LaserBlog.com

I’m currently in fits over this new digital SLR coming out:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/canoneos1dsmkii/

Canon eos digital slr, 1Ds Mark II
16.7 megapixels!
WiFi capability!
$8,000!

I’ll stick w/ my D60 for now, but geez, drooooollllllll…….

What is new…

Mostly just haven’t been online too much. Tired from trip, and busy doing LAUNDRY OUT THE ASS! trying to catch up. My dryer doesn’t dry efficiently, so everything takes longer. I have literally WEEKS of laundry to do, plus dirty clothes from the trip. It never ends. If M and I could just wear the same dirty clothes for a week so I could catch up…

Tired. Going to bed EARLY lately, like 10, 11 at night. That’s not normal for me. I get up earlier tho, and I’ve been going to the gym (and doing laundry) and waiting for the drywall guy, who came yesterday but stood me up today. Yes, this is STILL in regards to water intrusion from Hurricane Charley.

Otherwise, not much new. Tight on money after trip, so we’re not shopping much and we’re eating at home more. Making Indian food at home alot, and burgers. Fun. Burgers tonight. I could eat Indian food every night. If I were rich (and had an incredible metabolism) I’d have sushi every day for lunch and Indian every day for dinner.

Still going thru pictures from Ireland. Keep checking travel-blog, as it’s still active as I go thru the photos. http://followmethere.blogspot.com Still not done going thru all the photos!

Hoping to go see a PUG breeder soon. Maybe this weekend. She has pups that are about 7 weeks old now. Not sure when I’d take one home. Have not met the puppies yet, or the breeder.

My Mom lost 5.5 pounds while in Ireland, and she did less walking than M and I did while there, and that’s WITH ‘vacation eating’. I wish I had weighed myself before I went. We walked SO much while there. It’s amazing, I loved it. I hate walking in Florida, it’s too freaking hot. But when it’s cold (even when it’s cold/rainy), I LOVE it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE cold and walking in the cold!

I’m a nut.

I want to move to Ireland. But that’s another story.

Holy cow, you can view local animal-abuse cases via this web site. Kinda interesting, but kinda sad.
http://www.pet-abuse.com/database/

Well, I’m back from Ireland. I’m still updating my Travel Blog as I sort thru photos and upload more of them, so be sure to keep checking that travel blog for a while.

I found a KILLER program today, No Clone, at NoClone.net. It goes thru your hard drive (or whatever folder you tell it) and finds, byte by byte, duplicate files. This is great for me cuz for a month or so, my main pc was offline, and I created temp folders on my laptop in the meantime. This program goes thru and finds duplicate files, if they have the same name, but were modified at different times, etc. This is fantastic for purging your computer or backup drive of duplicte files. Yay!

This blog offially goes on a one-week hiatus starting Thursday 9-22 while I go to Ireland. While on the road, I plan to update my travel blog, at
http://followmethere.blogspot.com

Check there all week for updates and photos from my trip.

I now have 27 gmail invites to give away. Want one? Comment on this post or email me at the addy at the top of laserblog.com.

Bird day to me…
Bird day to me…

pffffft-

I’m old.

With each update, the hurricane is moving farther away.

Now that I can stop having nightmares about an Andrew-like hurricane, I can focus on my Ireland trip, which I have not done since before Charley!

Since it’s been so long, it’s like panic-time: all of a sudden we depart in a few DAYS! Stuff I was going to order online won’t get ordered, stuff I have to pack I have to FIND in this clutter-museum of a house; luggage tags, passport holders, etc.

When I leave for the trip, this and all my other blogs will go on hold and while I’m away I’ll update only one blog; a travel-blog I set up just for this trip. The URL is:

http://followmethere.blogspot.com/

This way I can update only one blog while I’m gone, I can share the trip w/ friends and family, and create a souvenir. I was TOLD we have internet in the room, but if that’s not the case, I don’t know how I’ll update the blog. But I have the best intentions.

My feet, my ankles, my lower legs, the top of my feet, the bottom of my feet, my toes, all of it, are on FIRE w/ mosquito bites I got INSIDE my home. The mosquitoes are TERRIBLE. 50-100 of them outside the door and no matter how fast you move, 15-25 of them get inside. They’ve been bombarding my face, too. But my feet are ON FIRE. I’m using Benadryl cream, anti-itch cream, and OFF spray and they keep biting! ACKKKK!!!

I like this track MUCH better. Seems it’s not going to be as much of a threat. Anything can happen, but the odds look better than before.

http://www.weatherunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200409_model.html

Groovy!

Ivan seems to be heading straight for us and it was a category 5, now a strong 4, and is predicted to strengthen again. I’m really freaking out, this is like a Hurricane Andrew. I’m really really freaking out.

