September 29, 2006 at 12:23 am · Filed under Personal
I lived in Spain for nearly a year, and then enjoyed a few visits back to what seemed like my other ‘home’ country. I was often teased in the extra suitcases I’d have to buy to come home, that I tried to bring Spain home with me. One thing that was hard to bring back with me was its food.
I was happy to find an online shop called LaTienda some years ago. Today I was accepted as an affiliate for LaTienda and thought to share with everyone what a fine product they have. I have made many purchases from LaTienda and also as gifts.
They have a wonderful assortment of Iberico sausages, white asparagus, jamones (spanish hams), Manchego cheeses, there is also tapas, and paella pan sets, and so much more.
 To bring a part of Spain to your kitchen, visit LaTienda!
September 28, 2006 at 11:58 pm · Filed under Personal
Generally, I am not a nap person. Even when I was a teeny baby, my mom has recalled time and time again, that I just never took a nap. She swore even as a tiny infant, I was ‘afraid I would miss something’ and would refuse sleep until night.
So today, after a lot of stress at home for the last week or so, after a lot of projects consuming my time, and life in general, I suppose I just had a collapse and fell into sleep.
Seems it was a poor choice of day and time to take a nap as while I slept, tornadoes hit Pasadena and not far from where I live. I remember falling asleep hearing the thunder and seeing lightning out the window. I do recall the spooky sky and threatening winds, but, I was just so sleepy….
The National Weather Service says a severe storm that swept through Maryland this evening spawned a tornado in Severna Park.
Anne Arundel County Emergency Operations Center spokeswoman Pam Jordan says that there were two touchdowns — one on either side of Cattail Creek.
She says about 20 houses were damaged by falling trees and five of them are uninhabitable. Jordan says one person was taken to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
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Next time I need a power nap, I hope the weather is calmer. And you know what? I feel like I DID miss something!
September 26, 2006 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Personal
I was swept away today, to our continent’s west. Not in a literal sense, but via a visit from my sister Linda and her husband George.
They just returned from a long time away trekking the West in their RV.
They showed us many photos of their vacation and truly the sites were a marvel. I’ve never been west of the Mississippi. I long to see it all.
Before they left I must have said a dozen times, “take lots of photos!” and they surely did.
As they were showing their photos, more than once they showed me some striking flowers and wildflowers and they both remembered in unison how while they were there, they said, “Good thing Barb isn’t with us, she’d still be here taking photos!”
(I think I have a reputation)
 :)
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Nice to have my big sister back.
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Photos taken by Linda and George
Both images stitched together by gumnut
September 23, 2006 at 10:27 am · Filed under General
(My friend and longtime neighbor Lisa passed this on to me)
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 You know your from Maryland when…
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   You know more than 10 people who own boats, all at the same marina in Solomons.
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   You can pronounce and spell “Pocomoke,” “Mattaponi,” “Accokeek,” “Havre de Grace” and “Silopanna” (Annapolis backwards).
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   You pronounce “Bowie” BOO-ee Not BOW-ee. Or BAUW-ee.
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   Someone asks you what school you went to - you automatically name your High School.
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   You know where ‘lil it lee is (Little Italy)
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   You remember Harbor place as the horrible place with polluted water
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   When the Power Plant was an actual power plant
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   You know what the Dundalk/Seagirt terminal means
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   You remember BWI Airport as Friendship airport
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   You remember driving over the old Kent Narrows bridge that everyone fishes off of now
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   After eating crabs you wash your hands with beer
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   You love the Domino Sugar sign you can see across the harbor
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   You know Annapolis and Hopkins are national treasures and get a kick out of hearing them named in movies or TV
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   You know B&O is not body odor, but Baltimore & Ohio railroad
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  1 hour is a good commute to work.
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   You have more than three recipes for crab cakes.
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   Every kitchen has Old Bay and French fries just don’t taste right without it.
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   There are more than two crab places in your town.
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   You got your first fishing rod or lacrosse stick before you were six years old.
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   You call all turtles “terrapins.”
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  You refer to your state as “Merlin.”
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   Your mother shops at Hecht’s.
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   You still call Six Flags America “Adventure World” or even “Wild World.”
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   You have fond memories of concerts at the Capital Center.
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   You remember the Civic Center, too (now the Baltimore Arena).
