Monday, May 30, 2011

This Is Why You Shouldn't Procrastinate

Ya know, I have a ton of pictures all set, ready to blog about. Unfortunately, I haven't put them IN a blog post so I could just write when I had time. They are all on my computer in separate files.

Bad, bad, bad idea.

Especially when you know your computer is acting up and probably on its last leg!

I shut my computer down at night (I hate wasting electricity!) and in the morning when I boot up, some days it works and some days not so much. But, after some coaxing and some praying, it would come up. Today I was not so lucky.

I thought a back up would be a good idea, so I invested in the same program we use at work, Backblaze. The first download of your computer to their system takes a couple of days but after that, it's a piece of cake. Luckily I did that about a week ago.

Ron was able to restore my computer to factory new so NONE of my stuff is on here! I am in the process of having Backblaze restore my computer. Hopefully this works or sometime soon in my future, I will be buying a new computer. And I do NOT want to do that!

For today, life kinda sucks. At least my computer is working, but I have none of my files or pictures or bookmarks. Ugh. My fault for being such a procrastinator on my blog!! THAT bothers me more than anything, that I might have lost all of those photos.

Keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully my computer will be back and running as before.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I Almost Ran Over WHAT???

Saturday, the temperatures warmed up and the grass dried enough to cut again. Ron and I decided to cut the grass before we went off for a day of fun. Ron was pushing the hand mower in front and I was in the back on the riding mower.

Coming across the back of the house, I was watching the left side of the deck. I see what at first I thought was a small knit hat in the grass. I leaned over a bit to get a better look and the "thing" started to uncoil and slither up the freakin' wall! IT WAS A SNAKE!!! IN LORAIN OHIO!!!!!! Seriously, WTF!

Ok, what do I do first? Well, I screamed, of course. But with two mowers going, I don't think anyone heard me. I drove the mower probably 10 feet and shut it down and then ran to the front to get Ron. I told him there is a SNAKE at the back of the house! We walked back to where I saw him and he was no where to be seen. There is a downspout there, with a brick under it holding up a water diverter. I figured the snake was under that diverter. I ran to the garage and got a rake and Ron moved the diverter. Sure enough, there was the SNAKE!

I know what a garter snake looks like and this sure wasn't it. This snake was a good size snake, in my dumb ass opinion. It was a good 3 to 4 feet long. I was not happy and I had no intention of finishing the grass with a SNAKE waiting for me against the house! What did I do now? I called 9-1-1! I know y'all are thinking right now that I am nuts! So, before I finish my story, here is the snake curled up in the brick that was holding up the diverter.


Perhaps not the proper use of the 9-1-1 system, but to ME this was an emergency! Here, look closer at this SNAKE!!


Holy crap! Well, the police gave me the number for the wild life center as they don't get rid of unwanted animals. They would have to send a car since I made the call, but they wouldn't get rid of the snake. Hey, I've seen COPS on TV! They not only got rid of snakes, I've seen them get rid of opossums, raccoons, bats, all kinds of things. But, I digress.

The wild life center was no help. No one was working on a Saturday and besides, as the police before told me, there are supposedly no venomous snakes in Ohio. Well, it might not be indigenous to the area but that doesn't mean that it didn't get away from some one's house where it was a pet. No one else seemed to think this was a problem other than me.

For as much as I have bad mouthed the Lorain Police before, I gotta give these guys props. They were actually there pretty quickly. It must have been a slow day at the precinct because I not only got a patrol officer, one of the SWAT guys came along with him! I had high hopes for my situation when I saw that!

They looked at the critter and confirmed that it was a snake. Duh. They also confirmed that neither of them had any intention of getting too near this snake either! I did remind them both that they are armed and they should feel free to SHOOT the snake! I was positive that deadly force would be approved by their superiors! They didn't buy it.

