What a Difference A Day Makes!

Hi All!

This morning the landscape looks a lot different than it did yesterday morning (see the previous post)! After a day when the temperatures were above freezing, this is what it looks like outside.

Still snow on the ground but the trees are naked again and the roads are pretty much dry. I guess this is what you get for living in Texas! Officially the snow total for Dallas was 12.5 inches! That is the most ever in a twenty-four hour period. The next closest was 12.1 inches in 1964.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day that I finally got my hair cut. I missed my original appointment because of helping the office move and then waited another two weeks to reschedule. My hair is just growing and growing! However, my stylist called and cancelled because of the snow. She lives a bit north of us and said the snow is even deeper up there. Luckily, she had an appointment for next Friday so . . . I don't have to wait that much longer!

Of course, by the time I actually get my hair cut I might just decide that I like it the way it is . . . . NOT!

I am planning on heading to the Interpreting lab this morning to do some work. I am not sure if anyone else is going to be there to help me out. If not, I suppose I will start watching the two videos that are in the lab work.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Hope you have a good weekend!

Trisha

Voice Update: Well, it is still doing really well despite the fact that I didn't really do anything much in the way of exercises yesterday. I took a nap and watched some tv - not my normal routine so I "forgot" my exercises. Drat!

The REAL Snow Pictures!

Hi All!

Yesterday I was having some camera issues. Today I have those solved and managed to actually get pictures onto my blog of the amazing snow in Texas! They say that this is the most snow in one day EVER in our area making this winter one of the most snowy winters ever. And I got to be here to live through it!

The bad part of all this is that the snow is really heavy, wet snow. There are many roofs and car ports, etc. which just can't take the weight and are collapsing. So far I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt but there are many cars which were crushed by falling car ports and who knows what messed up by collapsing roofs!

As for myself - I am snug inside my house. I got home from work early yesterday so that I wasn't outside when the temps started to drop. They were predicting that all of the snow which cars had melted on the roads would be turning to ice and I really didn't want to be out in that! Hubby also got home early so we had a nice evening together!

I have a haircut today and that is all I have planned. I was going to the DAC but the snow sort of changed my mind. I will have to go to lab for class but I am going to try to do that tomorrow. Fun, fun!

Now, are you ready for some snow pictures?

First some before and after pictures.

This is the tree in the backyard in the morning yesterday.

And this is the same tree this morning after an entire day of snow falling.



















My garden frog in the morning yesterday . . .



















And this morning . . .

A shot of the bird feeder "before". . .

And "after."

The lettuce plot before . . .

And after.

And now for some general snow shots. Skor seem intrigued by the snow falling from the sky.

The trees all got pretty white clothes!

Some more than others . . . .

The neighborhood street is a bit "messy." Remember, we don't have snow plows down here!

I didn't venture to the middle of the yard where the measurement would probably be most accurate but . . . Wow!

So - how did you like my REAL snow pictures???

It is almost like being back in Ohio again. Almost!

Trisha

Voice Update: My voice is still doing really well. I am proud that I keep at my exercises. Now I only need to keep it up for the rest of my life! Wow - that sounds a bit overwhelming when I say it that way!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Hi All!

I woke up this morning and the first thing Hubby said was "look outside." When I headed to the window I saw a virtual winter wonderland! There was snow! True, it is wet, soggy snow but it IS snow! And more is coming down from the sky in nice fluffy flakes!

Snow! In Texas!

This is actually the third time we had had snow this winter - it must be some kind of new record or something. Normally we get one snowfall of grainy, wet snow which covers the ground and then melts in less than 24 hours. This snow will probably melt quickly also but it is pretty. The trees are covered with snow and the flakes are beautiful in the sky.

Imagine a picture here.

Isn't it lovely? I did take some pictures this morning with my purse camera and was heading out to take more in better light when the battery conked out. It is currently charging. In a moment of inspiration I picked up my other camera - a wonderful thing but slightly too large for my purse - and headed to the snow. Hmmmm. It must be a conspiracy because the moment I tried to focus on a lovely scene, the battery in THAT camera died!

Therefore - a shocking lack of snow pictures in this blog! I am hoping that the snow is still coming down when the camera battery is charged so I can show you all how lovely it looks today.

In other news . . . class last night was interesting. In non-class related events, my friend Beth was in a car accident on the way to class and her car was totalled. Luckily, Beth herself is fine (or at least she said she was last night. This morning she is probably having a few aches and pains.) but the car . . . not so much. Apparently a woman in a large, old van pulled out in front of Beth as she was driving and Beth couldn't stop before hitting her. Beth's airbag went off. Not good. We were all concerned when we heard that. The other Tricia (you did know that there was another one in my class, right?) went to pick Beth up and ended up helping with the whole mess until Beth's mom got there.

