Missyisms

Near Death

When Mother's cousin Joanne was here, Mom showed her some letters she has that their grandmother and grandfather wrote. Joanne asked for copies of the letters and I said I would take care of it. I finally got around to it last week...and it was almost a disaster.

I finished copying the letters and returned home with the two folders and a few other things in my arms. I set the folders down on my kitchen cabinet and continued through the kitchen to set down the other items. Only my elbow or something clipped a glass. Since my hands were full, all I could do was screech as water exploded out of the toppling glass and targeted the folders like a guided smart missile.

I was in a panic! Handwritten letters written by my great-grandmother, my great-grandfather and my grandfather! Screech! Try to empty arms of clutter! Try to grab the letters! Try to get Reggie away from my feet! Try to rescue the letters! Some of those letters are 79-years old! They've survived almost 80 years and one week in my possession and they were about to become soppy paper towels with running ink! Screech! Of course, they have no monetary value, but they are priceless. "My mother! My mother!" I kept thinking as I watched the water soak into the folders as I tried to rescue them.

I was in no pain, but I was near death.

Cause of death: Mother's loss and disappointment!! I mean, she is my mother and she wouldn't kill anyone, especially her daughter, but the horror of having to tell her I'd destroyed her grandmother's letters!

Somehow a miracle occurred. Both folders got wet, one completely soaked and no longer usable, but only one photocopy got a little wet! I was going to live to see another day (and write about it in this blog)! The original letters were laminated, but some of them were scratched and they were probably laminated 20 years ago, so I wasn't certain the letters were completely sealed. But they all survived, and so did I! Whew!

Panic aside, it was fascinating reading the letters. One was from my grandfather to my grandmother while she was in the hospital just after the birth of their first child. Grandma stayed in the hospital about a week (those were the days!) and Grandpa had to return to their home about 80 miles from the hospital (those weren't the days)! He writes about how excited he is that his girls (Grandma and Aunt Mary Jo) were coming home soon. It's the sweetest letter and I never knew that my grandfather, who died when I was five, sometimes called my grandmother Judy. I did know that she really disliked her name Jewel. Grandpa was so excited that he forgot to get another professor to cover his class the day he was to bring the girls home!

The image is a letter written by my great-Grandmother to her son's girlfriend (eventually my grandmother). My grandfather was one of ten children and was very tall, but I didn't know he was the only boy in the family with black hair and that his mother called him "her big black headed boy" (unfortunately, the copy cuts this off a bit). The letter is from 1929! Isn't that cool!

And isn't it cool that I didn't drawn it in a monsoon! (The smudged city and last name are on this copy, not the originals.)

Keeping Up with the iTunes App Store

More and more applications are being added to the iTunes App Store each day. I've read that there are over 800 applications available now, but I haven't counted them. I've downloaded nine of those 800...one of the heavy hitters I'm sure. ;-)

Here's a list and a review of what I've downloaded:

• AIM: This is for chatting with buddies, but I haven't tried it. My friends and I used to IM a lot, but none of us really do any more. Which begs the question...why did I download it? I don't know. It was free.
• Light: This free app turns your iPhone or iPod touch screen white to use as a flashlight. Surprisingly, there were a few of these apps, but when the store opened this was the only free one. I figure it might be handy someday, but I certainly wouldn't have paid for it.
• Remote: This is an app from Apple that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for iTunes on your computer. It actually works and is pretty cool. You can change songs, adjust volume, choose another playlist, skip tracks, etc. from anywhere you can access your network. Pretty cool, except when the iPhone or iPod touch goes to sleep, you can't double tap Home to access the controls up. Instead, you have to press Home, slide the awake gadget, re-open Remote (if you're in another app) and then access the controls. Other than this design flaw, it's a decent app...especially since it's free. Apple should thank Hedy Lamarr for the idea that gave this app a birth.
• Tap Tap Revenge: Apparently, this is GuitarHero for the iPhone/iPod touch...and I'm bored. Fortunately, it was free. (Notice the trend, I've paid for very few apps.)
• Texas Hold'em: I've never been a poker player, but I do like Texas Hold'em. I've played various computer versions for pseudo-money, but never played in person or for real money...probably because beyond 3-of-a-kind, I can't remember what hand beats what. Not a good memory issue when playing a variation of poker! This version of the game is slick and fun, but there are too many players when you are playing against the computer and it's annoying to have to tap the stack to see the value of the current pot. They display each player's current stack, so why not the pot? It would also help to have some tutorials with this game so you know to drag your cards to fold, drag your chips to go all in, tap two corners to pause, etc. This was $4.99, and I've played several times.
• The Thirty-nine Steps: There are a few e-readers available in the App store, but I haven't tried any of them yet. One is free and well liked, but you can only download books specifically designed for that reader...so if you already have e-books, tough luck, even if they are from the same company. And they charge for all their books, so of course their reader was free. The old Kodak Brownie business method. Another reader is $9.95 and will work with several different types of books, including free ones, but the reader is getting bad reviews...so I'll wait on that.
  Instead, another company has uploaded a slew of books from the public domain. Each book has it's own little reader and costs $.99. I decided to give this a try...once...with The Thirty-nine Steps. I've never read this book, but have seen Hitchcock's adaptation. The reader is very basic, but works. However, it only displays in one font...at least the size is adjustable, is in portrait instead of landscape view, and scrolling is choppy. Instead of scrolling, I've found it's easier to tap the lower half of the screen to page down when I reach the end of the screen. It would also be nice to have notes and bookmark features (it does re-open where ever you close it, but no bookmarking). I won't download many of these because each download brings the app down too and that's annoying even if it is small. I wonder how many of the 800 applications are books from this provider?
• Trism: This is a game a long the lines of Bejeweled. Instead of matching jewels, you drag and tilt rows to match colored triangles. It's very addictive and harder than it sounds. My top score so far is 1,117,714...which shows how bloated the scoring is, not how good I am. My best move was a 7 chain, 63 trism match, for 545,018 points. I don't think that was in my million-point game. Trisms comes with a tutorial that is helpful, but they don't explain the star tiles so I've been figuring that out on my own. I need to get better at planning several moves instead of just taking the obvious move. I was also shocked during my million-point game when I ran out of matches and instead of ending the game, Trism shuffled the tiles! It then planted a bomb that I couldn't clear, so the game ended only a few moves after the shuffle. There are a few other games, one only allows tilting, no moving rows, but I haven't tried these yet. I paid $4.99 for this and have really had fun with it. (Speaking of Bejeweled, there's a version in the App Store for $9.99. There's also a version for older iPods in the Game section of iTunes for $4.99 and it's free via Apple's WebApps...so why should I pay $9.99 in the App Store? If there are new and improved features, they don't list that in the description...so I ain't buyin'!)
• TypePad: SixApart, the owner of TypePad, has come out with three "applications" for TypePad lately. First was the WebApp for iPhone and iPod touch. This is accessed via the Internet on Apple's WebApp site. It has some helpful tools, like comment moderation and editing, but I rarely use it. Then they released a new Compose editor to be used on a computer. This was a staged release to all TypePad users...I was in the first stage. This means the old editor was gone and the new, full-of-bugs-editor had to be used. They are slowly fixing things, but the editor still has flaws and is still very slow. Since they can't fix the slowness, they've created something else called a "Simple View" which I haven't looked at, but I guess takes away some of the new features. And yes, they did add several nice things, but these don't outweigh the bugs.
  Then, as if they weren't busy enough...they released TypePad for the App Store. It allows the creation of new posts and adding photos to the posts...but NO editing of existing posts, no comment moderation, or stats. It also has bugs...my categories won't display for me. They should have focused on getting one new application correct instead of doing several. Well, they'll be nice if they ever get everything working. And they are free (except, there's a monthly charge for the service so they should be free).
• WeatherBug: As implied by the name, this app provides weather information. You can choose up to three locations for detailed weather information such as temp, wind direction and strength, current conditions, highs and lows, humidity, dew point, alerts, forecasts, radar, and live camera shots. In other words...this app has a lot more information than the Weather app that came on the iPod touch. It's free. It's cool.