SWAT guy pulled out his iPhone and tried to figure out what kind of snake it is. I still have no idea so if any of you know what it is, please let me know. While we were all standing there, the snake finally uncurled and made a run for it. He headed over to some trees at the back of the neighbor's yard. As long as it was away from me, and I couldn't convince the officers that shooting the snake would be the right thing do it, I had to be ok with this outcome. They had a good story to take back to the office and of course, I have blog material. Win/win.

As soon as this thing started to make a run for it, I tried to get it on film. Considering he had no legs, he was hauling some serious ass! All this in Lorain Ohio.



Once it made it out of the yard, the police left, I headed to the riding mower to drive myself out of harm's way and Ron finished up with the hand mower. I may NEVER cut that part of the grass again, but that's a whole other story!

He was a little easier to see once he got out of the grass and was on the gravel of the driveway. Too bad Ron didn't stand close enough so you could judge the size of the snake! BIG snake.


I can't make this stuff up! Who else has a snake in their yard in Lorain Ohio? Only me!

Author's note: Since I've written this, I've been pouring over pictures of snakes in Ohio. It is my belief that this is an Eastern Fox Snake. Supposedly found near the shores of Lake Erie, how did this guy get two miles inland???

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Edna Party!

You know how I love birthdays! Edna must be on the same page as me on that once since she flew 3,000 miles to come home and party with family and friends for her birthday a few weekends ago!

Now, with me loving birthdays as I do, plus Edna being my good friend, of COURSE I went to the party and strapped on the feed bag! C'mon people! There is no carbs in birthday food OR birthday cake! Right??

Luckily these people know me and my love of taking pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get many of actual people but I sure did get a ton of pictures of the food! Hey, I was hungry when I went over there! What do you expect from me?

I have no idea what most of the food was, but I can tell you, I had some of absolutely everything. I was told the Arabic name of all of this stuff, but I couldn't repeat any of it if my life depended on it. It doesn't matter, I ate it all.


Ok, I did know the salad! That was an easy one!


This one I knew too, tabouli. That must mean yummy!


No idea what these were but I ate them anyway.



All I know about this one is that Nick was grilling them up outside. And, they are mighty tasty!


Stuffed grape leaves. MMMM!


Roasted leg of lamb. Another first for me. I should never have waited this long to try it!


Don't think I didn't enjoy myself. This is my dish after three trips to the food table!


It was a fast weekend home for our friends, but it was so good to see them. Here is our birthday girl Edna, with Aunt Sandra behind her and her dad, Nick, to the right.


And of course, David, hamming it up for my camera! At least I don't leave my camera on the table waiting for someone to pick it up and start snapping pictures!


Happy Birthday, Edna!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Flowers

So much to blog about, but I haven't had the time to sit and write. Let's try to fix that right now!

When you walk in to where I work, you are in the front lobby. One huge plant lives full time in our lobby and in the winter, my brother Mike and my nephew Mike, both winter one of their plants in our lobby. I've blogged before where I took on the responsibility of watering and nurturing them, just to have all of their leaves fall off! Well, they not only lived through my care but they have been known to thrive as well! I have heard that they are Moonflowers, but don't hold me to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sweeping up the lobby and I saw one of the plants, out of nowhere, had a full bloom! I didn't even notice it coming!


They really are beautiful and smell wonderful. This is looking up into the flower:


I thought if one of these trees is blooming, perhaps the other one is too. I went over to the other one to inspect and sure enough, not one, but THREE buds were easily visible!


About a week later, I was the first one at work one day. I unlocked the door, walked in to the lobby, and I was about blown over from the smell! These three blooms had opened during the night and the smell was most everywhere in the building! It really was overwhelming at first. I have never smelled anything like it! It wasn't a bad thing, just really, really overpowering.

Of course, I grabbed my camera and here is what I saw. As you can see, not fully opened, but most of the way there.



To the right of the top right flower, you can see one more bud coming in too! There is one in every crowd that just has to make an entrance!


These were just nice surprises in an otherwise drab day. A girl can never see too many flowers in a day.

Thanks For the Memories! And The Photos!

