Winter, Blech!!

We're finally down to about 18" of snow on the ground. I haven't seen grass since the day after Christmas (5 weeks ago) and probably won't see it again until March. Then I made the mistake of looking at the weather alert on my weather widget. Woohooo, a two day long alert!

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM THIS EVENING TO 4 PM EST WEDNESDAY.

* AREAS AFFECTED: WEST CENTRAL NEW JERSEY AND MUCH OF SOUTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA WEST AND NORTH OF PHILADELPHIA.

* PRECIPITATION TYPES: SNOW LATER TONIGHT WILL MIX WITH SOME SLEET AND OR FREEZING RAIN ON TUESDAY BY FORENOON. A WINTRY MIX OF SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED TUESDAY NIGHT AND THEN TRANSITION TO ALL FREEZING RAIN WEDNESDAY MORNING AND POSSIBLY PLAIN RAIN DURING THE DAY ON WEDNESDAY...BEFORE ENDING.

* ACCUMULATIONS: CONFIDENCE IS LOW AS TO ACCUMULATION AS THEY ARE PRECIPITATION TYPE DEPENDENT. BEST ESTIMATE IS FOR 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW AND SLEET. OF GREATER IMPORTANCE...ONE THIRD TO TWO THIRDS OF AN INCH OF ICE IS LIKELY TO ACCUMULATE ON TREES AND WIRES AS WELL AS UNTREATED ROADWAYS BY DAYBREAK WEDNESDAY.

* TIMING: SNOW SHOULD OVERSPREAD THE REGION CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. THERE WILL BE A LULL IN THE PRECIPITATION INTENSITY DURING TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING BEFORE HEAVIER PRECIPITATION MOVES BACK IN OVERNIGHT TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY MORNING. PRECIPITATION SHOULD TAPER OFF WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

* IMPACTS: TRAVEL WILL BECOME DIFFICULT IN THE REGION FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON DUE TO SNOW AND THEN ICE. ICE WILL ACCUMULATE ON TREE LIMBS AND UTILITY WIRES FROM TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY. WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE. THE TUESDAY MORNING COMMUTE WILL BE IMPACTED BY SNOW. THE TUESDAY EVENING COMMUTE SHOULD BE EASIER BECAUSE OF THE EXPECTED LULL IN THE PRECIPITATION INTENSITY. EVEN SO... CAUTION IS EVEN ADVISED FOR THE TUESDAY EVENING COMMUTE AS THERE IS EXPECTED TO BE A SECONDARY INFLUX OF SUB FREEZING AIR ARRIVING ON NORTHERLY WINDS. THE WEDNESDAY MORNING COMMUTE WILL BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT DUE TO THE ICE. THIS EVENT SHOULD BE OVER BY THE TIME OF THE WEDNESDAY EVENING COMMUTE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Man, I love winter!

State Of The Union Address

I don't always agree with what Obama has to say, nor do I think some of his ideas are even possible in our lifetime. That being said, I realized after watching the entire address that I hadn't once found myself scratching my head while asking "wtF?" or thinking "Oh crap, our ‘leader’ is an idiot."

What a refreshing change.

Ahhh, The Joy Of Shortcuts.

Yes, I'm getting lazier as I get older. Or maybe I'm just getting tired of repeating the same unnecessary steps over and over and over ad nauseam. Whatever the reason may be, I've become increasingly dependent on a variety of keyboard shortcuts for my Windows OS. A lot of this is probably due to the fact that I now use a laptop instead of a desktop computer and I hate using the touchpad mouse on laptops. I use shortcuts to start my most commonly used applications, to close windows or shut down applications and to perform numerous tasks in whatever browser I happen to be using at the time.

Many people know about the more common keyboard shortcuts used within a browser like Ctrl + C to copy, Ctrl + V to paste, Ctrl + R or F5 all by itself to refresh a web page but most don't know about the shortcuts you can use to open an application. That may have something to do with the fact that you have to create some of them. No worries, it's easy. You'll need to locate a few folders in your computer; your "Windows" folder which in Vista is quite easily found at C:\Windows via My Computer, and the folders containing the executable (icon you click to start the application) for the applications requiring a shortcut. You may find some of the icons right on your start menu.

