Better Weather Today

The storm was very ferocious yesterday. My caladiums were hit hard. Most of them have holes in their leaves. Otherwise my house and landscaping came through all right. A tree in front of my next door neighbor's house was uprooted for the third time since we have lived here. Pulte had really done a good job of wiring it in place the last time it fell down. This time the root ball came out of the ground and the tree is leaning, but at least it did not fall over.

 

I checked the status of my account with the Frisco water department, and they have not credited my last payment which my bank delivered electronically on May 29. I have paid every bill since I moved here with my online banking and every time the credit showed up the next day. Now two days have gone by. Yesterday I thought they may be running a day late because of the holiday, but since it still was not credited this morning I have decided I better call and see if I can get the situation corrected.

 

All my favorite CBS TV shows are now in the re-run season. My reading has accelerated. Yesterday I started Jonathan Kellerman's Gone. I checked my favorite author's websites to see if I have missed any new paperback releases during the past year. I think I have managed to buy all the new releases. Every time I go to Sam's I check for new books. Since Alldirect.com shut their virtual doors, I am dependent on Sam's for cheap, new paperbacks.

More Bad Weather

The field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo was canceled because we are under a severe storm watch.  My NOAA weather radio alarmed at 4:49 AM. I hate to wake up to that alarm. We are going to try to go to the zoo next Wednesday. I had practiced opening and closing the tripod and using the quick release plate assembly to attach the camera. I had the 70-300 mm lens attached to the camera. I had my large travel purse that is has a nice center compartment that is large enough for the SLR camera with the long lens all packed. Now I will have to go through all the preparation again next Wednesday.

 

UPS is supposed to deliver a package today. Now I will be home when the package arrives. I don't like to have a package sitting out on the porch. I have not heard of anything being taken, but still it is not a good idea to leave things on the porch for any length of time.

 

I am starting to read again. I read John Sandford's Broken Prey last week, and I finished Jame's Patterson's 4th of July yesterday. I bought both of those books a year ago.

 

The NOAA radio has alarmed again. This time it is a warning--not a watch. I am going to shut the computer down.

Update

Yesterday I checked the store hours for Macy's at Stonebriar and found they were opening at nine instead of the usual ten. I left home immediately and got to the store a little after nine. I was the only person in the sleep shop looking at mattresses. I had the undivided attention of a very nice salesman. I had seen on the Internet that Macy's was giving an additional ten percent discount if you charged your purchase on a Macy's card. I do not have a Macy's account and did not want to open one. The salesman told me that I could use any card I wanted, and they had coupons they could use to give me the additional discount. I took off my shoes and laid down on the two mattresses I had picked out on the Internet. Of course, I decided that I liked the more expensive one better. The salesman entered the delivery location in the computer and explained their return and exchange policy. I was surprised when he told me the earliest they could deliver would be Sunday. He explained that they are working this coming Sunday to make up for the holiday. When I got home, I looked at the salesman's business card that he had stapled to my receipt. He is the furniture department manager. I thought that explained why he was so thorough and knowledgeable. Now if the delivery and setup of the new mattress and box springs goes as smoothly, I will be very happy.

 

Yesterday I got an email from the man who heads up the camera club. He decided that tomorrow would be a good day to go to the Fort Worth Zoo. I checked the zoo's website and saw that admission is half price on Wednesdays. I wonder if that had any influence on the choice of day. I checked the weather report for Wednesday and the rain is supposed to let up in the morning and return in the afternoon. We are leaving Frisco Lakes at 8:30 so we should be back in Frisco before the weather gets bad again. I am going to take only the 70-300 mm lens for my camera. I have not used that lens in a long time. I am going to have to consult the manual to make sure I change the lens properly. I am also going to take my tripod. I have a quick release plate assembly on the tripod and camera. I am going practice with it today so I will know what I am going tomorrow. I do not think I have used my tripod since I moved to Frisco.

 

My computer had a bad day yesterday. It did not connect to the network when I first booted and had to shutdown and reboot. Then it hung once when I tried to put it in the sleep mode, it hung a second time when I tried to shut it down and it dropped its network connection. Microsoft's diagnostics said there may be a problem with the WiFi adapter driver. I checked automatically for an updated driver and Windows says the driver is up to date. I also checked Sony's website and could find nothing. I just hope that some day Sony and Microsoft will solve my problems.

