I venture to add, with apology and utmost respect, "or she" to Señor Picasso's quotation ( "... once he or she grows up." I answered a message board posting on the main "Call For Help" board headed "talent" the other day from lanimas55 ( Marty ) in New Zealand. He has a grand-daughter who is artistically inclined and he wants to nurture her talent. I proffered http://www.scribbleskidsart.com/generic216.html as a good place to visit for ideas.

Googled a bit. Found a decent quotation site ( although the URL may seem a little misleading... quote sex change ?... quotes exchange !!! ) and a site for saying "Good Bye" in many languages to help with my blogging. Ya' didn't think I knew all this stuff by rôte did you ? A smattering of French and German and Spanish is the best I can do after 3 years of French and German ( each ) in school... and my Spanish... muy poco.

Did th e-mail thing and spent time on Da Boards and perusing the news. I've been trying to define who has access to the Do-Not-Call-List that telemarketers may have to abide by, by and by. Watched "Call For Help" on TechTv... interesting segment on patenting an item. I "crashed and burned" on the daily CFH site quiz... "Who is the only U.S. President to receive a patent?...

1) George Washington 2) Thomas Jefferson 3) Abraham Lincoln 4) Ronald Reagan " The answer will be back-wards near the end of the post.

No truck. Larry, my father-in-law, grousing about always using his truck to haul to the dumps the accumulated "stuff" of five families here on the property. Larry - always the martyr... never the martyred. Need a truck...

The geese have been flying overhead on their way south. Beautiful music in the air when they pass over.

The turkeys are still hanging around... didn't see them, but they too have a distinctive sound.

Spent time on Da Boards and perusing the news.

Donald O'Connor (sp?) passed away. Although he is renown for his role in "The Music Man" I will always remember him, fondly, in the "Frances... the Talking Mule" movies. Elia Kazan, another Hollywood icon, also passed.

No truck.

Watched the 49'errs ( not a typo ! ) lose convincingly to the Minnesota Vikings... it was painful to watch. Of course the Raider game was nowhere to be found on my DSS box. They pulled out a nail biter in over-time to San Diego... a team that was ripe for slaughter

I watched the DVD that Chrissy lent me of "The Core". Enjoyed it very much. My favorite character was the black hat hacker "Rat", enlisted by the Government, who is found innocently playing "Pong" on his computer work station after hacking a Government weapons facility in Alaska to give the "heroes" a bit more time to save the world. His opening scene shows him frantically throwing CD's/floppies into the toaster and microwave, frying the media, and purging his many computers of their Hard Drive contents as the fed's visit him at home. Quite comical.

Beautiful day ! The temp is in the 80's, Fahrenheit, with a light breeze.

Made a small adjustment to yesterday's post on the "story" I created for my sister's birthday. I added a co-title What's in a Name ?" after realizing the anagram paradigm ( smacking my palm repeatedly to my fore-head ! ).

Sent off an e-mail to the family, advising of the post. Also e-mailed the creator of ImagesPro.com. The site is down for construction so I could not get answers for myself re: the fair-use policy they may have. I remember having bookmarked the site some time ago after reading/watching a TechTv segment, but had yet to check it out.

Spent more time on Da Boards, Googling, and perusing the news.

No truck.

Chrissy's trailer is " out-of-here ". Towed away by the new owners... who are now very frustrated "puppies" in trying to pop-out the sides and get it all set up. Richard is out hunting for deer and the owner previous to Richard and Chrissy is unavailable.

No real "blow ups" yet in the family crush that is now my home... "Our Father, who art... "

Chrissy lent me her DVD of "The Core" to watch later... cool !

Spent most of the afternoon and evening reading Da Boards and even contributed a little myself.

Beautiful day ! Thank the Lord for Autumn !

No truck.

Gail and I went to her appointment for job evaluation in Diamond Springs. She did very well and was told Customer Service or perhaps Medical Transcribing/Billing might be appropriate. We could actually tandem a business in the Med Billing field... food for thought. Gail needs to learn computing, Microsoft Word, Excel,... to get her foot in the door for either. I have some freeware programs that are very close to MS Word and Excel that might give her an idea of what she's in for.

