Another Reason I Like My Mac, and some other stuff.

There is a town called Paradise in our field. It is very small and dingy and unParadisical looking, and every time we have driven through it, I have thought that it looks just exactly like one of those towns in one of those novels about militias and white supremists tucked away in desolate and mountainous parts. It's certainly mountainous. We almost never see any people around when we are going through, and I amuse myself by watching out the window and imagining them all watching us through their curtains or something. So the other day, I learned I was right all along! Or sort of right. Someone told us that apparently, if you take a turn off the main road and wind back up behind Paradise, there is a camp of such-like folks in there.
(P.S. Dear FBI agents who have nothing better to do than wander around the internet looking for mentions of the evil words 'militia' and 'white supremist'. I don't know anything more about this than I have stated up above, so there is no use whatsoever hunting me down to ask. Fyi.)

I have an Apple story to relate for those of you who are following the slow and intermittent saga of my switch from PC to Mac. We made some bookmarks for Teresa to take to the Orient with her. I still have these lingering notions lurking in my brain that Mac software can't interact with the rest of the world, so I didn't even think to suggest that I do it on my computer instead of on Sandy's. Besides, Sandy had all the pictures. So we get it all done (in Word) and properly arranged, four to a page, for printing, and then we go to print. Ha! Sandy's computer won't recognize the printer we are borrowing. It wants an installation disk which we don't have and don't feel like trying to find. Well, fine! we think. We'll put it on a memory stick and print it from /their/ computer! Riiiiight. Their computer won't recognize Sandy's memory stick. You got it. It wants an installation disk. (Side note: whoever on earth ever heard of a memory stick coming with an installation disk???) We back off, scratching our heads in perplexion. (If that's not a word, it ought to be.)
Ohhhhh, idea! We'll put the file on an SD card and stick it directly into the printer. Unfortunately, as it's not a photo file, the printer won't print it. BUT. It can be downloaded to their computer. Bingo, we think! Download happily, hunt up file, open it and... well. They haven't got Microsoft Word on their computer. But they do have Microsoft Works. That ought to work, right? It's made by the same company, same basic program, comes with the computer so it isn't anything fancy or extra... of course you could open a Word file in Works.
Wrong.
Finally, I have the last gasping effort sort of thought - well, let's try /my/ laptop. I know I have a program that will open Word files, and maybe I'll have the right driver for the printer. This takes a little bit more work, as I need to copy each bookmark into Paint and back to Word on Sandy's computer first (don't ask me why, that's /another/ enormously long story - suffice to say that doing that somehow convinces the computer that our single bookmark is indeed one single object), but it's not very long before I'm plugging her memory stick into my laptop, and trotting over to plug the printer in too. Hooray! We have Printage!  (I leave out a long, unrelated issue with the printer itself, which was sulking because of some jammed paper from an earlier copying job.) But the hardest part about doing it from my Mac?
It was too easy.
It was funny, really. I plugged Sandy's flashdrive into my USB port and waited for something to happen. You know, like how Windows will blink a little window at you saying 'new hardware detected' or the like.
Nothing happens. I start thumbing through files and folders and programs on this crazy computer wondering where on earth you /look/ for something like a USB port plug-in. Where's my Windows Explorer??? After some time of this, I realize that the file from the flashdrive has been sitting patiently on my desktop, in plain view (or would have been if it wasn't hidden behind open windows), just waiting for me. Heh heh.

Back to the Book List.

Book Number 4.  (I fear I am grossly ignoring the part of this that requested they be books that are important to you... these are just ones I liked.  :) Although... you /could/ say this one was important!  And it's all Dorlene's fault that I read it in the first place.

Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray.

It's a crack up.  I mean, any book that starts by telling you the main character (middle aged lady) was at a seminar where they told them to relax by imagining some place comforting and safe - and who imagines being inside a bundt cake, has /got/ to be good, right?  Well, it was.  :)  AND the best part is that there are recipes in the back.  :D  Which was a very good thing because by the time I'd read it just part way through, I wanted to Eat Cake in the worst way possible.  Imagine how tormented I would be if no cake (or cake recipe) had been available??

And even better?  They're good recipes.  I highly recommend the Upside Down Pear GingerBread Cake.  Highly.  It's almost better than chocolate.  I made it at least 4 times in the next month and a half.  (There is the important to me part.)

I wonder why my slideshow isn't working properly... 

As far as I can tell, all the pictures are formatted the same; the ones that aren't showing up aren't larger than the ones that are.

Hm.  Very strange.  I shall have to investigate.  But not now!

Got to go study!

Pedicure Secrets of the Ages Revealed!!!

I am truly brilliant. Either that, or this was all some great cosmic sort of accident, but I prefer thinking I'm brilliant. ;)

Oh, all right, the truth was that there was lots of snow, and I have no other boots (except my cowboy boots, which, as much as I love them and as well as they do for traction in snow, are not the sort of thing I want to wear for standing up in all day long - and ESPECIALLY not what I want to wear anywhere near where they might get paint splattered on them. My hiking boots, I don't care about so much. They are much older and will keep on working very nicely, paint-splatters or no.) Anyways. Here is the great secret, for those of you who are waiting breathlessly.

