Hooray

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Having profited from all the misery of others with the same problems as myself, I have sucked up their knowledge I am once again surfing the interweb like a normal person. I reverted my firmware and changed my broadcast frequency and I am once again with internet. Right now.
For real!
Hot damn.

yay - we did good

We've had family with us since thursday - J's Aunt and Uncle and cousin and her baby boy. It's been nice to visit with them, and our house was once their house, so they are very much at home. They're great guests and we've missed them since they moved to Vancouver, so it's been nice to catch up with them...

It's J's Aunt's 60th birthday in a few weeks and we thought since EVERYONE happened to be in town this weekend for the Jazz Festival we would surprise her with a party. We managed to arrange a big surprise 60th party sunday afternoon.

It went so very well - tonnes of friends and family (~60) showed up and it was a gorgeous day of BBQ, visiting and relaxing in the yard and house. Our/their house was always the "party house" where all the gatherings would be and it was so great to have a party of our own there...she was completely surprised and absolutely thrilled, especially to have it in her old home.

Today I am exhausted, but happy...We got to see some shows at the Jazz Festival over the weekend and now that the big "surprise" is over with I can relax a bit and try and fix my silly internet problems (I hope).
Have a great day all ! :)

Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

My Mac Airport Extreme base station is acting up. It's never given solid steady signal, but last week my computer went whoopda and lost contact with a harddrive, and after I restored it it still had weak to no internet...and there was an update for the airport. So I figured it might help and I installed it...and it immediately stopped working all together.
Bloody annoying. No signal at all to link to.
Sooooo I reset it to factory settings and still, despite choppy transmissions managed to get it set up and working again like before for our laptops...it took a bit as our signal was cutting in and out..and then the signal went away again...and hasn't come back so I can't set up our main computer on it as it gets nothing to attach to. And the signal is choppy so why?

I've been recommended to change the channel on the airport so nothing interferes with it (there must be one of the neighbor's wireless networks, which I can pick up no problem, interfering with it). This seems all fine and good and logical. Soooo...I go to the software I need to use to do this and it says it is not the right version to work with my airport extreme...so I install the one that came with it. Nada. I get the one off the website. Nada. I have what appears to be a properly set up airport that is not sending out a steady even signal...even when my laptop is 12 inched from it. .
Now I don't know if this is because I get no reception so it can't talk to it or what but I'm ready to chuck the damn thing out the window very soon. I just want it to work again, even intermittently like it used to. I'm doing what I should to fix it and am being bombarded with ridiculous blocks at every turn.

If I get one more "what did you do -it it worked before?" I will scream...because it SHOULD work. As is. Right now. But it doesn't...so we have no wireless...this sucks as we just moved our office upstairs and are using the wireless to get internet there and on our lappy's. This HAS to work.

So my advice to you this fine day?
So don't install updates if everything is working fine... Just don't- they f*ck with everything.

Gorram internet sandwich....

Decluttering 101

nataliedee.com
Yesterday was spent organizing and decluttering and cleaning our house. Company is coming today for about a week...AND we're hosting a big shindig on the weekend, so the house/bathroom/kitchen have to be *that* kind of clean...and we haven't really been home for days.
While away last weekend, as part of our grand schemes, we got a lot of organising materials - places for things to go. Actual ways to organise things. Scary I know...but it feels good. AND because my lovely J is doing the organising part it will actually be organised AND will stay that way as HE will know where everything goes and not just me :). J has promised to do a rush organising of the basement today (his domain), and then once company is gone we can actually get nitty gritty with all the shelves and books and such. It's contagious...we're doing it one area at a time and doing it thoroughly - and not skimping, not just tucking something away somewhere for later - this is hard core organizing of the likes of which we two have never seen before.

I have a kitchen table -I can SEE the TOP of it :) And my kitchen is GREAT now (ready to be renoed by Dad in the fall, plus more functional now that it isn't full of junk). The bathroom and bedrooms are good to go and the living room looks very spiffy (it needs a few pictures on the walls, but hey, it's organised and clean:) ). We need another bookshelf and mores storage doodads but we're on our way. Looking around the house last night made me so proud - we have a beautiful home. It may take us all summer but by god we may someday soon be able to find things when we need them. It's the clutter that has always driven us mad...and the fact that it would always continue, as we didn't really have places for things to go. But we're working on that. Bit by bit. For real. Pinkie swear.

Kewl...

My own personal (drunken) cheering squad

Yesterday was the last day of high school here...and there were lots of proms last night. On our way to see Drag Me To Hell (an amusing little film- if you liked the old film Army of Darkness then go see it) there were many people all spiffed up and walking around.

