a couple of chuckles from my e mail:

This is a little bizarre...

If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the famous erudite scientist who once said: "I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates." His mind sees things differently than we do, to our amusement. Here are some of his gems:

1. I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

2. Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.

3. Half the people you know are below average.

4. 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5. 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

6. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

7. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

8. If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

9. All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand.

10. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

11. I almost had a psychic girlfriend, but she left me before we met.

12. OK, so what's the speed of dark?

13. How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

14. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

15. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

16. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

17. Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

18. Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

19. I intend to live forever. So far, so good.

20. If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

21. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

22. What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

23. My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

24. Why do psycics have to ask you for your name?

25. If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

26. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

27. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need
it.
28. The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

29. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

30. The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

31. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

32. The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

33. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

We took the time today to finally get the majority of Dylan's baby pictures scanned in to the computer, and they are all safely tucked into a single folder. I've contacted his mom for more pictures that I will scan in, then return to her. I'm going to use these photos to make a photo blog. It really shouldn't take too long. and the next set to scan will likely not be as large as this set was. Now we can do them a roll at a time, when we have them developed. I'm going to see about getting a new digital camera at some point, then we won't need developing.

Speaking of Dylan...he was here for the day yesterday. We took him to the playground after breakfast before it got too hot. He likes the slide and swing...and he enjoyed hearing gravel crunch under his shoes, but didn't care for it when he tried to taste it. He seemed to hesitate walking on plank boards at the entrance to the playground, but felt much more secure once he was on the sidewalk because it didn't have spaces in it like the plank boards do. We stayed about 20 minutes, then it was home for a cool drink and cooling off. He likes lemonade, and already knows how to sip from a straw. He also enjoys moving furniture...he can push the dining room chairs anywhere. He pushed a chair up against the door of the office and almost took a poster off the door before we told him no. He pulled Duchess and Darla's carriers out from under the table and climbed on them to reach things on a table...then he put the carriers back as he found them when he was done, without being prompted. He can climb into his high chair and sit down to be buckled in...not that the buckle does much good. He really is quite a little guy. Soon he will be old enough so that I can teach him to cook and bake.

I tried watching a movie last night, but ended up going to sleep in the middle of it. Finally just gave up and went to bed. I slept nearly twelve hours. I don't like being that exhausted.

I did a complete delete and reinstall of Firefox yesterday, just to keep things fresh. One or two of my profiles weren't working as well as I wanted them, so doing the clean install was a big help. Now I'm good for the next six to eight months or more.

A member of our family is going to Afghanistan within a few days; he's to be there for 45 days. We have received a service flag and it is hanging in our window for the duration. God willing, he will come home safely.

A picture really is worth 1,000 words:

I use Firefox. I'm in the process of adding extensions to a new profile, and found Hungersitefox. That's a mouthful, but it's an extension I just added. It puts a link in the status bar each day. When you double-click the link, it opens with the Hunger Site, Breast Cancer, Literacy, Rainforest, and animal help sites, where a single click helps fund each of these charities. This is definitely something I will make a part of my daily browsing routine. You can find the extension on the Mozilla Update site, or at on this page, where there is also a bookmarklet version available.

I've just found Bloglinker! This is going to be cool. Go check it out and see what you think. I found this tool via a link in Blog Weekly.

Our July 4 was relatively quiet. We were thinking about going out to watch the local symphony and fireworks display, but at 4:30 PM, we got a half-frantic phone call from Lauren, asking if we could come get Dylan and keep him overnight; she had less than an hour before she had to be at work, and his usual sitter was unable to care for him. Of course we said yes, and off we went. We brought him home, fed him dinner (mashed potato, corn, and a tiny bit of brisket cut into Dylan sized slivers. The mashed potato and corn were a hit, but the brisket ended up on the floor. His breakfast of fruit and cereal and cinnamon toast fared some better, although the first few bites of the toast also ended up on the floor.) After dinner we went to visit Aunt Doris. She is retiring after 20 years at her job. (I give it at most two weeks before she is finding something new to do. She can't be idle any more than my mother [her sister] can; my mother has retired so many times, no one believes it any more.)

