It's Here

December 21st... Winter is officially here

Enjoy!

November 13th is World Kindness Day

World Kindness Day encourages us to be kind to others, helping to create a nicer, better world. It is a day that encourages individuals to overlook boundaries, race and religion.

 Visit the Random Acts Of Kindness website.

Continue your kindness throughout the year.

#WorldKindnessDay

Happy August 4th

Today is National Coast Guard Day...

The Coast Guard celebrates its 226th birthday in August this year. The Coast Guard is one of America's five armed forces and traces its founding to Aug. 4, 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of federal revenue. Responsibilities added over the years included humanitarian duties such as aiding mariners in distress.

The service received its present name in 1915 when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to form a single maritime service dedicated to the safety of life at sea and enforcing the nation's maritime laws.

- from Military.com

and, it is also National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

17 National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day Deals and Freebies

From https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/national-chocolate-chip-cookie-day-2016/

If you truly enjoy dessert, this is a good time for you to indulge. From free chocolate chip cookies to discounts on cakes and candy, use these Cookie Day deals to eat your way through this delicious holiday without paying full price.

• 1800Baskets: Use code SNACKS20 to save 20 percent on snack gift baskets until Sept. 30.
• Bake Me a Wish: Take 15 percent off birthday cake delivery with code HB15 until Sept. 7.
• Baskin Robbins: Take $3 off any $15 or more ice cream cake with this printable coupon until Aug. 14.
• BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse: Use this coupon to get a free Pizookie with any $9.95 food purchase until Aug. 31.
• Cheryl’s: Take 15 percent off any purchase with code TAKE15 until Oct. 31.
• Cookies by Design: Enter code ACCUSA16 at checkout to take 15 percent off orders greater than $40 until Dec. 31.
• DoubleTree by Hilton: Walk into any DoubleTree hotel — with or without a reservation — and at the train stations in NYC and Chicago on Aug. 4 to receive a free chocolate chip cookie as part of their “Nice Travels” movement.
• Eleni’s New York: Enjoy free shipping on orders more than $50 with code SHIPFREE until Dec. 2050.
• Great American Cookies: Buy one regular cookie, get the second free when you register to receive email updates.
• Max & Erma’s: Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day one day early by heading to Max & Erma’s on Wednesday for Free Cookie Day. Get two free freshly baked cookies with any menu purchase every Wednesday — no coupon required.
• Mazzio’s: Get a small chocolate chip dessert pizza for $3 with this printable coupon until Dec. 31.
• Mrs. Fields: Use code MW15 to save 15 percent off your order until Dec. 31.
• My M&M’s: Save 10 percent on orders greater than $50 with code MYSAVINGS10 until Dec. 31 .
• Steak ‘n Shake: Present this coupon to save $1 off a regular-sized classic milkshake until Sept. 18.
• Tate’s Bake Shop: Enter code TATESTREATS at checkout to take 20 percent off any order until Jan. 2017.
• Tortuga Rum Cakes: Get a free 4-ounce golden rum cake with purchase of a 32-ounce golden rum cake with code GOFORGOLD until Aug. 21.
• Village Inn: Present this coupon to receive 20 percent off your check until Aug. 5.

So, if the you cross paths with the USCG today give them a cookie.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Paul

We would like to wish Sir Paul McCartney a very happy birthday.

74 years old today...

I remember listening to "When I'm Sixty Four" back in June 1967 when Sgt Pepper's came out. Paul was only 25 (going on 26) at the time and I couldn't imagine any of The Beatles ever being that old... that would be like Dean Martin! Ooh, yuk! Dino was only 50 then but to a pre-teen he seemed ancient.

Photo from
 https://www.paulmccartney.com/the-collection/oneonone-tour-2016

So Happy Birthday to you and many happy returns!

[SOLVED] Problem with new laptop battery

UPDATED July 17, 2016: SEE BELOW

Last week one of our laptops (Toshiba Satellite C75D-A7370, Windows 8.1) started shutting down unexpectedly. A couple of days later we noticed that the battery was not lasting very long. Hmmmm, time to go shopping.

We found a place on eBay that had our battery for a good price, free shipping, and they would send to us via US Mail (USPS).

