Need to find a new profile picture

The one I am using now, the profile picture that is, is so wintery. And I think that Spring is finally here. Maybe. Perhaps...

I am listening to Order of the Phoenix and something interesting has happened - Voldemort has gone from silent "t" to voiced "t." I wonder why. Maybe because the movies had started coming out and they said Voldemort with a voiced "t?" Who knows? Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Lots of Smith Stuff to do today. I am up (at 9:30 am) and am gearing up, girding my loins, etc. to getting ready to work. Yippee! - Ok, two hours later, I have accomplished a good chunk of my list. Yay. It is almost time to make mom lunch - then downtown for a couple of hours at the Smith (and the bank and post office). I still don't know what will be for dinner. Hmm...

Unfortunately, I have begun the multiplayer for COD AW (Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare). I am not loving it. Nor am I hating it. I think I will do at least one prestige and then see how I feel. None of my friends seem to be playing it. Oh well.

Mom likes creamy soups. Unfortunately they don't seem to agree with her digestive tract. Sigh. So, I need to find a soup that is not cream based that she will eat. Preferably one that comes in a can. Yes, I am that lazy.

Speaking of lazy - it isn't even midnight and I am going to try to go to sleep. Yippee!

Cloudy Today

I like my status for yesterday's post this morning - Clouds providing lots of shade today - trying to put a cloudy day in a positive (not so scintillating) light. Yippee!

Watched Philomena last night. I enjoyed it. I kinda thought it was based on a true story before I watched it. Turns out it was. Judi Densch was great. Mom, unfortunately, slept through the whole movie.

Also started watching Daredevil on Netflix. Too absorbing. I think I watched five episodes at least before I forced myself to go to sleep. My eyeballs just about fell out of my head.

My goal for the day is to do nothing Smith related. We shall see if I can manage. I probably ought to pay some bills. And think about what I need to do next week for the Smith and for life in general. I think laundry time is creeping up on me again. Yippee. 

Yay paid a few bills. I feel so virtuous when I pay bills. I do remember a while in my life where paying them was painful beyond compare. Sigh.

Ok, so I am making a list of all the things I need to do for the Smith tomorrow - eeeeeek!

Spotify - One list (Cave)

Movie Playlists - two - Cave and Whiplash

Mail chimp - Tasting Note Send

Mail Chimp - start Mail Blast Movie May! (Even Toeprints is getting into the action)

New website - enter movies for May

Start list of movies for June

Double Check June with Kelly

Double Check May with Kelly

Update Instructions Sheet for Ticket selling

Send Email about training session for Projectionists (re box office and refresher on things)

Send email about cleaning session at the Smith

Send email about RPO on Friday

Check with Mexican Film and contact the guy

Look at Snake movie and contact them

Download Call Security’s music video

Contact Stephen Giamotti and see what is up with Young Adulterated

Contact HBO woman again

Meet with Jocelyn and do conference call

Meet with Jessica and talk about ticket selling - and scanning

Order the internet boosters (2 at least)

See if I can figure out what is wrong with the little computer and its battery

Call Damien and see if he can scrub our two laptops of viruses and such

Call Carl Blewshewke at Finger Lakes Health and see if he is doing the graduation or if somebody else is

Look through email for anything pending

There are probably more things, but I can't think of them off the top of my head - oh, wait, I did think of one - check the weather and set up heating/cooling. 

Now mom's toilet innards need replacing again. Yet mine remain fine. What is up with that? I will try to buy innards tomorrow or Tuesday.

So, I finally finished the campaign of Advanced Warfare. I really hate quicktime cut scenes and events. Which is why I like the Bethesda games so much - those only happen when in dialogue and nothing of extreme consequence happens during dialogue. Anyway, I played my first game online and went 17-18 and was second on our team, which makes me pretty happy. Playing on a map with a load out that was less than optimal and totally not understood by me, I am very pleased with that result. Yippee! Tomorrow is another day.

A day of not much

Tuesday - gotta love 'em in general. They aren't Monday, which for most people is a good thing. Since I am either working or on call most weekends, Mondays don't mean the same thing to me as people who have weekends off from work. Still, Monday is a fairly full day for me most weeks. So Tuesday, being mostly not full, is a relief. Yes, I have a bunch of things that I need to finish up on Tuesday for Wednesday and the rest of the week, but I can do those from home for the most part. So, it feels like a relaxing day. 

