Christmas cards

December 31, 2014

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or Solstice,  or whatever winter holiday you ascribe to & celebrate. Also, a Happy New Year to come.

I spend the holidays in Boise with my husband's family. I took lots of pictures & made many Christmas cards.  Here's a few: 

I am still working on my book(s), my websites & online companies. And I am also still struggling to lose a bit of weight. I will keep you all apprised as to how things are going.

Free software & games

Sunday, November 23, 2104

I was just playing a new game that I got for free, when I realized I have never mentioned this site in my blog!  The original site is called giveaway of the day, & can be found here: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/. They give away all kinds of amazing free software here. The only downside to it is this; because you are getting the software for free, you do not get any free upgrades or tech support. You must install it the same day you downloaded it. And if your computer crashes & you have to re-format (or get a new computer), you are out of luck. But it can be really good way to test drive stuff, which you can later choose to buy.

They also have a site called game giveaway of the day, but I have noticed in recent years that some days they do not have a new game. But, they have a list of apps, phone games, which is new. Their address, is: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/

I also have 2 really cool sites that have tons of free full games, that I really enjoy. I will list those here, as well.
http://www.myrealgames.com/

http://www.myplaycity.com/

I have a few others, I will update this list later.

There are raccoons in the swimming pool!

Friday, September 26, 2014

I just woke up & looking outside at the pool (closed now for the season, until Victoria day 2015), missing those raccoons. We had 2 raccoons in our swimming pool last fall (Oct. 13,2013), they've been seen in the courtyard by other tenants, but this was the only time anyone has ever seen them in the pool. We were getting ready for bed when Robert looked out the window & saw them in the pool. I got dressed, grabbed the video camera & took a couple of videos, Robert took 2 with his I-Pod. I joined them all together using a freeware program called All Free Video Joiner, which you can get for free (along with a lot of other useful audio & video software, all freeware as well), at:  http://www.allfreevideoconverter.com/products.html

There were 6 raccoons all together, 4 of them were hiding in the bushes, they left when I tried to get them on film. I generally check at least once every evening, hoping they will come back, but I never saw them again. A couple of days ago I realized why they might have left the area. Next door to our complex is a house, next to them is a big lot, which used to be wild, trees, blackberry bushes, etc. But they have cut most of the trees, they are putting up some condos. So perhaps the raccoons were living there & got scared away. Or if they lived in the wooded hillside behind our complex, the noise might have scared them away. Or they might have chosen to leave if their normal food sources left, because of the building racket.

Share a coke & a bee sting. Quite a day

September 12, 2014.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I woke up in pain as I often do. Took my medications & went back to bed for 1/2 an hour. After making coffee & getting my sweetheart up, I jumped on a bus & went to the University of the Fraser Valley Abbotsford campus, to get 2 free cans of Coke. If you are curious about the share a coke program, you can get more information here: http://www.shareacoke.ca/#comeAndShare
A lot of the dates are already past, but not all of them. 

Because I have a fairly unique name, I can't get the cool personalized pens or Christmas ornaments, that people with more regular names can easily do, at the dollar store. There are places you can special order them, but that can get expensive (I usually wait for the deals!)

Then I went to the women's food bank, & missed a bus & couldn't make it in time to go to the Salvation Army for free veggies. But overall, a pretty good morning. Except that I managed to gash my wrist on the sign at the bus stop at the University.

Then hubby & I did some shopping. One the way home from shopping, we were waiting for the bus home at 7 Oaks mall, when I got stung. I am not sure by what, as it stung me in the back & Robert was a ways away & didn't see it. All he saw was a tiny bump (like a mosquito bite), so I took another Benadryl & we went home. About an hour later, I started noticing that my breathing was becoming laboured & my lips & tongue were swollen. I called the nurse's hotline, they recommended calling 911 & going to the hospital. The nurse told me to get Robert to give me my shot first. I freaked out & couldn't do it!

At the hospital they asked questions, examined my vital signs, observed me for a while & gave me another anti-histamine. Then they let us go home. So, all in all, an interesting day. Mostly good, but. I learned something new, while at the hospital. If I take an anti-histamine & my reaction is getting worse, I can take a different one (say for instance, Zyrtec & Benadryl). I never knew that before, so it is handy information to have.

Canning & a new shirt from Sirens (I miss that store).

Saturday, August 10th, 2014

I had a pretty good day today. Woke up early, worked on the computer for a few hours. Played some games. We went to the Abbotsford flea market this afternoon. We went pretty late, got there around 3pm & my favourite vendor was starting to pack up. I got 2 - 15 pound flats of tomatoes for $10 & 10 bags of tomatoes that were marked down to$1/each.  Approx. 4-6 per bag, so probably another 10-20 pounds of tomatoes. We were almost out of potatoes, so I was going to put back 3 bags of tomatoes, but he let me have the potatoes free! 

Robert took a few photos of me by the pool today, in 1 of the new shirts I bought at Sirens yesterday.

I have a lot of canning to do tonight & tomorrow, but it's a lot of fun. I am looking forward to it!

Publication day!!

My first 2 e-books are now available on Amazon!! 

I have been writing poetry since I was 13, it has taken me a long time to put a whole book together. And I got the idea for my other book, from a Facebook friend who runs a group for TBI (traumatic brain injury) survivors. Several other people on her group have written books of their recovery journey.

Here's the link to my poetry book:  http://www.amazon.com/poet-dreamer-Michaelann-Dahlman-ebook/dp/B00M07LDDY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1406089979&sr=1-1

And here's my other book:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M080DD4

ENJOY!

Today is a good day, to publish.

Today is a good day, to publish.

