I learned a new phrase today

I learned a new phrase today - "cargo programming" - it is when a "programmer" (like me) copies and pastes a lot of things and crosses one's fingers in hopes that the magic will work and produce the hoped for results without really understanding why things are working (or not) they way they are (or aren't). Ooops. Yes, I have a long way to go before I will be able to consider myself a programmer. I am at a loss as to how to proceed. My project, though limping along towards some semblance of functionality, turns out to be a mish-mash, a lot closer to total meltdown all the time than it really ought to be. Part of me says to scrap what I have and to start from scratch and see what happens. Part of me says to keep going with what I have cludged together and get a working(ish) version before going back and building it from scratch with the knowledge gained from the cludging. I am too overwhelmed at the moment to make any decisions. Glarg. I am leaning towards biting the bullet now and restarting from scratch. Maybe eliminating some of the problems I am having along the way. (Ok, can't face that just now. Going to proceed with what I have and will, eventually, go back and redo the entire app.)

Yesterday, not much in the way of exciting happened. Mom was feeling particularly uninterested in moving. I offered a movie, but she did not rise to the occasion. I did some work on the computer application and puttered around the house and the internet. Eventually a yummy dinner was concocted out of leftovers from our Stonecat Cafe dinner (well, the leftovers that I didn't finish that evening). And then it was early to bed for everyone. I didn't go to game night. I just didn't feel like going. Hopefully, next time...

Soon it will be Mother's Day and my mom's birthday, not the same day this year. I already have two presents for her. I am thinking to also get another helium balloon (or the same one refilled), some cut flowers and maybe something else. I might just skip Mother's day, though...

What to do

That is one of the questions we all must face from time to time. What to do? Which direction to head? Whether to take a walk or to stay in bed...

Yesterday, for the second day in a row, I did little on iOS stuff. I did put out into the universe the desire for a mentor. Sadly, none has yet appeared. Or at least not that I have noticed. Maybe one is lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, I will inch forward. Adding alert view dialogue boxes to the application and some other little tweaks before attempting again to persist my HighScores. Again. Though I might try table view stuff as well.

Sorry for talking about the computer application so much. It just gets into my brain and won't get out. Last night I dreamed about the issue for a large part of my REM cycles. Ok, other topics.

Cleaned the kitchen last night. I had been letting it build up for a bit. Not the best, but I couldn't be bothered. Mom offers to wash dishes and then doesn't do them. And we do dishes differently. She uses a dish pan - which I don't mind as long as the dishes don't sit in the pan and I don't have to put my hands into clammy dishpan water to finish them. Ick. I made tacos for dinner last night. They are so easy and quick and I just didn't have any plans for what to make. Tonight is Sunday, so I am leaning towards breakfast for dinner. I might need to go to the grocery for a light shopping...

Yesterday, mom went shopping with me. We didn't spend a lot of time out since mom was feeling queasy. Not sure what that is about. I think it is the coffee. Anyway, we went to Wegman's and got a couple of things - including a mom staple - a can of chopped clams. Yippee! Next stop, Rite-Aid. My favorite pharmacist was on duty. Sigh. And a checker I have spoken with before. I think she wants to try out for American Idol or some such show. Hope she makes it!

And we watched more Deadwood last night. Has anyone else watched Deadwood? Oh, and I am watching Stargate on my computer. 10 seasons? Eeek!

Does anyone recognize this?

Yay dishes!

Adventure Accomplished!

I did, though, neglect to have pictures taken of mom and me adventuring together. Sigh. Next time. I am a little out of practice adventuring...

As promised, I did little or nothing yesterday. Except for the adventure. Yay adventure! We went all the way to the other side of Seneca Lake! I know! Into the hinterlands! Our first stop was Wagner's Winery and Brewery. Mom wanted to stay in the car. What kind of adventure would that be? She thought that maybe next time she would take a book. Not a bad idea. I often take a book with me when I am out adventuring. 'Cause if no one is being interesting, I do like to entertain myself. Wagner's was not very crowded, unlike the last time we were there. We even got one of the handicapped spots right near that door. Nary a walking complaint from mom. One from me when mom kept trying to walk three paces behind me. Glarg. Anyway, they had a beer tasting for $3 - a bit pricey for the skimpy pours - and an additional $.50 for a tasting of their seventh offering - a triplebock version of their dopplebock Sled Dog. All of their beers were a little thin - even the oatmeal stout and the Maple Porter. I expected more body. And the people serving the beer were all under 21, so they weren't really very knowledgeable - just spouting what they have learned. Still, glad I went. I almost bought a flip top growler, but couldn't think of a beer I wanted to put in it...

Next stop, Two Goats. We had been once before. New bartender this time, Mary. And nice people to chat with at the bar. I forgot to mention that at Wagner's I met a couple up from PA to visit the area. Well, at the bar in Two Goats, couples on either side of us were also from PA, so I introduced them to each other. Everyone (well, almost everyone) in the group liked beer so there was lots to talk about. We also talked about food - I recommended Leaf Kitchen and Red Dove for dinner for one couple, the other couple was also heading to Stonecat for dinner. After the first couple let, mom started to get disgruntled because she had no one to talk to. Heaven forbid she actually talk to someone without me having to start off the conversation for her. Sigh. We ended up staying for two beers - their oatmeal stout was outstanding. And I had a headbutt for my second - their cream ale mixed with the oatmeal stout. Yay!

Last stop, Stonecat. If Stonecat were closer, I might go there just to hang out at the bar. Nice ambiance, nice people, but it is almost an hour away and their beer selection just isn't all that exciting. Oh well - still looking for the perfect hangout. Nothing, though, will ever replace my own table at the Raleigh Flying Saucer! Sorry for the digression...We had a lovely server named Dawn. The space was again a little bright soundwise - no rugs on the floor or anything much to dampen the sound. The menu was not large, which is fine by me. There was a mussels special for the appetizer. Mom only ate 2 for every 1 I ate this time. I was much faster! :) Then she had catfish, which at first she was reluctant to try, and I had bovine flesh, as Dawn so accurately described it. Mom ate all of hers pretty handily. I ate about half of mine. It was good, not great. Their could have been a lot more garlic in the meal for my tastes. Still, overall, a very pleasant dining experience at Stonecat.

