Friday, August 31, 2007

Babybean Raffle Tickets Available Now!



To buy a Babybean Raffle Ticket, go to the Products page on my website, DarlingMillie.com

Click the Add to Cart Button to purchase a Babybean Raffle Ticket. Each Raffle ticket is $5.00, and you can get as many as you want.

The button will bring you to Paypal where you can pay. You don't need a Paypal account. Everything is secure.

Raffle Tickets will be on sale until Midnight, Pacific Time August 30, 2007 August 31, 2007*. The winner will be announced on September 1. The winner will get one Gizzy Quilt in the colors of their choice. Mom will pay shipping inside the US, and half the shipping if the raffle winner lives outside the US. All proceeds will go directly to Babybean to help offset her bean v-e-t bills as well as her ride in the helicopter.

*lookit! Mom's extended the raffle! Now you have until Midnight on Friday!

Thank you very much.


And.... Mom says she thinks she FINALLY got this right! Thanks for your patience!

If you're having trouble with this, and it doesn't do what you expect, and you are confused... please let me know. Email me at darlingmillie AT gmail DOT com. I'll work to get it right.

Jasmine does Scattergories


Mom asked if I would like to play. I said I'd love to! So here are my answers...

RULES: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made-up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

  • What is your name: Jasmine
  • 4 letter word: jinx
  • vehicle: Jaguar
  • TV show: Jeopardy!
  • City: Juneau
  • Boy name: Jack
  • Girl name: Jillian
  • Alcoholic drink: Jealous Queen (go look it up yourself)
  • Occupation: Jeweler
  • Something you wear: jumper
  • Celebrity: Julia Child
  • Food: jam
  • Something found in a bathroom: jars
  • Reason for being late: jet lag
  • Cartoon character: Jerry (of Tom &)
  • Something you shout: Jump!


PS: He hasn't got a blog -or- a computer, but it's Mr Cabinetmaker's birthday today!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Scattergories


I found this at my pal Lux's blog. I liked it a lot, and had to do some Google searching, and use the dictionary to answer all the questions.

RULES: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made-up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

  • What is your name: Millie
  • 4 letter word: more
  • vehicle: Mazerati
  • TV show: Maverick
  • City: Montpelier
  • Boy name: Malcolm
  • Girl name: Marie
  • Alcoholic drink: Mona Lisa
  • Occupation: Mathematician
  • Something you wear: mittens
  • Celebrity: Marilyn Monroe
  • Food: mango
  • Something found in a bathroom: mirror
  • Reason for being late: misunderstanding
  • Cartoon character: Minnie Mouse
  • Something you shout: Move Over!
I thought this was a lot of fun. Consider yourself tagged if you haven't done this yet. Jasmine will do her answers tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Tennis, Tennis, Tennis

Mom's been watching the US Open. She's sewing Gizzy quilts as she watches, and we check my email fairly regularly. The Babybean Raffle Tickets have been selling well. And of course our big Holiday Gizzy event will happen on Sunday at Noon. It's gonna be a big weekend at our place this weekend!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Tuxie Tummy Tuesday

When it's hot out, I lie on my back. Can I help it if it makes Monty Q swoon?

Monday, August 27, 2007

Will You Watch the Red Moon?

This image is from astrophotography
of a lunar eclipse from 2004. The folks on the West Coast will get a full lunar eclipse in the middle of the night tonight. It might look like this: it could be lighter, it could be darker. Mom loves lunar eclipses. She's getting up early to watch it.

Information here: NASA

You snooze, you lose.

Basilico

Mom got up yesterday, and went outside and picked this bowlful of Basil. (I think Fiona Bun will faint when she sees this.) There's Thai Basil, Genovese Basil, Spicy Saber Basil and Basil Green Ruffles and Purple Ruffled Basil.

She brought it inside, washed it and then made three batches of Pesto out of it.

Yech.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Saturday, August 25, 2007

What's Good for the Goose is...

