Note to self

Note to self: Don't leave a post open for several days and expect things to work they way they ought. This is a computer, after all, not a piece of paper. Things go wrong with computers. All you can do with a piece of paper - ok, so lots can go wrong with a piece of paper to. Just different things. That might be more under one's control. Not that control is important. But where technology is concerned, things just happen sometimes. There - I have it out of my system - my kvetching over losing most of yesterday's - well, Wednesday's post to the computer gremlins. Let's see if we can avoid that same fate today, shall we?

I've got me some catchin' up to do. It is hard for me, to rehash things that I have already rehashed - not that you got the benefit (?) of my previous rehashings, so I oughtn't to take it out on you. Anyway...

Where was I when my party was so rudely crashed? Ah, yes, Wednesday. Not Ash Wednesday, completely different thing. (By the way, I am pretty tired just now - I finally got to sleep around 3 last night and woke up at 9 this morning  - I need more than 6 hours of sleep - beauty rest, don't you know...) Ok, I can't remember anything that happened on Wednesday. Moving on to Thursday. Ah yes, the day of many happenings.

Thursday was supposed to be a crowded house, with lots of people checking in on mom. One ended up cancelling, so it wasn't quite as full, but still - three people is a goodly number. More visitors than we have had in one day in a loooong time. Diane the aide came again - mom still likes here. She was here for two hours and got something accomplished. The bathtub that currently doesn't work got cleaned out. Yay. And it turns out that aides can't wield pruning shears, er, clippers on their clients. What is up with that? Afraid that someone will get pricked and sue? Sigh. What's the point of them, then. Oh, right, to stand in the bathroom and help mom shower. That is good enough for me. Anyway, I have high hopes for Diane eventually. We shall see what next week brings with four hours of attention.

Two people from Ontario Council on the Aging also came to check and see how things were going. After one visit, I don't know that there was too much that they could learn, but as long as it made them happy, it was nice to have them stop by.

After all of the excitement in the house, we decided to take our excitement on the road with errands! Mom needed an x-ray of her neck, so we went and waited here and there and eventually got it done. Finding things at the hospital is a little difficult just now because of construction. I asked a young woman where something was and she didn't know - having only worked there for five days! Oh well. We made it and got it done. Stopped in briefly at the library before shopping at Wegman's and heading on to Red Jacket. Mom has been hankering for her favorite apples - Ida Red. Apparently these don't ripen until later in the year - as do most cooking apples I learned. Well, we got there and Karl called. It was a hot day and I didn't want mom sitting in the car in the heat while she talked. Karl said he would call back in 5 minutes and when he didn't, I called him. Just as mom started talking, a busload of people - 60 at least, arrived! Eeeek! We didn't go in. Red Jacket normally only has one person at the cash register and I didn't feel like waiting for a month to get two apples and some cheese. I know, I am not the most patient person in the world.

Thursday's excitement continued, at least for me, as I headed to Microclimate for my rocking night on the town. While there, I coerced one young lady to download Flippety - yes, it is available on iTunes - I hope she has a good data plan or was signed in to the wifi. I also chatted with an interesting guy who is teaching a class at Hobart. And saw David from the Smith (see notes on the opera earlier in the summer). All in all, a pleasant day! Yay!

Friday. Nothing. Saturday. Nothing. All caught up! Yay! That wasn't so hard now was it...

A dinner from sometime

Lots of toothpaste mom has collected and I am trying to use up

We had to wait while all 207 people ahead of us got served (not really)

House for Sale

The house is not for sale quite yet, but I am getting there. My housemate is apparently leaving and will be out at the end of this month. That is a mixed blessing. I wish one could snap one's fingers and have the house be magically sold. I do believe in magic and in miracles - I mean, come on, waking up is a miracle in many ways - so anything can happen. True, most things don't happen, but they could. So it is possible that my house will go away happily and quickly. Not that I don't love my house. I do. I think it is a great house - very cool in a lot of ways. But it is in North Carolina and I am not. And I don't know that I want to go move back to NC when I can. I think I want to move to Guatemala. Or Idaho. Or Turkmenistan. (Any place with food as part of their name, can't be a bad place - think "Big Apple") But the house being up for sale is getting closer to being a reality.

You know, when I first heard about all of this, I was in shock - just a little - and freaked out - just a lot. Not like jumping up and down shouting "Kill! Kill!" No, wait, that wasn't me. That was Arlo Guthrie...Not like stomping my little foot or wailing about the unfairness of life and all. Just sort of numb, mind whirling trying to figure out the next steps...Now, a few days later, I am feeling a lot calmer. All things can be taken care of. And being fairly footloose, as long as I take my mom along (wait, isn't that the opposite of footloose...) I think it will be fairly easily handled. Yay! Not cheaply, but easily. I am imaging mom trying to help me when we go down. Hahahaha. Or should I sigh instead.

Still waiting to hear back from Apple on my second submission of Flippety. I have done some work on the iPad bouquet app. Listening to audio books. And I have been keeping up with daily maintenance things. As well as lots of stealth sorting. I hope to have a decent amount sorted by this Thursday's recycling bin. Yippee! Yet, I just don't feel like I am being all that productive. Sigh.

OK, gotta get this published. Aren't you thrilled?

Leaf Kitchen is moving to Hamilton Street! Yay!

That's a big hot dog!

Fleeing Friday

As you all know, I love alliteration. The lazy man's way to make language seem interesting. We didn't really flee anything, we just headed to Kingston, NY for the beginning of Erich and Shelly's wedding festivities.

Because of the proximity of the wedding, we didn't have to get up early, which is a good thing. I like to sleep latish (which is often 9:30 or so) and do a bunch in the morning - like write my blog, do my daily challenge, check out facebook, maybe look at the news online, the weather, play a little on my phone (I keep playing Flippety and seeing if I can make it crash) (speaking of which, my great nephew Lewis crashed it again - and my nephew Ernst, an actual programmer sort told me one way to maybe prevent the crash - though I think it is not necessary as I doubt many people will actually do what Lewis does - just randomly push on the screen over and over again until it crashes...), maybe work on a project or two, figure out the day, plan dinner, etc. I usually get a lot done in the morning - mainly because I have silence in which to work. No nattering. I don't mind a few minutes of nattering now and again, but incessant nattering is another thing entirely...

