Our First Year w/ Cody.

Sad, Sad News

2010-06-04T11:54:00.003-04:00

It still brings a tear to my eye.

I am so very sad to say that we let Winslow cross the Rainbow bridge on Wednesday, June 2nd.

He was just too far gone this time.

For the last 4 1/2 years we have done so much to keep him healthy, and it finally got to him.

I knew this time would come eventually and I think I'm still in denial mode.

The girls seem to be ok, but I figure they may start really looking when I clean the cage tomorrow.

Thanks for all your excitement over the years to my pictures, stories and videos of him.

I'm just thankful he had a good life.

Its 2010

2010-01-22T14:38:00.002-05:00

I can hardly believe that it is 2010.

At First the year doesn't seem like that big of deal, then everyone starts posting that they turned 40.

Then all of a sudden the year seems very important.

I remember in High School when 2010 seemed like SOOO far away.

One of the kids said - "So do you plan on retiring by 2020?"

I can't even think of that. I wish I could retire then. When you look at the new Social Security stuff, I can't retire until I am 68. That will be like 2038. Oh now that looks scary written down.

Plus I won't have enough years in as a teacher come 2020.

Ah well, life continues- on we go...

Pictures, ok, just pictures

2009-09-07T19:59:00.004-04:00

Some summer pictures. Brando, Cody, My new outfit and hat. Then the group of us who went to the Ren fest in Battle creek called Silver leaf.

THE FENCE

2009-08-19T13:25:00.003-04:00

Finally, we did it.

After a year of talking about it, we put a fence up for the dogs.

Now, we only had Brando last year, so it wasn't that big of a deal. He did very well on the cable run out for part of the yard, but that does not work with two dogs.

Especially since Cody does not do well with a collar on. He scratches and scratches until he gets his neck all infected.

The good news is that it didn't cost as much as we feared. Although we had to get a building permit from the city, then we had to get dog licenses for the county. BTW - Oakland county people have to license their dogs. I don't remember us having to do that in Monroe?? Anyone else???

So, we have a big gate on the side by the garage and a little gate on the other side, just to get the lawn mower between the house, the old fence and the tree.

Yeah, the blue spruce out back is soooo big that you cant get around it anymore. I don't know if we should trim the branches on the side by the fence. I never tried trimming anything that big.

Anyway, the dogs are pretty happy, we now leave the door to the neighbors open. Maggie comes flying over here and Cody goes flying over there. More room to run and chase things.

Just want to get a big twisty or fake lock thing to put on the big fence. Don't want any of the neighborhood kids to just walk through the yard any more. I feel bad, between us and Risners we have throughly blocked the fast pass from one side of the sub to the school.

Off to cut the grass.

Start your summer off right.

2009-06-22T09:25:00.004-04:00

What better way to start your summer off than to go camping and bring home a new dog?

The camp ground and the rescue center share space. The dogs kept the woodland friends you would rather not meet off the property. No skunks in our world.

Cody is a Fawn Boxer who I think is too thin. He ran with at least 50 loose dogs and had to probably fight for his food. I should fatten him up in a couple weeks.

We are off to the vet today to make sure we got all the bugs out of his ears. I have a feeling we didn't.

I know, I have to take pictures with Brando. Yes, they get along very well. Cody is soooo very laid back that Brando really can't find anything to complain about, except for Cody sitting on me.

It took us two days to get home from Missouri, in the middle of no where. He seems comfortable here and happy. He has not met the pigs yet. I already know he chases squirrels.

Come meet him soon. He may be going to work with me this week. I need to check for permission first. I have some editing to do at school.

Have a great day, my first real day of vacation at home begins today...

End of the school year

2009-05-28T13:57:00.003-04:00

As you would guess I have a gazillion things to do in the next week & a 1/2.

Graduation, and a Musical plus giving finals - editing programs and making copies for parents.

I have become the stopping ground for a large group of students.

My hour off is not even for me anymore.

oh well,

Announcement

2009-04-21T13:50:00.002-04:00

If you can believe it - I am in a Play.

I am really in only one short scene. We are doing it on Friday April 24, 2009.

Probably between 6 and 7 pm at the Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor.

3235 Washtenaw Ave

Ann Arbor, MI 48104

I'll post again when I get the time.

Just thought I would remind people.

It is some different pieces of Shakespeare. I'm Emilia in Othello.

Come down and watch me embarrass myself.

What Spring Break???

2009-04-21T13:46:00.002-04:00

So, life was weird this spring break..

It was very productive, but a little overwhelming. I was losing it by Saturday when I realized I had NOTHING done for school. I owe a lot of stuff to the main office and still nothing is done.

AAAAAHHHHH

But my Bedroom and my Bathroom look AWESOME.

Thanks Mom, and thanks Aunt Shirley.

PHOTOS

CLick to take a look.

Fiona issuses

2009-04-06T21:52:00.000-04:00

It Seems that Fiona has a bit of a problem.
Someone bit her. I would guess it happned in the last week. I don't remember anything last week, when I weighed her last.
I felt the bump today when I picked her up to torment her. ;)

So, I have started treatment like we did for Lenny.
I found Antibiotics, and some metacam for the fact that I was squeezing stuff out of it. This one is still a little juicy - unlike Lenny when it was a big hard mass.

I will be calling Dr. G in the morning. Need to get the right amounts for meds. She is still a big girl. 1200 grams.

It figures.. I also need some meds for Winslow. The last doxy was really weird and I stopped giving it to him. The consistency was way off. I did some nose drops today and he is a bit better.
Have to get him again in the morning.
Ah the morning medicating again. ahhhhhhh now plus Hot compress on Fiona. She was really good for me today. I think she was happy that I found it.
Ok,
good night and here to hoping the Spartans win!!!

Rough day

2009-03-17T16:29:00.002-04:00

Worst St. Patrick's day ever.

Nothing to do with Beer.

Tuck Guinea Pig died this morning at the vet office.
I found her with very goobery eyes at 5am and called as soon as they were open.
Tom stayed home and took 3 guineas to the vet's.
She made it to the office and got a look over and the vet said she was in bad shape.
He then looked at Winslow and Sammie - as I was worried they might also be sick. As everyone lives in the same cage.
When they went to get Tuck back out of her carrier, they found her dead.

Dr. G is going to see if he can figure out anything. We want to make sure it wasn't horrible contagious. If I need to I'll get antibiotics for everyone tomorrow. I feel terrible. We have only had her for a little over 2 months.
I am worried for my other piggies.

Hope you had a better holiday. Maybe I'll go look for a beer.

VEGAS

2009-03-04T19:13:00.003-05:00

Howdy.......

We return and work is kicking my butt.
Tom reminded me that I haven't put up any vegas pictures yet.
So, here is the link to the batch.

Firemen for Hillary.
Shots from the Eifell tower, very cool view.
The contruction tunnel we had to walk through too much.
Our favorite casino's and the Spice Buffet, still one of the best on the strip and only $28.
We took a trip to the old part of town and took pictures and gambled. I found my favorite game Flip-Flop at the Fiztgerald casino and saw a piece of the Blarney stone. They claim it is real, I'm not so certain.
Yeah, I should have taken a picture of that.

Yes, I did take a bunch of pictures from the bus. The double decker that takes you from the strip to downtown and to the shopping mall. Must remember to get the 3 day pass next time we are in town. Totally worth it. IF you get tired, just hop the bus.

Enjoy
http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl/Vegas#

Tuck meeting the others.

2009-02-08T13:12:00.004-05:00

Here is the link to the many pictures that were taken during the introductions down today.
I think it went well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl/TuckIntrosToOthers#

Tuck Pig intro to everyone else.

2009-02-08T12:54:00.003-05:00

Introducing Tuck to the rest of the pigs. They seemed to do ok. As far as we know Tuck has lived alone for years, so this is so very new to her. I just checked on them and everyone has basically gone for a nap.

New Tuck photos and a Movie

2009-01-21T18:29:00.006-05:00

Hopefully I'll get the stuff up before the Blogger outage today.

I took a few pictures of Tuck.

I also took a short video. Hope you can see it.

Busy January

2009-01-19T13:00:00.004-05:00

Oh yes.

Here is the New (to us) snowblower. The guy used it once, got hurt and his wife told him to get rid of it.

Needless to say it is plenty big for us and sure is good in the TON of snow we got. So far it is great.

Here is the New Guinea pig... Her name is Tuck.

She'll be in Quarantine for a few weeks.

She is sooo cute, and a little cuddly. She even knows how to get hay out of the wheel thing. I'll put more in a little later and try to get her to use her foot. It is so very cute.

Ugly Ornament Contest

2008-12-27T11:15:00.000-05:00

The official ugly ornament contest.
Once again - Barb wins the contest, by giving Kathy the --- well --- Sperm shaped ornament.

Here you see the victory cheer.
Enjoy this years grouping. Linn gave out the strangly colored people ornaments. Barb found not only the sperm shaped snowman, but all so the porncicle. Fuzzy purple feathers all around.
Kathy brought home a troll man from Germany.
Unfortunetly the crowd called her disqualified - as he did not have a hook sticking out of his head to make him a true ornament.
Hope you enjoyed this years coverage of the Ugly Ornament Contest.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T11:07:00.001-05:00

Brando got some Reindeer ears for Christmas.

Family photos in front of mom's tree.
We had a really great time.
Christmas eve was spent traveling lower southeaster Michigan.

We started at Mom's house and then moved on to Aunt Pat in Lincoln park where we see family once a year usually. Make sure we know who is alive.
Then we drove to Monroe to see all our friends that we made during all those 4-H years.
Kathy hosts the party and we all had a great time.
Between the ugly (or as this year under protest says- funniest) Ornament contest between Kathy, Mom and Linn and the jello shots and shrimp. We all had a great time. Ice on the driveway, but what did you expect.