Hi Everybody! Jasmine here...

Earlier this week you saw this picture of Millie snoozing on my quilt.
Don't think I haven't noticed. You know they say, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander..."

Yes, this is me, Jasmine, on Millie's quilt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom's finally got the button up so you can buy a Raffle ticket for a Gizzy quilt of your choice of colors (plus shipping, if you live in the US). Such a deal for $5.00. (Buy one or two or three...) The raffle benefits Monty Q's Babybean, who was badly burned a couple of weeks ago, and whose medical bills are thousands and thousands of green papers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And... today is Mrs Mr Big's birthday. Pop on over to Roxy's blog and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Friday is for....

I don't get it. It's Friday. Mom is home. It is a beautiful day. The sun is out. The sky is blue. It is warm. It is a perfect day for doing whatever you want.

So what does she do? Before she has breakfast even, she starts moving stuff around, piling it up, moving it here, moving it there. Then she gets the Rug Sucking Monster out and drags it through every room in the place, one at a time.

Holy Toledo! Doesn't she know the meaning of a Day Off?

What Kind of Monster Are You?

I found this over at Daisy Mae's, who found it over at the Meezers. I thought I'd join the fun.

This is me:

Your Monster Profile

War Warrior

You Feast On: Power Bars

You Lurk Around In: Swamps

You Especially Like to Torment: Pop Stars



This is Jasmine: HAHAHAHA

Your Monster Profile

Lethal Hitchhiker

You Feast On: Pie

You Lurk Around In: Flocks of Freshmen

You Especially Like to Torment: Your Evil Twin

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Thirteen Favorite Pictures

Here are 13 of my favorite pictures. (Well, maybe 12, but Mom made me add one. You'll know which one she made me add.) They're in no particular order.

1. Mom took this picture of Gizzy, without quite realizing she was in it. Gizzy was about 11 or 12 when this was taken, but he looks like a sprightly, young cat.2. Mr Karate and Gizzy. You can tell these two loved each other a lot.
3. The silly picture of Mom and Mr Karate.

4. Gizzy and me.5. Washing my tail.6. Mr Karate tried to take a picture of himself with the little camera on a tripod. He didn't know his face would get cut off. Mom (off camera) thought it would be funny to sprinkle a little flour on him.
7. Gizzy always had to be in the middle of everything. Here he is on top of the quilt Mom was making for Mr Karate.
8. One weekend, Mom and Mr Karate cobbled together one working laptop from two broken ones, then installed Linux on it. They had a lot of fun, as you can see here. Mr Karate has a great smile!
9. Mom caught me drinking from the measuring cup of water in the sewing room.
10. Mr Karate and Gizzy loved to play together.
11. This is the fambly, taken at Mim-may's birthday celebration dinner last month.
12. This is Jasmine, doing an upside down Full Monty with a twist.13. And this is the picture of Gizzy Mom likes so much. She's had it hanging on the wall of her office at her day hunting gig since she took it when Gizzy was about 1 year old.

You can click any of the pictures to biggify.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

White-belly Wednesday

Monty Q sent me this in my comments on yesterday's blog:

"There was a problem with the contest site last night and your belly picture was accidentally...um..'misplaced.'

The judge will have to have at least two new belly pictures now for snorgling...erm...viewing."

Well, who am I to say no to my sweetie-pie?

Here's one:

Here's two:

OK, Monty, snorgle away. But try to avoid leaving snorgle marks on Mombean's computer monitor. And don't drool on the keyboard.

Of course you can teleport over and share my hammock with me. There's room for you. I'll just freshen up a bit...

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Choices on Tuxie Tuesday

Mom's working on some green quilts now. I'm helping her choose fabrics. That's easy.

I am also trying to decide who to vote for in Monty Q's Do the Q contest. I've selected my pick for the Monty Q, and I have narrowed it down to seven kitties for the Full Monty, and there are three pictures I am considering for "Variations on a Theme." I am totally undecided on the "Viewer's Choice." This is hard.