We toodled home and our day of adventure was basically at an end! Yay adventures!

Beer tasting mat at Wagner's

Cool new tap handles at Two Goats!

I like this!

Nice people from PA

Yay mussels!

Mom's catfish dinner

My bovine flesh dinner

Upstate (or Central NY, actually) can be so lovely!

Beer Night but no Magic...

Sadly, lightning did not strike twice, and no attractive woman sat next to me at MacGregors. I did have a nice South Hampton Imperial Stout. And a nice hoppy beer, the name of which currently eludes my sieve like brain. Oh well. Still a pleasant evening. The NFL Draft was on some of the televisions. Gosh, what riveting television. A few people in the bar were truly interested in it. Weird.

Other than that, not too much happened on my lovely Thursday. The mower came again and I asked him to come a little less frequently. Being a business owner, he wasn't thrilled, but said he would take it under advisement. He also did some trimming and such, which is always a good thing.

Dinner was fish for mom and left over chicken for me. Plus left over baby artichokes - still not great due to my not pulling off enough outer leaves - next time I will know - yay learning!

So far, Friday has been a fairly useless day. I got up late, haven't done much and am not going to do much before we head off to the other side of Seneca Lake. I am excited! Sad that the day isn't warm and sunny - but we will survive. I did make a reservation at Stonecat, though. Yippee!

Oh, a little computer aside - I had an epiphany - the issue I am having is probably memory allocation related. I can't think of any other way that a pointer could change from one class to another unless the memory that it was pointing to got changed somewhere. How to fix that eludes me, but I am excited that I had the revelation! And, Jeff, my good friend, was kind enough to introduce me to an app producer friend of his. John actually took the time to look at my first app! He has a bunch - check out his website if you like beer and whiskey amongst other things - www.poohbah.com!

Dinner from, er, Wednesday I think

Thursday night's dinner!

The cut brush!

The imperial porter was pretty good!

An adventure is coming

I can feel it, lurking around here somewhere. The plan had been to go on the adventure on Wednesday night. But on Tuesday, Christie, a bartender at the lovely Beef and Brew, mentioned that she thought Two Goats was closed on Wednesdays. Sure enough, their website confirmed that piece of information. Well, the plan was to go to Wagner's for a beer tasting, then to Two Goats to hang out for a bit before heading to dinner at Stonecat Cafe. Don't want to eat too early. And the plan wouldn't work without the little bit of hangage. Oh, and it also turned out that Stonecat (the cat, I think according to their logo is a cat fish, not a furry pet cat) is open Thursday through Sunday. Glarg. So, again, the date has been shifted. To tomorrow! Everything is open. I just need to call and make a reservation today and we should be good to go. Unless we can't get a reservation, in which case, the plans will be shifted again. That is the one problem with plans - not everybody is interested in doing their part! Fie on them!

So, Tuesday was beer day at the beautiful Beef and Brew. Lorraine told me that she is moving back to Wednesdays. So I am moving beer day back to Wednesday as well. Probably a little earlier in the day as well to take advantage of the longer days we have now. It is light at 7 o'clock again! How cool is that?! Anyway, I had three beers - Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot - a pretty good Barley wine. Normally I don't really love barley wines - too alcoholic tasting. This one was well balanced. And I discovered that Weyerbacher is a company in PA. Who knew? My second beer was Redhook's Long Hammer IPA. I have always had a soft spot for this beer. Lastly, NewCastle. Yay! One of the best of the Main Stream beers. It is a good fall back beer in places where they don't have a great beer selection.

Dinner was shrimp eggrolls, left over rice glop and spinach! Yay!

Don't look now, but I put up another writing blog.

Abundance vs. Scarcity

This is the subject that I thought about as a blog post the other night. And then I remembered it. And guess what I did! I wrote it down!

Just for a second, answer the following questions for yourself. Is there a lot, just enough, or not enough to go around? A lot of anything you can think of, just enough of anything you can think of and not enough of anything you can think of. What do you think? What do you feel? Take a few minutes to formulate your thoughts and beliefs.

I fundamentally believe that the Universe is abundant. There is lots of everything. Easily enough. Yes, everything. Does that mean that it is currently in my hands? Sort of. (A blog post for another day) It does mean that there is lots of everything. And I don't need to stress over there not being enough. Sure, there are times when it looks and feels like there isn't enough. People (and I am a people, most of the time) worry that there isn't enough. Of whatever you want there not to be enough of. It just seems that there really is. Perhaps not in your particular corner of the Universe at that particular time of your existence, there just doesn't seem to be enough, but really, there is...

Let's start on a macrocosmic level. How many stars are there? How much energy does the sun give off? What about quasars? Black Holes? Even if the Universe is finite, there is still an awful lot of it. I think the Universe is everything, so by definition it doesn't have an end or a beginning so is infinite, but that is a thought for a different time and place. So, I think we can agree that there is a lot of stuff in the Universe.

Let's look microcosmically. How many atoms are there? Or quarks? Or pieces of quarks? Let's just agree that there are lots of those as well.

Now that is just for starters. In those two areas, the universe is awfully abundant. Where this seems to break down is in the nitty gritty, daily life sort of thing. How much money is there on the Earth? Is there enough to go around? Food? Water? Air? Air Jordans? Let's start with the easiest one of these - Air Jordans. There are definitely a finite number of Air Jordans. Are there enough Air Jordans? For me, there certainly are, since I have no desire for any Air Jordans in my life. So from my perspective, there are abundant Air Jordans. Let's generalize a smidge - footwear - is there enough footwear on the planet? I would hazard a guess that, yes, there is enough footwear on the planet. Imelda Marcos might disagree, but yes, I think we could mostly agree that there is enough footwear for those who want footwear to have footwear. Air and Water, so far, there seem to be enough of those as well. I guess the big one in concrete terms is money. Is there enough money in the world? Yes, I hazard to say, even though money is a made up construct, unlike air and water and footwear, there is enough money in the world. According to the US Treasury in July of 2009, there was $8.3 trillion of US Currency floating around the world. That is to say $8,300,000,000,000. That is just US currency. If one does the math, that is approximately $27,666 per person (guestimating 300,000,000 men women and children in the US). Seems like a good number. I am not sure where I am going with this, other than to say there it seems like there is enough money in the world.

