Hey, it's me

Happy bday tangledaria!

A little help from the grammar nazis out there, please? I have a possessive punctuation problem (though not an alliteration one) with regard to a house. The last name is Finland. So, here's what's being said:

1. Were you at the Finlands' house?

- apostrophe after the s, because it's multiple Finlands living there, correct?

2. Were you at the Finlands'?

- still an apostrophe even though there's no object at the end?

3. You're friends with Finlands?

-No apostrophe, because it's plural, meaning more than one Finland who is not possesing anything, yes?


I'm looking for verification that I've got my apostrophe in the right places. Sometimes you're mind goes fjdaklfh;iaeh when you type it so much in different variations.

You've rocked my New Years Eve as long as I can remember, and gave us a lot of fun on the American Bandstand. Thank you for the entertainment over the years.

( Just two more pics. And no, we didn't pose them this way... )

Yes, they are buds. Yes, they are trouble makers. Yes, they are escape artists. Yes, one day we will succeed with the potty training.

Meet Remy & Elsa, both chihuhahua mixes, both rescues, and both full of vim, vigor, and really stinky farts. Remy is three months old. Elsa is 1 1/2 years old. Neither can ever replace Lupe, but the hole she left is full once more.

( Humans take bad, BIG pictures! )

"If God doesn't give you the miracle, maybe you were meant to be the miracle for someone else."
-Nick Vujicic

Tonight's 9pm CST Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet started out in my county in Indiana. Apparently, there be a squatch in our woods.

I love cheesy tv.

The Man has lost his mind. To you who've read my journal since it's incarnation, this won't come as a surprise revelation.

Yesterday, I get home from work and he's doing something in the corner involving a very large ceramic bucket. I eye the bucket, eye him, eye the bucket, and go, "Do I want to ask what you're doing?"

The Man: "Probably not."

Me: "Good idea."

So I put my stuff away, not asking, but the Man can't withhold information when he's all into a new strange thing, and he blurted, "Sing Albuquerque!" (Weird Al song. My favorite.)

Before I can start singing about tray tables, snorkles, and a box of one dozen starving, crazed weasels, he bursts out: "I HATE SAUERKRAUT!"

Me: o.0

The Man: "I'm making sauerkraut."

Me: o.0

The Man: *beam*

So I leave it there, because as stated in the beginning, the Man has lost his mind again. But this morning, as everyone knows curiosity killed the shadowkat, I had to ask what prompted him to make sauerkraut out of the blue. It's not like he's ever made it before, and I don't remember him watching or reading about anything other than mushrooms which is his current (repeat) obsession.

His response: "The Sauerkraut Gods sent me a divine message that I must make sauerkraut."

.
.
.

*facepalm*

Happy New Year

Mixed Nuts, starring Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, the great Madeline Kahn, Juliette Lewis, Anthony LaPaglia, Liev Schreiber, and Adam Sandler.

Not that I know if any of you smarty-pantses are still reading me, but! Question! (and go ahead and laugh, titti)

-If you put a magnifying glass in front of an object, it makes that object bigger to our naked eye.
-If you have a magnifying lens on your camera or microscope, it makes the object bigger to our naked eye.

-If you put a magnifying source in front of an x-ray camera, would it magnify like a regular camera?

My google-fu fails me here. It tells me you have to move the camera itself to change the magnification in a classical doctor's x-ray scenario. But then when you read about x-ray microscopy, nothing moves that I'm able to understand at least. And anyway, would the x-ray come first and then the microscopy of the image, or would the x-ray pass through the microscope/magnifier and thus create the larger image? I guess this last sentence in this paragraph is my main ponderable.

Let's celebrate the general point of Guy Fawkes Day, which is to challenge your government to be for the people and not just bend over and take what they give. Vote! Lobby! Petition! Do your best to let your voice be heard.

I'm still kinda reading Shin Prince of Tennis. Well, more like skimming through the raw translations, and Akutsu is getting the shaft. He hasn't played at all since the beginning, except in a pillow fight (0.0) in chapter 49. Chapter 29 gave us a great line from the high schooler (Oni) to him: "I'm preparing a much better place for you to die in. You can probably understand without me telling you. So until then go fill that blankness inside you." I want to see where that leads, dang it! Unless it was to that pillow fight...

