Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Technical Difficulties
June hasn't been kind to us on the technology end of things.
Glitch #1:
It all started with me inadvertently deleting ALL the pictures in our MY PICTURES folder. Before leaving for St. Louis Memorial Day weekend I hooked up my Zune to sync it with all the latest CD's I'd ripped from the library, etc. for the kids to listen to in the car, a few new audio books, etc. It'd been months and months since I'd hooked it up to the PC, and consequently had a few updates that needed to run. In the process, it downloaded the entire MY PICTURES folder to my Zune.
I should explain that our MY PICTURES folder is HUGE. It currently holds all the pictures we've taken from 2005-2008, in addition to all edited photos for printing, digital picture frames that the Grandma's both have, etc. And since we average 5-8,000 pictures per year, sigh, it was way more than I needed on my Zune and a huge loss when they all disappeared, despite my best efforts to make sure that the process I used in deleting the photos wasn't deleting them from the PC, just the Zune.
Thankfully, GR was able to recover about 80% of the lost pictures, but the program he used recovered every single, possible .JPG, not just those that resided in the MY PICTURES FOLDER. So I now have a huge organizational project on my to-do list.
Glitch #2:
We have a small file server to hold all our documents, pictures, music and video files, etc. Well the little black box that allows the file server and the desktop to talk to one another decided to die Friday night, just as GR was preparing to leave for Seattle for a few days. All the information is there and fine, we just can't access it ...
Glitch #3:
When GR headed to Seattle he took the only mini USB to USB cord I know of in the house ... the only cord I know of to use to download pictures from the camera to the PC. No Pictures means no blog posts, for this girl. When he called from the airport to say his flights were all on time, he said he lost the cord in the hotel .... ... but an hour or so before he walked in the door I found a spare in the mass of wires under the PC!! Ahhh PICTURES. Not a lot of pictures, but some pictures. I can finally blog again.
Glitch #4:
As a result of all the picture mayhem, the ZUNE is now in need of repair. The port at the bottom of the devise that allows it to charge, connect to the PC, Car Radio, etc. got damaged thanks to a damaged cord that needed to be "forcibly" removed? I'm now in the process of trying to figure out exactly when GR gave it to me last summer and obtain the proof of purchase needed to determine if it is still under warranty ... let's hope it was an anniversary (etc.) gift, and not a mother's day (etc.) gift.
My "dead" ZUNE left me in the middle of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ... around chapter 16 or so, GR suggested I start reading the book, but he's lent it out, so I'm thinking I'll check the CDs out at the library instead of waiting for all the above glitches to resolve themselves so I can access the remaining HP MP3 files and download them to his ZUNE.
Glitch #1:
It all started with me inadvertently deleting ALL the pictures in our MY PICTURES folder. Before leaving for St. Louis Memorial Day weekend I hooked up my Zune to sync it with all the latest CD's I'd ripped from the library, etc. for the kids to listen to in the car, a few new audio books, etc. It'd been months and months since I'd hooked it up to the PC, and consequently had a few updates that needed to run. In the process, it downloaded the entire MY PICTURES folder to my Zune.
I should explain that our MY PICTURES folder is HUGE. It currently holds all the pictures we've taken from 2005-2008, in addition to all edited photos for printing, digital picture frames that the Grandma's both have, etc. And since we average 5-8,000 pictures per year, sigh, it was way more than I needed on my Zune and a huge loss when they all disappeared, despite my best efforts to make sure that the process I used in deleting the photos wasn't deleting them from the PC, just the Zune.
Thankfully, GR was able to recover about 80% of the lost pictures, but the program he used recovered every single, possible .JPG, not just those that resided in the MY PICTURES FOLDER. So I now have a huge organizational project on my to-do list.
Glitch #2:
We have a small file server to hold all our documents, pictures, music and video files, etc. Well the little black box that allows the file server and the desktop to talk to one another decided to die Friday night, just as GR was preparing to leave for Seattle for a few days. All the information is there and fine, we just can't access it ...
Glitch #3:
When GR headed to Seattle he took the only mini USB to USB cord I know of in the house ... the only cord I know of to use to download pictures from the camera to the PC. No Pictures means no blog posts, for this girl. When he called from the airport to say his flights were all on time, he said he lost the cord in the hotel ....
