Ayn's Multiple World

President Day - Looks like a day off!

Good morning. This is me AGAIN… So here it all goes. It’s about 6:15 am and we’ve been up maybe almost an hour - just fiddling around. We wanted to figure out the new stuff with Microsoft Live program. I’m afraid it might turn out not to be very much. I’m not sure how it actually helped our Outlook program after all that figuring out to get it to work and it seems like many of its features are repeats of aol, yahoo, google, etc. Most of the things don’t seem better than what we have with just a few exceptions. Their photo program allows you to do morphing – like the inauguration “In the moment” and they had a program to help with the blogger account.

I was able to add a few of yesterday’s entries using the new method and although their aren’t natural spaces there are html symbols like

that < p > (except all together should have caused a line jump. The nice part? I can still type in Word my preference as to ease of use, but then copy and paste over to the new device and then it can be posted from there to blogger … except unlike normal copy and paste it automatically formats the pictures … believe this is a big reprieve … normally I get them posted one at a time and it’s painstaking.

Plus I didn’t have to put the skips between paragraphs. It seemed to pick that up from Word. I might want to play with that. There were other things we discovered like change of fonts. That could be very handy … Not sure I want to change it too much because I’ve liked the continuity of the one, but then there’s always something new.

AHA! It’s me. I’m back again … and you know what? We’ve been finding things … well two things really. One we found the marshmallow bag Rich hid. AHA! He didn’t see that one comin! We’ve asked him both nights since he’s been gone where he put it and he wasn’t telling us a thing … we had to get into our super sneaky mode and search for it. Hmm … seems the kitties want to get on this too.

Ahh … back we figured we should take our medicine … no this is not our let’s not be silly medicine though if you were to ask Rich he might say it was *sigh*

Ok, now for the bigger news BESIDES marshmallows? I’m pretty sure I found a connection to Kendra through Facebook. I had typed her name and the high school and although I’m sure I have done this before her name came up. I know it’s her because I looked at her friends list and saw a guy named Cody who was probably her best friend in high school … both were and probably still are REAL smart.

I can’t believe my good fortune and it will better yet if she acknowledges my message. I asked to be her friend. I don’t know how often she checks her Facebook page – It’s private, but I think the message goes to her email and I’m pretty sure that would get checked every day … I’m just so thoroughly excited I can’t tell you how much! I’m hoping that we are a good memory of some sort or another. This is the only person who I regret losing from both high school and college. I had a few other friends who were noteworthy, but I could count them on one hand. I’m not very good at managing to have friends. We’re just too forgetful and self-absorbed.

Hmm, and with a little bit of a tummy ache. That’s probably why Rich hides the marshmallows? *Sigh*

Ok, ok … we’re going to be moving on because there is one more exciting piece of information. We talked to Thom last night and it appears that he’s got his traveling orders … he’s going to be going to Iwakuni located in Yamaguchi, Japan probably about March 12-20th. It may depend on the arrangements that may or may not get met with Alexis. He’s pretty sure though that she is not going to be going. I feel very badly for the both of them. I know Thom is hurting about it.

Thom was made a Lance Corporal almost a couple of weeks ago. He says it be at least 6 months before he’d be eligible to move up again. He should be graduating super sneaky spy school on about the 24th. I think Alexis is going down and then they are both driving back with Thom’s car. He will be then home between graduation and leaving for Japan.

I’ve got very mixed feelings. I am so proud of him for doing something so important, but I am sad too for all that we won’t be able to be with him. He is saying that he thinks he can get his Ventrilla account wherever he is and he’s looking forward to getting his son Austin on line so they can communicate. That would be a super idea. I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be included with that … the boys do a lot of swearing and private stuff on it. It is pretty snoopy for a Mom to be listening in even though I crave to hear the sound of his voice. I’m not sure what the time zone changes are going to do with things either … that will be kinda strange … I think he will be about 9 hours before us.

There were only 5 or 6 kids in his class … Thom says he’s the low man on the totem pole with grades because he spent so much time and energy on his personal relationships that he didn’t study much. I think his scores were like 85% where the upper top kid got like 95% which is supposed to be like unheard of. He seems to be ok with that … he takes pride in his friends that were doing better scholastically.

He talked about the good relationships he had with his superiors and I smiled and laughed as he told some funny stories about all that. Good Thom!

