Art & Life of SwarDrawS

Well Christmas has come and gone. I never really felt in the spirit this year. My computer has been messed up since the 17th and I have been generally annoyed using this old one. I blame some of my holiday blahs on the fact that I couldn't get to my iTunes library (on the broke machine) to set my holiday music to shuffle so I never really listened to the music.

Yesterday I finally took the computer into the Apple store to get fixed. The credit card company should reimburse me for the $300 charge to fix it. I felt bad for the lady I was sitting next to and talking to at the Genius bar. The "genius" she got had no clue and no real troubleshooting skills. I wanted to jump behind the counter and help her LOL. I think she had a faulty modem or it could of been the adapter she was using (she still connects on with a 56k). Actually there were a couple things I would of tried to troubleshoot. I didn't have to worry about how adept my genius was because I knew my problem was beyond them. I just needed them to get it set up to send in. I should get it back in a week.

Christmas was nice. Poor RAW out did himself ad spent more money on my then he intended. Of course he has to keep mentioning it. Not in a mean way but in a disbelief kind of way. He got a Lensbaby 3.0 for my camera. I actually had one on order to buy myself but then he mentioned that he was looking at them I canceled it. He actually got me a version 1 but they have come a long way and it was hard to use. Unfortunately for him the version 3 was also 3xs the cost. It was backordered but ended up coming in time for Christmas. He also got me a nice knife set and 3 laser levels. I had asked for that so he got me three different types to make sure LOL.

I got him the alcoholic theme package. He has been into wine so I got him some wine glasses and opener kit. Then I got him a beer making kit. Of course in the meantime he gets diagnosed pre-diabetic.

Hollace got her iPod (allbeit a reconditioned Mini) and a iFish, lots of Littlest Petshops and a couple of beanie baby kiwi. She pretty much got everything on her list.

The day after Christmas we went to mom and dads. Pam was there as she just passed her kids to her inlaws for the week so I got to hang out with her a bit. Her family was here the weekend before. I had a little surprise birthday party to celebrate her 40th birthday.

Tomorrow Cindy and her family come for a visit.

Last weekend RAW broke the thermostat off of the oven. It looks like a new oven is in our future. Unfortunately replacing it will be more like a major kitchen remodel. I really wasn't planning on doing that right now but I guess we don't have a choice unless we expect to bake everything in our toaster oven!

Posted by swardraws at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is Christmas time but I don't feel it. My computer is sick so I feel a little lost as I try to manage on my 6 year old laptop (ug). The nice thing about the sick computer is that while it was giving me the wonky display problem a month ago, it fixed itself and stayed nice for 2 weeks while I worked on my Christmas card. It was only after I was ready to print them did the display go bad again.

I called Visa and they opened up a claim to pay for the repair but when can I get it done? I want to go up to the Apple store with it now but with the holidays it will probably take longer to fix. After the holidays, all the people who got new Macs or iPods will be clogging up the system.

In the meantime I plug away on the old machine and I feel lifeless as far as my online life goes. It is too much a pain to upload to Flickr. Actually not really, I just don't feel like it. I still upload my daily photoblog but I am digging into my old reserve images.

I haven't really been picking up or taking the camera with me lately either. I guess I need a break from all of my obsessions and enjoy the holiday season but I am not in the mood.

Swamped at work lately. I was hoping that after the rush of the end of year billing last Friday (everyone tries to get their project in before that deadline) I could relax but no, I am booked solid until after January 8th.

Today was the holiday thank you lunch for one of the commitees I am on. I sat next to the big boss and had a nice chat. It was a nice lunch even though I wasn't impressed with the food. I am not really into Italian food. I tried to avoid a tomato based dish so I ordered Chicken Marsala. Blah and now tonight I haven't been feeling 100%.

Tonight RAW's cousin Darrell and Deb came by. No one on that side of the family has ever came to visit us all the way over here. Darrell is trying for a new job that is in Kanas but first he had to have a 4 hour psych test in Milwaukee. Deb came with him and with her 9 month old niece's daughter. It was nice entertaining the little girl during the visit. I never picked up the camera and as you know I usually seek out babies to shoot.

I got to go wrap some gifts now so I am saying good night. Pam and family come out on Saturday. She turns 40 on Christmas so I got to plan a little b'day party for her visit. Today is Sherry's birthday.

Posted by swardraws at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got Hollace's school picture back. The poor thing looks miserable. I mean, come on, is getting your picture that bad girl?

The envelope is cracking me up LOL

I got her to agree to have me retake it

See now, was that so bad girly?

While taking that picture I realized that that wall is perfect for taking portraits. Well if it wasn't yellow maybe it would be better. It was a bitch to get all the yellow out of the skin tones. I supose if I didn't rely on auto white balance it would help. Anyway, I had this idea on how to turn my living room into a portrait studio without really messing up my living room. I will put up a fancy black curtain rod up and use different curtains for backdrops. My big paper floor lamp is perfect for light as well as the big picture window behind me. I am excited. Lets get started!

Posted by swardraws at 12:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

found me starting the week without a coat with the temps in the 60s only to wake up this morning to 10" of snow. Happy December 1st!

I took heed to the weather reports of substantial snow for Thursday night and got ready for a little work at home. The boss is against work at home as I am finding out but knows I am a winter weather driving weenie and actually emailed me first assuming I was going work at home today. Yep

From what I gather a lot of employees called in today and the others told stories of whoa trying to get in to work. Before I left work yesterday, I forwarded my phone to my cell and this morning I got a call from Lisa C asking how the roads were. I wouldn't know. I forgot that she called work and I was picking up a forwarded call LOL.

Hollace of course had a snow day too. We all hunkered down with both me and Hollace staying in jammies all day. Actually I got dressed at 4:30 just so I could go to the mailbox. I thought those guys don't let weather stop them from delivering mail. My box was empty.

Earlier this week I was contemplating getting a new computer. For the last few weeks my display has been going all wonky. A restart and all would be well. That wasn't the case however on Tuesday when it went bad and wouldn't clear up. I took a picture of the screen
and processed it, posted it and asked a question on one of the forum on Flickr sorta blind. The consensus was "what a great time to buy a new machine!" Ack, I don't want a new machine. This one wasn't even 2 years old yet and while I have some $$$ coming, I had it earmarked.

I took the machine to work for some diagnosics but the darn thing was working beautifully. I was talking about the prospect of getting a new machine when Sherry called. Would ya know she was calling because she was refinancing her house and would be able to pay back the money I loaned her much earlier than expected. And wouldn't ya know it that what she owes me is almost exacly how much a new laptop would cost. Fate there won't ya say?

Because I paid for this computer with my credit card which has waranty service that doubles the waranty, I should be able to get them to pay for a fix so hopefully I can hold off buying a new machine for a while.

Of course this is the worst time of year for it to go down or out to fix since I am hot and heavy in Christmas photocrafts. I just got this years calendar done. Now for some marble magnets and the Christmas card

Posted by swardraws at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)