Rain

It has been raining so much in Frisco that it is like being back in Beaumont. The flash flood watch has been extended through today. The up side from the rain is that it is keeping my utility bills very low. I have not used the lawn sprinklers for several weeks. I just saw my combined gas and electricity bill this morning, and it was $50 less than I paid in Beaumont for May, 2006.

 

I have to go out today to shop for a new mattress. I noticed that most of the stores are having Memorial Day sales. I have done my comparison shopping on the Internet and read the Consumer Reports buying advice. I am going to head straight to Macy's instead of running from store to store. I just want to make sure that they will take the old mattress and box springs away.

 

There is no canasta game today. I was checking my calendar and there are no Frisco Lakes activities that involve me until Thursday. The camera club meeting is Thursday evening. I will get to see the Photoshop Elements presentation. On Friday there is the singles bridge group. Next week things will be more hectic.

 

The caladiums are still popping up. I have decided there must have been two different varieties in the box of bulbs I bought. They were supposed to all be the red flash variety. The first bulbs that sprouted produced big primarily red ruffled leaves. The current crop is producing smaller green leaves with red markings in the middle.

Yesterday we had our first block party. All the neighbors from the nine houses on the cul-de-sac attended. Of course, it rained, but in spite of the rain we had a good time and had lots of good foot to eat. This is a link to my pictures: Cul-de-sac Party

Confirmation, Etc.

This week when I Google the terms: iTunes, Vista, RAID; many articles are listed detailing the problems that SATA drives in high-end computers are having when running video files in iTunes/Quicktime. It is now being reported in mainstream computer media such as PC World. Apple acknowledges the problem in their technical database but is pointing at SATA drives with Nvidia controllers. Nvidia apparently has posted a driver that supposedly fixed the problem. I then read a post about a user who installed the new driver and had drive failure with the new driver. As far as I can tell, my computer has an Intel SATA controller. Intel also acknowledges the problem but does not have a fix. I consider myself very fortunate that I found a discussion of this problem soon after I got my new computer and have not installed iTunes even though I consider it a hardship that I have been deprived of downloading podcasts since my old computer failed.

 

Windows automatic updates installed a fix on my computer on the 23rd that supposedly fixed the iTunes/iPod problem that can corrupt an iPod when disconnecting. My computer has been having problems establishing a WiFi connection and has other assorted problems that causes functions to hang since then. Vista is a work in progress and it is trying my patience.

 

I went on the day trip to Granbury yesterday. As usual when I go on an outing, it rained. That hampered my photography. I did not want to get my camera wet. The bus driver got lost a couple of times. The boat trip around Lake Granbury was very nice. The lunch that was served on the boat tasted very good, but I am afraid that it did not agree with me. The Granbury town square around the old county courthouse was typical of so many Texas towns. The square was lined with the usual array of shops selling antiques, crafts and food items. I just don't derive much pleasure from that type of shopping. Most women who go on the tours seem to like that sort of thing, but it is not my cup of tea. We saw a musical play at the Granbury Opera house. I did not like it. In fact it was absolute torture for me to sit through it. I found myself staring at my watch every time there was enough light for me to see it. The bus driver managed to find his way back to Frisco, and we arrived about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. I got in my car and went home. There is no place like home.

Going Well, Almost

Over the weekend I received an email from Amazon.com that they had shipped the book I ordered on Photoshop Elements Ver 5. Yesterday morning I checked the USPS tracking information, and all it said was they had received electronic notice from the shipper to expect the shipment. I thought it would be at least mid week before the book arrived. This morning I again checked the tracking data, and it said the package was delivered in Frisco, Texas, yesterday. I disarmed the alarm and opened the front door. The package was right by the door. I played canasta yesterday afternoon and drove my car. I came in through the garage and did not go out for the rest of the day through the front door. That is why I missed the package.

 

This morning I checked my credit card and the $65 credit from Amazon.com for the price reduction on my printer had already posted. I still find it hard to believe that they were so willing to make the adjustment.

 

My canasta play did not go too well yesterday. I was not paying attention and picked up the discard pile of cards out of turn. I was terribly embarrassed. The ladies I was playing with were very nice about it, but I know my face was probably a bright shade of crimson. I blush easily.

 

On Saturday afternoon our cul-de-sac is going to have a block party. I think I will take my camera. I have never tried to photograph a party before. I usually confine my picture taking to non-human subjects. If I give myself a passing grade, I will post my pictures.

