My little blog

Root Canal

2011-07-07T19:28:00.003-05:00

Warning: If you get squeamish over dental procedures, you may not want to read this. Reader discretion is advised!

I had to get a root canal done today. I really didn't know what to expect. I've never had a cavity. I had my wizdom teeth extracted over the summer one year in college, but I didn't have to be awake for that.

But despite "root canal" being such a typical analogy of something really horrible, it wasn't so bad.

People who've been through it before told me that the hardest part was holding your mouth open for an hour, because that's about how long people said it would take. But they said that because of the novocain you don't really feel anything but some pressure. (Well, I remember waking up during the procedure of getting 4 wizdom teeth pulled and the "pressure" I felt then was very uncomfortable. So I wasn't really sure what to expect with that.) And someone else said that since they numb you so much, eating would be tough mostly because of the risk of biting your tongue since you can't feel it.

I found out that I needed to have this done about a month ago. I was in for a regular cleaning, and a few weeks before that I had some pain that felt like it was deep in the root of a tooth near the front on the right side of my face. It started on a Friday, but got a lot worse on Saturday. It was significant enough that if it hadn't gone away by Monday I was calling the dentist, but not severe enough to call him right away I guess. It went away by Monday so I waited until my next scheduled cleaning to ask about it. So they did an x-ray of the area and found an abscess, and the root canal was needed to clean out the infection and dead tissue up there to prevent further infection. (After reading more about this afterwards, I think this explains the dull headaches I've been getting on the right side of my head. And I think it explains the general feeling I've had for a few months like I'm about to get a cold, about to get a fever, about to have a sore throat, but never quite actually get full-on sick. Seems like my body may have felt that way fighting this infection.)

Back to today. The doctor explained that since the pain had gone away, that likely the nerve in that tooth was already dead. So he wasn't going to numb me. Wasn't going to numb me! He said that if we find that the nerve wasn't completely dead after all, he'd numb me immediately. That was the only time I came close to freaking out or being nervous in any way. It must have been pretty obvious by the way I reacted when I asked if he could numb me anyway just in case. He didn't try hard to talk me out of that, and said if that made me more comfortable he'd do that. He didn't think I'd need it, but he'd do it. That's not the kind of surprise I want! So I said an emphatic YES to the numbing.

I thought the needle going into my gum was going to be the most painful thing. But to my pleasant surprise, they numbed that area with a topical numbing agent (like Orajel) first. The assistant had some kind of cotton-swab looking thing that was doused in the numbing stuff, and tucked that under my upper lip while she and the doctor finished getting everything ready. It still wasn't pleasant when the injection went into the gum, it was a bit more than the "pinch" I was warned it would feel like, but I don't have a better adjective for it. The worst part of that was breifly seeing the needle that was about to be stuck in me, and I had to quickly divert my eyes then it was ok. Still, in my opinion, better than the alternative of perhaps finding out that nerve wasn't actually completely dead.

After that, just like the doctor prepared me for, my lip felt like it was absolutely huge immediately. It wasn't, but it felt like it. Then I felt like I had something fuzzy (a piece of fabric, or small string, or large piece of dust) go up my nose. I decided before they started was a better time to itch my nose. Then they told me that if my nose felt stuffed up it was an effect of the numbing. I said no, fuzzy thing. They said that was still probably part of the numbing.

I said OK and stopped scratching. He said if I felt anything, to indicate that to him using my left hand. Left hand, armed and ready. And we got started.

After that, the next thing to get over was the sound. But I was quickly distracted from that by floating particles in the air, like sawdust but coming off of my tooth, but finer than sawdust. It smelled somewhat like sawdust but maybe with something more medical-smelling mixed in, like something they'd use to clean off your skin before sticking it with a needle to draw blood. The smell wasn't so bad once I accepted that it was there and it was normal, but there were enough dust particles that I didn't want to breathe it in. So I held my breath and tried to only take short breath in between when he took a break and the dust would settle some.

And I didn't want to swallow after that. So saliva built up in my mouth. I had one opportunity to spit, only b/c I asked.

Next he used maybe 5" x 5" latex sheet to isolate the tooth and catch the liquid they used to rinse out the canal, and the assistant could suction that off the sheet instead of it getting into my mouth. Even then, I still didn't want to swallow. Part of that was b/c I still wasn't sure there weren't particles from the drilling in my mouth, but mostly because I didn't want my tongue or head to move while swallowing in any way that would disrupt the work that was going on. So the saliva collecting in my mouth was not very pleasant.

If I were clostrophobic at all, I might have not liked how close the latex thing was to my nose. It felt like it was covering my nose and I wasn't going to be able to breathe. Especially if the doctor's hand got near my nose too. But when I started feeling that way, I just took mental note at the fact that I wasn't really having any trouble breathing at all. It must have been another nose-related side effect of the numbing.

Then the pressure part. To me that didn't feel a whole lot different from when the dentist prods hard down into your back teeth to check for cavities. Only difference was that I could tell it was moving my whole head when he did it, not just my jaw. Which brought me to the odd realization of just how far up into my tooth he was probably prodding. Yet another thing that, once I mentally accepted that's what was happening, it was ok. Still weird, but ok. This was the point where I probably would have really had to calm myself down a lot more if I hadn't talked him into numbing me first!

After that was just the sound of lots of scraping. Not like fingernails on a chalkboard. Maybe more like rubbing two rocks together, except that the sound was coming from inside my mouth not from across the room. But picturing it, and accepting the idea of what was going on, as weird as it was, made it better.

But that part took a long time. Maybe longer than typically because the doctor said that there was some material that had calcified up there (confirming that it was more likely something caused from trauma a long time ago, rather than more recently). But he had to get through that material as well, I guess. He must have had a tough time working through it and needed lots of leverage because once I had to signal him with my left hand b/c my lower lip was pinched between my lower teeth and his hand. (surprisingly he understood me when I said "you're pinching my lower lip" even with all the stuff and saliva build up in my mouth.) No big deal if he needed to use my lower teeth as leverage to do what he needed to do but not the lip! :) So I had to keep paying attention, keep my mouth open wide enough, and adjusting my lower lip so it wouldn't get in the way again.

I took the chance to close my mouth and relax my jaw whenever I could, while the dentist was switching instruments or what not, since everyone said to expect my jaw to be sore from holding it open for the lenght of the procedure. I think that helped.

Overall the procedure was done in less than an hour. He did not permanently fill the canal yet though. He wants me to keep taking the antibiotics and come back in 2 weeks for another x-ray to make sure the abscess is gone and cleaned out. In case not, the canal is still open for access if there's more stuff to drain. If it's all good, then he'll fill it then. For now he said he put some kind of cotton up there, and plugged it with some kind of putty.

They gave me some Ibuprofen, and I was on my way.

James was nice enough to take me, since I wasn't sure how I'd feel. I felt pretty good, with just a few weird things from the numbness. I felt like my lip was huge (it wasn't.) I felt like I was smiling with only half of my face (I wasn't.) I felt like I had boogers in my right nostril preventing me from breathing (I didn't.) And even though I could feel my tongue pretty well, I still didn't feel like I'd be very graceful if I tried to eat or drink anything right then. But we stopped at the grocery store to see what might seem good to make for dinner.

I felt a little bit nauseous at the grocery store. Not sure why, or if it was related to the dental procedure. But the nausea was short-lived. I felt like I had a bit of a headache when I got back to James' house, and took another Ibuprofen and watched TV for about an hour. Felt pretty good after that, and decided to get some more work done since I had to leave work early today for the root canal.

It's about 5 hours later now and I'm getting hungry. I have complete feeling back in my lip. Still not in a lot of pain. I feel a dull ache, at most, in my jaw which kind of feels like the onset of a headache. The tooth is a little sensitive because of all the josling around of that particular tooth (which the doctor warned me about). And I have a small cut on my lower lip from the aforementioned accidental lower lip pinching during the procedure. But that's it.

I'm still thinking it might not be so good tomorrow. I sometimes tend to feel worse the 2nd day after stuff than the 1st day. I feel more sore the 2nd day after working out or playing sports, not the next day. I felt worse the 2nd day after my wizdom tooth procedure than I did the day after when I was supposed to feel so bad. So we'll see what tomorrow brings. :)

Gender Roles

2011-01-24T11:03:00.002-05:00

Last week after work, I went to Wednesday night young-adult group at church as usual. Before we got started, a few announcements were given. One of which was that the women's ministry fun-group was getting together to watch the movie "Anne of Green Gables."

Then one of the guys piped up and said "I thought you said it was supposed to be 'fun.'"

Oh my. Where do I start?

Why must some people express disdain toward events not intended for them?

The church has a lot of things going on that are targeted toward specific sub-groups of people: men's ministry, women's ministry, single mom's activities, youth (jr. high and high school) activities, kids, etc.

Not everyone fits in to every sub group. Duh, right? But if that was so obvious, then nobody would have any need to express a negative opinion about an activity for a group they're not a part of, right? Yet this guy didn't hesitate to express his opinion about "Anne of Green Gables." Somehow I have a hard time imagining that same guy making fun of some kind of activity geared toward any other group he's not a part of. How would that go?
Leader: "The kids fun group is getting together next week to watch DVD episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba"
Guy: "I don't like Yo Gabba Gabba, why aren't the kids watching something more fun?"

If it doesn't interest you, don't go.

I don't seem to have the same interests as most of the women in my church. They've organized group shopping trips out of town. Unless we're going to the Home Depot, I have no interest in a shopping trip. They usually pick movies I don't care about. Like that guy, I have no interest in seeing Anne of Green Gables. I'd rather watch Iron Man, or Tron. But as much as I wasn't into that movie, I wasn't about to open my mouth to rain on their parade like that guy did. Who cares if they want to see Anne of Green Gables? If that's what they want to do, let them do it. That doesn't mean I have to go if I'm not into it.

But why do we have to be exclusive anyway?

If some guy wants to see Anne of Green Gables, he's still not welcome because it's the women's group. I never did, and still don't understand the exclusivity of segregating groups by gender. And if we're into segregating, then why only on that one particular dimension? Wouldn't it be better to segregate based on interests or needs instead? For example, why is there a single mom's ministry? Wouldn't a single dad have the same needs? I know, there are not as many single dad's as there are single moms. But why exclude the single dad? Why?

Occasionally, once a month usually, our young adult group will divide up men and women and meet separately. More often than not, the guys are doing something I'd must rather be doing than the ladies are doing. Once, the women were getting together to do crafts. The guys were getting together to grill and eat meat. But I wasn't allowed to do the thing I was more interested in: eating grilled meat. I have no interest in crafts. So I stayed home that night. It's not always the case. One month the girls played games like Cranium, and I had fun doing that.

A few weeks later, though, the guys were getting together (on their own, not as part of the official group) to play Risk. The guy announcing it specifically said "if any of the guys want to come over to my house to play Risk, we're getting together this Friday." I felt like I had to intrude to be invited. But I timidly asked "is it just for guys?" Turns out it just never occurred to him that any of the girls liked to play Risk or would want to come. I was more than welcome to come, and he felt bad for not inviting everyone. And I went, and I was the only girl there, and I didn't care, and I had a blast.

"I thought you said it was supposed to be 'fun.'"

Oh yes, back to that. Is it just me who felt that was an incredibly rude thing to say? It felt like it was just me. And I feel like I'm the only girl who doesn't want to participate in most of what the girls want to do. And I feel left out when the guys talk about things they'd like to do instead, and they're things I'd like to do as well. And I feel like I'm not "supposed" to prefer their activities over the girls' activities. It's as if there's something wrong with me.

Stuck in between can be a rather lonely place to be.

Why are anniversaries of bad things so... bad?

2010-12-31T12:16:00.002-05:00

I've been in such a funk the last couple of days. The weather in winter gets me down, but this felt like more than that, but I don't know why. But I think I figured it out.

Today is 2 years since my house was broken into. Hard to believe it's been 2 years. In some ways it feels like it was maybe 2 months ago, not 2 years ago. It still makes me paranoid sometimes. It still makes me sad. Some days it still makes me hate where I live. Especially in winter when I don't have gardening and landscape and nature to distract and appease me.

When I left for work this morning, I checked twice that I set my home alarm correctly. Part of me wanted to stay home. All of my stuff that I left out, or put away, I did so specifically thinking about how accessible (or inaccessible, hidden) I wanted it to be were someone to break into my house again. I do that a lot though, not just today. Still, it made me sad to do that today.

And it makes me angry that I have to wonder whether New Year's eve day will ever be a happy day for me ever again. It is definitely hard to focus on work today.

On a more positive note, I was recently able to replace some of the sentimental-value jewelry that was stolen that day. I will never be able to replace the items I got from both of my grandmothers since they are no longer living. Sadly this past summer my aunt Devona died of ovarian cancer. My cousins (her daughters) were not sure what to do with all of her jewelry, so they brought it to our family Thanksgiving gathering and let my aunt's siblings, sisters-in-law, nieces, etc. look through it and pick what they wanted. I took one ring and one necklace at first. Then after everyone had a chance to get what they wanted, and there was still a lot left, my cousins encouraged people to take more items if they wanted to, because they were not really sure what they were going to do with the leftovers anyway. It was a nice way to replenish some of what I lost in a more meaningful way than just buying stuff to replace it "just because." I'm sure my aunt would be happy that it turned into a positive thing for me.

A New Idea for Vacation Trip Logging

2010-05-17T15:44:00.004-05:00

I've never been one to keep a trip log. I've taken some trips where I wish I would have. I'm usually too lazy to take the time sit down once I get home & write something about it. I'm too forgetful to bring a notebook with me to write in. Besides, if the notebook had details of past trips, I would be too afraid of losing it (thus losing all my trip logs) if I lost the notebook. I also never think to just bring paper to write on, that could be added to a notebook later.

Another issue is that I tend to get wordy when journaling. So, I have a hard time motivating myself to start writing. Even though I have the best intentions of keeping it short & not spending much time on it, if the perfectionist in me takes over (and I know it will) then I know it will take awhile & be lengthy.

I just came up with an idea to extend a vacation tradition that I have had for a long time, & combine that with a way of journaling that will force me to keep it short.

The tradition

Every time I go somewhere on vacation, I buy a postcard. Not to send; this postcard is for me. I have a wall in my computer room that I hang each postcard, in chronological order left to right, like a border near the ceiling around the room.

Why do I do this?

I think it started by something in the back of my mind that was put there by my mother as a kid. When we would take family vacations, we were each allowed to pick out one souvenir. I would usually pick out something that I liked & knew I would use or play with. Inevitably, if it did not have touristy words on it, she would say something like "Are you sure you don't want to get something that says [name-of-place-where-we-went] on it, so you remember where you got it?"

I'm sure there were times I put it back & picked out something else that did have [name-of-place-where-we-went] on it. I'm sure there were other times I insisted that was what I wanted, & didn't feel good about the fact that I really had to justify it. I'm sure there were subsequent times where I would not pick something I wanted, but pick something that said [name-of-place-where-we-went] instead, just so I wouldn't have to spend the time defending my choice.

