Author Archives: Dee

About Dee

I am a working wife, geek, and mother of two with opinions about just about everything which I plan to share here.

Sci-Fi Jeremiah

It is weird to see Luke Perry and Malcolm Jamal Warner in a Sci-Fi show, but I have been watching Jeremiah, one of those post- apocalyptic stories that creates opportunities for all sorts of situations.

In a post-apocalyptic future, a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity. The only ones who survived, were those who hadn’t yet reached puberty. Now a decade has gone by, and a man called Jeremiah is set on a quest to find a mysterious place his father spoke of, a place called Valhalla

Favorite quote tonight

Kurdy: My mom said there are two kinds of kids.
You give them a box of crap – the one kid walks away – he figures he’s seen enough crap
The other sees the box of crap and starts digging like crazy because he figures if there’s that much crap, there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere!

Jeremiah:  Wow, your mom said crap?
Whatever

I think I will go make some shortbread

Blog Housekeeping Time

I am not sure about this theme but I knew I needed to do some housekeeping so this is it for a little while at least.  I will work on personalizing the header later. I like the clean look and I have a bit more horizontal space on my sidebar.  Real life calls!

Google Docs Has Templates

If you are following Google you know that several days ago a new link appeared on the top right side of the page for New Features.  Google Docs has added templates.  There are over a hundred for each application and address multiple needs.

I threw together some screenshots on a newsletter template and saved it as a PDF file for you to see, but I say just go there and play around.  You can save a template under a new name and customize it with your company logo.  You have multiple choices for how to save your new document.  At this point you have to click on the new features link to get to the templates but I am confident that the Google folks will incorporate the templates into the document tools menus soon.
GoogleDocsTemplates.pdf

Addendum – I spoke too soon (or too late LOL) If you sign in to Google Docs and click new you can now choose document, spreadsheet, presentation, folder, or FROM TEMPLATE!! Yay Google!

Beyond My Comprehension

I’m ashamed to have been complaining about Starbucks closing – how sad is my little world?
Story in the BBC today:

Nine face stoning death in Iran

At least eight women and one man are reported to have been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

The group, convicted of adultery and sex offences, could be executed at any time, lawyers defending them say.

The lawyers have called on the head of Iran’s judiciary to prevent the sentences from being carried out.

The last officially reported stoning in Iran last year drew strong criticism from human rights groups and the European Union.

The eight women sentenced, whose ages range from 27 to 43, had convictions including prostitution, incest and adultery, Reuters news agency reported.The man, a 50-year-old music teacher, was convicted of illegal sex with a student, reports said. Moratorium imposed Under Iran’s Islamic law, stoning to death is the punishment for the crime of adultery.In 2002 Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi imposed a moratorium on stoning, but at least three people are reported to have been executed by stoning since then.

Shadi Sadr from the Volunteer Lawyers’ Network, which is representing the women, said: “We are very worried as there are at least eight women and one man with a definitive verdict which can be carried out any moment.

Our specific… demand is to have the stoning sentence stopped by Ayatollah Shahroudi since the defendants are liable to be stoned at any moment
Lawyer Mariam Kian-Arsi
“There are no guarantees that the punishments will be halted or commuted.”She called on the international community to back their efforts, adding: “We are in close touch with human rights organisations and many of them have supported our campaign.”Fellow defence lawyer Mariam Kian-Arsi said: “Our specific and clear demand is to have the stoning sentence stopped by Ayatollah Shahroudi since the defendants are liable to be stoned at any moment.” Women ‘poorly represented’ In theory the penalty of stoning to death applies to both men and women.

But the lawyers say that in practice, many more women than men receive the sentence because they are less well educated and often poorly represented in court.

Human rights group Amnesty International earlier this year called on Iran to abolish “this grotesque punishment” and said many facing execution by stoning were sentenced after unfair trials.

Under Iran’s strict penal code, men convicted of adultery should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests for stoning. The stones used should not be large enough to kill the person immediately.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7516238.stm

Published: 2008/07/20 14:20:18 GMT
I tried to imagine myself as the person about to be stoned – what it would be like to be buried to your shoulders, knowing what would happen next.  I tried to imagine what it would be like to be the man involved who got away free – is he hiding?  Does he feel guilty?  Relieved?

What would it be like to be the parent of the young woman that was about to be stoned, or the friend? What would go through the mind of the person or persons that make the decision to go through with this as a punishment?

