The Iced Coffee Blog

I haven’t mentioned them in a long time but our neighborhood owls haven’t been around here much in recent years. I just got a surprise — they’re back!

Yes, as I’m writing this I’m listening to two owls having quite a conversation outside. I just wish that I could see them if I were to go outside but I’ve never been able to get a good look in the dark. The best I’ve ever done is to tell exactly where they’re perched but I’ve never been able to see as much as the color of their feathers. The best I can tell is that they’re somewhat light in color but definitely not white.

I love hearing their soothing hoots, I guess I sense that is a sign that all is good in the world of the local owls. I know there is lots of small prey out there for them to feast on if they feel the need to go after it.

Enough of them. They’ve moved on and I no longer hear them hooting.

Danny got a cute little Olympus digital camera today. I got the honor of figuring it out for him and the battery should be nearly charged by now. He still needs to get a 2 gig memory card for it but it does have onboard storage for a few photos. I need to install the software that came with it soon, at least before I get a barrage of photos.

I had to do a bit of Christmas shopping this afternoon. I had to get something for each of 10 co-workers and I think I did pretty good. I didn’t want to get candy or cookies and most everything else was too expensive. Besides that, I got cookies for them last year. Well, this year I found bags of dried mixes for corn chowder and split pea soups. They sounded like a healthier choice and each package is supposed to make 3/4 of a gallon of soup. I added a real glittery snowflake ornament to each package to dress them up. Shopping is done, at least for work.

While I was shopping I finally found something that I wanted — almond syrup that if added to club soda and ice makes a wonderful Italian soda. The syrup can also be added to coffee, and that’s probably what it is most used for. This last summer I discovered Italian sodas and I’ve been hooked on them ever since. I also found but have yet to try a coconut flavored syrup. The syrups are made with Splenda so there are no calories. Beats soft drinks!

I was just dinking around with Microsoft Access for the first time in over 10 years. My gosh how easy it is to use these days! Anyway, I found a couple of useful templates that I might put to use. One is for managing all of my income and expenses and the other has to do with keeping track of what I’m eating.

I’ve seriously got to cut out the snacks I’ve been having and find some new ones that won’t pile on the pounds. I weighed myself for the first time in several months and needless to say, I was not pleased with what the scale told me. I’ve gained at least 10 pounds, maybe as many as 15 and I want them gone. It’s no wonder that many of my clothes just hang in the closet — they don’t hang well on me. Oh, they still fit but not like I’d like them to.

Guess I’m going to have to cut out my chips and switch to vegies that I like such as cucumbers. Fruit is a problem for me. The only way I’ll eat an apple is if it has been cooked, can’t stand them raw. Oranges are too messy and bananas won’t help other than getting me some much needed potassium. Tomatoes give me heartburn, as do a lot of foods that I love. So much for other goodies like a pizza or ice cream. They’re out for now.

So what am I left with to eat? I’m not giving up the burritos that I take for my lunch at work because they’re cheap and easy. I may just have fewer of them. I have to have my Dr. Pepper for work but I don’t have to have it at any other time. If I want a soda at home I can make an Italian soda with flavored syrup, crushed ice, club soda and lite cool whip. I won’t be having any “diet” varieties either with all the bad reputation that aspartame is now receiving. Best to stick with plain old sugar in smaller amounts.

Got to have my coffee although I now use Splenda in it. Can’t give up my caffeine!

I had a dream about an old friend last night. I think it was my mind replaying my memories of some of the great times we spent together when we were young and carefree. I haven’t seen him since about 1979 but I do often wonder how his life has taken shape and what he is doing these days. I think I know where he lives and I’ve decided that I’ll send him a Christmas card this year just to see if I get a response. Might be fun. If nothing else, whoever it is at that address who has his very same name will get an extra card this year. No harm in that.

I don’t usually remember my dreams. I figure that they’re just not interesting enough or that nobody I care about was in them. I do wonder if the unremembered dreams have an effect on me in some mysterious way, affecting things I do or want to do. I suppose it doesn’t matter much one way or the other.

