** CLICK thumbnails for larger image, which open in new browser window for convenience

* J A N U A R Y *

01 January 2007 / Monday -- Thanks to Essex Thomas for once again allowing me to use one of his original graphics, Lupine, for the banner and separation bars on this page, and the 2007 Kardas Award for Internet Creativity. I tried to be somewhat minimalist again this year in the above banner and I experimented with over 46 different versions of the images until I got them the best that I could.

The kittys presented me with a surprise New Years present and they kissed as they gave it to me -- -- a gift box of my favorite French champagne -- -- it comes with two enameled glasses -- I have quite a few stashed away from past years.

Terry from Texas called me at the stroke of midnight to wish me a Happy New Year -- we spoke for quite a few minutes, which made my evening a lot less boring -- NO, I have not yet opened the above champagne -- it is still in the fridge. The neighborhood was VERY unusually quiet around midnight -- no fireworks or firecrackers, little traffic, no noise from the street.

04 January 2007 / Thursday -- I reformatted the main page of Applebytes.info with a new header image and some other changes -- the old header had been there since I first started that domain in 2002 and was getting long in the tooth (actually, I always thought it was a tad corny and overdone / contrived). I wish I had more time to work on reorganizing my other main web locations. If I did not absolutely need eBay as an income source, I could spend more time on things that I like doing instead of trying to sell things to the cheapest skinflints on the planet.

Kappora, the Sphynx female from Russia was getting VERY fat again, so on new years eve I put Blinky and her in my bedroom to get extra special attention and to sleep with me without the others always jumping around and getting her overhyped. She always slept near my head with my arm around her as she purred away under the covers. When I went to bed at about 03h this morning, Binky came to greet me, but Kappora, who always came out from under the comforter, did not. OK, so I felt under the covers and there she was -- I lifted the blanket to get into bed and found her DEAD, warm yet, in a natural sleeping position. I have no idea what happened -- about 20h last night I gave them a large can of food, which was almost gone from the dish, so they were both eating as usual. I was shocked, needless to say. What a terribly sad way to begin 2007!

Amaravati Kappora of GUANCHE

Tortoiseshell Sphynx, F

born 12 August 2004 - Moscow, Russia

died 4 January 2007 - Trenton, NJ

at the age of 2 years 4+ months

11 January 2007 / Thursday -- on the 8th I took the remains of Kappora to the vet for an autopsy -- she was pregnant BUT her innards were filled with pus, so she had a major uterine infection -- that is partly why she looked so fat. She was only about 2 years old and probably my BEST looking and behaving cat -- I miss her a lot.

Yesterday I got a surprise package from my brother -- you can find those details on my Christmas / Birthday page -- -- . A friend from Germany sent me two photos of floats from the 2006 Munich carnivals -- they are always sort of politically oriented, and can be quite obscene [do you recall the one I included in my -- -- 1998 news page?] -- their new prime minister / chancellor is a woman (or the first time), Angela Merkel, the one Bush gave a well publicized shoulder massage to at a recent summit meeting -- well here she is again, complete with colorful dress and handbag, in something loosely translated as A New Opening with the USA / Bush -- -- the other one is somewhat more religious in nature -- --.

Today I filled up the Honda at a new gas station near here -- $2.09/99 a gallon, at least 11 cents cheaper than anyone else -- the owner seems to be from the Middle East -- where do they get all the money to come here and open up a business? It has been much colder this month, but we have not had any snow yet. One day it was in the low 70s, breaking records n several places -- I had the windows open, then it got cold again.

14 January / Sunday -- Happy Birthday -- Marilyn / - Birthday

Yesterday I went to the Apple Store at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania and got myself a much needed new keyboard -- many of the letters are worn off of all of my old ones! They also had those kewl iSkin keyboard protectors, and I got that too so that part of my computer snacks do not end up as meals for the cyber dust bunnies. I found a nice birthday cake, which is 1/3rd eaten already -- I did not include pics because everybody knows what a keyboard and birthday cake looks like. I received three birthday eCards, two snail mail cards and some twenty - two emails / message board posts congratulating me -- thanks for remembering -- the cake is now half devoured --

