If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new tab at the top of the page that reads, “Galleries”. After the quality of photos seemed to go down after making them into videos, I thought maybe a gallery might be a better option to share photos without slowing load time. I only have one gallery up so far, but in the future there should be more (I’m already working on one). I might still look for better gallery software that allows comments, but so far, Web Album Generator works OK. If you check it out, let me know what you think, or what could be better.

On Tuesday Dan and I went out to do a little Geocaching. Our second stop for the day was on the Bitterroot River, a little south of Hubbart Dam, near Marion, MT. I had forgotten to get camera batteries, so Dan remarked, “Since you don’t have your camera, we’re probably going to see a moose.” It’s almost a guarantee, if I don’t have my camera, we’re going to see wildlife. It always happens. After about a minute of walking up the trail we hear, “Sploosh, sploosh, sploosh, sploosh”. Moose. Yep, a huge moose bull is just dopety doh’ing down the creek (yes, I know it’s called the Bitterroot River, but seriously, it’s a bleedin’ creek). Figures.

We found the cache easily enough, we got to see the dam off in the distance, and we didn’t get eaten alive by mosquitoes (vicious little effers that they are!), and we made it back to the car and were ready to head to cache number three. Then Dan got us stuck in the dirt. Dan, of course, can get any car stuck, anytime, anywhere. It always happens. After I got us out, yes, I got us unstuck (OK, he pushed, but it was my genius that provided the proper traction) we headed down to the highway and on to the next cache. Figures.

Cache number three and four were located eight and a half miles up Haskill Mountain at a long-since-gone wildfire lookout. It was a bumpy, sometimes scary drive up, but the views were excellent, and we were excited to find the cache at the top of the mountain. When I opened the rear door to get my camera (we stopped and got batteries), I heard hissing. Punctured tire. It always happens. Dan’s key is new and never worked to open the trunk (where the spare was, of course); we were pretty much SOL, so we went and got the cache, anyway. We found the cache, took some pictures that I’ll post later, and booked it back to the car. The tire wasn’t flat yet, so we sailed down the mountain, constantly checking the tire, and finally made it. We weren’t driving on the rim until Kila School, but we could handle that. Just to give it a try, Dan tried his key in the trunk, and… it worked. We get more flat tires than anyone I have ever met. Figures.

What, did you think I was done? Oh no…

We found our four caches for the day, got our tire switched and headed home to get some chow and log our cache finds. Oddly enough, when I sat down at the computer, the power was off. So was the power to everything else. I checked the power strip, and sure enough, one of the cats must have stepped on the power button. “Alright then, I’ll just turn the power back on and reboot.” Here’s the problem: Sometimes when the power goes out, and a computer is shut down improperly, the processes open at the time of the improper shutdown become corrupted. And then little works. Figures.

After two days of running every diagnose and fix function I could think of, I finally gave up and prepared for a System Recovery which resets the computer back to its original factory settings. System Restore (which resets the computer back to a restore point) was corrupted, so I couldn’t think of anything else. Ah, but wait! The recovery discs I made when we got the computer can also perform a System Restore! D’oh! Why did I forget about that. I popped the disc in, ba-da-bing, two minutes later everything is as it should be. I wasted a whole lotta time backing up files, passwords, bookmarks, game saves, etc., when all it needed was a two minute fix. Figures.

Things aren’t all bad. I finally got a KVM Switch, so I have both computers up and running. One of the USB ports on the old computer doesn’t seem to be working, though. I’ll have to check that out. But it’s still up and running enough that I can do things-I-probably-shouldn’t-tell-you-about, that I can’t do on Vista. Stupid DRM. Arrrrgh!

Most exciting for me is that I finally got my hot, li’l hands on a Wii Fit. I did a half hour of exercise with it yesterday, and I’m um… Well, I’m a little out of shape. And I’m a little sore today. But I’m still motivated, and it is fun.

Anyway, that’s the dilly. I’m off to continue organizing computer discs and um… that stuff I-probably-shouldn’t-tell-you-about.

I just upgraded my site using the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plug-in, and all seems to have gone well. Best of all, I no longer have to look at that obnoxious, ‘friendly’ reminder that I need to upgrade. I’ll have to get used to the new dashboard, but that shouldn’t take long. I can already see a few nice additions that I’ll have to check out. In the meantime, if any of you notice anything is broken, please let me know. Like I said, it appears to have upgraded flawlessly, but you never know.