I won’t go into the conversation much deeper, but to say that I think he’s going to be with the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS)

I’ve done a little more research on Iwakuni … the main touristy things seem to be a Castle built about 1600’s and a bridge that looks like the back of a curvy dragon.

We looked around at what the site for the military base seems to hold. I’ll spend a lot more there as time goes on. They have a military newsletter and it is archived. So, that will be a good place to go as I get more lonesome for Thom. On the other side of the issue - Vicki’s son seems to be coming home soon where he’ll be here for about a month and then most likely be heading for Afghanistan. Wow - so much happens. I would also like to check in after a bit to the MarineParents site.

I skimmed the site over the weekend, but did not settle in to read much. There are just a few people posting. I would like to know better where some of our friends’ sons are going. Plus, we have a little news to be adding as to Thom’s next whereabouts. This is a good place to stay in touch. Hmm?

Wow … that seems to be quite a bit of news for one morning, hmm? Marshmallows, Kendra and Japan for Thom.

I really enjoyed talking to Thom I would like to do this more without wearing on him. I also enjoyed conversation with my sister over the weekend. I would like to talk more often to her, but I don’t know how much is too much for her or me. We’ll have to see.

We did make it to the gym yesterday and we did pretty good. We did 30 times forward and 30 times back … we count this as 60, but I’m pretty sure it’s a count of 30 laps. We’ll have to find someone to explain that to us sometime.

WooHOO!!! A Meg called back from buy.com. We had to place a couple orders because the bag went up $7-8 and the tax return credit card didn’t have that much on it, I’d run it too close to the wire. I hope everything goes through ok. She placed the two orders one for the computer and one for the bag. If the orders go through the computer has two day shipping, but I could only get 4-10 days on the bag. I hope it doesn’t take too long and I hope that both cards work. She’s going to call me in 10 to 15 minutes to let me know if everything went through. It’s now about 10 am.

Ok, we’re going to be patient, right? Hoping … hoping. …

That would mean we would get the computer by Wednesday or Thursday. Sure would be cool if I could get it before Fishyman’s next trip out that WILL include us!

Wow … I’m full of news this morning. Fishman called last night about 7:30 pm. He sounded really tired, but for the most part satisfied. There was a little problem with his trolling motor. I think it was slipping gears. He was going to have someone take a look at it this morning, and if that didn’t work, he would suffer through it today, and then tonight he and Ron would try to take it apart and fix it. God bless nimble fishymen!

He was proud of us going back to the gym … oh we were going to say there … we did ok and the idea of putting some stuff in the locker and bring the jean skirt and shirt next to the showers worked out well and that was for all the reasons we were fretting before.

There was a few minutes grief getting into our own lane, but by the end we were the only one in the pool. That felt pretty cool. We only wanted our minimum – of counting up to 60 because our back wasn’t feeling friendly. *sigh* We’re feeling ok this morning though. It is going to be a good deal knowing we can go back and forth between the tread mill and bike and weights against the swimming. Good Ann!

Not to mislead you here … we’re still a heavy 255 at this point. I’m pretty sure that extra bag of marshmallows didn’t help.

I felt very good after things worked out and I was heading home. I was the one feeling very satisfied. I have to not over-think it now so I can get back into the routine again tonight. I’m going to make a goal of being there by 4:30 pm, because that would be my regular time to go IF I had to go to work today … Did I mention?

We’re off! It’s President’s Day today, right?

As to other things fishyman noted … he had dinner at the same place as the night before because Outback was too crowded. I think he was happy enough with that because he just wanted to eat and then get to bed early. I know he still had to call his mother, but other than that there wasn’t too much left on his schedule for the day. He and Ron DID each catch one big fish and I’m sure there were others in-between, but he seemed ok with that. More fishying today and we’re absolutely sure he’s already out giving it his best as long as that trolling motor didn’t tie them up.

His partner was disappointed in one thing. It was Rich’s first time taking the boat out so he wanted to stop fishing about 5 before it got dark and would make it harder. I think Ron wanted to stay out later. Maybe today they’ll compromise a bit. I’m pretty sure that with Ron’s expertise they’ll be like old hands in no time. I hadn’t thought that the boat was going to have to come in and out of the lake each night. They sure must love bass fishing, because it seems like a lot of work to me.

