HoundBlog

Sorry I didn’t write yesterday – it was a VERY busy day! Went to the chiropractor who showed me the x-rays they took of my poor neck and said he sees this a lot in people who do a lot of reading or looking at a computer screen — he could not have profiled me better than an FBI agent 😛  At any rate, I left feeling more mobile, but somewhat sore. Was still sore this morning when I went back to him. Another massage and adjustment and some of the soreness is worked out and I’m more mobile yet. I’ll go back 3 days a week for the next 2 weeks, then will only go twice a week before they re-xray everything to see how it looks.

Our weather turned off a bit cool and all I could think of was Ma’s prediction of snow on Easter. We still have a couple of weeks to see if her weather prognostication skills are up to par or not, but I would have sworn snow was on the horizon yesterday! It’s supposed to be back up to 80 tomorrow.

Ken’s working tomorrow and off Sunday. He keeps moaning about the gazillion things he has to do, but really other than mowing the grass and taking the garbage to the dump and cutting off a few limbs, I don’t know what he thinks he has to do. Now, given the go-ahead, I could FIND things for him, but really want him to do some resting when he has the chance. There’s nothing that can’t wait a bit longer.

*I* on the other had do have a gazillion things to do — all the usuals plus wash dog bedding, and work on my GP project. Logistics has given me a list of part numbers to change and I need to test rolling a couple of customer records into one to see what is impacted by it. The part number thing really isn’t part of the project, but the customer records are. Our customer records are a MESS! There is much to do to clean that up to my satisfaction.

Well, guess I need to get back to it. Y’all have a great weekend!

Love to all,

Margaret

Hi everyone! I heard from Frances last night that she’s feeling better, but still tires easily. After all she’s gone through these last few months with flu, bronchitis and shingles, its’ no wonder she’s run down and tires easily! Anyway, I sure hope she gets lots of rest and recovers completely from her various viruses.

I think I need to stop listening to the news. Everything seems to just underscore the incredible stupidity of the people who run our country (and other countries as well). Killing and other violence for no reason other than your neighbor worships differently than you do or has a skin color that’s darker or lighter than yours. Refusing credit, jobs or threatening jail because your middle name is the same as some criminal uses for an alias. This is all insanity! I sometimes feel that there are very few sane people left in this world and that our voices are drowned out by the crazies. Is it EMI? Aliens? No, don’t think it’s anything to do with outside forces — just intolerance, jealousy and greed.

Well, I’m off my soapbox now and need to get my head back in my work. I hope you have a great day today!

Love to all,

Margaret

Mom and I had a nice chat last night as I drove home from work. She’s always full of stories about the Towers and its inhabitants. I can’t wait to read the book she’s writing of her memiors. It should be a very interesting read.

The bb lady here wants a meeting on our progress. This despite my sending e-mails every other day outlining what has been done, what is in progress and what still needs to be done. What a PITA. I HATE meetings especially when I KNOW it’s going to be time wasted. Guess she just has to have it drawn on the board for her so she can understand. I hope we have it in Wes’ office — it’s already drawn out there, so maybe she can take a look and be done with it.

Nothing new other wise. Still trying to finish laundry 🙂 It just never seems to get done. Am going to a chiropracter this afternoon about my neck. It just will not quit hurting and is now waking me up at night. I hope he can do something to relieve the pain.

Got to run.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! I got some much needed rest, and came in to work this morning to a pile of niggly things to do. I’m hoping that Accounting gets their small task of loading line codes done today so that I can get on with putting equipment in the system. I really would like to start testing.

I hope you liked my pictures from yesterday. I added a robin to the Spring poem. I’ve seen huge flocks of them this year which I really don’t remember seeing in the past. I’ve seen robins, but not flocks of 25 or more birds. I’ve also had some huge crows checking out my yard. They mostly stay down at the bottom of the yard and don’t venture up as close as the bird feeders.

Well, work is calling, so I had best get back to it.

Love to all,

Margaret

Ken got home early from work today and is now ensconced on the couch watching the race. Tony Stewart is running away with it and since he’s my least favorite driver, I’m puttering around in here.

I finally got around to taking some pictures off my camera yesterday and resizing them for the web. Some are of Babette and Beaudreax, but most are my usual flowers, birds and butterflies.

 This is Beaudreax. He is a lab mix who belongs to Eddie and Yvonne and who is ball crazy — in this photo, he has TWO balls in his mouth 🙂 He’s a typical lab temperament-wise, so that makes him a pretty easy dog to live with. He’s been a really good boy while they’ve been here; doing everything I’ve asked him to do.

This is Babette – she’s a Rottweiler and is getting some age on her which is making her a bit cranky. She’s a sweet girl though who also loves to chase the ball, but she’s lots slower than Beaudreax, so we have to make sure she gets her fair share of chases. They get ball time every day rain or shine.

These are what I call grape hyacinths. They grow wild in my yard and come up every spring. There are a bunch of them around the base of a big oak tree which makes a pretty sight in the yard.

I love their color and hardiness.

Monarch butterflies fly south to Mexico for the winter, then fly north in the spring. We don’t usually see many as we are a bit west of their normal path, but these strays stopped by for a drink and rest the other day. They are very cool butterflies!

I also had one other butterfly that I don’t know what kind it is. I’ll have to do some research on this one — perhaps send the picture to the bug guys at Clemson to see if they can identify it for me. I’ve titled the photo Black Beauty as it is a striking butterfly and my photo of it doesn’t do it justice.

I’ve been trying to get some good pictures of the moon. I don’t know why I’m so enamored of the moon lately, but it just seems so beautiful at times and then when I’m looking at it, it’s early morning when it’s quiet and cool and my day has just begun. I snapped this photo which I think I like.

