Sure Happy it's Thursday

I'm watching the Celtics game, but the coach isn't playing Eddie House except when there's a few seconds left at the end of a quarter. What's up with that? We wouldn't be watching the Celtics if Eddie House wasn't on that team.

Here is a kitty we sometimes see when we walk around the block. What a beauty!
The ducks are still living down the block . Our new neighbors!
Yellow blossoms on our tomato plant. The leaves look a little curled, but we are watering the plant a lot. We may need to water it more.

Weds. Pictures and things

These pretty orchids are blooming in the backyard. These didn't bloom last year! They are different than all the other orchids left by the prior owner.


The other night when we went for a walk, we heard loud quacking and sure enough, these ducks were either saying "hello" or warning us they were there! This is just 4 houses down from ours, on the corner. They don't look like ordinary ducks, so the consensus is that they were someone's pet and were either lost (let's hope) or dumped (let's hope not). We live near a pond, and the neighbors were going to try to get the ducks over there, but a friend who does a lot of wildlife rescue is concerned that if they are domesticated, they may become some critter's prey.

Two people posted queries about the duck on our neighborhood Yahoo Group, and I corresponded with them separately, but as with most things, I never did get follow up. I sent an email a few minutes ago asking what happened with the ducks.
Mowry's flea medicine dripped where he could possibly reach it, so we put this collar leftover from surgery Cinders had a few years ago, on him. He hated it, and maneuvered out of it, so instead we kept him on my lap until the Advantage dried.

This plant was choked with weeds. You couldn't even see the river rock. Every time I tried to pull the weeds, they were too hard to get out, but earlier in the week I was able to get them.

Meanwhile, Will was trimming the white flowered bushes out front that desperately needed it. This is "after".

I almost thought this was a weed. I'm glad I didn't pull it.
The hanging cilantro is growing!
This time it was Alex hiding under the tablecloth on my chair.

But I caught him from underneath, and got a picture.
When computers work, they are awesome, and when they don't they bring us down - those of us who depend on them for our livelihood, entertainment, connections, etc. My six-month old computer stopped working and we had to get a new motherboard and hard drive from Dell. Luckily, we have more than one computer, so I was online and working.
(Unrelated - just a pretty rose out back).

Modern technology is truly amazing. One client sent me home with their laptop so I can access their data thru a VPN - virtual private network (does that explain it? Ha! For those who don't know what that is, in layman's terms, it's basically a remote connection to the company's network.) Another client has me hooked up thru a remote connection where I use my own computer, but I am actually seeing and working off the computer in their office. It's very cool. Maybe I can cut down my 3x a week schlep to So. SF to 2x a week.

We actually took an hour and went to Costco this morning. We spent a ton, and bought some serious staples - cereal, cereal and more cereal, ravioli (two pack - one in the freezer, one in the fridge), mixed dried fruit (costs a lot less than the dried blueberries I was putting on my cereal), cat litter, and more cat litter, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. We found it annoying, as always, but not as annoying as going on a Saturday or Sunday, which I vow never to do, unless I have no other choice. This Costco is nicer than the one in Sunnyvale (yuck), but the one in Sunnyvale carries more things we like, such as SF Bay Decaf French Roast Coffee. You just can't have it all!

Back to work!

If it's Saturday, it's garage sale day PICTURES, of course!

It was a long week that I'm not used to. I went to South SF via BART three times. On Monday there wasn't much going on, but Thursday and yesterday there was work to be done. I also needed to do work for another client, since this one mostly just needed a person there once the month-end reports were done. BART was good except one day when someone sat across from me who smelled like smoke. Mostly I can find a seat that isn't in the middle of the car where people stand, turn on my music, pull out my newspaper in the morning, or my book in the afternoon, or knitting, and pretend I have the car to myself. It beats driving any day.

As I'm updating this, I got an email message from a local group called "Fremont Freecycle" where people post things they want to give away. Someone is giving away knitting needles. I responded, so we'll see. I don't need them all, and I'm happy to share with someone else, but I'd love the size 1 and 2 needles, especially if they are double pointed because I use those for socks and I'm always dropping my size 1 needles! This is where extras can be VERY handy! She answered quickly, and they are regular straight needles, so I passed on them.

