Originally posted: Monday, May 21, 2007 11:33 AM
Normally I would like getting a new computer at work. However... my husband has conditioned me to like HP and dislike Dell. It's kind of like the Red Sox / Yankee relationship. No one else really matters, it's either HP or anything but Dell. So this morning when I walked into my office and noticed a new Dell tower, I was a little disappointed.
And then I panicked! I thought we were getting new computers THIS week, so I hadn't moved any of my important (and not so important) documents and pictures to my H drive so it would survive the move. I started the computer and had NOTHING in Word. I thought I was going to be sick!
Luckily, our IT department is painfully aware of how (un)technically savvy caseworkers are (if you need a further example of this, I am our teams computer guru -which is pretty scary). ANYWAY... after searching around a bit on my computer I found a file titled "c drive" and found all of my word and excel documents. I did lose all of my pictures and a few programs, but if I look closely in my desk, I might be able to find the install disks. Maybe.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Memorial Day
Originally posted: Monday, May 28, 2007 2:02 PM
At this important holiday, I would like to thank all those who fight for our country. I am grateful for the liberties that I enjoy and so often we take for granted. We are blessed to live in a nation that gives us the opportunity to develop with so many resources and for the most part, safely.
Furthermore, it saddens me to think of the principles and values who become mistreated and misapplied in the name of truth and virtue.
I recently read a speech given by a sitting US Senator and thought it would be appropriate to share. Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who serve and protect.
______________________________
Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd
February 12, 2003
"We Stand Passively Mute"
"To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.
Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.
We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war.
And this is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world.
This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list. High level Administration figures recently refused to take nuclear weapons off of the table when discussing a possible attack against Iraq. What could be more destabilizing and unwise than this type of uncertainty, particularly in a world where globalism has tied the vital economic and security interests of many nations so closely together? There are huge cracks emerging in our time-honored alliances, and U.S. intentions are suddenly subject to damaging worldwide speculation. Anti-Americanism based on mistrust, misinformation, suspicion, and alarming rhetoric from U.S. leaders is fracturing the once solid alliance against global terrorism which existed after September 11.
Here at home, people are warned of imminent terrorist attacks with little guidance as to when or where such attacks might occur. Family members are being called to active military duty, with no idea of the duration of their stay or what horrors they may face. Communities are being left with less than adequate police and fire protection. Other essential services are also short-staffed. The mood of the nation is grim. The economy is stumbling. Fuel prices are rising and may soon spike higher.
This Administration, now in power for a little over two years, must be judged on its record. I believe that that record is dismal.
In that scant two years, this Administration has squandered a large projected surplus of some $5.6 trillion over the next decade and taken us to projected deficits as far as the eye can see. This Administration's domestic policy has put many of our states in dire financial condition, under funding scores of essential programs for our people. This Administration has fostered policies which have slowed economic growth. This Administration has ignored urgent matters such as the crisis in health care for our elderly. This Administration has been slow to provide adequate funding for homeland security. This Administration has been reluctant to better protect our long and porous borders.
In foreign policy, this Administration has failed to find Osama bin Laden. In fact, just yesterday we heard from him again marshaling his forces and urging them to kill. This Administration has split traditional alliances, possibly crippling, for all time, International order-keeping entities like the United Nations and NATO. This Administration has called into question the traditional worldwide perception of the United States as well-intentioned, peacekeeper. This Administration has turned the patient art of diplomacy into threats, labeling, and name calling of the sort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of our leaders, and which will have consequences for years to come.
Calling heads of state pygmies, labeling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant -- these types of crude insensitivities can do our great nation no good. We may have massive military might, but we cannot fight a global war on terrorism alone. We need the cooperation and friendship of our time-honored allies as well as the newer found friends whom we can attract with our wealth. Our awesome military machine will do us little good if we suffer another devastating attack on our homeland which severely damages our economy. Our military manpower is already stretched thin and we will need the augmenting support of those nations who can supply troop strength, not just sign letters cheering us on.
The war in Afghanistan has cost us $37 billion so far, yet there is evidence that terrorism may already be starting to regain its hold in that region. We have not found bin Laden, and unless we secure the peace in Afghanistan, the dark dens of terrorism may yet again flourish in that remote and devastated land.
