neurotwitch

Monday, October 01, 2012

oh happy dog, and other thoughts

Bingo is the essence of dog. Here she is, in dog heaven, surrounded by her favorite things including backup for them, in the same room with us so she doesn’t have to worry about herding us ... September 21, 2012. (click to see it big!)

It’s a bit odd, but I’ve been feeling a bit calmer lately. Not sure why. Maybe it’s because I know exactly what the problems are these days, if not quite how to solve them. Let’s just say we’re a very long way from ever becoming part of the 1% (oh rub the Powerball God’s belly) or even the 25%, but I believe, finally, that sooner or later, we’ll be okay. (Just wish it wasn’t such a slog!) That’s all we want: to be okay. Health stuff too, but we’re getting there, also.

My October goal: to redesign our company website. It’s like the cobbler’s kids, running around with holes in their shoes because the cobbler is so busy making money to feed them he doesn’t have time to tend to thier shoes.

And to finish organizing the house—which I made a pretty good dent in before we went on vacation in August. Ah, maybe that’s it—why I feel calmer—I think so much better when there are no piles of clutter and when I know exactly what the issues are.

It’s also starting to sink in that as long as I accomplish something, I don’t have to feel badly for not accomplishing everything on my to-do list. I have to remember: they’re goals, not deadlines.

One thing that still puzzles me, though: why would people who barely have a pot to piss in, or will never, ever be in the 25% (let alone the 1%) unless they win the lottery, supporting Romney? I just don’t get it.

posted by lee on 10/01/12 at 07:41 AM
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Monday, June 11, 2012

slow day, productive but not very

Pepper and Slink trying to figure out what’s going on. (click to see it big!)

Another day of getting back-burnered stuff done. Mainly cleaning up comment spam on two different websites and adding to the blacklists. Installing a program, Carefree Ad Manager by Will Bontrager, that counts impressions and clicks on ads so we can tell advertisers how well (or not) their ads are doing. Which will let us offer another service to our advertisers, perhaps.

What I didn’t get to, again, was updating our company website or company Facebook page. Or cleaning the house. Spent a good amount of time last weekend getting rid of paper so I could clear it off my desk—I tossed and shredded enough to fill at least one huge trash bag. I wanted to empty crap from at least one office cupboard this weekend, but didn’t get a chance. Nor did I get any gardening done—I wanted to at least get one pot planted. Tomorrow I will.

My goals this week, aside from work: spend about 30 minutes a day catching up with the cleaning and another 30 minutes in the garden. And not watch the political blowhard pundits flapping their jaws for at least a few more days. I miss the days when the 24-hours news channels had, you know, news and not wall-to-wall bullshit opinion shows, full of the sound and fury ...

I am being summoned for dinner.

posted by lee on 06/11/12 at 12:36 AM
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Monday, May 28, 2012

how does my garden grow? wild

Steamy out today—lots of sun and lots of muggy. I think we need to get some fresher Off as the stuff we have now doesn’t seem to be working anymore (it’s about five years old ... )

We did get some tomatoes and other plants—the garden is not quite ready for planting, still a little too muddy. And did I say it’s steamy out today? I played with the dogs instead.

one of Stanley’s peonies (click to see it big!)

the garden is wonderfully wild (click to see it big!)

beautiful but vicious rugosa (click to see it big!)

we even have wild roses in our tree tops (click to see it big!)

heart stopping digitalis (click to see it big!)

What fun is there in having new software if you don’t play with it?

dali digitalis, © lee fleming, 2012

posted by lee on 05/28/12 at 09:49 PM
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creature features

No particular point to this entry. I just feel like posting some photos of our creatures. Sans Pepper. She remains as hard for me to photograph as she can (Stanley gets better photos of her).

Ruby patiently waiting for her cookies (click to see it big!)

Ruby is always worried about something (like not getting her cookies) (click to see it big!)

Bingo trying to hide from whatever the latest indignity is that Stanley wants to inflict on her. Like taking her picture. She is afraid of the sound of velcro. (click to see it big!)

Slink literally keeping an eye on what’s going on. © lee fleming, 2012 (click to see it big!)

posted by lee on 05/28/12 at 05:13 PM
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Sunday, May 27, 2012

artistaday.com > tessa houghton

The other day, I received a google alert that Famous Artists School was mentioned somewhere on the web. FAS is a long-time client and we just launched two new courses, so I wanted to see if it was being picked up somewhere.

The alert led me to this guy: Stephen Fisher, a Warren, Rhode Island artists who is an FAS alum. Which led me to explore the artistaday.com. This site impresses the hell out of me—a huge collection of artists from around the world, an artist profiled each day.

Scrolling backwards, I got to , I think, March 17, 2012, and was rendered speechless. Behold a painting by Tessa Houghton:

Tessa Houghton, “Elysian Blue,” Oil on canvas (click to see it big!)

Houghton’s website offers an extensive gallery. She is a Brit currently in based in Barcelona.