Like before, as long as I can, I’ll try to update this blog and/or my moblog (depending on whether I have internet or cell phone service) as the storm comes and goes.

Local news links:

radars:
http://admin.winktv.com/public/x411.xml

cbs local news:
http://www.winktv.com/

nbc local news:
http://www.nbc-2.com/

local news paper:
http://www.news-press.com

Am I the only one who is obsessed w/ Hoobastank’s “The Reason”? I keep hitting repeat on the ipod mini in the car, if it comes on in a store I can’t focus on anything ’till it’s over.

I’m weird.

I’m at a wifi cafe, just to get out of the house. Mom is going to meet me, that’ll be cool. I figured that in places like this where the cofee is strong, if i order a latte instead of a mocha, it’s MUCH nicer.

I hate hurricanes and am freaked out about Ivan.

It’s rainy today but it gives a break in the heat. Some days it’s hot AND rainy, but today it’s not too hot. But rainy.

I have nothing to say cuz nothing is new and I have no life.

Blah blah.

I don’t like this:

“Ivan strengthens into category 3 storm” … and the cone of probability shown on that page, and the local news today, shows us right smack in the middle of the as of day 5. Now, the “cone of probability” gets wider the farther into the future you project, so it COULD go up the east coast or over toward Texas, but I don’t like that we’re right in the middle.

AND get this: on the local news today they said that SEPT. 22ND is the “peak” of hurricane season and that’s right when we’ll be travelling back from Ireland!

=:(

This is too cool! (from slashdot)

“A GMail-based blog With 1000 MB of entries.

Jean-Luc R. writes “Via mediaTIC blog. Gallina is a GMail blog tool created by Jonathan Hernandez that uses GMail messages as “entries” (so 1000 MB of entries!!), replies to conversations are the “entry comments”, uses Libgmailer (gmail-lite project) to connect to GMail. It uses XML/XSLT and by the way it’s a GPL software. You can download it there. See the Gallina Demo Blog as for an example.”

Read More.

Seems to me that the makers of the whole “THE DOG” line of products made a terrible error.

They named their product line “The Dog”. If you search google for “the dog” you get this:

” “the” is a very common word and was not included in your search.”

You can put it in quotes, but it still doesn’t bring up any relevant pages. They shoulda come up w/ a better name.

I think adding “artlist” to the search string helps.

Thought of Nala when I saw this at the mall today:

the “Have You Seen My Weiner?” shirt.

Well, la la la. No storm. Little rain. Was bored out of my mind so we showered and went to Naples, the next town down, about 30 minutes south of us (away from the storm) just to get out. Alot of stuff around here is closed so we figured we’d have better luck down there. It was just as windy and rainy, but alot more was open. We went for Chinese, and then to Borders. I forgot IKE (we name all our computers, and Ike is my teeny laptop (Fujitsu P1120) that fits in a purse, tiny backpack, totebag, or even a book sleeve.

I love to take Ike to cafe’s. People always come up and ask about it. It’s like having a Pug. “Is that a real laptop?” “Is it a full system?” “What kind of laptop is that?” It’s kinda fun, especially when you are bored, lonely, cabin-fever, or just me. But I forgot Ike tonight. And so we just had mocha and looked at books.

The place was packed, so I guess alot of other stuff in that town was closed too. Or else everyone was just as cabin-fevered as me after two days of hunkering down for nothing.

That and ALL the hotels “in southwest Florida” were sold out. All those ppl evacuating from the other coast. So all those ppl had to find something to do. So they went for Chinese and book-browsing.

I got:

Clara the Early Years: The Story of the Pug Who Ruled My Life

The Other End of the Leash: Why we do what we do around dogs.

I just made coffee w/ my new coffee maker that’s supposed to put a low-grade froth on top. This time it had 3/4″ of SUDS. I think I might not have rinsed the glass too well. That or it was just a freak thing, what w/ a brand new container of coffee mate opened and all.

“It…it…it was… Soap! Poisoning!”

Earlier today we watched The Ring, and then tonight we watched Roger & Me.

At least it’s a 3-day weekend, and tomorrow we can salvage 1/3 of our weekend. It’ll still be crappy/rainy, but at least we won’t be house-bound. I could go biking in the rain, walk in the park in the rain, or even lay on the beach in the rain. At least I wouldn’t be hot. I’ll probably sleep all day, honestly.

Well, now the local news says that the worst is over, although we’ll see more wind and rain. Man, what a NOTHING storm we got here. The local news had us all scared telling us 70mph winds and 15 inches of rain. We had NOTHING. Yeah, some wind gusts, yeah, some rain, but I’ve seen worse thunderstorms! Geez. Don’t get me wrong, I’m relieved that we had no more damage or anything, and I know the east coast got it bad, but I hate this cry-wolf thing. We holed up in our house for days bracing for the worst, nothing happened, and now I have severe cabin fever. I’m glad all is well.

