Difference in Perspectives between car dealers and mechanics

Dealer: You need to have your rear brakes fixed within a month or so
Mechanic: You need to check your brakes again in 8-10,000 miles.

Dealer: You need the 30,000 mile service - change spark plugs, etc. etc.
Mechanic: Pulled the plugs, and they look fine.

Dealer: $700+ for rear brakes and the standard 30,000 mile service package
Mechanic: $40 for having a look at it

I don't believe the dealer is dishonest - they're just going by the book. But I am certainly thankful for honest local mechanics who are free from "the book"!

A few Thanksgiving Pictures

The first picture is my sister-in-law making an announcement. Can you guess what it was? :)

Then we have a demonstration of the powerful influence of the turkey ... 3/4 of the available grandparents appear to have succumbed to unconsciousness.

Happy Thanksgiving

Please vote for Nikki!

A lady from church has been chosen to represent the Indianapolis Colts in a promotion sponsored by monster.com and the NFL. She needs to be one of the Top 8 vote-getters.

Go to www.nfl-monster.com and vote for her. You can click on the Colts logo to find her quickly!! She needs your votes daily! Second, please spread the word. Ask your friends and family to vote for her too!!

Rationed Health Care

60 Minutes is discussing how much money it costs to keep elderly people alive, and debating whether it's worth it. They'd describing it as "waste".

Why do I watch this show? It just angers me to no end. I'm so sick of their political agenda.

Oh, here we go ... now they're getting to their real point. "We need socialized medicine."

grrrr!

A Different Idea for Christmas this Year

If we are an American, we likely have everything we need, WANT, or have ever thought about wanting.

So, if you have anyone on your Christmas list for whom you have no ideas ... here's an idea to consider!

The Heifer Project gives you an opportunity to use what you would spend on a gift to completely change the life of a family in a third world country. You can choose different projects. It's such a neat idea.

And for those who, like me, sometimes feel a bit suspicious of charities. I researched them on Ministry Watch, and their review is here.

Just something to think about!

Heckling the Neighbors

Recently, our condo building's manager came to speak with me.

There had been complaints, you see.

"What," you may ask, "could they have possibly been complaining about regarding Miss-Conservative-with-no-discernible-life?"

Let me enlighten you ...

My balcony is open on two sides, and the third side is a brick wall, that is part of the building.

A few years ago, I put a mirror on that wall, with curtains on either side, so it would look like a window. Like this:



Well ... you see ... this apparently had become a problem. Because, you see ... the curtains? They were BLOWING OVER THE RAILING.

No, really. They were! And this was a serious problem. (please don't ask me why this was a serious problem. I don't know.)

This was serious enough that someone felt compelled to approach the management about their concerns.

So, a sheepish building-manager asked me if I would please contain my rebellious curtains, so as not to distress too-much-time-on-her-hands woman. :)

I took down the curtains ... and I pondered what best to do ...

Following is what I chose, and what I put up last night:

What do you think? They are very long, and tied down at the bottom, so as to contain the offensive curtain-blowing. :)

I am a bad woman. I am a bad, passive-aggressive woman. (Though, for the record, the original passive-aggressive move was made by picky-condo-person who went to the management, rather than speaking to me directly.

Don't know how long I'll be able to stand these curtains. They aren't violating any association rules (nor were the original set!). They are so loud, it's almost difficult to sleep. :) But I thought ... for a little while ... I'd let them stay.

Conversation in the lunch line today

Cashier: "Do you want to donate 50 cents to save a child's life today?"

Me: "No thanks, not today."

Yikes. SO not liking the way that reflects on my character!

A tesstimony that blessed me this morning

I have appreciated Paul Washer's preaching, but this is the first time I heard his testimony.

Paul Washer's Story from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

Considering selling my library

Just thinking "what ifs" today.

I have a 900 volume library. It appears that many of these books are available for the Barnes & Noble e-reader. Some free ... some $3-10 range.

If I started transferring these books to the reader, and selling the hard copies, I could gain an enormous amount of space in my world, and all-the-time access to my books.

I like the pretty covers, that's true ... but I'm thinking I like less-stuff-to-dust even more.

Pondering ...

Amazon Kindle vs. Barnes & Noble Nook

I'm considering getting myself either an e-reader, or a new laptop for Christmas this year. (My computer is still working, but starting to get awfully slow for what I'm asking of it.)

In comparing the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, I'm torn. So I decided to post the positives of each, and see if anyone else had any ideas!

Kindle:
Biggest pro is that it will read the book aloud to you. This is mighty nice. You could be reading something, and hop in your car, and turn on the audio, so you could keep reading while you drove.
Seems to have internet access included - has a rudimentary web browser, so you can use it to go online whereever.

Nook:
S/D slot, so you can add more books, and replaceable battery
You can read samples of the books before you buy them.
Reads multiple types of files, whereas the Kindle only reads what you get from Amazon
You can loan books to others, if you know their email address.

I've checked, and a lot of the old books I love - Stepping Heavenward, Paula the Waldensian, Mrs. Howard Taylor biographies, etc., are available, and are FREE.

The idea of getting books cheaper, and having virtually no storage space required ... this is a real interest for me!

Pondering ....

Preserving Leading Zeros when Merging from Excel to Word

I interrupt this blog with the solution to a problem that's been dogging my steps for years. I figured that if it's been causing me problems; it's been causing others problems too.

To preserve leading zeros:

Choose "special / zip code" cell format in Excel. This will keep the leading zeros while still in the spreadsheet. (If you have more than 5 digits, you may need to alter this format ... but you get the idea.)

Then, on the Word side ... (these instructions assume your document is already created. If it has not been, then make the changes to the Options before creating it, and you're good to go.)

Open the Word doc you want to merge

Choose button at upper left corner, and pick "Word Options"

Click on "Advanced"

Scroll down to "General"

Check the box that says "Confirm file format conversion on open"

Choose "OK"

Now, link your merge document to some random spreadsheet (to break the connection to the old spreadsheet.)

Save document and re-open.

Answer yes, or OK to whatever questions to get back into the document.

Re-link it to the original spreadsheet. Choose "Excel spreadsheet" when it asks for confirmation of the type of document.

Merge.

Leading zeroes will be there.

Happy, happy me. (Since this year's offering envelopes start with "00". :)

Addendum: This only works for me if I open the spreadsheet manually prior to merging. However, I'm running Windows on a Mac inside Parallels, so this may be a Mac-related weirdness. But if you have trouble, try opening the spreadsheet before merging.

the wonderful magic box

The offices at the church where I work are notoriously hard to heat & cool. The building has been added on to in phases over the last 30 years, and so it's a bit ... well ... finicky.

But this wonderful box has appeared this week.

It's a portable thermostat. If you have possession of the box, your office comes to whatever temperature you set.

Of course, possession of the box is going to be a hotly-contested prize. But ... right now ... I have it, and it's LOVELY in here. :)

Anyone care to join me?

I want to try reading through the Bible in 2010 using Robert Murray M'Cheyne's reading plan. I'm going to start today, so as to leave myself a few skip days!

A couple of Facebook friends have said they want to join in.

I downloaded the schedule here: http://www.mountzion.org/text/DailyBibleReading.pdf

If you've never read the Bible through, why not join us!