Thread Drift

[Bikingmomof3]

Imagine, if you will, two 73 year old parents who call me every time they lose the "flashy thing" (the cursor) and who click on most any pop up that shows up FREE SCREENSAVERS...NEED TAX HELP?...YOU JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS", and who are on the slowest dial-up I've ever seen. Now imagine those same people sitting there with their shiny new computer with windows vista... ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH

I'm actually pretty competent on a PC but still couldn't make it run worth a crap.

I can relate (only I am not very computer literate) and my dad calls me about his PC problems. Repeatedly I tell him, dad, I use MACS. Yet he calls me, not my Brother and SIL who use PCs. That would make sense. Then he proceeds to try and explain the problem in terms similar to what you described and of course what I see on my screen is different than a PC and the terms are different enough to totally confuse and frustrate both of us. I am still trying to convince him that "reload" and "refresh" are the same term. He asks about virus protection, I tell him, please buy a Mac. Nope, so he gets a virus and needs help, which I know nothing about, I am virus free. I have begged him to take the free classes at the library. I will not even go into how horrendous it was to teach him how to send an attachment via email. *sigh*

[Pax]

.... I will not even go into how horrendous it was to teach him how to send an attachment via email. *sigh*

Funny! I spent hours trying to explain how to open attachements to my folks. "Dad, click on the thing that looks like a paperclip. Dad, that doesn't look anything like a paperclip, that was the back button".

[Bikingmomof3]

Funny! I spent hours trying to explain how to open attachements to my folks. "Dad, click on the thing that looks like a paperclip. Dad, that doesn't look anything like a paperclip, that was the back button".

LOL! Were you fortunate to help oin person? I have to help over the phone. (insert a terribly painful groan).

[Bikingmomof3]

Salsa,
Are the renovations near completion or completed on your house? I need an update. I miss the progress photos, especially your fantastic ability to pick colours.

[salsabike]

Salsa,
Are the renovations near completion or completed on your house? I need an update. I miss the progress photos, especially your fantastic ability to pick colours.

Hi, you guys! I just finished and emailed in a preliminary report with a dreadful deadline, so can now lift my head out of the morass of papers and spreadsheets and actually do something ELSE. Sheesh.

The house is DONE. That just happened last week. We still have a ton of stuff to do. Our bed, dressers and bed tables are in the new master bedroom, and our horrible old couch is in the living room, so we are OUT of the basement dungeon. But we still have to get everything out of the basement so they can drywall the ceiling and replace the carpets they ruined in their flood. So I think the moving back in process will be quite slow. Key things we still have to do, soon: get window coverings; get new couch(es); get the relandscaping done.

We did end up sponge-painting the living room to try and match that sort of goldy-orange color from the ochre-mining village in Provence. It's more red-orange than gold-orange, but we still like it, and more to the point, have no desire to do it all again just now! I will post pics as soon as I can get them from Chris.

Now to pay for it. Holy ****! It cost a huge amount, with about an $80,000 overrun. About half of that were upgrades we requested, the other half just the builder's poor initial estimates re time. Bleah. It really is nice, though, and I have no doubt about the quality of the work.

In other news---Mom rehospitalized for two days last week with congestive heart failure and maybe a TIA. Now seems fully recovered, discharged back to assisted living on Saturday. I am trying to find an assisted living place out here to move her to this summer, and am going to see one later this week.

Work has been pretty stressful all winter. Because of this recent consulting project, I have not been on my single bike for five weeks, and have only had two or three 30-mile tandem rides during that time. I hope to start fixing that this week, when I have a little time off. Although have to spend most of it on house stuff.

Thanks for asking! I feel like I've been buried in everything for several months, and am just now coming up for air.

[KnottedYet]

Yay, Salsa! Good to hear from you! Glad about the house. Sorry about your mom. There are a couple nice looking assisted living places over in my neck of the woods, too. Not too far from you.

We must do some bike riding: my new work schedule gives me some weekday riding time.

Can't wait to see pics of your house!

[KnottedYet]

Knot's Happy Meal

Big ol' slab of SPAM on brown rice covered with furikake, and a Coke!

