Computer Woes

Here's the deal.  Apparently there is a storage limit on the pictures you can upload to a blog.  Considering a normal post for me contains about 15 pictures (sometimes up to 40!) this has become an issue and I'm right now forbidden to upload any more pictures unless I 1. buy more storage (ha yeah right) or 2. decrease the size of my photos.  Apparently there is a pixel count that you have to be under to make it "free."  I now just have to figure out that pixel count and only upload pics like that from now on.  You can also upload your pics into google+ and then upload them to your blog since google+ automatically changes the format into the correct number of pixels (shameless push for google+ if you ask me).  One fo the problems is that a lot of the pictures I've uploaded I've since deleted (I mean who needs to save numerous pictures of me adding flour to a mixing bowl!).  So now I'm faced with taking all the photos in all my posts, saving them to my computer, changing the pixel count, and re-uploading them.  In summary, this is going to take some work.  And time.  And PATIENCE.  OMG you have no idea the amount of patience this will take because none of you are working on my computer.  This thing is slooooooooow, like epically slow.  Remember the days of the computer modems that went erww erwww eeeeeerw and took a minute or two to switch to a new internet page?  Well my computer is slower.  Poor thing, it's lasted years and years and has traveled as many miles cross country as I have.  It's suffered being stuffed in suitcases and having tons of student edition software downloaded then deleted on it.  It's gotten me through scholarship letters and typing and formatting my Master's Report.  And it's slowly been showing it's age.  I stopped traveling with it unless absolutely necessary.  I even stopped moving it unless absolutely necessary!  The switch that connects to wireless networks is very temperamental (apparently all VIAOs have this problem according to the tech guys) and will switch on and off if so much as breathe on the thing.  It also takes eons to start up and then decades to open the internet and years to allow you to click on something.  So now it sits on a drawing board on the side table next to the couch and there it stays.  Dad has refused to even consider working on it (probably good for his stress level) and I sometimes threaten Becca when she asks for an ipad to do her hw that she is free to use mine!  Her face is priceless.
I fully intended to buy a new computer after graduating and saving up some money but then Windows 8 had to start rearing it's head and all the tech blogs were saying don't buy a new computer, wait till Windows 8 comes out and all the other computers will go on sale.  Buy one then.  Well I waited, and I waited, and my computer was getting slower, and slower.  Finally Windows 8 debuted and I realized that I should have factored in quite a few more months before being able to buy a new computer.  There weren't enough new computers on the market that ran Windows 8 to make the price of the other computers go down.  I'd saved up enough money that I could invest in a computer that ran Windows 8, which I decided I wanted to do anyway (why buy a brand new computer that will be outdated in two years because it doesn't have the correct operating system?!), but Consumer Reports wasn't going to finish testing the new crop of Windows 8 compatible computers and publishing their findings until January and it's becoming very clear that I'm not sure my computer will be functional come January.  So I made a new plan and implemented it over the Thanksgiving break. 
I'd been seeing a lot of lightning deals on Amazon the week of Thanksgiving and decided that I would purchase either a great deal from them or get a computer on sale at Best Buy, keep it for a year or two, then purchase a new Windows 8 computer and sell my year-old computer to my parents (at a discount of course). 
And success!  I found a good deal on Thanksgiving Day (which means I wasn't tempted to shop at all on Black Friday ;) ) and am now anxiously waiting for it to ship!  Until then I will try, try again to upload the pictures for a pumpkin pie post.  Google+ crashed on me last night so maybe it will work today if I stand on my head and hold my breath.  Wish me luck!

Halloween Celebrations

Well I've mentioned how Sandy kinda put a wrench in our Halloween preparedness, but we soldiered on.  I mean we had to have Halloween.  We had to carve pumpkins, we had to hand out candy, we just had to!  It's funny how you cling to normal and routine and traditions after things go wrong or change drastically.  It's like when I moved out to KS my first year of college.  I was halfway across the country away from the family I'd lived with my whole life.  The only places I felt calm and not stressed for the first few weeks were Target and church.  There was comfort in the familiar and the routine.  So anyway we had to carve pumpkins.  I knew I couldn't do it all by myself when I got home though.  People trick-or-treat early nowadays and I get home around 5pm and I had to have the pumpkins out when it got dark around 6pm and one hour is not enough time to hollow out three pumpkins and carve them.  So we hollowed out the pumpkins the night before and carved one so I only had to carve two when I got home (which gave me a bit of a reprieve since I still hadn't thought up my design yet.  Have I ever mentioned that I procrastinate?  No?  Well I do.)

