Computer Problems

Ok, I have come to the conclusion that while the technical meaning of CPU is Central Processing Unit, it's alternate meaning has to be Complete Phuck Up. I'm not griping about my computer. I know everyone who owns or has ever owned a computer has encountered a moment at least something like this. You press the on switch and it...Won't. Come. On. It just sat there with a blue line across my black screen that said "Video Cable Connected?"

Yes, it is connected!! What is your problem?? So my cousin, who was an IT guy for AT&T for 25 years came over to try to revive this thing. Nothing doing. So I called around and found a service center across town. I loaded my computer up and headed over. When he looked it over and figured out what had gone wrong he said that it would cost more to repair it than it would to simply put my hard drive into another computer. Then he told me he had a custom build in the back that was almost ready to go, all new parts. A quick install of my larger hard drive into the new one and we were ready to go. Mine had two hard drives: a 40 GB and an 80 GB. This one had an 80 GB already on board, so he just put my 80 in with it. He tried to swap my files over from the smaller one onto one of the larger ones, but they wouldn't go. Not sure why. He was however able to save all of my daughter's pictures from the 40 GB so I got and kept what I was worried about losing. All of the other stuff on it can be replaced. Those pictures couldn't. That's why most of her stuff is already backed up to flash drives. I had about 20 pics still on the hard drive. And I still have them! :)

So I brought this thing home, hooked it up, and it started truckin'. Then there was trouble. I turned the new computer around to hook my printer up, and the phone rang. People, take it from me: If you have a CPU balanced in one hand on the edge of the desk, a wire in the other hand, and the phone rings, let the machine get it! I figured out how to answer the phone, and in the process almost dropped the computer, did drop the wire, and in this balancing act wires and cords went flying! The computer shut itself off, I got off the phone, and tried to assess the damage, all the while cussing myself for possibly ruining the computer I had just paid for with most of what I had saved up for something else!

Well, the computer did come back on, but once again I see "Video Cable Connected?" and I thought "Ohhhh %$@#" Upon further investigation, guess what I found? The video cable WAS disconnected! So I hooked it back up, left the printer for another day when my nerves are back in once piece, and left well enough alone!!! Then I called the person back and apologized for the freak out they had heard over the phone when my computer tried to go in 50 different directions at once.

It works. It has enough hooked up to it for now. The printer is out of ink so it really doesn't need to be hooked up right now anyway. I think it will stay as is until I get a new ink cartridge and then I will call my cousin to help me with hooking anything else to this thing!!!

Oh and one more thing: my computer was nearly ten years old. It was a custom build, been updated a few times, and I have to say it has been a tough old booger to put up with me all this time! It has done well. And I still have it. When I picked the new CPU up, I took the old one home too. It still has the 40 gig in it, and if it has a virus beyond repair, it can be switched out. We think the mother board blew too. My dad is going to take it home with him to tinker with. I think he has plans for it, and he has said something about bringing it back here once he has it restored. Which means my husband will have his own computer now. :) And I have one more update to do to mine: it needs Sound Blaster Audigy installed. I love that program, and I'm putting it on this one ASAP. And by the way, AVG. Excellent antivirus software.

Having said that, I am going to shut this thing off and go to bed! Goodnight, and don't try to play computer guru while talking on the phone! LOL!!

Ari

Making Stuff For My Kid's Class....

I told my daughter's teacher I would make some things for the class, and I made my first attempt the other night with a jar of home made finger paint.

Whew!!! Wow what a job that was to do!!!!! Oh man!!! That was SOOOOOO hard to make!!! ;) Yeah right. 3 ingredients, stir until it boils and thickens, pour into a jar and add food coloring. Took me 10 whole minutes, lol! And it's made of stuff out of the kitchen cabinet, so it's completely non-toxic. Seriously, it calls for some corn starch, a little salt, a little sugar, some water, and the food coloring. When the cornstarch, salt, and sugar mix thickens, it looks like the stuff they make the gel out of for the filling in those little fried fruit pies. I think it basically is the same stuff.

And the other day I went into the classroom to pick my daughter up, and all over the place were paintings made with blue finger paint! My blue finger paint! That jar had been a trial run, and it turned out really well! The teacher said, "yeah, it did great! Now all we need are more colors!" I think I heard a hint in that statement somewhere. I will make several more colors tomorrow. :)

The next recipe I plan to make for this class? Play dough!! :)

Can ya tell I'm having fun with this???

Ari

Watching My Little One Grow

My three year old little girl has been in preschool for a month now, and of course I've wondered how she will do. I'm a mom, of course I worry about how she's doing, especially when she has a big transition like starting school!!!!

