Monday, February 29, 2016

Leap Year Fun Facts

 Here are some fun facts about Leap Years

 

 

 What is a leap second?


Leap years are not directly connected to leap seconds, but both are for the purpose of keeping the earth's rotations in line with our clocks and calendars.
Leap seconds are added to bring the earth's rotation into line with atomic time. A leap second was added at the end of June last year, when immediately before midnight dials read 11:59:60.
Atomic time is constant, but the Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing down by around two thousandths of a second per day.

Leap seconds are therefore crucial to ensuring the time we use does not drift away from time based on the Earth's spin. If left unchecked, this would eventually result in clocks showing the middle of the day occurring at night.
The extra second can sometimes cause problems for some networks which rely on exact timings. When a last leap second was added in 2012 Mozilla, Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon all reported crashes and there were problems with the Linux operating system and programs written in Java.

Why does the extra day fall in February?

All the other months in the Julian calendar have 30 or 31 days, but February lost out to the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus.
Under his predecessor Julius Caesar, February had 30 days and the month named after him - July - had 31. August had only 29 days.
When Caesar Augustus became Emperor he added two days to 'his' month to make August the same as July.
So February lost out to August in the battle of the extra days.

Technically, a leap year isn't every four years

The year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.
There's a leap year every year that is divisible by four, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400.
The added rule about centuries (versus just every four years) was an additional fix to make up for the fact that an extra day every four years is too much of a correction. 

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Yup, we're just chilling, our usual Sunday schedule.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Meh


Bad day yesterday. Mom needed some cuteness.

Times two.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Finally Friday

TGIF! that's all I gotta say. TGIF!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

FYI

Dear Dad,
It is raining out, pouring actually, and I have no interest in going outside, thank you very much. I will sit right here until it is bed time. 
And then I'm going to bed.
I hope that's okay with you.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

WHAT Wednesday.

WHAT? It's Wednesday? 
When did that happen? 
It was just Sunday? 


Where is the week going? 
Where is the month going?
March is next week!
When did that happen?

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Come On, Mom

It's time for bed! You went to bed early last night, why can't you do the same tonight? I wanna get comfy, and I can't do that without you!

Roxy won't climb under the covers until I get in bed. I think that's pretty funny.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Easier Monday, lol


Here's the neighbor installing the new motor/mechanism. Mom had everything ready for him, she had the sensors installed and the wires run to the mechanism, the rail was assembled, chain put on, he just had to do the tinkering with the chain (Mom HAPPILY let him do that)and the hoisting it up and attaching it to the wall/ceiling fixtures. 

 Then they installed the keyless entry! Woo Hoo!

And the lights work. Yippie!

Even though it was a nice day, Mom was real tired when it was done and she went to bed early. Too much fresh air! lol

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Not So Easy Like Sunday Morning

Mom's garage door opened decided to go to the great beyond so mom's been without a garage for 5 whole days! (Mom really likes having the garage.
So today, Mom and the awesome neighbor man are going to install the new garage door opener. He says it's easy and is more than willing to help Mom (didn't I tell you he was awesome!).

Lucky and I are going to do the relaxing that Mom won't.
 
I think we'll have a better day than she will. lol

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Aw Nuts

Harper Lee died. Mom is sad. To Kill A Mockingbird is one of mom's three favorite books (Song of Solomon and Watership Down are the other two) and one of her three favorite movies (Schindler's List & Star Wars are the other two).
Gregory Peck is also one of mom's favorite actors. (Sidney Poitier is another).
She read To Kill A Mockingbird at age eleven and it made a very big impact on her life and thoughts about race relations, especially in very white 1974 NH.
She still has her Pepere's hard copy of the book, a little worse for wear, but still in her bookcase.
She might have to read it again.
Sigh.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Finally Friday



Mom is glad it's Friday. She plans on doing more snuggling with us when she gets home from work. I like that idea a lot. Lucky is okay to snuggle with, even if she does hog all the space.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Uh Oh Thursday

Mom has a cold. Mom has to work. This is what Mom is like when she has a cold and can't breathe.

Pardon me while I HIDE!!!!

Can't see me, huh? 
That's because I'm HIDING really well!!!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Say What????

Mom and Dad went to the local Toyota dealer to look at the new Prius. Mom and PlusOne share a car and Mom would like a car with better city gas mileage, because PlusOne does a LOT of city driving.
 Dad hadn't even gotten out of the car, much less taken off his seat belt when three vultures, I mean salesmen pounced, I mean approached. Mom snuck by them and went inside, hoping there was a Prius inside the building (it was really COLD Saturday). Well, there wasn't. So mom went back to the door to where Dad had managed to get inside.