Pakistan as well is at risk of destabilizing forces. This Administration has not finished the first war against terrorism and yet it is eager to embark on another conflict with perils much greater than those in Afghanistan. Is our attention span that short? Have we not learned that after winning the war one must always secure the peace?
And yet we hear little about the aftermath of war in Iraq. In the absence of plans, speculation abroad is rife. Will we seize Iraq's oil fields, becoming an occupying power which controls the price and supply of that nation's oil for the foreseeable future? To whom do we propose to hand the reins of power after Saddam Hussein?
Will our war inflame the Muslim world resulting in devastating attacks on Israel? Will Israel retaliate with its own nuclear arsenal? Will the Jordanian and Saudi Arabian governments be toppled by radicals, bolstered by Iran which has much closer ties to terrorism than Iraq?
Could a disruption of the world's oil supply lead to a world-wide recession? Has our senselessly bellicose language and our callous disregard of the interests and opinions of other nations increased the global race to join the nuclear club and made proliferation an even more lucrative practice for nations which need the income?
In only the space of two short years this reckless and arrogant Administration has initiated policies which may reap disastrous consequences for years.
One can understand the anger and shock of any President after the savage attacks of September 11. One can appreciate the frustration of having only a shadow to chase and an amorphous, fleeting enemy on which it is nearly impossible to exact retribution.
But to turn one's frustration and anger into the kind of extremely destabilizing and dangerous foreign policy debacle that the world is currently witnessing is inexcusable from any Administration charged with the awesome power and responsibility of guiding the destiny of the greatest superpower on the planet. Frankly many of the pronouncements made by this Administration are outrageous. There is no other word.
Yet this chamber is hauntingly silent. On what is possibly the eve of horrific infliction of death and destruction on the population of the nation of Iraq -- a population, I might add, of which over 50% is under age 15 -- this chamber is silent. On what is possibly only days before we send thousands of our own citizens to face unimagined horrors of chemical and biological warfare -- this chamber is silent. On the eve of what could possibly be a vicious terrorist attack in retaliation for our attack on Iraq, it is business as usual in the United States Senate.
We are truly "sleepwalking through history." In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good and trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings.
To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country". This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time."
Marriage and Clippers
Originally posted: Sunday, May 20, 2007 2:18 PM
Well... my little brother got married this week, which is a little weird. The day was really nice and as far as I could tell everything worked out great. Justin and I drove Gordon and Jessica to their hotel after the reception and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
The other thing I wanted to mention was a new skill I'm learning.
Now, keep mind, nobody's perfect when they start learning something new, and I'm no exception.
So... if you see Justin in the next week or two, tell him his new short hair looks nice and don't mention the line in the back where you can pretty much see his scalp!
I'll get better.
Hopefully.
Well... my little brother got married this week, which is a little weird. The day was really nice and as far as I could tell everything worked out great. Justin and I drove Gordon and Jessica to their hotel after the reception and they seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
The other thing I wanted to mention was a new skill I'm learning.
Now, keep mind, nobody's perfect when they start learning something new, and I'm no exception.
So... if you see Justin in the next week or two, tell him his new short hair looks nice and don't mention the line in the back where you can pretty much see his scalp!
I'll get better.
Hopefully.
Newsflash - We blog boringly?
Originally Posted: Friday, May 18, 2007 9:39 AM
It has been brought to my attention by a certain member of the family that our blog is........"boring". Therefore, it has now fallen upon myself to bring our infant blog from the dust and nurture it (him/her?) into a strong, responsible font of informational excitement from the lives of our Lafeen Duo. Oh the weight of this task.
How does one bring excitement to a seemingly mundane work week? Some have brought the infamous Chia Pet back to life. I tried this at my office this week and ended up with some interesting results.
note: This is not my actual keyborard
What a week! Filled with spiritually uplifting experiences and a lot of driving. Honestly, once to Roy a week is no sweat, but mutliple drivings can be tiring. Still, it was worth every moment stolen from Melanie and my sleep-banks. We survived.
