Just Hanging Around

Sometimes, no matter what you plan, life gets in the way. Yesterday was a good example. I really wanted to get a minimum of 5,000 words done in my new John Lee Quarrels book, Sweet Tea And Jesus. But as it turned out, that wasn’t going to happen.

When I sat down at my desktop computer to begin working, one of the sides of my old Logitech headset broke off while I was putting it on. That wasn’t a big problem, because when I ordered my new Dell laptop a few months ago, I also ordered a different USB headset/microphone that is supposed to work very well with my Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 13 dictation software. When they arrived, I stuck it in the carrying case with the new laptop and forgot about it.

I dug the headset out, plugged it into the computer, and thought I would start working. I was wrong. I was talking normally but I couldn’t get anything to appear on the screen. No error message, it just wasn’t working. It took me a few minutes to remember that I had to add the new headset to my Dragon profile, and once I did that it worked fine. Well, duh!

However, it didn’t work fine for very long. All of a sudden, I started getting an error message saying that the add-in for Microsoft Word had been disabled, and once again I couldn’t dictate anything at all. Thinking maybe the new headset was the problem, I unplugged it and plugged it in again. Still nothing. Then I plugged it into my laptop and it worked just fine. The next step was to reboot the computer. That didn’t help either.

I did some research online, and one suggestion was to reload the Dragon software. I tried that, and still no luck. I even called my buddy Greg White, who I’m convinced knows everything there is to know about everything. As it turned out, he didn’t know about that. It really sucks when you find out your idol has feet of clay.

I kept trying different things I found online, and eventually one of them gave me step-by-step instructions on how to go into the Microsoft Word set up and reactivate the add-in. Once I did that, everything was working fine again. But by then it was pretty late in the day so I didn’t get more than about 500 words done. That’s a far cry from what I had hoped to accomplish, but today is another day, right?

Meanwhile, Miss Terry was busy hanging around. No, I don’t mean she was goofing off and wasting time, because she never does that. She’s like the Energizer Bunny and she’s on the go nonstop from the time she gets up in the morning until the time she goes to bed at night. Her idea of hanging around was hanging stuff on the walls.

A while back when we were wandering through one of the antique shops in St. Augustine, I came across this really neat airplane propeller and decided it would look good hanging on the wall in my office. We picked it up right before our trip to Arizona and it’s been standing in a bedroom corner ever since. It looks even better now that Terry hung it on the wall.

On another outing, this one to Renninger’s Antique and Collector’s Extravaganza in Mount Dora back in January, we picked up these two framed displays of nautical knots. We have decorated our living room in a beach/nautical theme and thought they would fit in well with it. Both of them needed some sprucing up, and the glass on the larger one (top) was filthy inside and out. Once Terry was done with the airplane propeller she took it apart, cleaned everything up, and hung them in the living room. I really like them, and I think they look pretty good there. Though they may look a bit crooked in the picture, they aren’t. I’m just a bad photographer.

I hope to make up for lost time today and get some serious writing done. There are never enough hours in a day for everything we want to do.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an autographed copy of Terry’s popular cookbook, Miss Terry’s Kitchen. I don’t care if you can’t even boil water, if you follow her recipes and directions, you’ll be the hit at any campground potluck dinner or with your own family every time they sit down at the table. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening.

Thought For The Day – I was going to give you a nasty look, but I see you already have one.