Great Customer Service!

Yesterday morning I checked Amazon.com's website and saw they had dropped the price on my new Canon printer $65. It is two weeks today that the printer was delivered to me. I never like to see a price drop on something after I have bought it. I didn't do anything right then, but the information was in the back of my mind and irritated me all day. Yesterday evening I remembered seeing something from my credit card about price protection. I found the sheet with the information, and it said to call. I called and was told they stopped offering the protection last November.

 

As a last resort, I decided to email Amazon.com. I wrote two sentences. I told them I had seen the price reduction, and I wanted them to refund $65 to me. The system said I would receive a reply in 24 hours. This morning when I checked my email I had a reply. It said they are sending a $65 credit to my card since my purchase was so recent. I like my Canon printer and Amazon.com even more.

This is a link to my photos from the antique car show: Frisco Lakes Classic Car Show.

Too Bad

My computer went for ten days with no snafus. Yesterday my hopes that its problems had been cured ended. IE 7 hung, Windows Media Player would not load and the computer hung when I tried to put it in the sleep mode. I cannot figure out what triggered the problems. After the troubles, I rebooted. and the computer is fine. It is a puzzle. The computer was better after the May update Tuesday, but these problems started after Microsoft unleashed an unscheduled batch of security updates for Office 2007 on Thursday.

 

I finished decorating my red hat. It now has a band of purple sequins and a big purple flower attached. I am rather proud of my efforts.

 

Yesterday afternoon I went to the beginners' bridge group. They have stopped calling themselves beginners. They are now the singles group. Yesterday I was reading a little about bridge in a book that I have had for years on card games. It said the best way to learn bridge is just keep playing.

 

Most of my packages from my Internet shopping binge have arrived. I finally got the sandals that were back ordered. I was relieved to find they fit. I ordered a book on Photoshop Elements 5. This morning I received an email from Amazon that said they have shipped the book. The Sandisk flash drive still has not been released. I will be glad when it gets here so I can test the scanning function of the new printer.

 

Today there is an antique car show here in Frisco Lakes. I am going to take my camera and see if I can get some good pictures. It rained early this morning, but the rest of the day is supposed to be partly cloudy. It is rather cool. I think the nice cool spring has retarded my caladiums. When I went out this morning, I noticed 3 or 4 more have sprouted, but they are producing very small leaves. They look stunted.

 

On Thursday I am going to Granbury. There is going to be a luncheon-cruise on a riverboat. Granbury has an old opera house, and we are going to see a musical. Granbury is supposed to be rather picturesque. I will be toting my camera.

Computer, Etc.

It is wonderful! My computer has performed without a single glitch since I installed the Microsoft updates on May 8. During the first two months with Vista I was wondering if I had made a dreadful mistake by getting the new operating system. Since I had no problems installing the software for the new Canon laser printer I decided to go ahead and install my Epson PictureMate photo printer, Vista shipped with the driver for the PictureMate. All I had to do was plug the USB cable in and Vista detected the printer and installed the driver. Before I did this I cleaned the print heads. I had to install a new ink cartridge before cleaning the print heads. I know the old cartridge was no where near empty, but I guess it dried up since I had not attempted to print any pictures for several months. I had to go through the head cleaning procedure three times before the printer was able to print an acceptable test pattern.

 

I then printed some pictures from Photoshop Elements 5.0. I am having a dreadful time understanding that program. My old computer had Photoshop Elements 1.0. I seldom used Photoshop Elements 1.0. I did buy a book and had learned the basics. On the old computer I used Nikon View and a program that came with the printer called Film Factory. Apparently neither program is going to be updated for Vista. Photoshop Elements 5.0 looks nothing like the old Ver. 1.0. There is a man in our photo group who works for Canon. He was going to demo Photoshop Elements 5.0 for the group at our next meeting. I was really disappointed because it is the same day as my trip to Granbury. Last night I saw the chairman of the photo group. He told me they have changed the date for the next meeting, and I will be able to see the demo. Yesterday I read reviews of books on Photoshop Elements 5.0. The same author that wrote the book I have on Ver. 1.0 has a new book for Ver. 5.0. I decided against his new book and ordered another one that got excellent reviews. Microsoft has included photo editing software with Vista. That may be the easiest for me to use.