Who am I that picks up stones and waits for the last shovelful of dirt to be in place.   Do I know the person I am going to use as a target?  What are the sounds?  Does the person cry out?  Where does this happen?  Is there a regular “stoning” place in the village?

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned.  But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.
So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

According to several sources I read including Wikipedia, four eye-witnesses would need to be produced to prove adultery.  They have to be men and they have to be Muslim.  If four eye-witnesses could be produced, how could rape have happened in the first place?
Who do they find to throw the stones?

I could say something about how we throw metaphorical stones at each other every day.  That idea doesn’t mean much when I picture the real thing.

Personal Update

Three posts in one night!  Whew!  This is just to let a few family and friends know what has been happening with us.

Dale had a test the other day, I actually posted on it earlier.  There wanted a 24 hour urine collection because the previous one seemed kind of iffy and if there was protein in the urine it would mean a biopsy of the kidney – everything was fine!
I had some tests a little over a week ago.  I have had Ulcerative Colitis or UC as it is “affectionately” known for a little over a year.  I had a flare up that started about a month before school was out and it just wasn’t getting better.  I was miserable and not eating.  We did a little tweaking medicine-wise and I am finally getting back to normal. This is my second flare-up and until I was told I had UC I had never even heard of it.  Leave it to me to get something weird.  It is chronic which basically means I have to live with it.  It would seem that certain foods and stressors trigger flare ups but these things differ with each person.  I also did a little reading and it seems that the incidence is much higher in smokers who have quit and that some people are getting some relief from using the nicotine patch.  Learning my triggers is going to be a priority but the patch is going to be on the list of things to try.

What this has meant is that I didn’t get as much done this summer as I had wanted to but I am definitely better and hoping to squeeze as much into the rest of the summer as I can.

We have been hosting a bible study on Tuesday nights at our house and I was loaned an awesome commentary by John MacArthur and I would highly recommend his books – either the commentaries or the bible studies.  Great outlines and scripture references that let you cross reference everything.  It has meant growth for me personally just because in order to prepare I read nearly every day.  Meeting with this group of faithful seekers every week has kept me going. I have started keeping a journal of my study notes and prayers and through it God has been showing me that while I may stress about every little thing, He has been faithful over and over in the big things and I am s-l-o-w-l-y learning to trust. Letting go of control has always been an issue for me (not the only one by any means) but seeing God answer prayers over a period of time makes me realize what a “foxhole” Christian I have been.  When ever things go crazy in my life I am right there praying – asking God to fix this problem and heal that sickness.  I am always a basket of pieces at that point and forgetting that I need to thank Him for all the blessings He has already given me and through looking back at what He has already done, realizing that I have much to be thankful for and that I can fully trust Him to work things out for the best.   If God never answers another prayer, I need to always remember that He loved me anough to send His only Son, to die on a cross for my sin and of all the gifts He gives me – that one is sufficient for everything else.

Amen and goodnight!

Getting Things Done and Organized With Google Spreadsheets and Forms

Example of a Google Docs spreadsheet PDA

  • Create a new spreadsheet
  • Create headers across the top – you can format the text and background color if you like.
  • I used Subject, Date, Notes, Details
  • At the bottom of the screen you will see a tab for the sheet you are working on..  If you click it you have several editing choices, including delete, duplicate, rename, and move right or left.  For now you might want to rename it work.
  • Now click again and duplicate it (I did this twice) You now have three sheets with the same headers and you can now click on and rename the other two sheets.  I have named my sheets Work, Home, Ideas.
  • Now here is where it gets fun
  • You could just enter information directly into the spreadsheet but with Google Docs you can create a form that will make it easier to quickly enter data and have it automatically update in the spreadsheet.
  • We will create a separate form for each sheet and show you how you can use those links to populate your spreadsheet PDA
  • Click on the tab for one of the sheets so you will have that sheet open.
  • You should see a row of light blue tabs across the top of the document – click the tab for Form
  • Click create a form
  • A new page will open with your form already created according to the column headers you used in your spreadsheet.
  • As you move your mouse cursor over each field in your form you will see that you can edit that individual field, you can move it, you can even add or delete questions.  Just remember that what you do on the form will be reflected on the spreadsheet.  If you delete a field it will no longer exist on the spreadsheet either.  A good rule of thumb is that the form is “the boss” of the spreadsheet.
  • Now choose “next choose recipients”  You can put in your own email address and if you look on the right you will see a note saying that if you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online and there will be a link.  This is the link you want to save as a shortcut on your desktop.  You can change the name of the link to make it easier to find.  On a PC you will right click on the shortcut and choose rename.  If you use something like @Home the @ sign will cause it to be near the top if you arrange you icons in alphabetical order.  On a Mac you will control-click the shortcut and choose info. There will be a field where you can change the name.


