My Printer is Toying With Me

Picture of the Day for 9/28/2012. My printer is toying with me.

A few days ago it informed me that it was done printing until I replaced the Cyan ink cartridge.

“Fine,” I said, “I’ll go purchase a Cyan ink cartridge if that will make you happy.”

After I replaced the Cyan ink cartridge, the printer said, “That was really lovely of you to get me a new Cyan ink cartridge, but what I’d really like is a new Yellow ink cartridge. I can’t possibly function without one. I’ll go take a nap while you take care of that for me.”

“Fine,” I said, “I’ll go purchase a Yellow ink cartridge if that will make you happy.”

After I replaced the Yellow ink cartridge, the printer said, “Oh, so terribly sorry and I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I forgot to mention that I need Black ink even though you replaced the cartridge a couple of months ago and didn’t think it was remotely time to replace it. I’ll just rest here quietly while you go get me the Black ink I desire and crave.”

“?#@&% printer!” I said, “You couldn’t have mentioned this before I made two separate trips to the store?! And now I have to make a third inconvenient trip?!”

By this time, I had my printer’s prima donna number. I just KNEW if I returned from the store with Black ink only, the printer would say, “I can’t believe I neglected to tell you that the Magenta ink cartridge is empty as well. How scatterbrained of me. Please be a dear and go fetch some Magenta ink while I recline here on the table. I have such a delicate constitution.”

Ha! I foiled the printer. In addition to the Black ink cartridge, I bought a cost-effective 3-pack of all the colored inks required by my printer. I replaced both the Black and Magenta cartridges and informed my printer it was back in business- no excuses.

Thor Attacks!

Picture of the Day for 9/27/2012. Here’s Thor! (Also known as my great-nephew Ethan)

One does not trifle with Thor!

Sadly, my sister Robynne did not get the memo about this because she has attempted to immobilize Thor by grabbing his left arm. Leaving his hammer hand free was a mistake. As you can see, Thor is poised to strike. Robynne is unaware of her peril, but the woman in the background clearly knows Thor is up to no good. It’s written all over her face.

You Can't Curl Your Hair If The Rollers Aren't Hot

Picture of the Day for 9/26/2012. I decided to look presentable today and plugged in my hair curlers so I could curl my hair. I realized upon going back a half hour later that you can’t curl your hair if the rollers haven’t even been heated up because they are scattered across the counter top. Sheesh. Sometimes my head is up in the clouds. I didn’t even notice this when I plugged in the device.

Another Milestone for the Company

Picture of the Day for 9/25/2012. Another milestone for my fledgling company- I published the Facebook page for You Can Teach Speech Now today. Yay! I feel so official. Wish the profile picture that Facebook forces you to include didn’t obscure the company logo which, despite my best efforts to shrink the image, ended up getting cropped off at the top. Oh well, I did my best. Can’t wait to see how many Likes we can get and I’ll look forward to posting pictures from the speech therapy conference we’ll be attending in November.

Autumn is Coming - Part 3

Picture of the Day for 9/24/2012. It was a dark and gloomy day…My favorite kind of day. The clouds hugged the mountains and although it’s hard to tell from these photos (I don’t recommend taking photographs while driving), the leaves on the trees are turning vivid shades of red and orange. It is such a beautiful sight to see the mountains dotted with splashes of color.

Hair Management

Picture of the Day for 9/23/2012. This blog entry serves a couple of purposes.

1- It shows, as promised from yesterday’s blog entry where I sort of made fun of my female ancestors, that I can be self-deprecating about my appearance too.

2- These pictures are dedicated to my friend Brad who is a faithful reader and hairstyle commenter.

Yep- this is pretty much how I look in the privacy of my own home. I’ve got all my hair piled on top of my head to keep it out of my face while I work.

I'm Sure They Had Sweet Spirits

Picture of the Day for 9/22/2012. In my neck of the woods, we say a person must have a "sweet spirit" if they are homely as a mud fence. I was going through some of my parents' papers yesterday and came across some pictures of my ancestors which made me conclude that I come from a line of women through my dad's paternal line who must have had very sweet spirits.