 

I keep following the thread on the Apple forum about computers with SATA drives getting RAID 0 errors when they install iTunes. There is now an acknowledgement of the problem on the Intel website. Intel makes the controller for the SATA drives. Apparently the problem occurs when video files are run in iTunes and Quicktime installed on a pc running Vista. My iPod is not the video model, but just the same I am not going to install iTunes until this problem is resolved.

 

Now I am trying to find the courage to format my external Seagate drive to the NTFS format and start using the backup program that comes with Windows Vista Business Edition. I have been copying my personal data to the external hard drive, but I have not done a full backup of the new computer. Anyway the new computer has become more functional. In a few more months I will have all the capabilities I had before the old computer died.

 

A few more caladiums have sprouted. They are very colorful, but I wish they would hurry up and fill in the gaps in the flower bed.

 

Monday I played canasta. I think I played fairly well without making any blunders. I wish I could say the same about my attempts to play bridge. Monday evening I went to the second Cooking with Karen demo. She prepared marinades for grilling chicken and seafood. She also made coleslaw and potato salad. The best part of the demo is when the samples are served.

 

Last night the Del Webb vice president who is in charge of the Frisco Lakes project gave us an update on the status of the requests to install traffic lights at the entrances. A few weeks ago the candidates for the Frisco City Council came here and answered questions regarding the traffic signals. We were supposed to get the facts last night, but frankly I am still confused.

Ready for New Week

The rain appears to be decreasing and the temperature is warming. I found one more caladium that has sprouted this morning. The count is now 14. The first plants to sprout now have several leaves. They are very colorful. I just wish more had sprouted because there are large gaps in the flower bed. I am hesitant to buy any more plants right now because a few more of the caldaiums might appear.

 

In spite of what I said I decided to give Lowes online ordering one more chance. Every time I tried to place my order to be picked up at the Little Elm store, which is the closest Lowes, I got an error message. Finally I tried the Frisco store and was successful. Friday morning I drove to the Frisco store. I began to wonder if anyone had ever placed an online order before. They had to have a big conference, use two different computers and make a phone call before my order appeared. I then drove to the new Wal-Mart store which is right across the street from the Little Elm Lowes. It might have been less aggravating to pay the shipping charge and let UPS bring the package to my house.

 

What I bought was a tempered glass cutting board. I have placed my new printer on the carpeted floor in the study. The manual warned not to sit the printer on a rug. I looked around the house for something to place under the printer. The only thing I could find was the Corning Ware cutting board that I use in the kitchen. It was just the right size. I need my cutting board in the kitchen. I then searched the Internet and found a cutting board that was the same size as my Corning Ware board. This one was clear, crinkled, tempered glass at Lowes. It is just the right size for the printer.

 

I keep my notebook computer sitting on the sofa. I am sure the heat build up is what killed my old computer. Since the new computer arrived I have been sitting it on an old wood cutting board that I no longer use. The solid surface allows for air circulation and should prevent the heat build up that occurs when the computer sits on a sofa cushion. Yesterday morning I looked at the Amazon.com home page. They were displaying cutting boards because I had previously searched the site. There was one that is made out of polyethylene, but looks like black granite. It was the perfect size for the computer. I saw that the board was from Target which is one of Amazon's merchant partners. I checked the Target website and found the cutting board was available in the Frisco store. I went there yesterday morning; and have scouring the housewares aisles, I found the board. It is smaller than the old wood board, but yet is a little bigger than the computer. It does not poke me in the leg while I am using the computer. A few months ago I had not thought of cutting boards for having uses outside the kitchen.

 

On Friday I went to the bridge game in the village center. I was in a whole new world after having missed the previous week's game. I am afraid I am trying the patience of the other players.

 

 When I got home, the mailman brought the replacement part for the new printer's document feeder. I am very pleased with the new printer's performance and the treatment I received from Canon's tech. support. I dug a little deeper into the reference manual and read about the flash drives that are supported by the printer. It said if the drive conforms to the USB 2.0 standard and if a 8 gb drive is formatted for FAT32, it will work. I am fairly confident that the new Sandisk Cruzer Contour conforms. The Sandisk website still says it will be available in May. Amazon stills says my order will ship between May 8 and May 22.

 

The sandals that have been back ordered for several weeks have shipped. On Thursday I got my latest order from LL Bean and the lanyard for my ID badge from Shopadidas.com. I am really addicted to Internet shopping. It is so much easier to have things delivered to the door rather than driving all over the area and then walking the mall and store aisles.

