HELP!

Okay, calm down.  It's not like there's a dragon at the gate.  Or for my Republican readers (are there any???) that a hurricane is expected to strike Tampa the same day the Republican National Convention is scheduled to start there.  God's will?  (Heh-heh.)

No, my problem and need for help is much easier than that.  It's about my printer.  I have an HP Officejet 6300 All-in-One machine.  It does faxes, it makes copies, and occasionally, it prints.

You will notice, I said occasionally.  I have found through days and days of experience that each time I want to print I have to go into the software, find Printer Preferences and reset nearly every page.  It always says "Custom Printing" on the Printing Shortcuts page.  I have to change that to "General Everyday Printing".  Most of the other pages have "Type New Quickset Name Here".  I have to change that to "Default Print Settings."

Once I've made the changes, I tell the machine to print something and it usually works like a charm.  But the next time I want to print something, I have to go in and make all those changes again. 

Seems to me there ought to be a way for me to lock those changes in so I wouldn't have to change them every time.

Any wizards out there with a solution?

RANDOM CLOUDS

Just a variety of photos, most taken from our driveway.  Feel free to put your own names or dreams on them.



SUNDAY DINNER

SWMBO outdid herself tonight.

First, chopped veggies.

Then, a spice rub.



And a Julia Child.  That is, lots of butter.



The veggies were for a Cajun rice recipe.

The spice rub coated both sides of a couple of catfish filets.

Next, to the barbecue grill, to heat up a black iron skillet.

And then the fish get blackened.



By the way, do NOT try to do this part on your stove.  I don't think any fan, other than an industrial kitchen fan, can keep your smoke detector from going off if you do.

And, at last, it's on the plate and on the table, accompanied by a large ear of corn on the cob, a salad and a nice glass of wine.  Bon appetit!

Lest anyone be surprised, it was all delicious.

A NEW VISITOR

Just when you think it's safe to go out in your backyard, a new face appears on the scene.



I suspect she is trying to catch a bird.  The other day when we first spotted her, she was lying in the shade directly under the bird bath.

As to the he/she determination, could any critter with a face as sweet as this be a guy?  I think not.

I had just read that a cat with rings around its tail is a trait tracing back to its feral ancestors.  This cat is beautifully marked all over.

But she will NOT become part of our family.  Enough is enough. 

However, she is welcome to the back yard.

IT'S FRIDAY . . . HERE'S BRUCE'S BLUES JAM!

Just to show you that not all blues music has to be blue, here's the master himself, B.B. King.



Then there's sort of a mixed blues.  Hard to tell whether this one is happy or sad.  From a long time back, Loudon Wainwright III.



Then there's a virtuoso performance by a great Texas blues shouter, Miss Janis Joplin.  I warn you . . some of you may not like this.  She is definitely over the top on this one.



And finally, one of my favorites - Miss Francine Reed - performing with the Lyle Lovett Large Band.  Wild Women Don't Get the Blues.



It kind of reminds me of the motto embroidered on a throw pillow in the office of Helen Gurley Brown at Cosmopolitan magazine - "Good girls go to Heaven, Bad girls go everywhere!"

Have a good weekend, folks.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

We had to have Jazz put down a few weeks ago.  She had become incontinent and nothing we tried seemed to help.  If you've ever had an incontinent pet, you know the agony of having to clean up after her once or more every day.  So, after 8 years we tearfully said goodbye.

Jazz was our box-cat.  Any empty box on the floor became a home for her.

Even ones she couldn't get all of herself into.



She liked to jump up and stretch out on the back of my chair and if I invited her, she'd come down to my lap.



I don't know what she was thinking when she curled up in a bathroom sink one day but I know if we had turned the water on that scowl would have gotten fiercer and she would have fled.

She was a good little cat.  And she stayed little all her life.  As Blackwell evolved from a scarred up tiny kitten into a big, brawny male cat . . she seemed to grow more and more terrified of him.  But that's over now and we will remember our sweet Jazz.

So now it's time for the crocodile tears to end.  After all we still have two cats.



Big old Blackwell.

And his playmate, the lovable Muggles.

I'VE BEEN TO MEMPHIS