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MARCH 201031stAh well March roars out like a lion with the prospect of snow later and freezing rain here already. I swear it was almost summer yesterday. The television and internet went AWOL for about half an hour this morning so there is obviously atmospheric disturbance out there. Even without this sign I have a scatty cat driving me insane, a sure sign of change in the weather. Tomorrow I shall find out whether the host of five of my sites has returned, and this is a nail biting time for me. Disappointing too, since I had a lot of activities planned for the easter week and the sites are in limbo. 30th I have had some work done on the computer to speed it up which inevitably meant the dratted thing would not work at all yesterday . . . siiiggghhh. I am concerned that this site may disappear on 1st April if my host does not return since I am not sure whether her absence will affect the upline hosting, but I have copied the site and will get the site up elsewhere within 48 hours, so if that does happen you know I have gone nowhere. I have more blood tests tomorrow and we are stopping the medication from hell because it does not seem to be helping at all. I am disappointed that the hoped for improvement did not happen but very happy I am off the stuff because I think I shall feel better in wmyself without it. Kitten cat has discovered that she likes to play with potato peelings, having managed to knock the top of the bin off and access the contents. What a mess! I am just thankful she did not find anything to cut herself, and now have to get another bin with a top which is less easy to dislodge. Aren't pets wonderful! 26thAnother day and still interruptions to internet and TV, sigh. I have just been greeted by four icy paws leaping onto my leg. Kitten Cat has been sitting on the window sill watching the wind throwing the tree branches around and has come for a warm up. Aren't I the lucky one! Still no word from the Host of the sites which are not working yet, I am sorry to say, but ThePostedNote is fully operational. 25thI am still having terrific fun (not!) with the connection and just to really make me hissing mad I lost the satellite signal during today's storm so no internet and no TV either! I now have both connection and TV so I am a bit happier. The storm was electrical then the rains did not so much come down as arrive by the ten gallon bucket load. Kitten Cat listened to the sound of rainfall for abut two seconds then dived behind the sofa. She has a very healthy attitude to inclement weather, giggle. There is still no response from the Host of five of my sites but The Posted Note is now working perfectly, praise be. I was beginning to think I was jinxed or something, the run of luck I have been having, with every site down at the same time regardless of server. I am going to put a few items into the shop this week and see what eeryone thinks of them, and hopefully next week my Host will return and all the other sites will be tickety boo as well. 24thWell, Lady Luck continues to hail stone on my parade and I am struggling to get anything worthwhile done here. Until my Host returns I have five sites which are not working correctly and it is a bit of a worry as I ordinarily work on these sites every single day so there is going to be one Mother of all backlogs to catch up with there. Little Lady did her best to upset the man who came to service the bath lift chair but he has a whole aviary of the critters so she did not succeed. Hats off to him. I can not cope with one! Chaos came in on a flying visit to bring bread, milk and bathroom tissue, which was very welcome since I had none of two of the items and two sheets of the third. There are so many things we take for granted when we can get around that are soooo difficult when we can not. Nemo was delighted to see him and almost put his log through the tank trying to draw attention to the amount of gravel he has shifted and that he expects Chaos to put it back. Nemo treated us to a veritable circus display of back flips and somersaults. Little horror. I get soaked doing the water change, and Chaos gets the performance. I am definitely doing something wrong here . . . I thought I had lost the pink filing cabinet I was bidding on on ebay during my connection problems but to my delight it was an antique pin that I had missed out on and I indeed managed to grab my filing cabinet. Oh joy!!!!! Pink as per my future persona requirements and lockable - oh happy day when the pens stay where I put them - and smaller than the computer desk which will go into storage until after the relocation. For once it is win, win, win!!!!! 23rdWell, as Victor Melgrew would say "I don't belieeeeeve it!" I lost control of the TV just as Emmerdale was due to start. Frantic exchange of batteries in the handset achieved nothing. The little red light flashed but the machine took no more notice of me than tbe cat or the bird. I then noticed - calamity! - that the box was not recording my soaps either. This is a fail safe so that if guests suddenly arrive I shall still be able to follow the soaps. Pathetic I may be but I do like my soaps. I phoned Sky and a very helpful man was very patient - I have serious hearing problems and trying to have a conversation with me over the phone where I have to understand instructions is like wading through treacle for the person on the other end of the line - and eventually we decided to turn off the set top box. After two minutes we switched it on again and - SUCCESS!!!! I had missed Emmerdale and EastEnders but the TV was back under control. I breathed a sigh of relief, snuggled down to work on line and watch TV and an even greater disaster became apparent. NO INTERNET - OMG was I crosssss!!!!!! After a couple of hours of huffing and Anglo Saxoning I gave up for the night and then today I was greeted by a message from my internet security that my blacklist had been corrupted so I had to run various function on that and it took two hours but - I am online! Some Members ask me why I put all these moans into the blog. I am disabled and trying to build something up online and there are a lot of others out there in my position. Mostly housebound and fed up. If I can have even a modest little success now and again I can encourage others to do the same, so you get the whingerama as well as the smiles. Nothing comes easy and some of us have to claw our way up bigger mountains but we do get there and when we do the view is fantastic! I took my life in my hands today and performed a water change on Nemo the Stroppy Cichlid who responded in the time honoured fashion of all pets when they are bathed or cleaned. He executed a perfect belly flop, drenching me and catching Kitten Cat in the fall out - which absolutely delighted him - and he is now sulking his socks off under his rock. 22ndI have not heard from the host so some of my sites are not sending out mails at the moment, but I am hoping I will not have to wait another ten days before someone contacts me about this. However, as I have said, I am more worried about the health and safety of my Host since she has never gone out of contact before. Things here move slowly along because all my helpers seem to have dropped off the planet but I have a cunning plan, and since most of them do not read this, heh heh, I have made a list and the first person through the door cops the first job. Little Lady attacked me today because she objected to having a nice clean cage. It probably seems ridiculous to non bird owners, but when a Golden Mantled Rosella bird decides to screech in your ear and batter your head with her wings, you know all about it. Some chocolates arrived today in the post so that is a highlight of happiness for me! 21stThe problem with the paid to read sites is definitely on the server side, we tried all day to get round it but we can not so until my Host returns I am rather up a gum tree. Lots of dedicated script trawling has been required and of course Kitten cat is in jump on me, over me, attack the ties on my jacket - anything in fact to get my attention. I am sure my brain waves change during intense stress cos the little Poppet is always there. She may not help, and quite often she is the exact opposite but her heart is in the right place. I think. For me when I am at home Sunday is a restful day to trawl through any old mails and pick off competitions etc before they expire but today has been really stressful and still I am no further forward. So I have given up for the day and am searching out a few contest. I usually win the runner up pen or tee shirt, but hey, every little helps! 20thA real fun and games day here trying to get on line and sty on line and once more without warning the problem has just vanished and this thing is whizzing along like an express train, just when I would normally be switching off and going to sleep. So I shall try to et some bits and pieces done before I hit the hay. Kitten cat has chosen today to be most annoying so she is lucky she not an ex kitten cat. I have been wearing a lilac dress which has a tie belt and I have had to have the belt tied in a silly bow at the front because if I have the bow at the back she has been trying to attack the hanging part of the bow. She then realised that if she jumps onto my lap, anchors her claws into my legs and goes dead weight she can play with the bow whilst I am trying to remove her. I am therefore back in black because there are no ties on this one. 1-0 to Posh Paws, sigh. Last evening I was actually taken shopping and I got out of this flat for about the fourth time this year so today I have made a nice stew and everyone has vanished. Isn't that typical! The freezer makes it possible to put the stew into storage for the future, so it will save me work on another occasion. If there is any left of course, I do love stew, gigle. 