We're all sending our purr-ayers to Malcolm and Jillian, my rescuers, who now live in the Yucatan. They've boarded up their house and will be waiting out the hurricane someplace safer.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Monday, Monday

The quilt for the not-yet-born baby is all finished, and will be flying across an ocean and halfway across a continent today.It's pretty and bright. I did give it a final QA check.

It looks good to me. Big enough for a couple of cats named Cinderella and Spot. And their babybean

Mom finished this quilt on Saturday, and was looking forward to working on some other quilts and adding "the damn button" to this blog and my website on Sunday, but she said the day got away from her.

Well, that just doesn't make any sense to me. I watched her doing stuff she usually does, and she wasn't here for a lot of the day, but she came home like usual, and yakked on the phone and watched the picture box in the sewing room, and she usually does that kinda stuff.

So how the day could get away from her, I just don't understand. Oh well.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Devil Dog

Mrs Big has two woofies, Roxy and Lucky. They are pugs. A pug is a special kind of dog. They are short and muscular, have curly tails, and are very friendly. They have pushed in noses and they snort and grunt. I think they are funny looking.

Anyways, they finally got a blog. You can see it here. Go check it out and say Hi!

Sleepy Sunday

Sundays are for napping. I am on the comfy recliner on top of Jasmine's quilt.

Last night, Mom took my nip out of the hallway, where it had been drying. MY VERY OWN, HOME-GROWN NIP. As you can see, I got into it right away, making sure it was ready.

It was ready. It was is GOOD!

Mom stuffed my very favorite mink mousie full of my wonderful home grown NIP. She even added the Nip flowers, which are very good and VERY potent. You can see how eager I was to get my paws on my mousie.

Finally, when it was stuffed FULL of my wonderful, home-grown NIP, Mom let me have the mousie to play with. And I really, really, really had a lot of fun batting it around, and chasing it all over the house.

So you could say the top picture is me recovering from a bit of a Nip-over.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Got Computer?

Mom fixed the computer. She left her day hunt early, came home and took the it apart. She got the dust out, then took this out:and put something else in. Then she started feeding the box one shiny circle after another.

Darn thing must have been hungry. She worked on it until it was past her bedtime. This morning things look back to normal:

She says she still has some pictures to copy over, but that shouldn't be a big deal. I think the thing that annoys her the most is she lost all the bookmarks for the cats in the blogosphere. Big whop. All she has to do is visit each one and add them back! Silly Mom!

A Cautionary Tale

Hi everyone, Millie's Mom here. A few years ago, my computer got a virus. As I was rebuilding my computer, I realized I had taken some precautions that every computer owner should take, and since I do this for a living, I have a few hints that most folks don't think about. I wrote a document about what I do to make restoring a computer a lot easier. Since I just replaced the hard drive on my computer, I thought many of you would appreciate seeing it.


A Cautionary Tale

Last weekend my computer got a virus.

I could not repair it, and had to reformat my hard drive, reinstall the operating system and all the software, and then restore my data. While this was a big pain and a lot of work, it was not a disaster, because I was prepared and had some tools to help me. I have an older computer and a mini portable drive(USB “thumb drive”). I was able to install my operating system into the old computer (which I named “Dinosaur”) and copy my uninfected documents and files to it using the mini portable hard drive. Then when I was ready, I was able to copy the files back to my “Real” computer.

Not everyone has a mini portable hard drive or a spare computer. But you can take some steps to prevent a computer virus or hard drive failure from becoming a complete disaster. Let’s face it, when this happens, it WILL be at a bad time.

The first thing you should do is keep all your software in one place. Don’t just throw it into a pile on the desk. I have a loose-leaf binder that has pages to hold CD's. I keep my Operating System CD and all the other hardware-related CD's in it.