I always feel a little happier when I have figured out the dinner menu for a day. We are going to have a chicken casserole. Now that I have an oven that works (yippee) I can bake a full sized casserole or even two smaller ones. I can hardly wait. I have chicken and some left over veggies - need some mushrooms etc. Yippee. Dinner will be the casserole, some corn on the cob and a salad. What more could anyone want? (Too many bread crumbs - oh well - where were my fried onions when I needed them?)

Well, Spring is definitely here. Our mower was out doing a quick spring cleaning of the yard. I am tempted to get out there myself and rake for half an hour. We shall see if I ever feel motivated enough to actually do that. Having done mowing/landscaping off and on throughout the years, I know full well that it is not something that I particularly enjoy. I really enjoy lying on my bed typing. Now there is an activity that I can get behind! :)

Oops, fell asleep without posting this. Good thing mom woke me just now. Yippee!

Zip, zoom, zowie

Here we are, almost to mid April. I think the time goes weirdly when the weather is weird. Then again, maybe I am just weird. Weird is a weird word.

I just paid a couple of bills. It is that sort of day. Time to get some stuff accomplished that has been accumulating. Mom gets her STAR exemption, I mail the taxes (I still don't understand how I, who earns so little owe state taxes - seriously it is mind boggling - but then again, I do live in NYS and we are one of the more heavily taxed states), Netflix gets its latest movie back, and my retirement gets another bit of funding (yes, mom's Publisher's Clearing House entries are waiting to be put together). And I am sleepy. I am looking forward to the day when I can sleep and wake when I want to, not with the Mom Clock waking me at hours that make sense to her. Sigh. Snore.

My plan is to crank through the stuff that I have piled on my bed, and then start to think about Smith stuff. I know that I want to go in and work on the copier issues - get scanning and emailing up and working, get the PS (post script) printer drivers up and running on the two office computers and maybe some of the laptops, keep working on Theatre Manager (trying to learn how to design tickets to be scanned and how to scan them to show them as used)(and other stuff).

Honesty is a rare thing, I find. A checker at Wegman's gave me $.75 because she took my bottle return coupons one day six months ago and forgot to take them off my receipt. How great is that?!

So many great lines in The Big Bang Theory. Just saying.

My Birthday Day

First thing, mom wanted water. Which was beside her bed. And she was in a chair. Three feet away. And was mostly asleep. Just thirsty. Instead of listening to her bleat (yes, I sometimes think of her as bleating) for hours and hours, I decided to get up, put on some clothes (TMI?) and hand her her water cup. Then, back to sleep (since it was 7 am and I need my beauty rest. I need a lot of beauty rest!!). Until 8 when mom complained she didn't have any water, which was on her tray, out of sight (not really) behind a box of tissues and a roll of toilet paper. Up, dressed and water pointed out, I was going to go back to sleep but decided to check my computer and do a smidgen of work. I forgot to post the Smith Mail Blast yesterday. Sigh. Life is that way sometimes. I also launched Facebook to reply to the 15 or so people who had taken the time to wish me a happy birthday. (Thank you everyone.) And to receive a diatribe from a woman I don't know who friended me for some reason. Maybe so she could write diatribes to me. Who knows? Anyway, I wrote "money isn't real" and she told me it most assuredly was. I feel edified. (Ok, not really - glad she womansplained it to me.)

What is next on my agenda for the day of the anniversary of my birth? No idea - maybe play on my phone a bit. We shall see. I do have a massage scheduled for later this afternoon. And we are definitely pigging out on pizza and wings tonight for dinner for me. What I am feeling mom is still unclear at this point, but I will figure that out at Cams when I am there.

Oh, watched Interstellar last night and enjoyed it. I don't care about the science (which I thought was ok). I just like Mathew Mc(however you spell his last name)y who did (as my friend Jeff might say) chew the scenery just a tad. Just fun stuff. Yay Science Fiction. :)

Rain it a raineth. Good thing my parade wears rain clothing. And carries an umbrella. It could be snow, so...

Getting dragged into Smith things. Sigh.

At least the next Harry Potter book is waiting for me at the Library. I was getting towards the end of this, the third and was worried. A little. Not a lot. Really.

Time to catch up on my day a little. Where was I? Oh, yes, dragged into Smith stuff. A few times today. No day off for me. Grrr and sigh.

