We're back

We got back last night. We had a great family get together and of course I had taken too much, but all the food got eaten. I was pretty good and did not indulge in the sweet stuff, just had a tiny bit.

We took four days to come home as we drove through southern Alberta and British Columbia to check out possible places where we would like to move. I think we have decided that Merritt BC fits both hubby's wants and mine. Most of the other places we looked at were still a little bit isolated for me. We took a side trip and dropped in to see friends in Kamloops and then we were planning to make it to Prince George that night but we had to stop in 100 Mile House on Monday night because the snow was coming down fast and visibility was bad. I waved to Karen as we drove passed Lone Bute and Eileen as we went past 108 Mile House, (other Cariboo blogging buddies).

We got into Burns Lake about 3pm and I did a large shopping as there was nothing left in the house and we got home at 5pm as the snow started again. We had about 20cm (8") last night so we were lucky to get home when we did.

Hubby is out clearing it now and I have been catching up on laundry and email etc. We both gained a little weight, not from over eating but sitting around for nearly ten days. So now I have to try and lose it again.

Anyway I will slowly get around to visiting folk. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you all a Happy New Year. Only five weeks till we leave for Mexico Horray!

Christmas by Ben Stein

I found this last year on The Life of Mrs. Miles and I have kept it to post this year as I thought it was worth sharing again.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash Christianity, then , wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards.
Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

I don't know who the Jessica is that he refers to, if you know please let me know and have a Merry Christmas one and all.

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Have I forgotten something, do you think?

We are driving to Calgary on Monday, leaving around 5am and hoping to arrive that evening. Since I am trying to organize for the six days we are away with my three sons and family, what they should bring, and get ready etc. I have been keeping copious notes and trying to get suggestions from the guys. The two sons we are visiting live together and are bachelors without a much kitchen equipment or furniture to speak of but it is the only place where it is logical for us to gather. My oldest son, his wife and two children are driving from Vancouver and staying with two of the guests who are coming to dinner. We have rented a kitchen suite in a motel as there is no room anywhere for us and we would rather be private than stay with someone anyway.

This is when I wish I had a daughter, she would understand the necessities of knowing what the Christmas kitchen has in stock and need - is that a sexist remark - what I should bring or should be bought, and all the other details of orchestrating meals for five brawny men, four lovely women, three (I couldn't come up with that) two darling grandsons and the Granny, that would be me.

The fellows think this can all be arranged at the last minute and tell me not to fuss, let it be on their  heads if there is no cranberry sauce with the turkey, which may or may not be defrosted in time,  or enough cups for coffee and we drink the wine out of paper cups and eat with out fingers.

The other women, apart from myself are my youngest son's girlfriend, they have been going out for six months now, so could be serious and she is a guest so I don't want to put her on the spot, my eldest son's wife who is doing some baking and we don't talk, don't you know. She doesn't like me, so we politely tolerate each other, or at least I politely tolerate she doesn't talk to me at all,  and guests of my middle son who have done a lot for him and his brother over the years so I don't feel it would be right to ask them to bring things either.

So here is my list so far, and all this stuff has to go into our little yellow car.

1. Laptop and camera, probably will not get any pictures, we are a camera phobic family
2. Two turkeys and one large ham
3. Large roasting pan
4. Christmas gifts for the children - Transformer toys and a winter jacket for the baby
5. Four collapsible chairs
6. Coffee maker plus coffee and my decaf coffee
7. Popcorn maker plus popcorn
8. Two large cooking pots plus steamer
9. Cocoa for hubby's bedtime drink
10. Stuffing and gravy mix (I usually make these from scratch but it will be too difficult)
11. Table clothes
12. Carving knife, and good kitchen knife
13. My little Miracle blender
14. Potato Masher
15. One large plate to put the cooked meat on
16. Bottle opener plus eight bottles of home made wine
17. Vegetable peeler
18. Four cans of salmon
19. Homemade plum jam
20. Two jars of homemade pickles

Have I forgotten something, do you think?

