Conficker Worm and other things

Bear Wresting!
This photo is one for the album on my old web page, called bears. I will frame them all for on the web page album, I think. I have a few more for the Painted Vases album also. I want to frame those and load larger photos in the album.

Tomorrow at 8:00 Wally will be here to install the carpet and the lino in the ensuite. So, I will be unplugged tomorrow. I have taken photos of the things plugged into the tower and the bars. I hope I can get it all plugged in again. I am so dumb about this stuff... this is a good exercise for me. Maybe I won't be so afraid I am going to break something, if I just go ahead and do stuff. I moved my scanner and printer. I accidentally unplugged the keyboard and then plugged it back into the wrong hole. Welllll took me a while to figure out why my settings would not load. Really!! It is going to take making all the mistakes, I guess, to learn.

I spent quite a bit of my time today reading about this Conficker Worm that seems to have been introduced some time in November and is being re-invented to make it harder for Microsoft to defend against. Microsoft and a few of the other internet important companies have banded together to combat this malicious thing. Microsoft has offered a $250,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the creator(s). There seems to be a threat of the worm attacking from its botnet on April 1st. Since I have to be unplugged tomorrow, I might just stay unplugged for the 3 more days. I am sure the garden could use my attention.

The daffodils are showing color, the helebores, anemones, cyclamens, arabis, are all starting too. The snowdrops and crocus are about finished. I have not had time to get the photos of these plants ready for posting. Well, maybe, Sunday, I can just work with my photos and not be on the internet. This might work so I can get caught up with a few of the things I want to get done.

At the Jewish Cemetery

On March 6th I was shooting photos for the Victoria Grid Project - a group on Flickr. The Jewish Cemetery is in the March grid. As I was getting my photos ready for the grid group pool, I noticed that this flower pot is broken and the poppy does not look like a flower from the florists, or a cut flower. Oriental poppies, are difficult to keep this fresh looking and you seldom if ever seem them sold as cut flowers. When I was shooting this, I took no notice of how this flower was growing. NOW, looking at my photos, I believe this poppy is growing in the ground. It is very early for this plant to be in bloom, though. Perhaps its the warmth of all the stones in the area. The poppies in my garden have leaves about 6 - 8 inches tall, now... 3 weeks after these shots were taken. I really must go back some time and try to find this flower again.

I have finished cleaning up my light garden and find I now have one extra tray, without plants. I think I will leave it for now, as I have no plans for more plants, at the moment. Two of the cactus plants are too tall for the tiers and I might put them out for the summer and not bring them in.

Last evening we went to see Slumdog, the Millionaire. Oh boy!! this is a high impact movie.. there are parts that I could not watch. It did have a happy ending. I was happy to end up back home where its quiet, clean, and comfortable.

More of the March 7th snow

More photos from our momentary snow on the 7th of March.

The ladybug opens up and there is a tiny space inside. I have a collection of little boxes. Some as keepsakes from places we have travelled. The collection is going to be in my 'pass through' new cabinet and will be visible from the living room and from my room. The ladybug box was in a giftshop in the Tillicum Mall. I could not resist it. It is my favourite box at the moment.

In looking at the site meter of my blog this morning, I found that My Garden is an author on this new website: metrocascade. Since they seem to be using my posts under Gardening, I guess I should be entering some Gardening information!! So, I signed on to their site. I don't know if I should attempt to post to their page, or if I should just keep adding any information to my blog.

March 7th snow

These photos are from March 7th. The snow came down in big fluffy snowflakes and piled up everywhere in an hour or two. The weather stayed around the freezing point for a few days before the snow was gone. We seldom get these opportunities to shoot the snow.

I finished cleaning, feeding and watering the top two tiers of my light garden. I have yet to do the cactus tier. The plants look pretty good, since I have been fertilizing them more regularly.

Victoria Grid Project, March

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. These are two of the photos from the Victoria Grid, taken on March 6th. The Jewish Cemetery is in the grid and I spent most of my time taking photos there. Like the Chinese Cemetery from an earlier grid, I get caught up in the history. It is not a place where I would go to shoot usually, but when there, I become engrossed in the site.

John Gray finished the painting at the end of the week. He did his usual very good work. The kitchen looks great with the bright cheery yellow. All the colors seem to balance in the kitchen. I especially like the main bath. I have started to hang pictures, but have quite a few to go yet. Wally will be here to finish the floor covering with the carpet in my room, on the 28th. Then David must finish the trim and kickplates. I am really liking how everything looks. My faux leaded glass light fixture looks great too. I like the pot lights in the kitchen. John did a good job of patching and painting the ceilings.