Care2 / - eCard -- Horacio & Inma [from Tenerife] / - eCard -- RonM / - eCard -- there are a couple more birthday things on my Christmas page, for those interested -- actually I got a lot MORE spams than birthday greetings this year -- -- here is a friendly note to those who did not bother sending me anything on my birthday -- -- fut the wuck were you waiting for? -- -- in this marvelous age of the interNUT, we are supposed to have loads more time for R&R, more opportunity to spend quality leisure moments on personal important things, but it appears that the opposite is the result -- most peeps seem to get soooo wrapped up in tacky techy gadgets, they apparently do not find time to do those hypothetically more meaningful olde tyme things. Most peepers have cell phones, so they do not miss a call even when they are on the beach, driving their SUV, standing in line at the supermarket / post office checkout line, walking down the street or taking a shit -- GAWD, what convenience! At last weeks Apple show in California, Saint Jobs -- -- demonstrated his new iPhone -- -- although a really fascinating high tech marvel, far outshining anything else out there at the present time [when and IF it appears in 6 months], it will further alienate humankind from their fellow travelers on this ever spinning terrestrial globe -- I much prefer personal contacts, the warm / breathing, in the flesh kind, thank you -- a phone was made to sit on your desk, to be answered IF you want -- there is NOTHING more human than a hand shake / hug, seeing a LIVE person in front of me instead of just a cyber image, talking to a real person, watching their body language, gesturing, instead of conveniently communicating at a great distance with bland lines of typed text. Grin and bare it.

19 January / Friday -- I closed the Christmas page a couple days ago -- was waiting for last minute whatevers in the mail because last Monday, was a national holiday -- nothing really news worthy except that it snowed lightly this morning but it has already melted and the sun is shining. I really need to get to Sam's Club for food. I removed the air conditioner from my study window, and covered the inside front grate of the one in the kitchen with a trash bag to keep the outside cold air from coming in. YES, the five pound birthday cake and all the cookies are gobbled up and I am starting on the second box of chocolates from my brother.

Let us compare the Christmas card display of 2005 -- -- to that of this year [hopefully you might be able to find the one you sent me] -- -- to which were added a greeting from eBay, my own card and a full page illustrated note included in his card from a college friend just to make it seem like more. At this rate, next Christmas I might be able to fill two strings instead of three, maybe. Since you have not seen my desk top in a long while, here is a wide view -- -- a large oil portrait of Paul Mocsanyi [a former director of the New School in New York] looks at me out of the corner of his eye as I sit here most of the day -- another photo of basically my computer table and what is above it -- -- the fluorescent lamp is from Ken, as is the old style black metal desk organizer to the right of it which very neatly holds some expanding file pockets filled with various paperwork, a dictionary and thesaurus plus odds and ends that cluttered that area before -- several reliquaries and other religious objects are noted, as well as a miniature Mexican human skull in bone china -- skulls are kewl, they tend to remind us of our mortality. The eMac on the left is used basically for printing because the iMac in the center [with a screen saver of tropical starfish] refuses to print most things after one of the OSX updates last year. In front of the iMac is a neato leather desk set that holds pens, my ancient calculator, magnifying glass, paper clips, tape measure, appointment book and other goodies that were usually scattered on the desk top. On the far right is a Texas Instruments electric printing calculator, also from Ken, but the paper is almost gone and I have to find replacement rolls -- there may, hopefully, be some new rolls among the dozens of boxes of office supplies I got from him. The new keyboard I got is shown with the iSkin keyboard cover which eliminates all the crap [dust, hair, snack flakes, etc.] that always tends to collect between the keys, making typing difficult, although the iSkin also needs getting used to -- if I plunk my finger down slightly to the right or left of the desired key, multiple letters / spaces appear and I have to correct the mistakes, but at least I can see all the letters!