Well, that was quite a little digression, verging on a rant. Moving on. I got up and did a lot of the above stuff before going in to mom's room and checking on her status. Asleep. Gentle prodding yielded an awakening mother. While she was starting to do the arising thing, I got her blunch (breakfast and lunch) (not brunch - that seems to be something that happens before lunch time, while blunch is something that happens at or around lunch time but is one's first meal of the day) and some coffee. Much as I disdain coffee, it does seem to clear some of mom's mental fog. Not memory and such, just her normal morning miasma of unhappiness and disgruntlement. And I started cleaning the kitchen which I like to leave as neat as I can when we go traveling. Few things are more unpleasant than coming back to a messy kitchen after being away.

We got out just at one - barely. Yippee! The drive was pretty smooth - no back-ups or traffic snarls. Mom did natter quite a bit - sadly, she has a way of harping on the two topics I most dislike talking about - money (ick) and my house in NC. When I say that I don't want to talk about them she gets angry and says that she can't talk about anything. Sigh.

The lovely Super 8 motel used to be something else I am sure. It is more of a hotel than a motel - with the rooms all opening on inside corridors. It is ok. Not scintillating. Mom doesn't like the pillows (too hard) and we had a little electrical problem - the multi-plug in the wall was loose - or the plug plate was loose or something was loose. Anyway, the staff swapped things out and it all works fine.

Since we had some time to kill, I turned on the news for mom, missing most of the BBC news because it started half an hour earlier here than it does in Geneva. And then ABC for some reason was out of synch. Other channels were fine - just ABC was weird. Oh well.

Off to the rehearsal dinner at the lovely Rosendale Cafe in Rosendale NY - where the wedding is happening as well. (Not the Cafe, but in or near Rosendale.) We ate outdoors (not my favorite thing) at unassigned tables. It all worked out eventually. Juliet was kind and forced me to not sit with mom. Yay her! Mom ended up sitting with Juliet and Candace and Karl (my brother and his wife). I sat with two of my nephews, their significant others and Lewis (Ernst, Jill, Sam, Abby). Food was good - all vegetarian (sigh). I had a sweet potato burrito - which I enjoyed - though Jill's Greek Salad - which seemed more like a Mediterranean plate than just a salad, looked excellent as well. And I got to have two yummy Rogue Dead Guy beers! Yay!

All in all, a decent day! Tomorrow I will write about the wedding, which is happening today!

The Sign!

Rockin' Rosendale Cafe

Betty (mother of the groom) Mom and Juliet

Ernst (father of the groom) and Paul

The menu

Ernst reading a sonnet that he wrote (we are that kind of family)

My sweet potato burrito

Jill's Greek Salad/Mediterranean Plate

Tomorrow we leave - and I am not packed!

Tomorrow we leave for the wedding and I am not packed. This in itself is not a big deal. The bigger deal is that mom isn't packed. Hopefully we will be able to knock that out today.

Yesterday, mom was not interested in going to get an x-ray - and I didn't push her to do so. Why push? I know she needs some pushing here and there, but I pick my battles.

The weird thing is, she actually asked to start doing crossword puzzles again. She hasn't done any in as long as I have been here. Does this mean she is getting better? Ha! I am just glad that she is trying, even if she doesn't get far with them. 

Yesterday was a big day for Flippety! I got a message from Apple saying that the app was "in review." Two hours later, I got an email saying that the current build had been rejected. But they said it politely. I was not surprised, but mildly distressed. As those who have read a bunch of my posts know, I am not really an iOS programmer - I am a good copy and paster and cludger. So I had no idea how I was going to fix the problems that Apple said there were. I went through a bunch of steps, and then remembered the internet. Why it takes me so long to remember the internet, I just don't know. I did a search using the wording of my problem and lo and behold, others have had the same issue. Turns out it was, of course, my fault (mostly). At one point I had wanted to make the app compatible with the iPad and then changed my mind. Unfortunately, changing back didn't remove all references to the iPad, which made the app crash, which lead to the app's rejection. There was a second issue - something about graphics not being the right size, but I will deal with that if it is a real issue. So, I resubmitted the app yesterday. Yay, more waiting!

Today, we are getting a new aide. At least for the day. I am hoping that mom will be on good behavior - and will get a shower. And hopefully get some help packing. The new aide will only be here for two hours today. And may not be the aide that we will get in the future. I think the aide company just wants to start billing hours as quickly as they can - it is a business after all.

I thought Bill Clinton gave a pretty good speech.

Did a little food shopping and cooking yesterday. Nothing too exciting. And I put out some recycling. Ok, a lot of recycling. I actually thought of taking a picture of the pile - a full blue box and a pile of cardboard boxes all broken down. Oh, and I paid bills last night. All in all, an effective day fighting entropy. Not an effective night though - I slept miserably. Lots of dreams. Yippee for dreams. Hopefully I will sleep better tonight.

For those of you who follow the blog for my excellent documentary photography, I will be taking a few pictures at the wedding this weekend. For now, I am having a challenging time finding anything to take a picture of...

Leaf Kitchen's subtle signage

Blue Moon

I just googled "Blue Moon" and learned some interesting things. Did you know that there are two different definitions of a blue moon? I didn't. Glad I do now. I am smart! And edjimacted!

So, here we are on a beautiful Friday in Geneva, NY - and I do mean gorgeous, and it feels like Saturday! That's because, Thursday night is my big night out on the town. I was supposed to get together with a person I know from OKCupid (our first meeting) but her allergies acted up so we have postponed our meeting. Instead, I did my usual foray into the dark underbelly of Geneva and had a beer at Microclimate! Living dangerously, going where the wild and crazy people hang out. That's me. I spell my name D-A-N-G-E-R! As usual, I had a decent time. Chatted with nice people who liked my friend's app - Fotovino - more than mine - Flippety - which makes sense since his has to do with wine and I was in a wine bar. Still...And I saw people I know. Geneva is getting smaller! Now, if only I can meet some people who will be part of my support system. Baby steps.

Other than that, not an exciting Thursday.

I got a royalty check from sales of Bar Dreams! Woo hoo! I think I spent it all at Microclimate last night...

I walked to the library and back. While at the library I reserved a couple of audio books and took a few more audio books out, from my current favorite librarian - who actually smiled at me. I guess she is slow to warm up to people.

