Happy New Year!

May 2012 be a wonderful year for each of you!

I’m not really a person who makes resolutions, but I AM resolving to start posting here regularly again.  Surrrrrly, I haven’t finally run out of things to say! 🙂

 

How far is it around the block?

writer’s block:  the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.

For the first time in my life, I think I have this malady, writer’s block.  The day after I did Psycho Mom, I had decided to do a post about a picture that our oldest granddaughter had put on her Facebook page of her hugging her husband, who was leaving for his third tour of duty overseas, and crying.  It really touched my heart, so I wanted to write about it.  But I tried and tried to copy the picture so that I could post it, without success.  So I decided to take a day or two to think about it and maybe I would come up with a way to copy it.  That sounds trivial, doesn’t it?  I can hear you saying, “Well, just move on and write about something else!”  But for some reason, that “failure” stopped me in my tracks, and I just sort of gave up blogging and really the computer in general for a week.

So, to answer my own question, “How far is it around the block?”  I’m not sure, but I think I can smell dinner cooking, so I hope “home” is just around that next corner.

As my friend, Suldog would say, “Soon with more better stuff.”  Or something like that.

Have a plan, man!: One more really good suggestion

It has occurred to me that when I wrote about activities to look into at the time of retirement, I didn’t mention the most important one that I took up after retirement … blogging!

I so admire those of you who still work or are young mothers, and still have the time and energy to write your entertaining blogs that I so much enjoy reading.  But I just don’t think I would have had the energy … or attention span … to write a blog while I was working.  But, since my retirement … what a blast!

So I hope any of you who are readers but not bloggers will give blogging some serious thought when it comes time to retire.  It  has added immeasurably to my life.

I enjoy a Mac to go, but hold the fries!

I admit it took me a little while to get used to my first laptop, which is also my first Mac.  But I think our recent trip was a turning point.  It was sooo nice to be able to take my computer with me. I had no idea what I was missing before.

And at home, it’s given me such flexibility.  Before, when I wanted to write my blog, read e-mail, do my on-line banking, etc., I was tied to one place — the loft above the living room where our trusty Dell resides.

I’ve spent many enjoyable hours up there.

And, when I first got my laptop, I still had the mindset that a computer had to have a home.

So I decided that once again the TV cabinet in an upstairs bedroom, which had been adapted to first host scrapbooking, then sewing, would now serve a new purpose — it would be home to the new computer.

But it didn’t take me long to realize portable meant, well … portable!

I can sit in the living room and watch TV with Hubby while also playing with my computer.  (Sorry for the grainy picture. I forgot to use a flash.)

One of my favorite spots to use it is sitting at the kitchen island, as I’m doing right now.  There’s a power strip that runs under the overhang of the island — perfect for plugging it in.

But if I sit there too long and get uncomfortable without a back rest, I just move to the table in the eating area.

But my very favorite spot to use “Mr. Mac” is in my favorite reading chair.

Nothing feels better to a woman than multi-tasking, does it?  I can sit in this corner of our bedroom and watch TV, talk on the phone, do my knee exercises, read a book, work on my cute little computer … or any combination of those.  Perfect.

I’m still learning the ins and outs of my new computer, but I’m getting the hang of it.  And it’s definitely been worth the effort.

I just love a good Mac to go, but I’m dieting, so hold the fries!

Running around the block

Have you noticed I have really slowed down on writing blog posts recently?  I have, and the reason is because I’m busy running around several blocks.  Not city blocks, but writer’s block and technology block!

I started to go into detail but it was depressing to type (and also sounded realllly whiney!) so just suffice it ti say that I have lots of questions/problems changing over to my first-ever laptop, which is also my first-ever Mac.  I’ll be calling the Geek Squad today and hope they can fix the relationship I’m trying to build with this new (and sometimes aggravating) piece of equipment.

The saying that comes to mind right now is, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

In the meantime, I’ll just keep running around these “blocks” until I find a new place to settle in, where I will again be comfortable and able to think of things to write about — besides this blasted computer!

Learning the Mac is a new adventure …

… exciting but scary too!

Today is our first day back from a fun weekend with DD and her girls in Chicago.

So, I’ve now taken some time to learn a little more about my new laptop.

Today’s experiment is uploading a picture from the ones I have saved on this computer.  Wish me luck!

Ta Daaaa!  I figured it out!!

My first photo to upload from and edit in the Mac’s iPhoto.

Phewwww, I’m exhausted.  That’s enough for today.

I’m back!

This morning I told Hubby that I would be just as happy if the internet would never have been invented.

For reasons I cannot fathom, my blog suddenly became unaccessible to me after I posted on Saturday.  Also on Saturday, my SIL, the other Sandi, and I went on a much more expensive than usual shopping trip … and both came home with Mac laptops.  So we are now attempting to navigate the Mac learning curve together.

And today, just to make things more interesting, Frontier, our new e-mail service, decided to shut down our e-mail service right in the middle of my “conversation” with two very smart people at wordpress who were trying to help me figure out why in the heck I couldn’t get into my blog.