This would work for a student organizer – just change the column headings to something like assignment, due date, teacher/professor, class period, notes/resources. 

A couple of modifications and you can share and collaborate so now you have an online project management system.

You can also click publish – this gives you an embeddable link and an RSS feed so you can subscribe to your own list.
Choose more publishing options and click in the drop down box and choose HTML to embed in a webpage.  You can also choose which sheets and even which cells to show.  The will generate some HTML that you can paste into your blog.  Pay attention to the sizes shown in the HTML.  If you paste it and find it is bigger than the space provided in the webpage you can usually adjust those numbers to make it fit.

I hope this is useful to you!

I have only included a form that adds information to one sheet.

Addendum: I cannot get the embedded form to work.  I can use the form I created from my desktop or via my email so for the time being look at the above images as screenshots and don’t be afraid to follow the steps to create one to play with yourself.

Scottish Shortbread

Before my mother passed away, I was able to go on a trip with her to Scotland.  and one of the things I loved about the trip was tea in the hotel room.  Whenever we would return with the tour group from wherever we went for the day, there would be time to rest in the room and there would be a tea set and Walker Shortbread.

I can buy Walker Shortbread here in the states but it is expensive,  Starbucks carries it in a little two cookie pack that costs over a dollar.  I have been on a search for a recipe that would be comparable.

I found a recipe and Dale made it for me – it is wonderful.

It is basically a ratio of 3 parts flour, 2 parts butter, and one part sugar. While you are shopping for ingredients look for parchment paper as well.
A pound of butter is 2 cups so this works well if you use 3 cups flour, one pound or 2 cups butter (and I do NOT mean any wimpy margerine people!  I mean regular, clog the veins, real food not chemical BUTTER!)

Put the butter in a mixing bowl and let it come to room temperature.  Add the flour and sugar and mix with your hands.  This will be a really gooey dough.  Have some flour on the counter and turn it out onto the flour.  knead and add more flour til you can make it into a big ball.  I added a bit of confectioners sugar this last time as we were kneading it which helped to make it less gooey and also made it taste a bit sweeter.  We learned that instead of rolling the dough into balls and flattening them you can shape the dough into logs and wrap in saran wrap.  Chill for several hours or over night and then you can slice the cookies.   Much faster, not nearly as messy, and great results!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut parchment paper and place it on your cookie sheets.  Slice the dough about a quarter of an inch thick and place on the parchment paper. Leave about a half inch between cookies as they will spread a bit while baking.

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.  This depends on the  thickness of your cookies, the actual temperature of your oven, and your personal preferences.  Just check them at about 13 to 15 minutes.  I like mine when they are just beginning to brown on the edges.

Remove them from the cookie sheet and let cool on the counter.  Stack them gently in a container and when you are ready make yourself your favorite cup of coffee or a cup of strong tea with a bit of unbleached turbinado sugar in it and you have a little piece of heaven!

Starbucks Closing? No!!!

Rumor has it that our Starbucks is on the short list for being closed. I support both them and Paris Coffee and I think our community can and should have both.

Both provide jobs for local young people and both will have lines of cars at the the drive through in the winter.

If you want to know about it and help here are two blog articles that will explain the situation an give some suggestions.

Sending Out an SOS and How Starbucks Broke My Heart – read the articles, DIGG them, go to the website, call the toll free number. Keep a kid employed!  Keep a community gathering place!

One Of THOSE Days

It has been one of those days. Dale’s appointment at the Transplant Institute was today so we were leaving the house a little before six a.m.  As we went to get into the car a man stood up from between two of our vehicles where he had been crouched.  He was holding a drawstring bag and said he was looking for his cat.  He described the cat as white calico?  We told him it might have gone to the field behind the houses and he could get there by walking to the end of the street.  As he walked off I called the police department and they said they would check on it.  We received two phone calls from them in the next hour and a half as we were on our way to Dallas.  The first to confirm his description as they were talking to someone in the area we had described to them.  The second call was to thank us.  He had been going along stealing from cars in the driveways!

