Almost There

I found a media card reader that let me read the 16GB CD card holding all my photos from the recent reunion trip. So, soon, I should be able to share some shots with you. In fact, I am copying them to my work machine even as we speak. Well, even as I write.

I had a nice Father's day (thank you for asking). I got a black Wii, the card game Sets, an exercise game for the Wii, and some lovely homemade cards from the Grands. We also attended a first birthday party for a niece.

Let's get the cartoon into today's post.Just a comment on how the meaning of words has changed over the years.

My friend just got back from her Caribbean cruise. It sounds as if she had a great time, although she confesses she drank too much one day. Wow. That is something I just cannot imagine. I never drink too much. In fact, if you drink, can it be too much? Ha ha.

It seems my blogger creativity all of a sudden ran out, so I will quit while we are both ahead. My copy of photos is just now on 221 of 583, so it will take a bit longer. right now, it is copying shots from the air boat ride. That means no photos today. So let's see if we can share some photos tomorrow, OK? Until then, vaya con Dios.

Collegian Humor for Cabud

Let's all think back to our college days and imagine what we might have done for term papers if they had been as accessible as they are now on the internet. Might we have looked around a bit? Some of us, maybe. Well, not my readers. So, Keith's youngest son, Caleb, recently wrote an amazingly complex paper that was well reviewed. So today's cartoon intimates that he found an unimpeachable source to create it for him. Of course it's a joke, people. Anyway, the name is because his niece, Emily, calls him Cabud.
I used Dad's media card reader last night and was able to recover the RAW files from our trip. Yeah! Now, I need to get a machine that can run the latest version of iPhoto (which is where all my previous photos live) and Photoshop and I can publish some shots of New Orleans and family.

The girls arrive at the house today around 1pm. Hopefully, I can get out a little early. I am sure we will swim tonight and get them nice and tired so they will sleep all night. At least, I know I will get nice and tired and sleep all night.

So, remind me that Dominion is a good game when I am ready to buy another one. No hurry since it is around $50. And if we want to play with more than four, we have to buy an expansion game for another $50. Gaming is not cheap.

I am a bit disappointed that the Lakers won last night. I was pulling for Boston. Mom said Neen used to watch the Celtics back in the day.

The clock on the wall says it is time to get to work. I wish that clock would mind its own business. Have a good Father's Day weekend. I will be visiting mine on Sunday, whether he likes it or not.

From One of the Small People to You

Did you hear anything about the statements by the CEO of BP yesterday? He noted that they cared, and so does Obama, about the "small people." As you can imagine, the commentary by the radio announcers I listen to on the way home had a field day with that. They are guessing he had a phrase in mind in his native language and mis-translated when he spoke in English. Anyway, that made me decide to create a CoV about how they could maybe spin the disaster into a positive, at least for them.
The cat came back! After being gone for a week, we heard Chino last night in a storage shed of our neighbor. I know the grandgirls will be glad, and Alison is, too. It brings to mind a song from Sesame Street years ago called "The Cat Came Back."

I have not gotten my RAW files off the memory card yet. I may have to go to a Photo company or a Computer company. No, I will not lose any photos if I cannot recover them, but there are a few that I would really like to have the RAW file for use in Photoshop. The only thing I do not have another copy of is the XLS of physical and email addresses of everyone.

Speaking of granddaughters, I heard they are spending the night Friday so Kyle and Lyndsay can celebrate their fifth anniversary. Whoo Hoo. And congrats on reaching the five year mark.

Hey, is it time for another vacation yet? No, I don't have any days yet, but let's work something out.

OK, if I cannot take vacation, I guess I'd better do some work so I can earn more days off. Y'all enjoy the sweet anticipation of knowing some photos are coming soon.

Post 715

This is my 715th post in the last five years. Who'da thunk it? I am sure you believe that I could talk enough to have material. I am speaking more to the fact of actually taking the time to keep it going. I also always try to comment on every post from my Family and Friend's Blog list.

While we were on vacation, my sister, Carey, suggested today's CoV. Let's see if Obama is reading this blog.

