Sunday Dinner, February 15, 2009

Another week has passed and it's time for my Sunday Dinner post again.

And I'm afraid I'm not cooking Sunday Dinner this week.

My sweet hubby is going to church with his mother on Sunday morning and spending some time with her because it's her birthday, so for Valentine's Day he's sending me out to eat for Sunday Dinner.

I have no idea where I'll be having Sunday Dinner tomorrow, but I won't be cooking it. Somebody else will be wearing the chef's hat for my Sunday Dinner this week.

Thanks, Lamar! I love you, babe. :o)

Feel free to post your Sunday Dinner menu/plans in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.Several times this week I've thought about writing a post, but just about the time I'd form the thought our power or internet would go off. I realize it's been almost 3 weeks since the ice storm here, but there are still people who don't have their electricity restored yet. Honestly.

Our power was off all day long Wednesday and it's been off for anything from a couple of seconds to a few hours here and there. Then there were the times that I had power but no internet.

Very frustrating, but I also realize that there are those people who've been without electricity for 3 weeks and I feel really selfish and snarky because I'm inconvenienced so little compared to them. Time to suck it up and be a little more patient and sensitive to others who are far less blessed than I am.

Most of the power outages are due to the linemen purposely turning off the electricity so they can add more circuits back online and get power back to more people. And occasionally as they add more lines back in service there are transformers that blow and other incidents that overload the system so it shuts down again until they can locate the problem.

Still, much better to be inconvenienced a few hours a day than to be without power at all. And I'm always thankful for the crews who are working upwards of 12 hours a day to get power back on for all of us. We pray for their safety as they work because it's a stressful, dangerous job on an average day, never mind the additional dangers of broken limbs just waiting to fall and snapping power poles, just to name a few.Another reason I haven't posted much is that I've been having some major problems with my computer. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here on the blog but I was blessed with a new laptop in October. I love the convenience of being able to blog from my recliner, but one thing I don't really like about the computer is that I was stuck with Vista as the operating system.

I'd heard a lot of negative stuff about Vista, and to be fair, I've heard some good things as well, but the bad far outweighed the good. Nevertheless, in order to get the deal I got on the laptop it was Vista or nothing, so I took it.

The first several weeks or so I had no problems at all with the laptop, then occasionally it would lock up or crash, maybe once a week or so. Then gradually, almost before I even realized it, my laptop was freezing up or crashing at least once a day.

Finally on Thursday night I turned on the laptop to check my email, and before I had even read 4 emails it crashed on me again. That was the last straw for me. I told Lamar, the laptop is useless if I can't even have it on for 5 minutes before it crashes, so I was bound and determined to either fix it or tear it up for real.

I had some suspicions that at least part of the problem was my Firefox browser because after my laptop automatically downloaded a Firefox update back in November was when I first noticed the problems and it just steadily got worse. I'd also heard that Firefox and Vista were having some compatibility issues, much like a couple of hormonal teenagers. So last week I uninstalled Firefox and then reloaded it thinking that might fix the problem.

Nope.

So yesterday I did a go back on my computer where I reset it back to a former date where things seemed to be okay with it. I then uninstalled Firefox again and restarted my computer, then visited the Mozilla*Firefox site via Internet*Explorer, where I downloaded the latest version of Firefox including all available updates.

And......so far so good! And I hope that's the worst problem I ever have with my laptop. Or as I like to affectionately call him, Clyde Earl.

(I have no idea why my laptop is a male - it just seems right.)For those of you who've been following my daughter JESSICA'S BLOG, I have a bit of news. Jessica is taking Certified Nursing Assistant classes at a neighboring town in addition to her regular job. She's going to classes and doing hands on learning there at a nursing home during the day, then working her regular hours during the evenings and on Saturdays.

After she finishes her classes there and passes their test, she'll be licensed by that nursing home. After she works there for a while she'll be able to take the state test to be licensed as a CNA and then will be able to work in other nursing homes or hospitals.

It's a complicated matter but I think I have the basics correct. If not, Jessica can correct me and straighten out the details.

Bottom line, it will give Jessica more options as she's working and will enable her to have more job opportunities and better salary options.

Times are hard all over and our area is no exception. Businesses and factories that have been in operation for generations are closing, and the ones that aren't outright shutting down are laying off long standing employees left and right.

Jason, bless his heart, has been trying so hard to find a job but they're just not out there right now. Until something comes along for him, he's staying home with Emmy while Jessica works. He's doing such a good job with Emmy and holding down the home front.

Jason cooks most of the meals for him and Emmy, including supper every night, and sometimes Jessica has time to stop on her way from her classes, eat supper and see them for a few minutes before she has to go to her other job. Jason is also doing a lot of the housekeeping and other chores to pick up the slack since Jessica is working and gone so much.

I'm so proud of him, and so is Jessica!

Also, they seem to have fixed at least some of their computer issues but with Jessica working and going to classes her computer time will still be limited. Hopefully she can find some time to post and update a little more often than she has lately.I want to wish you all a very Happy Valentine's Day, or what's left of it. Of course all you cool sweethearts are probably out celebrating right now, but you'll find this when you get home, turn on your computer and read your favorite blogs.

Thanks to all of my readers/lurkers who've taken the time to leave me a comment or email me to let me know you're out there reading. I appreciate you all so much. :o)

Hope you all have a great Sunday and coming week. May God richly bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.