MmmmMMMm! So good, and so good for you!

Now I'm off to google a recipe for SPAM musubi (not that I couldn't fake it, but recipes are fun!)

Edit: ok, it's made just like I thought but it was fun to read the recipes anyway. And did you know there is a special SPAM musubi press? The exact shape and size of a slice of SPAM, so your musubi comes out perfectly! http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Helper.../dp/B000FWOB5S A couple of the recipes I found mentioned using furikake in the rice, but I like it plain. Musubi party at Knot's house!!!

[Bikingmomof3]

The house is DONE. That just happened last week. We still have a ton of stuff to do. Our bed, dressers and bed tables are in the new master bedroom, and our horrible old couch is in the living room, so we are OUT of the basement dungeon. But we still have to get everything out of the basement so they can drywall the ceiling and replace the carpets they ruined in their flood. So I think the moving back in process will be quite slow. Key things we still have to do, soon: get window coverings; get new couch(es); get the relandscaping done.

We did end up sponge-painting the living room to try and match that sort of goldy-orange color from the ochre-mining village in Provence. It's more red-orange than gold-orange, but we still like it, and more to the point, have no desire to do it all again just now! I will post pics as soon as I can get them from Chris.

Now to pay for it. Holy ****! It cost a huge amount, with about an $80,000 overrun. About half of that were upgrades we requested, the other half just the builder's poor initial estimates re time. Bleah. It really is nice, though, and I have no doubt about the quality of the work.

In other news---Mom rehospitalized for two days last week with congestive heart failure and maybe a TIA. Now seems fully recovered, discharged back to assisted living on Saturday. I am trying to find an assisted living place out here to move her to this summer, and am going to see one later this week.

Work has been pretty stressful all winter. Because of this recent consulting project, I have not been on my single bike for five weeks, and have only had two or three 30-mile tandem rides during that time. I hope to start fixing that this week, when I have a little time off. Although have to spend most of it on house stuff.

Thanks for asking! I feel like I've been buried in everything for several months, and am just now coming up for air.

YAY! Pictures please, when you get the time. Everything sounds lovely.

I am very sorry to hear about your mom, but encouraged to read she is on the mend. Hugs to her and I do hope you are able to get her into an assisted facility closer to you.

It is wonderfult o hear for you.

[Pax]

LOL! Were you fortunate to help oin person? I have to help over the phone. (insert a terribly painful groan).

It's rare that I'm there to help, I live 1100 miles away. I have a friend who found some cool software, it allows her to see what her mom sees on her computer, she can navigate and fix things remotely. If my folk weren't on dial-up I'd give it a try.

[KnottedYet]

SKnot hangs around on Mac forums and says that Vista is just Microsoft's attempt at reverse-engineering Mac's OS X.

My kid is a Mac snob. (I love it!)

[Kitsune06]

I whole-heartedly agree w/ Sknot. It is. Gosh. Widgets are great, huh? What a new and novel concept!

[Trek420]

SKnot hangs around on Mac forums and says that Vista is just Microsoft's attempt at reverse-engineering Mac's OS X.

My kid is a Mac snob. (I love it!)

Your kid is a jeenious Gotta go TD, off to work

[Bikingmomof3]

Ah another glorious gloomy day in the valley. At least the rain brought the temps down from 80. It is only supposed to reach a chilly 64. Still above average, yet so much better than the 78-80 weather we have been having.

I have cleaned, exercised, showered, made the French dessert for Twin A's (aka DS#2) French class, and I am about to sit down and enjoy a snack and read a book.

I hope everyone has a relaxing day,

[Bikingmomof3]

It's rare that I'm there to help, I live 1100 miles away. I have a friend who found some cool software, it allows her to see what her mom sees on her computer, she can navigate and fix things remotely. If my folk weren't on dial-up I'd give it a try.

I live exactly 1,099.46 miles from my parents.

The software your friend found sounds very helpful.

[Xrayted]

I whole-heartedly agree w/ Sknot. It is. Gosh. Widgets are great, huh? What a new and novel concept!

As she responds using my DELL computer! hehe.

I agree with SKnot too. I used to work as a tech for IBM years ago. 'Nuff said.