If you click on the picture below it takes you to Wordle and shows you a word cloud
I made using the first 2 paragraphs of my favorite book.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wordle is my favorite new toy
Friday, March 6, 2009
A Really Bad Day
So. I have had a pretty bad cold for a week - lots of coughing, phlegm, chills and the like and decided I should probably get myself to the doctor. I planned to drive my car over to Edmonds and see when I could get into the Shoreline Clinic (UW), working until my appointment, then taking my viral little self home. Not a problem - I was able to get a 1:30 appointment - not bad for a Monday during cold and flu season! I drove over to the clinic, was examined and prescribed. I decided to go to Trader Joe's and pick up some tasties we can't get over here in the wilds of Kitsap County.
As I start my car, it sounds rough - like it's not hitting all the cylinders (and I only have 4 - one missing is a big deal!) - it was fine when I drove there. I turn it off, then back on and it seems to be ok, so I head off north on Aurora. It starts chugging whenever I have to stop at a light - and there are a lot of lights between Shoreline and 196th St. I pulled into a random parking lot, decided it was running smoothly again and kept going to Trader Joe's. As I am turning left from Aurora onto 196th, I stall - right where all the angry drivers seem to congregate. I quickly got it into neutral, restarted, popped it back into drive and chugged into the Trader Joe lot. After letting Don know something was going on with my car, I got out of the car and there is was: a burn mark about 8 inches across on the hood. I don't know much about cars, but I'm pretty sure that is not a real good sign. I called Don back and opened it while I had him on the line and saw a lot of melted wires and plastic - no flames, than goodness! But again - pretty sure this was a bad sign.
Now what?!? I called several people and was able to get some phone numbers (Thanks Shaun!) of tow companies and the Edmonds Auto Shop. The auto shop gave me a number of a tow company that they contracted with so I went ahead and called them. Then the wait. Luckily, as a consummate ferry commuter, I had a paper back book ("6th Target" by James Patterson - meh, not the best thing I've read lately), a water bottle and some snacks! They came and loaded my smoked vehicle onto the flatbed (cool to watch, btw!) and the tow guys offered to give me a lift down to the auto shop - what girl can pass that up?
So I caught the ferry I would have caught had I stayed all day at work anyway! As I'm boarding the aforementioned ferry, I get a call from the shop telling me it was caused by a mouse nest on the manifold which caught fire and melted a variety of things which will cost thousands of dollars. His suggestion was to contact our homeowner's insurance company and argue for that policy paying for some of the repairs as it wasn't mechanics which caused the damage, but being outside our home did.
Then I got home and discovered one of the cats had thrown up on the couch. Yay.
As I start my car, it sounds rough - like it's not hitting all the cylinders (and I only have 4 - one missing is a big deal!) - it was fine when I drove there. I turn it off, then back on and it seems to be ok, so I head off north on Aurora. It starts chugging whenever I have to stop at a light - and there are a lot of lights between Shoreline and 196th St. I pulled into a random parking lot, decided it was running smoothly again and kept going to Trader Joe's. As I am turning left from Aurora onto 196th, I stall - right where all the angry drivers seem to congregate. I quickly got it into neutral, restarted, popped it back into drive and chugged into the Trader Joe lot. After letting Don know something was going on with my car, I got out of the car and there is was: a burn mark about 8 inches across on the hood. I don't know much about cars, but I'm pretty sure that is not a real good sign. I called Don back and opened it while I had him on the line and saw a lot of melted wires and plastic - no flames, than goodness! But again - pretty sure this was a bad sign.
Now what?!? I called several people and was able to get some phone numbers (Thanks Shaun!) of tow companies and the Edmonds Auto Shop. The auto shop gave me a number of a tow company that they contracted with so I went ahead and called them. Then the wait. Luckily, as a consummate ferry commuter, I had a paper back book ("6th Target" by James Patterson - meh, not the best thing I've read lately), a water bottle and some snacks! They came and loaded my smoked vehicle onto the flatbed (cool to watch, btw!) and the tow guys offered to give me a lift down to the auto shop - what girl can pass that up?
So I caught the ferry I would have caught had I stayed all day at work anyway! As I'm boarding the aforementioned ferry, I get a call from the shop telling me it was caused by a mouse nest on the manifold which caught fire and melted a variety of things which will cost thousands of dollars. His suggestion was to contact our homeowner's insurance company and argue for that policy paying for some of the repairs as it wasn't mechanics which caused the damage, but being outside our home did.
Then I got home and discovered one of the cats had thrown up on the couch. Yay.
What Was I Thinking?
This is a monologue I performed at a Talent Show...
