Sunday, February 20, 2000

Nothing Posted . . . Again

What's up?

Nothing Posted . . .

Where is she?

Its not fair . . .

I'm not awake enough in the morning to post anything and besides, at this point, if I changed my routine of posting at night, I'd confuse people too much.  But, then, there's Brian who gets to post whenever he wants to day or night, work or home, whatever and whenever . . . and tonight we're going to do laundry to start our weekend so that if I have time to put up a post, its going to have to be a very short post.  Nice, huh?

Spanish Classes . . .

 . . . are not going as well as they could be.  One of the reasons is that I feel silly talking to the computer while Brian watches me from the other room.  Brian, as you may or may not know, is a graduate of the "Six Years Of Spanish And Can't Remember A Word But This Is How You Pronounce It Anyway" School.  Another thing is that Dan Bowman is another of the many people who have chosen to believe that, because I have STARTED a Spanish class, I must know everything WELL ENOUGH to be able to speak in Spanish on their websites and have them wondering "Why is my website still posted in English?"

HULLO?!?!?!?  What part of the definition of "STARTED Spanish" did I miss?  Talk about PRESSURE!!!  Sorry, I'm still working on the pronunciation of "ere" and "erre"!!  Keep it up, Dan-- maybe I'll help Shelley make dead meat out of you!! [ ;>) ]

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As I said, this is a short post tonight . . . I am coming down with something (oh, thank you-thank you) and I am not pleased.

Have a good one!

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Silver Linings . . .

Being 2,500 miles away from my family, immediate and extended, is sometimes hard to deal with both from the standpoint of emotional support that Family gives you and the physical closeness that you get from the hugs you exchange when you haven't seen each other for awhile.  I remember when I was growing up that my parents would go back-n-forth to their siblings' houses usually dragging the five (then four, then three, then two, then me!) of us along.  I don't have that luxury with my siblings but we do with Brian's family-- that's a nice thing.

When someone passes on in your family, its nice to have that support but, I get that support by proxy via email.  Last night, Karen went to the visitation for my uncle where she ran into one of my cousins-- one of my favorite cousins, I might add.  Karen took the liberty (if it could be called that) to gave Barb my email address and got Barb's email address for me.  Even though I haven't been good (a major understatement) about keeping up on communications with my cousins, its still fun to catch up and stay in touch with them and, with the ease of the electronic age and Al Gore's imagination, its now going to be easy to do that very thing!

Last night, I dropped Barb a quick email and an invitation to visit this website.  Tonight, I received a lengthy email from her and, much to her chagrin, she has an even lengthier email from me to plow through over the weekend!

I'm really happy to have found this Silver Lining so quickly-- it usually takes me a lot longer to find the positive thing that comes from a negative thing.

Angels and the like . . .

Much to the chagrin of some people around me, I do believe, to a certain extent in angels-- a positive belief, I should add.

This morning, like most every other morning, I got out of bed and got my cup of coffee, and sat down to check email.  After I was at the computer, I remember feeling something around me and then, I smelled a fragrance that I hadn't smelled for a long time.  My siblings will remember it: my mother's Emeraude perfume.

In the set of bedroom furniture that my parents had, my mother's clothing, jewelry and sundries occupied the 9-drawer dresser while my dad had the tall chest of drawers.  There was one drawer in particular that, when it was opened, the fragrance of stale Emeraude would rise to meet your nose.  It was a requirement, you see, that every Christmas my father was to buy my mother Emeraude perfume.  It was their tradition and, if I recall, my mom would get a tear in her eye every year because my dad remembered . . . either that or she got the tear in her eye because he did remember it every year!  After he died, she changed fragrances but the fragrance of the perfume still rose from the drawer when you opened it.

Whatever the reason for the remembrance, it was a nice way to remember my mother and while it brought a tear to my eye at the time, it was a happy tear.

Okay, that said . . .

I've not had a very good day at work . . . I've got a customer that is being unusually and unreasonably stubborn and a sales rep that's trying not to kill himself driving around to an airport that will let him fly home despite the snow that appears to have taken over every airport in a hundred mile radius and, in general, people doing things that just generally piss me off like:

1.  A young woman in my office who can't seem to pick up her feet when she walks-- in other words, she walks like a woman much older than dirt, if "Dirt" were the name of a woman that could walk.