I did do some food shopping and made a delicious dinner of hamburgers with sautees onions and mushrooms, green beans (a smidge underdone),  corn on the cob and another of my mom's favorites, twice baked potatoes. She sure does like those!

Ok, I am seriously tuckered out from writing (or at least posting) three blog posts yesterday.So I hope that my slew of pictures will make up for the brevity of the post. Paucity? Who knows...

The Check! Who is this Renotto Press? How am I going to cash this?!

Sailboats on Seneca Lake

Yummy dinner!

One picture of the blue moon

Blue moon over Seneca Lake

Mom Monday

Much of my day was spent, figuratively, petting my mom. She woke from an intense dream and it took her about two hours to believe that it had been only a dream. Not fun. It reminded me of the time when she was on the higher dose of Aricept. Boy, that was a miserable month. I did get a little worried about her, because when she gets agitated she gets more tottery on her pins than she is at other times. I am toying with the idea of putting a gate at the top of the stairs - thoughts?

Other than that, I submitted Flippety to the app store. Now I just have to keep busy while I wait for the reviewer's comments. The only thing that I think might cause me trouble is that I didn't have the iAd animate on. If they insist on that, it ought to be part of the code they provide. Then again, there could be some HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) that I messed up. Or there could be any number of things...Just trying to not think about it as there is nothing I can do about anything until they tell me if I need to fix something. Not that I am thinking about it at all.

I didn't do much of anything yesterday. I did start a game on the xBox. Yippee! I don't think I have done more than turn it on once or twice (didn't even play anything) since coming back from the long trip with mom. Which also means that I haven't done much stealth sorting. I have been doing a little bit here and there and did some yesterday. Every little bit sorted is a victory in my book. The more I can recycle, the happier I am. More stuff out of the house, yay!

Mom and I watched The Man who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain on Netflix last night. It was pretty straight forward. Mom enjoyed it I think. An earlyish Hugh Grant effort. Definitely ok.

And Wegman's welcomed me with open arms! I didn't buy much - just some stuff for hot and sour soup I was making for dinner. It didn't turn out very hot or very sour and had way too much stuff in it - not nearly enough soup. Sigh. For dinner I also made mom some corn on the cob - I am happy that it brings her such pleasure - and a bit of rice glop to finish up two leftovers - some beef tips and some rice I had lying around. Yay for finishing leftovers!

All in all, a pleasant day was had! Yippee!

Another tasty dinner

Not Even 10 in the Morning!

It is not even 10 in the morning on this beautiful (though slightly humid) Monday morning in Geneva, NY. (It might not be before 10 am when I publish this, but that will be then, which isn't now.) Why is this of note, you may be asking? Well, I had a dream - not the same one that MLK jr. had, but I had one. It was about me uploading my game, Flippety, to the App Store. In my dream, there were no problems and the app just uploaded happily. Unfortunately, I had this dream several times. Which could mean that I will have to upload it several (more) times. Or it could just be the same upload happening over and over again in dreamland. Anyway, I woke up around 8:30 and launched xCode.

xCode is the Application Development Environment for making iOS applications. Yesterday when I tried to upload Flippety I got an error I didn't understand (which is neither new or surprising...). As is my methodology, I searched the internet for people who had the same or a similar question and read how they solved their problem. All of the answers seemed to me to be overkill - like zapping the PRAM - which, though sometimes a panacea back when I was doing tech support (1995) - and maybe a bit of voodoo - which sometimes works in the technological realm (heck, there be zombies in C programming) I honestly was overwhelmed by all the information. So I took the next step in my methodology and wrote my mentor, Bill, and asked his advice. He gave me the same sorts of answers. My decision: restart my computer and sleep on it. Which I did.

After my dream, I decided to just go in this morning and futz around a little before doing anything too drastic. In some things it is good to go backwards before going forwards. So I tried building the application again, but instead of for distribution, I did it for testing again. Which worked fine. So I went back in and futzed some more, with a little bit of guidance from the internet and got an error that finally made sense to me. The bundle identifier that I told Apple and the bundle identifier on my app didn't match. So I fixed that, rebuilt the app for primetime and tried clicking on the submit button again. And lo and behold, it worked! Flippety is now awaiting review by Apple. Fingers crossed that any problems they find are easily fixed by me in a timely fashion! Heck, by this time next month, I could have an app in the app store!

As if that wasn't enough to do before 10 in the morning. Next up was an issue that I have been working on for a long time. Not an issue really, a mom thing. I like to do mom things sometimes. This one was tracking down her elementary/middle school education. So I called Birch Wathen and left a message with their alumni relations person and we will see what will come of that.

Lastly, mom has always told the story that the Chinese Table in the living room, according to her grandmother, has a sister in the Metropolitan. So I called the Met this morning and, after randomly contacting some group, got through to the Asian Collection. I spoke with Sunny who told me I could send her some pictures and what I knew of the table's story and she would see what, if anything, she could find out. I guess I have some picture taking to do today. Mom will be overjoyed! Or not.

Anyway, that is what has happened before 10 am here in Chez Schoen-René. What happened with you before 10 this morning?

Yesterday, not too much to report. I spent most of the day frustrated because I couldn't get Flippety submitted to the App store. I cooked breakfast for dinner (plus a left over ear of corn for mom). And we watched an episode of Inspector Lewis on Masterpiece Mystery. It was supposed to be game night last night, but no one else apparently RSVP'd to Charles, so we gave up for the evening.

Mom's egg didn't fare very well

My egg was better on the other side

Flew the coop!

Late last night, I didn't look at the clock, but it must have been after 1:30 since that was when I turned off the light - I am guessing closer to 3 am, I heard the flapping of wings again. At first I thought that it was outside, but no, it was inside my room. So I got up, closed my bedroom door and turned up the overhead light - have I mentioned that I don't like the light from overhead lights, but prefer side lighting in general? Then I opened my large screened window and sat on my bed. After about three trips around me and the room, the bat flew the coop. Again. Now if only it would stay out of the house in the first place! But, if it comes back again, I will probably blog about it...

That was the excitement of the day.