I mentioned yesterday that it was my Monday. Well, I fooled myself and forgot about East Valley Chorale practice. After all, it was Monday. I am supposing they practiced. I will drop the director a note today apologizing. I wonder if the folks went? So, today is not Tuesday, it is Wednesday. I am reminding all of us, just in case we forgot.

Well, I have not been able to read a 16GB SD card that is holding all of my RAW images from the vacation. It also contains an XLS with all the family contacts on it. I tried two different media readers and four different computers. I guess I need to go to a camera shop or computer shop and see if we can get the data off. This is not good. I do have a JPEG of all the images, but I usually tweak the contrast a bit starting from the corresponding RAW image.

I have 15 action items from my five days off. That's like three per day. That is just wrong. I should have worn tennis shoes because I'm going to be running to get this stuff done.

Since I'm going to be busy, I will sign off for now. I will get some photos up soon. Once you see the flower shots, you will see why I need to save up for the 300mm lens. Maybe I should look at selling copies. I just need to sell 8 if I can find people who will pay $1000 each. Hey, I'll sign them. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Life on Pause

While a vacation seems like you are experiencing life in Fast Forward because you do so much and come back exhausted, the life you return to shows you it was actually on Pause. Everything is still here. The same problems at work. The same leaky shower stall. The same traffic-laden commute. The only difference is that you have great memories to carry you through that did not exist before.

Speaking of vacation, New Orleans was fun. I will get some photos posted soon. I must give special thanks to Uncle Poo and Aunt Martha for hosting the event in Central Louisiana. Next time, though, I hope they tone down the humidity a bit. Here in AZ, I cannot remember the last time that my glasses and camera fogged up when I went outside.

Speaking of CoV, here is a non-vacation cartoon queued up from before our trip.

Speaking of family reunions, we saw cousins and aunts and uncles and brothers that we haven't seen in a while. We ate our way through New Orleans and Jena. We had all of us taking pictures of just about everything, including each other taking pictures. We celebrated Aunt Francis' 90th birthday. I am certainly glad we had this opportunity and thank Dad for making it possible. It may be that the Lord calls some of us home before we could do this again, so we chose this trip as our summer vacation.

Speaking of photos, thanks to Mark for letting Keith and I use his $8000 300mm lens. Whew, that was so fun and an opportunity I would not have had otherwise. Unfortunately, I liked it a lot. However, the price plus opportunities to actually use it mean that I will have to wait until I see Mark again to use it. Still, we did and I got some great people and flower shots with it.

OK, work calls, but I will say that those baked beans with venison were really good. It all was. So were the Cafe du Monde beignets. You should try them. That is all this 24x7 restaurant serves and yet we had to scour to find a table.

It Is My Friday

We head out to New Orleans in the morning for a brief vacay and a family reunion nearby. So please do not waste your time sitting around your computer waiting for the next CoV. It will be a week from Tuesday before it will be back.

Now, that does not mean there may not be a post between now and then. You never know what I might do, although that also depends on finding internet access. Who knows? Maybe the leaking oil corroded the wires that provide the link? Still, I would say do not sit around waiting. Go out. Have a life. Have a beignet. I plan to.

Another statistics-based CoV. Sorry for you non-math types. Let me break it down for you. It is a self-deprecating cartoon implying the majority of them are weird and none are worth reading. I actually do have some stats on which cartoons have been commented on, but this is not about seriousity.

Dad loaned me his Mac laptop to load all my photos onto so I could leave for vacation with empty memory cards. That is done, but I have not taken the time to upload any for here. In fact, weirdly enough, I did not even carry my camera to the beach or The Grove on Saturday when I was in LA because I did not have room on my cards. Lyndsay got a bunch of shots, though, although you'll need to find her on Facebook to see them. Maybe I'll have her burn me a disc with them so I can share a few here. Several were cute. I even tried a couple of nighttime fountain shots.

I have heard that a certain naval family in transition between FL and CA is in town. I'll have to scoot by and say hey tonight. The main thing for tonight, though, is to pack for trip to New Orleans. Yeah!