I come to you in a dream, to see what you see, feel what you feel, know what you are…

Until next time that something goes haywire when I have weekend duty. My usual 30 minutes turned into nearly 4-1/2 hours.

Anyway, in the meanwhile I rediscovered Facebook. Apparently I joined it last June but never did anything with it. Today I figured it out just a little bit more. It’s still a strange site to me and nothing there is straightforward in my opinion. Not sure how much I’ll use it, but it is an option.

Now it is up to me to do something with the lima beans. Danny said he just soaked them but that it was my turn to cook them. Now where’d he get the idea that I would want to do that? Just because I didn’t have to cook anything for him to take to church this morning for a change? Big dufus!

I think I’ll just go eat a cookie and think about it for a while. Actually I know what I want to do with the lima beans, and I know what I really want to do with the lima beans but what I’ll actually do with them depends on what I can find in the cupboard.

Periodically I get weekend computer duty as a part of my job. This weekend is one of those weekends. Last night there was a failure of a tape drive at another facility that at least one of our jobs uses. Havoc! Our job failed waiting for the tape drive to be repaired by IBM, which is resulting in my Sunday morning duties to be expanded from an average 30 minutes to 3 or more hours. I’m currently waiting on jobs that would normally run in the wee hours to complete before starting my usual Sunday morning group of jobs. It’s a chain reaction!

By the way, my cold is nearly gone. I’m still a little bit stuffed up but that’s about all. This was one of those rare colds that never dropped into my chest and I’m grateful for that.

Around here all is well. Danny has some lima beans soaking and some hamburger thawing so I think that he’s got something planned for them in the crockpot. Stew? Soup? I’ll find out later after he’s up and about and into the pot of coffee that I just brewed (yes, I remembered to put in the coffee grounds this time).

And still I wait for the wee hour jobs to complete. It just figures that they’re taking nearly twice their average duration to complete this morning. I want them to finish! Now! I’m still looking at over 30 minutes of processing time left after the current job completes. Grrrr!

I’ll check back in later and let you all know how it all turns out.

I definitely got up waaay too early today. One of my first tasks when I get up and going is to brew a pot of coffee so that when Danny gets up it will be ready for him. While I nuked a cup of water to make myself a cup of instant, I set up the brew station and turned it on. I finished with fixing my cup of instant and went about doing my morning computer routines checking this, that and the other dozen things that I do at least once a day. About the time that I’d finished with all that, my coffee cup was near empty so I decided it was time to grab a cup of the freshly brewed stuff. Boy, was I in for a shock when all that came out was hot water. I’d done everything but put coffee grounds in the filter! That was a first for me. 

I made another cup of instant for myself with the hot water and did the coffee making thing all over again, making a point to myself to never try making a pot before I’d been up for a couple of hours. Guess I need coffee already in me in order to be able to make coffee. It’s a vicious circle!

I’m determined to not let this cold get the best of me, but it is trying. I’ve been mostly sleeping the last couple of days and taking what medication works best for me. At least so far the cold is staying in my head. I’ve probably gone through an entire box of tissues by now, although I’ve been into multiple boxes throughout the house.

I have to go into work tonight although I’d rather not. Somebody has to be there to feed the printers and make sure that if a job goes haywire that the right person is notified. At least the equipment can’t catch my cold.

Could it catch my headache that just got started? Guess I’d better go take something for it.

Guess I’ve never mentioned that we have a thing about naming our equipment at work. It keeps us somewhat entertained. We have three laser printers that my partner named Eeny, Meany and Miney because we don’t want no Moe. Then we have one printer that I named Spike because he broke his tractors one night and it reminded me of those pointy, spiked dog collars. Another printer got named Sassy because she can be a bitch, and one has the name of Trixie because she’s always pulling tricks on us. For the heck of it I named our burster Buster and our shop vac Snake Face. Fun in the computer room, huh.