A security alert for Internet Explorer you had better read

Image via Wikipedia

Security alert for IE7

An emergency patch should be available from 1800 GMT on 17 December, Microsoft has said.
The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser could allow
criminals to take control of people's computers and steal passwords.

Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of computer users and the flaw could affect all versions of it.

So far the vulnerability has affected only machines running Internet Explorer 7 although 8 may also be affected.



What should you do to do right now

Change IE security settings to high (Look under Tools/Internet Options)

With IE7 or 8 on Vista turn on Protected Mode

Ensure your PC is updated

Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to date

Better still download Firefox a fantastic browser without the problems one has with Explorer plus has thousands of useful extensions.

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Heads or Tails - Round

Skittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails this week our writing prompt is Anything Round.

I am going round the bend trying to learn Yahoo Pipes which is a service designed to gather data from the web and manipulate it mostly through RSS feeds. You can merge data together, split data up, get more or less details and you get to pick and choose what is displayed in the end result, a finalized feed.
It is like programming without knowing the code. There are plenty of pre-made pipes that you are free to clone and make small changes to your specifications but the real satisfaction with pipes comes with the ability to customize them the way you want them to be.
I created my first pipe. It is pretty basic but I have ReadWriteWeb and Lifehacker two of my favourite techy blogs united in it and sending me just their posts on Firefox, Firefox Add-ons, Google Chrome and Web 2, which is basically all I am interested in on their blogs.
This is what the creation of my Pipe looks like, and why I have been going round the bend trying to learn how to do it. I think this is good for the old brain though. Some people learn languages or music to keep their brain active I like to learn new computer tricks.
If you want to check it out go to Vic's Computer Info Pipe
Another pipe I found, which I did not create but cloned for my own use, is for getting all news amalgamated from several sources. If one types in the location one is interested in it shows the latest news for there and surrounding area.
So I typed in the name of my tiny village and the pipe found the news about our local election last month. That is big time news folks in a village of 350 people I am surprised it was found at all. Try it out you might find it fun.

I'm a geek

I saw this over at Beth and Cory's Mom's blog. I did it just for fun and they are pretty accurate. I am getting gray, not sure about the elegance and wisdom but I am a complete nerd and/or geek. I guess I don't get any colours in my rainbow.

Your rainbow is shaded gray.

What is says about you: You are an elegant person. You appreciate tradition and wisdom that comes with age. You depend on modern technology and may feel uncomfortable without it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Nerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests that are age inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers, or will tend to associate with like-minded people.

The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as "a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, gaming.

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Do you feel pressured for being an introvert

About a month ago I found a blog called The Introverted Church which was of particular interest to me as I am an introvert who has often felt pressured to be an extrovert by people who misunderstand.. Not by my dear husband, I must add, but by others who don't understand that solitude is not loneliness. Here is an excerpt from one of the posts on the blog I found very interesting.

Traditionally introversion has been identified by its behaviors. Martin Olsen Laney, author of the foundational book The Introvert Advantage, identified three main behavioral patterns: 1. Find energy in solitude 2. Processes internally 3. Prefers depth over breadth. In chapter 2 of my book (title and release date still forthcoming) I discuss these expressions of introversion, but I'm now adding a section that examines recent research that introversion and extroversion are actually hard wired into our brains.

Psychological and neuroscientific studies have discovered three main differences between introverted and extroverted brains:

1. Introverts have more naturally active brains than extroverts. Though introverts often have an aura of calmness on the surface, their brains are abuzz with activity. Thus, they require less external stimulation than extroverts, and too much outside stimulation can cause them to feel overwhelmed.

2. Second, blood flows in different paths in introverted and extroverted brains. Introverts have more blood flow in the brain, but it moves in a different path than extroverted blood. The blood in introverted brains flows to the areas that are focused on internal things like remembering, problem solving, and planning. On the other hand, the blood in extroverted brains flows to the areas used for processing external activities and sensory experiences.