Christmas day was spent with Tom's family. So MUCH FOOD. Started with crepes about noon, dinner was around 3 or so and TOO many presents to open.
We had a lovely time. Friday, we sat around and did nothing.
Ok, I lie - I hooked up the blue ray player and we watched Batman. WOW

Christmas is Tiring

2008-12-18T09:08:00.004-05:00

They were right.

You do start to look like your owner...

Brando, the smooshed face dog.

Mom and I went to the show at Fox Theater.

It looks awesome for the holidays. The whole theater is all decorated and they had little kids out front singing carols while people were waiting to get in to sit down for the show.

The show White Christmas was wonderful. The outfits were amazing, the singing was awesome and David Ogden Stiers plays an officer in the army. It was cool. Worth every penny.
I know he looks a bit funny but he would not sit up for me.

He looks all smooshed. But he put up with the hat and everything.
Sorry, no good shot of Tom and I this year.

Redid the cages

2008-11-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

2 cages become one Fortress as Tom likes to say.

Cages

Thanksgiving and Sadness

2008-11-29T13:55:00.002-05:00

Lenny and Sammie

The link above is to the last pictures taken yesterday before Lenny went to the vet for the last time.

We have been struggling with his condition for most of the fall. We did what any animal loving persons could do for him, but he just got worse and kept losing weight. For as long as he was happy in most of his life and not wasting away, we were willing to keep medicating him.

Lenny and his brother Squiggy were the cutest little brown guinea pigs I had ever seen. Poor guys were probably from an in-bred family and wound up having lots of problems. Come February they both would have been 3 and they spent almost the whole time with me.

They were buried together - as I had Squiggy's ashes- in the flower section of Tom's parents garden. May they Rest in Peace together.

Trimester over

2008-11-23T09:07:00.003-05:00

Thank goodness something is changing.....

This fall has been rather rough and I have been pulling my hair out trying to get it all together.

We finally changed one of my classes for 2nd trimester and I think it will be a little less work. I keep having to remind the counsilor that I AM NOT certified to teach newspaper and that stuff.- Only television.

So, I have two tv type classes and two english classes this trimester. Lets get the lead out.

Thanksgiving will be a great respite.
I need a day or two to chill.

Off to clean pig cages.....

NOVEMBER BABY

2008-11-07T14:55:00.002-05:00

Ok, that was silly, but man what a way to start the month.
Big crazy election. Hurray - it was decided completely with no questions to be answered and simply. None of this wait a darn month before we know the real result.

I have become an NPR junkie.
I don't know what to really say about that. I had a bunch of stuff down here, but it seemed ridiculas.
I want to go hear Don Gonyea speak on Monday in Grand Rapids, but I don't want to drive there and take a day off work and all that other crap.

Don is one of the older brothers of my highschool locker mate Holly.
Her family has done a lot in the spotlight types jobs. Don works for NPR, Another does comedy stuff and Holly was a heck of a singer. Anyway, he has a great job following around the President or Barack Obama during the election process.
I know his family must be thrilled any time he gets back to Michigan.

I know I wanted to go somewhere with this, but I really don't know where. Just to say - NPR is cool.

Dog Troubles & Howell Nature Center

2008-10-27T15:19:00.003-04:00

Here is one of the owls from the nature center shoot.
Naarah and I went for an afternoon of food and lots of birds of prey. Some of them are hurt and can not be let in the wild and two are fine but have been bonded to people and can not live in the wild.
I have to organzie and find the better pictures.

Here are the pictures of Brando after healing up a ton and a couple days after the vet shaved the area and we could really see what a mess he had going on it there.

It was awful. We had the urge to pull the nasty scabs off. We would whittle away the stuff that was coming off. We think he finally scratched off the big one while trying to get his ear.

You can hardly tell and he probably won't have any scars.

So, the story is. If your dog ever gets ANY dog bites, you have to take them in for Antibiotics, because the slobber gets dragged up under the skin and makes a really big mess.

2008-10-27T15:05:00.003-04:00

Here is Tom and his greatest achievement.

The sea turtle pumkin.

I am very impressed. Last year he just drew it on the pumpkin, this year I made him do the whole carving thing.

I totally suck at all that stuff, so I just lent a little hand and took pictures.
Brando was amazed at us and couldn't figure out why were weren't eating the stuff.
I dropped a seed on the floor and he didn't touch it.

Well, here he is doing all the hard work.

Hope it looks right.

Football

2008-10-18T15:52:00.002-04:00

YEAH - Football is over for me.

I taped the last home game on Friday and did not totally freeze my butt off. A couple of the kids got rather cold hands and wind blown faces, but I was snug in the booth with all my too expensive equipment to let anyone else in there. ha ha ha ha
I didn't even have to put on my Carharts this year....

So our team may suck and we may not have lights (a blessing for us video folks.) But dang our video looks better everytime we go out.
Some day they may get better.

Now it's off to do some volleyball on Wednesday and then Basketball starts in November. We'll see how that goes.

Sick

2008-09-20T14:12:00.002-04:00

Oh man,
The first cold/ death of the fall. I can hardly believe it.
On Thursday morning I woke feeling horrible. I thought I was going to shoot Tom. My throat hurt and I could not breath.
He has been hacking stuff up for a couple weeks now and Paul was at the doctors a little over a week ago now (i think).
So, here I am miserable.
My head hurts, my throat hurts and I'm tired.
I spent yesterday trying to hide from the world and it didn't work well. Today I stopped answering the door.
(Two teenagers or older wearing ties - you know that can't be good.)
Hopefully I could see them, but they really couldn't see me. Thanks for the shades mom. I can only hope the dog barking was scarey enough.

I can't beleive I already took a day off work. And a Payday at that. Oh my, poor me. I can wait till Monday for a check, jeez.
Off to sleep.
me

SCHOOL IS HERE

2008-09-17T14:32:00.002-04:00

Did I forget to do a school started blog???
I think I did.

So, I'm back at the School I joined last spring.
I'm still in the "Oops we didn't tell you how to do that?" phase of working here.
It should just be expected, it's a High School and people get so used to what they have done, they forget that there might be a couple people who don't know what to do. The Dean of Students has been very kind and even talked to me in the spring about what does sort of happen around here and if I have any problems at all to call him.

My first two people got to spend a day at home figuring out why they need to behave in here.
I am trying to keep the worst of it from starting, but nipping the unacceptable in the bud. I refuse to have posturing going on in my class room. You know you aren't going to start a fight in front of me (if you have been talking trash for 10 minutes.) so get over yourself and get the heck out.
Sure we have lots of fights here, or after school (mostly) because they all live near eachother. But once in a while someone just swings. Those are the fights you have to look out for.
So I have met a few parents and with 8th graders - they don't scare me much. I can usually bluff them out of anything. And with two having a day out of school, most know - hmm - Mrs. F is not going to take any crap.

Other annoying things.
For some reason the main harddrive, in my editing computer, blew a gasket . The one they just built for me in the spring. I was going to put together the football game that I dragged Tom too. Kind of hard to do that when the computer will not even boot up. Opps.

They ordered my equipment but it is not all in yet. PLUS, the tripod I was trying to get fixed is not available in parts. So, it's either $1,100 for a new head, or just buy a different tripod.
I'm working on the different tripod. Just had to get it in the guys head that I REFUSE to buy a tripod for over $600 for this building. Hello, the office won't give me that much.
If they were replacing the studio tripods, I would love nicer ones, the ones we having are starting to fall apart. But for something that needs to go outside, I need to be able to cobble it back together with duck tape if it ever comes down to that.

Oh yeah, I'm teaching 8th grade English. MAN, I was really hoping to get away from that stuff.
Oh well, so now I have to grade english papers. EWWWWW
Thank goodness it is Wednesday and the end of the day.
I need a nap. Ha ha

Piggie surgery

2008-09-06T12:48:00.002-04:00

I know, I know, I know
Do we spend enough on the pigs??? I don't think I could spend any more.....
If it was your dog or horse, you'd do the same thing....

Anyway, Lenny has not felt real well and I had Tom take him to the vet. He HAD a bladder stone, which was removed yesterday.
Poor guy has a gazzillion stitches inside and out.

I have to remind him to eat, have to keep the gut moving, even if it doesn't feel good.
So, turtle pig was partially due to the fact he didn't feel well. Darn it.
I would have noticed earlier, but Lenny is the talking pig, he talked for no reason ALL the time. This made it harder to notice that he was talking about how much it hurt to pee.
Well, that pain is over with, now we have to get over the cut abdomen muscles. Ouch.

Movie Fun

2008-08-24T09:53:00.005-04:00

I was having trouble getting the program to actually finish the movies.
So, here are two.
One is Brando playing with a toy, had this a while but it would not save the file.
The second is Lenny playing at Turtle pig.
For some reason he enjoys pulling the foodbowl to himself and eating inside the piggloo.

I guess so no one can sneak up on him.

Olympics

2008-08-14T12:03:00.002-04:00

Can my brain fit anymore crap in it???

I have been watching and recording the olympics onto dvd's for a week now. I guess I am whipped. I have been trying to cut out commercials on some of it, and then Tom and I just got some of the best stuff on a couple soccer games. At least I have seen more Equestrian stuff this year.
They are on to Dressage Grand Prix. AWSOME, but only showed like 8 horses. I wanted to see all 33. DARN IT.
Oh well, something is better than nothing.

Slowly getting ready for school. Read two of the books that they suggested for the kids to read. I can deal with one, the other seems a little over their heads. Even a little over my head- they make a lot of references to philosophies, rulers and stuff that 8th graders are not likely understand at all.
ARG, makes me frustrated.
I guess a have 6 more free work days. ewww
later

Olympics

2008-08-08T11:38:00.003-04:00

I can hardly believe it is that time again.
Usually I'm not overly thrilled because I can never see anything.