03.18.08 I thought I should make it clear that this post is based entirely off observation, for actually news reports, there are links at the bottom of the post.
03.16.08 I don’t really have any facts of a current situation, because, well, it’s still happening. Apparently, earlier in the day there was a fatal shooting in Creston, MT (which is close to Kalispell) and a subsequent standoff between the suspect and police. The standoff is three houses down from where I live. There are 5-O crawling everywhere and Dan was approached by two members of the SWAT team (I think) telling him to try to stay inside. The only real information I have to go on is a promised story on tonight’s news at 10. Wish me no flying bullets. I’ll keep you posted.

Update: 7:15pm I have a feeling they’ve closed off the highway again, there’s no traffic (that just doesn’t happen), and the cops have been slowly pacing up and down the road. It was closed off earlier today, but was opened for several hours.

Update: 8:58pm The highway is still closed. There are spotlights on the house where the standoff is occurring and people that I can’t confirm are officers are running back and forth to the house to what I can only assume are their cars. It also looks and sounds like there’s a semi truck in the yard, but I can’t tell for sure. Even with the lights on the house, it’s still dark out here.

Update: 10:01pm I just watched the reports on KPAX and KECI, At 11am Robert Kowalski called to report a shooting in Creston. When police arrived they found a woman, who’s name is yet to be released, dead. Police then surrounded the home of Kowalski who was threatening to kill himself. The reports say that either he is now talking with negotiators (KPAX), or they don’t believe him to be dead (KECI), and hope to not escalate the situation. It’s too early to say how long the standoff will continue. Tomorrow, the woman’s body will be taken to the Montana State Crime Lab.

Update: 03.17.08 2:35pm At this point the standoff is still going on. We think there may have just been a gunshot, but we’re not sure. The bullhorns are louder than ever, but I can’t make out what is being said, I think I may have heard, “unintelligible just come out.” The semi is an armored assault vehicle of some sort. The KPAX article linked to below has been updated with new information. Dan was able to get home, he had to take a few country roads and enter through a back drive way where he stopped to talk to another neighbor who had heard, “Pick up the phone,” on the bullhorn. On the property are a house and a shop in front, and he seems to be in the house, we don’t know for sure if anyone else is in the house. I’ll update again when things change.

Update: 3:30pm
There were about 5 of these armed guys (SWAT? I’m not sure) that came, they rushed through the neighboring yards towards the house, but left soon after. We’re not sure what is going on in regards to them.

Update: 5:23pm We just heard a few sirens and lots of gunfire, Dan counted ten shots from Kowalski, and then over the mega-phone, “Put the gun down and you won’t be hurt.”

Update: 5:28pm We can still hear the police talking through the mega-phone, but can’t understand what they’re saying. There are two SWAT members on the East side of the house at this point.

Update: 5:31pm Dan just made the decision to call his work and let them know he’ll be late. This is not the time I want him driving through the mess.

Update: 5:34pm We just saw the two SWAT members fire three… four… five shots. Dan thinks it may be tear-gas, but he doesn’t see any smoke that tear-gas usually has. They look like they’re firing towards the road, so we’re not sure what’s happening. 5:37pm It’s not tear-gas since they’re not moving in. We think Kowalski may be in the shop that’s in front of the house, since that’s the direction they’re firing. 5:39pm Another three shots fired from Kowalski. You can tell his shots versus the SWAT’s shots — his go, “Pop,” while theirs go, “Thump… Boom”. The rounds from the SWAT are large. We can see them on the ground. They’ve also quit talking to him through the mega-phone. 6:11pm Four member of SWAT are now casually walking out from their cover and are walking towards the highway. There are also police walking around in the highway. 6:17pm The ambulance and fire rescue are now moving in towards the house, it appears to be over. The police and SWAT are also moving cars out. 6:19pm Dan just walked out to the road and they’re loading the robot used to photograph the shop up, and fire rescue is moving into the shop. They’re also carting someone (I can only assume it is Kowalski) on a stretcher. 6:23pm We’re calling it over.

7:00pm The highway is almost completely clear and we suspect it will be open soon. The authorities have moved out quickly. This will be my last update until there is more concrete information tomorrow. Stay safe, everyone. I lied….

10:01pm It was irritant gas, and Kowalski is in custody, alive… Authorities are pleased with the outcome.

Links: KPAX, The Daily Interlake, Flathead Beacon

Does your graphics card’s fan look like this:

If it does, you may really have a problem. :annoyed:

I think I’m pulling myself out of my self-imposed semi-exile/funk. It happens.

