Susan

By now, anyone who has been following the Susan Boyle saga has read that she LOST the Britain's Got Talent competition. 

Since when does beating out hundreds of people auditioning for a spot on this show make her a loser? Since when does the fact that an eager audience is waiting to buy her first CD make her a loser? Another read Dream Over. Dream over??? Are they serious? Her dream has just begun!

What gets me is that I have yet to read a headline reading DIVERSITY Wins. 

Which one will we remember a few weeks from now?

I don't think it will be Diversity.

Sweet 16!

 Today is my niece Amy's 16th birthday.  I look at her and it just does not seem possible. She has grown up so fast. 

Amy was one of those babies who was determined to keep her gender a surprise until the birth. Attempts to determine her sex were met with her turning her back to the "camera." When her daddy came out grinning and announced "It's a girl!" I was told that I jumped at least a foot off the ground. 

I don't know that they have ever totally been on the ground since. 

Happy Birthday, sweet 16!

Testing Again!

 Well, it looks like Picasa might be the solution for now. I can post the pic directly from there and then add text. For the curious, this is the first iris I painted in watercolor class. 

Patting myself on the back for finally figuring out a solution and going to bed!

Testing

Pictures

OK, I have hit a snag. I can't get pix to upload from iPhoto to my blog. I don't want to pay big bucks to publish a blog through iWeb at this time. 

There are supposedly some ways to get around this, but I can't quite figure them out. I guess I will have to keep working on it. 

Banging head on small Mac keyboard...

Withdrawal

OK. I admit it. I am having withdrawal.

Both of my art lessons are canceled this week. One teacher is taking 4H kids somewhere and the other is taking her mama to the doctor. Both things certainly trump art lessons.

I sure am missing them, though! As is usually the case, the more I learn, the more I want to learn.

But, for now, I will read, practice, and look forward to next week!

Apple

I am still learning something new about Mr. Mac every day. I have a Mac for Dummies book (do they have one for someone dumber than a dummy???) but it is confusing me. I seem to learn better just pointing and clicking.

Ahhh, clicking. It is going to take me a while to get out of the habit of right clicking! Most of what I need is available from a drop down menu at the top that changes with the application currently in use.

So far, I do not like Safari. After two days of struggling with that, I downloaded and installed my beloved Firefox.

One of the fun things is the ability to set a computerized "voice" to tell me what time it is, every hour on the hour. The one currently in use is "Bruce." Ol' Bruce helps me keep track so I don't spend all day on this new toy.

I adore i-Photo! It is SO easy to use. I still want my Photoshop Elements back, but this is great for the easy stuff.

I can't wait to see what all this machine will do!

Stay tuned!

Mr. Mac

Last Friday, I fried my PC. I planned to replace the CPU, but was not physically strong enough to dislodge the heat sink. So, I put things back together and tried to turn the machine on. 

All the fans whirred and the machine hummed, but it would not boot. I called my local guru and we went through all the obvious fixes with no results.

Reluctant to put much money into a 4 year old PC, I started weighing my options. I could try to replace my PC. Or, if I could figure out a way to finance it, I could get my dream machine.

A Mac.

To my utter shock, my DH agreed to finance 2/3 of my venture calling it my 50th birthday, 26th anniversary, and Christmas gifts rolled into one. So, yesterday, I trotted over to the Apple store and picked myself an iMac. It is going to take some time to get used to, but I am already hooked. 

I have heard it said that if you ever go Mac, you'll never go back. 

I believe it.

Mother's Day

I have several friends who are facing their first Mother's Day without thier moms. My heart just aches for them, because I remember how very hard that first Mother's Day was for me. Indeed, it took 3 or 4 before I was able to get through our church service and not be in tears at some point.

I still miss my mom. I am thankful to have a precious stepmom who makes my dad happy, but I miss my mom. I miss that special "mom" brand of love and encouragement. I miss her cooking. Even with the exact recipes, things just don't taste the same when I make them. I miss singing with her and hearing her lovely alto voice. I miss the knowing that one person on the planet loved me unconditionally.

I am thankful that I had her for 30 years. Some people are estranged from their mothers or never even knew them. I can't imagine that.

So, ((hugs)) to those missing their moms on Mother's Day. And if you still have your mom, give her an extra hug.

You never know when it might be the last one.