The cottage Resort

It is that Kind of Day

come rain or come shine

Obviously a Home Movie

Trying to keep up with the Blue Jay

I can't stop my fingers from typing my opinion.

The Strength of Testimonials

My research usually starts with them.

Could it be a gender thing?

I will always consider testimonials (of course intelligently considering the source)

It has helped validate many of my own observations on things.

I don’t dismiss them.

The topic of this new Liberation technique for MS sufferers in an example of what I am talking about.

I have been intently following this from the first day it was brought to the media's attention.

I have found this topic fascinating.

I was extremely upset when the Globe and Mail and other New paper Media

published that one person had died from this technique.

Yes, this was upsetting, but people die all the time from

Accepted surgeries procedures in Ontario all the time.

You just have to read the statistics and the testimonials.

So, It was with great relief to me to see that the Globe and Mail

 looked at the other side in the Friday Nov 26 edition.

They had a huge spread of testimonials of sufferers who tried this procedure.

Hope of liberation: portraits of MS therapy patients

They had varying degree of improvement, some much better than others.

If you go to the comment section, you can read more interesting stories

of people who were helped. There are a good mix of comments.

I am realizing the comment section of articles can be the most interesting part.

I think they are on to a HUGE BREAKTHROUGH for improvements of symptoms

It has never claimed to be a cure.

My educated guess for the the lack of support in Ontario

is partly politically and financially motivated.

awake at this time of the day

This is such a delicate, sweet sounding song.
I never really listened to the lyrics carefully before
but the signs were there of his future.

Cat Stevens - Morning has broken 1976

Summer Time

All this RED talk had me thinking of ...

the red hummingbird feeder that I touched up in Paint
to cover up all the Bird Poop.
This is the Ruby Throated Hummingbird taken in the summer.
You might enjoy the next post from our backyard
and the post and the post after that from YouTube

Tinkerbell and Tinkerbella In Toronto

Tiny Memories of Summer

The male hummingbird is drinking here first.

He leaves, and then the female comes to drink.

The male comes back and swoops her away!

NOW DON'T STOP HERE

you must see this video of hummingbirds

I don't think you can get any better than this-ever!

It is the ultimate feast for the eyes !

Nuturing a baby hummingbird

 I think this Hummingbird found its Mother.


My Friend from California sent the link to this video to me.
She thought we might find it interesting.
She could not see it herself on YouTube since she has dial up.
She told me not to tell her if it was good or not.

Speaking of Hummingbirds...

My Friend left her mark once again at our doorstep.

She tends to have a wonderful habit of doing that.

It has to be the most perfect Welcome Mat
to the door of Proven Solutions.

just a little note..... She sent me a link to her daughter's
blog Fashion made me Funky.
This was the inspiraton that gave me
the idea to start this blog.

The New Addition in the Backyard

I never thought I would be so excited to have a little tree planted.
The Backyard of the office was completely barren when we moved here.
A Tree had taken on a whole new meaning.
I have always loved trees but took them for granted.
There was never a lack of them in any backyard before.
When the tree was planted, I felt the backyard was complete.

This is a new "Autumn Blaze" Freeman Maple Tree

that was planted this fall provided by Leaf .

It was surprisingly taller than I expected.

(I chose other shrubs and this tree which were a gift from my sister.)

If you had to choose only one Tree.......

It is a much bigger decision than you think.

This was my compromise to the Silver Maple.

Its full beauty isn't expressed until it is mature.

This is when the bark becomes textured with character.

This is a Silver Maple Tree taken on one of our walks.

Each Mature Silver Maple has its own majestic presence.

The leaves are slender and they have a silvery green shimmer

especially when they rustle in the wind.

The golden colour of the leaves in the autumn are lovely and light.

But, it takes over 30 years for this tree to look magnificent,

so I decided on something that would look pretty sooner.

Within minutes of the tree being planted

the sparrows landed in it for shelter.

We knew then, that we made the perfect choice.

