graphs are cool

You can find graphs for anything. I like them. I like the visual story they tell. So you don't actually have to look at all the information, just the high and low. Then if you want to know the rest of the story, you can check it out. 

I saw this graph this morning;

So I looked at the top, and then the bottom. That's enough for me. Honestly, it wasn't until just now that I looked at the whole thing!

I like these too;

That's great information, just at a glance. Especially for someone like me, with commitment issues.


And this one is really interesting!

Everything should come in a visual form :-)

woof woof...what?

Poor Greta. She's almost deaf now. When she was a puppy and I was teaching her things - sit, down, come, etc. - I always did it accompanied by a hand signal. I'm not sure why, but I did. It turns out that that was a really good idea! Now, even though she can't hear me, unless I YELL, I can signal her and she'll still do what I want her too! Pretty cool. 

Having a deaf dog presents other challenges as well. Like, you have to be extra careful with open doors. If she runs outside, she won't hear you tell her to stop. I was thinking about adding a tag to her collar that says "I'm deaf." And her voice has changed. When I get home from work, her usual "OMG you're home" bark has turned into this weird sort of yodel. Before she lost her hearing, even if you tried, you couldn't sneak up on her. Now, you have to be careful not to startle her when you come from behind. That's a little weird. She used to wag her little nub like crazy when you laughed! But she still knows that a smile is a happy thing, so she wags if she sees you smile at her. Also, she panics a little if she can't find you, so you have to be sure she knows if you leave the house. And, while she can still hear a little bit, we yell when we say, "good girl" and give her a thumbs up. I'm hoping that she'll catch on to that pretty quickly - so she'll know that we still think she's a good girl, when we give her a thumbs up :-)

I was wondering if that stresses her out, that she can't hear. I asked the vet and she said she's never known a dog to exhibit signs of stress because they were deaf. That it usually happens so gradually, they don't really notice. I don't know. I think she notices. My fella says she's perfect on the leash now. Not that she wasn't good before, she was! But now she doesn't pull, ever! I don't know if it's because she's getting old or if it's because she can't hear so she sticks close to him to feel safe. I think she sleeps more now. But again, I don't know if it's because she's getting old or if it's because she's not on guard all the time now, because she can't hear. 

It's a little sad.

motivation

what motivates you? 

At work, are you motivated by a paycheck? Or are you actually motivated by doing a good job for your employer? I personally, am motivated by a paycheck. I want to do the best job I can, for the sake of my own self esteem and pride, but I would feel that way about any job. So, I guess any job that paid well, would be sufficient.

What motivates you as a parent? Providing for your kids / because you don't want to be alone / or really making them feel loved and raising them to be good humans, etc. Because there are moms, and then there are moms moms! You know what I mean. Some women have kids and take care of them but they aren't a priority. Other women put their kids first in everything they do.

What motivates you as a pet owner? For instance, I wanted to have a really good dog. So I worked with Greta every single day when she was a puppy, for a year. She's the best dog ever now! We don't just feed and water our dogs. We play when they want to, we worry about their happiness and comfort. I guess you could say we're motivated by love.

What motivates you, in life? Outside of work or parenting. Like, what motivates you to have a clean house, or a perfect yard or garden. Joy? Passion? Necessity? Social norms?

What motivates you to be a good person? Experience? Religion? Your inherent sense of right and wrong? Rules?


http://jamesclear.com/motivation

mo·tive

ˈmōdiv/

noun

1. 1.

   a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious.
2. 
   

for the birds!

You know we love these! This year we (mom and I) are watching many birds. Giraffe? Pshh. It's all about the birds for us :-)

We've got this gal in Hanover PA
https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/bald-eagle-live-cam

This TINY little thing
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/bella-hummingbird-nest

Here's a new owl cam I found
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/great-horned-owl-cam

Another eagle, because....eagles are really cool!!
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/features/webcams/eaglecam/index.html

And just one more, because they're practically grown already!
http://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/

Oh ok, if you MUST look, here's the dumb giraffe
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnQCgFa9lCBL-KXZMOoO9Q/live

Ahhhhh

I love my craft/library room. I love everything about it. Every time I walk through the door, instantly a smile comes to my face! It's all mine and it's a mess!!!! Yesterday, I was looking for a little bottle of oil and I had to look 'in' things and around things and behind things and it made me so happy to look at all my stuff :-) Ahhhhh. Here's the library side of things!!

