Sunday, February 28, 2016

I Asked Microsoft to Marry Me

Microsoft sent me a "Happy Leap Day" email so I replied with 'Will you marry me?" but so far I haven't had an answer from them.

People forget what Leap Year means for women; it is the one day when women were allowed to propose to men and if they were refused the man had to present the woman with a pair of white gloves.  I can remember a Leap Year when I was at University  -  a friend of mine proposed to a man  who had six sisters and who, after he had finished his medical degree was intending to spend the rest of his life at Australia's Antarctic Base (no women down there in those days).  He refused her offer but presented her with a pair of white baby mittens in the true spirit of the occasion.  For that he endeared himself to me and it is what I most remember about him except that he was stunningly good looking ... and his name which was pretty awful.

Poppy has suddenly come out of her sulks and has become a lapcat again, even forgiving me for muzzling her and clipping her claws.  Parsifal has also become very cuddly and purrs in my lap instead of beating up Poppy; although he is still intent on swinging the pictures and I intend to move them into my bedroom and replace them with a couple of unglazed oil paintings which will not shatter if they fall.  They will not look as good but will give me peace of mind and they are in the right spirit  -  the painter always draws the rear view of a tomcat on the back of all his paintings.

Ancestry.com has destroyed Family Tree Maker  -  it not just no longer supports it but it has removed the files from my computer and left me with a basic tree which is interactive but limited.  It is really annoying because I spent years researching my family and now I have to pay Ancestry.com for the privilege of accessing it.  I gather that another Ancestry.com program will be replacing FTM but it has not yet been released and I have put my name down for a half-price special offer  -  more money out for my years of research.  When you consider the number of people who have been forced to contribute their family research to a money-making operation it is staggering.

I have been very tired and have not done any yoga for several days but am feeling much better and will get back to it tonight.  I think that my 'sleep deprivation' regimen, although it has helped my insomnia, has caught up with me and I just needed to sleep in for a couple of days.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Ouch!

I wheeled the cats over to the Vet for their annual vaccination and general health check.  Hah!!

Parsifal hissed and growled all the time and especially when he was having his teeth checked.  Unfortunately he has some tartar build-up and gingivitis again so he is going to need his teeth scaled and, if necessary, removed.  Wisely, the vet decided not to attempt to take his temperature.

Poppy was altogether more difficult.  She started out yowling, hissing and growling before I had even taken her out of the kitty carriage and it got worse from there.  I had to muzzle her (luckily I had thought that the muzzle might be needed and took it along with us) before she could even be weighed and even with the muzzle I had to hold her by the scruff while she had her vaccinations and had her teeth checked.  She has a mild build up of tartar and very mild gingivitis but it is inevitable that she will need to have her teeth attended to at some time in the future so they are both going in together with a late admission so that they will not have to wait around for too long.

As they need to be fasted from 8.00pm the evening beforehand I am going to have two hungry, angry cats to deal with.  I will turn on the happy juice and hope that it will settle them a bit but I can see that every visit is going to be worse than the last one so not a good time will be had by anyone.

The Clinic is being taken over at the end of this month and the nurse suggested that I wait until after 29th February before I book them in to have their teeth done.  I just hope that the new lot are good or I will have to return to the Cottesloe Animal Hospital and either buy a new car or take them in an 'animal friendly' taxi.

They didn't used to be like this in the olden days when Parsifal's pica was at its height although he had to be sedated for his untrasounds.  Poppy has never had anything so traumatic to set her off.  Oh, well ...

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

My first COTA client tomorrow wants to learn Windows 7 and my second one thinks that she needs Windows 10.  I have been warned that changing the computer from Win 7 to Win 10 will take a long time so I will, as I had intended anyway,  take in my two tablets and my hotspot.  I had hoped that I would not have to tote two computers to COTA every week now that the computers have been rebuilt but, ah, well ...

The babies are going to the vet on Friday (day after tomorrow) to have their vaccinations and a general health check.  I have clipped their claws in the hope that they will not need an anaesthetic to have more teeth out (my rationale being that if they need a GA then I would have their claws clipped while they were anaesthetised).

While Poppy bites when she has her claws clipped and I muzzle her to do that it will not stop Parsifal biting anyone who dares to take his temperature.  And so a good time will be had by all and I will be glad to get it over.  And speaking of temperatures  -  we are into our fourth day of over 40 degree heat but Friday is predicted to be down to 32 degrees  -  hence the Friday appointment to venture out in the Kitty Carriage.

 Apropos the SAD Lamp Saga, Amazon is repaying my postage by giving me credit for the exact amount so I have been looking at books and have put two on my wish list for when the credit comes through in about a week when the lamp gets back to America.  It is very nice of them and they have made it so easy after all the hassles I had returning it the first time.  That was to the supplier of the lamps; Amazon is the selling agent and has bent over backwards to set things straight for me.  Thank you, Amazon.com

Monday, February 8, 2016

Update on the Saga of the SAD Lamp

I posted the broken SAD lamp back to USA at great expense only to have two unsuccessful attempts to deliver it to the addressee  -  so it boomeranged back to the Claremont Post Office.

I contacted Amazon and they responded immediately, refunded the money and offered to possibly repay the postage.  I suspect that when they find out how expensive it is to post an article from Western Australia to America they may re-consider that offer.  All they asked was that I should return the lamp to them  -  different address but back to America so another $100.  If they refund all the postage I will just about break even but since they have refunded the cost of the lamp I felt obligated to return it to them.

Himself and I went to COTA to familiarise ourselves with the rebuilt computers.  Himself found that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 were working after a fashion (no Outlook.com) but Windows 10 really is not working to a standard where it is going to be possible to teach using it.  To begin with I had difficulty connecting to the internet and ended up going through Control Panel or its equivalent and it didn't show in the task bar that it was connected.

I don't really want to have to try to teach email on MS Outlook so I have reactivated my COTA Gmail account as it is a fairly generic carrier.  In the meantime I will try to find Outlook.com which I am told should be in the 'M' section of the apps.  Maybe it is still called Live Mail on that patched-up computer.

I need to get in there and put some useful links on to the start menu so that I can navigate easily but maybe the guys who do the Tuesday and Wednesday classes will do that before I have to try.  Hopefully any clients I have this Thursday will only want Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 but I will be taking my tablets and hotspot with me just in case.

We are having a heatwave at the moment with temperatures around 40 to 41 degrees Celsius.  Thank goodness for air conditioning and maybe it will put off my clients so that I have some time to  try to get some sense out of Boardroom 1 (the computer which I use).