Well guess what. I have Direct TV. Hmm, have you seen the commercials, have you heard the news.......???

I have 6 channels - yes 6 - of all Olympics all the time on my Direct TV. And they are FREE. I don't have to buy the Olympic pass or anything. Some of them are in HD and I am sooooo excited.
So, for all those years we couldn't watch a darn thing, except some good stuff on Channel 9 (which I can't get here.) Tell me what do you want me to record????
I have a huge list already....

What's up???

2008-08-04T10:32:00.006-04:00

Hi,
It has been a long week.
I got home from Camp and had a few things going on. Including me being more tired than I could imagine.

So, I have some random images of the dog, and Tom and one I thought was histerical.

I found the sign at the Livonia Laurel Park Place Mall, it was the Eddie Baurer display - and considering that I spend a good deal of money there - that made it even better.

I went to the Monroe County Fair on Thursday.

The Budwieser Clydesdales were there this year and of course the battery in my camera was dead. ARG I saw a large number of people that I know. It was really great to talk and just see how much everyone has or has not changed.

People like to think that Trisha and I are sisters. That was so cute.
By the way Trisha YOU LOOK GREAT!!!!

So, It's been a busy week and we only have a couple more before school starts again.

Hope you all are having a great summer. I know I am trying.

Last day of STN Camp

2008-07-25T18:43:00.003-04:00

You know what, I'll put pictures up tomorrow.

I only have 10 minutes before we leave for dinner.

37 of us survived STN BOOT CAMP. We have told them to change the name. Although the Description does mention the boot camp style.

Some groups were out until 2 am last night EDITING. Yes, editing.

We were done around 8:30 and I felt proud of that.

The guys were having a hard time getting the shows done and put together by 3 today. They didn't quite pull that off.

Yes, there were two shows about 20 minutes long of all our big packages from Wednesday and Thursday. Luckily there were two edit guys that did nothing else, but they still had a hard time getting it all together.

Well, I'm whipped, it's 5:45 central time and we are off to dinner.

Day 3, I think can't remember anymore and Day 4

2008-07-24T22:19:00.007-04:00

Okay,

So the last two days have been just a great big blur. Even with them canceling the 8:30 meeting this morning.
On Wednesday we spent a lot of time all morning in different classes. We had a guy come in from New York talking about letting the students put video up on the internet and have the chance to be on Channel One. Well, he was in for it with our group.

The things that will go wrong always go wrong. We gave him a LOT to think about. He mentioned it was his worse nightmare to be in front of so many teachers. Ha ha, he was right.

So here we all our in the main classroom, talking about everything in our funny grey green shirts to identify us on the evil evening trip.

We were sent to Branson, MO.

Someone described it as Ned Flanders idea of what Las Vegas should really be. They were right, except it is in the hills much like the Dells in Wisconsin. They even had DUCKs. I wanted to go for a ride.

Anyway, we were out taping from 7:30 pm until 9:30pm. Yes, the sun went down on the interview. I didn't get quite the footage I needed in order to make the whole thing work quite as well. The sun going down hurt us a bit.

We didn't back until 12:15 central time. AHHHH.

Hence the later meeting on Thursday.

And here is the man who thought up all this crazy stuff, Dave Davis.

He is been a great deal of fun.

He keeps teaching others what to do and steps back for them to do the hard work. He mentioned that Friday he'll be more in charge as the helpers will all be up till 4 in the morning putting together the show.

Thursday - the evil day. We wandered in a little late and ran through a ton of stuff. Then by 11 am we were sitting at editors trying to make a news package out of the stuff we had shot last night.

Ours sounds really good, but visually it does not cut it in my book. Not enough b-roll to show what we are talking about.

I have some really awesome outside shots of the Titanic experience in Branson.

Ok, so my shot is faked, cause my partner is in another room.

This is my partner Sherry. She is so much fun.

She is from Kentucky and has the cutest accent.

She pulled out the story and I had to teach her to write conversationally.

She was pulling out all these big words. I kept saying, make it shorter. Make it clearer. Make is simpler.

Then I sent the poor girl back the the sound booth to redo our voice overs. She was being very careful and enunciating everything and talking slow.

Her second try was golden and we have a great audio track.

To bad the video doesn't quite cut it.

Things Tammy should have brought to camp.

New headphones, Chris I need a new pair of AVG's.

My darn light and battery belt, Even though it weighs 20 pounds. I needed the light twice this week. It certainly got dark last night and theaters never have enough light.

Headphone splitter, people were getting very testy trying to hear their stuff with 20 other people doing the same thing in the same room. Both of you wear headphones and it can be quite as a church.

Hmm, I need a new tripod. Anyone wanna get me a Bogen. Actually I should get one through Naarah, that should be a good idea for Christmas.......

My darn rain gear, got that new jacket and totally forgot it. That is what I get for cleaning out my car.

I have had a great week, but I am totally beat.

Looks like I'm stopping in Chicago Saturday night, Christine and I got together finally on the phone and I'll be staying there. Hurray.

See you all next week.

STN Camp Day 3

2008-07-22T22:37:00.005-04:00

Another Long day......

After going a morning of asking each other questions and learning to focus down to the 3 word focus statements, we were sent out to shoot more footage. It was a silent movie. We did a lot of pantomiming.

Me freaking out at a bee. Ok, laugh now. I'll try to put footage up later.

After lunch and a little meeting we went back into the edit suite to mess with some really bad footage. We survived and I am getting quite quick with Adobe Premier. I know I bought the Mac I should be working on the Apple. But my group were all adobe people so I am happy to use whatever they wanted.

Once we finally got done, we went to the world famous Lambert's. Home of the Throwed Rolls. TOO FUNNY. Yes, they throw food. It was fun and it was all you can eat.

No I did not get seconds on my steak.

There we are standing around waiting to go in. 44 of us. You should have seen the unhappy line behind us.

The last picture is the outside of the apartments. I know the guys staying in the corner room. You will probably see my partner in video later.

I am having a good time. Working my butt off. Everyone went out to dinner and I did Laundry. They are all still gone, its 10pm here. I'm getting ready for bed. Have a great night. I'll try to get video up later.

Few days maybe......

Day 2

2008-07-21T19:13:00.005-04:00

They had us working our butts off last night.

We were in class from 6:30 to 9. We were out shoo

ting already.

This morning we started at 8:30. We went out and shot

stuff again.

Then had to edit it. No Audio which made it a little easier.

Then we watched them and got slammed.

Then we did an editing assignment. It is 6:20 and we are getting ready to leave for dinner.

Here is a couple pictures of my room.

The apartment dorm is awesome. I wish they had these at MSU. 4 bedrooms with good size closets, 2 people share a bath and one kitchen for all 4.

Locks on your own rooms. I love it.

so, here are a couple pictures....

St. Louis

2008-07-21T08:06:00.004-04:00

Road Trip......

On my way to STN Camp.

Ok, So I'm already at camp- but this was Sunday in St. Louis - I had a few hours to kill so I went down to the river and to the Arch. It was cool.

630 feet in the air. The little bubble thing you go up in is really strange. Check it out online.

I got a few good pictures.

Then I drove to Springfield.

I got the surprise then. It is all up and down hill from St. Louis to Springfield. Think about driving North Kentucky on 75. That was most of the trip. Very Tiring.

3 hours and well, cheap gas. 3.79 was the cheapest I saw. Hopefully I'll find that on the way back.

The Party --

2008-07-18T06:53:00.008-04:00

I have been informed I must put up pictures from the party.Ok, so until I get permission, you'll mostly see my friends. Some

people brought their young ones and well, I prefer not to

put little kids pictures on the web. Ok, so Andrea said it was ok. But my mom got the

good pictures of Jilly, so you'll just have to wait.

Lets see, the first one is my brother, trying to turn into grisly adams. Then Jason, we had fun in the corner talking for a while. A decent picture of my mom, and picture of Greg eating, but of course.

And a picture of Andrea, Gilly and Carmen. I hope everyone had a great time.

I was a bit busy. I have a job for

the summer, and well with house cleaning going on, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I have plenty more to do, so don't fret. Plus I have to get started on Lesson plans for the fall.

I haven't heard if my situation is changing yet, but one can only hope.

I don't

even know if we are getting the equipment we desperately need for the students to move forward in their work.

I leave tomorrow for Springfield MO. Yeah, its way out there in the middle of the country. I get to see St. Louis. So chalk up two more cities that I have visited. I should get to work on my pushpin collection....

Why, you ask?

Television Teacher classes at Drury University and a local high school. A weeklong workshop thing. I am looking forward to it. We'll see how much I remember and how hard they push me. Looking forward to it.

Fireworks

2008-07-10T12:05:00.004-04:00

So, The 4th of July has come and gone again.

We managed to make it to the Wixom Fireworks and had a lovely evening. I wanted to go to a few more shows, but Tom basically nixed those ideas.

We went to Cirque Du Soliel on the 4th itself, out in Chicago. There are lots of tickets between now and August 10th. Make the trip, it is totally worth it.

Hope to see many of you at our party on July 12th.

Ok, here is the mess

2008-06-27T16:32:00.005-04:00

Alright.
Well, I had been hoping not to fall prey to my old habits and I was really hoping that I could adapt without going crazy, but it seems that it will not be so.

I just spent 2 1/2 hours trying to get that little piece of video on this blog. Of course I started out using the mac laptop. I'm upstairs enjoying life where there are windows and even out on the deck.
But for some reason, blogger and the mac could not get the video to connect correctly and upload.
So, I figured. Ok - I'll quickly convert it to mpeg 4 or avi or whatever else the program would like. I fired up Imovie to see if it was possible. Well, Imovie will not even recognize the little movie that came off the sony camera. The computer could use Quick time to play it, but imovie asked me what???
So, I said - ok I spent money on the final cut edition and lets see what we get there. Fired that puppy up and said - alright import the video. Got that, then took 1/2 hour to read and figure out how to put some titles on the darn thing. They don't have any edge or drop shadow on them. How can you read that on video? - you can't.
I get done and guess what - NO AUDIO. For some reason final cut is losing the audio during the import. Even though the quick time on the computer can see the whole thing. Then I go looking for the audio file - as I guess it is seperate (which it is on the memory stick).
Nothing and a bunch of whinny bull.