New computers come with a CD for the operating system and often a disk for pre-installed drivers. You might also have CD’s for a Monitor, Keyboard, CDRW drive, Network Interface Card, Sound Card, Modem and Printer. Those are just for hardware. You’ll probably have lots more for the software, or programs. For example, I have: an Office Suite, Quicken, Norton Anti-Virus, and Corel Photo Album.

I also have a lot of software that I bought and downloaded from the Internet. I’ve got several games – Bejeweled, Sudoku, Pretty Good Solitaire. Each of these has a special registration code. I printed the emails with the registration codes and I keep these in the same loose-leaf binder. I don’t need to keep a copy of the software, because as long as I have the registration number, I can download another copy from the Internet.

Nowadays, Windows Operating System software needs the 25-digit product key whenever it is reinstalled. This can be found on a sticker somewhere on your computer. Some manufacturers put the sticker on the back of the computer, some on the front. Without this number, you won’t be able to install your software. That’s something else, along with the Administrator Password, that I keep in the binder.

Many users have CD burners. I strongly urge you to copy your “My Documents” folder to a CD on a regular basis. I take lots of digital pictures. So every other month or so, I copy the “My Pictures” folder to a CD.

I also copy my Outlook Express mailbox. Search your computer for the *.dbx files. Your mailbox files can get very large, well over 50 to 100 MB. Get in the habit of cleaning it out every now and then, and then backing up what’s left on a regular basis.

Your Windows Address Book is not stored with your mail. It is a *.wab file. It is called Name.wab. The WAB means “Windows Address Book.” This is another file you should back up regularly. It’s not usually very large, but it contains lots of valuable information that can be hard to replicate.

You should also make a copy of your “Favorites” folder. If you have Windows 2000 or Windows XP, it’s located in the “Documents and Settings\\Favorites” folder. And get in the habit of adding websites you like to your Favorites folder. You can’t restore the most recently visited sites from the address list on your browser.

I use Quicken to manage my checkbook. Every week after I’ve paid the bills, I back up my data. This is vital. I keep these backups in my file drawer with the rest of the bills.

I also do a lot of bill paying on line. In my binder I keep a list of accounts with their usernames and passwords. This page is handwritten. I don’t want a document like that to exist on my computer. And I don’t let my computer “save” my passwords for me.

A few other things are stored in my binder. Since I have Comcast high-speed internet access, I keep my Comcast logon and password information, along with the IP settings of my computer. I keep a copy of the instructions on how to set up a Mail account in Outlook Express, and a document from Microsoft explaining how to import mail from one Outlook Express account to another. (It is document 312359, you can find it here.) And believe it or not, I keep a copy of the bill for the computer itself, with the name and address of the vendor.

At work, I often take a print screen of a user’s desktop so that when I upgrade the user to a new computer, I can reproduce the placement of the desktop icons. This is handy. I keep a copy of this in my binder as well. It’s funny to think that you look at your computer screen every day, yet can’t remember where the icons belong if you have to start from scratch, but that’s the way it is.

I also make print screens of the contents of any custom folders. I have a special folder for games, so the icons don’t clutter up my desktop. I also keep a print screen of the Device Manager in the Control Panel. This shows me the names of the various drivers that are installed on my computer. It’s handy for when I might have to reinstall a driver. It’s a lot easier to look at this page than it is to shut the computer down and crack the case to try to see what’s written on the card inside.

Is this a lot of work? Yes. Can it be a pain in the neck? Sure. But armed with all the information at my fingertips, restoring my computer was relatively easy. And I didn’t lose anything important.

A few parting notes. You must run Anti-Virus software, and you must keep your computer updated with the latest security patches. Many have protection against keeping intruders out. Find out more at www.microsoft.com/security.


So how did I, a Network Administrator, get a virus on my home computer even though I have Anti-Virus software, a software Firewall and a hardware Firewall at my house? I broke the first rule. Never click on an attachment (either left click OR right click) that you don’t expect. In my defense, I was the victim of a new virus and the AV Company had not yet released new AV definitions that would have protected me. But it was still my fault.