What time is it?

Here we go again. It's almost time to change your clocks. You know, "spring ahead." This is when we lose an hour? I can never get that straight. PLEASE can we get rid of daylight savings time!?!?!? It outlived it's usefulness at least 60 years ago. Come on people, you aren't getting an extra hour of daylight. It's the same daylight you'd get whether the clock says it's noon or 1:00. Good grief!! Daylight savings time last for 8 months. So for 4 months of the year, we're on a different time. FOUR months. Seriously? What the hell is the point of that? Everybody, pick a damn time zone and stay there. Grrrrr.

wee things

You know how much I like tiny things. Miniature everything! Dollhouse furnishings, tiny felted animals, even baby clothes. SO cute!! I love the whole fairy garden thing too. I started seeing them on Pinterest a couple years ago. I had no idea they were so popular right now. Wow! If you Google fairy gardens, you'll get almost 14 million results. Geez. I hate to be a follower, but I think I have to have a fairy garden. I can almost feel my husband cringing right now. Sorry honey :-)  I promise not to get too carried away.

found it!

Is there some little thing that you are constantly losing?
Some thing that you lose and buy and find? I know you know what I mean! I can't be the only one.
I know for sure that my fella does this as well. How else would you explain the 50 tape measures we have?! And we're both like that with reading glasses. We have our favorites but every time we misplace a pair, we buy a pair. I would guess that somewhere in the house, we have at least a 100 pair of reading glasses. Yeah, yeah, of course I'm exaggerating...
You know what else is like that, in our house? Fingernail clippers. They're always missing. When they're missing, the next time I go to the store, if I remember, I buy a pair. I guess I do that with some regularity because look what magically turned up the other day!!!!!!!

I'm going to try and remember not to buy anymore clippers.

pictures

It's estimated that 1.8 BILLION photographs are taken every day!! 
Right now, I have almost 1,000 pictures on my phone. There they are, on my phone. What am I going to do with them? I've already deleted 100's of them. Should I send them to Walgreen's and print them out? Do I actually want to keep them all? They are all stored in "the cloud" so if I lose my phone, I'll still have my pictures. I wonder how many pictures are stored in the cloud right now. Is there a shelf life for that data? Will they be in the cloud forever? That's a lot of data.

When I was a kid and all the way to adulthood, you had to take pictures with a camera that used film. My first camera was a Brownie;

I think my next camera was a 110 camera;

Remember those?

Next, I think my camera looked like this;

That style of camera, 35mm, took me all the way to about 2003, when I got my first digital camera. I have a 1/2 dozen SD memory cards with pictures on them, most of which I have never printed. Is anyone but me going to look at them?

I was thinking about all that last December. I made a couple of photo/scrapbooks for Mom for Christmas. It's actually kinda cool to look through a photo album. It made me want to look through all of my old ones. Honestly though, ALL of my photo albums put together, probably don't contain a 1,000 pictures. 

Anyway...looking through all my photo albums, there aren't a lot of pictures of the kids growing up. You had to take the picture, wait till you used all 24 (or more) take the film to the drugstore and wait a couple days to get them back and pay for them. As a teenager, I had to save to get my film developed! I bet I still have at least a few of those film canisters with undeveloped film in them. These days, parents document everyday of their kids lives! Teenagers take a zillion pictures, of themselves, everyday! But what happens to them?? I was wondering, will my grandchildren ever have paper pictures to show THEIR kids? Will their kids ever hold a picture in their hand, of their great grandparents? And maybe their kids will just Google whoever they want to see, because by then, everything will be digital. Isn't that weird??