Just imagine a world not driven by the belief that there isn't enough. A world without greed. Without the need to be fearful that because there is only a limited amount of anything, if I don't get mine, I will perish. Because, after all, the most underlying root fear of just about everyone is the fear of death and the "struggle" for survival.

By the way, I published another writing blog post. Yippee!

It's Snowing!

How exciting is that! Here it is, April 23, 2012, and we are having snow. And it is sticking - not to the sidewalks or roads, but everywhere else! Yay us! Aren't we the luckiest people ever?!

I need to write things down. I really do. I had a great idea for the central thought for a blog last night, but I didn't write it down. I did write down three ideas I had for my Flippety game, but nothing for the blog. Boo, hiss! I suck! And you all have to just sit there and take it! Hahahahahaha! (That was diabolical laughter btw.) Sometimes the ideas do come back, so maybe this one will.

Have to go out today. :( Mom is out of fiber bars. And we can't have that, can we? I can't think of anything else that we are short of. I will have to look at my shopping list.

Mom and I went through her basket of goodies that came off the shelves next to her bed. I was allowed to actually throw some things away! How radical is that? She was reluctant to part with some medicine that expired in 2009, the lids to two prescription jars that she no longer had, and the instructions for medicine that she no longer takes. Sigh. Sadly, I am similar in my reluctance to let go of things.

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet weekend. And the week doesn't look too crazy busy. We are going to try again to have an adventure on Wednesday despite that inclement, wintery weather that we are facing. Yay! Good thing that climate change isn't real!

I am feeling a little stuck in my game development. And a little overwhelmed. I try not to think of all the work that has to be done to get the game ready for primetime. I try to look at just the little steps that I can take towards that goal. And then I get stymied by one or more of those little steps. Sometimes I sidestep and take a step in a slightly different direction figuring that I will come back to the step that I am skirting. But those are beginning to pile up without apparent resolution. I did ask someone who says they consult what his fees were - $80 for a one time code review - otherwise, $90 an hour. I hope that doesn't include pondering time! Not in the budget just now, in any case. So, I will soldier on. At some point. Meanwhile, in my stymiedness, I think I will make lunch...

Looks nice! (Taken at 6 in the morning...)

One Year Anniversary

Wow. I have been here in Geneva for a whole year. Where does the time go? Well, let's look and see, shall we? What happens in a year? A lot and nothing, it seems.

A year ago Thursday, I was living in North Carolina, when it suddenly became clear to me that I needed to be looking after my mom in Geneva, NY. My reasons for doing so were partly selfishly motivated, partly altruistically motivated.

I had no work in the area, the woman I was seeing chose to break off our relationship, I had an altercation with a friend and I just couldn't see anything keeping me in the area. Except for my house. More on the house later, perhaps. (Nope, not this post...)

Mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's back in January of 2011. But things had not been optimal for a while before that. I had had to take her car away in November of 2010. Some basics were being neglected and she had told me some things that made my heart ache. On top of that, I cannot stand the idea of my mom in a nursing home (at least not until her brain goes completely and she needs 24 hour care and can't handle basic tasks or remember basic things - like where she is or who she is or who I am). I figure at that point, the woman I have known and loved for 52 years will be basically gone and only a shell will be remaining.

So, I tossed a lot of stuff in the car and drove up here.

During the year that has passed, mom and I have done several roadtrips together, both short and long. Two trips to NC. Two trips to Maine. And various day trips around NYS - including a trip to the State Fair. We have done some work on the house and yard - not as much as I would have hoped, but anything is better than nothing. Mom is taking her medicine regularly, showers on occasion, eats fairly regularly and seems to be generally healthy and happy.

Over the year we have done some doctor's visits, some physical therapy and ruled out her needing hearing aids just now. Yay! We have done some cultural activities - going to plays, going to the opera, going to festivals (like the Garlic Festival), to a Renaissane Faire  and the circus. Mostly, I have done what I can to lessen mom's stress level and be as supportive of her as I possibly can be and to help her exercise her brain.

I have tried to carve out some sort of life for myself up here. My original thought was to go back to school and become a Chiropractor or perhaps a Chinese Herbal Medicine Practitioner - neither panned out. The big stopping factor was the need to do a year of human dissection. Not my idea of a good time, sadly. I am sure I would have gotten over it and gotten into it, but it daunted me enough to stop going forward. I was accepted to the school, though!

Next, I worked on and finished a decent version of Diary of a Plate Addict - a fun book, filled with pictures and words and stuff. Hmm, doesn't sound very appealing. If you like a chain of places called The Flying Saucer or if you like me a real lot, you must buy a copy of this book. From me. For an exorbitant cost. I have only sold 69 copies so far and still have a couple hundred lying around the house. So, do us all a favor, buy a copy. Now.

Following that project, I was a bit at a loss as to what to focus my personal energies on next. Lots of projects, nothing leaping out. So I decided to take some classes. After a bit of research, I ended up taking a Spanish Class at Hobart and William Smith. I think I eventually passed. I did enjoy the class (despite it being at 9 in the morning) and learned a good bit. Enough to make me very comfortable saying hello and goodbye in Spanish. Most of the time. After Christmas, adrift mentally once again, I decided to take a different plunge and teach myself how to write applications for iOS. I have three or four game ideas and a meditation clock idea (though lots of meditation apps are already out there) that I would like to see come to fruition eventually.

I have not done a lot of remunerative work. I did work for an Opera and earned a little money there. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed working in the theatre. Sigh. And I also earned a teeny bit of money helping someone move. I had been planning on doing it for free, but she insisted on giving me money - and who was I to refuse?