As an adult, buying a post card is an inexpensive way for me to "get something that says [name-of-place-where-we-went]" on it, & at the same time freeing me to pick out a souvenir that I really like or would really use, or freeing me to not pick out some other souvenir if I don't find anything I want. I've found that I tend to remember where I got the things I really like anyway, regardless of what is or isn't written on the item.

The extension of the idea

I just thought of this during a vacation I took about 6 months ago with some female friends to Cancun. I thought it would be fun to jot down on my post cards some of the inside jokes that happen during a trip, or nicknames people got for the duration of the trip, or places that we went that we particularly liked (or didn't). The inherent size of the post card then forces me to keep what I write short & simple. Sadly, I never got around to writing down any of that after I got back.

My next vacation was a cruise with some friends where we had 4 ports of call. I bought a postcard at each port, & had full intention of writing down what we did on each of the separate postcards. I did not get around to that after I got back, either. Too much time spent catching up on stuff at home after my return.

Last weekend, James & I went down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to see a space shuttle launch. Then spent the rest of the long weekend trip going around various places on the East coast of Florida, like Cocoa Beach Pier, Melbourne Beach, Kennedy Space Center, etc. I bought 2 postcards, one that just says "Florida" & one that says "Kennedy Space Center."

The brilliant thing I did this time was to do my writing on the plane on the way home, instead of waiting until I got home.
1. it's freshest in my mind
2. helps me reminisce on the trip as it's winding down
3. I'm tired, so in addition to the postcard being small, the tired contributes to my wanting to keep what I write short.

I hope I can keep this up in the future. It will be nice to be able to look at one of my postcards at any time & know I can flip it over & reminisce about a trip in more detail than my faded memory allows.

My mom has a blog!

2009-06-07T17:20:00.003-05:00

I've been working for a couple of months to help my mom set up a blog. A few years ago, my mom wrote a book about Planning Church Family Camps.

Back when I was a kid, my parents along with another couple started an annual family-oriented church camp event. On occasion people have written to my mom asking questions about starting their own camping ministry for families. Since then, my mom has thought it would be a good thing to address some of these questions and answers publicly for the benefit of others with similar questions. So we started discussing creating a blog for her where she could continue to write. And last week, her blog came to fruition.

She's done a great job learning the technology behind having a blog, and I've tried to help out wherever I can as "system administrator" of sorts. :) She seems very happy with how it came out, and I'm glad I could help.

Lawn Mystery Solved, & my dad was right :)

2009-05-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, I blogged about a mysterious patch of grass in my yard. Snow would melt there. Grass would not grow there. I wasn’t sure what was up.

Several people I told about it, in person and on my blog, people had ideas but nobody was really sure what it could be.

I planted more grass again last fall, and this year the new grass was not dying, but just not growing at all. For some reason recently I decided to (carefully) dig under there to see if I could figure out what was going on.

Here’s what I found:

My dad had it right in the Comments section of my aforementioned blog post: it’s where the water and sewer line runs.

And I have to wonder several things. Like, why is this here in the middle of the yard, and not in the easement section between the sidewalk and the street? (as I’ve seen before at my house growing up, and at other people’s houses.)

And I usually see these things at or above the grass level. Why did they put it so low under the ground that it has to be covered with dirt and grass to be anywhere close to level with the ground next to it.

Here’s a side view, with my shoe to demonstrate the size of the hole. It is approximately 4” or so lower than the surrounding yard.

And lastly, what can I, should I, or shouldn’t I do with this information? I feel like I’m not supposed to cover it up - as if I should not block access to it. (Yet it was already covered way before I moved in.) At the same time I feel like I shouldn’t leave a deep hole exposed in my yard either. If someone were to trip they’d probably be upset. (Although nobody should be walking through that part of my yard anyway!) But I certainly don’t want to cover it with dirt or grass that’s just going to die again (Plus that makes it look like I don’t know what I’m doing with my lawn to have a giant bare patch there.)

For now, I put rocks there to level it out and not leave a big, open hole. The rocks are easily removable in case access is necessary, and the rocks won’t die or melt.

I guess I need to figure out how to go about figuring out what I can or cannot do there, if there’s a better way.

Until then, at least the mystery of what is there has been solved!

Nice Birthday Gift

2009-04-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

My birthday happened over a month ago. Before my birthday, I had to tell people not to get me any jewelry for my birthday. I figured it was reasonable for kind, well-intentioned friends and family to want to get me jewelry for my birthday since all my jewelry was stolen, except for a few pieces I had been too lazy to put away & what I was wearing the day my house was robbed.

Truth was, jewelry was the last thing I wanted. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why at the time. But some disjointed (and what looks like irrational feelings, unless you’ve gone through something like this) were things like:

I don’t deserve to have new jewelry. I couldn’t even take care of / hold on to the jewelry I had.
You can’t replace the sentimental value of what I had with some “token” piece of shiny new jewelry. You can’t replace the tarnished cameo necklace that was my grandmothers. You can’t replace the bead necklace I spent hours making with my mother. You can’t replace the necklace I bought on vacation with friends, the one good-find souvenir among all the things we looked at that fit my tastes so well it practically screamed my name. You can’t replace that with something you spent 20 minutes shopping for.
I don’t want to have new jewelry. If I don’t have anything, it can’t be taken away from me.
And the one that seems to make the least sense: part of me just felt angry at jewelry.

Easter weekend (a couple weeks ago) was the first time I’ve seen my older brother, who lives 2 states away, since my birthday. So he gave me my birthday present then. He gave me a pair of earrings. When I first saw what it was, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. But I had none of those bad feelings. And it had everything to do with where he got them, and the story behind it:

About 5 years ago I went with my brother and a group from his church in Chicago on Habitat for Humanity’s annual Jimmy Carter Work Project, which was in Mexico that year.

I didn’t know that my brother had bought a couple of things, including a pair of earrings, on that trip as thank you gifts for friends of his back home who were going to be helping him out with some things. In the end, one of the friends was unable to help out and did not feel right accepting the gift.

So my brother held onto the earrings all this time, not sure what to eventually do with them.

And as he told me this story, I sensed he felt bad about it, as if admitting to re-gifting. Meanwhile, the story made a good gift feel like an even better gift. Any jewelry I had bought on vacation in Mexico was gone. What he gave me was not only from Mexico, but more importantly I was with him on the same trip when he bought it. Even though it wasn’t bought for me at the time, I felt like maybe, somehow, it was meant for me all along. To make me feel better about jewelry again. If I’d bought them myself, or he’d given them to me a few months after the trip, I wouldn’t have them anymore now. The timing was right.

So I figured it out. I think that I didn’t want to replace things I once had – things with good stories behind them - with something where the story behind it is “I got this because my jewelry was stolen.” I can’t have things with such a long, sad, bitter, angry story behind it. I need a better story than that.

Nightmares

2009-04-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

I had a nightmare in the wee hours of the morning a few days ago, that my house got broken into again. The dream was vivid enough that it was basically like re-living the whole thing.

Some things were different and wacky in ways that only make sense in dreams. Like…

… my house wasn't my house now, but the house I lived in until 7th grade. But in the dream I was living there, as an adult.

… the house next door was the same house next door growing up, but the person who lived there in the dream was the neighbor I have now. (It was the same neighbor who, in real life, called the police when my house got broken into.)

The dream happened like this:

When I got home I could tell someone was still in my house! So, I went over to my neighbor's house. Instead of calling the cops we went into my house. We confronted the guy, which was pretty scary, but as a result the thief did get caught at least (UNLIKE in real life!!)

Another weird thing was that the guy who robbed my house in my dream was the regular UPS guy who delivers packages to us at work. He really seems like a very nice person and I have no idea why I would dream that he was robbing my house! The logic in the dream was that any time I have packages delivered to work, it has both my work and home address on the package (which it doesn't have both in real life), so the UPS guy knows my home address and knows when I'm not home so he figured my house would be an easy target.

After waking up in the wee hours of the morning from this fright, I was very glad to find out it was just a dream. Yet every time I would drift back off to sleep I would slip into the same, terrifying dream. So when I did wake up I'd try not to go back to sleep so I wouldn't experience the ordeal anymore. Nevertheless, I was tired and had only slept a couple of hours up to this point, so I couldn't help drifting back to sleep. That kind of intermittent sleep for half the night certainly does not make for a good night's sleep. .

I wonder when this experience will stop tormenting my sleep.

Home Security Systems - they're not as complicated or expensive as one might think

2009-02-27T01:03:00.003-05:00

Last week I had a home security system installed. I have had this thing a little over a week, and I already feel like I wonder how I ever lived without it. Really. I'm very surprised by this.

I always thought security systems were for paranoid worry-warts. And granted, I have fit into that category the last couple months, no doubt. Regardless of that, now that I have a security system in my home I feel like I wish I could pay for everyone I know to have a security system in their home. That may be an exaggeration - but I have been accused of caring too much. :)

Peace of Mind

The amount of rest I've been able to get since I had the security system installed is more than I expected. Since my house was broken into a couple months ago, I've been hard-pressed to get an un-medicated good night's sleep. (yay for Melatonin pills :) But, being aware that I don't want to become physically or psychologically addicted to any such thing, I knew I needed to do something more.

Every little noise I've heard around my house the last few months sent me into a near (if not full blown) panic attack. Houses make noises. They settle. Whatever. It's what they do. Quite literally I have noticed a 100% change in my reaction to house noises since the security system was installed - I have no jumpy increased heart rate/breathing anymore. None. Amazing.

Less Complicated Than I Thought

In getting a security system installed, I was able to find a smaller, local company, a friend of a friend who owns and operates the company (Advanced Wiring Solutions).Big companies can have their place in general. But in this case, any contact I had with the big security companies was less than favorable, in my opinion. As for the company I went with - the guy I emailed, who I talked to on the phone, who gave me an estimate, who did the installation - was all the same person. I like that kind of personal service.

And I like being able to ask any questions I have along the way. Before, during, even after the installation - I have one point of contact. And after learning how it all works and being able to ask all the questions I wanted and, I am less worried about false alarms (my biggest concern about a security system) than I had been.

Think About It

I've blogged about other thoughts and advice I would have given myself if I could go back - advice I would give to my friends. Here's one more piece of food for thought. I would encourage anyone to at least think about a security system in their home.

I had thought such thing would cost thousands of dollars. But I was able to get a system installed for less than $600, and monitoring service for less than $30/month that I can cancel any time if I want to (no long-term contract!). That's a rough estimate, for my relatively-small house, and every house is different. But that kind of ballpark estimate is all I wanted when calling the big security companies, and they wouldn't even talk to me about that much on the phone. I just wanted to know if it was in the ballpark of what I would or could afford. But now that you all have the rough estimate that I wanted all along, think about this: what is your peace of mind worth?

Thanks to Chuck at Advanced Wiring Solutions who installed my security system - you rock.

Things About Home Robbery That I Wish I'd Have Known or Thought About Over a Month Ago

2009-02-04T00:55:00.002-05:00

I hope nobody I know has to experience what it feels like to have their home broken into. I've experienced a wide range of emotions the last few weeks, and learned some things (I think), and I'm still kicking around some other things in my head.

If nothing good comes from this, I want to share what I think I've learned with others, and some things for people to think about. Maybe it will help someone else out. Note I'm certainly no authority, and any home robbery would be different from another. But here's my two cents.

I'd always thought of houses getting broken into at night when people were home, sleeping. Everything I thought was turned upside down. My house was broken into during the day, when I was at work. But my neighbor saw the whole thing happen.

Thief strategy: knock on the front door, see if anyone is home, if not then break in through the back.

There's several things that could have happened, and I don't know what I would have done if they had happened. I still don't know. It still bothers me that I don't know what I would do. (not in a obsessive "what-if" or "I would've/should've/could've" way, but in a "I should learn from and be more prepared in the future" way.) So I think people, including myself, should think about and consider these things:

1. If you were at home watching one of your neighbor's homes getting broken into, would you be able to contact them to let them know?
I consider myself fairly friendly within my group of friends. But for some reason I have a hard time meeting my neighbors. We live within a close proximity. Yet many times I never get around to introducing myself to neighbors. I think there's many reasons/excuses for this.

I feel awkward and don't know what to say. I don't want to bother them if they're doing yard work.
I already have enough friends. I hope that doesn't make me a snob. But I'm very comfortable with my current circle of friends and not sure I want to change the dynamic or have to juggle my schedule between disjointed groups of friends.
I think maybe we don't have anything in common (many of my neighbors are married with children).
I don't want them to know me out of fear they'll judge me for anything they see me do around my house. (Not that they couldn't judge me anyway, but if we never speak, then they can't tell me about it.)

Think about this: how helpless would you feel if you were home, watching your neighbor's house getting broken into, they weren't home, and you had no idea how to contact them? You would call the police first. But then what?

I'm lucky because my neighbor was able to call me and let me know what was going on. Worse would be him not being able to call me, and my coming home from work, by myself, to find broken patio door and glass everywhere, and by then my house would have been very cold from the door missing for hours on a cold December day. And God help my furnace motor for probably running all day by that point and never able to keep up.

Lesson learned: Get to know your neighbors. You really can watch out for each other.

2. What would you do if someone was banging on your front door?
In this day and age, where everyone I know has cell phones, I don't answer the door when someone knocks or rings the doorbell. Nobody I know arrives at my house without calling first. Nobody I know arrives at my house unexpectedly. I like it that way, actually. Based on that, I assume anyone knocking on my door is probably a solicitor of some sort, so I don't have to answer.

I thought maybe it was just me who avoided answering the door like this. But the more people I talk to lately, I find that many people have a similar philosophy, particularly among people in my demographic.

Think about this: I have no problem ignoring a normal knock on my door. But my neighbor observed louder than normal knocking, and eventually an attempt to kick in my front door. What would I have done if I was home when that happened? More importantly, what would I do in the future if I was home and someone was loudly knocking on or kicking my door? What should I do? What would you do? It bothers me that I still don't have a good answer to this question. And I wonder how many thieves are unpleasantly surprised by people who also don't answer their doors.

I'm lucky because I was not home and didn't have to decide what to do. But I know that ever since this event, I have basically a panic attack any time anyone rings my doorbell or knocks on my door, even knocking in a reasonable way.

Lesson learned: Well I'm still trying to figure this one out. :(

3. Secluded does not mean secure. I always liked the location of my house. In the back of a neighborhood with windey streets. With a privacy wall at the edge of the neighborhood, and a privacy fence of my own, too. It was appealing to me when I was looking for houses. As were houses on a cul-de-sac for the same reason of being more secluded and separated from traffic, and others in general. In fact most ads for homes seem to list such features as plusses.

Think about this: That level of seclusion means fewer eyes watching, which probably usually means fewer people around to potentially observe a crime.

I'm lucky because my neighbor's house is close to mine, and he happened to be home.

Lesson Learned always live in a populated area. The more populated, the more eyes and ears, the better. These things listed as plusses the next time I go to buy a house, will be negatives in my mind.

4. It's not personal. It's not, and I can't let my mind go there. They went through my underwear drawers! But it's not personal. They were looking for valuables. Sometimes people hide valuables in their underwear drawers. It's not personal.