Hi – I’m Shirley Bomgaars. And I’ve had the name Shirley pretty much my whole life. I was the second child – the first was a girl and I think they expected me to be a boy so they probably had this really cool boy name all picked out. When I turned out to be a girl, they panicked and named me Shirley and it stuck. I’m here with my husband Don – he’s that kinda hairy fellow running around with a camera. He’s looking pretty good right now because he took the dog to the groomer last week – I think he had a “two-fer” coupon… Yeah – one time Don came through the house without a shirt on and our daughter called out, “Hey dad – nice sweater!” Our daughter’s name is Andrea and she’s in her second year of vet school at Wazoo. She’s already decided that she wants to stick with small animals. If she has to put on a rubber glove up to her arm pit, she really doesn’t want to deal with it. She got married about a year and a half ago to her high school sweetheart, Andrew. That’s, right – Andrea and Andrew. Yeah, it’s a little too cute! We tried to get him to change his name, but he just wouldn’t do it. No grandchildren yet, and that’s a good thing, but we do have 2 grandkitties and one grandpuppy. We are so proud! Wanna see pictures? First slide please! Kidding! I don’t have that kind of power…
Our son is named Jonah –and yes, as a matter of fact, he was spewed forth from the belly of a whale. It’s a biblical reference – look it up. There are those who said that I was the most pregnant person they had ever seen. I was as big around as I was tall and I weighed more than Don – which he seemed to think was funny. Me? Not so much! Jonah weighed 10 and a half pounds when he was born and let me tell you, I was glad someone else could carry him around for a change! People always ask me where he got his red hair. I always say it’s because I ate a lot of squash when I was pregnant – beta carotene – I’m pretty sure that’s the scientific explanation. Actually, when you look at him, you can see he takes after his daddy. That’s right – he has a beard, too. They grow up fast, though. Right now he’s a freshman at the U-Dub and currently planning on being an “eccentric history professor.” Take from that what you will!
Kids today! I hate that I am old enough to say that and mean it! Anyway – in the “What Were They Thinking” department, my nephew just got married. In Michigan. In January. Oh we went to it and it was fun – cold, very, very, cold – but fun. Of course then the newlyweds went off to the Bahamas. Boy, did I pick the wrong vacation! Maybe I should have said this was the “What Was I Thinking” department! Yeah, I think we better go with that…
We stayed with my in-laws. We slept in cute twin beds with picket fence headboards and stuffed animals all around. I’m just guessing here, but I think the grandkids usually sleep in there. I don’t know about the kids, but we didn’t get a lot of sleep. It wasn’t the stuffed animals –although that was kind of creepy. It was all the clocks that seemed to surround the room. Big, loud clocks. They all had the swinging pendulums and the quarter hour bongs – and a couple of them chimed out the hour. And they didn’t go off at the same time – although that would have been pretty bad – no, they were set about 30 seconds or so apart. So if you had the misfortune to wake up in the night, there was a good chance you would hear a clock going off on the quarter hour. Then you would lay there wondering when the next one would go off and if it gonged out the top of the hour, you knew that in the next minute or so the hour would chime on one of those…darned clocks!
And speaking of time, mine is up. Thank you.
Hi – I’m Shirley Bomgaars. And I’ve had the name Shirley pretty much my whole life. I was the second child – the first was a girl and I think they expected me to be a boy so they probably had this really cool boy name all picked out. When I turned out to be a girl, they panicked and named me Shirley and it stuck. I’m here with my husband Don – he’s that kinda hairy fellow running around with a camera. He’s looking pretty good right now because he took the dog to the groomer last week – I think he had a “two-fer” coupon… Yeah – one time Don came through the house without a shirt on and our daughter called out, “Hey dad – nice sweater!” Our daughter’s name is Andrea and she’s in her second year of vet school at Wazoo. She’s already decided that she wants to stick with small animals. If she has to put on a rubber glove up to her arm pit, she really doesn’t want to deal with it. She got married about a year and a half ago to her high school sweetheart, Andrew. That’s, right – Andrea and Andrew. Yeah, it’s a little too cute! We tried to get him to change his name, but he just wouldn’t do it. No grandchildren yet, and that’s a good thing, but we do have 2 grandkitties and one grandpuppy. We are so proud! Wanna see pictures? First slide please! Kidding! I don’t have that kind of power…
Our son is named Jonah –and yes, as a matter of fact, he was spewed forth from the belly of a whale. It’s a biblical reference – look it up. There are those who said that I was the most pregnant person they had ever seen. I was as big around as I was tall and I weighed more than Don – which he seemed to think was funny. Me? Not so much! Jonah weighed 10 and a half pounds when he was born and let me tell you, I was glad someone else could carry him around for a change! People always ask me where he got his red hair. I always say it’s because I ate a lot of squash when I was pregnant – beta carotene – I’m pretty sure that’s the scientific explanation. Actually, when you look at him, you can see he takes after his daddy. That’s right – he has a beard, too. They grow up fast, though. Right now he’s a freshman at the U-Dub and currently planning on being an “eccentric history professor.” Take from that what you will!
Kids today! I hate that I am old enough to say that and mean it! Anyway – in the “What Were They Thinking” department, my nephew just got married. In Michigan. In January. Oh we went to it and it was fun – cold, very, very, cold – but fun. Of course then the newlyweds went off to the Bahamas. Boy, did I pick the wrong vacation! Maybe I should have said this was the “What Was I Thinking” department! Yeah, I think we better go with that…
We stayed with my in-laws. We slept in cute twin beds with picket fence headboards and stuffed animals all around. I’m just guessing here, but I think the grandkids usually sleep in there. I don’t know about the kids, but we didn’t get a lot of sleep. It wasn’t the stuffed animals –although that was kind of creepy. It was all the clocks that seemed to surround the room. Big, loud clocks. They all had the swinging pendulums and the quarter hour bongs – and a couple of them chimed out the hour. And they didn’t go off at the same time – although that would have been pretty bad – no, they were set about 30 seconds or so apart. So if you had the misfortune to wake up in the night, there was a good chance you would hear a clock going off on the quarter hour. Then you would lay there wondering when the next one would go off and if it gonged out the top of the hour, you knew that in the next minute or so the hour would chime on one of those…darned clocks!
And speaking of time, mine is up. Thank you.
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