I broke the end of year silence last night with Bernar and called him on the phone to tell him that an old friend of his from Belgium, Patrick, sent me an email asking how he could contact him -- we spoke about many things for quite a long time, pleasantly, as usual, in particular concerning some important things he wants to do this year [his friend saw a mention of Bernar on one of my web pages -- this kind of thing is perhaps the ONLY positive use of the interNUT that I can get excited about -- just about everything else, eBay, political shit / polls and the always sensationalistic slanted news included, SUCKS -- a former student of mine, Tony, from the American School in Madrid / Spain found my web site, sent me an email and we wrote each other about what has been happening over the years -- he lives in Australia and recently had a son]. I might add that last week, another former student, Pedro, this time from the Universidad de Laguna in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) who took my Scientific English class, sent me an email -- he is from one of the smaller islands, La Gomera, majored in biology, and he now works for the local government in some technical position.

23 January / Tuesday --

* F E B R U A R Y *

10 February 2007 / Saturday -- I added a bunch more midi tunes -- may update that page again when I am inspired -- there you will find some of my favorite disco songs, a selection of birthday / love / TV / movie and national anthem tunes collected over the years -- I used to use records and tapes in my language classes in Germany, Spain, and my private classes in the States -- the students went wild for them -- a couple of the Nuns in my adult evening classes in Tenerife told me how they enjoyed my discrete explanation of Barry White's Love Serenade.

A couple days ago I ordered a DNA family history kit from National Geographic and it is on its way to me -- Ted, my cousin, did it for the Bojanowski side of the family and has his results [that was my Father's maternal side, my grandmom] -- -- included in the analysis was a lot of details about migration patterns and other Bojanowski related info -- eventually both results may appear on my genealogy pages. My Mother's Sambor data would be slightly more difficult to obtain because I only know where one of her brothers lives and have not seen him or his family in many years.

It has been VERY cold, some record breaking frigid nights -- so where is all that global warming crap hiding itself? We had snow flurries twice, but it disappeared within a day or two.

Joan Marie Hitchcock Roberts

14 November 1959 - 8 February 2007

at the age of 47

If you have a photographic memory and read absolutely everything on my news pages, you would remember Joan as being at the top of the Aol This Is That Board message board Christmas tree in 2006, as her screen name, MajAttitude -- -- you can find a link to that message board on my Daily Trivia Contest page, linked below.

Joan was aware that her cancer was progressing, but she was always upbeat, told jokes and offered sage unassuming advice on numerous issues which would come up. Her AOL handle was misleading because she had NO attitude about anything and was always cheerful. She made MANY virtual friends, most of whom she would never actually get to meet in person.

My most sincere condolences are extended to her family and friends. May she rest in the eternal embrace of The Lord Our Heavenly Father.

13 February 2007 / Tuesday -- Bernar stopped by for a surprise visit yesterday -- I had not seen him since before Christmas -- he brought me four almost full cases of French wine -- thanks ol' pal, much appreciated

14 February 2007 / Wednesday -- Saint Valentine's Day

Listen to -- I Want to Know What Love Is

Click the heart below -- midi opens in new browser window for convenience -- may be saved on your computer

Saint Valentine's Day eCards -- Me / - eCard -- Bertie / - eCard -- Rivka / - eCard -- Eloise / - eCard -- Mare / - eCard --

19 February 2007 / Monday -- it snowed a few inches last week and has been very cold, so much of the snow, and now ice, is still with us. This photo was taken yesterday of the empty lot across the street as seen from my study window -- -- the sidewalk in front of my place [that is the sunny east facing side of the street] had a couple inches of packed snow and ice because I did not shovel anything, so on Saturday I tried something totally new. I always save used coffee grounds to mix with the soil in the small patio behind this property and had two large cans full in the kitchen. Since the java grains are black, which absorb the warm rays of the Sun, I logically figured that sprinkling them on the ice and snow would perhaps melt the underlying frozen ice. About two hours after I did this, I went outside again and I was not very surprised to find a clear path to walk through. This pic was taken a day later -- -- and as you can see, the dark coffee surface continues to melt the ice. I do not know what to expect after it snows again, but I suspish that even if the black grains are buried in new snow, some of the Suns radiation will pass through the new snow cover and begin melting it again from below, maybe. I do not know if it is the cold spell we are in, but I have been relatively lethargic over the last week, just puttering around with this and that and not concentrating on any one thing for very long. I did send out several pending utility and other bills, which now leaves me with just a couple dollars in the bank, which is NOT unusual. What comes in goes out just as quickly.

