Where the Sidewalk Begins ...

See You Real Soon!

Off to lovely New Orleans in a couple of hours. It will be nice to drink a hurricane instead of live through one. Have a great weekend!

Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee ...

I really wish that all these famous people would stop dying. Really - it's been a rough year as far as famous deaths go.  Although my love of old music and old stars probably makes it inevitable. It's just roguht when you have to have a blog category of RIP.
Sandra Dee has passed away.  I love the Tammy movies (pure fluff, but fun) and she is the original Gidget.  Sandra Dee was also famous for marrying Bobby Darin when she was only 16 and he was 24. The marriage failed. I believe that was her only marriage, and her career was over in her mid-twenties.  Sandra Dee made her mark though, and I for one am sad to see her go.

AP/Yahoo! News Story

Live hard, die hard

Hunter S. Thompson was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was a cultural icon - another one gone. (However, immortalized forever on paper and in Doonesbury.)

Mr. Thompson, a magazine and newspaper writer who also wrote almost a dozen books, was perhaps best known for his book, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," which became a Hollywood movie in 1998. But he was better known for his hard-driving lifestyle and acerbic eye for truth which he used in the style of first-person reporting that came to be known as "gonzo" in the 1960's, where the usually-anonymous reporter becomes a central character in the story, a conduit of subjectivity.

NY Times Obit
AP News Story

It's a good day ...

It's a good day, just like Perry Como sang. Although I've been incredibly busy the last two weeks, I anticipate wrapping up my busy-ness by next Wednesday. I'll still be working, of course, just not so insanely. I hope.
I picked up a new client today - a client willing to wait until May to begin their documentation. This means I'm billable through at least June. All three of my current clients (including the one I picked up today) are software vendors who will need documentation updates whenever they issue a software release. I love neverending clients. Yay!  Anyway, I'll have the equivalent of one and half clients in March, one in April, and then I start the new one in May.  It all works out just swimmingly. Last year I spent May completely unbillable. May and October were my two worst months. Not this year!  Yay!
You'll have to pardon my excitement. I still am awestruck that this whole business thing is working out for me. Who knew?
In celebration today I picked up a New Orleans guidebook (2005) and two new Moleskine notebooks. One is purse-sized. It's my "Travelogue." In Jamaica I ended up writing on scaps of paper, itineraries, whatever I could find. It was crazy.  (Of course, who knew I'd be writing about being trapped in a hurricane and the resulting experiences?) My new solution is to bring a notebook to record my memories. Then I can transfer them to my blog and share.
I also ordered two CDs from Amazon (I had a gift certificate): I ordered the new Michael Buble, as I have a real weakness for him, and I ordered the soundtrack to the Billy Joel Broadway show "Movin" Out."  That was a pre-emptive strike, you could say. We're seeing the show in a couple of weeks and since I know I'll be quite taken by it, I won't be convinced that I Abolutely Have To Buy The Soundtrack In The Lobby of The Theatre.  You know, where it would cost me $25 or something insane. I'll have it before we go.
I went searching both Borders and Joseph-Beth today for the new O'Reilly journal Make to no avail. No one carries it. Argh!
We leave next Thursday for New Orleans. Yay! 
Well, I better get back to work. All in all, its been a good day so far.

Save our horses ... Please

I hate George Bush. I don't say that lightly. I truly hate him though. He has no respect for the earth on which we live and for the creatures with which we're blessed to share our home.
This article made me cry. Of course, I'm predisposed to the tears by my absolute love of horses.
I don't know what I can do to stop the destruction - yes, the destruction - of the wild mustang. How can they do this? When I lived out East,
John took me to Assateague Island, where we "adopted" a wild pony. I believe that sponsorship was only for a year, and I really should renew it.  Anyway, those wild ponies, protected by the national park, were gorgeous - wild, free, shaggy, and wonderful. Why can't we protect the mustang in the same way? Why can't we create a mustang preserve(s) in Nevada?
I wish I could adopt a mustang. Adopting one for $125 isn't the issue. It's the space. You can't put a wild mustang in a stable. They need the space to run. And even if I could manage to stable one, the room & board for the horse is currently out of my price range. Horses have long lives. I've always said that once I can afford it, I'll adopt a retired race horse. Race horses face much the same fate as these wild mustangs (slaughterhouses), and adoption is also low-cost. But again ... room and board. (I figure a horse is the perfect animal for me and my animal-allergic husband.)
I do believe I'll write a letter to Ky congressman Ed Whitfield (mentioned in the article) as well as my own Ky rep, Geoff Davis (whom I detest, but maybe the Kentuckian in him will win out).