The first computers I ever worked with, a DEC PDP/1120 and a DEC PDP/1140 were named Bertha and Big Bertha. No, I didn’t have anything to do with those names way back then.

Not every piece of computer equipment that I’ve worked with has had a nickname, at least that I heard about, and they have been many. A Sigma 7 that I spent a couple of years working with was only ever referred to as the computer. It’s printers didn’t get any special names either. The Univac and DataPoint computers that crossed my path also never got named to the best of my knowledge although they were in the same environment as the Berthas. However, the disk drives that were attached to the DataPoint were often referred to as the MayTag’s due to their size and configuration.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never named my own computers, printers or anything else. They just sit and do what they’re supposed to do unless I try something tricky and screw something up. Thank heavens for system restore as it’s been a life saver. Or at least, a headache preventer.

The weekend has arrived and greeted me with a head cold. I suppose I’ll be spending the next 48 or so hours bundled up with a good book, cold medications and a box of tissues. So much for having fun on my days off. I should’ve known this was coming as the fellow I work with had been coming down with a cold earlier this week. I can’t even grumble at him about it until next Wednesday as he scheduled a few days of vacation time off. Decongestants here I come.

I think that my tasks for today are complete. If they aren’t then too bad, I’m not going to do anything else but relax until it’s time to head off for work.

Well, what the heck have I been up to over the past many moons? I’ve rebuilt nearly all of my sites, with a new one, two or three being slowly worked on. (I’ll let you know when they’re in viewing shape).  I’ve been working at my job as an IT Technician and I’m still struggling to sleep when I’m supposed to sleep. It seems that I wake up way too soon every day and then I never can seem to accomplish as much as I’d like. Working the overnight shift certainly has its pros and cons. I’ve been trying to read a book that I started a couple of years ago, finish a sweater that has been in the works for over a year and learn as much as I can about using CSS.

I’ve been cooking on a regular basis rather than eating out as much as I wanted. I do try to still eat out but only about once a month now, and only at places where the food is really good. If you’re ever in Washoe City (just a few miles south of Reno) you have got to eat at Washoe Flats. Their food is simply wonderful. I also have finally found “my beer”… Guinness! Another fantastic place we have gone out to dinner at is B’Sghetti’s here in town. I tried my first Italian soda there and have been hooked on them ever since I learned how to make my own for much less than buying a glass of it in a restuarant.

What else is up? Hmmm… Pumpkin and dealing with it after Halloween. Danny bought a huge pumpkin for Halloween home, then he decorated it and left it on the kitchen counter. I didn’t want to put it outside and run the risk of having it damaged so there it sat until a couple of days ago. I cut it into huge chunks and distributed them into 4 baking pans. After the pumpkin was baked I cleaned out the seeds and processed the pumpkin in my food processor. About half way through I had five containers filled with pureed pumpkin and I had had enough! I put the remaining chunks of pumpkin into a large ziplock bag and took all of the pumpkin and put it in the freezer. I have enough processed pumpkin for about five pies and maybe enough of the frozen chunks for another five. I roasted the seeds last night with a bit of garlic powder and sea salt. They came out really good. But, I have had enough of pumpkin processing to last the rest of my life. I told Danny to never buy another one, not next year or ever. I didn’t want to see any more unless it was already in a can.

Well, I’ll save more for later. I’m zapped for now.

Sometime ago I knew this day would come. I just didn’t know exactly when it would be until last night when I tried to get into my old blog publishing system and found out that I had totally forgotten what I needed to know to access it. Goodbye to the “old” Iced Coffee Blog and welcome to the “new” Iced Coffee Blog.

The old pages will soon be gone. Without access, and with the age of the thing, I won’t be bringing any of those pages over here. I will be spending some time getting this one all set up, bringing what I can of the links over here. It’s just like moving into a new home — you have to do what it takes to make yourself feel right at home. At least I have been using WordPress for some other projects so I don’t have much in the way of new things to learn.

I’ll be back soon, once I’ve done a few housekeeping thingies.