19thWell, Lady Luck seems to have declared open season on me. The one paid to read site which was working decided to develop a glitch and I spent all evening with my wonderful friend Lady Enigma sorting that out. It appears to be working perfectly now, so hats off to her! One thing I love about the paid to read world is that in general everyone is so friendly. You do get the occasional Toad but the community quickly warns about those, and the rest are just wonderful. In reality every paid to read site owner is in fact a competitor, but when I discovered the problem with the five sites and let other site owners know about them these wonderful Webmasters and Webmistresses put out messages for their members so that anyone who is a member of my sites who sees these messages knows what is occurring, and their own members know what is occurring. It is just a wonderful and friendly area to work and I have made some wonderful friends during the five years I have been operating sites. Back here in Foxy Land I am on great form today. Whilst washing up I felt a strange shaped knife in the water, which is in itself unusual since I put sharps to one side and wash them one by one without leaving them under the suds, as a safety consideration. On closer inspection I had managed to put the gas igniter into the water. Rats! Howewer, there was a little luck on my side there because it has not suffered from its ten minute soaking and it is working, phew! I followed up this exceptional stupidity by forgetting to open the tray on the printer and causing a spectacular paper jam which took half an hour to clear and I now have little black patched fingers from trying to extract the jammed paper. Clever I ain't. 18thThis year just gets better and better (not!). The mailer on five sites is down and the Host has am emergency so I have no way of knowing when things will resolve, coupled with the fact that I like my Host and hope that all is well with her. So You may notice the big pink block on the home page alerting my wonderful members to the calamity. One fine thing after another seems to sum up this year to date but there is also another saying that says thank goodness the worst is over and tomorrow will be better. I know which statement I prefer, giggle I have discharged my agitation in clearing and dusting the mantel shelf and restricting the number of items there. Honestly, I live alone but you would be surprised how much debris lands there courtesy of various visitors! The result is, in my opinion at least, very classy. What is the betting that if this drastic change is noticed at all the comment will be "oh no, what you have broken now" . . . 17thHappy St Patrick's Day to one and all. Celebrations here are low key because none of us have fully recovered from the flu but I can still be happy. The sites are being problematic though, and if you belong to any of my paid to read sites you will have to access your mail via your on site in box because for some reason mails to members are not going to their emails accounts. I am sorry for this and have asked the Host to see why this is occurring. It does explain why I am not getting any entries for the daily contests though. Nemo has mucked his pump up again so shortly I am going to have the Battle of the Cichlid to try to get the pump fixed and replaced without getting half drowned by said fishie. He is too clever for his own good, and that is a fact. I shall be resolving the mailer issues, sorting out Nemo then helping myself to a nice brandy to toast St Pat! Maybe some of you will join me in this. 16thWe have discovered why the printer was not printing. we had thought it to be ink and so bought some more of the stuff which is becoming almost as expensive as gold dust and what did we discover? When I was a child it used to be a question of "was it Bill or was it Ben?". Today it is a question of was it fur (Kitten cat) or feathers (Little Lady)? Which of these two loveable pets dropped a sweetie paper into the printer and obstructed the ink flow? The look on Chaos's face at this discovery. Priceless! I have been unable to print any letters or research this week because the ink is bought miles away from where the groceries are bought and why? Because I am a stupid softie with uncontrollable pets. Sneaky uncontrollable pets at that! 15thWell I got through the notorious Ides of March unscathed, just about. It has been one of those days when everybody who should have turned up has not and lots of unexpected guests have called. Not exactly idyllic for online life but hey, let's not knock company! I got a free sample of the new Olay product that gives a hint of foundation and I am really pleased about this, because I love Olay and the advertisements for it are very encouraging and now I can try it and see if it really will improve pasty faced li'l ol' me. What did not arrive was the paint which i am sharing with Computer web Pages Dust Bunny. Some work peole kindly left him with one wall which needs repainting and I want to redecorate the bathroom, which is a very small room, so one tin solves all. I am not so keen on Magnolia but that is needed for the one wall, Magnolia it is. When it gets here. I am learning a new system and so far have locked myself out of the system half a dozen times, but I suppose it is par for the course and it is giving the friend who is teaching me a lot of laughs, fortunately. You can't teach an old dog new tricks but Foxies do eventually learn! 