This morning while I was out for a run down by the weir I ran by a group of girls and guys still going strong, laughing and talking and watching the sun come up. I asked them if they had a good night and they emphatically told me that yes they did and that they were glad to be done school forever. I smiled and on the loop back home they were still there and I smiled and they started cheering saying "run run run run woo!" while they took swigs from what looked like bottles of rye.
Straight.
Ah yes...to be that young...to be tipsy enough that you can drink straight from the bottle and think it's not half bad after all. They were very happy...made me smile.

I'm baaaack

Whew!
I've been away to a Coldplay concert (fantastic) and then up to the lake to visit my parents for a few days. We had the shortest visit ever with our friends Troy & Cindi in Edmonton. My brother was up at the lake when we got there. We went fishing with Dad and caught our limit of jackfish. Then Dad & I cleaned the fish (my brother and J won't go near them) and we had a great fish fry after a nice day out on the boat. It's been a busy few days, but a nice getaway. I'd add more details but I'm busy as hell and have to hop back in to life straight away...*sigh*
Suffice it to say it was grand and lovely and any otehr adjective you can think of to apply :)

I'm back to work to a pile of work and complaints...remind me why I like my job again?

Fireflies

Last night I worked late. LATE. LAAAAAAAAAAATE. 15 hours all together... BUT the world gave me a present in return...so it's all good.

I biked home from work about 11:15 last night. It was a hot day (~31) and a bit muggy, as there had been a thundershower in the late afternoon...it cooled to ~20 degrees by the time I headed home. And on the way home with J I saw something I've never seen before - fireflies. LOTS of them. Honestly, they were everywhere you looked - by the grass after the train bridge and the marshy area on the right of the path on the way home. J biked to work to meet me and we biked home together - and it really was magical. We stopped a few times to just watch them fly all around us...there must have been over a hundred in total, with 7 or 8 lit up at a time all around us, up close and in the distance. J says he's never seen so many before. I've never actually seen ANY before and I've wanted to...such an amazing experience. I felt like a kid again...:)

Fireflies are beautiful. They're like little flickering embers flitting about in the sky...

Yay life :)

After a long sunny walk to work this morning, I am quite happy about all things at all places everywhere all at once. Yup...it's all good.
Here's a snip of what I listened to walking to work this morning...and, yes that's Tammy Wynette in the KLF song...AWESOME yes? :)


Have a great day!

My car gives me the gibbleys

Don't get me wrong - I love my car. It's a Protege 5. The car I've always wanted...fun to drive and yellow and has been named Screaming Yellow Madness in honour of the many road trips already taken in it.

However...we have an...um...uninvited guest who has decided he likes our car as much as we do. And I want him gone...yes, there is a freaky ass white albinoish red eyed long legged creepy crawley awful little spider who has taken up residence in behind our passenger door mirror.

I HATE spiders. Hate them. Bleah blech patooey. Having one near my mirror...that occasionally casts webs around the passenger side mirror and peeks out a bit sometimes while we're driving around...
gibbley gibbley gibbley gibbley....

I mean, what if we turn a corner and a wind gust catches it and blows it into my face? What if it creeps down the window well and pounces on my arm while I'm resting it happily on the window ledge as we drive? This has turned pleasant passenger journeys into trips filled with where is that thing? He's not coming out is he?

On saturday I almost got him off the car. So close. He had creeped out and was sitting on the edge of the mirror when I was getting in the car, but the little cretin must have crazy glue on his tendrils, as I tried to brush him off with a piece of paper (what? you think I'd actually touch it?) but he managed to scramble a grip and retreat back in behind the mirror.

I have declared war on the little white thing...if only because I can't drive everywhere (it's just safer for the general public - trust me) and I can't really relax as a passenger when I remember the little guy is in there and I want to put the window down...I'm looking into ways to get it out of the mirror. I don't want to kill it. It doesn't have to die - I just don't want it near me. Or my car...but most specifically me. Especially my mouth.

Damn.

Just thinking about it right now gives me the gilbbleys.

gibbley gibbley gibbley gibbley....

Now we're cooking with gasoline

My new stove comes today...I hope it will be my friend.
It'll be a little while before we can have it installed, but I can't wait. It has to sit in the corner of the living room until we run the gas line and have a few things done to the kitchen (tiles and such) but it's all that more real knowing it will actually BE here soon and I can hug it and squeeze it and I can call it George :)
Gas...convection oven...So. Cool.

