SkyWatch Friday

 

Please click to enlarge.

I call this a "Cotton ball sky" because the entire sky looked like a mass of cotton balls. Click this SkyWatch Friday link to see beautiful skies from all over the world!

Please Help Spread the Word

Memoirs of a Mommy

Mary at Mary's Writing Nook made the following very important post to help spread the word about the vital importance of organ donation.

Nancy at Nancy's Nonsense shared this. It originated with Memoirs of a Mommy who created this award in honor of the donor that saved Noah's Life. Noah is her son, and he had a heart transplant when he wasn't even a month old. This dear little boy just celebrated his first birthday earlier this month!! Her hopes are that in passing this award around, we will create more awareness of the importance of organ donation. Please take a copy of this award and post it with a link back to Memoirs of a Mommy and help promote organ donation.

Won't you please help spread the word? Click this link to Memoirs of a Mommy

Thank you!!

SkyWatch Friday!

Click to enlarge. A storm was moving in, so these last few sun-bathed clouds framed by the dark clouds were a treat!



SkyWatch Friday - click this link to go to the SkyWatch home. There are hundreds of great sky photos posted from skywatchers all around the world. It's great!!

I've Been Doubly Honored!

I have been doubly honored with this beautiful award from Storyteller of Sacred Ruminations and Patti of Patti's Pantry. You probably also know that Storyteller has another great blog - Small Reflections and that Patti has another great blog - Nonna's News. If you haven't dropped by their blogs, do yourself a favor and drop on by! You will be glad you did.

Storyteller and Patti, I really appreciate this award. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and kindness!!

Here are the rules that accompany this award:
Once an award is received,the rules are as follows:
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4.Add links to those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blog

I'm afraid I just can't single out seven people. All my blogging buddies are fantastic! Dear Blogging Buddies, please know I would love for you to have this award - so please scoop it up if you would like it!! :-)

Sky Watch Friday

 

Sunset on July 1 (Click to enlarge)

Sky Watch Friday has a great new look. Click the link to check out the beautiful photos of other sky watchers!

Renie's Plant and Mine?

Click to enlarge. I didn't get a very good photo. It is hard to see the far side of the bush with the weeds and phlox foliage near it.

Last May, Renie posted an article, "A Little of This, A Little of That" that includes a photo of a plant I think looks like a plant in my yard. Only problem is neither of us knows the name of the plant - that is if they are one and the same. Below is a closer view of mine. It only started blooming a couple of weeks ago. But then I am living much farther north than Renie, so I thought that might account for my later blooms. I think we have the same plant. What do you think?

Click to enlarge. I think I got a better shot with this one.

After looking at many flower photos on google images, I stumbled upon Anthony Waterer Spirea bush. I think this is it! It is referred to as a shrub. I don't know what the difference is. It is a compact shrub that flowers and lends "interest to the landscape" according to many of the websites. I think it's pretty and I like it!

Sky Watch Friday

Early last evening the sky was empty except for this man-made cloud:



And this heavenly body:



Sky Watch Friday is hosted by Wigger's World. Click the link to check out the beautiful photos of many other sky watchers!

Quick Shutdown Update

I finally got a chance to try the keyboard shutdown command on a Vista operating system. I found that I had to go one more step - I had to click on "Enter". So it went like this:

Windows Key then
press right arrow 3 times
then press Enter

I don't know if there are variations from on Vista to another. You might want to try this to see if it works on your computer before writing it down and storing it away.

Here's hoping you never need it! :-)

An Award from Linda!

Linda at This and That has given me this delightful "Super Commenter Award"! Thank you, Linda. I really appreciate it. I enjoy visiting your blog very much. Friends, if you haven't visited Linda's blog, please do yourself a favor and stop by. She's a terrific blogger - you will enjoy your visit - I promise! :-)

A Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

Last week I was working at the computer and the monitor screen went blank. I tried turning it off and on to see if it would work properly. It displayed for a second, then went blank again. That is when another dilemma arose. I needed to shut down the computer. You would think I could shut it down without having to press the "on" button and hold for a few seconds (which is not good for the hard drive). Alas, I had no idea how to safely shut down my computer.

I had to shut it down the bad way. Then I realized that my home network would be brought down without my main computer running. That wouldn't go over well with the rest of the household. The monitor is not necessary for the rest of the network to get online, only the computer itself must be running. I didn't know how long it would be before I could fix or replace the monitor and I wasn't going to shut down each day in the way that could harm the hard drive.

The mouse is very handy but only when you can see it. After using a computer all these years, I knew that it could be shut down using the keyboard. I just didn't know how to do it - so I looked it up. In Windows XP the computer can be shut down using these keyboard commands:

Windows Key then
press the letter u twice

or

Ctrl + Esc then
press the letter u twice

I've used both methods successfully. I read that some Windows XP systems use the Windows button for another function leaving it useless for a shutdown shortcut. The second method has no such problems.

I found these directions for Vista but have not verified them:

Windows Key then
press right arrow 3 times

If you are like me, not keyboard shortcut savvy, you might want to write these directions down in your password book -- just in case one day you can't see your mouse.

It looks like my monitor is really dead. Fortunately, we have an old monitor that we had stored away. We got that out, dusted it off, attached it, and held our collective breath (this monitor is really old) and tah dah - it works!

Lesson for me? I think I am going to try very hard to learn keyboard shortcuts beyond copy and paste. :-)