The reception was a very relaxing event - except perhaps for my pants that turned out to be just a LITTLE tight. My belly turned in to a "muffin top" over a truncated waist, definately not accentuating my better features. The tie itself was an attractive arrangement and yet it was permanently tied just two inches short of the fourth button on my nice dress up shirt. Sort of like this:
My wife tells me I looked fine, and that's really all that matters to me.
I better get back to work, break's over. Until next time!
It has been brought to my attention by a certain member of the family that our blog is....
How does one bring excitement to a seemingly mundane work week? Some have brought the infamous Chia Pet back to life. I tried this at my office this week and ended up with some interesting results.
note: This is not my actual keyborard
What a week! Filled with spiritually uplifting experiences and a lot of driving. Honestly, once to Roy a week is no sweat, but mutliple drivings can be tiring. Still, it was worth every moment stolen from Melanie and my sleep-banks. We survived.
The reception was a very relaxing event - except perhaps for my pants that turned out to be just a LITTLE tight. My belly turned in to a "muffin top" over a truncated waist, definately not accentuating my better features. The tie itself was an attractive arrangement and yet it was permanently tied just two inches short of the fourth button on my nice dress up shirt. Sort of like this:
My wife tells me I looked fine, and that's really all that matters to me.
I better get back to work, break's over. Until next time!
Many new experiences
Originally posted: Monday, May 14, 2007 8:45 AM
Saturday my brother and his wife-to-be went to the temple for the first time. It was a very nice afternoon, with a few surprises, but I think they enjoyed their experience.
After the temple, we all went to my dad's office to have dinner. And, string everyone up at 40-foot climbing wall. What else could we do after going to the temple?
A few people climbed for the first time (Justin being one of them) and no one crashed -which is pretty hard to do on that type of wall anyway. I think our cousin Nacole enjoyed her time the most. She's 8 years old and doesn't weigh much... so with the hydraulic belay system they have, she pretty much flew up the wall, since she had gravity working for her. It was pretty funny. I don't have any pictures of Nacole... but here's a few of Justin and I.
Saturday my brother and his wife-to-be went to the temple for the first time. It was a very nice afternoon, with a few surprises, but I think they enjoyed their experience.
After the temple, we all went to my dad's office to have dinner. And, string everyone up at 40-foot climbing wall. What else could we do after going to the temple?
A few people climbed for the first time (Justin being one of them) and no one crashed -which is pretty hard to do on that type of wall anyway. I think our cousin Nacole enjoyed her time the most. She's 8 years old and doesn't weigh much... so with the hydraulic belay system they have, she pretty much flew up the wall, since she had gravity working for her. It was pretty funny. I don't have any pictures of Nacole... but here's a few of Justin and I.
Sweeping
Originally posted: Friday, May 11, 2007 12:51 PM
I've decided that I love the word 'sweep'. Really for just two reaons, and neither of them have anything to do with cleaning my house -which I don't do very often.
The first reason is 'sweeps week' on TV. After a month or more of watching reruns -or just not watching TV because I don't usually watch reruns, the TV networks have 'sweeps week' -it's all the good stuff (they hope) they've been saving all season to get you to watch their shows and buy stuff from their advertisers... so we can do it all over again next year. At any rate, I like watching TV during sweeps week.
And, the second (and best) reason for liking the word sweep, is the last 3 days of Baseball World... the Sox swept the poor, poor Blue Jays. Nicely done Sox, 8-0. The only thing that would have made it better is if it was the Yankee's, but we'll get our chance. I sure wish I lived in a baseball-loving city and could have seen some of the games on ESPN. I have to settle for updates from the internet which refreshes every 30 seconds.
It's amazing I get any work done.
Here's a favorite picture of me standing on 'The Green Monstah' at Fenway Park last June.
I've decided that I love the word 'sweep'. Really for just two reaons, and neither of them have anything to do with cleaning my house -which I don't do very often.
The first reason is 'sweeps week' on TV. After a month or more of watching reruns -or just not watching TV because I don't usually watch reruns, the TV networks have 'sweeps week' -it's all the good stuff (they hope) they've been saving all season to get you to watch their shows and buy stuff from their advertisers... so we can do it all over again next year. At any rate, I like watching TV during sweeps week.