I’ve been avoiding updating Wordpress. I know I should, but I’m a skeerd. I also still can’t find the perfect emoticons. The bouncing cat heads were cute and all, but awfully big. The teeny cat heads are cute, too, but awfully hard to see. Sure, the default emoticons are great, but not my style.

I’m still knee deep in magazines and books. I’ve been reading quite a lot, but I get half way through a magazine and say, “Ooooh, I forgot I really wanted to read that article in that other magazine.”

As you can probably guess, I replaced our graphics card. I cleaned out our old one and I’ll keep it for a back-up. A new task has been added to my weekly computer maintenance — cleaning the filthy beast out. I won’t slack on that again. :blank:

Lost has a few episodes left before a short break, and I’m so excited. I think this season is the best so far. Not only is there the addition of Jeff Fahey to the cast, but the writers are actually answering questions. Sure, they’re leaving the viewers with more questions, but it seems like in Season Three, they just didn’t answer anything. Most importantly, of course, Jeff Fahey. :gaga:

There’s a cute, Chevy Nova we’re thinking about buying. I would drive that while Dan drives the Blazer. Bad thing is, the Nova would get worse gas mileage than the Blazer. Not good at all. I love Novas, but I’d love to find a Barracuda even more.

Do you ever get patches of skin that are painful to the touch? I always get areas on my arms, that without a known irritant, just hurt. If I knew what caused it, I’d stop doing whatever it is I’m doing. But it just comes out of the blue.

I think that’s all I’ve got today. Hopefully I won’t have such a large lag in posting in the near future.

I still can’t believe I switched to Wordpress. I figured, Blogger is cheap and easy, why switch. Then I thought, why not? I was surprised at how easy the install went, and I didn’t even use Fantastico’s one-touch install. I was also surprised at how easy Wordpress imported my posts from Blogger. I didn’t expect it to import photos, but it did.

It may take a while to find a theme that I like, and even more time to figure out how to tweak it, but I figured out Blogger, I can figure out Wordpress.

I think I’m going to spend the rest of the day geeking out on plug-ins!

So, I haven’t put up a significant post in a while, some would say ever, and I really haven’t posted any photos in a while.

I’m currently trudging through a pile of magazines that seems endless. Maybe I should seek help for my magazine addiction. I’m about two chapters into The Golden Compass, and I’m finding that I really like it, but then another magazine says, “No, read ME!”

Christmas was alright, and I slept through New Years. New Years has just never been that exciting to me. Dan and I each received a ten dollar gift card to Borders, which I used online to get Wordpress for Dummies and DragonArt. I am sorely unimpressed with DHL’s delivery service. I ordered both books separately (which is a whole ‘nother story), and the first book arrived about 10 days late, while the second book came two days before the first one was due to arrive. Why one book needed to go from Arizona to Ohio to Utah to Montana, while the other only went from Arizona to Montana, I’ll never know.

I had the distinct pleasure of restoring our computer to factory settings. The sfc /scannow command yielded a lovely corrupt file it couldn’t repair which was causing software to stop running. I tried every possible fix I could find online, which included a system restore to a point saved on December 29. That was a mistake which caused I-don’t-know-how-many registry errors. If I try to look on the bright side, it’s almost like getting a new computer all over again. Wait, there’s all that advertising to remove, Windows Vista security to turn off, patches to install, yada yada. There is no bright side. None at’all.

Ah well, it’s done now. And I always have cats to entertain me.

Well, the votes pertaining to this post are in.

The tally is:
The Golden Compass - five votes
The Secret of Houdini - three votes
and
One write in vote of for East of the Mountain.

I’m going to stick to the votes, so after I finish How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, I will start The Golden Compass. Thanks for the help! After reading a few pages I think I’m really going to like this book.

Do you ever get so backlogged in your reading that you just don’t know where to start? My to-be-read pile hasn’t gotten so large that I’m just overwhelmed. Can you help me decide which one to read first? I’ve narrowed my list down to several books, they are:

1. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

2. The Secret of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman

3. The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke

4. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

5. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

OR

6. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

So, which one?

What do you think of the new layout? Me? I’m not so sure yet. And I’m really not comfortable with the whole widget thing. We’ll see.

And yes, I did backup my old template.

EDIT: Hmmm… My text replace smiley code doesn’t work. Bummer.