BLOGGING IS FUN IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING – AT LEAST SOME OF THE TIME
I’m sure most of you encounter unexplainable problems with your computer from time to time. UNLESS you are a computer Geek. You know, they are those fellows who drive little bugs around town with the signs on top. I’m not sure they know all that much but I understand it beats delivering pizzas.
I’m really going out on a limb to write this blog because sometimes a computer’s memory works, and heaven knows I need to stay on the good side of this one.
I’m positive computers are of the male gender - come on – women are much more dependable and you can reason with them. That being said, I need to mention that I have named my computer Marvin. I have only struck him twice (both times in the side – you know what new monitors cost). But, wouldn’t you know, the blows upset the printer so much it coughed out 42 blank pages without stopping. Which brings us to my printer whose name I don’t care to mention. Talk about tempermental. I have unplugged and replugged this machine so many times I’ve about worn out the switch. Copies only roll out in the dead of night when I no longer need them. Come daylight, this little piece of work shuts down. I would give it a good whack but it would probably upset Marvin so much he would forget my password.
Occasionally Marvin and I have a good day. He starts when he’s supposed to and let’s me log onto my e-mail and send two or three messages. That’s about it. The next thing I know he informs me my system is overloaded, which I know darn well can’t be true. I called the paper’s tech guys once and asked for their help. Big mistake. Unless you can walk the walk and talk the talk with these guys, forget it. They don’t know terms like ”dohickey on the left,” or that “spot just below the red button.” Instead they’ll have you delete everything in your baskets , including some I never heard of, take the trash out from under your desk, empty the dishwasher, and end with “if that doesn’t work, don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Blogging is a whole different hi tech field. Learning to blog is like learning to ride a bicycle. You have to first put one together, then learn to ride it so you can fall off and hurt your pride, then pick yourself up and do it all over again. Eventually you catch on. But it takes some of us longer than others.
Certainly I was given explicit instructions. My instructor even drew a map leading from the front door to my home office desk , then to Marvin’s “on”’ switch.
Piece of cake, I only got lost twice. But when it came to moving party pictures from my basket onto my blog, things didn’t go as smoothly. Even as we speak my screen saver is a party picture of three guys at a golf tournament awards banquet. How did they end up on my screen when I was moving them to my blog – I HAVE NO IDEA. Everytime I turn Marvin on (don’t say it) they fill the screen, stay on a few minutes and then disappear. I tried for days to move those guys onto my blog. They appeared twice in my e-mails and finally on my bathroom mirror. (I’m not about to tell my “blog master” about that, he might suggest I need a Geek keeper. Or worse, ask how they got there in the first place.)
Actually, they look kind of nice as a screen saver, and we’ve bonded. The guys are clean, have on sporty dress jackets and all three are wearing big smiles.
I’m not going to get too attached though, they could disappear any time . It wouldn’t surprise me if they traveled through cybro space and ended up on my television screen.
Wouldn’t that be the pits.
NOTES FROM MY SUNDAY COLUMN, THE SOCIAL SCENE…
Dancing for a Miracle, a fundraiser for Children’s Medical Research Institute, an affiliate of Children’s Miracle Network, raised $44,806. Looking as if they had just stepped off the popular “Dancing With The Stars,” TV show, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz football player Andre Burns, KMGL-FM104.1 radio personality Shawn Carey, KFOR-reporter Scott Hines, Miss Oklahoma Rodeo 2008 Kristen Killion, David Stanley Chevrolet’s Rob Stanlay and Oklaoma Energy Resources Board Executive Director Mindy Stitt (defending title holder) were paired with professional dancers to compete for the title of Children’s Miracle Network Dancing For the Kids Star 2009. Guests indicated contributions to the institute as they voted for their favorite team. Hines and professional dancer April Glunt were the winners, raising $6,359. The combined dance couples raised $19,101.
Landi Thompson was event chairman and honorary chairmen were former Gov. Frank Keating and his wife, Cathy.
April Glunt and Scott Hines
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT IN A WEDDING-MINTS, NUTS AND THE MOTHER-OF-THE-BRIDE
Hello, glad you stopped by. Since June and July are traditionally the months for weddings, here is a tongue-in-cheek account of one of my daughter’s weddings. Just funning you, but it could have happened this way.
Nothing is more leftover the day after a wedding than the mother-of-the bride. It’s easy to throw away the stale nuts, freeze the leftover cake and take the out-of-town guests to the airport. But what do you do with the bride’s mother?
