It occurred to me last evening that I jokingly referred to Drew’s friends as “hoity toity” on my Saturday blog entry and that someone reading the entry from that group might take offense.  A much needed clarification is in order.

Aside from individual friends and couples, we tend to divide our time with the members of a few set social groups – neighbours, karaoke buddies, no kidding!, stonecutters, band-geeks, and ex-Cons (no, not the criminal types).  Of these social groups, some members we see on a daily basis.  Some we see weekly.  Others we spend time with on a monthly basis.  I’ve blogged about members of many of the groups before. 

The hubby is a stonecutter and we’ve met some wonderful people through his association with the group.  Of course, the first time I attended an event it was a black tie dinner.  I wore a floor length ballgown and pointy high heels.  Drew wore a tux.  Yes.  I know.  It’s a shock.  We’ve been to a few more dinners with couples Drew has met through this group and there’s usually a fancy outfit involved. Skirts and Blouses. Dresses. Heels.  All the stuff I wouldn’t normally wear.  The exception to the rule was the jeans and tshirts attire for the backyard pig roast at J&R’s last year. 

The “hoity toity” reference had nothing to do with the personalities or people involved with the group.  Just the clothes.  We always have a fabulous time out with the couples we’ve met from this group.  And I was sick ;(  So Drew drank chocolate beer without me.

Note: Ex-Con sare ex-employees of the company I used to work for before moving to the college.  Many of us who were friendly while working there get together for an informal monthly dinner to catch up on what’s happening in our lives.  Only one of the group – 10-20 people depending on personal commitments – is still employed with the company.  Thus we named ourselves ex-Cons.

I don’t have too much time for blogging today. I have lots of homework and we had band practice – minus the practice – tonight. Apparently, the final practice of the spring is spent in full party mode . Everyone brought desert and gathered around to chat. Presents were handed out to the instructor (no, ours wasn’t given a year long supply of meds to help her recover from us) and there was lots of silly giggling.

Lots of fun. Now it’s time to get back to the grindstone. Have a great evening all.

Finally – we has the internets again!  Yipee!  Modem apparently arrived Friday.  We got notice of the package at the post office yesterday.  Yeah, our mail is really reliable around here.  Picked it up from the corner post office yesterday evening on the way to a dinner party with the hubby’s hoity toity friends (as opposed to the usual neighbourhood shindig), and put it aside to install today.  Plugged it in.  Watched the pretty lights flash.  Changed a few settings.  Set my WEP key. Et voila!  All laptops in the house are now back up and surfing away.

Life is good again.  With the exception of when I’ve been traveling I’ve never been without an available internet connection since 1993.  Sure, things have changed a lot since I used to dial into the university servers or BBS’ but having had a high speed (or what they like to call high speed) connection in the home since 1997, these four days have seemed like a throwback to the dark ages.

And mcpypr (you and I both know who you are) – thanks for the offer to piggy back off your connection this weekend.  Of course, since you sent the offer via my blog on a Friday evening and we didn’t get our connection back online until now, I didn’t see it until I downloaded my email this afternoon.  Best laid plans of mice and men.  If all goes well, I’ll actually see you at dinner tonight before you read this on my blog.

Perhaps next time *oh gawds, please don’t let there be a next time* you’ll remember to make your offer via the low tech tele-phoney thingy…

I know y’all are desperate to learn what I was doing while we were offline.  Sit down.  This is a bit of a shocker. I started reading some of my textbooks.  Now usually I put my pretty expensive textbooks paperweights on a shelf in my office in the basement and skim read them as I move through each chapter. I’d rather gather up the names of topics or authors and dig through journals to read a variety of articles on a topic than read a one size fits no one textbook. Granted, there have been a few classes where I’ve read the listed books cover to cover – if the topic or writing style really interests me.  However, most of my texts are pretty pristine.  I love to read.  I just don’t love to read the books I’m being assigned in my classes.  So, these past few days I’ve been hiding out in my basement reading my textbooks for the current semester.  Ooh, and I’m 1/2 way through writing the paper I have due on Friday.