Trevor brought my computer back on Monday evening. . . . just when I was getting over missing being on line. I now have an automatic backup that works and space to transfer movies and anything I don't use much .. for storage. The backup has 5 copies stored so half of the drive is used up. If I ever start shooting and tweaking large photos, I may need more storage, or buy on line space.

Yesterday we went to Victoria Vacuum Cleaners to buy a Dyson ball action upright. We can away with a much lighter Eureka upright for 1/5 the cost of the Dyson. We also got Eureka's dust buster with a handle. This is going to make vacuuming and keeping up the house so much easier than dragging that horrible in the wall vacuum and its hose, around.

We need our own smileys for the new site. Cyrus has made a few that look really very good. He is trying to teach me how to do them. Well, I was up half the night last night obsessing about making these animations. I know the basics, now I just need practise. No doubt he will have them all made before I can manage a decent one. Learning curve took another steep climb and is still climbing.

The day before yesterday I decided that I needed a few more photos for my 'painted vases' album on my web page. So, I spent some time getting a few done. Now I need to tweak them, frame them and load to my page. There is no rush, but I really feel like I should at least get one album done in 2009. The last year on my Travel page is 2005 - the big album of the big Danube Cruise. I have lots of space so I can loaded bigger photos in the albums, now.

Spring, spring, spring ahead

I few more crocus photos from last Friday. Some macros for the Flower Petal Art group on Flickr.
We had snow yesterday evening! Even though the temperature was 4 above. I was watching this out my patio window/door. The light was surreal. I don't think I could have conveyed this with a photo. It was rather like the light when you are under a rainbow.
On Friday, Pat and I picked up a deli sandwich and cookie and he took me out to the Victoria Grid to shoot, in the camper van. I am sure lunch was the big item for him. He waited patiently in "the reading room" while I became engrossed in the Jewish Cemetery and walked a bit more. The grid is in Fernwood this month. Interesting area... older area of town with a mix of housing. In fact I loved the big old 3 story houses, all kept up nicely, individually painted with cute gardens and gates. A few years ago, I had a rental property that was just outside this grid. Sold it. We did not go look at it, this day. I wish I had got over to George Jay School to shoot some, but the month is not over yet.
Tomorrow, the painters come at 9:00 to repair and paint the walls and ceilings in the kitchen, my room, and the main bath. We have a bright and cheerful light yellow in mind. My techie will be here to take my computer to the shop for maintenance at the same time. So, when John Gray and his son are finished painting, we only have the carpet in my room, David to finish the kick plates, and other cabinetry stuff, hang the pictures and ENJOY! Yeay!
We managed to get in on the new little tax credit for stimulating the economy. Lucky us! not a bit perk, but all helps. Good thing its getting finished.... old car stuff is right around the corner... there will be no time to think about travelling just now... not for me anyway. We talk about it, but this wait will just make the next trip so much better. Old car events and GARDENING! as soon as it quits snowing, anyway.
Pat has most of his cabinets up in the garage. One more to go. I can't believe we got that last one up and screwed to the wall! Was quite a feat! This thing is well over my head in height. Pat had us prop the edge of it up, once we had it hoisted onto its 2 x 4 ledge, prop it up with another 2 x 4 board while he put in the screws to hold it! Oh man! I was having fits, imagining it pushing him off his ladder while it fell off its prop. whew! it up and ready to be loaded with all those garage goodies. PS: there were NOT that many garage words applied while getting this cabinet in place!! Just a lot of silent anxiety.. on my part anyway.
Have spent a bit of time text talking about the new site. Cyrus and his builders are advancing at a goodly rate. The stuff I have seen -- which is all he has designed and most coded so far -- is spectacular!! The guy is working 24/7 to get this going! I have no doubt that all his dreams for the site will come true. The features of the site are marvelous and state of the art. Go CY go!!

testing

I was getting just code and not seeing the photo I had uploaded. I don't know how I broke it, but I have gone over my 'settings' and reset them all as they were. Now its working right, again.

This rainbow is from some time ago.

Flying

These photos are from my trip back to Regina for my sister's funeral services, about a month ago. I can see where I can dump a most of the out of the plane window photos. It was a sunny day coming over the rockies. Was grand from the window. We were sitting right over the wing though.

Yesterday, John was in to see about doing our paint and repairs to the walls. His son is working with him now. They will move my desk, thank heavens. Trevor is going to come to take my computer at 9:30 on Monday. John is coming at 9:00 Monday. We were lucky to get John this quickly, as he just happened to have a few slow days, before he is doing another big apartment job! Yeay! I am pretty excited about getting things finalized. Just the carpet in my room and then David to finish up the cabinets trim.