After lunch, I went to my massage. (Thank you Rosanne!) Pleasant but not great. I will keep searching for the masterful (mistressful?) masseuse next time. It was raining pretty heavily as I got into my car, so I decided to postpone any Birthday shopping until another time - maybe next week sometime. And I didn't get myself a cake (which is a good thing as I will explicate a little further along). I just headed home, played for a few minutes (I restarted playing Tomb Raider as I had forgotten how much of it worked), then put Karl on the phone for mom. She barely reached her hand out at all, one of her more infuriating behaviors. At around 5:15 I headed downtown to get pizza and stuff for dinner. Yay Cam's! A quick beer at Lake Drum while waiting for the food to be prepared. Back home, ate too much food (mom ate a lot too, yay) and now it is time for a shower. Huzzuh!

All in all a very pleasant day. Showered, clean sheets, mom is in bed and I am headed there too. Soon.

March is ending

In case you hadn't realized, it will soon be April. Eeek! How did that happen? Hopefully, with the end of March will come the end of winter. That would be nifty. The mini-blizzard the other day and the cold temperatures really aren't as fun as they could be. 

Yesterday was a pretty long day at the Smith. I went early to finish up from the night before. Went in again to get ready for a show. Went in again to make sure that everyone was playing well together. I hope the event went well in the end. Today I need to go in and set up everything for a two showings of a movie. Yippee! 

I got mom some prunes. And some prune juice. I don't know that I have had much prune juice over the years. Worf thought it was good. Maybe mom will like it. Heaven knows she didn't like the ensure like drink that I got her. Sigh. I am hoping that her shingles will be over soon. That would be nice for us all. 

Sometimes I feel like I am that frog in the slowly heating pan of water. 

Tried to watch a movie with mom last night, but she slept through it. It was ok - The Soloist - Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Definitely had good music. And the story was decent. So, glad I saw it. Wish that mom had stayed awake for it. 

When it was time for sleep, mom complained that she could have gone to sleep "hours ago" which was funny to me because "hours ago" she had been asleep...

Got a lot done at the Smith in my one hour there. The legs and borders all look happy. I played a little bit of everything on the movie server and it all went ok. Now I am home where I am doing more Smith work. Yay!

I almost rode my bike to work this morning, but I chickened out when I saw the breath in front of my face. It has warmed up considerably since then, so a bike ride may just be in my near future. Yippee!

Well, crap. I just was moving my lap desk and it slipped from my hands and scraped up my laptops screen. Poo even. Oh well - this is not the end of the world. Right? Yup, I thought so.

Up and at 'em

I get to go into the Smith again. I think I will go in sooner rather than later - get up, do my morning ablutions and then head into get the lighting equipment set up. I don't want to be in the way of the sound people taking away their stuff. I jus need to get through this and then I have an easy week or so. Huzzuh! 

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to looking through my papers for any of the 1099c's that I am supposed to have had from the creditors who forgave debts to me under my bankruptcy. I don't remember receiving any, actually. Not that I paid much attention to anything around that time, being sort of mentally and emotionally shut down about it. Not a high point of my fiscal life. 

Oh yeah, I forgot that we had snow last night. Not feet of it, just an inch or two that stuck. Yippee.

What happened?! Eeeeeeeek! Look at the time. Zzzzzzzzzz

Yay Winter!

Did I mention recently that I love winter? Winter seems more subtle than Summer. Last night, the lights on the snow turned ice on the William Smith quad mystically illuminated. Or something like that...

I fought the law and I won! I got a ticket at the Smith for parking too long in a spot. But I hadn't. I had been there less than two hours. The person at the police station said she would take care of it. Huzzuh!

This is going to be a short post - I am trying to download Yosemite for my laptop and it is going to take a loooooong time. I upgraded my phone's system yesterday. I think I mentioned that. Anyway, I can't be on the internet 'cause that will make the download go even more slowly.

Toasty!

The temperature at 5:12am on Wednesday morning in Geneva, NY is a balmy 37°F. It is going to be above freezing most of the day! Huzzuh! I was just outside in a t-shirt and boots playing choochoo train in my walkways. Mom and I get to go to her dentist appointment this afternoon. Yippee! An outing! Always a reason to celebrate. This is going to be mom's first time downstairs in a few weeks. I am tempted to take her to Friendly's for dinner, but am concerned about all the issues involved in a meal out. We shall see. (They called to reschedule - seems like this is the second time that has happened...) For now, I think I will try to get a few more hours of sleep. That would be nifty...