Romantically, well, it has been a pretty lame year. I did sort of date one person for a few months, but that ended with a whisper over the holidays. (She said she would contact me after the holidays and never did...) I have also had a bunch of inappropriate crushes and that is about it. Double sigh.

Read books, watched movies, went out to the movies, did a lot of Daily Challenge stuff, played xBox and generally had a very pleasant year!

And that is what has happened in a year. There is probably more, come to think of it...

What will next year bring? Wait and see is really the only answer. Thank you all of my loyal readers! Your eyes are appreciated!

Three Card Night

Not like three card monte - or not as cold as title might imply, but I gave out three cards last night. And interestingly, I gave a fourth one out in a dream. The recipient in my dream said that the card was too colorful. Weird.

Well, today has been a lazy day. All I have really done was read the book that Erich recommended. So far, so entertaining. Anyway, back to yesterday.

Last night was my wild night out on the town. Yippee! I headed over to Canandaigua to MacGregor's because they have a decent beer selection. I ended up having some Blackout Stout - a very enjoyable imperial stout - and a Yuengling Double Bock which was good - but not as good as the Blackout stout! While there, I chatted with four different people. The first was a guy from Florida who works at the Finger Lakes Race Track. Next was a glazier who wants to maybe become a librarian. His friend was a server somewhere in town. And lastly, it actually happened. An attractive woman sat down in the barstool next to me. And we chatted! Turned out that she was an ardent fan of Dark Star Orchestra! Cool. She vanished at some point, but not before I gave her a card! If you read this, leave me a comment! :)

Other than that, not too exciting a day. It was Ginger day. Mom and Ginger cleaned off mom's bedside shelves (all mom's idea). And did something with mom's feet. (No, not binding them, like the Chinese.) And I puttered on the 'puter. Dinner was pasta and corn and veggies. One of the vegetables was Baby Artichokes - roasted in the over. Yay!

Dinner! Mom loves corn on the cob!

Yummy Blackout Stout!

No adventure

We didn't adventure yesterday. Oh well. Life is that way sometimes. I did, though, adventure a little vicariously through one of my favorite checkers at Wegman's. She and her family went to Jamaica for a week. Yay! I have never been to Jamaica. Not much of a beach/island sort of guy. Not that I wouldn't go if the opportunity arose. Nor that I would enjoy myself while there. Just not top of my list. Top is still Brazil or anyplace in South America. It will happen eventually.

Last night, I had a thought on how to do something in the computer program I am working on. I thought of creating an object to get the background image - see, object oriented thinking. It occurred to me that would be the best way since I wanted to set the image in two different places. I had thought I understood how objects worked - or at least had a glimmering, an inkling. This morning, that is what I have been working on. So far so good. When I get this working consistently, I will turn my attention to sounds. Then I need to back to persistence. And once all of those things are done, I will try and figure out why some of the things are happening that I don't understand, and try to get them fixed. There are way too many of those - the persistent views thing, the lack of flipping sometimes, the animations that don't get executed. Sigh. Onward to sounds.

My brother had a wonderful idea - make a memory book for mom - he wants me to help mom go through the pictures in the house (thousands of them) and have her label the people in them. Right. That is going to happen. I suggested that this be a project for when he came to visit - if he comes to visit. It has been awhile since he came...How about if everyone from the family sends Karl scanned pictures of themselves and their closest? That would be a start. Karl? Oh, right, he doesn't read this...

I started The Passage at my nephew Erich's suggestion. So far, so good. And I am listening to a Terry Pratchett Audio book - it is in the discworld world. I just wish that the book was broken up into smaller sections on the disk. What I mean is, instead of in chapters only, many audio books put markers at other points so that it is easier to jump to near where one was last listening if one happens to take the disk out for some reason, like to clean it (which is often necessary, especially with library disks).

Tonight is baby artichokes night! Yippee! Not sure how I am preparing them, but they will be prepared. Huzzah!

All ready to read

Wish me luck!

Everything but the chicken was good

Adventure today! Maybe...

If mom is up for it. I am afraid that she is going to be sick to her stomach over the prospect of getting out and about. Que sera, sera! True, I learned this phrase years and years ago when I was learning to play the piano and played the song. But having taken some Spanish, I actually know why it means what it means. Yay learning!

I had a pleasant day yesterday, all things considered. I did get the checks in the mail for the reunion and the special dinner on Thursday night. Its on! Yay! Now, I need to remember to pack my Video Camera and charger and stuff. Only a month away and I am already excited! My brother, Karl, asked about coming to visit Geneva. Sadly, it was during the month of June, which isn't very likely. It does look, though, that I won't be able to take full advantage of my sister Juliet's kind offer to take mom in for a two weeks after the reunion. Maybe a week will work out though. As I told my brother, I don't want to be in the car for 10 hours a day driving across the country, so we will probably leave for the West Coast earlier in June than originally anticipated. Maybe around the 4th? The back end of the trip isn't fleshed out at all - I hope to head to SF for a few days - then to LV for two days - then Tuscon for a couple of days - then Austin for a few days - then home. With driving in between. Well, it will keep percolating in my head and some sort of more concrete plan will eventually drip, drip, drip out.

Well, that is disappointing. I just looked to see what the hours for the place I was planning for my late-birthday dinner were and they aren't open until April 20th! Well, I will just readjust my plans. Haven't figured out how, but I will. Just need to think of someplace to eat. Or maybe just do it again next week. And it looks like we will need reservations in any case. Hmm. Maybe we will just shift the whole thing till next week. April 25 sounds like a good day for an adventure and birthday dinner. And maybe the weather will be a little warmer.

Back to yesterday, I had a nice beer day at Beef and Brew, despite misreading my list and having one beer a second time - Orkney Skullsplitter. Sigh. Life is that way sometimes. I did have Belhaven Scottish Ale (which is better on draft) and Meantime Coffee Porter - which could have had a thicker mouth feel for my tastes. Met two people who were in town for a lacrosse came between Syracuse and Hobart. Both seemed to be beer lovers! Always a good thing.