The hubby, in his time of disconnection, started in on his honey-do list.  The lawns have been mowed.  The dog licenses have been renewed.  The permit to replace the ugliest garage in Edmonton has been obtained.  Plans are being drawn.  Our contractor is off getting quotes on the materials and the garage is being emptied of all the bits and pieces it’s accumulated over the years. Most importantly, for the first time in a year the third door in my pickup truck opens.  The plastic froze and the door handle snapped in winter 2007.  Yes, you read that right.  Nearly 18 months ago.  Hubby complained a 60$ part was too expensive and never had time to fix it.  Since he has an imminent departure to the sandbox in his future, I’ve been campaigning heavily that it be fixed before he leaves.  How else would I manage to get groceries home or his dogs to the vet if I can’t open the door? He fixed it on Thursday.  I’ve been all smiles since.  Ok, so I’m silly to keep opening the third door for no reason.  I missed it.  We need time to bond.  Move along. Nothing to see here.

Either way the hubby seems to be on a roll this week.  Perhaps next week all the weather stripping on my doors will be replaced while I finish my paper.  A girl can dream…

For now, I have a bazillion blogs to catch up on.  Excuse me while I do some drive-by blog reading.

It’s nice to be back.

After many days of constantly rebooting the modem/router it has finally given up the ghost. We can no longer ping it, find it via its MAC address, etc. In effect, while plugged in it does not appear to exist anymore. It doesn’t even fulfill the duties of a basic hub for wired networking connections. The little piece of hardware from Telus appears to have died.  It did an honourable job for a number of years and likely earned its trip to recycled electronics heaven.

So, we get on the phone and call tech support to order a new modem. I really don’t have the temperament to deal with phone technical support. Too many years working in the IT field I suppose. I just don’t have any tolerance for people who 1) don’t listen, 2) can’t go off script, 3) tell you to do something you’ve already told them you’ve done, 4) never bother to ask what OS you’re running and 5) make assumptions about your level of skill or technical knowledge. I usually blow my top after 20 105 minutes. The hubby is just as bad.  His day job of late has been managing server farms.  Software and OS’ is my forte.  His is hardware.  Both of us are impatient brats when it comes to ‘puters.  We trade off talking to the jr. tech so we don’t go completely psycho on her.  It’s just too tempting. 

After 2 hours of wrangling with the jr. tech *oi vey! my aching head* we finally convince her to escalate us to her boss.  She doesn’t understand half of what either of us is saying and has spent the last 30 minutes asking us to repeat fruitless exercises – such as pinging outside internet sites.  Honey, if I can’t get a response pinging the router itself, I’m not damn likely to get a response from www.mytelus.com now am I? *sigh* 

Anywho, back on the farm.  We finally get escalated to the next level of support, spend 5-10 minutes outlining the problem and what we’ve done, et voila, the new modem is ordered.  How we managed to hang in for 2 hours at the lower level is beyond me.  I just didn’t want to lose my place in line I guess…

Now I just have to wait for the new modem to arrive.  2-5 business days.  ARGH!  If it doesn’t arrive before the weekend, I’ll have to spend 48+ hours without an Internet connection.  I have assignments due!  The sky is falling and the world is coming to an end!

In November of 2006 I participated in the first Dona Nobis Pacem blog blast for peace. It was the brainchild of Mimi and two others have since occurred. In my first post, I asked “If social connections exist and what we write has power, why can’t a group of people posting a similar graphic calling for peace – whatever the word peace means to you – wield similar power?”

Today, I am once again participating in Mimi’s call for peace throughout the world. I am hoping that through education and exchanges of experiences we can find a solid patch of ground from which we can build a world where understanding is the ultimate goal. While I have no issues with independence overall, I believe a collectivist vision with a view to acceptance is required in order to succeed. As before I believe that this shared understanding can be developed through communication.

I invite everyone to spend the day communicating with others. Perhaps someone you might not normally speak to. Only through exposure to the new can we attempt to break free from the bondage of the past.