I spent a large part of the day working on Flippety. Turns out that some of my graphics were in the wrong folders. I discovered this because there were two of the same graphic, seemingly, displayed at the same time! Eeek! They weren't exactly the same (otherwise the game probably would have messed up). One was full size, one was small. So I went through all of my graphics to make sure that things were all in the correct place. And the other thing I did was start to set up for selling/giving away my app. I decided to let it be free for the first 6 months and then charge $.99 for it after that. I mentioned to my iOS mentor, Bill, that I was having doubts about releasing it at all. He wrote back saying that it was worth releasing and that I should soldier on (or something like that). I have done the first bit - now I have to figure out how to upload a copy to the App store and get it reviewed. The review process takes about 10 days, I have read online. And many apps get rejected for many different reasons, so I am not overly hopeful. Another thing that Bill mentioned, after I had remarked that I probably wouldn't do much with the app unless I got at least 1000 downloads, was that 1000 downloads wasn't that many. And after doing a smidgen of research on the web, it looks like some free apps get 71,000 downloads. I will be excited if I get 1500. If I do, that will be the most of any of my products that are out in other people's hands. (I think I have sold 1000 copies of Bar Dreams - but I lost track...)

Food shopping went smoothly at Wegman's. I stocked up on things that we use quite a bit. Beer, bacon and eggs. Tonight is breakfast for dinner. Yippee! Speaking of dinner, last night was pizza (homemade) and chicken wings (frozen). Mom said she didn't actually usually like pizza (oops) but that she liked this one. Good thing I don't make it very frequently I guess. That is two things on the list now of stuff that mom generally doesn't like that I do - hot dogs and baked beans (one of my favorites) and pizza (another of my favorites). Well, live and learn.

After dinner, we watched a rented Netflix DVD of Antonia's Line a movie from the Netherlands. Dutch really is close to German. Lots of cognates at least. The movie was entertaining and worth watching. Not breathtaking, not depressing. It sort of had an Amelie feel in some respects. Not quite as clever and fun and bizarre as Amelie, but vaguely reminiscent...

I have finished season 2 of Lost. Yay! Only four more to go. Still don't get the massive appeal...

Yum, pizza!

Full Fun Friday!

Wow, two days in a row with lots going on. Now, it is time for a rest. Maybe for two weeks. Maybe not. One never knows what the future will bring, does one? And on top of that, welcome Wendy! Follower 48!! Two more to go to the elusive follower fifty, after which the sky will open and manna will fall from heaven. Or not. But I do have 48 followers for now! Yippee and thank you!

First errand of the day was picking up my check for services rendered to the Opera. I decided to walk, which turned out to be an inspired decision. First off, it was apparently the beginning of Freshman orientation. There were police barricades complete with policepeople helping the traffic flow sluggishly around the neighborhood. It might have taken me longer to drive downtown than to walk downtown with all of the traffic. Students everywhere! Eeek! And it was a lovely day. Nice temperature, low humidity. Just plain gorgeous, actually. I like the walk to downtown Geneva and try to do it as frequently as possible. Well, not like six times a day for no reason. But if I am going downtown, and have the time, I like to walk.

Picked up the check and cashed it at one bank, walked across the street to my bank and deposited it. I chatted with the summer teller, Hannah who will be leaving soon to go back to college - premed! Yay her. I love living in a small town! (Most of the time...)

After getting home, I checked on mom before heading to Walmart to do a slightly major shopping. We were out of a lot of staples: Swiss Rolls, Kit Kats, pistachios. And they were all less expensive at Walmart than at Wegman's. And I did get other stuff that we were out of or running low on, like maxipads, eye drops and pretzels. On the way up, I had dropped off a presecription with my phavorite pharmacist and picked it up before heading home.

Mom and I ate lunch together, interrupted by a little trip I had to take to help out on the Opera one last time. Sadly, by the time I got there, the issue had already been resolved - though I had received no call telling me not to bother to show up. Sigh.

I tried to get mom to come to Trumansburg with me, but she didn't want to go. It is actually a good thing that she chose to stay home as we ended up wandering around quite a bit. I got there and met Bill outside of the Rongovian Embassy. I had really wanted to go there, as the last time I went was 30 years ago. Maybe longer, actually. The thing I remember most about the place is that they had a list of Zombie (rum based) drinks that is pretty fun. Sadly, they were closed, with no sign of their hours. We checked on them several times while we were in town, but they remained closed. Weird. I hadn't realized that the Rongovian Embassy (Rongo for the locals) had changed hands frequently and was often closed. Oh well. We ended up at Gimme!, the coffee shop we had met in before. People kept sitting next to us, and I kept talking with them. None of them were excited about my app, but they all seemed excited by Bill's wine diary app. Yay for Bill! While we were there, he did help me solve a couple of problems I was having. Though I did also have a bit of an anxiety attack which did not fully manifest until I got home and was sitting in front of my computer again. The anxiety was about my app Flippety - which looks like poo and is cludged together - I know that people can't see under the hood - but I know what a mess it is in there. So, it is a kind of buyer's remorse - or programmer's remorse or something. Glarp.

After hanging at Gimme! for a while, we wandered around T-burg looking for a place to have a beer. Finally, found Ron Don's. Yay! We sat outside, which was the smoker's area, but luckily wasn't too horribly smokey. Very pleasant to sit and sip a beer and chat. It is great to have some adult time occasionally!

Back at the homestead, mom had made it through the day safely. Always a good thing. I made dinner - salmon for her and hamburgers for me. My hamburger turned out deliciously! I made two hamburgers and plan to have the second one for lunch today. Yippee! We also had broccoli - which I over cooked a smidge, and corn, which turned out well - though one of the ears I picked was not good. Mom got the good one.

After dinner, we watched Bottle Shock on Netflix through our Blu-Ray player. Yay technology. It was actually quite an enjoyable movie - though it had its quirks and oddities. I didn't know much about the movie - just that Alan Rickman was in it and I like him. Lots of other good actors in it as well. It was a movie about wine and the first time that American wines went head to head with French wines and actually won a blind taste test! Good stuff. If you like wine, like Alan Rickman or need a light interesting film to watch, I certainly recommend it.

A full on Friday! Rockin' it Augustus Style! :)

Our lady of Geneva in a park

The Closed Rongo

Where we eventually landed

Wow! Was that Tuesday?

Where the heck did it go? I blinked and it was gone. Now it is Wednesday. And part of me thought it was Thursday. Weird. Huzzuh! (Palindromic form of Huzzah).

