Owner: Horst Household Happenings URL:http://horsthappenings.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:51:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Things that occur in our world; or maybe just in my mind, that may or may not be of interest to you. Sometimes these thoughts revolve around my perception of the world; sometimes not. I just try to have fun and enjoy my time at the blog. Welcome to my wor Site statistics:Click here
Picture Monday, March 17, 2008 2008-03-17 08:22:05 The pictures today are devoted to my sister Michal Ann. I found these last night while going through a few boxes. All were take while she was enrolled at Sam Houston State University during the latter half of the 1960's. This was probably taken when she ran for Homecoming Queen or some other honor.This picture was taken when she was cheerleader. This is the Homecoming in which she ran for queen. Obviously it was taken at the parade. Michal is in the middle wearing her cheerleader uniform.Michal and the other cheerleaders. Michal is in the upper right.Michal and the other cheerleaders again. This time at the bank. Probably a shoot for an ad. I would imagine that the bank was a sponsor of some sort. Michal is in the upper left this time.This is a picture of Michal and her sorority sisters. S Read more:March
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I'm Back UPS 2008-03-16 13:29:37 This is the weekend. Yesterday was, well, short of spectacular. First I still have this awful sinus business going on. Which means it is hard to sleep at night. Which means sometimes you take sleep when you can get it. Which means sometimes I get real sleepy in the middle of the day. Which means, well, I take a nap. If there are any missing I may have them. Yesterday I was afforded the luxury of taking a nap. When I woke up Chris asked, "Did you turn the computer off?" "No!" I said. "Well it's off!" she said. "Turn it on!" I said. "Won't come on!" she said. After a few more "He said," "she said's" it was determined the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) had been interrupted. It must have taken off for South Padre Island for Spring Break. This was determined by the lack of power spewing fo
Career Day Synopsis, For Those That Are Interested 2008-03-15 09:00:49 Career Day is over and for all it seems that it was a success. Our rotations included a dental hygienist, a book monger, a veterinary technician, a librarian, as well as a video about farming, career bingo, and the ubiquitous activity sheets. Yes, it was a grand day. And to top it off, Spring Break started the moment I walked out the door, started the truck, and drove home.The dental hygienist brought "Fred Head" and a set of "false' teeth with her. ""Fred Head" is a teaching tool used by hygienist students to practice their technique. It is simply a head with articulated jaws and a set of teeth. It can be attached to a mount that gives the student the sensation of working on an actual patient sans body. The "false teeth" were not actually real false teeth. Again, they were a model used to Read more:Career
Career Day, Spring Break, Gardening 2008-03-14 18:38:57 Hallelujah! Friday is here! Today is Career
Day at school. It is also the last school day before SpringBreak
. What can I say? At Career Day we will have various speakers that will come in and speak with the students about various career choices. Of course for Kindergarten the discussion will be much simpler, but will expose the kiddo's to some different types of careers. In the past we have had nurses, pharmacists, chefs, and delivery drivers come an speak. It is always a good time for all. I will report more later. The last day of school before Spring Break. Let me say that again. The last day of school before Spring Break. It took approximately 120 school days for it to get here; and it finally got here. I can finally rest my throat. My allergies, a cold, and constant talking in class b
Feeling the Fallout 2008-03-13 22:00:00 Geraldine Ferraro has stepped down. After verbalizing an astute observation on her part regarding Barack Obama's aspirations, Geraldine has decided to step down from her position in the campaign. She served as an unpaid "Honorary New York Leadership Council Chair," on Hillary's finance committee. I guess this is the latest round in the tag-team resignation match between the two camps. I believe the first happened last week after Hillary was branded a "Monster." Elsewhere in New York, Client #9 has resigned. It's about time. Worst of all though, The Baylor University Lady Bears basketball team went down in flames in the Big 12 quarter-finals. This is the first time they have lost in the first round and the first time that a #2 seed has lost in the first round. Firsts are not that great all Read more:Fallout