The puzzle movie is on hold - not because I don't want to do it, but because creatively I am a little stymied just now where it is concerned. Fear not, it will get done. Eventually. I hear that patience is a virtue. Hahaha.

I took the plunge and am going to go further spelunking into the depths of software upgrades. This morning before I went back to sleep, I started the download and upgrade process for my phone - the download took 6 hours - well, it ended up actually only taking four (!) - which unfortunately was exactly when I was supposed to be getting a call from an Elder Care Lawyer. Oops. We ended up speaking on the house's landline instead. Choices and options. Huzzuh!

Tonight I think I am going to update the software on my laptop. I don't really want to, because nothing is broken on here - but life moves forward and I don't want to get too far behind the technological curve, do I?

It is so warm outside! Things are melting, slowly. I went out to clear a little of the driveway and discovered a few things: slush is heavy, my shovel is broken, and my car lost a piece of plastic that is making things tough for my right front tire. Yippee.

Shopping at Walmart is always a joy. I went to buy mom some more underpants. They had a price thing that was wrong. Hate that. It said what I was buying was $75 per hundred - when it was actually   closer to $40 per hundred. I bought myself some socks, too. One of the newest socks I had mysteriously sprouted a hole in the toe. Grrr. I liked that sock too. I had named it and everything. (Sockie, in case you were curious - or Harriet - it answered to neither.)

A conglomeration (Is that the group word for some sort of critter?)

Is my Blu-ray player remembering where each and every disc was stopped? I think it does! How cool is that?! I love technology most of the time. I was disappointed to discover that one of the web cameras I bought was not plug and play like the other cameras I bought. I am not looking forward to returning it. I hope it is easy. I really need to get on that. I don't know how long I have. Eeek! So little to do, so much time to do it and all I want to do is nothing! Yay!

Turns out I had until March 22 - and it was pretty easy - they charged me some shipping, but I am ok with that. Getting it out of my hands was the important thing to me. I will make due with two cameras for the time being.

For some reason I have been thinking about the Dragon Riders of Pern series. I think the technology is there to make the movie now. And it might be a great franchise movie. I might just have to read all 111 of them again at some point. (Ok, so there are only 22 or 24 or 25 or something) (And it turns out that movies and such have been attempted for years - but a new one was started in 2014 - at least the writing bit was...)

We have had a weird weather day. Nice in the morning, blizzard in the afternoon turning to a snowfall of snocone consistency precipitation and it is getting warmer throughout the night - to a high of 37. Since the sun isn't shining and the wind is blowing pretty heavily, I don't think much melting, sadly, will go on. Poo. Yay weather!

Finished Live From New York. It was compiled back in 2002 or so - so it is a bit out of date. I was amazed at the people who have gone through that show. A lot of talent. I am glad that I read it. Big book! 500+ pages. Eeek. I still have another book I got from the library, but what I really want to read are the aforementioned Pern books. Ok, there are a few other books that I would like to read, mostly parts of series. There is one series that I was reading a while ago - I wonder if another book came out in that series. It is supposed to be the last, but I don't think it can be with the rate that the story has been progressing. What do I know. Brandon whatshisname managed to tie up The Wheel of Time series in three books when it looked like there ought to be another six.

Mawwiage

My excitement today is heading out into the winter wonderland that is Geneva NY today (I think the high temp is supposed to be 7 degrees Fahrenheit - and we have a decent amount of freshish snow on the ground) to get to the Smith to meet with a woman who is planing on having her wedding ceremony at the Smith. When I agreed to see her, I didn't realize that it was President's day (I think we ought to go back to having individual days off for each president - what would you do on GW Bush's birthday?) and that the Smith would be closed! Well, poo. It will, though, get me out of the house for a little while. I do need to do some grocery shopping. Mom was asking for tater tots all evening. When she was awake.

Mom was up until about 5 pm yesterday and then slept until 11 or 12 at night. Yippee? I watched all of the stuff we usually "watch" together on Sunday night - the baking show where the the 17 year old got tossed, which was a pretty good showing for anyone - top five - then Downton Abbey - where everyone is blithely accepting Edith adopting some random child - and lastly Grantchester which is getting even more melodramatic. I hope the vicar ends up with the German woman - but since it is a drama, I bet they won't end up together. And of course, mom woke up pretty thoroughly right after the shows ended and spent the next half hour complaining that she didn't get to watch them. Which makes me a bad person because she was sleeping during the show. Yippee.

