Exceedingly Mundane

I received a notice, either via regular mail or an email, a few weeks ago from the Intuit, the makers of Quicken. Politely informing me that the version I was currently using (Quicken 2001) was no longer going to be supported. That didn’t bother me that much. However, they also quickly pointed out that the financial institutions that allow transaction downloading via Quicken would no longer be using a version compatible with the 2001 product. Ack. I don’t like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, so I thought it best to go ahead and upgrade. Normally, that is not a very big deal. You install the upgrade, it reads the older versions data files, and you go merrily along your binary way.

WELL – not in my case. Quicken 2005 read my data files all right and most of them were fine. One of my accounts, however, was suddenly unable to connect to my financial institution’s website and download transactions. Something I had been doing on a daily basis for 2 or 3 years now. Stopped working, no error, just blinked and no data was downloaded. I worked on the problem for two days, night and day, reading online documentation, searching Intuit’s knowledge base, etc. I considered calling them, but their website courteously informed me that telephone support costs 24.95 per call. The idea! No way am I going to pay for phone support. I searched high and low on their website to email tech support. Nothing. I emailed my financial institution and never heard back. Ack. I finally tried a live chat with a tech support person. Took two tries to catch a time slot when they were working (they only work 12-8 PM Pacific time). I finally grabbed a tech today, and over the course of 2 1/2 hours, he was able to solve my problem (the downloaded transaction problem and also the problem with the home inventory database, not as critical, but still an issue). I was very happy at the end of the ordeal, albeit, frustrated at the amount of time it took to resolve my issues. He was very patient, however, and kept plugging away at it. And I was very grateful to have it fixed. And to not have to pay 24.95 for support. Especially since I considered this an upgrade issue, since the darn things all worked before I installed their upgrade.

I’m just really happy to report now that my Quicken is now installed and functioning as it should be. Or so I think. It’s a very different look and feel from the last one and I haven’t completely focused on learning the nuances of this program. I can get around and bang my head through the basics. Once I found the problem, I ceased learning how to work in the new version and focused solely on fixing the problem. Now that is out of the way, I can spend some time learning the new features. Scratch that – now that the problem is fixed, it’s time to install our tax software and start on the taxes. Oh, how I dread that. I dread tax time every year. Loathe it. Despise it. Avoid it with a passion. Procrastinate and stress over it. Then, always jubilant once it is over and done and e-filed.

Anyway, my imood.com indicator has been on Agitated for a day or so now, and that’s why. I changed it to Relieved a few hours ago, once the tech support guy was able to help me solve my problems. I will have to find a new mood now, one not associated with this issue! 🙂

Wow, I think we’ve set a new record on the bird feeder around here. I filled up my bird feeder with some premium (I think) bird seed on Sunday afternoon, before the Super Bowl started. I just looked, and they have already pretty much emptied it (not even two days, I do believe that’s a new record here folks!). Yesterday, one time, I noticed that the feeder had 3 birds on it, one was sitting on the top of the shepherd’s hook, waiting in line, I guess, and there was a cardinal on the deck railing near by. I guess they have found the bird feeder, needless to say. Gotta go fill it back up, and remember to buy bird seed next week at Walmart!

Oh, and yesterday I saw something else sorta cute, animal-wise. On my way home from Walmart, in a steady rain, I was coming up Pebble Creek before the stop sign. And I had to stop in the middle of the street, because 4 mallard ducks were crossing the road, two pair. They took their time, I probably sat and waited 3 or 4 minutes on them to get across. Not crossing by the lake, but from one set of houses across the street to another set! We don’t ever see them over there, so I had to wonder what they were doing there! Playing in the rain, I guess. 🙂

Wow, I just read about this at a message board I frequent. I had not heard about this yet, and I hate to see things like this making the news.

Yahoo News Story

What’s the world coming to when you can’t bake cookies and take to a neighbor’s house? Granted, after 10 at night is a little late, but still!!! The girls were actually trying to do something nice. This reminds me of the hot coffee suit a while back. 👿

Last week, before we got this blog online, I wrote an entry in the Journal section of Hambones about some of the things that I am grateful for. I was reminded of this again today, because I got out in the rain again and struggled with a buggy load of groceries and sundries from Walmart.

You can probably click HERE to go check it out. Not sure that will work, so if not, just look in the Journal section and look for my entry entitled “Rainy Day Gratitudes”.