There are a lot of social networking applications on the App Store, things for Twitter, Facebook, etc., but I don't use any of those, so I've ignored those apps. I was shocked that some of them cost money! (So, do I not bore you enough? Do you want me to Twitter you to death also?) Even ebay has an app on the App Store...I'm pretty sure it was originally $2.99, but is now free. Several apps have dropped in price once they saw the competition and heard the complaints.

Some general comments about the new iPhone/iPod touch OS and the App Store:

• OS 2.0 seems to be harder on the battery than the old version. I'm having to charge a lot more even when I'm the same things I used to before I upgraded the OS.
• The App Store shares a search feature with all of iTunes and that's annoying.
• But the biggest pain with the App Store is that there are no trial or demo versions of the apps. Many of the product descriptions are too sketchy, or they promise too much, and there a lot of user comments from people that are unhappy with their purchases. I've avoided several apps that might be interesting, because I don't want to pay for them and then not like them. I really think Apple needs to build in time-limited trial versions...shouldn't be too hard...then I'd be willing to try more apps.

If you're wanting to know what new apps are being added to the App Store and which are being updated, check out the blogs here.

Movie List

Too tired tonight for much blogging, so I picked up this list somewhere and thought I'd give it a try. I have no idea where the list came from. I did another movie list here, but I hadn't seen many of them either. I think I should create my own list and see if it travels the blogosphere.

Bold the ones you've seen.
Put an asterisk* after the movie title if you really liked it.
Cross it out if you saw a film and really didn't like it.
Underline the ones you own.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995) (laserdisc)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)* (laserdisc; can't remember, but don't want to look now, if I got this on a DVD sale)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986) (laserdisc)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) (just saw this last week)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)*
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)*
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
40. Speed (1994)*
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)*
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) (I can't remember if I saw this.)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

I think there are a few on here that I should see, but haven't for some reason. There are several I doubt I'll ever see. What about you? I really do think I should create a list of my own...hmm.

The Day Kennedy Died

On Tuesday my aunt and uncle are arriving for a short visit...a too short a visit as often happens with loved family. I wished they lived closer! 

We've had a few visitors lately and it's been wonderful. Last weekend was Susan and the weekend before that was my friend Karen. Also the weekend before was my mother's cousin Joanne. My mother has a plethora of cousins and I'd never met Joanne or Ernie, her husband, before. They were both charming and delightful people. 

As we were finishing lunch and they were preparing to drive toward Kansas City, Ernie started telling us a story about Joanne's late sister Ginny. In the early 1960s, Ginny worked as a secretary for a Dallas doctor. On November 22, 1963, Ginny and the doctor she worked for were working at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Most of you have guessed where this is going...that's the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and that's the hospital his body was taken too. Ginny was there! Ginny saw Jackie Kennedy come into the hospital carrying part of Pres. Kennedy's brain and hand it to doctors!

Meanwhile, Ernie was a college professor and had come home to have lunch with Joanne and their children. They were watching the news coverage on TV, which was announcing that the President was still alive. Ginny called their house and told them Kennedy was dead...Joanne was so shocked she actually argued with Ginny and told her what was being said on TV. Ginny told Joanne about seeing Mrs. Kennedy and what the doctors were saying...President Kennedy was dead.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to ask Ernie any questions...did Ginny see Kennedy, what role, if any, did the doctor she worked for have, etc. Ernie told us the name of the doctor Ginny worked for, but I'm not sure I'm remembering it correctly so I'm not going to include it here. I wish I'd been able to hear more of the story, but what a fascinating piece of history to have been there to witness (albeit, a rather gruesome and sad piece!).

Up until now, the only family story I knew about that day was about my paternal grandparents. They were traveling by train from Austin, Texas to Chicago to see their first grandchild...my brother. At every train stop, they'd lean out the windows to hear the paperboys yelling out the latest news. I assume my father was at work, but I've never asked my parents what they were doing. My mother just always talks about the horrible, horrible shock that it could happen in America. As a strange sidebar, about 35 years later a cousin on dad's side of the family did part of her medical residency at the Parkland hospital. 