We stayed about an hour, then went to visit a friend across town. She was getting ready to leave for a trip, and had suitcases and various piles of items awaiting packing strewn everywhere. Again, we only stayed about an hour, then it was home. On the way, we saw some pretty fireworks that citizens were setting off, but we couldn't stop to watch since there was nowhere to pull over on the interstate. Dylan seemed more interested in the noise of firecrackers and fireworks than scared of them; I told him that it was America's birthday and everyone just wanted to say, "Happy birthday". By the time we arrived home, Dylan was out for the count. He roused just enough to look around when we took him out of the car, but put his head on my shoulder and went back to sleep almost at once. We put him to bed, and he slept until almost 7 AM yesterday morning.

Jay has given him a nickname: a Category 6 Texas tornado. He is always busy, but he is not hyperactive. Jay asked how I know he's not hyperactive. By the time you've reared two normally active kids to adulthood as I have, you get a sense of what "normal" is. So, no, Dylan is not hyperactive. He's just a busy little guy. He's not only walking now, he's running. By the time his mother picked him up at 10 AM, the living room was a mess (it's been worse), and we were both worn out. I spent much of the day in bed, and still went to bed as early as I could justify. I didn't even use the computer as much as I normally do. I think I was beginning to get sick...I've not been that tired in a long time, and I can't put it all down to Dylan being here; we just closed off areas that he's not allowed in, and turned him loose in the living room; we then had to supervise him in a single area rather than in the entire apartment. When his mother called, Dylan said hi to her on the phone, then got impatient for her arrival; he butted his head on the couch (it's well padded), and was saying "bye bye, bye bye". She said he's recently begun doing this; she calls it a temper tantrum, but it didn't seem like much of a tantrum to me. When she arrived, Jay unlocked the door, then stood to the side of the door and allowed Dylan to open it. (Now we know he can open the door, but it's kept locked at all times when he's here, so we don't worry about him going outside without one of us.)

I ended up getting up at 2:30 AM this morning with a horrible backache and other ills I won't go into here. I've seen wrung out dishrags with more energy than I have. I told Jay last night maybe he ought to just call a mortician and be done with it. That's not usual, but nothing else about yesterday was usual either.

we needed a couple of cables so that we could put one of our DVR-recorded movies on VHS. Jay thought we had some, but couldn't find them, and since the DVR is being exchanged on Tuesday due to a malfunction, we needed to get the movie transferred before then. So, it was off to Radio Shack. We did get the cables, along with a new phone cord plus a new, very compact cordless telephone and headset for my desk. I've already set up the "bells and whistles" and I think I'm going to love it. I just have to wait for the battery pack to fully charge. It will be good to go by the time I'm off work tomorrow.

The only time I've ever had a cordless phone previously was in the mid-90's or so. That one was huge, by comparison, and felt like a brick in my hand. It had to be carried in a holster type holder that reminded me for all the world of a gunbelt. No more. this new one is light as a feather and even the base takes up only about as much space on my desktop as my favorite hot chocolate mug. The headset allows for hands-free use, handy for when I'm working. I also saw a couple items I've put on my Christmas wishlist.

We went shopping today after we ran some errands and paid some bills. My husband had a dollar bill that he got in change, and the bill had "Where's George? stamped on it. Naturally, I had to check it out. The site tracks paper currency (US and Canadian) by the series and serial numbers. Only one of the bills I entered had already started being tracked...but it is kind of fun seeing how far money can travel. Now, I just wish it would s-t-r-e-t-c-h a little further.

July 1 kind of crept up on me out of nowhere. There's all the usual stuff to do: budgeting, paying bills, shopping lists...and this time it's actually fun. Jay's new job and the extra money sure helps take some of the stress out of the mix. Good thing, since we have car payments and extra insurance to pay for. We took delivery of a 2004 Dodge Stratus SE two weeks ago! We got a snail mail "offer" that I nearly threw in the trash that said I was preapproved for money for a new car. It was no joke! Our old car was 13 years old, and it was a matter of time before repair bills would be problematic. I sold that car to Lauren, who is thrilled to have it. (She already had her first flat, and was laughing about it since she had the car for just two days when it happened.) She's being very responsible about making her payments. I didn't demand a lot of money for the car, but I do want her to have some financial obligation for it. Our insurance is actually very reasonable, for full coverage, and the premium will go down in September, although I don't know how much it will decrease.

I still think we got a huge break with the cable package (digital cable with DVR, cable phone and internet access). The DVR is neat, because I can watch television when I have time for it, and still not miss anything. I taped Sybil with Joanne Woodward and Sally Field, from the book by Flora Reta Schreiber. I read the book in college, and it gave me nightmares for days, and shook me up in a major way...and now I work with child abuse treatment/prevention.