Fed the horses and Gail and I cleaned up some old hay clogging up the "blue" barn. Yesterday my nephew Paul doled out a hose to the lower pasture so that the mares had water... one pond has been dry for quite a while and the main pond is just now going too low.

Chrissy's carpet in the bedroom installed: wrong color and $50 extra. The contractor and helpers were a bunch of bozos. Yesterday they brought the wrong size carpet... WE measured it wrong... seems to me a real pro would have measured it him/her self rather than trust to someone else's measurements... hell, he grouched that he had to come all the way from Placerville... 20 minutes away... OMG ! Chrissy may have worked the price down... I've kept out of this as much as possible.

Today was supposed to be the last hot day... a fitting end to summer.

Richard had stomach distress today... so he came home early. Between he, and Larry ( my father-in-law ), and myself we finished patching the bedroom floor. Carpet-layers come tomorrow.

No truck... however my nephew did get his car up and running... chalk this snafu up to experience. Still have hopes for getting my $50 USD back.

Here's a reconstruction of what disappeared into the ether when BLOGGER "ate" my previous post:

"Things" are back to relative normality.

Received two family e-mails... my Brother's backyard with sod down and waterfall and pond, et al, is lookin' good. My sister e-mailed me the study that's been going around about mispellings and the way they're understandable. Seems as long as you have the first and last letter correct in a word... then it doesn't matter what order the remaining letters are in, as long as they're correct. The brain evidently picks up only visual "clues" as to what a word is and interpolates. I had picked this up at the TechTv message Boards and was amused at some of the posters trying to emulate the style... only - not adhering to the first / last rule and creating gibberish instead.

"Hurricane" Chrissy arrived and left Friday morning. We had a small Birthday dinner on the deck Friday night for Chrissy ( 26 )... chinese take-out, presents and cake. Gail and I gave her a beautiful watch pendant with what appears to be a porcelain backing with a floral motif painted on it. It came from an estate sale and may be vintage. Richard and the kids presented her with a beautiful plant amidst decorative "stuff". She went out to get her license renewed with Gail and kids in tow on Saturday.

Going to be hot for a while... 90+ degrees Fahrenheit. I've been getting in as much time on the 'puter before it gets too hot inside.

I have taken to turning off the hot water heater to save ergs and money. Our last PG&E utility bill was $135 USD. With Chrissy and the family moving in I expect the electrical to soar... she's not comfortable unless it's 70+ degrees Fahrenheit inside. Gail and I only run the heater if it's less than 55 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, and only as a backup to the wood stove... and then only until we leave.

Sunday found my father-in-law and a better feeling Richard ( on anti-biotics ) repairing a floor in a bedroom in my house. This is the room Chrissy and Richard and David and Ashley will be quartered in. Kids watching cartoons, what else ? I tried to stay out of everyone's way.

49'ers eventually lost another gimme NFL football game... Raiders play Monday night... hope they're not blacked out in our area !!!

Allergies raging... OTC Claritan generic medicine helping a little. CNN showed a list of the top 10 cities worst for Autumnal allergies... nearly all in the southern USA ( Texas and east ). * note to self: do not move to the southern USA.

I have been working on my new web site quite a bit... and no, it's not on the web yet. The artwork to accompany my poems has been going well... a mixture of original art, by moi, and rendering free-for-use artwork/photos from the web in Paint and IrfanView. The music to accent each page is another matter... too many variables to juggle for now... players, MIDI or .wav, copy protection concerns, editing...

I still have the soaker on out front... I will turn it off before I go to bed. That said... lingered on the net, my fingers flying, as if on a fret... at a whopping 20 wpm ( notice the small wpm ).

Richard is back from the hospital. Chrissy and Richard were home after 9p.m. PDT... low white cell count... and spinal tap preliminary results negative. Stress could have been the underlying cause. Stress ?... imagine that !

No truck yet...

Gail has Ashley today, at home... I'm already kicked off the tube in favour of "Blue's Clues" and "Dora the Explorer". Held my ground until the 9a.m. PDT rerun of Monday's "The Screen Savers" and "Tech Live" were finished. Gail made breakfast for everyone, al fresco , ( I ate indoors )... eggs and bacon and hash browns and coffee. Ashley tried her best to help and was carrying around an egg until the inevitable happened. Helped Ashley, 2-years old, with her shoe laces. She tried to do the 2nd shoe by herself... Of course, she had to go sans sockies, since there was raw egg on them... "WET!" she said... yup, wet.