AND it's friday.
AND I'm getting my hair cut.
AND you're cool...:)

Check cha check check check a check it out!

Hooray! image

There is official scientific proof for a new element - with an atomic number of 112. It was theorised to have existed back in 1996, but yesterday evening, scientists in Germany declared that they have sufficient evidence and studies to prove the existence of this element, known now as ununbium until it can be named("ununbi" is derived from the figures "one one two" in latin). What's the big deal? Well, Element 112 has finally been officially recognised by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry- the ruling kings of all chemical knowledge) and will soon be placed on the Periodic Table of Elements. That is a BIG deal - like finding a new planet (or losing one...RIP Pluto...*sniff*). When IUPAC declares something to be so...it just IS.

Element 112 is a man made element, made by firing streams of charged zinc ions at lead atoms. Nuclei of the two elements fuse to form the nucleus of the new element. It is not very stable and can only exist for a very short period of time (we're talking less than a second here) but it's as real as my skull and it does exist.
This element is 227 times the atomic weight of hydrogen, making it the heaviest addition to the periodic table. The team who discovered it was led by Sigurd Hofmann at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research - they get to propose a name for it before it can be formally added to the table. On my periodic table, sitting here on my wall next to my desk (which I got for my birthday many years ago...ahem) there is a spot for it saying "unnamed discovery". Well...looks like I may now have to pitch in and buy myself a new one :)

The advanced technology used to make element 112 is of real practical interest-accelerators at ANSTO used for the detection of signatures of nuclear activities were used. Accelerators are used as dating tools for geology and environmental sciences.

SCIENCE!!

Hello my Ragtime Gaaaaal....

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Ah....I can't help but feel like I ran through a low budget horror film this morning. It was so foggy you couldn't see more than 20 feet ahead of you - very spooky cool. There could've been zombies or vengeful pirate ghosts all about and I'd never have known...
By the time I turned around at the half way point the mist had sunk down to pelican height on the river and had faded completely by the time I hopped on my bike for work. There was still a dew of moisture on everything as I ran the gopher obstacle course to work. Chilly but gorgeous!
This morning is turning out to already be much better than yesterday.:)
Later taters...

"Everybody do the Michigan Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag..."

Rogue Bagel

Well...nothing like a day of shtuff and such to jog the mind back into what's what...wot? :)

I am going upstairs to make a fort out of blankets now and sip tea and read a book.
It's gonna be fun on a bun :)
Here's a little listen to the music playing this night only, at the Casa Geo the blanket fort....
Pleasant dreams...:)

Bleh

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My alarm didn't go off this morning - I got up with time to spare, but I just feel...bleh. It's raining and I didn't sleep too well last night so my stomach is on edge and I'd rather be at home in bed with a good book and some tea. It's gonna be a long day at the data mine...

Bleh.
Maybe some Foamy will cheer me up...

Things to do this summer

I've got ambitious plans for the summer....oh yes.
Here's my list of all the things I plan on doing before it snows...

-Scrape, prime and paint my house trim, windows and back deck
-replace front deck with one that will actually let us walk on it without putting our foot through (again...) OK this will involve my Dad...
-put up tile backsplash in kitchen (again Dad)
-refinish kitchen cupboard doors (with advice from Dad)
-reorganise craft room
-build glass panels for kitchen cupboard top when we seal them in for the new range hood (me, but Dad will put in) in my organised craft room
-install new range hood and (meep!) gas stove (Dad range hood. Nice gas man for stove)
-replace arborite on kitchen counter (Dad)
-replace kitchen tap (leaky and ungly) (Dad)
-Hang our pictures back up from when we painted
-reorganise basement
-sell/give away old washer and dryer (anyone want it?)
-build/paint new bookshelf for basement (Dad and me)
-help J set up his studio downstairs where the computer used to be
-reorganise computer room upstairs

Amidst all this, I plan on going camping twice a few weeks, and going to see my parents at the lake a few times, along with having house guests around Canada day for a few weeks. And I will owe my Dad so many favours it will be rediculous...

