Weather Report, My Life, & Some Interesting Stuff

Our weather here hasn't even been close to normal this winter--but, then, whose has? We STILL don't have snow--just a light dusting--and the temp is in the 30s tonight. They keep telling us that we are getting snow, but it never amounts to much. However, the temps are supposed to go down to around zero the beginning of next week. This, of course, will cause an endless amount of problems. We have no snow to insulate the ground + the temps plunge = frozen water pipes. The local plumbers should be making good money next week! If the snow doesn't get here soon, I don't know what will happen to the local economy--it is so tied up in the tourist industry. Skiing, snowmobiling, winter carnivals, dog sled races, etc, are all a big part of the winter months and snow is NEEDED for these things to take place. Well, we are ALMOST to the halfway point of winter, so there is still hope--we have AT LEAST 3 more months before we can stop expecting snow to come. ;)

Life here has been rather quiet. K went for his stress test last week and the cardiologist just gave a preliminary exam/consult. When he found out that K doesn't have any chest pains, he canceled the stress test and has scheduled a treadmill test instead. If that is okay, then there will be no stress test, otherwise, the test will happen later.

Today is the last day of K's seven-day long weekend and he worked 5 of those days! I'm not too sure if any overtime will be available next week when he gets off of night-shift. Of course, the overtime is what we have to work around in order for us to do a road trip.

A couple of weeks ago my Palm crashed. For the last few days, I have been restoring all the info I had on it. Thankfully, I DID have back-ups of most of my information, so things weren't QUITE as bad as they could have been.

I finally bought an external hard drive to use as a back-up for my PC. The night I got it, I plugged it in and my wireless keyboard refused to work! I unplugged the hard drive and the keyboard worked fine. A quick search on Google didn't give me any help as to what the problem is, so I left the damn thing and haven't looked at it again. I guess I have to try and see if I can find the problem. Computers are SO much fun.

It's been a while since I have posted any links, so I thought I would do a few today. I am not sure if I have posted these before, but here they are--someone might find them interesting!

Abebooks is a VERY cool place to browse. On this site, you can find and buy used books--as well as new ones. Now, I know there are MANY places where you can get used books, but this site is SO much more. I find the 'Community' (the forums) to be fantastic! You can post a question asking for recommendations if you need a gift for someone, or recommendations for books for yourself, and there is always someone willing to help. There also is a place where you can describe the plot of a book you don't remember the name of, and people will help you find it! I have purchased used books from this site--had good results--and have read book recommendations, and have been well pleased.

I am sure most of us don't think much about the money we handle every day--except for thinking we don't have enough! But, if you WANT to know more about your money, then Where's George is the site for you. When you go to this site and sign up, you can post the serial number of your $1, $5, $10, etc, bills and this site will track them for you after you spend them. (That is, as long as someone goes back to the site and reports your bill.) I have received bills from the other side of the country--unfortunately, most of the ones I have entered don't go very far from home. It is fascinating, nonetheless.

The third site I will highlight today is BookCrossing. The idea behind BookCrossing is to spread books throughout the world--one person at a time. Here is how it works: You have a book that you would like to 'pass on.' You register said book at BookCrossing. You place a note in the book stating that it is free for whomever finds it. You leave the book in a public place and hope someone takes it and reports the find at BookCrossing. This is another fascinating site--especially if your books are picked up by people willing to report their 'catching' your 'released' book.