Glitch #4:
As a result of all the picture mayhem, the ZUNE is now in need of repair. The port at the bottom of the devise that allows it to charge, connect to the PC, Car Radio, etc. got damaged thanks to a damaged cord that needed to be "forcibly" removed? I'm now in the process of trying to figure out exactly when GR gave it to me last summer and obtain the proof of purchase needed to determine if it is still under warranty ... let's hope it was an anniversary (etc.) gift, and not a mother's day (etc.) gift.
My "dead" ZUNE left me in the middle of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ... around chapter 16 or so, GR suggested I start reading the book, but he's lent it out, so I'm thinking I'll check the CDs out at the library instead of waiting for all the above glitches to resolve themselves so I can access the remaining HP MP3 files and download them to his ZUNE.
Strawberries
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
One of the great things about living in Kansas is that just about anywhere you choose to live has 'rural' country close by. Consequently, we have lots of great farms to visit to pick our own produce if we so choose. The last time we went strawberry picking as when I was pregnant with Sam ... what is it about me going strawberry picking 8 months pregnant. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, with a great breeze! The kids and I picked 16 pounds of berries ... 3 ice cream buckets full! Actually, Rebecca, Emily, Sam and I picked berries, Alex ate them, nearly as fast as we picked them.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I didn't have time to make jam last week, so Wednesday night GR and I spent a good 2 hours hulling and dicing strawberries. We enjoyed a huge bowl of berries for breakfast and lunch Thursday, and the rest went into the freezer, waiting to be made into jam.
I prefer cooked jam, and I'm loving the new "no sugar" needed pectin that is now available. I opt to use a little sugar in the recipe to help preserve the jam, but it's so nice to be able to make a recipe of jam with only 2 cups of sugar.
So while Alex napped, the rest of the kids, helped me mash the berries ... cook the mixture on the stove ... and then listen for the satisfying sound of the lids popping. We ended up with 11 pints and four 8 oz. jars. Not bad for a days work. And it tastes soo good on all our homemade bread!
One of the great things about living in Kansas is that just about anywhere you choose to live has 'rural' country close by. Consequently, we have lots of great farms to visit to pick our own produce if we so choose. The last time we went strawberry picking as when I was pregnant with Sam ... what is it about me going strawberry picking 8 months pregnant. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, with a great breeze! The kids and I picked 16 pounds of berries ... 3 ice cream buckets full! Actually, Rebecca, Emily, Sam and I picked berries, Alex ate them, nearly as fast as we picked them.
Monday, June 9, 2008
I didn't have time to make jam last week, so Wednesday night GR and I spent a good 2 hours hulling and dicing strawberries. We enjoyed a huge bowl of berries for breakfast and lunch Thursday, and the rest went into the freezer, waiting to be made into jam.
I prefer cooked jam, and I'm loving the new "no sugar" needed pectin that is now available. I opt to use a little sugar in the recipe to help preserve the jam, but it's so nice to be able to make a recipe of jam with only 2 cups of sugar.
So while Alex napped, the rest of the kids, helped me mash the berries ... cook the mixture on the stove ... and then listen for the satisfying sound of the lids popping. We ended up with 11 pints and four 8 oz. jars. Not bad for a days work. And it tastes soo good on all our homemade bread!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
We Love You!
Wishing our very special Papa; Favorite Uncles - Chris, Joe and Matthew; Great Uncles - Ivan, Mike, Carl, Reed, and Mack; Grandpa's Art and Bob; and Great Grandfather lots of love and hugs and kisses from four adoring fans on this Father's Day.
ETA: GR left for Seattle this morning at 4am. The kids were very sad to hear that Papa wouldn't be at church to hear them sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home." My solution was to call him on my cell phone as the kids walked up to the front of the chapel to sing and pray that he could hear them. Unfortunately, Alex dunked my cell phone in milk a few days before and my phone has not worked very consistently since. Although it connected with his cell phone, he finally confessed to me (as far as the kids are concerned, Papa heard them loud and clear!) he couldn't hear a thing! Dang - I thought it was the perfect solution, and it would have been, if my phone wasn't clogged with dried whole milk.
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