Ok, I get fed up. I boot up Tom's computer and load the video and ask blogger to load it in. I then came downstairs thinking it would hang up again and have to do it on my machine.
While it was loading up stairs - TIME THIS PLEASE - in 10 minutes I -
1. booted the machine
2. opened the studio program - praying it would be ok with the crap video card in the machine - I haven't used it since the problems a month ago.
3. asked studio to import the video off the memory stick.
4. put a fade on the beginning and end of the bit.
5. made the words to go over the video and had it render it all.
6. rendered it as MPEG 4 to easiely be used on the internet.
7. ran upstairs to see how Tom's computer was doing and low and behold it had loaded it up.
8. ran back downstairs and it was already done making it a movie I could use anywhere.

OK, so that took like 10 minutes. It has now taken me another 10 to type all this out.
so, here is the video I redid in less than a 10th of the time it took me to do all that crap with the apple.

What am I getting at you ask??? Well, I may just have to load a version of windows (cause I have one) onto my mac and add my crappy little video editor onto that machine.
Mac people will hate me, I'm not impressed myself.
But WHY do I HAVE TO TAKE 3 x's the time to do something and not get the same results.

If you are going to tell me it is a more stable platform. Ok you may have me there, but that is because you can't DO 1/2 the stuff you can do with a PC.
I love mac, but you know what- it may have to pretend to be a pc to make me happy.

Oh yeah, this video is also 6 megabites. The one on the other post is 30 megabites. I would hazard a guess this might look a little more pixelated. Please let me know.

Ok, so I took him out and talked to the neighbor for a couple minutes. Check out the time difference on these. Ok, I check the time difference and guess what. The other piece has the first time I tried to upload the video on the mac. So, it has taken me what 2 hours of messing between the mac and the pc to get this simple little video on the internet.

Brando in the pool, summer fun.

2008-06-27T14:38:00.005-04:00

Ok, Mom asked and so here it is.
This is my first attempt at putting a video straight into my blog.
I used my old little sony digital camera, so as to make sure the video was small enough to slap on here without me having to figure out how to edit it down and all that fun crap.
I so need a pocket video camera.
Enjoy the silly dog playing in his pool.

Ok, you have no idea what I just went through to do this.
You'll see a new post shortly, then you'll understand.

Brando and the pool

2008-06-14T16:13:00.003-04:00

Tom decided that Brando needed to cool off a little after Tom had cut the lawn. Not that Brando did any work.

I just got the camera, it wasn't my fault.

Anyway, here are some pictures. They are pretty cute.
Hope you are having a nice after noon.

How is Michael????

2008-06-11T08:48:00.002-04:00

Everyone asks everyday.
And you know what - I can handle that.

Right now this is what I know. He is doing ok.
Yesterday - June 10th, they did open heart surgery.
They scraped out all the infection that they could find and managed to save his own heart valve and did not have to replace it.

Everyone who was at the hospital got a peek at him after the surgery, then mom saw him last night around 8:30.
He still had the ventilator in and could not talk. It was making him a bit cranky.
Mom said they would let her in today around 10am.

Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed and shared thoughts for Mike.
Mom, I and he really appreciate it.

School is OUT - ok after today

2008-06-11T08:36:00.003-04:00

Well, it has been an interesting year.
Or 1/3 of a year - as it may be.

Yesterday we taped the last activity for the year. I have packed up most of my stuff and well, now I just have to clean up and get out of here.
My grades are done, but need to be posted.
My kids are gone, Its already 1st hour and no one has shown up today.

Really, I just have to spend the time to edit stuff.

Last night we had our last meeting for the year. Well, I got an award. It seems that I managed to impress a few people.

Actually, I impressed myself a little. I told them during my interview that my biggest priority was to make sure that I could tape graduation and make it look good.
Hmm, Yeah, I totally pulled that off and well - I managed 9 more things besides that.

I certainly hope you are having a good end of the school year time. Even if you are not a teacher. There are lots of people looking for grad gifts and fathers days gifts. So to all my retail friends - heres to everyone shopping.. :~)

What's new for you?

2008-05-25T10:53:00.005-04:00

ME - Well, I guess it would be this new MacBook - ie. Laptop.

It all started when Paul's Computer sort of took a crap and then his hard drive took out my power supply.

I was trying to save him a lot of trouble, and caused myself a little. It wound up be a little more than just his Hard Drive. We went shopping around to see what to do for him.

If you haven't talked to me in a while - or watched TV with me, you don't know that I make Tom stop the Tivo when the Mac/PC commercials come on. I always feel so bad for PC.

Well, I have also been talking about a laptop. Not that I really like Laptops, but I could certianly use one. I go enough and have found myself in a few situations that I could really use one.

So, now I have the ulitimate toy. A MacBook Laptop. This is the one right before you spend the big bucks on a Mac PRO. Could not afford that one.

Tom was like - there goes the money from the government.

I also ordered Final Cut Express 3.5. Yes, that is a video editing program. It has been a while since I have used a mac video editor, but I'm sure I can

plow through learning how to do it.

Hope you have a great holiday weekend.

I'm off to visit people.

Lenny and Sammie - oh the fun...

2008-05-13T13:23:00.004-04:00

Everyone had to get a bath before the meetings could begin.

Tom was bathing, I was cleaning cages and getting the basement ready.

Sammie was not much of one for swimming.

Lenny and Sammie were finally introduced to eachother.

It was a fun afternoon.

Lenny is MUCH more talkative now and not nearly so fat....

Trip to Mejier Gardens in Grand Rapids with Paul

2008-05-13T12:59:00.001-04:00

Here is a frog that Paul noticed and told me to get a good picture of him. I like frogs. He was very cute.

So many butterflies and then tiny birds.
I swear the momma bird (I think they are quail) was only as big as my hand - not even. Then the babies were even smaller.
The people who worked there, said the mom usualy keeps the babies hidden most of the day as they could easily be stepped on or grabbed by little kids.
We went mostly to see the butterflies.
The area was really big and had a waterfall and lots of trees and it was amazing.

Tom didn't go, I guess he figured it was like the one on Mackinaw - small.
I was amazed.
We had missed the extra special - more expesive butterflies. Although we saw a couple really awsome moths and the blue backed ones. Paul knows the names - not me.

Enjoy

Finally some pictures

2008-04-12T17:36:00.005-04:00

OK,

First we have the new dog.

Brando

Then I got the new to ME car - Blue Honda Civic -2003

It got 40 miles to the gallon on the first tank of gas.

And lastly -

We picked up Lenny Pig's new girlfriend today.

She is very soft, very sweet and VERY Calm.

Sammie Pig.

Happy first 60 degree day of the year!!!!!!

2008-04-05T08:27:00.002-04:00

OH MY -
Can it get any busier around here??????

OK, so we start with my job. Meetings after school wear me out. The most recent is how are we going to get the kids to follow the rules as we get to the end of the year??? JOY

Two, - We now own a Dog. Yep, English Bull Dog. He has been here for a over a week now. I'm sure Brando (it was Rambo - give the poor thing a break) is very happy to be in one place for more than 3 days. His old owners left him locked up for up to 10 hours at a time and wondered why the poor guy kept peeing on the floor.
(I can't hold it that long can you???)

Tom was rather happy up until yesterday. Brando has been rather good until we went to work yesterday. Tom came home to find smarty dog had chewed up a wood chair. Not the whole thing, and you can't tell unless you look at the other chairs and go - Oh something is missing. But man was Tom an unhappy fellow. (I have theories on why - but doesn't really matter.)

Next, I finally gave up the grand marquis. Yes the giant boat car has sailed away. Between the gas and getting it fixed - I think we were in a losing battle.
I kept saying I wanted a Honda (Hybrid) well, I got 1/2 way there. I got a Low emmission (maybe came here from Cali) Honda Civic lx. Not a bad car, but an '03 and well - as long as I get more than 30 miles to the gallon for a couple years, It should be worth it.

Yes, I know - post pictures. I have to go out today and wash the car and then I can take pictures.
My happiness comes from - I can now use my new floor mats that match the steering wheel cover and I can finally get my seat covers out again. I have seat covers that I bought my first trip to Hawaii and they only go on Bucket seats, PARTY.

Well, off to get Lenny's stitches out. (Poor boy lost a few parts.... lol) I have heard that a little girl pig is coming to a shelter near me. I hope to hear something this weekend. I don't want to go buy a pig. I want to rescue one.

Happy first 60 degree day of the year - ok if they didn't lie....

I have my weekends back

2008-03-02T11:21:00.003-05:00

Look at all the silly stuff I can get into now that I have my weekends back.

We are doing a "Flat Stanely" type thing with the guinea pig people I talk to. Someone found a beanie baby guinea pig and we are shipping it around the country, with Canada and the UK too.

Everyone is taking pictures and posting them and what did I do? I took a bunch of pictures and Tom and I basically did a quick stop action thing.

Its a couple different little things, and it looks cute.
You will probably not be impressed in any way shape or form, but it was fun and I can use it as an example for the kids.

Waldo Adventures

First Day at School

2008-02-28T19:10:00.002-05:00

So how much of the new kid on campus did I feel today?????

It was pretty bad. I was all pyched out that I was going to have to go into the classroom and PERFORM like RIGHT NOW.
That is what it is like to teach, you are Performing!!!!!!!