We installed the battery per instructions. The instructions were poorly translated but basically boiled down to: insert battery, let it run down to 8%, then fully charge to 100%. Of course there was the usual warnings about not carrying this out in the bathtub, etc.

All was going well except that after 30 minutes the battery icon was still displaying 100% even though the time left was ticking down normally.  Houston, we have a problem.

Time to search the internet for a solution which I found here...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Software-and-How-To-Questions/Battery-Indicator-shows-100-charged-at-all-times/m-p/1303533#M196993

STEP ONE

• Shut down the notebook
• Unplug the AC Adapter
• Remove the battery
• Then hold down the Power button for 30 seconds

Device Manager - Batteries

STEP TWO

• Plug in the AC adapter without the battery inserted
• Start the notebook
• Open Device Manager
• Expand the entry for Batteries
• Right click Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery
• Select Uninstall - do not uninstall anything else here.

STEP THREE

• When the uninstall is complete, shut down the notebook
• Unplug the AC Adapter
• Re-insert the battery
• Start the notebook on just the battery.

Windows will automatically reinstall the driver - leave Windows running for a few minutes and see if the charge level decreases as it should.

Problem solved. The battery power percentage is displaying properly and the new battery is lasting much longer... sort of like when the computer was new :)

Well, we are happy with this and we are buying another battery for our other computer as it is only a matter of time before that one will fritz out.

UPDATED July 17, 2016:  A couple of days ago we swapped out the battery for our other Toshiba Satellite laptop.  No problem. Showed 100% to start and then counted down to 8% whereupon we plugged the charger in.

Hope this helps if you are having problems with a new battery displaying correctly.

Apologies for lack of blogging...

Sorry for my lack of blogging but I've had issues with my eyesight for several months. I could not work for much more than an hour on the computer and even with that short timespan I experienced eye soreness, general fatigue, double vision, etc.

But, now that seems to be all sorted out and I'm a much happier camper... Yippee!

Daylight Saving Time 2016

I didn't realize today was the beginning of Daylight Saving Time until Bob told me... Thanks!

2:00am is now 3:00am

DST begins on the second Sunday of March for the USA and Canada. This is when you must set your clocks forward... Spring Ahead.

Most countries in the Caribbean do NOT change. We stay the same all year round. A few US states and some areas of Canada also ignore DST. What a mess that must cause.

Mexico changes their clocks on April 3, 2016 except for some areas that border the USA which follows USA time.

The UK and France (along with other European countries) change time on the last Sunday of March.

Of course, in the autumn, the dates to return to standard time also varies from place to place but we won't worry our pretty little heads about that just now :)

(By the way, it is "Saving" and not "Savings")

Leaping lizards... It's February 29th

 

Today is February 29th which is Leap Day. 

What to do? Hear are some leapy things...

• Leap at the chance to do something
• Leap for joy
• Take a leap of faith
• Look before you leap
• Leap on the bandwagon
• Leap in the dark

 I like "leap for joy".

This is an interesting website with many "leap" quotes: 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/leap.html

Happy leaping!

New restaurant in Christiansted, St Croix - Sai Gon Deli

We had planned to have lunch at Sharkey's Bait Shack last Thursday as it was $7.50 burger+side day. which is one of our favorite shoreside lunches. We were looking forward to our burgers until we opened their door and was hit by a cacophony of noise. The place was full of school children for some reason.

We quickly turned around and did a bit of shopping in Seaside Market next door with thoughts of getting a sandwich. This didn't happen because there was no place to sit at their outside tables. In fact, three of the tables had one employee per table just hanging out on their break.

Our next option was to try out the new Vietnamese place (Sai Gon Deli) just down the street by the laundry. We usually do our laundry on Sundays and they were closed each time we went, plus they didn't have a menu up so we had no idea on dishes and prices.

Glad we stopped by. Turns out they've been in business about 2 months and they are closed on Sundays & Mondays. I took a picture of the menu on the wall... sorry that I cut off the right side of the menu.

They are located at the little strip mall across from the Canegata Ball Park between the laundromat and the Mt Welcome Pharmacy. This is an easy walk from Christiansted Harbour and Gallows Bay.

We will be back soon for another lunch...

Click image to enlarge

Enjoy!

