I know I've been absent from bloggerland lately but I've had some extremely important stuff that I really had to take care of (sitting in the lazy-boy watching tv). The fact of the matter is it's the time of year when my "seasonal depression" kicks in, and it seemed to knock me down this week with a vengeance. I am not complaining, my depression isn't as bad as it is for some people, but the fall and winter aren't real good times for me. This is just the time of year when everything doesn't "seem" to work out right for me. I know that everything is ok in my life (or at least no worse than normal) it just seems like it is.
I did try the drugs before but found that I didn't like them very much. I actually didn't like being happy all the time (sounds odd) because I couldn't really trust whether I was happy about something or it was the drug making me feel that way. The other thing I didn't like was the fact that there are some "side effects" that the doctor didn't warn me about, like you have to be really careful about coming off them (even for a day or two) because it can slam you into a worse depression than you had to start with. The other thing they really didn't impress upon me enough is just how bad drinking can be while you are on them (I found they made me want to drink all the time, dangerous if you work in a bar). I have found that just by stopping drinking (stopped putting "a depressant" into my body) that I have been doing much better this year than I have in previous years (maybe that's all I needed).
I spent a lot of time this morning working on a post that I almost lost when my computer had issues (my fault, I made a mistake when I was changing some settings a while back that I forgot to change back when I was done). I did manage to save the post but after working on it for many hours, I decided that I didn't like it, and deleted it. Normally, I don't think I would have been that critical about it or I would have found a way to fix it, but as I said before it's hard for me to be happy about anything right now.
I went grocery shopping and it just seemed like there was nothing I wanted to eat so instead I spent a lot of money and got very little for it. I did manage to get some good comfort foods which included a lovely cherry cheesecake (you can never go wrong with that) and also something that I discovered a few weeks ago, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, which seem to have become my latest addiction. I also bought some 'Pulos' Greek Sauce, which I've had before and is not too bad (did I mention before that I love good Greek sauce). I used to have a very good recipe for making homemade Greek sauce, but I forgot to "snag it" before I left the bar that I used to own. I did however manage to get in the line at the store behind the lady that has all the issues (good for me), who’s check won’t be approved by the machine, who has a coupon for everything if she can just find it, and has to have the manager come over so she can tell him how she’s been shopping here for years and has only had the machine refuse her check when she has tried to cash 3 checks at the store before (like she did today) and doesn’t understand why it seems to only do it when she cashes 3 checks on the same day (no I didn’t smack her in the back of the head). The nice smile and the apology of the cashier for it taking so long made everything all right.
On the way back from the grocery store I was following a large truck that had a pair of "blue balls" hanging under it. I've seen more of these lately and I would like to know how guys think that this makes their truck look cool. Are they trying to tell us that their truck has a problem or that they do? I can say that this is a "joke" that I really hope doesn't catch on any more than it already has. It rates right up there in intelligence with the "baby on board" signs (I'll try harder not to hit your vehicle) that by the way I saw one last week (don't tell me they are coming back either).
So now that I have a handle on what's going on I will try to keep up with my blogging more, and hopefully all my posts will not be depressing and just go back to the normal boring type of posts that you are all used to from me...:)
PS: Screw dinner I'm having cheesecake...
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Weed
Earlier this year when I was doing major battle with the weeds in my flowerbeds, I found this little "weed" that sort of looked different than all the others.
Now I don't have very many flowers in the flowerbeds surrounding my house, and so the weeds had pretty much taken over. I did have some baby trees that had started to grow, many of which I transplanted out into the yard this year, but not very many flowers in the beds. No one lived in my house last year so the weeds had seriously overwhelmed the entire flowerbed, and I'v
e spent most of the summer trying to reclaim this area around my house from the weeds that had taken it over.
I do have a couple rose bushes, some daffodils and one very sad rhododendron that refuses to give up, though it's been right on the edge for several years, but finally seems to be doing a little better this year.
While I was weeding early in the spring I came across a little "weed" that didn't quite look like the rest, it certainly wasn't a grass or one of the many dandelions that predominately made up my flowerbeds. This little guy, who was about 6 inches tall, was different than anything I had found there. Thinking it may be some sort of tree I decided to spare it, just to see what it would grow into.
