It's been raining like MAD today, with a lot of wind and nastiness. I'm glad we have a lot of oil, so we don't have to worry about that, as it's been rather chilly!

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I have been watching a ton of TV and movies, as I've mentioned. Today we saw a couple of horror films (I don't recall the names right now).

At one point while Marilyn and I were watching TV downstairs, there was a HUGE CRASH upstairs! We both went running upstairs, and found the table lamp crashed to the floor and broken beyond repair. (It's been broken before, years ago when I was cleaning house. But it wasn't all that bad, so we fixed it and have used it ever since.) This lamp was one of the things we got for our living room when we first moved into our house, so we've had it over 10 years. Here are a few photos where you can see the lamp, which has a green shade, sitting on our end table near the sofa.







We weren't mad at the cats. It was clear one of them was up on the sofa or loveseat and got frightened by a gust of wind and caused the accident. We were just thankful both boys were okay! The floor lamp was also knocked over and leaning against the wall, but unbroken. As far as I could tell, nothing else got broken.

My cat artwork that Marilyn gave me was there on the table, so I was glad it wasn't damaged. But regardless, the cats weren't hurt -- and that's important. The lamp is just a thing, after all...

We're looking for a new lamp, but these are expensive -- and it's hard to make a choice, too. We did love the simple white lamp with the green leaf pattern and dark green shade. I haven't seen anything even remotely like it in the places we searched online...

I cleaned up the mess and am saving the parts for June june_bug_w, in case she wants it to make a lamp with (she's the crafty sort and does make lamps sometimes). So it's possible the only part that needs to be thrown out is the broken enamel.

Remember the wind I mentioned yesterday? (Well, Thursday, to be exact.) It was pretty bad. And today when I looked outside I saw our large deck table (glass topped) thrown upside down on the deck -- and the umbrella lying way in the corner of the yard, off the deck and near the rock garden.

Here's what it looked like right after we got it last year (summer, 2008).











For whatever reason, I don't seem to have any umbrella photos from this summer (after the deck got painted). Anyway, the print matches our cushions, as you can see. We were really lucky to find it -- and it's probably IMPOSSIBLE to ever find this one again.

The umbrella frame was badly bent -- I couldn't even put the umbrella down it was so messed up. I bent it straight and one spine broke. The good news is that the cover (in the print that matches our cushions) did come off the frame, so hopefully we can put it on another frame (if we can find the exact one, of course). The other possibility is that we can somehow solder the metal. (It's only one spine, so it might not really matter -- I guess we'll know next spring!

Anyway, I put the cover away in the garage, and after I got the umbrella frame folded down, I put it in the garage, too.

Then I picked up some of the chairs out in the yard. I need to do a lot out there, but I need to feel better first -- and it's supposed to be lousy weather most of the coming week.

I also stuck the oil -- and this was good news! We've got 250 gallons! So there's no need to order again for ages. (woo hoo)

We had pizza again today (yummy). And we've watched a bunch of TV and movies. It's all good...

We'll be missing the special Woodburn Company Stores Shopping Extravaganza that both Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I have $25 tickets for, I'm afraid. Too bad -- we were both looking forward to it. Oh well. That's the way it goes. The flu sucks.

Do any of you use AVG Anti-Virus FREE?

If you do, you need to upgrade to version 9. You can find it here: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition v9

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just keep saying NO to anything but the free version, unless you want the paid one.

Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I actually have been using the PAID version for our desktops at home for several years now, and it's a good product. But I use the FREE version on my laptop and it works good, too. So it's up to you if you only want free (which is a great product). But they're out to sell software (of course), so not surprisingly they push trials of the paid version.

Happy Birthday, Erin kellygreen!!!

I hope you have a great day -- and you have a wonderful year, too!

It's time for ANOTHER update, friends, if you're a Firefox user. If you do, be sure to check out Firefox 3.5.1 (it came out yesterday). Mozilla has issued Firefox 3.5.5, so click this link and go download the latest version.

What's New in Firefox 3.5.5

Firefox 3.5.1 fixes the following issues:

• Several stability issues

Sister Sue suzy_qp hauled me to Freddies to get a few more groceries (including the all-essential toilet paper) after she got done with her Thursday grass roots cribbage at around 10:00 p.m. Before that, Marilyn and I were watching more TV, in this case the On Demand movie "88 Minutes," with Al Pacino.

