My Thoughts

Memories

2008-02-21T11:45:00.001-06:00

It has been a long time since I posted anything to the blog. Today I have a round about story to tell. When I was a little girl, it was a tradition in our family to have a dish of ice cream on Sunday evenings. My earliest memories are during World War II. My parents had a General Electric refrigerator with a tiny freezer compartment. It only held two ice cube trays and what was called a frozen dessert tray. We could not store ice cream. Therefore, every Sunday evening we would drive down to North Kansas City to the Crown Drug Store and would have ice cream packed to go at the soda fountain counter. I reached a point where I wanted to buy the ice cream myself. My father would give me the money. I was so small I could barely climb onto a stool at the soda fountain counter. I had convinced my father I could buy the ice cream myself. He sat out in the car where he could keep an eye on me through the drugstore's windows. Sometimes I would sit and wait and wait while the soda jerk ignored me. They thought I was too small to be a serious customer. Anyway my father and I would wait them out. I always got my ice cream.

After World War II ended, consumer appliances of all sorts became available. It seemed like Christmas all the time as my parents bought things that were not available during the war. One of their purchases was a chest-type deep freezer. This was very exciting because we could now store ice cream. Ice cream was sold in cartons in the shape of a brick in the grocery store. My father would cut off a slice of ice cream with the butcher knife. I didn't think a slice was nearly as good as the ice cream that had been scooped. I finally convinced my parents we needed a scoop. There was a restaurant supply store in Kansas City. We went there and bought a really deluxe chrome-plated ice scream scoop. It had a spring loaded lever on it. That scoop dished lots of ice cream over the years. At some point when I was in my 30's my mother gave me that scoop. I still have it.

Anyway here is the reason that I started thinking about ice cream and the scoop. Since the writers' strike has caused all my favorite TV shows to go into rerun I have been watching the Food Network. I really like Alton Brown's Good Eats show. Last night he had a show on frying chicken. He said the best way to fry chicken was with shortening. He had a number 16 scoop that looked very similar to the old ice cream scoop that he used for the shortening. I wondered if my ice cream scoop had a number. I examined it closely and found stamped on the back of the lever "12 to a quart". My scoop must be a number 12. If there are 12 to a quart that must mean that the scoop holds 2 and 2/3 ounces. That is something I did not know before.

2007-10-26T11:14:00.001-05:00

Ten days ago my new macro lens arrived. I have been too busy to even attach it to my camera and take it for a test drive. This morning I finally decided to find out if I had purchased a lemon. I attached it to the camera and studied the manual. I have a copy stand and light setup. It took a while to get everything ready to take this picture. Next month there is going to be a camera club program on macro photography. I hope I learn a few things. It is going to take a lot of practice with this lens before I am entirely confident of my ability to use it.

2007-10-25T07:10:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went to the Fort Worth Zoo for the second time. The weather was beautiful, and the zoo was less crowded than when I was there in June. This is a link to my photos: Fort Worth Zoo.

2007-10-19T06:24:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went to the Texas State Fair. Now I can say I have eaten a corndog. It is unbelievable I achieved senior citizen status before I tasted a corndog. This is a link to my pictures: Texas State Fair.

2007-09-23T06:55:00.001-05:00

Last night I went to the Plano Balloon Festival. This is a link to my photos: Plano Balloon Festival

At Last

2007-08-22T10:19:00.001-05:00

My life has settled down to something that resembles a normal routine. All the news this week about Hurricane Dean made me go back and read what I had written two years ago about Hurricane Rita. I am so glad I moved away from the Gulf Coast and do not have to think about a possible evacuation. Dallas is not free of severe weather hazards, but I seriously doubt that I will ever hear the words, mandatory evacuation, for the entire area.

The final warranty repairs on my house have been completed. I had a second visit from a locksmith yesterday. This time they sent a man who has been a locksmith for 44 years. He knew what he was doing. The wrong strike plate had been installed on the front door. The first guy just shot WD-40 in the lock and said it was fixed. The experienced man analyzed the problem and found why the lock was hanging.

The outside swimming pool opened two weeks ago. I have gone there a few times. The twice weekly water walking class has a fairly large turnout. Otherwise just a few people seem to be taking their grandchildren to the pool. I have gone there a couple of times by myself and managed to stay for an hour each time. After I have cooled off in the water, I listen to podcasts on my iPod.

My computer's good behavior has ended. It has been having the same old problem which is hanging during shutdown. I have exhausted every possible theory. I don't have a clue what causes the problem.

I got the invitations for the September Red Hat luncheon sent out. It is going to be the day after Labor Day. I thought the date being so close to the holiday might cause a problem, but there are already a large number who have RSVP'ed that they will attend. The red Grasshopper shoes with the appliqued red hats came last week. I will wear them for the first time at the next luncheon.

The camera club meeting is Thursday night. The chairman of the group wants me to get the field trip committee jump started. We have only.)had a couple of field trips so far. I am pretty good at getting things organized. (That means I am a good nagger)

I am still working Sudoku puzzles. I tired to solve the very hard puzzle that is at the bottom of the blog today. I got to a point where I just could not fill in the next number. I went back to the website and asked for a hint. I got one number. That one missing number was the key to the whole puzzle. Once I had it, the rest of the numbers fell into place.

2007-08-15T11:25:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we went to Louis Tussard's House of Wax and Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Grand Prairie, TX. This is a link to my pictures: House of Wax

It Is Hot

2007-08-12T09:44:00.001-05:00

The 100+ degree days have finally arrived in Dallas. I am staying inside as much as possible. Pulte sent the workmen to my house on Wednesday to complete repairs on my final new-house bug list. One of the items I had was that the front bedroom runs two to three degrees warmer or cooler than the rest of the house. The technician found that the air coming out of the register was much warmer than it should be. He checked every possible thing. The problem is that there is a long run of duct work to the front bedroom. The study and hall bathroom receive air from the same duct. There is insufficient flow when the air finally reached the front bedroom. There is no obvious solution. It is something I will just have to live with. The technician suggested a ceiling fan might help. I will think about that.

On Monday I went back for another water walking session. I enjoyed it and was looking forward to the Friday class. Thursday afternoon I read a notice on the website that said that a contract worker had turned the heater up on the indoor pool and the water temperature was 95. Friday's water walking class was canceled. By Friday afternoon the water temperature was down to 89. They consider 86 normal. The outdoor pool was opened for the first time yesterday morning. I did not go to the pool, but I was able to observe the people at the pool from the second floor of the Village Center while I was walking around the indoor track.

On Tuesday we had the Red Hat luncheon at Isabella's restaurant in Frisco. They gave us a private room which was very nice. Next month we are going to La Hacienda Ranch which is also in Frisco. I have been wanting Mexican food for some time. I hope this will be good. I ordered a purple purse with a beaded red hat on it late Tuesday afternoon from costumejewelrywholesale.com. They shipped it out immediately, and I received it on Wednesday. It will add a touch of pizazz to my outfit.

Tuesday night the National Night Out was held in the Village Center ballroom. It was originally supposed to have been at the outside pool which did not open in time. Then they sent out emails saying the event would be in the Village Center parking lot and to bring your own lawn chair. That did not go over well with me since I do not own a lawn chair. Then they phoned and said the event would be inside. In spite of all the confusion about 250 people showed up. A young man from the Frisco Fire Department answered a few questions. The best part of the evening was the line dance performance by ten of our residents. They have been attending a class and were really quite good.

Thursday morning I went to the dentist for my six-month checkup. I was able to say, "Look, Mom, no new cavities." I go back again in February.

I played canasta on Monday and bridge on Friday. My bridge game is not improving. I am somewhat discouraged.

On Tuesday I am going to the House of Wax and Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Grand Prairie. I heard on the new that a man was killed there Friday night in a robbery attempt. He fired at the police and they shot back. I hope there is no more of that excitement when I am there.

The rest of the week will be rather routine. I think tomorrow's water walking will be held in the outside pool. It is not until ten o'clock. With the extremely high temperatures I think I would rather be inside.

Something New

2007-08-05T07:22:00.001-05:00

On Friday I went to the water walking session in the Village Center indoor pool. It was fun, and I felt like I had a good workout. The best part was no joints hurt afterwards. The water walking is now being held on Fridays and Mondays so I am going back tomorrow. It is to be moved to the outside pool as soon as it opens. I have not heard the official date, but the pool is filled and the surrounding area looks complete. All it needs is the furniture.

I had my eleven month walk through of my house with a customer service manager. I had been keeping a list of the things that need to be corrected. He has lined up the service people to come on Wednesday. I will be glad when that is over. I am dreading it like a trip to the dentist. Speaking of the dentist I have an appointment on Thursday. It is just my six-month checkup and cleaning. I am aware of no problems so hopefully I will be able to go another six months.

The computer has been doing fairly well. iTunes sent another update. It installed without problem. I have no idea what improvements it delivered. One of the bloatware programs that Sony installed on the pc was Napster. I uninstalled it and went a whole week before the computer hung on shutdown, but it did it again on Friday. This morning when the computer booted the little computer WiFi icon did not load. I was afraid I was not connected, but my WiFi connection seems to be fine without the icon. I read an article that Microsoft intends to sent a number of hotfixes for Vista on this month's patch Tuesday. Maybe this time they will fix my problem.

Our Red Hat luncheon is on Tuesday. Again I ended up making the arrangements with the restaurant. We are going to Isabella's. I sent out the invitations through evite.com. Some of the ladies do not check their email and do not respond to the invitations. I am just going to add two to the total I give the restaurant and hope for the best.

I had an unbelievable experience with my Senseo coffee machine. It was not making a full mug of coffee. The manual said when that happens to descale the machine. I bought a bottle of descaler. I followed the directions in the manual. When I was in the final rinse procedure, the machine stopped running water through. I could not open the top. The trouble shooting part of the manual said that a vacuum had been pulled and to wait 24 hours for the top to open. Twenty-four hours went buy and the top still would not open. I started looking for a good deal on a new Senseo. I called Senseo customer service. The woman I talked to said to give the machine another 24 hours. She told be to be patient that it would eventually open. I told her I was thinking about buying a new one. She asked if I would like a rebate form. I said yes. She emailed the form to me. It is good until the end of 2007. After 48 hours the machine was still locked tight. At 51 hours I tried again. It made a loud popping sound and opened. I finished rinsing the machine. I made a mug of coffee. It filled the mug and has been working perfectly since. I thought this was a really strange experience. Whoever heard of being locked out of a coffee pot? I am glad I did not rush out and buy another one.

I Am Disgusted!

2007-07-28T08:40:00.001-05:00

For several months I have been attempting to play bridge with the beginners group on Friday afternoons. The Bridge for Dummies book has three recommended web bridge sites. I thought I would check out the sites and see if I could get some practice by playing against the computer. The first site on the list said up front that you had to download and install some software on the computer. I decided against that one because I still do not know what to expect from Windows Vista. The second site was MSN Games. I thought that one would be safe since MSN is a part of Microsoft. They should know how to handle Vista.

I was required to create an account and reveal what I considered to be too much personal information. Then I had to create a screen name. I made about five attempts at a screen name because all of my choices were already taken. Finally I was ready to play. At that point a message popped up that said I needed to install some software. I bit my lower lip and proceeded with the install. I had to jump over Vista's User Access Controls two or three times. Finally it appeared that I was ready to play. I had to go through the login procedure again. When I clicked on play the computer, it came back and told me I had to close and restart the browser.

I did as I was instructed. I found the web site again and logged in again. I chose play the computer again. At that point a message came back and said their software was not compatible with Vista. Bah Humbug! Now I am wondering what problems I have created for my computer.

Another Week

2007-07-22T07:23:00.001-05:00

I will attempt to summarize the past week. Last year even though I was caught up in the stress of having a new house built and moving I managed to post something to the blog almost daily. Now that my life has settled into a new routine I just can't seem to spare the time to write.

Even my walking was disrupted by other demands on my time. I did walk two times. On Friday I went through the orientation on the fitness machines. I do not know if I am going to use them or not. Just a few minutes of using the machines caused my right knee to start hurting. I over did the walking a few years back and started the problem with the right knee. I am going to continue to walk on the track. The fitness director is recommending certain machines and has created a workout schedule for me to use. I will give it a try in a few days; but if it creates more knee pain, I am not going to use the machines.

On Monday I played canasta and in the evening I went to the Cooking with Karen demo. She prepared three different kinds of pasta salads. The samples were very good. On Wednesday a representative from G.E. gave a demo that was billed as convection cooking. Instead she demoed the Advantium speed cooking system which I do not have in my house. She did answer the one question about convection cooking. I did not know how to adjust a standard recipe for convection. She said you just enter the regular temperature and time that is stated in the recipe. The computer in the oven adjusts the time and temperature. I did not know that.

The trip to Fossil Rim Park proved to be more exciting than I had anticipated. I was almost attacked by an ostrich. I sat in the back of the open vehicle that transported us through the park so I would have an unobstructed view to take pictures. At one stop to feed the animals, an ostrich came running up to the back of the vehicle and stuck his long neck into the vehicle. I did not wait. I started climbing over the other passengers feet to get away. The bird got a hold of another passengers bag. Her quick thinking husband hit the bird in the face with his hat and kept the bird from biting me as I attempted to escape. At that point the driver finally stepped on the accelerator and we moved away.

On Friday night I went to the Meet Your Neighbor social and last night they had the monthly Flix and Mingle event. The movie was a comedy and was definitely more enjoyable that lasts month movie.

Yesterday morning I went to Sam's Club and bought the new Harry Potter book. I didn't get a chance to start reading it. It is going to take a while. Back in Beaumont I read the last two books straight through. That won't happen this time.

An amazing thing happened. I had ordered a pair of flip flops from LL Bean back in June. They were back ordered. LL Bean uses a service called SmartPost that is a combination of FedEx and US Postal service delivery. FedEx brings the package to the local post office and then the mailman delivers the package. Anyway my flips flops left Maine on June 19 and were delivered to me in Texas on June 21. That is much faster than the regular FedEx Home delivery that LL Bean normally uses. However, I have seen the SmartPost take two weeks to deliver a package. I was lucky this time.

2007-07-20T09:58:00.001-05:00

I went to Fossil Rim Park at Glen Rose, TX yesterday. I just finished uploading my pictures to Smugmug: Fossil Rim Park

Update

2007-07-13T10:27:00.001-05:00

It time to play catch up with the blog again. On Tuesday I did go on the Shop 'Til You Drop day trip to Willow Bend Mall in Plano. It is a very upscale mall with Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue and lots of smaller high end shops. I did not buy one thing, but I consider the trip very worthwhile. I did lots of window shopping. I had a nice chat with a salesman in the Apple store and got many of the questions that I have about MacBooks answered. He told me that there will be a free upgrade to the current operating system once Apple officially announces the new version. That still leaves me with the same problems I faced at the time Microsoft was about to release Vista. Anyway our group was very small. There were only four of us who met for lunch at the Neiman Marcus Mariposa restaurant. I enjoyed my lunch. When I lived in Houston, I used to frequently have lunch at the Neiman Marcus store in the Galleria. It reminded me of old times.

On Tuesday Microsoft sent eleven updates to my computer. For the first time in four months the updates installed and did not cause any of the failed shutdowns that require me to hold down the power button. It has only been two days since the updates were installed, but the computer has performed flawlessly since then. I have my hope up again that they have finally fixed the problems. I am reading that many businesses are delaying installing Vista until Service Pack 1 is released. I do not think that is necessary. With all the updates Microsoft is releasing I feel that the equivalent of a full service pack is being sent out in pieces. My computer has definitely become more stable.

On Tuesday when I got home after the shopping trip I checked my email. A comment from this blog had been forwarded to my email. As I read through it. I realized that the man who had written it is the son of my only first cousin on my mother's side of the family. I had not seen him since he was a small boy. He has a sister who is one year younger. She had found the online CNN interview I did on retirement last year. Her brother is a computer geek and took it from there. He found my blog. We have been emailing and sending pictures back and forth for two days. Yesterday afternoon he called me, and we talked for over an hour. We were raised in very different environments, but we have so much in common. Genetics must play a major part in our makeup.

Last night I went to the first meeting of a new travel group that is being formed at Frisco Lakes. They are going call it Frisco Lakes Independent Travelers. FLIT for short. A man who is a weekend anchor for the local Fox TV station and also hosts a show on Texas travel talked and answered questions. There seems to be a lot of interest in short trips around Texas. I am ready for that kind of travel. I have covered a good part of the globe. With all the security measures that are now in place it is pure misery to fly. I am content to stay closer to home.

I have continued with my walking. One of my neighbors was at the fitness center this morning. She is encouraging me to make an appointment with our fitness director for an orientation session on the exercise machines. The walking track is on the second floor. As I walk, I have been watching the people working out on the machines below. I have been reluctant to use the machines, but maybe I should check them out.

This afternoon, it is time to play bridge again. I have really fallen behind in reading the Bridge for Dummies book.