I checked the police reports, and mine was the only house broken into that day. I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. I feel better that nobody else in my neighborhood had to go through this. But it definitely makes me wonder, why me? But I have to keep telling myself, it's not personal.

Think about this: Maybe mine was the first in what would have been a break-in spree in my neighborhood. But because my neighbor was so quick to call the police, as soon as the police were anywhere close by, the thieves left the vicinity completely.

I'm lucky because, well, I'm not. But maybe someone else is.

Lesson Learned: Everything happens for a reason. And I may never know what that reason is.

5. Be Prepared. I can be lazy, I can procrastinate. I don't keep a lot of documentation about my property, whether it's photos, serial numbers, or whatever. I know I should. But I don't. It's an overwhelming, daunting task. I've come up with some ideas that I think are easy enough and have started to use to help me be prepared. Maybe someone else will find these ideas helpful.

Think about this: Some things I've read say burglers will be in and out of your home in 8 minutes. Some have said 5 minutes. Some even say 3 minutes. Therefore they're going to come in looking for very specific things and get out. Laptops, jewelry, money, drugs, etc. Small things, easy to grab, valuable.

I'm lucky because I had my laptop repaired a couple years ago, and the repair shop had the exact make, model and serial number on file. I didn't have it.

Lesson Learned: take inventory. Just do it. Make time. I've heard that it's good to take video and/or pictures of all the contents in your whole house, and keep a complete list of all items with makes, models and serial numbers. I find this hard to do, harder to maintain, and hard to find when needed. And it's a lot to do. But we still should try to do this.

At the very least, pick 3-5 of your most valuable or sentimental things and take pictures of them. Just 3-5 things. Take a photo of the serial number too, if it has one, then you don't have to write it down! Create an account on Evernote.com, email those pictures to your Evernote account (very easy if you have a picture phone with email capability). That way everything is in one place, and it's very easy to search for and find things later (Evernote will even allow you to search via text-recognition on the photos you've taken!)

What I particularly would have photographically documented ahead of time if I could go back:

1. Taken a picture of the serial number of my laptop when I bought it. Take also a picture that shows the make and model if it's on the computer, or even on the box, so I have it later.

2. Use another camera to take a pic of the make/model/serial of my digital camera.

3. Taken a photo of all my jewelry. Better if I laid it all out on a table and took a few picures. But even if it was still in the jewelry box when I snapped a quick photo of the contents, that would have been ok too and virtually effortless. I don't think my jewelry would be recovered anyway, but this pictures would be more for my own memories of the things I had. Some things I never wore much, but I enjoyed looking at every so often, and just having them. At least photos would preserve the memories of those very personal items (like neclaces from deceased grandmothers) a little better than what's in my head.

Other good reading:

http://www.urbachletter.com/Archive/Safety_0211_BurglaryPrevention.htm

http://www.securitysystemsreview.com/info/system/break_in.php

More Theraputic Poetry

2009-01-14T00:27:00.003-05:00

Take away a person's posessions
and see what they're really made of.
I'm not liking what I see.

I'm not liking what I've been feeling
what I've become, what I'm not.
Is this really me?

It's not who I thought I was.
But hard times bring out a persons true self
their true being, their soul.

I'm seeing how shallow I am,
A bright light on how empty I feel,
Not breaking the darkness in this deep hole.

Isolation. Anger. What if. So sad.
The cycle makes me dizzy
I'm swimming in circles and sink.

It's not even as bad as it could be.
It's not even as bad as it should be.
It could be so much worse.

Death. Loss of a loved one.
Physical harm. Physical abuse.
All so much worse than what I lost.

How shallow am I to be this affected?
How would I ever handle something
that comes at an even greater cost.

Seeing what I'm made of
looking in the mirror.
What an awful thing to see

Feeling so out of control
seeing the power it can have.
What an awful place to be.

Theraputic poetry

2009-01-05T00:45:00.004-05:00

Wow, I haven't been in a state to write poetry since high school. I guess I have to be a certain level of depressed to write anything halfway decent. Now keep in mind, I've not been this down for days on end - it comes and goes. And it's getting better. But for now here's my "creative" mind:

After the aftermath
After the day, the big day
When it's quiet again and there's nothing left to say

The silence is deafening
The adrenaline is gone
And I'm left here wondering what I did wrong

But I can't let myself go there
To that awful place inside
To that place where a piece of me died

I need to try to find the strength
Yet I need to mourn my loss
And never forget: this too shall pass

It's still so very quiet
Everyone else has moved on
And I am still here forgotten and alone

Not alone on purpose
Just alone inside my head
In a place where all I know how to do is be sad

I wrote this post hoping I never have to tell this story again...

2009-01-04T17:35:00.003-05:00

Matthew 24
43 Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. (New Living Translation)

Matthew 6
19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." (New Living Translation)

Matthew 6
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (New Living Translation)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My house was broken into on New Years Eve. In the middle of the afternoon. I was at work.

My neighbor left a voice mail on my cell phone while I was at work. I listened to the voice mail, then exclaimed to my office mates: "crap! My neighbor just left voice mail & said someone broke into my house. He called the police. WHAT THE HECK?"

When I first called him back, he didn't answer so I left him voice mail. And had only to pace around the office, waiting for him to call back.

When my neighbor called back, he said there were 5 police officers, guns drawn, surrounding my house. He had seen the thieves knock fervently on, then try to kick in my front door. When that did not work, they grabbed a rock and headed to the back door, threw the rock threw the door, and entered my home. That's when he immediately called 911. Thanks so much to my neighbor for happening to be home (only b/c he had vacation to burn in 2008), and for acting so quickly.

My neighbor never saw the guys leave the house, so he thought they were still inside. But since my neighbor could not watch both the front and back entrance of my house at once, it turns out the theives were actually not still inside my house after all, when the police arrived 15 minutes later.

I was in such a state of shock, I didn't really know what to do. I didn't even know whether I should try to go home, or stay at work. All I knew was that technically I didn't have any vacation time left for 2008 and it was the last day of 2008 and I had lots of stuff I wanted to finish up that day. I needed someone to tell me what to do. My boss told me to go home. And my co-worker, whom I had by chance carpooled with that day b/c he was having car trouble, drove me home (thanks Paul and Dean). In my non-thinking-clearly state of mind, I even said that if I got home and there was nothing to do, I'd try to work from home that afternoon. Everyone humored me and said OK, knowing full well that I'd be in no state to work for awhile!

In the car, as we made our way through the streets of my neighborhood, I was surprised at just how nervous I felt. So nervous. Almost home. So nervous.

The house was secure by the time I got home, and my job was to survey the house and figure out what was missing or out of place. I'm not the tidiest person, so it wasn't that obvious to anyone but me. Here's how it went down.

The first thing I see is the contents of various backpacks and other bags I had laying around strewn all over the living room floor. Picture frames. Clothes. Pens and Pencils. Makeup. Papers. etc. One of the bags was found in the yard by the police, and they brought it back inside.
Next I go to the bathroom. Sitting in the bathroom sink was a large knife from my kitchen. The reality of what that meant to me would not sink in for at least 10 more minutes.
Next I went to the bedroom, the messiest of all my rooms for sure. Looking... looking... oh, a large jar of change was gone. "How much?" the officer asks. I have no idea. $50 maybe?
Looking... looking... oh, and my jewelry box is gone. The reality of how much that meant to me, the pieces of jewelry that had no monetary value and extremely high sentimental value, would sink in little by little for the next several days. "What's the value of the contents of the jewelry box?" the officer asks. I can't handle these questions, I don't know the answers. I start rattling off things that I recall were in the box, and how much I think they might be worth, but I really have no idea yet.
Next I went to one of my guest bedrooms. Closet doors open, boxes and bags pulled out and emptied. And a few pieces my grandmother's china are laying on the floor out of the box they were stored in. I am glad none of it is broken.
It's then I start to wonder: what else? What else of sentimental value to me, like the china, am I going to find? And at this moment I realize that finding your own kitchen knife in the bathroom sink means they were carrying it around with them the whole time they were in my home. And if I, or anyone else, had been there to get in the way... shudder the thought. I had kept it pretty well together until now. I start to cry.
I went back to my bedroom to see if I missed anything. They went through my underwear drawers. They went through my UNDERWEAR drawers! I try to tell myself, "It's not personal. They just wanted money." But they went through my underwear.
I check the other spare bedroom. It's a mess, stuff from my closet is all over the place. Nothing missing that I can tell.
In the hallway, I had a bag full of Christmas presents I had not yet put away they had gone through. Some candy, knick-knacks, whatever. Nothing missing. Except I had gotten an awesome-nice, new, cordless drill for Christmas. It was gone. Had no sentimental value there, and being only a week old very easily replaced. But still, I JUST GOT IT.
Back to the living room. My laptop computer is gone. My external hard drive is still there, thank God. And I'm glad that the backup I've made was only about a week old. But it occurs to me that I have my financial information and things like that on the computer. Granted, it's in a location where you have to be logged in with my username and password to get to. But I know that nothing is really secure. It just depends on how hard someone wants to work to get it.

I spend the rest of my afternoon taking care of everything. These thieves were in my house no more than 15 minutes, may they will get a few hundred dollars at most for the things they stole, and I will spend hours - no days - cleaning up their mess.

It's about 30 degrees outside, it's snowing, and I have no patio door. So first Dean helps me put up a sheet on the door. Plastic would have been better but I couldn't find any. (Thanks Dean, for going to get me some lunch after taking care of that. Even though I mostly forgot to eat said lunch except for a little bit of nudging the food in my direction.)
Then I call the insurance company.
Then I call a glass company to try to get my patio door replaced ASAP. (Thanks again to my neighbor for getting their phone# for me from a buddy of his who does windows but not doors.) I am not hopeful about getting this taken care of today, being the afternoon before a holiday. Huge props to GLASSWORKS PLUS for sending a guy out to measure, having the glass in stock, and sending a technician out to replace the glass in the door within a few hours on a cold day before a holiday! And the woman I spoke to on the phone first, she called me no less than twice throughout the afternoon to update me on what was going on from their end: who they were sending and when, and making it very easy for me! (as easy as can be expected given the circumstances anyway).
Meanwhile, I made all the calls necessary to change my credit card numbers. But to change my bank account info I had to go into a branch in person. (Thanks to James for staying at my house for when the glass repair man showed up, while I took care of my banking needs.) Thumbs down to CHASE BANK for sending over the branch manager to try to sell me other banking products, while I'm just in there to get my account number changed a few hours after a traumatic event!

I've experienced a wide range of emotions the past few days. And I've thought about and learned a few things. These will be covered in blog posts to come.

But I doubt these guys will be caught. The police fingerprinted some things, with no luck. My neighbor gave the best description he could from what he saw: 2 white guys around 25 years old wearing hoodie sweatshirts. Unfortunately this isn't much to go on. The officer left me with the words "Don't worry, we'll get 'em." I appreciate the sentiment, but I doubt that very much money or resources get put toward a case like this.

Recipies for the campfire

2008-09-21T18:27:00.004-05:00

I went "geek camping" a couple weeks ago to Agile Summer Camp in Michigan. It was a blast!

My dad's side of the extended family goes camping every summer as our summer family get together. A benefit of this, is that I learn how to make a lot of yummy campfire treats over the years shared by aunts, uncles and cousins.

I learn very well by watching others. So, by watching my mom prepare for many camping trips our family has taken over the years, I think I was pretty well prepared when I went camping a couple weeks ago. And it was great to get a chance to share some of the recipies I've picked up along the way too.

Here's a couple of the recipies I took with me to share at Agile Summer Camp:

Fudge Striped S'mores
S'mores are usually made with graham crackers, pieces of chocolate bars, and marshmallows toasted over the fire. This recipie is a slightly more convenient variation of that.

Necessities:

1 package of fudge striped cookies.
1 package of marshmallows.

Directions:

Get out 2 cookies per every 1 marshmallow you are going to toast.
Toast marshmallow(s) over the fire to your liking (lightly toasted golden brown, to dark toasted.)
Place 1 toasted marshmallow between 2 cookies.
Yumm.

Campfire Burritos

Necessities:

Soft-shelled tortillas. 6 - 8 inch work well. I prefer flour over corn tortillas.
Peanut Butter.
Semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Mini-marshmallows.
Aluminum foil.

Directions:

Spread 1-2 Tbsp. peanut butter onto each tortilla.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.
Roll or fold into a tube similar to a burrito.
Wrap in aluminum foil.
Cook over a campfire until marshmallows and chocolate chips are melted.
Yumm.

I got a new job!!

2008-06-09T23:58:00.002-05:00

For the sake of not repeating myself, you can read about my new job here :)

http://gayleforce.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/my-big-move-from-java-to-ruby/

Lowe's vs. Home Depot (#3)

2008-05-14T22:57:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted about my experiences at Lowe's vs. Home Depot.

Aug 3, 2006: Lowe's vs. Home Depot
Oct 3, 2006: Lowe's vs. Home Depot (#2)

PREVIOUS SCORE:
Home Depot = 0
Lowe's = 3

Tonight's I went to Lowe's. The experience went something like this...

I was in need of replacing the shutoff valve underneath the toilet in my bathroom. I looked pretty closely at the current setup, even took some photos with my phone just in case I wanted to refer back. I felt relatively prepared.

I get there, and find a 12" flexible hose that says it will fit "any toilet." I started with that. I really wanted something shorter than that, so I looked on the upper shelf for one. As I was reaching way up to put one of them back, an employee came by who was helping another customer and said:

Employee: "Do you want me to give you a boost up so you can put that back?"
Me: laughing it off, knowing I'm kind of short, "haha, yeah I almost need that don't I?"

Employee continues to help the other customer. Meanwhile, I know I need an angle valve. But I can't find one that will fit onto this hose that will supposedly fit "any toilet." I look at several valves, nothin'. I'm sure I'm close to having what I need, but not quite.

Employee returns, showing other customer something else, then they're finished. Then the employee starts talking to me.

Employee: "Can I help you?"

Me: Sure. "I think I'm close here, but..."

Employee: "No, you're not."

Me: Taken by surprise, and pretty ticked off by that comment, I almost walked away but decided to take a deep breath instead and said "OK...."

Employee: "That won't work."

Me: "Yeah, I can't find a valve that will fit onto this hose."

Employee: "Why do you have that?"

Me: "Because I need to replace the valve under my toilet"

Employee: "Well you have the wrong one!"

I thought the employee was being very mean. Is it just me? Does anyone agree? Disagree? (I know as a reader, you don't have the benefit of anyone's tone of voice, but still.)

As I walked away, the employee said "I was just trying to help."

Wow, that's the idea of help? Really? That's a pretty offensive form of help, if you ask me. Telling me what I have won't work, before even asking me what I was trying to do? Telling me everything I'm doing wrong, instead of just showing me what's right? How about a little kindness huh?

Lowes: -2

So I left and went to Home Depot instead.

When I got there, up on the wall above the parts was a diagram, with pictures, and 3 steps explaining exactly how to find what you need.
1. it showed pictures of different types of pipes and fittings that you may have, so you can visually determine which one is yours.
2. Determine if you need a straight or angled valve.
3. Match the color on the background of your type of fitting, to the color on the packaging for the parts below.

