Internet Woes

My internet connection crapped out before the weekend, and I had to call my ISP and get a technician in.

After three days, 2 new modems (and a partridge in a pear tree), I am finally connected again.

Oh, the withdrawal I've had!

I'm CONSTANTLY online, much to the chagrin of my husband ("You prefer it to sex, don't you" -- hmmm, no comment...LOL) and I have been shaking (literally) as a result, my hands trembling from not typing, from not being connected. It was kind of a good thing, as I got some much needed cleaning around the house, though not enough. I would probably have to be offline for a whole week before I start doing the WHOLE house. But, thank god, it was only three days!

So what sucked about being offline:

One major shoot-me-now was missing out on Clearly Contacts free eyeglasses giveaway this morning. First 500 people in Vancouver to use the emailed code sent this morning would get free eyeglasses. I paid $89 last week to get my prescription updated so that I could get a chance at free eyeglasses. My last pair cost me over $600, granted, they were imported Nikon glass lenses, so FREE sounds good to me. So what I can get a pair of glasses on the site from $38? Isn't it the principle that I COULD get it FREE? Besides, the designer frames on the site do cost closer, if not over, $100, so free or not free, it's a decent deal. I'm just bummed that I couldn't even try and get free glasses, just because my modem crapped out. C'est la vie, non?

And, after finally checking my email after these few days (I got no less, I kid you not, than 100 emails over the weekend), I started getting Comment Spam on my blog. After finally deleting all the comments, I have one thing to say to this commenter: Go spam a Chinese-written blog! For f&*k sakes, how am I and my readers going to read your spam if it's not in friggen English?? Seriously, use SOME marketing skills!

So, now you'll see I've had to moderate my comments for my blog. Don't take offence. I used to think that comment moderation was pointless until now. Now I understand. I hope you do too.

So, I have a few days of catching up on everything: Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. I may need the whole week to feel like myself again; the weekend wasn't the same with my computer!

Email....Oh, Cursed One!

I hate email!

As much as I check in everyday, every minute, to see what comes in, I'm beginning to think that email is the wretched evil mistress of the devil (catch my unintentional Halloween theme?).

There's just way too much of it that it'll take me forever to weed through...yes, when Hell freezes over, I might just be done!

Like many folks, I have a number of email addresses. I have a Hotmail one, which I relegated it to filling out contest forms, Facebook notifications and signing up for various newsletters that I may never read, in anticipation of the notorious Spam that always seems to coincide. I have my ISP-provided one, that used to be for "serious" emails, one that you can still contact me with, and will read because it's feeded into my Gmail account, which is the account I check daily.

And because I can't be bothered to check my Hotmail address for the newsletters I'd like to check in on more frequently than never, I've started to give away my Gmail address to prospective websites.

Based on the kinds of emails I'm sucked into reading each day, I have come to the realization that I actually may have no friends but dozens of social-media philes who send me their newsletters, blog entries, contest details (which I NEVER win! -- that's another post!), coupon/shopping deals-of-the-day, and my choice, not theirs, at that.

I'm inundated!

And because Gmail allows me to "Archive" my emails, and being the obsessive-compulsive person I am, I HAVE to label each received email with a tag (family, friends, funnies, newsletters -- oh, the bain, those newsletters!) before archiving.

You can tell this topic is a major scratch-in-my-ass when I finally take the time to blog and I blog about something like this!

So, now I'm off "reading my emails" again, as I always do each hour, each day, each week of my existence.

Oh, and in case you're wondering...every comment posted sends me an email too! But I like those kind, and will read those first! :P

Another Update - a Vacation, a Netbook, and a Baby.

All I seem to be doing is updates!

I'm finding it difficult to put in some blogging time, as I've been soooo busy lately. With a cousin's wedding, then a quick little vacation, I'm finally back home, trying to get back into Routine.

I'll have to update this post with pics, but I went to my cousin's wedding last weekend. It amazes me, how we're all getting older, us cousins are getting married and starting families and our own family traditions continuing where our parents left off. Being one of the older cousins in town (ok, the oldest one), it warms my heart to witness this all, but breaks it, because life is quickly passing by.