I have been working on a couple of manuscript ideas, for a while now. The poetry I've had kicking around for ages, but in a hand written book form, not on the computer. A Facebook friend of mine has been publishing some of his work on Amazon, so I asked him for some information on how to do it. So I started getting it all formatted into a book manuscript format, & saved on my hard drive.

The notes I wrote on have been sitting on my dining room table for a week or 2, I finally got around to starting the process yesterday & it is official. I have submitted 2 books on Amazon, they should be available in a couple of days!!

I will come back in a few days, with more information & links! 

Canning & smurf my photo.

A beautiful summer day!

I was at a local farm market yesterday & got a great deal on tomatoes, a total of 25 pounds for $15! I love the deals on fresh summer produce.

I spent most of the morning canning, got a total of 9 liters of tomatoes, 10 if you count the one that I put straight in the fridge. Here's what 25 pounds, or 9 liters looks like.

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I found another really cool photo editing site, here's a few samples of my work, from Smurf my photo:

If you would like to check it out, here's the web address:  http://www.smurfhappens.com/feature/smurfyourphoto/

Swimming is great exercise.

Swimming is great exercise

It’s that time of year again, the pool is open & I am enjoying the water. I did some research on Spark People & myfitnesspal, to find out how many calories I was burning.

According to both of them, 30 minutes of swimming the breast stroke, burns approximately 400 calories!! (Happy dance!)  

I had Robert time me this morning & I apparently do a lap in our pool (which we measured & is 31 feet long), in 20 seconds. So I did the math, & 45 laps = approx. 200 calories.

My intention last fall in buying the exercise bike, was primarily to help me (us), from getting really out of shape over the winter. It seems to have helped, as my 1st day out (Saturday), I did 50 laps. I think last summer I started the season at 10 or 20 laps. So it does appear to have helped.

This is a photo from September 2012. I will update with a current photo as soon as possible.

My husband & I have been dealing with an annoying cold/flu bug all month, which morphed into sinusitis for him & bronchitis for me Very annoying, since it has made it very difficult for me to exercise, which of course makes losing weight more difficult. 

I've been downloading a ton of free e-books lately & audio programs, many of which are designed to help with weight loss. So while recuperating, I've been reading & researching, since my current methods have not produced much in the way of long term results. 

I've only ridden the exercise bike twice this week, 7 miles on Monday & 5 miles tonight. I am going to try & ride every morning for at least 5 miles.

And with the Victoria Day weekend coming soon, I am really looking forward to our building's pool opening for the season!! 

These gifs are the main reason I miss MSN messenger. You can't add your own custom smileys on Yahoo or Skype. I obtained these cuties & many others on my favourite free graphics site www.uselessgraphics.com , which appears to be gone. I have been trying to go there for over a month.

I just downloaded Microsoft Movie Maker, to do some editing on a video we made recently. I was quite surprised that it doesn't come with Windows 7. I designed a new video that I am hoping will help motivate me this year.

April 07, 2014.

Weather was beautiful, sunny & over 60F.  It`s been near or over 80F in our apartment this past week, so we will be installing the air conditioning tonight.

We went for a nice walk in Willbank Creek Park, which is not far from where we live. I have been recovering from a couple of weeks with a nasty cold-flu, so I wasn`t working out much.  But I did 7 miles on the exercise bike last night & 5 miles this morning. 

Welcome Spring 2014!

The weather has been fairly hit & miss; sunny one day, snowing the next. It can't seem to make up it's mind what it wants to be or do. 

On February 23rd, we had a wonderful snowy day. On the 25th, sunshine & snow melting away.

I usually create a new pictures folder for March in a new folder called `Spring`, but I am really not sure if it belongs there, or if I should just leave it in Winter 2013 for the time being. For now I'll just wait & see.

05 February, 2014

Happy February, everyone! Hope you New Year is starting out well.

As you can see, I've been having a lot of fun making frames for my photos. I really enjoy it & the coolest thing, they are all free! I'll compile a list, with any additional information you may need.

http://www.loonapix.com/framer/
This one has over 1,000 different frames, in a wide variety of categories. And they also have other effects, as well as the frames.

http://en.pixiz.com/
This site has a large number of frames, as well as effects, collages & e-cards.

http://pho.to/
They have tons of gorgeous frames. However, I did find that this particular site doesn't work very well with Internet Explorer, so I just used Google chrome, which I also have installed as a back-up.

And this one is probably my favourite (at least for now):  http://viptalisman.com/
They do have a disconcerting number with foreign text, but some are so incredibly beautiful that I use them, anyway. However, if this is going to drive you nuts, there is a filter to eliminate those ones, if you wish.

In other New Year's news, I cancelled the bunion surgery at the last minute. I am not sure why exactly, just a bad feeling. I've been researching more natural health ideas & working on nutrition & losing weight. I discovered a really cool idea on Facebook, for reducing swelling. It recommends it specifically for swollen feel, but I have also found it works well on my hands & my sternum. And the only side effect I have found, is that it makes me crave salad, so that can't be a bad thing!

I've been pretty consistent with the exercise bike this winter, which I think (& am hoping) that it will help me stay/keep in better shape overall & improve my health. Who knows, it might even help with the weight loss. Bad news, however. When we had some beautiful sunny weather last week, I decided to see how well I could ride my bike (I had a lot of difficulty last year, which was one reason for the purchase of the exercise bike last August. I went down to the storage locker & discovered that someone stole my bike!! I am feeling a little conflicted:

So now I have to figure out if I am in good enough shape to continue riding, because otherwise there is no point in buying another bike. I tried borrowing a friend's, but he's much taller than I am, so his bike was too big for me to try out. So I am still working on this issue. Stay tuned!