 The salesman (with the really heavy European accent) told Dad, "With your permission, I can assist your wife in finding a car."

WTF???
Thank you very much, but Mom does not need ANYONE'S permission to talk about a car.
Now, Mom and Dad were never going to buy from this dealership, it was only a recon mission, but you can imagine how Mom felt after this.

Dad wanted to tell the guy "Maybe I should give my wife permission to let you live."

Monday, February 15, 2016

Going Solar

Mom and Dad have decided to go SOLAR. Mom had investigated this last fall but hadn't had much luck with the companies she talked to. Then a friend told her about Solar City.

The local power company is charging 15.60 cents per kilowatt hour. It is going up to 16.60 cents real soon. They have approval to go up to 16.90 cents but are getting pushback from competition.

Solar City charges $14.50 cents per kilowatt hour. So, Mom should see a 10% savings, she won't have to pay ANYTHING upfront, she can get rid of the power company she hates, and help the environment. 
Sweet!

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day

 Happy Valentine's Day everyone.


Might I recommend staying in bed where it is nice and warm? Avoiding this...

And of course, it could be worse. We could be on Mount Washington, home of the worst recorded weather on earth.



Saturday, February 13, 2016

It's Even Worse!!!

-40 to -25 F
Bwahahahahaha
You better hold me over the toilet mom, because I am NOT getting out from under the bed covers.
If you're smart, you won't either!

Friday, February 12, 2016

Deep Freeze


Okay, let's get one thing straight. I am NOT going outside for ANY REASON!
Not a ONE.
GOT IT??

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Oh Yeah!!!

Mom thought about looking at the plot leak but decided against it. She's wicked excited about this.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Silence...

Is golden!
Thank you and good luck Nevada and South Carolina! lol

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

NH Picks Presidents, Iowa Picks Corn

Todays is NH's Presidential Primary. If you don't come in 1st or 2nd, in NH, then forget it, you don't have a chance. NH has picked 10 eventual nominees (Iowa has only picked 9).

Fun Facts:

No Republican has become the nominee in the last 40 years without winning either Iowa or New Hampshire.

Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan all lost Iowa but went on to win the presidency.

Bill Clinton didn't win either Iowa or New Hampshire in 1992, but was still declared "The Comeback Kid" after his second-place finish in the New Hampshire.
 And lastly,
In the last 40 years, just one person has gone on to win the presidency after losing both Iowa and New Hampshire — Bill Clinton.

Clinton came in second in NH, see, you have to come in first or second. 

Mom can't WAIT for the phone to stop ringing.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Spoke Too Soon

You know, mom figured we might get all the snow we missed this past winter. It looks like mom might be right. Massachusetts has put out blizzard warnings.
Just a typical winter in New England!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Enough Already

The NH Primary is on Tuesday. Mom, Dad and even PlusOne have been getting TONS of phone calls from the candidates 1) reminding them to vote (what, you think we're NOT going to vote? Note: Officials are expecting the heaviest voter turnout in a long, long time.)
 and
2) vote for their candidate. Mom is swinging one way, PlusOne and Dad another (there are NO Trump fans here, on that we all agree.)
There must have been 1 phone call an hour yesterday afternoon. The worst ones are at dinner time, so Dad answers the phone "Hello, DINNER TIME." lol
Mom would just let it ring and let the answering machine pick it up but Dad's fed up with them

They all can't wait for Wednesday, that's for sure.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

It Looks Pretty But...

One day people will realize that the going is easy in snow, it's the stopping that's the real issue. That and they should SLOW DOWN. lol
Of course mom ALWAYS laughs at the SUV's that spin out. They think that because they have 4WD they won't slide off the road. 
Mom would like to point out that everything slides on ice!

Friday, February 5, 2016

Finally

It's not that mom WANTS snow, it's more like a reminder that it is, indeed, winter. And it will end in one or two months. lol

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Thilly Thursday

PlusOne is a month away from being nineteen!!!
And a few months after that he will have finished his first year of college.
Mom can't quite handle it, so she's going back to a simpler time.
lol
 


Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Tattle Tale Tuesday

So, Mom and Dad watches The Martian this weekend. At one point the main character said he ran out of ketchup 7 days ago.
Mom asked Dad ow long he could last without ketchup. Dad's reply "only a few hours".
I'm not kidding when I tell you that if Dad has half a thing of ketchup in the fridge, then he HAS to have a brand new one in the cabinet.
I'm not kidding. Ketchup is a staple in our house. Dad would NEVER last seven days without it.



Monday, February 1, 2016

Ain't This A Hoot???

Mom saw this on her favorite quilt website, Equilter. She thinks it's a hoot. She's not sure she would ever use it in a quilt, but she does think it's cute.