The weather here today has been very nasty! It was raining while Sue and I were out, but what had us all going earlier were the high winds! There are trees and lines down all over Portland and the surrounding areas, and they say it's going to be worse tomorrow. (sigh)

Marilyn has a parade creative meeting first thing in the morning, but needless-to-say (in my opinion, anyway), she won't be attending. She's pretty miserable tonight and has been having that terrible headache that seems to be par for the course with this flu.

I wish I could say I was a ton better, but I'm not. As I sit typing this, I'm sneezing like bad, have a sore throat and and still coughing, but not horribly bad, thankfully. I'd love to be over this thing, but I'm trying not to dwell on it.

Madhu announced today that she's pregnant -- I'm very happy for her. (Marilyn and I already knew, but we've been keeping the secret until she was ready to announce it to everyone. We've been watching her like mad to make sure she didn't lift things or work too hard, considering her condition.)

Kent has blown off another appointment he was supposedly attending next Tuesday (installing Comcast at our temporary offices where we'll be moving on November 20). Hopefully he's not needed for this and others can pick up the slack...

We've been watching episodes of "The Good Wife" (on CBS), which seems like a good show. Well written and well acted and directed. Again, a show that they played out of order from the original shooting, for whatever reason (???). As Marilyn noted, On Demand is the only way to watch these, avoiding slews of commercials. Plus it's great to watch several episodes in a row and get really caught up.

We were talking about how much TV we see this way. She was remembering watching a bunch of movies the last time she was home sick, too. Much of the time normally we just don't have time to watch it -- and especially not series TV from week to week.

We used to be so tied to TV. We had a lot of shows we'd NEVER miss every single week. I remember quitting a church choir years ago when they start having practices on Thursday nights during the time our whole family would watch "The Waltons" together. It was a big deal when we all sat down to watch a given show, so I wasn't willing to give that up. (I remember it like it was yesterday...) We followed more TV than I could begin to list here -- but we didn't begin to have the work schedules then that we do now! So often we work until late at night. There's only so many hours in a day, after all.

It's interesting how we traded places with our sister Sue! It used to be that she just didn't watch much TV, period. But now that she's retired, she watches a ton and we watch less. She used to really not get the way we were 'hooked' on TV, but now she totally does! We talk about it and laugh about it, because who'd have ever guessed it would end up this way?

Well, I'm going to take a long soak in a hot tub. My right hip is giving me fits (which hasn't really been true in years), so I think it would feel great. I'm currently reading Tony Hillerman's "Dance Hall of the Dead" (from 1973), which won the MWA Edgar Allen Poe Award for the Best Mystery Novel of the West for that year. It's a terrific read! I love the descriptions, which are really poetic. So I'll take the book in the tub with me.

I do hope Marilyn feels better soon. I know she must be antsy to get back to work, and I suppose she'll insist on going Tuesday, come hell or high water -- whether she's really better by then, or not. I feel so bad for her. She's miserable, poor thing.

This damn flu seems to be getting everyone!

I can't wait to feel good again. I'd like to do some pre-winter yard work (that I never did get to last year), for one thing. And winterize the house a bit, too. And do some housecleaning, which I haven't felt up to facing lately. And some more writing (I've got two contests and NaNo, after all).

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The empire strikes back

RSS feeds again

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Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

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Enveloped in postcards

Photos of the week

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Marilyn mistressmarilyn and I had been talking about the annual Catlin Gabel Rummage Sale, often billed as the World's Largest Rummage Sale. (smile) All proceeds from the sale go to benefit the Catlin Gabel School. We both knew it falls this first week of November, so I decided to look it up.

I was shocked to discover that this will be the last year of the event. You can read about it here: The Last, Best Rummage Sale. Unfortunately, that's NOT a permalink, so it may disappear later on... But OregonLive.Com has a story here: Catlin Gabel School to end popular rummage sale, and that IS a permalink.

I'd love to go, but can't see how. Marilyn isn't really a fan even when she's feeling well, and sister Sue suzy_qp has another cribbage tournament this weekend (as I mentioned before), her fourth weekend in a row.

We got some nice things there over the years, I have to say. I can't recall the last year I actually attended, but I'm still sorry to see it end. Well, times change, that's for sure.

We've been watching a lot of movies and TV, which is normal when you're sick. Marilyn mistressmarilyn had the horrible headache today, which was one of the worst parts of the flu for me, personally.