Time Is Slipping By

2007-07-10T08:28:00.001-05:00

I was shocked when I checked the blog and saw how days had gone by since I last posted. I had to stop and think about how I have been spending my time. I concluded that a lot of my time has been spent listening to podcasts. I have heard way too much about the introduction of Apple's iPhone. Then the news shows were full of the failed UK bombings, the war in Iraq and the presidential campaign. I need a little balance in my life.

The mosquitoes in the Dallas area are horrendous after all of the rain. On Saturday afternoon they were swarming around my front door. The battery in the outdoor sensor for my weather station died. I had to go through the front door several times while I was coaxing the sensor to start functioning again; and as a result, I treated the mosquitoes to a feast. The mosquitoes also entered the house. The next morning I found they had congregated around a night light in the hall bathroom. The lavatory and bathtub were covered with dead mosquitoes. I never saw anything like that in SE Texas. They knew how to control them down there.

I have been doing my online shopping again. I am still waiting for the flip flops which were back ordered. The delay is O.K. because the outdoor pool opening has been set back again because the rain is still delaying completion. I also ordered a new purse that is just like one that I have been used for almost two years. I like the first one so much that I decided I would have a replacement on hand when the first one gives out. I also ordered a new pair of loafers and a pair of winter pj's. It was cold last winter. This time I will be ready.

I have been keeping up with the walking. Last week I was at the track four times. I walked yesterday morning. I heard that people often gain weight when they start exercising. I have gained two pounds. I don't know if it is the walking or if it was the big slice of carrot cake I had last week. That is a fib. I know exactly where the blame belongs for those two pounds.

I am now reading Barbara Taylor Bradford's book, Just Rewards. It is the last book of the series on Emma Harte and family. I can remember I bought the first book in London at Foyle's bookstore in 1985. The series has lasted longer than the Harry Potter series. By the way I intend to be standing in front of Sam's Club when the doors open on July 21 to rush in and by the new Harry Potter book. That is what I did for the last two books, but I was in Beaumont then. I am assuming that strategy will work equally well at the Plano store.

I will be leaving shortly to go on the Shop 'Til You Drop day trip to the Willow Bend shopping mall in Plano. I printed the store directory and highlighted the stores I want to visit. Willow Bend has an Apple store. I want to see the lowest priced MacBooks. I would like to have a second computer as insurance against going through the misery of being without a computer that I experienced earlier this year. I know very little about Apples. I do know that Apple has announced an operating system update that is supposed to ship later in the year. It puts me in the same dilemma about buying one that I had with XP versus Vista. Should I buy now and have an outdated system or buy later and suffer through all the possible bugs of a new operating system. Surely Apple won't deliver something that is bad as Vista.

Happy Birthday, USA

2007-07-04T08:20:00.001-05:00

I have no special Fourth of July plans. Frisco has a fireworks display. I would love to try and photograph it, but I have heard the traffic on 423 will be a nightmare. I am going to be content to stay home and watch the celebrations on TV. The Capitol Fourth is on PBS. I looked at the TV listings but did not see the Boston Pops listed. That is one I always watch.

Yesterday we had the Red Hat luncheon at Bonnie Ruth's. Fifteen ladies, all decked out in red hats and purple outfits, were there. I was one of the last to arrive. I didn't say one word when I walked in. The host looked at me and said, "Your friends are over there." I did take my camera with me. I uploaded the pictures to Smugmug as soon as I got home. I had a wonderful piece of carrot cake with cream cheese icing. The slice was so big I could not finish it. I had already requested a doggie bag for the half of the sandwich that I did not eat. I slipped the remainder of my cake in the box and had the sandwich and cake for dinner.

The village center does not open until ten this morning. I absolutely have to go down there for a walk. The carrot cake has made me feel guilty.

More rain is predicted for today. On Monday when I took my round about route to avoid the left turn onto 423 I saw a blockaded road just north of Frisco Lakes that is under water. I heard on the news this morning that Houston and Beaumont are getting lots of rain today. It is time for the rain to move into parts of the country that need it. I also heard on news last night that the North Texas water restrictions have been removed. The lakes are full.

It Was Worth It

2007-07-02T09:49:00.001-05:00

Now that I have my iPod syncing with the computer and updating podcasts I feel like I have re-established connections with old friends. I listened to TWIT (This Week in Tech) while I walked the laps around the track this morning. I have subscribed to three of the political talk shows: Face the Nation, Meet the Press and This Week. I am again able to keep up with the nonsense in Washington.

After I completed my walk, I went to the Frisco Senior Center and paid my money for a day trip in August. I am going to Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax and Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. It is in Grand Prairie. I don't know if I will care for this trip or not. I have been to Madame Tussaud's in London. That was interesting. I have two day trips in July. The trip to Fossil Rim Park has been rescheduled for July 19. The Shop 'Til You Drop is on July 10.

Yesterday I was standing in line at the Frisco Lakes Village Center to sign up for the August events at 11 o'clock when the center opened. As more people move in here, the lines on the first of the month will get longer. I will be glad when they get it so we can sign up online, but of course, that won't help those who say, "I don't do email." Well, I say let them be the ones who have to stand in line.

Podcasts At Last

2007-07-01T06:33:00.001-05:00

It took most of Saturday to finish backing up my computer and installing iTunes. Yesterday morning I tried to back up my essential data files to DVD's. I managed to make three DVD's unreadable. When I finally felt enough of my essential documents and photos were safe, I proceeded to format the external disk drive. Seagate shipped the drive formatted with FAT32. That worked fine with the backup program I used with Windows XP. Windows Vista requires that a backup hard drive be formatted with NTFS. I read the Seagate manual. It said there was a utility on the disk they supplied to format to NTFS. I was afraid to load their utility because it pre-dated Vista. I found the place to format a disk in the Vista utilities and started the format of the external drive. It took over two hours for the format operation to complete. We had a little lightening and thunder while the formatting was in progress. I kept my fingers crossed that the power would stay on. It was not the time for a power failure.

On Thursday I had done the complete image backup of the computer to DVD's using the Vista backup option. I had attempted the files and folders backup to DVD's, but it failed. After the Seagate drive was formatted, I again tried the backup program for files and folders, but this time I used the Seagate drive as the destination. This time it worked. I examined the backup files and saw they were compressed zip files. There was no way for me to copy a file back to the computer's hard drive without using the windows software. I then did a direct copy of my user folder to the Seagate so all of my data is in uncompressed form. I can easily retrieve a file if I should accidentally delete one. The Seagate drive is 200 GB so it has sufficient room.

Next I downloaded iTunes from the Apple website. On Friday, Apple, released another new version (7.3) of iTunes with features to support the new iPhone. I made sure that Windows Vista was listed as a supported operating system. I then installed the program. I shut iTunes down and checked the Intel Matrix Storage Console to check the status of my disk drives. The report still said all was normal.

iTunes found all of my old podcasts and audio books that I had ripped from CD's. I resubscribed to all of my podcasts. iTunes downloaded updated versions of the programs. I then attached my iPod to the computer. iTunes asked if I wanted to erase the data on the iPod. I said OK. Then iTunes started transferring everything to the iPod. Then the trouble started. Windows opened a window that said my device had a possible corruption and gave the option of fixing or ignoring. I did nothing because iTunes was still transferring data to the iPod. When iTunes finished, I chose the option for Windows to fix the corruption. Windows then came back and said it was unable to access the device. I disconnected the iPod and checked it. Everything--songs, books and podcasts were all located under songs and not sorted into their proper categories. I again attached the iPod and got the same error message from Windows. I then went into iTunes. There was an option to reset the iPod to factory standards. That operation erased everything on the iPod. I then had to go attach the iPod to an electrical outlet until it reset. I then again attached the iPod to the computer. All of the data was again transferred to the iPod. At least this time the podcasts were in the proper location. It is still not the way it was before, but at least I have updated podcasts and the computer seems to be operating normally.

That is how I spent Saturday. Are computers worth all the trouble?

Update

2007-06-30T06:35:00.001-05:00

At last we got some dry weather on Friday, but the rain returned during the night. The only creatures enjoying the rain are the mosquitoes. Down in Southeast Texas Jefferson County has the Mosquito Control District. It is a year round battle to control mosquitoes down here. I checked the Denton County web site to see if they mentioned mosquito control. I did not find one word. I don't think anything is being done to control the mosquitoes around here. The rain is causing problems with the man-made lake we in our subdivision. Last year it was so dry I didn't think I would ever see much water in the lake. I would like to find the government agency who should be doing something about the mosquitoes.

On Thursday I did manage to go to Sam's Club and get resupplied. I did not have to go without my breakfast orange juice. Thursday afternoon I went to the quarterly board meeting of the Frisco Lakes directors. Not much happened. I did get to hear the new board president. I did not go to the meeting that was held Tuesday night to introduce him because of the rain. He is new on the job and has a lot to learn.

Thursday evening I went to the camera club meeting. There was a fairly large turnout. I think in time the camera club will be an interesting group. Our chairman was not able to make his planned presentation because there was no Internet connection in the room where the computer projector was set up. Three of us who went on the trip to the Fort Worth Zoo showed our pictures.

I am continuing to read a chapter a day of the Bridge for Dummies book. I am going very slowly and making sure I understand what I am reading. I do think it is helping my play. I hope my fellow bridge players agree. I think after I finish the book I will read it a second time.

I am continuing to walk on the indoor track. I increased the number of laps I walked yesterday. My knee is not bothering me. If the knee starts to hurt, I am not going to keep walking. I learned my lesson on that matter.

I bought a spindle of DVD's at Sam's on Thursday. I did a complete image backup of the computer. I want to back up my personal files to DVD's before I format the external drive to NTFS. The Windows Vista backup program requires that the drive have the NTFS format. Then I will do both the file backup and image backup to the external drive. When I accomplish that, I will feel safe in installing iTunes.

Not Desperate Yet, But. . . .

2007-06-28T08:15:00.001-05:00

I am out of orange juice, and I finished my last carton of yogurt yesterday. The rain continues. I thought I would go to Sam's Club today no matter what, but now I am having second thoughts. Frisco Lakes and my house are just fine. We are on rather high land so there is no danger of being flooded. My worry is getting caught in a downpour and having to drive on flooded streets. In Beaumont I knew where to expect flooding, but I do not know what streets are prone to flooding around here. In Beaumont there was a grocery store exactly one mile from my house. There is an Albertson's that is fairly close to me now, but since I am unwilling to make a left turn onto FM 423 I have to drive much farther to reach Albertson's when using my avoid left turn route.

Yesterday a nice lady from the Beaumont area posted comments on this blog. She offered to send me something from Beaumont if there was anything I wanted. That started me thinking. I decided there is something from Beaumont that I miss, but it can't be sent to me. I would like a good fresh seafood platter at one of the very good restaurants in SE Texas. This area has many fine restaurants, but they just don't have that combination of fresh seafood and Cajun seasoning that abounds in SETX.

Guess what! I have finally found something about Vista that I like. Yesterday I read an article about Vista recovery strategies. The article mentioned a tool called Reliability Monitor in Vista. The Reliability Monitor keeps track of Windows crashes, application failures and hardware problems. The author of the article said his computer had a 7.95 out of ten reliability index. I loaded the utility and found my computer has a 7.65 reliability index. What I really liked was a graph that plotted problems by date. There was a red X on every day that my computer had a problem. Clicking on a red X opened a window with a description of the problem. Every one of the abnormal shutdowns that has plagued my computer has been plotted. All of this information is being send to Microsoft. There is also a problem report section in Vista, and it alerts you to updates and patches from third party vendors. On the surface Vista is very similar to XP, but these new tools are a definite improvement. More updates were installed on my computer yesterday. The first time it was restarted after the installation it did not establish a WiFi connection, but It was able to do a complete shutdown. When I started it the second time the WiFi connection was established, and there have been no more problems.

I went for my walk yesterday morning and used the new tally counter. It is a little larger that I like, but I found a way to hold it in my left hand so I can punch the lever with my thumb each time I complete a lap. I will go back tomorrow morning. I am going to stick to one mile, three times a week for two more weeks. Then I will either start walking a longer distance or start walking five days a week. Several years ago my right knee started hurting after I over did the walking. It put an end to the walking for several years. Now I am being very careful.

My Life Since Friday

2007-06-25T07:55:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning I again went to the village center and walked a mile on the indoor track. I really do need the tally counter to keep track of the laps. I thought I had counted correctly and completed a mile. When I checked my pedometer, it said my distance was only 0.84 miles. I walked some more until it said 1.08 miles. The tally counter was received in the Dallas Post Office on Saturday so I should receive it today.

Saturday evening I went to the Flix and Mingle gathering at the village center. The movie was The Prestige. I checked the Internet Movie Database. The Prestige received an 8.4 out 10.0 user rating. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I was in absolute misery as I watched the movie. I would rate it as one of the worst ever. I don't think the user rating at Frisco Lakes would have been more than 1.5 out of 10.

I really, really miss listening to podcasts on my iPod. Yesterday afternoon I began to wonder if Microsoft's music player called the Zune worked with Windows Vista. It costs $200, and I don't like the idea of spending that much when I have a perfectly good iPod. After I read some reviews of the Zune I realized I would not be happy with one after using the iPod. I then looked at Apple's web site and saw that Vista was now listed as a supported Windows operating system for iTunes 7.2. I read the tech. notes. The only problem Apple now mentions is with computers with SATA drives and Nvidia controllers. My computer has SATA drives and the Intel controller. I then did more Google searches and read reports of iTunes 7.2 working, but the users were also upgrading to a new version of the Intel Matrix Storage Console.

I then reread the article in the Sony Knowledge Base. It said to check with the music player application publisher for a Vista compatible version before installing. iTunes is now Vista compatible. I then called Sony technical support. The tech who answered my call spoke perfect English. At first I thought I was talking to someone in the U.S.; but as the call progressed, I could tell he was not fully understanding my question. He asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the new version of the Intel Matrix Storage Console. I told him I was reluctant to do so. He said he agreed--he used the phrase, if its not broke--don't fix it. I asked him to search the database on the latest information on iTunes. He did said so, and he said there are reports of it now working. He gave me a case number and asked if there was anything else. I thought I would go ahead and get it documented in my record about the problems the PC occasionally has with not doing a complete shutdown or hanging when it is put in the sleep mode. He said there is probably some program still running that conflicts. His solution was to run Windows recovery which would lose all of my data and put the computer back in its original state. I said no thanks to that. This computer shipped with the problem originally.

To my dismay, this morning Internet Explorer stopped responding. That happened all the time when I first got the computer, but Microsoft's patches had, I thought, fixed that problem. I finally hit control-alt-delete which brings up a multi-choice screen in Vista. I just chose cancel and was returned to the desktop. IE 7 then shutdown. I thought it would be a good idea to restart the computer. It had a normal shutdown. When I started backup it hung during the loading of Vista. This was a first. I waited and waited. I finally, with much reluctance pressed the power button. The computer shutdown. I then started it again. It came up with a strange new screen that said "Windows Resuming". The bootup completed very slowly, but finally things appeared to be normal. I then did a restart without powering down. The computer rebooted and so far so good.

It is frustrating to have spent so much money for a new computer, and then have to contend with these issues. The only thing I can do is hope that the bugs will eventually be removed. In the meantime I keep backing up my data.

Computer and Shopping

2007-06-22T09:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my computer hung when I tried to put it in the sleep mode. When that happens, I have to hold the power button down until the computer powers off. I hate to do this because I fear that something will get corrupted. At last I finally have a clue as to the source of the problem. I noticed that when I clicked the Start button to put the computer in the sleep mode that the line that says "All Programs" had a a orange-brown glow to it. Some times the buttons in the task bar take on that shade. Anyway when I tried to put the computer to sleep, it hung. I have not had the problem since then and every time I click on the Start button the background of "All Programs" is white. After I saw this I started searching Google. I found user forums where others were having similar problem with Vista shutting down or entering the sleep mode. They were pointing at Nvidia graphics adapter drivers. Bingo! My computer has an Nvidia adapter. This is really good news because now I have hope that eventually there will be a new driver that fixes the problem.

The mailman delivered my Bridge for Dummies book from Buy.com yesterday. I started reading immediately. The book is easy reading and makes sense. It seems to be just right for me. It is not too elementary nor too complicated. In the back of the book there are references to Internet web sites where you can play for free. When I finish reading the book, I am going to check those out. I think this book is going to help me more than the lessons.

It seems like I have been doing a great deal of online shopping. This morning I ordered a tally counter from Amazon.com. I also ordered Senseo coffee so that my order was over $25 and qualified for free shipping. Since I am walking the laps at the village center the tally counter will help me keep track of how far I walk. I have the pedometer, but now I will have a check on it.

The rain is continuing. I don't know if it has rained this morning, but the sky looks like ti could happen at any time. Where is that low humidity that Dallas is supposed to have?

Thursday

2007-06-21T08:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, UPS delivered my new Red Hat T-shirt. It is better than I expected. I don't think I will have to worry about someone else wearing the same thing. I doubt that too many would find a T-shirt at a place called Costumejewelrywholesale.com.