Last night we had three "opportunities" - two good musicians at our local restaurant, one who used to play with Will in his previous band, one show with three performers at the local film museum, and a surprise birthday party (though no one was sure if it really was a 50th birthday) for a train person. We opted to stay home and watch what we hoped was the final game of the best of 7 series of the Celtics (Boston)/Hawks (Atlanta) round one playoffs, as you can see in the picture above! Unfortunately, the Celtics lost and there is a game 7 on Sunday. Those are the socks I knitted a few months ago!


Mowry and Alex find the tape measure extremely amusing; probably more so than cat toys!
Why does she keep taking our picture? You can really see Alex's gray maine. He is such a big love.Diann's flowers one week later. An old boyfriend found his match back in 1989. They got married, and shortly after she told me he bought her flowers, but he knew NOT to get her carnations or daisies or mums. I tried not to show my eyes rolling, but those are easily favorites of mine because they last so long! This even has the lovely lily.

There are bees all over the yard. Will mowed the back "lawn", I did trimming, and then he watered, but I think we'll stay away until the bees are gone. I want to plant the cilantro I am growing from seed into a bigger pot, but I don't want to be out there while there's buzzing.

Before all this, we got up and went to garage sales. There is a couple who is older than us who we see every weekend at garage sales, but they never notice us. We notice them because they have a very cool, red, 240ZX. Today we saw them again and this time we talked to them. We used to joke and call them "our friends who don't know us". They, too, don't need anything, but like to get out, and look, and of course, come home with things. Today Will found two fleece pullovers (he loves to have them stashed in each car, each closet, etc.) for winter, a very nice Franklin Mint red and white corvette (he has found a few Franklin Mint cars at g-sales), and a book about Mummys, and I found a pair of jeans. Sometimes I find my best jeans at garage sales. These are slightly loose right below the waist, but it's the style and I don't mind. The waist and length are perfect.

I just took some more pictures:

I transplanted the cilantro I started from seed. It already smells like cilantro.

This was in one of those biodegradable pots that you just put into the dirt. I have flower seeds around it.The lavender plant is huge! The purple iris next to it is peaking. Neighbors and things:

Kandyman next door loves to roll on the filthiest place in the yard. He was out trying to catch birds in our yard, but I chased him away.Across the street our 91 year old neighbor has the most magnificent roses, and when they are in bloom, people walking down the street always stop to look at them. We are lucky because this is the view from our house!

Be careful what you wish for....

I had a few slow months in my business, but I know better than to wish I was busy. But it happened anway - I got really busy this week. I'm at a company where there hasn't been much to do, and that would have been perfect because I had work to do for another company that I was hoping to do while I was there today, but I was busy! Isn't it always the way?



I don't remember having as many roses out front last year.





We have been watching the Boston Celtics, and as a former Laker fan, this isn't easy. We've followed the career of Eddie House, who played basketball at Kathryn's high school. We used to watch him at games when she was one of the cheerleaders.

It's May 1st and it snowed today in Jackson Hole, WY. This is yet more validation why we Californians pay what others think is way too much for our property!

This is the dwarf lime tree Will bought me last year for my birthday. I see blossoms that aren't visible in this picture - I hope they turn into limes! The pink geraniums in the background are in full bloom right now! The lavender bush has gone wild!
The tomato plant in the backyard is growing!

But not as fast as the one out front!

The artichoke plant is also growing, but I've had to put broken eggshells (courtesy of Diann) and a banana peel to keep the snails away.

How much is that kitty in the window?

Tuesday

It's Tuesday, it's cooler outside and we're loving our new office setup. The jury's still out on the keyboard. I can type fast, but I'm a numbers keypad user, and there isn't any numbers keypad - you set numlock and it's on the keys like a laptop. Ouch!


My cousin sent me this test to find out how smart you are. I was 6.1% smarter than most people (according to this test) but I think it really means I know and remember 6.1% more crap than most people. I may have more common sense, but I'm not sure about being smarter. http://www.flashbynight.com/test/.


Here are flowers from my garden - pink rose, yellow rose *looks white) and orchids.

Mowry can almost always be found on his cat tree (or "crow's nest"):

I am on the loveseat looking up at him:

This is a nice shot of Cinders on the Trader Joe's scratching pad that has a little catnip on it so they all like it:

I ripped out the most recent sock and started it over again. I was doing a k3 p1 rib and decided I needed to do k2 p2. I got about an inchd or more done last night after this picture was taken.