But, as they say, “All’s well that ends well.”  I am finally back on my blog and am actually typing this on my new laptop.  Wahoooo!

It’s a good day after all — I have learned some new things and succeeded at a couple things I didn’t think I could conquer.  All because of the helpfulness and patience of some very knowledgeable miracle workers at wordpress and the geek squad.  God bless them all.

Bloggers: Apple or PC?

I would love opinions from any of you who visit here on whether you have or would buy an Apple or PC.

But I especially would like to hear from others who write a blog because you may have reasons for or against one because of specific blogging applications.

My sister-in-law and I just visited a large computer store and the salesman we talked to was all about Apple.  He couldn’t say enough good things about it.  But that seems like it would be a big move for us PC people.

So, I’m soliciting opinions about Apple/Mac versus PC’s.  Which do you have?  Or, when you get ready to buy a new computer, which would you buy and what are your reasons?

I’d appreciate any opinions or experiences any of you can share with me.

Words, words, words …

… I’ve got words, and I have the statistics to prove it!  I’ve now written over 700 posts.

I remember telling DD, when she encouraged me to start writing a blog, that I didn’t think I would be able to think of enough to write about.  Ha!

Soooo, in honor of this milestone, I thought I would give away some of the results of my new “flavor of the month” hobby — making greeting cards from my photos.

These are some I’ve made to give away at our golf fun day in July.

So, if you would like to “throw your hat in” for the give-away, here’s how it will work.

Between now and midnight on Sunday, June 27, please leave a comment here, and I will randomly draw a winner on the 28th.

For that winner, I will make six cards (they are blank inside), with any combination of the following three pictures (all six of one picture — two of each of the pictures — three of two different pictures — you get the idea, whatever you want).

Orrrr,  if there is some other photo I have published (that doesn’t have people in it, please) that you would like made into cards, I could  do that.

Although I would make one exception to the “no people” rule because this one is me, and I don’t need anyone else’s permission.  I’ve made some get well cards to send out myself with this picture and words on the front.  I have no idea if that would be fun for any of you to send out, but I’m hoping I’ve given some sick people a laugh when I sent them this baby!  (You could write on the inside something like, “Cheer up!  You can’t possibly feel worse than she looks!”)

But whether you win greeting cards or not, those of you who have taken the time to read many of my 700 posts have my undying gratitude!  You are the secret ingredient in the “add humor and faith … mix well” batter that makes writing this blog fun for me.  Thank you.

Every computer user’s nightmare!

 

Yesterday morning I decided to put this picture on the computer as the wallpaper. But after I got it on, the words under the icons weren’t easily read (and we’re all about “easily read” any more!), so I went into “my computer” to see if I could just change the font of the words under the icons to black.  Ah, but as I was looking around, I found something about fonts being larger.  Ohh, all the better!  So, I clicked on it.

I could still see the computer “wallpaper” in the background but it was suddenly in blacks and grays, and then at some point it just disappeared.  But that was the least of my worries — I had hit a reallllly bad key or combination of keys somehow, because words were suddenly in big fat white letters on black background!  The letters were big enough that they didn’t all fit in a box, so (still in the “my computer” maze of long lists with drop-down boxes and click heres) it was very hard to even tell where I was, or read an instruction to see if it was the one I needed to click on to get the heck out of there!

Long (verrry long) story short, I found a choice where I could, and I don’t remember the exact words, “go back to original set-up” or something like that.  I clicked on it.  That click apparently put me back to the original settings (from 6 years ago!) for my computer, but with some big gaps!

When I look at my blog now, it is just words and pictures with just a few lines separating things.  I can’t see the header at all.  I called DD and she said  my blog looked fine, so I guess you are seeing this normally, but it’s very frustrating for me that I don’t see it normally!

This page where I “write a post”, as I look at it, is pretty much typing on a white page, with just a few black or light blue lines dividing the sections of the page.  It’s hard to explain but it looks verrrry different.  And the worst part is that at the top of this box I’m typing in are all the icons you can normally click on to do things, but most of those are now blank boxes!  For instance, to make something “bold” or “italics”, I luckily remember which of those blank boxes represent those functions, so I can use them, even though blank.

So this is probably my last post for a few days, unless there is some divine intervention and God suddenly makes me able to think more like a computer and figure out what the heck I did wrong.  Anyway, barring that, I probably won’t post again until after the Geek Squad comes sometime Monday.

    By the way, because it would bring back such bad memories I’ll probably never use the picture at the top for my wallpaper again!  Instead I’ve now put this one on.   It is one I took of our brick sidewalk in the rain a couple years ago for a photography class, and it’s always been a favorite of mine.  (And the words under the icons show up just fine on it!)

I told Hubby at some point during the very frustrating day that was yesterday, that no calamity hurts worse than one that you cause for yourself.  In this case, because I simply wanted to change  a font.  Rats.

(I know — the pictures aren’t at all necessary for this sorry little tale — but I thought without them this post would be just toooo depressing for you!)

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