Tuesday, oh, Tuesday, wherefore art thou, Tuesday?! (Wherefore, for those who don't know, mean "why" in this sentence...)

So, what the heck did I do on Tuesday? Oh, right, I fixed the problem that has been plaguing me for a long time in Flippety. After a bunch of searching on Stackoverflow.com and a long comment session with a poster named rdelmar, I typed in (or cut and pasted) some code that seems to have done the trick. I cannot say how excited this has me feeling. On the inside at least. I know there is always more to do - sounds to tweak, graphics to edit, but part of me just wants to try posting it and seeing what happens. I mean, Apple could just reject it. I can't see why, except for some Human Interface Guidelines issues. But there is nothing offensive in the game - no Apple images or copyrighted material. And it seems to work just dandily. At least on my 3G running iOS5.0. I don't have the mental energy to try and test it on all the various devices out there. (Ok, while putting off working on my blog, I redid all of the sounds and edited the one graphic that was egregiously erred.)

And that was the extent of my Tuesday. How was your Tuesday? Yup, no epiphanies, no great adventures. Oh, I did go to the grocery store and made some beef tips for dinner that turned out pretty well.

That actually looks pretty appetizing for a change! Yay!

Glop for dinner

Cooking is fun. And I do enjoy it. I know that I will never be a chef. What I mean is that I don't make meals that people would rave over. Sure they are tasty enough, interesting enough, but exciting, innovative? Nope, not so much. The food I make is fodder, decent fodder, but fodder nonetheless. Like the food I made last night - I baked some chicken, reheated some broccoli and made some rice glop out of fresh cooked rice (love my rice cooker) some cut up veggies and a few splashes of soy sauce.

My brain is full of stuff and I hope to empty it out here in the blog. Lucky you!

One issue is, of course, my mom. I try to deal with mom as if she were healthy, when I know she isn't. I don't know how much to do for her, and how much to let her do on her own. I don't understand the disease, though I guess that is where we and the scientific community are currently. Sometimes she acts like she can function normally, and other times she acts like there is little that she can do on her own or like no one is there in her head. As for the physical stuff, that has been an ongoing battle for as long as I can remember. She acts like she is feeble, and in some ways she is. In others she is hale and hearty. Sigh city!

Another issue is my game, Flippety. I am very proud of it and what I have accomplished. That being said, I am not as close to publishing it as I would like to be. I have one major issue, which I am working on, to solve. And even then, although I am proud of it and think it is fun, I know it is majorly flawed. And I fear (not a word I like) that it will do as well as so many of my other projects have. Which is to say, that the four people who get copies will say nice things and that will be about it.

Last issue for the time being - my oft iterated keening about the lack of companionship I have in my life. I know that it will happen when it happens. But that is only a mild analgesic for my migraine. Ok, migraine might be an exaggeration. I also know that the chances for me to meet a potential partner are 1 in 1000, so I keep struggling or straggling forward.

On OK Cupid, there are woman of interest - which comes in four different flavors:

Almost Interested - women I write to who appear for one reason or another and I write to them because they are there - I have expectations or even strong desire that they will right back or that we will ever meet or become friends or get into a relationship. For instance - a woman in England wearing a minni mouse outfit - sure she was appealing - but she lives in England and put "near me" as a requirement. Interestingly, she actually responded with a thank you note.

Somewhat Interested - women who appear and I think they appeal - I don't know if we fit or not. If they write back I am surprised - they almost never write back

Very Interested - people who appear who appeal and who I mostly fit their scribed criteria - if they write back, I am really surprised and pleased. So far, only one has - and she wrote - if I dated long haired freaks, I still wouldn't date you. Nice.

Crushed - people who appear on the list and I don't care whether or not I fit any of their criteria - well, of course I do - I hope that I fit all of their criteria and hope that they will see me and my profile and rush to write back in mere seconds from when I send them a message. Ha. Haha. Hahahahaha! Haha. Ha. Did I mention ha? Waiting for any kind of response is torture for about a day and then I let them go. Mostly.

Enough about that.

I know that there are probably some teetotalers who read this blog. Or maybe not. In any case, when I was growing up, like some kids, I experimented with alcohol - sometimes using the alcohol of my parents liquor cabinet. In my effort to clean my mom's house out of stuff, I am working through her liquor legacy - some bottles dating back to the 50s, I am sure. The other night I decided to try the Aquavit - only to discover that someone had added a lot of water to the bottle. I am thinking it was either me or my brother...very funny. At least I was amused.

Our super nutritious lunch

'Spection

Introspection and retrospection are probably the primary two 'spections of which I write. When I am not actively adventuring outwards, I have the time, energy and inclination to do some inward adventuring. I believe that both are important to leading a quality life. No real retrospection recently...

Right now, my introspection is focused on my right shoulder. It is hurting for no apparent reason. I think it is something that could be solved by Chiropractic, so I might look into that on Monday. Maybe caused by my work on the opera?

What else am I introspecting? My mom. She seems to be deteriorating. Today she asked me about Hobart and William Smith - and if there were two colleges and how separate or unified they were. My words, not hers. She has lived on this campus for 60 years. Sigh. But she can still fake being fairly competent. I don't know what to do. The good news is that I might be getting help soon. Subsidized help. That would be awesome. We are having a fiscal review from the Ontario County Aging people on Thursday. Always fun, fiscal reviews. Have I mentioned lately that I dislike the fact that so much of life seems to revolve around money? If not, consider it mentioned...

For those of you who follow this blog, you know that I am generally an upbeat person. I do try to, and usually succeed, at looking at the bright side of life. My mom often calls me Pollyanna (and no, this isn't because she has forgotten who I am). Right this second, though, I am a bit on the blue side of things. I just found out that my housemate will be leaving the house in Clayton, NC. Which means that I need to sell my house. Which wasn't possible 6 years ago and is probably a lot less likely now.  And selling the house is not easy 600 miles away.

Then again, I get two little offsets, and though the whole house thing is heavy and weighs on me a bit, my mood is lightened by a) finding out that the lab for mom's blood test is just drop in-able - and b) getting another little baby step forward on Flippety.