Wow. That was so easy. The store helped me to be a self-sufficient shopper. And that feels good.

Home Depot +1

CURRENT SCORE:
Home Depot = 1
Lowe's = 1

Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches

2008-04-13T14:26:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I went to Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches for lunch. I've seen them starting to pop up in the greater Columbus Ohio area, but had yet to try them out until recently.

Incidentally, Jimmy John's was established in my parents' hometown of Charleston Illinois: where they lived before moving to Ohio, and where they've since moved back. I never lived there but have been to Charleston many times - yet somehow I'd never heard of this glorious sandwich shop before!

What do I like so much about Jimmy John's? Let me start with something I don't like about some other food places, something I think is a bit of a double-standard. If you go anywhere and order extra toppings on a sandwich, taco, burger or whatever - depending on the topping - you often get charged extra money for extra toppings. Yet every time I've ordered something with no lettuce, no tomato, and/or no onions, I never get a discount because I've asked for my food without these extra items! Plus it's kind of a pain to have to ask, a lot of times they forget to omit the items.

That brings me to one of the best things, in my opinion, about Jimmy John's. On their menu, they offer what they call "Plain Slims," any sub minus the veggies and sauce! I've only been there once, but I think the Plain Slims were also offered for a slightly lower price, too. Even if not, at least I can order my sub the way I want it (without veggies) by ordering a normal menu item, not asking for something special or possibly being made to feel weird. "Yay," says the meatatarian! (However, they do offer vegetarian and low-carb options too.)

The only thing to be careful of is to read the ingredient list for the sandwich you choose - not all the subs come with cheese. But, when you order they may ask you if you want cheese, without mentioning there's an extra charge for cheese if it's not listed for that sandwich. Common sense perhaps, but just something to be aware of.

I will definitely be visiting Jimmy John's again.

Luck O' The Irish 5K

2008-03-20T22:19:00.002-05:00

I ran my first 5k race on March 16th, 2008. The course was scenic, but also hilly so I had to slow down and walk several times. Even though I had to walk several times, thanks to my training I never walked more than a couple of minutes at a time, and each time I had it in me to start up and run some more after walking. Overall I think I ran more than half of the race even if not consecutively.

I was hoping to finish the race in under 40 minutes. But I ended up finishing in 40:56, with an average pace of 13:12. It was a little cold outside (mid-30's Fahrenheit) so I had more trouble catching my breath than usual, and as I mentioned it was also hilly - so despite all that I think it's good that I came as close as I did to my goal.

I came in 175/211 overall
I came in 81/108 in the female group
I came in 14/16 in my age group

And now I have a more specific time to beat next time I run a race!

Credit Card activation

2008-03-09T16:08:00.003-05:00

One of my credit cards expired last January. When I received the new one in the mail, as usual it has the sticker on there to call the toll-free number to activate the card. And usually when you call the 800 number, they make you talk to someone who is going to try to sell you extra things for your credit card account before it is activated. I have encountered some pushy people in that situation before, so was dreading the call.

I called, jumped through the hoops on the phone keypad that I needed to do, and then I heard the dreaded "please hold for the next available service representative before your card can be activated." So I hung up. I don't have time to talk to them.

It's been almost 2 months now, and I had not called back to activate my card. I even contemplated signing up for a brand new Visa card just to not have to call, since I get a ton of offers in the mail like everyone else, just not to have to call the number again. But I decided to call the 800 number again today to see what happened.

To my surprise, I entered what I needed to on the phone keypad for validation, the electronic voice said my card was activated, gave me a few more phone options if I wanted to change my PIN or what not, but that was it. It never even asked me to talk to anyone. And I wonder why? In other words, how can I make it so that I am not prompted to talk to a person when I just want to activate my card in the future? What was it that got me around this?

A) was it that I called on a Sunday instead of a weekday like I did before?

B) was it that I had called before and hung up? Maybe the card really had been activated the first time even though I hung up before talking to anyone.

C) was it that Ohio had really bad snow storms this weekend and the call center happens to be in Ohio and they told people not to come in to work this weekend?

D) a bug (I mean "feature") in the computer system?

E) other?

Running Update

2008-03-03T23:24:00.005-05:00

It's a couple of months into 2008 and I figured I'd give a quick update on my new year's resolution to run a 5k this year.

January
Starting out 2008 barely able to run a full mile, by the end of January I had worked my way up to nearly 1.25 miles. And then I got Bronchitis at the end of January and didn't run again for over a week.

February
The good news is, I bounced back pretty quickly from Bronchitis. When I started running again a week into February, I was still able to run 1.25 miles. So I didn't lose any distance at least, only time. And I was able to work up to 1.5 miles.

And then a couple of weeks later, I got sick again. Flu this time. And that knocked me OUT. This time it was almost 2 weeks before I ran again. I was able to go 1.5 miles when I returned, but I had to do so in intervals. I wasn't able to go more than the first 0.5 miles without having to stop to walk a bit. So the remaining mile I split up into quarter miles where I would sprint for 0.2 miles, walking 0.05 mile, etc until I reached 1.5 miles total. I did at least push myself sprinting at an 11 min/mile pace instead of my normal 12:15 min/mile pace.

A couple days later, now almost the end of February, I was hopeful to be able to get back to running 1.5 miles straight through again. But I was discouraged that I still could not run more than 0.75 miles without having to stop and walk a bit. I was able to finish out the rest of the 1.5 miles after walking only 0.1 or 0.2 miles, but I was still disappointed that I could not run it straight through.

I think the flu really knocked out any endurance I had built up.

March
So, after battling some discouragement over lost endurance, I went online to gather some other training ideas. The "increase your distance little by little" strategy, with some interval training thrown in on more than one occasion, just wasn't doing it after all. That is when I came across an article that I wish I would have come across sooner. The section of greatest interest to me said this:

"...try running for two minutes and walking for four minutes five times consecutively for a total of 30 minutes.
Do this routine three times per week until you feel comfortable. Each week as you are ready add one minute to the running time and subtract one minute from the walking time. Increase each week until you are running comfortably for the full 30 minutes...."
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=147

Something like that I can probably do, particularly in my state of low endurance where I keep wanting to stop and walk. This includes stopping to walk as part of the plan!

Since I had already been running for a couple of months, I decided to skip past the "2 min run/4 min walk" stage, and skip the "3 min run/3 min walk" stage, and start with the "4 min run/2 min walk."

I am happy to say that I was able to complete that cycle through to the end of the 30 minutes, and that got me to a distance 2.3 miles. After that, I decided I wanted to see what 3.1 miles feels like in some capacity, so I finished another 0.8 miles by running 2 minutes, walking 1 minute, etc. until I reached 3.1 miles. I am sure I will need to rest tomorrow after that, maybe some Yoga. My goal next time I run is to try a 4.5 min run/1.5 min walk cycle.

I'm pretty encouraged by this plan because I think it will train me in a couple of things not accomplished with what I was doing before:

It trains my body to feel what it's like to be moving (whether walking or running) for more than 30 minutes in a row, rather than the runs I was doing before in order to try to slowly increase distance that ended up only lasting 15 minutes or so.
It trains my body to recover quickly if (and when) I have to stop to walk, as I will probably have to do more than once when I run my first 5k.
It seems like a more effective way to increase endurance.

Well, the first 5k of 2008 that my friends are signed up for is on March 16th. I still have time to sign up, and I am still seriously considering it. After getting sick I was leaning away from signing up for this one, and leaning toward just waiting till the next one. But thanks to the encouragement of several of my friends, and my brother from Chicago who said he would sign up and come down for the weekend to join us if I signed up, and tonight's run going decently well, I am now leaning toward probably signing up. Thanks everyone! And wish me luck, it could still be a rough couple weeks of training :)

CodeMash 2008 wrap-up

2008-01-13T18:27:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended CodeMash 2008 this past week. I got back on Friday. Funny how a conference can be so physically draining from lack of sleep, mentally draining from so much information, yet so invigorating, too. I've gotten lots of sleep, yet somehow I'm still tired! But it was a an awesome event! Thanks to all the people who put in so much hard work to make it happen!

I seem to always come away from these conferences on a bit of a high from meeting new friends, from the thought-provoking conversations I've had, and with lots of thoughts an ideas bouncing around in my head of things I'd like to do.

I got to meet Dianne Marsh, one of the speakers. I was told by Josh Holmes several months ago that if I go to CodeMash, I need to meet Dianne because I reminded him a lot of her. During the conference, we had an good time together as I was trying to gather ideas about getting more women involved in the Columbus Ruby Brigade. We had some similar points of view in general,. And we had some interesting conversation, that others in the room joined in, too. Good times.

I also met a guy that I went to high school with, Dustin Campbell. I knew the name but vaguely remembered him, and he didn't remember me. (not surprising, since I spent a lot of time in high school trying to blend in with the wall, and not be noticed for any reason. I must have gotten pretty good at it.) But I checked w/ him, and we did indeed go to high school together.

I met a lot of people who also use twitter, a service that I describe as some hybrid of a Blog and Instant Messenger. You send short messages (tweets) to twitter about what you're doing, and anyone who is following you on twitter will see your tweet. I'm only coming up on my 2-month twitterversary, so it's still pretty new to me. But, I learned some new, fun twiterology (terminology relating to twitter?) at CodeMash:

twistory [Brian Prince] - twitter history (say it out loud, it sounds a bit cooler than it looks written) Example: "I have quite a twistory of being cold due to weather."

meta-tweet [I forget who said this one?] - tweets (messages) about previous tweets (twistory). Example: "This one time, I twittered about band camp."

tweeps [Josh Holmes] - The people (or "peeps") who follow you on Twitter. Example: "I really enjoyed getting to know my tweeps" or "I have lots of new tweeps ever since CodeMash"

And lastly, I've been inspired to try and get away from my old habit of blending in and not being noticed, and try my hand at starting a separate blog with a more technical focus on computer languages, writing code and IT in general (or something like that). I definitely plan to summarize my aforementioned conversation with Dianne et. al. on my new blog. I will probably summarize other good conversations I had at CodeMash to start off other blog topics, too. After that, we'll see what happens and what I can come up with. I'll update this blog post with the location of the new blog as soon as I can figure out a name for it.

/*UPDATE*/ Here's my new blog: http://gayleforce.wordpress.com/

I took a few pictures at CodeMash, although it seems that most of the photos were of the water park and not so much the conference itself. But still, here they are.

New Years Resolutions

2008-01-04T00:41:00.000-05:00

Resolutions 2007:

Lose 25 lbs. - Check. Ok, I'm rounding up. 23 is pretty dark close to 25, and I'm fitting into old jeans 2 sizes smaller than I was wearing, so I'm gonna call this one a success. :) I worked my butt off for this (literally ;) so... yay me!

Resolutions 2008:

Run a 5k race. I don't run, so I've got a long way to go. I walked a 5k in Fall 2007. Can't say I felt all that good about walking it, really. So if I do it again, I'm going to have to be running. I tried running on the treadmill a few weeks after the 5k last fall and barely made it 1/2 mile. But last Thursday, Jan 3rd, I ran 1 mile on the treadmill (after not having run at all since the one other time!) It wasn't pretty, 1 mile in 13:33, but at least it's a start. Then I ran another mile again on Friday. So I guess I'm off to a decent start.

Get involved in Habitat for Humanity in the greater Columbus area. I've worked with Habitat in college, and participated in various week-long trips across the US and Mexico before. And I've been talking about doing something locally for awhile. I think it's time to do more than just have good intentions.

NHL Winter Classic 2008

2008-01-03T23:51:00.000-05:00

NHL Winter Classic 2008. I was there! And it was awesome!
(Update: My pictures are now available here)

January 1, 2008. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Buffalo Sabres. Hockey, played outdoors in the Buffalo Bills football stadium.

Even though the Sabres lost, and it was SO cold and snowy outside, it was totally worth it. For the first part of the game, when it was cold enough that the snow would brush off of you, I did not feel as cold as expected. It must have warmed up just enough to get the kind of snow that melts as soon as it hits your clothing. That's when everything get wet and that's when you start feeling really cold. I don't think I was ever shivering, though. Too much excitement, I suppose.

They showed a few crazies on the jumbo-tron that had their shirts off for the game. I was just fine in my 2 layers of pants, 3 layers of underwear, 2 layers of socks (including those really warm socks made for hunting/hiking), 3 layers of shirts, leather fuzzy coat, fleece hat and scarf, and 2 layers of gloves. But still, the metal bleachers felt cold even after putting down an extra scarf and an extra pair of pants onto the bench before sitting. I also made great use of the souvenir t-shirts we bought by using them as a butt cushion!

It is amazing how small a hockey rink looks when it's sitting in the middle of a football field. It was weird not seeing any people seated right next to the glass at all. It was also weird seeing it snow during a hockey game, and the Zamboni going on the rink more often than just in between periods. Then, when the Zamboni was done on the rink it would shuttle off to the side of the football field and deposit a pile of snow like a little dump truck.

Watching the news the night before, when they talked about setting everything up for the game, they mentioned trucking in snow to fill in from the edge of the rink to the edge of the football field itself. Never would have thought you'd hear anyone in Buffalo talking about trucking snow IN anywhere! :)

It was definitely a unique experience and I'm so glad I got to go! Much thanks to Jeff's cousin Josh who got us a block of tickets even though the game sold out so quickly after they went on sale (I've heard different stories about the game selling out anywhere between 15 - 60 minutes after tix went on sale. Regardless, it sold out very quickly!)

And it was a great game: tied at the end of regulation, tied at the end of overtime, and decided by the 6th shooter in the shootout. What a game! I took lots of pictures (coming soon). It's a New Year's Day I'll never forget!

CodeMash 2008

2007-11-20T00:56:00.001-05:00


CodeMash

I have to admit I'm "geeked out" about being registered for the CodeMash conference in Sandusky Ohio this January! I didn't get to go last year. But everyone I know who went last year said it was great, so I expect nothing less this year. Good opportunity to network with other techy folks, learn and absorb as much information as I can, and hopefully squeeze in a little fun time too.

I got a chance to help test the conference registration web site a few months ago, and that was fun. Not in an I-have-the-patience-to-do-this-every-day kind of way (I truly respect our QA testers at work!) but in a cool-to-be-given-the-opportunity and-then-thanked-for-the-great-work-and-detailed-report kind of way. I may be detailed, and organized, but if I've learned nothing else: being good at something and liking to do something on a daily basis are totally different things. ;) So, for now I strive to become a better developer b/c that's where my passion lies at this point in my career. As with everything in life, that's subject to change as time goes by :)

Anyone reading this who would be interested in going, registration is still open

CodeMash Software Developer Conference
LOCATION: Kalahari Resort and Indoor Waterpark, Sandusky, OH
DATES: January 9-11, 2008
COST: $175 by Jan 5, $250 after Jan 5
DESCRIPTION:
"The CodeMash software developer conference was designed to bring together developers of different technologies, languages, and platforms to learn from one another.
...
Python, Java, .NET, Ruby and PHP are all represented. And, we're adding an Open Spaces component this year, which will allow the participants to formalize those hallway discussions that are usually the most productive part of going to a conference."

The Best Seat in the House

2007-10-13T20:34:00.001-05:00

Last week my friend George asked if I wanted to go to a Columbus Bluejackets hockey game on Wednesday. He was just planning to head there after work and maybe get tix from a scalper or something. No biggie if I wanted to join, cool. I figured it would be fun and I didn't have anything else going on, so why not?

We met up early enough to grab food before the game. And as we were walking by the arena, we passed a couple who were clearly selling tickets. George asked if they had 2? Yes, they did. Are they good seats? Yes... first row, right behind the net, on the attack-twice side. Wow. I hesitated because I wasn't really prepared to pay the amount the guy was asking for the tickets. Given the face value of the tickets, the price was more than fair - I just wasn't prepared. But given that the seats were so good, we decided to take them. And I'm so glad we did!

I had not been able to really picture what our view would be like from the seats, and definitely underestimated just how good they were... until we sat down. Wow! Evidently there used to be a goal-judge box there. Then they removed the goal-judge in lieu of modern technology (cameras and such) and put 4 seats there instead. These had to be the best seats in the house!

Too bad I didn't come prepared with my good camera. But I took several pictures with my camera phone that came out alright. These pictures illustrate our view much better than I could ever describe, so check 'em out!

Faceoff!

Action Shot

Woah, close up!

Rick Nash

Nice save!

Pascal Leclaire

And to top that off, it was a great game! The Bluejackets won over the Phoenix Coyotes 3-0. Woohoo!

"New Fish Day"

2007-09-23T11:55:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was new fish day for me! :) Two new sets of fish were added to my aquarium.

For awhile now, my friend Paul and I have been talking about doing a "guppy swap". We both have fancy guppies. Guppies tend to have a lot of babies. But eventually they tend to get a little in-bred in the same fish tank. So we decided to swap guppies with each other, to get some new genes in each of our aquariums' gene pools.

Then last weekend, my friend Rick mentioned that he & Heather have some silver dollar fish that they wanted to get rid of, so he asked if I wanted them. But, of course! :) [I think that if it were typical to find stray fish, like other people find stray dogs or cats, I'd take them all in. Of course those stray fish would have to be hanging out in puddles or something.] I had to do a little research first to make sure that the new fish would get along with the guppies, platys and rasboras that I already have. From what I read, silver dollar fish are fairly peaceful and they're herbavores, so they should all be fine.

Rick asked me last Friday if I wanted to get their fish on Saturday, so Paul asked if we should do the guppy swap that day, too. And we did. We all met at Paul's. Fully equipped with my little styrofoam cooler to minimize temperature fluctuations for the fish, and water spillage in the car, I brought my guppies and received new guppies and silver dollars.

The guppies acclimated very well. They couldn't seem to wait to get out of the bag and play with the other guppies in the tank! They have a slightly different color than the guppies I already have, so that makes a very cool addition to the tank!

The silver dollars are very pretty and much larger than any fish I've had before. It's cool to try out a new kind of fish in the tank. However, they seem to be a lot more skittish! I was going to help them get acclimated by introducing water from my fish tank gradually into their little bowl before putting them in my fish tank. But as soon as I removed the lid from their bowl, they started flipping around like crazy!! I'm surprised none of them actually got out of the bowl. I quickly replaced the lid, and they immediately stopped their flailing. I thought maybe I could move them from the bowl to a large bag instead, so I could float the bag in my tank for awhile. But I wasn't able to do that by myself either, mostly because of their crazy flipping around every time I removed the lid. By this point these fish had sprayed water all over my shirt. :)

Not knowing what else to do, I decided to turn the bowl sideways so I could at least fit it partway down into the tank, remove the lid, and just dump them in without any water or temperature acclimation at all. I hated to shock them like that, but they just weren't making it easy for me! ;) All 3 fish immediately swam to the bottom of the tank. One laid down almost completely on his side. That didn't look too good, so I was kinda worried about him. Another one was leaning up against a rock. The other was hanging out in a plant near the filter. He kind of kept getting sucked back toward the filter, then swam away from it, and repeated that process a few times.

Within 10-15 minutes the one laying on his side got up, and all 3 of them swam around a little. But mostly they just hid out behind the plants in the darkest corner of the tank. At least they were all sitting upright and a little less jumpy.

Today they're still mostly hanging out at the bottom, and I have yet to see them eat anything. I even made a point of pushing the food down in the water so it would sink down right in front of their faces! They still didn't eat. I guess whenever they really get hungry they'll eat. Or maybe they just don't want me to watch.

There's too many guppies and that makes it hard to name them all and keep them straight. But I think I should come up with good names for the 3 silver dollar fish. Maybe then they'd feel like a more welcome addition, hehe. Maybe Huey, Dewey and Louie? Larry, Curly and Moe? Anyone have any other ideas?

For every action...

2007-09-18T20:38:00.002-05:00

...there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Newton's 3rd law)

I gave blood yesterday for the first time, at Nationwide Arena, where the Columbus BlueJackets play hockey. My friend George went with me to give blood too, and for moral support. The whole thing went pretty well. My iron count was fine, I passed the barrage of questions, so I was allowed to give.

The nurses were really nice, and made my first blood-giving experience a good one. I didn't want to look when they put the needle in or took it out, so the nurse warned me when to look away. Where I was sitting, I was able to look outside where it was sunny and warm, and that worked out well.

Once I was all hooked up, it took just a little over 6 minutes to fill the bag, which evidently is pretty good. It's too bad that 6 minute process took more than 1.5 hours from start to finish, including paperwork, questions, prep and wait time. But they were pretty busy, and all things considered I think the got people through relatively quickly.

After giving blood, you get water and snacks. The donor snack area was set up in an area where people had a view of the ice rink in the arena. The BlueJackets were practicing, so George and I stayed around and watched them practice for a little bit while we enjoyed our snacks. That was pretty cool. After 15 minutes or so, that rounded out a total of 2 full hours for the whole thing. It was a long "lunch hour," but then we had to go back to work.

My arm doesn't even hurt today - I am so impressed. Even when I go to the doctor's office and they take a very small amount of blood, and the needle isn't in my arm as long, my arm usually hurts for a day or two. I often bruise around the area where they put in the needle, and my whole arm hurts a little bit all the way down to my fingers. I do not feel any of that today! The only thing that does hurt is where they had to prick my finger first to test for iron count.

So now for something really ironic, maybe even karmic part about the whole thing. It is the reason I mentioned Newton's law. My mom had to take my dad to the hospital around 2 or 3 am yesterday morning (which is important, but no need to get into too many details on that to make my point here.) In short, he got up in the night to use the bathroom and passed out. After some tests, they found that he has multiple ulcers and a torn esphagus, which caused bleeding, which is why he passed out. His blood count was low, so last night at the hospital they gave him some blood to replace the blood he had lost. And today, my mom said he did look much better and he said he felt much better, and he should get to go home in a couple of days.

The first time I ever gave blood, was the very same day my dad received blood.

I know my dad was about 300 miles away and it's not like he got my blood, specifically. (I don't even know my blood type - yet.) But I can't help but feel a sense of balance from it all.

Summer.. summer... summertime

2007-09-12T21:41:00.000-05:00

I just love summer. I love the sun, the warm temperatures, and hanging out at the pool. I love sitting out on the patio at a restaurant. I love not needing a jacket, and being able to wear shorts and tshirts at night and not be cold.

I haven't been out of town for little weekend or 3-day trips nearly as much as usual. I do kind of miss taking little trips. Although I'm not sure what I'd want to do or where I'd want to go right now. I should give that more thought.

I stayed in town for the July 4th independence day holiday. Much thanks to Becca for having everyone over - it was a good time! I think I got some pretty good pictures, too.

However - like it or not- fall is coming. And although I'm bummed about the prospect of the colder temperatures and shorter days to come, I guess fall has a few it's own positive things. The NHL hockey season starts up! The first Blue Jackets preseasons game is Sunday the 16th. And new TV shows will be starting soon, too.

Even though I haven't been up to my usual, there's been some new things going on that I haven't done before. New things keep life from getting boring.

5k race - I participated in a 5k last weekend. Several of my friends ran. I walked. :) Yet, part of me has a hard time feeling like that was much of an accomplishment because any able-bodied person of my age can walk. Who cares? But I guess it's better than spending the day on the couch, so I should be happy that I got out there and did it. Thanks to Sheila and Amy for walking with me! And I'm so impressed with my friends who came out to run - good for all of you!

Giving Blood - I'm signed up to give blood for the first time - ever - next week. I'm a little nervous about it and I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I don't even know my blood type. I don't freak out around needles (although I don't like them either - but who does?) But I definitely can't stand the idea of watching blood coming out of my arm. I even have to turn my head away at the doctor's office when they draw only a small amount of blood. Hopefully I can manage to look away for longer than a few minutes, however long giving blood takes. But it's part of a promotion to get free preseason BlueJacket tickets, and my friend George is going with me to give blood too. That's a good idea on their part for a promotion, since hockey tickets are enough to make me put aside my dislike of needles and blood and give anyway. George says that most times when he's had a "blood buddy" who's a woman, she always get rejected for having low iron. So I'm trying to beef up my iron this week by taking supplements. Hopefully it helps, because if I'm gonna do this - I'm AM getting those tickets! :) Wish me luck!

Past 5-month update!

2007-08-01T23:32:00.001-05:00

Update: Links to photos from Chicago.

My how time flies. I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I've posted anything. Does that mean 5 months have gone by without anything postworthy going on? Hmm. Maybe. Although upon proofreading this entry, I must have needed to blog or vent for awhile, b/c this got longer than I imagined it would for as little as I feel I've been up to.

The summer is definitely flying by. And I haven't even done as much travelling as I usually do, especially in the summertime.

I started a new project at work a couple of months ago that I'm really enjoying. I had to play catch-up quite a bit at the beginning to try to remember how to use some technologies I hadn't used in awhile. Amazing how quickly you can become rusty on stuff in the technical world. I guess that enough of it must have come back to me that I'm getting by. I enjoy helping others on the team learn about the few things that I am pretty familiar with on the project. I don't enjoy helping others learn things they think I'm more familar with than I really am :) I guess I'm not as good at winging it as if I know stuff when I don't. Other people seem so good at that. So, I guess some days I feel very busy and overwhelmed, and most days I feel pretty good about my work, so overall it's a good thing. Most importantly I'm challenged and not bored, and that motivates me more than anything. I got the high compliment of being told I am smart and that I had a really good idea that solved a problem we were having today. (Maybe you're right, Dean, maybe I can admit that I do have good ideas once in awhile :) I guess I came down off that high after I broke the build. Ah, karma always has a way of putting you back in your place, doesn't it.

Other than work.... there's been at least 4 weddings to attend this summer alone, 2 cousins' weddings, and 2 friends' weddings. We made it to 3 of them, 2 in Indiana and one in Ohio. Unfortunately we couldn't be in 2 places at once and missed the friend's wedding in Vegas since my cousin's wedding was the same day. I tried to get Jeff to go represent us at the Vegas one while I represented at my cousin's wedding. I guess he didn't believe me that I was really ok with that or something b/c he didn't go to Vegas w/ our friends, but went to my cousin's wedding with me. That or maybe he just wanted to save the money he would have spent travelling. Either way! ;)

My friend Sheila and I drove up to Chicago a few weeks ago to visit my older brother Kyle. I met Sheila through Kyle b/c they were friends in college. It was a fun little road trip. I got to go see one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard, with Sheila, Kyle, and some of Kyle's friends. I could have seen them here in Columbus instead, but a road trip was more fun. Besides, I'm not sure I could have convinced anyone else around here besides Sheila to go. We had lawn seats so it was a gamble, but the weather was perfect all weekend. We got to go rollerblading, and eat breakfast at a really cool waffle restaurant, and eat lunch at a yummy Thai place, and just hang out and relax. (Except for when my finger got pinched in the door of Kyle's apartment building and it hurt and I got really mad and Kyle had to go back to his apt and get me a bandaid because I was bleeding from under my fingernail). And Sheila and I had some great conversation on the drive there and back.

I've gone to 2 technical conferences in the past several months too. Got to attend No Fluff Just Stuff in Columbus in June, which is always a great event. It's the 3rd year I've gotten to go. I think I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the new information the first year I went. I must be learning how to learn stuff without getting so drained because I felt pretty good after the conference this year. Other than a little people-overload ... nothing that a couple hours alone by the pool with a non-technical book didn't solve :) I am an introvert at heart, after all. Then in July I got to attend ERubyCon in Columbus, also a great event. This was the first year for that conference. I hope it's the first annual. I really enjoyed the charity training class held the day before the conference, too. It was very fast-paced but I learned a lot about Ruby and Rails. The conference itself was small this year, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. It provides a more intimate setting anyway. Lots more chances to talk to everyone; there's at least 1-2 fellow attendees that I feel like I got a chance to get to know a lot better and that was really cool. And smaller means less chance of there being 3 sessions you want to attend all at the same time. I had some great conversation with some of the speakers, too. Most notable to me was talking about why I have no desire to speak at conferences. Did I mention I'm an introvert, after all? But of all the reasons anyone had about why I should speak, what I think I'll take away from it is finally someone saying "if you don't want to, then don't." Good point. You know, if I don't want to do it and I don't have a passion for it, then I'm not going to give 100% and it probably won't be very good... for anyone. I definitely will be at ERubyCon if it happens next year, and I hope it will grow too, so I'll do my best to spread the word.

I didn't get much of a chance to unwind after ERubyCon at all. I had to leave a little early from the conference for the Family Camp (church camp for families to go together) that my parents helped get started when I was little, and that I've attended every year since - 25 years now, yikes. I was in charge of leading the young adult sessions this year. How nerve wracking (remember that introvert thing?) To me that's not too unlike public speaking at a technical conference. But at least a group of 15-18 people, most of which I've known for many years, made it a little easier. Thanks to some encouraging words from a few of the folks, and the help of my brother the last day, I made it through. But I don't think I'll be doing that again unless my brother is willing and able to help me ALL 3 days. I'm definitely more of a behind-the-scenes planner and coordinator and preparer type.

Ok, people, all 2 or 3 of you who read my blog :) I will try to do better at blogging so it's not 5 more months before my next post! I did notice I had a couple of drafts saved on my account. I'll have to revisit those some other time, and see if they're really worth posting at this point. Here's to doing stuff that's blogworthy, and not being too tired to blog about it later!

Birthday Types

2007-03-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

Go me... go me... it's my birthday... :)

Yes today is my birthday. The 3rd anniversary of my 29th birthday. I have a theory when it comes to people's attitudes toward birthdays. I haven't conducted extensive psychological research on the subject, but from from my limited and unscientific research I have concluded that there are 3 different Birthday personality types.

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1) "I like presents"
People like to feel liked/loved, especially on special occasions. According to this book http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/learn.html people understand and interpret love in different ways. This book talks specifically about relationships, but I think these concepts apply to friendships too. [I think this type corresponds well with the "Receiving Gifts" section of the website above.] To summarize, the "I like presents" attitude isn't a bad thing, it doesn't mean they're greedy. I think it just means that those types "respond well to visual symbols of love" or friendship. They see gifts, big or small, as an expression of love (or friendship, like, caring, etc.), and on the flip side the lack of gifts can feel like a lack of that love (or friendship, like, caring, etc.) to that person.

2) "I just want to forget that it's my birthday"
This is the person who doesn't want any extra attention just because it's their birthday. It doesn't feel much like a special occasion to these types of people, it is just another day that just so happens to correspond with the date of their birth. Sometimes people might adopt this type if they feel "old." Sometimes people simply don't care for the hoopla.

3) "Pay attention to me, it's my birthday!"
This is the person who just wants to have fun and have lots of friends around to help celebrate their birthday. They like to have one day where they feel special, and like the extra attention that goes along with it. Even people who are not normally "attention hogs" sometimes love to be the center of attention on this one day.

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I fall in the 3rd category. I normally hate having attention drawn to me, except for this one day of the year. On this day I'm ok with being the center of attention, and I get to be special. I guess part of it is that by having lots of friends surrounding me on my birthday, I feel liked. On the other hand, not having people around on that one day sucks way more than usual. The more special the birthday, the more lonely it is when nobody is around. I can still recall my 16th birthday when I invited 10-15 friends over, and 2 came. Or my 18th birthday when I invited several friends and only 1 person came (and that was my boyfriend at the time, so kind of a no-brainer.) Of course my family was there, which was great, but it was easy for them because we lived in the same house :)

Once I left for college (and even since college) I usually celebrate with my family on a day that's not exactly my birthday, but close. No disappointing times there, my mom usually makes me a cake, yumm :) But I still remember my 21st birthday when nobody was available because everyone "had to study." Granted it was a Wednesday night, but it was college, people skip studying and class all the time right? Kinda. Well, instead I went around campus to visit friends one by one and hang out with each of them a little bit at a time, making them take a short break from their studies to hang out with me. One of these friends was learning to program in the programming language C. And while I had only taken classes in the Pascal language up to that point, I knew the basic concepts of what his assignment was about, and the language was similar enough that I could read his textbook and figure out the syntax enough to help him out. So, yes, I basically got my first self-lesson in C programming on my 21st birthday.

After that, I think I stopped caring for a few years and became a #2 birthday type for awhile. I figured, if you have no hopes or expectations, you can't be as disappointed. It worked. But, since moving to Columbus I think I've had some pretty good birthday parties with lots of caring friends around to help make it happy, so I've gone back to being a #3. And I think my 30th was the best. I recall a smaller low-key group of people at my house, playing games, listening to music, and it seemed like everyone was mixing well and everyone was having a good time. For me, that's a good birthday. 31 came close to that good. Hopefully this year will as well :)

So, what's your birthday type?

Melting Snow

2007-02-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

After all the snow and ice we got a couple weeks ago, it's gotten warm enough that much of it is melting. It's easy to get depressed in the winter with the gray skies and the sun setting as early as it does. But it's nice to see the sun is out today! I've missed the sun. I could do without all that gray slush/sludge/snow buildup that happens on the sides of the streets, but what are ya gonna do? I'm just glad it's been a bit warmer and I'm so glad to see the sun again.

Now, I need some thoughts and opinions from people. I consistently have this one spot in my yard where the snow always melts first. In the Summer, grass dies in this same spot. But I can't figure out what might be causing it. So I took a picture and figured I'd throw it out there and see if anyone else has some thoughts. You'll see the big melted spot in the lower-left, while the rest of the yard still has a layer of snow.

I have considered gas line leak - that might explain the dying grass, but I don't think that accounts for melting snow. Besides I don't think the gas line runs exactly under that spot anyway. This picture was taken from the sidewalk, my back to the street, camera facing perpendicular to the street. I hope it's not too dark to see, but the red circle shows where the gas line enters the house.

I presume that the gas line would not run at a diagonal, but rather be a straight shot toward the street to allow for the shortest amount of gas line that would have to be laid. If that's so, then the center of the snow-melty-dead-grass spot is a couple of feet to the left of the gas line.

Heat would explain both melting snow and dead grass, but I can't think of anything that would be there that would generate heat. And I don't see such spots in any of my neighbors' yards.

So, anyone ever seen anything like this? Have any thoughts? Ideas? Speculations? Let me know!

-----
Update June 2007

So now that it's warm again, here's a photo of the dying grass in the same spot as the melty snow that I talked about last winter. Weird huh?

Go Bluejackets!

2007-01-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

The Columbus Bluejackets had an amazing comeback against the Anaheim Ducks (the #1 team in the NHL) last night!

With a little over 10 minutes left in the game, Columbus was down 0-3; and I have to wonder how many people might have left, or at least turned off the TV at home by that point. Then Columbus scored with about 10 minutes left, at least eliminating a shutout and making it a 1-3 game.

3 and a half minutes left, and the score is still 1-3. But shortly after that, Columbus scored 3 unanswered goals in about 2 minutes, making it a 4-3 score! It was a nervous last minute and a half of the game, but Columbus managed to hold them off, securing a 4-3 Win!

Go Jackets!

Things that are quirky

2007-01-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Happy new year, everyone. I thought I'd start off 2007 with a silly and lighthearted entry to make you all laugh.

This story is true.

I was emailing back and forth with a co-worker in a different building. This software tool that we're using for our project is one of the worst I've ever seen. Sometimes it works the way you expect. Sometimes it doesn't. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes it may take hours, maybe days for what you've done to actually show up. And one guy said that it took several months, yes months, for something he did to finally show up. And every so often it just gets stuck. And there's only one guy who has access to un-stuck the stupid thing. So when you're new to it, like I am right now, how on earth do you even know you did it right?

So to keep a little bit of my sanity, I needed to do something silly. So when the guy emailed and said "... [this thing is] quirkier than _____________ (you fill in the blank)" I decided to fill in the blank when I replied and had about 5 more questions. I googled for "Things that are quirky" to see what funny things I could find. The first thing I got was to a page that said "Quirky things we find interesting", with (among other things) a link to "Turtle become surrogate mother for hippo" (this story is cute, funny and a little sad all at the same time).

So I replied to his email, saying
"Quirkier than a turtle becoming a surrogate mother for a hippo. Does that work?" and included the link.

And he emails back and says "HAHA! I've had a picture of that hippo+turtle posted on my desk for a year now!"

How funny is that? Good way to end the day, with a good laugh.

Dogsitting

2006-12-20T00:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I've officially come a very long way. People really can change.

See, I used to be very afraid of dogs. Unreasonably so, I suppose. No, I don't remember being bitten by a dog as a kid or anything like that (I get asked that a lot). I used to play with my aunt and uncle's dogs as a kid, but other than that I mostly remember being annoyed by most dogs, especially ones who would jump up on you and lick you when you came over to their house. I know, I know, they're just being friendly. But I don't like being startled and I guess this was a form of being startled.

Best I can figure is that dislike was coupled with a time when I was a freshman in college and I was in a car accident. My passenger and I were ok, but my car was undriveable. So we went over to someone's place who lived nearby so that I could use the phone, (I'm not *that* old but this was still before I had a cell phone.) When I went inside, this big dog jumped up on me such that its paws landed on my shoulders and it licked my face. I was already so shaken up from the accident, from my car being undriveable and needing to find a ride back to my college an hour away somehow, and knowing my dad wouldn't be very happy with the situation. So, mix that horrible feeling with a giant dog jumping up on me and licking me. I guess that's how you get a fear of dogs who jump and lick.

Ok, so that was 1993. Fastforward 11 years to 2004. My brother was working at a church camp in Missouri and took in a cute little puppy who wandered by.

Dan has always wanted to have a dog. So how could he resist? He named him Levi. Gave him lots of discipline and lots of love. Levi's grown into a very good dog.

I met Levi in Fall of 2004, and I did OK with him. At that point, he was still very much an outdoor dog, though, so he slept on the porch at my brother's house. Then in December of 2005 my brother moved back to Ohio. He and Levi stayed at my house for a couple of months. Levi loved my fenced in back yard and sure thought he was king out there.

(Here's Levi watching over the yard, and taking a nap in the shade.)

I think Levi was a little sad when they moved out.

(Levi in the empty spare room, after my brother's furniture was moved out but before my normal spare bedroom furniture was moved back in.)

Now, it's December 2006. And I am dogsitting this week, for the whole week, just me and the pooch. I have my normal spare room furniture back in my spare room, yet he still likes to sleep in that room. He know's that's "his room" still :) We're getting along very well. He's lying down, napping under my Christmas tree and it's so cute. Yes, I said the dog is so cute.

I've come a long way.

Kitchen Remodeling 2006

2006-11-15T17:38:00.000-05:00

My big project this year has been remodeling my kitchen. I started getting estimates back in I think February/March of 2006. Next I decided on a company, decided on specifics (like flooring, countertops, cabinets, knobs), and the work started in May. That job took them just a little over 2 weeks.

Next came painting the walls, which I got around to doing in July.

Last was electrical work that just happened last weekend (Nov 11). This could have been done by the initial contractors. But my brother works for an electrician, he wanted to learn some things, I wanted to save some money, so we opted to have my brother's boss help us out and do that ourselves. Although I still kicked some money his way for his time, expertise, and gas money driving an hour to get here.

So now that everything is DONE, I figured it's a good time to post some Before and After photos:

Here are lots more pictures for anyone interested.

Sears Home Improvement - thumbs down

2006-11-07T15:21:00.000-05:00

(*** Scroll to bottom of post for updates ***)

I will never have any home improvement work done through Sears ever again now that I know how it works, and especially after the runaround I've gotten today. Here's my story.

Last June of 2005, my Air Conditioner went out on one of the hottest days. I was going to want to have it replaced fairly quickly, and had no idea who to call. But I saw a thing for 12-months same as cash through Sears. I thought: Sears - trusted name - they have good tools at least - that works for me. So I called them, and they sent a sales guy out to my house. And I bought a new A/C unit.

They said I needed to have a GFCI outlet outside within a certain number of feet of where the workers would be installing the unit. I had an outlet out there, but not a GFCI outlet. So the guy said they'd have to install that before they could do the work. Or I could do it myself. He tacked on $134 for them to replace it, but said if I wanted to go to Lowe's or whatever and buy an outdoor GFCI outlet and replace it myself that was fine as long as it was done before the workers arrived. He added a note on my Estimate sheet under "Special Instructions" that said very clearly "Customer may have new GFCI Recepticle installed at time of installation. If so, credit of $134 will be made."

What I didn't realize, was that Sears farms out their jobs to other local companies. So while I assumed Sears would be doing the installation, really it was American Made Heating and Cooling. That's fine. They did ok work. But if I had known that Sears was going to do that, instead of coming out themselves, I could have just called American Made or someone like that directly. (Probably saved some money too, eliminating the middle man and all I'd guess).

So on July 1, 2005 they came out to do the installation. And all the guys have CORDLESS TOOLS. So the GFCI outlet was completely useless, and completely unnecessary. Well at least I didn't have to pay $134 for that crap.

I started receving monthly statements from Sears with my balance, and showing a minimum due of $0 since I got 12-months same as cash. But month after month, that $134 never disappeared from the balance. Finally around April 2006 I figured they weren't going to remove the amount, so I better get on it since the full amount would come due in July 2006. The fine print on the bill says that in case of errors or questions about your bill, to write them at the address on the front of the bill, and "You can telephone us, but doing so will not preserve your rights." So I wrote a letter, sent it April 3rd. Got it back from the post office with the little yellow label saying that the forwarding time had expired, but at least had the new address where I could send my letter. So I re-sent my letter on April 18th. They can't even put the right mailing address for Billing inquiries on the monthly bills they send out!

The last monthly statement I received from them was on April 2, 2006. I paid off the balance I owed (i.e. everything Except for the $134) on June 6, 2006. And I never received any more statements from them. So I figured everything was squared away.

Then this morning, November 7th, 2006, I get a phone call about my Sears account. I call them back (Call #1), and they're calling to find out why I have not made any payments to my Sears card, and to verify my address because evidently they had been getting my statements returned to them! I have no idea why they'd be returned, I verified my address. "Is there an apartment number?" Nope, no apartment number. Why would I be buying an A/C unit if I lived in an apartment anyway?? The address they had is correct. And the lady tells me that my account is past due. So I went into the entire story about how I should not owe anything. I wanted the $134 removed, along with the finance charges, and asked how I go about getting that done today? She said I needed to call Sears. I asked who it was I was talking to, I thought I was talking to Sears? Evidently I was talking to Citi Card or something, they handle the Sears credit. I asked if she might have a number for Sears because I wasn't sure if I had a number for them. She gave me a toll-free number to call.

I compared the one she gave me, to the one on my bill for Sears Home Improvement Customer Service. The one she gave me was different, so I called the one on my bill (Call #2). Evidently, that took me to the same place I had just talked to, even though it was a completely different number. That guy transferred me, I thought to someone at Sears.

So I talked to Person #3. Went through my whole story again. Evidently I still wasn't talking to the right place, and that person transferred me again.

I asked Person #4 if I was talking to Citi Card or Sears? Still Citi Card. I went into my whole situation again. This lady rattled off that the current balance was $200-something. But she also verified that they DID receive my letter on 4/25/2006, but there was no action item associated with it. (WHAT!?) I said that I wanted to get all of these charges removed because I paid what I was responsible for within the 12 month period. She said she would talk to her manager. When she came back, she said her manager had agreed to drop the rest of the charges if I would just pay the $70-something. I responded no, I should not owe anything! The $134 was supposed to be credited to my account, meanwhile I paid the rest of it off. There should be no more charges. She said Sears is the one who should have removed it from my bill, and she could only go back 2 months and could not go back any further. She said I should go back to the store where I bought it. It took awhile to explain that I did not go to a Sears store, they came to my home to do the estimate. I don't know how to get in touch with whoever does that for Sears. She eventually was able to find a phone number for Sears Home Improvment, and also an address where I could mail Billing Disputes (different from the addresses I had before).

So I called Sears Home Improvement (Person #5). I went into my situation again. This still wasn't the right place, I needed to talk to the Quality Control department not the Home Improvement department. Or I could call the Service Department. She gave me a number for Service, but then walked over to ask someone in QC if they could help me before transferring me to them. She came back and told me she would transfer me to QC.

So now I'm talking to Person #6, and I explain the situation again. Since they are actually Sears, not Citi Card, they do not have a copy of my letter. But she gave me a fax number where I could send a copy of my letter to her, and she would see what she could do. She also gave me phone numbers for people in the Columbus area, the ones who actually would have scheduled the job. She gave me a number for the Sales Coordinator Danny, and for the Installation Coordinator(?) Judy.

At this point, I called and vented to my brother Dan who works for a Heating and Air company in the Dayton area. Boy, I wish he had worked there when my A/C went out in the first place. Either they could have come up from Dayton to do it for me, or at the very least I would have known how much crap his company has to go through to get jobs from Sears, and that Sears just subcontracts anyway, and I would have never gone through Sears. But the cool thing was, he has actually worked with this Judy lady before and said she should be really helpful. (I guess the office where she works in Columbus is more regional than it is just Columbus, as far as Sears scheduling installations).

So I called the lady that my brother knows (person #7). I was going to mention his name but it didn't come up because she told me I needed to talk to someone else. But this was actualy a guy who works in the same office as she does. So she got him on the phone. (person #8)

It's been over one year since the installation now, so he (person #8) doesn't have all of my information in their computer anymore (Understanably, they tend to purge records after a year b/c the warranty is only for a year). So he said he would dig to see what he could find. I asked if it would help if I faxed him a copy of my estimate, he said that would be helpful. So I faxed that to him.

Someone along the way said they might just have to do a Sears gift card at this point to reimburse me for this, instead of working with City Card to get it resolved. As much as I don't like that idea, it might be the easiest solution.

So I figured I would call CityCard one more time to get the exact amount of the balance, and due date in case it came to just paying it and getting a reimbursement from Sears.

I called Citi Card (call #9) again. This time I used the number that Person #1 gave me since it didn't work out so well before when I called the number on my bill instead of the one she gave me. And I got a recording saying it was a non-working number. Very nice.

So I called the number on my bill (call #10). I asked if I could get my account balance. And this lady told me, in a demeaning voice, "well you know this is way past due." I told her I'd talked to several people today, explained that I shouldn't owe anything because Sears was supposed to credit my account and didn't, learned that I had not been receiving statements from Citi because they'd been returned to them for some unknown reason (which she insisted on looking in her computer to check, and she found that was true), and... I finally said hey, that doesn't matter because that's not what I'm calling to get into right now. Right now, I just want my balance and due date. The rest is in the process of being resolved between me and Sears. So she finally just gave me my balance and due date.

My balance right now is $201.74 with a due date of 11/29/06. All over a measly $134 that should have been credited to the account months ago!!!

So at this point, I wonder if I shouldn't ask them to at least reimburse me $250. A little extra for all my trouble (a couple of hours on the phone bouncing around talking to 10 different people), but also because this has probably messed w/ my credit rating a little bit by now. Probably some late payments recorded. I don't know.

11/9/2006 Update:
I called Person#8 back today because I hadn't heard from him since the other day when he said he would see what he could find out, and I faxed him a copy of my estimate. I asked him if he received my fax. (I probably should have made a point to say that I was following up because I hadn't heard from him at all. But this is why I hate to talk to people. I always think of the right thing to say later). He said he didn't receive my fax. Which surprised me. But he said that the notes he found suggested that his predecessor should have taken care of this, and he didn't know why it wasn't taken care of. (Of course, the elusive predecessor makes a very nice scapegoat.) He said he sent me a settlement form that I should have by now. I asked if he mailed it? He said he overnighted it through DHL, so I should have it by now. Ohhh, I see. I told him that I probably did have it. But they likely put it in my front door and I never go in the front door, I always go in through the garage, so I wouldn't have seen it. And since I wasn't expecting to receive anything, I wouldn't have looked in the front door for it. He said I just needed to fill this out and send it back in an envelope that he provided. We'll see how that goes! I hope through this form, that they aren't planning on only reimbursing me the $134!

11/10/2006 Update:
I got my settlement form through DHL. It did have $134 written on the form, with a vague note to reimburse for "any interest as well." I didn't like that the exact amount wasn't written there (although he didn't know what that dollar amount was b/c I didn't know that amount when I talked to him) but there were no further instructions on how to display what that exact amount was. He did include a paid DHL return envelope addressed to someone else in their office, an admin probably. So I decided to call her (person #11) with my questions directly so that she's aware of what's up when she receives it, and to make sure I have everything I need.

Meanwhile (before I get a chance to make that call) to rub a little more salt in the wound, I got an automated telephone call from CitiCard letting me know that my account is (imagine electronic computer voice) 38 days past due, and my balance and due date again, with a warning that I must pay this by such-and-such date to avoid any more fees. Imagine that.

So I called person #11 and she said it was ok to white-out the $134, copy the form and write in the new amount. Then sign it, send to them, and they'll sign it and send it to Sears corporate. And to also include the statement that shows that dollar amount. Well, since Sears has been unable to send me statements at all for months (this still baffles me), I was able to print out my account summary online and hope that's good enough. Not really having the nerve to ask directly for anything more than my $201.74 credit, I vaguely asked what about any damage done to my credit report over this? She didn't think it had been long enough that they would have reported it yet, but qualified that with the fact that she doesn't work for CitiCard so I'd have to ask them for sure. But it couldn't hurt to call CitiCard anyway and let them know. Probably a good idea.

So I called CitiCard and talked to person #12. She wasn't nearly as condescending as the person I talked to the other day when I called just to get my balance. #12 only said "It looks here like we talked to you on the 7th?" So I told her I was following up, that I filled out a settlement form w/ Sears . I'll overnight it, they get it Monday, and Sears is supposed to be contacting CitiCard on Monday to take care of the balance. "I just wanted to let you know this, so you can put this in the records on my account."

"Oh, and by the way, can I close this account?"

"Sure, please hold."

And next thing I know I'm talking to "lucky" person #13. Who proceeds to close my account. And while he's required to ask why I'm closing it, he didn't harass me about closing it or try to convince me not to close it like I feared. "Once you close this account, it cannot be reopened. You will have to reapply for credit. Do you want to proceed with closing the account?" Required to ask that too, no doubt. Yes, please, yes. Close the darn account already!! "Yes." "Would you like a letter of confirmation?" Yes, but you might get it bounced back for some mysterious reason. "Yes, please." Verified the address, which they had right all along, and I was on my way.

(imagine deep, announcer voice) Will the account be closed? Will the letter of confirmation ever make it to it's destination? (suspenseful music) Will Sears issue the credit in a timely manner? (suspenseful music peaking) Stay tuned.

11/22/2006 Update:
I just called the 800 number to listen to the recording that tells me what my current balance is. Recall that my previous balance was $201.74? Well today my account balance is $0.74. It's a small enough amount I'm tempted to just pay it and move on with my life. But the settlement form I sent in clearly said $201.74. They're too lazy to type in the dollars and the cents when making the credit? Well maybe I'm too lazy to take the time to make a 74 cent payment! Seriously though, taking the effort to send them a payment for $0.74 is more trouble than it should be worth. Although in this case, calling and talking to a billion more people to get $0.74 taken care of might be the most trouble of all. But the principle of the matter is that I do not owe them $0.74. Hmm....

11/28/2006 Update:
I was telling my brother Dan about this matter of $0.74. He had a great idea, that I should just pay the $0.74 but use a credit card to do so. They'll probably get charged some minimum fee to process that credit card transaction. Great idea!

Unfortunately, when I went online to do so it would only let me pay via debit from a bank account. This Sears account is essentially like a credit card, and when was the last time you could go online to your credit card's website and pay your bill using another credit card? Yeah.

So I called the local person at Sears Home Improvement office again and explained the $0.74. Which that lady, who has been the most helpful of anyone, also thought was ridiculous. She pulled up my info and verified that the settlement amount was indeed for $201.74 and she said she would call their corporate funding department and have them credit the rest.

11/29/06 update:
The local person called me back this morning. She wasn't able to get ahold of them yesterday afternoon but got in touch with them this morning. The corporate funding department said they would credit the $.74 but she suggested I call and check the balance to be sure.

So I did, and the $.74 was still there. I talked to a real person and they said nothing had come through from Sears yet. Called local lady again. She said she received confirmation from the funding dept that they made the credit, so maybe it doesn't post until after 2pm or 3pm. Check again then.

Called the automated line at 3:40pm and at 4:50pm, still no post. So I talked to a real person again and she verified that not only did the payment not post, but there was not even any note or record of Sears contacting them about this credit at all. She suggested if it didn't post by tomorrow morning, to have Sears call them again tomorrow. I stated that the payment was due TODAY, so I would guess if it doesn't get cleared today that there would be more finance charges and such. In that case, she said she would speak to a manager. And she put me on hold. When she came back she said that she had spoken to a manager who had the $0.74 removed from the balance.

11/30/06 update:
I called the automated line to verify that this manager had made a $0.74 credit yesterday and that my balance is $0. I now have a credit balance of $0.26. Hmm... $1.00 minus $0.74 = $0.26. So they must have just given me a $1.00 credit. What is it with these people? They can only deal in whole dollars and not cents? Is that why the 201.74 got lobbed off to $201.00 even the first time they credited my account? What would be funny would be if the computer system couldn't handle having a credit balance lingering out there, and they end up having to send me a check for $0.26 someday :)

2/9/2007 update:
For the last couple of months, I have continued to get statements from Sears. I guess they just need me to know that I still have a $1.00 credit, in case I forgot. And I guess they're going to keep reminding me month after month after month, even though I have closed the account. Is that really a necessary waste of paper, postage, time, etc?

Oh and by the way, "PLEASE note that the new balance shown on your statement is a credit balance and no payment is due. "

Ok, thanks a lot.

Update 2/28/07:
This is awesome. A couple of weeks ago I got a check from Sears for $1.00. Really.

"We look forward to continuing to provide the best service possible." If this is the best service they've possibly got, I can't say that really want to continue receiving it! :) I can't wait to deposit this into my account. I'm gonna be so rich. It's going to be awesome.

Jack O' Lantern

2006-10-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I carved a pumpkin at my friend Greg's pumpkin carving Halloween party. I wasn't planning to carve one, but they had so many pumpkins I figured I'd join in the fun.

I like fish (as in aquariums, pets). So I figured I'd see what kind of fish I could carve into the side of a pumpkin. As my brother said, "if anyone can figure out how to make a pumpkin into a fish, Gayle can." Here's what I came up with:

And here's what it looks like in the dark!

Thanks to Greg and his roommates for providing all the pumpkins. Thanks to Dean and his Treo 700p with access to the Internet, for finding pictures of clownfish online and helping me figure out what the fish should look like. Thanks to Al Gore for inventing the Internet. :P And thanks to Jeff for your help carving the fins and nose.

All in all, it came out better than I expected. Probably the coolest pumpkin carving I've ever been part of!

Disney World

2006-10-30T18:09:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago (a few weeks after my last vacation) I began thinking that I should start blogging about the vacations that I take. So now, 2 weeks after that (about a month after my last vacation) I'm finally getting to it. ;) So before any more of the trip fades from my memories, here goes.

At the beginning of October, Jeff and I went for a long weekend (Friday through Monday) at Disney World in Orlando with our friends George, Diana and Chuck. They stayed for the week following that with some other friends of theirs, but Jeff and I only stayed the 4 days.

-- FRIDAY --
We headed out to Orlando on Friday morning, and got checked into the resort where we were staying.

While we were in Vegas last year, Jeff and I attended one of those icky timeshare presentations to get free stuff just for listening to them drone on. We got tickets to the Medieval-times-like show at Excalibur, which was very cool. (We would have gotten Ka tickets, but Ka was not even showing the week we were there, go figure!) And we got free 2-night stay for future use, which I kept thinking would have so many restrictions on it that we'd never be able to use it. But it worked out great . We didn't necessarily have to use the 2-night stay in Vegas. We had a choice between Vegas, Orlando and somewhere else. We ended up being able to upgrade from 2 nights to 3 nights (and just pay for the 3rd night), and upgrade from a room for just the 2 of us, to a suite for the 5 of us. After all that, we ended up with very inexpensive accomodations at a very nice place!

The resort was probably a year or less old, so everything was very new. Some of the buildings and pools were still being built. But the pool they had was awesome. And the suite had a flat-screen tv and full kitchen and all that, very nice. I'd have almost been ok with never leaving the resort! Almost :P

After checking into the suite and getting settled in, we headed to Downtown Disney to get food and hang out at one of our favorite places, DisneyQuest. DisneyQuest is basically a giant, 5-story arcade, but that description doesn't really do it justice. They've got anything from VR-type games, to bumper cars, to the old school games like PacMan and Space Invaders. And once you pay to get in, you don't pay any extra for the games, they're all included in admission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisneyQuest
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/entertainment/entertainmentDetail?id=DisneyQuestIndoorInteractiveThemeParkEntertainmentPage&bhcp=1

We went down to Orlando/Disney last December 2005 with George, Diana and Chuck for a week, and they knew we'd all enjoy DisneyQuest. We ended up getting an annual pass (one of those things that usually pays for itself after only a few uses. ) One big benefit of the annual pass is being able to just go to DisneyQuest for a few hours after a day at the theme parks, or hang out there after dinner. So instead of trying to squeeze everything at DisneyQuest into a one-day or two-day admission, we could spend a little bit of time there EVERY day. We decided we liked having that convenience of being able to go there in shorter doses than have to spend all day indoors at one place. And we also figured we could make a point of coming back down for a few days before a year was up and make it even more worthwhile. So, this trip in October 2006 was the before-a-year-was-up trip :).

So Friday night, we ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck (yumm). Walked around toward Pleasure Island to check it out and see what was there. Then hung out at DisneyQuest for a little bit. But called it a night fairly early. We squeezed in a game or two of the Pirates of the Carribean game, probably their best game. It's a game where you get 3D glasses and go into this room that looks like you're on a ship. You have a steering wheel, and cannons on each side of the ship. One person gets to be the captain, and everyone else is shooting other pirate ships, collecting booty of course. The drivers can step over and do some shooting while they're not busy driving if they want. And at the end, you fight the big ghost-pirate ship. It's a great game.

I also had to revisit the Space Invaders game that kicked my butt last December. I used to be able to get pretty far in that game every time as a kid! But it was frustraing that couldn't even get past level 1 anymore! I was determined to defeat those Space Invaders. But was disappointed that it didn't happen Friday night.

-- SATURDAY --
We headed to MGM Studios theme park for the afternoon. Hit a few rides, and a fun stunt-car show. (see the car jumping across two ramps.)

For dinner we ate at a Polynesian restaurant called O'Hana that George and Diana knew we would love (and have been looking forward to returning to since they introduced us to it last December!)
http://community.iexplore.com/planning/journalEntryDining.asp?JournalID=26401&EntryID=17006&n=O'Hana
Basically, unlimited meat. Guys come around to the tables with various types of meat on a large skewer, and you get to try a lot of different things and eat as much as you want. The trick is not to fill up too much on the unlimited appetisers (wings, etc.) and side dishes (mashed potatos, beans, etc.) But also save room for dessert, they have the best bread pudding with ice cream and banana's foster sauce that I have ever had. I'm drooling just thinking about it. The pic on the left is Jeff right after the guy put way more steak than he asked for on his plate! He took care of it though. :) The pic on the right is (L to R) Jeff, George, Gayle, Diana.

After dinner, we spent Saturday evening hanging out at Magic Kingdom.

-- SUNDAY --
Jeff and I wanted to take advantage of the pool at least one day.