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   Peabody isn’t just a name, but a haven for artists of all types
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   You know Ed Norton is from Maryland
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   You know Pam Shriver is from Maryland
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   You have attended at least one game at Memorial Stadium and wish you had just one brick
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   Earl Weaver - enough said
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   Mr. Baseball was Brookes Robinson
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   You know DC isn’t the only place with a Beltway
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   You still remember the Wild World commercial (Wild World’s the
cure for the summertime blues!).
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   You can tell the difference between the smells of septic and marsh.
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   You not only know how to eat hard crabs, but also know how to catch them, cook them and tell the males from the females.
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   You don’t think that Assawoman Bay is a strange name for a body of water.
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   You know perfectly well why Rehoboth is called “Little San Francisco.”
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   M R Ducks makes perfect sense. So does C M Wags & I C Deer.
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   You think Salisbury is a big city.
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   You think of dumplings as wet slippery squares of boiled dough.
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   You and your boss take off of work when the fish are running, the ducks are flying in, or the deer are in rut.
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   You think of “Dairy Queen” as a pageant title and not a place to get ice cream.
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   “Formal wear” is a ball cap, a flannel shirt and Timberland boots.
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   You still root for the Orioles even when they suck.
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   You’ll never understand why tourists come to DC.
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   When in Florida, you can only laugh when you see signs saying”Real Maryland Blue Crab Cakes!”
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   You color with “Crowns”(crayons), take a “Share” (shower) with “Wooter” (water), and think the president lives in “Warshenton.”
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   You say Blare Road for Bel Air Road
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   You still get surprised that Marylanders sound so Southern
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   You don’t consider Maryland a “southern state” - we are a Mid-Atlantic state
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   You know what a Nor Easter is and can do
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   You know a winter Nor Easter will dump a Blizzard on Maryland and we get a minimum of 3 days off of work and school
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   You remember when I-270 was a two lane highway called 70 S, and Gaithersburg was considered the boonies.
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   Your entire family lives within a 200 mile radius of your town.
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   At least one man in your family is a waterman … or an attorney.
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   You plan for “The Festival” a year in advance.
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   During the summer, you spend more time in Ocean City than at home.
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   Your radio dial is stuck on 99.1 even though it is Spanish now.
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   You remember Jerry Turner and Al Sanders
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   Vince Bagli was “the” sports announcer on TV
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   Alan Prell’s shrill voice was loud and clear to us
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   You remember Shaeffer swimming with the seals at the Aquarium
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   When Marty Bass wore a wig
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   You know where Perdue chicken comes from.
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   When someone says “The bridge traffic is bad,” you know which bridge.
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   You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Maryland!
September 21, 2006 at 12:12 pm · Filed under Personal
I took advantage of this little graphic that came my way via a graphic’s yahoo group, and decided to fill in my family tree.
Years ago in High School we had to do a family tree project, and I worked so long and hard on it. I remember hours at my grandmom’s dining room table telling me stories of her brothers, sisters, mom and dad in the mountains of West Virginia. I remember going to my Great Aunt Jesse, and her filling in the blanks for the Fletcher Family. I also remember asking my Grandmom Edna all about my dear Grandad’s family, as he was no longer with us. Most memorable was talking to my mom and dad, asking them for information, and all the stories and smiles and memories that went along with that.
So here, I present, the Bosley - Fletcher family tree.
Susie Buckwalter, a grandmom never knew. She died early when my own mom was young.
September 19, 2006 at 6:33 pm · Filed under Personal
I am very pleased to say that my Internet Service Provider has increased the speed they allow to their clients, giving me well over the speed that I had when I started with them years ago.
Here are my test results:
What to know your speed? Test now!
How does yours compare with mine? Let me know!
If your speeds don’t match mine and you’d like to go faster, get Comcast! (They also now offer VOIP and HD Cable in a great package deal!)
September 18, 2006 at 12:48 pm · Filed under General
It wasn’t until a recent trip to D.C. that I
learned my daughter and Abe Lincoln were
real ‘tight mates’. She rather proved it by
willing to make a hike of it in the hot summer
D.C. sun to see his statue in the Lincoln Memorial.
She could do worse I suppose in her admiration of
someone.
Today I found an interesting quote on the net,
supposely by Abraham Lincoln.