This is my great-great-great-great-grandmother Nancy McCleve. She was born in Ireland and emigrated to Utah in 1853.

Nancy McCleve's daughter Sarah married Brigham Young's oldest brother John Young. I showed her picture to a couple of people and they both said, "That's a woman?" Sad. 

Now here is where we start getting to the Merrill line. Sarah McCleve Young's daughter Lydia married a Marion Merrill.

And Lydia Merrill had a daughter Madelon who married her first cousin Frank W. Merrill. Madelon was my great-grandmother and mother to my dad's father Irvine Merrill. She died at age 91 when I was just a few years old in the mid-1960s. I remember her quite clearly. She used to wear blue "Aunt Bea" dresses and it was quite the production to get her up the stairs to the living room where she would be ensconced in front of the fireplace in one the dining room chairs. I was too young to appreciate her, but I hear she had a cute sense of humor. My mother once commented that she thought Madelon never was a beauty. Then a few years later, my mother commented that I most resembled Madeon. Oops. I'm sure she did not connect the two statements, but I sure did!

I hope my ancestors aren't shaking their fists at me from the "other side." I'm sure they were great women and I wish I could have every single one of them! And tomorrow's blog entry will prove that I can be self-deprecating about my own appearance.

Monster High Birthday

Picture of the Day for 9/21/2012. The family gathered at El Matador (a Mexican restaurant in Bountiful, Utah) to celebrate my great-niece Hayley's 13th birthday (which technically was yesterday). The wait staff knew it was her birthday and came out en masse with great fanfare to sing to Hayley and present her with a dessert. Alas, they were were met with an empty chair as Hayley had chosen precisely the wrong moment to run to the bathroom. 

Fortunately, everyone re-grouped upon her reappearance and she was properly feted by the wait staff.

Hayley's latest obsession is Monster High- a line of dolls that are the teenaged offspring of famous monsters like vampires, zombies, Frankenstein, etc. For her birthday, Hayley received Draculaura and associated accessories, one of which was a key used to open up a Monster High iPhone app. It was pretty ingenious. You physically put the key on the screen and "turn" the lock to open the app.

I downloaded the app for Hayley and inserted a photo of her face into a picture of Draculaura's Sweet 1600 party.  

Note to Hayley's mother Chantal, below are the rest of the pictures from the Monster High iPhone app. You can click on them to download them for Hayley.

Said No One, Ever

Picture of the Day for 9/20/2012. The latest popular catchphrase consists of making a declarative statement and then following it up with "said no one, ever." I think it's going to end up being the equivalent of the annoying catchphrase "Not!" that was so popular in the the 1990s, but for now it still amuses me.

Judy, Judy, Judy

Picture of the Day for 9/19/2012. I was assigned to a discussion group in my Bible study class that has three Judy's in it. Ironically, they all ended up sitting right next to each other. This amused me no end because it made me think of Cary Grant. If you don't get the reference, you're way too young and I'm way to old to expend the energy explaining it. If you google "Judy, Judy, Judy," you'll see what I'm talking about.

British Lips

Picture of the Day for 9/18/2012. The phrase "stiff upper lip" has long been associated with the stoic nature of the British. I suspect it has more to do with the fact that people of British descent don't have an upper lip to speak off. I know that's been the case with me. I can't tell you how many times beauty consultants at department store cosmetic counters urged me to use lip liner to extend my upper lip since it looked like I didn't really have one. I routinely ignored their advice since my upper lip deficiency never really plagued me. Imagine my surprise though when I took this self-portrait today and saw that it looks like I actually do have a defined upper lip. I double checked in the mirror (because when you're self-employed and working from home, stuff like that is a welcome distraction) and concluded it's just an optical illusion.

I Have Apricot Jam and My Niece Chantal Doesn't

Picture of the Day for 9/17/2012. I've been in a breakfast food rut lately. Every morning I have peanut butter and homemade apricot jam on toast made with high fiber bread from Great Harvest. Yummy.