Having a tough time with persistence with NSKeyedArchiver. Just don't have my head around it yet. And it looks like I really need to register some default preferences in order to have things working well with the preferences stuff. Though I did just get the ability to change themes starting to work. Yippee! And I figured out the default preferences thing! Yay!

Flowers seen while out and about

Clouds!

The turkey was terrible, the broccoli over done and the corn was left over from last night - but the potato was good!

I think I was promised love

Not that I take these kinds of things seriously. Kinda like Astrology - food for thought, but not something to guide my life by. I get these "Notes from the Universe" (tut.com) in my email Monday through Friday. They are thought provoking, usually inspirational. Yesterday, the message told me that if I just went out and put myself where I could mingle, I would find love. Well, I went to the laundromat. And I found two socks that people had left in the washing machine. Not quite the same thing as a girlfriend...

Yes, it was laundry day. Oh to be rolling in dough - I would certainly have someone do laundry for me. Not that I loathe doing laundry. I just don't relish it - go out of my way to do it. There are other things I could do with my time. Having a laundry set here in the house would be nifty as well. Then it would be less time consuming an activity. We used to have our own machines here in the house in Geneva - but they were in the basement - scary to go down there. So much of this house is sub optimal. Sigh.

I also went to Freihofer's and bought baked goods. Two Entenmann's raspberry thingies are in the freezer. Yippee? And I mailed mom's tax check off! Thank you again, Karl (oh, right, you don't read this) for doing the taxes. You rock!

And I got the preferences working (sort of) in my application - mostly yesterday and some today. I know I have tweaks on them still to do, but I am happy to have gotten this much accomplished. Next step, game state persistence. I think this is going to be a somewhat more daunting task - but only time will tell. I don't know how many of you out there have experienced the feeling of awe when something actually works the way it is supposed to. Sadly, though, most of my efforts so far have been of the cross my fingers and hope it works sort. I don't feel like I have internalized any of this stuff yet. Maybe one day!

Today is beer day. And I need to get mom's registration in for the reunion. Yes, I have been procrastinating. That is one of my myriad middle names. Ok, off to do that and then prepare for beer day. If I have more time, back to programming! Persistence, here we come!

The movie of this I took was cooler...

Eggroll night!

Outings with Mom

Yesterday, I didn't get out to the supermarket until later in the day. And by that time, mom was up and dressed, so I encouraged her to come with. I know it is good for her to get out and about. And to do things like going shopping. Still, it is easier and more fun for me when she is not along. Oh well. My whole life can't be fun, can it? I tried to have as much fun as I could, given the circumstances. I did manage to keep mom from filling up the basket with stuff we didn't need, while at the same time giving heed to what she thought we needed. We didn't end up with too much in the way of extraneous crap. Yay! We didn't run into anyone she knew, which was sad.

Most of the day was spent puttering around on my concentration-like game. Flippety is what its working name is. I got scoring working. And I figured out how to get the high score from one place to another. My goal today is to get some persistence working. Saving the game state when someone quits, that sort of thing. I dreamt about it all night, in fact. Erroneously, I am sure. I think, though, after some of the tweaks I have made, I will start with preferences - turning off sound effects and background music. That seems like an easy place to start.

The plan for the day is to do some errands - like laundry. Mom may or may not go after all - it is really up to her. I don't like to force her to do things if I can avoid it. I figure at 81 (almost 82 - her birthday is in May) she can damn well do as she pleases. And if she wants to lie around feeling miserable and sad for herself all day, who am I to gainsay her? I would like to do three things - post office, Friehofer's (for bread stuff) and laundry. Later I do need to get a few more groceries and things. Like tissues. Mom has gone through a lot of boxes of tissues. I hope fewer than before, but it is hard to tell...

Saw a first tulip out and about in the yard. How exciting is that? To think that tulips were once a huge commodity. Weird wacky world on which we whirl...

Pretty Tulip! Only $400!

Now what?

I am a little sad today. Not in a depressed sort of way, but forlorn. I finished three things recently and am at a loss on what is next and how to proceed. (Not really, but it makes for thrilling blogging, doesn't it?) The things I finished were - the Sixth Season of Bones - that is all that Netflix currently has streaming - they have disks for the Seventh Season, but I haven't taken that plunge yet - the last published book of the Wheel of Time Series - goodness, a lot happened in that book - and it was left with a few major cliff hangers. I had thought I had timed it really well, to be finished with the series again just as the last book was released. Only to find out recently (as I think I mentioned in the past) that the book had been delayed until January 2013! I should live so long! I think it is some sort of anniversary thing - poop, though. The third thing I finished, finally, was the Knights of Amular - Reckoning. Eh. I liked Skyrim better.

Doors close, doors open. So far, nothing has wandered in on the book/Audio book front and I am open to suggestions and thoughts. I do like Science Fiction and Fantasy best, but will try to read most anything suggested. So, suggest away!

As for gaming, I have started LA Noire - a 40s period game which, so far, has been interesting (I played about half an hour last night). I am liking it so far - built by the people who do Grand Theft Auto. I still have a few others that are sitting on my shelf waiting to be played, but I think this one will be entertaining.

As for watch to watch on Netflix next, I am taking this opportunity to watch Jekyll. Saw the first episode last night. Interesting.

Ooh, made some more candy last night. Sesame candy. Not something I can eat lots of, like the Almond Butter crunch - but good anyway! And pizza. Sigh. One day I will make a nice, round, happy pizza. This one was a smidge over done, but still tasty.

Pretty on the way to the reading on Thursday night

Pre cut candy

Post cut candy

Not so round, yet tasty, pizza

Welcome 44!

Maybe this will be the year that I achieve 50 followers! That would be great! Not that 44 is bad. But come on, I live in America and more is better, right? Yay more!

I had a minor writing epiphany Thursday morning. Another potential title for my Self Help book - A Little Help from a Friend - since it will be a little book - and I am friendly. We shall see. I need to get back to my writing-writing. I have just been absorbed in the computer programming. Balance and moderation. Moderation and balance. Baleration! Modance! Moderance! Baleration!