I’m still grateful for all of those, and more. For all of the blessings and things that we are so fortunate to have. To be able to drive to the store and not have to walk. To have the money to buy food and not worry about how to pay for it. To come home to a warm, dry, safe and cozy little home. To have the luxury of going during the day and not fighting the crowds at night or on a weekend, after coming home exhausted from working a full time job. I remember those days well, and am grateful on a daily basis for Tim working so hard to afford me the chance to stay home and take care of my health, myself and him. As much as he lets me. He actually doesn’t like to be fussed over that much! He likes to stay busy, which is a good thing too.

Ah, anyway, I ramble. Which is what I do. Very long-winded, very verbose. That’s me! But hey, that’s what my new blog is for. For sharing my ideas, opinions, going-on’s in my life, etc. Blog on, dude! 😆

In years gone by, we always used to have Super Bowl parties. We loved having them and having everyone here, but through the years, it has dwindled down to no one being able to come. We understand, it’s a long way here from Pineville and Hattiesburg, and the game starts late, so that puts everyone late getting back. And on a Sunday night too, with school and work the next morning. We just miss having everyone here 😐

So, now Tim and I have solo Super Bowl parties. Not as much food, not as much fun, but fun for us nonetheless. The upside is that I don’t have to do as much cooking and cleaning beforehand, and also we actually get to sit and watch the game. I never got to do that before, I was always running around doing other stuff. So that part is nice.

I just made our dip for the game. Using This relish from Harry and David. Note to self – the next time we go anywhere near a Harry and David outlet store, be sure to stock up on Moose Munch, this relish, and cherry and blueberry chocolates. Yummy.

Well, the original plan for the rest of the food was to go pick up some wings from Wingstop, then sit back and enjoy the game. (Here’s their Menu.) Both Tim and I thought that they and all the local pizza places would be swamped this afternoon, so we planned to call an hour and a half before we wanted them. And I did. And the guy at Wingstop promptly told me “we’re not accepting phone orders today”. HUH? He said, you can come here and place your order. I asked how long it would be, and he said at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Well, that’s fine, except that Tim and I were a little put out that they wouldn’t at least accept our order over the phone, that we had to drive there first, either sit and wait, or else turn around, go home, then turn around and drive back. So, we switched to the newly devised plan ‘B’. We decided to go buy a bag of hot wings. We just got back and did just that. We will soon have some hot wings in the oven. I just finished making bleu cheese dip for the wings, and we picked up some baked beans and potato salad while we were out. Good thing we live close to a lot of places and have a lot of backup options! 🙂

As for the game itself…. We’ve had several discussions over the past few days about who to pull for. These teams don’t mean as much to me. I had originally thought about pulling for the Eagles because of Todd Pinkston and his Forest/ USM connection, but Tim has reasoned with me, and reason has won out. We don’t like Terrell Owens and several other components of the Eagle team. We do however, really like Tom Brady and the strength of the Patriot offense and defense. Not a lot of break-out glittery stars with big mouths, just a cadre of men who seem to like the game, have respect for it, and play with a lot of class. So, it’s official now, we’re rooting for the Patriots. I may be eating crow tomorrow, but that’s ok. We’re not emotionally invested in this game. Not like if our Saints were playing, or my beloved Brett, or my man Peyton and his Colts.

If you’re watching the game, hope you have a great Super Bowl party of your own!

Did you wear red today? I did. Nothing fancy, just a red fleece pullover 😛 But I did wear red, for a very good reason.

I hope everyone knows why – today was National Wear Red Day. A day to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States today. Heart disease is always thought of as a man’s disease – you hear about men having heart attacks all the time, but never women.

You can Click Here to find out more.

UPDATE – I think we figured it out, it was a simple typo. Everyone should be seeing the Pink Lilly screen when you hit this blog. Feel free to select a different one, but be cautious, some of them are not what we will keep, and do not line up with how I have designed things. Several will be deleted soon…. Might want to stick with the default until we straighten everything up! 🙂

Hey, anyone out there checking out my blog – thought you ought to know that I haven’t quite figured out how to make my preferred style the default one. If you’re getting an orange screen, then try scrolling down and finding the drop down box for Styles. My preferred style is Pink Lilies (I know, it’s a girl thing). Tim likes Water Play and Rubric, and I also like Type. Try one of those and you can get a better idea of what the blog is supposed to look like. Some of the other styles are going to be deleted and some of the modified to look better with my content.

