Taxes are such a wonderful thing

I worked on preparing my income taxes today. While happily bogged down with this year's, I realized I'd made a mistake on last year's return. I have now completed the paperwork for filing an amended 2004 return which I will shoot off tomorrow. If it is accepted, I shall get a nice chunk of change back from the government.

Something whimsical

Maija Pietikäinen : Hide-and-Seek

Maija Pietikäinen : Sleeping Trolls

12 is such an ugly number

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 12. What is your score? Get it here.

I'm such a geek

Not only do I own a camera phone - something I swore was a useless waste of time and money - but I have now downloaded my first ever ringtone. My personal cell phone and my work cell phone are both the same brand. All of the other cell phones at work are the same brand as mine. And all of these cell phones use the same ringtone. You can just imagine how confusing that gets when there are bunches of people in the same space at the same time. So I broke down earlier today and downloaded Crockett's Theme from Miami Vice. I'm reasonably certain that no one else at work is using that as a tone and it's always been a favorite tune of mine.

I even emailed a friend a note with a photo attached earlier today. I don't know whether that worked or not. The phone didn't report a problem but the Best Friend hasn't emailed to let me know she got it. (I did send her a regular email telling her what I'd tried and not to panic when this strange looking email with a picture of a dirty keyboard showed up in her mailbox.)

I am becoming such a cell phone geek. Next thing you know, I'll be text messaging people with all those annoying abbreviations that are like an alien language to me.

;D

Lunch break, yesterday

I went to lunch with a couple of co-workers yesterday, and on the way back to the office, one of them suggested we drive through the little nature park that is not far from the office. When we got to the end of the loop around the park, the other co-worker wanted to stop and look at the birds. So I parked and we all traipsed to the pond to watch the birds. Even though the couple of pictures I took seem to have nothing but gulls in them, there were geese and ducks swimming around.




And speaking of work . . . I woke up this morning having to deal with a call of nature. I rolled over and looked at the alarm clock which said it was 7:09 a.m. I thought "Oh, shit!", threw off the covers, and jumped out of bed. It wasn't until I'd turned on the light that I remembered it was Saturday and I wasn't going to be late for work.

~ snerk ~

It's been that kind of a hectic week. I've been busy, busy, busy at work so that I've been pretty much exhausted by the time I got home. I'm so glad it's Saturday so I can be a lazy bum, albeit an early rising one. I stayed up late last night and my intention was to sleep in this morning. I guess sleeping until 7-ish could be considered sleeping in. Oh, well. There are books to read and things to knit so I'm off.

In silence I look to the stars

NASA's Darkest Day

Heaven help me!

Izzy is in heat. She has developed a passionate attachment to my laptop which is what I'm using to type this while I watch Stargate: Atlantis. She's also become almost as passionately attached to me.

Poor thing.

Sunrise this morning

Sunset last night

1836

I heard on the news today that Houston has a professional soccer team. The home of the Astros, Aeros, Rockets, Comets, and Texans now has a soccer team called Houston 1836. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

(For those of you who wonder why anyone would choose 1836 without being blitzed out of their mind on booze and pills . . . 1836 is the year Texas won its independence from Mexico.)

Who is Galen Tyrol?

You scored as Commander William Adama. You have risen to your position by being damn good at what you do. Not only that, you have the deepest respect for the people under your command. You may be a little grumpy and unapproachable, but every commander needs to distance himself. Shame that you apply that to your children too. Commander William Adama 69% President Laura Roslin 56% Tom Zarek 50% Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo) 50% Dr Gaius Baltar 44% Lt. Kara Thrace (Starbuck) 44% CPO Galen Tyrol 44% Col. Saul Tigh 38% Number 6 25% Lt. Sharon Valerii (Boomer) 13% What New Battlestar Galactica character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

The drive home

I snapped these shots with my cell phone. They are all just point and shoot shots since I can't really take the time to line a picture up while I'm cruising down the road doing 70.

irrefragable

irrefragable \ih-REF-ruh-guh-buhl\, adjective:
Impossible to refute; incontestable; undeniable; as, an irrefragable argument; irrefragable evidence.

Irrefragable derives from Late Latin irrefragabilis, from Latin in-, "not" + refragari, "to oppose."