Friday, August 17, 2007

uh.. Mom....


Uh, Mom, what's with this Gizzy quilt? It's like, Gi-NORmous? I know you've been tired lately, but have you lost your marbles or something?

I'm fine. It's not a kitty quilt, Millie.

Well, it must be for a very big WOOFIE, because it's like the size of three Gizzy quilts.

It's not a woofie quilt either, Millie.

Is it for a big bean?

It's too small for a big bean.

Is it for a kid bean?

No.

Is it for a toddler bean, like Babybean?

No. This quilt isn't for Babybean.

Well, what's bigger than a cat, smaller than a woofie, and smaller than Babybean?

It's for a Newborn baby bean.

A Newborn baby bean? I don't believe it. I've seen newborn beans and they are TINY. They are as big as me. That quilt is HUGE! I wanna see this newborn baby.

The baby isn't born yet.

??

Oh-kay. ... I think I have to go lie down now. I think I need a nap. Monty Q... I'm going over to your house...

Once again, beans are weird, and I am so glad I am a cat.




Update, 8:30 PM: NO BABIES HERE! This quilt will be flying (like the stork) to a family far, far away over an ocean and then some.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Blue Screen of Death

Mom's kinda quiet about it, but her computer kept getting a bloo screen tonight. She said it was the Blue Screen Of Death.

She says the hard drive died. I didn't know hard drives were alive.

She says her weekend is wrecked. I dunno how, it hasn't even started yet.




Here's the thing: Mom's an Alpha Geek. She wrestles with computers all day when she day hunts. (No, I don't get it either, and frankly that image frightens me.) She says she can rebuild her computer with a new hard drive, because she has backed up all her important stuff. (I don't get this either. I don't see anything unusual on her back.) She's been waiting to buy a new computer when she has enough extra green papers. Now, obviously, we are posting this, so that means we have more than one computer, so it's not such a gigantic big deal, but Mom says that's not exactly how she likes to spend her free time. (Being a cat, I am completely confused about this whole concept of -spending- time. And time can be free or not?

Oh, and there are three picture boxes in this place. So if one is broken, it's not the end of the world. (Now that's another thing I prefer not to think about.)

thank goodness for small favors.

the third thing

Mom says sometimes bad luck comes in threes. Like the flat tire and the hornet sting were one and two.

Mom calls the the black hole of our house. She came home tonight, pointed the clicker at it and nothing happened.She is not exactly a happy camper.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Nose Twin

George from Crew's Views has issued a challenge. Find your Nose Twin.

I think I found mine.
It's Adan! Adan is from Japan, Taiwan, and he is lots older than me, but i think we could practically be twins! I think Adan is so cute!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

Mom had a day like that yesterday.

Millie, it wasn't that bad...

Well it sounded bad to me. First she got stung by a hornet that followed her into the building where she does her day hunting. It hid on her umbrella, and when she moved it, she got stung on her thumb. She was in the hallway and all of a sudden she dropped everything on the floor and screamed "OW!" Everybody looked up and thought she was a little silly for a few minutes.

Then a co-hunter told her at lunchtime the metal machine had a flat tire. Which was bad enough, but her membership to Triple Ay had expired. So she waited for a friend to help her out. Which turns out to have been a better idea because her spare tire (which rides underneath her metal machine) had a hole in it!

The co-hunter was a car guy and had a little portable air compressor and he filled the flat tire (which had a little leak) and then let her take it home in case she needed to use it this morning.

But the worst thing of all was that she got home TWO HOURS LATE and I was HUNGRY!!!

There are TWO pieces of Good News.

One: Babybean is healing beautifully and the doctors and nurses are very impressed. (I think the fact that Babybean figured out how to open the door and was 1/3 of the way down the hallway, giggling, before Dadbean caught her was the best news of the day!)

