cord to the speakers on the computer was lose or that perhaps the dust was affecting them. This video shows how she and Gerard have to bang the speaker to get it to work. Do you have to bang yours?

Karen went right on the computer after breakfast as usual, but stayed longer since she took the day off work. When she came to get a banana, she noticed Abby wasn’t in the living room like usual. Abby is very good about coming when called so Karen called, “Abby, come.” Then we hear her running up the basement stairs. Gerard must have not known she went down and closed the kitchen door so she couldn’t get in. Good thing Karen was off and took a break from the computer! Once Abby was out, she went to work on her Father’s Day project with Karen the rest of the day.

It was nice having her home with us all day, even though I didn’t adjust my nap time around her. Manny laid in the computer chair next to her all day! He’s such a brownie. I noticed that she went out for lunch and then took Abby out for a walk in the afternoon. The really strange thing she did though was play the piano! She hasn’t played it in a very long time and she kept playing the same song over and over and over while she was printing something out from the computer.

Once Gerard got home, things all went back to normal—just checked email, Facebook and TV watching. Tonight I stayed out of that linen closet and slept with Karen.

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Fear—Legitimate or Ridiculous? (Writer’s Workshop)

Who refuses to wear perfume in the Summer and keeps away from those who do? Me

Who does not like eating outside? Me

Who does not generally drink pop outside? Me

Who just stops playing tennis in the middle of a rally? Me

Who weeded for only about two minutes before quitting? Me

Who doesn’t like wearing anything red in the Summer? Me

Why? Because of bees.
The cause of my fear. I hate bees! I am afraid of those things; they hurt when they sting. I know because I was stung by one while playing with a hula hoop, just minding my own business. Actually, I didn’t get stung while playing, it just landed on my thumb and wouldn’t get off. The neighbor mom brushed it off and that’s when it stung me. I still have the scar! So, that’s why I am afraid of bees, wasps, hornets and anything that stings.

Prevention at any cost. I don’t wear perfume because I’ve heard it attracts bees. I don’t like eating outside because bees usually come around, especially if there is pop open. That’s why I never drink pop outside (I usually don’t drink pop anymore at all anyway.) Sometimes during a game of tennis with Gerard, a bee will come by me and I’ll just stop even if it causes me to lose the point. If it doesn’t leave the court in 10 minutes, we leave. I decided to help my husband in the yard and started to pull out some big weeds that were growing in our rose bush but had to quit after just a few minutes because the bees were buzzing! So much for the weeding. I don’t usually wear red in the Summer because I heard bees are more attracted to bright colors.

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Now What Did They Have To Go And Do That For?

UPDATED 3/27/10:

More good news! Tim at Everyday Living was able to explain to me a way around my Flip Software and still upload video from the Flip camera. It's a bit of a round about way but it worked. Once the Flip was connected to the computer, then I went into "My Computer" and opened the Flip like a flash drive, opened my windows movie maker and imported the video clip into that from the my computer area. Although the editing is harder to do from here, it worked. I picked a clip that didn't need editing. It's the one I was going to post on Valentine's day but posted on my "What Did You Compromise When You Married" post. The sound of the song is a bit wobbly because I think it's time to change the batteries. Thanks again, Tim!

UPDATED 8:20 P.M. ON 3/24/10:

Good news! I got the kibble trivia badge--my fault, there was the code on their site for the banner but I didn't see the instructions to click on the badge to get the code until I went back later after Atty Catty sent it in an email. I went to the library during my afternoon break to do it on both my blogs.

More good news--I finally got the Java plug-in working on my Firefox browser and can play games once again on pogo.com using Firefox. Whew! What a rigamarole!

I noticed my cute "Feed Cats & Dogs" Trivia banner disappeared and when I went to play this morning, I found they redid their site and changed the badge to this. I liked the other one better but that's not the worst of it. There was no banner code to copy it so I couldn't include it here for you to click on it to go to play.

Anyhow, the link: www.freekibblekat.com still works so I hope you will still play and not forget about it just because I don't have the banner anymore. Seems like there's always something do fuss with to distract me. Does that happen to you too?