Test

Just testing the new Typepad iPod Touch program from the App Store. So far I can't get it to show my categories and I don't like that I have to type in portrait mode instead of landscape, which has bigger keys. I also don't see a away to edit previously published posts.

It does have a feature for photos, but I haven't tried that yet.

Well now for the big test...trying to post this to my blog.

Apple...Wrong Food Group

Apple, the U.S. computer, iPod, and iPhone manufacturer, has the wrong food name today. Egg, as in on their face, would be a better food-appropriate name.

Apple attempted several upgrades and new product releases today: none of them have gone smoothly well.

1. MobileMe is a day late, is crashing, and, when up, is not working well. For example, after waiting more than 30 minutes for my emails to display...they never did...I had to shut down the browser to get out of the service.
2. The new iPhone 3G was released today, but most users can't activate them. Some blogs report that stores near them ran out of phones this morning while they had customers waiting.
   
3. A new operating system was released today for existing iPhone and iPod Touch users, but most users can't download it. NOTE: Blogs more techie than mine are reporting that 1^st gen iPhone users will have their phones deactivated if they only get through part of the upgrade...so better to wait till the issues are resolved so you won't lose phone service.
4. Since the new OS can't be downloaded, the new App Store is simply a tease...we can see the new offerings, but we can't download or install them without the new OS.

These all seem to be caused by a common problem: Apple's servers. Some blogs and articles report that Apple's servers are completely down now. Whether they are down or not, they are not working as needed.

I didn't purchase an iPhone today, but I can't get MobileMe to work, I can't update my iPod, and I can't download new apps. I'd say Apple was batting zero with me today. In fact, I think Humpty Dumpty is a better name. I hope they get it all fixed soon. I wonder, but doubt, if they'll offer a compensation of some sort. (Speaking of the new apps, why are they promoting their new Remote app with an Olsen twin look-alike? See picture to the right.)

But the issue stretches even further...I've been meaning to call AT&T for several days to change or completely drop long distance from my home landline. I finally remembered to call today to determine exactly what constitutes long distance from my phone...oops. AT&T is Apple's partner in crime. The recorded voice that answered my phone call said they were experiencing extremely long delays and suggested calling back at another time. My guess is AT&T has pulled most of their customer service reps to their wireless support phone lines to handle the barrage of angry calls. This means delays to their other phone support areas as well. I hung up. As irritated or angry as we customers are today, AT&T must be furious with Apple. The two companies had agreed that the phones must be activated before a customer walks out of a store, but this is not happening according to the reports I've read. If I understand the technology correctly, this means people can take the phones they purchase today and try to hack them over to other services. Since AT&T is subsidizing the phones, having them hacked over to other services means they are paying money to Apple for each sold phone, but not earning any money from its use. Clearly, they are not happy campers if that's happening today. I would prefer wireless service from most any other company, but I'm not the type to hack the phone either. I wish Apple would let other U.S. carriers sell the iPhone also, but that's another story.

You know, for all of Apple's ads poking fun at Microsoft about how Vista doesn't work...Apple's meltdown today is a bigger publicity gaff than Vista. In the long run, Vista is a bigger gaff, but Apple's got more publicity damage because of all their claims of superiority. Look who's laughing now.

UPDATE: About 11:30 this evening the 2.0 OS update started downloading and installing on my iPod Touch (after one false start that I hope I won't be charged for). The update takes about 30 minutes and all my data, etc., was backed up and then re-installed as part of the process. It was so late when it finished that I only downloaded a few free applications from the App Store. Since the iPod Touch January Software update was removed before I purchased it, I got to see those apps tonight for the first time. Google Maps on the Touch is cool, but I need to figure out how to save directions. I set up Weather with my home town, but ignored Stocks (it's the middle of the night!) and Notes. I also didn't try the Mail program as that will take a little setting up. But, YAY, got the update successfully installed...only 15.5 hours after my initial attempt...and look forward to playing with it more. I noticed a few other bloggers are now saying they've finally activated or downloaded too, and TL got through about the same time as me. Hopefully Apple's server woes are over.

Flat Again

I'm sitting in an auto care shop while they check a low tire on my car. Joy. Seems like I had a low tire just over a year ago...oh, wait, I did! At least it's not the newish replacement for that tire, but the story is similar.