Thursday was my rockin' night out. It started with a reading by a poet at HWS. I guess poetry readings are like concerts - we held our applause until the end of the performance - not applauding at the end of each poem. I would have liked to acknowledge them each individually - perhaps like the did in the 50s - with finger snapping. But no, nothing like that. It was surprisingly well attended. The father of a grade school friend sat near me which was nice! The poet has been writing since the 70s, has a great voice both in terms of his literary voice and his speaking/performing voice. Glad I went.

Next, off to Leaf Kitchen to drink the new-to-my-Geneva-beers-list beers there. Since last week was a bust at the Leaf Kitchen, I decided to try again. This week it was a lot less busy at the bar, so I got to sit in my favorite seat. Yay! Emily, as usual, was the lovely bartender. I ended up having three beers - Two IPAs and a Wheat Beer. Yakima Black IPA was very tasty - not quite enough malt for me to be thrilled, but still good. Firestone Union Jack IPA which was really high alcohol content - closer in taste to a double than a regular IPA. Lastly Troegs Dream Weaver Wheat - it was ok at best - mostly because I am not generally a wheat beer fan...I also had nice bar-mates to chat with. That always makes the time pass more pleasantly.

Posted a new writing blog post - nothing scintillating - but better than nothing, I guess.

Hedda Gabler

Last night mom and I went to the HWS production of Hedda Gabler. It was a dress rehearsal and the cast did admirably. And the translation and adaptation was much better than the one that I was in 30 years ago. Yes, 30 years ago - same weekend in fact. Weird. I played George Tessman in that production - back then I was envious of the person who played Eilert Lovborg without realizing that I had the larger part. God, looking back, I did so poorly. I coasted through it and did it on guts and passion and not on hard work. Sigh. Oh well. It is over (except for the replays in my mind...). Anyway, last night's production was enjoyable, overall. I dragged mom to it. The half a block walk got her all upset - I really think she might be becoming agoraphobic. Sad and weird. But I think she enjoyed it too.

Stopped in quickly at Rite-Aid to get some medicine for mom and my favorite pharmacist helped me out. Sigh.

We also went to Ling Ling for takeout. My plan was to stuff two containers full of food and thus have enough for a couple of meals for each of us. Sadly, mom snarfed all of her food - despite me asking three times if she wanted to save some for another meal. I don't begrudge her the food. I really don't. She is 81 and still has a healthy, though slightly obsessive, appetite. And that is better than the alternative. Oh well, plans are just that and nothing more. Nothing to be attached to. And it turns out that Kelly (American Name) is moving to NYC. Good for her. For those of you who don't know, Kelly was the woman who asked me to help her with her English and never followed up after our first get together. Her loss.

I love pictures of clouds...

Ling Ling in all its glory!

Tragedy Tomorrow

I take that back, Tragedy tonight, hopefully Comedy tomorrow...yet, somehow, I feel I have missed something. Oh yes, it was beer day yesterday! Yay!

And a nice beer day it was too. Lorraine and I commiserated over our moms. And she gave me a present to give to my mom for her birthday. More on that when we get to mom's birthday in May. May 10. It is coming up soon. I know more helium filled balloons are called for. And a stuffed animal. And some marzipan - I bought some in a tube and have to get around to making some objects out of it. One day...Anywho, Christie came in to work and she once again had to bartend and serve. I bet she is really looking forward to leaving Geneva and heading to Denmark. I think it will be soon - maybe end of May.

I had three beers - Negro Modelo - one of my favorite Mexican beers, Otter Creek Copper Ale - a very good amber - and Fuller's London Pride which was tasty but not awesome. Yippee! A couple of ex-employees where there, hanging out and picking up their last paychecks. It was nice to see them, too.

My errands also got accomplished: returned the last library book (for now) (sigh) and mailed a book back to Publisher's Clearing House. I ordered the book because I thought they were giving it to us for free. Turns out they weren't. The stuff they offer is not inexpensive! No wonder they can give away so much money!

Tonight, I am hoping to get mom out of the house to see a Preview performance of Hedda Gabler at Hobart and William Smith. Wish me luck!

Beer Day!

Happy Beer Day! Oh, wait, that is just something that I celebrate. Weekly. I know that others celebrate it more frequently - and if I lived alone, near a Saucer, I would to. But I don't and I don't. So, once a week it is. Better than nonce a week. I can hardly wait. But as I type this, it is only 10 in the morning my time, so I have about 6 hours to go. And when I do go, I get to head to the library and the post office as well! Yay! And later, I get to go back to the pharmacy for more stuff for mom. I am the luckiest person! Now, if only that luck will somehow bring me more money...

I think the thing that will make my games somewhat appealing is their quirky, Augustus sense of humor. And I really want to make them flexible. Not necessarily tweakable by the user, but lots of random things that appear in the application. Though I also don't want this application take three years to get out. Sigh.

As for continuing to learn about programming, I think I am going to see if I can get anything from the free Stanford online course. Yippee! I like free. And goodness knows I still need to learn. I may actually go back to some of the books that I have already gone through, now that my understanding is a little better. Probably not, as I don't like going backwards, but anything is possible. Have I mentioned how happy and excited I am when I figure out how to do something that I think I would like to do? My most recent discovery, how to have different directories in my project - so now I can have one directory of images for each theme! And a directory for backgrounds. Etc. I am so excited!

Sausage, peas and corn!

Another One Down

If I keep going like this, having birthday after birthday, I will live forever! :)

Ok, I know that isn't true - as usual, it just seemed like an interesting or humorous thing to say. Yippee!

Thank you everyone who sent me happy thoughts on my birthday! The cocklets of my heart are all warm and toasted now! Yum, sounds like dinner will be good tonight! Seriously, some 100+ people took the time to communicate through Facebook with a birthday wish. Yay FB. I got a birthday card from my wonderful sister (who also wants to treat me and mom to dinner (thank you Juliet!!)). We will do that sometime this week. Figuring out where to go is the hard issue. I also got a card from Eric and Nancy! And a birthday poem from the fertile, creative brain that is Ernst. I am the luckiest!