Mom just asked for a backstage tour of "this place" - asking to see where the people were riding the horses...and where all the other people who live here were. (Weird that those two words don't rhyme...)

Ooh, I might be a polymath. I know I am a polyglot. I hate poli-sci. Not sure about polygamy or polyamorousness. And I am not roly-poly. Ok, probably not a polymath, but a polymath aspirant.

Sleepy Dreams of Nursing Homes

So, it was another bad night here at Chez Schoen-René. I really wish more was understood about the brain and especially the brain of my mom. She basically slept all day. Woke up a couple of times to eat lunch and get a shower - then Zzzzzzz for the rest of the day - until dinner time - which she only woke up for because I put food in her lap. Ate the food and then zzzzzzz. Then back upstairs - 'cause it was cold downstairs - where she slept for the next four hours till about midnight. At which point, I was winding down, getting ready for my sleep time. So what happens? She starts talking and being awake. And asking what she was supposed to be doing. And where she was going. And where was she. And what should she be doing. Etc. I told her to please be quiet as I was trying to sleep. This worked for about an hour when she started calling for me and telling me she needed me. When I asked why, she said because she needed help to the bathroom. I told her to help herself, I was sleeping. Which she did. Which I did. Then, another hour later...you get the picture. It is now 8:48 am as I start this post, I have been up for an hour after she called out again (fourth or fifth time) that she needed help. And she was hungry and what should she be doing...Gave her a yogurt so I guess I have about 45 minutes until...

I am conflicted about putting mom in a nursing home. They seem like scary black boxes to me - when I am not there, they could do anything to her - or not do anything to her - both of which scare me. She can't sleep - so they give her meds. She isn't awake - so they give her meds. She says she can't go to the bathroom - so they give her meds. I don't want my mom taking lots of meds! Medicine is ok - but the body generally knows what it is doing and does it better with basic care - food, water and rest - than it does with medicine. Just my humble opinion. And no, I am not anti-vaccination - it would, though, be good if vaccination's contents were enumerated and explained (for the adults - most kids wouldn't care, I don't think) - just anti-most medicine - eastern or western. Though eastern generally seems less invasive (except acupuncture - that is pretty pointedly (tee hee) invasive...).

It seems like sometimes staff and patients don't do anything at nursing homes. I have scary memories of visiting people in nursing homes and hearing a whole lot of moaning and bleating and crying out for help as I walked through the halls to find the person we were coming to visit. And the caretakers at the facility - probably - hopefully - doing their best to do what they could to ease the fears and pains of their charges. But who knows. They could just be nightmares that have been exaggerated over the years.

At home, I strive for mom to be as autonomous as I can let her be - as autonomous as she can be. I know that she can make it to the bathroom on her own - that she can make it back to her bedroom - that she can make her own dish of ice cream (though this might soon stop - since I found the ice cream container sitting on the counter after her last ice cream retrieval mission) - that she can, hmm, well, that's about it. She can put on her own robe, when push comes to shove.

At home, I try to feed her, keep her well watered and to let her, as best I can, be awake when she is awake and asleep when she is asleep - letting mom be mom. Letting mom be. I am afraid that in a nursing home, that wouldn't be the case. They would want mom to be who they wanted (thought they needed) her to be. It is all very confusing.

Then again, a nursing home might be great for her - she would have the staff to talk to and pay attention to her. Since she isn't bedridden, she would probably be able to talk with other patients (or whatever people in nursing homes are called these days.) And who knows, they might get her to exercise some. That would be great.

In any case, I will talk with the doctor on Monday and see what he has to say.

Two quick things - I wrote 31 posts last month! Huzzuh! I have done yoga every day since January first - except today. Yay and boo.

Guess who neatened his room!?!

That's right, this guy. Phase one is complete. I got my room back to a semblance of neatness. Most of the mess was clothing. So it wasn't that hard to clean up. We did laundry yesterday - mom read a book, had a snickers bar and a bottle of water out of the vending machines and watched me put clothes in machines and take them out again. She is, as I type, working away at folding some of the clothes. Go mom!

