Suguay Productions

In November my niece had to tell us all how good the movie “Twilight” is. She thinks it is the best movie ever. My niece is a new teenager. She proceeded to offer anyone who might be interested, to borrow her book if they would like. At the time, I passed. I didn’t get off that easy. I was promised to take her to see the movie ‘again’.

So December comes and I have some extra time off from work. My niece and I go to see the movie. On my way over, I couldn’t help but think about the vampire movie that came out when I was a teenager. And then the movies since. I have a feeling that every generation has it’s vampire movie or tv show or some sort of depiction in the media of the time. Possibly since Bram Stoker first wrote Dracula. Even with these thoughts, I did find it an enjoyable movie.

I even decided that perhaps I would read the book. So when her book came back from the friend who did take her up on the offer to borrow it, I did the same. I read it last week. I found it interesting in that I found a certain quiet inspiration in Edward.

Not really what you would think. He seems to be noble and all that, for what he is. No, where I found inspiration is the implied way in which he utilized all the time he has.

As a vampire he has no need to sleep. What does one do with all that time? Apparently one of the things he has done is to become a very talented musician as well as how very good he must be a certain subjects due to have to repete them so many times. 

I have recently had a significant change in living arrangements from previous years. I no longer own a house with a yard and I now live alone. When I had a house with yard and lived with someone, there seemed to always be so much to be done. The yard and the cleaning and the maintenance. These days I find myself with a lot more unspoken for time on my hands.

I find that though I still have so many projects to work on and things I want to learn, I just don’t seem to do them. I find, much like so many onther people, that I fill my time with inconsequential things. I watch television or play a game on the computer, or spend so much time aimlessly searching the internet. Hmm. At least Edward spent enough of those endless hours learning music.

And so I find Edward Cullen from “Twilight” a quietly inspiring character. 

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

We cant’ find the algae eater is one of the first things out of my mother’s mouth when I recently stopped by. This comment brings back memories of “And please don’t send the big truck.” My family’s motto is “Making Memories”. When it comes to critters, we seem to do a lot of that.

My parents have a fish tank and they somehow lost the algae eater in the tank. I think it must have been playing with them because it finally decided to show itself when the pulled the rock out that it was hiding under. This is entirely different and much less eventful from what turned out to be a flying baby squirrel incident. 

The squirrel event started with the strangest sound in the dryer area. It sounded like something was in the vent hose. The scratching and scraping and all. It was a little weird. Now where my parents live, they have been known to have a bat or two. Unfortunately for the bats and myself, we don’t have a very good history. Somewhere in the mountains of southern California there is a bat flying around with a very old headache. 

So the squirrel.

Well, we couldn’t figure out what to do and try as we might we really couldn’t get the thing to hang out in an area of the dryer vent tubing that we could trap it. So Mom decided she would call someone. Who do you call with a problem like that at nine o’clock at night. Apparently the Fire Department. I do remember one of the things that she said to the dispatcher was something along the lines of not sending the ladder truck or at least not using sirens. 

I guess the Firemen were bored. We got the big truck. No sirens. They got the squirrel. One of them took it home to his kids. Years later, when my father had a health issue that required the paramedics, one of the paramedics had been to the house on the flying squirrel incident. 

We have had a variety of pets. Guppies. A dog. Two farm cats. One of which thought my father looked like the perfect midwife for her kittens. The other gave birth a few days later in the same box with the others. The only male kitten out of both litters, turned out to be the runt. He didn’t make it. We figured he opened his eyes, saw he had all those sisters and decided it wasn’t worth it. My sister had a hamster and a jumping, leaping Angel fish. We as a family had a couple of white lab rats.

Most recently we’ve had birds mostly. It started with one that literally came to my mother out of a tree in southern California. We then acquired one that had been walking down the street in San Diego. We moved from southern California to the Seattle, Washington area and the thing with the birds just escalated. My parents joined the bird club. We had and aviary of finches in the kitchen. Mom even hand fed a baby finch that got kicked out of the nest. Yes. Finch. Yes, the little birds that tend to be about an inch long. 

Then there were the squirrels and butterscotch brownies. As best we can tell the squirrels thought mom’s butterscotch brownies were great stuff. We didn’t know squirrels could make those sorts of sounds. They went a little orgasmic for them. Good thing I guess, none of the family were able to eat them. Of course after that they tended to come nearly knock on the back door for food. 