Among the photos in my camera were these two, showing how brain dead the post office delivery peeps CONTINUE to be -- this is an envelope filled with things, left bent in half at the front door where anybody passing by can take it, and there is a sign in the door telling them to deliver things at the BACK door and to ring the doorbell [there is ONLY one doorbell on this property!] -- -- after one of our first snow days, an important envelope was left OUTSIDE the back door and looks like somebody opened it before I came down stairs to see if there was anything in the mailbox -- -- naturally the deliverer, possibly a new one or a temp, did NOT ring the bell nor wait for me to come down the stairs.

26 February 2007 / Monday -- it is snowing again

* M A R C H *

4 March 2007 / Sunday -- I got a haircut because I was getting shaggy -- the last time was on 22 July 2006. I sent in the National Geographic DNA sample -- now I have to wait a few weeks for the results to appear. Since it was for my paternal DNA, I may order another kit for a maternal DNA analysis.

Yesterday I saw the total lunar eclipse -- it lasted a couple hours. An online friend said he would send me some money to get a fast telephone connection, which would be nice, I guess. I never got one because I already do what I want to online with a dial up modem, so why bother spending a couple hundred dollars / year just to do things faster. Now I have to figure out which provider to sign up with, and what plan I want -- we shall see.

Did anyone notice that new map thingy at the top of the page and on my index page? I signed up for it because it is soooo kewl -- there is only one problem with it -- it ONLY counts the visitors to the exact URL, http://www.kardas.net -- IF your computer changes it to end in a slash [kardas.net/], it is not counted -- MY computer does that, so when I go there, my visits are NOT counted. It has been functional since about 22 February 2007, and I am amazed at the countries already represented. I paid a couple buckies to get their extended map option -- when you click a part of the world map, you can see an enlarged view of that part of the world with the visitors' countries indicated. The interesting thing about this is that about a year ago I signed up for another similar visitor map, BUT it never functioned correctly and I removed the test link on the page I had it on after about a week. Actually I myself could get similar information logging in to my virtual host and going to their visitor tracking page -- I have never done that because it is kinda complicated and includes a LOT of information, such as browser used, screen resolution of the computer they use, which operating system they use, what link they clicked on which web page to get there, and some others, each on a separate page, which means clicking back and forth and wasting more time than it is worth.

It has been somewhat warmer lately, and it rained a lot. All of the snow has disappeared, and so have my coffee grains.

8 March 2007 / Thursday -- only one piece of news to comment on, and a biggy it is --

19 March 2007 / Monday -- it snowed again last Friday and Saturday -- it is still on the ground. I have been dedicating myself during these cold periods to updating my book web site pages which date from about 2004. The files had been located on Libro.ws and LaAtlantida.net since then, and were all formatted as I did it years ago, most in a small font that was difficult to see, much less to read. Making each page wider and the font one size larger was easy -- adding new illustrations, changing smaller old ones, and creating all new thumbnails [the old ones were teensy and impossible to see] for each book was the time consuming part. I had to fish for the newer scans I had made, some of which were not even on my iMac for some strange reason -- luckily they were in one of two web site stashes and were easy enough to get copies of from the site directory. I suspish that the problem was in my somewhat infrequent backing up of my iMac files onto the external hard drive -- I probably had BOTH windows open and thought I was switching the older folder for the new one, but I in fact I did the opposite, namely replacing the new stuff with what came before them. What I really need is a RAID mirrored backup hard drive which automatically updates files on the fly, saving me the time and worry about losing things.

I have thus far updated the book categories of Cameras / Decoys / Sewing Crafts / Science, which were all on Libro.ws -- I had the Jewelry book files on La Atlantida.net and loaded the updated files on the main book web site. The Toy category is still in the olde format on the other web domain and I have not even started revising all those things yet. To give you an idea of the number of files involved, in my updated book category folders there are 611 files, and a total of 151 removed to the old file folder/s.

When I first started these book pages I left Celebrity and Art books until later because the others were easier to do at that time. I now added some of the many Celebrity [movies / TV / sports / music] reference files in my stash.