Did the e-mail thing... Gail kicked me offline to make a phone call... hope my entry to today's CFH wasn't bollixed as she didn't bother to warn me she was going to use the phone ( I swear I told her I was on-line !!! )

We had the usual argument about getting a 2nd phone line yesterday... me saying we can't afford a 2nd line... her argument degenerating into "o.k., then we won't have any phones !". Makes sense to me. I use "The Internet Answering Machine... Call Wave", basic service, when I connect to the internet. What difference "that" is to having our answering machine on when I'm offline escapes me. It's not as if I'm ignoring calls and/or not messaging people and/or not calling back when necessary and/or not getting offline if someone needs to use the phone... grüß Gott ! Normally I'd bring up the fact that she has a very expensive and UNRELIABLE cell phone service, for two, that she attempts to pay for, herself... not worth the breathe. Maybe a good time to upgrade "Call Wave" for the extra $8 or $10 USD/month that they want so we can "catch" some calls... 'course that doesn't free up a line if someone needs to use the phone. HEY... CELL PHONE GUYS !... HOW 'BOUT PERFECTING YOUR SHODDY TECHNOLOGY SO'S GAIL CAN USE HER BLOODY CELL PHONE AT HOME !!!... LET ALONE FIX THE DROPPED CONNECTIONS AND DEAD ZONES, EVEN IN SACRAMENTO... BLOODY HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gail's still making her "important" phone calls right now... I'm processing offline in NotePad 'til she's done. Must have hit a nerve yesterday.

Already a rather dubious start to the day. David, my 6-year old grandson was hit in the face with a soccer ball at school and has loosened a tooth, more. The nurse has applied an ice pack to alleviate the blood and swelling. He'll be sore but o.k.

David's father, Richard, almost "blacked out" while driving his company truck, avoiding an accident... Chrissy, my daughter, his wife, is haranging him to get a battery of tests at Kaiser Hospital... NOW. She has just left to pick him up, after calling her supervisor and making arrangements to be at work later.

On a more positive note... Greg, my nephew, is going to bring my truck ( crossing fingers ) over today. It may be towed... but at least I can get the repairs started and supervised.

Watched the 9 a.m. PDT Friday rerun of the Screen Savers/TechTv as well as the special TechTv ran on the RIAA/Music sharing debate. Rather heady stuff. I don't condone the idea of "File Swapping" but can see how enticing the opportunity would be. By the by, I just downloaded an MP3 tool for windows... MP3-Info Extension suggested by a contributor to TechTv's message boards Rhema7, Preston, a prolific writer to the forums... and one I respect highly, for adding lyrics to your LEGAL MP3 collection.

Right now I'm checking the boards and writing this BLOG in NotePad during the deadspots ( waiting for the web )... only 5-minutes to "Call For Help" - best change the channel from ESPM to TechTv. Already finished the online CFH quiz. Brett's leaving for WCBS, NY ? - say it ain't so, Joe ! Another bright personality of TechTv off to bigger and better things.

Have the '80's music station on DSS. Gail's off to the hospital where Richard is being tested... .

Schwartzenegger on Oprah / Ex-President Clinton stumping for Governor Davis / and now a CA court delaying the CA recall election... with an appeal already mounted against it. Time to move...

Chrissy just called about Richard... meningitis or some other brain infection is suspected... an uncertain future and no life insurance has her terrified... and me praying. A brain scan, I believe, is being administered. My first reaction when I heard this was West Nile virus, but there have been no outbreaks in our area to date, that I know of. There are over 3000 cases US wide if I recall correctly. Time to go to Google News: California +"west nile virus" for an update...

Feeling better today... kept nodding off most of the day yesterday if I sat down for any length of time... probably due to not being able to use my apnia mask/O2 when I went to bed ( no electricity ). It was also warm ( 90 degrees Fahrenheit ) as it is today... though we have been getting occasional breezes. The grandkids did get some swimming in... I generally just stayed out of everyone's way.