Saturday evening, after my get together with Susan, I noticed the tire was low. I drove to a local gas station and filled the tire with air. This is a miracle in and of itself...I usually can't fill the car tires. I don't know why this is...I can fill bike tires, but never the car tires. My father used to take me to the gas station each time a car needed air in a tire because he wanted me to be able to do it, but I never could do. I'd try and try, but air would be coming out of the tires instead of going in. I've even had boyfriends try to "teach" me. I don't need teaching, I know how to do it, I just never can get it to work. But it worked this time...I was praying.

I've been watching the tire since Saturday night and it was fine, until last night. It looked lower, but I wasn't sure. A few hours later, it was definitely lower. This morning, it was even lower. A neighbor looked at it and said it had enough air to get to the gas station to re-fill it. He then said, "Drive slowly and don't hit any bumps." I responded, "This is Chicago...show me a road without any bumps!"

I drove slowly, avoiding bumps, and got to the gas station. It was only .7 miles away, but the tire was much lower; thankfully still not on the rim. Once again I succeeded in filling the tire. Miracles really do happen. Then I drove straight to the closest auto center. I didn't go to where I've purchased tires the past several years, because it seems like I've been replacing tires too often. The shop is checking it now to see if it is repairable. I suspect not because they are a few years old, I have a feeling I'll be buying two new tires.

UPDATE: There are pieces of metal in both of my rear tires and neither are repairable. ARGH! They also want to replace the front tires since they are showing wear, but I decided against that. More and more reasons to sell my car. Sigh. It's been such a good car!!!! Darn, darn, darn. Don't want to replace car.

But wait, pieces of metal in two tires! I can only think that came from the construction on highway 88 that I drive through each week. Odd that both rear tires are pierced by pieces of metal, but nothing in the front tires. The right rear tire, the one I knew had a problem, had an inch long gash from the metal in the attached picture. I wonder if the metal was originally bigger. The slash was too long to fix. The left tire had a small metal spike in it, but the damage was too close to the tire's edge to fix. So two new tires for the car.

Oh yes, the picture at the top? When I got the car back, I discovered they'd put a hair net on the steering wheel...sort of cute.

Holiday, Family, and Friends

This was a delightful holiday weekend spending time with family and friends. I haven't seen or talked to my childhood friend Susie, now Susan, in about 15 years. Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer recently and this was the first time we got to talk in person. Everything has been going wonderfully...treatment is going beautifully and she's currently cancer free.

Susan lives on the east coast, but is in the Chicago area for a few days visiting her parents and friends. She called me Friday and we chatted for over an hour. Then she met me at my parent's house on Saturday where we chatted for about 45 minutes. Then...as if this wasn't enough...we went to a local restaurant and talked for over four hours! Gee, do you think we had much to catch up on? Yeah.

We covered dozens of topics, bouncing around to whatever entered our heads and me interrupting even though I'd gotten after my mother for doing the same. (I think I'm becoming my mother...<shrug,> could be worse.) We talked about old times, old friends, current lives, and prayer requests. We shared pictures, me of Reggie (LOL!) and her of her children. They'd taken her daughter to the American Girl store in Chicago and I think I'm going to have a field trip there. The store has a tea shop for the humans, a beauty shop for the dolls, and a doll holder in each bathroom stall.** We jumped around topics so much we never covered how the doctors determined her breast cancer is the environmental type. We touched on what eating habits they suggested, but could have covered that more. We only touched on our work and hobbies. She's in a book club that reads non-fiction books one chapter per month...I love that! 

I had a wonderful time, except my brain started failing near the end. Even so, it wasn't enough time! As soon as we parted, I thought of more things I should have said, more questions I should have asked...more, more, more. It was just great to get caught up and we chatted away as if there hadn't been a long gap. Hopefully we'll stay in better touch and another 15 years won't pass.

Sunday was Laura's and my niece's birthday. I called Laura and we chatted for over an hour about friends, movies, and politics. Not too much about politics because it's to depressing. Laura's recently posted a review of The Jane Austen Book Club so we discussed it since I haven't posted a review myself. Laura and I need to figure out a way to have a video chat so we can discuss movies more often. Or I need to do a better job of posting reviews of movies. I used to do this, but haven't kept up lately. Just like it was great talking with Susan, it was great talking with Laura. Also needs to be done more often!