It seems I'm starting a whole list of little irritations that are on my mind and have got me bugged. Fortunately, the key word here is "little." None are of great importance--thank God! Here's my list in case you care and maybe you can help me knock off one or two items:

(1) My Flip Camera software no longer opens so I am currently unable to load my videos to my computer.

(2) My slide and picture scanner software doesn't work either so I just use it through my windows "cameras and scanners" wizard. It's frustrating, but at least in can still scan things in. My slide software never did work and I have to push one slide at a time through with the plastic negative holder apparatus which really isn't the way it is supposed to work. Both are from Brookstone.

(3) Tim over at Everyday Living actually did a whole post about my problem with my Firefox Java plug-in not working with Pogo.com: Java Plug-In Not Working With Pogo-com. I tried following the steps but got frustrated and quit when it looks like I don't even have the updated Java plug-in. I tried downloading the updated one but the windows in the instructions that were supposed to open, didn't. ARRGGH--I HATE UPDATES!!!! If it works, please don't "fix" it. (Come to think of it, my flip software got screwed up after I updated that too!)

(4) I'm seriously considering consolidating my blogs. Keeping three going and promoting all three is more time-consuming than if I just had one and my book blog about my dad. Maybe I should even consolidate that too. When I comment, I rotate signing in with my three URLs. Any advice for me on this?

I find it interesting that all these frustrating things that make my life more complicated are computer related. Maybe it's time to just chuck the whole thing and go back to life without a home computer. I know I'd miss it though so I don't think I'll actually do that. I wonder if maybe I need a new computer with more memory--I hate to even think about moving all my stuff to a new one though.

Sorry for the rant here. I don't usually do this but I had nothing else to post about today and this trivia badge set me off this morning. I'm going through a little blogging slump right now in case you haven't noticed.

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Where's The Bill?

I am so tired of fussing with stupid things all the time. Saturday when I opened my AT&T phone bill, I was shocked to see the amount due was double my usual! Then I noticed they were charging me for two months with a $5.00 late fee. I looked through my current bills that I paid, and sure enough, the last one for AT&T was in January. I have no other AT&T bill waiting to be paid so apparently, I didn't get one last month. It's over sized so I always pay that one right away because it bugs me that it takes up so much room in my purse.

The kicker is that they are charging a $5.00 late fee yet. It's not my fault they didn't send me a bill. I don't know what's up with that. I paid the whole amount, but called on Monday to find out what's going on with this and get them to credit my next bill for $5.00.

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Whacky Wednesday Morning!

Well, today has been very crazy unlike a week ago when I had a "Wonderful Wednesday"! The wackiness started this morning before I even got up. I had an early morning nightmare which is extremely unusual. I dreamed Gerard was leaving me and moving to California and even though all my friends were trying to talk him out of it, his mind was made up. So, anyhow, I woke up 10 minutes late then.

So, okay, I was very relieved when I realized it was just a dream. Yesterday we put out our 30-yr. old couch and love seat that was in the basement for the rubbish to pickup, but I'm hoping someone will take it who can use it. It's not torn or anything, just a bit worn and BIG. So I was running late because I decided to put the cushions on the porch to use for our puppet team to kneel on, but put a sign on the furniture that if someone wanted this, they should feel free to take the cushions from the porch. The lady from down the street stopped to give me a ride to the bus stop so I made it in time. (See how God looks out for me!)

I dozed off on the bus and didn't even wake up when it got downtown so missed my stop and got off at the next one. Fortunately, it's only a couple blocks farther. I believe God is so good that he knows I've been neglecting my Fit TV exercising session with Gilad so he's making sure I get some extra in!

Next, I return the call to Basement Systems, the company that remodeled our basement to find out my credit card had been declined. This was because it was over the limit. I wasn't familiar with what my credit card limit was because I just don't pay attention to it since we never charge that much normally, but now I know. Fortunately, I have two Discover cards so I just split the cost between them. I'm not big on having a lot of credit cards, but when my dad died, I just switched his account to my name instead of canceling it altogether to keep my book expense and ebay expenses separate.

I am really looking forward to attending my Bible study tonight, but praise God none of this got to me. Looking for God's hand in things and trusting that He is in control really makes a difference!