She paints seascapes mainly—it’s hard to believe the image above is done in oil paint and not is not a photograph. There’s something about the scope and the colors that grab me, the sea ... I think it’s the way she captures the light. I would love to see her work in the real world.

posted by lee on 05/27/12 at 12:10 AM
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Thursday, May 24, 2012

cats

Sometimes, when I’m really absorbed in what I’m working on, I glance to my left and I’m surprised to see the cat snoozing under the window has changed. And I didn’t even notice.

Cat 1: Slink, with his lovely green eyes. (click to see it big!)

Cat 2: Pepper, deep sleep. (click to see it big!)

I’ve been trying to get a good photo of Pepper—good thing pixels are cheap because she’s very hard to photograph. Where Slink has brilliant green eyes, Pepper has beautiful topaz eyes, with just a hint of green ringing the edge of the irises. They have very different personalities, and I can tell them apart just by hearing their purrs.

Topaz eyes—Pepper won’t pose for me. (click to see it big!)

I’m glad there’s a long weekend coming up. I’m going to try not to work, Much.

posted by lee on 05/24/12 at 10:14 PM
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Sunday, May 20, 2012

resurrection?

It’s been a long time. I miss blogging.

Things garden:

The climbing roses started blooming last week. (click to see it big!)

The baptista is hidden in the bramble this year. I need to trim the dead rugosa branches out, but they’re so awful to deal with. (click to see it big!)

Stanley decided to bite the bullet and trim the hedge—we couldn’t see to get out of our driveway safely! (click to see it big!)

the weekend is the only time to do it—traffic is deadly on weekdays as Strawberry Hill Avenue turns into a narrow version of I-95. (click to see it big!)

The hedge looks great, the front is complete. However, Stanley fell off the ladder when he was climbing down, and has a scrape on the back of his head and he hurt his wrist. He didn’t knock himself out and he says he’s ok. I plan to hold the ladder the next time—I couldn’t bear it if he ended up in the hospital.

We lost Twitch Thanksgiving weekend. He had a heart murmur and we knew he was on borrowed time, but it still hit us hard. Slink was lost without him, so we knew we needed to get him a buddy. Pepper adopted us when we met her at the Connecticut Humane Society in Westport on December 1, 2012. She’s a tuxedo cat and pretty much runs the house buy now.

Slink and Pepper are watching the squirrels and birds on the porch. We have a bird feeder and it provides lots of entertainment for them (and us) (click to see it big!)

Slink is such a gorgeous, strange cat. He likes to hang out on his cushion while I work, but keeps a wary eye out for Bingo and Ruby. Especially Ruby. (click to see it big!)

I’ve neglected the housekeeping on the blog—it’s going to take a while to clean out all the spam comments that have accumulated. And upgrade it to the latest and greatest and final version of ExpressionEngine 1x. I need to update the home page to include photos of our current furry family, and update other pages. I’ll get it done.

I do miss blogging. Facebook just doesn’t do it for me—it’s too impersonal. Now that I’ve taken the first step in getting back, I hope I keep going.

the best part of spring, besides all the other good things about spring (click to see it big!)

posted by lee on 05/20/12 at 09:35 PM
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Sunday, August 07, 2011

moving right along, despite the rain

By Friday evening, Stanley had the tongue-in-groove deck placed. The next steps are trimming the end, sanding, rounding the edges, priming, caulking, then painting. I get to choose the color—I’m not sure yet what color it will be yet, other than it will not not not be battleship gray. He managed to figure out how to deal with one of the framing boards that was way warped. This porch is solid!

Wiping up the puddles that got under the tarp—there was an inch of rain last night! (click to see it big!)

The deck done, not yet trimmed. (click to see it big!)

The edge trimmed, in the middle of sanding. (click to see it big!)

A closer look—it’s looking so good. (click to see it big!)

Assessing the sanding. (click to see it big!)

Getting ready to round the edge. (click to see it big!)

posted by lee on 08/07/11 at 11:42 PM
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Thursday, August 04, 2011

lumber delivered wednesday, progress by thursday!

Stanley replaced rotting clapboards on Tuesday, and ordered the lumber from Torno in Westport. The wood for the new porch cost about $500, delivered. It came around 10:30 a.m. He moved quickly on getting the framing done.

Stanley assessing things. (click to see it big!)

The base framing board. (click to see it big!)

The frame is in and caulked! (click to see it big!)

Taking a cookie break. Now for the deck ... (click to see it big!)

posted by lee on 08/04/11 at 11:31 PM
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Monday, August 01, 2011

lot of progress monday

Stanley accepted that the frame was way too far gone to try to salvage. Not surprising, since it’s about 60 years old.

Some rotten clapboards were found and needed replacing. (click to see it big!)

The whole is in the crawlspace under the addition—it used to hold the dryer vent. The crawlspace is now Slink’s domain. (click to see it big!)

It looks so weird! (click to see it big!)

posted by lee on 08/01/11 at 11:22 PM
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