barf

I read an article yesterday about a man who was scheduled to be put to death today, for murdering his young daughters. Good. It happened in 2001. It pissed me off that the state of Texas has been supporting him for 15 years. I mean, his trial happened right away so it wasn't like he had to wait 5 years to be found guilty. That irritates me. Today, I read this article;

http://www.wthr.com/story/31596179/texas-man-gets-reprieve-hours-before-scheduled-execution

This irritates me even more. You have to be sane to be executed?? I mean, if you kill your own children just to piss your ex off, you're really NOT sane to begin with, right? Oy


Why am I reading the news?? Geez, will I never learn!!

full disclousure

I don't like being fat. Especially since I've been thin most of my life. Actually, I hate being fat. I just can't figure out what to do about it! Apparently, I'm not very good at dieting on my own. I'm also not very good at holding myself accountable. Humph. So, I joined Nutrisystem. I started on February 1st. In 8 weeks, I've lost 15.4 pounds. HOORAY! Finally, success. I know exactly why too - because I didn't have to do anything. I only eat what they send me. I don't have to think about what to cook, how much to cook, calories, fat, blah, blah, blah. It's perfect for me! So, here are some things I discovered; I don't miss sugar. That's a big one for me. But, I am totally a carb-o-holic. Man do I miss potatoes, and chips. But, I'm not craving them now so that's a plus. Also, it's really hard not to over eat! Starting April 1st, I'm going to go it alone and see what happens. Wish me luck! I know what I have to stay away from now. Oh, and fruits and veggies are free food! THAT, I love! I can eat a lot of veggies :-)
And lots of walking. 10,000 steps a day is hard when you're an office slug. So, I walk 30/40 minutes every day at lunch. I park far away. I take the long way everywhere.
Already there are huge health benefits too. According to my fitbit, my average heart-rate the week of Feb. 1st, was 87. The week of March 1st, it was 71. This week, it's 67. Whoa. THAT'S AWESOME!

Oldies

When you think of oldies, in regard to music, which era/decade do you think of? The 50's? The 60's. When I think of oldies, I think of Motown, The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Four Seasons.  In the 70's, my friends and I called the 50's and 60's, oldies. Maybe the 50's were, but I don't why we called the 60's, oldies. Most cable TV services have music channels. Ours has about 30 music channels. They have a channel for the 80's, 90's, 70's, and...Oldies. Does that mean that the Oldies are classified as their own genre? I was wondering about all this because just the other day, somebody said the music I (ME) grew up with, IS the oldies! Na ah. So I looked it up. Wiki says that "Oldies is a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 25 to 55 years before the present day." 
Wait. So the music I grew up with, mid 70's, became 'oldies', technically, in about the year 2000. SIXTEEN YEARS AGO???? I forget how old I am allll the time. 

weekend things

Saturday, we celebrated our 12th year with sweet Greta. I can't believe we've had her for 12 years already!! Best dog EVER! She got canned food for dinner. She thought that was so awesome, she went back and checked her bowl 3 times! Sheesh! It was pretty funny.

Also, after serious dieting for the last 6 weeks, we all went out to dinner Saturday too! We went to a place called Hollyhock Hill. If you're ever in Indy, you have to go. Everyone says it's the best fried chicken dinner in the state. It was dee-lish! And not just because we haven't had real food in so long either! But mom and Bill were sad that you only got one scoop of ice cream for dessert.  :-)  I was happy to have the mashed potatoes. I love potatoes. ALL potatoes. sigh. Back to the diet.

The remodel is going slow. But we're both still alive and not threatening divorce so, so far it is successful. 

Do you like daylight savings time? I think it's dumb. I liked it better when we didn't change our clocks. Everybody says, but now you get an extra hour of daylight. No, you don't. It's the same, silly. We should just do away with that.

I made this super cool Cubs logo, over the weekend. One of my co-workers is going to go work for the Governor. He's a 'rabid' Cubbies fan. He's been very supportive of my quilling so I wanted to do something nice for him. Plus, he'll hang it in his new office - which gives me good exposure. It's a win, win! I dig it.

And, today is National Pi (3/14) day, National Potato Chip day, and National Napping day. So, have some chips, take a nap and eat a piece of pie! It's a good day!

Nature vs you

Are you ever amazed at how quickly nature takes over, once you've stopped occupying that space?

I drive by a mostly abandoned shopping mall - not in the ghetto, on my way home. Last summer, the city started spraying the weeds and trying to make it look like it still has potential. It might...but anyway, I've been so surprised by how quickly nature started taking over the parking lots!

I was thinking about that this morning, on my drive into work, through the ghetto.

There are a couple vacant houses, there's actually a lot of them, but a couple of them have started to "cave in" now. They didn't appear to be in that bad of shape a couple years ago. I wonder, what is it exactly that we're doing, inside our home, that keeps nature at bay? Is it climate control? Is it simply moving around through the rooms? Is it because we spray to keep the bugs out? Or because we mow the lawn all summer? I wonder.