Enjoy!

When Sally was here, I NEVER had this kind of problem

I saw this link posted on another blog I read, and I decided to steal it! 🙂 I went and played, and it’s fun if you’re a nerd like me and like things like geography.

It’s called Place the State – click Here to go there and try it for yourself! Come back and post your score.

I played, and scored 88% in 311 seconds. Those darn teeny tiny New England states are hard to get right on target if you don’t have other states around it!

Enjoy 😛

Well, I’m sure this will generate a lot of snickers and sneers, but hey, I don’t care. 🙂

I have always had a lot of luck winning things in my life. There’s the famous trip to the Bahamas, and then the trip to Dallas two years ago to see the Dixie Chicks. And that computer I won off a local radio station. I have had equally good success with winning smaller stuff in the past, including CD’s, movie and hockey tickets, even food (remember the chicken platter I won from Chick-Fil-A one year at Christmas, it was so good!). I still want to win a DVD, for some reason, I haven’t had any luck with those yet!

Anyway, I have been entering a lot of sweepstakes and contests on the Internet. Granted, my chances of winning a contest on the Net are a lot less than by entering a local contest; I’m up against a lot more people! But, I have won a couple of small things. Nothing big, like a boatload of cash, a vacation or (I wish), the dream home on HGTV. Maybe one day! In the mean time, I’ve been satisfied with just having some small stuff show up unannounced in the mail!

First, it was a kid’s toy/game that I gave to Brittany and Zack. It was a neat little blow-up globe of the world and a book on geography and places in the world. I thought it was cool!

Next, my least favorite. I won an Ashlee Simpson CD (Autobiography). It’s still in the wrapper. One day, I guess I’ll open it up and give it a shot!

My latest winning appeared in the mail a week or so ago. It’s a tube of “Bliss Body Butter”. I didn’t even remember entering the contest, but it was cool to have it just appear in my mailbox! 😛 I used it one day and fell in love with it. It’s very rich and creamy and it smells so good. I didn’t think much about it, till a few days ago, a catalog came in the mail. From Bliss. Which on the cover of the catalog says “from New York’s hottest spa”. I decided to flip through it before tossing it in the garbage. Good grief – talk about some expensive stuff! I finally found the page that had the Body Butter on it that I won. That tube of lotion costs $32 bucks! Boy, am I ever glad I won it, because I wouldn’t ever pay that much for something like that, nice as it is!

Here’s a pic of what I won:

I have several sites bookmarked to check out for blogging ideas for each day of the week. I really like a lot of these sites, lots of good questions to get you thinking and just interesting questions. Well, interesting to me anyway!

Here’s the site I used for today (Thursday) – Click Here

http://www.othersideofglenroad.org/backporch/index.php

And, as much as I like today’s questions, I like last week’s even better! Last week’s questions (when I was not doing this and didn’t know about these sites!) were about chocolate! So, being the chocoholic I am, I am going to cheat and answer last week’s questions this week.

::Light or Dark::

Onesome: Light– Light chocolate or dark chocolate? …or no chocolate at all?

Wow, hard to pick. I actually like milk chocolate the best, is that considered light? I like dark chocolate too, you would be hard pressed to find a chocolate I didn’t like!

Twosome: or– Yeah, easy stuff this week : Coffee with cream or black as night? Or maybe: colas or clear sodas? …or just water, thank you?

Well, if you’ve read my previous journal entry on Hambones about coffee, you know that background. Started drinking coffee last summer, but only with lots of sugar (Splenda) and creamer. Can’t drink it without creamer, and I almost insist on flavored creamers. Milk is ok, but not nearly as desirable to me as a flavored creamer.

Threesome: Dark– Light-colored clothing or dark clothes? Which do you prefer to wear? Angel to goth, we’re curious?

I prefer to wear dark colors on bottom (jeans normally, but I like black too), and sometimes dark on top or light, depends on what I’m wearing and what time of year it is. In the summer, I’m a lot more likely to wear a light colored top, since it gets so hot here. In the winter, I’m normally in dark colors (and lots of warm clothes) head to toe!

😛

Testing with the new smilies plug-in that Tim downloaded for me

And a little devil….:evil: