Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Those who know us well know that all of our cars are of the sedan/sports variety, with limited storage space and carrying capacity. And since we love camping, and have a large amount of gear, space to carry said gear is insufficient in one vehicle.

In the past, we have taken two cars to our campsites in order to fit all our stuff, but this solution is no longer working for us. We had to find another alternative - and a good solution appeared to be a roof rack and cargo box assembly for the Civic.

I did the research, did some price-comparing, and settled on a Yakima kit from REI. The store prices were very similar to online shops (including shipping and so on), and REI had all the equipment in stock, so that was the natural choice. I headed over there today during my lunch break to purchase the components.

Once the checkout was completed, the question remained: How do I take it all home ?

I was caught in a Catch-22. We have no space in our cars.. therefore we buy a box & roof rack assembly.. now we have no space in our cars to take all the stuff home !

Here was my solution:



I feel fortunate that there were no cops along the short (and stressful) drive to our house.

Interference with Police Process, or Patient Compassion ?

This is an interesting situation.

On one hand, the paramedic believed that she was helping the patient by preventing the police from tasing her. She interfered to try to generate a resolution to the issue without using physical force. But on the other hand, the paramedic’s actions interfered with police action, and possibly endangered everyone in the room, including herself. It’ll be interesting to see the outcome of the case.

Paramedic's Interference Trial May Be a First in Penn.

(Me ? I wouldn’t have put myself between an officer and a Taser – no matter how much I cared for the patient’s well-being ! It seems in this case that the Taser was the only remaining course of action, and the only appropriate one available.)

Good, Bad and Worst.

GOOD: Free coffee.

BAD: Spilling said free coffee all over the laundry room steps while it was still full.

WORST: It was my husband's coffee. :(

I will need to make this up to him somehow.

Something for the "Awwww" files

Sleepy time.. :)

New Member of our Family

Our family has now grown by one.

He is a long-haired Dachsund puppy, named Oscar (for Oscar Mayer Weiner Dog). He is just over two months old, and a mere five pounds.





A few months ago, on a message board that I frequent, the question was asked, "Which is more difficult to care for, a puppy or a baby ?" When I read that question, I thought to myself, "Well, of course it's a baby ! How could a puppy be THAT much work ?"

I was soon to find out.

Having never owned a dog, only cats, the time requirement was a bit of a surprise to me. Danny and I each take shifts, and share in the feeding, watering, pooper-scooping, pee-pee pad changing, and puppy training duties. Needless to say, our little Oscar is much more high-maintenance than our two kitties.

But very worthwhile, of course.

Oscar is a social butterfly. He loves being around people, is happy to see new people, and gets along very well with all the dogs in his puppy school. Everyone at PetSmart always wants to pet him and interact with him because of his magnetic personality. He is smart as well - it took me all of 24 hours to have him responding to either the command or the hand signal for "sit".

He does have his little quirks, such as the excited-pee and a penchant for chasing the cats. He knows he is not supposed to chase them, and backs off when we give him a little water squirt and the "leave it" command. He still goes after them from time to time, knowing full well he is not supposed to. We are still working on this.

Peachie wants nothing to do with him. She meows angrily at him when he gets to close, then runs away. Hopefully he will learn to leave her alone; old cranky kitties and puppies tend not to be a very good combination.

Mocha, on the other hand, is uncharacteristically good with him. I believe she understands that he is just a baby. He has jumped on her and chased after her, without a single retaliatory action on her part. If he gets too crazy, she just walks away. No scratching, hissing or biting. She even plays with his toys, and he with hers. I think this relationship might end up being a good one.

Caring for a new puppy is still a lot of work; like a baby, minus the sleepless nights of course. But it is well worthwhile, to see all the human and animal members of our family all together and happy.

It has started already... yes, it's JULY

As seen at Sears.

Oh, and the Hallmark store has put up their Christmas ornament display as well. (rolling eyes)

The Best Business Trip Ever...

.. is one to VEGAS !

Even though Danny and I had already taken our trying-to-be-yearly trip to this most awesome city back in May, I jumped at the chance to speak at a conference about how my company uses this other company's software to manage capacity on our massive network. How could I turn this down ? Five days in Vegas, 3 of which were hard work, and the rest were my choice ? And a nice hotel room and flight to boot. I readily accepted the task.

Danny joined me for four of the days (at our expense of course), and we spent our free time doing some of the things we missed on our first trip: the aquarium at the Luxor, some more sightseeing, and of course, the requisite time at the Pai Gow table. Even though I was exhausted from presenting at the conference and answering questions, there was no need to convince me to do these things. We had to. We were in Vegas !

Add in two company-sponsored open-bar soirees and some good friends from work to kick it with, and we had ourselves an awesome time.

It's going to take a while to recover, however. Sleep deprivation tends to drag one down after a while.

Nice...

Best. Commercial. Evah.

GOT.

HTC EVO 4G



Make no mistake, this phone is badass. A beautiful 720p screen with HDMI output, rear-facing 8MP camera with dual-LED flash, front-facing camera for videoconferencing, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 1GB internal memory, GPS... all of the things that I wanted in a phone plus more. And, a reliable network to boot.

The most common reaction from all my friends has been "OMG ! Why did you dump your iPhone ?!" They could not believe that I didn't upgrade to the similarly-awesome iPhone 4. When I inform them of my reason, they understand fully, with no further explanation needed:

It was the network.

The AT&T network flat-out sucks ass almost everywhere I go. There is no other way to describe it.

It doesn't work at the gym. It doesn't work at the mall. It is choppy in certain areas of my house. I could be standing right next to Danny, who has Sprint; he would have 4-5 bars, and I would have none. No service. Lovely.

The dealbreaker was when I was late getting into work one morning. That particular day, I had gone to the store to get Daniel some Gatorade for his upset stomach, which meant I would be late for my meeting. I dialed into the meeting at home (which involves calling the number and entering in a 9-digit code) and then started driving to the office.

The call was dropped twice in this 11-mile journey, requiring me to pull my car over to the side of the road and dial back in. TWICE ! Complete loss of signal and complete disconnection of the call.

It was then that I decided that I was done with AT&T.

I admit to being somewhat sad at my final decision. The iPhone 4 is a great phone, very similar to the EVO but without the 4G network support. And being one of the early adopters of the original iPhone 2G, the choice to leave the Apple nation was a painful one.

Perhaps someday, when Apple gets their heads out of their asses and decides to allow their hardware to be used with Sprint, I will go back.

I just need a phone that works on a reliable network, everywhere I like to go. The iPhone 4 on AT&T's network simply could not fit that bill. And the HTC EVO with Sprint could.

That is what's most important, isn't it ?

UPDATE: For those who are wondering, I didn't actually "ditch" my iPhone 2G. It's in my glove box, happily serving as a car iPod. It's great for when satellite radio is playing crap.

Good Luck ? Really ?

This past weekend, Danny and I returned to Monterey, CA to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary.

We loaded up our bicycles and biked the stunningly beautiful beach portion of the 17-mile drive. We walked around Cannery Row. We went back to Lover's Point, the gorgeous setting where we said our vows in front of our closest family and friends. And we made reservations at the Chart House restaurant, where our reception was held - the most awesome steakhouse, with superb food and stunning, sweeping bay views.

Walking towards Chart House, hand in hand, we were dressed to the nines. It was a fancy place, and this was a very important celebration. We were almost to our destination, when I heard a smacking sound from above. And then, something hit me.

It was bird shit.

Yes, that is right. I got shit on by a wayward bird, splattered when the shit hit the power lines above me, all down my shoulder and some in my hair, while on the way to celebrate our first anniversary.

Some say that it is good luck to get crapped on by a bird, but I wasn't feeling fortunate at that particular moment. I raced to the bathroom of the restaurant, and soaked myself with soap and water, removing the nasty, stinky excrement from my fancy blouse and hair.

Problem solved, and we had a lovely dinner, with the best filet mignon we have ever tasted in our lives. Plus a heavenly lava cake dessert, given to us for free by the restaurant staff.

The celebration of the beginning our lives together was well worth the bombing outside of the restaurant. I am just hoping against hope that the bird poop good luck charm lasts for a lifetime, and does not need to be renewed every year.

101 Uses for an Ex's Wedding Dress

This is both sad and hysterically funny at the same time. I haven't decided whether to laugh or to feel sorry for the poor guy and his two kids that had their worlds turned upside-down, but this guy definitely has a creative side.

Click the "Launch" button on the right-hand side to view the gallery.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37339251/ns/today-today_weddings

And Jesus said “oh, snap!”

From passiveaggressivenotes.com:

"Another sign of the times: Nick in Tampa, Florida says the sodas in his small office used to be free, but now they cost 50 cents. And yet, Nick says, 'when they’re left out unguarded and unsecured, naturally, people steal them.'

"Eventually, one coworker thought instilling the fear of God would make for a good theft-deterrent…which inspired another coworker to quote scripture in protest of the new drink policy."

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