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Politics 101 2008-03-12 05:33:08 You know, when I started this blog I told myself, "Self, I'm not going to make this political." I imagine that I've already made it political once or twice already. Well, here I go again. What is it with the Democrats? The candidate in the delegate lead has been offered the VP slot by the candidate in second place. Well, well, well. To no surprise #1 pretty much declined the offer from #2. Not only does he decline, but he mocks her.Now another prominent Democrat has suggested that perhaps Mr. Obama has only made as far as he has because his skin color. It seems that this same prominent Democrat has had this problem before.Now the Democrats face the unenviable task of deciding what to do about the delegates in Michigan and Florida. If they count the delegates in Florida, look out. Who's goi
It's A Deal-Sort Of 2008-03-11 05:34:07 I'm sure this is not news to anyone. But oil closed at another new high yesterday. According to Bloomberg.com energy prices, West Texas Intermediate closed up $2.75 / barrel at $107.90 / barrel. Also Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending (RBOB) futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $2.7099 per gallon. Add to that about 40 cents plus for taxes and profit and you're looking at unleaded gas hitting $3.20 or more per gallon. This is not good news. I did find a good deal last night though. I was nearly on fumes and desperately needed to refill my tank. I stumbled upon the local Wal-Mart and discovered they were still selling unleaded for $3.05 a gallon then you get a 3 cents discount per gallon for using their card. I ended up spending $75.00 for gas last night. That wa
Allergies Still; Or Maybe It Should Be Steal! Plus other Nonsense 2008-03-08 22:08:31 As mentioned yesterday my allergies have really kicked in. I have been out of most of the day due to the medicine. (It's amazing what Benadryl does. Dries you out and puts you down. Then you wake up like a rock hard sponge.) From what I understand today was beautiful. I wouldn't know. In a way it feels as if I have had today stolen from me. I have spent the bulk of the day in the recliner with the remote. I have been clearing off movies from the DVR. Watching some, sleeping through others. Now in a few hours I will have another hour stolen when I change the clocks for Daylight Saving Time. How I hate Daylight Savings Time. I am sure there is a good reason for it, although I don't know what it is. In the deep, dark recesses of my mind I believe that it is an insidious Communist plot to rob Read more:Allergies
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Yuck! Allergies Again 2008-03-07 06:11:34 Well, I suppose that it's that time of year again. Allergies
! Last night was terrible and this morning is not much better. My sinuses have been stuffy and I've certainly been driving up the value of Kimberly-Clark stock. You remember them, they're the Kleenex people. Do they have stock? Yeah they do. Just checked and it's at $63.93 a share. My allergies took a hit on Wednesday night. Chris came in and told me that there was a Black Lab that just came into the front yard. I went out to see it and found Julie sitting there watching it. So I sat and watched too. Big mistake. Something was in the air ahead of the front that was blowing in and it found it's way to my sinuses. After about 15 minutes I came in and I haven't been the same since. I've also been keeping the Vick's DayQuil people and Read more:Again
"ay What? 2008-03-06 05:35:09 Many of you may know by now that I teach kindergarten. One of the things you get used to is the particular way that each student speaks. There is one particular student that has difficulty pronouncing the letter S. The student will either drop the "S" sound or substitute it with another sound.As teachers we often hear what a student "means" instead of what they say. This particular student says 'pot instead of spot. There are several other examples, including one that happened yesterday. Each day before we go to lunch I give the student a squirt of hand sanitizer. I'm trying to keep them from getting sick. Anyway, I never noticed it before but today this student asked for "hanitizer". At that moment I wondered if she listened to Sean Hannity while he tries to "Hannitize America."Probably n
Blogging For Dollars? Let's Give It a Try 2008-03-05 17:13:02 I came across an interesting site a few days ago. It is called Blogsvertise. This site allows bloggers to write reviews and articles for various advertisers. The bloggers are then able to provide the advertisers with the publicity and exposure they need over a wide audience in return for compensation. Now I know that some of you may feel that this task may be daunting. Don't worry because at Blogsvertise.com they have pretty good help page with FAQ's and all of that good stuff. Advertising/writing assignments are posted on the site so you need to check back often. They also have all the details on how you get paid. That seems pretty straightforward, but you must have a PayPal account. I thought I would give it a try. After all, I've done a lot of this for free. Why not do it for pay. Who Read more:Blogging
