Oh Mema… I will always love you

9/26/1913 – 07/31/2009

My New Car (YAY!)

Okay… the LLBean Subaru Outback that we bought in 2001 with 189,000 miles on it finally bit the dust. I’ve been nervously holding my breath every time I drove it for the last month. I wouldn’t start in the Walmart parking lot three weeks ago. And two weeks ago–at a busy stoplight–it started to chug and buck and shake before totally sputtering to death. Not good.

BUT… Brian wanted to do all this research before we bought another one, and he spent three weekends buying different New Car Price Reports and assessing how much we could get for the trade-in and blah, blah, blah. Finally, he decided he had it all figured out, and we went to the car dealership armed with his folder of information and a calculator.

We test drove a really, really nice Outback that was the prettiest color: seacrest green. However it was a 6 cylinder (like I even know what that means). Consumer Reports says that the 4 cylinder, turbo engine has the same power as the 6 cylinder, is cheaper and gets better gas mileage. But they didn’t have any of those on the lot.

 

So, the dealership had to order it for us.  Unfortunately, the 6 cylinder that we looked at is a top-of-the-line car, and those come in exclusive colors, seacrest green being one of them.  We couldn’t get that color in the 4 cylinder.  I had to pick out another color, and I wasn’t real thrilled with any of my choices.  I half-heartedly picked out blue and silver.  However, when we picked it up, I decided it looks really nice.

 

Here’s the car.  It now has 32 miles on it!

 

New Dell Computer!

So……..   I finally broke down and ordered a new computer since this one keeps blowing up with the dreaded blue screen (and I can’t figure out why since I haven’t loaded anything new on it in months and months and I’ve done all of the Microsoft recommended fixes with no success).  

I’m going to take it to Geek Squad and see if they can do anything with it because it is has a bigger hard drive and more RAM than the computer I have in the garage that I run the laser with.  I’d like to move this computer to the garage and move the garage computer out.  I also want to move this flat panel monitor out there and get rid of that big-ass CRT monitor I have out there.

I’ll take the current garage computer to Geek Squad, too, and have the clean off all of our personal information.  I initially thought I’d donate it to a local school or church, but realized my older brother can probably use it since his laptop is on the verge of blowing up.  Maybe it will fit in the same box that the new computer comes in? 

Anyway, I told him I’m NOT UPS-ing that CRT monitor to him because it weighs so much.

So, anyway, back to the computer buying part:  The new computer comes with Vista on it, and after I placed my order, I got an e-mail with all the specs that I’d ordered, and at the bottom of the e-mail was a message that said that a 64-bit operating system makes the computer run faster, but it also means that some of my older software won’t work on it!  WHAT???!!!  I did not know this.

Quickbooks 2008 is captible (yay!), but Corel Draw 12 isn’t and neither is DreamWeaver 8.  I absolutely HAVE to HAVE Corel Draw to run the laser with so I had to buy a $180 upgrade to X4.  And, I already e-mailed the YMCA to let them know I’m stuck until they can order me Adobe CS4 in July because Dreamweaver 8 won’t work on my new computer.

I can’t remember what other programs I need to load…  oh, yeah:  EQ6 and My Memories Suite. 

I just checked the My Memories website, and it is compatible with Vista “as long as it’s run in Administrator mode” (what in the heck does that mean–now I need to get a Vista how-to book!).

Also, just checked EQ6, and it, too, is compatible with Vista (YAY!). 

Okay…  I’m serious:  now I need to check out Amazon for a Vista book, and maybe a CorelDraw X4 book, too.  Me and my software manuals!  I’m running out of bookshelf space!

YMCA website and new (used) Dreamweaver books

About a month ago, the YMCA where I used to work in IL called me up and asked me if I would design a website for them and maintain it.  I told them I don’t have a CLUE how to design a website so I couldn’t do it for them.

Then last week, I got another call; if they bought Adobe CS4 for me to use, would I learn how to design the website for them.  So, OF COURSE, I said a big huge “YES!”  I’m positively drooling over getting CS4 (I have CS2, but I want the new version).

The only catch:  they can’t order CS4 until July because they’ve used up their allotment of non-profit software purchases until then.  Dreamweaver is part of CS4 (has been since CS3), but since I can’t get that until July, they sent me a spare copy of Dreamweaver 8 to use in the meantime.

I asked for the end of May to learn how to use Dreamweaver and then until the end of June to do the actual design.  I REALLY hope this is something I can pull off.  If I can’t, though, I told him, I’d just write him a check for the CS4 purchase and he’ll have to find somebody else to desgin the website.

Meanwhile…  I found some Dreamweaver 8 books on Amazon.com that I wanted, but they were $30+ each.  I dug around online until I found some used ones instead.  The first is Dreamweaver 8:  Design and Construction and the other is Dreamweaver 8:  The Missing Manual.  There were shipped media mail from VA so I wasn’t expecting them for a couple more weeks; they got here yesterday, though. 

I started reading on the first one first because, as I said, I don’t have a clue how to design a good website.  The first 7 chapters don’t even specifically address Dreamweaver software at all–they tell you how to define, outline and sketch out what you want the website to look like.  All good info I need to read.