Rich also said that he’s not getting too much time to play with his electronics. He said he would save that until we were with him and wasn’t so rushed. That seemed fine with us 

Thom had called just before we went to the gym, and he was going out to run before he covered another guys duty. I guess Thom was looking for the extra cash. Eh … if he wants. After getting back from the gym and between talking to Rich, we were on the work laptop watching CNN. I think we must have fell asleep in the chair with TV on about 8:30 pm and only woke up once about 2 pm when the cats were getting fussidy.

Hmm, that about catches us up for the day … Sure hope Kendra responds and is looking forward to getting reacquainted. Sure be nice to talk to her. I really look forward to seeing her grown-up version Hehehe. Well, we’ll have to beg-off on ours, but we can put out SOMEthing better than average Hehehe.

I wasn’t real impressed with all that Microsoft stuff, but I think I’m going to order the OneNote 2007 if the other stuff goes through. We should know in a few moments. There might be enough on the green card to order from that secondary place – Provantage. I think we talked about that yesterday though.

Hmm, that might leave us some time this morning to optimistically look at the program again. I’m sure that they will have a serial number I can add to keep the program I have in the computer and I will pay the few extra to get the case …
Oh shoot shoot. The order didn’t go through … It seems Google is still holding the money. Buy.com says it takes them 24-48 hours to return the money to the account and I heard that we need to provide a secondary account if the original one doesn’t take it. I’ve NEVER had this much trouble ordering online. It is a very bad experience. So, I sent another email to Google for what that is worth. Might have to wait out those 24-48 hours to see what happens. This is very aggravating.

Ok, not going to get real weirded out though right? I can handle it?!

I think we were headed back over to the OneNote program. I might want to brainstorm there for personal and business applications.

Hmm, I might want to make a few folders?

First thing I see is that for their personal file they are suggesting a set of pages to store personal information. They suggest writing down web site account user names and confirmation numbers – maybe passwords. They also say to password protect this section which would require me to NOT forget THAT code.

Hmm, we’re back … it’s about 12:30 pm. We’ve been over at the other side of our screen comparing the exchange of OneNote and Outlook files. I should have learned this stuff a jillion years ago. Where have I been?

My minds are fighting being organized. They are having trouble compartmentalizing the things that we think of and do.

OK WE’RE STARTING AGAIN FROM HERE

Ok, ok … that was a little dramatic, hmm? We’ve been over playing with the OneNote. We created Table of Contents for each of the notebooks (there are 4 at this time) by linking sections to the front cover page. This is so totally nothing critical, but it eased our mind for organization. We’ve got a notebook for business, one for work, one for personal and one for instructions. That’s it.

Sometimes this stuff fries your mind a bit so you start to close the compartments.

We also found ourselves shrinking screens so that there is just the one writing one on this side and on the other is my mail, OneNote, and Outlook. Here let’s make this easy.



Again just tap on that for the full affect. We’re working on it … still so much
Hmm, here’s your reality check … we’re looking something like this.



Hmm, this seems pretty much just about like yesterday … except today the computer is wearing on me. I haven’t gotten a response yet from Google though I’m watching the email carefully. I’m more in-tune with that beeping thing that sounds whenever an email drops in the box. Hmm, like being a little jumpy are we?
Shhh… be nice.

We’re thinking through processes again. So, we should probably be doing a couple of things such as putting down a series of things we need to do … Like the to-do list?

Hmm, thinking it be kind of nice to run through our Business contact list to jar our memory of things that need to be done. BUT, maybe if we were doing things organized in the first place by leaving notes when making contacts, we could just leave a flag. But, then what happens to clients that aren’t so noticeable in the crowd? Do we want to start anything with them?

It seems that we’re back to keeping a list and walking through each of the rooms to note small things. I wonder if that’s something that can be done then with the new tablet. We could take a couple of notes while stopping by in each of the rooms - maybe to ask if there are questions or concerns and again to notice where everyone is or what they are up to. I would have to then make a practice of stopping by at different times. The clients do so well without my attention there’s no particular reason to be doing this, except to offer them a better service. I don’t want to interrupt the trainers. Just want to offer a better service.

If there are any particular notes from a client … we should then add them to a contact page.

posted by Ann Marie @ 2/17/2009 07:00:00 AM Comments: 0