We rarely lock our cars (not that we have anything in them that anyone would want) but even so, we will now.

The traffic was light for a change so we were early which turned out to be a good thing.  DTI has been at a temporary location and we went to the office we had been going to, went up to the second floor, down the hall, opened the door and….darkness.  No sign or anything. We knew where they were moving to and luckily it was nearby so we still made it on time but a little notice would have been nice.

We took my MacBook with us as it has been having issues and had been repaired once only to be having the same problem when I got it home.  Unforunately I had not been paying attention to the news about the new iPhone which came out TODAY!  I never imagined what a big deal it ws until we drove past the little Apple store with the line going out the door, past the security guard, around the corner, and TWO BLOCKS down the street!  Uh yes, we drove on by.

Dale’s creatinine was up just a bit and after the last visit the doc had him do a 24 hour urine collection and get blood drawn here in Paris.  The lab work was done at PRMC and the results were given to the Nephrologist here.  The orders specifically said to fact the results to the doc at DTI and had the fax number one them.  They did not have the results today (The tests were done over two weeks ago!) and the Nephrologist office here is closed after noon on Friday.  They had called them this morning while we were there – the phone number had been written in pencil on his lab results from today from where the doc called right before we got today’s results.  When I called at 2:30 P.M.  They still did not have them.  I called the hospital and got them to fax the results which were not conclusive.  He has to repeat the test but this time we are skipping the local and taking it directly to DTI.  I am not griping about the lab here as much as I am about the Nephrologist who should know that in a post-transplant patient 2 weeks is just a tad long to wait for results on a crucial test.

Now, I’m pretty sure the refrigerator is dying.

Addendum – the refrigerator IS dying. We went and bought a new one – got it cheap – it has a dent, don’t care.  It has a bottom freezer and that was my one requirement.  We finished the evening off with the Paris Municipal Band concert and then came home and transferred food to the freezer in the garage til the new one comes.

I’m going to bed before something else happens!

Sifting Your RSS Feeds

I am subscribed to so many more rss feeds that I have time to read and often I will subscribe to a blog written by someone with multiple interests because they occasionally write about something I am interested in.  This means that I will see a lot of article titles that are not what I want to read.  I discovered a new tool today that will help me shrink some of that reader “bloat”

It is called Feedsifter and can be found here

You just put in the URL of the site and then type in the keywords you are interested in and Feedsifter creates a second feed that you can subscribe to.  Now you have a feed tailored to your interest!

If you have a google account the easiest thing in the world is to sign in.  Go to igoogle and click add stuff .  Looking down on the left sidebar you will find a choice for entering a url – paste the feed URL that feedsifter created there and you will now have this feed show up directly on your igoogle homepage.

I have often used del.icio.us to create a feed of bookmarks on a specific subject.  Today I created one for googledocs and using Feedsifter I had it make a new feed that would show me only googledoc bookmarks that contain spreadsheet and/or form.  Now I have an area that helps me keep up with new blog posts on Google spreadsheets. This won’t be a perfect solution but it helps me narrow down some of what shows up in my reader now.

This tip came from The Simple Dollar – thanks for a great hint!

Ubuntu!

I finally did something I have been wanting to do for some time.  A friend brought me his old computer that was no longer working correctly.  It was extremely slow to respond and he had lost the Windows disk so he couldn’t re-install.

Last night I downloaded Ubuntu  and burned it to a cd.  This afternoon I hooked his old computer up to my monitor, turned it on, and put the cd in the cd drive.  All it took was one click and it started loading the files it would need.  When it was done it gave the message to remove the cd and reboot.

When I rebooted it gave me the choice to boot into Windows or Ubuntu and that was all there was to it.

It gave me the choice when I was first installing to install Ubuntu with Windows or remove Windows completely.  This time I was kind of a chicken but next time I think I will just throw Windows off a cliff.

My kids still have a few issues with Ubuntu and things like flash and I haven’t had time to see if things will work better on thsi version than on the older version that is on the old laptop.  I have literally been up and running in Ubuntu for about ten minutes! The only issue I have so far has to do with screen resolution and I will try to get that resolved later.  I’m just tickled that it worked and was so simple!

More later – I have company coming!

Arepas!

Yesterday I was watching Bobby Flay’s Throwdown. “Bobby challenges Maribel and Aristides Barrios, NYC restaurateurs who hail from Venezuela, to a throwdown featuring their house specialty, arepas, which are delicious grilled cornmeal patties filled with sweet and savory treats.”

