During their private meeting, President Obama and first lady gave the queen a personalized iPod with video footage of her 2007 visit to Washington and Virginia. She was also given a rare songbook signed by composer Richard Rodgers.

 

In return the queen, and her husband Prince Philip, gave the Obamas signed portrait of themselves.


Hmmm.

Current temp is 0 with a wind chill of -14. (Farenheit)

This week, the Nelson-Atkins celebrates the momentous occassion of our 75th anniversary.

Even though it was cold and blustery on opening day Dec. 11, 1933, nearly 8,000 people waited in line to tour the Nelson-Atkins.

This weekend, Dec. 13 and 14, may be cold and blustery again but we've got lots of fun activities to keep you warm inside the Museum including FREE CUPCAKES!


http://www.nelson-atkins.org/welcome/75th/index.cfm

The second caged mouse has escaped, I think.  Sucky mouse cage.  *sigh*

ETA: I was incorrect. Mouse containment is still successful. Mouse just decided to completely submerge itself in the fluffy bedding for hours.

Have mice in the house.  At least four that we know of.  I bought live traps and caught a few

1) Caught and released a mile away.
2) Caught and put in a cage.
3) Caught and put in a cage.
4) Not caught yet.

So Nos. 2&3 were in a cage together.  Of course I don't know if they were FF, MF, or MM.  We'll find out in a few weeks, I guess.  But then one of them escaped the new wire mouse cage we bought tonight.  Found a spot where a latch was prying the bars far enough apart.  So we fixed that problem.

Now back to at least two mice running around in the house.

Most of my internet time is spent checking email and facebook. And most of my LJ posts have been nothing more than could fit in a Facebook status message anyway.

But my latest curiousity is whether I want to sell my 2000 Honda Civic and get a PT Cruiser (or something else). It has nothing to do with the Cruiser's exterior stylings, which I couldn't care less about. But when we went to Phoenix in January, my rental was a Cruiser, and I loved the seat height. You didn't have to strain and push yourself up to get out, you could just step out. I'm sick and tired of climbing out of my Civic. And when I bought my Civic two years ago, I had only met Hal once, for coffee, and didn't need cruise control or power windows because I never drove on the highway. Two years later, my car is on the highway at least once/week, and once we move, it'll be everyday. The Cruiser gets worse gas mileage than my Civic (currently, I get about 24 in the city and 37 on the highway, the Cruiser supposedly gets 19/24). So I need to learn which other vehicles have a similar seat height and better gas mileage.

LJ will be down Tuesday morning and possibly afternoon. I wonder if I'll notice.

ETA: Moving servers from Sacramento to Montana at 8am Tuesday morning (I don't remember which timezone). They plan to be down 4 hours for sure, and then will bring servers back up slowly the rest of the day.

I wish the Cathedral Cafe in Fayetteville, West Virginia had a Facebook page.

My camera's batteries wouldn't keep a charge.  So last week, I spent about $90 and bought a new one online (it's not an off-brand battery, but has the manufacturer's name on it), and a manufacturer rapid battery charger.  I don't know if it's related, but now the camera is screwed up ... like the sensors can barely tell what the camera is looking at.  All the button functions work properly, but the screen turns objects green and wavy and there are lines of static sometimes.  When a picture is taken, it's kind of just gray blah with some hints of objects.

So I'm frustrated that I may have to buy a new camera anyway, even after spending this money to fix the battery problem.  And now have batteries and a charger for a camera that doesn't work.

I'm already falling behind on emails and LJ, so don't expect much from me until after I've gotten hitched.

I'm doing my own makeup for the wedding. I bought some products and started practicing tonight. OMG, I now know why everyone raves about mineral makeup. It's like magic ... seriously. I feel so pretty right now, and it's so easy and feels like nothing is on my skin.

Plumber bummer.  Joe owes the state back income taxes, has a tax lien on  his house because of it, AND isn't licensed as he should be to do his job.

"... a city building inspection official says Wurzelbacher still would need to be a licensed apprentice or journeyman to work in Toledo, and he's not."

The beat of the BeeGee's song "Stayin' Alive" is the recommended rate for performing CPR.

Leatherheads ... I'd never heard of it until tonight, but we rented it from Red Box.  Possibly the funniest movie I've seen all year (or in years??).  If you liked the humor of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I think it's similar ... not in setting, but just in the delivery style that Clooney has.  Holy cow is he suave.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379865/

Saturday's SNL version of the VP debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0dqCB6pcI

To whomever was thinking of going to Chicago ... a coworker just went over the weekend with friends and pointed out some things she did that she would recommend to anyone going.  So I updated this post:  http://users.livejournal.com/_peregrinus_/614173.html

iTunes is supposed to ask me, when I delete a file from the library, if I want to delete it from the hard drive, too. It doesn't ask, and keeps it on the hard drive, just deleting it from the library. Usually I want to delete it from the hard drive, too. Frustrating.

Nice. Less than a month after I buy a 160gb iPod for $350, they come out with 120gb's for $250 (same price as the previous 80gb). *grump*