So by the time we’ve had all this, moved to Florida and had the flying squirrel issue, and geckos in the house, well the announcement that they can’t find the algae eater doesn’t really require much thought to deal with. It’s called, get the flash light, make sure he didn’t decide to do acrobatics and help look for him. 

I once saw on Master Piece Theater a production of Gerald Durrell’s book “My Family and Other Animals”, it was so comforting I had to buy the book. My favorite line is towards the end as they board the board to return to England from their stay in Corfu. “On the little card, in the column headed Descrition of Passengers had been written, in neat capitals: ONE TRAVELLING CIRCUS AND STAFF.” 

Life is an adventure to be lived and along the way we should all be Making Memories.

Cheers.

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

Ok, so I’m supposed to be the family geek. I’m the one that works on computers and such. My job entails working on computers and while I have other hobbies, often times when I get home I get right back on the computer. Sometimes just to browse, sometimes to goof off and play a game, and sometimes to do work. Like writing this article.

I am also a fairly conservative person when it comes to my desires in my equipment and my willingness to spend my own money. I have a laptop that is about 2 years old and still serves my needs for it very well. I have a desktop that is 4 years old and is really reaching it’s limits. I do have a flat screen on that machine, it’s a 14 inch screen. Ok, you get the picture of what I’m starting with.

I have been thinking for some monthes that I needed and wanted a new computer. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a new laptop or a new desktop. They both have their merits. I finally decided on the desktop and started looking. I considered a build your own type thing and the cost was not prohibitive. I considered the barebones kits to put together. I even considered an out of the box. I knew the minimum I wanted and I wanted a good graphics card. 

I ended up with a base machine that I have added a, for me, smoking graphics card. And I got a 19 inch wide screen monitor, and I invested in one of those gaming keyboards. It felt good as far as the key response. Then I got it setup and realized it is at a really comfortable angle. 

So after playing a game that really like to have nice graphics and seeing how really awesome it looks with the new card, and now typing on this new keyboard. Well… there’s a reason the title of this article is “Upgrades…Holy Cow”. Holy cow. What a difference. I didn’t know how comfortable computing could be. Now I just need to decide what to do about the mouse.

Holy Cow. What a difference. 

 

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.

Do you remember the commercials from a while ago that had the catchy jingle:

When you got Libby’s, Libby’s, Libby’s on the label, label, label you got goodness, goodness, goodness on the table, table, table.

Yep! Now you’re stuck. You remember it don’t you?

The commercials were usually for things like canned corn or green beans or such. Libby’s also makes canned pumpkin. Most people forget this except around this time of year when they decide, if they are adventurous, to make pumpkin pie, instead of just purchase one. I’m not really into making pumpkin pie. It’s good and all, just not my favorite. I like something that I remember my mother making. Pumpkin Bread. Oh yeah. 

So it’s the time of the year when pumpkins come out to play and are more likely to be on the menu in a desert fashion than at any other time of the year. I was grocery shopping a week or so ago. I wanted Pumpkin Bread. I would have settled for muffins even. I found some pre-made. They just didn’t have the right color, a little too light to be real pumpkiny. I decided I would make pumpkin bread myself. I bought my can of Libby’s, Libby’s, Libby’s and headed home only to discover I did not have a copy of the recipe for the beloved pumpkin bread. Mind you, I’ve not made it since I moved out of my parents home. That has been many years.

I asked, or mentioned the need for this recipe to my mother a few times. She suggested checking the back of the label. It wasn’t what I wanted. So I went online. Thank heavens and whoever else for the internet. Fortunately Libby’s has a lovely website listed that takes you to a place full of recipes. I looked up pumpkin bread and got 4 pages of recipes. I found one that looked easy and close to what I think my mother used. I had to go out for things so while I was out I got the rest of the ingredients that I didn’t already have. I came home and in amongs many other things. I made Pumpkin Bread. 

It smells like it’s supposed to. The batter tasted like it’s supposed to. Remember licking the bowl after the batter was in the pan? I baked it. It makes my place smell so good. Oh yeah. I got it out of the pan still warm. I had to cut it. Oh my.

That certainly satisfies that need for good ol’ Pumpkin Bread. I don’t even need the Pumpkin Pie. I’m good for the holidays now.

I’m off to spoil my dinner with another piece of bread and my iced tea.

Cheers.

Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.