We had the electricity fixed yesterday... had to float a $130 USD check until Thursday to my in-laws for payment. Owens, our neighbourly fix-it man, came by at 9:15 a.m., to see what the problem was. Turns out the main hot wire to the house was corroded and the insulation was melting from the extra resistance/impedance from the extra "load". We were correct in taking care of the problem immediately to prevent a fire.

Flipping the TV channels between football and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and perusing the TechTv boards. Missed a 100 yard kick return on the Chiefs/Steelers game. Listened to the 49er's lose their game. When do the Raiders play ?... still don't know. I will check out ESPN in a bit to get caught up on all the sports action.

I did post to the Adaptive Computer Support forum a revised list of links that I drop once in a while. Hardly anyone ever visits this particular forum... and I've tried to contribute since one poster suggested "we" as a community should support the lesser viewed TechTv forums... guess no one else was "listening". I have my doubts if anyone else reads the offerings... but as Mother Teresa might have said... "Post information to those who need help, although no one may ever read your posts". Suits the "Äiken Drum" character trait I carry... reference from a children's book my parents had, circa 195X, I read over and over as a child.

Also the passing of the great and enigmatic Edward Teller, 9/10/2003 at 95 years old, ( the so-called "Father of the H-bomb" ) was reminded to me when I watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still", starring Michael Rennie. There was a good article on Edward Teller in The New York Times on the 10th September ( sorry - the link failed )... a great man indeed. I recall another movie where Edward is depicted as a rogue and pain in the side of J. Robert Oppenheimer during/after the work on the Manhattan Project... the project that ushered in the nuclear age. Edward was more obsessed with creating The Super Bomb ( H-bomb ) than buckling down on the project at hand... and was later to testify against "Oppy" and bring J. Robert Oppenheimer down in prominence.

I also learned that Venus and Serena Williams' older sister, Yetunda Price was tragically killed in a confrontation with neighbors in Compton, CA today... my sympathies to their family.

Well... all by myself today. The "kids" went off to Ponderosa/Tahoe to do their family thing... fishing perhaps. Gail went with her parents and brother, Kenny, to Tahoe... where she was to meet up with the "kids". I've received a number of calls from her as she toured the casinos ( Harrah's/Harvey's ) with her parents, waiting to re-unite. I hope she does... she has no money to drop into the one-armed-bandits we both love. I was asked, half-heartedly as Gail was leaving, if I wanted to go also. Glad I didn't agree to go... I'll play the neglected husband to the hilt, though, not seriously. I need some quiet time before the "kids" move from their little trailer into our not-so-much-bigger mobile home, all too soon.

Time to feed the horses and water the flora... and get off my ample buttocks for a while.

Friday... My grand-daughter, Ashley, helped me water some of the trees. I've a "nursery" area for a number of oaks and cedars and pine, and have planted some for Ashley and David to get a sense of closeness to the trees - a connection to the land. That pine is David's... and that cedar is Ashley's... and that cedar is Ashley's and Nana's ( Gail ). We've lots of trees on the property, but a few more won't hurt.

When I first started watering, before Ashley toddled over, a sextet of turkeys ran up into our upper pasture, where we keep "Saudi", Gail's Arabian stud, followed by one interested black kitty. The turkeys are old enough to fend off the cat quite easily. The turkeys have been quite prolific this year and have hung around for an unusually long time.

Reminds me... deer hunting season opens for Richard very soon... have to remember to keep the hunting-futility jokes to a minimum. He did "bag" one last year, but generally just gets a lot of exercise. Personally, I dislike deer... they eat our roses and baby plum trees and other flora... and deer meat just does not taste good to me, even as jerky. My father-in-law, Larry, makes a good teriaki-flavored deer jerky every year, it's said, usually from Paul's ( nephew ) hunting efforts.

Chrissy, my daughter has a birthday soon, the 19th... my sister, Debi, has her's the 27th... and Larry and "little" Larry's are this month too. I think I'm missing a few... have to ask Gail.

I have to find out "what's up" with my truck... my nephew, Greg, keeps saying he's going to do this and that... but no truck. Add that to the fact that he quit working for the owner of the truck and 'twould appear I've been pooched... hope not. I've only paid $50 USD so far, but that's a lot of money to Gail and I.