14thWhat a day. I thought I would never get on line! The top tank of fishies - one huge goldfish inevitably named Jaws, one comet named Troilus (Cressida, alas, did not survive) and one Shubunkin named Ziggy - needed their water change and mindful of the havoc caused by Kitten Cat when I changed Nemo's water I kept a very wary eye on the water today. However, the excitement of the water change appears to have sent said cat into absolutely crackers mode, she is charging around the flat, up walls (new trick, sigh) and generally driving me dingbats. I am not supposed to lift anything heavy and when I lifted the water my hip screamed nooooooo! so I had to empty the water down the sink in the kitchen and not the bathroom because that was the closest option. Naturally because it was too heavy for me and I stumbled the water went everywhere so everything in range had to be washed and bleached down. Bleach makes me breathless but what can you do? Gotta have a clean kitchen. I now have two tanks full of happy fishies so it is worth the effort. A little tip here. If you have skived off from doing a job and somebody else has had to do it, remarking "It hums of bleach in here, what have you done now?" as you walk through the doorway is virtually guaranteed to result in a mop inserted into an uncomfortable place. The correct greeting is "wow! somebody has been busy!"> Not everyone is as placid as I am. The above tip could just save your life some day . . . 13thWhat a day! Surprise visitors, which is great, lots of chat and news, but terrible for progress. Lots of washing up too. Once I have the mobility scooter I had best get a dish washer, giggle. My visitors wanted to know why the carpet was wet and curled up with laughter when I explained the antics of kitten cat, as per yesterday's blog entry. I have a sulking cat on my lap because she thinks I should stop typing and cuddle the cat. I am typing one handed so I am meting her half way but you know cats . . . I received a scam letter today. It seems that the old "get £25 per addressed envelope" routine is going the rounds again. You will not make any money for this, you wILL have to pay £25 for a kit which will show you how to make money which is basically by getting other people to pay £25, so do yourself a favour and give this one a miss.
12thI have had a fine game here today. Nemo needed a part water change so I used the special gravel cleaner and there was I, concentrating on getting the gloop from under the gravel when suddenly I had - WET FEET??? Kitten Cat had lived up to the curiousity legend and decided to inspect the plastic tubing carryig the gloopy water into a bucket. She had knocked the tubing onto the carpet and I have had to mop up and the carpet will now require cleaning and febreezing. Whoever said that pets lower stress level didn't have my lot! 11thIt has become sooooo cold here again. There is a force nine gale hurtling through the flat and I have not a clue where it is coming from since all the windows are both double glazed and firmly closed. Kitten cat is fixed to me and half the time if I want to move I have to carry her too because she is cold. She will not lie under a blanket in case she misses something, giggle. The dead car is scheduled to be taken to pieces then scraped so I suppose we shall all go down with another virus or some other fine thing becaue that car has more staying power than Stephen King's "Christine" and every time it is supposed to go some other fine thing happens. Little Lady wants company tonight and keeps trying to romance Kitten Cat, and since said cat is on my lap I am getting clawed to pieces as cat becomes excited at the prospect of maybe eating the bird. I have all the fun, don't I. 10thAnother freezin day here but since I am indoors it isn't a hardship for me. Marjorydaw is coming round later so I am racing to get as much done as I can because we are going to chat the night away tonight girly style. I received my Hotel Chocolate brochure today and believe me if I get any little windfalls before Easter you are going to have one fat Foxy Lady here, my Lord they have some delightful offerings this month, drooooool. 