Two: I decided to submit THIS picture to Monty Q's Do the Q contest.
I'm calling it the Curly Q.

Monday, August 13, 2007

The Squawk Box

Check this out: I call it the Squawk Box. Every morning it makes NOISE, Mom reaches over and hits it and it stops. But a little while later, it starts making noise again... So I thought I'd help Mom out, because it's obvious to me that she really hates this thing.

Under the bed, near where I nap when it is hot, I found the squawk box's lifeline, and I killed it.
Was Mom happy?

NO! She muttered and cursed, and crawled under the bed and plugged the lifeline back into the wall. The numbers on the squawk box lit up again, and Mom was happy.
It started squawking again this morning.

And she hit it.

I don't get it.

Once again, I am -so- glad I'm a cat.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday Babybean Update

Great news from Mombean:

Babybean looks amazing this morning-I wrapped up her arm in stretch-tite wrap to cover the remaining Aquacell and took her into the shower to try and loosen the crud on her scalp. They said once the Aquacell falls off she can get into the tub, but she was miserably itchy. It was incredible-it was able to soften up all of the crusties on her face, much better than just trying to soak it with a prefold diaper. (Never used..) So Dadbean towels her off and I unwrap the arm, noticing that there's a flap of Aquacell that's loosened up. Great! Dadbean trims it off, so she won't keep catching it on things when she sleeps. Then as I'm about to get her cream the rest of them damn stuff fell off. WOO HOO! So she's officially gauze/bandage/other free and much happier about it. I don't know if the plastic wrap caused a little steam to form and loosen it, but it's a great sign. (The skin underneath is delightfully pink.)

Saturday, August 11, 2007

A Babybean Update

Hi everybody,

Monty'
s Babybean spent the night at the local hospital last night. She had a fever, and Mombean wasn't going to take any chances. Babybean is home now, but she still needs our thoughts and prayers.

Her doctors like the way she is healing, so that's really good.

Send some prayers Mombean's way too, she's pretty stressed out about all of this, and overwhelmed (which is to be expected).


My Mom is hoping to get a link up to the Babybean Raffle by the end of the day. She still has to go food hunting and do the laundry, so it might be really at the end of the day, but that's part of her plan for today.

No Dirty Dishes

Look. Mom did the dishes. No more dirty dishes. The dishwasher is empty, too. She says she's gonna leave the kitchen like this every night before she goes to bed.

I'll believe it when I see it.

At least now I can jump on the counter so I can sit in that big window. It faces south and I can watch the birds in the trees outside.

Today she has to do the laundry and go food hunting.

Here's what I am doing:

Friday, August 10, 2007

You Got Questions? I Got Answers

1. Dragonheart was worried about what time it would be in Germany when the Holiday Gizzy Quilts go on sale. When it is noon here, it is 6:00 PM in Germany. Here is a link to a Time Converter.

2. Derby said Mom should stop and smell the roses. She did! She bought Mrs Big a ginormous bouquet of 18 roses when Mrs. Big got her Black Belt. She said they smelled GREAT!

3. Whenever I post a tummy shot, I always get comments from beans saying they want to kiss it. Well, let me set the record straight... Nobody, but nobody, touches my tummy.


4. Mom got my website back up. It's got all old stuff on it, nothing new. But everything works. Tomorrow she has to add a new page for the Babybean Raffle. Stay tuned! How does Mom do all this stuff? She likes to be Busy. She says she doesn't do Bored real well.

5. How do Jasmine and I make sure we get enough attention from her? Well Jasmine jumps up onto her worktable and plops herself right on top of whatever Mom is doing. I just walk over to Mom and MEOW as loud as I can, over and over and over and over. Fortunately, both strategies work very well.

6. Why haven't I left so many comments on the blogs? Well, Mom has been so busy. We try to visit as often as we can, and we try to visit everybody at least every other day, but we don't always have time to comment. We haven't forgotten anybody!