Weblog 235

August 8, 2010~ 12:00 am
The heat has ABATED! (At least for the last 2 days) and it's been heaven. The highlight of this past week was Kay's FIFTH (count those fingers.......FIVE!) birthday.



We had a party at Holly's house on Tuesday evening, and Holly baked the 'Kay Cake', her husband Gary grilled the burgers....and we were treated to a fresh garden salad with all the vegetables grown in their own yard except for the mushrooms. Everything was yummy as can be. Despite the heat still wrapping us in baking foil (like potatoes) we had a wonderful evening. Here's the Lady of the Day herself



- and GOODNESS, has she grown! Starting full time kindergarten in September, and looking every inch the mature kiddo, ready to step out into the school world like a princess into her kingdom. She's a beauty, alright- and very mature for her age. (More like an eleven year old...LOL!!! I'm not kidding!) Even brother Bill (who's always magnanimous, I swear, without a jealous bone in his body)



was high-spirited, and treated us all to his choreographed 'kata' from Karate class- very proud of the yellow belt he just obtained- no longer a white belt beginner. Bill lunged and bowed and made serious faces, going through a whole routine that would have tripped me up after the first four steps. He certainly doesn't get his physical grace from me, that's for sure. (Holly said his daddy practiced this too so he could help Bill along...I think that's sweet as can be.)



Flowers, flowers, flowers! (Actually... a 'retro' kind of Flower Power look- seemed to be the theme of the party.) Holly made a card for Kay, covered in polka-dotted cloth material with raised felt flowers. The photo doesn't begin to capture its charm, but I loved it enough to try and snap it up in a photo to press into my memory book.

How lucky we are to have photography. Photos allow the past to remain present.....at least for the moments we get lost in pictures. I adore vintage photos (as you know, if you've read through this blog at all) and I was sent a link to a wonderful site for just that very thing. Take some time to visit



and (just like the children's rhyme) you'll be saying, "I see LONDON, I see France....." -because both those grand cities are featured, as well as many others --with the invitation to add old photos of your own from wherever you happen to hail.

I've found a new love --in online games. LOL!!! No joystick, no 'latest Adobe version' fancy-schmancy stuff but OLD things.........even (gulp!) yes.......MSDOS versions, which have quickly become favorites of mine (in particular a game that I played for 3 hours by myself on Friday night LOL!!!) Just me against the computer. 'TAKE 5'....HIGHLY recommended. The website address where you can find these older treasures is 500 DOS GAMES. (Remember DOS? The simple, unbloated foundation computers ran on before Windows and its GRAPHIC-heavy, advertising-laden framework?) Every computer has MSDos in its operating system. It's what your OS is based on. (Don't be scared when your screen goes dark and the game loads. It just means you're now in DOS mode-- outside of windows. Press the 'escape' key at any time to get out, and return to the Windows format and your browser.) No kidding, you can download these in seconds, try them....delete if you don't like them. Many are UNDER 50k in space! The downloads come in zip files (if you don't have Winzip, download an old version free. I have Winzip 8.0)- then you download the game, create a new folder for the game wherever you like on your computer, then open the Winzip file, choose 'extract' and from the drop-down menu, pick the folder you've just created. That puts all the necessary files you'll need to play the game all together. Delete that winzip file, open the folder, double click on whichever file ends in the extension '.exe' and your game will start. **MANY do not require a mouse... (just arrow keys and the space bar....Annette, my 'mouseless' friend. LOL! ) If you don't like it, delete all the files and choose another one. Seriously, I'm on dial up and I went through those things lickety-split! I've now saved 'Take 5', 'Diamond Mine', 'Maze' and 'Kerboom!' I'm AN ADDICT! (Though my bowling game is still my favorite) but it's neat to have choices.

What do games do for you? Well.......they relax me. They keep the mind sharp and the reflexes fast. They're a fine and free entertainment- and if you're bored with surfing the net and the same old stuff, try some retro MSDos games -(I think they'll hook you too.)

One thing Wayne and I did Saturday evening was watch Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island'. Never before have so many talented actors been in a balloon that just never really makes it off the ground. I can't put my finger on it, but the film fails. It successfully sets a rich stage, LOTS of atmosphere, talented actors..... but I think it must be the story itself- or the screenplay written from it, that is the cause of this movie's failure. With so much promise- the dang thing was like watching in excited anticipation as a firework is ignited, expecting a wild riot of colors and excitement.......and having the thing fizzle out before it explodes. It's a dud. I'm glad I saw it because I'm a great fan of Scorsese (and Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow- my GOD! LOOK AT THAT CAST!) --but in the end, it felt like a poor attempt at something with plot twists and surprises such as Hitchcock was able to achieve...like an 'Angelheart' wannabe. And it ain't. Too bad. Just one of those things that hold such promise, but only end up disappointing us in the end.





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