3. Introverts and extroverts have different chemical balances in their brains. Extroverts require more dopamine, a neurotransmitter (a chemical substance that transmits nerve impulses) that is produced through motion and activity. They are less sensitive to dopamine than introverts and thus require more of it. Introverted brains, on the other hand, are dominated by another neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which is important for long term memory and a feeling of calm. Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter of the parasympathetic nervous system, which reacts to stress with a "rest and repose" response. Dopamine, on the other hand, produces a "fight or flight" reaction to stress.

Are you getting the best search results

An easy way to know which of the three major search engines returns the best results try MySearchoff a site which shows your search in three separate displays. It seems Live Search and Google are about as fast as each other while Yahoo lags behind. Google usually has a larger number of results but since one generally doesn't look beyond the first few pages this doesn't matter much.  Live Search often gives better results on the first pages.

If you don't use Windows Internet Explorer you can still use Live Search in your favorite browser. I have put a link to it on my menu bar and I can access it easily. Lately I have found Google to be quite slow so I have been using Live Search instead and am quite impressed. I also downloaded Internet Explorer 8 which has some nice features but Google's toolbar is not yet compatible with it. I am looking forward to the new Firefox which is rumoured to have some great new features. I updated my Opera browser and Flock. I like to have them all as they each have features I like and as long as I have my Google Toolbar I can bookmark away wherever I am and find them on another browser. I use Google Notebook extensively to organize my bookmarks and take clippings from various web sites, another useful tool that I can find in any browser. I have it on my iGoogle page as well as on my Google toolbar.

My Page Rank seems to differ daily so that seems to be a feature that is not worth worrying about anymore, if you ever did. Unfortunately many of the blog posts for money advertisers do, although I have been there done that and don't bother any more. I heard Google is laying off a lot of its workers, I wonder if that is contributing to the few problems it has been having over the last few days. Gmail has been oh so slow to load and the iGoogle page has hung up a few times.

Well that is all the computing news I have for you today.

Heads or Tails - Fill or Phil

Skittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails and I try to take part most weeks. This week the theme is either Fill or Phil.

When we moved to Parksville, Vancouver Island,  in 1989 we liked to visit the large second hand store that they had there, which helped many people in the area . It was a great place to find almost everything that a young family on a strict budget needed from armchairs to stuffed zebras.

I was perusing the book shelves one day when a loud ringing voice quite a bit above my head announced,

"Hey, I haven't see you before. Hi I'm Phil"

Then he bent down and shook my hand boisterously and off he went. I had no idea that Phil or Flying Phil was a Parksville icon.

Named Flying Phil because of the speed he walked the streets of Parksville, sometimes advertising different stores with a billboard. Phil is  mentally challenged  but that has never stopped him. He adores children and loves to spend time talking to them. Currently he is trying to raise money for ALS research and has his own website and can be found on Facebook.

Everyone knows Phil in Parksville, and the local restaurants and pubs will freely give him coffee or a snack when he comes in. He is a bright shining face of goodwill and welcome to anyone who comes to Parksville.

Dedication or Addiction?

This is hubby out yesterday fishing on the Fulton River.

He and his friend are planning to go again today as it is quite mild.

My question is when does dedication become addiction?

Pet for Christmas?

Good advice from our local Animal Rescue.