As for every day things, I make a pretty tasty cream of broccoli soup Saturday night for dinner. With a salad. The soup was especially tasty! I halved a recipe I saw in How to Cook Everything, added some cheese and called it soup! Sunday, we had breakfast for dinner: egg, hash browns, bacon and waffles!

With home made croutons!

No caption necessary

And it was game night again Sunday! Yay, we won!

With a Daffy Duck Lisp

With a Daffy Duck lisp, many more things become alliterative with Thursday. Like Thuffering Thucatash! No, we didn't have succotash. We did have more corn. And some broccoli, which turned out just as I like it. Great consistency, nicely seasoned. I love it when I luck out with cooking. And I fried us each an eggroll from the freezer. Down to the last two, so I need to start thinking about make more again. Yay. Wow, how did I get to dinner without even going through the excitement of the day? Oh, right, lisping...

Well, the day started really early for me yesterday. It was court day. I wasn't particularly nervous. The officer (Hall) had said that they were fix-it tickets and would, most likely, be dismissed if I took care of registering the car and getting it inspected. Both of which I had accomplished. I got to the courthouse at just about 8 when the building opened. I didn't know how the whole thing worked and I like to be early in any case. Would there be hundreds of people or only a dozen? Would they do cases on a first come first served basis or on some other methodology? How intimidating would the whole thing be?

Since I was there so early, I got to sit and wait till they opened the doors to the courtroom (yes, Geneva only has one courtroom). While waiting, I made some new friends and also saw an old friend: Joe from Joe's Hots (a local hot dog eatery). He was there to see how a friend's hearing went in regards to a skateboarding incident. Joe is a huge advocate of skateboarding - trying to get a skate park built in Geneva for one thing. He is a very "hail, well met" sort of guy. And since the both of us are chatty, we get along pretty well.

Finally, the doors opened, and I sat in the back. I like to sit in the back sometimes. In the front sometimes. In the middle sometimes. Different places for different types of events and for my different moods. In front for educational things, in the middle for entertainment things and in the back for things when I feel I need to be able to observe the whole picture.

The DA went through a list of all the people who were supposed to be in court - some didn't seem to be there - alphabetically. He got to my name and stumbled a bit on the last name. Oh well - that happens quite a bit. I got up, he asked me if I had taken care of the issues, I said I had, he said he would ask the judge to dismiss the tickets and I went and sat down again.

It was very theatrical. I could live in a courtroom - as long as I wasn't the one being sued or tried or whatever. Fun stuff. I got my turn, the judge said, what was the formula she used - in order to serve justice - or something like that, dismissed the tickets! Woo hoo!

While I was downtown and only a block away from the farmer's market, I decided to buy a couple vegetables for that night's dinner. Ended up with hands full, I forgot one of my shopping bags - and turned down offers of other bags - too many bags in the world already - with four ears of corn, two heads of broccoli and a small container of four onions. Yay! Now I need to do stuff with onions, which usually isn't a problem for me.

I played one of my various roles today - the curmudgeonly Gus the Handyman. As I mentioned, I thought that perhaps the bats have been getting out of the belfry into the house, through a hole in the ceiling of the red room. Well, I found two acoustic tiles in a closet, and put them up over the whole. Go me! I hope they stay up and I hope that no more bats swoop into our lives! That would be nifty.

After dinner, I did have my rockin' Thursday night on the town. I headed to Leaf Kitchen to partake of one of my favorite beers - Great Divide's Yeti Imperial Stout! Yay! Chatted with nice people, drank yummy beer. A good time was had by many. I did not, quelle suprise, meet the woman of my dreams. Life is like that sometimes. 

And that was the excitement of the day. Most of the rest was the same fun stuff. I finished doing the graphics changes for Flippety. There is now nothing in there that is copyrighted that I can recall. Yay. I have two programming issues, which I don't know how to fix. If I can figure out one thing, I can fix all of the problems I think. It is a memory issue - how to dismiss from memory windows that are not being viewed. Doesn't sound that difficult, but so far, I haven't found an answer. That is today's mission. I plan to post another plea for help and hope I don't get answers that require rewriting the entire application, which is not in the cards at this point. I really want to try and post something to the Apple Store by September 1st.

The Courthouse - no cell phones or recording devices allowed!

My farmers market still life

The hole

The whole hole repaired

Wiggly Wednesday

I just realized that I called my yesterday post, which was about Tuesday, Woolly Wednesday. I am so confused. So if you are confused, you are not alone! I don't mind being alone, though it is better being alone with a partner, or so I have heard...

So about my woolly, wiggly Wednesday, there is not much to write.
Except in the darkness, in the wee hours of the night.
I heard a flap that I thought just might
be the wings of a bat to my right.
I turned on the light
and sure enough, there was the bat, flying around my room. It is not a big room - maybe 14x14. And though the bat wasn't huge, there wasn't a whole lot of space for me and it together. I closed the door to the hallway, so that it couldn't get further afield. Then I opened my screen on my large, almost french door window and hoped the bat would take the hint. It did. This is the third bat we have had in the house in less than a week! What is up with that?! I am not positive about where they are getting in, but I have an idea - which I will address today - the hole in the ceiling of the red room. I am open to other suggestions - except for the one that they turn into mist and seep into the house before re-materializing into bats again - or something worse. Hahahahahahaha! (That is diabolical laughter...)

Other than that excitement, the day was much like any other. I worked on blogs and Flippety. I actually finished a brewpub blogpost. Yay me!  I went to the grocery store and got some groceries. I did a chore - I finished hanging shower curtains in the bathroom - so mom can take another shower without getting water all over the floor - not that too much got on the floor last time - just now we have three shower curtains to accommodate her transfer bench. Dinner was tacos - though I kind of over cooked the two taco shells I had left and made due with flour tortillas instead. I actually think that is the way we are going to go from now on - they are a bit easier to eat than the tasty and crunchy corn taco shells. And we had corn on the cob. Mom loves corn on the cob something fierce!

