Wood, Siding, and Leaves

Today was a pretty good day in terms of finally getting things done, well done to the point where we are winterized for the coming year. We actually finished getting all the siding up and secure that we can on the house. We still have one more window to install so the siding on that side will have to wait until the window is done. That, of course, is the window for the kitchen which is still under talks. Meaning that so far all the quotes we got for it are wayyyyyy out of our price range, so the window doesn't get changed, and the siding has to be put off until that is done.

We also managed to get one and a half rows of wood stacked in the basement. Only another eight truck loads to go before we are all done for the winter. Of course the rain started again today so I am hoping that we will have another week or so of sun and non-rain type weather where we can put our backs into the project and haul the rest of the wood into the basement. Or is that another fifteen truck loads? Where is my calculator when I need one?

This is a picture of the lake this week, I'm not sure how much longer the leaves will hang in there but they sure are making things awful pretty around these parts.

Taking A Bite Out Of A Beautiful Day

Today was beautiful day number five out here on the east coast. Yesterday it was 34 degrees, sunny, warm and gorgeous. It was an odd Turkey Day to say the least. Today the temps hovered in the low twenties but it was pretty nice all the same. Unfortunately for this camper it was marred by the big trauma of going to the dentist and getting a broken tooth fixed. Fortunately this appointment was pretty smooth sailing, the only real pain I suffered was paying the bill at the end. $477.00 for spending just under an hour in the chair. Yikes! The irony is that I have been fully covered dental wise for many, many years and did not have any major issues teeth wise for years and years. Now, of course, when I have no coverage and have to pay for everything out of pocket I get zinged, and badly. I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something?

Early Morning Thoughts

It is six o'clock in the morning and I have just started a fire to try and take the chill out of the air. It is two degrees outside and fourteen degrees inside, looks like fall has arrived. As I wait for the air to become less solid I did a bit of surfing and found some actual news on the news.

Not a surprise but sad nonetheless, Steve Jobs dies at 56. Sad. Although I don't have a Mac, and never have had one, I don't have to, to know what the man did for the world of computing. I believe the world needs more people like Jobs, not less. We cannot afford to lose those whose talents help us drag the world out of the dark ages.

Not a surprise but sad nonetheless, Palin confirms that she won't try for the leadership of the G.O.P. It really is too bad, I was kinda looking forward to the comedic relief she would have provided for the year. Now instead of being a laughing stock of the world she may actually be an evil influence on the sidelines. Although, in my humble opinion, I'm pretty sure that Palin is only into politics for one thing...show me the money! So if you see her throwing her support over to a specific candidate you can bet you booties it will have been for a goodly chunk of change.

Oh and a bunch of shit happened in soccer, but that isn't news now is it.

Apples and More Apples

Although I still haven't got my computer back from the computer hospital today it wasn't a complete bust. My property, and most of the bush around it, is bursting at the seams with apples. So I went out and picked some big assed apples, and made Apple Kuchen from them. For those of you who do not know what Apple Kuchen is, join the club, I hadn't heard of it myself until this morning when I was perusing the recipe book for something to do with apples. Turns out that Apple Kuchen is yummy. Most especially if you use the tart kind of apples, which I did. You make this kinda muffin consistency type of dough, but out of yeast for the rising, stick it in the fridge for a couple hours, pour it onto the bottom of the cake pan, slice up the apples and then pour melted butter, sugar and cinnamon over top and then bake. Like I said, yummy. Probably a billion calories, but yummy nonetheless. I also made some danish dough and stuck it in the fridge for its overnight cooling needs so I can take some fresh baked danishes over to a neighbour who tried them once and raved about them ever since. Just call me Susie Homebaker.

All this I was doing while waiting for a phone call to come and pick up my computer. Normally I would be okay with waiting for a day or two but I found this job on line which may just be up my alley. You need to be OCD for this position, it isn't a management position, and you need steel toed boots. Check, check, and check. All things that I want out of a job. Well actually I'm not a big fan of steel toed boots, but I have some, and I also want to be creative and to be left alone as well. What does this have to do with my computer you ask? See my real computer has my resume already prettified on it and it only needs things like address changes, etc. Without it I would be reduced to coming up with a new resume and "using my brain" for something other than an instrument used to figure out how to get apples out of a tree without actually, a) climbing it, or b) dragging a ladder out of the garage all the way across the field. And frankly I'm not sure if I'm that desperate for a job at this point. Ha-ha, who am I kidding, I know I'm not that desperate for a job, thus the Apple Kuchen and danish pastry.