Anyway, I got really lucky. The principal wanted me to have a couple days to get a feel for the place. I spent today on the Editor.
Ok, it does lots of stuff, but really any machine I have used does what it does.
I did the whole tutorial that shows you how to edit. But the two things it lacked in the tutorial is HOW DO YOU GET THE VIDEO INTO THE MACHINE, and HOW DO YOU GET IT OUT??????
I have a bit of an idea, and My friend is coming tomorrow to help me figure it out. We are going to focus on the studio and see what we can get out of there. I think everything works, but we'll have to try it all, to be able to do anything in there soon.

I get the students on Monday. We'll see how that goes.
Everyone keeps telling me to come in crazy mean, and then you can chill out later.
Wish me luck.

MSU Orchid show 08

2008-02-24T12:29:00.003-05:00

Dad, Paul, and I went to the MSU Orchid show. Pictures by Tom Frederick

Hey sorry, Valentine pictures......

2008-02-20T08:49:00.003-05:00

Wonder of Wonders

2008-02-20T08:44:00.002-05:00

It seems that there will be a new job in my future.

THE VERY NEAR FUTURE......

Ok, basically they offered it to me - I just have to pass muster with the board of education.
Did you catch that? I knew you would.

Yes, I have been offered a teaching job in Ecorse, MI. It is basically off 75 and a little north of Southfield road. ALL the way over by the water. They have the steel plant down on West Jefferson there.

I should start next week. At least I would guess that is the story.
I saw the TV studio - oh yeah - did I mention - I'll be teaching Television production.......

They have some MAJOR equipment in there. I am amazed at what they spent to make this studio. Well, you can't say the kids won't be prepared if they really learn to use it.
They could almost skip Specs Howard with the equipment we have.

The people I have met are REALLY nice.

I should have lots more to tell you next week.
Tammy

OH MY - Really it's 2008

2008-01-26T08:24:00.000-05:00

Hi all, Sorry I have been on in FOREVER.
Not that anyone complains to me.

Things I can quickly say - then add pictures later.

1. Got a girl Piggy in the fall. Fiona - She and Winslow get along great. (Remember Winslow was fixed forever ago.)
2. Work was murder over the holidays.
3. Hence I was very sick...
4. New Years I slept.
5. Work is slow - good for my sanity.
6. Car go mush, I am fine.
7. Cost way too much to fix, but can't afford another car, so we will pay it.

Ok, you are caught up.
Pictures to come, although I forgot to take pictures of the car...

Time for Wedding Pictures.

2007-09-26T08:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I know it has almost been a whole month. I actually had the pictures done weeks ago, I just hadn't gotten all the indexes and cd's made to ship out. I can do that today.
Here are some shots from Trina's wedding. Everyone had a great time. And you have to admit that we all looked good.

New Position

2007-09-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

Well, Many of you probably know that I switched stores in the last week.
I am now working in Grosse Point.

The store is much bigger, the business if mostly finishing - that just keeps going up. And it is a little messed up.
They have been having problems with associates that were giving schedules that were just not useable to the store. Certain days of the week you need more people and when everyone is in class or something - that makes it impossible.

I was allowed to hire someone this last week and I think it will work out ok.
Everyone there is friendly, they just need to get a little more organized. My boss is helping me with my part of the organization, and I'm working on the others now.

Too much to do. Really I am not kidding. I feel like I am running the entire time I am there.
Well, hopefully I can get a few things under control before Christmas. OH MY, that will be crazy.

This also means I work 6 days a week and have no life. I think I'm working 9 days straight the next 2 weeks. OUCH
So, try not to be upset when I am not available.
I barely have time to take care of piggies. Which is just WRONG.. Take care, hopefully I'll have something interesting to share soon.

Pirates - Talk like a Pirate day was this week.

2007-09-22T11:10:00.000-04:00

My pirate name is:

Captain Mary Kidd

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Career test. HA HA

2007-09-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

OK, so I took the career question test on the site Naarah dragged up.
I saw one question that had to do with sales and since I nicked it, of course retail did not hit the list really.
I forget to look at the bottom..
I'll have to go back after I finish this.

HMMM, not surprising at all considering the number of things I have done with my life....

1. Recording Engineer
2. Power Plant Operator
3. Dry Cleaner
4. Printing Press Operator
5. Director
6. Film and TV Crew
7. Film Editor
8. Sound Technician
9. Automobile Assembler
10. Director of Photography
11. Production Woodworker

Too bad getting into a couple of those jobs are very few and far between here in Michigan..
ah well.
Go to Naarah's page to get the place to run your own test.

Camping - oh the joy

2007-08-30T08:23:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in the other post I went camping with Carrie and Matt. We had a good weekend. I was sort of group outing and we met some other cool people there.

Jo Ann is walking with Carrie - they were cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

I cooked and they cleaned, that was kind of nice. You can see the giant blue and white tent past the cars, that is my tent. Matt's is the solid blue that you can barely see.

Matt wandered over and I got a picture of him. Oh I have to find the funny picture of me that he took.

Ok, there is the picture of me. It was raining and I was getting into my tent, or his at the moment. I think his. Matt has a cute little camera and we had fun playing with it.

Once the rain started mine stayed safely in the jeep.

Down here is the picture of the tents up in the back yard. Well, I would try to go take another picture, but they are all over the deck and in the garage. Matt, Carrie - if you think we got wet Camping, You should have seen Tom and I last night. We were in Torrential rain last night taking stuff down, because the big tent tried to blow away. I have to go dig the rest of the stakes out of the ground. I need a bunch of those yellow stakes.

The food tent wasn't going anywhere till I pulled up the one Tom put in the front and back at the zippers.

Off to try and dry out tents again.... Now have to see if there is two tons of grass on them to get cleaned now. I guess I need to buy some tent seam sealer...

Where did the summer go?

2007-08-23T09:49:00.000-04:00

Hi,
Time for a couple updates.

I would hazard a guess that I have had a pretty good summer. As my left foot now wears a post -op shoe for the next couple of weeks. I'm not really sure what I did - there is a possibility of brusitis (sp) from working on cement floors. OR I hurt my foot playing paintball and really didn't notice.

I did notice my foot this past weekend while camping. I have not gone camping in YEARS. I had a fairly good time. The giant tent Tom bought for me is a little too large for cool weather camping. Not that you expect cool weather in AUGUST, but what can I say. To save myself from the rain, I slept comfortably on my air mattress in the back of the jeep. Can we say - it's good to be short.

Piggies are doing well. Winslow had a URI in July - no surprise. But then Lenny broke one of his bottom insisors and was rather unhappy for 2 or so weeks. The broken one has since grown back and Dr. G clipped both bottom teeth so that they match. Lenny is a much happier pig now.

Tom is working his butt off. That is fairly normal. He has taken days off here and there and has grilled much meat for Tammy and friends this summer.
My job at the camera store is going ok. I have in essance taken this month off from sales. My numbers SUCK. Oh well. Everyone else in the store seems to be making up for me.

I applied to a couple teaching jobs, had one interview and alas things are going no where in that field. Now what to do?
I think I'm gonna start looking for a office type job. I could use some sitting down again.

Ah yes, and the end of the summer blast will be Trina's Wedding. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone.

Several friends turned 40 or 30 this year. Congrats to all. My 20 year high school reunion will be next fall I believe. OH BOY - watch out world.

Hope you enjoy the rest of August.

Did you have a good 4th????

2007-07-05T09:25:00.001-04:00

Did you have a good Fourth of July?

I would have to say that we did.
Naarah and Rob came out after they close the store at Laurel park, Paul and Carrie came over and the 6 of us went to the fireworks at Kensington Metro Park off of 96, near Milford.

It turned out to be a great evening. We stopped at KFC on the way out there and we took our own pop and stuff.
I was prepared. We had blankets and chairs and bug spray and cameras and tripods.
I know Naarah got a few pictures with her S3is, so those will be cool to see also.
I had to crop a lot of my pictures as I turned on the noise reduction - STUPID.
Well, it would take to long to get ready for the next shot.

Then I missed a good portion of the finale, cause I bumped the camera and messed up the angel.
ANYWAY - no one seemed to lose anything - or I haven't heard yet and over all it was a great evening.

Pictures

2007-07-03T09:20:00.001-04:00

Thursday June 28th, Paul and I went to the Wixom fireworks. It was a great evening, the weather was cool even.
So we ate some food, watched all the little kids act like maniacs and I managed to take a few pictures.

By the time we got home, well - things had sort of just gone down hill all night.

Paul and I were going to walk over.
But, they had fixed the hole in the far fence of the school property. Which meant we had to go around, I said - NOPE and we walked back to the house to get the car.

So we drove over. Now a bunch of people paid to park in front of the VFW - where we went for wine tasting earlier this year. I hoped there wasn't a price to park in the back.
NOPE. So the cops told us where to park and we dragged our stuff to the seating area. We had chairs and a tripod, my camera and the video camera.
I pulled out my book and a water and Paul asked, where is mine. I wasn't sure, and then I noticed that the head to the tripod wasn't on the tripod, it was left on Pauls camera back at his house.

We had gone on a little nature shoot a couple weeks ago. AHHHHH
Ok, so no regular tripod, I had the video prop that sits on your chest in my car. So I went back.
I didn't find his book either.
Well, we got food and sat around watching the crazy children and waited for it to get dark.

We finally realized that he left the book on the roof of the car, and well it is gone.
Then as we were leaving, some kid said - hey is that your cell phone. I had managed to drop it. Whew.
Then it took a good 1/2 hour to get out and well, when we got to the street I realized I didn't have glasses on my face.
They obviously fell out of my shirt pocket as I was packing up the chairs. ARG
So, I am off to the eye doctor today to get more.
Hope had a better day on the 28th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

2007-07-03T09:13:00.000-04:00

TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, what are my plans for the day?

