★ August 22, 2012 ★

Finished all my work yesterday, thought about the good ol' days for a bit. Remember when almost everyone had a wall phone in their kitchen? Yes, the days when you were stuck to the wall via a cord while you were talking. How I spent hours of my childhood talking to my best friend Ann-Marie & how she spent an equal number of hours ... on the kitchen wall phone, talking to me. This house even has a wall plate to attach a wall phone in the kitchen, but it hasn't had one attached to it since we bought the house. With 5 cell phone lines, the last thing we need is a land line. So there it sits. I'd love to attach a phone to it just for fun, but we need the wall space & we'd never use it. As it is I should have probably removed it completely & patched & painted over the hole, but who knows ... maybe one day we'll sell the house & the next buyers will like it there. No need to waste a connection that has all the wires already run through the walls even if we're not using it ourselves. I completed another panel on the blanket which got me to the halfway mark, played a little Sims & chose one of the houses I built which mean I play the house (I play the Sims IN that house, but never leave the house ... all generations live there instead of moving when they marry). In last night's game the mom died of old age, the teen is doing well although having trouble meeting someone (slim pickin's in school & he's a couple days from graduation already) but there's at least 1 girl in school (just ONE) & although he doesn't know her well yet, he'll get to know her better as quickly as he can. After he graduates he's going to be an author which is nice ... working from home. Working from home is great unless you're hoping to meet someone, in which case you need to have a job outside the home. For newly created Sims, you want a job outside the home just so you can meet someone. Every generation after that meets their future mate in school & then it doesn't matter if they have a career in the home or out. For now he has a part time job at the grocery store after school (you can't meet people at part time jobs, no boss, no coworkers, nothing shows up in your list of known people like they do from a regular job or school. He's already written 1 book & has another about halfway completed. He's just a few short lifetime points away from buying the acclaimed author booster which will help him in his already successful career.  We had our LCFD business meeting last night &  it went well. The local Chaplain stopped by to sit in on our meeting, visit with us, & read us a couple of nice short stories he had come across. Usually when we see the Chaplain it's because we're on a horrible call, so it's nice to see him when everything is OK. It was a calm & quiet day yesterday & the temps were nice. Overall, a great day. A small dinner, a little NCIS, & bed finished out the day. No complaints. Still feeling a little under the weather this morning. I think I have a light cold. Just enough that I know it's there, but not debilitating. If you're going to have a cold, this is the best kind. Should be relatively easy to fight off soon. Let's see ... anything else? Nope, nothing that I can think of. Nice day so far today with a high of 91 predicted for today (not bad for August in Texas). Have a productive day, have fun after, & be safe everyone. Happy Wednesday! LCFD training Tuesday: Hose lays & "Y" connections. My gaming mouse just arrived! I now have a matched set of glowing light. This little bugger is comfortable, too.

1 for the Money:

Janet Evanovich's spunky heroine, Stephanie Plum, is adrift after getting a divorce and losing her job. To make ends meet, she becomes a bounty hunter, with her first big case revolving around a high school boyfriend who may be falsely accused.

Applying nail polish, massaging your feet, cutting your nails (nail clipper alert!), combing your hair, or putting on makeup isn't appropriate at your desk. Save it for the bathroom or, better yet, do it at home.

Bromide:

1: A compound of bromine & another element or chemical group. 2a: A tiresome person. b: A hackneyed statement or idea.

The keynote speaker had nothing more to offer than the usual bromides about how everyone needs to work together.

After bromine was discovered in 1827, chemists couldn't resist experimenting with the new element. It didn't take long before they found applications for its compounds, in particular potassium bromide - which was used as a sedative to treat everything from epilepsy to sleeplessness. By the 20th century, "bromide" was being used figuratively to apply to anything or anyone that might put one to sleep because of commonness or just plain dullness. Today, bromides are no longer an ingredient in sedative preparations, but we can still feel the effects of figurative bromides as we encounter them in our daily routines.

Designate a space in the closet for empty hangars. If you remove a piece of clothing from the hanger, put the hanger in the "empty hanger" space. When your dirty laundry is clean, you have all your hangers in 1 place to re-hang your clothes quickly & neatly.

Hurricane Andrew pounds Bahamas (1992):

Hurricane Andrew hits the Bahamas on this day in 1992. There and in South Florida, where it arrived two days later, the storm was responsible for the deaths of 26 people and an estimated $35 billion in property damage. Hurricane Andrew was so concentrated that it resembled a tornado in its effects.

On August 15, Andrew formed near Cape Verde in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It then moved west, attaining hurricane status about 800 miles east of Miami. It was a Category 4 storm when it hit Eleutherea Island in the Bahamas, causing a 23-foot storm surge that devastated nearby Current Island. Andrew then moved due west toward Florida. With a very small diameter, it covered distances faster than most hurricanes. South Florida is vulnerable to hurricanes--as well as being in the likely path of many storms, it is only about 20 feet above sea level.