Yesterday, I also bought 2 more used books.  Both are Photoshop books, and I got them really, really cheap at BookBrothers1 through Amazon.com.  One of those is Adobe Photoshop CS2 for the Web Hands On Training (4-1/2 stars on Amazon, and $37.11 new; but I got it for $8.24 used).  The other book is Photoshop CS2 Studio (5 stars on Amazon and $37.53 new vs. $6.96 used!).

Maybe the second set of used books will get here as fast as the first set.

AND…  I still haven’t finished my One-on-One Photoshop book yet so I need to get a move-on on that one.  I’ve been plugging along through the lessons and really enjoying what I’m learning.  I’m about half-way through the book.  The next lesson (#9) is on layers.

2009 Biggy Iggy Auction

The Biggy Iggy Auction opened May 3, 2009!  www.biggyiggyauction.com

Photoshop How To Books

I didn’t write here that I bought Polaroid My Memories Suite software last week.  I’m sooooo excited for it to get here (just got the shipping notice today, though, and it won’t be here for another 5-10 days, doggoneit!).

Anyway, now that I’ve bought that software, I’ve read several reviews that PhotoShop is still the absolute BEST software “out there” for digital scrapbooking.  Well, I’ve got CS2; I just don’t know how to use it.  I bought a book called “PhotoShop Wow!” but I pretty much think it sucks because I still can’t figure out what to do.  So what did I just do?  I spent $60+ at Amazon.com for three more PhotoShop how-to books.  One is a “Teach Yourself Visually” book; I liked that series of books when I bought one for crochet.  Maybe I’ll do as well with the PS one, too.

I also bought PhotoShop:  One-on-One and PhotoShop:  Top 100 Tips and Tricks.  SURELY I can learn SOMETHING out of all three of those…?

IgPost.com

I used to read IgPost.com all the time, but it’s been years since I’ve been on that website.  They purged my userid so I had to re-register. 

I was slightly amused by one poster who was totally flipping out because her dog had a 1-1/2 minute seizure–NOT that that’s funny beacause seizures are not funny AT ALL (!!!), but that’s NOTHING compared to Mylo’s seizures;  I wish his were only 1-1/2 minutes long instead of 1-1/2 HOURS long.  Anyway, I totally know how she feels because seizures are flat out scary.  The first time I saw Mylo have one, I flipped out, too.  I know my being hysterical didn’t help him out any.

Also, someone posted a “Name My Puppy” thread.  It’s a little girl puppy, born March 4th, and she’ll be the sister to their other IG, Allie.  I suggested:  Annie, Mia, Mya, Charli, Asia, Pixie and Zipper (if I every have another dog, its name will be Zipper–male or female).

Artwork by Kevin Z.

I am soooo happy! My prints and original watercolor from Kevin Z. arrived yesterday. He said I can post pictures of the artwork and a link to his website. His website is http://www.greyhoundart.com/. His Ebay id is arttogo. Here are the items I bought:

An Original Watercolor titled “The Return of Autumn.” This looks just like Mylo!

Here’s one of Stuart Little: an art print titled “My World in Black and White.” It’s a limited edition of 500, but I’m not sure what number I got right now. (Later: 14/500)

And another of Stuart Little called “Black and White with Roses.” Also a limited edition of 500. Moke’s in my lap so I can’t see what number I got. (Later: 31/500).

The big gold frame

Yesterday I hit Michael’s for a frame for my new pastel painting by Mary Ditweiler.  I couldn’t find anything I liked until I got to the aisle with the open-backed frames. 

I’ve never bought an open-backed frame before, but there was a sign that said:  “1.  pick a frame 2.  pick mat  3.  we’ll assemble it for you.”  So, I found this big gold frame made of lots of molding, and I thought that would be perfect. 

It was $39.99, but was half off.  I didn’t need a mat, but I found a kit there that goes with the open-backed frames.  It has a piece of glass and a piece of mat board for the backing.  All you gotta do is staple it together.  I asked the sales girl to staple it in for me, and at first she acted like she wasn’t supposed to do it, but she did it anyway.  Here it is:

Mylo had another seizure

Mylo had another seizure this morning (well… multiples).  We found him in the floor at 12:13.  At 1:30, we took him to Emergency Pet Services because he kept slightly recovering and then going back into another one.  He had five seizures in the car on the way over there, but miraculously fully recovered by the time we got there.  They took his temperature, but just let us watch him for a little while (thank goodness–that would have been $350).

Brian is of NO help when Mylo’s having a seizure.  He leaves me upstairs with him while he smokes a cigarette, drinks a cup of coffee and lies on the couch to watch TV.  Boy!  That fires me up, and I screamed at him today:  “WHY COULDN’T YOU HAVE AT LEAST CHECKED ON US?”  And he’s like “huh?”  “BECAUSE I’VE BEEN UP THERE FOR AN HOUR WITH A DOG HAVING SEIZURES AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN CHECKED ON US!!!”  What an idiot (yes!  I’m calling my husband and idiot!).