Lonely, I'm just so lonely ...

Wow.  This new home is taking some getting used to.  I am so grateful for those of you who have come over to visit my blogger journal and have added yourself as a follower and, better yet, left a comment so I know you are out there. I am still trying to get the feel for how to leave comments, add a moving graphic, add an alert for your blogs. I am mastering something every time I log on so I am sure I will get settled and figure it out soon.

I have been reading back through so many old entries I posted here on AOL and having fun going down my own memory lane. I have copied and pasted some of my favorites.

Here is where you can find me.

http://www.dustbunnyprotector.blogspot.com/

There goes the neighborhood!

I am determined to have a good attitude about this transition.  I am excited to see so many of the journals I enjoy, heading to Blogger as well.  My new home is very simple at this time.  No window treatments, no pictures hanging on the walls and the garage is full of half packed boxes of entries I am not sure I will keep.

I did learn one thing tonight while pacing around the empty rooms of my blogger journal, I had actually started a journal there in 2005 and there have been a lot of great features added.  All I had to do was update my template and voile, I had attachments.  Not sure what to do with all of them yet but I am learning.  I am open to your suggestions and Bucko, please let me know if I fixed the problem with the URL.

Some of you have been having a bit of a problem with the setup and poor Suzy's journal (I don't recall having a memory problem) is blocked while they try to determine if she has created a SPAM blog!  Good grief!  As I told Suzy, when they saw us coming they probably said, "There goes the neighborhood!"  LOL

What they do not realize (yet) is we are a loyal bunch and will create new networks and continue to enjoy the creativity of the journaling community, just in a new 'hood.

My plan is to copy and paste some of my favorite entires from here, over there.  Wish me luck with that!

Tags: what's the point in tags now

I feel like a scene out of Fiddler on the Roof

It wasn't much but it was home...

I am in shock about AOL closing up our journal world.  But, why does it not surprise me that they tell us using that stupid banner!  That is just another example of how out of touch they are with their customers. 

Remember the scene from Fiddler on the Roof when the towns people were forced out of their homes so abruptly?  That is how I feel but believe me, I will not be like the mom in that scene.  When I shut the door, I am leaving the mess on the floor.  No last minute sweeping for me. 

I will get over this and hope to keep in touch with as many ofyou as possible.  I am writing down as many email addresses as possible and invite you to come over to my new home

http://dustbunnyprotector.blogspot.com/

 

Leave a link to your new home.  I will come visit.

 

Donna

Tags: this sucks, this sucks, this sucks

Introducing: Miss L

This past Friday was a red letter day for me.  My granddaughter, Miss L, actually spent the night at my house.  This was a first.  She is 14 months old and up until now, I have done all my babysitting at her place.  I had agreed to watch her while her parents went out and they were planning to pick her up before they headed home.  Logistically it was just going to be too many miles going in too many directions so I asked if we could make it a sleep over.  I picked her up and then drove her to my place.   

What fun we had!  I had placed two stuffed animals on one of my chairs and maybe it was because they were at eye-level, or maybe because she is just so smart, Miss L made a beeline for the toys.  She recognized the fun stuff right away. 

Miss L is getting to the stage where she says a lot of things but mostly jabbers and you listen for any word you can pick out.  You can tell she is telling you something because she will say the same "words" over and over and I just wish I could translate.  She will repeat most of the words you ask her to say (which has put me on my best behavior when she rides in the car with me!) and gives a good effort to multiple syllables like "butterfly."  My son in law is a big Cowboys fan and has taught Miss L to say, "Go, Romo!"  I have been working with her on "Trick or Treat" and hope to surprise her mommy and daddy by the end of October.  It is like having your own Mina bird that hugs and kisses.

Saturday morning when she finally woke up, I stood around the corner, out of view for a few seconds.  Jabber, jabber, jabber, Nana, jabber.  When she looked up and saw me she started to grin and melted my heart with a big, "Nana!"  Whata sweetie!

I have started the "anything you want" fund.  I think it will come in handy.

Tags: Miss L, sleep over, Nana

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Grateful to someone I don't know

As I mentioned in a previous entry, when I went to the air balloon festival last weekend, I thought my camera was charged enough but, just as the majority of the balloons were lifting off, my battery died and I was not able to capture some of what I thought would be the best shots.

