USB Ports

Still working on getting them to work. I am trying to backup my files, and that is a bit frustrating. I have to back them up on CD's since I can't use a flashdrive, or an external hard drive. So I have been putting disks in since Monday night. Only this morning when I put in the 9th disk, it told me the backup failed. I was about 2/3 through. I was upset. So know I have rethought how I want to do this. It seems I want my pictures, some of my word documents and a couple of songs I have downloaded. The rest of the stuff can disappear.

So now I am in the process of backing up the files I want and then I will try to restore my computer to the original software. The Geek Squad said that this may work. If it didn't I needed to take this as a sign my motherboard is dying. I find this hard to believe because at the same time the four ports failed I gained another software issue. A tiny issue, but another sympton all the same. So now I will be backing stuff up. The rate I am going, I hope to have my computer back up and running and healthy before the weekend is over. yeah.

Darn USB Ports

So a couple of months ago one of my USB ports failed. Not really sure what happened, but it just stopped working. No big deal I have six others.

Then last week another failed. Again, not that big of a deal since I have 5 left. Tonight three more failed. What??? Now the only things that work are my keyboard and mouse. I had to figure out another way to plug in the internet. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to fix this. It looks like I should be able to uninstall the drivers and then cross my fingers and hope the computer realizes that there are uninstalled USB ports and tries to reinstall them.

Well....I guess we shall see.

Admin Professionals Day

So today was Admin Professionals Day. We have about 6 people that we do things for on this day. They have come to expect something big and grand. The last two years I have been in charge of this and last year we were able to go into Bakersfield (1/2 hour away) and go to the Elephant Bar for lunch. The Elephant Bar is a nice restaurant. It ranks up there with the Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs. When we go out, we seem to take the whole office, not just the Admin Professionals.

Anyway, this year I was told that we wouldn't be able to close the office to go to lunch and that if I wanted to take them out, I would have to leave a couple of people behind. I didn't feel that was right, so it was decided we would bring in lunch. I was still a bit bummed, and then I was speaking with a co-workers wife and she mentioned the missionary trailer was empty. The trailer is just across the parking lot from the office. She said that we could have it in there. It is not necessarily away from the office, but at the same time we can get out. I then thought about it and decided there was 20 people that would be invited, and a mobile home...even a double wide...isn't big enough for that many people. Then I remembered they had a nice grassy backyard with a really large tree. So we had a picnic outside. We were close enough to the office so we could take care of the trucks as they came in and then get back to the picnic.

The weather turned out to be really nice. It was probably in the high 80's at lunch, but under a tree with a nice breeze, it was beautiful. I know that some of the ladies were disappointed we didn't go out to a nice restaurant and one mentioned something like that to me. Whatever....you can't please everyone. I went out and got the true Admin Professionals small gift cards, and this year instead of picking Chili's or another place, I got AMEX gift cards. This way they could go where ever they wanted. I don't think she realized I picked them because she came up to me and complained that there were restrictions on the cards. I couldn't believe it. The only restrictions was she couldn't use them on a cruise line, in a casino, at a car rental, or an ATM. Other than that she could use the card where ever AMEX was accepted. What restrictions was she talking about??? She can go to Wal-Mart, Target, Chili's, the gas station...anywhere she really wanted. Gripers!!!

I made shredded BBQ beef, funeral potatoes, a veggie tray, and cookies. All in all, I think it went well. Everyone stayed and talked until I started to give them the hint by putting chairs away.

Pressure Canner

Finally I bought a pressure canner. I have been thinking of getting one for a couple of years. About three years ago, a lady from AZ came to our stake and went over food storage and what we could do. I had never heard about canning meat, but she explained how to do this safely and how to get things that tasted good.
I borrowed a pressure canner from a neighbor and processed some chicken to see how it came out. I was pleased with the results and have been looking into getting an All American Pressure Canner. I finally did it. So it will be here by the end of this week. I guess it will be time to look for chicken on sale and start canning it.
The canned chicken was perfect for chicken helper, BBQ'd shredded chicken, chicken soup, and other things. It was flaky and juicy and good, so I can't wait to can some more to have in my food storage.