This shot was taken through the screen from the office window.

Can you see my favourite bird in there?



The autumn leaves were yellow when it was planted.
I asked the Arbortrists Guys why the leaves were yellow?
I was told that the "Autumn Blaze" Freeman Maple had red leaves in the fall.
(of course I was worried they gave me the wrong variety of Freeman Maple)
They told me it was because the tree came from a nursery and they will turn red.
Above is evidence that they were true to their word.

I hope our tree looks something like this next fall.
This is a tree I snapped a photo of
on one of our walks before the leaves fell.

Here is a close up of one of the red leaves on our tree,
 leaving the evidence behind that birds are enjoying it immensely.

This is the tree yesterday

Until next spring.........



The Neighbour's Front Yard

Okay, It officially feels like winter now.

It is time for some summer nostalgia.

This was my Summer Obsession Flower.

This is a photo of the original Rose of Sharon.

This is the flower that inspired me to buy almost

6 different shrubs for the backyard of all different varieties.

I never could find this one, so the neighbours gave me a cutting

and it did take off. I hope to show you the progress this spring.

What  is wonderful about this flower, is they stay in bloom

for weeks on end into the first frost.

Keep the Faith

There are some good tips in here, but they are woven into this little drama.

Well, after The I.T. man was done with my computer after it might have been infected,
 I was ready once again to sit down to tackle that bulb blurb.
I tried to go to the document I had been working on
for so many days, and agonizing over for so many hours.
There was no such file with anything like the title I had saved it under.
(of course the title name was completely unrelated. It was the first sentence of the document, which it is automatically named if you don't change it)
 In fact there were hardly any documents on my computer when I looked for them.

Okay, I said to myself, don't panic. Things have been moved around
The I.T. man has left his mark. He puts things back the proper way.
He is organized. I am not. He is always telling me, I should organize everything
so I can find them again.
I always say..."You are right. I will tomorrow. I have no time to organize it right now."

Okay, I take a deep breath.
I am smart. I will figure this out.
He taught me about the search file and program box.
I will go there and start typing.
So I type night......nothing shows up that looks like that file.
I type time.......nothing again that looks like that file.
My title was called something like "I had some time to write tonight."
of course unrelated to bulbs..but I knew what it was called.

Okay, time to panic..
I was remembering the conversation that night.
He asked if he could delete my temporary files.
I hesitated........"hmmm are you sure stuff won't get deleted that I might want or need?"

He said,.,,,,"Maybe some browsing history might. Are you okay with that?"

"Hmmm, well.....YOU KNOW BEST",  as I trembled iniside.

Did he really know best?

I decided to call him on the phone.
He was taking a nice brisk walk to mail some letters on a freezing windy morning.
I stayed behind because I needed to get this bulb blurb done.

"MY DOCUMENTS ARE GONE, in particular the
BULB ONE, the one I have spent so much time on.
Maybe you killed them when you deleted my temp files...
or the virus ate them up.
You did the backup before you started deleting the temp files..... right?"

He said...."Don't worry, they are not gone. Did you do a search for them?"

Yes I did...and NOTHING...and there are maybe only three documents left on my entire
Windows 7 section. Do you think they jumped to the XP section ?
( a very far fetched crazy hopeful answer).

He says "Don't worry. I will check it out. I am almost there."

I say "Okay" meekly, knowing I was being impatient and not very considerate and I should have let him come back to the office  first before asking him very calmly.

He came in the office a few minutes later
and tried to also search for them
and doubted I remembered the title correctly.
It was still not there.

He asked me how I tried to find it in the first place.

I showed him how I opened up Word, and usually my most recent documents were sitting
there ready for me to grab and they had disappeared and they totally vanished from that folder.
They were gone..gone..gone..gone gone....

He looked where I showed him
and then did something magical and suddenly they appeared again.

"What did you do? They were not there before. I know it. I am not completely crazy"

He showed me why they had not been visible.
When I went to open word...the only file types that were selected
to open were word 97-2003 templates (*.dot).