Beth did make it to class. She was a bit hyped on adrenaline I would say.

Class itself wasn't too bad. Still not on my top 100 list but getting better. The teacher did talk last night and there was an interpreting team to interpret everything for the deaf guy in class. It was interesting to watch them work since this is an interpreting class.

I feel good about the people in class. We are all working together well (okay, not ALL of us but a group of us which seems to grow) and providing a needed sense of camaraderie!

Right now I am wondering if I am going to work or not today. Hmmmmmm.

Have a fabulous day!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing very well. I am still on track with doing exercises in the car and it is making a difference. I sound good! Of course, when I got home from class last night it had a few skips simply because I was so darn tired!

What Fun! Learning a New Computer!

Hi All!

Let me start off by saying that this post if NOT a computer instructional. If you have come here to find out anything about learning to work a new computer - sorry! That isn't what my post is going to be about.

With yesterday's post I had several people cruising by to find out info on computers and I am certainly not the person to look at for that kind of stuff! Sure, I can use a computer and I can do quite a few things on them but . . . other than that - I am out.

The reference in the title for today's post refers to the fact that I have started doing things on the new computer which I had done on the old computer. Uploading pictures, rearranging things, finding things in folders. All different on the new computer with the different operating software. Windows 7 seems to be working out okay right now!

As you will see in just a bit - I managed to load pictures onto the computer from my camera and then to get them into blogger! That is a major victory in my book!

For my class I need to upload some video to Facebook (it isn't required but it is a way for the other students to help me evaluate my video) and that isn't working out too well. Hopefully, I will get that worked out as well!

It has been a while since my resident rascal, Skor, has made an appearance so . . .




















Here he is looking at "his" new box which Hubby thoughtfully left on the floor in the office.




















Of course Skor had to investigate the box - inside and out!




















And when I say inside - I mean INSIDE! The box wasn't quite big enough for him to get totally inside but he did try!

Next is an update on my crocheting project. I am making a hot pad and my mom is making the same pattern in Ohio. Of course, my Aunt Donna (my FAVORITE Aunt Donna) had to try out the pattern. She got hers done in less than a week. What a show-off! She knits and crochets all the time so she has a bit more experience than Mom and me.

Unfortunately, when the old computer crashed, it took my beginning pictures of my crochet with it. You can check some out on previous blogs.

So -- what do you think? I have started on the top of the hot pad. It is all done on the grid which took me FOREVER to finish! This picture shows what I got completed the first day I started the top. I was a little enthusiastic!























This shot is a bit closer up. I am proud of my progress. I actually have done more on the top but apparently I didn't get that picture on this blog. I will show you tomorrow!


Well, that is it for today. I am going to try to upload those darn videos again . . . wish me luck!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing well. Even Susan was surprised yesterday when she gave me a quick massage. My throat isn't too crunchy and I have been working on those exercises. I did them in the car on the way to and from work. Pat on the back, thank you very much!

Monday With The New Computer

Hi All!

Well - it is Monday and my new computer is still doing well. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that this computer lasts a long, long, long time!

This weekend, as I said in my last blog, was pretty well taken up with going to the ASL lab and setting up the computer. I am happy to report that all of my music made the transition. I had thought that I would lose at least some of my newly added music because I hadn't backed it up but I forgot that my iPod had the new songs AND was set to act as a data disc!

That means a couple things. First, I can put data onto my iPod. I do that with some of my word documents that I want to share with my parents when I visit. Second, it means that I can actually transfer MUSIC to different itunes computers (well, not ALL itunes computers but in this case, the new computer worked well). Yeah, iPod! I was afraid for a while that I would lose my version of "The Streak!"

It DID take forever (just a slight exaggeration there) to reload all the music onto the computer. I guess that is the price I pay for liking music so much!

In additional news, I managed to get all of my pictures onto the new computer. When I say "all" I mean all of the pictures that I saved the last time I backed up my photos. I did lose some including the intro shots of my hot pad! Darn! I was hoping to show you the progress on that today but didn't get it done. Hopefully tomorrow! Remind me, people!

It is raining proverbial cats and dogs in my neck of the woods and is chilly! In fact, I just ran to the other room to get my fingerless gloves to try to keep my hands from turning into solid chunks of ice! I bought my gloves at Target a while back and I love them! They really help when full gloves would be too much but your hands need some extra warmth around the knuckles. Plus, you can pull your fingers into the main part of the glove if you need additional warmth.

Okay - I am done rambling for today. Have a good one!

Trisha

Voice Update: Ugh. Actually, things are going pretty well. I am slacking, major time, on my exercises though. I think someone needs to hold my feet to the fire! I do have a couple "breaks" in my voice which could be improved with exercises. So . . . "hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go!"