The Art books are still missing because I could not figure out a simplified way of sub categorizing them -- oriental / American / European / ceramics / glass / Islamic / wood / metal / artists / sculpture and others -- I shall probably have to make two or three pages dedicated to art.

Yes, I am now using DSL, and NO it has not been without problems / glitches, which are described in the above DSL link.

25 March 2007 / Sunday -- it rained several times since my last update -- today it was about 58 degrees outside -- I opened several windows, the cats in the kitchen sat on the table in front of the window sunning themselves while I thoroughly cleaned and mopped that room.

I finally got around to restarting my guestbook, which had been dormant since 2000 -- -- redid the formats, increased the font size and added an index page. I also discovered that two special reports from 2003 were on iToyz.net, so I refreshed them and added them to this domain -- corresponding changes were made to my Special Report -- -- page, which I also reformatted. There are several other reports that are stashed on my other web sites that have yet to be brought here.

31 March 2007 / Saturday -- a new Special Report is born

* A P R I L *

3 April 2007 / Tuesday -- I updated a few more web pages. I am now waiting to see if my automatic RAID Mirror drives backup everything on my hard drive, which would save me the trouble of doing it all the time [which has been quite infrequently]. I scheduled it for 04h every day, just to be on the safe side. Somehow I doubt that it is gonna work the way it is supposed to. I used the EMC Retrospect Express application that came with the dual external drive, and the Disk Utility that comes with all the Macs to configure the thing -- I may include a pic of it later today. It was not all that easy to do.

The external that I acquired is the OWC [Other World Computing] Mercury Elite - AL [aluminum enclosure] 800 Pro RAID -- I had wanted to do this for many years, but never really checked out what was available until about a week ago. This is totally new to me, although I sort of know the theory behind it. One minute left ... I just saved this page to see what happens in a couple seconds, if anything.

OK, it worked for one mirror drive but not the other, and took just over an hour to do. I tweaked the EasyScript code setting for both external drives [in a single kewl enclosure] to have each update automatically on different days of the week at 03h -- that way I think I cover all my updating bases. What I have not found a way to do yet is to actually find / see the backuped files.

I finally got around to switching hosts for this, my first and main domain. I started out some ten years ago hosting with Network Solutions, and at the time their prices were relatively reasonable. They were bought out by Verio, who grandfathered my old hosting plan, charging the same amount while other virtual hosts began charging less -- I stayed with them simply because I dislike switching things from someone I knew to a complete stranger.

As you may know I am a long time YardsaleNet user, that web site that charges nothing for listing items, nor for commissions. About a month ago I checked out other offerings that their company, Cenicola - Helvin Enterprises, has, among them very affordable web hosting plans with one of their businesses, Virtrix. I contacted Mark and told him I was interested in transferring Kardas.net to his hosting, paying in advance for three years -- interestingly enough, three years with him would cost slightly less than a single year with Verio! He set up a mirror site for this domain so I could check out if everything functioned normally, which it did -- I would have been very surprised if it did not. Today I emailed him that my payment will be in the mail, probably tomorrow, and that a couple of my other primary domains can now be switched to his servers also. I had to change the DNS [Domain name Server / Service / System] server identities from Verio to his Virtrix servers -- that may take a couple days, and I hope everything works out right.

Oh, shit, the transfer was made already and my updates were not included, which is logical -- I now have to fish for all my updates and REload them again -- what a bummer.

4 April 2007 / Wednesday -- today was rainy most of the day, with lower temperatures. I thought you might be interested in what the new dual external drive looks like -- -- that is a non flash view, showing my iMac screen saver -- the next one is with flash -- -- now a closer view of the drive itself -- -- sleek metal lines, relatively small footprint.

Now to how EMC Retrospect Express works, although it does not seem to work as they say it should. The first screen shot shows the application copying the 240k+ files from my iMac hard drive to the first backup drive -- -- it then updates the catalog -- -- after which it compares what it copied with the original files on my iMac -- -- the entire process took about two hours -- if I remove the comparison part of the process it should probably take less time. I then use Retrospect again to schedule the automatic updates -- -- what I did is have one drive update itself on one day, and tre second drive the following day, and the scheduler shows the updates for many weeks -- -- I still have to tweak those setting a little.