Before Gail and I left for Sacramento today, I smelled an odor ( ha ! - oder went through the spell checker... German for "or"... caught it on the flip-flop ) from our fuse box located here in the "office". I had caught a whiff last night, but attributed it to dust in the monitor or 'puter. As we were late in gettin' out, we took the precaution of shutting all breakers down. When we got home we troubleshooted by turning the breakers on, one by one. Sure 'nuff, when we turned on the hot water heater breaker an audible crackling sound was heard. Didn't see any arcing, so figure that the insulation is melting for some reason. We don't have the money for an electrician right now... so guess we'll leave the hot water breaker off when we're not home and when we don't need hot water when we are home... else get into hot water if the house burns down. The "place" is over 30 years old and repair needs have started to cascade at a furious pace. "It's always something..." - RoseAnn Rosanna Danna.

Latest approximation of when the kids move in... 20th September... unless they change their minds again.

Fried pork chops, mixed veggies, and fried potatoes for dinner. Leftover pork chop for lunch tomarrow... mmmmmm. Cardiac city here I come... knock on wood.

Reminds me we've "lost" three celebrities this past week: Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, and John Ritter.

I liked John Ritter as an actor a lot and didn't know until today from the talk shows that he had two famous parents: Tex Ritter, I believe, was a singer and Hollywood star and his Mom ( pardon my memory ) was a Hollywood starlet nominated for a number of Oscars... I believe "Rear Window" with Jimmy Stewart was one she was nominated for.

As for Johnny Cash... what an American icon ! The oldies radio station played one of his ballads about a traveling singing troupe who would have gone far if they weren't on the wrong side of politics... something like this... "The one on the right, was in the middle ( of politics ); and the one in the middle, was on the left; the one on the left, was on the right; and the one in the rearrrrrrrrrrr, was a Methodist."... and so on... very humorous.

Warm, sunny, 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or so... typical Summer day here in the foothills.

Funny... been tag teaming e-mail between my sister Debi and myself. Reiterated the BLOG's existence. Tried to convey some 'puter wisdom re: firewall, anti-virus, Microsoft updates, etc. Did get a bit of data regarding my Dad's bio I wrote up, from her. Still, I know I have inaccuracies... will weed them out one by one.

The day started out with Gail's van having a flat tire. My nephew was kind enough to put on that bloody small spare tire the car manufacturers give. We toodled at 45 MPH max to our first stop in Cameron Park... then back to Walmart in Placerville ( the Big City ), to have the tire patched. After waiting one and a half hours for the patch ( we had left to get lunch ), we returned and were told "yes, we can put the tire on your van... but it will be another 3-4 hours to get to it". The parking lot had adequate shade where we were parked so I changed the tire myself. Damn! the lug-nuts were so hot I needed a rag to insulate my hand from burning. Took only a few minutes and we were headed for "The Divide", where we live.

Tudogs has a link to Zen Garden which showcases CSS for web construction and I'll leave it thus... http://www.csszengarden.com/... beautiful stuff. I aspire to such beauty of creation.

Should have read the whole thread through slower. The Microsoft Critical Update doesn't affect WinME or 9X or earlier. I guess there's some consolation with having an outdated system !

Almost forgot ! Won a bid on a Lexar 64MB Thumb Drive... finally today. Already Paypal'd it out-a-there. Must have been my 3rd or 4th attempt. $23 USD including shipping and insurance... not a bad price, but I might have been more patient. That's $2 USD less than I've allocated for my 3-months tech allowance. Now I'll have portable memory without the bother of carrying around CD's... although the trade off between 64MB and ~700MB/CD is substantial... the programs/files I wish to utilize will fit nicely.

Gonna' do some more Googling later... stereopticons/magic lanterns/glass slides

Did manage to read about 130 pages into "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling Collectibles" while waiting for Gail to take some job ability tests ( or such ). Interesting reading.

Just a quick session while it's quiet. Have the " Atmospheres " music channel on DSS Tv channel 838.

David is at soccer practice with his Dad and grandma Gail and sister Ashley.