But enough being sappy -- it's almost 2 am and I tend to always get carried away, deeply reflecting on life when all I really need is some chocolate. :)

I just got back from beautiful Kelowna, BC. There are several (maybe only 1 or 2 major ones?) forest fires in the area, but whatever smoke and ash we noticed when we arrived last Tuesday seemed to dissipate since then, or at least we didn't notice it much.


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We had a great stay in a beach home we rented for the past 6 days. The place was kid-friendly, with a private sandy beach and dock, a large yard. The home was pleasantly decorated and provided more than we needed to be comfortable during our stay. If you caught my Tweets on my blog, you would have gotten some updates along the way, including my brief margarita escapades playing a horrible round of Rummy. I guess alcohol and cards don't mix well with me! But it didn't help that I was Facebooking and Twittering at the same on my netbook to pay attention to anything else!

And, yes, folks, I finally got my netbook! An Asus 1005HA-PU1X, the Premium edition. I promised myself that when I hit 130 lbs I would buy one for myself. So, preempting that I would hit the mark during or just before my vacation, I bought one, and playing around with it briefly for a week, not feeling all-deserving of it yet. But last week Tuesday, the morning I left for vacation, I hit 130 lbs! My "official" weigh-in wasn't until Thursday, but it would've been odd to lug a scale with me 300+ km across the province for a 5-sec weigh in, so I weighed myself on that Tuesday. I just hope if I did gain weight on this vacation, I've got a few more days to try and correct myself until Thursday rolls around again.

On another note, my littlest boy turned 8 months last Tuesday. That morning he learned to sit up by himself, from a lying position. Next thing you know, he'll be able to pull himself up to standing. He's already making attempts at crawling, learning to get on his hands and knees. He sorta rotates around now and makes great reaches for anything just beyond him but just hasn't taken that one knee forward to go anywhere yet.

He's growing up fast...I wish he was still a little tiny baby!

Here are some pics from this past week:

- few pics from our little tour of Mission Hill Family Estate Winery Gorgeous scenery! I bought a bottle of their Five Vineyards 2007 Pinot Grigio for us, and a Reserve 2007 Pinot Gris for my Dad. I almost bought their SLC 2005 Syrah for $45, but decided to not get all alcoholic since, technically, I'm still breastfeeding. :P

Their award-winning restaurant situated above the grassy amphitheatre, with a vineyard backdrop:

The only winery in Canada to have their own clock tower, which opens down into their cellar below:

Example of the beautiful architecture:


The family, sitting on the dock one evening:



At a waterslide park, after Mr. B ate all his oatmeal:


And, lastly, the yield from our impromptu berry-picking session, while driving home from Kelowna, we pulled over to feed Mr. B after a long-crying bout, and magically parking in front of a huge blackberry bush growing wild, as they do around here:


The perfect ending to start a new week off!

What the F*#% !!!

Ok, if you can understand what I am typing here...I will try and keep this clear of errors...

I am typing away, creating my very first Mary Kay newsletter (yes, yes, I am a consultant....do not rile me silly, as that is not the issue here). So, anyways, I am typing away, and after trying to using keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste, my font on my screen gets really, really tiny. What the F*#$ !!

Ok, I have seen this before, so after uselessly playing around with the keyboard I realize that I can go to View at the menu above and select Text Size and violà! Fixed.

Aha, but now I have another major problem. Well, you see how I spelled violà just now...with a french accent. WELL! Let me tell you that my keyboard just suddenly now decided that it is going to be French now! My question marks end up like É and so do my quotation marks -- È --- see what I meanÉ damn! My backslash key gives me à. and my apostrophes are è!!!

What the F*#$ !!!

So, I know people are reading thie blog, so help me out smarty-pants.....how do you fix thisÉ damn, question marks!

You think this is funnyÉ I canèt continue like this! Damn you, keyboard!