UPDATE: Actually, I'm a foster parent for life of the horse. I pulled out my information (yes, John, I'm still toting around the photo of the horse) and T5Q is mine for life.  Apparently horses may have multiple foster parents though (which makes sense). I just looked up "my" pony and discovered that his name is Sean Patrick and that he's much bigger now than he was in 1997. I suspect I'll be "adopting" an additional horse as well. Doesn't solve the mustang problem though.

Constantine

I will never forgive them for making this movie with Keanu Reeves. What the hell were they thinking? And no, I haven't seen it. My own instincts rail against seeing this movie, even once it hits the video store. Plus, I've read enough reviews that I feel my instincts are right on in this case.

Hellblazer, along with Lucifer and Sandman, is one of my favorite comics. (I hate calling them comics; they lose some sort of well-deserved respect. Maybe serialized graphic novels?) I first discovered John Constantine in the pages of Books of Magic (where the main character is a worthy predecessor to Harry Potter - perhaps the world if Harry Potter sort of went grey). He visited again in Sandman, and after that, I started hitting the comic book store shelves, waiting for the next issue of Hellblazer. I loved John Constantine - perhaps because I could never decide if I should love John Constantine. Was he really the one I should be rooting for? (This from the girl who fell in love with Lucifer in the pages of Sandman.)

I read a review of the movie today, stating that Denis Leary, and not Keanu, would be a more fitting Constantine. I would agree with that. Denis Leary has that down-trodden, cancer-heavy aura that is needed.  In my mind, Keanu Reeves will always be Ted. If not Ted, then a slight step up (or down) to his surfer in Point Break. But never anything more.  There is something too calm, too laid back, too expressionless about Keanu Reeves. That is not John Constantine.  John Constantine has been beat to hell and back (literally). John Constantine has emotional baggage, and it is scattered all over the globe and the netherworld. So again I ask, what the hell were they thinking?

What saddens me the most is that, if well made, movies draw more people towards the comic medium. Movies can show people that comics are more than Betty & Veronica, but a blend of talented artists and storytellers.  I doubt that Constantine will draw more readers to the local comic store or graphic novel section of the local Barnes & Noble.  If, by chance, readers do come looking for the Hollywood John Constantine, the Hellblazer they will find will be vastly different.

Great American Playwright

I am absolutely floored that we have lost Arthur Miller. He was and is an American Icon.

I have mixed emotions about Miller. My senior year in college, as an English major, I had to write a "project paper" in order to graduate.  Call it a mini-thesis.  My advisor for this project was this incredible English professor named Dr. Hughes. He made me love Whitman and Dickinson, both of whom I despised before his class. Here's the thing - Dr. Hughes had a doctorate in American Lit.  But he had a Master's degree in American Pop Culture. The man's office was covered with old movie posters and tons - TONS! - of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. I loved this man.  I, too, am a Marilyn fan.  When we sat down to talk about my project, he immediately decided I should do it on Marilyn Monroe. He had wanted a student to do this for years, but no one ever had the interest.

We had to tie the project into the English degree, of course.  So he sent me away from his office armed with a copy of Norman Mailer's Marilyn (the most honest and moving portrayal of her life I have ever read) and a  VHS tape of The Misfits. The Misfits was Marilyn's last complete movie, as it was for Montgomery Clift. The Misfits was written by Arthur Miller for his then-wife.  It's a brilliant film, for the writing alone.  And when put together with the tragic personal histories of its cast (Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Clark Gable), its even more stirring. I believe it was an underappreciated film at the time, as its dark and depressing. Not your typical Marilyn fare. Dr. Hughes also gave me a copy of After the Fall. After the Fall is the play Miller wrote about Marilyn, after the divorce.  After even, I believe, her death.  He was so hurt by the divorce and by her death. His pain is almost tangible, seeping through the pages of the play. But the play is mean. Bitter - towards Marilyn at least.