It was difficult for me to accept that I wouldn’t be needed on the honeymoon since I had been organizing everybody and everything since the day after my daughter’s engagement was announced.
By the first afternoon I had the minister, organist, vocalist and size of the boutonnieres nailed down. I then reserved the church, the club, florist, baby’s breath, mints and corsage pints. The only thing I failed to get an estimate on was the rice for the net bags.
I began keeping a card file in a shoe box for the guest list. I carried it under my arm everywhere I went. If I ran into anyone in the grocery store or parking lot who spoke to me, I quickly flipped the top off my 6 1/2 AA box and made a note of the name. That way we scored extra points for the bride’s side, managing to produce a list longer than the groom’s.
Things really began to get tricky when I had to come up with an estimated number of people who might come, should come, probably wouldn’t come, or, on second thought, might come after all, to the wedding reception.
Desperate, I worked out a foolproof number. I divided the number of invitations mailed by half; to each hundred I added the bride’s age and rounded it off to the nearest twenty-five. From this I subtracted the total. Worked like a charm.
I bought a stunning mother-of-the-bride dress embellished with plumes, seed pearls and a built-in bra, and a simple little white bridal gown for my daughter. I then sent over a sealed envelope to the groom’s mother with my dress color enclosed and instructions for her to choose a becoming shade of beige. (I might add here that it is important to stay in control. If you let your guard down for a minute, the groom’s mother will be walking down the aisle in a red dress and her sister’s twins wil be upstaging the bride.)
The bridal parties almost proved to be my undoing. I became haggard and preoccupied trying to remember who all our friends were so I’d have enough guest names to attend all the parties. I had to include the car pool mothers since first grade and throw in my dentist’s receptionist before I came up with a respectable number. Some of them were less than, respectable that is, but you do the best you can with what you have.
At this point I began to get so uptight I went to one luncheon and forgot and left the bride home. It only happened the one time. It wasn’t the kind of mistake you care to make twice. Bridal hysteria is deafening.
Painstakingly I block-printed all the wedding information for the newspaper. When it appeared in print the shower hostesses were listed as bridesmaids and the groom’s father as an out-of-town guest.
About this time I began to get hung up on little things, like, how long the ribbon should be on the bouquets, what color pens to use for the guest book and whether or not to weary tummy control panty hose.
By the time I got all this resolved, I began to zone out. I’d find myself in the grocery store standing before the produce counter for an hour, unable to decide on a head of lettuce. Customers complained, so the manager finally picked one up and dropped it in my basket. I was so grateful I wept. I sent him an invitation too.
Deciding on the quantity of servings for the reception is a mind boggler. The burning question is – are they punch or champagne drinkers? About a fourth of the guests skip the receiving line and head straight for the finger sandwiches and punch, then whine when they have to wait for the wedding cake to be cut. The other three-fourths stand around hacking a 50 lb. block of cheese to death while guzzling champagne. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, the first group doesn’t catch on to what the other three-fourths are drinking. Usually this slow group is from the groom’s side of the family.
When the wedding day finally arrived, it did not go exactly as planned, or even wildly imagined.
The florist called at noon and asked if we wanted to use candles in the candelabras because she was running short, the organist called at 5:30 p.m. and said she had broken her toe but not to worry she would fake the footwork. Then the custodian reported there was a leak in the roof and asked what color drip buckets should he use.
An hour before the wedding the bride took the rollers out of her hair and ONE SIDE DIDN’T CURL!
But, the wedding was lovely and every minute of it was documented thanks to a very expensive photographer, who, by the way, was a piece of work. This man took a picture of everyone he could get to stand upright. He even got a group picture of the minister, florist, organist and custodian.
The only thing he missed was the bride’s father scribbling on his cuff. The man was frantically dividing the wedding costs by the number of minutes the ceremony lasted. As if that mattered.
Dan Dedonne, Christy Counts, Don Bobzien and Steve Bentley play in the Central Oklahoma Humane Society benefit tourney.
The Central Oklahoma Humane Society Golf Tournament was played at Quail Creek Golf and Country Club. More than a hundred golf enthusists and animal lovers participated. Lunch was served both days of play and an awards dinner was held at the conclusion of the tournament.
Christy Counts is Executive Director, Don Bobzien is a board member and Steve Bentley is board president. Don Ledonne was one of many volunteers who played in the golf tournament.