Oh and completely off topic, but near and dear to most Canadians hearts, the Weather Report. Holy snapping arse holes Batman but is it ever windy here. First it rained like hamsters all night long, now the wind has been acting like a hurricane, which is strange as the hurricane that blew by here a couple of days ago didn't throw any of that wind stuff around. Go figure. The white caps on the lake has white caps, and those have little white cap hats. The worse part of it is that the trees which are all pretty with reds, oranges, and yellows are losing a lot of those leaves. Of course because I haven't taken any pictures yet.

And on another completely unrelated tangent, cats are assholes.

Changing My Settings

It seems as if the Settings Fairy came to visit my Blog and decided to randomly change some of the settings. I have gone in and set them back (I hope) to the way they were. Just another fun thing I do during a rainy fall day.

Things Are Looking Up

Alright so things which I have done to try and fix my computer have not worked, I tried booting it up in Safe Mode so I could isolate the virus.  It would not boot up in Safe Mode, nor go to Safe Mode.  I tried to use Kaspersky Virus Remover, it just laughed in my face.  I tried to change the virus protector I had to a different name and run it that way, trying to make it seem that it wasn't really a virus doctor, it stuck its tongue out and wiggled its ears at me.  I contemplated wiping the whole thing out and running the recovery discs in it but was reluctant to lose all my information.  So I took a deep breath and made a couple of calls to people who know how to do stuff to these magic boxes, fearing the worst, and was surprised to learn that if I took my computer in to have diagnostics run on it they would charge me a flat fee of $59.00 to shoot some antibiotics into it.  I was expecting mucho denaros and actually contemplated buying a new one instead.  $59.00 I can actually live with.  So my real computer is in the hospital and I am writing this on my lap top, which I swore I would never connect to the net.  I guess the lesson here is that you shouldn't take my word for things because obviously you can't trust me swearing to things. 

But even though it looked bleak for my computer the guy at the shop seemed to feel he could help me and fix it while still managing to retain all my files.  Happy days.  :) That totally deserves a smiley face. 

So today turned out to be a good day, the weather went from rain forest like deluge to sunny, warm and beautiful.  I actually got out into the back forty and spent a few hours working on my trails.  That is the first time in forever that I was able to do that.  It really has been quite a busy few months and I have been seriously missing it.  I also went to the recycle place and unloaded all the bottles, glass, plastic, etc which we have  been hoarding for the past year and walked away with $24.00.  Not bad.  But the next time will be better because we found out that there are a few more items we can return, which we have been sending out with our regular recycling, which are redeemable for money.  I also got a hair cut.  Boy oh boy did I ever need it.  I dropped some baby stuff off at the Salvation Army place.  The hubby and I tried out about twenty of so beds, I definitely want to go with the plush mattress, so now all I have to do is wait until they go on sale.  I am sooooooo looking forward to getting back into a king sized bed.  We also planted our butts on some couches and found one which is very, very, very comfortable, now if only it didn't come in size XXXXXXXL.  Not that our front room is tiny or anything, but this behemoth would make it a wall to wall couch.  So I guess this means we have to continue to get friendly with store furniture for awhile yet until we find something we can live with. 

When I got home from town me and the trusty dog unit went out into the bush and picked me some apples.  They were huge.  So this evening I checked the internet for a recipe and baked an apple crisp.  I'm pretty sure the recipe was missing some key ingredients, it looks more like crusty apple soup. I am hoping that it will taste better than it looks. 

Sigh!

My computer, you know the one I can actually see, not this one, the one which has a screen size slightly larger than my cell phone, has gotten sick.  It has somehow contracted a virus and is not working, so all the plans I actually had for updating my blog have gone the way of the Dodo.  So being slightly less technologically able than a Neanderthal I must see if someone can fix it for me.  If they can't I will be very sad and do a lot of moaning and crying because I will have lost a whole crapload of stuff that I kinda have grown accustomed to having around, for example, all my spreadsheets, my resume, some of my writing, etc. 

I really am quite sick about it and have spent the last few days actually losing sleep over it.  My hope now is that somehow I will be able to find a person who enjoys creating viruses so I can repeatedly stomp on his typing fingers.