Sorry for the digression - where was I when I so rudely interrupted myself - oh, right, a neatened room. I wouldn't say clean because, well, it could do with a bit of vacuuming. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Later today or tomorrow, though, the plan is to clean up my desk like thing - tomorrow - bill paying. Baby steps.

We also went to the library. Mom didn't really know why she wanted to go. Then she decided it was for Gideon books - they were all out of the library. And a book that she saw on the back of the New Yorker - which has four people requesting it before us. Yippee. I am thinking a few months before she will get to have it in her hands. We took out two Rumpole of the Bailey books but she found the one she tried to read not to her liking. Back they will go! I got out two audio books that I picked randomly from the shelves. I hope they are ok. 

Oh, huge-ish news! The pile of newspapers and other things in the corner of the dining room is completely gone. All that remains are some National Geographics which I have a hard time getting rid of for some reason. But they will be moving soon. I think the last time that corner was empty was 2009. Yay!

I did spend some time at the Smith yesterday, despite wanting to have a full week day away from the place. I did neaten a little there as well. And decided I would like some cross bracing on the light storage unit that Bruce built. It wobbles side to side a little too much for my comfort. I don't think that will present a problem. Not looking forward to working on that project on Monday. Poo even.

I ordered a set of Marx Brothers movies for mom. We shall see if she likes them as much as the Fred Astaire movies. I doubt she will. But at least we will have them for a rainy day. Speaking of which, I think a lot of the Northeast is getting rain today. Yay! And the trees are starting to tunr colors and shed leaves. Before we know it, snow! Erich, one of my nephews, loves winter. Me, I can take it or leave it. I have read somewhere that it is supposed to be a very cold winter. Brrr.

Feeling a bit blue

Yup - but this too shall pass.

One of my fears is that I may be going down the Alzheimer's road myself. Heck, I am only 52 but I have read about a lot of people who are younger than I am who have Alzheimer's. Eeek! Last night, I went to put the store bought, cooked chicken into the over to keep it warm and it bumped into something. I couldn't think what was in there. Turns out it was a pan of tater tots that I had cooked on Wednesday night and forgot to serve. Sigh. I hate throwing away food, but couldn't bring myself to save the tots. Completely forgetting them was a little unnerving. Ok, I don't really think I have incipient Alzheimer's but...

My current temperamental shade could, of course, be due to lack of sleep, the weather and a pair of socks I wore on Wednesday that were too tight. Oh, and forgetting to put out any recycling on Wednesday night! Glarp and grrr!

Yesterday, I got a call to go into the Smith to set the HVAC system for the upcoming performances of Guys and Dolls. Easy peasy, 5 minute job. Ha! I ended up being there an hour and found myself agreeing to go to work tonight to help out (not sure if I am volunteering or being paid - I do hope the latter...). And the HVAC itself didn't cooperate. I had to call the "controls" guy and see if he could figure out what was wrong. Apparently the computer had become disconnected from the network so rebooting it solved the problem. Yay!

It was steamy and warm last night - not dropping below 70 degrees (Fahrenheit). I am guessing the humidity is 95%. (Nope, only 92%)

Mom watched two of her new movies last night. She didn't like Flying Down to Rio but did seem to enjoy Roberta. Both have Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in them. There are still two more of those. Plus I ordered 5 more movies for her. Four Cary Grant movies and another Fred Astaire movie - the one with him dancing on the ceiling. Now, all we need is a new TV set for mom in her room. Maybe even one that has a DVD player built in. The TV she has currently is older - and I don't know how to get a digital converter for her - though even if I could, I think a new TV would be better for her and her eyes.

Last hot day for a while?

My mom is melting! And I can't really do anything about it. At least the hot weather broke a smidge yesterday and is supposed to break again either tonight or tomorrow - or Sunday at the latest. Yay for living in a cooler clime! Though in hotter climes, AC is de rigueur. I try to convince mom that going downstairs is cooler, but she remains in her room most of the day. At least she does have windows and a good sized fan! (Everytime I use that work, I think of fans (short of fanatics) and want to make some comment like "besides me" 'cause I am her fan - most of the time.)

Had my first staff meeting at The Smith yesterday. Yay communication!

And it was a "dark" day for the Opera. I feel a little guilty that I didn't go out of my way to do anything with any of the Opera people. I thought this morning, or was it last night, that it would have been nice to invite Al to dinner at our house. But that would have entailed getting mom dressed - and in this heat, I have been avoiding that even more than usual. Tonight, though, she will have to wear clothes as she is coming to the opera with me! Yippee.