Monday stuff...

If you're not eagle peeping, you should be! There's babies hatchin' all over the place! It's so cool!!! And who knew baby owls were so white and fluffy?!

You've probably seen the story(ies) about country duo, Joey and Rory. She passed away Friday. They weren't a famous couple or country duo. They didn't make headlines for anything spectacular. But Rory, has a blog. He's been writing about Joey's struggles and her death. It's just the sweetest most heartbreaking thing. I can't tell you how many times I cried, reading it. You can find it here;
http://thislifeilive.com/

I don't know if I have talked about this before - or maybe I just think to. Anyway...I'm so sick of what big babies people are. Seriously. I want people to stop saying they have a migraine. Trust me babe, if you have a migraine, you wouldn't be at work whining about having a migraine. Especially if all you take it Excedrin Migraine. Please. And if you have to stay home because your head hurts so badly, then you should see your doctor, because there are plenty of prescription medicines that can help you. 
Also, why does your place of business have to provide you with everything you want to make you more comfortable? Good grief. If you have tendinitis or carpal tunnel, and you want a wrist pad for your keyboard or mouse, just go buy one for yourself! By the time you go to the Dr., get a note, fill out all the appropriate paperwork in HR, not only will it be a couple weeks later, but it will have cost hundreds of dollars just to get a stupid little $7 wrist pad. Narcissistic, pinheads.

Maybe, maybe not

I got this email last week, about things that will disappear in the next 10 years. Like most things these day, it was kind of misleading. And of course, it's just somebody's  opinion. Anyway, it was interesting and it made me think about those things.

So let's see;

1.      The Post Office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in

financial trouble there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email,

Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to

keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

Junk mail is all about advertising and marketing. That's not going away. And bills aren't going away either. In my opinion, there are still plenty of people that get their bills via snail mail. But I'll buy that the Post Office, as we know, will definitely go away.  

2.      The Check

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.

It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.

Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of

the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never

paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office

would absolutely go out of business.

Yeah, I buy that. But not using checks won't lead to the death of the Post Office.

3.      The Newspaper

The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly

don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will go the way of the

milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to

pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused

all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have

met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a

model for paid subscription services.

They got that right - the younger generation doesn't read the paper. Hell, I don't read the paper. I find all the news I need, online. I don't believe that they'll pay for an online version though.

                                                                                        

4.      The Book

You say you will never give up the physical book you hold in your hand and

turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from

iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I

discovered I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home

to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.

I hope not. While I can admit that I love being able to read on my Kindle, at night, in bed, I still love having books. I know avid readers love having tablets to read on. I get it. I believe this could be true. But it would make me sad.

                                                                            

5.      The Land Line Telephone

Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't

need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always

had it. But you are paying double charges for the extra service. All the

cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell

provider for no charge against your minutes.

I haven't had a land line in about 10 years. I don't miss it. buh bye

6.      Music

This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is

dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack

of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who

would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record

labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40%

of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional

music the public is familiar with, older established artists. 

This is misleading. Music is NOT going away. Please. The music industry is changing though. Young people are finding new artists all the time. Just not through the traditional music industry. And those artists, don't want to be a part of the "music industry" anyway. Yes, I can see music radio corporations failing though. Greed ruins everything.

7.      Television

Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of

the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their

computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things to

take up the time usually spent watching TV. Prime time shows have

degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator.

Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes

and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be

put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch

online and through Netflix.

Again, misleading. TV isn't going away. But certainly, cable companies need to change their business models to survive! I can watch enough on Netflix and Hulu and On Demand, that I could easily, and happily, get rid of 2/3 of my cable channels! For sure, people are tired of having to pay for a 100 channels to just to watch 3 of them.

  

8.      The "Things" You Own

Many of the very possessions we used to own are still in our lives, but we may

not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the

cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures,

music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can

always re-install it if need be. But all of this is changing. Apple,

Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."

It means when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the

operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied

straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. In this virtual world, you can

access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or

handheld device. This is the good news. But, will you actually own any of

this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big

"Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical?

It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out a photo album, grab a

book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

For me, this is just another example of how I want to embrace technology,

but it's so creepy!! I have at least a dozen movies that I "own" digitally. I like it too! Same for some "e-books" I have.

  

9.      Joined Handwriting

Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting"

because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some

type (pun not intended)
I think they've been talking about this for too long.

10.   Privacy

If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be

privacy. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are

cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your

computer and cell phone. But you can be sure 24/7, "They" know who you are

and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the

Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you

may think. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and

your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy 

something else. Again and again.
Privacy is just an illusion. It always has been. It's just more obvious now!

This is awesome!