 

Yesterday Frisco Lakes had a community wide garage sale. I did not participate. My neighbors across the street had quite a few people come and buy things. I walked over there and noticed they had a bouquet of silk flowers. There was a big purple flower that I thought would be just what my red hat needs. My neighbor pulled the purple flower out and gave it to me. She refused to take any money.

 

Life's Irritations

It is one of those mornings. The rain continues. Frisco is getting much more rain than Beaumont. It is time for it to end.

 

My Norton anti-virus software started to hound me to renew. I made a mistake by not paying Sony for a two years subscription for $70. I paid up this morning. It cost $54.11 for one year. At least I did not have to install any more software on the pc. The troll collected the toll and hopefully I will be not be bothered until next year. What is peculiar is all of sudden all the cookies seem to have disappeared from my computer. None of the standard sites such as gmail, Yahoo, Amazon, Pricegrabber nor Travelocity remember me. I have been fumbling for user names and passwords. Did Norton do this to me?

 

I tried to make an online purchase from Lowes to pickup at the closest store. I attempted the checkout process 3 times and got close to the part where I enter the credit card information and kept getting an error message that said the page I was requesting did not exist. This was the first and last time I try to place an online order with Lowes. This happened before I renewed Norton so I can't blame this on them. Earlier I renewed my Sam's Club membership without difficulty. I wonder if anyone else has their hand out that I have overlooked.

 

My computer survived the Microsoft monthly updates. Six updates were installed. I do not have a clue as to what they were supposed to fix. I have not read anything about more security holes in Vista so I hope these updates fixed some of the bugs that have been plaguing me. I have that hope everytime updates are installed. I have had no problems since the latest updates were installed, but that does not prove anything. Sometimes this computer goes for days with perfect behavior and then for no reason it has a problem.

 

The one bright spot is my new printer. I figured out how to print an envelope using Microsoft Word 2007. It is actually easier to feed an envelope into the new printer than it was with the old one. The only problem was I could not find the place to enable the printing of the postal barcode that I used in Word 2002. I searched the Word help. Microsoft says they have omitted that feature because periodically the post office changes their programs and they cannot keep Word updated. I sent a test fax to a friend from the pc over the network to the new printer. It worked without problem I set the printer up so it will not answer the phone. A fax has to be received manually. The problem was the manual does not tell how to manually receive a fax. The printer has an unbelievable number of buttons. I could not find one labeled receive. I finally searched the reference manual that is supplied on disk. This manual said press the start button when the phone rings. The start button is the biggest button on the printer. It is so simple. Why did they have to bury this information? Am I just stupid?

I Can Print

UPS delivered the new Canon all-in-one printer yesterday afternoon. There were many steps to set up the printer such as installing the print cartridge, assembling the document feeder and paper cassette. I had to connect power, telephone and network lines. Fortunately the supplied power cord and phone line were long enough to reach. I had an ethernet cable on hand that was long enough. After the physical setup there were lots of buttons to push to get the FAX portion set correctly. I had an accident. I leaned over the printer to plug in the network cable and broke the document feeder plastic extension.

 

Finally I got to the point where I installed the software on the computer. None of the bad things that I feared happened. It all went very smoothly. The computer found the networked printer. The test page failed to print. The printer had a paper jam message. After considerable fumbling, I got the paper jam condition corrected. From that point on everything printed without difficulty.

 

I noticed the scanner software did not install. I called Canon tech. support. I was very pleasantly surprised when a native-born American with no accent answered my call. I told him how I had broken the document feeder. He said since it was brand new they would sent me a replacement piece for no-charge. That was much more than I had hoped for. I then asked why the scanner software it did not install. As I suspected, he said I would not be able to scan over the network. He said I would have to connect to the printer with a USB cable and then install the scanner software. I told him the computer was in a different room from the printer, and I did not want to carry the computer to the printer each time I wanted to scan. I then asked him about using a thumb drive to scan the images directly from the printer and then copy the images from the thumb drive to the pc. He said that works great. He said he does that himself at home. I told him about the 8GB Sandisk thumb drive with the ultra fast flash memory that I have on order. I asked if the Canon will work with the new memory. He said he could not comment since they have not tested it.

