Russellsphere

Now I’ve studied the weather data for Columbia, SC before – and this winter has sucked BAD – I didn’t move down here for this weather – I was expecting tropical paradise – and for the most part it is. But this winter has been nothing but; taking a look at tomorrow for example; yields the possibility of freezing rain for the entire day! How is my 90% dead Palm Tree going to react to that? Who knows – since no-one around here really comprehends what the cold is; cos it isn’t usually this cold.

At least its not as cold as Virginia – but sickeningly – ENGLAND has been warmer. Although I’m not sure how that is even remotely possible since – the latitude marks are approx 1500 miles in distance apart! – but yet that is how it is – how interesting; I’m sure Mum is loving that :-)

As you know we’ve been sick; Emily and Nick are slowly getting better; but Lola was struck today hard – spewing forth mountains of chocolate milk; its fun. Most fun.

Yesterday morning; I was having a dream about an iPhone application that had many tabs on it. But one of the tabs was very sick; I felt the aura of the tab; and it was fuzzy to look at because it was so sick. I woke up and saw it was 4AM and threw up – and knew it was going to be the start of an adventure.

5 hours late the vomiting had stopped; loaded down with Phenergan – which helps calm nausea – I was asleep with aches and pains; I was in and out of dreams until about 8pm where I finally managed to get a bit. Ate some Chicken Noodle soup – was in a great deal of body ache pain – but managed to get back to sleep.

This morning wasn’t so great; but I managed to make it to work; and through the afternoon – I started to recover. Although – I am suffering with stomach cramping; some after effect from the illness no doubt. Took NuLev to attempt to calm the stomach cramping down; and that has helped.

At 1pm – Jenny notified me that she began vomiting – shes stopped now (5pm) so it looks like its following the same patten as mine – now she will sleep; over night and hopefully be ready for action in the morning.

Its been quite an adventure – just not one I want to relive in a while to come.

We have a ‘spare’ PC that is kinda used as the Kids computer to surf Starfall.com and Nickjr.com – Starfall is a great one by the way. Its had various O.S’s on it; including Windows XP – which we’ve used the most. But it constantly gets attacked by Viruses; and installing the drivers are a pain.

Ubuntu has always been a great product; and I was eager to see how far it had come since my last visit to the O.S. last year. I dream of an O.S. that just installs all the drivers for you (hmm Mac O.S.!) – and you don’t have to worry.

Ubuntu 9.1 did particularly well – it has a slick interface and the kids use Firefox to interface with their online learning games.

Guess what I did a Blackberry App Review – the app is called BeWeather. What a freakin geek I am.

Wow – the Wizard of Oz – is quite a tale! We are up to Chapter 6 – and in Chapter 4 we learned exactly why the Tin Man is indeed a tin man – I am not sure if they covered this in the film or not. But apparently the guy was in love with a Munchkin – and the mother of the Munchola was not happy about it; so she asked the Wicked Witch of the East to take care of it. So the Witch cast a spell on the Axe the woodman uses – and he chopped off his left leg! Well a tin smith – took care of that and replaced his leg. Once again the Axe mis-wielded and he chopped off his right foot; and so on; all is limbs – just kept rebuilding him. This really pissed off the Witch – so finally the Axe chopped his body and heart in half – so losing his heart; and becoming a full Tin Man. Pretty intense huh! – Well – now he’s gonna get his heart back and go for his Munchkin love; but I dont know about you; but I don’t particularly fancy his chances; he is after all; made of tin.

This is a fun little program that you scan your games/movies etc – using the built in Mac iSight – and is just wildly clever; not sure youd really ever use it – but fun.

In June – it is my sisters wedding; and I will be giving her away; theres one small problem. I’ve got to get there. Plane fares have been staggeringly high – but with the help with my Mum; and other saving factors we are over half way in the plane fare kitty. I’m proud to announce that we are at.
60% of our target amount – and we have 5 months left to save. Oh and Nick is going too :-)

At Barnes and Noble today; I picked up a childrens classic ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ for a mere $7.99. Its a nice book; nice artwork – and I thought the kids would enjoy me reading it to them at bed time.

We read the first two chapters this evening; and they enjoyed it. Its snappy; fast – and I like the differences between it and the film – I have neve read the book. We’ll enjoy reading it this Winter/Spring.

After the reading; we’ll watch the film (been a while since Ive seen it in its entirety) – and will be keen to spot the differences.