9thWell another day feeling as though I have been hit by a truck, sigh. However, I don't have to look far to count my blessings. The earthquake in Turkey and tornados in Oklahoma make the cold and miserable weather which is keeping me housebound seem almost good news. There is good sunshine coming through the window in spite of the cold and kitten cat is literally deafening me with her snoring, so somebody is very contented this morning. I am hoping to get enough energy to try out a tip I picked up on "How Clean Is Your House". Since I am waiting for the engineer to kick the washing machine yet again, it would be nice to move forward in the spring cleaning and apparently if I dissolve a denture cleaning tablet in a bowl full of hot water and place my net curtains, folded, into this, soak and then rinse and towel dry they will come out sparkly white. I will let you know how I get on with this. On the earning front, I am near cash out at TopCashBack and if you would like to get cash back on items you buy you might like to join me there just click here to be taken to the site and sign up. If you would like any more information as to how to proceed after you have joined, just email me at info@foxyladynews.co.uk and I will happily answer you. 8thAnother day and another way for this medication from hell to mess things up. The smell of my favourite perfume has the same effect as the smell of frying food in the mornings, sigh. Men get this interesting side effect too, and my friends are laughing because they say I said I wanted to be younger . . . yeah, yeah. Pardon me if this fifty something doesn't see the joke. I have a car part mart for the shop, and wouldn't you know it, the person who took the photos has them all half a page sized! This would be a nightmare to download and there is something in their camera which means that the programme will not resize them, so they have to go back to the drawing board and get more photos. He is not HP. You could be HP though if you are looking for a second hand car part, particularly if you have a classic car. You could send me a mail to info@foxyladynews.co.uk and if the client has this part at a price acceptable to you it could soon be winging its way to you. The client has been pottering about with cars for his whole life and suddenly realises that it would be nice to have some space in the garage and is selling off a treasure trove of parts, so do please enquire if you have a need, and I shall get the carpartmart up as soon as he gives me more photos. Advertising pages are economic and attached to the shop, more will be coming during the year, and Marjorydaw is actually putting some of her incredible jewellery onto her site - yay! So lots to look forward to. 7thThe kitchen floor is drying out nicely and here is a tip for you. I used to use towels to mop up the floor and was then left with even more wet washing awaiting the machine repair man. I now use old newspapers, placed on the floor, to soak up the water. They come up leaving the floor clean and dry and can be put straight into the outside rubbish. I had been saving newspapers to help with the wrapping, and now I have to begin hoarding again. I have to book another visit from useless washing machine repair man too. Ain't I a lucky gal? Everyone is exhausted today, even Kitten cat, I reckon it is the last little hit from the flu before it finally leaves us. I have been incredibly lazy, only washing the dishes and now watching TV and tapping away here. Almost unheard of to have a TV on at this time on a Sunday morning. Hopefully the chance from routine will benefit us all. Oh yes, and we have yet another day of brilliant sunshine, always very good for the mood. 6th1.30pm - Mutant Ninja Rabid washing machine strikes again - I got a kitchen floor under three inches of water. I am going to take an axe to that thing one day very soon, I promise you!
I am still very wobbly on my feet and the name of the game is frustration. Chaos is shopping so I asked for a chicken burger in a bun, from the chiller dapartment, an item he has bought both solo and with either Honey or myself many times. To look at his face you would have thought I was speaking in Swahili. Both Honey and I explained the product several times but I am wondering what he will be bringing home. Scary, huh? I also asked for vanilla iced fairy cakes. Hopefully, since he bought chocolate iced ones last week, these will prove less problematic. I am seriously hoping to get this mobility scooter soon. So much wasted time over a burger! When I can go get things myself I shall probably get fatter than Miss Piggy, but I think I can live with that, giggle. I am hoping to be able to work my sites today. Between exhaustion, connectivity problems and a cat who has a firm conviction that computer mice are suposed to be batted around the carpet I have got nowhere extremely fast this week. 5thWell I do not know what is happening here but I seem to be falling over and dropping things constantly today and Kitten cat has taken to sitting and smirking at a safe distance, as only a loving and supportive cat can. Everything site wise is getting a little late and all I can do is go slow, slow and slower but i have learned the hard way that that is the only way to get any further forward, an attempt at speed usually ends up in a heap on the floor. It is deeply frustrating and a sort