I will now take this opportunity to torment my niece Chantal. If her family had a collective favorite food, it would be homemade apricot jam. She is dependent on the goodwill of those in possession of the apricot jam to share with her. Chantal's mother is pretty generous. I am not. Oh look Chantal- here is a bottle of apricot jam. Mmm. It sure is tasty.

Game of Thrones

Picture of the Day for 9/16/2012. I've been watching the first season of Game of Thrones with my sister Paula's family on Sunday evenings. We get through two episodes each time and we should be watching episodes 7 and 8 next Sunday. I say SHOULD because it's not etched in stone yet. Getting an entire family to agree what to watch after Sunday dinner is a trick and there's a hint of rebellion in the air. Not everyone is as enthralled with Game of Thrones as I am which I find inconceivable. I'm thinking I must quash this rebellion.

Autumn is Coming - Part 2

Picture of the Day for 9/15/2012. The grasshoppers have made an appearance- another clear harbinger of autumn. This one was lurking next to my mailbox. I don't mind grasshoppers. They don't creep me out, but they used to.

When I was a little girl coming home from elementary school in the fall, I had to climb the stairs to get to the front door so my mother could let me in since I did not have house key privileges at that young age. Take a look at the picture below which, believe it or not, is a non-scary image of the front yard. Now imagine bushes on either side of the steps and only a very narrow pathway through them. That's what it was like during my childhood. It was a veritable grasshopper gauntlet- with grasshoppers leaping out at you from both sides of the bushes. Ick! Not my fondest childhood memory.

Sad Cat

Picture of the Day for 9/14/2012. Paris the Cat is one very pathetic cat. She lost her best buddy a week ago when Jingles the Cat had to be put to sleep. I hear that she wanders the house crying and looking for Jingles.

I was over at my sister's house today for several hours and Paris did not move from this spot once.

Sad cat.

Little Women

Picture of the Day for 9/13/2012. My sister Robynne's family has season tickets to the Centerpoint Legacy Theater. This month's offering is Little Women which is waaaaaaaaaay too girly for Robynne's husband Will and 18-year-old son Rob. My other sister Paula and I got to attend in their place. It was a nice sisters' night out and we all enjoyed the musical. Will and Rob stayed home to watch the very manly The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. That's probably for the best. They would have hated the musical as there was a lot of hugging and tender emotions and songs about feelings.

Bible Study

Picture of the Day for 9/12/2012. About a month ago I was chatting with my next-door neighbor who was asking me how my business venture with my sister was going. Once she ascertained that I work from home and my schedule is flexible, she noted that I should be available to attend an interdenominational Bible study group on Wednesday mornings. I had to applaud her missionary zeal so I admitted that yes, I should be able to attend. She's one of the discussion leaders and has been participating in this group since 1976.

The Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) is a world-wide organization that was started 50 years ago by a British missionary and has grown to "1,000 BSF classes with 200,000 class members in 38 nations across six continents." The structure of the Bible study is very regimented and all groups study exactly the same curriculum. This year's course of study is Genesis and the first meeting of the year was held today. I quite enjoyed it. It will be nice to get a different perspective and read a different version of the Bible. I've only ever read the King James Version, but the one used by BSF is the New International Version. I went to a Christian bookstore right after class and purchased a copy.



I'm not sure how much reading I'll actually get done since I've never seen such tiny font in a book before. The picture below doesn't do it justice. I think I'm going to need a magnifying glass.

Autumn is Coming - Part 1

Picture of the Day for 9/11/2012. I found this leaf resting on the hood of my car this morning. A clear sign that Autumn is Coming.*

*This does not quite have the ominous ring of Winter is Coming. You have to be a Game of Thrones fan to get that reference.

Aborted Website Updating Attempt

Picture of the Day for 9/10/2012. Yesterday, I had to deal with a faulty vacuum cleaner. Today, I had to deal with a web hosting service that was down. Hopefully, this won't translate into a "things I can't get done" trend.

