The Return of the Topiary

Topiary apologizes for the unscheduled absence, she had leave hurriedly again for a sad errand...alas, a Topiary has ascended to the great Land Of Topiary in the Sky, and this small Cow has been handling the earthly details.

This entailed an immediate flight to distant lands, and the return of Topiary by car. Which is why it took so loooooong.

The good news is Topiary snapped many photos and will be blogging about her trip for quite a while, and will embellish her thoughts with color snaps.

Topiary missed you all and will be catching up with all your doings as soon as she can.

Moo!

Computer Hell

To enlarge on Cow's previous post...Cow actually DOES have her own internet, that she pays a hefty sum every month for.

BUT it's through a hard-wired router, and her laptop is wireless.

So Cow could get a wireless router to accommodate her laptop, but then her hard-wired computers won't work until she gets new cards for those.

Argh. And yes, Cow has attempted to remedy the situation by buying a hard-wired internet card for the laptop. She bought it, and it doesn't fit. Even though her laptop is a Dell and this was supposed to be a standard RJ45 dongle.

So another obvious solution is to just put away the wireless-internet laptop and use the desktops which get the wired internet at home. But those computers are dedicated machines being used for other things, and utilizing them to do internet causes them to go all screwy when those programs are running, which is most of the time.

Alas, technology. Thus the piggy-backing onto the neighbors, with just the laptop, occasionally, in a very non-invasive and minimalist way (never downloading large files, for instance). Cow DOES always respect the fact that she is just a visitor to their network.

Blessings and curses, truly.

Moo!

Letters I Want to Write

In honor of loyal blogger Letters (link at right) Cow sending this letter to the neighbors, who generously (if unknowingly) share their wireless internet with Topiary.

Could you guys please stop going to bed at 9:30 and turning off your computer so early? How about sometimes partying down all night and forgetting to turn it off at all?

Because it's really annoying to Topiary when she's written such a nice Blog Post then you go to bed and she loses it. Thanks.

Credit for this idea of course goes to Letters.

In honor of Cow's current brain-wash-total-immersion program of 5 seasons of Miami Vice, here's a photo to let you know what you're missing. Ah.

Moo!

Competing stimuli

Cow is shaking out her tired and wrinkled Topiary after returning from a trip in which the only bright spot was the aerial view of Salt Lake City from the aeroplane window.

An article (long time ago, sorry no link) stated the best way to move your mind from unpleasant occurrences is a surfeit of New Experiences, the more intense, the better.

Apparently, time not being immutable but influenced by competing stimuli. If you experience Thing A, and then nothing else remarkable for a while, Thing A remains freshly in the memory. By doing Things B-Z, Thing A is relegated by the brain back into the "dusty old news" section and it is more quickly forgotten.

Thing A in this case being a distasteful, stressful venture to resolve an elderly Topiary's difficulties.

Since returning, in order to get her Topiary sensibilities back to some semblance of normality, Cow has called every friend she has, scrubbed down her house while listening to hours of talk radio, and watched: Public Enemies (excellent); The Proposal (fun and light); "The Way Things Are Today" (British mini-series) and the entire first season of Miami Vice (from the 1980's, but the great clothes, music and cinematography still suck you in).

Topiary will now be checking on what all of you have been doing and is looking forward to playing a most charming DVD received all the way from England! Yes, what a nice surprise, Lulu (link at right) of the fabled Earwig Sandwich, has sent a sample of her film-making, which Topiary will be eagerly perusing, and a cute card. Thank you for the welcome-home gift, Lulu!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer, except those in Australia who are apparently enjoying winter.

Moo!

Unexpected trip

Hi everyone, Topiary had to rustle up some trimming gear and leaf polish and leave town unexpectedly for far shores, will write again in around a week.

Know that I am thinking of all of you and will catch up on your blogs and the doings in the Congo when I return!

Cheers and Moo!

Burp!

The story begins with the word "Mississippi" and rolls quickly into "ominous tide" and features the word "obesity" in generous, fat, padded sentences waddling slowly to the inevitable conclusion.

Cow's office has commenced recording crunching chips, slurping drinks, rustly cello bags and microwave dings accompanied by giggling statements that "We're too busy right now with lunch to answer the phone."

Hope all callers like the gag, and go away stuffed with a surfeit of material.

Ponderous moo!