the pattyo

Good News! For those of you who are wondering, Mom came through her surgery very well. Carolyn, Sherri and I spent a good amount of time with her, until Sherri drove me home so I could teach. Carolyn stayed and later, when I called, I heard that not only had Sherri returned, but she brought mom some watermelon! Thanks Sherri! Thanks Carolyn! Love you, Mom!

LegVenting: I feel as if RLS is already kicking it. What the heck?! It’s only 6:16. This can’t be happening.

BlogVenting: Recently I’ve read a couple of blogs where women complained about their husbands. All the things they wrote were so sad. I can’t imagine every venting on my blog. Sure, Dan and I occasionally have disagreements, but I would never blog hatefully or hurtfully. Sad stuff. I’m surprised sometimes by the “me first” or the “me only” posts I see online. But no wonder someone is unhappy … if each of us is only thinking of ourselves we are doomed in our relationships. IMO, of course.

Dan has been in his room working on his photos most of today. If you want to see what he has so far you can visit his flickr site and … well … enjoy! :-)

… but I do really like this book, so whatever.

You’re A Prayer for Owen Meany!
by John Irving
Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire
faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest
this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking
moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT
SOUNDS LIKE THIS!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I washed all the windows on the east side of the house. With the ivy so low, and the windows so clean the light coming through is pretty amazing. The house feels much more open, and I love it!

Dan called while Jameson and I were in downtown Willow Glen. Sounds as if he’ll be home rather early today. Maybe he’ll even notice the ivy being cut back, eh? It was good to hear his voice, even if it was just on the tape machine.

And now I’m tired. Teaching. Window washing. A walk downtown.

So now? Nap time!

I have to get ready for the Giants ball game, after all. Barry is one away from tying the record with Hank Aaron. Cool. (But still, not without a bit of steroid hesitation ….)

I felt sort of bad about all the ivy I had chopped down today; so much of it wound up in front of our neighbors house, to the east of us. I did think, though, that they would be delighted that it was cut back. They are immaculate yard keepers (and house keepers) and I am guessing our mess is troubling. So I went over when I saw them outside and apologized for the mess.

And of course they were delighted that the ivy was cut and were extremely gracious about the mess.

Then I mentioned that Dan was gone and, thus, yard work had been hired out and something had broken (mentioning the sliding door).

So my dear neighbor, Cliff, just fixed the door for me!

I love nice neighbors! :-)

It is quite traditional for certain things to take place when Dan is on vacation. This week is no different, I’m pleased to say. (Because I’m not good at all with change.)

Something (or things) break.

(TDFQ = Tour de France Quotes. I find the things that some of these guys so so hysterically funny. Or colorful. Or just plain weird. So I’m compiling them here.)

They might just get in by the skin of their shorts.

The race of truth, it never lies.

We thought he was fading away. Now he’s as bright as the sky.

He’s turned into a rider with four legs.

Oh! Pretty fit athlete there! (A nearly naked man was running alongside the cyclists.)

How many bullets has he got in his gun?!

They were waiting, just like hogs in the background.

He has to dig deep into his suitcase for something special [to win the race].

It’s chicken skin when you pass there [speaking of some spot they pass, I think] to the last lap. [Said by Boonen, a racer. Um. Okay.]

Jameson set our Sony DVD Recorder to record the Tour for today, because it began at 3:30. He set the recorder at a slower speed so it would record 3 hours. I actually SET my alarm for 6:25 so I could get up and change disks to record the final 2 hours. (Yes, it was a 5 hour broadcast.) I came out (rather groggy) and switched out the DVDs. I could see that it was recording, as the numbers progressed. At that point I curled up on the couch and dozed on and off.

When Jameson came out we quickly turned off the TV so he wouldn’t see the results; as it turned out the show was even longer than the 5 hours. The recorder had turned off (because I reset it for better recording quality), but he would at least get to watch the entire race. We really wanted that, hoping to hear what the commentators had to say about the drugging issue and Astana withdrawing from the race.

So then Jameson switched out DVDs again, to start from the beginning.

ARRGGHHH! We get a message “No Title List Found”. Sigh.

I had thought that the DVDs I purchased earlier were no good, so I bought Sony ones, and made sure — even recorded a few things — that that was our problem in the past. BUT, alas, it now appears that our less-than-two-years-old RDR-VX500 is a rotten machine. We’ve had problems in the past, it’s extremely slow to load, and I think I’m moving from Sony recorders (Gee, ours isn’t made any more. I wonder why?!) to something else. If any readers have some suggestions, please let me know!

Meanwhile, we are watching the mere 2 hour replay … where they cut out a lot, some of which we had really hoped to see.

Stupid Sony. Stupid machine. (And I bought Sony because I thought it was a more reliable brand.)

To the person who landed here when doing a search on Playboy July 2007 centerfold … so sorry! I have nothing for you. And I mean nothing. Oh. But maybe disdain. Yes, I am feeling a bit of disdain for you. Sorry. “It’s just the way I am.” (To quote my dear dad.)

To the person who landed here when doing a search on Playboy May 2007 … read above.

To the people who have come here for poems of apology; well, I’ve written some but, really, you could try your hand at a poem as well. Really. And it might mean more. (But first: Are you really sorry?)

To the many people landing here by doing a search on pattyo: did you mean that, or did you mean patio?

To the person doing a google search on “top of Mt. Whitney”, yes, I made it there. A looong time ago.

To the person searching for Grandma Mitchell’s Last Flight of the Bird: I lost that recipe. I’m sure it’s here somewhere …?

It’s always fun to see how people arrive at this site. I average very few visits (9) at the pattyo, while I average a fair number, considering I’m not a “somebody” at oboeinsight (209). The funny thing is, the average length of visit for the latter is 2:40, while the average visit for this is 2:49. Hmmm. Does that mean anything?

So … slow reader that I’ve become (I think I didn’t give books the time they deserved when I was younger, actually), I finally finished Harry Potter.

Loved it.

Now I’m feeling sort of sad that it’s all over. And at the same time it does seem right and proper for Rowling to have ended the series.

Anyway, no spoilers here. I’m nice that way.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually do something worthwhile. (Well, I do have students … that’ll count for something, eh?)