Hopeful

Let's talk about migraines again. Migraines suck! My biggest trigger is weather. Whenever there's a big change, BAM! December and January were horrible for me. I had a migraine in January that lasted for FOUR days. I was this close to going to the emergency clinic! It was awful. 
After that, I decided to do some more research on holistic remedies. My Rx works well but it makes me feel weird. That can't be good, can it? Anyway, I've already tried several over the counter things. I've also changed my sleeping habits on the weekend. You know, instead of sleeping in, I get up around 7:30 or 8:00. I think that helped a little! Then I read something new...it said that if you take a vitamin B complex, it could reduce your migraines by up to 40%. Yeah, yeah, could and up to are suspicious. But what the hell, it can't hurt, right? Sooooo, it's been 3 weeks. I thought I was going to have a migraine a couple times, but I took some Tylenol and what do you know? It went away. Three weeks without a migraine. It's making me happy, real happy! I'm hopeful for sure.

Now for something completely different. Look at this funny ring;

Rawr means, I love you, in dinosaur. LOL. I had to have it - super cute :-)

THAT was fun!

My kid brother just came out to visit for a week. Besides just seeing his face, my favorite part was strolling down memory lane with someone who actually shares those memories with me. Oh you know, it's fun to do that with your spouse or a good friend, but unless they were there, it's not the same. He said he remembered a restaurant called Caves and Caverns. I didn't remember that one at all! But others I did - Victoria Station, Farrell's and Burger Chef-which became Hardees/Carl's Jr., Laughner's Cafeteria, Nora Theater, Ayr-Way, (which was sold to Target). Hooks drugstore and Standard grocery store. Flower City. Then there was our old Jr. High and Elementary school. The Ice Dome, and the old country club we use to go to, The Riviera Club. It still looks the same, mostly.

All our old neighborhoods. Riding our bikes for miles and miles and miles, on country roads that are busy highways now. It was pretty fun. 

My guy did some totally rad car stuff with him. World of Wheels, the Dallara Indy car Factory and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. The museum was neat because they had taken out a lot of the race cars to make room for a really cool display...in honor of Indiana's 200th birthday, they were displaying all the cars that had been made in Indiana! I learn new things all the time!

It was SO great to see him and take care of him :-)

things you should work on

First, do you listen to people when they speak? When you do, do you listen to respond or do you listen to understand? Isn't that an interesting way to put it? For the most part, I think I listen to understand. I could do better though. I'm going to work on that.

Second, is there anything that's beneath you? Is there something you wouldn't do because you feel you shouldn't have to or because you feel it's demeaning? Do you treat everyone with respect? I try to be nice to everyone. Even though I don't like people. I always say hi to the cleaning lady in our building, the old fella that brings our mail, and all the maintenance people. They work hard. And I'm always nice to restaurant servers. They work really hard. I'd like to think that even if I had a high paying, executive position somewhere, that I would still be nice to everyone. 

So, you know I brought that up for a reason, right? :-)

In my office, there's a water cooler. It has a hot water and a cold water spigot. It's awesome!
There are five men and 1 woman in our office, top executives. Plus myself and the other Admin.
How often would you think that I've had to replace the 40 pound water bottle on the cooler? Go ahead, take a wild guess. 98% of the time. No, I'm serious! I've actually watched a couple of those men walk into our break-room to put water in their glass, see that the jug is empty, and turn around and walk out. Oh no, I am not kidding. Sometimes I don't change it, just to see who will. We went all day once, before some 2nd level management guy came in and changed it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. 1/2 of them don't even acknowledge me as they walk by. I would bet money that our top guy, after 2 years, doesn't know my last name. I don't know if it's because he's an elitist and acknowledging a peon is beneath him, or if it's because I don't have a penis. Frankly, if you can't change the empty water bottle, I think it's because YOU don't have a penis!!!!

your soundtrack

What's on the soundtrack of your life??
You know, the songs that absolutely bring back A memory or a whole time frame. The songs that just make you feel so good. I know there might be a lot of them but think about it...it will make you happy.

Stairway to Heaven                                                    
Kiss                  
Dream On                                                                   
I Honestly Love You
Long Haired Country Boy                                           
I Will Survive
Margaritaville                                                              
Lay Down Sally
Don't Mess Around with Jim                                       
I Am I Said
Afternoon Delight                                                        
I Think I Love You
Freebird                                                                      
The Time of My Life
Black Water                                                                 
Faith
Hot Stuff                                                                      
Turn The Page
Wild World                                                                   
Addicted To Love
Loco Motion                                                                
You're No Good                                     
Fallen                                                                         
Time In A Bottle  
American Woman                                                        
Sweet Dreams                                     
Candy Man                                                                  
American Pie         
White Wedding                                                            
Thriller
Hello                                                                            
Make It With You
Bohemian Rhapsody                                                   
Mama He's Crazy
Tie A Yellow Ribbon                                                    
Friends In Low Places
What's Love Got to Do With It                                     
My Maria
You've Got A Friend                                                    
Forever and Ever Amen
Where Were You                                                         
She's Always A Lady
Walk This Way                                                             
I Will Always Love You
Simply Irresistible

There are a few more, of course. These are just the ones that pop into my head. It makes me happy! I think I'll create my own playlist!! Yay for Fridays!!!

...in the news

This is great news!!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/10-things-that-happen-to-your-body-when-you-take-a-nap/ss-AAlKwKQ?li=BBnb7Kz

It's Groundhog's Day. The little furball saw his shadow. That means 6 more weeks of winter. I hate to break it to you, but the first day of Spring is March 20th. Which is 7 1/2 weeks away. So 6 more weeks seems like a deal to me!

An anti-Trump movement is calling for a boycott of 33 retailers that sell Trump merchandise. I looked them up - most of them are on the list because they sell Ivanka Trump's clothing line. Forgive me, but I fail to see what Ivanka Trump has to do with the presidency. Why does the country want something to hate, so badly??

If you've ever wondered what's in the filling (between the layers of wafer) of a Kit Kat bar, here's your answer: It's not chocolate! It's actually recycled Kit Kats. Technicians pull any imperfect Kit Kats - with off center wafers or not enough shine, for example - and grind them into a paste.

Safety

Do you worry about your safety, or the safety of your loved ones? When do you worry?
I do some things that are definitely purposeful to be safe. For instance, I always have my keys in my hand way before I get to my car and I throw my purse in first thing. I never leave my purse in the shopping cart. I always lock my car when I get gas. And at night, I try to be aware of who is around me, if I'm alone. Those are all things I've been doing for 30 years though! Past that, I guess I don't think that much about it. I don't worry about a crazy person bursting into the theater while I'm watching a movie. I'm not always looking at people as they walk into a restaurant. I don't worry about terrorists when I'm flying somewhere. In general, I don't take extra precautions. Do you? Curiously however, I do worry about my fella driving across the country by himself. And I can say with confidence that I would NOT approve of my mom doing that either! No way! 

Today, I was cleaning out a folder in my email and it had a couple things in it that I wanted to mention here, then forgot. One of them was about the victims of the theater shooting in Aurora Colorado, a few years ago. Basically, it said that 4 of the survivors, who chose not to take a settlement, sued the theater for not keeping them safe. A judge ruled against them. I can't begin to comprehend the trauma et al. they faced. Not having ever been in any kind of situation like that, I can't say how I would feel. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't blame an establishment for what some totally whacked out, nut job did! And isn't it a shame that their attorney led them to believe that they had a case. (That's a whole different topic though)

Really, you aren't "safe" anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're armed either. Does that stop you from going places though? Is it someone responsibility to make sure you're safe from other people? Would you even go to the movies if you had to be searched before you went in? How much of your freedom would you give up to be guaranteed you would be protected from other people?