Computer problem - Wifi, Limited Access [FIXED]

Late yesterday afternoon I was working online and when I went and pressed a submit button I noticed that I was no longer connected. My wifi icon down in the taskbar (Windows 8.1) had a yellow triangle with an exclamation point proclaiming that I was connected but had limited access. Darn!

Bob has this problem quite often (too often) but right clicking on the icon and clicking on "Troubleshoot problems" generally fixes it. If not, we then shut down the computer and restart, and the other thing we can do is to reboot our ISPs modem.

I tried these things (troubleshooting told me it couldn't find a problem) and Bob's computer was still happily surfing the net.

Using my tablet, I queried Google for something like "wifi limited access" and looked at several results. I tried one thing (netsh int ip reset) but it didn't solve my problem. It was time for our sundowner and quality time on the foredeck.

After dinner, Buffy took my spot at the table so I took my computer and tablet into the forepeak and started looking for YouTube solutions as my eyes were too tired for reading.

After watching a couple dozen videos of various quality and intelligence, there appeared to be about 4 or 5 things to try. I decided to try one option that seemed quite likely to work. Basically, it was to disable the wifi network connection and then enable it.  IT WORKED!

How to: Reset The Network Adapter

• Right click on wifi icon in taskbar
• Click on "Open Network and Sharing Center"
• In the left column click on "Change Adapter Settings" (see below)

Click image to enlarge

• You then get the following screen

Click image to enlarge

• Right click on "Wi-Fi" and it will give you a list of options. Choose "Disable". Give it a few seconds and then right click on it again and this time choose "Enable".

The icon in my taskbar was still showing the yellow triangle.

I restarted my computer. On the pre-signin screen it was still showing the wifi limited access icon. I then signed in and had the black screen for a brief period of time (probably updating stuff) and when it displayed the deskstop I had the normal wifi icon. I have internet access.  Peachy Keen!

Here are some other possible solutions you might find useful. Plus I found this link this morning: CLICK HERE...

• Reinstall your driver (some videos say to go online to do this... Duh!)

• Modify power management settings so computer doesn't shut down wifi connection to conserve power.

• Using command prompt with administrator privilege:

ipconfig /flushdns 

(only noticed this once in my search, then...)

ipconfig /release

(you will receive some error messages)

ipconfig /renew

(Windows reissues new ip for computer & there are more messages about media disconnected, etc)

(look at wifi icon and it should now show connected. If not, restart computer)

• Using command prompt with administrator privilege:

ipconfig /all

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

• Using command prompt with administrator privilege:

netsh int ip reset

(or I sometimes saw with a filename, below)

 netsh int ip reset C:\resetlog.txt

(restart computer)

• Using command prompt with administrator privilege:

 netsh ip tcp set heuristics disabled

 netsh ip tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

 netsh ip tcp set global rss=enabled

 netsh ip tcp show global

Hope this helps someone.

February 2016

Well, it's February tomorrow so I need to put up a new post... Hope your new year is off to a good start. Our's is. We've finished our new salon cushions. How firm and comfy... Hurray! We will be getting our new mattress in a couple of days which is great; a good nights' sleep is very important. This week we will be modifying our salon dinette. Looking forward to it.

As you know, our next big holiday is February 2nd, Groundhog Day...

Let's see what Punxsutawney Phil will have to say :)

UPDATE: Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil Did Not See His Shadow

Other days of interest in February 2016:

• 1-29 February : Black History Month
• 2 Feb - Groundhog Day
• 7 Feb - Superbowl Sunday
• 9 Feb - Mardi Gras
• 14 Feb - Valentine's Day 
• 15 Feb - President's Day
• 15 Feb - Grammy Awards
• 17 Feb - Random Acts of Kindness Day
• 22 Feb - National Margarita Day
• 28 Feb - Academy Awards (Oscars)
• 29 Feb - Leap Day
• 29 Feb - Sadie Hawkins Day 

So it goes... time to get crackin!

Best wishes for 2016

All the best wishes for the good things in life.

• Good fortune
• Good health
• Good times
• Good eats
• Good friends
• Good neighbors
• Good weather
• Good sailing
• Good fun

etc..

You catch my drift :)

So it goes!