What did I do with my day off? Caught up a little on writing (no blog, I know - until the opera is over, I don't know how blogful my life will be - ok, speaking of blogging, I don't seem able to see comments anymore without going to each page and looking for them. I don't know what is up with that - I need to write to the blogger help people and see if they can shed some light on this issue for me). Made dinner that was, somewhat, from scratch. Played a bit. Oh, had that Smith meeting. Helped mom navigate the tv as well as helped her watch a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. Looks like she actually only likes two of them - Top Hat and Gay Divorcee. Mom has a memory of Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling of a room - turns out that was from a 50s movie called Royal Wedding - we don't have that in our collection - yet.)

Since I didn't write yesterday - let me think - what the heck happened. Oh, right, we had Tech/Dress Rehearsal for the Opera, Don Pasquale. It went very smoothly. Sure there were glitches - a lot of the curtains were slow - probably my mistakes for not calling them soon enough. I need to anticipate them a little since the curtain is massive and takes a little bit to get it going. And the performers had a few missteps, but overall, very smooth. It really is an easy show, which isn't a bad thing. I hope we get an audience!

I hope everyone is well and happy! And keeping cool!

Good Day, all things considered

Yesterday was a mixed bag. I got a bit of mail from my brother the day before, to which I responded publicly. In the letter he said that the reasons I didn't have a meaningful romantic relationship were because I am basically a hairy, weird, friendless, poor, shallow, childish, mooching, unkind, lazy loser. Sadly, there were some people who thought my brother was "right." Well, I don't agree. I wrote a long post about that, but it will never see the light of day. Suffice it to say these things - I love me. As I am, warts (and long hair) and all. Secondly, the love of money is the root of all evil - it was true in Christ's time it is true today - so anyone who values money is, well, an unfortunate person in my eyes. I send them love. And third - Love is acceptance, not sacrifice.

So, there, all done. Moving on. Yippee!

I got defriended by a friend I had never met on Facebook. Whatever. Her loss. Is that unkind to say? I don't think so. I do wish her the best in whatever choices she makes in her life and whatever eventualities may unfold.

Yesterday was "Operation Clean out the Guest Rooms" day. Mom helped by writing stickers/tags for the various containers - she did some odd stuff and got some things mixed up, but overall, I think she felt helpful. I got all the boxes I had planned on moving out of the room at the head of the stairs into the attic with room to spare. And all of the empty containers out of the red room into the attic as well - still more room.

Today is laundry and break down boxes day. Yippee again!

We had several severe thunderstorms come through the area. No damage to the house that I can tell. Wow, the weather is really weird. Wish I understood more about it. Maybe meteorology school? Nah, probably not.

Walking in the rain when it is warm is a pleasant experience for me. Especially when I have my huge golf umbrella - thank you Rosanne! Memory is funny - as I learn more and more both from my own experiences and watching mom and her brain/memory issues. I walked to one my locals - The Red Dove where I had a lovely time talking to someone who told me about the beer scene in Buffalo. Her boyfriend is a home brewer and she appreciates beer. Yay!

Wedding Post Two

Yesterday was the big day! Yay!

Ok, that's all I am going to say about the wedding...

Nope, not really, you aren't getting out of it that easy. But you have to wade through a bit of other stuff before we get to wedding pictures. Thousands of wedding pictures...

We got up and had no plans for the day. I was sort of thinking of, you guessed it, finding a brewpub somewhere and heading to lunch. Sometime in the morning, while I was working on my blog post, my sister called and suggested we go to lunch together. Yay, someone else made a plan! I can live with that, so I accepted. They weren't going to arrive until 12:30, so we had some time to get up, get dressed and get used to the idea. It does sometimes take mom a while to get used to an idea.

We ate ate Deisings in downtown Kingston. A bakery/eatery that has been around for a long while. We started with a table for seven and grew to a table for nine! Juliet and Paul, Sam, Abby and Lewis, me and Mom, and later, Joe and Ginger! Good food, fun people, lots of cuckoo clocks! I know I ate too much and I left mom's left overs in Sam's car. Ooops. Not that we would have eaten them probably anyway...

