Saturday

Now playing on XM, George Strait, "Give it Away".

How many years has this cookie been hung on my Christmas tree? Tracy made this, probably when she was about 6 or 7. Don't know if she made it at school, or maybe Campfire Girls? A little bit of frosting is starting to fall off.

Barrie took these pictures at her dog lot yesterday during the blizzard. Notice how Moose's ear is blowing straight out in the wind.

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Worked on the computer for a while this morning. All my music files were there, but not organzied the way I had them. I worked on the iTunes music library today and set up some more playlists. I've got 1300 plus songs on it now.

I was just on the web site for Mozilla Firefox browser. They claim it's 100% organic software. What the heck does that mean?

Barrie and Kasey went to the library to see Santa this morning. This year was good - KC climbed right up on his lap and talked to him.

Friday

Now playing on XM - Kenny Chesney, "Beer in Mexico".


Another treasure from the basement. Barrie drew this for her goldfish, Casiopa. He never lived in a bowl. He lived in a heated, bubbleized aquarium, and grew to be pan size. He must have been six inches long, at least. One day he jumped out the hole in the back of the hood. He is buried under our rose bush.

You said it, Maxine!

Barrie got us a real tree this year. She and Kasey decorated it last night. The lights are all the little micro lights, and they twinkle. Very pretty.

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A Facebook friend posted this.

"Do not eat natural foods. I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes."

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Now here's something to think about. The woman who won the barrel racing in Las Vegas last night was interviewed, and she said, "I couldn't have done it without my horse."

For some reason, I immediately visualized this lady running around the barrels on foot and hitting herself with her bat.

Thursday

When I got up yesterday morning, KC happily gave me all the details of how she threw up in her bed, and it got on her shirt, etc. Nice. She was fresh out of the bath, and Barrie already had her bedding in the washing machine. She went to the doctor. Not sure what she had, but she has medicine on the kitchen counter. Barrie thought she had an ear infectioin.

Looked in the drawer of an old dresser in the basement, and found this treasure. Barrie was 7 when she drew this.

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Last night was "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night at the NFR to support breast cancer research. Lots of cowboys in pink shirts, and horses with pink leg wraps. The pickup men were wearing hot pink chaps.

Tuesday

Now playing on XM, George Strait, "Cross my Heart".

My new camera came today. Wooo Hooo! I am charging the battery so I can try it out. I think I will put the lens on the camera I am selling on EBay. I'm sure it's a nice lens, but I have an arsenal of about ten lenses.

I was going to put the free camera bag with the camera I'm selling, but I might keep it and sell one of my larger bags. (Yes, I have several). This one is so little and might be nice to just "grab and take" instead of lugging around one of the big bags.

I have taken three pictures of the camera I am selling on EBay, and started writing all the information. If I hurry, maybe someone is looking for one just like it for Christmas. But I'm not known for hurrying. I also have another camera body I will be selling - just haven't decided what to include with it.

If the video works like I hope on this new camera, I will also be selling a JVC video camera.

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My favorite NFR calf roper broke the barrier last night, and then he took two loops to catch. Oops!

Monday

Now playing on XM, Jack Benny radio show.


I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days, but I'm not sure I ended up with anything. Haven't done anything on it the last week. Wonder if it's worth finishing and editing.

Yay! Clint and Sweetness won the calf roping in Las Vegas last night. There are three Cooper brothers there, all calf ropers, and all three of them have won a go round.

The rodeo was on TV live last night - ESPN2 at 7:00. I see it's on at 8:00 tonight. So much better than sitting up from 11:30 until 2:00 AM to watch it.

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Worked on the new computer a while this morning. Got the other printer to work, and got some more software installed. Got my MS Office activated, wasn't sure how that would go, because they get so picky if you've already used the Produce Key number before, but it worked for me.

I have found a long article on how to share files and devices between Windows 7 and XP. I guess I will take my laptop downstairs and set it up beside the desktop and see if I can work through it. It was so easy when both computers were running XP. But XP and 7 don't play well together. And I feel like running with scissors.

Sunday

The televisin is on.

Look! Here I am, setting up my new computer!

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I am not even going to look at the new computer today (I think). I am painting, and watching the Denver Broncos on TV. Somehow, I think Denver is in for a long day.