Every time I weeded I would see this little "weed" and would think to myself that "I really should pull it and toss it, after all it's ju
st another weed". Something kept me from pulling it though, I don't know what it was, maybe just curiosity to see what it was. It grew straight and tall, to the point now where it's about 5 feet tall, but I still had no idea what it was (and I still don't). It wasn't ugly or anything and I still had hopes that it may be some sort of tree that I could transplant into my yard, but it's leaves didn't belong to any tree I recognized, and I'm pretty good with knowing trees.
About a week ago my little "weed", which is now a fully-grown bush, flowered for the first time and it made me glad that I chose to let it live. It blossomed with some very beautiful flowers, and looks very nice growing right where it is in the corner of my flowerbed. Now maybe one of our resident blogger gardeners might recognize what this "weed" is, but I still have no clue as to it's identity or where it came from. Though I do know that it really doesn't deserve to be called "a weed" anymore, since It's definitely shrub sized now. Weeds are
defined as some plant that grows where it isn't supposed to, and this one may have started it's life as a weed, but now it's turned into a welcome addition.
It's just funny how if you give something in your life a chance to flower, to show you it's true worth. You might just find that you really had something quite spectacular all along, and you thought it was nothing more than a "weed".
Now I don't have very many flowers in the flowerbeds surrounding my house, and so the weeds had pretty much taken over. I did have some baby trees that had started to grow, many of which I transplanted out into the yard this year, but not very many flowers in the beds. No one lived in my house last year so the weeds had seriously overwhelmed the entire flowerbed, and I'v
e spent most of the summer trying to reclaim this area around my house from the weeds that had taken it over.I do have a couple rose bushes, some daffodils and one very sad rhododendron that refuses to give up, though it's been right on the edge for several years, but finally seems to be doing a little better this year.
While I was weeding early in the spring I came across a little "weed" that didn't quite look like the rest, it certainly wasn't a grass or one of the many dandelions that predominately made up my flowerbeds. This little guy, who was about 6 inches tall, was different than anything I had found there. Thinking it may be some sort of tree I decided to spare it, just to see what it would grow into.
Every time I weeded I would see this little "weed" and would think to myself that "I really should pull it and toss it, after all it's ju
st another weed". Something kept me from pulling it though, I don't know what it was, maybe just curiosity to see what it was. It grew straight and tall, to the point now where it's about 5 feet tall, but I still had no idea what it was (and I still don't). It wasn't ugly or anything and I still had hopes that it may be some sort of tree that I could transplant into my yard, but it's leaves didn't belong to any tree I recognized, and I'm pretty good with knowing trees.About a week ago my little "weed", which is now a fully-grown bush, flowered for the first time and it made me glad that I chose to let it live. It blossomed with some very beautiful flowers, and looks very nice growing right where it is in the corner of my flowerbed. Now maybe one of our resident blogger gardeners might recognize what this "weed" is, but I still have no clue as to it's identity or where it came from. Though I do know that it really doesn't deserve to be called "a weed" anymore, since It's definitely shrub sized now. Weeds are
defined as some plant that grows where it isn't supposed to, and this one may have started it's life as a weed, but now it's turned into a welcome addition.It's just funny how if you give something in your life a chance to flower, to show you it's true worth. You might just find that you really had something quite spectacular all along, and you thought it was nothing more than a "weed".
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Early Sunday Morning Blogging
Well it's 5 am Sunday morning and I'm sitting here blogging. When I think about it, it's kind of strange knowing that of all the Bloggers (or people) that I know, I'm probably the only one awake at this time on a Sunday morning, except for maybe some of my west coast blogger friends who may still be up partying, as it is still Saturday night for them. I've always been an early riser, and I absolutely love the early morning when it's so very quiet out, so to answer your question, no I haven't been up all night, I'm just enjoying the silence of the morning.
I haven't done much blogging this week because I've had my 9/11 sickness. What is a "9/11 sickness" you may ask? Well let me tell you. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, shivering. I had come down with an illness, be it flu or very bad cold, I don't know, but I had called into work, as I was definitely in no shape to go in that day. My wife, at the time, called me and told me to turn on the TV, to watch what was going on after the first plane had hit the first tower. I watched the second plane hit the second tower live. She called me back a little later and asked me to try to get a hold of her daughter who lived in Pittsburgh as there had been reports of a plane going down "in" Pittsburgh, and she was worried. I spent the next four days sitting on the couch watching the drama unfold. I probably could have gone back to work after two days, maybe three, but this was one of those times when you just couldn't pull yourself away from it. As for my 9/11 sickness, I have been sick every 9/11 since that day. It always seems to come back to remind me, and it's gotten to the point where I've given it a name. It's strange that it should come back at the same time every year. I didn't miss any work this year, so I guess I've made up for taking those extra days off 5 years ago. It has become a tradition that I will be sick on that day, a tradition that I wouldn't mind seeing come to an end.