While I have your attention, let me write about the anatomy of an online dating crush/session scenario. I go to the site and log on. I see a picture of a person who looks appealing. I click on her profile. Um, uh, not so appealing in a larger picture. Next profile. Oh, now she is more visually appealing. But wait, she lives in Brazil. Sigh. Next profile. Still visually appealing. And she lives in New Jersey! Tempting, but I will pass for now. Next profile. Ok, she is a bit nearer. Let's take a look and see what she has to say about herself...ok, good, all right, yes, oh, goodness, no, a smoker, politically conservative who has absolutely no interest in having another child. Next profile. Wow! She is gorgeous - though there is only one picture - this is a little alarm. Yup, a fake profile. Sigh. Hate those! Next profile - ok, she looks appealing. Nice profile. Not too horrendously far away - let's check - oh, darn, she only wants to date someone who is 1 year older and lives in the house next door. Not even going to waste my time writing. Next profile - attractive indeed, funny interesting profile, let's check - yes, near me is chosen - but according to the search criteria - near me can be up to 500 miles away, so...age is ok, non-smoker. Yippee! I will try. I will send out a hello message. Ok, at a bit of a loss where to start. The first communication is the first (or sometimes second) impression. (It can be second if the person sees a message from somebody in their mailbox and chooses to look at the profile before reading (or deleting) the message.) The note is short, pertinent and specific to their profile, funny if possible. Sign real name (like I would ever not do that...). There, done. Phew! Written. Hurruh! (sic) Now, the funner part - waiting for the response. Or, as happens most frequently when I write someone first - the lack of response. I start to think about what might be the reasons that they chose not to write. My appearance doesn't appeal to them (that happens). My profile didn't strike them as interesting (that happens). I am not in their age range or distance range (not much I can do there about the first - and the second isn't going to change anytime soon). Or they are really swamped with responses and might, possibly, get to me eventually (that happens). (Please note that I realize this is all their stuff and really has nothing to do with who I am and my value as a person.) Then, while I am waiting, I begin to make the sour grapes that Aesop instilled in my cranium so effectively - she isn't that attractive physically - her profile was a bit too something - precious, calculated, snide, whatever - she is too something - short, tall, sex oriented (not sex oriented enough). (Please note that I realize this is all my stuff and really has nothing to do with who they are and their value as a person.) Whatever. As time goes by, the grapes get sourer and sourer - eventually turning to vinegar right there on the vine. I mentally shrug, say "Next" and continue my search. Life goes on. Yay life!

Three shower curtains!

Doesn't look as good as it tasted

Time to refill my water bottles

Woolly Wednesday

It isn't cold or anything. I sometimes don't have a title leap to mind right away, so an old standby option is to come up with something that is at least alliterative.

Since I don't really have a lot of adventures or fun stuff to write about, I think I will write about blogging. And the dearth of comments going on. I mean, come on, comment people! Show me you are alive! Comment on all of my posts. Every single one! And tell all your friends about my basically boring blogs. So that they too can read them and fall asleep. It is way cheaper than a sleeping pill addiction. And they mostly probably won't do it while driving. While we are at it, tell your friends to "follow" the blog. I have been feeling abandoned ever since one person un-followed me. I don't know who it was or why they did it - but it makes me cry myself to sleep at night sometimes. (Ok, no, it really doesn't). (I didn't write this next part - just ignore it and pretend it never happened - the ad police are everywhere...) And, if I had ads on here, clicking on them would be a good thing. But I don't have ads on here, do I? See, I am nice and keeping this particular site ad free. Go me! If I ever get around to posting in the political blog, that site is going to be commercial! Heck yeah! I can already here the pennies clinking together in my wallet! Yea, baby! And I think for my beer blog, I am going to add targeted ads. At least it is worth a try. I made $.06 in July and I hope to double that in August!

Moving on - yesterday was a pretty quiet day. I spent most of it writing blogs and working on Flippety. I added and changed about 30 graphics, which is a start. I still have quite a few more to go. I still am way behind on my brewpub blog. There are seven posts that I have started and not finished. And there are a bunch more that I haven't even started. And I thought a bit about my first political blog to publish. I am leaning towards writing about mandatory national service. Heck, I would do national service now if circumstances permitted.

I did make a pasta glop for dinner that turned out pretty well.

We also watched a movie. Has anyone else seen Girl with a Pearl Earring? I was seriously underwhelmed. Scarlett was pretty to look at, but that was about it. Well, that and the glimpse of 1600s living. Other than that - ho hum, yawn. Rent it only if you like watching paint dry. Just my opinion...

Pasta glop and spinach! Colorful, n'est-ce pas?

Brinner

Most of my day was spent puttering around on Flippety. I know the game has issues, but they are ones that I don't know how to fix. Yet. So I am fixing what I can and going on with my life. Sadly, one of the things that I don't know how to fix is going to also get the game kicked back from Apple. (An iAd issue) The things I can fix, I am fixing: graphics - trying to cull the ones that are copyrighted and not sized appropriately; and sound - I have a few sounds that needed tweaking. I am still working on both of those though I accomplished a good bit. I also did get iAds working (for the most part). Turns out that there was a step missing that no one anywhere explicates (connecting the delegate to the ad banner). I found the answer where I find a lot of my answers - on Stackoverflow.com.

Other than that, it was a pretty lazy day. I did manage to put up two of the three shower curtains. Cleaned the kitchen a few times. Made lunch. The regular stuff.

Oh, I have been spending a bunch of time on OkCupid - thanks to Marie's suggestion. I like the site, overall. It does seem to promote creativity and curiosity. Sure, there are the slackers who don't bother to answer any questions. And there are a few of the scammers with fake pictures and profiles. But they are easily weeded out. So far, I haven't found anyone too exciting. Well, there is one person, but she is too young and I haven't written her. Yet. Probably tomorrow (which never comes).

What does one call breakfast for dinner? Brinner seems to be a good solution. Brupper? Deakfast? Anyway, that's what we had last night - a Sunday night tradition, sort of, here at Chez Schoen-René. And what a brinner feast it was! We had bacon, ah bacon, an egg, hash browns and waffles. I haven't ever made waffles from scratch before. I have made them using bisquick. And I have made them both at Perkin's when I worked there years ago and at several motels around the country, but this was the first time that I have made them from scratch. They turned out pretty well. But they are a lot harder than pancakes! Goodness gracious. Separating eggs? Beating egg whites? I used sour cream in mine rather than just milk. And blueberries. I think everyone enjoyed the meal. I know I did!

It was game night! It hasn't been game night, for me at least, in a long while. We played a cooperative game that we played before, but we didn't do very well. Nor did we finish the game. Charles has a curfew. Tatiana and Jack, newbies, came to play. As did Daniel. Fun stuff!

