Puttin' on the Dog

I have been doing a lot of digi scrapping lately what with my new digi class starting.. This is a hobby that I have recently started. In late August I bought my new camera a Nikon D40. It is da bomb as my son used to say when he was a teenager. I love it and am getting good at point and shoot and auto settings. Am also taking a class at http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/. It is on photography, using manual settings and we get a new lesson every Monday for 12 weeks. It is a free class and so far it has been really good and is doable.

In September I purchased Photoshop Elements 5 and messed around with it alittle doing some digi pages on my own using a set of video lessons I bought from http://www.scrapgirls.com/. They were pretty hard for me as so much of it assumed that I knew anything about the Photoshop program; LOL I knew viturally nothing. Then I discoved Jessica!!! http://www.jessicasprague.com/. I am now in my seond class with her and I grow by leaps and bounds so am posting some of my new layouts here. So without further ado I present my artist side.

Now I will post the very first layout I did just by the seat of my pants. Well, ya gotta start somewhere right?
Have a good one!!

Ain't That the Truth!

I got a really good email today from my very good friend, Carol. It was entitled, "Great Truths...". It made me wonder if any truth is not great. People have different realities and what one person feels is true another might not. I would classify those as "different truths". It is true that my friend has terminal cancer, is that a great truth? I guess that depends on your definition of great.

Definitions of great on the Web:
relatively large in size or number or extent; larger than others of its kind; "a great juicy steak"; "a great multitude"; "the great auk";
of major significance or importance; "a great work of art"; "Einstein was one of the outstanding figures of the 20th century"
remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree or magnitude or effect; "a great crisis"; "had a great stake in the outcome"
bang-up: very good; "he did a bully job"; "a neat sports car"; "had a great time at the party"; "you look simply smashing".

So I guess having terminal cancer is great by definition; as in: of major significance or importance. But, we sure won't say, when hearing the news, "Boy that's great." But I digress. This is about truth and the great email I got today. So without further ado I give you some great truths.

• No mater how hard you try you can't baptise a cat.
• You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
• Raising teenagers is like nailing jello to a tree.
• Time might be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
• Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
• Never hold a dust-buster and a cat at the same time.
• Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
• You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.

I hope you have a wonderful day with lots of smiles and that's the truth.

Happy Dance

I love to do my happy dance. I just jump right up and dance around my computer. Many things make me do my happy dance but the greatest of these is getting something done right with this devil computer. I have found out how to post some scrapbook pages on this blog in the spot where I want them. Yes, my friends that is a major task for me to have accomplished.



Also, today I finished making my lesson two page in my digi class ( never got back to finishing it yesterday duh!) and killed two birds with one stone. I did the page for James and Anne's going away album and this finishes the album. Now I can put it together and get it sent off. Here is the last page:

Now, it might take me a few days to get it sent off. We had another major snow storm and Ms. Pinewoodtoo doesn't drive in ice and snow anymore, no sirree Bob I don't!

I also think about doing my happy dance when the sun finally shines through, when my hubby's cat decides to look at me, when I know all my family are tucked safe and sound in their little beds on a cold snowy night, when this devil computer doesn't bounce me out of Pogo Games, when my hubby cooks dinner and oh well, just about all the time I guess.

Is sure good to laugh and smile and I have heard the rumor that it will increase your life span. Most days I'm all for that. Here is a list of some things that might make you smile and please feel free to jump up and do your happy dance. If you're at work tell your boss that I gave you permission!

*Red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.

*Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

*A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

*Turtles can breathe through their butts.

* You are not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

Amazing fact of the day: There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

Have a good one!

Monday, Monday

I either have late-onset ADHD, have forgotten how to multi-task or it's just Monday. I can not stay on task today, can't get that in-the-zone focus thing going. I think that the answer is that it's just Monday. I have noticed that even after retirement Mondays just have a different feel to them. The feeling is not quite as spacey as the feeling I used to get on Mondays when I was working, but it's still there.

I have now been awake 9 hours and I am just writing this. I started earlier, then I decided to work on my digi scrap class because we start a new lesson every Monday. Then I stopped that and decided I needed to call some gals and see if we really wanted to meet tonight as it is SNOWING again. Then back to the digi class and then on to another site to print out this week's lesson on photography. Then back to digi.....around and around and around it went. I'm now trying to remember if I've eaten! ummm?? Can't remember. I'll ask my husband.

Well, now I've eaten breakfast/lunch. I'd call it brunch but it's 4:00 in the afternoon. Seems too late for brunch!

I need to finish this up so I can go and finish my digi class assignment and take a look at my photography class lesson of the week and call some more gals to make the final decision.

Maybe it's not "it's just Monday" after all. Maybe I've just taken on too much. But, if it was Tuesday I'd have finished by noon!

Here is a very useful thing to know---If at first you don't succeed skydiving is not for you.