I turned out the best paper of my college career (these things happen when you are impassioned by your subject). It was called "Angel with a Crooked Halo: American's Love Affair with Marilyn Monroe." I got a perfect score.  Really, I don't think I could have gotten less considering I was writing the paper Dr. Hughes had always wanted to grade.  He tried to encourage me to get my M.A. in Pop Culture somewhere. I had enough of school at that point and didn't pursue it. That is one decision I will always regret. I still want my MA in Pop Culture.

Anyway, I learned a lot about Arthur Miller researching that paper. The movie and the play revealed a part of his soul, as I'm sure he intended. He showed a wonderful, talented, complex side of Marilyn in her role in The Misfits.  But part of me never forgave him the anger and bitterness he showed in After the Fall. He had the right to be angry and bitter. I was outraged that he chose to do it on Broadway. 

I have a strange mixture of loathing, love, and respect for Arthur Miller. Those are the emotions that great literature should arouse. His plays are brilliant. His life was brilliant. And with his passing, American Literature has suffered a great loss. May his plays live on forever - even After the Fall.

Moleskine

In my herculean effort to organize the mess that was my desk and, I'm afraid, my mind, I bought the Palm Pilot.  Now, I realize that the notes I take in meetings are awful. They're on random sheets of paper and all over the place. Not only can I not read all of them, but the ones I can are written sideways, upside down, etc. I have no idea what order things go in.  Since these are notes from meetings with my SMEs, this is a problem.
In an effort to organize the notes, I've acquired some notebooks. The first two are just plain, boring hard cover journals.  The third is a Moleskine that I picked up tonite. I've never been so excited about a lined notebook and I don't know why.  It's partially the built-in bookmark.  It's partially the elastic band that holds the thing closed.  It's partially the cool folder built into the back (a brilliant idea btw).  Why do people get so obsessive about these things? On one hand, I can't wait to use my moleskine.  On the other, its so perfect right now that I hesitate to write on it.  Especially work stuff. Of course, I can always buy another. And another.
And yes, everyone, I have visited 43 Folders. I've read the moleskine hacks.  And I'm hooked.

Palm Case Hack

My own little life hack here. I ordered a Dooney & Burke leather case for my Palm from eBay. I ordered it for a number of reasons.  It's red leather and I've always wanted a red leather briefcase.  Call this a temporary fix.  It arrived quickly and my other Palm case is being hand made in Belgium or some such thing and won't arrive until mid-March, so I needed something other than the crappy and flimsy flippy lid that shipped with it (it's not even a hard lid, like the Palms of old).  Oh, and its Dooney & Burke. I've always wanted a Dooney purse but could never afford it.  Again, call this a temporary fix.  Okay, my red leather palm case is a temporary fix for everything I mentioned.

It doesn't fit my palm pilot. I thought it was a universal case, but now that its in my hands, I see its meant for a Palm with a stylus slot on the left side.  The case has a "unique rail system" that holds the Palm in the case.  It's a pretty neat idea.

I refuse to put Velcro on the back of my Palm, so I unearthed a little creativity. The Palm is held in by tight rubber bands.  It works better than you think - I shook it all over the place and the PDA didn't budge. I wrapped a rubber band around the top of the rail and top of the palm and repeated it at the bottom.  I also wrapped a band around the rail, securing the first two bands in place. I can't believe this works. Because my palm is blue, and the bands are blue, its not even overly noticeable. Like the whole deal, this is just a temporary fix.  But I'm happy with it.

BTW guys, I looked at the Vaja cases before I ordered my overpriced Belgian model. I prefer slim leather flip cases - for Palm and iPod.  Unfortunately, Vaja doesn't make a flip case that fits my particular Palm. Actually, they've only got one case that fits my Palm and I don't really like it because you have to remove the Palm from the case to use it. I prefer to keep my Palm in the case.  But I looked at Vaja first - I swear.