2.  A young man in our office who cannot spell or use punctuation properly and, unfortunately for us, makes up signs to point out to the rest of us his inadequacies.

3.  Another young man in our office who, for all intents and purposes, claims to be speaking in the common language used in the business world of the United States but for the life of me, I can't understand a word he is saying-- what the customers must think!!

Man, do I need a three-day weekend or what?????

Spanish Class

I received an email from Jonathan Hassel this afternoon, offering assistance with learning Spanish:

Subject:      Spanish
Date:         Thu, 17 Feb 2000 18:03:07 -0500
From:         Jonathan Hassell <jon@hassell.com>
Organization: Jonathan Hassell Technologies
To:           marcia@dutchgirl.net

Hi there -

If you need any help with Spanish or just need the human touch to explain something to you, feel free to let me know.  I am pretty fluent :-) in it and can answer most any question.

Si necesita ayuda con espanol o solo necesita el toque humano para le explicar algo a Ud., por favor digame.  La hablo muy bien y puedo contestar una pregunta.

Thanks for the offer!  How did you find me?  Off of Brian's page?  Other Daynoters?

Having JUST started the Spanish lessons, the last paragraph that you put in your email is just MEAN!! (I think its a translation of the first paragraph, right? Okay, you're forgiven!)  The only thing I can't seem to "get" is how to roll my Rs-- that seems to be something (if you'll pardon the pun) that is completely foreign to my tongue.  Any hints on that?

Thanks for the communication!

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This is a fairly early post for me for lots of reasons . . . perhaps, more later.

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It's Official!

A year and a half ago, almost immediately after Brian and I were married, I filled out the form to change my name on my Passport.  Today, I finally received my Passport with my official name change!!  "What??" you say, "A year and a half for a name change???"  Granted, we are talking about the US Government however, I did not say that I mailed in the form at the time that I completed it!  Au contrare: I did not make work of changing my name on my Passport until I was threatened with possible international travel a few weeks ago.  Once the Passport office got the form, it only took them two weeks-- its amazing how it can actually get done if you give them the paperwork!

ANYWAY, I wrote Brian an email today notifying him that we were, NOW officially married because ALL of my identification is changed over to my married name . . . TA-DA!!  He was thrilled-- Oh, yeah, like it wasn't something he already knew!!  (Actually, his reaction was that he remembered he had to get his renewed . . . that would be helpful for JOINT travel, wouldn't it?)

Birthday Hangovers--

Sorry, not that kind (I rarely drink anymore!) but more birthday greetings are drifting in and thank you to all again!

Status Correction

Brian corrected me last night on my comments about my statistics: it appears that the hits on my website are higher this month already compared to last month but, to me, what counts is page reads.  And while The Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Canada and the UK are hanginging in there, I've also got a new visitor(s) coming in from Germany!!

A funny thing also happened last night during the final check of email and website, our stat sheet came up with something new:  "Top 1 of 10 Total Search Strings".  Since I couldn't figure out what that was all about, I brought in the investigative and inquisitive brain of my hubby ("Brian the Brain") on it who came up with a record in his daily logs that said that someone had linked into my website through a search on the word "rennaissance" on the Lycos search engine.  Oh, yeah, that's why I did that search engine-thang, huh?  Geez, it would be helpful if I could remember what I'm doing when I'm doing it!! ;>) (Notice that I'm blushing!)

Bad News . . .

About a month ago, I mentioned that I had been informed that a favorite uncle had been diagnosed with extensive cancer afflicting him.  I sadly report to you this evening that he has died, as of last night.  My sister told me via email and our chat session (the email was received simultaneous with the start of our chat session tonight).

You will be missed, Uncle Chet-- especially from all the way in California!

Another year old . . .

