Weblog 223
May 16, 2010~ 12:00 am
It's been another week of tweaking my Firefox settings. I believe I finally have things as I want them, but it was a back and forth affair, with uninstalling, reinstalling, importing bookmarks..... I do so hate a browser INSISTING on updating, even when I tell it 'No!'
I gave myself a week off from just about all other online pursuits till I had cracked that, otherwise I'd be cranky and out of sorts every time I logged on. I fiddled with Firefox and fed and watched the wild birds. Bird feeding commanded the first hour after I got home each day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.... refilling the water dish, replenishing the cracked corn and peanuts, taking a seat and watching the interplay unfold.
I attracted a handsome pair of rock pigeons who visit every day-
'Mr. Red Eye/Red Feet' and 'Ms. Pinto'- LOL!! If bothered by other birds when they're trying to eat, the lady steps right into the center of the food dish, as if to say, "All mine!"
There's a shot through the wooden railing. Those two sure are pretty! I have TONS of scrappy starlings this year. They come in big gangs and make raspy shouts at the other birds, bullying every one, their yellow beaks as pointed as needles. I have two blue jays, a couple of cardinal pairs- and my beloved mourning doves.
This one found the new food tray my daughter gave me for Mother's Day.
She approached it gingerly, put one foot up- she'd take it off, and circle around until she found just the right spot to poke her head in comfortably and gobble.
That's a great shot of my little friend....lovely profile. This is the one I call 'Rocky' because she learned feisty behaviors from the starlings. She watched how they'd intimidate other birds by pecking at them, poking their necks out like they were ready to stab out the other's eyes. After watching that ballet, before long this sweet-natured, retiring little thing was doing the same thing, and stayed on that paving block for at least a half hour- posturing, feinting pecks -and chasing off every bird that approached. LOL!! She was such fun to watch. As you can see, she now goes where she pleases, but favors that bowl.
Another one who found the bowl much to his liking ---was my missing 'Chippy'! (And he does indeed make a home down inside my porch.)
(Keep in mind that I was taking this photo- and quite excited about it -from the other side of a screen door, so make allowances for the blur and the poor quality) -but THERE HE IS! And there's the small portion of indoor/outdoor carpeting he was able to slide aside and gnaw a hole through the floor right by the porch column. LOL!! He's got a palace under there I'm sure, and it connects via his catacombs to all points in both my yard and Lou's next door.
I remember when I first saw that carpeting pushed aside and saw the hole a while back, I'd move it back into place and the next day it was off, and to the side again. (The boy comes and goes as he likes. Man about town.)
His Nibs himself!
When I saw him scoot around and finally find that green leafy feed-dish, as he leaned over and began to eat, I again ran for the camera but he'd dashed off before I could get a photo.
Having seen Chippy... my group's complete. And I'll be in my chair stationed just inside the screen door every day after work, sipping coffee and enjoying the heck out of life. Only one crow so far that the bird democracy promptly voted out of the yard: he landed, looked around, and en masse, they squawked and flapped and flew at him till he skidaddled. (He'll be back. He'll bring friends.) Those guys are wily. (And cautious as hell. And clever.) Oh yes....they'll be back.
In my pursuit of a 'simpler, less junked-up' browser, I began to look at my bookmarks, horrified at how many of my old favorites have succumbed to online clutter. I will now announce the GREATEST, CLEANEST, FASTEST online dictionary you will ever come across. Click on the little guy below
Isn't that great? You know years back, I despaired of my then favorite, Webster's Online, due to all the added searches and the piled on applications and countless ads they'd thrown in there over time. I adopted 'The Free Dictionary' site instead and LOVED IT! Sadly, I watched it gradually get papered over with ads, with links to other subject-oriented online dictionaries- flash ads, more and more games and toolbars, and what I'd term 'plain old CRAP'.
The final straw came tonight as I tried a simple search for the word 'wily', used above -(I can never remember if there's an 'e' in there or not.) The damn dictionary kept changing the small 'w' to a CAPITAL one, then giving me SITES with 'Wily' in the title.....sites where you can buy stuff, and I couldn't for the life of me produce a simple search for one single word to find its proper spelling.
That's when I discovered DEFINR. Gone now, 'The Free Dictionary' -and into my favorites list is this beauty, thank goodness.
I'm now on a mission to find a script -within the limits of my administrator's rights, to force out all the SPAM signer-uppers for my poetry board.
Those mindless, greedy bot-bastards are in there every day, joining....joining, hoping to harvest email addresses and spit out their puerile links in the form of bogus posts.
And I'll do it, too!.......for I am.....
The Enforcer
LOL!!! That picture was taken at work on Thursday for an article in our trade magazine. They're doing an article on billing department efficiency....and Man! do I look old! Jowls, scowls... and matronly bulk. (But what the heck?...that's time's passage for ya.) It makes for 'sag and drag' alright... (and hopefully.....wisdom.) It does take some loose skin to get there, however, but don't be afraid of it. It ain't so bad... and there are other benefits. (GOOD head of hair, though!) Have a lovely WEEK!