Anyway, we'd bought the DVD "From Hell" recently, so we watched that and really enjoyed it (we'd seen it before, actually, and thought it would make a good Halloween movie).

We also watched a bunch of "Medium" episodes On Demand, including the one with "Night of the Living Dead" -- very clever! (Did I ever mention in my blog that years ago Marilyn and I met Russell Streiner (the actor who protrayed Johnny) at a local theater when they were playing the movie? It's a weird and whacky world!

I need to go and finish up the garbage and recycling. Marilyn has been sitting up and doing some work on her laptop from home. Hopefully she plans to stay home again tomorrow, because she's far from better in my opinion. (At one point today I heard her trying to convince a friend she DIDN'T have the flu, but I'm certainly not buying that...) Peter's still out sick, too. I know Carol is back at work (as I mentioned), but I never heard about Christie. (I'm guessing she's back, though.) Carol may have hired the replacement for Mandy, which is very good news. I'll be in the loop on that, as I need to give her computer instruction (as I do everyone when they first start at the office). Plus I'll need to set up her user account and so on, obviously. (I wonder if she has a PC or a MAC at home???)

We've been sleeping a LOT here, and generally staying down and taking it easy. I'm still far from 100%, though I'm not coughing all that much anymore, thankfully. I won't go into the area that's still not great, as it's probably TMI, to say the least. And, no, I still haven't started NaNo, but I did work a little on one contest entry. I've got to decide what I'm doing for the one in December, though.

It looks like the eBulletin I needed to do for work won't be going out this week, after all. Anyway, I can't start it at this point, because the details aren't set. So no worries about that deadline. They don't take long to code, so it's no big deal, anyway. I imagine I'll need to get going on a bunch of website work soon. I did a tweak for Carol today (based on closing that position), and I'm ready to go at any point. My focus has been IT recently, but that's constant, so whatever. Plus I need to help the final stages of transferring the OMT band website. I'm so pleased that EasyStreet is going to continue hosting them pro bono, as they do the festival website! And I was proud of my part in that transition...

Well, it's past midnight, so I'm off to finish up. Maybe Marilyn and I will watch more TV, unless she's difted off to sleep. It's hard for her to sleep at night, she's restless and achy, the way you get with the flu. But we both had a long, long nap this afternoon, so that's a good thing!

The 10 Biggest Failures in IT History, according to TechRepublic.

07:02 Yum homemade apple crisp! #

Unfortunately, it looks like Marilyn mistressmarilyn has the flu. At least she didn't end up getting it directly from me, as I haven't been contagious for ages now. Anyway, I feel so bad for her! I know she feels worse than she's letting on. She's got a temperature and body aches and all of that and was up almost all night last night. Happily she did sleep a lot today, anyway. I hope she feels better soon and doesn't have this for very long.

I guess Carol was back to work at the festival today (Paul told me she was 'coughing up a lung,' though). Hailey told me she felt better. And I got the email news that Peter was going home sick -- I was told they practically forced him to do that. Our work policy is that anyone who is sick and still contagious will GO HOME and STAY HOME, so we can try not to keep passing it around again and again.

As I said before, Marilyn felt terrible last night and was up almost all night long. Poor Marilyn! She says she feels better tonight, but I think it's way too early to tell, personally (remembering my own experience).

Sister Sue suzy_qp took me shopping today to pick up a few things we really needed. She's still not feeling great, but plans to attend another cribbage tournament this weekend (her fourth weekend in a row). She got her Masters points recently, which is very cool!

Marilyn and I were HUGE fans of the original "V" series. And we both loved the new ABC series of "V" that started tonight! PLEASE NOTE: That link has a video that auto-plays, I'm afraid... Sorry about that! (sigh)

We've been watching re-runs of the original "V" on the SYFY Channel and enjoying it immensely! Though the weekly TV series didn't stand up to the quality of the miniseries, we watched it ALL (and have quite a few of the books that were put out, too).

We can't wait to see the show again next week, that's for sure! They've done a fabulous job with this.

Today I was writing another potential Writer's Digest entry for a contest. The deadline for this one is November 10. There's yet another contest deadline coming up on December 1, as well.

No, I haven't yet started NaNoWriMo. But no worries! Last year I didn't even START NaNo until November 22! So... (smile)

Well, I barely made the deadline, but I got a story done in time to enter it...