My man and I have the same color birthstones. Well, not exactly, but close. One is a garnet and one is a ruby. You never see them together, in jewelry. I'm guessing it's because they are so close together in the red spectrum. 

Last month, I happen to be thinking about that and wondering to myself, doesn't anyone make jewelry with both gems together? They must, right?

So I got on Amazon - the largest selection on the planet - to see what I could find. Guess what? I found one!! I was so excited. And better yet, they are cut as hearts. Awwwww. OK, so the ruby is lab created, but still! 

Isn't it cute? I love Amazon :-)

Mars and Venus and DIY

I love my husband. No, really, I do. 

But.......

We think so totally different about home improvements and DIY projects. OK, let's be honest, we think differently about almost everything! But that's ok. I don't mind that. However, we are a horrible team when it comes to home improvements and DIY projects! As a matter of fact, we down right SUCK at working together, most of the time. He, wants to just jump right in. I, on the other hand, am asking questions like, where are you going to put the stuff on that wall when you're ready to remove it? Are you going to move that curio by yourself? Because if you are, you have to take things out of it first. (if you break ONE of my little china figurines, you're a dead man) What are you going to use to cover that up with? I can see it in his face, "I got a hammer and a saw, who cares about the rest of that shit!" I have questions about measurements. His face tells me, "I know what I'm doing here!" And, if he wants me to help him with something, he only says 1/2 of the words he's thinking. So I'm left standing there, looking at him like, huh? Then he says, forget it, I can do it. Oy. This is going to be a long Spring.

On the upside though, he's really enjoying having something to do! And he's not tired from working all day and there's no pressure to get everything done in a weekend. Whew. Aaaand, it's going to look awesome when it's done! At least there's a bright side! 

Onward...

let there be light, and other dark tales

It's always so curious to me, how things sneak up on you. Just yesterday, it was still dark when I went to work, and this morning? Dusk. It was awesome. I know it didn't happen overnight but it seems like it. Kind of like when the trees start budding in Spring. One day, you'll notice the buds and the next day, boom! Leaves! 

New subject:
Friday night I had a nightmare. I've had several the last few years. Weird huh? Oh, maybe it's not. But it's weird for me. I don't recall ever having real nightmares when I was younger. Oh sure, weird dreams...like when your teeth are falling out or you're being chased by giant, purple, spider aliens. But not full on nightmares. You know the kind, yelling, screaming, sobbing in your sleep. Whoa. My poor fella. Thank heavens he was there to wake me up and save me from being abducted. Whew! It was awful!

New subject:
Dieting is SO hard. Especially when it's SweeTart Jelly Bean season!! Aaaaaagh!!!
Sigh. Oh sure, I know, I could just have a small handful every now and then. Alas, the only real way to eat them is by the bagful! Phooey. Yesterday at the grocery store, I bought 6 bags. My husband scowled at me. I don't care. They have to last for an entire year! Plus, it makes me happy to have them. At least I know I could have them, if I wanted too. I wonder if that's the same reason alcoholics keep liquor in the house! Ruh roh. maybe this was a bad idea.



Nah
:-)

I feel like a real office worker now

Now that I'm bringing my lunch to work everyday, my sweet man bought this cute lunch bag for me so I couldn't stop carrying around used grocery bags;

Now I'm one of 'those' people. It's ok though, it's pretty cute :-)

Eagle update!

http://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/

Their 2nd egg hatched yesterday! Pretty cool :-)

How much does free stuff cost?

Check out this story from earlier this week;

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/27/technology/y-combinator-basic-income-research/

There are a lot of questions about this wanna do study. There are also, many discussions to be had. It seems like another ant and grasshopper thing. There are so many arguments against socialism. There are some in favor of it as well. But while everyone was spouting all the negatives of why this wouldn't work, I couldn't help but think of the people it could help. For instance, think about the single mom, struggling to provide for her family. If she didn't have to pay rent or buy food, would she work part time and go back to school? Better herself? Would she work enough to have the other necessitates and spend the rest of her time raising/teaching her kids. Or would she just work enough to buy clothes and toys and a cute purse and spend the rest of her time watching TV with her kids?  What about a 2 parent family whose dad just lost his job? If he didn't have the stress of worrying about paying the mortgage or providing food, what would he do? If that financial burden was thrown away, would more families stick together? 

You have to admit, it's interesting.

Eagle peeping

If you're a fan of eagles, and even if you're not, here are some great eagle cams;

So far, this is my favorite one

http://webcams.dnr.state.mn.us/eagle/

They are still rehabbing their nest but this one was great last year!

http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/pa-bald-eagle-ir-cam

And this one is in Georgia;

http://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/

Everyone could use a laugh

This one made me cry...SO funny!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family/15-of-the-most-hilarious-test-answers-kids-have-ever-come-up-with/ss-BBoRwiL#image=1