Happy Birthday, Lori!

Today is Lori's birthday ~ and we celebrated yesterday at our house.  

I do have a superb version of "Happy Birthday" with video that proves our total inability to actually sing that song, but somehow, it will not play for me on this blog.  Hmmmmm.

Love, Leslie

Finally, Some Rain

We have been dry most of the summer - with a couple of showers here and there. Yesterday and today, it has rained all day - heavy drizzle - which is great for the yard and the plants.  Not so good for the dog walkers.  

Today, I finally hung family pictures up in mom's room and Amy and I got her computer hooked up.

The computer and the easy to read key board.  I wonder if it glows in the dark?

You can see the new bedspread.  It really looks so much nicer in there.

This is the family picture we had taken on Dad's 75th birthday.  Please note that I have made a change, since the carbuncle is no longer with us.  Can you recognize who is taking his place?  (Hint:  he is in our Movie Night blog.)

In fun news, Nancy was shopping at Whole Foods and as she was checking out and leaving, a bunch of people gathered around - no she was not shop lifting, she was awarded a $500.00 gift card to Whole Foods!   What a sweet deal!!!!!

And in the world of college football, Navy beat UConn 28-18 and are 3-0.  Duke beat Georgia Tech 34-20 and Tech WAS number 20 in the country.  No more.  

Melanie says it is time for bed.

Melanie in her chair.

Night all!
Love, Leslie

PS ~ just got this pic of Zoe - she is looking at NYU and met up with her roomie from Carnegie Mellon.

ADORABLE!!!! AND SMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Welcome Calliope!

There is a new addition to my family.  Welcome Calliope!  

Zoe texted me this picture and introduced Calliope to me.  I am quite impressed, but I do know there are some cries of shock!  Yes, sweet Callipe is a rat.  Not a rat you would (hopefully never) find in your house, but a clean, sweet pet-like rat.  They should have another name.  Maybe rodent.  A clean, sweet rodent.  That sounds better.

I am not quite sure where Callipe is residing - is she in the great garden room with the bunnies?  Is she in Zoe's room?  

I like her.  Welcome to the family!

Love, Leslie

Facebook, Mom and an ipad

Dear Helpdesk,

My mother has macular degeneration.  But it appears to be held in place thru the excellent care she has received from her eye doctors.

However, she likes gadgets.  The new iphone, the ipad, anything small ~ the better.  And because she has difficulty seeing, she enlarges the print and viewing area, which then decreases the area which she sees on the screen.  Which means she misses things. Ordering online is impossible for her because she doesn't see all the squares she needs to fill in - she hasn't figured out how to go up and down or left or right on the screen.

She just called me. almost hysterical - because FACEBOOK has published her passwords and notes that she had written about Lori! (And Lori, they were nothing except ideas about birthday presents, so no paranoia is necessary.)   I went and got my laptop (which is bigger than hers) and went to her facebook site.  No notes, no passwords on the site.  

She showed me her ipad and there was a list of reminders - I said "Mom, you touched part of your screen and brought those over - they are not on your FACEBOOK page.  There was alot of deep breathing and she closed up her ipad.  

She then asked me to turn on the big television in the den and she is now watching some preacher asking for money.  I wonder if they will pray for her to figure out how to use her ipad ~ thank goodness she can't use her ipad to send money.

So, to HOPEFULLY solve the problem, dear Helpdesk, I got Mom to order a new Dell tower with Windows 7, because Windows 8 is a nightmare, a new keyboard that is designed for low vision users, and a Parson's table that will fit in the corner of her bedroom (close to the bathroom - also a good idea).

Everything has arrived, except the table (which will be here on Thursday) - so when all items are here, Amy will set it up (that is called delegation, in case you are not sure) and then life, for a couple of days, will be perfect.

If I have not thought of all possible answers, dear Helpdesk, please feel free to let me know what I have missed.

Sincerely,
Leslie

Friday ~ Movie Night

We had our first Movie Night ~ popcorn, candy~ the works.  The film?  MAD MAX - Fury Road.  