Older??  Nope, that's not me!!  I don't get older-- I just have birthdays occasionally so I can get uniquely wonderful presents!  Did you see my post from last night?  Brian and I are still "this many years old!" and I am not getting older . . . ever!  The picture on the left is of the joint birthday party that was held at the home of my in-laws on Sunday.  Dani, our niece, and I blew out the candles-- well, it looks like I'm blowing--  she barely gave me a chance!  (Yes, that's Miss Alexandra looking on . . . she's actually waiting for one of us to not notice that she's going to take a swipe at the icing!)

I have to tell you something:  Being with Brian, besides being a bonus in and of itself, is an adventure at every turn!  He makes me laugh-- loudly-- when I least expect it, alone or in public and, best of all, he's always treated Valentine's Day as Valentine's Day and my birthday as my birthday.  I honestly do not believe that there is another soul on this earth that can say that-- my siblings can't say it either because both they and my parents wouldn't have done anything for Valentine's Day for me but they would've (and have) done something for my birthday.  He always separates the two and treats the two days, even as close together as they are, as two different days completely.  As a case in point to that statement, for Valentine's Day I got the necklace and earrings and tinted roses and for my birthday, I got the complete "Black Adder" series-- only my Brian would do that for me!!  We're going to have a laugh-fest later on, once we can figure out what we're going to do for my birthday that could be considered celebratory with his present condition.

Yes, by the way, I'm home early on my birthday-- decided I deserved it!

Growing up . . .

Since most of the Musings here are about my memories and, for the sake of trying to keep those memories alive in my mind and in the minds of my siblings, I'm going to answer the unasked question of what birthdays were like when I was growing up . . . COLD and SNOWY!!!  Okay, I'm sure there may have been a veritable heatwave somewhere during the time that I was growing up but I don't remember it!!  I remember that I grew up in a class of 30+/- students and had to share my celebration with a girl named "Thea" every year-- her birthday was on the 14th (she was given a calendar, 'kay?).  I remember that my mother made cupcakes for my treat at school every year and, even though we weren't allowed to "believe" in Valentine's Day, candy hearts were always used as the decoration the cupcakes. I remember I had a birthday party one time . . . I only remember one when I was young and then a time when I had a slumber party later on when I was older (13-ish).  (Hey, you guys, if you remember anymore, pass 'em on, okay?)

I know I was the best birthday present that my sister, Karen, ever had-- remember the story I told in December about being "A Big Girl"?  Well, its that sister's birthday tomorrow!!  HappyBirthday, Karen!!

Stats so Far

January was "Web Crawler" and "Search Engine" month so the stats, I believe, were unusually skewed-- my pages are running at about 2/3 of last month's stats which is still good when you consider that we (and that includes the Spoelhof Home Page of my sister) are now showing up on at least 14 search engines (searchable under various keywords and meta tags).  I'm pretty sure that the stats from this month are going to be more accurate for the remainder of the year.  There were too many things getting started last month (including the webring) to be able to count them as accurate.

I have, by the way, encouraged my sister and her husband to come up with new content for their website every week.  If you have any suggestions for content, please feel free to let me know-- it is kind of a new area for me and they haven't had access to the best of machines for viewing yet, either!

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Brian was actually threatening to take a nap-- he didn't sleep well last night.  In the meantime, I may practice my Spanish a little-- can't seem to roll my tongue enough or just right for the Rs-- any suggestions there would also be appreciated!

Maybe more later . . .

6:30-ish . . .

I wanted to just drop in and thank all of you for sending me a birthday greeting!!  Granted, Brian, my wonderful husband, was very subtle by posting that email link but a lot of you have written to wish me well-- thanks!!  Its almost time for dinner (Brian is cooking pasta cuz its soft) and I'm going to turn on the telly (which seems appropriate for the "Black Adder" series, doesn't it?) while I await my dinner.  Then, birthday cake for dessert and more "Black Adder"-- there are 8 tapes with probably 3 episodes each on them!  We're going to be very "Black Adder'd" out, I believe!

Thank you again for all of your birthday wishes!!