I just came back from my walk on the village center's indoor track. I wore my pedometer and also counted my laps. When my count reached the equivalent of one mile,I checked the pedometer. It said 1.05 miles. I am walking on the outside track. The number of laps that are supposed to equal a mile are probably measured from the middle track. I now have confidence in the accuracy of my pedometer.

Intel has posted what is supposed to be a final version of the Matrix RAID controller. It cautions that it should only be installed by very experienced users. That scared me. I am not going to risk messing up my disk drives in order to install iTunes. I am just going to wait for Microsoft or Apple to deliver the fix in a foolproof form.

We have been having light rain this morning. I was going to go to Sam's Club and stock up, but the weather is discouraging me. I looked at my list and decided I did not really need to go to Sam's. A trip to the new Wal-Mart store should take care of what I need for several more days.

I was hoping that the Bridge for Dummies book would arrive before the Friday bridge game. Buy.com sent me an email on the 18th saying they had shipped the book by the US Postal Service. The tracking information has not updated since the 18th. The post office's tracking data is very poor compared to FedEx and UPS.

Update

2007-06-20T10:23:00.001-05:00

Monday I got a phone call to let me know that Tuesday's trip to Fossil Rim Park was going to be postponed until July. They were afraid it would be very muddy and unpleasant after all the rain. Of course, the sun was out on Tuesday, but the rain returned this morning. The trip delay is all right with me, but I am concerned that by July the temperature will be near 100. That will also be very miserable.

At last I did a little exercising at the Village Center. I walked on the track. It is some type of rubberized material which is a little kinder to the joints than walking on concrete. I prefer to walk outdoors, but there are so many mosquitoes after all the rain that I am rather fearful to be outside. After I got home from my walk, I found my pedometer, but the display was flashing which indicated it needed a new battery. I searched high and low for the operating instructions and finally found them when I was about ready to give up. I found the battery that the pedometer uses at Target. Later in the afternoon, I went through the calibration procedure so the pedometer is set for the length of my walking stride. I will got back to walk again tomorrow with the pedometer.

While I was out yesterday, I went to the two stores that carry Red Hat merchandise. I don't want to wear the same thing to every meeting. I didn't see anything that appealed to me. I came hope and searched the Internet. I found a T-shirt from a place called Costumejewelrywholesale.com. They had a Red Hat T-shirt that I liked. They have a fairly decent rating on Yahoo Shopping so I decided to risk placing an order with them. It turned out they are located in Houston. A couple of hours after I placed the order, they emailed the UPS tracking number to me. The package will be delivered today. That is very good service. I just hope I like the shirt.

I noticed this morning that Sony has modified their support website for my computer. They are now recognizing that they do indeed sell the notebook with Windows Vista Business. The update for Sonic Stage is now shown as being compatible with Vista Business. Their knowledge base also has an update on the iTunes/Vista problem with SATA hard drives with RAID implemented. Sony does not mention iTunes. They call it it a "third-party music player application." They say to wait for an updated compatible version of the music player application. Dell, on the other hand, has posted an update for the Intel Matrix controller for RAID. Since the Apple iPod wrecked Sony's Walkman business I am not surprised that Sony is dragging its feet on enabling its Sony Vaio computers with Vista to be able to use iTunes. I really miss listening to podcasts on my iPod.

Rain

2007-06-18T06:13:00.001-05:00

The rain is getting to me. It is so similar to what I experienced in Beaumont. The ground is saturated. Yesterday morning there were little lakes all around me. Tomorrow I am going to Fossil Rim Park at Glen Rose. All of my day trips this spring have been marred by rain. The rain coverage falls to 30 percent tomorrow so maybe I will get through the day without too much rain. I am going to take my camera and use the 70-300 mm lens again. I hope this time my pictures will be better than the zoo pictures. I will post a link after I return.

More Than a Week

2007-06-16T15:26:00.001-05:00

Someone recently told me that time goes by much faster when you get old. It must be true because I was rather shocked to see a whole week has gone by since I last wrote anything for the blog. The week was filled with the usual canasta game on Monday and the bridge game on Friday. On Wednesday night the mayor of Frisco came to Frisco Lakes and made a presentation on the state of the city. In the late 80's the population of Frisco was under four thousand and now it is between 95 and 100 thousand. It is rather amazing how so much growth has taken place in such a short time. There is a lot that is very good about Frisco. The worst problem the city faces is building roads fast enough to keep pace with the population growth. Of course, the residents were very interested in what the mayor had to say about the expansion of FM 423. He indicated it would be 2011 before 423 is complete. That was something we did not want to hear.

On Thursday a friend and I were going to have lunch at Josephine's and use the gift certificate I had won as a door prize. I tried to make a reservation on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning. Both times I got a message that said to leave my name and phone number, which I did the first time, and they would call back. I got no call. When we got to Josephine's, there was a sign on the door that said they were closed for several days for remodeling. That was very strange considering that they are in a brand new location. I am wondering if I will ever get to use the gift certificate. Anyway we decided to go to the mall to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory which is a favorite of mine. I had their lunch-size salad that was so large that I had them pack what I could not eat, and it was enough for dinner, too. We bought one slice of chocolate, Oreo cookie, mudslide pie cheesecake and took it home and split it. It is nice to have a thin friend who does not mind indulging in something so decadent.

Last night I went to the Meet Your Neighbor social. I really enjoyed this one. I am getting acquainted with a number of people through the Frisco Lakes activities. Although I did leave a half an hour before the function officially ended. The acoustics in the ballroom are very bad, and after an hour and a half of being subjected to the noise level, I began to feel light headed. This has happened two or three times at these functions.

This morning I went back to hear a nutritionist talk about nutrition for older adults. I can't say I heard anything that I hadn't heard before. I tend to eat canned vegetables more than fresh or frozen vegetables. I know the canned vegetables contain too much salt. I am going to try to switch and buy more frozen vegetables.

I am getting ready for the outdoor swimming pool to open. I got a new swimming suit, which I have not worn, last summer. This week a beach jacket and a swimming cap arrived. I got one of those old fashioned caps that is covered with rubber flowers. I also ordered a pair of flip flops which are back ordered, but they should be here in time for the pool opening.

This morning I ordered the Bridge for Dummies book from Buy.com. They had an offer that gave $10 off if you signed up for Google Checkout. Google stores your credit card and address information. When you make a purchase from a merchant who participates in the Google Checkout program you just give your Google login and the merchant never sees your credit card information. I listened to Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson on Security Now. They seem to favor the Google checkout as a good security measure. Anyway I got $10 off my book order.

New Thumb Drive

2007-06-08T06:59:00.001-05:00

The Sandisk 8 gb Cruzer Contour arrived yesterday. I connected it to the Canon AIO printer and read the printer manual on how to scan a document to an USB device. It was very simple--not very many buttons to press. The display on the printer told me it was safe to disconnect when the document was saved. I then connected the Cruzer to the computer and copied my document to the computer. Adobe Reader got an update yesterday to version 8.1 which is supposed to be fully Vista capable. I opened the PDF document that the printer produced in Adobe Reader. This is a much easier way to scan than connecting the scanner to the computer like I used to do. The computer has gone a whole week without any hangs or other problems. Palm will soon release a Vista compliant version of their Desktop software. If Apple/Microsoft/Intel would fix the iTunes problem with the SATA disk drives, I will be back to normal.

Amazon.com sent an email that said they were refunding $10.15 to me because of the Sandisk Cruzer Contour price drop. The credit has already posted to my credit card. I am very happy with the service I have received from Amazon.

Do Nothing Day

2007-06-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

The temperature finally reached the nineties yesterday; and of course, it was the day that we finally got to make our trip to the zoo. The zoo was packed with little children. In spite of the temperature and the children, I was glad that I went. I really do not like the Nikon 70-300 mm lens I bought for my camera. I have not used it very much. I shot all of my pictures with it yesterday. The lens needs to be absolutely steady which requires a tripod. I cannot hold it steady when the lens is fully extended. I only set my tripod up once. It was too much of a hassle with all the little children running around.

My camera is three years old already. I bought the Nikon SB-800 flash unit and 70-300 mm lens soon after I got the camera. I used the camera quite often during the remainder of 2004 and in 2005 until the hurricane arrived. After that, I was intent on moving away from Beaumont and I did not use the camera very often . At some point I created a wishlist on the B&H Photo site. It must have been in late 2004. One of the items I put on the list was a Nikon macro lens. Nikon calls them "micro" lenses. This morning I checked to see if my wishlist was still on B&H's site. I remembered my password and my list is still there. Maybe for Christmas I will get the macro lens. There were several items on the list that I still need. The 18-70 mm lens has a filter diameter of 67 mm. The 70-300 mm lens requires 62 mm filters. I have a 67 mm polarizer. I need a step-up ring so I can use the polarizer on the 70-300 mm lens. The step-up ring is also on the wishlist along with several other items that I still want. The wishlist saves me the trouble of searching again for the items I want.

I should receive the 8 gb USB flash memory drive from Amazon.com today or tomorrow. They have dropped the price $10.15 from what I paid. I sent them an email and asked them to give me a refund. I hope they are as nice about this one as they were with the printer.

2007-06-07T06:21:00.001-05:00

The Frisco Lakes camera club went on a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo yesterday. This is a link to my pictures: Fort Worth Zoo.

Update

2007-06-05T09:13:00.001-05:00

I have now slept on my new mattress and box springs for two nights. The first night I thought it felt pretty good. Last night I tossed and turned a lot. It is classified as extra firm, and it was not an exaggeration. My old mattress was firm, but it was long over due for replacement and had lost much of its support. I think I will be able to adapt to the new mattress. Sunday afternoon a woman called from Macy's delivery service to check that I had received the mattress and find out if everything went well. When I started to tell her about the ridiculous amount of time that was wasted because the driver did not have directions and then how the crew rushed with the setup in order to make up for lost time, she hung up on me. Macy's must record those conversations because later that night a supervisor from Macy's delivery service called from Houston and apologized profusely for the experience. He told me they were going to check into it. I really blame Macy's management for expecting their crews to find addresses solely by GPS. If the software is not up to date, GPS is useless in new neighborhoods.

Yesterday when I pulled into the driveway I noticed a shingle was out of place on the roof over the garage. We had a bad storm last Wednesday. Sunday morning there was another storm that had wind and rain but was not as severe as Wednesday. I called my new customer relations manager, Gary. He said he would have a roofer come out and repair it. Yesterday afternoon while I was at canasta a second shingle came off the roof. I found both shingles on the ground at the side of the house. I began to worry that water would leak into the house. I am not strong enough to pull the ladder to the attic down. My friend's husband came over. He went into the attic, and I stuck my head up through the opening. Fortunately neither of us spotted any water stains. Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy. I hope the shingles are replaced today.

I managed to find enough ladies who are willing to attend the Red Hat luncheon so we will be going to the Abbey Grill today. I am going to insist we make a decision on the place for our next meeting so we can get the word out to everyone a little more efficiently next month.

The canasta group is growing so large that we now have to make reservations in advance. If the number who signs does not fill tables of four the last 1-3 odd people will not be able to play and will be moved to the head of the list for the next week. There is some kind of penalty for being a no show. I tuned the rest of it out. It got too complicated for me. Bureaucracy will follow me to the grave.

I checked my order status with Amazon.com, and they are getting read to ship the 8 gb Sandisk thumb drive to me. This is much sooner than they had estimated. I will now be able to scan documents by feeding them to the printer and letting the printer save them to the thumb drive. I will then copy them from the thumb drive onto the computer.

I watched a really strange new show on CBS last night. It uses claymation animals. It is called Creature Comforts. I thought it would be some kind of comedy, but it was really different. It was a series of clips on the animals being interviewed. Some of it was very raunchy. I am surprised that CBS would have a show like that at 7 PM.

The roofer just arrived. He is replacing the shingles.

Unbelievable

2007-06-03T15:00:00.001-05:00

The mattress set that I bought at Macy's on Memorial Day was scheduled to be delivered today. I was told I would be called on Saturday and notified of the delivery window. I had not received a call by 4 PM. I looked at my receipt and saw there was a web address where I could check my delivery status. The website showed that my delivery was scheduled for 9:45 to 11:45. Around 5:30 I finally received a call with the same information. The trouble started about 9:45 this morning.

I received a call from one of the delivery men. He said their GPS could not find my street. I told him to go to FM 423 and turn on Stonebrook, etc. About a half hour later I got a call, and he said he had just got off the Tollway and was going west on Stonebrook. I had a hard time making him understand that Stonebrook was not cut through. He would have to go west on either Lebanon or Frisco's Main St. in order to get to FM 423 in order to enter Frisco Lakes. He called two more times before he finally arrived. He wasted an hour getting here. I have had multiple deliveries from Sears and also Dillard's and never had a experience like this.

When they finally got here, they were in a big hurry. The driver tried to get me to sign the paperwork before I had a chance to inspect the mattress. Then they rushed around. He balanced the springs up against my dresser. I am very protective of my furniture and do not want it scratched. They rushed through the set up of the new new mattress and set the old mattress on the wet concrete. If anything had been wrong with the new mattress, I would have been in a bad situation because they had not treated my old mattress with any kind of care. I looked in the truck, and it was fully loaded with mattress sets. There are going to be a lot of unhappy customers today because that pair will be late with the rest of the deliveries.

After they left I made up the bed. I only have one set of sheets that has a deep enough pocket in the fitted sheet to go on this mattress. I will now be shopping for sheets. All the old reliable U.S. companies that produced sheets and towels have gone bankrupt. I checked Consumer Reports, and they said they found that all the high thread count information on the imported sheets is just plain wrong. They gave their top rating to sheets with the Sealy brand. I found that both Amazon.com and J.C. Penney's carry them. Next time I go to the mall I will go in Penney's and look at them. The world has changed, and I do not think it has improved.

Our Red Hat luncheon is supposed to be this Tuesday. The queen bee has been dealing with family health problems and has been unable to notify the group where we are going on Tuesday. She sent me an email and asked me to get in touch with the group. I sent out an email this morning and have called some of the ladies this afternoon. I arbitrarily said we need a minimum of six in order to hold the luncheon. I think we will have our six and hopefully more. We are going to go to the Abbey Grill on Frisco's Main Street. The building used to be a church. It will be fun to go there.

This and That

2007-06-01T08:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning I called the Frisco water department. The lady I spoke with said her computer showed they had received my payment on May 29, and my account balance is $0. She did not want to take the time to listen to me tell her how their Internet site was not acknowledging my payment. I checked again this morning and my payment still does not show. It had always shown my payments the next day after receipt since I first used it last September. I am going to quit worrying about it.

Last night I went to the camera club meeting. Barry, the man who works for Canon, gave his presentation on Photoshop. He used the full blown Photoshop CS2 so my problem with importing batches of photos from my hard drive in Photoshop Elements 5 was not addressed. When I came home from the meeting, I started reading the book I bought. It gave me an idea on how to import the photos. This morning I tried the idea, and it did not work. I fumbled around and finally tried File, Get Photos, By Searching. The searching command allows you to bring in a whole folder of photos instead of opening one at a time. I wanted to open batches of photos in the Organizer. I think Photoshop Elements is the most counter intuitive piece of software I have ever attempted to use. I have always been very good at tackling new software and digesting the command structure, but this program is something else. I am glad that Barry lives in Frisco Lakes. It is good to have an astute photographer and computer techie nearby.

The computer operated all day yesterday and so far this morning without encountering any of its glitches. If it had problems all the time, there would be hope that they could be fixed, but the random nature of the glitches is most disconcerting. On its good days, I really like this computer.

The rain stayed away yesterday but is supposed to be back this evening and over the weekend. The temperature is climbing. With all the moisture and high temperatures, it will be exactly like Beaumont.

I am washing my sheets and mattress pad so they will be nice and clean for the new mattress when it is delivered on Sunday. I hope I made the right decision. Picking out a new mattress is difficult.

This afternoon I am going to the singles bridge game. Last week eight people showed up. It was nice to have two full tables so we did not have to rotate in and out. I was very lucky and got very good cards. I doubt if my luck will hold for a second week.

Better Weather Today

2007-05-31T06:05:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-30T08:54:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-29T06:31:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-28T06:32:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-05-27T08:48:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-05-25T06:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-22T08:26:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-05-21T06:01:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-05-19T12:56:00.001-05:00

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

Too Bad

2007-05-19T08:40:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-05-16T08:23:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-13T09:20:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-10T07:13:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-08T07:07:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-05-07T09:08:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-06T09:26:00.001-05:00

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

2007-05-03T10:31:00.001-05:00

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!

2007-05-02T08:36:00.001-05:00

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.

At Last!

2007-04-29T05:36:00.001-05:00

I have been going to the Frisco Lakes functions for several months. They usually have door prizes that are given away by a drawing. Until last night my name has not been drawn. Last night I went to the Flix and Mingle event. Finally my name was drawn. I won a $25 gift certificate to Josephine's, a nearby restaurant. I have never been to Josephine's, but I have heard several people make favorable comments about it.

The movie last night was The Queen. Helen Mirren is an excellent actress. I watched all seven of the Prime Suspect series on PBS. Mirren played Jane Tennyson, a London police inspector in the series. I think that series was where I first saw her. I would like to see her Elizabeth I movie, too.