I made my first pot of chili of the season this week. Chili is a traditional fall and winter food, meant to warm you up when the weather turns colder, and as the leave
s have started to change, I felt that it wasn't to early for the first batch. Chili goes along very well with football and the end of baseball and all those other autumn traditions that we hold dear. It is one of my favorite things, to be out raking leaves, and then to come in to a large bowl of steaming hot chili, though not enough leaves have fallen for that yet, it won't be long now. I don't really have a recipe for mine as it comes out different every time, which is just the way I like it. I always felt that chili is more art form than actual cooking, and over the years mine has had many changes to it. My chili has gone "from the ridiculous to the sublime", and everything in between. I have made some that verged on inedible, where one spoonful would instantly break you out in a sweat and have you downing vast amounts of water, to others that where quite cool and mellow. I do however have one ex wife that no longer trusts my chili and will under no circumstances touch it, no matter how much I proclaim it's mildness. This batch came out quite on the mild side though it appeared to me that it wasn't. I added a
bout a dozen whole jalapeno peppers (diced) that gave it a look like it was going to be very nasty. I was surprised that it wasn't very hot at all. I have some friends that wouldn't have liked this batch at all, since they feel that it isn't chili unless it makes your tongue run for cover. I have found that chili doesn't necessarily have to be toxic in order to be good. There is one part of my "recipe" that never changes; my bowl of chili has to be dressed up with copious amounts of cheddar cheese and sour cream. The sour cream especially helps to cool it off if that particular batch comes out too much on the toxic fire burner side.
A tragic death has occurred. My coffee maker has given up the ghost. I'm afraid it died from being overworked, and has left me drinking instant coffee all week. I have to get to the store to buy a new one today. I used to have a backup coffee maker, but I think my ex snagged it when she moved out. My backup coffee maker was a twenty-year-old Norelco, though not very pretty, never failed to function. It had been passed from family member to family member and was one of those machines that never seems to give up. Hopefully I can get to the store to get a new one today.
I finally ordered my pellets for my pellets stove yesterday. Pellets are made of compressed sawdust, a byproduct of the wood industry, which are burned in a stove specially designed for them. This is how I heat my home in the winter. This year it will cost me roughly 230$ a month to heat my house with the pellets. If I heated my house with the gas furnace, because of the size and age of my house, some months the bill would be about 400$ and maybe higher depending on the whims of the gas company. I have been a little worried this year because I would normally have had my pellets in long before this, with a few unexpected bills, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford them. I had one ton leftover from last year, so I ordered four more tons that should be delivered this week. I like to have five tons on hand, as this was the amount I used during a very bad winter a few years back, and consider that to be the "worst case scenario" as far as winters go around here. I pretty much burn a consistent one ton a month during the winter, and will burn gas in the very beginning and end of the winter when it costs less than 230$ a month to do so, which was the price per ton this year. When I started burning pellets about eight years ago they were 130$ a ton, but since then, with many people changing over to wood pellets, and the price of gas skyrocketing, it has driven up the price substantially. Still there is great peace of mind that comes with having your heat for the winter already paid for and knowing there won't be any big surprises from the gas company.
I haven't done much blogging this week because I've had my 9/11 sickness. What is a "9/11 sickness" you may ask? Well let me tell you. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, shivering. I had come down with an illness, be it flu or very bad cold, I don't know, but I had called into work, as I was definitely in no shape to go in that day. My wife, at the time, called me and told me to turn on the TV, to watch what was going on after the first plane had hit the first tower. I watched the second plane hit the second tower live. She called me back a little later and asked me to try to get a hold of her daughter who lived in Pittsburgh as there had been reports of a plane going down "in" Pittsburgh, and she was worried. I spent the next four days sitting on the couch watching the drama unfold. I probably could have gone back to work after two days, maybe three, but this was one of those times when you just couldn't pull yourself away from it. As for my 9/11 sickness, I have been sick every 9/11 since that day. It always seems to come back to remind me, and it's gotten to the point where I've given it a name. It's strange that it should come back at the same time every year. I didn't miss any work this year, so I guess I've made up for taking those extra days off 5 years ago. It has become a tradition that I will be sick on that day, a tradition that I wouldn't mind seeing come to an end.
