Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

OneTouch Laptop Install

Friday, March 19th, 2010

So many people search on the OneTouch software that I thought it was time to show people how to make the USB cable work on a laptop. This is not a “supported” feature, but there is no reason why someone shouldn’t be able to run the software and to do downloads from their meter if they follow these simple instructions.

Home Schooling

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Ok, I’m not exactly biting my tongue on this one, because I am writing about it. A girl on my Facebook friends list commented that the curriculum for her daughter’s home school program arrived and she (the mom, not the daughter) was anxious to get started. I commented that I used to threaten my kids with home schooling to keep them in line. This comment started a whole slew of remarks from people who (obviously) home school. (more…)

Being Four is a Full Time Job

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Today I was visiting my daughter and her youngest son, Tyler. He’s four. He reminds me so much of my youngest, Craig, when he was that age. Busy. Straightforward. He was out playing with his neighbor, Ella, who is a few months younger while my daughter, Erin, and I are visiting.

Tyler comes in and wants to look for frogs along the creek with Ella. Erin gives him permission. He gets out a bucket and goes looking for frogs. I don’t think he’s going to be able to keep frogs in the bucket, but that’s for him to find out.

Tyler and Ella come back a bit later with a bucket of rocks. Apparently the frogs weren’t cooperating. They had collected all kinds of rocks, but mostly smooth – like they had been tumbled. Tyler and Ella are going to sell rocks. They, with mom’s help, set up a rock stand by the house. The house sits about 60′ off the road. Soon they discover their selected spot is not particularly good for attracting customers, so they move the “stand” closer to the street. They’re sitting out there waving to cars (and getting a honk back from one car), but no one’s buying. I go out there to take pictures and talk to them. I point to one rock and ask them why they picked that rock. “It’s very heavy,” Ella said.

“How much do you want for the rocks,” I asked. With no hesitation at all Ella said, “Five dollars,” as she gave a knowing look to Tyler.

At four years, I’m not sure Ella even knows what five dollars is, but she’s not afraid to name her price.

Five minutes later, the kids have lost interest and are off on their next adventure. Ah to be four again!

Remembering People

Friday, August 7th, 2009

I am one of those people who remembers things. While this is great when it comes to finding the keys to the car, in other areas it doesn’t serve me so well. There are things I’d rather not remember, yet they are there clogging up my thoughts. Ugh.

Ryan O’Neal mentions in Vanity Fair magazine that he didn’t recognize his own daughter and made a pass at her at Farrah Faucett’s funeral. That had to be embarrassing. How can someone not remember his own child, but the article goes on to say that it had been decades since they had seen each other.

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Federal Gov’t Discovers Paper Has Two Sides

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

The tongue-in-cheek headline on the WSJ’s front page today made me laugh out loud. The irony of this article is that workgroup printers and copiers at DFAS had duplex (printing both sides) capability when I was there in 1996. Anytime it was suggested that printing on both sides of the paper would save money and actually use the features of a printer or copier, that suggestion was met with derision.

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Olay, You Are Frustrating Your Customers

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Today my mother called me because she had been trying to print out a rebate from Olay.com and was not able to print out the rebate. It was cut off. So I tell her I will print out the rebate (thinking it was nothing). I print the rebate and it was cut off.

So I took a close look at the rebate and what do I see? The document is sized at 17.7″ wide x 22.9″ long.

Unless one knows enough to shrink the document to fit the paper, one is not going to be able to print out the rebate, and will be very frustrated, probaby not realizing that it’s not them. My mother was frustrated because she doesn’t print out PDF files often enough to know that they can be made any size. I consider my mother very technically savy for her age.

I resized the rebate form. You can download the rebate form HERE (at least until Olay tells me to stop).

I am not going to speculate as to why Olay posted a rebate that can’t be easily printed. Rebates are a big enough pain without this added distraction.

Hello?

Size (and weight) Does Matter (when it comes to a hula hoop)

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Hattie, her sister Phoebe, and I were shopping the other day when we were turned on to the latest “craze” in adult fitness – hula hoops – or “hooping” as it is called. This was something that I loved to do as a kid, and I am desperate to find something recreational I enjoy doing that doesn’t hurt all over. So I went to my favorite place, Google, and started my research on hooping.
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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

My honey called me after he finished playing at church to go to our Saturday eat out place; Taco Bell. So I get ready and we head over there. It’s 90 out at 6:30, so I’m dressed lightly. I ask David where he wants to sit and he points to a table that we sit at often, because it’s warm. Other than a backpack and bag piled in a chair, the spot seems deserted. I look around, there’s no one ordering a meal and for all I know it belongs to the person at the next table, but they don’t say anything about someone already sitting there, so we sit down. They don’t take the bags when they leave. That’s when I assume someone has left the bags. About a half hour later, right before we get ready to leave, someone orders food and sits down at the table next to us where the other couple had been. He looks at me, but generally seems disinterested until I get up and start to take the bags over to the ordering counter, because I think someone might miss them and I would want someone to turn them in if I had left something. So the guy asks me what I’m doing with the bags. I tell him I’m taking them to the ordering counter as they appear to have been left behind. He says they belong to him and starts getting pretty loud saying that I should have known that someone was trying to save the table. Perhaps that’s true, but it doesn’t even occur to me that someone would leave their stuff at a table and leave the room – unless they were forgetting the stuff. People normally don’t leave their belongings unattended in public places.

Generally speaking, I’m pretty aware of my surroundings, and he wasn’t in the dining area when we came in. I didn’t notice him until he was ordering at the counter – older guy, hard life, doing the biker look.

I was irritated because all I was trying to do was do the right thing. I have no idea whether those bags belonged to him, but I stifled what I really wanted to say, set them down, filled my drink back up, and left as my husband said, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

American Idol – Coming down the Wire

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

I had started out thinking I would have a running commentary about what I thought of the American Idol contestant performances this year, but that didn’t happen. It was very clear (to me) from the beginning that Adam Lambert would dominate the contest. He’s done that. Then there’s the twitter factor in that I did most of my right now rants in 140 characters or less. Usually less. Then there was the idea that people might not care what I have to think. <== I am getting over that.

Anyway, we are now at the top 3. Biggest disappointments for me? Alexis Grace and Lil Bottoms. Alexis was sweet trying to do dirty, and Lil never found herself. Biggest surprises? Kris, Allison, Matt and Anoop. All of these contestants brought their game. Biggest over-hype? Scott. Sure, the guy is talented, but I thought every song sounded the same.

From a “bankability” standpoint, I don’t think Idol would go wrong with either Danny or Kris. They are both strong musicians in their own right. Neither one of them has that over-the-top quality in that they will be inclined to have to tone it down. They are both Carrie Underwood quality performers, who BTW, has exceeded anyone’s wildest dreams in terms of bringing in the money.

Which brings me to Adam. There is no doubt that Adam is a star. He has been able to pull off what Constantine Maroulis was not able to do, which is bring a high level of theatrics into the performance. Adam has consistently had this over-the-edge look and over-the-top delivery, but it is so well-delivered that he isn’t alienating much of anybody. BUT Simon has alluded to the notion that Adam may need to tone it down a bit. I guess the question is whether America is ready for an unambiguously gay American Idol. We’ll find out next week.

My Man Mitch

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

No, I’m not talking about a boyfriend or anything like that (okay honey, you can breathe). I’m talking about Indiana’s governor. He was on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, and boy did he do a great job of representing his fellow Hoosiers.

While I’m reasonably sure he’s not all that crazy about the over-the-top “stimulus” package that defies reason, he would be an idiot not to take the money being offered to the state by the federal government even as a few states (namely Louisiana and Mississippi) are claiming it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Mitch Daniels has done a fabulous job of leading this state. Of course there is much more that could be done and a few of my education friends feels he’s not all that friendly towards public education (I disagree), I believe he has proven himself the right person for the job.


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