This morning after giving Tom a Migraine pill and putting stuff in the laundry, I am working on the cleaning the guinea Pig cage. Lenny and Squiggy are mighty fat and over in the play pen already. I have given Winslow the run of the whole cage and he is probably trying to mark the whole thing.

I have an eye doctor appointment at 1:30 to replace my cool glasses that I lost at the fireworks last week. It really sucks. Tom was in Maryland and Paul and I were the only ones to go. It was fun, but different and Paul and I lost things ALL night.

Then I go to Naarah's store to hang out and print pictures on her frontier. You ask why?? I AM GETTING MY OWN.... Yup, someone found a Frontier to give to my store. I grieve for the store who closed, but I GET their machine. Hopefully that will keep me from closing.

So, July 9th I drag my butt in at 7:30 to prepare for the arrival of my new machine. Hopefully it will be running full steam come Saturday the 14th.

That is just about the extent of stuff. Tom is working afternoons this week and is obviously not sleeping well. He woke me up some when he came home and he totally woke up when I got up this morning. I think the migraine medication will put him out for a couple hours.

Have a great day all. Hope you enjoy the 4th, and um. Yeah I have some fireworks pictures somewhere...

Long Time no post

2007-06-22T11:58:00.000-04:00

Ok,
Work, that is what I do all day almost everyday.......

1. Had a grad party - it was awsome; thanks all who came. Totally rocked, and oh the food.
2. No Diploma yet - so I called, "Oh it's right here, do you want it?" DUH
3. Guinea Pigs are fine. They love you all. Need to take more pictures.
4. Anyone know an easy animation program to learn on the computer? I need to learn something quick.
5. Fireworks in Wixom on June 28th, what are you doing? Come with us, it is a really good time.
6. Tom works on my birthday, anything going on July 4th that sounds like fun. Let us know.....
7. Got a bottle of wine to share, Carrie- Where are you?

Hmm, that covers what popped into my head at the moment.
later

What's up???

2007-05-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

Busy busy busy. Mom and I worked on the downstairs bathroom. You can actually use it now, it has a sink.

We painted and put up stuff, and hopefully there will be baseboard down for the party.

Oh yeah, Party on June 2nd. I did send out emails. Sorry, should have had invites made, but then I couldn't spend that money on FOOD for the party.

I'd show pictures of the bath, but you'd have nothing to look forward to when you got here for the party. Ok, we have to clean. ahhhhhhhhh

What else. I'm manager at Great Lakes. This is good and bad.

Good things - I little more money, and I'm the boss.

Bad things - I'm the boss, too much money in gas, no frontier machine and sales are down in the mall.

Guinea Pigs are doing well. Hmm, they all need a bath. That should be fun.

Found a bunny in the front yard and a baby bird on the ground in the back yard. I would guess the bird is either some cats dinner or he managed to fly last night. He wasn't doing too good on that yesterday. He was crying for his momma.

Guess I should show you pictures...

Oh yeah, I graduated. I told you that right???

Queen Truck Driver

2007-04-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
I miss everyone so. I really mean it. I haven't spoken to my friends in ages....

Anyway, Yesterday was the big move. No, not me. Naarah and Rob.
They finally got out of the apartment. Ok, mostly - it has to be cleaned.

I am the Queen truck driver. I picked up the 17 foot Uhaul and basically moved Naarah and Rob. Tom is doing afternoons this week, so he came in the morning and he and I moved most of the furniture into the truck and what ever boxes were ready to go.
Around One, Joel and Melanie showed up and with them, Rob, and myself, we drove over and unloaded into the Mobile Home. It is a really nice size double wide with cathedral ceilings in the living room.
I was there all day. I have to get home after work today and take care of guinea pigs.

So, once again I prove that I have a knack for driving big vehicles. Should I go get that truck licence? They keep calling thinking I have taken the classes.

Oh, by the way - Did I mention that I am now Manager of Ritz at the Great Lakes Crossing store? Come visit if you can..

Sometime in June, there will be a graduation party for me. I officially walk on May 5th, but no way to throw a party then as I have to go to work in the evening. EWWWWWW

There, you are now caught up.

More pictures....

2007-04-15T12:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I did a bunch of pictures and put them on the picasa website.

It took a while.

Here is the link again. http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl?pli=1

Enjoy at least two cool pictures here....

Road to Hana

2007-04-08T19:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, weeded the down and have 52 pictures to share of my first full day in Hawaii.

We did the famous Road to Hana on Maui. Someone drove a van and was supposed to tell us all kinds of stuff about the road and the water ways and everything else.
Well, it was good and bad. It was very beautiful and I got some great shots.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Tamloongirl

Hope you like it, working on rest. Slowly but surely.

We Return

2007-04-08T11:17:00.000-04:00

Ah, the long awaited posts from AFTER Hawaii.

I have sent some of you invitations to see my photos on the Ritz camera sight. I uploaded most of the pics while I was away. As a safety and ease of sharing thing.
The sharing was a little harder than I expected.

Well, I will share some pictures right here on the blog. I am also trying to find somewhere to upload a few more pictures that are easier to get to. Picasa seems to have a sight and I just have to figure it out.
I sort of refuse to use photo bucket and stuff like that. I need to put a watermark on the pictures, not that most are worth stealing, but I'd like to well make it a little harder to claim it's yours and not mine....
I'll be back with pictures...

Oh yeah, Happy Easter.....

NO WAY, I just mean NO WAY

2007-02-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, some of you are horse fans, or fanatics.
So, someone on a web site I check out posted this.....

FREESTYLE DRESSAGE

There are some more horses on the side of the same page. I haven't watched any of those yet..

What is it you ask????

This is the COOLEST thing I have ever seen. Ok, I have done dressage, it is cool and I found it fun. But If I had known that other countries were this cool, I would have demanded to travel to see it. Speaking of which, if you find out they are doing Freestyle in Toronto at any of the competitions, I want to be there.

Can you believe that our television is soooo lame that they don't air it. Ok, probably somewhere on cable or Satillite now I could find it, but WOW.
I hope to see this 9 year old mare out there dancing for a long time.

Music and Lyrics

2007-02-26T11:43:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, I said I would do a movie rating....

Naarah, Rob, Tom and I went to see Music and Lyrics and we totally give it 4 thumbs up. Naarah and I laughed out loud quite a few times, and Tom claims that he smiled the ENTIRE movie.
Now if that isn't a great review I don't know what is. If you lived in the 80's at all, OR are addicted to any of the VH-1 I love the 80's shows, you will LOVE this movie.

Videos we rented -
Beer Fest - Tom wanted to see what it was about. And- it was sort of funny. It had some good parts, but it was filled with sophomoric humor (duh) and had a really dumb plot twist. Did I say dumb plot twist, oh yeah - someone's twin brother appearing. Yeah, really dumb. The end was really funny with Willy Nelson making an appearence. Don't spend money on this, catch it on cable if they ever let it get that far.

Thank you for Smoking - I really wanted to see this movie. Basically because the premise was pretty good. AND, I wanted to see someone with all the right answers about Tobacco. You always wondered how they got so far for so long. The guy was great - I don't know who wrote it, but they did an incredible job. Just a reminder - the story takes place BEFORE Big tobacco has to settle and start paying the states for Health problems...

Hope you have a great week...

Where is your family from....?

2007-02-26T11:38:00.000-05:00

I just learned something new today.....

As most of you know, I am adopted, and am very grateful for that. But, as we all know, you want to know where your ancestors are from. (Or someone is always asking that very question.)
Today I learned something new. Due to the fact that I have High Cholestral - it is very likely that my ancestors are from somewhere in Northern Europe.

Do you want to know why?? Well, our bodies need Vitamin D. There isn't enough sun in the Winter to collect enough, so our body uses the cholestral to covert and I guess I just need a lot more of it.... Ok, so where are my vitamins....

So, what have you been doing???

2007-02-19T19:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have been trying to work on some DVD's for the last 2 months.

I got the original footage in December. The person and I agreed it would take a while and they were willing to wait for life to settle in January.

Ok, so January comes and I load all the footage for one person. (There is footage of three different people and I'm making seperate DVD's for each one.)

I edit and get it all done and think - WOW this is great. New version of my software and everything is totally cool. THEN I think - hey I should stick this in the DVD player before I mail it. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH
Ok, it looks GREAT - but there is no AUDIO.

So I try to reburn the DVD's like 5 times to get audio on them. I just kept making lovely coasters for the furniture. AHHHH. I finally get on the internet and go to the posts for the software I use.
GEE, it seems I'm not the only one with this problem.

I figure, go back and use the old version of the software and just get through this stuff. Ok, try to reload stuff, and unload stuff from the machine. Ummm, didn't work right.
So, I decide to reinstall the whole machine. If you know anything about computers - a FIREWIRE input is not how you connect to the internet, someone needed to Tell WINDOWS XP professional this. I finally find the driver for the motherboard internet connection (after 3 hours of screaming and crying.) and get it up and running again. (This was Friday um 2 weeks ago?)

Ok, so I RELOAD the footage, cause the stuff I loaded before does not work with the old version.
I chug through the musical stuff and really feel like I'm getting stuff done. Two DVD's down and mailed. Now time for the gymnastics stuff.
Ok, FOUND way more footage this time and need to get it in there. Tell the people, this may take a little longer.
Last THURSDAY - yeah the 15th. I get all the footage loaded, and edited so that it looks decent and before I went to bed I told the machine - be nice and render all this so I can make DVD's tomorrow morning.

HA - the computer hates me. I tried 3 or 4 times to get it to render. It would just HANG UP in the middle. Just decide - opps not gonna finish.

I think about crying on Saturday. Sunday I go the desperate route. I start chopping big time and tell the machine to make little AVI files that I will peice together to make the final over an hour DVD with all the cool menus.