Christmas is nearly here with thoughts of the perfect gift. What to buy for that special person? Here are a few ideas for the animal lover. A book of animal stories is a gift that lasts. There is Dog or Cat Lover’s Companion which is a beautiful diary with pictures and a wealth of animal detail likely to fascinate even the most knowledgeable pet owner. An animal calendar is a prized present that gives pleasure the whole year through. Or a paid spay/neuter voucher to help spay/neuter the pet is a very thoughtful gift. An idea for the person who has everything - a donation to “Sponsor a pet” in the person’s name. This gift enhances the life of a homeless animal and gives a warm feeling of giving both to the person receiving the gift and the one giving the perfect gift. For the person that is thinking of a new pet, pet supplies are welcome gifts or a training video. A voucher from a local shelter or rescue for a pet of their choice after the rush of the holidays is an inspired gift. It is never a good idea to give a live puppy or kitten as a Christmas gift. The person who wants the animal should be the one to choose the new pet or have the new pet choose him. An animal is part of your life for 12 to 15 years and should be a serious undertaking. Sometimes what we think a person should have, is not what that person really wants. When a pet is lost thru death, the grieving process has to be dealt with before the introduction of a successor. If the time isn’t right, then the new pet is an interloper not a loved companion. Time heals, but everyone heals differently. Only the person grieving knows the right time for the new addition to his family.

Christmas is very stressful so it’s not a good time to introduce a new pet to the family. Pet supplies with a picture of the proposed animal and maybe a stuffed animal that looks like it could be under the tree. The live pet could arrive on Boxing Day when the hullabaloo dies down - to be the focus of the family. The new pet will be a part of the family for a long time so an extra day won’t hurt. The anticipation will be heightened by the wait while the new pet benefits from the quietened atmosphere. The perfect gift awaits you. Ensure your gift is thought out thoroughly before an animal’s life is at stake. Many unwanted pets end up in shelters and pounds after the holidays.

Can't let my muffins get cold

This cartoon is not far from the truth. I have taken to wearing a pair of pajama bottoms under my jeans even in the house. Even though we have the woods stove going full blast it is pretty chilly in here in the mornings. It was 16.5C (61F) in here this morning at about -16.5C (2F) outside. I like it a bit warmer inside so I popped out of bed this morning at 6 am and put more wood on the fire and flicked the coffee pot on and then went back and snuggled in bed with Santa.

There is a cold spot under my computer desk, the heat doesn't seem to get there and I find it a bit cold but I am too cheap to put on a little heater under there.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments of support for our looking around for a new home. As you have probably figured out we are not well to do, although we are better off than many people in the world so we are very grateful for what we do have. Therefore our choices of where to live are a tad limited. I have always said that should I find myself alone I could not stay here as just the daily upkeep of battling the snow and ice and keeping the grass down in the summer would be a bit much. Plus we are so far out that you have to pay so much to have someone come in to fix anything. Right now that is not a problem as hubby is a fixit man supreme and can tackle just about anything, but he might not always be around. Although I let that worry me he in fact is extremely fit, probably can out work many forty year olds and could well outlive me.

Searching everywhere for a new home

Since we are told the new mine will be coming in relatively soon we are starting to look for a new place to live. We are not in a rush but don't want to be here when the mine is in full swing. Apart from that I want to move where there is a bit more life and not so much snow although that will be hard in BC unless we go to the lower mainland but that is too rich for us and we do not want to return to Vancouver Island as the ferry to the mainland is so expensive and we hate traveling on it.

We are looking around the middle and south east part of BC area to get ideas. When we go to Calgary at Christmas we will take a tour on the way home and have a look at some towns. No more tiny villages on the edge of the wilderness for me but it has to be somewhere hubby can go fishing and keep his boat and ATV and somewhere I can go for walks without being worried about bears.

We will be looking for a mobile home preferably on a small lot but if we can't afford that it will have to be in a trailer park. The last resort will be an apartment. Not that I mind but that would be hard on my husband.

I love my little home here but I would like to get back to civilization again and not have to drive so far to do anything. My husband says the fishing will be ruined anyway and the peace and quiet we have would be gone so we might as well move closer to a town.

We are actually quite interested in Merritt BC but have to find out how expensive land would be there. Merritt is semi-desert country and can be quite hot in summer and although it has snow and can be cold in winter, the winter does not last 6 months like it does here. Our snow generally comes in October or November and is not gone until end of May or early June. So in one way we are depressed about the idea of a move but on the other excited.