Finally!

I finally broke down and called Cingular about my multi-media messaging phone not multi-media messaging. The very nice lady on the phone had me turn my phone off and pop my sim chip out. Of course, I dropped the stoopid sim chip and couldn't find it. I even called the Prodigal and his girlfriend in to help me look for it. After much searching and shifting of piles of stuff around, we decided it had gone into the trash can next to my desk and the nice lady on the phone said she would put a credit for the cost of a new chip on my account. She said the folks at my Cingular store could help me with the messaging problem as well as give me a new chip.

Well, I dug through the trash can and I found the chip. I really hated the idea of losing all my numbers. I popped the silly thing back in the phone and, lo and behold, the phone now does multi-media messaging like a champ. As proof, here are the photos I've been storing on my phone since December with no way to get them off.




These were taken on two different days on the way home from work. For cell phone shots taken while caught in traffic, I think they're lovely shots of approaching dusk.

The Queen of Naps strikes again!

Day off

I took today off work to sit home waiting for repairmen to fix things that have broken. The dryer repairman has been and gone and my dryer works again. ~ major joyful happy dancing ~ I can do laundry again and have clean clothes to wear! Who'da thunk I'd be joyful about doing laundry?

And the garbage disposal guy was only here long enough to earn a dirty look. I told the lady who schedules appointments (in as much as one can call a repairman showing up sometime between 8 am and 5 pm an appointment) that I thought the thing was well and truly dead and needed to be replaced. The guy came in, looked at it, hit the reset button, pronounced it well and truly dead, and said he'd be back next Tuesday to replace it. See what I mean about earning a dirty look?

So, what am I going to do with the rest of today? I could go in to work and save my vacation (and, no, you don't have to lock me in a padded room 'cause I'd have myself committed if that were even the smallest smidgen of a real option being considered.) Or I could clean house (see prior parenthetical note.) Or I could just be a lazy bum and read and munch donuts and sip milk. That actually sounds like a plan.

Later 'gators.

What herb am I?

YOU ARE CHAMOMILE


What herb are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sylvia Körner: Queen of Light

(Another D&D reference for Raelerin . . . and the Best Friend . . . and the DM.)

Imagine her with black hair and without the headpiece. This is the closest to what I see Gareth looking like I've ever come across.

Sylvia Körner: Caewlin

(Be prepared for a D&D reference that won't mean anything to anyone except Raelerin.)

Too bad he's a redhead 'cause he's beautifully scarred.

B.C.

Nothing beats a good pun.

Am I erudite?

The Librarian You scored 60 erudition!

Congratulations! You're well above average when it comes to your knowledge of English grammar, history, and literature. You may have missed a few questions, but if you keep your studies up and stay away from genre fiction, we'll have you ready for Stanford in no time! Who knows, we just might be reading your columns in Talk of the Town a few years from now.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 9% on erudition

Link: The Are You Truly Erudite? Test written by okellelala on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

The Comet - A stitch in time for Spike

"A CRAFTY budgie who can stitch has weaved her way to the title of Young Cross Stitcher of 2005."

Has weaved? I don't remember what the verb tense is called - it's been billions of years since I learned grammar in school - but I do know that should say 'has woven'. But, bad grammar aside, it is a cute story about a cross stitching budgie named Spike.

FoxTrot by Bill Amend

Having flipped between Desparate Housewives and 24 last night, this was particularly funny today.

The Galveston Seawall, Third Stop

Parked on the Seawall

The Galveston Seawall, Second Stop

The Galveston Seawall, First Stop

A view from the toll bridge

On the beach

Sands of time

I stopped at the beach between Surfside and Galveston. It was wonderful and chilly and sunny. The temperature was in the mid 60s and I was traipsing around in a short sleeved T-shirt.

One little cloud

Actually, there were a couple of cloud-like wisps in the sky today, but this one caught my eye so I snapped it. I was standing in the IHOP parking lot.

Would you believe . . .

. . . I was rear ended again today? I was coasting to a stop at a red light, in Galveston, when the guy behind me coasted right into me. We pulled over and did the exchange of information thing. It doesn't look like there was any damage to speak of but I'll have to take a better look tomorrow in the daylight.