Super Tuesday II Is Over And Am I Glad? YES! 2008-03-05 05:38:14 Yesterday was SuperTuesday
II in Texas. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama racked up the frequent flyer miles. John McCain did a bit of traveling too. All of that time in Texas and it is still too close to call. I'm extremely glad it's over now. I really got tired of the political commercials, Democratic and Republican Party alike.It was pretty nice before the campaign focused on Texas. Not many commercials. Then they hit! It was time to focus on Texas and the commercials started. It may be my imagination, but it seems like Barack Obama outspent Hillary Clinton on advertising here in my part of Texas. (I live near W's backyard[In a figurative sense].) In fact, Garrett Lewis, host of The Morning Ritual on KWTX-AM mentioned that Hillary Clinton bought time on all of Waco's Clear Channel radio
Garden Time 2008-03-02 20:02:25 I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. There is a cold fron headed this way and it has been gusty all day. The weather man says that there are heavy thunderstorms headed this way later this evening. He also said that the low Monday night may dip as low as 29 degrees. Great, that means I may have to cover things again.I was able to separate and repot most of my chrysanthemums. I was able to get more snapdragons in, along with some lavender. I got out and picked up some more limestone for stepping stones and have placed them. I will need to come in later and dig some dirt out so that I make the stones a little more flush with the ground. I may bring in Irish Moss later to grow between the stepping stones. We shall see.Many of the tulips are blooming now. The daffodils are also comin Read more:Garden
WOW! What A Day! 2008-03-01 20:24:02 What a crazy day. It started out great. We were going to Ryan's Buffet for breakfast. While I was waiting for Julie and Chris I was playing on the computer. While there I noticed that my Sandisk U3 Cruzer had an update available. So why not update it while waiting? I start the update and all goes well. The process goes smoothly and is almost complete when the girls come in and tell me they are ready. Fine! I'll leave the Cruzer and get back to it later. MAJOR MISTAKE!!! When I got back I tried to work with it. Nothing! Then I notice there was a time out error. Everything on the drive was gone. As in non-existent! OH NO!! All of my school files. lesson plans, progress reports, letters to parents. The whole ball of wax was zapped into nothingness. After picking my jaw up off the floor I st
Leap Day 2008 2008-02-29 05:42:13 So today is Leap Day. We get an extra day this year to do all the fun stuff we like to do. Like listen to political ads?? Why is it that Leap Year is always during an election. That means we have to put up with all this nonsense an extra day. And it certainly didn't help this year, what with all the campaigns and such getting an unreal start on the process. Seriously, Leap Year has it's good side and it's bad side. Just think. If you are born on Leap Day do you only get to celebrate every four years. Boy that stinks. Imagine, you be like 60 years old by the time you were 15 and could learn to drive. Even going to school' you would be like 25 years old before you were 5 and able to go to kindergarten. (I suppose I shouldn't say much. I'm 52 and am still in kindergarten. And, I just got pr
The Road Trip Begins...Again 2008-02-28 04:54:19 I bought the Season One, Part One box set of Route 66 last night. I'm looking forward to watching it soon. I couldn't watch it last night because we were watching American Idol. I think our vote for the girls goes to Brooke White. She sang a great rendention of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain."Oh, back to Route 66. I was looking at the packaging materials, and the episode list, and stuff like that. I noticed something about the episodes. Disc 2 has Episode 5 that aired on November 4, 1960. Then Disc 3 has Episode 9 that supposedly aired on November 2, 1960. A small amount of research yielded the following information: IMDB shows that episode 9 aired on November 2, 1960.Epiguides.com indicates that the same episode aired on December 2, 1960.Who's right? I don't know! I tend to believe that IM Read more:Again