Great movie ~ All action and right back at The Road Warrior.  HOWEVER ~ and this may be me, but honestly, I think I need closed captioning so I can understand what some of the dialog was.  There wasn't alot of dialogue, but the accents sometimes made it tricky,  

But, definitely worth seeing,
Love, Leslie

Amy and I are having a Dave Berry experience - last night we had some pretty good thunderstorms and rain - and when it tapered off, we took the dogs for a walk.  Coming back, we ran into a black spaniel type with all white around his mouth and eyes. Rather, he ran into us.  Soaking wet and petrified.  Of course we took the dog home with us.  Did the calling the numbers on the collar route.  One was the vet, who of course was not opened. (I think the vets office should have someone there after hours.) The second went to an answering maching.  On the collar, it said "Buddy Armstrong" - so we figure the dog's parents name is Armstrong.  That is not a big leap of assumption.

Here is Buddy Armstrong in the garage.

We waited in the garage for a while, hoping someone was looking for the dog, but finally called it quits and brought the dogs in.  I got on the computer and thought I would look around on White Pages to see if any Armstrongs lived near us.  Bingo.  8 houses up, the Armstrongs.  So we walk the dog back up the street.  Ring the door bell, bang on the door.  No one answered.  Amy pointed out the newspaper still in the driveway and I checked the mail.  Still there.  (We could give "True Detectives" a run for their money.) So back home.

Amy was calling the new dog "doofus" - we couldn't figure the dog out - he is a ball of energy, active - and very white in the face.  Then, he goes in Amy's room and pees on her clean laundry bag.  And then he peed on one of the chairs.  Amy now calls him Mr. Tinkles.  A light goes off in my head - Amy is on the neighborhood e-mail list, so I ask her to put a message out about the dog.  10 minutes later, we get a message from the dog's mom, who is in Wilmington, NC.  She evidently left this dog with two golden retrievers on the back porch with food and water and the ability to get out into the back yard.  And she asked if we had seen the other two.  And had we checked to see if the gates were opened.  Nope - and we didn't check.  

The fun part of life with the visiting dog is:  the two big dogs mill around, Buffy is VERY FEEBLE and can't go out down the steps to the back yard and we have Lori's dog every morning and now we have an unknown spaniel.  So we have 5 dogs milling around.  We have to take Lori's dog out immediately because he is "barely housebroken", so I have mine happy to go (180 pounds of dog moving forward), Lori's dog maybe 10 pounds, Buffy maybe 40 and fragile, deaf and blind and this Mr. Tinkles, a hot 40 pounds.  

It is "go out, come on, go out, no, you stay in, no you come out.........." It is definitely cray cray at our house. I wonder what the neighbors think when they hear us.

And, the dogs owner just showed up.  She evidently left Wilmington at 6 am to get here and get her dog.  And, Mr. Tinkles is 14 YEARS OLD!!!!! And, no worries, the golden retreivers stayed at home.

Now all is calm and quiet.  And time to get Mom her breakfast.  Crack that whip!

Love, Leslie

The Danger of the iphone

Amy just sent me this video.  She was visiting her horse Jake.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_b1S4tKNzZoYW5jUGIyY0ItQlBEdmNMYTlmdTJJcnhPOHdn/view?usp=sharing

This is a priceless example of "Horseplay leads to sickbay!"

Love, Leslie

PS - Jake is 17 hands and weighs 1600 pounds.  And they caught him where he likes to graze.  All is well.

Labor Day Weekend

I am enjoying the now quiet of Sunday morning.  I did agitate the dogs a bit, now all are napping.  The dishwasher is on, Mom has her coffee and I am watching Quick Pitch - to see what happened in the world of baseball yesterday, besides the 3 games that I did watch.

Amy is babysitting Snoopy, Lori and Jim are having a "date night" at the Washington-Duke Inn.  Supposedly, JJ is grilling hotdogs and we are having Sunday night dinner on his deck on 9th Street. So there is no rushing around for me today.  I do have plans to get into the garage for a couple of hours.  I got some new shelves and I want to straighten out one of the corners.

What does Labor Day mean?  I Googled it.  "Held on the first Monday in September, it is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.  It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, annd well-being of our country."

So, celebrate all you workers!

On the wildlife front, the second batch of baby bunnies have grown up and left the nest.  I wonder if we will have any more?  I had a gorgeous very yellow goldfinch having a field day in the tomatoes - but so far, none have gotten to the thistle seed that I have put out.  The hummingbirds are fabulous - they do not seem to be afraid of me.  The buzz around and hover while I water the tomatoes and they come up onto the deck.  They chitter when they fly around and when they hover, they buzz.  So cool.

Whoops, it is time to take Mom her breakfast.  This worker had better get to work. 

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Love, Leslie