People expressed a desire for me to do something fun, do something for me yesterday on my birthday. Though I did both of those things, sadly, it was not too much different from many other days. Mom did go out of her way to put together a birthday tray for me. She had me help her find a red round lacquered tray and then took the time to rummage through her things to come up with a pile of loot to gift me. I found the tray on the top of the toilet seat, waiting for me when I crawled out of bed Sunday. Very thoughtful. She did lament to me (and others I think) that she would have done more but didn't because of her lack of independence (can't drive and buy things on her own). Oh well.

I have decided to ignore the three issues I am having with my project right now - the tiles not flipping sometimes - the persistent views that I wish weren't there - and some weird delays that I haven't figured out. Plowing ahead with other things - I am going to add a level indicator, a scoring mechanism and score indicator and a way to grab images randomly for the different levels. I did a lot yesterday, getting levels working, adding some labels, changing some fonts, doing away with the status bar, etc. Busy programming day in fact. Yippee! (Level indicator is linked in...)

And I still had time to make dinner. We had chicken fingers. Not awesome, but edible. Edible is, apparently, a good thing.

Homemade Chicken Tenders, spinach and pasta!

The surprising birthday tray my mom made

Du du du du du du du du

You say it's your birthday...du du du du du du du du Well it's my birthday too, yeah. And what am I going to do about it? Who the heck knows? Something. Breathe a little, I am sure. Maybe eat something. Post a blog.

First corn of the season for dinner last night

Nested ifs

Nested ifs ands or buts! Just had to say that. Ok, moving on. Nested ifs is what I am working on right now. Trying to get my mind around the logic tangle that will solve the current glitch in my game. I am trying to figure out how to determine if the two tiles that are face up are a match or not. So I am using nested for statements and nested if statements and it is all getting my little brain all confused! But I did find a website with good explanations, so I see light at the end of this teeny tunnel! Rah!

Not an exciting day, yesterday. I spent most of the day working on my project - I did do one chapter in my latest book, but I am making such good progress on the game, that I really wanted to focus on that.

As for dinner, it was eggroll day - I made shrimp eggrolls for dinner and froze 9 of them I think. Yay! And it was a decadent night - at some point late, I got some chocolate cake out of the freezer (mom had bought one earlier if you recall) and fed some to her and to me. And I added some ice cream for me. I find I only eat ice cream once every couple of weeks, if that frequently. Not abstemiousness, just no interest, usually. Though it is getting close to Watermelon Sherbert season!! Meanwhile, mom eats ice cream at least four times a week! Heck, she is 81 and can do as she pleases! Any suggestions what to do for her for her 82 birthday? Though chaperoning her on her Reunion seems like a pretty good present...

Tomorrow is my 51st birthday! Yippee.

Almost time to de-box the study again...

Yum!

That was a scary moment

Not like "ooohhhwaaaah" ghost scary. But emotionally a smidge scary. Mom walked into my room and asked "How are Ernst and Betty related to me?" It took her a few seconds to understand what "Step" children were. She was, I am guessing, thinking about the money that E&B and Juliet and Paul have put into the hairdressing place in Geneva for mom to use. She is planning on getting another haircut before the reunion and was worried that there wouldn't be enough in there. I told her not to worry, that we had enough money to cover a haircut for her. But I was shaking a little on the inside, wondering when she won't really be clear on who I am and how we are related. Eeeek.

Made some progress on Flippety (working name for my concentration like game). I asked help of a person online who had put up some tutorials with a suggestion of how to fix the problem. Instead of writing the code for me (poop) he said, yes, I was on the right track. Yippee. This morning, after putting it in my head last night, I tried a couple of things and low and behold it is working! Little baby step forward! Huzzah! Of course, this led to the next issue - how to get the tiles to remember their state of flipped-ness. Sigh. I will work on that later today. (Ok, got that fixed - onward!)

Yesterday was Ginger day. She and mom did some more work in mom's bedroom. Everything they do together is one less thing that I a) think about and b) have to do myself. Yay! Later, I went food shopping. I forgot to put eggroll wrappers on my list, so naturally I forgot to buy them. Sigh. I will have to (get to) go shopping again today. Mom stayed home and finished Extremely Loud and Terribly Close. I think she liked it overall. It wasn't as comforting and familiar as her mystery books, but I do try to expand her brain however I can!

Yesterday was also my big night out on the town. I headed to Leaf Kitchen because they had a couple of new beers. Emily actually said she had missed me. That was a surprise. The bar was, sadly, completely full, so I decided not to stay and headed to Pure instead. There, I was again surprised. Staff changes galore! Oh well, life is that way sometimes. I had a couple of French 75s (basically Gin and Champagne). Not as good as the ones I make, but drinkable. A big time was had! Ok, not all that big, but it was fun.

Daily Challenge told me to eat Lycopene ridden food, so we had Asparagus

What? Huh?

Yesterday was a mom day. We started with going to the Ear Nose and Throat people for a follow-up appointment. Mom was acting especially curmudgeonly - luckily in a humorous seeming way. She did not want to be seen by the new Physician's Assistant again. And she, of course, complained endlessly about the co-pay. First thing we got to do was a hearing test. I have been worried about mom's hearing ever since I moved in with her (almost a year ago). Turns out, needlessly. She passed all of the tests. I must admit to being a little surprised. And a little relieved since hearing aids apparently cost thousands of dollars. Eeek! The big worry was the high end - which typically gets harder to hear as one ages - and the discernment factor - being able to hear when there is competing sound. But neither are bad enough that she needs aid. Yay!

Next up, a visit with another Physician's Assistant. This one has been doing her job for 20 years or so and was very professional. Much better than the one we had last month. She gave mom a prescription for more nasally inhaled antihistamine - which I think helps but mom isn't so sure. I take that with a grain of salt...