I made my first pot of chili of the season this week. Chili is a traditional fall and winter food, meant to warm you up when the weather turns colder, and as the leave
s have started to change, I felt that it wasn't to early for the first batch. Chili goes along very well with football and the end of baseball and all those other autumn traditions that we hold dear. It is one of my favorite things, to be out raking leaves, and then to come in to a large bowl of steaming hot chili, though not enough leaves have fallen for that yet, it won't be long now. I don't really have a recipe for mine as it comes out different every time, which is just the way I like it. I always felt that chili is more art form than actual cooking, and over the years mine has had many changes to it. My chili has gone "from the ridiculous to the sublime", and everything in between. I have made some that verged on inedible, where one spoonful would instantly break you out in a sweat and have you downing vast amounts of water, to others that where quite cool and mellow. I do however have one ex wife that no longer trusts my chili and will under no circumstances touch it, no matter how much I proclaim it's mildness. This batch came out quite on the mild side though it appeared to me that it wasn't. I added about a dozen whole jalapeno peppers (diced) that gave it a look like it was going to be very nasty. I was surprised that it wasn't very hot at all. I have some friends that wouldn't have liked this batch at all, since they feel that it isn't chili unless it makes your tongue run for cover. I have found that chili doesn't necessarily have to be toxic in order to be good. There is one part of my "recipe" that never changes; my bowl of chili has to be dressed up with copious amounts of cheddar cheese and sour cream. The sour cream especially helps to cool it off if that particular batch comes out too much on the toxic fire burner side.A tragic death has occurred. My coffee maker has given up the ghost. I'm afraid it died from being overworked, and has left me drinking instant coffee all week. I have to get to the store to buy a new one today. I used to have a backup coffee maker, but I think my ex snagged it when she moved out. My backup coffee maker was a twenty-year-old Norelco, though not very pretty, never failed to function. It had been passed from family member to family member and was one of those machines that never seems to give up. Hopefully I can get to the store to get a new one today.
I finally ordered my pellets for my pellets stove yesterday. Pellets are made of compressed sawdust, a byproduct of the wood industry, which are burned in a stove specially designed for them. This is how I heat my home in the winter. This year it will cost me roughly 230$ a month to heat my house with the pellets. If I heated my house with the gas furnace, because of the size and age of my house, some months the bill would be about 400$ and maybe higher depending on the whims of the gas company. I have been a little worried this year because I would normally have had my pellets in long before this, with a few unexpected bills, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford them. I had one ton leftover from last year, so I ordered four more tons that should be delivered this week. I like to have five tons on hand, as this was the amount I used during a very bad winter a few years back, and consider that to be the "worst case scenario" as far as winters go around here. I pretty much burn a consistent one ton a month during the winter, and will burn gas in the very beginning and end of the winter when it costs less than 230$ a month to do so, which was the price per ton this year. When I started burning pellets about eight years ago they were 130$ a ton, but since then, with many people changing over to wood pellets, and the price of gas skyrocketing, it has driven up the price substantially. Still there is great peace of mind that comes with having your heat for the winter already paid for and knowing there won't be any big surprises from the gas company.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
This Site Has "Moved"
If you are using "Blogger" go Here to use this site!
While this switch between "Blogger" and "Blogger Beta" is going on I will be posting at two sites, one with the old "Blogger" template and one with the new "Blogger Beta" template. Right now you are at my "Blogger Beta" site and should use this if you have switched over to "Blogger Beta". This seems like it may be a pain, but it is really the only way I can see of doing it. At some point you will have half the people on "Blogger" and half the people on "Blogger Beta" and it's going to cause a real mess. Eventually when everyone is switched to "Blogger Beta" (and it's going to happen) I will stop keeping the other site up to date, but for now I will be putting up identical posts on both sites (which really isn't that bad), so that my friends can "comment" on my posts, which they haven't been able to do. If you switch to "Blogger Beta" you should keep using this site. So saying "my site has moved" isn't really true, it's just acquired a "split personality"...
While this switch between "Blogger" and "Blogger Beta" is going on I will be posting at two sites, one with the old "Blogger" template and one with the new "Blogger Beta" template. Right now you are at my "Blogger Beta" site and should use this if you have switched over to "Blogger Beta". This seems like it may be a pain, but it is really the only way I can see of doing it. At some point you will have half the people on "Blogger" and half the people on "Blogger Beta" and it's going to cause a real mess. Eventually when everyone is switched to "Blogger Beta" (and it's going to happen) I will stop keeping the other site up to date, but for now I will be putting up identical posts on both sites (which really isn't that bad), so that my friends can "comment" on my posts, which they haven't been able to do. If you switch to "Blogger Beta" you should keep using this site. So saying "my site has moved" isn't really true, it's just acquired a "split personality"...