Working Rewards

I know I complain about work a lot. The deadlines are usually stupid; clients are sometimes impossible or micromanagers; my time management skills are a joke. (Improving immensely though.) Technical writing can be a thankless job and admittedly, I prefer eLearning and training. Tech writers are generally the last to know anything and have the shortest deadlines because people forget about the documentation until the last minute.

But at the end of it all, I have a tangible result. I can hold a user manual in my hand and know that I wrote the whole thing. I know that I am an unknown published author of sorts - my user manuals and Help systems ship with software products from eLearning to photo management to industry-specific products.

Today I wrapped the first draft stage on two separate projects, producing a total of three manuals (and two help systems, as well as another manual). Neither project is complete and next week will signal a rush to get information from the so-called Subject Matter Experts and document it in record time. (If only the SMEs worked over the weekend, like I do.) For right now though, I can breathe just a little.

It's nice to see a tangible result of my work. I look at the manuals I've written and wonder how I did it. Whenever I start a new project, I look at the software and feel overwhelmed. Where do I start? If the software has no documentation, how do I figure out how to work it? How on earth can I document all the functionality? I'll never get it done! Starting out is incredibly stressful for me.  So I'm always amazed, weeks or sometimes days later, when I have substance and content.

The wines of "Sideways"

This is a neat article on the wines in Sideways and on the movie itself. There was one line in the movie, also mentioned in the article, that stuck with me (movie lines never stick with me):

"We drank a '95 Opus One with smoked salmon and artichokes, but we didn't care!"

I found this funny, because I remember Opus One.  Er, I remember seeing Opus One, driving by it several times, and telling Kevin that we could barely afford to look at the place.  This is one of my photos of Opus One.  Here's another - and check out the car leaving it. The idea that anyone would pair anything but the finest food (certainly not artichokes) with Opus One and not care was funny to me.  As it was meant to be, I guess.

Macintosh History

The story of the Macintosh is a much fabled story in the history of the computer. Folklore.org, run by original Macintosh programmer Andy Hertzfeld, tells that story from his perspective.  He starts in 1979 and runs all the way through roughly 1989.  Before the Apple resurgence of today. He was there for the development of the Lisa, the Macintosh, the 1984 commercial, MacPaint ... all of it.  It's interesting reading for the Mac aficionados out there.

Celebration

Celebration is a planned community in Orlando - owned and operated by Disney.  When it was first built 10 years ago, I was torn between making fun of it and secretly wanting to live there. At the time, I didn't know a thing about planned communities, although I was soon to find out.
About a year after Celebration was built, I moved to the Washington DC area. I lived in Columbia, MD and eventually, I commuted to Reston, VA.  Both are planned communities and I got to know both quite well. Both communities were always lovely.  If you wanted to take a walk around your neighborhood, you could quite easily.  Both communities made me feel rather safe and comfortable.  I knew where to find the right stores, the movie theatres, and so forth. Columbia was smaller, in part I think because it is closer to Baltimore than DC.  Baltimore is less, well, pretentious than DC. 
In Columbia, the town square was central to the mall in the center (at the time) of the town. Businesses and hotels surrounded the mall, blossoming outwards like a flower.  Each petal of the flower was a separate community, each with its own little town center, where you would find a grocery store, a restaurant or two, and several other little stores.  One little hub had a pub, if I recall, with pretty good Shepherd's pie.  Another had a health food store.  Another had a liquor and wine shop. Each of these "petals" combined to make the whole.  Reston was bigger, and to be honest, I never really figured it out.  It's location near the big cities of Arlington and DC made it the perfect place to build businesses. The street I worked on was littered with tall buildings, like MCI and AOL. But if you ventured futher in, the streets became tree-lined and the buildings grew shorter.  Little "hubs" started popping up, to make you realize you were in another planned community.  In a way, Reston isn't as obvious about being a planned community as Columbia.  And in other ways, it was moreso.  (I have no idea what either of these communities is like now.  Reston, I'm sure, has outgrown itself.  Columbia may have expanded or for all I know, the allure is gone, the buildings are aging, and people have left. )
That said, I can't criticize or make fun of Celebration anymore. I fully admit to my secret desire to live there.  Slate has a nifty little slide show and article on Celebration as it approaches its 10-year anniversary. (Aha! You knew this post had a point!) 
One thing Slate doesn't mention that I will never forget. Several years after Celebration was built, a priest was caught putting pink flamingos in front yards in the dead of night.  Just to make things different. I can't find the story anywhere, and maybe its slightly mangled in the telling after all this time, but the idea is quite humorous.

