I spy with my leeetle eye...

The silhouette of... I think it's an owl!

I was out walking with a friend of mine near dusk, when I spotted this little guy camped out and presumably waiting for dinner to run by.

It was soooo cool!!! We just stood there checking him out and he didn't go anywhere. I think he was probably so cute, because he was just a little bit bigger than the length of my hand... you know, that whole eyeball to head ratio.

Anyways we looked him up in the bird book, and I think he's a Boreal Owl :) Anybody have any other ideas?

What inside a snow globe might be like

I just about needed a jackhammer to get into my car this morning. It actually took some serious effort to get my windows scraped off, only to find that I had frost on the inside as well...

Oh goody...

Note to self: Turn off the air when scraping on the inside, or it will snow all over you.

The laws of light have been bent a little...

I was flipping through some pictures I took and haven't sorted through yet (yes including the roadtrip ones) and I found this one that I took at the beginning of October... I have no idea what caused the sky to look like this, but I thought it was pretty awesome!

Pass on the torch

I want to tell you about the coolest thing that just happened. For the second time in recent memory I talked to someone who said they had been inspired by my spontaneity.  How cool is that?!?

"You were actually my inspiration for this trip - we got a tip about a smokin' deal from a friend who invited us to come and  we just went for it. I thought about you and your St Louis trip, and thought Carpe Diem!"

I *thumbs chest* inspired two different individuals to let go... and do something just because they *wanted* to. When was the last time you did something totally crazy? Not because it needed to be done, or because you should do it... but just did it because it makes you happy?

*smiles*

It reminded me of a quote that I read the other day, by Marianne Williamson, although often misquoted as Nelson Mandella

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I am still in awe, that the effect of choices and decisions in my life have rippled so far and impacted others.

I want to burn so hot and so bright that I light everyone around me on fire, and they find their consuming passion and burn burn burn all the way through their lives.

The Roadtrip - July 17th - Leg III - Part A

 Random Stop

The Fit... posing with Faith

Apparently this (point of interest?) was dedicated to some train that went off the tracks, and dropped a passenger car 80' into a huge snowbank... don't worry though, nobody died. I guess it was *the* incident that prompted them to find a better way through the pass though.

So we followed the little trail that went between the signs thinking it maybe went to somewhere you could see the tracks or the steep grade of the tracks... but instead just kind of ended, and that's where Faith got her first bug bite.

... and then we got distracted...

Ooooh look at this big rock!

...and found this trail that went to this cool little creek that ended up being perfect for dipping our hot little piggy toes in!

It could've been worse...

Recently Awhile ago, a friend said to me after we returned from the lake without any fishies... "You guys must be the worst fishermen in Canada"... Well this is the tale about how we caught something... and still came home empty handed! ;)

My buddy had been bragging about all the fishies they'd caught on Swan the day before, and that they were just *nailing* them with the purple docks... a half an hour later I was skeptical, and had no sooner finished voicing my skepticism when *BAM* he gets a fish!

I kid you not, it happens like this all the time with us.

He reels it in, and it's probably a 2 lb'er... not huge by any standard, but still a fish.  He looked at it, then offered it to me for dinner, finally he gets it off the hook and leaving it in the net I put it back in the water to rinse off all the slimy bits.  The poor fish lies in the water upside down, noooot lookin' so good.

So I get him back in the boat, and I'm trying to find something to bean him with... when Eddie picks him up and says "Man I hate doing this..." and goes to smack him on the side of the boat...

Time slowed down, and I watched... powerless to change the course of my dinner as it slides out of his hands, taps the side of the boat... and *sploosh* the fish that 10 seconds before looked dead, does a quick *flip* *flip* with his entire body and tail... and is gone.


We looked at each other for a shocked second of silence and then *roared* laughing! I mean really, what else are you gonna do?!?

Just think though, somewhere tonight there's a fishy swimming around with a headache and no recollection of what happened, wondering what kind of bender he was on ;)

But really, I can't complain too much... you know what they say about a bad day fishing? Well, even if you don't... just look at this sunset...

The eincy weincy spider... that interupted my motivation

So I was cleaning out my closet the other day, because I had been thinking for awhile that there were things I hadn't used in it in probably over a year... and truth be told, I haven't seen my portable bike tire pump in awhile *sheepish look*

Stuff was coming out of that little closet at an amazing rate... and promptly expanding to fill my living room.  I was doing great! I got all the way to the very bottom of the closet, pulled out the last thing on the floor, when out struts Mr. Shinybutt looking like he's out for a Sunday stroll, dressed in his weekend best...

I jumped up, and ran and grabbed my blue plastic spider catching cup... and *plop* just like that, limited his strolling area.

Then I began to wonder what kind of spider he was... was he a black widow? I mean he was pretty shiny with a super big butt...  I dashed into the kitchen and took down the oldest of creepy-crawly catcher and observation chambers...

The Mason jar.

I lifted up the cup, to find that Mr. Shinybutt had gone from Sunday stroll to angry monster-truck rally smash-to-pass... and he was coming for me!!! EEEeeep!!! I *clunked* the Mason jar down, and took a breath while he did a great Nascar impression around the inside rim of the jar...