"Young Love"

That's a quote from Dan Bowman's post from Saturday and although somewhat inappropriately used in his reference, it is the way I feel about Brian and I. While there are times that Brian and I feel like we're "this many" years old (visualize a 4 or 5 year old with big brown eyes, in the case of both of us, holding up the appropriate number of fingers), we aren't that terribly young and its not like we haven't been through this before we met in this lifetime.  This morning, I tried to find emails or something from our first Valentine's Day together.  I couldn't find any because we had just moved in with each other and there was no need to email since we were RIGHT THERE with each other.  To this day, our hearts are filled with love for each other and every day, these hearts seem to get fuller.

Yes, he gave me sparklies over the weekend but I gave him a 20-gig hard drive, a Voodoo video card and a crystal penguin and 4 ounce solid-chocolate heart (that he can't eat for at least a week!).  He is the love of my life and of all of my lives . . . he is my reward for everything else that has happened to me in this life.

And so, I thank you, Brian, for our love and for making sure that every day my full heart is fuller and more in love with you.

Lone Star State . . .

 . . . is a bit lonelier tonight.  Tom Landry, the best coach (IMHO) ever of the Dallas Cowboys has passed on, leaving us with fleeting memories of his life.  Its funny that he made such a huge impression on me.  He wasn't as big as some of the guys in football are but, at the time that I lived in Dallas, he was bigger than life itself and the true meaning behind "Everything's bigger in Texas!"

I worked in Bryan Tower and there was a restaurant at the top of the building-- I remember a day when I was in the lobby of the building and Tom Landry glided through, press entourage and paparazzi in tow on his way to lunch in that restaurant.  The one time I had lunch there, I remember glancing around still looking for him to be sitting there.  Another memory that flitted through my mind when I heard the news was Bill Harwood, the father of my best friend and my "Texas Daddy", and I watching the Cowboys games and ringing the cowbell every time that Dallas made a touch down-- there was a time when that cowbell rang a lot under Tom Landry's guidance.  I remember before ever going to a game in person, watching Roger Staubach make one of his 2-minute-warning saving passes and Tom Landry stoically watching the ball glide into the hands of the receiver.  I remember watching to see if he'd ever show any emotion but he didn't and that was the most fun about them winning a Big Game-- he would show emotion then but only for the players.

I'm not sure why, upon learning of his passing, these memories floated through my mind-- I didn't personally know him but there was a time, when a smallish man from Texas made a big mark on the rest of the world, too.

On the Agenda . . .

This evening's entertainment is to watch Brian try to figure out what he can and cannot have (having a tooth pulled is no fun at all!) to eat or just plain try to concentrate which appears to be a huge trick for him at this point.  This morning, I checked out the facilities at the health club at the office and decided that I would try to work out in the morning several times this week.  Of course, that means that my club bag has to be re-packed with work clothes, shampoos, etc., so I've got that to do tonight yet and, since I can't seem to think of what else there was that I wanted to tell you, I might be back later on to post more, if it occurs to me.

In the interim, take care and have a wonderful and love-filled Valentine's Evening!

Spanish Class

One of the things that I neglected to mention is that Saturday, when we were at Costco, I picked up a software language program, Spanish to be precise so I'm learning Spanish on my computer.  I don't know how successful I will be but, considering that I've only tried to learn French once before and have forgotten most of that, it can't be all that bad, can it?  Brian tells me that I shouldn't be nervous about him hearing me talk to my computer-- he's used to it and I need to get used to it, too!  Nice guy, huh?  Yeah, well . . . I can't stay mad for long-- especially when he's right!

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That's all for tonight . . . I've got to get back to my Spanish . . .

Wonderful Day!!

We've just come back from spending the majority of the day with Brian's parents, sister and her two children, Alexandra and Robert and Brian's brother Peter's daughter, Danielle.  Despite the rain which made for questionably treacherous driving, upon arrival it was a bright and cheery day for all of the participants!  Children just have a way of bringing sunshine to a room, don't they?

It was raining when we left so we decided to bring the Blazer because, even though it doesn't get as good in mileage, it wasn't worth getting soaked switching cars in the parking lot either!  Half-way up to Orinda, we decided it was a very good thing that we had, in fact, decided to drive it because the 4-wheel drive made for more safe and proactive driving than our smaller card would've provided.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with giant hugs from Dani, whom we hadn't seen in more than six months and had grown monstrously!!  She's gotten to be such a pretty young lady-- her Uncle Brian and I did have her age wrong by a year (probably hoping she'd stay young) but, as we were corrected, she is now double-digits!  She has her father's height which has already managed to kick in even though she's only 10!