Week's End

2007-04-28T08:43:00.001-05:00

I am going to sit in my recliner most of the day and catch up on the TV shows I missed this week. I have a craving for nothing.

Thursday evening I went to the camera club meeting. I enjoyed seeing the flower pictures. A computer was attached to the projector and we were able to see the flower pictures that some members of the group had taken. Some people in the group are natural-born photographers. Even though several only have point and shoot cameras, they have an instinctive sense for composition. I, on the other hand, have studied the technical aspects of photography, but I do not have the artistic aptitude to know what makes a good picture. The computer that was attached to the projector had Internet access. I told the group that my pictures of the Dallas Arboretum were online. They projected my pictures from the website. I wished I had kept still because I do nothing think my pictures compared favorably to some of the others. We then discussed plans for future meetings. There is a man in the group who works for Canon. He has already made one presentation to the group, but he is going to have a session on Photoshop Elements the next time. When I got home, I checked my calendar and found that my trip to Granbury in May is on the same day as the next camera club meeting. I am really disappointed.

I have been going for several weeks without a wristwatch. The batteries in both of my watches are dead. I took one watch to the Wal-Mart jewelry department, and the clerk was not able to get the back off my watch. I think it must have been damaged by the clerk at the Wal-Mart in Beaumont the last time I got a new battery. My other watch is twenty years old. I decided it was time for a new watch. I started looking at watches on Amazon.com. I have always been fascinated by the Movado Museum watch. It is the one with a black dial and a single dot at the twelve o'clock position. I have heard many people complain about this watch because it lacks numbers and dots. I decided I would give it a try. I ordered a stainless steel model with a black leather strap. Of course, I checked Pricegrabber.com and several other sources before ordering from Amazon.com. Amazon had the best price.

I finally got my haircut yesterday morning. I went in a half hour earlier than I had been going on Wednesdays. The traffic on Frisco's Main Street was much heavier. The half hour made a big difference. There are two city parking lots near the beauty shop. Street construction has one partially blocked. I went to the other lot. It, too, was blocked. There was a fire truck and an EMS unit. I was able to drive through a gas station and get into the lot from another street. I told my hairdresser I wanted to go back to Wednesday for my appointments. She was glad because Wednsday is a much busier day for her.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the beginners' bridge game. I struggled through the session. The lady who has been teaching the bridge lessons was there and decided there was one more topic she should have covered. Next Wednesday I will have one more lesson. I think I need many more lessons. I need to sit down and memorize all the rules that have been covered.

Tonight is the Flix and Mingle event. I did not remember to find out what movie they are showing. It is going to be a surprise.

It will be two weeks tomorrow since I plant my caladium bulbs. I am just about ready to go to a nursery and buy bedding plants. There are a few green leaves popping up where I planted the bulbs, but I think they are all weeds. Only one of the bulbs that I planted had roots growing on it. I have one little green plant that is different from the others. I think one bulb may have sprouted.

Are We Having Fun, Yet?

2007-04-26T14:19:00.001-05:00

Yes, we are. Monday I went to the canasta game. Some of the people were talking about family members being sick with the assortment of ailments I had last week. I had been wondering what I could have eaten that caused so much misery, but now I am convinced it was a bug that is making the rounds. I did not do as well at canasta this week as I did the previous week, but you cannot win them all.

The cooking demonstration and wine tasting Monday night were very entertaining. Karen is the name of the lady who does the cooking demos. Her day job is vice president of Pulte Finance, but she is very good at the cooking demos. She said she would have a place to vote on the Frisco Lakes website where we can choose the type of cuisine we want to see next month.

On Tuesday I went to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the Matisse collection. Frankly I thought the statues were ugly, but we ate in the museum's restaurant called 1717. The food was excellent. I had pecan-crusted chicken breast. Again we were under a tornado watch. It rained all day, but we were back to Frisco before the severe weather was unleashed. My NOAA weather radio alarmed all night. There were tornado watches, flash flood warnings, severe thunder warnings. The satellite lost its signal. I think my area got over four inches of rain, but we did not get high winds.

Yesterday I went to the bridge lesson. I found out that was going to be the last bridge lesson. I have been tossed to the wolves and told to go play bridge. There is a group that meets on Friday afternoons. I was assured that they are all beginners. I feel like I need more instruction.

When I got home from bridge, I found the package from LL Bean on my doorstep. The tee top that I ordered was called purple clover and looked very purple on my computer. I was disappointed to find it looked more lavender than purple. I did not think it would be suitable for the Red Hat luncheon next week. This morning I decided to check out the store in Frisco called Rebekah's that the Queen Bee had mentioned. I found the store. In a corner in the back of the store they had purple clothing specifically for Red Hat ladies. I found a purple top. It is a long shirt made out of sheer purple rayon with silver threads woven in and red hats scattered all over it. They only had one is size small. It is sufficiently tacky to be appropriate, but not so extreme that I will be embarrassed to be seen in it. I will wear black slacks with the new tee and the sheer purple top with the red hats over the tee. Now I need some purple decoration for my hat such as ribbon, flowers or feathers. I also could use some flashy jewelry. Well, I have done enough for this month. Maybe next month I can add to the outfit.

Tonight I go to the photography group meeting. People are supposed to bring their flower pictures from last month. Since I did not attend last month's meeting I will just be observing. Tomorrow morning I finally will get my haircut. I changed my regular appointment because of the bridge lessons. I hope I am able to go back to the Wednesday morning appointments. On Saturday night I am going to the Flix and Mingle event. I keep forgetting to find out what the movie is going to be.

Another Busy Week

2007-04-23T07:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning my friends from Beaumont arrived. They were the first visitors I have had from Beaumont since I left. I have made new friends here in Frisco, but it is not the same as being able to visit with people who share my experiences over the past years. Yesterday I realized how much I miss that. We had a busy day. After they inspected my house we went for a short drive around Frisco and then went to Stonebriar Mall to the Cheesecake Factory restaurant which is one of my favorite places to eat. I had a herbed salmon fillet. I cleaned my plate. I ate more than I had eaten since last Tuesday when I was ill. At last I can say I am back to normal and really enjoyed my meal. After lunch, we came back to Frisco Lakes. We toured the village center and then went to the sales center. It was quite a workout to go through almost all of the model homes. My friends drove back to Beaumont yesterday. They left a little before four and planned to reach Conroe by dark. They said they were very familiar with 105 from Conroe to Beaumont and did not think driving that road in the dark would be a problem. I admire their stamina. Last year when I made multiple trips between Beaumont and Frisco I never drove any of it in the dark. I always devoted a day to the drive and did not attempt other activities.

This morning I am going to sign up for a day trip to Fossil Rim Park. I had never heard of the place but did some searching on the Internet and found reviews and pictures. I read about the animals they have in the park and decided it would be safe. I think it will be a good opportunity to test the longer focal length lens I bought for my camera.

This afternoon there is the usual Canasta game and tonight I am going to a cooking demonstration in the village center. I do not know what to expect from the demonstration. Tomorrow I am going to the Dallas Museum of Art to see an exhibit of Matisse painting and sculpture. On Wednesday morning the bridge lessons resume. Thursday night there is supposed to a photography group meeting, but I have not received an email announcement. Friday morning I will finally get my haircut. I rescheduled my appointment and am really in need of a haircut. Finally I think I will have a couple of days of rest, but it will be time to play catch up with shopping and housework. I also have to send out the email to the Frisco Lakes Red Hat ladies to remind them of the luncheon next week.

Vista Rant

2007-04-20T14:58:00.001-05:00

This morning I read an article about the incompatibilities of Vista and how slowly software publishers and hardware manufacturers are releasing updated products. I also read that Dell has announced they will again start offering Windows XP to home pc buyers. Vista doesn't look very different from XP on the surface, but there are major changes under the hood. I have had IE 7 freeze twice in the last two days. This morning not only did IE 7 lockup, but the whole computer locked up. I could move my mouse pointer, but nothing happened when I clicked on an application or the start button. I finally tried the control-alt-delete combination. This no longer brings up the end task window. I was presented with a list of actions. None of them said restart. I decided to try logoff. That worked. I logged back on. Now I was able to restart the computer in the normal manner. The next problem was after the reboot, the WiFi connection was not working. I then did a complete shutdown and restarted. Since then everything has been normal. After spending so much money for a new computer, I really do not want to have to contend with all the bugs. It is not as if the problems happen all the time. They do not; but when they do it is very irritating. I also read that the CEO of Intel inadvertently leaked that Microsoft plans to release Service Pack 1 for Vista by the end of the year. I hope the service pack will fix many of the bugs.

I also read on the Notebook Review forum that someone had tried to install Windows XP on a computer like mine and was unable to do so. Sony refuses to support a computer that does not have the original operating system.

Slowed Down

2007-04-19T15:17:00.001-05:00

Tuesday I went to the Red Hat Society meeting at the village center. The Queen Bee is going to be a close neighbor. We discussed places to go for future meetings. I think I am going to enjoy this group. I like the idea of a group that has no purpose other than to have fun. I went home and found the Red Hat Society website and joined. This morning I was looking at the websites that sell Red Hat clothing. Then went to LL Bean and typed in "Purple shirt" in the search field. It came back with several items. I found a purple tee that was on sale. It is a cotton modal blend which is the same as my travel clothes. I think it is a great fabric. I can wear the purple tee with my black pants and not feel too foolish.

Tuesday evening I did not go to the presentation on the Frisco water situation because severe weather threatened. It was I a good thing I didn't go out because an hour later I started to feel ill. Little did I know I was going to have one of the most miserable nights of my life. It has been years and years, if not ever, since I was so sick. I spent a good part of yesterday sleeping. This morning I resumed my normal activities, but I don't seem to be moving as fast as usual.

I went to the new Wal-Mart. The roads around the store are a detriment to my going there. I had read on the Frisco Online forum that the store has the upscale format that Wal-Mart introduced in the Park and tollway store in Plano. There were some nice features in the store. There is an expanded book department. The employees were dressed in khaki with navy shirts instead of the usual blue Wal-Mart vests. I did not find several items on my list. I was a little miffed when the checker overloaded my bags and one of them tore when I was putting my purchases in the car. She must have been instructed to save Wal-Mart's money and be stingy with the bags.

I then went to the Home Depot and Sam's Club on Ohio Dr. Those stores are farther away, but I feel like I can get more accomplished with the stores being grouped close together. I came back home and placed an order with Amazon.com for the things I could not find while out shopping. It is so much easier to shop online instead of driving and driving and then walking and walking. I also ordered a new pair of sandals that I had seen in a catalog. Shoemall.com offers free shipping. The catalog wanted $9.95 for shipping. I did a little Google search and found a Shoemall code that allowed me to save an additional ten percent. It always feels good to save money.

I checked yesterday and found that the checks I mailed to the IRS last week have cleared my bank. It is a relief to know that my payments got there. One year I wondered why my check had not been cashed. I finally got a letter from the IRS that said my payment had not been enclosed, and they charged me a penalty. I even had a scanned image of the check I had sent. It was no use. I paid the penalty.

Update

2007-04-17T06:19:00.001-05:00

I keep thinking things are going to slow down, and I can sit in my recliner and catch up on the TV shows on the DVR that I have recorded. It isn't happening. Sunday afternoon I planted my flowers and caladium bulbs. We may have another round of violent storms this afternoon. Hail and heavy rain would destroy the little plants. I am doing a little house cleaning. I have found it is better to divide the cleaning into small tasks and work for an hour each day rather than trying to do everything all and once.

Yesterday afternoon I played canasta. I had a good afternoon. My luck finally turned, and I accumulated my highest score to date. More and more people are turning out for the canasta. The game does not take much skill. It is just fun.

This afternoon is the Red Hat tea. My lavender outfit is all laundered and pressed. Rain may be pouring down during the time of the meeting. I want to keep my new red hat dry. Yesterday morning while I was ironing my lavender outfit I also finally pressed the new clothes that I have received from L.L. Bean. This was only the second time I have used my new iron that I bought in February. I hate ironing and manage to avoid it even though I have a fancy new iron.

This evening the Frisco Director of Public Works is going to give a presentation at the village center on the current water restrictions. On April 1 the ban on car washing was lifted. It is now all right to wash your car with a garden hose and nozzle. I am hoping that they will eventually ease the restrictions on lawn watering. Right now we can only use the sprinkler system on trash day, and there are restrictions on the hours of watering. Last September it was so hot and dry. I really was worried that my brand new landscaping would not survive with so little water, but somehow it did.

The Frisco Lakes travel committee has planned several trips. I am thinking about signing up for a trip to Branson, Missouri, in June. I have never been there. They are going by motor coach and leaving from the village center parking lot. That is very appealing. I could leave my car in the garage and wheel my suitcase there if necessary, but I am sure someone would give me a lift.

Red Hat and Other Things

2007-04-15T12:23:00.001-05:00

A Red Hat group has been formed at Frisco Lakes. I did not attend the first meeting, but I got another invitation for a meeting this Tuesday. I accepted this invitation. You are supposed to dress in purple and wear a red hat. Last week I remembered I have a lavender outfit. There are purple violets on the skirt. The only problem is I bought this outfit before I lost weight, and it really is too large. I decided it will have to do because purple is not my color. I am not going to purchase a purple-colored outfit until I decide if I really want to continue with the group. Here it is only two days before the meeting, and I had no red hat. I started searching on the Internet. I found J.C. Penney's had a suitable hat, but it would take a minimum of four days to get it delivered to the local store. I searched several other big chain stores and found nothing. I then found several sites that specifically sell red hats for the Red Hat clubs. I had overheard some ladies here at Frisco Lakes saying Kohl's had red hats. I went there this morning. They were well stocked with red hats, and they were considerably cheaper than what I had seen on the Internet. When I went to check out, the clerk told me there would be additional savings if I charged the purchase on my Kohl's card. I told her I did not have a Kohl's card. She told me I should get one. I told her I did not want one. I was ready to tell her it was the first time in my life I had ever been in a Kohl's store, and it was going to be the last if she did not get busy and check me out. Anyway I finally left with my purchase and was greatly relieved that I did not have to go from store to store to store searching for a red hat. Now I am going to wash my lavender outfit and hope that it shrinks.

Winter returned yesterday. After the violent weather on Friday evening. a cold front came through. The temperature was in the forties most of yesterday. The temperature now is finally in the low sixties. The Del Webb people delivered two flats of flowers to each house on Thursday. In a little while I am going out and plant them and at last I am going to plant the caladium bulbs. It must be six weeks since I bought the bulbs. I have not opened the box and have no idea what I am going to find inside. I do not have a green thumb. It is going to be interesting to see what happens.

I thought the coming week was going to be less hectic than the past few weeks; but after checking my calendar, I see that it is shaping up to be very full. I keep finding excuses to avoid house cleaning, but somehow I am going to have to fit it in this week. I do a little dusting or a little vacuuming but do not seem to be able to go through the house and give it a thorough cleaning. I am afraid my advancing years are taking a toll.

2007-04-14T06:48:00.001-05:00

This is a link to my pictures: Dallas Arboretum.

Busy Week

2007-04-14T06:42:00.001-05:00

It was a very busy week. There was the usual canasta group play on Monday. On Wednesday I had my third bridge lesson. My head was spinning after that session. On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment. He said fluid was accumulating in my middle ear and gave me some samples of an allergy medicine in hopes it would clear up the problem that I did not know I had. I guess it explains why I have been turning up the volume on the TV.

I managed to get my email from Sears printed and picked up my pliers. I went home and found that their cordless grass shears were on sale. I placed another order online and again had to print out an email so I could pick them up. This time I went to the Frisco Library and did my printing. The library's printer did not print the bar code that was in the email. I went on to Sears and found that their machine gave me the choice of scanning the email or swiping my credit card. The machine recognized my credit card. The man who brought the package to me checked the email and all was well.

On Thursday I took my car to David McDavid Acura in Plano and got the annual Texas safety inspection and an oil change. I was impressed with the customer waiting room. They had Starbucks coffee, complimentary snacks and cold soft drinks. All Classic Acura in Beaumont had was coffee. Both dealerships include a free car wash with service. Classic Acura also gave the ladies a long-stemmed rose which I always enjoyed. There was no rose from David McDavid. The car passed the safety and emission tests. I asked them to put on my registration sticker while they were putting on the new inspection sticker. I always have a problem getting the sticker on straight. Now both stickers are on nice and straight, and I am all set for another year. I also mailed my federal tax return and first quarter estimated tax payment. It felt so good to have the burden of the car inspection, registration and tax preparation all complete.

On Thursday evening Del Webb had an appreciation event for the Frisco Lakes homeowners. They had a large tent with tables. The place was decorated in a western theme. They had burgers, baked beans and potato salad. There were many nice door prizes. They also gave away a golf cart. There was a contest to see who could hit a golf ball the farthest. The prize was a golf cart. I am seeing more and more golf carts around here. A couple of my neighbors on the cul-de-sac have bought the carts. Every garage has a plug for charging a golf cart.