For wonderfully soft and smooth feets:

Wear hiking boots with wool socks for 4 weeks solid. Every day, except Sunday's which you can have off. All day long. And I do mean ALL day. Put them on before 7 am, and don't take them off until after 7 pm. (You don't have to use the same pair of socks all month, if you were wondering.) Walk around a lot and stand most of the day. Voila! At the end of the month, you will have smooth, lovely brand new feets! If they are also sore from all that standing, I take no responsibility.
Hooray!

Yay, new pictures!  Winter ones, even.  :)

We're all packed up and gone from Ronan, except Sandy and I, of course.  And even we're sort of gone - we're in Polson.  No more building until March.

We'll start gospel mtgs Sundays over in Hot Springs, and Wed, we hope, down in Charlo.  It'll be nice to flip things around and have the Sun. mtg on the other side of the field - easier for those folks to get to for a while.

Reading Anna's sister's blog has inspired me to post my all-time favorite engineer joke, heh heh.

There were four engineers driving down the road when their car broke down.  They pulled off to the shoulder and sat there pondering what might be wrong.  

The mechanical engineer said, "I heard a grinding sound just before things went wrong, I bet there's something wrong with the suspension."

The electrical engineer shook his head decidedly.  "No, no, didn't you see that puff of smoke?  I'm sure the wiring has shorted out!"

The chemical engineer snorted.  "You're both wrong," he stated.  "The engine was sputtering a little; I'm positive that something has contaminated the fuel."

The Microsoft Windows engineer listened to all of this, then spoke up hesitantly.  "I don't know much about cars," he said, "But why don't we try shutting the car off, everyone getting out, and then getting back in and turning it on again?"

DRUM ROLL!!!  Sorry, sorry, I'm a geek, but that cracks me up every time.

I have switched from Cook to Painter.  Also ScissorLift Driver (woohoo!).  Sandy and I spent all day yesterday and today up on the scissorlift priming the wood trim around the 'windows'.  They're not exactly windows - it's more a long stretch of see-through fiberglass sheeting with an equally long stretch of squares set in front of it that give the appearance of lots of windows.  Driving the scissorlift was lots more fun than priming!  Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow - we have 3 more squares to prime, and then all of them need painting - but they might be spraying texture and paint on the big wall, which would pre-empt us, I think.  If they do it.  Maybe they'll just spray in the kitchen area.

I also finally refound my pedometer and re-remembered about Walk Across America - and have started out on the Oregon Trail again!  This time, I'm determined to get farther than Wyoming!  Doing good while I'm here - after we leave (I think that will be Monday?  Or maybe Tuesday...), things could get worser fast.  Here, I /have/ to walk around.  ;)  

It made it up to 15 today.  Heat wave, no?  I think it's cold from the ground all the way up - the snow that falls is light and airy and icy; and stays in its separate crystals even on the ground.  Makes for even more beautiful - at night, every facet glints at you - every time you take a step, imagine a thousand tiny stars dying and being born again.  Absolutely gorgeous.

Dean told us about his travels today - Liked one thought he heard at convention in Australia:  The waterpots in John 2 were empty.  But they were upright, and they were available.  We might feel sometimes like empty pots, but if we're available, God can put into us the water of his word.  And then he performs the miracle of turning it to wine - joy, peace, etc.

Yesterday, it was 28 deg in our cookhouse when John got there to start the fire.  I don't know what time that was, but when I got there at about 6:40, there was ice in the sink where the water splashes from running all night, and the towel we keep to sop up the drips was frozen into shape around the wood...

(The water runs all the time to keep the hose from freezing, fyi.)  

It was -7 out.  It warmed up to 3.9.  Today, it was a whole 7 deg warmer - made it all the way up to 12!  Heatwave!!

Makes me glad I was cooking.  ;)  I got to spend all day next to a nice cozy woodstove.  :D

(I am just now wondering... what happened to my Book Post??  I did it, honest, I did, Jen.  A couple of days ago.  And I have just now noticed that it's not there....)

So, for my part of the fun, since I have been terribly lax taking pictures, and haven't really managed to keep you all updated with fun posts... The Menu!

Yesterday for lunch we had Shepherd's Pie.  Supper was Split Pea Soup.  

Today:  Lunch was potato corn chowder (provided by Mary) and chicago style deep dish pizza (I think I may have been the first person ever to make that pizza with deer burger in cast iron frypans in a wood stove oven... ;).  Supper was a roast 'Misc. Pork Item'.  I'm not sure what it was, but it had a bone in and looked rather like a ham before it was hammed.  Is that a word?

Tomorrow - beef roast and bean paella (presuming it works; I've got the beans soaking and the roast roasting) and leftovers for supper. 

You may all drool now.  ;)

It's beautiful out.  :)  The snow creaks underfoot, and there's nearly a full moon.  Last night, it was clear - you could stand in the middle of the snow and stare up at the sky.  For a few seconds until you froze.  ;)  But gorgeous!  And during the day - when there's sun... - there are a million little rainbow sparkles everywhere.