Robert, Barbara's baby at almost 6 months, was sleeping when we arrived and Miss Alexandra was playing hard to get-- she would barely come out to sheepishly smile at us at first but, within a very short period of time, was playing hide-n-seek with Uncle Brian.  Well, let me re-phrase that: she was hiding (badly) under the dining room table while he and his dad talked about how she muts've gone back to Sacramento since they couldn't seem to locate her.  I'm not sure how they ever coaxed her out from under the table but, within a very short period of time (and it seems like, shorter each time) she was laughing and giggling with Uncle Brian and I-- she very early on let me give her a hug "Hello", so I felt very special since she hadn't hid under the table from me!

After getting settled in a bit, we all had lunch and Robert woke up and began his very entertaining ways-- in the time since the week before Christmas, he'd grown soooo much and, he had developed a sense of humor, and a major smile!!  This picture is a little blurry but it is still a good picture of him-- he's definitely getting older and more mature and more fascinated by things, too!

He loves to play peek-a-boo games and talk silly with you and, Uncle Brian taught him something new: hands clapping!  Well, actually, Brian clapped his hands and if Rob was crying or doing anything else, he would stop and just stare in amazement.  Now, part of this theory also has to go to the fact that if you were Robert, you've got "this guy" looking at you, and you're under 6 months old and you've gotta be thinking:  "He's related to me??"

Then, you have to realize that the child looks at someone like me and says, "Okay, I get it-- you're the only one in this picture that I won't look like!!" ;>)    Mom, Brian's sister (as if she needed an introduction) is holding Rob and, then, of course, someone involved in that operating system group where they hand out t-shirts once-a-month is on the right side of the picture.  Hmmm, don't know his name . . . I'm sure it'll come to me . . . eventually!

Amazingly, now that almost six months have passed, Alexandra is handling having a sibling around and wasn't one bit jealous that Brian was paying attention to Robbie this time-- at Christmas, she was a tad jealous if he even looked in Rob's direction so she has come a long ways, for sure!  At one point, Robbie was on the floor and I was playing with him; he started to cry a little bit and she brought me a wind-up song toy and said "Here, use this-- it'll calm him down."  She spoke so matter-of-factly, it was hilarious . . . as if she has to deal with being the one to get him to calm down every day!!

While I was surprise at how much time Brian spent with Robbie, he also spent a lot of time with the girls-- he is a very loved uncle as you can see by these pictures!!  He is also a very loved "Uncle Horse"!!
 
 

All afternoon, Dani kept asking us when she was going to get to open her present or she would ask what her present was-- we both just said we didn't know when she would get to open presents and wouldn't tell her what we'd gotten for her.  This would reoccur about every half hour but finally, it was time!!  Alex loves to play with the bows from gifts (and to help you open them, to be honest!) but she loves to lick icing more!  Even as tricky as she can be, she still got caught by Uncle Brian in this picture!  (Apparently, this is something that she picked up at our wedding, according to what her mother told me tonight-- she took a big swipe at our wedding cake!)

After all was said and done, we had a wonderful time-- Brian's family is so wonderful to spend time with, the time just seems to fly by and soon enough, we had to be on our way!!  Again, the rain, which hadn't stopped all day, made for an interesting trip home but we made it.

Farm Report

Although its fairly late, its also a week since we planted the lettuce and I wanted to give you an update on the "garden" as a whole:

The big pot is doing really well, as you can tell and the picture on the right is the row of Buttercrunch lettuce!  All three pots are thriving!!
 
 

The tulips have, apparently, decided to go left-- we've got bunny ears and, I believe that our count on the whole pot is up to 9 total shoots started.  I've got a feel that the empty spot in the upper left "corner" (behind the bunny ears) of the pot isn't really empty but . . . we'll have to see!

Current "Musings"

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