So this was Tuesday night before we all faced the reality of going back to work the next day.  We set up the pumpkins on the table after having spread newspaper down.  I had one bowl for guts and one for seeds.  And lots of random spoons because I can never remember which one worked the best from the year before.

Then we cut the stems out.  We always cut them in diagonals.  I've seen people just cut around the stem in a circle.  This is weird to me.  I'm sure it works fine but ever since I was too young to carve my pumpkin by myself we've always done diagonals so that is what I will do forever more.

Then we pulled the tops off to get to innards.  Gooey, squishing innards.
 

It's a messy job but someone's got to do it!  And it is messy.  You get messy all the way up to your elbows.  You know, it's a good thing I 1. never became a veterinarian and 2. never grew up on a ranch.  Just saying my definition of "messy" might be a bit different considering where veterinarians and ranchers have to stick their hands . . .
 

Look, Innards!  Guts!  Glory!  Me looking absolutely stunning with no make up . . . HA!  Not.

Haha I find this picture amusing.  It reminds me of those cartoons of miners with their gold tooth glinting in the sun.  Then someone would see the glint, realize the miner's tooth was gold, and subsequently punch him to make the tooth pop out.  After which the puncher would walk away one gold tooth richer.

Ah no gold tooth shine, that's better.
The pumpkin on the left is Medium Well's and the one on the right is mine. 
(Yes I'm starting the whole "don't use actual names on the internet" thing.)
Medium Well was struggling with food poisoning at this point so she couldn't send a pumpkin idea, but Dad made one with a cowboy hat because it's what she would have wanted ;)

This is Small Fry's pumpkin.  Her's was carved later because she was being a booty-head (worse than normal) and didn't give me her design until I had already carved mine and put it outside with Medium Well's.  So I only have a picture of her's by itself.  Anyway, that's a mustache in case you couldn't tell.

Here's the pic with the lights off.  I don't know why Small Fry's pumpkin has a weird glow around it.  I took about ten pictures from all different angles and her's was the only one that had a glowing halo.  Oh well, no biggie.

And here is the table right by the door with the candy bowl all ready to give to trick-or-treaters!  Of which we had a grand total of . . . . seven.  Not kidding.  Only seven.  I was bummed.  What good is having a house if you don't get trick-or-treaters?  All the parents nowadays are taking their kids to the mall to go "trick-or-treating" which is a load of bull.  Seriously.  When I have kids I'm dragging them around the neighborhood.  So watch out future neighbors, you'd better have candy ready for when I take my future kids trick-or-treating!  Or you'll have to answer to me!

 

Miss Apple Festival 2012

 

We take our apple picking seriously:

 

A second worker is required at all times to stand and supervise. (Day-glo orange vest optional)

 

 Stealth tactics are encouraged...

 

 and "Be careful!!!"  is hollered repeatedly.  

 

We are this serious because we are all vying to win the Roger Ley Best Apple award.  Not long after we moved to Virginia, Dad came to a conference and brought Mary and Emily along (or the other way around).  On their way out of town, we made them stop for a round of apple picking and, for some unknown reason (perhaps the Ley DNA???),  things got slightly competitive.  At the end of the day, daughters and granddaughters had to admit that Grandpa Ley had picked the best apple.  It was the roundest, shiniest, deepest colored apple in the orchard and Dad was the champion. 

 

We don't make it apple picking every year, but driven by Beth's new obsession with juicing, we made time to go pick a few apples and the hunt was on ...

 

 

and the contestants for this year's Roger Ley Best Apple award are:

 

Contestant from the Great State of Colorado

Contestant from the Great State of Kansas

Contestant from the Great State of New Hampshire

Contestant from the Great State of Louisiana

 

and the winner is ????  Unfortunately, we're still counting the absentee ballots...

Here's our haul:

 

and a few weeks later, those pumpkins were all decked out like this

 

We might need a pumpkin contest next year :)