He changed them to all files *.* and volia.

It is almost always about a setting.

"Well how should I know that the file types would change on me?
How should I know to check that?
It wasn't like that before you touched it."

and now they were searchable (not sure a word) in that search file and program box.
This is something, I didn't expect either. I thought any file was serachable. I still have to check this out. It must be a setting. I better check that.

"Okay, I am sorry.
I knew you would figure it out.
I have faith it will always turn out well.
Thank you so much for helping me.
You are right once again.
They didn't get deleted....but.....
You changed things..".

It is almost always about a setting.

the bulb BURP continues

this story is continued from this post here.

I tearfully told the I.T Man from the office what had happened to my bulbs when he got back from a client.

The Kind Man from the Office did console me by offering to buy some more tulip bulbs for me.

Miraculously, my tears stopped running down my face instantly on his offer.

I immediately ran back to Home Depot to see if they had any stock left. As I predicted, the ones that I liked were gone.

So, I ventured off to Sheridan Nurseries.
I caved and decided to choose some from the bulk bins (I don’t normally trust that the colours of the end product will actually be the colour indicated. I figure people just throw back bulbs they have changed their mind on in any bin.) The colour is so important in this VISION I have.(this isn't the infected one)

Precious time, great effort
and a somewhat significant financial investment

went into planting these bulbs.

It takes more stamina and strength than you think to dig over 150 holes or more for the various bulb types.
I have completely lost track of this exact number.

I even bought a basic hand bulb planter suggested to me by Sheridan Nurseries.
(the one in the photo is from Canadian Tire, but it pretty much looks just like that.)

It is still takes of lots of excursion to push this thing through the earth.

Removing the dirt from the bulb planter was extra irritating.

Sometimes I ended up breaking up the dirt in the bulb planter with a stick of some sort and pushing it out the wider end.

I had no set method.
It was pretty much determined on how well I had initially loosened up the soil, and that varied.
I figured I must have been doing something wrong,
but after the fact I did look it up on google 
and found out I was doing everything correctly with the basic version of the bulb planter that I bought.

So the majority of the bulbs were planted stretching over a week’s time....

I am still not done with this Bulb Blurb

to be continued

HIs wandering Eye

Since I kind of took over his evening last night,
I thought he should choose his view of the day.
This is no joke. Men love construction, 
even this abstract Thinker from The Office.

Calling it "A Learning Experience"

Tip of The Day

Why is this video is still sideways?

This was my first Windy Day Video.

I didn't realize until after the fact,

that you should  not  turn a digital camera on its side to shoot videos.

The I.T.  Man from the Office could turn it 90 degrees.

However, it turns out to be way more involved

than turning a photo. The file ends up being way too big to upload to a blog

an update on the delivery problem with the Globe and Mail

I never did get around to calling the Globe and Mail about the non-delivery of yesterday's paper.
I was in a  state of suspension earlier this morning  
because as late as 7:00am today, it was not here again.
We just found both copies at our door about 1/2 an hour ago.
So you might find me referring to it sometime this weekend....if I ever get time to read it.

I really do want to move on with my life, but the only way...... is to finish that BULB BLURB

I was feeling like this yesterday

Don't let it get you down.

My day just got started on the wrong foot.
The Globe and Mail didn't get delivered.

This set the tone.

I got way too busy to sit down and try to concentrate on a post.

Finally last night, I had some time to myself.

The man from the office had decided to make it an early night.

(He ended up having a hectic day.
He thought he might relax in the office yesterday.... being a Friday,
but much like a Doctor's office...it is usually that day
that everyone calls with their emergencies to take care of.)

 I decided to finally tackle that bulb blurb.

Well, I was looking for some images of tulips,
clicked on one that looked interesting to me...
and right before my eyes, my computer said it was infected.
A box opened up looking pretty serious,
showing my hard drive being scanned and other things being scanned too,
saying I had 340 Trojans etc.......