 

A very thick paper manual came with the printer. I had expected it would only be on disk. I am impressed that Canon still is maintaining a high level of support. I have a lot to learn about the printer. I want to find out how to print an envelope. I have missed being able to print envelopes. The new version of Microsoft Word has completely changed the menus. I not only have to figure out how to feed an envelope to the printer, but I also have to learn how to navigate the new Word menus. I do not think all these changes are helpful.

 

 

Wow!

The caladium count is up to ten this morning. It was three weeks yesterday that I planted the bulbs, I thought the bulbs would sprout faster. I guess I was too impatient. They really know how to camouflage themselves in the bark mulch. Yesterday I saw some kind of flying insect on the tip of one that had just appeared. I don't know how I should treat predators.

 

I checked the UPS tracking information. It showed that the new printer was out for delivery at 4:30 this morning. I hope it is delivered this morning so I can go to the canasta game this afternoon. Canon has redone their tech. support website and all the manuals for the new printer have disappeared. I will probably get them on a disk, but I am glad I downloaded them to the computer last week. I have been searching for information on possible pitfalls during installation of a network printer on Windows Vista Business Edition. Everything I found pertained to older printers without the proper Vista drivers. I think I am worrying too much. I backed up all of my personal data to the Seagate external disk drive this morning. One of these days I am going to format the external drive for NTFS and use the Microsoft backup program that came with the Windows Vista Business Edition. There is still no BounceBack version for Vista.

 

The possibility of severe weather in the Dallas area is hanging over our heads for the next three days. I sat here and cried while I watched the tornado damage coverage that occurred in Kansas Friday night. I count my blessings that I survived Rita. We never know what the future holds for us.

Update

Last year Frisco had a terrible drought while my house was being constructed. The slab for my house was poured in April, and I do not think there were more than one or two rain showers until the house closed on August 31. I kept saying the rain would follow me from Southeast Texas, and the drought would end when I moved. Well my prediction has proved to be a hundred percent accurate. What is really disconcerting now is that for the coming week Frisco is predicted to get more rain than Beaumont. There can be too much of a good thing.

 

I had counted eight caladiums from the fifty bulbs. I have revised my count downward to six. There was one new one this morning. I think one on the west side of the walk died. I had counted two from one bulb and there is one more that I now cannot find. I spend so much time staring at the flowebed that I will probably be giving the individual plants names very soon.

 

The mailman finally delivered my Movado watch from Amazon.com. I decided it was worth the wait. The silver hands against the black dial are very easy to see. The numbers and dots on most women's watches are usually hard to see so I do not think the total lack of numbers and the one big dot is going to cause a problem.

 

My new printer is on schedule for delivery tomorrow. I have been going a little overboard on the Internet shopping. Yesterday I ordered another outfit from LL Bean. Frisco Lakes issued badges to the residents. We have to scan them when we enter the community center. They are in a plastic holder with a clip. The problem is I seldom have a place to clip the badge on my clothing. More and more people have been getting straps they wear around their necks. The straps have a ring or "J" hook for the badge. One woman told me the new Wal-Mart has the straps in the jewelry department. I did not like the ones I found there. They only had a few left. I learned the strap is called a lanyard. After I learned the proper name for the neck strap, I was able to start searching the Internet shopping sites. I found one in the University of Kansas merchandise. It had little jayhawks. It cost ~$5, but they wanted $5.95 for shipping. I ruled that one out. On another site I found one that was red, white and blue with stars and stripes. A lady here at Frisco Lakes has one and she told me she got it at the battleship Missouri during  a trip to Honolulu. They also had a shipping charge to double the cost. I then searched Amazon.com. They had one with the Adidas logo. It was sold by one of Amazon's partners and again there was a whopping shipping charge. Yesterday I decided to see if Adidas has their own website. I looked, and they were running a Mother's Day free shipping special. I ordered a lanyard. I sure wasted a lot of time hunting for a lanyard.

 

I have several other items that I have ordered that are backordered. I got a good deal from Shoemall.com on a pair of sandals. They are expected to be in stock on May 9. I have also ordered a Sandisk USB thumb drive from Amazon.com that has ultra fast flash memory and is specifically designed for Windows Vista Readyboost feature. It may be June before it arrives. The new Canon printer can scan documents to a USB thumb drive. Sears sent an email that said they are having a "Friends and Family" sale between 6 and 9 PM tonight. I though I would order the Craftsman pliers to replace the ones that went missing during the move. I will pick them up at the store. Hopefully I will be able to print out the email with the new printer before I go to pick them up. The last time I ordered from Sears I had to go to the library to print out the email before I went to pick up my purchase.