These days when there are so many shades
of grey on right and wrong, so many shadowy areas
of integrity, that we can’t even look to our leaders for
truth, I rather liked this find:
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“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.Â
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.Â
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.Â
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by
encouraging class hatred.Â
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.Â
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more
than you earn.Â
You cannot build character and courage by taking
away a man’s initiative and independence.Â
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them
what they could and should do for themselves”.
September 17, 2006 at 12:01 pm · Filed under General
Remember dressing up as a kid for Halloween? These days Costume Partys are no longer just for kids! People seem to like to have occasions to ‘dress up’, escape from reality for awhile, and just ‘be’ someone else for a short while.
Recently, “Crazy Andrew” showed up at our house on the opening night of the new Pirates of the Carribean Movie, completely dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow. It was fun for him and all of us, to be whisked away even for a fleeting moment in Andrew’s world of make believe.
Also going on in Maryland right now is our “Ren-Fest” (Maryland’s Annual Renaissance Festival), and people like to dress up for that as well, getting into the spirit of the fun.
I thought I would put together a set of links to help those looking for costumes, if not for Halloween, for any occasion!
Enjoy:
September 13, 2006 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Personal
Ever growing is my newly created section at SkinsGallery of MySpace Layouts. Going with the flow that is “MySpace” and using my creativity, I am kinda glad I started this section. I have had nice, positive feedback as well.
Recently I took a look at my stats to see what people were looking for, and Halloween was definately among the top keywords. So, I have put together a few new layouts with a theme for the upcoming spooky season.
September 11, 2006 at 11:01 pm · Filed under News Items
I read this little statistic on the day that at 6 AM, someone I don’t even know from Asia decides to ring my cell phone with a text message. Three times. I wasn’t very happy about it.
So, today I read and learn that the total number of worldwide cellular connections now stands at 2.5 billion.
The people that track this information say that there are about 40 million new connections per month. Amazing.
“A quarter of the growth is coming from China and India, with China’s market expanding at more than 5 million new connections per month.”
“Other areas experiencing rapid growth include Russia, the U.S., Pakistan, Ukraine, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.”
They figure will be about 3 billion in total the end of next year.
Could someone just tell the person in Azerbaijan to check the clock and time zones before he dials?
September 11, 2006 at 10:15 am · Filed under General
Five years ago today, I remember exactly what I was doing, I think most of us do. I was online with John, when the phone call came from my friend Lisa, saying, “Look at the television, an airplane has hit one of the twin towers.”
As I clicked on the news I saw yet another plane hit.
Soon after, not far from here in Pennsylvania and not far from here in Washington D.C., more places were targets.
No matter how you wish to view the horrible events, two things are for sure: People meant us harm.
Innocent people died.
I think that requires more than a few moments of pause; to remember those who died, and to figure out, thoughtfully,  what is the best way how not to let that happen again.
September 10, 2006 at 10:46 pm · Filed under News Items
This comes from my friend Nancy.
Venezuela Dictator Hugo Chavez has vowed to bring down the U.S. government. Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a TV audience: “Enough of imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S. empire. We have to bury imperialism this century.”
The guest on his television program, beamed across Venezuela, was Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist. Chavez recently had as his guest Harry Belafonte, who called President Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.”
Chavez is pushing a socialist revolution and has a close alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
September 10, 2006 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Personal
We live in an area that isn’t very large. Pasadena has a population of about 12,000. It is definately ever growing, and I suppose with growth, comes some uninvited “excitement.”
This week Miquel had some such excitement where he works at a local pharmacy.
It seems he had a male customer and Miquel at once had a bad feeling about the man. The customer seemed agitated, but he had a suit on, and placed purchases on the counter, and then asked for a large amount of cigarettes from behind the counter. Miquel did as asked, and after bagging, told him the total of the bill, some $500, and the fellow then suddenly ‘remembers’, “Oh, I have some photos I need to pick up too.”
No sooner had Miquel turned to fetch his photos, the man was gone, with all of the bags full of loot. Miquel quickly noticed that his friend and co-worker, Shane, had ran out the door chasing after the theif.
Miquel then quickly ran after Shane, worried for his friend and what could happen.