May 16, 2010~ 8:30 pm
Today I found the most marvelous dollhouse site! Oh, not an ordinary miniature marvel (though those can be pretty spectacular) ...this one is UNBELIEVABLE!!
I invite you to revel in the perfectionistic skills of a truly obsessed Hobbit fan, Maddie Chambers. (A name, by the way, that would actually be quite suited to a Hobbit!)
It makes me GASP with joy! The hundreds of hours that must have gone into this creation boggles the mind. I LOVE IT! Congratulations, Maddie. You've given birth to a small world of such accurate detail and color, you might very well be a fey fairy yourself! I got lost in there.
May 17, 2010~ 6:49 am
It rained all day. When it wasn't drizzling, it was pouring. When I got home from a disjointed, particularly jangled day at work, I was anxious to get back to watching my birds, droopy-feathered....hungry.
The cracked corn had turned into sodden slop in the pyrex dish...turned into creamed corn. LOL!! (I just take the dish and whack it against the side of the stump- when it dries, they go back to pecking at it) but I still needed to add some nice dry feed, poured out right onto the treestump itself, and peanuts arranged on the paving stone. (They became very animated when the realized they were getting something other than 'mush'.)
HERE'S ROCKY and friend- first on the fence
-puffed up in the unstoppable precipitation today. And here's the girl all by herself
-ain't she cute? A little puffball. (I know she'd been on the porch where I'd moved the other leaf-shaped feeder this morning as I was leaving for the office. I didn't want that lovely seed to go floating) or maybe it was Chippy--- but something was having at it all day. It was almost empty when I got home.
And HERE'S that wily crow-- not about to be left out of the grub-fest AGAIN.
There's a nice montage of my 'Black Mack'. (See how he turned his head right around, looking straight at me as I stood at the door, snapping his picture.)
All the other guys lined up on the opposite fence, waiting for his showboating to be over (hoping there'd still be some peanuts left, which the crows love. The cardinal was highly indignant and heckled him from across the yard. LOL!!)
When I was just about ready to close the door, gather the trash for pick-up tomorrow, who was sitting there- within touching distance?
Well, ROCKY, that's who! (I'm convinced she wants to be an indoor bird. Especially on at wet day like this.) She never flinched or swept off as I stood there talking to her. There was just a few, slow blinks of those shoebutton eyes as she cocked her head at me while I made my own equivalent of the mourning dove 'who coo'. We're buddies. We all are. I'm so grateful for their little, fluttery lives intersecting with mine.
See??? I'm quite calm now. That's what they do.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
It's been another week of tweaking my Firefox settings. I believe I finally have things as I want them, but it was a back and forth affair, with uninstalling, reinstalling, importing bookmarks..... I do so hate a browser INSISTING on updating, even when I tell it 'No!'
I gave myself a week off from just about all other online pursuits till I had cracked that, otherwise I'd be cranky and out of sorts every time I logged on. I fiddled with Firefox and fed and watched the wild birds. Bird feeding commanded the first hour after I got home each day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.... refilling the water dish, replenishing the cracked corn and peanuts, taking a seat and watching the interplay unfold.
I attracted a handsome pair of rock pigeons who visit every day-
'Mr. Red Eye/Red Feet' and 'Ms. Pinto'- LOL!! If bothered by other birds when they're trying to eat, the lady steps right into the center of the food dish, as if to say, "All mine!"
There's a shot through the wooden railing. Those two sure are pretty! I have TONS of scrappy starlings this year. They come in big gangs and make raspy shouts at the other birds, bullying every one, their yellow beaks as pointed as needles. I have two blue jays, a couple of cardinal pairs- and my beloved mourning doves.
This one found the new food tray my daughter gave me for Mother's Day.
She approached it gingerly, put one foot up- she'd take it off, and circle around until she found just the right spot to poke her head in comfortably and gobble.
That's a great shot of my little friend....lovely profile. This is the one I call 'Rocky' because she learned feisty behaviors from the starlings. She watched how they'd intimidate other birds by pecking at them, poking their necks out like they were ready to stab out the other's eyes. After watching that ballet, before long this sweet-natured, retiring little thing was doing the same thing, and stayed on that paving block for at least a half hour- posturing, feinting pecks -and chasing off every bird that approached. LOL!! She was such fun to watch. As you can see, she now goes where she pleases, but favors that bowl.
Another one who found the bowl much to his liking ---was my missing 'Chippy'! (And he does indeed make a home down inside my porch.)
(Keep in mind that I was taking this photo- and quite excited about it -from the other side of a screen door, so make allowances for the blur and the poor quality) -but THERE HE IS! And there's the small portion of indoor/outdoor carpeting he was able to slide aside and gnaw a hole through the floor right by the porch column. LOL!! He's got a palace under there I'm sure, and it connects via his catacombs to all points in both my yard and Lou's next door.
I remember when I first saw that carpeting pushed aside and saw the hole a while back, I'd move it back into place and the next day it was off, and to the side again. (The boy comes and goes as he likes. Man about town.)