Up and Running?!?

Hi All!

Well, it seems like we are up and running with our new computer but I am still crossing my fingers and holding my breath. I have a lot of music and photos to transfer to this computer. Of course, when the old machine crashed I lost some (which I had neglected to back up in a timely manner! Back up people! Back up!) but most of it had been backed up a while ago. As I am typing this my computer is trying to transfer my iTunes info. Then I will have to transfer my pictures. Doesn't that sound like fun to you???

Anyway - I hope to be back to my "normal" posting schedule this week. As far as I know I don't have jury duty or any other weird thing going on so it should be a relatively "quiet"week.

I spent about 7 hours in the lab at my college on Friday and Saturday getting some things video taped for class. To do the video assignments you need at least two other people to be at lab - that takes some major planning! Anyway - that phase is done. Now I need to do some heavy duty analysis of my video to see what I did right and wrong. I HATE looking at myself on video but I must so . . . onward.

This morning in church our hand bell choir performed. It wasn't anything major - we had only had one practice - but it was fun. We played some pieces while the congregation was taking communion. I didn't realize how much I missed playing bells until I started again! Maybe I will manage to get some video or something of the bells in action onto my blog. We will see how that goes!

I am keeping this short so I can do other things - like crochet! I have started "phase two" of the project and have made some pretty good progress! I will show you a picture tomorrow is everything is still going well then!

I have missed my bloggy friends!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing fairly well. The stress of the past couple of weeks has made my voice a bit worse than "normal" but I am getting back to a nice, clear speaking voice with my exercises.

Monday

Hi All!

Well, it is Monday and . . . the computer is still not up and working. Hubby had the thing working until he tried to reload software. Apparently, the computer didn't like that too well and decided to crash and get rid of EVERYTHING (including the operating system) again. Not good! Hubby has decided to just buy a new computer and let this one crash. Now we just wait until he has researched everything and found exactly what he wants to buy. That might take a while!

So - until that entire process is completed I will be working on my podcasting computer upstairs. And this computer has its own issues. Poor thing! At least it is letting me online. For now!

This weekend was busy for me. On Saturday I led a SD support group meeting. Because of my lovely sedate life lately (read that with about 2 tons of sarcasm, if you will!), I neglected to get the notice for the meeting out in a timely manner so not too many people attended the meeting. Including me there were six of us. However, it worked out well. We got to chat and the one new woman said that she really enjoyed the meeting so . . . it went well. I didn't have my normal preparations completed because they are usually done on my computer and we all know how the computer is doing lately!

Grocery shopping was also on my "to-do" list for the weekend. Luckily, I had made the major "meat run" trip last weekend so this one was a light shopping trip. Unfortunately, it wasn't an easy trip because Sunday is the day when the store restocks and that means that there is someone in nearly every aisle with a HUGE stack of boxes which is nearly impossible to circumvent with a shopping cart. Add other shoppers going the opposite way down the aisle and you have quite an adventure!

After grocery shopping I headed to church to partake in hand bell practice. I haven't played hand bells for several years but recently the leadership has changed and so I thought I would give it a shot! Music is something I really enjoy and so hand bells was fun. The people are friendly and the ringing is fun. I think I will keep it up for a while. We will see how it goes. Right now it actually fits into my schedule but there was some talk of moving practices to Wednesday nights. If that happens I won't be able to attend.

This would be where I might mention my interpreting class. However, I am still not in a mental place where I can talk about it objectively so . . . I decline to comment!

When I got home from hand bells, Hubby had dinner in the oven (he is soooo sweet that way). We had baked stuffed shells (which we buy from Sam's Club already stuffed), English Muffins and fruit. Yummy.

Then we headed to Wal Mart. I decided to make a "care package" for my friend, Beth, who is in college. Since I don't have any children who will be heading to college, this is my chance! I loaded up on "dorm food" which can be microwaved and doesn't need to be refrigerated. Hubby contributed peanut butter and jelly - he says no college dorm room should be without it.

That is the extent of my exciting weekend. I hope your weekend was just as exciting - or more so!

Oh - I almost forgot! I am finished with the "grid" section of my crocheting project. I am making a grid hot pad and you make a grid first (you may have seen some pictures while I was working on that part) and then you fill in the grid. I am not too sure how to get started on filling in the grid but . . .I always appreciate a challenge. When we get a new computer I will make sure to show you some pictures of my work!

Trisha

Voice Update: Still really struggling. The people at the support group said it was great (and one guy continued to insist that I didn't have SD at all - what a dork!) but I was really having problems later in the day and on Sunday. My voice always seems better in the mornings and then gets weaker in the evenings. Several people at the support group said their voices are just the opposite. It is interesting how SD can be so individualized.