I watched carefully to see how the arepas were made because they looked and sounded wonderful. When I went to the Food Network website, however, the only recipe was for bobby Flay’s and I preferred to make the original Venezuelan ones. I did some searching around and found a blog article that described them very closely to the ones on the show and had pictures. I tried to find the masa arepa (pre-cooked cornmeal) and of course I couldn’t. I got the closest thing I could which was corn flour and I think that mine are not as good as they would be with the correct ingredients. I will keep looking and if nothing else when we go for Dale’s next appointment in Dallas I will pick some up there and try some more.

They look similar to English muffins but they don’t taste the same and are different texture. They were pretty good right out of the oven with butter. The dough is very simple to make and you pick up a ball of it and basically toss it hand to hand til it makes a dense ball and then kind of rotate as you toss smoothing it into a disk about a third of an inch thick. You cook it over medium heat on a cast iron griddle or non-stick skillet. Cook about 7 minutes on each side being careful not to burn it. Place in oven for about 15 minutes to finish cooking (350 degrees).

Here is my finished result:

myfirstarepa

The recipe and other pictures can be found here.

I hope you will give it a try and let me know how it turns out for you!

Addendum:  I found the Masa Arepa and it makes a big difference in the texture and the taste.  I still need practice but my second batch was much better.  They taste just a little bit like grits.

Stress and Cars and Stress!

It is 5:00 P.M. I say this because I just got home and we left the house this morning at 8:00 A.M, We went to look at a used car which we ended up buying but I never dreamed we would have been gone ALL day.

We saw the ad in a sale paper last night. It’s a pretty 2005 blue Impala. We had been looking at cars knowing that when school starts we were going to need another vehicle. We were looking at something that would get good gas mileage for obvious reasons. I was leaning towards a Toyota Corolla or Nisson Sentra but Dale has always liked the Impala so he is happy.

I just can’t believe how disorganized the whole experience was. The car was not even at Bonham Chrysler which is where the ad was from. They looked all over the lot and then started calling around and it ended up being in Greenville. The salesman got a car (a 2008 Dodge Magnum which is very nice, by the way) and drove us over to Greenville It was lunchtime by the time we got there. The car was there but the key was NOT! They hunted and couldn’t find it and decided to go up to the Pontiac place and get them to cut a new one. Keeping in mind this is only a little ways down the road, an hour later we finally have the keys. We drove the car and liked it and then had to drive back to Bonham. Next we had to do the whole paperwork thing which didn’t take too long but by the time it was all complete it was about 2:30 and we have still not had lunch. They were cleaning the inside and washing the car and by the time we left it was 4:00.

We headed for the nearest restaurant because we were starving and then got to sit in traffic because a long stretch of 82 was being resurfaced. We are tired, cranky, and the proud owners of a “newer” car. If you know me you will know how much I hate to part with money for a car but now I just hope it turns out to be a good car and that it lasts half and long as my little blazer but with better gas mileage!
impala.jpg

Google Docs Spreadsheet With Embedded Map

Let’s make a quick guide for someone planning to visit Paris. There is more that could be included but this will be enough to get you started! The instructions came from the Google Docs Blog which is a wonderful resource!

First, determine the sites you will use and open a Google docs spreadsheet

In the first column put the addresses

In the second column put the names and a short description (you can include a link)

Click and drag to highlight both columns

Click Insert on the toolbar and choose gadget

Select Google Maps

You can add a title but you now have a list of sites with their addresses and links and a map to boot! Cool and simple.

Save it, click publish and check the box – republish changes and you can continue to add to it and you can email a link to it to your friends and family!

Here is a link to mine:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pgVdUefx1CH0V_U5tumJrHw

Here is a screenshot:

googdocmap.jpg

Just a Family Update

My son called last night. He and the rest of the NL Debate team and their coaches are in Las Vegas for Nationals. There are seven debate students, two coaches, and their son in a van pulling a u-haul trailer full of luggage, a huge ice chest, cases of evidence and dollies for hauling the evidence cases around.
They have been to The Painted Desert, Hoover Dam, The Petrified Forest, and the Grand Canyon and are still speaking to each other. Last night they made it to Vegas and the hotel they had reserved had a few guests that decided at the last minute to extend their stay so the hotel just gave their reservations away. On top of that, instead of calling the coaches cell number which she gave them as the designated contact number, they called yesterday to her home number in Paris to tell her. This meant they had no idea until they showed up at the hotel that they had no rooms. They were supposed to stay at Homewood Suites Henderson Nevada Hotel. They ended up at Circus Circus on the strip. THAT should be interesting!