I had several updates I needed to make to the www.teachspeechnow.com website, but Go Daddy (the web design/hosting service) was down for the count for a large part of the day. Their outage affected thousands, if not millions of websites around the world. A hacker claimed responsibility, but Godaddy claims that was not the case. Who knows. All I know is it was frustrating that work that should have taken just a few hours to complete ended up taking most of the day.

Aborted Vacumming Attempt

Picture of the Day for 9/9/2012. I've been pretty casual about housekeeping over the past couple of months while I've been working to get my company website up and running in addition to gallivanting to Florida for a week. I can tell a deep clean is long overdue when I can't concentrate on any other work that needs to be done. I hit that point last Friday and I've been working pretty much non-stop since then to put my house back in order. I had moved my dining room chairs to the living room so I could vacuum the dining room carpet which was the very last task on the list. Sadly, my vacuum cleaner decided to give up at this point. It's so frustrating to be 99% done with a project and not be able to complete it. This took the wind out of my sails. My dining room chairs will just have to make themselves comfortable in the living room until I can muster up the energy to get my vacuum cleaner fixed.

More Text Messages from Jeremy Renner

Picture of the Day for 9/8/2012. I've mentioned in a previous blog entry how my niece Renee receives text messages from the actor Jeremy Renner via her younger sister Corinne. The message below is the most recent one to arrive. Oh how Jeremy desperately longs for Renee...

The Face of a 60-Year-Old Who Has Had Work Done

Picture of the Day for 9/7/2012. I've been meaning to write about this topic for a couple of weeks now. So, as you know from my blog, I spent about a week in Florida last month. On the day I visited the West Palm Beach zoo, I marched up to the ticket booth and asked to purchase one adult ticket. The clerk, who was clearly older than I am, looked at me and asked if that was a senior ticket.

Oh man. That hurt.

And then it got worse.

Upon seeing my stricken look, she tried to backtrack and say that of course I didn't look 60, but nowadays you can't tell since so many people are getting work "done" on their faces.

Oh man. That REALLY hurt.

Great, so what I got out of that exchange is that I look like a 60-year-old who has had work done. I get it. Fine.

Hey, I'm the first to admit that sometimes I can look haggard and admittedly I didn't look my best in the Florida humidity, but really, does this (see picture above) look like a 60-year-old woman who has had plastic surgery? DO NOT answer that if you're in a snarky mood.

Artist

Picture of the Day for 9/6/2012. One of my neighbor's artwork is currently on display at the public library so I went to check it out. I've known Diana is an artist, but I've never had a chance to see any of her artwork until now. Diana does both portraits and Western landscapes. Her portraits are great, but I'm a huge fan of landscapes so I really enjoyed those. The one pictured above is called Southwest Scene.

You can check out her artwork at: http://www.dianastover.com/index.html

Stupid Cat

Picture of the Day for 9/5/2012. My favorite animal on the planet, Jingles the Cat, was put to sleep today since he had a case of fast-growing cancer and my sister Robynne wanted to make sure that Jingles didn't suffer. I love animals and I've loved my siblings' pets, but this is the first time I've really understood what it feels like to be devastated at the loss of a pet. He and I were buddies. I've been in tears all day and calling Jingles a "stupid cat" for making me cry like this. Of course I don't mean it.

I came over a couple of hours before the vet made a house call to put Jingles to sleep so I'd have some time to hold him. My nephew Rob had the same idea. He arrived at the house at about the same time I did and we traded off spending time with Jingles.


I think Jingles looks so irritated in the picture (shown above) that Rob took of me holding Jingles because he was getting a little bit too much attention.

In addition to holding Jingles, I took tons of pictures of him.




This was the first time I've seen an animal put to sleep. We were all amazed at how quickly it happened- within just a couple of seconds of being administered the drug. I'm glad he didn't suffer. And then after we got over being amazed, we all had a good cry. Stupid cat.