The first week was a bit rough. I have to admit it. The excitement wore off a bit after about the third morning she had to get up at 7 am. This little gal has been used to sleeping in! The first week was fraught with tantrums and trying to see just how much she could get away with. But, she has a teacher who knows very well what she's doing, she's been teaching for years, and was able to help Emily get used to the new routine, and my husband and I helped her finish adjusting to the new routine at home that we had tried to start a month before school ever began.

As I said, we're a month into it now, and she LOVES it!!!!! She is coming home every day with some new song they've learned, or some new game, she's counting a little higher than she was before school began, she's learning her ABC's, and she's learning her colors. She knew a little of this stuff before school started, but she's taken off like a rocket since she's been there! And all she talks about these days is her friends at school. She comes home with art work at least one day a week, so my refrigerator has begun it's second career as an in-home art museum (think magnets and finger paint!) and she's so eager to do the projects she comes home with. We made applesauce the other night as one of her assignments. I did the cutting and the cooking, she mixed in the ingredients...when she wasn't eating the apples!

And the parents get really involved as well. There are get-togethers every week for the parents, not really meetings, just a time for the parents to get together and get to know each other, and we have a lot of fun. I went to the conference room yesterday after I dropped Emily off for class and spent an hour just drinking coffee and talking to other moms and the director before I went to work. We're planning a float for the Christmas parade.

The school she goes to is very interested in their volunteers. They welcome any of the parents who can give time for anything. I told the teacher I would love to come in and help one day in October when they plan to make fall crafts, and I also told her I know how to make finger paint and play-dough. I have the recipes, and they're so easy, and it saves the preschool some money. I have a pine cone bird feeder project I asked about doing and I was told it's a great idea. Looking forward to it, as soon as she tells me when they want me to do it.

And, as soon as they set the orientation meeting date, I have an application in for substitute teacher. I used to teach, and I've realized how much I missed it, so I'm trying to get back in. I need to renew my credential. I don't need it to sub, but if I renew it I can become a full time teacher. I enjoyed it when I was doing it, but I had to walk away from it when I had a couple of miscarriages. It's hard to work with and take care of other kids when you have a doctor telling you that you may never have one of your own. But I now have a 3 year old, healthy, happy little girl, so I'd say that problem is resolved.

But I digress. This post is pretty much about my daughter and her new adventures. So far she is having a ball and I'm having a lot of fun getting involved. :) She's growing so fast, and I'm really glad she's getting the chance to be around a bunch of kids her own age and have fun learning. These years are so important, and I think we have her off to a good start. I'm sure I'll blog more about her school adventures as the year progresses!

Ari

Mmmmmm.....Fall.....

Ahhhhh yes. That slight chill on the breeze, that soft hint of coolness that kisses you gently on the cheeks as it drifts across your face. The trees are just beginning to give us a sneak preview of their colorful performance to come. That hint of spice on the air, the garden has pretty much gone to sleep for the year, stepping out onto the deck in the morning to see a flock of geese heading south in a V formation...yes, Fall is here. I love this season.

Tonight is the first truly chilly night we've had. It's inching down toward 40 F. I had to bring a few of my plants in since it may actually dip down below 40 tonight, and my herbs can't take the cold. That's fine. I knew when I got them that they would have to winter in the house. Have you ever smelled a rosemary plant? I now have four of them setting on top of the wooden chest at the far side of my dining room. Speaking of nice scents, when I went outside to bring the rosemary plants in, I caught a sweet, warm scent on the air. Someone on this road has lit their fireplace tonight.

But it's really not cold in this house. There's a little bit of a chill, but it's a nice break from the sweltering nights we've had over the summer, and it didn't take running the AC on high to cool it off. Yeah, a nice cool night, just comfortable cool in the house...

...and my HUSBAND has turned the HEATER on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well. I guess one person's "it's nice and cool in here" is another person's "holy crap it's freezing in here!".

Pretty soon we'll be lighting our fireplace. I love that thing. My grandfather built the thing himself. He as a class A welder during his Navy years, and he put that talent to a lot of use in his later years. He could build anything, and he built the fireplace that is in our living room. It heats the whole house without a problem. I love it. I love the sound of it, the smell of it, the coziness of it, the memories of it from when I was little....and it keeps us from having to use electric heat hardly at all during the winter!!! :)

PS...my husband, who has turned the heater on at the first hint of a chill in the air, can't understand how I'm eating ice cream at the moment! LOL!!!