I had to contact Verio SIX times by phone to try to cancel my account with them -- they bounced me back and forth from one department to another, connection broken, and I could not sign into their web site to terminate the service because I kept getting error messages that the friggen password was incorrect. I know what the password is, it has not changed in over ten years and I use it every time I update this web site. I finally got a young dude on the phone, Jason, an extremely helpful tech rep, who said there was a unique URL I had to sign onto -- their servers were being updated and did not work correctly! When I finally logged in, there were seemingly endless web pages of multiple choice and fill in the space questions about WHY I was cancelling -- Jason and I had loads of fun with each and every answer -- my first answer is the only one that appears in their email to me --

TERMINATE ACCOUNT REQUEST SUMMARY

Reason : it's Easter week and I am doing penance for my sins

some of the others were just as hillarious -- when the multiple choices contained something about the service being too expensive / did I find their user options too difficult / did I find another host [among dozens of other questions], I would tell Jason what I really thought and then said I would be nice and click something a tad less negative -- we both laughed throughout the very prolonged conversation -- do you tech peeps make up all this crap? He laughed and sheepishly said yes.

5 April 2007 / Thursday -- it was VERY windy and cold today. The stupid raid drive is more of a headache than anything else -- it is supposed to run automatically, BUT I always seem to have to type in my password to continue, which is not exactly automatic -- I hate passwords! Since the Retrospect application created a root script [a computer program at the sacred core of the operating system] to schedule the hypothetical updates, Retrospect does not have to be booted for this to happen, it boots itself. Anyways, it is not functioning as it is supposed to after MANY hours attempting to get it to work -- I spent quite a while on the phone with a tech dude as he walked me through the process, TWICE. As I always say, high tech crap sucks -- there is always some little crucial detail that is never in the manual, for some strange reason. One thing I think is totally stupid is that, after doing a backup, it is virtually impossible to open the backup to see what files are in there, which is one major reason for doing it in the first place -- with my cheaper former backup drive, I just dragged the hard drive icon to the drive icon, and in way less than an hour I had a copy of everything exactly as I have it on the computer and can find whatever I want to in all the files.

I am now in the process of changing servers / hosts for Libro.ws and LaAtlantida.net -- Mark created the mirror sites on Vertrix -- I have to look to see if everything is correct and then officially switch the DNS designations, which I may do on Monday after I call Web.com to say I am leaving them -- more about them later.

6 April 2007 / Friday -- Good Friday -- I want to rest this weekend, so this may be my last update until after Easter

Happy Easter !

Easter Goodies -- Me / - Where do Peeps Come From? -- Ron / - Jewish -- Me / - Peep-o-Rama -- Me / - Peeps Show -- Me / - Easter Bunny Jellybeans -- Me / - Super Chicken and Easter Bunny -- Ron / - Happy Passover -- Bertie / - Easter eCard -- Amaury / - Where Easter Eggs Come From -- Mare / - Easter eCard -- Flin / - Easter eCard -- Linda / - Easter eCard -- Rivka / - Easter eCard -- Peter K / - Easter eCard -- Renee / - Easter eCard --

9 April 2007 / Monday -- I updated some more pages -- it is still abnormally cold out -- added a couple new Easter eCards I received since the last update

20 April 2007 / Friday -- we had weird winter like storms, much rain and wind, temperatures below normal -- some places got flooded -- it would have to be a deluge for flooding to happen where I am located. Perhaps due to the high humidity, wind and low temperatures I experienced a very rare attack of constant sneeking and runny nose / sinuses for two days -- I must have used three entire boxes of tissues and took several Benadryl tablets, which alleviated the symptons for a couple hours. I dislike taking medications of any kind, only doing so when things get to an emergency level, which they did.