Hmmmm, should I wake up the terminator and bother him?......

I am infected      I screamed out!

He pretended not to hear. After all, it was only my computer.

Well that didn't last long because I forced him to help me.

So he got into his TERMINATOR mode with the help of a coca cola

I decided that this was a good time to clean up the kitchen.

I had a song come into my head that described my mood that day

and I wanted to put it on the blog while I was feeling the moment.

I kind of sauntered back into the office

hoping he was done.,

but he was being  waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too thorough,

for my liking.

I want my computer back NOW  I shouted in a playful way.

He offered to let me use his computer but only in the sandbox mode
so I wouldn't infect his.

Well, I decided to try that, but I proceeded to CRASH it.

I am not sure he was so happy about that,

but he reset it for me anyway and let me continue.

I went to grab that video from YouTube and it didn't work.

I was not surprised.

But here it is finally, the next day......

after a night of scanning my computer thoroughly.

This is True. This photo was taken in November in Toronto

Still Blooming in November in Toronto

If you have a dog.....

I have had very little time in the past few days to do stuff on the blog (which might be a good thing to some of you), but Steve sent this link to me yesterday. 
I thought I should share it here.
I do have a COOL side to me (really I do), 
but it is tamed down for the image I think I should portray for "Behind The Scenes at Proven Solutions"
Please click on the picture..You may never return.

It might need a little renovation

I am wondering from what Era was this house built?

Cardinal Couples Going Out for a Bite

How did you find it so quickly on that dense web page?

updated Nov 24/10

The I.T. Guy is full of helpful hints

 that really save time and cut to the chase.

Here is an example.
 I have heard that Bullfinches can mimic people.

I wanted to read more about this so 

 I googled Bullfinches and came to this page.

To find out if this topic might be discussed here,

 I just pressed the ctrl key plus the F key

and a Find: Box opened up on the top left hand side

I typed the word mimic in this.

Any words containing mimic
 were highlighted on the web page.

Try it by going to the link I provided.

It is such a really useful trick!

You can try it on this blog post and type

mimic (as an example) and it will highlight mimic in this post.

Here is a screenshot to demonstrate this to you.

 




  


A Rather Blustery Day

play this video below to see MY BLUSTERY DAY

(it seems the picture thumb nails are not working for now)

click below to see where this quote came from

"A Rather Blustery Day"

Where did that Menu Bar go?

I was out on the Town last night.

I was helping a client navigate Windows 7 on her new computer.
We opened up her browser, and the menu bar was gone.

This is the main menu bar that I am referring to:

File   Edit   View   Favorites   Tools   Help

She thought that something was broken.

(I have to admit that when I first encountered 
the disappearance of the Menu Bar syndrome in my browser,
 I came to the same conclusion until The I.T. Man from the Office showed me his ways.)

There is a simple fix for this, but hidden.
I refer to it as the Right click magic act !

You right click anywhere in the blue bar under the address bar
and this dialogue box appears like this.

In this dialogue Box,

you select Menu Bar by left clicking in the checkbox beside that choice
which enables the Menu Bar.

This Menu Bar is now visible in your browser.

File   Edit   View   Favorites   Tools   Help

Look at this View



Because I have gone through such frustration myself learning to use any computer,

I can usually pinpoint where the difficulty is in learning a new concept

(in basic training) and help guide them to Eureka.

(This technique was tested in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox)



What are You looking at?

Maybe You should Not Reach for that Advil so Quickly

Feel better now or recover more fully later. Swelling may help you heal.

When you get an injury, it has been common practice to suggest taking
an anti-inflammatory such as Advil, 
but in a recent study, it has been found to delay the eventual healing
of muscle, tendon and ligament injuries.

Sore necks, sore backs and sore arms are some of the
 occupational hazzards of people sitting at computers for many hours a day. 
 Advil has always brought quick relief. Should we rethink this?