of vicious circle because the slower I go the more angry I get but that's me, impatient to the last. Some leaftlets came through today with information about a folding mobility buggy and I am going to look into that because the conventional ones are a bit hard to store and this buggy looks as if it will be better since it will go into a boot so it need only be used if the walk around is too far. As soon as I am well enough I am visiting the shop to try some out. 4thThere is a lot of debate as to whether on line friendships are valid and there is an opinion that people should "get a life" and find "real" friends, although I can not remember this attitude being ciculated when I was a child and every child was encouraged to have at least one pen friend in the interest of improving writing and spelling skills and learning something of life in other parts of the country. Since I bought my first site, Foxden.biz I have made many online friends and one Lady mailed me most days, cheered me up when I was down by sending silly cartoons, sent me thought provoking quotes and generally chatted about her life, which at times was very difficult since she was nursing her Mother, who had Alzheimer's disease. I had nursed both of my own Parents so we had a lot in common and I could empathise with her and help her through the bad days, and she in turn comforted me through my losses. I was shocked to learn that influenza had turned to pneumonia and this fantastic, gusty lady had died on Monday. I do not know whether she qualifies as a "real" friend to the outside world but she meant one heck of a lot to me and I am going to miss her mails like crazy. She was one heck of a Lady and a real inspiration to me. I always valued my friends, but from today every mail will be just that little bit more special. 3rdWe have another sparkling Spring day - chalk it up! For once there is very little to report as there is actually a lovely peaceful day but I do not suppose this will last, I am just going to make the most of it! For those of you who follow the advertures of Gissi the sweetest doggie in the world, you will be happy to know he is now in his new home, along with his Mum and they will be online again in about two weeks. There has been a lot going on so be sure to catch up with them then! Good luck and lots of happiness to Gissi and Mum in their new home! 2ndWe have something different today - sunshine! I had almost forgotten what it looks like. I think it is probably very cold outside but the view from the window is of a lovely spring day and it is beautiful.
Kitten cat loves this too and is snoozing on the windowsill. I don't think she will move until the sun goes in, smiles. I missed the chat on Writelink last night, which has peeved me somewhat. I remembered the day and time, got caught up in a discussion here and next thing I knew I had missed it! Rats and double rats. I know that I am the one who has to finish writing Me Novel and get it published etc and that talking doesn't actually get words typed but I do find the weekly yak with other writers cheers me up because most of us are in the same boat and just occasionally one of us has a success and that sheds the glimmers of hope that more of us are on the way to publication. 1stWhite Rabbits and Happy St David's Day. The atrocious worldwide weather continues and it is actually quite scary the way so many laces have such dangerous weather. Local to where I live is a very old Castle and part of the outer wall has been bought down by the rain. The castle was built circa 1090 and if you click here you can read more about this interesting structure. I disgraced myself on a childhood visit to the castle. At that time it was possible to walk along the battlements and our class load of excitable ten year olds was hauled up there and I don't like heights - so, yup, I fainted! That was a right palava and a half, scared the heck out of the teacher and I didn't get dragged up anything higher than a step for the rest of my school career, evil grins. This news item shows the part of the structure which has been brought down by the rain all these centuries after it was built - Look what has happened! I had a right moment this morning, too. Fortunately I am very careful and clean the pooh house for Kitten Cat with extreme attention to detail and it fair sparkles. I collapsed today just as I was going to put in the fresh litter and woke up face down in the tray with a cat sprawled out on my back. A very cross legged cat as it happens, because as soon as I could rouse myself and finish the job and replace the roof she shot in there as if the Devil himself was after her. I haven't really done much more today, am still recovering.My niece will say that I do so need a cine camera and maybe I do. Footage of Foxy falls would probably bring a huge following. Links to previous months
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Happy birthday Computer Web Pages Dust Bunny - 21 yet again! Toot! Toot!