This morning when I came to this site, there was a window that said I needed to update my browser. Like a fool, I did so, and now everything is different, and I’ve no idea how to navigate the bloody thing! GRRRR!!! Why do they have to change it all around, I want to know. It’s like the grocery store, when you finally know exactly where everything is you need each week, they rearrange the shelves so you can’t find anything. There, I guess the point is, in looking for the flour, maybe you’ll buy some fancy dancy prepared somethingorother that was where the flour had been. So, is that the point of changing the browser? That in trying to find the spot where I type in the URL (why are there three choices suddenly? And why is there a Y in one of them, which would seem to indicate yahoo, not just URL place…), I’ll stumble across some new thing called Bing which I have no interest in at all? And suddenly “favorites isn’t where it’s supposed to be…but I finally found it under a star. Why is a star preferable to the word “favorites?” Reading words isn’t in anymore? GRRRR!!!
Okay, end of tirade. Lizzie woke us both up at 4:45 this morning with a very impressive barking fit…at what? The rooster was crowing, because the lights came on in the henhouse. Did she hear a fierce monster outside? Coyotes? The fisher who lives in the woods behind the house? No idea. We heard nothing. Sometimes I think she fakes monster protection noises because she’s lonely and wants us to get up. So, we’re up. It’s 6:24 and pitch dark out. (It IS getting lighter earlier and darker later, though…I have noticed that.)
Yesterday, I managed to install new internet protection on both this computer and my little netbook, which took me a couple of hours. I really am technologically challenged. But having succeeded at such a daunting task, I proceeded to attempt to install my Rosetta Stone Italian series on my laptop. (It was on the old laptop, which died, and the Italian died along with it.) Got it sort of installed, but couldn’t get it activated. So, I finally managed to find a place on the Rosetta Stone website, to contact them. I’ve had an answer requesting information, and am hoping they can somehow activate the program on this computer. (When you buy it, it is good for two computers, but it doesn’t say what provision is made for when one’s computer dies, which seems to happen quite regularly after a few years for me. There ought to be a way you can continue to use it on your new computer, so long as you are the same person…so how can they tell that, online, I wonder. We shall see. If they can manage to let me activate it, then when I finish level 3, I might just buy levels four and five, so it would be to their advantage to let me do it. If not, I doubt I”ll invest that much money again.
Bored yet? Well, remember, I was up early, and am groggy as a result! John and I went to my sister’s house this past weekend for a wonderful family party. We haven’t been together in years. It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve seen some of my nieces and nephews. It was great re-connecting with them. Why so long? Lots of reasons, including Navy family all over the globe, family feud, getting away from farms…but not important. What is important is that we all got together: Jo and her kids and families, me and my kid and family. Cousins met cousins for the first time, in some cases. Plans were made to get together more often. Jo cooked sauerbraten, served it on Great Grandma Fischer’s dishes, it was a great event.
Yesterday, I had planned to go to the gym, but then I remembered (thank God) that the piano tuner was coming to fix some loose hammer or another on the piano. That took the whole morning. He is thorough but slow. Luckily, I had my knitting. I’m working on a Baby Albert jacket, the small version of the Einstein jacket from the Knit Stitch book. I’ve recently bought both the Knit Stitch and the Purl Stitch. They are meant to be beginner’s books, but I’ve learned a great new cast on with crochet hook accompaniment, and a new way to weave together parts of a sweater. (Usually, I do only sweaters from top down or bottom up that require no sewing, but this weaving thing is far superior to sewing, so I don’t mind doing it.) There are several other patterns in the books I want to try. But for now, this little sweater is for Sue for the store (Hodge Podge) because she has some great yarn which isn’t moving and she wanted a “sample” of what one could do with it, so I volunteered. I’m hoping to finish it today, bring it to her tomorrow.
And today is Upper Valley spinning. We’ll be at Gen’s today instead of our usual winter location, the library. I much prefer peoples’ homes, but in winter, parking can be interesting. With snow piled up…or so the theory goes. We still have no snow!
Not a whole lot going on at the moment. Winter can be like that…But with events to look forward to: the yearly knitting retreat at St. Thomas’ in Hanover (not a religious retreat; just a day of knitting) and SPA in Freeport, Maine, both in February, then shearing and lambing in March, and before you know it, Spring will be upon us. My guess is we’ll be deluged with snow in February and March, but maybe that’s just my hope. I don’t quite trust a year without our quota of snow.
Lizzie is now making “I want to go out” noises, so I guess I need to quit this and pay some attention to her.
