Birthdays etc.

Not only did Linda Davick post the cutest birthday Flash cartoon for me yesterday, but she also sent me a little treasure load of goodies, which I attempted to scan this morning and post here.

I'm overwhelmed, Linda. THANKYOUTANKYOUTHANKYOU!

and did you know they were the only presents I got?

My mother forgot it was my birthday when I called her, but I could understand. Before she got moved to Assisted Living she made a point of remembering what day it was in case some mental specialist walked up to her and said, "Do you know what day it is?"

Now that she's graduated to Assisted Living she doesn't have to worry about that. Also she's told me that she tries to go to every activity they offer-- a way to fill the time between meals, is how she explains it, instead of staying home on your bed and feeling sad. Like a cruise ship.

So yesterday she'd hauled out to the activity room where they'd set up WII bowling, (and a cheer for me that I could figure out what she was talking about.) She loved it, and said they're going to do tennis and golf too. Her knee brace had fallen down around her ankle, but she played on, until she got a strike, which was so overwhelming she had to go back to her room and think about it.

In the process of posting the "scan" of goodies above, I fell into the underbelly of Windows Vista badness:
Last week we bought an HP All in One Printer, Scanner, Fax at Target, because our $38.00 Epson printer snapped off in several places when we tried to replace the ink cartridge. I'm in charge of technical stuff around here, (except remote controls.)

It copies fine, it prints fine, it even sent a fax off. But, but, it turns out that Windows Vista won't allow the scan button to work . I guess because it is not a Microsoft button you are pressing. It took me quite a few turns around the internet to learn, " The drivers in the Windows Vista operating system do not support button press functionality on the product."

You have to open Windows Paint, the accessory introduced and forgotten in Windows 95, to get the scanner to work. And then it works fine.

I don't usually get worked up about Microsoft stuff but this one was pretty crazy.

We had a nice hike in the morning, with lovely ominous clouds and distant thunder. Then in the afternoon I could not put down Ian Rankin's "Dead Souls," a detective thriller set in Edinburgh.

Late in the day we drove into Telluride to go to a restaurant reached only by gondola, Allred's, at 10,000 feet. We'd never been there before, and wanted to get there before it closes. (Economy is getting hit hard here too.) When you get off the gondola, you walk through a heavy door into a long reception room with no one in it and sales charts all over the walls, then into another similar room that promises free parking for life if you buy a condominium. Also the usual crap about how you'll know you've really arrived when....(Countrywide comes to your front door.)

Then into a smaller chamber with an elevator and arrows, then up a floor to a corridor that led to the restaurant. (All the previous rooms were empty.) It's not in a hotel.

We had a nice seat by the window, and looked at the pricey menu. I'd seen help wanted ads in the paper for every position including chef a week ago, but the prices didn't reflect this. I looked around the room. Not too many people here, but it seemed like a special occasion restaurant, or would be if people who bought condos in Mountain Village weren't all from Richistan. Some people were dressed ala country club. We'd tried our best to look presentable but still were only in jeans and shirts with buttons, but some old timers had shown up in jogging shorts and t shirts without the bods to go with them. ick.

We ordered crispy crabcakes, in a nice sauce but canned crab inside, and buffalo oso bucco which came on a slush pile of mashed, no, slushed potatoes and a fancy little fork on the side. I'm hoping the crock pot short ribs tonight will taste better. I'd been promised dessert, but the food was so rich that I couldn't get that far.

The bus girl came by and asked us, "Still working on that?" which is a flash line for both of us at restaurants. I may have ranted about this before.

But we looked at each other, held our breath, and just said, "we're done." As she walked away, Jon said, "There but for fortune..." which gave me pause, because who wants that crappy job, and she looked to be about our age, like maybe she was a former ski instructor with bad knees.

When we got home I plunged back into the world of Edinburgh scariness, and could barely sleep all night. This morning I've been devouring the delicious chocolate coins Linda sent: sublime chocolate and it really looks like money.