I've done a quick look-see of the TechTv "boards" to see what's up. Pete's got an early alert on a Microsoft bulletin... a definite gotta' go see. A thread on "Getting to know you better", or such, was mothballed early... I wonder how the monitors, Casey and ilk, make these determinations ? The thread appeared to be within board guidelines... with no untoward defamation or derogatory remarks ( and no c***r !!! )... dunno. I'll quiz the Masters of the board if the thought continues to rankle.

Horses makin' a racket... time to feed... after I check out Microsoft's updates !!!

Watched " The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers " on a rented DVD tonight with my wife Gail. Guess they can add my $$ to the bizillions of dollars made just on the rental. I've already watched both versions of " The Fellowship of the Ring " on the STARZ/Encore channels too many times to enumerate. Add that to the hundred or so times, seemingly, that I've read the Trilogy " The Lord of the Rings"... and " the Hobbit "... and " The Silmarillion "... and...so on ( I've worn out four sets of the Trilogy ), and one would think I'm hobbitted out by now... NOT !!! I'm such an abject LOTR freak that I had chills of anticipation accompanied with laboured breathing and mind numbing ecstasy ( not the drug ) when I first viewed " The Fellowship of the Rings" at the theater. Yes, I know a lot of license was taken when comparing the books to the screen play... but it was artfully done and didn't diminish the experience. I can't wait for...
" The Return of the King" !!!

I spent a lot of time on the web today: keeping up with my eBay activity, TechTv message boards, and Googling. I think tomorrow I'll take a break from the web and tend to the stuff that gets set aside when I'm cooped up in the "office" here at home.

Still no truck !

My nephew, Greg, changed my wife's breaks on her van today. Seems like only months have gone by since they were last done. 'Course we live in very hilly country out here, going up and down the American River Valley on a daily basis... and my wife's proclivity to tailgate and speed doesn't help. I'm one frazzled, white-knuckled dude when I passenger with her driving !!!

I best "hit the hay" and not make this session on the 'puter an all night-er like I've done recently... I'll pay for it profusely !

Did the e-mail thing... rec'd a note from my brother in the Seattle area. He's been going gangbusters working on his backyard... pond and waterfall. More stuff from TechTv and the "Gnome". Downloaded a utility to eliminate duplicate files... I've plenty. Squatted on the TechTv message boards for amusement and education for quite a while.

The weather here is pretty strange... o'cast with a few sprinkles, nice little breeze coming through the window. Think I'll go putter 'round the place outside for some air in a bit.

David, my grandson, and I did some blackberry pickin' yesterday down in the lower pasture. The mare's pond still has some water in it ( it's generally dry by now ) and the bullfrogs skedaddled to the bottom when we approached. David added some shells to his collection... 38 special and 12 guage... probably shot by his Dad and one of my brothers-in-law some time ago. We talked of: the moon, bears, lions, horse poop, berries, shells, trees, rock music, frogs, football... the kind of stuff a six year old is interested in.

Impressed my granddaughter, Ashley, 2 years old, yesterday, with a stick figures drawing of the family including our dog "Poop". Drew in a sun and crescent moon, and she insisted on a Daddy moon, and Mommy moon, and... Later she tried to show me the moon outside... but it was only our halogen light. I then directed her to where the moon really was in its full or near full glory and located Mars for her as well, very near the moon in the sky.

Cartoons are on... "Spong... " is on, and the two grandkids are screaming and bothering each other as much as they can. Gail's doing her share of yelling, trying to keep the two in line... time to close the door !!!

Well... back to the web... time to Google ( and toggle back and forth from the TechTv message boards ! ).

Posted a few times on the TechTv message boards tonight and read a plethora of other contributions. My dissertation ( 9/6/2003 ) on... how to add an image to a website was well received by the poster.

I've another project that I've volunteered for. Gail and I had been sailing ( garage sales ! ) and we met a gal named Bea who was interested in some information on:
Glass slides - vintage: "Stereopticon (?) slides and viewer (works?)
maybe 200 total: black and white, and colorized
maybe 2" high X 3" wide
   Regional example: 59 Pearl Street, N.Y.C.
   Religious example: Jesus holding lamb with Bible verse: "He leadeth me... "
   Period example: "Slum" children titled in pencil

This will give me a chance to exercise my Google fingers !!! Also, if anyone knows anything about the glass slides and viewer, please e-mail me at: bobbynichols@earthlink.net - and thank you in advance!!!