The poor guy was an old hippie with a ponytail who was obviously really relieved that I wasn't an hysterical bitch or inclined to call the police. I think he might even have been either a little drunk or a little high. He apologized profusely . . . repeatedly.

Heck, accidents happen.

So . . .

Have I gone a little way to making up for the relative silence on my blog the last little while?

It is such a glorious blue day today I had to go outside and take pictures.

And then I had to take snaps of the Furry Monsters because I haven't really done so in a while.

Now I'm off to acquire food. I've discovered I'm hungry.

Texture shots, Part Ten

The shrubbery by the front walkway

Texture shots, Part Nine

The tree in my front yard

Texture shots, Part Eight

My driveway

Texture shots, Part Seven

My magnolia tree

Texture shorts, Part Six

The basketball hoop

Texture shots, Part Five

The shrubbery separating me from my right side neighbor

Texture shots, Part Four

First signs of life on my lawn

Texture shots, Part Three

The tree in my front yard

Texture shots, Part Two

Brick exterior of my house

Texture shots, Part One

One view of the entry leading to my front door

Did I mention . . .

I was sort of rear ended on Tuesday morning on my way to work. I was stopped at a yield sign while traffic went zooming past when the car behind me just rolled into me. We pulled off to the side of the road and exchanged information and looked the cars over. Hers didn't have any apparent damage and mine has a crumple I'm not going to worry about. Can you spot the crumple in the photo?

The crew watching me

Rainbow, Heru, and Izzy watching me take pictures. You can see the chairs and the box still protect the broken window which I still haven't gotten around to getting fixed.


And here's the crew watching me, or not, snap them. I don't know how easy it is to tell from this picture how much smaller Izzy is then the other cats. Poor little runt! She makes up for it with attitude.

The Furry Monsters

Izzy warming the carpet


His Majesty keeping the Prodigal's chair warm


Goblin bathing on the laundry pile the Prodigal has dumped behind my sofa


Mouse doing her own thing by the TV


Rainbow thinking evil escapist thoughts by the dining room window

BBC News | Science/Nature | Stardust capsule set for return

"A capsule containing a teaspoonful of dust snatched from around a comet is set to parachute to Earth on Sunday."

The Universe always wins

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." -- Rich Cook

FoxTrot by Bill Amend

For the computer nerd in all of us.

;D

This just creeps me out

Some of nation's best libraries have books bound in human skin

Whoa, dude!

I don't think I'll ever be able to watch the Wizard of Oz again. And I've been apolitical for what . . . a couple of months, but this is just . . . well . . . The Wizard of Oil.

I have prettier hair

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Oh, my

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Blogger problems

Suddenly, I'm not getting any email from Blogger.com when I post a new entry or when someone posts a comment. As far as I can tell, the problem started yesterday (1/6) and continues on today. I rely on the email to let me know when someone has posted a comment so I can respond to it.

And, yes, I have sent a test email to the address I use for Blogger and the test email arrived just as it should. I even used gmail to send it.

Gotta love the man!

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." -- Dan Quayle

When did . . .

. . . the past tense of slay go from slew to slayed? Was I sleeping when that happened?

For the second time in as many days, I've read a news article where the word 'slayed' was used instead of 'slew'. It was very jolting to read.

And you thought it was just a movie

Sci Fi Wire reports:

12:00 AM, 03-JANUARY-06

Fake Narnia News Dupes Sites

Several legitimate news sites picked up a hoax press release saying that representatives of the fictional land of Narnia had walked out of the recent World Trade Organization's talks in Hong Kong, Australia's The Age newspaper reported.

The news release from "the independent state of Narnia" was picked up by the financial news agency AFX and found its way onto top business news Web sites, including Forbes.com.

The news release said that Narnia had walked out of the World Trade Organization talks in Hong Kong because it was fed up with being bullied by the United States and Europe. Narnia, of course, is the fictional realm from C.S. Lewis' fantasy book series The Chronicles of Narnia, which was recently adapted into the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The news release quoted Narnia spokeswoman Susan Aslan; Aslan is the name of the Christ-like lion featured in the books.

The agencies who picked up the phony news have since removed the reports, The Age reported.

Happy New Year!

Don't forget to eat your blackeyed peas for luck and properity this coming year.