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I don't know if I mentioned that I installed a new web browser - Mozilla Firefox. I couldn't get on the NaNoWriMo website with Internet Explorer, but with Firefox, the page opened right up. Now I am finding that Firefox won't let me do certain things, like put text above the pictue in this post. So I opened it in IE, and it works perfectly. Also, when I tried to check out to buy something from Dick Blick, Firefox sent me back to the home page and removed everything from my shopping cart. So I went to IE and it happily let me spend my money.

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One of my Facebook friends posted this: All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.

Saturday

Now playing on XM Radio, Brad Paisley, "Mud on the Tires".



Happy screen. The little back up drive is busily restoring files to the new computer. Had to do it twice, because the first time I told it to restore to the C drive. Big mistake. Now it is restoring files to their original locations. It will take a while.

If anyone is looking for a good backup tool, this is it. It is a little thing, a little bigger than of a pack of cigaretttes. You plug it into a USB port, and it will automatically back up your files. So easy to use, and unlike the last thing I used, you can acually see what files were backed up and when. It's called "Click Free", and comes in various sizes. The one I use with my laptop is 250 GB.

Gina, thanks for your offer of help. Until I get all the files restored, I won't know for sure how the printers are going to work.

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This photo is mostly for the benefit of big brother. Karen is in Las Vegas. One of her horses, "Sweetness", won Horse of the Year - Tie Down Roping. The guy in the picture is Clint Cooper. He ropes off Sweetness, and is competing in the NFR. He made a good catch last night, and then the darned guy fell down trying to go down the rope to throw the calf. Ended up with a time of 11 seconds.

I worked most of the day trying to get the new computer set up. This tower is about half the size of the old one and weighs only about 1/4 as much. I can barely move the old one, and I can easily carry this one.

I got a white case so it wold be easier to see the ports and connections. Guess what, they are all behind a little door that swings open, and it's black inside!

Got most of the programs installed. Installed one printer, and it said the driver is not compatible with Windows 7. So now I have to try to get the correct drivers for the printers. So far, they aren't working.

And I didn't get my files from the backup drive. Still haven't figured out how to do it.

While looking for a book on the bookshelves, I found this stuck back behind some things. I made this years ago, with sculpy, and painted it with bronze acrylic.

I've ordered a few new mats. These have a line cut into the mat. Kind of expensive, maybe, but I like the looks of them. The catalog said they were suede.

Wednesday

After a toenail trim . . . Barrie and KC and I laughed so hard we about died. The cat was starting to stick to the carpet, so I caught her and took her downstairs to Barrie. Barrie got the toenail clippers, and started trimming her nails. And Kasey started petting her because she couldn't get away. Kat got really upset. I mean really. She probably could have handled the toenail cutting, but having KC pet her while Barrie held her down was too much. Barrie said she sounded like a mountain lion, and she did - ears back, fangs bared, and terrible sounds coming from her.

After Barrie finished her and put her down, she actually charged at Kasey a couple of time, hissing and spitting.

Then she went to sleep.





My friend Vicky borrowed this book from me, and is enjoying it so much she would like to give some as gifts. This book is going for more than $60 on Amazon. I am watching on EBay and have two so far. I'm watching for one more.

Pretty entertaining reading. It's about life in Jackson Hole about 1956, after the tourists go home. If you're old (like me), you can remember Jackson when it was like what is described in the book.

I'm through with the watercolor cowboy. This is the first watercolor portrait I've ever been able to paint. I think it's because I always tried to make a painting look like someone I know. This is from a photo I took years ago of a stranger at the Winter Carnival. That's sure a motley looking beard.

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For some reason, Blogger won't let me put text above a picture any more.

My novel is over 50,00 words now, so the pressure is off. But my hero is in prison in Texas, and I don't have a clue what prison life is like. I've got to get him through ten years of prison life before he can become successful in life and go out and find a girlfriend (or maybe get a dog.)

Maybe I should shorten his sentence?

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Now playing on my iPod, Glenn Campbell, "Rhinestone Cowboy".

Gina, when Michael was in first grade, he used to bring his Glenn Campbell record to school and we would play "Rhinestone Cowboy". Wonder if he remembers that?