I purchased a cute little gift box for $0.50 USD, and a few days later my in-laws purchased a redwood picnic table and two benches for $25 USD from Bea. She even threw in a free kitty bed for my researching for her.

Strong drama with my brother-in-law ( Kenny ), and daughter, and girl friend^s, and associates... wish I could relate to y'all ( tease-tease ). Our little corner of the world makes "Payton Place" look like the "Fairly Odd Parents"... on quaaludes.

The family had fried chicken al fresco with asparagus and mashed potatoes and tomatoes and corn on the cob... all womped up by Gail and her father, Larry. Yum !

Animosity still apparent between my son-in-law, Richard... and my father-in-law, Larry, and I. Richard is extremely thin skinned when dealing with innocent banter... he can dish it out - but he can't take it as the old saying goes.

The "kids" ( my daughter Chrissy and her husband Richard, and their children David and Ashley ) are staying... the "kids" are going... the "kids" are staying... the"kids" are going... who knows ???

My truck has not been being worked on all this time...

Weird... yesterdays thunderstorm passed us north and south, and we only received a trickle of rain. I did make sure the computers were disconnected from the wall and phone line, just in case. Tonight we could see lightning up near the Tahoe area which was still socked in with thunderheads. The sunset was gorgeous looking to the east... Tahoe way.

There was a fire in Garden Valley today near Mt. Murphy, just up the hill from the California Gold discovery site in Coloma, a good 6-8 miles away from home. Gail and I could see the smoke in Placerville. A lot of acreage was burned, but I haven't heard of any damage. The state forestry has it pretty much mopped up. Reminds me all too well that where we live is all too volatile. We were evacuated in 1995, or so ( can't remember the exact year ), when the flames were just a few hundred yards away, up the hill from our lower pasture, on government land ( BLM ). We were spared, but many to the south of us were not, including my nephew's in-laws. It wasn't fun going to the Red Cross station set up in Georgetown, wondering if we were going to have anything to come home to. And evacuating the horses and dogs and cats was a nightmare ! I lost one of my cats when I opened my car door at the place where we were going to spend the night, and one of the mares was next to impossible to get into a volunteers trailer. Phew !

Anyway... I finished planting the ( 4 ) bare root roses and also planted a baby cedar tree I've been "nursing" for months. A number of new blisters, even with gloves on ! Hot and humid, slow, hard work.

Bid on another Flash Drive to see if I can snag one at less than wholesale. They retail at about $40 USD and I won't bid higher than $19 USD, including shipping cost. Since there are a number of them up for bid, I may have a chance yet.

I went to the library today in Placerville ( the big city ) and picked up a few books. "Make Your CD-ROM Work" by Ed Tittel ( what a cool name ! ) to see if I can troubleshoot my Win95 CD-R beyond what I've tried already: uninstall... re-install... let windows find the proper drivers... re-seat all connectors on the sound card/mother board/CD-R... etc.. And ( here's the good one ! ) "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling Collectibles" by Laurie E. Rozakis, Ph.D. "Hey it's you !!!" cried the book to me when viewing it on the shelf... "the complete idiot !" I gotta' talk to Dr. Liebschitz about these seemingly inanimate objects talking to me. But then, the advise of an imaginary psychiatrist may be suspect. My favorite line when e-mailing a family member some time back about Dr. Liebschitz is... "I paid him no mind, his usual fee". That line still cracks me up ! Seems to me I had created a poem about something and had included the line in it... I'll have to see if I can find the entire poem and share it in BLOGGER, my latest cathartic psycho-bibble-babble to no one in particular forum... most appropriate !!!

3.9 earthquake on the Hayward fault... whoopee ! I can recall many earthquakes in the Bay Area when I lived there that I don't believe made the news there in the 4-5 Richter range, and the Sacramento TV news is reporting a 3.9... sheeeesh !

Still no family e-mail... guess they're reading "it" all here !... in BLOGGER !