She threw down the gauntlet

I should really be working.  In fact, I will be working, again, as soon as I do this.  Kara "challenged" me to do this (she didn't think I would).  No, it's chain letters, chain emails, email quizzes and tests and such that I don't do. Ever. This I'll do.

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:
I don't actually keep music files on my computer.  I do, however, keep them on a spare drive on Kevin's machine.  It's our music drive.  Let's see, it looks like we have about 112 GB of music.  I couldn't tell you how much is Kevin's, how much is mine - it's just all ours.

2. The last CD you bought was:
Honestly? It was the Complete Marilyn Monroe. I picked it up at the Museum of Science and Industry on clearance.  Before that, probably Gwen Stephani's Love Angel Music Baby and Maroon 5's Songs About Jane. I'm going through a pop resurgence of my own.

Read the rest after the jump.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!

I was all set to run out this morning and buy a King cake but really, not that good of an idea for the first week on the diet, you know? No King Cake for me - it's the icing that's the killer. I will probably wear beads all day, just because I can (and really, no one will know but the stuffed animals. I probably won't leave the house.)

When I took down the Christmas decorations, I hung up the masks and beads we've purchased on our past trips to New Orleans. The house is all done up for Mardi Gras!

Oh, and happy anniversary to our friends Jason & Betsy. I know I'm a day late, or 21 days early, or something like that.

I'm pretty sure spring is on its way. I hear birds chirping loudly outside my office window and I haven't heard that in months. Um, okay.  I heard one bird.

Super Bowl

I watch the game for the shows and the commercials.  I was disappointed in the commercials this year.  For what these advertisers pay for a 30-second spot, you'd think the commercials would be better. Most of them weren't even memorable this year. My top three:

1. Budweiser Horses/Donkey/Pig
2. FedEx Kinko's with Burt Reynolds and the Bear
3. McDonald's Lincoln Fry

Honorable Mention: Emerald Nuts Easter Bunny/Santa Claus and Diet Pepsi P.Diddy truck

Worst ad: Go Daddy.com and their "strapless" girl

Still, I was very unimpressed this year.  I remember one year I was in Florida on business.  My colleagues and I sat in a sports bar and watched the Super Bowl on the giant TVs. That was the year of the giant dot-com ads ... the year of the Pets.com sock puppet. As far as Super Bowl ads go, nothing tops that year.  Maybe it was 2000?

Watch the Ads

Palm Accessories are awesome!

I love my new Palm Pilot.  I love that its in color.  I realize Palms have been in color for a few years now, but my last Palm, the lousy i705 (Palm's first foray into overpriced wireless Palm.net) was still that grey-green screen of old. Anyway, I already use a 128 MB expansion card for photos and even some songs (just because I can).  I discovered over the weekend that I can also buy pre-loaded expansion cards.  From Palm they are incredibly expensive.  They are still expensive, but not as outrageously so, if I apply the Weight Watchers On-the-Go discount. Then I found them on eBay.
As a rule, I stay away from eBay because I tend to impulse shop. But on a lark, I searched for these pre-loaded expansion cards and there they were!  Really cheap and unopened! So I won the PalmPak Travel Card, which is like a guide book on my Palm for many int'l cities, as well as Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and more. I've bid on the Wine Enthusiast card, which would be like having a Wine Spectator in my pocket. I'm interested in the Speaking Language Translator card, which just sounds neat although I'm not travelling internationally anytime soon. 
I also ordered two cases for my Palm.  The first is a beautiful flip case (my preferred style) by Bellagio Designs in soft navy leather.  It will match my iPod case.  Then, on an impulse buy on eBay, I ordered a red Dooney & Bourke case as well. After that purchase, I logged off eBay for my own good.