Can you say busy?
Yup...
But I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
I had to make a list over the weekend to get it all down, and figure out what we needed to buy/order to get it done. Luckily we've saved up to do these things and so I've got some of the starting materials...need more paint and have to order the tiles, but we actually picked them out over the weekend. From here on in it's beg my Dad for a few weekends of his time and then go hardcore to get it all done. I gave away our old BBQ the other day - that was nice. Kijijji is a handy thing! It will be nice to do all this though...we've ignored the outside of the house to fix up the inside. So NOW it's time to get at it. I'm pumped.
I got out for a nice run this morning and it has me ramped up for work and play...I'm going to see if I can carry this buzz through the whole summer :)

Incidentally, did you know they make a martini that tastes exactly like a sweettart candy (my fave)? Yes it's true...I had one this weekend at a nice little lounge after the play we went to...listening to electrofunk and nibbling tapas with scrummy martinis...delicious :)

Is you is or is you ain't my baby? Friday Favorites #dickety two: Verve Remixed

I've been chilling in the lab this morning listening to the Verve Remixed compilation...it's sort of funky lounge music...mellow remixed music from the Verve Records vault of stuff...great music like Billy Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald and the like. Some great DJs of the day have taken them and remixed them into some nice chilled music - what I'd play in the lounge of a cafe if I ever had one I think...
I'm in on a day off getting some work done for someone...just taking a swinging coffee break.
What kind of music do you like to chill to?

Have a great weekend!

Gage

My cousin Cloe is having way too much fun taking pictures of her son Gage...eez cute No?

I *knew* it!

I came across this article :TV Causes Learning Lag in Infants (Live Science) By J. Bryner

In it, they talk to Dimitri Christakis who recently published a paper on the negative affect TV viewing has on young developing minds...
I quote a bit to summarize the interview article:

"... the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages TV watching before the age of 2, a time when critical development, such as language aquisition occurs. (Christakis said a baby's brain triples in size during the first two years of life, so there's a lot going on in that little noggin.)
To figure out the TV-language link, Christakis and his colleagues rounded up 329 2-month to 4-year-old children and their parents. The kids wore digital devices on random days each month for up to two years that recorded everything they heard or said for 12 to 16 hours....Analyses of the recordings revealed that each hour of additional television exposurewas linked with a decrease of 770 words (7 percent) the child heard from an adult during the recording session. Hours of television were also associated with a decrease in the number and length of child volcalizations the back and forth between the child and an adult (called a conversational turn). "

they concluded that: ""Some of these reductions are likely due to children being left alone in front of the television screenbut others likely reflect situations in which adults, though present, are distracted by the screen and not interacting with their infant in a discernible manner."
And interaction is key for baby's brain."

They were concerned. Why? Well "hearing adults speak and being spoken to are critical exposures that play a role in infants development in language". With 30 percent of households having televisions on all the time, the researchers wondered how many fewer opportunities there were for children and parents to communicate and socialize". Christakis recommended that children under the age of 2 be discouraged from watching TV, even if the TV show is intended for the adults, as the effect is the same.

So there ya have it - keep their little brains occupied with other stuff! The article is: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 163(6):554-558, June 2009 if you want to check out the nitty gritty. It's just another bit of proof for me that kids should playand ignore the TV...and so should adults :)

Strawbeery Fields forever

I've got beer on the brain. Strawbeery fields to be precise.
I can't wait to get another batch brewing once summer madness is over...yummers.

But I want some now...:(

Walka walka walka walka Peggy Sue*

I walked to work this morning after working out- it was great: Sunny, without a cloud in the sky. It wasn't very warm, but once I got walking, it was great. I had a little Pet Shop Boys and Infected Mushroom to keep me on pace and not be late and I had a strawberry banana smoothie to sip on the way. There were critters galore...

I love it when a plan comes together.

Lately I seem to have a "buzz" for getting organised, so I'm going to run with it over the next few weeks and see where it gets me -like this weekend: I have to start repainting the window trim on the house. I'm up for a busy summer, but that's how I like it. I actually made a list last night of all the crap I need to get to this summer...it's a long one. BUT with any luck I'll be able to crash through most of them...

Hmmm...my stomach is growling like I swallowed a gremlin, so I am off for a granola bar and coffee...
Have a great day!

*My sister in law thought these actually were the words to the chorus of Peggy Sue. Now whenever I go for a long walk it pops into my head...

SURPRISE!

Hee hee....we're so sneaky.
We put on a surprise come and go tea for J's parents last night and they had NO idea :)
We just had some desserts and snacks and drinks at the local community centre and a little slide show and invited all their friends. We even did up some decorations...it went very well. Pretty much everyone we invited came and the place was full of happy chatter and nibbles...we kids did well. :)

Funny thing is, it turns out J's mom doesn't like surprises that much...but she calmed down and had a nice time, once she realised it was all casual and we were all there to celebrate 30 years with them...tho we promised no more surprises after this :)

I brought tonnes of leftover squares to work today so my coworkers will love me...so I must be off and earn my sugary coffee break.
Have a great day everyone :)