I also talked with my niece Meg on the phone to give her birthday wishes. She told me all about her birthday and the shopping she had done with her gift cards. She's always fun to talk with! My sister-in-law (s-i-l) got on the phone to tell me that my nephew fell off a bike and has a small fracture in his wrist! Poor Dave...he's left handed, so of course he broke his left wrist. He was with my brother at the emergency room when s-i-l was talking with me, so I don't know what type of cast he got. At least his big, organized summer events (Scout camp in Missouri, and local basketball and band camps) are over...the rest of summer was scheduled for play.

**I think other stores should come up with specialized holders in their bathrooms. Let face it, the purse and coat hooks are so yesteryear. Apple stores could have iPhone holders, Blockbuster could have built in screens to preview movies, restaurants could have hand sanitizers (no, every bathroom should have those), beauty salons should have undo buttons, grocery stores should have coupon dispensers, electronic stores should have consumer report postings (yeah, right), etc.

Sparkler Words

sparkler words
Originally uploaded by john.reilly

Did you catch this on the Flickr blog? This must have taken a lot of planning. Excellent job! I enjoy taking pictures and looking at good snaps by others.

New Design

I thought I'd try a new look. What do you think? This is a template from TypePad, so don't feel like you'll be insulting my feelings if you don't like this look. I'll probably try a few different looks. I'd like to create one of my own, with my own picture in the banner, but that will take more time. TypePad's custom design feature is a bit awkward.

I like this skyline of Chicago, but as usual, the designer made the Standard Oil building shorter than the Hancock building. (I don't think perspective is the complete reason for the height disparity in the image.) Hello people!!!! The Standard Oil building, which isn't called that anymore is the tall white marble building Chicago, is...and always has been...taller than the Hancock building, even though the Hancock added it's antennas.

Another problem with any new template I might use is that I set custom colors each time I added a link to any post...and there isn't an easy way to change that in TypePad. At least the mint green color I've been using lately doesn't clash too badly with the new template.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers! Enjoy your nation's birthday!!!

Here are some fun time lapse fireworks.

The Ughs

I decided to rant about all the irritating things of my recent past. I recommend all readers skip this post. It's mainly here for posterity for me to re-read in the future for stupid reasons. I think everyone else should simply pretend it isn't here. I could spend more time on the post and make it a hysterical rant, but that's more energy into the blah of it all...too much time already wasted. So skip on by...don't linger here. You've been warned. I hid it behind the extended entry.

Michael Clayton

We finally got around to watching the movie, Michael Clayton. It's a decent movie starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson (who steals every scene he's in) and Tilda Swinton (I can't put my finger on who she reminds me of...any thoughts?). It's also the last film of the recently deceased Sydney Pollack.

Michael Clayton received a bundle of Oscar nominations (but only Swinton won...I think Wilkinson was more deserving) and a ton of hype...so my expectations were very high. It's a good movie, but I think I'll have to watch it again some other time when the hype won't be misting my perception. The movie takes place in the present, but is supposed to be a throw back to the 1970s style of movie. I don't get that. I must have missed those movies in the '70s, maybe because of my age. It struck me more like a film noir of the 1950s, but not as dark or intense.

If you haven't seen the movie, but plan to, stop reading now. The following might contain spoilers.

If you've seen the movie you know it starts with a voice-over followed by several disjointed scenes. Finally, as the title character, Michael Clayton (Clooney) stands on a hill looking at three horses, his car explodes behind him and the screen dissolves to a message: "Four days earlier." and we start seeing the events sequentially. I think they blew it. (Sorry, wasn't meaning to make a pun of the car exploding.) I mean they showed too much, they gave away too much, they revealed the key point.

Again...stop reading if you haven't seen the movie and think you might at some point.