BLOG TAG - I'm It! 2008-02-26 05:36:44 There is a game that has been making the rounds of blogs, apparently for some time in various iterations. (I've used that word for Mandy!) Here's how it works. A person tells 5 or 7 unknown, interesting facts about theirself and then tags another blogger. The newly tagged blogger then tells the requisite number of facts about theirself and then tags another blogger; and the cycle continues.Needless to say, I have been tagged by Mandy. Read her blog: Rogers Review. I have found at least 2 references to Blog Tag. The first is at the Jeff Pulver Blog. It is dated December 10, 2006. The other reference is dated December 28, 2006 at SoloSEO. Oh, I guess I should share my 5 or 7 things. Let me think for a few moments. (Tapping head, rubbing chin, thinking--I teach kindergarten you know!)1. I rea
FREE, FREE, FREE-2nd Installment 2008-02-24 09:50:04 I don't know how many of you spend much time on the internet. I have found a lot of useful things in my time. I have signed up, joined up, and who knows what else.Many years ago I found a couple of places on the web that let you answer surveys in return for receiving points that could be redeemed for merchandise and sometimes cash. They were Bonus Mail and My Points. A couple of years ago both of these sites merged and they're now called My Points Bonus Mail. Original! Anyway, Chris and I both have an account. In return for giving them a little of my information I get e-mails to read. I get points for each e-mail. If I take advantage of the offer in the e-mail I get even more points. It's not that bad. Since I have signed up we have received about a total of $200 in gas cards from Shell, E
No Time To Rest 2008-03-19 11:42:52 Spring Break for teachers can be a time of rest and relaxation. It is also a time to catch up on important tasks. Like filing income taxes. I completed and E-Filed income taxes this morning for Chris and I. I also completed and filed for Julie. My next task is completing business tax appraisal for the county.Yesterday I spent half the day at the doctor. He said I am fine and has released me to fend for myself for the next six months. The other half of the day was spent tweaking the blog. I have tried to arrange it more logically and I have changed weather and news feeds. It's amazing how long that takes when you are trying to watch movies at the same time.I am also getting ideas together for a new web-site. I want it to be educationally themed, targeting Kindergarten. I am needing to plan
Blog Tweaks 2008-03-19 11:41:06 I hope that you like the minor tweaks that I have made to the blog. As you can see I have kept the same basic layout and design.I have tried to place similar things together in the sidebar on the left. I kept the Headline animator at the top and then tried to place all blog raters next. There is still one on there bottom of the page since the code for it has to remain where it is in order for it to work.I have moved the Bible Verse of the Day just above the Feedjit widget. Below Feedjit I have added the Live Traffic Feed. Below there I placed the Neighborhood from BlogCatalog. Below the Neighborhood is My BlogMap. This is interesting because it shows the location of nearby bloggers that belong to the BlogMap site. It also indicates when any of them are online.Next comes the venerable Kitte Read more:Tweaks
More Blog Tools 2008-03-21 10:39:29 Yesterday I wrote about a few of the tools I use. Today I will mention a few more. One source of great tools and gadgets has been The Javascript Source. This is a great source for all sorts of tools and fun stuff to use on your blog or website. Anytime I visit I end up spending way too much time exploring and playing. I have a link button for them down below with the RSS buttons.Another tool that I use for my advertising is Commission Junction. All ads placed on my site are through Commission Junction. I have learned that you can be more selective with the ads through them. Google AdSense seemed a little restrictive on ad size and selection. Commission Junction allows you to select specific advertisers from their list and then from many types and sizes of ads. I currently advertise for eBa Read more:Tools
Some Of My Blog Tools 2008-03-20 10:11:33 There are several blog tools available for the novice blogger. I will mention a few that I use. This is by no means a complete list or necessarily the best tools. they are simply the ones I use and have become accustomed to. Lets face it. When you get to be my age one you learn something it is best to stick with it a while and then ease into something new.One of the first things you need, after a blog site and a host service (Sometimes these are one and the same) is an image host or server. I use Picasa for three reasons: 1. They host a relatively large amount for free; 2. It's easy; and 3. It's what I started with so I know how to use it. (Refer back to the last sentence of the first paragraph.)After getting my blog started I decided that I wanted to find out where the visitors came from. Read more:Tools
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