Palm Pilot

So I broke down and bought a Palm Pilot last night.  Not a top of the line fancy one - just a glorified appointment book really.  That's all I need.  I rely heavily on my Outlook calendar.  Very heavily. Since that was only on my laptop, when I went to meetings sans computer, I had to scribble notes and appointments in a notebook.  No problem except that I take so many notes, the app't times sort of got lost. I was already an hour late for an app't with one client this year, and I kept forgetting to update the Outlook calendar with my scribbles.  I tried to fool myself into thinking that I could use my iPod as my calendar, but that didn't work so well since I can't enter data onto the iPod without a computer handy. It did carry my Outlook calendar & contacts though - I tried.
So I bought a Palm Zire 31.  Like I said, not top of the line, but since I'm using it for three things - appointments, contacts, and Weight Watchers, it suits me just fine. Plus it's color - that's nice. And it fits in my purse.
Oh yes - I said Weight Watchers. WW Online has a Palm program.  It's my points tracker, food journal, plus a database of restaurants and foods and their associated points, as well as a points calculator. It syncs with the WW web site. Overall, its just brilliant; a definite bonus for my little Palm.
I've had Palms ever since the first one came out, but I never used them.  I'd carry them around for the first couple months and then stop using them. Eventually they'd get handed down to someone else when I acquired a new one (I think I only ever purchased one - the rest were prizes, gifts, etc.)  They always gathered dust. However, I never had as many meetings and deadlines to manage as I do now.  I think I'm finally at a point where having my calendar with me, electronically, is a real benefit. It never really mattered much before.  We'll see how I do - both with Weight Watchers and with the Palm.

March 11, 2005

The March 11 issue of the Cincinnati Business Courier will include me!  They're doing a [hard copy only] Who's Who in Technology section (relevant to Cincinnati) and if you're a technology business, they'll publish your bio and photo free of charge. I also purchased two classified listings for that issue - one under Technical Writing and one under eLearning/Instructional Design. (I had to add those categories to their list.) So for $200 of my advertising dollars, I get two classified ads and a Who's Who blurb in a journal that most Cincinnati business people read and refer to on a regular basis. Woohoo!  So if you're local, on March 11, run out and grab the Business Courier, They carry it at Kroger and bookstores and I'm not sure where else.

It's more than Die with a T

I had a rude awakening when I stepped on the scale at the dr on Tuesday. I knew I wasn't at my ideal weight, but I had no idea I was so far from it. When I can breathe again, hopefully Monday, I'm starting back at the gym.  Every day.  And I'm going full-tilt onto Weight Watchers Online. My goal is to lose 5 pounds by Feb 24, when we head to New Orleans. I'll promptly put those 5 pounds back on in New Orleans and then I'll start over. I intend to lose 15 pounds by the end of May - that's 5 pounds a month. Hopefully that's not too impossible. 
A good part of this, for me, comes down to portion control.  I cannot eat the entire box of chocolates even though I love chocolate. I cannot eat an entire thing of pasta.  The problem comes from the fact I often only eat dinner, and skip breakfast and lunch, which means my dinner is huge. I need to eat three meals per day.  I also need to work out in the mornings, around 7:30, even though Kevin can't join me.  I think that might inspire me to grab breakfast.

Health Stuff

I'm feeling a little better in that I'm not quite so lost and cloudy as I was earlier in the week. I managed to meet my client's crazy deadline earlier this week, but I have another one on Monday as well. When February ends, things hopefully won't be as crazy work-wise. Must get through February.  It's like New Orleans is my reward for getting everything done correctly.
My head is still incredibly stopped up, but the dr gave me a 3-day pack of Zithromax. Apparently this stuff works for 10 days.  So I should be getting well. I don't sound quite as bad as I did on Monday - there's only 1 or 2 frogs living in my throat right now.  Monday I think there was an entire chorus.
My back is, well, it still hurts. Badly. But I'm fairly accustomed to living with the back pain and assume that I'll grow used to this particular back pain as well. I'm moving better. I don't know if that's because I'm on pain killers or if my back is just better.  Let's hope for the latter.
Hope everyone else is feeling good - it's head cold season, after all