Next, we all went our separate ways. Well, not totally separate. Mom and I opted to go with Sam and Lewis on their expedition to Target. Ah, to be in a Target again. I don't know why I like Target so much more than I like Wal-mart, but I do. Sam and Lewis were looking for bathing suits - they had an indoor pool at their place of stay - and we were looking for a decent pillow and a headband for mom. The pillow was necessary to help her feel comfortable in bed. The headband was to make her feel comfortable in her head about her hair. The aide curled her hair and mom was not pleased with the result. Her favorite line kept resurfacing - saying that she looked like the witch of Endor!

Since the wedding wasn't till 6, we had a little while to chill out back at the motel. And looking out the window, I noticed that it was actually raining quite heavily. Which didn't bode well for the outdoor part of the wedding event. Oh well. We did get dressed, mom in her blue dress, me in my duds. I even, sort of, tied my bowtie - later to be retied by Paul (a professional bow-tie tier).

The wedding venue was a lodge up in the hills near Rosendale, NY called Sky Lodge. They have a meditation space, an eating space and I bet a really lovely nature-filled location - though because of the rain, we mostly stayed indoors.

It was a great location - beautiful views, pleasant decor. Nice people. The ceremony was supposed to have been outdoors, but the indoor space - the meditation space - was good as well. They had a violinist friend of Eric's play intro and exit music. The celebrant was a Unitarian with a sense of humor. I think we numbered about 40 people all together. Dinner was vegetarian with some fish added in. With wine. And the cake was a white cake with jelly filling. Yum!

Mom and I didn't stay long for the dancing part. Neither of us are very interested in dancing. So we hung out a teeny bit before heading back to the hotel for a much needed night of sleep! Yay!

Lunch fun at Deisings!

Ernst giving a toast to the new couple!

Lovely Sunset

Gazing into the future

Grandmother and father of the bride and Paul, the tier

Shelly and Erich about to cut the cake

Mom and Karl "dancing"

Mom and Juliet

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...)

That time of...

I think it is that time of month or perhaps life. Once again, I am not feeling very social. I haven't progressed very far in my FB letter writing campaign since I last wrote about it. (Speaking of which, my next step is to cull my list from the first 100 letters...something which is giving me some pause...) I have gotten a couple of emails that I haven't responded to. I know, shocking, right? And I haven't written a snail mail letter back to Emily yet. I am a bad person. Ok, not really a bad person, just not doing the best job at communicating. Sigh.

We had a lot of fog here last night. And this morning. I like fog. To look at. And walking through it is fun too. I don't enjoy driving in fog though. In case you were wondering...

I love it when I run into a problem with one of the programs I am working on and eventually get the problem fixed (by searching the internet, or by trying a variety of things...). Yippee!

Burritos for dinner. But I couldn't figure out how to roll them and have them hold together. Oh well. Maybe next time!

Yay accomplishment!

Yay, yay, yay! (Or yeah, yeah, yeah)! Spelling onomatopoetic words can be challenging. Anyway.

Yippee! (or Yipee!) Laundry got accomplished! Why do I feel like that is such a big thing? I guess because I feel like I am not in a particularly productive point in my existence just now. And even doing something as small as laundry seems like a huge success. Yay!

Feeling a smidge frustrated over the iPhone programming learning right this second. One of the books I am looking at is very confusing as it straddles two different xCode Versions. And on top of that, it straddles two versions of the cocos2d libraries as well. Grr. And they make their third project one that can only be done on the iPhone which requires me to pay $99 that I don't have. Double grrrr! Well, to prove that I am learning something, I will just have to rewrite it so that it responds to touches instead of to the accelerometer. If I can...

Well, at least the weather is great. Spring has sprung, at least for the time being. I don't put it past our wacky weather to toss in another chill down or two our way before winter gives up the ghost.

I lost and then found mom's camera. And in the process broke it a little bit. That is grr-i-fying as well. Not that I mind using broken things - how long did I use my first digital camera after I needed to use a hair-tie to keep it working? 6 years?

Tried a recipe for sweet potato fries last night and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Not crispy enough for me. On to the next recipe! Dinner was good, though - I made beer battered chicken nuggets and then tossed them in buffalo sauce! Yum!

Ok, have to move forward with my day. More struggles with iPhone development, maybe read some of my Economics for Dummies book (Scarcity? Really?) and putter some more. Joy.

Not so crispy sweet potato fries - I like crispy as a texture!

Dinner Chez Schoen-René