As an example, I got tired of navigating through the Start menu to open Microsoft Word or Excel, or even a specific Office document which I had need to access quite frequently. So I went through the Start menu, right clicked the icon for Microsoft Word, hovered on "Send to" and selected "Desktop (create shortcut)". I wanted it to have a simple name, easy to remember and easy to type (you'll see why in a minute) so I right clicked the shortcut newly created on my desktop and renamed it "w", for Word. The last step was to drag that shortcut into the Windows folder. Now it's much simpler to open Word, I simply push and hold the Windows key while pushing the "R" key to bring up the Windows Run prompt, type the letter "w" and press the enter key. I repeated the process for Excel with an "x" shortcut. Now I can open my two most commonly used Microsoft Office applications without having to scroll and navigate my way through any menu or folders.

If you've got a specific document or folder you access frequently and would like to create a shortcut for those, the steps are identical. Just navigate to the folder containing the document or folder for which you'd like a shortcut, right click the item and start the process with "Send to..." exactly as previously described. Rename the shortcut then drag it into the Windows folder and you've got another time saving shortcut ready for use. This also has the benefit of not leaving an icon on your desktop meaning your desktop won't be so cluttered, and some of your most used apps will be less obvious to anyone looking at your screen.

One last trick, a shortcut which will automatically open the Chrome browser in Incognito mode. Create the shortcut on your desktop the same as described above, and rename it to whatever you like. I used "cc", having already used "c" to open Chrome normally. Right click the shortcut link and select "Properties". Select the "Shortcut" tab in the Properties window and look for the "Target" information. Click into the text box then use the right arrow key on your keyboard to get to the end of the target location, it should end with chrome.exe or possibly with chrome.exe". Make sure the cursor is at the very end of the target location then use the space bar to add a space, then add --incognito then click the OK button. Go ahead and drag that into the Windows folder too and now you can easily open Chrome in Incognito mode by using WIndows + R, typing the name you gave the shortcut then pressing your Enter key.

In Vista, possibly other Windows systems as well, there are also built in shortcuts related to the taskbar. The taskbar is the small bar at bottom of your screen which contains the Windows "Start" button, buttons corresponding to all open applications, your clock, etc... Part of this, the section at far left containing the Start icon and a few other icons used to open some applications, is called the Quick Launch toolbar. Any icons in this toolbar have a built in shortcut, at least in the Vista operating system. For example, the icon for the Chrome browser is the third icon in the Quick Launch toolbar, so I can press and hold the Windows key while pressing the 3 key then releasing both.

Give both methods a try, see how they work for you.

My Consolation Prize

I had just finished watching the Ravens lose one of the sloppiest, ugliest and most poorly officiated Ravens vs. Steelers games I can recall. It was pretty disappointing, not just the second half self-destruction of the Ravens but the general ugliness of the entire game. It ended up being quite the nailbiter but 5 minutes of good didn't really compensate for the rest.

What, you may ask, could help console a disgruntled Ravens fan after such an ugly loss in a playoff game? Cookies, of course! So I made some. Of course, by the time I got around to taking this picture several of them were already gone, lol. Big surprise there...

No, this isn't a little salad plate with tiny little cookies on it, it's a full sized dinner plate with BIG cookies on it. So if I say "I only had three cookies" you'll know why I won't want to get out of my recliner to do anything even remotely resembling constructive.

I'm Free!! Or Damn Near, Anyway.

This morning I found in my mailbox a letter from my attorney accompanied by a copy of the final, time-stamped divorce decree. As of the 6th of January, she who can not be named is now officially my ex, thank God. I never thought I'd be so happy to be a statistic. I think I'm going to order a clean copy of the actual decree so I can frame it then hang it on the wall where it will be a daily source of happiness.

Final tally, just over $10k and counting but that should just about do it. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned even if I now spell the word "broke" with the letters j, e and f. However, as broke as I may be, swcnbn is even more so. Her petty bitch attitude, incessant lies and overall stupidity cost her a ton. $20,000 cash out of pocket paid to me, $16,000 out of her pension plan paid to me, at least $12,000 paid to her attorney and the court. That's $48,000 dollars cash out of pocket she had to pay for a divorce that would have cost her $500 had she not been such a stupid bitch about every single thing. Plus she is excluded from all proceeds resulting from the sale of our house, the house in which I still live. Even if her share would been only a couple thousand dollars she's out 50k, or 100 times more than her total expenditures would have been if she'd have acted like a grown up and used some common sense.

That's two steps down now, one to go. Now to sell the house, and the sooner the better. Once it sells I'll be completely done with the whole mess and free to move on, every trace of swcnbn will be removed from my life and as far as I'm concerned she will have never existed. Woot!!