Amy Currioman

I’ve always been fascinated with animals.  A good friend just sent me the link to this really awesome video about a chameleon changing colors.  I didn’t realize they could change colors this fast! And I didn’t realize they wouldn’t bite you if you picked them up!  I’ve been looking at other chameleon videos, and none of them seem to change colors quite like this.  I wonder if some creative special effects editing went on here.  Regardless, it’s cool just the same!

My hubby just recently joined a social organization that my brother already belonged to.  I encouraged him to do it as a way for him to expand his social life.  He hasn’t met very many people since we’ve moved into this area, and I thought this was a good way to start making some friends.  A few years ago their club headquarters had been heavily damaged by flooding and they have been working on it to repair it.

Last weekend was a work weekend where the club members tried to organize a large group of folks to come out to the club house to help with repairs.  I’m not exactly sure what all they were doing, but when my hubby came home he was telling me that he was the only one who knew how to operate heavy equipment so he was put in charge of running the bobcat.  He said my brother was so surprised that my hubby knew exactly what to do – I guess he thought my hubby was “blowing smoke” when he told them that he could run them all! 

I think that as the economy picks up there is going to be an increased demand for people who know how to do that type of work.  Our infrastructure needs to be updated, and there will be a lot of heavy equipment used to do it!  So if white collar work is not “your thing” and good paying blue collar work interests you, getting training in how to operate heavy equipment would be a smart thing to do!

I like to use MSMoney to track my personal finances.  I find it easy to use.  I’ve been using it for many years.  I recommend it highly to anyone who asks me what I use.  So I was saddened to learn recently that they are not going to be continuing with new releases and updates in the future.  I guess they just could not compete.  That makes me sad.  I wonder what will happen years down the road if I need technical support – it won’t be there!  I don’t know if the data I have in there will be able to be transferred to a different program (such as Quicken.)  They say that people don’t like change, and in this case I agree – this is one “change” I am not liking!

As I get older, I find that my relationship with time has changed dramatically.  The minutes and hours, days weeks and months just fly by.  How I wish I could slow time down!  My kids – just babies a few months ago are already in college!  My mother, who was always so beautiful and youthful is slowing down and breaking down.  And every time I look in the mirror I notice a few more gray hairs and wonder if I should think about dying my hair back to its youthful color.  Time is precious, time flies, time is money.

When I was younger, it seems that I got a lot of watches as gifts.  They were fashion accessories, and vitally important to help me stay on track with where I needed to go and be.  Now some people ask me why I bother to use a watch – they use their cell phones to tell them what time it is.  Well, my cell phone is kept in my purse.  I keep it turned off unless I need to make an outgoing call.  I like glancing at my wrist to see what time it is – not hauling out my phone to check the time.

And I think that watches make great gifts.  There is a certain “class” about them that I love.  And there are so very many different styles of watches to choose from!  One of my favorite graduation gifts are Casio watches.  I think that they convey a sense of “time is valuable” message.

Yesterday afternoon I was videotaping my sister and I during a brainstorming session; I thought that it would be better than trying to take notes.  I set up the video camera on a new tripod I had bought.  I was disappointed in the tripod; it was flimsy and kept wanting to fall over – it acted as if it wanted to buckle under the weight of the camera!  When I was finished taping I tried to collapse the tripod but I had trouble with it.  It had those little tiny buttons on it that you have to push in order to get it to collapse; they hurt my fingers a lot!  I did the best I could and then had to ask my son for help.  He had better luck than I did, but still there were several that just would not collapse all the way.  I tried tapping the ends on the floor – no luck.  So this morning I asked my hubby for help and all he did was give them a little push!  Why they wouldn’t collapse whenI  tapped them I’ll never understand!  I guess I just wasn’t holding my tongue the right way!