Ivan, however, seems to be coming on a similar path that Charley did. That’s no good. If it hits or is coming near our departure for Ireland, than we’ll have to consider staying home. The cat boarding place requires that you come and get your pet if a hurricane comes. But what if a hurricane comes after we’re in Ireland? We can’t come and get them then. So we’ll have to watch the weather closely. Cuz if Ivan or yet another storm is on it’s way we may have to stay home.

*sigh*

The power blinks once in a while and the internet was down for a while, so sometimes I can’t even get online. The phone works, the cell phone works, so I can update my moblog. But this is like the hurricane that cried wolf, at least for our area. We’ve had some wind but it’s nothing, some rain, but not even alot- I’ve seen worse summer thunderstorms. It’s possible that after I say all this we’ll lose power and have a ton of rain. But I doubt it. I think this thing is petering out to nothing, at least for our area. The outer rain bands just aren’t producing the wind and rain they told us they would. I’m BORED beyond belief. I’m totally claustrophobic and just want to get OUT, go for a drive, hit a movie, do some shopping.

The local news says that after midnight, and all day tomorrow, is when we’re gonna get the wind and the rain. They expect power outages again. We were lucky during Charley, being without power for only 24 or so hours, but it could be days. It all depends on how the cookie crumbles. I hope it crumbles in our favor again. And I’ll be staring at the street flooding the whole time. (fingers crossed)

Have I mentioned how sick I am of this?

Oh geez! Here comes a THIRD one and Frances hasn’t even hit yet! This one’s IVAN!

I’ve had it, I REALLY need to move up north. I’m SERIOUS! Not only that, with all our cats boarded, if a storm comes while we are in Ireland, we are required to remove them from the boarding facility. JUST HOW are we supposed to do that if we are in IRELAND!? If a storm is heading toward us near departure time, we may have to stay here instead of going to Ireland!

I’m so freaking sick of this.

I have 20 gmail invites to give away. I’m posting here and a couple other places to see if anyone wants them. First come first serve. Comment on this post or email me at the address at the top of the page if you want an invite.

I’m actually sunburned from breaking down twice yesterday. I stood in the heat and sun a long time the first time cuz after I called Triple A, the tow truck ppl called me cell to ask where the hell I was and my phone never rang. Only because, on a FLUKE, I checked my cell voice mail when I had NO idea there was a message, I just for no reason checked it, did I get their message, call them, tell them where I was, and then wait even LONGER for them to show up. I tried to stan in the partial shade of a scraggly tree, but it didn’t do jack shit.

Then when I broke down the second time, I stood in the sun for a while, then my mom came and I sat in her car w/ the A/C on until the battery guy came.

But all that was enough to burn. My one arm is redder than the other and my forehead is sore.

Oh well.

Well now it’s a category 2, which is good cuz that means less powerful winds, but it STILL could dump tons of rain on us, the thing is still only moving at 4mph.

Well, they keep changing the landfall time, now it’s Saturday at 8pm. Thing is, that’s when the eye hits the east coast. We’ll get effects long before that. Just watching the radars.

Frances is slowing down so now they say it’ll hit Saturday nite/Sunday morning at 2am-ish.

With it being so slow, I’m really worried about flodding. This slow thing is going to dump alot of rain on us. The latest estimate is 15 INCHES!

= : o

Ewwwww…. sick…..

“These chews are made from, well how should we say this, BULL penises. We’ll wait for you to stop laughing. … … Done?”
http://www.sitstay.com/store/edibles/chews1.shtml

Local news links:

radars:
http://admin.winktv.com/public/x411.xml

cbs local news:
http://www.winktv.com/

nbc local news:
http://www.nbc-2.com/

local news paper:
http://www.news-press.com

My car broke down TWICE today and I’m SO tired because both times I had to stand outside in the sun in 92 degree weather to wait for the tow truck (the first time) and the battery guy (the second time). I’m going to go take a nap now. I am SO tired from the heat.

The coming storm (Hurricane Frances) is MUCH bigger, it’s also more powerful, and it’s also moving slower, so we could feel more effects than last time. Good thing is the house is better sealed (stucco and windows) but the ridge vent WILL leak if the wind driven rain is more than 60mph, that’s just the way it’s designed (I know that’s stupid, but that’s what the builder AND the roofer said). Also localized flooding is an issue since it’s a slower moving storm so I just hope the water doesn’t come up to the house. We flood during regular thunderstorms, so I’m worried. They say we’ll get alot more rain than we did w/ charley. charley was over with in a few hours, but this one will take 12 hours to go by!!!!