Thursday, September 07, 2006
What Planet are you?
| You Are From Mercury |
 You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything. |
Thanks to Wolfgrrrl! for posting this one, the only problem is I don't even own a cellphone...
Dagoth in Beta
Many of you have probably noticed that you can't post a comment on my site using your blogger user name. That's because I have transferred my site to the new Blogger Beta. As there are still many bugs with the new system it is probably best to wait until they work a few more of them out before switching over, unless you are a "glutton for punishment" like me. Right now I am seeing a whole lot of problems with it, without a whole lot of improvement. The main improvement seems to be, being able to make your blog private, though I have some questions on that as well. When Spider Walk changed her sight over and made it private, it refused to let me into the comments section unless I allowed blogger to place a tracking cookie in my computer. I have anti-spyware that blocks tracking cookies, and it's not something that I would want to change, to allow tracking cookies to be placed in my computer.
As far as not being able to comment goes I wrote an email to blogger about this bug and this is the response they gave me:
Having to use two accounts is kind of a pain, and hopefully this won't go on for too long, though I've been through more than a few beta tests in my job and sometimes they can drag out for a while. Of course most of the betas I have used have had a lot less bubs than this, and most of them were fairly minor. The bugs that blogger beta has hardly qualify as bugs at all, because It's not a bug when functionality is missing entirely...
As far as not being able to comment goes I wrote an email to blogger about this bug and this is the response they gave me:
So with that being said I started a new account in Blogger so that I can comment on other people's sites. It is just a temporary site and I don't intend on doing any posting there. This still doesn't change the problem of people without a blogger beta being able to comment on a blogger beta site. You can still comment as anonymous, which is kind of lame, or you could get a temporary blogger beta account, essentially doing just the opposite of what I have done here. I was planning on just waiting until they fixed, but when they suggested in their reply that I get a second account, it made me wonder just how long it was going to be before they fixed this problem.Hi there,
Thanks for writing in. Unfortunately, users logged in to Blogger in
beta
accounts are currently unable to comment on unmigrated Blogger blogs.
However, note that all Blogger accounts will ultimately be switched to
Blogger in beta, so this should only pose a temporary problem. We
apologize for the inconvenience.
If you'd like to comment on an unmigrated Blogger blog but have already
switched to a Blogger in beta account, as a workaround, you can create
a
new, regular Blogger account. Then, you may use that account to comment
on
regular Blogger blogs.
Finally, please note that Blogger users that have not yet switched will
still be able to comment on Blogger in beta blogs. However, the links
to
their profiles are currently not working properly. Our apologies for
the
commenting messiness. We appreciate your patience during this
transitional
period.
Sincerely,
Danish
The Blogger Team
Having to use two accounts is kind of a pain, and hopefully this won't go on for too long, though I've been through more than a few beta tests in my job and sometimes they can drag out for a while. Of course most of the betas I have used have had a lot less bubs than this, and most of them were fairly minor. The bugs that blogger beta has hardly qualify as bugs at all, because It's not a bug when functionality is missing entirely...
Monday, September 04, 2006
One of my Favorite Games
This is one of my favorite Games, called Kye. I have zipped it into a zip file that you can download by clicking on the link below and try the game if you would like (providing I got the download link right). It's a very simple game that doesn't require installing, simply download and unzip the file and put it's contents in a folder in your computer somewhere. To run it you just double click on the Kye.exe file.
Kye.zip
You are the green circle and you can move him around with the mouse or the arrow keys. The idea of the game is to get the blue diamonds. The light yellow blocks you can break by running into them, the solid yellow blocks you can push. The round circles with the arrows will go in the direction of the arrow once whatever is blocking them is moved. The "hour glass" shaped blocks are called "sticky blocks" and can be pulled or pushed and will "stick" to your green man and to other objects to "pull" the other objects out of the way. Beware the "little moving monsters" of different size and shape, if you let them loose they can kill you. It is also very easy to get yourself trapped by the blocks if you move them in the wrong way. There are 10 levels of which I have cleared 9. I found this game, though very simple by design, also very addicting. If you are able to clear all of them let me know.
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