Have a good one! :)

9000'

Sometime after I went to bed last night and before I got up this morning my whole house and the ground it sits on had risen 2000'. It must have because it was snowing and the forecast was for rain below 9000'. I grabbed the paper and took a look at the forecast; yep said heavy rain but that paper went to press sometime in the middle of the night, so I went to my trusted weather sites on my computer and sure enough rain was still forecast. One went so far as to say that it was raining right then. I ran back to the window and had another look...yep was snowing and I was feeling more and more like Alice going down the rabbit hole.

Then I got to thinking about weather forecasts. When I was teaching I always welcomed the forecasts that called for heavy snow after midnight....heck I liked a snow day as much as the kids. Well, these seldom panned out and if it snowed just a little we would go on our 2 hour delay schedule which was kinda like winning the silver medal instead of the gold. It seemed the forecasts that were the most promising were the ones that called for little or no accumulation.... then we could count on a foot of snow. Oh well, we all know that the weather bureau is a non-prophet organization.

My friend Angela lives where the sun never shines ( I always wondered what that expression meant....now I know it means where Angela lives). If the temperature gets to above zero there then spring has sprung! You should visit her neck of the woods in cyberspace MyPixelatedOasis.blogspot.com She posted this wonderful scrapbook page today(Winter Essentials) at our playground at Jessica's place (http://www.jessicasprague.com/) She does wonderful digi scrapping and I admire her work.

Speaking of digi scrapping I need to finish the going away album for my friend James although I'm not sure he deserves it after he deserted me and my computer woes. Maybe he thought if he left I would be forced to solve my own problems. Well they are not solved and I have one thought I'd like my computer to hear loud and clear.....THE ORIGINAL POINT AND CLICK INTERFACE WAS A SMITH & WESSON.

Just a closing thought for today. When blondes have more fun do they know it? :)

Love/Hate Relationship

After spending the last hour trying to put my url for this blog under my signature in my class forum I decided to write a small paragraph telling you everything I know about computers. By the way my url is still not there even with people telling my how to do it.

I definitely have a love/hate relationship with my computer. When things are going along smoothly I'm on cloud 9 but it just takes a small thing to go wrong and I'm lost as to what to do. This is when I call my computer the devil and threaten to do it bodily harm. It holds me hostage. My computer can take me away much better than Calgon ever did and we can go sailing through cyberspace. But, as soon as I'm really feeling on top of the world its devil horns grow and it dumps me on my butt.

The problem might be that I think of it as human. It is the master and I am the slave. My good friend James tells me that it is the other way around but I think he is lying to me. Either that or he thinks I have an ounce of puter literacy, silly man.

Well, I said I was going to tell you everything I know about the computer. There is so little to tell I don't know where to begin. Most days I know how to turn it on. I know how to go to Google and find things I want to find. I can force my computer to allow me to save things of interest and I can get my husband to add more RAM when my computer tries to thwart me by slowing way down. The most helpful thing I did know was James's phone number but alas he moved 1716.48 miles away and changed his phone number. I think he and my compter are in a comspiracy against me.

Here is my useless fact for today: It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
ummm maybe I can get that cow to sit on my computer.

Have a good one!

Carpe Diem!

Today is Friday. Before I retired this used to have a significant amount of meaning for me. Now each day I have to stop and think, "What day is it?" Part of the fault of this lies in the fact that I was a teacher and I used to write the day and date on the chalk board (later, whiteboard) everyday so then I knew what day it was. I found myself in the summers also wondering.

In astrology Friday is connected with the planet Venus. This associates Friday with love, peace, and relaxation, as well as with emotional intensity and quashed dreams. It is also connected with the Astrological sign Libra. I'm a Libra so Friday must be my day. Who knew?

But whatever the day I say, "Carpe Diem", seize the day. I had meant to write this as soon as I got up this morning after my exercises and my pill taking (I take an ungodly amount of pills but that subject is better left for another day). But, alas I turned on my computer and had to read my mail and ofcourse check things out at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ where I am taking my second digi scrapbook class. Well, one thing lead to another and I was lost in cyberspace.

I mentioned my exercises. Do we all have a new fitness goal? This seems to be a universal thrust in January. Just look at all the TV commercials right now about dieting and exercise. Well, this is the last Friday in January how are you doing? If you have already started to backslide I have just the exercise for you. I recently learned that banging your head against the wall burns 150 caleries. But, maybe all this exercise is pointless. I also recently discovered that the average person will eat 35,000 cookies in their lifetime. I think maybe I'm also eating someone elses share too.

So, CARPE DIEM! if you can stay on track.

Beginning a blog

After much deliberation I decided to begin a blog. Heck, why not? I love to write and I love to take pictures. It is just the mechanics of the computer that get in my way! I would like to put pictures on here and scrapbook pages that I admire and tell about life at 7000' elevation. It is snowing now but not too heavy. We have had two really big snows this season with 15+ inches. I was in Phoenix last week with my mother-in-law. She had a short stay in the hospital. I thought it was cold for Phoenix.