O.K., my color formatting didn't take on the edit of the BLOG... and the animated gif only shows on "current" posts... go figger... a task and puzzle for another time !

Digging holes for bare root roses... ouch ! Gotta' blister on me thumb. The ground is so bloody hard I'm soaking the starter holes, so as to facilitate digging with the post hole digger. Watered the assorted flora and noticed blooms on a poor plant that hadn't bloomed in a number of years while pot-bound. I had transplanted it in the ground just this spring... I be happy :) !!!

Received notification by eBay about the same type item that I lost out on yesterday, (5) or (6) of them in fact... what a nice service !! Need to return my (3) library books tomorrow, one being " ABC's of Making Money Online" by Ray Boileau. Best speed read it one more time and jot down notes I may have missed, including some interesting web links.

4:00 p.m. PDT - Gail's off to pick up Ashley with David in tow. David has already endeared himself to me by sticking his head in the "office" and screaming at the top of his lungs and hastily exiting. Ignored him and yelled at Gail to intervene on my behalf. There is no sanctuary... God grant me patience and Jesus grant me peace. It will only get worse with the two grandkids together.

Aiya EÄrendil Elenion Ancalima !!! O.K. - one bad link... think I fixed it... we'll see. I was going to edit something else... what was it ? Oh ! - now I remember... change the colour ( english spelling ) of " A Bobby's World "'s font... back to the edit table...

Actually this is a test. I've been trying to edit the BLOG template without creating too much havoc. Had it "goober-ed up" pretty good for a while. Thank God for saving the old format. I'm trying to insert an image... actually an animated gif. It seemed to work once before the editing got out of hand. I'll have to cross my fingers...

The usual loud banter at dinner with deep fried chicken wings and salad, al fresco. Still rather hot out... and to think a storm is supposed to be brewing. Lots of bugs out ! Gail was stricken by a flying praying mantis, and ran for cover... screaming. I like the mantids and used to play with them as a child in Stockton. Luckily, Chrissy, my daughter managed to shoo the poor thing into a nearby bushy plant so as not to be squashed by the others.

Just what I needed to hear right now... Hysteria by Def Leppard, to take me back emotionally to the '80's. I know that that's the risk I take when I listen to the '80's music channel on DSS, but there are only a handful of songs that will push any of my "buttons". Oh, well.

Gail's gone shopping with my in-laws and Ashley, my two year grand-daughter. That leaves me with some quiet time while I wait for "Call For Help" ( CFH ) on Tech Tv. Done the e-mail thing, nothing from the family. Had an e-mail alert from eBay that I was outbid on an item I was tracking, so I waited until the last minute and a half to up my bid and was rewarded with a notice that I was the new high bidder ! NOT !!!!! Someone ( who hadn't bid in the past on this item ) sniped me with no time left to outbid me... by a bloody 50 cents ( $0.50 USD ). A little annoying, as Gail was bugging me to get offline to use the phone so I couldn't concentrate on the timing. C'est la vie... á bête noire !!! I had started the bidding at $1 USD and been tracking and bidding over the weekend and monitoring the item before it closed this morning.

I've been studying eBay selling procedures and practices with their tutorials and set up my eBay profile. The PayPal account had previously been set up to facilitate receipt of payment. Also perused some of the more successful sellers methods and have learned much. I'm nearly ready to take the final plunge and become a bonifide seller ! I want to get the shipping info from USPS - so I don't get surprised with shipping headaches.

About ( 15 ) minutes to CFH... already took the online quiz and nailed the answer... timer set to advise me when to switch channels... to use the Ebonics vernacular... I be ready !!!

3:45p.m. PDT - Gail's home with Ashley and I've already walked to David's bus stop and walked David home. It's bloody 100 degrees ( Fahrenheit ) outside !!! Added a string of red listed addies to block in Gail's e-mail... she'll get 100 spam e-mails a day !!! This will help a little... and I'll keep adding to the list. Looks like I'll miss "The Screen Savers" on TechTv today... "Fairly Odd Parents" are on the tube... with "Sponge Bob..." probably to follow soon on the cartoon channels. Guess I'll clean this mess of an office up and pop some tunes in the CD slot... feed the horses later and plant some bare root roses when it cools down a bit.