Severe weather was predicted for Friday in Dallas. The trip to the Dallas Arboretum was on that day. I had really been looking forward to it. I expected to get a call telling me the trip was canceled, but that did not happen. I went to the Frisco Senior Center. Everyone was asking if the trip was still on. They said they had prepaid the tea in the Camp House and it would not be canceled. I expected to be caught in a terrible downpour, but it did not happen. The sky was very gray. I went ahead and took my pictures. I uploaded them to Smugmug this morning. We got back to Frisco before the storm arrived. My car had sit out all day, and there had been enough rain mixed with the dust from the construction going on at the senior center to really make the car look dirty again.

Last night the storm arrived. Tornadoes did touch down in the Dallas area, but Frisco was spared from the storm. I have already experienced much worse weather in Frisco than last night.

No Printer

2007-04-08T06:51:00.001-05:00

The lack of a printer is causing a great deal of inconvenience. Yesterday I got an email from Amazon.com that said the Canon AIO laser printer that I have ordered will be delayed five days. That means I will not get it until the first of May. Yesterday I placed an order with Sears online. I have to print out an email from them before I can pick up my order at the store. Microsoft must have put something in Vista that is making it very difficult for the printer/scanner manufacturers to produce a Vista compatible product.

Cold

2007-04-07T06:08:00.001-05:00

The weatherman got it right. It is only 38 degrees this morning. The temperature is to supposed to remain close to 38 all day with rain and snow. Then it will drop to 32 tonight with more rain and snow. The Easter bunny won't like this.

Now I have to go to Plan C for garden tool storage. I went to Lowe's yesterday and bought the Black and Decker long-handle garden tool storage stand. When I got home and opened the package, I found one piece was missing. I took it back to Lowe's and got a refund. I really did not like the stand very much. The only problem now is that I do not know what Plan C is.

When I came home and drove into the garage, I thought I must be in the wrong house. It is so nice to see everything neat and organized. I have had to look at the mess for months. I like to stand in the garage and just look at the nice cabinets and the lack of clutter.

My Palm PDA decided to go on daylight savings time this morning. On Saturday mornings I take my weekly Actonel tablet and have an alarm set to sound at 5 AM on the Palm. The alarm went off at 4 AM this morning and woke me. Palm has a patch for the problem, but I can't install it because it can't be transferred to the Palm with Windows Vista.

Getting Things Done

2007-04-06T06:33:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning the temperature was very pleasant in the garage. I was able to keep working until I had all the things picked up off the floor and put away in the new cabinets. It really feels good to look around and see an organized garage. One of the cabinets is only 24 inches wide. It was my intention to use it to store my long-handle garden tools. I did not realize that one shelf was fixed in place in the center of the cabinet to provide stability. Since I can't put the long-handle tools in the cabinet I have to resort to Plan B. I searched for some way to store the tools on the Internet yesterday. I do not want a rack that has to be mounted on the wall. I finally found a stand that sits on the floor that is made by Black and Decker that is designed for long-handle tools. Lowes carries it, and the website indicated the Frisco store has it in stock. I will buy it the next time I go that direction.

As far as I can tell, all of the garage items are present and accounted for except for an old pair of slip-joint pliers. My father gave me those pliers. It is silly to be sentimental over a pair of pliers, but I felt bad that I could not find them. I found that Sears has a set of pliers on sale. I will order them and pick them up on my next shopping trip. I used to buy quite a bit in the way of tools and garden equipment from Sears. I would order from their catalog. When they discontinued the catalog, I stopped buying from Sears. I had not been into to their store for a number of years until last year. I bought a new shop vacuum which I really like from them. Then I bought the washer, dryer and refrigerator from them. Now I have my garage cabinets. I think Sears has treated me very well. All of their deliveries have been on time. They were nice about exchanging the defective washing machine. I am beginning to understand how their Internet sales work. If you have an item sent to your home their delivery charges are much higher than I am willing to pay; but if you pick up the item at the store, you can avoid the delivery charges.

The temperature is supposed to drop into the thirties tonight and the high will only be in the forties tomorrow. The warm weather that we had last week almost tempted me to plant the caladium bulbs that I purchased. My email friend told me to wait until April 15 to plant them. It looks like she gave me good advice. My email friend is now my neighbor. She and her husband moved into Frisco Lakes on Wednesday.

I got more new clothes from LL Bean yesterday. I have received four packages over the last few weeks. I am getting ready for warm weather. The trouble with getting mail-order clothes is that arrive with lots of wrinkles and have to be ironed. It seems like no matter how hard I work I can't catch up with my chores,

Update

2007-04-05T06:21:00.001-05:00

The days are flying by. Monday morning the garage cabinet installation was finished. I am extremely happy with the way they turned out. I owe the man who installed them a great deal of gratitude. There was a tremendous amount of work involved in assembling and securing them to the wall. On Tuesday I started putting things on the shelves. I worked for a couple of hours. Tuesday was very warm, and I had to limit the amount of time I worked.

On Monday afternoon I played Canasta. That is the fun group and well organized. Wednesday morning I attended the second Bridge lesson. We have a very good teacher. If I don't learn how to play a respectable game of Bridge it will be my fault, not our teacher's. Yesterday afternoon I went to the Mahjongg group. After the session, I went home and resigned from the group via the computer. They have started playing for money. I do not object to gambling on moral grounds, but I know the odds are against me, and I just find it stupid. I try to limit my stupid behavior.

On Tuesday morning I ran errands. I went in the Denton County Government office in The Colony to find out exactly what is required to change the registration on my car. I had changed my address last fall on the computer and received the renewal notice in the mail. I took the renewal form in, and the lady that I talked to said all I had to do was show my proof of insurance and pay my money. She let me run out to the car and get my insurance card. I paid my money and walked out with the new sticker. I had called Denton County right after the move. They told me I had to get the car inspected and bring a form from the inspection station to the tax office. Well that was not corrected. I made an appointment o take the car down to the Acura dealer in Plano next week for periodic maintenance and the safety inspection. That is no different than Beaumont.

I then went to the Wal-Mart in The Colony. I really do not like that store. I was only able to find one of four items on my list. The new Frisco Wal-Mart is opening on April 18. It is a very nice looking store from the outside. After it opens there will be no more visits to The Colony store. The greeter at The Colony store told me there was a copy machine at The Colony post office. I went there, and there was no copy machine. I did mail a letter. Then I drove to the Frisco Library and finally made a copy of my income tax return. I am going to wait until closer to the due date before I mail it since I owe money. Anyway I came hope feeling good that I had made the copy and taken care of the car registration.

A cold front came through and the temperature is in the 40's this morning. I am going to do more work in the garage this morning, and then I have to start cleaning the house. I have neglected my dusting for too long. The amount of dust in a new house is quite large. I have been told it will decrease after a year. I did change the air filter this week, and I think the amount of dirt on it was less than the last one.

Big Brother Is Watching Me!

2007-04-01T06:36:00.001-05:00

Yesterday when I uploaded my pictures to my computer I used Windows Photo Gallery. I had taken the CF card out of my camera and used my USB card reader. Immediately a message popped up that said an update for Windows Photo Gallery was available that would allow the program to properly display Nikon's raw file format. Almost instantly Microsoft had recognized that I was uploading pictures that were produced by a Nikon camera. That is rather scary. It explains why I have not automatically been offered the update that fixes one problem with the Apple iPod. I have not yet attached my iPod. I bet I get the patch the first time I attach the iPod. Microsoft is watching me. I did install the Nikon Raw Codec and all went smoothly.

2007-03-31T18:08:00.001-05:00

I am back home after going on a little field trip with the photography group to the old cemetery where the blue bonnets are in bloom. It wasn't my day. My pictures are rather disappointing.

Better

2007-03-31T13:40:00.001-05:00

The sun is out today and my spirits are lifted. The area has received a great deal of rain over the last two days. There have been tornado watches, flash flood warnings, etc. I did not go to the Thursday nor Friday night photography club meetings. As I said yesterday, I was thinking of dropping out of the camera club group. I really did not want to do it, but I decided I did not like being stressed. This morning the man who heads up the group called and told me what I missed. He said the group is making a little field trip this afternoon to a cemetery out on FM 423 that is full of bluebonnets. It is wild flower season in Texas. I am going with them. I am glad he called.

I did more work this morning on my income tax. I want to go back and double check all of my math. Then I will copy everything onto the final set of forms, write out the check, go some place to make a copy and then stop by the post office. I am feeling much better now. I owe, but at least I know how much, and I am going to have it all done before the deadline.

Every morning I check Pricegrabber.com to see if they list any merchants who are selling the Canon MF4690 multi-function laser printer that I want. This morning I saw that two merchants were listed. Neither had the printer in stock. I also found a review of the printer on CNET. It looks like this printer is no longer vaporware. CNET rated the printer fairly high in all categories but said they prefer a model from Dell because it prints faster. Print speed does not matter to me. The Canon was better at scanning, faxing and copying than the Dell. Those functions are important to me. This afternoon I found that Amazon.com has the printer available for pre-order. They offered free shipping if it is ordered today. It said that the printer would not normally be eligible for their free super saver shipping. I placed my order. Amazon.com says they expect to receive the printer on April 22. After I placed my order, the estimated shipping date came back as April 26. Now if Apple would release a new version of iTunes that is certified to be Vista compatible I will be very happy.

I read this morning that Microsoft said they have no plans to release a service pack for Vista. Vista is fine just the way it is. Maybe I should send them my list. I also read that another security hole that affects many versions of Windows including Vista has been found. This is the first security flaw to be found in Vista. Microsoft said people using IE 7 under Vista have lesser risk than other versions.

Hectic Week

2007-03-30T16:58:00.001-05:00

It is more than a week since I have written anything for the blog. My regular readers probably think I am having more computer troubles. I am happy to report that the new computer is doing very well. My absence is due to my getting involved in too many activities. The groups at Frisco Lakes are becoming very active. Everything happened at once. All of a sudden I am feeling very stressed and feel that I may have over committed. The activities are supposed to be fun. The photography group which was one that I really wanted to participate in but they are having meetings that do not start until 7:30 PM. Many people at Frisco Lakes are still working and have trouble getting to earlier meetings. Since I am fully retired I like daytime activities so I am afraid the photography group is one I am going to cut.

I am attempting to learn how to play Mahjongg. I am getting a little feel for the game, but I have a long way to go before I can look at the tiles and figure out what hands are possible.. I have been to the Canasta group sessions two times. Canasta is an easy game to play and does not not take a great deal of skill. There are five of us who are now taking Bridge lessons. I have played at Bridge but have never had formal instruction. I am going to stick with the Bridge lessons.

On Tuesday I went to the Museum of Nature and Science. There was an exhibit called Body Works. I did not realize the exhibit consisted of real human cadavers. I found it disconcerting. There was also an IMAX movie on the human body. I went with a group from the Frisco Senior Center. In April I am going on two day trips with them. The first will be to the Dallas Arboretum and the second will be to the art Dallas Museum of Art to see an exhibit of work by Matisse. I just signed up for a trip in May to Granbury. There will be a riverboat dinner cruise and a musical at the Granbury Opera House.

Yesterday my neighbor drove me to Plano to see an eye doctor. My eyes were dilated and I really appreciated my neighbor volunteering to do the driving. Last year I was in Beaumont, and it was very difficult for me to drive back home after my eyes were dilated. The doctor, who I saw was a young woman. The office was not crowded and the exam only took 45 minutes. I could always count on being at eye doctor's office in Beaumont a minimum of two and a half hours. I have concluded that Beaumont needs more doctors.

Last weekend Sears had a sale which was applicable to the garage cabinets that I wanted. I had been watching their sales since January and had not seen any that included the garage cabinets. I rushed in and purchased the cabinets. They were delivered today. The man who is going to assemble them will be out this weekend. It is good that I will be able to get the garage organized before hot weather arrives.

I am still working on my income tax. My taxes are complicated this year because of all the moves I made to get ready to purchase the new house. I worked all morning on the forms and am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I calculated my taxes taking the standard deduction just to get a feel for how much I owe. I am now working on the itemized deductions. Just property taxes and sales tax exceed the standard deduction. My big problem is placing values on all the things I donated to Goodwill and the Salvation Army last year.

I still do not have a printer that works with the new computer. I wanted to print out the IRS Publication that details the 2006 sales tax deductions. The deduction for sales tax had expired. Congress extended the deduction after the Form 1040's were sent out. There is a separate publication. I went down to the community center this morning to print the tables I need. There were two problems. They were completely out of 8.5 by 11 inch paper. When I tried to print out the tables on legal size paper, someone else's print job kept printing. Someone had must have submitted the same job dozens of times. The computers that are only a month old have been trashed by my computer illiterate neighbors. Grrrr! I was really mad.

After I finish with the IRS I have to take my car in for service and get the State inspection so I can get the registration transferred to Denton County. When that is accomplished, I will finally consider the move complete.

Computer Bobbles

2007-03-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I decided to transfer the last of my files from the Seagate external drive to the new computer. I used the external drive to back up the old computer every Saturday morning. My old computer had one hard disk that was partitioned into C and D drives. When I purchased the external drive in the spring of 2006, I carefully configured the BounceBack software that came with it to backup both the C and D drives. I watched the backup process and it gave indications that it was backing up both partitions. I used the D drive primarily for photos and iTunes files. I remember checking the files on the external drive last June and could not locate the files from the D drive. At that point I manually copied all of the files on the D drive to the external drive. Well today I tried to find the files from the D drive. Again I could not locate them. The photos I took between June, 2006, and January, 2007, are no where to be found. The photos were mostly of the trips to Frisco while the house was under construction and photos I had taken while walking around Frisco Lakes. All is not lost because I had uploaded some of the photos to Smugmug. It will be slow, but I had set up Smugmug so my photos could be copied. I am lucky that I have that option to recover some of my files.

I bought the external drive when copying files to CD"s became too much for me to handle. It looks like I better go back to putting files on CD's as an extra safety measure. My loss is rather small compared to what some people are unable to recover when their computer fails. I kept my Word, Excel and scanned documents on the C drive. All of them now have been copied safely to the new computer.

This afternoon Windows Media Player again refused to load. This is the problem I had when I called Sony tech support. This time I turned the WiFi switch to the off position so I was no longer on the Internet, disabled Norton Internet Security and restarted the computer. Windows Media Player again started working. I enabled Norton and turned WiFi back on. The Media Player continued to work. Now I have to figure out what triggers its failure. I know it has something to with Norton, but I am at a loss to know what if anything I can do to fix it. At least I have a work around.

Games

2007-03-21T15:18:00.001-05:00

I am trying to get involved with the Frisco Lakes activities. Monday I went to the Canasta group meeting. I had not played Canasta since high school. Canasta is not difficult to learn, and it rapidly came back to me. There was a big turnout for the group. They meet every Monday at 1 PM. I am not certain that I want to play every week, but it will be fun to play occasionally.

Today I went to the Mahjong group. I have always wanted to learn how to play the game. My mother had a Mahjong set, and I played with the tiles when I was a little girl. Well, after my first session of real play I am totally confused. I do not know if I have what it takes to master that game. I found a website this morning that had the rules of the game. I really could not make a connection between the rules that I had read and the way real people were playing.

Unfortunately I have found something that I really like to play. Windows Vista has a game called Mahjong Titans. It takes advantage of the new 3D Vista graphics. It is played with tiles like the traditional Mahjong game, but that is the only similarity. The object of the Windows Vista game is to remove the tiles in pairs until no tiles are left. This game is addictive, and I have been wasting too much time on it.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2007-03-19T08:59:00.001-05:00

I have now spent ten days with my new computer with the Windows Vista Business edition operating system and have formed a few opinions:

The Good

The Sony Vaio VGN-AR370 is a beautifully designed 17" notebook computer. Its keyboard has very large keys and is well laid out. It is much better than the HP dv9000T that operated for two hours before dying. Sony configured the computer exactly as I had specified. So far I have found no hardware flaws. Vista has not crashed or hung. I have had no problems with Microsoft Office 2007 applications. I can use my external disk drive with the firewire port. I can sync the basic calendar, address book, memo functions of my Palm TX. I am able to transfer photos from my camera's memory card with the card reader. I like the special buttons next to the keyboard to eject a disk from the drive. There are also buttons to adjust the speaker volume.

The Bad

In order to close security holes in Windows, Microsoft has not provided backward compatibility with much existing software and hardware. I have not had any problems with Vista because I have been extremely cautious before installing or even running older applications. Sony was not so cautious. They have installed a number of programs on this computer that were designed for XP. I am sure they did this because I bought the computer before the new versions have been released. I had Sony install Photoshop Elements on the computer. The first time I loaded the program it said it was incompatible with Vista but was directed to the Adobe website. They had a patch available that changed the Version to 5.02 which does run on Vista.. At the present time I am without a way to print or scan documents. I am waiting on Canon to start shipping their new MF4690 all in one laser. The driver for my little Epson PictureMate photo printer is included with Vista according to the Epson support site. I have not found the courage to test it.