As soon as the car explodes, we know that Michael eventually goes against the baddies...that Michael does the right thing. Isn't that the point of the movie to see Michael struggle with the decision about doing the right thing? To see his journey? Since we know the baddies want him removed, to me the penultimate question has already been answered. Michael does the right thing. (Since it's a movie, we can boil it down this way...real life, not so simple.)

Now we are left with lots of little questions: when does Michael do the right thing? why does Michael do the right thing? exactly who are the baddies...there are several candidates for that dishonor...and who are not the baddies? But what should have been the main question...will Michael do the right thing...was answered 15-20 minutes into the movie! We shouldn't have seen the car blow up till the end of the movie! What did you think?

As to when and why Michael does the right thing, the answer is too late and for the wrong reasons. He does the right thing only after he's been bought off, after he hands over the money for his own gain, and after the baddies blow up his car. In other words, Michael doesn't do the right thing when it costs him anything or on his own conscious...he does the right thing after he's protected his hide by paying off his large debts and only after the baddies come after him. What do you think?

iTunes $.99 Movie Rental

A while back Apple announced that they'd be offering movie rentals through iTunes and every week, one movie would be available for 99 cents. Personally I never could find the 99 cent movie. I get emails from Apple every week...one prominently mentions the free song of the week..but I've never seen a notice of the 99 cent rental.

Ah ha...somebody recognized that I'm not the only one with this challenge and has started a simple blog identifying, describing and linking to each week's 99 cent iTune rental movie. They even kept made it easy to find their blog: http://www.99rental.com/. This week's cheap rental is House of Games; anybody recommend it?

By the way, under the iTune rental policy the movie expires 30 days after it is downloaded or 24 hours after you begin playing it. (I thought they'd changed the 24 hours, but it says 24 hours in the iTunes help.)

Foyle's War Ending...Or Not?

ITV, the British network work that airs Foyle's War, cancelled the show a while back. It was announced that the three episodes airing in the U.K. and U.S. (and other locations) during 2008 were going to be the last.

But look what I found today on the web page of Foyle's War writer and creator Anthony Horowitz:

"MORE FOYLE’S WAR. Just thought I’d mention it. Due to the stupidity of the men in suits, they cancelled my detective series, then changed their minds. I’m now working on a new series, set in the month after the war."*

Too bad ITV cancelled the show in the first place, so much of the war was skipped in order for the perceived final episodes to end with WWII ending. It will be interesting to see what happens after the war, but I hope they are able to get all of the cast back. It won't be the same with a different cast.

I'm still holding out hope for Mr. Horowitz to write Foyle's War books. Please, please. ;-)

*The above quote is from the May 15, 2008 blog/news entry on www.AnthonyHorowitz.com.

Julie Andrews as Eliza

There's talk of a new version of My Fair Lady being produced with Keira Knightley as Eliza. I can't say I'm very thrilled or interested in this, but this YouTube video did catch my eye. I don't think I've ever seen footage of Julie Andrews as Eliza in the Broadway production. Well, here's a clip. How charming...

The first link above also includes a clip of Knightley singing for her next movie. Let's hope that isn't her regular singing voice, but her voice for that character.

Yosemite

For a wonderful picture of Yosemite...check my buddy TL's pic here. Fabulous! Want to go!!!!

They're Back from NM

My parents had a great time with my cousin and her family and the trip as a whole went well. There were a few glitches...no hot water the first night in the hotel (they were given a discount), some issues with the rental car, and the winds. The wind was the worst they'd ever seen; Mom said they frequently had to hold their glasses to keep them from blowing off their faces! But, overall, nothing major. Then the return day arrived.

My parents called me Friday night from NM on their cell phone, which they had plugged in to charge, so we could discuss meeting at the airport. They called me back Saturday morning to tell me the cell phone was completely dead...the charger had failed. How nice, the day they had to drive through rural and unpopulated portions of NM and TX, travel hundreds of miles via three airports, and meet me at O'Hare...they didn't have a cell phone. Of course, we never used to have cell phones, but this was simply a foreshadowing.