My daughter got her drivers license (finally) this week so I haven’t been able to run a single errand myself all week. She is going to try to find a summer job and I am hoping that with her skills with Microsoft Excel and Access that she will find something besides slinging burgers.  She has decided to try to do municipal band this year as they can use a base clarinet player so at least I won’t have to drive her to practice everyday!

Dale and I are having a pretty peaceful summer so far – aside from the kids stuff that is!  I am all for keeping it that way!

Father’s Day

My sidebar contains a list of historical events of the current day and today in 1954 President Eisenhower signed an order adding words ‘under God’ to the Pledge. It was the year that Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio, IBM announced vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour, Bob Dylan was Bar Mitzvahed, the Moonies were established, Ellis Island closed, Davy Crockett played by Fess Parker appeared on Walt Disney (oh man – I remember Disney nights when we could eat potato chips and drink red pop in the living room!).  The first atomic power station opened near Moscow, Russia and Joseph Welch asked Senator Joseph McCarthy “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” during Senate-Army hearings.  Armistice divided Vietnam into two countries, Charles C Diggs Jr. was elected Michigan’s first black congressman (my home state!), and Senator John Kennedy appeared on “Meet the Press” which brings us around to this weekend.  Tim Russert, only four years older than I am is gone.

So many events of my birth year were foreshadowing the things that would shape my opinions and relationships and politics. How many folks were educated, informed, entertained, and shaped by watching this gentleman.

To a wonderful father, who wrote a book about his father, that spoke to sons of fathers everywhere – you are now with the Father.  Happy Father’s Day.

Timing Is Everything

I am having one of THOSE weekends – you know, the ones that make you appreciate root canals or colonoscopies! My eldest is graduating tonight, we have company coming and things scheduled all through the rest of the weekend. My kids are out of school but the school I work at has another week and I have not even begun to get the lab ready for summer. Last night Dale got up about 11:00 to take something for a headache and found that the washing machine had overflowed. He turned it off until the water drained down and then turned it back on. I shouldn’t really say the washing machine overflowed – the drain pipe behind it did – and it first backed up into the kitchen sink! It did it again. About that time I came up to the kitchen because he had been gone awhile and there were noises.

I mopped and mopped, and put the drain cleaner in the pipe behind the washer. When I went to get warm water to flush it with I realized that the sinks were full of water as well. I turned on the garbage disposal which instead of helping the water drain which it has when this happened in the past, the water backed up in the pipe some more – more mopping!!

I checked the outside cleanouts and they were empty which tells us that the problem is inside so I voted to let it all just sit til morning. It was slowly draining. This morning I have already put the drain cleaner in the pipe and let it sit and flushed it with hot water and it is going through that process a second time and hopefully that will do the trick. I do NOT like plumbing problems any time but especially not THIS weekend!

Sondra is coming tomorrow night and we will go with her to Dallas for her six month checkup to make sure she is doing ok with her one kidney. It will be good to see her. I’m going to drive one vehicle and let Dale ride with her so they can have a couple of hours to visit.

Through all of this I feel like the world is spinning just a bit too fast. I know it is graduation that is getting to me under everything. I can hear this quiet ticking in the background – the tiny, less than 4 pound baby that I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to care for as well as he needed. The little guy in diaper and pajama shirt with a Happy Meal box on his head singing with beauty and the beast. Tick tick. Now he is almost four, wearing shorts and cowboy boots and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Near Christmas time in kindergarten he asked our pastor if he could read something from his bible in church. His kindergarten teacher and principle actually came and he stood in front of everyone and read The Magnificat and sang The Foolish Man song. Now we fast forward and the ticking is so fast I can hardly discern the spaces between. Jr. High band (bassoon) and basketball. Band at the beginning of High School until he discovered that debate was his passion and he stuck with that throughout high school.

Next year my daughter will walk across the stage and a chapter in our lives will have ended and a new chapter will have begun. Tick Tick

The plumbing problem is fixed – it took one of those devices you attach to a hose and put in the drain and it lets pressure build up to break up a clog. I’m probably not describing it well but I do not want to understand plumbing just like I don’t want to think about this clock that keeps ticking!