The Ugly

It has been almost five years since I purchased a new computer. In that time the cost-cutting computer companies have outsourced their tech. support operations overseas. Many of the people who are answering support calls just are not fluent in conversational English. A mal-functioning computer in itself is very stressful, but then mix in a phone call after more than an hour on hold with a person who does not respond to what you are saying and the situation rapidly becomes unbearable. My one call to Sony was answered in Florida. I had a very simple issue, and it was resolved. I give Sony credit in that they are directing the phone calls to specialists depending on the issue. HP on the other hand just dumps the calls into one big pool. Where Sony fell down was on their email support. I am certain that my email was answered in a overseas location by a person with a poor command of English.

The second issue that I consider very ugly is the trouble people are getting into by loading Apple's iTune on their pc's running Vista. Yesterday I found a thread where people with new computers with SATA disk drives with RAID technology enabled were getting errors that made it appear that they had failed drives. There was one who had to send a new notebook back to Dell and another to HP. My computer has the SATA drives with the Intel Matrix controller. After reading that I decided there is no way that I will install iTunes until I am certain the issues have been resolved. I miss my podcasts.

Update

2007-03-17T07:03:00.001-05:00

I have lost confidence in Sony's tech. support. After receiving the reply that told me to download a new driver, I wrote back to clarify my question whether Ver. 4.3 of SonicStage is compatible with Windows Vista Business edition. This time I was told that Sony does not support Windows versions that were not factory installed and gave me directions on how to roll back my operating system to Windows Vista Home Premium. I nearly hit the ceiling. I wrote back that my Windows Vista Business edition was installed by the Sony factory in San Diego, CA. This time I got a reply back that apologized for the confusion and said Ver. 4.3 is not compatible with Windows Vista Business edition. This poor fellow finally found the same table I was looking at. I have a real problem with the "bloatware" that the computer manufacturers install on new computers. This time it is really bad because they are installing programs that do not run on Vista and can possibly corrupt the operating system. I think the best solution is to start uninstalling the unneeded software. I had Sony's SonicStage on my old computer. Until I got the iPod and installed iTunes, it was the program I used to listen to music on the pc. Now since there is not a fully compatible version of iTunes, the only safe option is to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player. I dread to think about what software I need to view a DVD.

Last night I went to the Frisco Lakes monthly meet your neighbor social. There is a lady that I have seen several times at the community's functions. Every time I see her she greets me like an old friend. I was embarrassed that I did not remember her name. I am bad at remembering names. This lady seemed to know so much about me. Last night I finally got the nerve to ask her where we first met. She told me she had been reading my blog. That explained a lot. Attendance at the meet your neighbor functions is being limited to about 70 people. When the socials were held in the sales center, the noise created by the crowd was very loud. I actually start to feel sick when I am in that environment. Unfortunately the same thing happened last night. As more people arrived, the noise level increased. I could not hear, and other people could not hear me. Then I started feeling ill. I looked for a place to sit down. Then I decided it was time to go home.

I am cleaning my car in stages. Yesterday I went over the windows inside and out with Windex and paper towels. I thought I was doing a good job, but when I took the car out yesterday evening I saw lots of streaks in the windshield. I used to do much better work.

I plan to go back to the Saturday evening service at the nearby Methodist church. I have talked to several people and found that it is a common practice in Frisco to have a projection screen and show messages in the church.

Troubled

2007-03-16T14:26:00.001-05:00

Yesterday evening's episode with the Windows Media Player and the call to Sony tech support continues to bother me. The problem was fixed. That is good. How it got fixed is the unknown. The best answer I can come up with is that Norton Internet Security was somehow preventing Media Player from running. Disabling Norton while the computer was not on the Internet apparently allowed Media Player to work. When Norton was turned back on, the Media Player still worked.

Sony has quite a few programs installed on this computer that are used for music and video editing. One is called SonicStage. Version 4.2 is installed on the computer. Sony's tech support website says 4.2 is incompatible with Windows Vista. They now have Version 4.3 available for download. Here is where it gets sticky. They have a table that shows 4.3 working with Vista Home Premium but not with Vista Business. I have Vista Business. What am I supposed to do? I emailed Sony. I got back an irrelevant reply that told me where to download a driver and they apologized for my pc not working. My pc is doing just fine, thank you very much. I just want to make sure it stays that way. I have not attempted to load SonicStage Ver. 4.2 nor download Ver. 4.3. I will not do either until I receive clarification.

I have updated my spreadsheets where I keep my financial data. I now know how much damage the recent stock market gyrations did to my portfolio, I was relieved to see that the damage is relatively minor. I am able to edit my spreadsheets, but there are a number of commands on the menus that I really have a hard time finding. When I have several spreadsheets open at the same time I now have to find a window tab on a certain toolbar. The old way seemed much more sensible. I guess I am old and set in my ways.

I have been neglecting my routine chores. The cupboard is almost bare. The batteries in both of my wristwatches have died. My glasses are out of adjustment and hurt my nose. I have to get out of the house, away from the pc and take care of these things. I did manage to order a short-sleeved shirt from L.L. Bean yesterday. This morning I ordered a pair of shoes. The online merchants must have missed me while I was without a pc.

It is time for another meet your neighbor social tonight. The months are rolling by. I checked my records. It was March 20th last year that I signed the sales contract for the new house. I just could not repeat what I have done n the past twelve months.

Sony Tech Support

2007-03-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

I was hoping that I would never have to call Sony tech support, but tonight it became necessary. Yesterday I had listened to a mp3 file in Windows Media Player. The computer has the new version 11. It worked without problem. I had to go through some initial setup the first time that it loaded. This evening I double clicked the icon to start Media Player and absolutely nothing happened. I tried to open the program from the Start menu. Again nothing. I put an audio CD in the drive. I clicked to open in Windows Media Player. Nothing happened.

I was forced to make the dreaded phone call for tech support. I had a very short wait. A man with a slight Hispanic accent answered. I told him about the problem. He had me try several things. Then he told me to run the Windows restore option. Yesterday 3 Microsoft Windows updates were installed on the computer. The restore process started. While waiting for the restore to complete, I asked the tech where he was located. He said he was in Florida. I told him it was good to talk to someone who was in the U.S. At that point the pc had rebooted and there was a message that said the restore did not complete. Before I started the restore the tech had me turn the WiFi switch on the front of the computer to off so I was not on the Internet. He then had me go into the Norton Internet Security and turn off the protection. At that point I clicked on the Media Player icon and the Media Player loaded. I put a CD in the drive and music played. I turned on the Norton security software and put the WiFi switch in the on position. Media Player still works and I was able to connect to the Internet immediately. I do not understand what was the cause of the problem.

I was worried that the Microsoft updates that I installed yesterday were uninstalled. The tech told me they were still there. After I hung up I went to the Windows Update page and did everything I could to check for installed updates. It appears that yesterday's updates are still installed.

I had read that Windows Vista Business edition ships with the administrator privileges disabled. I told the tech that I was planning on buying a new printer and would need administrator privileges to install the printer. He said they were enabled. He told me to check and double check that the printer I purchase has the Vista drivers. He said right now Vista is very fragile. I told him I was researching every piece of software before I installed it. He said I was doing the proper thing.

I had found an article on how to enable administrator privileges in Windows Vista Business edition. I had written down the instructions it is a nine-step process that takes you deep into the bowels of Vista. I went through the steps and found the screen where the privileges can be enabled. The tech was wrong. Administrator privileges are not enabled on this computer. I left them turned off; but if I find myself in a situation where I need the privileges I do know how to enable them.

This afternoon I listened to Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson's Security Now podcast. Steve Gibson had been skeptical regarding some of the security measures Microsoft was implementing in Vista, but today he has changed his tune. He was saying mostly favorable things regarding the security of Vista. It is the security changes that are causing so many software and hardware incompatibilities. On the surface Vista does look very different from XP, but there are major changes under the hood.

Another Good Day

2007-03-15T12:39:00.001-05:00

I continue to be very pleased with the new pc. I have read comments about how Vista is much slower than XP. I am finding just the opposite, but I did shell out quite a few pennies for a very hefty piece of hardware. The website for Frisco Lakes homeowners was terribly slow on my old computer. I have heard several people say the same thing. I am truly amazed that my new Vista machine zips through the website.

I am waiting for Canon to release the ImageCLASS MF4690. I have decided to go ahead and buy it locally so it will be easier to return in case of problems. This device has a very unique feature. You can plug a thumb drive into a USB port on the printer. It will scan documents in a number of formats and store the files on the thumb drive. You can then copy the files off of the thumb drive on to a pc. Processing of the scanned images can be done on the printer and does not have to involve the computer.

Speaking of thumb drives I started readying about Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature. Vista can use the flash memory in a thumb drive to speed up a number of Vista functions. Sandisk has partnered with Microsoft for the ReadyBoost feature. Sandisk is going to start shipping a new line of Cruzer Contour thumb drives that have much faster flash memory than is in current thumb drives. They are going to have high prices, but they come in a number of different sizes up to 8gb.

I have turned my computer into a big iPod. I took the earphones off the iPod and plugged them into the computer. I am listening to podcasts that I have missed over the past six weeks. One day Apple will release a fully Vista compatible version of iTunes, and I will again be able to use the iPod.

2007-03-14T06:10:00.001-05:00

000001
Those are the last six digits of the serial number on my new computer. That scared me silly when I saw that. It is amazing that it has run for six days with so few problems. I think it is a real tribute to Sony that it is running so smoothly. They must have put the extra month they took after the introduction of Vista to good use.

I did have a problem with the computer yesterday. I went ahead and installed the Palm Desktop software so I could sync my PDA. Palm said the Desktop was working for the basic PIM functions, but the third party software such as Documents to Go were not compatible with Vista. The bad part was the Palm software automatically installs Documents to Go along with the Palm Desktop. I went through the sync steps and attached the PDA to the computer after installing the software. The sync was successful but generated error messages pertaining to Documents to Go. The computer behaved normally until I shut it down.

We had a very severe thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. When the sky darkened, I shut the computer down. After the worst of the storm, I turned the computer on. I noticed a message in the task bar that said some programs were blocked at startup. Then I found that I could not connect to the wireless network. The less than helpful Vista diagnostics said to call the ISP or network administrator. I was able to connect to the network with the Palm. I checked the device manager and found no hardware problems with the network adapter and the little WiFi LED on the computer was illuminated. I called AT&T's DSL number. When I told the tech that I was running Vista, she put me on hold for a lengthy time while she searched for Vista support information. She came back and led me through steps that I had already done. She then told me to call the computer support line.

I shut the computer down and rebooted. This time I was able to click on the error message before it disappeared. It brought up a window that listed all the programs that load at startup. I noticed DataViz was listed. They are the publisher of Documents to Go. I unchecked that program and rebooted. This time there was no error message and the pc connected to the network. I decided to again sync the Palm. It hung when it attempted to sync Documents to Go. It would not respond to the command to cancel. In desperation I finally disconnected the USB cable. The computer straightened out. I had to do a soft reset on the Palm, but no data was lost. I then went into Control Panel and uninstalled Documents to Go. I again synced the Palm and this time it zipped through the process with no errors.

I did more reading on the problems of iTunes with Vista. Apple released version 7.1 of iTunes last week. It addresses some of the problems with Vista but is not a complete cure. I read some awful stories of how iTunes messes up Vista. Some reported that when they attempt to burn a CD with iTunes the computer looses the ability to find the drive. After reading that I have decided to wait until Apple relased a fully compatible version of iTunes. I don't want anymore trouble.

I do have one piece of good news. This morning when I checked my AMEX account I saw that a credit from HP for the returned service policy posted to my account. That ugly episode is now closed.

Approaching Normal

2007-03-13T06:44:00.001-05:00

The more I use the new computer, the more I like it. I have had no problems with Vista crashing. It seems very solid. It just needs more compatible hardware and software. I am gradually updating my financial spreadsheets. I filled in all the missing information where I keep my checkbook. It balances with the bank! I was without a computer for almost six weeks. I need to read the Dummies book on Office 2007. The menus in Word and Excel are very different than older versions. I am lost.

Yesterday morning when I looked out the window I saw that the redbud tree had bloomed overnight. The grass is beginning to turn green. I am glad that spring is here. I had not experienced such cold weather for many years, and I found I did not like it.

This evening the photography club is having its first meeting. I hope it develops into a group that I will like. I noticed the cheap movie in Plano is showing Happy Feet. I didn't see it when it was in the first-run theaters. I am debating whether I want to go there this afternoon. It is supposed to rain, and I do not want to get my clean car dirty.

Still Adjusting

2007-03-12T10:40:00.001-05:00

I spent yesterday afternoon looking at the manual for the new Sony Vaio. I must say I am very impressed with the computer. I would say the Sony is the Lexsus and the HP dv9000T is the Lincoln. When you compare a Japanese luxury car to an American luxury car, it is obvious that the Americans just do not put as much thought into the details. I am seeing the same type of differences in the high-end notebook pc's. The Sony has very handy, but unobtrusive buttons, to adjust the speaker volume, eject a CD, etc. The keyboard is has a much better layout. There is much less junk software installed on it. The HP tried to sign me up for all kinds of services the only time it booted. There was none of that on the Sony.

Since I am having such a good experience with the Japanese-designed computer, I decided to look for an all-in-one laser printer from a Japanese company. I read a review in PC Magazine for a Canon ImageClass MF 5770. It received the Editor;s Choice award. I then looked at the Canon website and found that it has the usual problem. It is not yet supported under Vista. I then found an announcement on the Canon website of a new MF 4690. It will start shipping in April. The website did not designate which Windows versions are supported. I did some more searching and found detailed specs on the PC Connection website. It lists Windows Vista as a supported operating system. I emailed Canon to confirm the Vista support. I got back an email that said they could not comment on product that had not shipped but gave me a phone number for their pre-sales department. I called. After much searching the man found the same specs I had seen on the PC Connection site.

My advice is if you are thinking about upgrading to Windows Vista, wait a while.

High-Tech Church in Frisco

2007-03-11T10:24:00.001-05:00

I went to the Saturday evening church service at the Methodist church that is close to my house. The congregation was formed in 1999. Like most things in Frisco it is new and high-tech. When I walked in, I noticed that people took the invitation to come in the clothes they wore for Saturday yard work very seriously. The majority of the people were young couples with children, but I saw a few who looked like they would be eligible to live in Frisco Lakes. After I sat down, I noticed there was a screen mounted high above the altar. Church announcement and slides were being shown. It was very similar to all of the ads that are rotated at a movie theater before the show starts. I looked up and saw there was a computer projector mounted high in the ceiling.

Instead of having a traditional church choir there was a group of 5 or 6 people up front. Several had guitars. One woman sang. They definitely were not the hymns I am used to in a Methodist Church. When it was close to time for the service to begin, I again looked up at the screen. I saw a Windows Vista desktop that said Vista Home Premium. I watched as the computer operator loaded a presentation to be used during the service. From then on every hymn, every prayer and every scripture reading was shown on the screen. They had a graphic to illustrate the minister's sermon. The sermon was good. The minister is a middle-aged man. His sermon was the only part of the service I considered traditional. There was nothing wrong with the service. It was just very different from what I have been used to.

Is Big Brother Watching Me?

2007-03-11T10:03:00.001-05:00

After spending the second day with the new Sony with Vista Business Edition, I have decided Microsoft is keeping an eye on me; and I don't like it. On Friday and early Saturday morning I connected my Seagate external disk drive to the IEEE 1394 port on the Sony. Before doing that I had searched the Vista Help for instructions and found none. I used the same procedure that I had used with XP. After I did that I found the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon and chose to remove the IEEE 1394 device. Both times it worked without problem. Shortly after I turned the new pc on for the first time updates from Microsoft were downloaded and installed. I thought I was all caught up with the updates until the second Tuesday in April. Much to my surprise when I attempted to put the pc in hibernation a message popped up that said it was installing updates and not to turn off the computer. I waited. The pc powered off by itself. I turned it back on and it came up with a message that said it was configuring updates. I went to the Windows Update History and found that a patch for the IEEE 1394 port when using an external hard drive had been installed.

Later in the afternoon I again attached the hard drive. This time when I was ready to dismount the drive, a completely different window popped up. It listed my device. I clicked on it and second window opened that said it would attempt to dismount the drive. By now I was scared. What would I do if I could not dismount the drive? Finally another window opened and said it was safe to remove the drive. I know Microsoft had detected that I had an external drive and sent a very customized patch to me.

Later in the afternoon I encountered more Microsoft intrusion into my life. I could not find any games on my computer. The old familiar solitaire game was no where to be found. I had read that Microsoft jazzed up solitaire for Vista, and I wanted to see it. Finally I Googled Vista Business Edition Games. There were a number of articles. One gave a step-by-step procedure for enabling the games on Vista Business Edition. Microsoft has hidden them because their corporate clients to do want their employees wasting time playing games. I am a retiree. I paid for this computer with my own money. If I want to waste the remainder of my life playing solitaire, it is my business.