I switched DNS servers from Burlee [started with them way back in 1998], which was taken over by Interland and now they are owned by Web.com -- in those days virtual hosting cost an arm and a leg, and with each buy out, the service got worse, the price stayed the same -- if you remember kardas.net was hacked in the last few days of Burlee, another domain with them was hacked with Interland, and with the last owners [who outsourced everything to the Philippines], they lost all of my files for La Atlantida, with NO backup on their end, which is totally stupid and unprofessional. The switch was effortless, everything on Web.com was transferred to Vertrix by Mark [the CEO], and I am chugging as usual on Kardas.net, LaAtlantida.net and Libro.ws. I moved a lot more reference books to the Libro.ws from Kardas.net and LaAtlantida, including the toys and celebrities [music / sports] categories, having to REformat each description, make new larger thumbnails, ad infinitum. I have not listed anything on eBay for over a month, but did put a few things on Yahoo Auctions and YardSaleNet.net, which are free. I sold some cartons of snuff, and a teddy bear to a lady in the Netherlands on the latter, and two books on Yahoo.

I called John, my vet, about two female Sphynx that appear to be pregnant, telling him I was worried that they might have been affected by all that poisoned pet food crap [I now think that the death of Kappora, who was also pregnant, was caused by the fuckin canned and pouch food I would treat them with, although it was very expensive -- I should really keep track of what I have paid for cat things because I spend a hell of a lot of money on their food and litter, taking care of them much better than I do myself]. His reply was the same one he usually comes up with -- if you have concerns, you should bring them in for an analysis -- yeah, what he does NOT say is that it costs me a lot of money just to have him look at them, then comes the added costs of all the tests he wants to perform -- he has to pay for the totally new much larger luxury building somehow. I have not taken them for tests yet, but if I see signs of abnormal behaviour I shall.

Comp USA, a large tech retailer, is closing many of their stores. They advertised 20 - 40% off of anything the remained on the shelves, so on a trip to Sam's Club I stopped in to their nearby location. They had dudes standing along the highway and streets leading to the mall with huge placards stating the closing sale discounts. It was a big comeon, nothing more -- I was interested to see what they might have from Apple Computer, and they did have a lot -- the problem was they were only discounted 5 - 10%. I can get stuff cheaper using my educational discount directly from Apple online or at an Apple Store. What a crock! The only thing I bought was their last copy of Disk Warrior, used to check for glitches on the hard drive and to optomize it, allowing things to run faster and more smoothly -- used it twice already when things seemed to slow down on my iMac, and saw immediate positive results . I went to Sam's a second time yesterday and stopped in at Comp USA again -- they only had a single high end server and three flat screen monitors left, all now at 20% off. I did not get anything -- they were all floor models, no original box or documentation -- at an Apple Store, floor models are highly discounted, and they come with everything. They were selling all their shelving, desks and other display crap, including a safe that was amazingly small, single door, $600 -- holy shit, I got three hormongous double door safes for half that at businesses that were closing in the past.

On my way to Sam's I noticed that there were few cars at the Official New Jersey State Motor Vehicles Inspection Station, so I took the Honda for the checkup, which I have to do every two years. They had four inspection lanes open and I entered within minutes. I had this done at a local garage in Trenton two years ago and it cost me $60, taking several hours [at the inspection Station it is FREE] -- they keep sending me postcards and calling me to remind me to bring the car in to them again -- the deadline is today. They did not seem to have more than one or two inspectors working each lane, and they were extremely slowe going from one test to the next -- I spent at least thirty minutes before the car finally appeared at the other end of the place. I had two surprises waiting for me -- the black dude who put the new sticker in the window was one of my former students from at least 15 years ago -- he remembered me and how I used to ghive ZAPS for misbehaviour or missed assigmnments. The second shocker was the FAILED INSPECTION sticker he pasted on the windshield -- why? The futher muckin windshield wipers were worn from the ice and snow during the winter -- I replaced them with new ones last summer.

The Verizon DSL has been working nicely, with a few slowdowns that did not last very long. I did a lot of work updating pages on AppleBytes.info and iToyz.net -- the latter had not been touched since about 2004, virtually thrown together linking to material I had on my other domains. There is much work to do yet. This will end this page -- the next update will hopefully be on a fresh new YES page, same link / URL as this one to avoid confusion..

Countdown to Mother's Day

God Bless !

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YES - 2005	YES - 2004	YES - 2003
YES - 2002	YES - 2001	YES - 2000
YES - 1999	YES - 1998	YES - 1997
YES - 1996	YES - 1995	YES - 1994
RESUME		SPECIAL REPORTS

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