Pat is getting the cupboards up in the garage. The last one is going to be a real ... to get the rest of the way up the wall. He wants them soooo high on the wall.... the lowest shelf is over 5 feet from the floor.

Yesterday I tried using philo pastry around shrimp and scallops. Not bad for a first try. Too much butter, though. Today I made lintel chowder and have 4 jars frozen. After lunch, I made borscht and have 2 large jars and 2 smaller ones of this frozen. Pat's high cholestrol and blood pressure has made us both more conscious of eating with less/no salt, ditto animal fats, butter, etc. Its kinda fun to have time in the kitchen to be a bit creative, too.

The temperature is suppose to go to - 4 celcius tonite. Hope the flowers survive. I have my water fall turned back on. Its too cold to stock fish, yet. That wretched frog will probably get them anyway. The marsh marigolds are starting to come up. All the edging is still in place. I want to get more rock plants growing on these rocks and hanging over the edges, if possible. I could lower the rocks a bit but this would again destroy any plants that are starting to get a foothold to grow among and over the rocks.

I got most of my Flickr moderating stuff up to date. Made the award and invitation codes for another group and so am Admin there, now. Its a nice group. I like the photos in there. Rolf has a pending pool and I won't be interfering with his decisions on any of the choices for the photo pool. The new site is going to just grand. They are getting a few more things done.

The Gorge Park

Photos from almost 2 weeks ago when we took our Red Barn deli sandwiches to the Gorge waterway Park. I had my ND grad filter attached and so the colors are rather rich. No processing in photoshop except to downsize and USM. They are adding more things to the park. It is a lovely spot. Too bad for them that they did not keep the old Takata Japanese gardens that a group of people had wanted to renew. The Glendale Gardens botanical garden is the richer for this Park's loss. Last summer the Japanese Gardens were officially opened at Glendale and they are gorgeous. Thanks to all the people who supported this grand effort and made it possible.

We now have our new lino in the kitchen and main bathroom. It looks terrific. I am getting so impatient to have it all finished. Wally did a fine job! He, too, was very complimentary about our cabinets and counter tops. Well... carpet in my room, and paint and we are finished. Wally will be back to do the ensuite bathroom when the carpet arrives. He said he would help move my desk. I can see where it would be a lot easier than using our little dolly to move stuff. The dishwasher did not need to be moved, so that problem was solved.

We were out to Romero's for dinner last nite. Always a reliable place to eat. The thin crust pizza is better and less dough. Tonight was dinner at home, even though I only got my kitchen back at 3:00.

I spent a few minutes outside today. Turned the water pump back on and the waterfall is running again. All the edging is still in place. Maybe I can get fish again when it warms up. I have not seen that big frog, since I threw it out of the pond when I cleaned the pond. I have seen great blue herons in the area. I wonder if they might be nesting nearby. That would be great. But they are in eagle territory as we have a nesting pair of eagles somewhere in the park, too. There is lots of park area. I hope they can co-exist.

Spring is late this year

These are few of the flowers blooming in my garden. The photos are not great. The hellebores, winter jasmine, a few arabis and some white crocus are also blooming. I have not been out in the garden in the last while as it has been a bit coolish. Pat did some clean up of the fallen branches and started some pruning on the plum tree. It could stand quite a lot more pruning.

Pat got another one of the shelf units up in the garage, with a bit of help from me. We hoisted it up with a pulley, that he used to use to put the hardtop on his BMW. I don't think the next unit will work on the pulley, though. He might have to think of another ingenious way to hoist it up.. or get some of his big friends to help. Today we moved the desk, fridge and stove. We could not get the dishwasher out. It is jammed in its hole with a broken leg, I think. Wally will be here tomorrow to put in the lino. I hope he has some suggestions about the dishwasher. Like, why can't we just leave it in there? If ever it needs to come out... there will just be another one go into the hole and cover up the old lino that will be left there.

We were out to Brannigan's for dinner.. just ok, not great.

I am waiting for my book Arminius to be delivered... probably mid March. It is about Rome.. from Cesaer to Charlemange. I read some of it on line and really was getting into it. I need a good book about Alexander the Great, too. At the moment I am re-reading the Assayrian about ancient Persia and surrounding area.. Tigres and Euphrates rivers. There are no maps, so I should be looking this up with Google. The era is of when Sennacherib was king... not sure where he was king but Nineveh as their city, and Babylon belonged to the neighboring people. So, I should like to get a book, perhaps on their great King Cyrus the great. Must research it some more. I don't have a good historical book about Marco Polo, either, although he was considerably later. And then there is all the Chinese dynasties... I could stand to know a bit more about them.