I looked around as we were leaving and saw some folks with cameras much like mine. I pulled out something to write on and jotted down my email address. I approached two different people and told them of my situation and asked if they would mind emailing me some of the last shots that I had missed.  They agreed and one of the people came through.  Yeah!  Not sure if it was the lady by herself or the couple where both were taking pictures with their own camera.  Either way, I am very happy to get shots that I missed. 

I am sharing this entry with them and I am so glad that they were kind enough to help me out when they did not know me from Adam/Eve.  Just the simple kindness of strangers.

I love the composition of their shots. 

Tags: air balloon festival, grateful

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ABC - Air Balloons and a Camera

 

Things have been so crazy for me since I went back to work, trying to catch up with everything that must be complete before the end of the month.  I am just not getting enough sleep.  But, what do I do when I get home?  I get online, read other people's journals, leave some comments (but never enough), try to figure out my camera, fiddle around with this computer I inherited from my brother, save tags from the new tag group I have joined, organize pictures into folders, answer emails and maybe, just maybe, I add a new entry of my own. 

I stopped earlier at Walgreens and, now that I have my most recent pictures saved to a disk, I can show you some of the shots I got this past weekend at the air balloon festival.  I love my camera!!  Three years of using disposables will make you appreciate most anything but this is really user friendly and I have not even taken any of the free classes offered with the purchase - yet. I can hardly wait to learn about lighting and aperture and filters.  I am pleased that I got the zoom lens since some of my favorite shots were taken with it.

At the festival, they started with a small air show which was fun.  This is where I ended up with so many shots of the jumpers' backsides.  I will spare you the other 20 views and share my favorites.

And, then there were the balloons. 

 

I have never been this close to a launch before so it was fascinating to see how involved it all is and to watch the crew.

And, this was the last shot I got before my camera battery died. Talk about your failure to launch!!  It was still so pretty and my granddaughter, Miss L, kept pointing and saying Wow!

The perfect end to a wonderful vacation!

Tags: air balloons, camera, airshow

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Just another day at the zoo

I was on vacation and away from the office for 12 days and going back has kicked my butt!  I am having trouble getting motivated and that is just not like me.  The days usually fly by but I find myself watching the clock now.  Maybe it is because summer is officially over and the days are getting shorter - outside but not in my office.  Whatever it is, I better snap out of it soon!!

This past weekend I went with my daughter and granddaughter to an air balloon festival.  It was a blast and I got a lot of great pictures.  Too bad the battery died on my camera just as the majority of the balloons took off. Good grief.  Every time I use my new camera I learn a valuable lesson.  This time I learned that even if you think you have enough juice in the camera, recharge the battery the night before.  Better yet, buy a back-up battery.  I think where I went wrong was taking so many pictures of the air show and the sky divers as they made their descent.  With a fast shutter digital, it is so easy to take 30 - 50 pictures before you even realize it.  And, how many pictures do you really need of the same group of guys floating to earth?  I ended up with a bunch of rear-end shots, from teeny tiny to full screen!

This was a three day festival and they were expecting over 85,000 to attend over the course of the three days.  We went on Saturday and I am pretty sure we were three of at least 50,000. Long lines at every concession stand and the kids' activities were super crowded.  Walking down the main street my daughter was attacked by a life size cardboard cutout of Barack Obama. (Someone must have bumped it from behind and it fell at her, face first.)  We started to laugh and obviously offended one of the campaigners who screamed, "Hey!  There are thousands of us!  Thousands!"  I assume she meant BO supporters but regardless, it took me a minute or two to convince Tenderheart it really was not the time or place to engage in a discussion of the merits of cardboard. <smile> 

I am still trying to figure out how to manage my pictures, taking them from the camera to the computer without a trip to Walgreens first and tonight was no exception.  Maybe tomorrow.

Big thanks to Betty for helping me get rid of those pesky SPAM comments.  Funny, how you can see a button/word/action on the screen but never really see it.  Duh!  Now I know how to use "Actions" on each comment.    

Tags: air balloons, barack obama, skydivers, camera,