In case you haven't read it anywhere else by now, by mutual consent, our PhotoPhun challenges have come to an end. That's good and that's bad! But, that is NOT going to stop me from getting out there and taking pictures so look out!

On a personal note, thank you to Lisa and Mark for welcoming me to their group and for letting me play their reindeer games! I had a blast and learned SO much from both of you!! Thank you!

And, thank you to our followers! It was a good ride, but now it's time to bring Margareetaville back to life. It's been a wild month and I have lots of stories!

Stay tuned!

Sunday, May 08, 2011

PhotoPhun: Unusual Views

Way to go Chuck, on picking this week's challenge! Unusual views. My mind went racing on this one but alas, I edited out the bathroom pictures! Some things we just don't need to see immortalized on my blog!

But, here is what I did do for unusual views.

First view is under my dining room table. Other than vacuuming under here I never really look under here. I guess I should have hung up my coat first. So, here we go!


The next two views are from Ron and they are unusual because normally you see firemen called out to put out fires. In my neighborhood, they are here to start the fires first and then put them out. This house has been empty and for sale for about three or four years now. Well, instead of getting it fixed up and renting it out, someone in their infinite wisdom decided it would be better to burn the sucker down and use it as a training exercise for future fire fighters. I guess that's a noble cause. Be safe out there, guys. The pictures are not out of focus, that's the smoke in the air!



You want to know somewhere else I never look? Under my bed! But, I put my camera down there and snapped a few pics. It seems that the boogie man and nightmares that live under the bed are hiding, and all that's left is kitty prints in the dust and my box of pictures. I really am trying to be better as I stated in my New Year's resolutions! I just cleaned this room last weekend!!


Now on to one of our favorite places to take pictures for ANY occasion!! Lakeview Park! First, looking UP a tree, literally.


Looking out through Ron's hand. Now that I think of it, this might not be as unusual as I originally thought. After all, this is the way I watch most scary or suspenseful movies, through his fingers!


And now, letting my ADD show, this is how I watched Black Swan last night. For real, can anyone explain that movie to me? It won numerous awards and I truly have NO clue what the heck it was about. I don't get it. But, I digress.

Lastly, looking up through the seat of one of the benches at Lakeview Park. Just be happy it's my face I'm shooting and not my ass on that bench!


There we go. Unusual views! I know my fellow PhotoPhunners are known for their unusual views so make sure you go check out Lisa (and Chuck??) and Mark's blogs!

Sunday, May 01, 2011

PhotoPhun: Straight or Straight And Narrow

Ron and I went on a little adventure this morning looking for the straight and the straight and narrow. Too bad we picked a dreary day to do this but that's just how it worked out this week. Here is what we found!

Actually, I have to back track first. This first picture is from the archives. A banged up, but straight sidewalk in front of my house! I know, not even summer yet and I'm longing for fall. Yeah, never happy.


And now, the pictures from our adventure today. Ron and I took a nice ride out in the country. As always, some shots didn't work but some did. I really intended on getting a shot down the run way of the Lorain County Airport! Who knew that you couldn't get that close to it! Spoil sports. But, I did get this shot from Butternut Ridge Road.


My challenge today was to find a road with no traffic long enough for me to stand in the middle of it and get a picture! People were not cooperating with me today! But, I finally got my shot!

Down the same road we found some wicked power lines. Straight, and narrow!


The expansion joint from my driveway. I should have played with this one more.


Since it's been awhile since I've submitted a bathroom shot, I thought I was due! My bathroom tile!


Another take on my straight and narrow: after Ron took me out for Margareetas recently, I've been walking the straight and narrow! Boy, howdy! I am too old to party!


Make sure you head over to Lisa and Mark's and see how much fun they had with this week's challenge!

Chuck has already picked out next week's challenge. Next week we have Unusual Views. I KNOW this is going to be fun!! If anyone has any suggestions for a PhotoPhun challenge, throw them out there. We are always looking for ideas!