Ahead, Miquel could see some construction workers, having a lunch break, noticing and fully understanding what was going on. Since one of the construction workers was the father-in-law of the workers in the pharmacy (advantage of a smallish town?),  he summed up was what was going on, and tackled the running thief. Very agitated with the bandit, he pinned him down and boomed out with a very decisive bellow, “You don’t DO that in PASADENA, boy!!!!”
The police were called and it was soon found out the pharmacy pirate had heroin on his possession.
As a mom, I could see this as a situation that could have gone very wrong, and am very glad it turned out how it did.
Anyway, I learned something;Â apparently, in Pasadena, we either ‘got your back’ or can flatten you on your back- your choice.
September 10, 2006 at 7:19 pm · Filed under General
For years now I have sat down more than a few times with the Pastor of our church at Anchor Baptist in Millersville and said, “You have good ’stuff’ coming out of here, Pastor.” I was referring to the excellent preaching and teaching in the church services and Sunday School.
So naturally when I started to be responsible for the church website, I was always putting forth the idea that we should put the sermons online for others to hear. Many churches have housebound elderly, or sick, or just those who missed a Sunday. Also it gives those looking for a church a peek into what is taught.
September 8, 2006 at 8:42 pm · Filed under Personal
Well, an external hard drive made by Porsche.
Update to my old external. So far nothing has been recovered although I will give the people at Aertight credit for trying very hard. The next step is to look up a specialist. I will keep everyone posted how that is going. Anyone with any information on data recovery in the Baltimore Metropolitan area, let me know!
In any event, a new external was needed and Malcolm at Aertight recommended this one.
LaCie 250GB FireWire External Hard Drive Design by F. A. Porsche - 300703U
Designed by the world-famous Porsche Design Agency, the LaCie Hard Drives exhibit world-class style and elite performance. The result of decades of architectural expertise, these drives feature state-of-the-art design and awesome performance.With room to store up to 250GB, you can back up your entire system or add extra storage space when your internal hard drive is full. Built to be lightweight and durable, these drives can be easily moved for sharing and exchanging of files.With high-speed FireWire interface, the LaCie Hard Drives offer fast data transfer rates (up to 400Mbits/s) that are required for substantial jobs like rendering 2D/3D images, downloading digital photos, saving MP3s or transferring home videos from a camcorder.These drives offer setup that is nearly effortless, and are ready to use minutes after removing it from the box. Secured rubber feet allow drives to be stacked, so you can get the most out of limited desktop space.
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September 8, 2006 at 2:48 pm · Filed under Personal
Laura and I started our homeschooling classes this week. (I always start in the traditional way I grew up and wait till after Labor Day).
We have really had a good start. This year is slightly different, in that we added Spanish to her list of subjects. (Again, I began in the 8th grade as well).
I don’t know if she realizes it, but she has a sparkle in her eyes as I teach it to her, and, she is reminding me what I had started out to do in life before “life” actually got in the way, and that was to be a Spanish teacher.
I think I really make it come alive for the young people I have taught in the past. I just love to see her twinkle with something new and see that smile as she understands things. So far, she has really taken with learning a new language.
Even her other subjects, she is going well. I suppose it’s good to get back into the discipline and the schedule of learning.
September 6, 2006 at 10:17 pm · Filed under Personal
While we were coming back from one of our trips to D.C., the rest of us walking NORMALLY from the metro to the car, I noticed Miquel deviate from just walking and leap up on the lamppost as he made his way.
Naturally I told him that he should make a warning to his ‘Mom with a camera’ so I can be ready.
He graciously re-did the leap, getting excellent height I might add. I set the camera on making 5 successive shots in a row, later in my graphics program, I put all the images together for this effect:
I was swept away today, to our continent’s west. Not in a literal sense, but via a visit from my sister Linda and her husband George.
 You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Maryland!
It wasn’t until a recent trip to D.C. that I
I read this little statistic on the day that at 6 AM, someone I don’t even know from Asia decides to ring my cell phone with a text message. Three times. I wasn’t very happy about it.
Five years ago today, I remember exactly what I was doing, I think most of us do. I was online with John, when the phone call came from my friend Lisa, saying, “Look at the television, an airplane has hit one of the twin towers.”
Laura and I started our homeschooling classes this week. (I always start in the traditional way I grew up and wait till after Labor Day).