I loaded up solitaire and again I became frustrated with Microsoft. The new version has new sounds like cards are being dealt. I am still having a little trouble using the touchpad. I slipped and attempted to move a card to an incorrect location. Instead of just beeping and preventing the move, a scolding window opened and scolded me for making an illegal move. I then had to close the window. When I got to the point there were no more moves, a window opened and told me there were no more moves and gave me the choice of replaying the game or exiting. When I chose exit, the game closed. I opened and tried again. This I closed the window and chose new game from the regular Windows menu. I do not consider these changes improvements. I feel like Microsoft is harassing me.

Adapting to the New Computer

2007-03-10T07:21:00.001-06:00

The new computer powered on and booted without problem this morning. Contrary to what I have been reading Vista booted rather rapidly. Web pages seem to load much faster, too, than my old Sony. I have been using a new Dell notebook at the community center that runs XP. The community center is using AT&T DSL which is the same as I have in my home. The Sony Vaio with Windows Vista is considerably faster. The only problem I am having is adjusting to the touchpad on the Vaio. I changed the mouse pointer speed so that is faster than the default and that seems to have helped. I think HP had a better placement of the mouse buttons, but so far that is the only thing that was better about the HP. I copied my Favorites from the external drive to the new computer. I was able to visit all the websites that are part of my normal morning routine without problem. The only problem is I have been without a computer for so long I have forgotten what the normal morning routine is.

I checked my American Express account this morning, and they have removed the temporary credit they put on my account when I opened the dispute with HP. That is all right, but I do not consider the dispute resolved until I receive the credit for the service policy. I am fairly confident that will be no problem.

The paper documentation that came with the Sony is practically nil. I found the manual that resides on the hard drive. It is 187 pages in PDF format. It is an excellent manual. There is a separate manual that explains how the RAID technology is set up on the drives. I am really curious about that and as time permits to try to read and understand the manual.

This morning I am going to the community breakfast. I get up at 5 AM every morning. I didn't think I could last until 9 AM for breakfast so I went ahead and had a cup of coffee and an English muffin. I hope that will hold me over.

Yesterday I read about a Methodist church in a Frisco newsletter that has services at 5:30 PM on Saturday. The dress is casual. I read the information on the church's website. It said feel free to wear the clothes you have on for your yard work. I know of a church in Beaumont that had a service for people in casual attire. It must be a trend that is catching on. I am going to go to the service this evening and check it out. The church is fairly close to Frisco Lakes.

My Data Is Safe

2007-03-09T16:18:00.001-06:00

I had backed up my old computer to my external disk drive about an hour before the old computer died on January 27. I have been wondering if the years of my life that are stored on that drive could be retrieved. The HP computer died before I could connect the external drive. This afternoon I connected the Seagate drive to the firewire port on the new computer. It recognized the drive without problem. I copied some of photos to the new computer. I am not going to copy any sensitive data to the new computer until I have gained confidence in it. I viewed some of my Hawaii, Charleston and Savannah pictures as a slide show. I am so glad I spent the extra money for the higher resolution adapter. Even the product of my poor photographic efforts was breath taking on the new computer.

It Is A Very Good Day

2007-03-09T11:57:00.001-06:00

This morning when I got up I called American Express to check on my card activity. I was surprised to hear that I again had a large credit balance. I checked the recent activity and a credit for approximately $100 less than the price of the HP computer had posted. I rushed to shower and dress. Then I went to the community center to use a pc. I logged onto American Express and saw that HP had indeed issued a credit for the second pc. I checked the order status and saw that HP had assigned a return order no. to the pc that FedEx sent back to them yesterday. They had not given me credit for the service policy. When I went back home. I called HP customer service and told them I needed to return the service policy since the computer had already been returned. It took some time, but the woman finally gave me a return authorization number. She arranged for FedEx to pick up the envelope on Monday between 1-5 PM. I will get a credit for the full $108.24 that I was charged for their worthless service policy.

I settled down to wait for the delivery of my new Sony Vaio. A little before ten the doorbell rang. A man was returning to a yellow rented Penske truck. He had just dropped the package and did not wait for my signature. The FedEx tracking information had stated that a signature was required. There was a label on the box that said contract delivery. It appears that FedEx is now outsourcing their deliveries. In addition someone had drawn a map on the box on how to find my street. Any way the box appeared to be in good shape.

I opened the box and removed the contents. I installed the battery, plugged the power adapter in, pressed the power button and held my breath. Sony has Vista setup so it is ready for use much faster than the way HP had installed Vista on the first computer. I connected to my WiFi network. The computer downloaded the Windows updates. I updated the Norton Security software. I then shut the computer down. It was at this point that the HP had permanently died. After a few minutes, I again pressed the power button. Vista is rather slow to boot, but the computer did exactly what it was supposed to.

I purchased the Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student addition. It appeared that only a 60 day trail version was installed. I loaded Excel and it asked for a product key. At that point I called for product support. While I was on hold, I picked up the Microsoft Office CD and saw a product key on the back of the disk envelope. At that point a tech support person answered. She confirmed that the product key on the back of the disk was what I should use. I then typed in the key and all is well.

I was expecting the Vaio to have a lower Windows Experience Index than the HP since it has slower disk drives. Much to my surprised all of the numbers are higher than on the HP. All of the HP numbers were 4+. The Sony disk drive has a 5.5 and its graphics have a 5.6. 5.9 is the highest possible score. All I can say is WOW!

I made made two changes to the Sony that I did not have on the HP. I upgraded to Windows Vista Business edition in order to get the fax, scan and backup programs. I decided they were more important to me than the entertainment features in Windows Vista Home Premium. Sony did not offer the Windows Vista Ultimate edition. I also upgraded the graphics controller to one that can display the WUXGA resolution. It is comparable to what I had on my old computer.

I am very, very happy now.

Lucky Break?

2007-03-07T13:26:00.001-06:00

The second HP pc, which I had canceled, arrived in Dallas this morning. I was prepared to refuse the shipment. I had a pen and notebook at the front door. I intended to ask the driver for identification and record all the details. I also had my digital camera nearby to take his picture. By now you must be getting the idea I was very uneasy about refusing to accept the package. Around 9 AM I again checked the FedEx tracking information and this time it said delivery exception "incorrect address". The same thing had happened with the first HP pc. I had called FedEx immediately, assured them they had the correct address and gave them directions to my house. This time I saw no point in having them bring the package to me so I could refuse it. I went to a home owners orientation meeting this morning. When I got back home around 11:15, I again checked the FedEx tracking information and saw that at 8:46 AM they returned the package to the shipper, and it showed the new tracking number. The package is being sent priority overnight and is scheduled to be delivered in Memphis, TN, tomorrow. This is the same HP facility where the first pc was returned. Now I hope that Amex will be able to rapidly resolve the dispute and make the credit to my account permanent. This is really strange that FedEx is still having trouble with my address. There must be a special group that handles international packages which has not been updated on the new streets, but this time I am not complaining. I really think it is just plain crazy that HP is shipping computers directly from China to the end consumer.

Sony sent me a confirmation that they have shipped the pc along with a FedEx tracking number. It is scheduled for delivery on Friday. I will again be closely monitoring the FedEx tracking info. If I see a delivery exception, I will run to the phone. The Sony pc is only traveling from San Diego, CA. I had Googled "HP, problems, dv9000T, disputes." I found all kinds of people who have had bad experiences. I did the same thing with "Sony, Vaio, problems, AR, disputes" and found very little. Some day this will all be over and my life will be back to normal

I Feel Stick

2007-03-05T13:46:00.000-06:00

Much to my dismay the last time I checked the HP order status I found that the computer has now shipped. I again called American Express and read the emails to the agent. I again was told to refuse delivery of the package. I was so agitated I again called HP and tried to contact Katherine Wapner, the CTO Escalation Manager, who had emailed me several times. I again was transferred and ended up with just a regular customer service representative. He said if I refused delivery of the package it could take up to two months to get my account credited. He said I had 21 days to return the package. All I have to do is call and get an RMA and they will pick up the next day. I again called AMEX. They said even though HP is a large reputable company he had seen cases where their word to authorize a return was not kept. He said he still advised me to refuse delivery and try to get a receipt from FedEx. I did not think FedEx would issue a receipt. I called FedEx and confirmed this. I started searching on the Internet for a phone number for Katherine Wapner. Her name appears on several websites. I started reading the horror stores about shopping experience with HP Home Shopping. It was enough to make me feel nauseated. After again considering the alternative I am going to follow the advice of American Express and refuse delivery. From what I have read I am taking the proper course of action by disputing the charge through the credit card company.

2007-03-05T08:10:00.000-06:00

Every few hours I check the order status on the HP website to see if a tracking number has been posted. So far it still has the same old message with a Feb. 27 estimated shipping date and says the tracking number will be posted upon shipment. I feel quite relieved that the pc apparently did not ship on Sunday. I have copies of all the emails regarding the cancellation printed and ready to mail to American Express.

Every morning I check the activity on my credit cards and note the information on my Palm calendar. I ordered the HP computer on Jan. 30. On Jan. 31 the charge posted to my credit card even though they did not ship the computer until Feb. 8. I am already having a much better experience with Sony. Their website clearly states your credit card will not be charged until the product ships. I can tell they have obtained an authorization on my card, but no charge has posted. The estimated ship date on the Sony is March 7. The order status still shows the computer as out of stock so I will not be surprised if the shipment is delayed. I am prepared to wait.

I have ordered the Sony computer from the Sony Style website. I checked their store location this morning and found that there is a Sony Style store in the Dallas Galleria. If problems develop with the Sony, perhaps I will be able to take it to the Sony Style store. I am optimistic that the Sony will be problem free. My old Vaio went four years and eight months with heavy use without one problem.

Lost All Confidence in HP

2007-03-03T08:59:00.000-06:00

On Thursday morning I received an email from the escalation manager at HP telling me that the shipment of the second pc was delayed until March 8. She said it would ship no later that ten business days after the original shipping date. She said I could reply to the email with my order number to cancel and I would receive a prompt refund. I immediately sent an email informing her that I wished to cancel. My reply was sent slightly over five hours after her email had been sent. She had also given me the option to call to cancel. Just to make sure I called the number and was transferred three times before I completed the cancellation process.

Late yesterday afternoon I got an email from the escalation manager telling me the computer would ship on Sunday. I immediately replied that I had both emailed and called to cancel the order. I told her "DO NOT SHIP". She did write back and say she would attempt to get the order canceled before shipment, and if unsuccessful, she would attempt to have FedEx reroute the package to their warehouse. I called American Express and told them the computer may be shipped to me. They advised me to refuse delivery and tell the driver to return the package to the sender since the computer is being shipped after the dispute case was opened.

On Thursday after I thought I had successfully canceled the HP computer I found that Sony is now offering the customizable Vaio AR. I placed an order. This computer is shown as out of stock but Sony is estimating that it will ship on March 7. I hope I do not get stuck with two very expensive computers. I am documenting every email and every call. HP will have a major battle ahead of them if they do not refund my money. I hate to get caught in disputes. This is the worst customer service experience I have had in my entire life.

Yesterday I went to CompUSA and saw a Sony Vaio AR with Windows Vista. The Sony and the HP dv9000 series are very similar. I only used the HP for a few hours before it died, but I did find the keyboard very annoying because there is a small right shift key. The Sony has a much better keyboard layout. When my old computer died, I called Sony to find out when they would offer customizable AR's. They said they would be available on March 1. At the time I did not think I could go without a computer for that length of time. Well I have been forced to endure without one and have found rather creative ways of coping. Sony kept their word and did offer the AR's on March 1. I hope they continue to fulfill their estimates.

While I was at CompUSA I looked at the all-in-one laser printers. I saw the HP Laserjet 3055 which I had been considering. It looks like it is top heavy with a scanner perched on top of the printer. I have found a Dell all-in-one laser printer that looks promising. I went over to the mall where Dell has a kiosk in hopes of seeing the printer. They did not have one on display but the salesman was very familiar with the model I am considering. He told me Dallas is the only city in the U.S. where Dell maintains a walk-in service facility.

Livid

2007-02-28T16:11:00.000-06:00

The second pc from HP was supposed to have shipped yesterday. I have not received a tracking number. I have made several calls to HP today to no avail. I finally called American Express and opened a dispute case. The AMEX representative was very nice and sounded as though he was very familiar with the way HP treats their customers. He said after a dispute is opened it is usually resolved within a couple of days, but he cautioned me that it could take six to eight weeks to resolve. Either way I will get a computer or get my money back. This is the worst customer service experience I have endured in my entire life, and I have been around for a long time.

The order status has shown the computer as being in production for four or five days. The first computer was shown as in production for only one day and the next day the order status showed the FedEx tracking number. I am wondering if the Chinese plant has encountered production problems and the assembly line has been shutdown.

On Saturday Dallas had a wind and dust storm. Winds gusted to 50-60 mph. I watched as shingles blew off of my neighbors' houses. I do not think my house lost any shingles, but I want a roofer to check it out. I am worried about the ridge row vent being loosened. That happened to my house in Beaumont before my new roof was put on. Water came in under the ridge row vent and caused sheetrock damage. I was very disgusted when Meagan told me that Pulte does not cover wind damage if the winds exceed 40 mph. She said that is an act of God, but they are going to make a one-time exception. 40 mph is just a gentle breeze compared to the 12+ hour beating my Beaumont house took with winds up to 110 mph during Hurricane Rita. The roof did not lose one shingle. I wish the roof on my new house were half as good.

Monday morning I noticed a plumber working on the house across the street. One of my outside faucets has stopped working. I had called Meagan about the faucet. I asked the plumber if I was on his list. He said he was there to replace all the pressure regulators on the street because quite a few failed. I left home. When I got back, the first thing I noticed was the toilet would not stop running. I checked the second bathroom and that toilet also had the same problem. I was able to stop the water flow my lifting up the float arm. I called Meagan and told her. She said that was not an emergency. I told if I had to fish in the toilet tank at 2 AM, it was an emergency. She said an emergency was when the floor was covered with water. Anyway the plumber arrived at my house around noon yesterday. He adjusted the toilets and also reduced the pressure of the water inlet to the house some. He checked the outside faucet and said it would have to be replaced. He did not have one with him. He said he would return on Thursday.

I Am Still Here

2007-02-22T08:12:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that it has been a whole week since I have written anything for the blog. I am adapting to life without a pc. The second new pc should arrive a week from today. On Monday I received the second expedited warranty kit. I could hardly believe my eyes on Tuesday when the doorbell rang and the missing box to send the first pc back in for repairs finally arrive 7 days later than it should have according to the terms of the expedited warranty. I was able to catch the UPS driver and tell him I was refusing the delivery and to return the box to the sender. The first pc was delivered back to HP on Monday. I am hoping the second pc will be perfect, and I will never have to call HP for service.

Right now I am using a pc in the Frisco Lakes community center computer room. I can walk to the community center. This is the first time I have been able to use a pc here. The first time I tried the room was locked. The second time I tried I found that the pc's required a password and no one was able to tell me what to use. This morning I learned the pw.

I am becoming very familiar with the 800 numbers for various financial institutions. I have been able to pay a couple of bills by punching in numbers on the phone. I feel like I have returned to the dark ages.

My neighbors have been away for a few days. I have been picking up their mail and newspapers. They told me to read their newspapers. That has helped to fill the news void created by the lack of a pc. I am also working the Sudoku puzzle that is in the newspaper. I usually work the puzzles online.

Earlier in the week I joined the Frisco Senior Center. They have a really nice 11,000 sq. ft. facility at Frisco Square. A 6,000 sq. ft. addition to the building has been started. The building is brick and has the same style of architecture as the rest of Frisco Square. I visited the senior center in Beaumont one time. It was a decrepit old building that looked like it was donated World War II barracks. I never went back after one look. The Frisco Senior Center has computers, a number of classes, exercise classes, games, movies and lectures. It has exercise machines that are almost as nice as what we have at Frisco Lakes. There is no pool. Every month they have a several day trips. I signed up to go to the Science Museum and IMAX movie in late March. They are having trip to East Texas to see the dogwood and azaleas in bloom in March. That trip was full, but I put my name on a waiting list.

LAWYER! SUE!

2007-02-15T15:54:00.000-06:00

Those were the words that were running through my head at this time yesterday when no box had arrived. I called HP's support line to try and get a tracking number on the box. The day time calls for support are routed to Mexico complete with lots of static on the phone lines. The so called tech could not find a tracking number for the return box. He said call back in 24 hours. I told him I had paid for an expedited service policy on the computer, and they were supposed to turn it around in 3 days. I asked him if he understood. He said, "Yes, Sally I understand you are frustrated." I said you are pathetic. Do you understand what that means? He said "yes, Sally I understand you are frustrated."

On my first call on Monday night the tech. had told me that Circuit City, Best Buy and Radio Shack were authorized HP service centers. I loaded the pc in the car and took it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I talked to a very nice older man. He attempted to turn the pc on and saw the brief flash of the power light and then nothing. He said they could handle the warranty repair, but it would be sent to Kentucky and then in turn would be sent to HP. He said my best bet was to get the box from HP and let them handle the repair.

