Another Winner From Elon

I got tired of my needing to buy ink for the inkjets--very expensively tired of it. I researched and prayed about it and finally bought a Brother HL-4070CDW Color Laser Printer with Wireless Interface and Duplexing--whew--from Amazon. I'll try it out and see what happens. We would like to have it--I would like to think I need it, but that is not a "need"--to print pictures for children's class, calendars, work, etc.

I still like the TinySpell spelling software. It will check the spelling on about anything.

I've not been happy with a number of desktop calendars, but I have been using Rainlendar2 for awhile. It is small, easy to use, and has good reminders for my always weak memory.

Codecs packs for the computer have always been a chore. If the computer doesn't have the right codec, it cannot play the song, see the video, etc. For the past month I have been using the codec pack from Shark007 Codecs. The pack you choose needs to specific to your OS.

Remembering passwords and filling them in on webpages has always been a chore. I don't like RoboForm; Keepass has been my standard for years, but for the past months I have been using LastPass. I like it because, among other reasons, it can fill in passwords for Yahoo and MSN.

The beans are growing well, so are Elon's squash. I'll write more later; it is time to eat.

22 August 09

I finished the PALS course and passed. PALS is Pediatric Advanced Life Support.

After class I went to ICU and helped Heidi with two patients. One came in with a blood sugar of 1145 (normal is 80-100) and all of her labs were really off. The other was a patient from surgery on the vent. He was so malnourished it is questionable how well he will heal.

Anna was only to work until 7PM Friday, but everyone had so much work that no one left until 9:30PM.

Josh bought an old 22 to dispatch the raiding animals from our garden. I bought a trap, so maybe we can get the critters. They have destroyed a number of Elon's melons and tomatoes and my tomatoes, too. Josh cleaned and oiled everything, and we went out to see if it would shot. Sure enough it did; pretty well, too, for only $86.

There are some of the gourds down at the creek that are probably nearly 30 feet off the ground. We can't tell for sure until later fall.

I still have a few beets in the ground. Our fall green bean crop is up about 4 inches. They sure come up fast this time of the year, since the ground is warm.

It is nice and cool today only in the 70's.

10 August 09

Last Friday I was supposed to work, but the ICU was closed, so I was put on-call. The census at the hospital has been down for much of the year, which hurts the bottom line for everyone. They gave no raises this year because of it. I really don't blame them; I have seen the financial reports.

James and Jenny have their 2nd anniversary on the 11th--if my memory is still working.

Elon picked a 30 pound watermelon the other day; it is really good. The best melons so far IMHO are Blacktail Mountain, Ali Baba, Tam Dew, and White Wonder.

The corn is pretty much done except for the field corn and popcorn.

Elon and Ezra are getting their fall garden ready. I'll be putting in my Blue Lake Bush beans soon. Next year, Lord willing, in my fall garden, I want to try broccoli and squash. Elon is ready to transplant his squash soon.

There are some planted gourds down by the creek that appear--we'll measure this fall--to be 45 feet from where they were planted; that would make each plant about 90 feet across. One is over ten feet up a maple tree and another is at least twenty-five feet up a cedar tree.

Anna was on-call yesterday from the hospital for the same reason I was.

Vicky was digging up potatoes and run the potato fork into her foot. It is healing well. I heard her say, "O daddy come quick." I knew something was bad. She said, "I don't want to look at it; you do it." Being the nurse, I took the shoe off and the sock. Sure enough there was a 4 mm hole near the fourth toe of her left foot and blood all over the place. It didn't go all the way through. A minute of pressure stopped the bleeding, then I cleaned it, applied iodine, let that dry, then triple antibiotic ointment and a bandaid. After that I had her elevate her foot and put some ice on it for 10 minutes. I have changed the dressing twice a day. There is no redness or drainage; it is healing well--thank God.

I know tincture of iodine is frowned upon by everybody, but it is effective against MRSA, so I use it a few times as needed but for no longed than three days. Everything heals up well.

I continue to work on the ICU study guide for work, etc. It is slow going due to the time for research. Research really is time consuming.

Yesterday Jens was dedicated publicly to the Lord and asked for prayer for his parents to raise him wisely and for Jens himself. Paul lead out.

I gave a prelude to the message--I'll post it elsewhere--Nathan gave the message.

We went to the Eldo park Saturday evening to hear the Meyer Bluegrass Band. The weather really wasn't too bad. Paul told a joke: "Do you know why they bury banjo players down 10 feet? It is because they are so deep". I told him after the concert: "Paul, since they only bury banjo players 10 feet down; why do they bury guitar players only 3 feet deep"? He didn't know. "It is because they are so shallow". So now they can banter a little. Mary is really getting good on the mandolin.

Nibbo is a new search engine based on Google that I've tried a few times. What do you think?

Wordnik is a dictionary site I'm trying out. They have pronunciation and examples used in current writing. I searched for "Elon" to see how they would pronounce it; they had the word but have a message to the side which said, "You are the first person to look up this word." There was no pronunciation, but an offer to notify them to include it when they update the database.

Well, that's it for now.