I am busy working from home today. One of my clients has an employee who really bugs me. I was happy to hear that her direct report agrees with me (she brought it up, not me). So now the auditors are asking her for information and she is asking me. Wouldn't it be nice if they let me know when the auditors were coming in so I could be ready to help? I'm actually busy doing other work for them, not to mention that she never provides me with all the information I need. She didn't give me dates (for the quarter or year-to-date?) so I had to ask the auditor, and then I saved all 3 reports in PDF format and (of course) the auditors now want it in Excel. When I asked the auditor for date clarification, wouldn't it be nice if he had asked for the format he wanted?

Do you wonder why I like my cats better than most people I have to deal with? I have Alex sleeping on my desk on the cat bed that I made room for. What a love, even if he is a skittish love.

Nothing gets by Alex. He's kind of like me! He woke up when I took the picture. He had to check out what was going on around him.

Monday

We're still online this morning! We both really like the office, but the cats aren't sure yet. I had Cinders on my desk for a bit, but I left for So. SF (where it's foggy and chilly, by the way) and apparently no cats in the office right now. After all, we changed their domain. Ha!

This is the keyboard I'm now using at home, described in yesterday's blog. It's ergonomic because you never move your hands, just your fingers, although my hand is much smaller than Will's, so how is it possible that it works the same way for both of us? Maybe I'm just too logical. It costs $289. What can I say? Check back in two weeks (see prior post).

I was given a very generous gift to Yarnmarket (www.yarnmarket.com) by someone to whom I referred business, but I can't decide what I want to order. I have enough yarn for now (I can hear several people, some who read this, some not, saying "you can never have too much yarn"), so I was thinking needles. I need to check it again. I wish people didn't do the gift thing for referring business - just refer back - but they seem to do that. It's appreciated, but not necessary.

It's 60 degrees at home right now at 10:21 am, but only 55 degrees at the office where I'm at today in So. SF. I think 72 degrees is ideal and it never needs to get warmer, and certainly not colder!

Sunday-offline-online-offline-online **Pictures**

We decided to rearrange our home office. Will took the window seat when we first set it up, but that turned out being bad because the morning sun was right in his eyes and he had to pull the shade down often. Even when it wasn't down, it was blocked for him by his big monitor and all he got was brightness. I was on the adjacent wall, so I had no problems.

We are now both on the walls that are adjacent to the window and it works well. EXCEPT - it took Fri., Sat. and Sun. to perfect, and we were offline. Diann had offered up her and/or Ken's help and I told her we couldn't possibly fit four of us in the room, but they are persistant (bless their hearts, it's a good thing), and not only did they come by to see how we were doing on Saturday, but they suggested we walk into town for lunch, and then *bonus* - Ken helped Will while Diann and I got to knit. AND, they even showed up with flowers from the Farmer's Market!

Diann organized my yarn find from last week by color. There was some that wasn't spun, and I gave that to her! I hope she can use it! The string on a stick is a cat toy Will made using an old drumstick that got into the picture!

I'm starting the sleeves of the brown sweater and loving this yarn! I tried it on, and it fits how I want it to fit!

Office before:

During:

Thank goodness Ken knows what he's doing here because he did a much better job helping Will than I would have!

Cat stairs to nowhere! They ususally lead up to Will's desk, and they will again.

So we were offline from Friday afternoon until this morning, but when I came in to use the computer this afternoon, my mouse stopped working. The keyboard didn't let me use a few keys, so I'm now using Will's old keyboard which I've always hated. It's ergonomic, and the only other place I saw one like this was in the movie "Men in Black" but for some reason when I sat down and used it today, I could type on it, and it works, so it's mine. I am actually typing fast, too. He promised me after two weeks I'd love it (you supposedly never have to move your hands while typing, just the fingers) but who wants to wait two weeks. When my mouse stopped working, he gave me another one he had, and then everything stopped working (offline again), but it finally started working again and Will's certainty that it may never work again was in vain (online again).

It's hard to visualize from this picture, but we face opposite walls (the window is to my left and Will's right when we are seated). See the blue cat stairs that now lead to Will's desk again?I finally got a picture that shows how Alex's fur is turning gray by his mane, and even a little reddish.


The tomato plant out front is growing FAST!!

I'm very happy to be back online! Now if we can get the printer to work on my computer, that will be great. I should say "when" and not "if".

Any typoes are the fault of this keyboard.