After we finally finished with the medical stuff, our next mission was to find a replacement for the plaster birdbath that I destroyed so effectively the other day. At Lowes, they had a few, but nothing that caught either of our eyes. We tried three more places without success. Next stop, the internet! We also got mom some apples and cheese at Red Jacket. After a stop at the house to relax and watch the BBC news (for mom) we headed to Friendly's for dinner. Mom does love her Friendly's visits! None of our favorite servers were there. Mom's favorite, Jeanette, certainly wasn't. And we sat in the back. I don't really like sitting back there. Oh well. At least it wasn't crazy busy, so service was decent. Except for our waitress not asking after our water levels. Whatever! \

We came home, watched Jeopardy and then three episodes of Deadwood! Yay!

I did nothing on iPhone learning - I am stymied by two issues - hiding views and button presses. Grr.

Pretty flowering tree near the doctor's office

Bacon Blue Burger

Mom had sweet and sour shrimp again

Another picture of the little blue flowers in the yard

Out on the roof

Mom and I got tired of seeing all of the pine needles decorating some of the roof, so I took a broom and went out and swept them all off! Go me! I don't think it had been done for several years at least. Now, I am just hoping for some good rain to wash them clean. I went out barefoot - the better not to slip, which might not have been the best idea. But I didn't slip, so I am happy. No pictures, unfortunately. :(

Yesterday was Beer Day at the beautiful Beef and Brew. Yay! Lorraine started me off - it is great to have her to chat with. She also shared some flowers with me for mom. I decided to have three Chimays. Blue was the best - should have saved that for last - oh well - Red was good too, and the Gold (or yellow?) was tasty, though the lightest of the three in taste and in color. In order to video, I borrowed the memory card from my camera. Yippee! I still haven't decided what to do for a longer term solution (wow, that word came and then went and then finally reappeared in my mind). Either a hard drive or another larger memory card. Or maybe both! A 4 gig memory card only costs $10 at Wal-Mart!

Dinner was a hand made pizza. It was tasty, just not pretty (as you can see in the picture below). Oh well. Tasty is more important than visual appeal for a meal here in Chez Schoen-Rene.

We get to have a doctor's appointment today and maybe buy a new birdbath. I broke the current one very effectively. Yay!

Pretty flowers from Lorraine for mom!

Not pretty - yet pretty tasty!

Thinking is overrated

I had a thought yesterday, to look and see how to get from here, Geneva, to Oregon for my friend Daniel's wedding. There is good news and bad news. When doing this, I double checked the dates of mom's reunion. Only to discover that I was off by a week. This is not a good thing. I had thought the reunion was the week before it actually is. Crunching my time. My lovely sister has volunteered to have mom come visit her for two weeks after the reunion. Before, this was perfect. Mom would get two weeks in Maine, I would get two weeks to do whatever I wanted (probably visit some Saucers and see if I could convince anyone to buy my books) (copies still available - www.renottopress.com). Then we would have a couple of weeks to drive slowly (ish) across the country for the wedding. Now, that doesn't look doable. Either I need to cut down the time that mom spends with Juliet, which lessens my free time, or I need to rocket across the US which also isn't pleasant. Especially for mom since she will have been unsettled by time not in her own home already. Glarg!

Yesterday two out of three things got accomplished! Hurrah! Today I am going to try and finish up the registration for the aforementioned reunion. Yippee! While accomplishing another of my errands, I went to the post office, only to find a huge, long line! Like Christmas time! Ok, it wasn't that bad. I had a nice companionable chat with the owner of Redman BBQ - a restaurant I keep meaning to try. One day. Maybe in the summer. I miss two chains down in NC - Smithfield's BBQ - where I sometimes went as frequently as once a month - and Bojangles, which I definitely went to once a week! I really doubt the food will be as good as either of those places, but we shall see.

Meanwhile, Publisher's Clearing House has been mailing us a lot of stuff! Which means that mom asks me everyday if I have mailed in her entries. Sigh. Maybe I will do those when I am at Beer Day today. We shall see. I am planning on making pizza for dinner tonight - and more spinach triangles. I need more butter!

Spinach Pockets! (Spanikopita sort of)

Thank you Cate for your directions. I had planned on making Spinach Triangles (as Cate calls them) and asked her for her recipe. I didn't use it exactly, but it was a start! Wow, there was a lot of butter used! Good thing I love butter. I wonder how well they reheat. My mom and I only ate about six of them and I think I made sixteen. I still have a lot of filling leftover. I guess I need to make more and freeze them. Apparently they freeze just fine. Goodness, the phyllo dries out quickly! Good thing I was forewarned to keep them covered and moist! Yippee!

Today is Monday! Yippee! I really need to get through a pile (literally) of crap. Tax time is looming and Karl, my brother, is doing the hard work for us. Have I mentioned lately that I really don't like money. Perhaps that is why I have so little of it. Over the years I have worked on this issue with no definitive results. Sigh and glarg. Anyway, the deadline for signing up for my mom's 60th reunion is coming up quickly too. So that is two things I need to accomplish today. And I want to mail my Daily Challenge friend Laura a few of my almond rocas. I figure four is plenty, they are so rich! And she lives an amazingly healthy lifestyle, so I will be surprised if she eats more than one of them...I can do this - it is only three things, though they all are made of of many smaller tasks. I would rather sit and work on my programming all day.

Right now, I am working through a new to me book. It is pretty good, not perfect, but not bad. I might even find out how to fix a few of the problems I am having with my first project - the concentration like game. And that makes me happy. I like to fix problems. I have, sadly, been reading really depressing things about publishing apps. Oh well, nobody buys my books, so if nobody buys my apps, it will be par for the course. Won't stop me from putting them out there, though...

Currently, I am listening to the 13th Wheel of Time Book. I have only read it once and only recalled the very highest points. It is great to be able to listen to it and get a lot more out of it. I may just have to listen to it again. And I am still frustrated that the last book's publication date was changed from March of this year to January of 2013. Grrr.

Saw two more Deadwood episodes this weekend. Wild Bill is dead, which is sad. And still watching Bones. I am on Season 5 I think. Maybe Stargate next...

Buttered phyllo

Some spinach triangles being folded

Pretty!