Then I carefully slid a piece of thick paper underneath and flipped both it and the jar over... Now *usually* when you do this particular maneuver, the spider falls to the bottom of the jar... but nooooo not Mr. Shinybutt *he* continued to do his breakneck speed loser laps upside-down!!!

Now I knew that he couldn't bite through the paper, but just thinking about that gave me the heebie-jeebies... I mean, all that was between my finger and his fangs was a single. piece. of. paper.

I fixed that little problem though...

I then spent the rest of the evening lying on the floor with a flashlight, tapping the paper and the jar trying to see the underside of Mr. Shinybutt to no avail...

Needless to say, that was the end of me accomplishing anything productive for the rest of the evening :p

Slowly. Going. Crazy. Am. I.

I recently had an unfortunate encounter with a website, actually it was with the phone system... but it started with the website. As far as I'm concerned, this should be valid grounds for taking the person responsible out back and beating them to death with a wet noodle, or possibly a dry sock... the sock would take longer.

1) First I read through most of the website
2) Enough of it to get thoroughly confused and admit that I was lost
3) I then admitted defeat, and located the contact phone number... being careful to select the "General Information" line rather than the "Emergency" I also wrote down the office hours.
4) I then woke up early to call during said office hours... Painstakingly listening carefully and following the prompts that best suited my particular situation... only to end up with an automated message that said "for more information, please go to http://..."

I understand where the rage of a thousand suns is born

My first question, is why bother listing a phone number... and secondly why the #$%^! did you bother posting office hours if the entire @$&*% thing is automated?!?!?!

Seriously.

A good day to ride

It was hard to believe it was the first day of December, and that I was up and ready to go relatively early... the weather was perfect, it felt like an early spring day.  Cool, but no frost... with the sun shining through gently warming everything.

I could feel the stiffness of unused muscles shaking the dust off, the wind on my face... and that feeling of being completely and absolutely free. I put on a burst of speed with reckless abandon, tearing down the street like a kid seeing how fast they can go down the hill without even considering how tired they're going to be after... or how they're going to stop.

It felt amazing.

With my wisdom of the ages I avoided the loose gravel, and started to slow down long before I hit stop signs and sharp corners... but I *did* hit every puddle I found *grins*

Absolutely nothing of note, or story-worthy happened... it was just a good day to ride :)

The moment when you realize... it might be too secure

Who's awesome?!?! Oh that's right...

I am!!!

Guess who found an *old* copy of the full Oracle 10g client install files, which are no longer available on the Oracle site... for love nor money?

Yep, that's right *buffs fingernails* I did!

Man I love the internets... and Google, and I thank whatever Gods may be for long-forgotten ftp folders with the files I need sitting in them, just waiting for someone to find them *grins*

If you're nerdy, then on the Internet you're not 404

We are doing a huge server upgrade this weekend which will affect access to our Secure Customer Portal. We dutifully informed our Customer Service team it would be offline, and in order to inform their customers they issued a memo to all of the Reps. By some strange coincidence it was Rep Memo #404.

Everyone in IT got the joke, but the humor of it all was lost on them completely...

Playing within the laws of physics

Isn't it interesting that the self-brewing cup of coffee that I couldn't get a single drop more out of this morning due to air lock, managed to leak all over the inside of my purse this afternoon?

I thought so too...

I'm a very lucky girl :)

No hurricane warning, no earthquakes, no tsunamis and last I checked chance of tornado... is slim to none.

*deep breath*

Kind of makes everything else in my life pale in comparison...

Boys and girls...

So it occurred to me recently, that one of the differences between lunch out with "the guys" and lunch out with my girlfriends... is that when something like *this* won-ton malfunction happens:

Girlfriends will hand you their own napkin provided it's still relatively clean, and/or any other napkin within reach... while another one waves down the waitress and has her bring a cloth...

Guys? Well if you're lucky, they wont point and laugh... and you might get a helpful between-mouthful "there's a stack of napkins over there" *nod-point*

I guess that's one way to tell you fit in ;)

Should've used the chop sticks...

There's a reason you shouldn't try to cut won-tons in half with a spoon, and now I know what it is...

But my cover story, *pauses listening* is that I have an inner ear infection and its messing with my balance and my aim ;)

Wait what?!?

Another spin around the sun...

I had the best birthday evaaaar!!! yesterday. So many people sent me birthday wishes, I feel so loved :)

and I walked in the door to no Internet, except there was internet on the bypass machine... so that meant the Internet coming into the building was okay :p

But for reals, I love problem solving even when it's a system I don't fully know... because it means you have to trust your instincts. You have to extrapolate the basics that you *do* know.

... you have to think.

I would just like to say, that I have the most wonderful friends in the entire world. I can't even begin to tell you how happy it made me to receive flowers at work on my birthday *grins* ... and yes some of it is that it had the rumor mill working overtime ;)

The best part though, is that I'm still grinning from ear to ear this morning... and I am so not a morning person ;)

Falling into winter

Love the reds and other brilliant colours of fall, because it's like the spectacular grand finale before settling in for a long quiet hibernation slumber...

Sabotaged!

So much for eating healthier, someone just dropped these off because "they're too salty" but sooooooo good :p

Looks pretty good...

As long as you don't ask how close we're shooting from ;)

Okay so the big holes are the Marlin 30-30 and the little holes are the .22