And, the second (and best) reason for liking the word sweep, is the last 3 days of Baseball World... the Sox swept the poor, poor Blue Jays. Nicely done Sox, 8-0. The only thing that would have made it better is if it was the Yankee's, but we'll get our chance. I sure wish I lived in a baseball-loving city and could have seen some of the games on ESPN. I have to settle for updates from the internet which refreshes every 30 seconds.
It's amazing I get any work done.
Here's a favorite picture of me standing on 'The Green Monstah' at Fenway Park last June.
If at first you don't succeed
Originally posted: Sunday, May 06, 2007 2:28 PM
Well... this is my first attempt at blogging... so we'll see how this goes. I've also not really even read many blogs, so I might be breaking the rules, if there are such things. And... I'll apologize in advance for stealing idea's from my cousin's web site from time to time. Maybe I'll actually have to start reading a few other ones to keep our's interesting.
Here's a few things that I'm (we're) interested in, our hobbies, things we spend out time doing, and things we wish we didn't .
You can find me at Gold's Gym every morning around 6:30. Every morning. Justin is there on Saturdays with me -but we're working on that at the moment. I work for the state saving kids from themselves and the community (if we're lucky), and Justin works for Oracle, selling software programs to companies all over the US and Canada.
We watch movies (a lot of movies, if I get my say) and a few TV shows. Thanks to our DVR we get to skip commercials, and watch ALOT of CSI. I'm usually reading a book (or two). Right now I'm finishing "Namesake" and then I'm going to start "The Four Agreements". Justin's been working on The Hobbit since before we got married, but he's still getting out of the 'school' mode, where you don't read much other than text books.
I'm addicted to Radio From Hell on X96 -one of the things that keeps me at the gym every morning... and Justin has a few favorite CD's in his car that he listens to -over and over. And over again.
All of our family lives pretty close (with the exception of Justin's brother, Kris) but he'll be back soon. We spend a lot of time with family, not enough with our friends, and quite a bit with each other.
I think I'll try to add pictures -although I'm far from a photographer. Justin and I kept a travel journal of our honeymoon (to Paris and London) so I might pull from that while I get used to 'blogging' and rambling on about nothing. I've figured out that's what most of them are -hopefully I can keep it somewhat interesting.
One thing you should also know about is my extreme obsession with the Boston Red Sox. I love the team. I love Boston. And, yes, I'm obsessed. Go Sox!
That's all for now.
Well... this is my first attempt at blogging... so we'll see how this goes. I've also not really even read many blogs, so I might be breaking the rules, if there are such things. And... I'll apologize in advance for stealing idea's from my cousin's web site from time to time. Maybe I'll actually have to start reading a few other ones to keep our's interesting.
Here's a few things that I'm (we're) interested in, our hobbies, things we spend out time doing, and things we wish we didn't .
You can find me at Gold's Gym every morning around 6:30. Every morning. Justin is there on Saturdays with me -but we're working on that at the moment. I work for the state saving kids from themselves and the community (if we're lucky), and Justin works for Oracle, selling software programs to companies all over the US and Canada.
We watch movies (a lot of movies, if I get my say) and a few TV shows. Thanks to our DVR we get to skip commercials, and watch ALOT of CSI. I'm usually reading a book (or two). Right now I'm finishing "Namesake" and then I'm going to start "The Four Agreements". Justin's been working on The Hobbit since before we got married, but he's still getting out of the 'school' mode, where you don't read much other than text books.
I'm addicted to Radio From Hell on X96 -one of the things that keeps me at the gym every morning... and Justin has a few favorite CD's in his car that he listens to -over and over. And over again.
All of our family lives pretty close (with the exception of Justin's brother, Kris) but he'll be back soon. We spend a lot of time with family, not enough with our friends, and quite a bit with each other.
I think I'll try to add pictures -although I'm far from a photographer. Justin and I kept a travel journal of our honeymoon (to Paris and London) so I might pull from that while I get used to 'blogging' and rambling on about nothing. I've figured out that's what most of them are -hopefully I can keep it somewhat interesting.
One thing you should also know about is my extreme obsession with the Boston Red Sox. I love the team. I love Boston. And, yes, I'm obsessed. Go Sox!
That's all for now.
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