OK, I am signing off for now. As they say in the movies, "Let's not say goodbye. Let's say 'See You Later.'" So, see you later.

We Made It Again

Another Friday is here. While you may want to get your weekend on right now, you should probably wait until after the workday finishes. That is what I plan to do.

Today's CoV is a Venn Diagram classifying how I would describe the types of humor included in the daily cartoon. Yup. It's a math lesson and cartoon all rolled up in one. Who else gives you that?
I do not like the traffic getting our of this cul-de-sac in the afternoons. However, if the only alternative is staying even later, then I'll deal with it. I'm just saying, don't come in here between 3pm and 6pm.

What's up for the weekend? We shall see. How about you?

Prayer request: My sister's oldest son, Paul, went into the hospital last night for abdominal bleeding. He is on antibiotics and if he is not better today, they will have to do more testing. So, let's pray that he is better and they can find the cause quickly. To make matters worse, his wife and daughter are out of town, so I am sure they are anxious.

I had best get to work so I can get out of here on time. You'd better get to work, too. I'll be back on Monday, but then out of pocket until the following Tuesday. No, you'll be fine. You won't even have to check the blog every two hours like you do now. Come on, you know you do that.

Thursday Thoughts

I did get the shower cartridge replaced, but then I forgot to check this morning if it reduced the leak inside the wall. I'll try to remember to check on that in the morning. I did not get the toilet wax ring done last night.

I talked to the Disneyland crew last night. Kathie and Kendall had just ridden a ride when the others took Bella to a ride that Kendall is not big enough for yet. The weather is apparently cooperating and it was a nice day. That's good. I forgot to ask if it was very crowded.

Without Kathie there to say "Honey, you need to get going," I fell back asleep this morning and did not get to work until 20 minutes later than normal. So, let me drop a CoV on you...
and then, sign off for the day. Sorry for my brevity. Check the Clarity of Vision blog for an explanation of why I chose rainbow chard for the title of the cartoon.

Wednesday's Wonderings

Nooo. Not 112 by Sunday. The only good thing about that is the pool will be easily warm enough by this weekend. Well, maybe the other good thing is.... No, there is no other positive to having temps in that range.

Well, the crew headed out to Disneyland today. Lucky me. I get to work today, then replace a faucet cartridge tonight. And sometime, I need to replace the wax ring on a toilet. However, Dad loaned me his MacBook, so I can transfer some photos. although I may not get to that until tomorrow night. Not the same as Disneyland, but oh well.

I think I heard the phrase diamond in the rough on the radio. I thought of it somehow. Here are today's musings.
I am moved into my new digs at work. We have those short, four foot high cubicles. So I can see everybody and all their screens. I can participate in their conference calls without even dialing in. Not my favorite.

Anything else? No, these new cubes have sucked all the creativity out of me, at least for now. And as usual, I have to get ready for the daily meeting. Why don't y'all sit back and enjoy your work surroundings while I sit and sulk. Maybe I'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Three Days Off Means Only Four Days of Work

Whoo hoo. Where are three-day weekends when you need them? I could get used to this. I hope yours was good. Ours was. Plus, we got to play games twice. Among them were Apples to Apples, Sequence, Take The Train, and Bananagrams. And we saw the grandgirls on Friday, which is always a treat.

One time, we were playing a game when a member of our group sang the wrong lyrics to a song. That led me to remember the web site kissthisguy.com. While the lyrics in today's CoV are not listed, there are some cute ones at that site.


We reach the official 100s-all-the-time starting this week. June is traditionally our hottest month. August and September feel hotter, though, because we've had so many 100+ days by then. We should be 106+ by Thursday.

We are supposed to move to another building today. However, they have not provided boxes yet. I hope they don't move my computer before I can move the rest of my stuff. I'd feel lost without my stuff (whoa. I channeled George Carlin for a second there).

I guess I had better get the first of my four days underway. I will be back tomorrow, even though Disneyland beckons for some members of the family tomorrow.