Today I brought my stained glass panel to church (I left it in my trunk...I didn't take it inside). I had told a few of my friends I was done and they wanted to see it. So after church was over I told them if they wanted to see it, they could come out to my car. Well, one of them announced to the whole RS that if they wanted to see my stained glass then they need to follow us outside. So the branch presidents wife came out as well as the first counselor's wife came out. Of course they loved it, and then it seemed that the first counselor wanted to commission me to do a one for her. I kind of joked it off, but she wanted a window of when Mary saw Jesus on the morning of the Resurrection. She brought me back into the RS room and showed me the picture she was talking about and explained the colors and things. It told her I am not that good yet. Plus I wouldn't be able to do the details on the face, hands, feet, and hair. She kept going on. In the end, I told her that I am not saying I won't do it, but rather, I wasn't sure if I could. I would have to make a pattern up to see if I would be able to do this or not. Scary...
I can't draw, so to come up with the pattern for this.....Yikes.

I know that there are ways to get details painted onto glass, but I since I can't draw or paint, I can't imagine that I would be able to get a good depiction of Christ or of Mary.

Good Neighbors

I have good neighbors. They look out for me. I bought the house from them back in '04 and they call me every once in a while about different things.

This past week we had a horrible wind storm. Down here in the dirty south, we have these things we call Dust Devils. It really reminds me of the Tazmanian Devil. Everything looks great, but then you see it. Close to the road you are driving on, a bunch of dirt gets picked up in a small whirlwind and comes towards you. It looks like a tornado coming from the ground up, not from the clounds above. The Dust Devils are so bad that if you drive through one it makes your paint job look like you were sandblasted. However, that is exactly what it is.

So our dust storm was so bad last week they had to shut the interstate down because there was a 12 car pile up. I actually had to drive home from work through it. Luckily it was a Dust Devil, it was just blowing dirt. I know can imagine what people went through when they talk about the dust bowl. The sky was dark and brown, not much of a change for around here. :-) I could taste the dirt and I had to turn off the vents in my car because it was coming in. I got to the road where I needed to get out on, but visibility was down to about 100 feet and I couldn't tell if I would have enough room. Eventually I made it.

My poor wood fence at home didn't make it through the storm. One of the panels fell off and laid in the alley. The next morning I looked out and saw the panel and realized I would need to come home from work that evening and try to prop it up until I could find a post hole digger. Then my next door neighbors called me and asked/volunteered to put that panel back up until I could get to it later. That was so nice of them. He actually put the post into the ground and everything. Now my fence is strudy enough to make it through the next dust storm that is scheduled for tomorrow. :-)

Tulip Windows

When I went home for Christmas, I brought a whole bunch of glass with me so I could put together some things to put in Mom and Dad's store. I wanted to see if they would actually sell. Well, so far nothing has sold.
I had cut out 10 tulip windows to do. I had also brought parts of the ladybugs to put together. I think I had 6 of those. I also made a couple of beach boxes for them while I was there. I have to say that I grossly underestimated the time it takes to solder glass together. I guess I am just not quick enough. So in the end, I brought back three tulip panels to complete once I got back home. My favorite is the pink one.

Cool Piece of Glass

So I went to the glass store to pick up clear textures. I needed some of the taffeta glass below. Plus I really like using this in my tulip panels. She didn't have any on the shelves, but had a giant sheet below that I had her cut up and I took half, which is about 3.5 square feet of glass. I really like the swirls in the glass. I think it is more elegant to use than just plain glue chip which looks like snow crystals on the glass.


Anyway, since I was there for a while looking for the perfect piece of glass, I also found Krinkle and Crinkle glass. I really didn't see much of a difference and so I wanted to take them home and look at them a bit more. As I checked out, she told me that the Crinkle had more harsh lines, while the Krinkle was more circle lines. I can almost see now.


Then I spotted the clear with leaves imprinted (left) and clear with squiggles. I am not sure what I am going to so with all this clear, but I thought they looked pretty.

After I bought all the glass and told the owner I needed to leave before I bought all of the glass. She told me that she had a specials piece I might like. In the back of my mind I was groaning a bit. I didn't need anymore glass. However, she told me she would give me a special deal on this piece of glass. So I went over to look at it. It had a rose imprint all over the frosted glass. She said that since she could tell I liked clear textures she thought I might like this piece. I smiled. I was a bit worried. The glass was huge. It was about 7.5 square feet and hadn't been cut yet. Plus she was pulling it out of the place where I bought my most expensive piece of glass a couple of months ago.