The first part of the day went fine; then they got to Dallas and the storms got to Chicago. So while the storms pounded Chicago, Mom and Dad sat in Dallas. Their flight finally took off two hours later than scheduled and arrived in Chicago 2.5 hours later than scheduled. In the meantime, I discovered I couldn't park on the frontage road in front of the terminals and had to circle through really bad traffic. I finally gave up trying to spot them and went inside to find them. We waited and waited for their luggage. Mother finally went off to find help and was informed that their luggage had arrived several hours earlier on a different flight. Grand. How nice of American Airlines to have told us! Then we got caught in bad traffic with the highway down to one lane for several miles. We got to their home after 11:00 P.M. and I didn't get home till midnight. I guess if they had to had problems, this last flight of the trip was the one to have problems with!

The important thing is that they are home safely and are glad they went to be with my cousin.

Oh, but wait, the day wasn't over. Reggie decided to go out at 3:00 A.M.! Since the rain was coming down in sheets, I delayed trying to figure out if he really needed to go out. He kept asking, so I put on a hat and coat, put a leash on him and out we went. At least this way I could bring him back in instead of risking him deciding to play in the rain! I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear we overslept this morning. 

They're Off to NM

Tomorrow morning my parents are traveling to New Mexico for my aunt's funeral services. It's been a rough venture getting this trip put together, including an overflowing kitchen sink tonight (for once my brother went over to help them...not me...yay!) while they were trying to finish packing.

They've decided to take a limo tomorrow instead of me driving them to the airport. I'd actually feel more comfortable taking them myself, but they insist. I'll pick them up Saturday night.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day for them. The limo comes at 8:00 A.M., then they have a 10:50 flight to Dallas, followed by another flight to Lubbock, TX, and then a two hour drive to eastern New Mexico. They'll reverse the trip Saturday. It's long, but I'm hoping it isn't hard.

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers for an uneventful, smooth, and safe trip. Thanks.

UPDATE: They made it safely, with only a few minor glitches. Thanks for your support. Now the hard part...the service and the return trip.

Updates: Frustration and Help Needed

Updating previous blogs:

• Frustration Update:

I got my car into the shop yesterday and they did finish it in one day...sort of. They were able to fix the fan issue...the resistor was shot. That was an easy repair and not too costly. But...when they first looked at my car, they could see oil dripping, but there was so much grease and oil they couldn't tell where it was coming from. So they cleaned up the area and checked the gasket, screws, filter, etc. Everything looked okay, but once it was all back together, they couldn't find a leak. They drove the car around, left it running, but no dripping oil. This means they either fixed it by cleaning up and tweaking things (which means the Honda dealership that did the last few oil changes made a mess!) or there is a very slow leak higher up near the timing belt. I have the car parked in the garage over a flattened cardboard box and need to check it for signs of leaks. The bad thing is, we don't know for sure about the oil and if it's a slow leak up by the timing belt the labor alone to get to the leak is going to be high. However, since the timing belt on my car has never been replaced I could do the timing belt, water pump and the oil leak in one shot for an over $700 charge. Yippy skippy. I hate to put that into much money into my 12+ year-old car, but I'd equally hate for the timing belt to go bad and cause worse issues. Sigh. Might be time to go car shopping after all.

• Help Needed Update:

Speaking of my car, back in December I told you about it's hood being smashed up by huge chunks of ice coming off the top of an 18-wheeler. The villain truck had the logo I've displayed here. You might remember my rave at a trucking company that was saving itself a bit of money by NOT de-icing their trucks and letting other drivers's insurance companies pay for the damage caused by their gross negligence. Delmer amazingly remembered that logo and left a comment on my blog today identifying the villain company as Crete Carrier Corp. I actually saw one of their trucks myself the day I was driving to Steve C's funeral, but that was such an emotional time that I didn't blog about it and then I forgot about it. So a big thank you to Delmer for reminding me so I can publicly deride Crete Carrier for their #%%$@%$%#$ and unprofessional practices. (Sorry for the #$#%@, it's the only nice thing I could think to say.) I really should write them a letter letting them know exactly what I think of them! I'm sure it's too late to try and get the insurance company their money back, but I should probably notify them also. 

I started this blog this morning, but just couldn't get it finished and final have given up and it's going out in this rough, crude format. Please feel free to send your own hate mail to Crete Carriers; I assure you they deserve it!