I guess it is just a little chilly in this house. I love it. It seems the coldest months make the warmest memories. :) Chilly in the house, not cold. Big difference. I'm just enjoying this first chilly night. It's about 65 in the house. Just nice and cool. Ahhhh, perfect!!!

Ari

To everyone who reads my blog...

As far as I know, anyone can make comments on my posts. I'd love to see what others think. :)

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UPDATE: Yeah, um, okay...so by default comments were limited to Blogger members. I found that under settings and remedied it. No wonder I wasn't getting comments!!! It's now open to everyone. Gotta love default settings, right?? *rolls eyes*

Oh, and I found out that a blog view or two are coming from someone I have quite a bit of respect for and hold in high regard. Needless to say, I feel pretty honored. :)

Ari

Why Aren't I Surprised?

There have been times that I have opened my blog, and wanted to write something with some deep thought to it, maybe something that sounds even just a little profound....

....But is just ain't happening....

Oh well. C'est la vie.

Ari

About that book Paul Young released...

Remember a couple of posts ago, I said Paul had released a cookbook and I "can't wait to get my little paws on it"? Well, I did. :)

Here's the long and short of it: Paul released it, it's called "On My Travels", it's a collection of his favorite recipes, I burn scrambled eggs, and he explains it in a way that even I can get it right, so there ya go. And yes, one of the recipes I've tried called for eggs. 5 of em. And I've noticed a lot of the recipes, at first glance, look like they'd be really hard to make, and they're not!!! He has pictures of everything in the book, and to look at the pics, I'm thinking "there's no way I can make that!" and then the recipes are written, like I said, in a way that probably anyone could do it. And I have a lot of fun with his "Stuffed Pork Chop" recipe, because it calls for use of the blender, and my daughter loves running the blender! She loves putting the ingredients into the blender, lol! And of course, one time she thought it would be cute to take the lid off while the blender was running....the walls got a good washing after that...

I'm not going to blab any recipes here, as those belong to Mr. Young, but I will say that the one that called for the eggs goes by the name "Buccatini Alla Carbonara" and it is unreal. Really, really good. You make your own sauce for it, and the way it's written, even I couldn't screw it up, lol! I've gone through cookbooks before, gotten recipes off the internet before, and half way through making something I'm standing there reading the directions over and over and thinking "huh???" while my poor stove is left to fend for itself with a pan about to catch on fire. He's written his so normal (I'm normal?? ;) ) people could figure it out. And his recipes never seem to be for just one or two servings when it's done, it's meant to make enough for the family. Works for me! I have a family, and I love it when a recipe makes enough for leftovers, because leftovers = "I don't have to cook tomorrow night!!!!" :D

So far, I've tried three. I've tried the Buccatini, mentioned above, and it is awesome. My little girl, who won't eat but a very small variety of food, absolutely inhaled it. I've tried the stuffed pork chops, which are also awesome, a little spicier than what I normally fix around here, but it is really good. My daughter isn't a big pork chop eater, but she loves the stuffing! And I made the pasta pomodoro recipe from his website. (I wonder why it didn't make it into the book??????) But a similar sauce recipe is in there. It's my favorite, lol! And, again, my daughter likes it too.

My husband likes most of it, but I'm more concerned with expanding the very slender menu my kid will choose from. I try to make things everyone likes, but it worries me to see my daughter sit there with her plate in front of her and she won't touch it. So far she has not turned her nose up at ANY of Paul's recipes!!! So as a side note, my daughter will eat macaroni, bacon, Cheerios, cheese, and so far anything out of that book! LOL!!!

And with the holidays soon approaching, I'm going to give his strawberry pie recipe and his sweet potato pecan pie recipe a try.

So the verdict: Money well spent on a VERY nice book, and I now know of at least 3 things besides macaroni and cheese that my daughter will actually eat!!!

Oh, and at the back of the book, he has some stories of his touring, and some nice pictures!!!

And if I'm going to post about it, wouldn't it be an intelligent idea to put the link here.... http://www.paulyoungonmytravels.com/ Give it a peek. :)

Ok, I'm off. My review of the book is done, lol. Goodnight all!

Oh, and one more thing, and I know it may not seem like much, but this is coming from a parent whose child will be hospitalized if she eats even a small amount of peanuts: He has a recipe in there that calls for peanuts, and he has it noted at the TOP of the page, right there at the beginning of the ingredient list: "Contains Peanuts". That deserves a big thank you. Pointing it out was thoughtful of him. I'm sure there are other people out there who have bought the book and have someone in the family with a peanut allergy, and to me that little note makes things a little easier when planning dinner. So that one will be a good one to fix when Shorty is spending the night at her grandma's house. So from one parent to another, thank you Paul.

Ari