His Nibs himself!
When I saw him scoot around and finally find that green leafy feed-dish, as he leaned over and began to eat, I again ran for the camera but he'd dashed off before I could get a photo.
Having seen Chippy... my group's complete. And I'll be in my chair stationed just inside the screen door every day after work, sipping coffee and enjoying the heck out of life. Only one crow so far that the bird democracy promptly voted out of the yard: he landed, looked around, and en masse, they squawked and flapped and flew at him till he skidaddled. (He'll be back. He'll bring friends.) Those guys are wily. (And cautious as hell. And clever.) Oh yes....they'll be back.
In my pursuit of a 'simpler, less junked-up' browser, I began to look at my bookmarks, horrified at how many of my old favorites have succumbed to online clutter. I will now announce the GREATEST, CLEANEST, FASTEST online dictionary you will ever come across. Click on the little guy below
Isn't that great? You know years back, I despaired of my then favorite, Webster's Online, due to all the added searches and the piled on applications and countless ads they'd thrown in there over time. I adopted 'The Free Dictionary' site instead and LOVED IT! Sadly, I watched it gradually get papered over with ads, with links to other subject-oriented online dictionaries- flash ads, more and more games and toolbars, and what I'd term 'plain old CRAP'.
The final straw came tonight as I tried a simple search for the word 'wily', used above -(I can never remember if there's an 'e' in there or not.) The damn dictionary kept changing the small 'w' to a CAPITAL one, then giving me SITES with 'Wily' in the title.....sites where you can buy stuff, and I couldn't for the life of me produce a simple search for one single word to find its proper spelling.
That's when I discovered DEFINR. Gone now, 'The Free Dictionary' -and into my favorites list is this beauty, thank goodness.
I'm now on a mission to find a script -within the limits of my administrator's rights, to force out all the SPAM signer-uppers for my poetry board.
Those mindless, greedy bot-bastards are in there every day, joining....joining, hoping to harvest email addresses and spit out their puerile links in the form of bogus posts.
And I'll do it, too!.......for I am.....
LOL!!! That picture was taken at work on Thursday for an article in our trade magazine. They're doing an article on billing department efficiency....and Man! do I look old! Jowls, scowls... and matronly bulk. (But what the heck?...that's time's passage for ya.) It makes for 'sag and drag' alright... (and hopefully.....wisdom.) It does take some loose skin to get there, however, but don't be afraid of it. It ain't so bad... and there are other benefits. (GOOD head of hair, though!) Have a lovely WEEK!
May 16, 2010~ 8:30 pm
Today I found the most marvelous dollhouse site! Oh, not an ordinary miniature marvel (though those can be pretty spectacular) ...this one is UNBELIEVABLE!!
I invite you to revel in the perfectionistic skills of a truly obsessed Hobbit fan, Maddie Chambers. (A name, by the way, that would actually be quite suited to a Hobbit!)
It makes me GASP with joy! The hundreds of hours that must have gone into this creation boggles the mind. I LOVE IT! Congratulations, Maddie. You've given birth to a small world of such accurate detail and color, you might very well be a fey fairy yourself! I got lost in there.
May 17, 2010~ 6:49 am
It rained all day. When it wasn't drizzling, it was pouring. When I got home from a disjointed, particularly jangled day at work, I was anxious to get back to watching my birds, droopy-feathered....hungry.
The cracked corn had turned into sodden slop in the pyrex dish...turned into creamed corn. LOL!! (I just take the dish and whack it against the side of the stump- when it dries, they go back to pecking at it) but I still needed to add some nice dry feed, poured out right onto the treestump itself, and peanuts arranged on the paving stone. (They became very animated when the realized they were getting something other than 'mush'.)
HERE'S ROCKY and friend- first on the fence
-puffed up in the unstoppable precipitation today. And here's the girl all by herself
-ain't she cute? A little puffball. (I know she'd been on the porch where I'd moved the other leaf-shaped feeder this morning as I was leaving for the office. I didn't want that lovely seed to go floating) or maybe it was Chippy--- but something was having at it all day. It was almost empty when I got home.
And HERE'S that wily crow-- not about to be left out of the grub-fest AGAIN.
There's a nice montage of my 'Black Mack'. (See how he turned his head right around, looking straight at me as I stood at the door, snapping his picture.)
All the other guys lined up on the opposite fence, waiting for his showboating to be over (hoping there'd still be some peanuts left, which the crows love. The cardinal was highly indignant and heckled him from across the yard. LOL!!)
When I was just about ready to close the door, gather the trash for pick-up tomorrow, who was sitting there- within touching distance?
Well, ROCKY, that's who! (I'm convinced she wants to be an indoor bird. Especially on at wet day like this.) She never flinched or swept off as I stood there talking to her. There was just a few, slow blinks of those shoebutton eyes as she cocked her head at me while I made my own equivalent of the mourning dove 'who coo'. We're buddies. We all are. I'm so grateful for their little, fluttery lives intersecting with mine.
See??? I'm quite calm now. That's what they do.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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