In the early morning of August 24, Andrew came ashore at Florida City, about 20 miles south of Miami. It had winds of 140 mph with gusts up to 212 mph. Rain was not a big factor in the storm, since it was moving very quickly and had a relatively compact punch, but it was still incredibly destructive. In Kendall and Homestead, Andrew uprooted every tree and destroyed 90 percent of the towns' homes. The Homestead Air Base was also demolished and all of Dade County lost its electricity. There were reports of trucks being thrown through the air and steel beams flying 150 feet. The 210-ton freighter Seaward Explorer lost its anchor and was carried over the entire landmass of Elliot Key.

In all, 25,000 homes, 8,000 businesses and 15,000 boats were lost to Hurricane Andrew. Even zoo animals were killed or pushed out of their homes. There was extensive reef damage and approximately $1 billion worth of crop losses. It took only 4 hours for Andrew to clear Florida and reach the Gulf of Mexico. Once there, it continued on to Louisiana, but, by that time, had lost considerable strength. Still, it spawned several tornadoes and retained hurricane status until August 26, when it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

I'm all about changing my family tree. I want to see positive changes in this culture, & the way to see that happen is to put solid instruction about handling money into the hands of good people. I want people to have big piles of money so they can do good things.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!:

★ "Simply amazing on the iPad" - Beatweek Magazine
★ Editor's Choice - Children's Technology Review, June 2010
★ "The gold standard for ebooks!" - Pragmatic Mom
★ "Excellent!" - Padvance
Full of good wishes and sage advice, this tale chronicles a cheerful little guy in a yellow jumpsuit as he makes his way in the world. He travels through a wide variety of colorful Seussian landscapes, cities, and sticky situations - some exhilarating, some depressing, some a little frightening.
One moment our hero is riding high on an elephant's back with a triumphant banner flapping overhead. At another he's rowing a tiny rowboat through a black lagoon full of howling, long-necked Hakken-Kraks. But in the end our hero faces up to each challenge, be it a Hang-up, Lurch or Slump. His success in life is "98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed"!
New features only available in this interactive omBook include professional narration, background audio and enlarged artwork for each scene.
To promote reading in young children, individual words are highlighted as the story is read and words zoom up when pictures are touched. By combining the original text and artwork with features that entertain and promote reading, this omBook appeals to readers of all ages.
Recommended Ages: 3 - 6
Three ways to read this omBook (Oceanhouse Media digital book):
★ "Read to Me" — listen to the narrated story with words highlighted as they are read
★ "Read it Myself" — read the book in its traditional form
★ "Auto Play" — plays like a movie, automatically reading and turning pages. Great for younger children!
Additional Features:
★ Picture / Word association — words zoom up and are spoken when pictures are touched
★ Professional audio narration
★ Custom background audio for each scene
★ Pages pan & zoom to accentuate the beautiful, original art of Dr. Seuss
★ This 'Universal App' is optimized for Retina displays and the iPad
★★★★★
omBook™ - "Beyond the eBook"
Learn more about Oceanhouse Media digital books at www.ombook.com
More Dr. Seuss titles: www.ombook.com/seuss
Follow us: twitter.com/oceanhousemedia
Like us: facebook.com/oceanhousemedia
A perfect graduation gift! - to gift this app to the graduate in your life, simply click on the triangle next to the price and the first option is "Gift This App". Voila!

Store helmets in a cool place. Heat damage makes them less effective.

Treasure Chest:

The Treasure Chest necklace is a classic style stainless steel tri-link two tone IP gold chain. The tri-links overlap as they connect; similar to a classic rope chain. The striking twisted steel rope design makes this chain a distinctive and original addition to your every day style.

When are icebergs classified as growlers?

When it comes to credit scores, what does the acronym FICO stand for?

Fair Isaac Corporation, the firm that devised the credit scoring method used by most U.S. banks and lenders to assess the credit risk of prospective borrowers.

Which 2 characters in the Harry Potter series did author J. K. Rowling name after her grandfathers?

Ernie and Stan, the driver and conductor of the magical Knight Bus.

Which article of clothing does a man usually put on 1st, 2nd, & 3rd?

A. Shirt

B. Socks

C. Pants

CAB. But how do they know? Spies with binoculars?? I say put on your duds in any order you want. Hrrumph.

Which color comes 1st, 2nd, & 3rd on a traffic light from top to bottom?

A. Yellow

B. Red

C. Green

Which of these names appear in T.S. Eliot's "The Naming of Cats"?

Socrates, Alonzo, Demeter, Hercules, Coricopat, Jellylorum.

Your __________ is a joke. The punch line is: "That's no __________, it's __________!"