Tech Support

I spent the last two days fighting with my HP 1210 All-in-One Copier, Scanner, Printer. It wouldn't scan all of a sudden.  I scoured both HP and Microsoft's support sites, trying every possible fix I could find.  Nothing worked. So I contacted support for both HP and Microsoft.  While they were both very helpful, they treated me like a 5-year old (now touch this button, which is on your keyboard). Argh!  Over and over they told me to try the same things I'd already tried.  The HP folks finally decided it was my USB cable. I tried to explain that I could send  things to print just fine and that I could set the copy commands from the computer just fine and that if I could do those things, it wasn't the USB cable because IT'S AN ALL-IN-ONE MACHINE!  I did switch out the USB cable, just so I wouldn't be lying to them.  As predicted, it made no difference.
In the end, I moved the printer so that it is attached to my desktop machine instead of my laptop. It scans just fine.  I have no idea what the problem is.  OS speaking, the desktop is running XP SP2.  SP2 so screwed up this machine when I installed it that the laptop is still running XP SP1. But really, in December, I could scan when the machine was hooked up to my laptop.
Of course, now that it scans again, it won't share. (Must there always be something?)  I'm going to go searching to find if there is just a little something I'm not doing, but it shared fine before I moved it.
The HP tech support people, via email, were nice but rather moronic.  Just cutting and pasting from a script. I didn't call them, even though they encouraged me to.  First off, it ticks me off that I would be calling an 800 number and end up at the tech support center in India with "Steve" on the other end of the line. I'm anti-outsourcing, but that's another rant for another time. Second, I knew that they would just read the same scripts to me that had been emailed over the past two days. Why bother with it all again? As for Microsoft, I was pleasantly surprised. I spoke with "Seth" via a MS Support Chat environment.  He tried really hard to help me and has been following up with further solutions that he has found via email. Who knew? Microsoft seems to have not scary support!
Off to figure out how to make this thing appear on Kevin's desktop as a shared printer. (Actually, Kevin can no longer access my desktop machine on the network and I'm not sure what changed.)

New Photos are Up

I took a break from being slammed by work and illness to post the photos from the most recent Chicago trip and from my sister Kimberly's homecoming, which was last Friday night.  Check them out!

The Results are in ... sort of

First off, I have the flu.  My dr did not have flu shots available (I don't meet the criteria), but he did give me a prescription for a 3-day Z-Pak.  Works for me.  Kevin had the 5 day and he got well. So right off the bat, there's a reason I feel absolutely miserable.
Now for my back - he thinks it is most likely musculo-skeletal (sp?).  Basically, my arthritis on my spine has flared up and I may have strained some muscles. Or I have a pinched nerve again. It's apparently quite hard to tell the difference. So he gave me some anti-inflammatories for the arthritis, some pain killers, some muscle relaxers, and not one but TWO giant shots of Cortizone. I don't cope well with shots into my muscles and one of the places is fairly bloody.  If I didn't tense up so much, that wouldn't happen.  When I get these gigantic Cortizone shots (I've had quite a few over the last several years), the dr marks an X on my back where it hurts. Today he marked two Xs. I've never received two shots before.
He said the pain (and the flu for that matter) should start to disperse in about three days.  Yep, three days.  If I'm still in pain in 2 weeks, I'm to come back and we'll do an MRI and start the whole unpleasant process of moving towards surgery.
When I work, I'm supposed to get up once an hour and walk around. I have a tendency to not move for 10 hour periods and just stay in my desk chair at my computer.  Bad habit.
Between the flu and the back pain, I'm gosh-darned miserable right now, and also feeling rather helpless. (I can't bend over; I can't pick things up, etc, etc.)  I also have a deadline that I have to meet in a few hours, so I'm heading to work.

A Good Day for the Dr

It's a good day for a dr's app't, which I happen to have later this afternoon.  Not only is my back still crippling me to some extent, I seem to have woken up with a killer head cold.  I suppose if I'm going to get sick (Kevin was sick all last week), then it's a good thing it happened on a day with a dr's app't, right?
I'll check in later and let everyone know if my back is a muscular problem or something more.  Cross your fingers and think pleasant thoughts that this is just a muscular problem.