Have a good rest of the weekend!

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all well and happy.

Talked to Mom last night who told me she had an email from Frances telling her that she has the flu. What a bummer! Here it is spring and she’s got the flu! I sure hope she gets over it quickly.

Ken’s working this weekend, so I’ll have it to hopefully catch up on the household chores I’ve neglected these past couple of weeks. I also have to start getting ready for the Charlotte shows. Ken has to take the camper to the camper place as one of the windows is leaking and needs to be repaired. He’s doing that a week from tomorrow, so I’ll have to have it ready for us before then. He’ll pick it up on the way to Charlotte April 5th and I won’t have another opportunity to stock it since it’s not coming home before the show.

I also need to work more with the crested puppies (well, they’re a year old now, but still have no brains to speak of — being boys, you know.) And of course, I want to continue working with the birds.

I also probably will be working on my GP project for work trying to get that last bit of information into the system.

Well, I suppose I should go ahead and get this posted so I can get on with it today.

Love to all,

Margaret

It’s here finally, officially Spring!
The calendar’s marked as equinox vernal
The plants rejoice and robins sing
Today is the day of earth’s renewal

The earth bursts forth in colors amazing
The sky is clear, the sunshine’s bright
Flowers bloom and deer are grazing
On new shoots of grass tender and light

Tomorrow may be windy and cold
Cloudy, rainy or it may even snow
But today no matter what the weatherman told
It’s sunny and warm — it’s Spring you know!

Have to write early today if I’m going to write at all. Brian is due in today from Acumen so I’m here in the office instead of enjoying my Tuesday work from home day. We’ve compiled a list of stuff for him to help us do, advise us on the best course of action and to actually DO for us. At least no one called me in the middle of the night last night.

Yesterday sure was a pretty day! I think today is going to be pretty also, but I’ll be stuck in here with no windows 🙁 I need to remember to bring in the hummingbird feeders and clean them up and get them refilled and back outside. It’s time for the first of them to arrive and I want to be ready for my little jewels.

We got our State income tax refund yesterday. My creditors will be very happy when I get through writing checks to them 😆 I did buy a new outfit — or rather I ordered it online, but the rest will go on bills.

Well, I guess I had best run and finish getting prepared for Brian’s visit.

Y’all take care.

Love ya!

Margaret

Well, Friday was one looooooong day! I went in to work at 2:00 pm and left around 1:00 am the next morning. Still had some things to do, but was just too tired to think them through. I got up around 7:30 Saturday morning and Charlotte and I drove to Atlanta for the bird show. We stayed there around 3 hours just looking and I bought a new cage for Taji and Reilly along with some toys and perches. We had a good time as always. Got home around 6 pm, cooked dinner for Ken and I then got on my computer and went back to work on my project for a few more hours.

I did get my heart broken at the show. There was a tiny cage with this pitiful looking Moluccan Cockatoo in it. She looked like she didn’t feel well at all, but was so sweet. She let me scratch her behind the ears (which is where Taji loves to be scratched) and looked at me with begging eyes. The man had this exhorbitant price on her which there was no way I could have afforded, but I gave him my card and told him that if he didn’t sell her to please call me as I would give her a good home. Of course he didn’t call (yet). I can’t help but wonder what happened to her. I keep telling myself that I can’t save them all, but she had obviously been neglected at best and mistreated at worst (she ducked her head everytime he swung his hand in her direction).

Sunday, Ken and I got up around 7:30 and went to breakfast, then to PetSmart to buy chew hooves for the dogs. Went home and put together the bird cage, then moved the birds into it. They seem to be thrilled with their new home — it’s a double cage that’s 6′ long and over 6′ high so they each have a whole lot more room to play. Taji immediately threw his food bowls on the floor of the cage and I’ve left them there. Cockatoos are foragers by nature, so perhaps it feels more “normal” to him than eating from bowls that are 3 feet off the ground. I also bought a play stand and Taji has loved every second of being on it, too. I will eventually be using that as my training place, but for now, it’s somewhere for him to hang out while we’re eating and watching t.v. When Reilly will step up onto either my arm or a hand held perch, he will get his chance on the play stand. For now, though he has to stay in his cage for training. I didn’t do any last night as I figured they wanted to explore more than anything.

Well, I’ve got to run.

Love to all,
Margaret

I finally have the new computer up and running. It’s got Windows Vista OS which is really nice. My biggest problem has been transferring files over from the old computer. I purchased the transfer cable, which was supposed to allow me to drag-n-drop files, but that hasn’t exactly been the case. I’m no network guru, so despite trying to set up a network and having both computers connected to it, they just won’t talk to one another — must be a jealousy issue.

I also had somewhat of a struggle with email, but have that up and running now and that was really the big one. My last hurdle to overcome is going to be connecting to work. I took the box in to my network guy and he supposedly set it up, but I’ve now installed my firewall and antivirus software which seems to be preventing it from connecting. I’ll have to call him later this morning to see if he can help me get past this last hurdle to independence from the old computer.

We’re reinstalling SQL on the new box at work tonight, so I’ll go to work later today and work late tonight to get that done. I’ll still work from home this morning, but need to feed the dogs and clean kennels before I go to work which is usually something I do when I get home. They’ll like eating early, but tomorrow, when they’re back on their “normal” schedule, they won’t be quite so happy.

It’s raining and supposed to turn off cooler today — I’ll miss the sun and the warmth, but know it will be back soon.

Oh — be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page — I’ve added a daily cartoon. Hope you enjoy it!

Well, now you know all there is to know today 🙂

Love to all,

Margaret