Waffles!

Brinner!

Game!

Tuesday - Monday Continued apparently

My goal for the day was to get my car inspected and to get my driver's license changed over from NC to NY. Seems simple enough, right? Well, it sort of was. I drove down to Dave's Garage and left the car. They said they would get right to it. They were not only going to do the inspection, but they were also going to put the license plate on the front of the car. I figured I would be able to do my other errands easily in that hour.

The problem, the Social Security Office. I must have waited there for most of an hour. For what? A two minute session with a clerk. She didn't need a birth certificate (phew), my passport was sufficient. But I don't get the new card for 2 to 3 weeks! Eeek! Whatever. I will just wait patiently by the mailbox for its appearance. I chatted with a young woman whose husband is thinking of getting into iPhone development. Go him! I doubt I will ever hear from him, but one never knows, does one.

As I headed out, I decided to give Dave's a call and check on the progress of the car. All done! So I went and got the car, and chatted with Dave for ten minutes. Next and final stop of the morning, The Smith to drop off the keys and my time sheets. Yes, I had to "punch a clock" for the work I did on the show. I hate punching a clock. Just pay me what you think the job is worth, darn it. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.

Back home, it was lunch time. Yay lunch time! Yay food. Yay! Post lunch, I went and did laundry, sans mom. I washed all the sheets that were on beds - mom's bed, guest room bed, red room bed and my bed. Later, throughout the evening, I made beds. Three - the red room remains unmade. And I made dinner - pork with left over veggies mixed with fresh spinach, and a corn on the cob. Turned out yummily.

So that's it. A boring blog post. Yay. Oh, I started looking in to how to ad iAds to Flippety. There's excitement for you...

Oh, I posted something about this yesterday - one of the female gymnasts used Pink Floyd for her music for floor exercises. I think it was parts of Shine on you Crazy Diamond.

Dave's Garage

Look, Laundry

Lots of sleep!

Yay! I had a great amount of sleep last night. Yippee, even! I guess I needed it. And tomorrow, laundry! Though it is Saturday and I may just wait until Monday to do laundry...

Yesterday was another Opera day. And not an intense one. It was our second full dress rehearsal. For those who don't know, rehearsals come in lots of different shapes and sizes and types. The ones that are closest to performance conditions are called "dress rehearsals," a phrase you may have heard used in other contexts, like "Life is not a dress rehearsal." This was our second dress, because we have two casts (though two dress rehearsals isn't really a bad thing in any case...). We never had a tech/dress or a purely technical (cue to cue) rehearsal, which is fine because we really don't have that much tech to do. Yay!

One of the things that happens to me (and to others I believe) during the run of a show, is that the show gets into my subconscious. I keep hearing the music and words going through my head. In straight shows (no music), people will often get snippets of dialogue wedged firmly in their minds. Makes no sense to people who haven't done much theatre, but it is fun and disconcerting at the same time.

Dinner was pizza from Pizza Hut - they have a $10 pizza deal currently. We don't eat a lot of fast food - but I didn't think I would have time to cook yesterday. Turns out I did, but I didn't want to rethink my plan. Less thought sometimes equals a happier Augustus. The pizza was ok, not great - and I think there is something in there to which I am allergic. Well, poop. There is lots of left over pizza - mom only ended up eating one piece (I had two).

Oh, darn, I forgot. I finally finished all of "Stargate" by finishing Stargate Universe, which I was enjoying, despite Eli's whining. I don't know what I am going to watch on Netflix next - there are so many options. Meanwhile, I am going to do a little catching up on Hulu - Glee, Eureka and Warehouse 13.

I showed a couple of iPhone users my game Flippety and they seemed to enjoy it. Yay! I still have more work that I need to do on it. Hopefully I will get some done later today and on Monday!

This lovely pick-up truck decoration was pointed out to me

Our pizza from Jabba the Hut

Sporadic Posting

Just didn't create the time for the post yesterday. Life is that way sometimes. True, I didn't have to go in to the theatre until later, but lack of sleep was reaching a critical level. So, I slept. A good bit. And then napped after waking up. And did I do anything else constructive with my awake time? No, I did not. Well, made mom some lunch before running out the door. Yay me!

So, the last two days have been mostly spent in the theatre. This is not the glamorous theatre that most people experience. The walking in, sitting down, enjoying the performance and then walking out sort of theatre. The time I have been spending in the theatre is sweaty, sometimes heavy, labor interspersed with times of sitting around waiting. There are not a lot of things to do during the actual running of the show. There are a few sound effects. And the scenery has one major switch. And there is some actor cueing to do. Other than that, there is a lot of just hanging out.

As for the physical labor part, moving scenery is a lot like moving furniture. Most people have moved some furniture in their lives. For us, some of it is done in the dark, which always makes it more pleasant. And some of the stuff weighs a ton! Oh, and there is the sweeping and mopping. Al, the director, told a version of the great old chestnut - a boy from the Midwest ran off to join the circus. His job, scooping up elephant poop. His parents came to see him and saw what work he was doing. They begged him to come home and work on the farm. His response "What? And give up show business??!?" I must admit that I am looking forward to it being over. Not because I don't enjoy it. I do. I just don't enjoy it as much as I could because I feel like I am neglecting mom. And that is why I am in Geneva, right now, so that I can look after her and help her out. Sigh.

Speaking of helping out, mom "emptied" a box yesterday. Basically she took everything out and spread it out nicely on the dining room table. She says that she threw a lot away when she sorted it. Somehow, I don't think that was the case. At least she tried, which is the important bit. She has also been doing dishes, which is a mixed blessing. I do hope the Ontario County Aging Program wait list shortens quickly! What would be optimal, though, would be to have someone come and take care of mom for a week. Or two. Though that is unlikely to happen any time soon. If ever.

In and around here, I have managed to do a little on Flippety - cleaning up and replacing graphics etc. Most importantly, Kelly (who we met in Hood River on the trip) sent me artwork from the beer labels that he designed! How awesome is that?! Check out Crooked Fence brewing when you have a chance! The labels look great!

Ok, at least this was a post of some kind. I hope to get back to regular posts starting with this one. We shall, of course, see.

The Armory in Geneva - I was taking a picture of the NYS state Flag

The door I have a key to at the Smith Opera House

Most of the prop table