I went back home and read all the fine print in the service agreement. The sorry part about this agreement is there is not a special phone number for the expedited service on notebook computers. You have to use the same number that send you to India or Mexico. When the call is answered, the tech's don't know what expedited service means. The previous day I had a terrible time getting the expedited service activated because it is supposed to be done online or by fax. Since I was without a working pc I called the number the tech. in India had given me. I had to beg the rude man to activate the service over the phone.

After I got back home, I again called the phone number I had used to activate the policy. I gave the woman who answered an ear full of my troubles. She said my problem needed to be escalated. She gave me another 800 number and told me to choose option 7. I called the number and was put on hold and then cut off. Steam was coming out of my ears. I called again and punched 7. This time a man answered and said he was in HP's corporate headquarters. He was very curt and would not listen to me but said he recommended I return the computer and place a new order for a new computer since the first had failed in such a short time. He transferred me to Mexico. This person had excellent command of English. He placed the order. He wanted to send me FedEx shipping labels. I told him I had no way to print them out. He called FedEx and arranged for next day pickup. He read the order to me for the new computer. I told him I needed a new expedited service policy since the first one had been activated with the serial number of the pc that was to be returned. He said he was taking care of that.

I then went to the Frisco library and checked the new orders and return order. There was also a confirming email from FedEx saying the package would be picked up between 1 and 5 PM on 2/15. I printed the new pc order and the return order and the FedEx email and took them home. When I got home,I saw one small item had been left off the order for the replacement pc. It is just a pair of earbud earphones which I will probably never use. I called the number of HP headquarters. I talked to a very nice lady. At last I found someone nice at HP. I told her about the omission, and she said she would take care of it. This nice lady said I would call the special number any time I have a problem in the future.

At 2 PM the FedEx truck pulled up to my house. The driver printed the shipping label and gave me a receipt. The new pc is to be built on or before Feb. 27, and I was told to allow two days for shipping. At least I have put the thoughts of lawyer and sue on hold.

I have spent so much time on the HP support line I never was able to write in the blog what went wrong with the pc. The new computer was delivered around 4:30 PM on Monday. I unpacked the computer. There was a note inside the computer that said Vista would take approximately 25 minutes to load the first time and not to attempt to shutdown or reboot during the start up. I sat back and watched as Vista did its thing. Finally it was ready for me to do some work. I chose a user name, pw and named the computer. I named the computer "Black-Beauty" because at that point that was what I thought of it.

I clicked on the wireless network icon in the task bar and entered my encryption key. It worked perfectly. In no time at all I was notified that Windows updates were ready to be installed. I clicked to have them install. The computer rebooted and all was well. In spite of the fact that I had not purchased the Norton security software, HP had installed a trial version anyway. I went ahead and signed up for a 60-day free trail and let it do its install. Again it all went well. Then I loaded Microsoft Excel. A screen popped up to activate Microsoft Office online. This process failed but gave a telephone number to call. I called and stepped through an automated menu which gave me a code to enter. This attempt to activate was successful. I used Excel for a while. I loaded my spreadsheet with my most important financial data from a CD and updated the information. I then saved the spreadsheet to the pc's hard drive. I then loaded Internet Explorer. I accessed by bank and downloaded my last statement in PDF format. Everything was going so well, and I was so happy to have such a beautiful pc. I thought about connecting my external disk drive and copying over all my photos, music, scanned data, etc., but I was getting tired. It was about 7 PM, and I shut the pc down. The shutdown was via the menu and was completely normal. It was very similar to the way Windows XP shuts down. I was glad that I had found no problems with Vista. I had checked the Vista performance index on my pc and stacked my windows and saw the touted Aero 3D display. All was well.

Around 9 PM I decided to go back and play some more with my new toy. I pressed the power button. There was a brief flash of the power light and then nothing. I removed the battery and tried again. Same result. I unplugged the computer and tried to start it on the battery only. Nothing. I tried a couple of different electrical outlets. I then called HP and was on hold for 73 minutes before the first tech in India answered. I had an extremely hard time communicating with him. I was frantic thinking about the financial data I had copied to the hard disk.

I do not think I slept at all on Monday night. Actually is was Tuesday morning by the time I went to bed. The next morning as soon as the financial institutions opened I was calling and changing ID's and PW's. I left a message for my personal adviser at the bank. I had already changed my banking ID and PW. He called back and tried to reassure me that my risk was very small. My accounts are insured and the bank has many safeguards in place.

I then borrowed my neighbor's little notebook computer. I finished changing passwords on my accounts and paid a couple of online bills. Earlier I had made a second support call that landed in India. This woman had me get a phillips screwdriver and remove compartments on the back of the pc. She wanted me to reseat the memory simm's. She was absolutely nuts. I told her I wanted to get busy and get the pc packed up for repairs. She told me a hardware tech would call me back within the hour. I waited 3.5 hours and received no call. I then called again and the call was answered in Mexico. This tech supposedly sent up the order for a box to be sent to me--the box that still has not arrived. I again explained that I had purchased the expedited service policy. By then I was almost sick. I fell asleep in my recliner while I watched my soap opera.

Now I am in waiting mode again. If all goes well, Black-Beauty2 should be delivered two weeks from today. I imagine the first Black Beauty will be repaired and show up on HP's website where they sell refurbished pc's. It will have a substantially lower price than I paid. I do not know if I would consider buying that computer. I do not have a clue as to what caused it to fail. It may be something was shook loose during the trip from China, or it might be some bad soldering. I will never know the answer.

$2,600 Paper Weight

2007-02-14T07:25:00.000-06:00

I am waiting for FedEx to deliver a box so I can ship the new PC back
to HP. I am not happy.

Update

2007-02-10T11:14:00.000-06:00

This may be my last trip to the library to use a computer. The new computer has arrived in Dallas after a quick trip from China. I called FedEx before coming to the library. The computer was traveling to the local facility in Irving at that time. I talked to a representative and was assured it would not be delivered today so I assumed it was safe to go out. The estimated delivery date is by 10:30 AM on Tuesday, but I am confident that it will arrive on Monday.

On Thursday I went to the dentist here in Frisco. His hygienist is a graduate of Lamar University in Beaumont and lived in Orange. She said she has not met very many people from Southeast Texas in Frisco. It turned out she interned in the office of my old dentist in Nederland. Her mother now is a patient of that dentist. They did a full-mouth X-ray of my teeth and found no problems. I will go back in six months.

Yesterday I did my weekly shopping. I bought the new Rowenta iron at Bed, Bath and Beyond. It is one hefty iron but is fairly easy to handle. I finished the ironing I was doing which was interrupted when I destroyed my old iron. I was really surprised to see that the new iron was made in Germany. It seems like all the products with U.S. or European brands now come from China.

Before my old computer died I had found on the Woolite website that they make a high efficiency version for washers that require HE products. The warranty on my Kenmore Elite Oasis washer is void if I use non-HE detergents. Both times that a service technician has come to my house, the first thing they did was grab my bottle of Tide and check to see that it was HE. I had checked several stores for the Woolite HE and been unable to find it. This morning I stopped in Kroger, and they had the Woolite HE.

Cold weather has returned to Dallas. By mid-February signs of spring are usually apparent in Southeast Texas. The lawn and garden stores will be well stocked by this time. I am really ready for some warmer weather.

Interesting Journey

2007-02-10T08:08:00.000-06:00

My new computer's travels are amazing.

Feb 10, 2007 5:49 AM DALLAS, TX/At dest sort facility
5:02 AM INDIANAPOLIS, IN/Departed FedEx location
3:20 AM INDIANAPOLIS, IN/Int'l shipment release
Feb 9, 2007 11:57 PM INDIANAPOLIS, IN/Arrived at FedEx location
1:24 PM ANCHORAGE, AK/Departed FedEx location
12:07 PM ANCHORAGE, AK/Arrived at FedEx location
Feb 8, 2007 5:30 PM SHANGHAI CN/Left origin
4:37 PM SHANGHAI CN/Picked up

"In Production"

2007-02-07T11:20:00.000-06:00

The order status of my new pc changed to include the above words this morning. It still lists the expected ship date as Feb. 8. I have no idea where HP's assembly facility is located. I hope it is not in China. I hope they are using the Compaq (owned by HP) facilities in Houston. Even FedEx Home should be able to deliver a package in one day from Houston to Dallas. I think it shows that I am really looking forward to the new pc.

Nice weather has returned to Dallas. I turned my lawn sprinklers on this morning. I had not run them for several weeks because of below freezing temperatures. I noticed a couple of sprinkler heads did not pop up. I called Meagan and asked her to schedule a service call. I also reminded her that the extension section in the fireplace vent pipe on the roof had never been painted. It will five months on Friday since I moved into the new house. It does not seem possible.

I am back at the Frisco library. There was a sign on the computer lab door that the facility was reserved until 1 PM for a training class. It said 24 additional pc's are available on the 4th floor. The chairs are not as comfortable up here, but I have a view of Frisco Square and can look across to Pizza Hut Park. The view is nice compensation for the hard chair.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the dentist for my six-month checkup. I hope he does not find any problems. I do not have dental insurance and would hate to get another unexpected bill. The new pc plus the additional software and hardware is straining my budget.

Second Article Today

2007-02-06T11:13:00.000-06:00

My first post of the day has not shown up in the blog yet. Some days are like that. Yesterday I spent some of my library pc time searching for a new iron. My old iron was a Rowenta that I had for 10+ years. I checked Rowenta's website and found their best steam iron is called the Advancer. I checked Amazon.com and read the users' reviews. All but one gave the iron 5*. It almost made me glad I broke my old iron. I then did a Froogle shopping search. Amazon.com is charging full list price. Macy's has the iron on sale for only $10 off through Feb. 19. I then remembered that I have a 20 percent off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I checked their website, and they carry the iron. When I went home, I found the coupon; and it does not expire until Feb. 16. I hope the iron is stocked in the Frisco store. I will go there at the end of the week and combine a stop with the rest of my shopping.

Oh Good Grief

2007-02-06T10:59:00.000-06:00

Now I am really getting mad at Windows Vista. It was bad enough when I learned that my relatively new scanner will not be supported under Vista, but I have now learned something worse. I had Windows XP Home on my old computer, and it did everything I wanted. My new pc will have Windows Vista Home Premium edition on it. Today I learned that Windows FAX and Scan Utility is not a part of Home Premium. It is included only in the Business and Ultimate editions. It is possible to pay more at a later date and unlock the Ultimate edition. I hope that my pc will be capable of being upgraded. I know it was almost impossible to upgrade the pc I had to Windows XP Professional. I used Windows FAX program on the old computer every time I wanted to send a FAX. I really feel cheated.

Yesterday CNN had a piece on their morning business segment about iTunes not working with Vista--stale news. I learned that last week.

I think Microsoft is going to feel a big backlash over the decisions they have made regarding Windows Vista. Vista might really stimulate Mac sales.

Searching

2007-02-05T10:43:00.000-06:00

I am searching for computer hardware and software as usual. Now I am also searching for a new iron. I managed to destroy my iron by knocking it off the ironing board onto the floor. I don't do much ironing any more and am becoming clumsy.

Yesterday, the Frisco Library was closed so I had to amuse myself without a pc. I skimmed the two Dummies books I bought on Saturday. I went over and visited with a neighbor across the street. Fortunately they are not avid football fans so they were not watching the pre-game shows. They have not sold their old house yet. I came home feeling very fortunate that I no longer have that worry.

I read the Dummies book about how to attach a Windows Vista pc to a wireless network. It sounded like it is very similar to the XP procedure. My plan is to start up the pc, check for Windows updates and then purchase Microsoft's OneCare security suite.

I am not a football fan. I turned on the game and told myself I might get to see some clever commercials. I didn't even last until the kickoff before I turned on the DVR and was searching for better entertainment. I caught some of the post game commentary and knew that the Colts won but still have not seen the final score.

I am still lacking one 1099 form so I called the financial company this morning and requested a duplicate. I also called dLink. After reading about networking in the Dummies book, I began to wonder if I could move my laser printer to the room where I have the router, purchase a wired print server with a parallel port and avoid the expense of a new printer. After a lengthy wait on hold, I talked to a man in dLink's technical sales department. He did say that it was necessary to install a driver on the pc, but he avoided answering my question about Vista compatiability. He did tell me that in 4-6 weeks they would be introducing a new line of networking equipment. Right now I want to be able to print. I want to print out a few forms from the IRS website so I can do my income tax.

New Low

2007-02-03T14:13:00.000-06:00

Somehow I have always found the titles of the Dummies series of books offensive. This morning I went to Sam's Club. They had the Dummies books for both Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007. I finally overcame my resistance to the books and bought both. I have started to look at the Vista book and have learned a few things already that should ease my transition to the new software.

I don't know how many times I have thought of something to look up on the Internet, and then had to stop myself from walking to the room where I keep my computer. It was one week ago today that my pc bit the dust. HP's website still shows the estimated ship date for my new computer to be Feb. 8. They shipped the warranty papers via FedEx Home. My hopes are rising that I may have the new computer as early as next Saturday.

I have never liked the all-in-one printer, scanner and fax devices, but I have started to think about one because it takes up less space and costs less than three separate devices. HP has a Laserjet 3055. A limited driver for it ships with Vista. I have not been able to figure out what limited means. I fear that it means the scanner and fax functions are not supported. It is going to take time for all the hardware and software reviews to be published which reveal what works and does not work with Vista.

Vista Is Not for Sissies

2007-02-02T15:18:00.000-06:00

I am back at the library. When I ordered the new pc I declined the Norton security software that HP listed as an option. I have heard too many stories about Norton causing problems. I had decided that I would get Microsoft's OneCare package instead. Microsoft should be in a better position to offer a product that will work with the new operating system. Then I began to think that HP, Dell and Sony were all only offering Norton as the anti-virus software for Vista. I had not checked to find out if there was a Vista compatible version of OneCare. Much to my relief I found that Microsoft started selling OneCare Ver. 1.5 on Jan. 30 in conjunction with the release of Vista. One problem solved.

I will have to buy a new printer since the new computer does not have the old parallel printer port. I have a LaserJet 5P that cost nearly $900 back in 1995. It is old but has never given a problem. Vista is shipping with the necessary driver for the 5P. The only way to continue to use the 5P would be to buy the dLink wireless print server. I do not think I can handle the frustration of getting it to work. I started looking at new LaserJet's. There is a 2600n that is available for less that $300 and is network ready and also prints in color. I thought this sounded like a good deal. Then I checked HP's website and saw the Vista driver will not be ready until July. I will have to explore more printer alternatives.

Then I started looking at HP's website for information on my scanner and Vista. Much to my dismay it said there will be no Vista support for my scanner and had a link to their new Vista compatible scanners. My scanner is less that four years old. Bah Humbug!

This morning FedEx delivered the expedited warranty papers for the new computer. There was a registration card in the package that said the service was void if the card was not filled out completely and returned within ten days. I called HP to tell them I could not fill out the card because I do not know the serial number of the new computer because it is not scheduled to be built until Feb. 8, and it will be well over ten days by the time I receive it. My first call landed in the U.S. That person gave me another number to call. The next call was answered in India. I explained my problem. That person transferred me. I got someone else in India. That person transferred me back to the U.S. Finally the woman I talked to told me to send in the card when I get the pc. Of course I had a 5+ minute hold each time I was transferred.

I have a long list of items to check for compatibilities. My Nikon D70 camera will be the next item I research. Surely I will be able to copy the pictures off the memory card with my existing USB card reader (I hope). Nikon's software has been very bug prone with Windows XP. It will be a long time before I find the courage to install any of their software on the new Vista pc. I am hoping that Adobe will release a new version of Photoshop Elements soon. I trust them more than I do Nikon.

Palm has a detailed page posted that tells what works and what does not work with their software and Vista. They state they are dedicated to releasing new versions of their software that is compatible with Vista as soon as possible. I hope I will be able to mount my Palm TX as a drive and copy the database files to the new pc in order to back them up until the new version of Palm Desktop is available.

I read that Apple, also, has made a statement that they will release a new versions of iTunes as soon as possible.

90 Million iPods

2007-02-02T07:26:00.000-06:00

I read that is how many have been sold since Apple first introduced
them. Now I have learned that iTunes is not compatible with Windows
Vista. iTunes disables the Vista Aero function. It sounds like a
nefarious plot on the part of Apple to cripple Vista sales, As if, the
poor consumer does not already suffer enough,

New PC Ordered

2007-02-01T13:27:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday I ordered a new computer directly from Hewlett Packard. After visiting several computer stores and online browsing, I decided HP had the best offering. Here is what I am getting:


HP Pavilion dv9000t customizable Notebook PC Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz/4MB L2Cache) 17.0" WXGA+ Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1440x900) 512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600 HP Imprint Finish + Microphone + Webcam 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) 200GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (100GB x 2) FREE Upgrade - LightScribe DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network w/Bluetooth No TV Tuner w/remote control 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2007 System Recovery DVD w/Windows Vista Home Premium Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (1 pair) HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I am just about out of time here at the library. I am trying to find out what software I want to install is compatible with Vista. Neither iTunes nor Palm Desktop is ready for Vista.