By Sunday night at 11:30 pm, I finally had all the AVI files of what was left of the footage. Some of it I just could not use.
This morning I asked the computer politely to use the OTHER harddrive and make me a DVD.
I got home from work to find - LOW AND BEHOLD a finished Render of the DVD with Menu's.

5:30pm - threw in a DVD and burned a final copy. 6:30pm - checked it on the DVD player attatched to the TV. Picture and SOUND....

7:30 pm - 2 more copies of the DVD spit out of the machine - now I have to print the labels on the DVD. (I now have a printer JUST for this job.)

So, to recap. The studio 10 software does not make the audio available for a regular DVD player to play it.
The computer thinks that a firewire plug is used for internet connections.
My second hard drive is probably failing and putting more footage on it is a bad idea.
And I have TWO more people worth of VIDEO to load, edit and burn DVD's for.......

And what have you been up to lately..?.....

(Tomorrow I may review Music and Lyrics.)

Sorry Forgot - Tammy on News

2007-02-14T09:28:00.000-05:00

Hi, Well I added to my 15 mintues of Fame this week.
So, I have what about 10 minutes left.... This was about 5 seconds of it.

(Yes, I have had a least one friend call and say - I think I saw you on the news.)

I was on Channel 7 evening news (11 o'clock) on Monday night.

I forgot to warn people because a - I did not know what time. b- I figured it would suck. c- been busy editing... Don't ask...

Here is where you can see me on TV. Ok it is the internet version. Uses Windows Media player to run. Won't run on this machine. I will try to run it on the others in the house....

Tammy ON the News...

Let me know if it does not work. Or if I am FASCINATING....

I have burned it from the TiVo on to DVD if we must share it that way...

How normal am I??? HA HA HA

2007-02-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

You Are 45% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal...Other things you do are downright strange. You've got a little of your freak going on. But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself.

How Normal Are You?

Tired and Cold

2007-01-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

Ah, the end of January. We think we are going to do so much when the New Year begins and then it turns out to be tooo cold to even think of doing anything.

Ok, so the beginning of the month wasn't too bad, but it certainly has moved it's way to the 'Oh my it's cold", and it will get worse this coming weekend.

I think I have some more auto show pictures... But that was so last month now.

Work, lots of work...
Took the training class to be able to give the classes to the people who buy our cameras. WAY too easy... But then that is me... Trying to go watch someone teach the classes this weekend.

Some other stuff has been going on, people meeting here and there, and I just haven't felt up to going - or I am stuck working.
So, I apoligize to those who thought they would see me this month. Too much work in December spilled the illnesses that everyone had over break to us in January.... The whole store was basically sick.... Joy

Autoshow day 4

2007-01-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

Here is another car from the Auto Show.
I think this one was in the GM area.
Ok, bad name on this one - EFIJY - Yup that is one weird name.
Tom liked that the dash had the same paint job as the out side of the car. Obviously that is not an easy thing to do.
We liked the shape and the tires were cool, but getting them on and off the car would have to be a pain in the but.
Oh yeah, did you notice, wheel on the wrong side, some crazy from Europe designed it.
Ok, so that was a nice car to look at with horrible lighting around it. I wasn't the only one struggling to get that shot.

Then we looked at some normal cars. Ok, it is still a convertable and probably a pre-production car, but here is the 9 3 convertible from Saab. Could not touch this car, so it is probably a prototype also.

Have a great day.

PS - Piggie news. If you haven't heard, Tuesday night Winslow ripped a toenail off his front left foot. I had a bit of a wig out - but I properly took care of him. He is recovering nicely. I took him to the vet today and they were more worried about his labored breathing than his toe.
He is back on a few anitbiotics and I hope it makes him feel better. I know he is sick of medication.

Sorry, been sick - more Auto show

2007-01-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

Day 3 of Auto Show pictures. Sorry I was sick and then yesterday (Monday) we had no power in the house from 6:30am until about 4 pm. Thank goodness I keep the basement warmer than the rest of the house, the piggies seemed to survive just fine.

Ok, the first car on the list today is the SMART CAR. Yes, the scary little two seater from Europe that you hear about getting stuck in the grill of a bus.
Actually the car sits up much higher than I expected. It is not quite as tall as sitting in a minivan, but you do not sit DOWN in the car. It keeps you at almost standing height, more like getting into a chair and not a car.

Anyway, it is adorable, starts about $15,000 and the biggest use they think there will be is people with Busses or huge RV's who need to drag a little car with them. No more Jeeps, you just open the back of the bus and drive the smart car up into a tiny space just for them.
I would not recommend them for Highway driving. Just not a good idea. Someone also said, no on Woodward, Hmm - I don't think Woodward is that bad. Parts of Telegraph are much worse than Woodward.

Anyway, that is the SMART CAR.
The last picture is of the Scion line up. I liked the wall of cars. We were looking for a couple specific cars and forgot to stop and take a look at the Scions. It didn't connect to me that it wasn't just a pumped up display of car Art, it was their lineup. They had a few on the ground, but I didn't get to look at any of them. Guess I might go back on Thursday.

Auto Show Day 2 of Pictures.

2007-01-12T09:32:00.000-05:00

My last post was eaten by the evil Blog gods...
Anyway, here are some more pictures from the auto show.

These are pictures of what the Sebring looks like with the top down.
I like the look, yes that is one car. I hate silver it always looks funny. The show opens to the public on Saturday...

The second car that I have today is called a Maybach. I had never heard of one before Tom had been to the Auto Show in Los Angeles. They only had one at the Detroit show, as we don't have as many celebrities that want to be chauffeured around all the time. People in Detroit want to drive their own cars. Although I hear it is as cool to drive as it is to ride around in.
The car is about as long as a F150 truck. It has really awesome back seats. They fold out like first class airline chairs. There are LCD screens on the back of both front seats and probably separate cconnections for each. There are tray tables that fold out and lots of room for drinks in probably cooled holders between the seats.

Also the back door is probably 8 inches longer than the front door, making it really easy to get in and out of the car. Sorry, no price listed on that one...

Last but not least today. A picture of me sitting in a Mini. We did a test drive of them a week ago and really enjoyed ourselves. But I don't think we can afford one this year.

Auto Show

2007-01-11T08:36:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to Detroit International Auto show. Yes, I got to hit the preview.....
Tom picked up tickets and we went for the afternoon yesterday.

Here is the car that Tom has been working on for over a year. Karmann makes the convertable hard top that is on this car. Since the Auto show is not open to the public yet, the models are not there to talk about the cars or show how they work.

Some of the other companies had people there, for some reason we did not see anyone from Chrysler hanging about to talk about the cars.
Tom talked to a couple people about the car. We ran into a couple guys who work at Karmann, one is a paintball buddie. So they spent their day wandering around taking measurements and all kinds of notes on the different cars.

I hate to say it, but I was dissapointed in Ford. They had no notes on gas milage or even price on any of the cars.
Over the next week I'll share a car or two a day. I got some decent pictures. I need some more practice on using my new flash.... Enjoy..

MERRY CHRISTMAS to me....

2007-01-09T11:39:00.000-05:00

FINALLY-

My present from Tom arrived in the mail last night.

Nikon SB800 flash....... OH YEAH...

HAPPY NEW YEAR....

2007-01-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I am finally getting around to posting everything......

Got a couple pictures.

New Years Eve was even more insane here than ever.

Got up in the morning, cleaned the piggie cage.

I got ready and worked most of the afternoon.

While I was at work, Tom ran to the grocery store to pick up the wine that eveyone ordered. (Oh dang, I have a check to cash.)

Once I got home we delievered the wine in the RAIN. Oh what rain. So, yeah, we saw Carrie for a hot second and then drove to TOLEDO in the rain.

Got to the place about a 1/2 hour late. Mike's phone had no service and we were sort of lost.

I drove on guessing that my instincts would take over and they did.

The Food was ok, not great, the drinks were good and the band was very entertaining.

Actually they really enjoy what they do and overall they sound good. Need to go work on their sound for them. I don't know that I am up for that. It would be cool if I could get my friend Nick or even Kurt Thoma to drop by a show and fix the sound....

Anyway, here are the pictures.

On the way home, the weather was much better. There was an insane game of Trivial pursuit going on at Carrie's house, so we drove over there.

Even with Tom and My help it still took till 2am to get the game done.

Hope all of you had a great and safe New Year's Eve and a very Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

2007-01-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm late.

I worked a lot of hours the week before Christmas. Let's just say it was finally a nice check for too much work.

This year, like others we spent Christmas eve (after I got off work) traveling to my aunts house in Lincoln Park. This is Aunt Pat and my cousing Joe.

Then we drove to Monroe to visit Kathy and the 4-H crowd. It was a lovely evening. Especially since Raymond flew in from Germany without telling Kathy that he was coming. It was funny, they managed not to tell my mother also.

Here are a few pictures from the evening. Kimmy is now dating a guy that was in my class at SMCC- Eric. Um yeah, you figure out the age difference. Ok, it's not tooo bad..

Raymond had found the whip that used to be the beating stick when he and Trina were young. He carried it around all night. I have some rather incriminating photos of Eric, but I thought would be nice and not quite post them here. I will find another way to share with those who were at the party. Then they can share them with others....

Then Christmas day, we started at Mom's house. She made all kinds of breakfast food and my Aunt Cathy came over. It was great to see her.

I got Tom some slippers, he wears size 13. Everyone was trying them on. So he tried on Mom's shoes. Now that was funny.

I got some more cool ornaments for the tree, more in the blue and silver vein and then Tom got me a couple of kitchen things. Mom is getting me some storage for the kitchen...

The afternoon and evening was spent at Tom's parents.

They added a lot of Ostrich feathers. It was really cool. No they didn't kill a bird. Friends of their's have birds and they shed them.

We also found a horrid hat for Uncle Tom.

