Toasted Hard Drive

Yep, it looks like the hard drive is toast, so it's going to be a while until I'm back up and running. I'm going to buy a new hard drive, install it, put on the basic software, then slave the old hard drive to it and see if I can pull off any of my data. My address book, eight years of digital photos, my 2/3rds finished Great American Novel, bizillions of e-mails and e-mail addresses.

And let's ask again: Who's really, really learned her lesson about regular back ups?

Sure as hell hope it's me.

A Really Good Excuse This Time

The desktop Dell has crashed. I'm not sure if it's the hard drive or those 9 updates Microsoft installed last night when I turned the machine off, but this morning it wouldn't speak to me.

Dang!

This blog entry is coming at you from BabyDell; acceptable for e-mail when on the road, but not for real life.

I've tried all the software fixes I can think of so, cross all appendages for me, tomorrow I'm pulling off the cover and going in...

The Most Beautiful Girls in the World

Not that I'm biased or anything, but who could resist these big blue eyes?

A "Modest Proposal" From State Senator Buttars

Utah is having budgetary problems, but Utah has the elected officials who can solve the state's money woes; quickly, efficiently but, sadly, not tongue in cheek.

State Senator Chris Buttars has a plan. If Utah simply eliminates the 12th grade, it will fix most of the problems with school funding. Any remaining financial gaps can be snugged up by also slicing the unnecessary eleventh grade and school busses. After all, if kids aren't in school or can't get to school, not only will the state need fewer teachers, but classrooms can be closed and the heat and lights turned off creating further savings.

My thought is that someone turned off the heat and lights in Senator Buttars' head long, long ago.

Or perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps this is Senator Buttars' sly methodology for maintaining his electorate.

But will it work?

If, as he says, the only reason for the 12th grade is for the high school seniors to have a year to party, will they be grateful to him for releasing them from the confines of academia, thus voting for him, or will they resent his curtailing their year-long party and vote for his opponent?

At the very least they will lack the education and sophistication to be embarrassed by the man who represents them.

In the Closet

Both of my cats have a lust for the linen closet. Mostly, I'm sure, because it's forbidden. Sometimes they sit on the hamper, hopefully waiting for me to lose my mind and open the door. Innocence shines from their furry little faces, but I know better. I know their nefarious plans.

Today I wanted to take out one towel. How long does that take? Five seconds? I thought Kitsu was in the basement. I didn't shut the bathroom door before I opened the linen cupboard.

You'd think after having been owned by cats for the past 30 years that I would know they could teleport...

Kitsu shot by me like orange lightning. Startled the beejeebers out of me. I decided to photo-document her evilness, so I went and got the camera. Sachi was nowhere to be seen, so I opened the cupboard door to snap a shot of the miscreant.

And a taupe bolt of lightning shot past me just as I clicked the shutter.
You'd think I'd have learned by now.

A Very Bad Kitty

It snowed last night. Big time. At 2:00 a.m. as I was getting ready for bed, I got a wild hair and decided to see if I could get a picture of snowflakes in the dark through the kitchen window.

It didn't work at all, so I cracked the back door.

A furry little streak of lightning shot by me at ankle level.

"Free at last, free at last!" she cried. And she wouldn't come back in.

I asked her politely. I rattled her food dish at her. I begged her. I threatened her.

"Don't you hear those coyotes howling up the hill? Don't you know that you'd just be a tasty little midnight snack to them? They'd chomp your bones and floss their teeth on your fur!"

Nothing worked. She laughed at me from under the picnic table.

I finally wadded out into the snow in my jammies, set the cat door on in-only and went to bed to wait.

It was 3:00 before she finally got cold enough to come in and warm her soggy feet on me.

Remind me again why it is I have cats...

Hope For Haiti

I wrote a check, but, somehow, it just didn't feel adequate. I wanted to do something. So I took the small opportunity I was given and signed up for a shift on the phones during the local Red Cross "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon.

We didn't take a lot of pledges, the local telethon was in the hours before the big national television event Friday night, but we did have some response. I talked to a sweet lady who told me she was on a fixed income and could only afford to pledge $10. I told her that hers was the best kind of pledge, one from the heart. She replied, "Make it $15."

Another volunteer received a pledge of $1,000. It was our biggest pledge of the night. I wish he could have seen the celebration when it was recorded.

The most touching donation occurred before I arrived, however.

A homeless man came in off the street and emptied every coin from his pockets.

"They need it more than I do."

Maybe there is hope for Haiti and humanity.