Gardening, Storms and Internet Shopping

Last night more bad weather went through the Dallas area. Again my part of Frisco was spared, but this storm got too close for comfort. My house is very open. The walk-in closet in the master bedroom has an outside wall so I do not feel that it is a good place to go. I heard a discussion on the radio, and it was recommended that the bathroom is a good place because the pipes in the wall add some reinforcement. My bathroom has a big window right over the bathtub. Last night I was desperate. I went in the toilet compartment. I put the lid down and sat there with a flashlight in hand. The lights flickered 3 or 4 times, but the power stayed on. Finally the storm was over. I noticed the refrigerator was making a rather strange sound. I opened the door. There are digital displays of the temperature. The freezer was at 16 degrees when it is normally at 0. The refrigerator compartment was at 40 and is normally at 37. I read the manual and hoped that the refrigerator was just in a defrost cycle. An hour later the freezer compartment was at 9 degrees so I was fairly confident that all was well. I did wake up at 3:30. I walked to the kitchen and checked. The freezer compartment was at 0 degrees.

 

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon.com with a tracking number for my new printer. It is scheduled to arrive on Monday. Canon now has all the manuals for the printer in PDF format online. I downloaded them and read the setup instructions. I am really glad I waited for this printer. It contains all the drivers for Vista and the manuals have step-by-steps instructions for installing the software on a Vista pc and show actual screen shots on how to use the software with Vista's scan and fax program. It also said that all you have to do is plug the printer into a router and it should automatically find its IP address.

 

The USPS tracking information is not on a par with FedEx or UPS. I keep checking for some clue as to when my watch will arrive. Since May 1 it just says they were electronically notified to pick up the package. There have been no updates. I have no idea where the package originated.

 

It is two and a half weeks since I planted my caladium bulbs. I had given up on them. This morning I found three leaves poking up through the soil. They are rather large leaves and have the markings of Red Flash caladiums. Now I am hoping that I will find more tomorrow. I planted fifty bulbs.

At Last 2!

I keep checking my order status on Amazon.com to see if the Canon all-in-one printer I ordered back in March has shipped. The last estimate showed that they expected to ship on May 1. It did not happen. Finally this morning the status changed to say shipping soon. That means they have obtained a credit authorization. I really fear possible difficulties getting the new printer installed on my pc with Vista and also this is a network-ready printer. I hope I can maneuver the mine field.

 

Amazon.com did ship the Movado watch that I ordered last week. They are sending it by the U.S. Postal Service so it is anyone's guess as to when it will arrive. All I know is I am tired of pulling out my cell phone to find out what the time is.

 

On Saturday I received an unexpected check from the Securities and Exchange Commission. A mutual fund that I purchased many years ago and have held misbehaved. It was something that I do not understand about timing trades. I also did not understand all the legalize that accompanied the check. The check was made out to me and the brokerage firm that has my retirement account. I drove down to the local office in Plano on Monday morning. The minute I pulled out the check the man at the desk said, "Oh yes, that is the result of litigation." He told me it was the proper thing to deposit it back in the retirement account.

 

On the way back to Frisco I stopped in the Sam's and Wal-Mart complex. After I got home and lugged all of my Sam's purchased out of the car and fixed my lunch, I was too tired to go to the canasta game. I parked myself in my recliner and fell asleep.

 

Yesterday was the Red Hat Society luncheon. We went to a tea room in the back of a shop in the old town section of Plano. Nine Frisco Lakes ladies attended the luncheon. We enjoyed our and lunch and had a very good time. I found out that Sam Moon's in Frisco carries the Red Hat jewelry that I had seen on the Internet. One lady purchased the same outfit that I did. I now have a twin. No decision was reached on where to hold the next meeting. Everyone seemed to like the idea of going someplace in Frisco so we would not have to drive so far. When I got home, I saw a pair of red flower earrings and a matching pin in my jewelry chest that are so old I cannot recall exactly when I got them. I cannot decide if they date back to high school or college. Anyway I think they are just the thing my Red Hat outfit needs, and no one will have duplicates. That only leaves decoration for the hat to be purchased. I saw a band of purple sequins in Wal-Mart on Monday that are tempting me.

 

It is almost time to go to the last bridge lesson so I better run the spell checker and push send on this article.