Then she told me it was free to a good home. Heck, I was like, my home is good. I'll take it. now I have a huge piece of glass I am not sure what to do with. But then again, I have a lot of glass that do not have projects lined up.

Now some of you know of the big dresser that Mom has full of fabric. That fabric moved around with us every time we moved. However, the fabric didn't seem to get used. Mom has now said that she has gone through it and donated some of the fabric and that some of the fabric was no longer usable. I am now like mom. I have a huge cabinet with glass in it. Glass that doesn't have specific projects in mind. I can't help myself. I go to the glass store looking for a particular color or texture and see a piece I can't leave behind. I must have it. Now I have a lot of glass and need to line up projects for them. However, the catch 22 is that once I have a project in mind, there will be one color I don't have, so I will need to back to the store.....and so my collection grows. :-)

Here is fat Sam next to the free piece of glass I got.

New Stained Glass

Here is the newest stained glass panel I finished. I just finished this on Friday. I put the cement in it on Friday and so now it is just drying. I designed the window around a Moonlight Blue Cambridge butter dish. Apparently Moonlight Blue Cambridge glass is from the Depression era and is a bit harder to get a hold of. I didn't know that and had bought two of these butter dishes off of eBay last year with an idea of making a panel. I just never realized what pattern until a couple of weeks ago. I had been thinking of what to do with them, but I am not really creative. I follow patterns, and if there aren't patterns then I don't really know where to start. I laughed when I read Korryn's post the other day about the pink walls. Korryn described herself as not creative or crafty. That is also the way I feel about myself. As long as someone else has designed it, I am great at copying, but to create something myself.....yeah, that doesn't work so well.

So (Kara's favorite word), when I got the plates last year, I knew I wanted to use the crystals. I had taken down a chandelier from the dining room a couple of years ago and saved the crystals for a later stained glass use. Other than that, I had no idea. Then I was sitting waiting for a meeting at church and the idea hit me for the border. It's variations of blue getting darker from until it gets to the purple and red. It was fun to build as well as frustrating. I didn't really do a good job building it. I did it backwards. I knew what the middle should look like, and so I didn't make a pattern for the glass. This was the stupid part. When I tried to cut the clear glass to fit around it, there were several times I had to walk away or I was going to throw the glass across the room. I wasn't getting the curves right or the angles. It would have helped if I had, had made a pattern. Patterns are much easier to follow than winging it.

Anyway, I think it turned out nice.

Co-Workers 40th!!

So a couple of weeks ago my co-worker turned 40. He had the unfortunate luck to have a brother that also worked for the company, however, the brother lives in Washington. The brother was "nice" enough to let Lorin, my boss, know that Lynn was turning 40. Lorin asked if we wanted to do something to Lynn for his 40th. Lynn is a good sport and is a bit of a jokester, so he was the perfect "victim."

I enlisted help from almost everyone in the office. We were all to wear black shirts on that Friday. One of the girls made extra large business cards, another made an instruction book for living past 40. This included coupons for denture cleaners and where to buy a scooter.

After Lynn left work on Thursday, I had a co-worker bring in some dirt. This may not have been the smartest idea. It sounded good. We put a tarp down on the carpet and we were going to mound the dirt to and put a Halloween tombstone on it. One thing I forgot was that the dirt here isn't really dirt as much as it is powder. So once I dumped a 50 lb box, it just poofed up and I was chewing dirt. Since I was a bit committed at this point, I dumped another box. That is when the bugs started to come out. Yuck!!! Well, he just got an extra special treat. Then I told one of the guys that we were going to need to fumigate the office that weekend.

Just then, a couple of guys looked into the office and said something about a reference to the show The Office and something about Dwight's furniture moved. Then they had an idea to move Lynn's office to the men's restroom. That was a bit funny.


Once the furniture was moved I blew up about 300 balloons. The idea was to fill his office up with balloons. However, I didn't realize how many balloons would be needed to fill up the office. Anyway, there were no more black or white balloons left in Wasco and I was tired, so I left it at that.

I also made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing of a graveyard. And for all of those who can't tell, those are palm trees. :-)

He was a good sport and thought it was funny. Now I guess I am just waiting for the "what-goes-around-comes-around."

By the way, this was only a few days before Tami's 40th, and so I was really doing it for her. Happy Birthday Tami.

You can see how much fun we have at work. He is trying to catch butterflies in the office. :-)

Happy Easter!!