HIt me with your Best Shot

Squirrel on a Wire

We first saw him on the ground nibbling on something.
The curious Man from the Office
started walking closer to see what the treat was.
I had other ideas.
I was trying to catch a close up picture of this fellow.
 I was too late.
The squirrel took off.
Now no one could steal his food from up here.
The Camera Man from the Office took the best Shot!

A Slice of Life in The Backyard

Red Head

What works better than caffeine?

It is the Nap, that little bit of sleep that rejuvenates your energy best. 

It may not be for everyone.

Should I admit it?

I have been using the  POWER NAP  since I can remember.

It seems I have naturally been following expert advice.

It is a trick that many famous people have used,

but please don't sleep on the job!

In the Park around the corner

Gulling Around

The local park is a gathering place for these guys.

They may be a common sight, but if you pretend for a moment,

that they are on the brink of extinction, and that you may never see one again.......

would you take a second look at them when they are in flight?

If you go here, and check out the 5 photos that were chosen for the week,

 one is a magnificent photo of a Seagull

 who had swooped down to grab a pretzel.

Sometimes googling the Item of Interest under Images is the Best way to start your search!

Tips from the Office

I was thinking of the Passenger Pigeon, 

and I wanted to refresh my memory about them.

I usually start any search by selecting images first.

So I googled passenger pigeon under images and came to here.

I was looking for the prettiest and most true to life representation
 so I chose this image This led me to this informative site .

I thought that I would now check out what wikipedia had to say too.

The story of their extinction has never ceased to amaze me.

They once darkened the skies
No one would have thought this could happen.

They were very pretty birds too.

Will They Succeed in Saving The Tiger?

This theme of extinction was triggered by this article in The Globe and Mail.
I think everyone would like to save the Tiger, whatever their reasons might be.

My Wandering Eye

Still hanging on.......

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne - Lyrics

The "lack of Food Regulation in Canada" discussions 
really got me thinking about this song...
giving it double meaning now.

This has always been a favourite of mine.
This is one of many...

A Blast from The Past- well not for everyone but you might still be curious.

Well it was after hours in the office last night and I was suggesting it would be so nice to have an old fashioned TV that is so easy to use.
You just turn the dial and that is it!
This was in response  to The Man from the Office's irritation with the sound cutting out (anytime it wants to) from the Entertainment Centre.

This triggered him to tell me about the TV tubes that you took to the drugstore and had them tested there. I looked at him rather blankly and had no idea what he was talking about. 
I said "you mean the picture tube in the TV?"
He said no..and methodically explained it to me, the entire procedure and what the stand looked like in the drugstore etc..... 
I was pretty curious because I thought he must be dreaming and so I suggested I would google it.

First I googled TV tubes and could only come up with info about Picture tubes of TVs.

I decided to search for TV tubes under images.
"There they are" he excitedly pointed them out to me.
Here is the photo of what The Office man was talking about.

I clicked on that photo  and it took me to a site that defined them as vacuum tubes..

Aha so now we had the correct name for them and yes they did exist after all, but this part about testing them at the drug store....hmm.
 I  googled did drug stores test vacuum tubes for television under the images
category.....and sure enough..there was a photo of the exact stand that He was talking about.

It took us to a page that was  a really a TRIP down memory lane for some people. Under that particular photo on the page it said!!

Being sent to the drugstore to test
the vacuum tubes for the family TV?

 

Wow..pretty darn eerie, just like the Office Man said..

And this page has lots of little treasures if you want A blast from The Past, or even if you are curious about the 1960s.

If you continue to scroll down near the bottom it leads you to ads from the past like Pepsodent for example with a picture of Bob Hope. You can listen to the radio broadcast of these ads.

We went back to the google page and clicked on another drawing  of the stand in the drug store. This took us to a really fun article  by Gene Gable.
There are many retro drawings from the 50s included in this amusing story.
He spent a great deal of his childhood watching his dad try to fix the television.
He said much had changed from his Dad's days,
but the cursing is about equal.