Some idiot got tazered at work today. Classic! We were in court, he was being read a warrant, and he abruptly bolted from the courtroom. The Deputy jackrabbited after him, out the door, we hear a POP, THUD, "AAAAHHHHHH!", and then we all start laughing because we knew the tool just got tazered. Those in the hall got a front row viewing to it. Moron criminals. Think you're going to get a standard bond now on a piddly D felony shoplifting offense?

This makes two days in a row that glee has happened at work. Yesterday, the Princess and the new guy plus two others were leaving for the day. New guy suggested taking the stairs. Princess said, "Oh no I never take the stairs." New guy responds: "Do you have someone who wipes your ass for you, too?"

Best. Two. Days. Eva.

Skipping all the parts that lead up to this, in my dream last night I called my husband a "jackass in a man suit." o.0

Then the dream slipped into Harry Potterland again - Draco looks good in skater punk - and I woke up berating JKR about her awful Draco resolution in book seven after the big buildup in book six. Years later already and I'm still railing. Takes some skill to get you that invested in your characters.

We've had a few gorgeous weekends in a row and so the Man and I have gone fishing. First we took Short Round down to Sugar Creek, which was a disappointment in terms of campground - I required Fish and WiFi, there were neither in spite of advertisement - though the trip was saved by the pleasant evenings of watching DVDs and listening to our 8-Track player. (Sonny & Cher told us to stay in school, and the taped station also wanted us to buy a Nash Rambler.)

This weekend, on the other hand, we were in Niles, Michigan at the Spaulding Lake Campground. We have a perfect camp spot, right by the fishing ponds and trout stream (and dog walk), in the shade. It's been near 80* all weekend. I caught two fish - one while I was alseep! - and the Man caught four but he was actually trying. The Man found some hen mushrooms in the woods which he's all excited about, and are coming home with us. (He had me going all evening, saying he was going to steal the old lady campground landlord person's hens. Then he went out with a flashlight and a garbage bag after dark. When he came back with mushrooms and not fowl.... Anyone want a used husband with a bad sense of humor?)

The best, though, hands down, and only Austrailia tops this so far, is that a stealth bomber not so stealthily flew extremely low over the campground while we were fishing. It was very loud and very, very cool. In spite of being around several AFBs on various vacations, we've never seen the stealth so low and flying slowly that you could make out details. It was awesome.

Finally, since the WiFi works here as advertised, we watched the show Expedition Impossible. I'm very sorry it's not been renewed, because it's finally a reality show competition that's actually not a popularity contest, no one gets voted off by teammates or phone, and the cross of physical activity and mental puzzle solving is a great blend b/c the people in last place can jump up to second place simply because they solved a puzzle faster, or the people in first end up dropping in the pack because they cannot kayak well. The only goal was to get to the finish line, as the last team to arrive went home. And, most impressively, people helped each other rather than sabotaged. When someone looked like they got hurt or in trouble in another team's sight, the other team would pause to either make certain they were okay or to help out with advice before moving on. Yes, there was inner-team fighting, but not team to team. I'm again sorry it didn't get renewed (unless minds have been changed for next summer), because it was an actual competition that a whole family could watch. Then again, that's probably why it's gone - no over the top drama.

I am still around, just have nothing interesting to say other than hello. So hello.

Yesterday, my second computer was working fine. Today when I turn it on it comes up with a black screen with a white, movable-by-USB-mouse cursor. I cannot enter into safe mode or open the task master or boot from XP Pro disk. Ctrl + Alt + Del restarts the computer every time. The white cursor moves when I move the mouse.

Things I've tried -
removing and dusting ram
putting XP disk into drive for disk boot
moving hardware plugs around
Hard re-starting
F8 on boot
Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Windows button
Win + R

The computer does make a beep upon being started, indicating POST. As the mouse cursor does move something is working, but it gives me no help with a black screen.



ETA - it's the hard drive, as figured out by the simple "unplug things one at a time and boot" method.

So I was browsing a comic book website at work which was not blocked by the FortiGuard website blocker and saw a link to http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/, which piqued my interest because, hey, slash and comics is right up my alley. I click on the link. FortiGuard pops up and says the site is being blocked. FortiGuard also always tells you why they are blocking it. It looks just like this:

Website blocked: http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/
Content: homosexuality

That's right! Homosexuality is apparently a BAD THING and should not be viewed at work. It doesn't say porn, it doesn't say adult content, it doesn't say shopping - all things I have encountered - it says homosexuality.

Does this mean I shouldn't look at my fellow coworkers who happen to be homosexual?


FortiGuard = bigoted asses.