On Wednesday, Schawna and Mike made their way over to our house. We haven't seen them for probably a year and 1/2. Last year we just didn't connect and this past summer they did not make it to Michigan. Everyone was going to Alaska to see them.

So, we sat around and played with Piggies. Then we made lunch, venison- hmm did I mention we had someone bag us a deer this year??? Anyway - then we took them out back to shoot up the trees. Yup, have to share the paintball guns with everyone. Now we are out of paint and air.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, or what ever holiday you celebrate there...

New Years is next..... Sure I'll get to it...

Casino Royale

2007-01-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

Sorry, been working too many hours.

For those James Bond die hard fans. I have to tell you this was a really good movie.
I wasn't sure I was happy about changing out James again, as you know I ADORE Pierce Bronson.
The new guy - I should really learn his name - is HOT. Not that oh he is sooo cute and soo British that just looking at him makes me crazy. He is the "OH MY GOD" when you get some clothes off of him Hot. They have a nude scene, ok you don't see any equipment, but oh does he have some awsome bicycle rider thighs....

Overall, the story line was good. It wasn't an easy give away and they did a good job of moving the world forward, but keeping the essence of Bond alive.

It was the new beginning for Bond. Sort of the first big job that he took on. So we see the birth of a 007 agent. I liked it and so did Tom, sooooo go see it.
Althougth you might have to wait for DVD now.

Funny Picture

2006-12-05T08:25:00.000-05:00

Ok, So I talk and hang out with people who like Guinea pigs too much and well, one guy on our website made a great picture.

My Winslow and Squiggy made it into the picture.

Hope it gives you a little laugh in your day.

Holiday Weekend

2006-11-28T09:03:00.000-05:00

Hope your holiday weekend was full of fun, food and rest.
I on the other hand worked the whole time.

Too many hours in the store trying to get people to just decide on something to take with them or to order.
I have to admit that lots of people were nicer about ordering cameras and the free stuff than I expected. I totally planned on them being all mad that we didn't have it, but when they could get it at the same price by ordering it, they were fine.

I left work early on Monday to get some of my lights up. Especially the outdoor lights. It is cold out there today and the rest of my sub had there lights up on Sunday. We came home from the movies and the street was completely lit up.

Three more actual classes to attend and I have officially finished my Masters in Teaching.
Just have a couple more papers to write.
And finish paying them.

Tell you about Casino Royale later.

Emotional roller coaster

2006-11-20T22:27:00.000-05:00

The ups and downs of the last week or so.

Tuesday last week - Down - Tom left on a road trip for the new cars they are building.
Wednesday - Up - school was nice and realized I have next Wednesday off school for holiday.
Thursday - Down - Giant shipment and so much work to do.
Friday - Up - Paul and I polished off the crab legs I bought and Tom called from New Orleans telling me they were having a great time.
Down - crappy pay check.
Saturday - Down - Dropped car off for Oil change and they tell me - oh hey - your car is now leaking coolant all over the place. YOU can't drive it home. (Thank Goodness for Gordon - drove me home.)
UP - Tom came home at midnight.
Sunday - Up - Mom finally cut and colored my hair - much more natural this time.
Down - Pet Expo at the rock Finacial showplace wasn't what I was hoping for. Though I was impressed with the number of animals up for adoption. Almost anything your heart desired. I managed to go home empty handed.
Up - Boston Market with Tom and Paul and watched TV. All the stuff we missed all week.
Monday - Up - Got my eyebrows waxed - was looking a little bushy.
DOWN - Told it would cost $1100 to fix my car.
UP - Shop I like better quoted lower and even went to rescue my car.
Down - couple of very cranky shoppers in the store.
UP - Got the call for our Deer. Yes, we asked someone who gets deer on his farm to bag us one. Tom and his father are currently skinning and cutting it up to get it in a fridge at the moment. I guess when it has chilled enough, he will cut it into appropriate sizes and cuts for cooking. After 5 years of asking, FINALLY found someone to get us a deer.

Tired, whipped and not looking forward to working the day after Thanksgiving. Well, I might get some decent sales.
Hope you have a great Holiday, if I don't get back here before then.

"Stranger than Fiction"

2006-11-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

We don't go to the movies much anymore.
Mostly because I am working Retail and things are busy for Tom making new cars.
But Sunday we decided to get out and see something.

"Stranger than Fiction" is playing and we LOVED it.
Yahoo, or whoever gave it like a B- and the only reason we can come up with is that there are no explosions, no car chases and it has really good writing.
Will Ferril plays a regular tax guy, who starts hearing a voice narrating his life.
Turns out it is Emma Thompson, playing a writer, working on a book in his city.
Dustin Hoffman is an English Professor at a local University and Will goes to see him to figure out what kind of story or insanity he is in. They have great interactions, and I loved watching Emma Thompson just tear herself to pieces trying to finish her novel.

I think the movie was an A+.
Someone in the audience sounded like they were sobbing, so I warn you - bring the tissue.
If you can't handle a little literature in your life, than don't see the movie.
For those proliferate readers - you will love the 24 questions Hoffman comes up with the figure out what kind of story Will is in.
Enjoy

GO VOTE!!!!!!

2006-11-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

Now that I got that out of my system, I certainly hope that everyone gets out there and does their civic duty......
I just want to party that the PHONE CALLS WILL NOW BE OVER......
Two years of phone free from Republicans.. (and Democrats..) HURRAY..

What else...
Work sucks- still in the hole after a week - had a return on the 1st of Novemeber....

Went to Court on Monday - we are done. Now the lawyers have some crap to do, we have to pay for the transcripts and umm then maybe in March the Judge will decide the case.

Also, it looks like Naarah and Rob found a home for Monti and Mortimer. I can hardly believe it. I have become a tad attatched. Now, I am going to give them up, because I really can't give them the time they need. I don't have enough time for my own piggies.
They are cute and I will really miss them.

Hope you have a good week.

2006-10-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

Probably Squiggy asking me to save him. I had the camera and wasn't washing them at the time. Poor baby.

2006-10-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

Hmm, just enough white on the chin to make me think this is Lenny. A very soapy and unhappy Lenny. Tom did the washing. I just clipped butt hair and took pictures, in between cleaning cages.

2006-10-30T21:37:00.001-05:00

Montgomery looking for a way out. We was pretty good over all.

2006-10-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

Ah Piggie bath time. Mortimore unhappy with the whole idea...

What a weekend.... Happy Birthday Tom

2006-10-30T21:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I'm a couple days late. We were busy...

The celebration began on Friday, Tom's actual birthday.
He worked and so did I.... I picked up binoculars that he wanted and then in the RAIN of the century, we went to Greenfield Village with Paul and his sister Elaine for trick or treating and some other spooky stuff.
The evening would have been awesome without the rain. Even though, we all had umbrellas and they gave out snack things every 1/4 mile or so around the village. There were spooking things in windows and about a million carved pumkens with candles lighting the pathways, they were run over by walkers, strollers and people who could not see because of the giant umbrellas everywhere and the rain.
Ronald McDonald - or a rather short version of him was there and they were giving out those COOKIES, that you never see anymore in the restaurants. We also got Ty Beanie Baby black cats. They were so cute, and rather wet.
Tried to take a couple pictures and the batteries died in the Sony camera. Did not want to drag the big camera in the rain and the 2 tons of clothes we were wearing to stay warm and dry.

Saturday began with baths for all fat piggies and clean cages. It took all morning. Lenny and Squiggy also had hair shortening. Oh the long butt hair.....
Then they all received revolution preventative mite and flea treatment.

Saturday night was the secret trip to Second City comedy club in Novi. I emailed most people inviting them, and I'm sorry I didn't get to most of you sooner. I had just realized that it was sooo close and convenient. Just don't get excited about eating at that restaurant. Needless to say, Andiamo has good food, but crappy service and too expensive.

Too many other places to eat in Novi to waste time and money. Oh our biggest complaint the BAD LOUD JAZZ 3 some. Oh they were horrible. We complained to the water guy. He agreed they were too loud.

Once again the picture loading ability does not want to work for me.
I guess I will post them in front of this post... darn.

Halloween Spirit

2006-10-23T08:43:00.000-04:00

Been trying to get into the spirit and two different people sent me this.
Have fun..

Vet Check

2006-10-18T15:37:00.000-04:00

Took Winslow to the vet today.
He is doing well. Still had some bad antibodies and stuff of his Snot slide, but not as bad as last time. Think he is mostly just got fall allergies... or just his permanent allergies.

He KNEW he was at the vet and got a little upset with me. He rumbled in his sleeping bag, and refused to come out of the carrier.

The vet techs were at lunch, so I held him for the exams. I have some teeth indents on my left hand, but I had no bleeding.

We clipped his toenails (one bled a little) and then I got some revolution to use as a preventive messure. I'm not sure if anyone has mites, or anything, but the vet said he has been doing a once a year treatment on all his guinea pigs, so it doesn't hurt. I got the stuff, just need Tom's help to give it to them.

Applied for a couple jobs and REALLY wish I lived closer to Lansing for one job I'd like a lot.
4-H youth agent for Ingham county. Too bad it is soooo far away. I'd have to live there to do it. Considering that Tom goes to Sterling Heights everyday now for work, isn't going to help that situation.
No moving for us...

2006-10-17T12:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, I tried to get this stupid thing to do a regular post and it just would not do the darn pictures, so it will just have to be the seperate posts again. If ever there was a show duck, here he is. Check out the wild Feathers on his head. Yes, those are just feathers, or at least we are pretty sure. He was floating in the shallow end of the pond, and no other ducks like him were around.

2006-10-17T12:17:00.001-04:00

This duck is a little confused about what kind of duck he is... We think a mallard got some other kind of duck....

2006-10-17T12:17:00.000-04:00

Tom really liked this one. He is very much a mixture duck. Part Mallard and part everything else...