So we tried to get up early (early for vacation anyway, 10-10:30am maybe?) so we could go to the pool. I headed down their first, maybe around 11, while Jeff was still dozing in and out on the couch and everyone else was still in bed. I laid out for almost an hour, decided I was hot and would go for a dip in the pool. There was this smaller pool to the side of the big pool (3rd pool pic above). So I decided to see if it was a big hot tub or what. I stuck my foot in and it seemed normal pool temperature. So I started to get in, and I didn't get in very far before I thought "WOW, this is REALLY cold." Surprising for a pool to be that cold in Orlando, toward the end of summer, when the daytime temperatures are still in the 80's. I didn't get in much past my waist when I noticed a button you could push to make it like a whirlpool, and a little sign next to it that said "Cold Dip Spa." Aha, no wonder it was so cold. This was the polar-bear pool! So I high-tailed it out of there and into the normal pool, which felt awesome! After a little while there, I went back to my chair to lay out and doze off some more. Shortly after that, Jeff came out to the pool and found me. I told him about the polar bear pool, which he thought was awesome! (of course, he would). We laid out for a little while then he went to get in the cold pool. He got right in, was loving it, and said "this is just like the pools in Buffalo in the summer!" and "this is the best invention, ever." I called him a polar bear, told him he was crazy and I went in the regular pool for awhile :) When I got out, Jeff was still in the cold pool. I tried again to get in, and granted it was MUCH easier to take after having been in the regular pool. I was able to jump all the way in to the cold pool, but didn't stay long before I scooted over to the hot tub for a bit. Didn't stay there long, just enough to warm up from the cold pool. We hung out a little while longer in the regular pool, swam a few laps, then laid out a bit more to dry off before heading back to the room.

Once we all got cleaned up and ready to go, we grabbed lunch, then headed out.

We picked October to come down because Epcot has a food and wine festival every day throughout the month of October. At the back of the park, they have their international area with buildings representing many different countries. During the food and wine festival, each country has their own booth and they sell food and beverages that are representative of their countries. Here are some highlights that I remember, I'm sure there's some that I'm forgetting:

I can't remember what country, but one of them had Mango Wine. Jeff thought it was too sweet but I liked it a lot.
Mexico - Margaritas of course.
China - I don't know what it was called, but they had some very good chicken skewers in some kind of peanut sauce.
Italy - They had a lot of stuff I wanted to try but I didn't have enough hands for everything. So I got some kind of sparkling white wine that I couldn't pronounce but tested excellent! And they had a really good pizza. I wanted to try the tirimisu and/or canoli too but I didn't. It wasn't really time for dessert yet anyway ;)
Germany - Brats with Kraut. These were very good.
America - They had Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer on draft. I really like this beer in bottles at home, but Jeff says it tastes like cough syrup with the cherry flavor. I don't agree, but hey that's more for me :) I could not believe how much better I liked this beer on draft like they had it there, as opposed to in a bottle like at home!
Canada - Cheesy potato soup.
Greece - Baklava of course.

After that, we headed back to DisneyQuest to kill a few more pirates. And I tried again, to no avail, to defeat the Space Invaders. In one game, it came down to a one-on-one shoot out between me and one of the Invaders. We both took our shot, but alas he was a slightly quicker draw than I. And it was at such close range I didn't have enough time to duck out of the way. We both shot and killed each other but since I died first, game-over for me. Grr.

We also played AstroBlaster, a bumper car game where you run over these rubber balls and they get pulled up into your car. Then you take the ball and load it into a cannon inside the car, and shoot at other cars. You can have 2 people in the car, one driver and one shooter. Or you can just do both yourself. If you hit specific targets on other cars, they spin around in circles. I think our car wasn't picking up ammo that night. It seemed like I was driving the car right over lots of ammo but vary rarely was any actually ending up inside the car. Or I'm just a sucky driver.

-- MONDAY --
We had to check out of the room by 11am. We dumped our stuff in the room where our friends would be staying the rest of the week, then headed back to DisneyQuest for a few hours before we had to catch our early-evening flight. We got to play Pirates several more times. Played AstroBlaster again. Our car worked much better (or else Jeff is just a better driver). But it sounded like Chuck ended up with the same defective car we had the day before that wouldn't pick up ammo. And, finally I defeated those Space Invaders!!!!

Procrastination

2006-10-19T13:10:00.000-05:00

So, there's this guy who's basically the tech lead on my project. I've realized that a lot of times when I ask him how to do something, he has this tendency (which bugs me) to say "we'll worry about that later."

I can procrastinate with the best of them. But I also know that if we wait until later, we'll either forget about it completely, or just forget why it wasn't done in the first place.

So today he comes over to my cubicle and says that he got past some of the errors in our project, to find out that now it's failing because my code is not sending the total amount. Now I asked him weeks ago how to calculate the total amount. I was looking at some other code that is pretty similar to what I'm doing, but it calculates its total using values that we don't have in our database. "So how do I calculate it?" I asked. "Just put in a default value for now and we'll worry about it later." But today, I am the idiot for not calculating the total, but instead sending a blank value. So I kindly reminded him that I has asked him about this weeks ago, (nevermind that I put a comment in the code that said "we need to figure out how to calculate this amount"), and that he told me to worry about it later, and well I guess now IS "later". I reminded him that the program that I was looking at calculated it a different way (although today I don't remember what that way was. If we had handled this a few weeks ago, I would have known a lot more of those details off the top of my head. But now, I dont' remember, that was a few weeks ago). Ok, he says, he'll figure out how to do that calculation and get back to me.

Great. Thanks. You do that, now that we're down to the wire and may not get done in time for the next release.

Lowe's vs. Home Depot (#2)

2006-10-03T10:06:00.000-05:00

PREVIOUS SCORE:
Home Depot = 2
Lowe's = 3

A few weeks ago I got my rebate check from Home Depot - or so I thought. I don't make it to the bank that often to deposit checks, so I put the check in my purse and have been carrying it around. I finally opened the check, you know one of those things you get with the perforated edges, only to find out it wasn't a check at all. It was a letter saying:

"We appreciate your purchase, but unfortunately your submission for the Behr paint rebate offer was invalid for the following reason(s):
* Based on information provided on your cash register receipt, our records indicate that your paint was not purchased within the promotion dates."

Um, I really thought it was? That's why I bought the paint when I did.

So I double-checked my receipt and the copy of the rebate form that I'm glad I made a copy of. The promotion was July 4th weekend, and my receipt is dated on July 4, 2006. I would assume that if the promotion is June something through July 4th, that those dates are INCLUSIVE. i.e. the promotion is through the end of the day on July 4th... it doesn't end the morning of July 4th. So as far as I'm concerned, my paint WAS purchased within the promotion dates.

I re-read the fine print on the rebate form. It says "Purchase gallon and/or five gallon-sized cans of BEHR Interior and Exterior Paints ... between July 29, 2006 and July 4, 2006."

Really? Between JULY 29 and July 4?

Ok, let me read the version written in Spanish:
"... entre el 29 de junio y el 4 de julio de 2006." Junio=June. Julio=July. So in Spanish it says between JUNE 29 and JULY 4 2006. Good thing I know a little Spanish huh?

Ok, the English and Spanish version say different things. Great. (Idiots).

I'm pretty sure they really meant June 29, given that the promotion was called "July 4th weekend promotion" or something like that. Either way, I bought my paint ON July 4th. So I should be covered even if it was July 4 - July 29.

So maybe they just have a computer program to determine this, that wouldn't work given wrong dates:
if purchaseDate less_than_or_equal_to endDate
and purchaseDate greater_than_or_equal_to beginDate
then valid
otherwise invalid

USING THE CORRECT DATES:
purchaseDate=7/4/06
beginDate=6/29/06
endDate=7/4/06

if 7/4/06 less_than_or_equal_to 7/4/06 (ok here)
and 7/4/06 greater_than_or_equal_to 6/29/06 (ok here too)
then valid

USING THE INCORRECT DATES:
purchaseDate=7/4/06
beginDate=7/29/06
endDate=7/4/06

if 7/4/06 less_than_or_equal_to 7/4/06 (ok here)
if 7/4/06 greater_than_or_equal_to 7/29/06 (nope!!!!!)

Hmm... could this be the problem? That stinks. Which means I guess I need to call them. What a pain!!!

Home Depot -1

CURRENT SCORE:
Home Depot = 1
Lowe's = 3

Update: I managed to get the nerve to call their 1800 number to complain. The guy asked for my name and address and looked up my rebate in their computer. He asked for the date on my receipt, and I said July 4, 2006. He said "we show here that your purchase date was July 5th". I said, well I'm looking at my receipt and it definitely says July 4th". So he told me to just mail a copy of the receipt with the letter they sent me back to them again. So I have to mail it in again! It's the same receipt I copied before, and it CLEARLY says July 4th. He just responded "well sometimes those things get mixed up." Um yeah. If I had been thinking (which I often don't do when I'm calling customer service lines) I would have asked if they could just take another look at the papers I sent them in the first place. Of course they may not still have them I guess. Whatever information was fat-fingered into the computer is gospel after all, right? Sheesh.

The only way that they wouldn't have lost another point for this was if they were to send me my rebate without any further action on my part once I made that phone call. So, -1 more for Home Depot. And possibly more to come depending on how it plays out.

CURRENT SCORE:
Home Depot = 0
Lowe's = 3

Update 12/14/06: I finally got my Home Depot rebate check for the paint this week. Let's see, I originally sent the form in on July 17. Got what I thought was the check at the beginning of September. Called to complain mid-September once I realized it wasn't a check but a form saying that the submission was invalid (even thought it wasn't). Resubmitted my stuff in September. Got my check Mid December, about 13 weeks later. They said "allow 11-13 more weeks for processing." They weren't kidding huh. 5 months for a lousy 5 bucks.

New Fall TV shows 2006 - Happy Hour

2006-09-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

And now for something on a much lighter note.... I wanted to say how much I'm digging the new Fox show "Happy Hour"

It is a 1/2 hour comedy show where this guy Henry starts off a really bad day of getting dumped by his girlfriend Heather, loses his job, and his apartment. By the end of the day, Henry's new roommate Larry tells him:

"This is going to be a great, great time in your life. Right here, right now. This is 'happy hour!' It's that time after something bad: work, Heather; before something good: dinner, a new life. Enjoy it!"

That's a great quote, huh? The show has cool jazzy music, and some very funny characters.

Here is a quick 4-1/2 minute recap of the pilot for those who want to check it out.

An Inspiring Story

2006-08-29T13:06:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been totally captivated by the story of Jill Carroll, the freelance reporter who was kidnapped in Baghdad last January, and released at the end of March.

She recently published her story http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/carroll/index.html?s=u as a 10-part series, which began on Monday August 14, 2006 and ran through August 25, 2006 (10 business days). And an epilogue which was published yesterday.

I think part of what was so cool was that I happened to find a link to it from somewhere when I was web surfing on August 14th. So it was neat to actually get to see each part of the story as it was published every day. And each day left me not wanting to wait until the next day to hear more, like a good episode of "Lost" or "24." Except this was not fiction.

I cannot pinpoint exactly what about it was so consuming. It was all I could think about for days, although I didn't really mention that to anyone else. But I think it had something to do with the down-to-earth writing style of Jill Carroll, coupled with the US side of the story by Peter Grier (a staff writer where Jill worked) interspersed in the article for contextual purposes. Plus the streaming video of Jill and others involved in her eventual release. I guess it's just striking that she seems so down-to-earth. She's not that much younger than I. She seems like the kind of person who could be one of my friends. Or me. It was easy to put myself in her shoes and become completely engrossed in the story. I admire her courage. If I could have half that much courage and wisdom in everything I encounter in my life, I'd be well off.

Now, I don't want to raise expectations too high. I may be the only one to be quite so fascinated. But still, you should read her story when you get a chance. http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/carroll/index.html?s=u I enjoyed it very much, and learned a lot too.

Ultimate Frisbee - I'm not quite dead yet!

2006-08-15T12:13:00.000-05:00

For the last several years, I've been playing Ultimate Frisbee with friends at Antrim Park in Columbus once a week. It's just a pick-up game, not a league. It's great exercise, and I get to see people more often that I may not otherwise see.

This year, attendance has really taken a dive. And I'm not really sure why. For a few weeks in a row recently it was really hot out. I skipped at least once because of this. On a day like that, it's understandable why attendance would be low. However, last Tuesday was gorgeous. Low 80's and not much humidity for a change. Even so, we still had only 7 people show up. 3 on 4 isn't that much fun. IMO, you need at least 8 (4 on 4) to have a good game, and even that is pushing it. We used to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 on 7 or 8 on 8, and sometimes more!

It's disappointing.

I've been brainstorming a lot about this, and wondering if there are ways to boost attendance.

Of course, as with just about anything, things get old and sometimes an event has run it's course. Maybe that's the case for our Ultimate games at Antrim. But I personally don't want to see it end.

With a lot of things, I know that if my friends are talking about going, then I'm more likely to go. If my friends aren't as excited about something, I may not be as excited either. So we could send emails to people and try to rally interest. (like the "so-and-so is doing it, you should too" advertising technique.) But that could take a lot of effort every week, and who has time for that? And I'm not sure if we should *have* to go that far.

I wondered about posting on something like craigslist? I am not really sure how that works but might be worth looking into. Maybe get some new blood.

I also wondered if maybe going to an every-other-week thing would be better for attendance. Maybe some people just don't want to take the time to go every week. If it was less frequent, maybe we'd get more people per week. i.e. those who don't want to come every week, at least would be there the same week, not scattered across different weeks.

I dunno, I really don't want to see ultimate end. But I'm not sure what we can do. You can't make people do something they don't want to do. But I think there are at least a few of us who want to see it keep going, maybe it's not quite dead yet?

----------------------------
Update:
I almost didn't go to Ultimate Frisbee last night because it seemed like nobody else was going to go. But it was such a nice day that I went anyway. Including me, there were 6 of us. So we just made the playing field smaller and played anyway. And we still had fun. Although playing 3 on 3 is pretty tiring! But at least it forces me to get more exercise instead of slacking off.

Dumb Web Page Functionality

2006-08-10T10:19:00.000-05:00

My company, Cardinal Solutions, is having a company event at Scioto Downs tonight. I've never been there before but I think it should be fun. They sent an address for the place. I'll be going staight from my dentist's office, so I wanted to see google map's recommendation for how to get there from the dentist. But for whatever reason, the Scioto Downs address that was sent out was not found on google maps.

So I went straight to Scioto Down's website. They had some vague directions on there that basically said "Scioto Downs is located two miles south of Route 270 on Route 23 South (High Street)."

I was wanting something a little more specific than that!

Then it says "Or, use MapQuest for custom directions. You can complete and submit the form below to generate a map of your choosing on the MapQuest site."

So it has a place to type in an address, and click "Get Map". So I typed in the address of my dentist, thinking this was going to give me to/from directions between my dentist and Scioto Downs. But, it gave me a map OF my dentist's office. I already know where that is! And if I didn't, I wouldn't be going to the Scioto Down's webpage to find it!

But it says I would get "a map of [my] choosing" so I guess that was right.

That's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on a web page.

Lowe's vs. Home Depot

2006-08-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

I really flip-flop as to whether I like Lowe's better, or Home Depot. To the average consumer they are very comparable stores, of course.

At Home Depot, you can buy trim (baseboard and crown molding) by the foot. You can cut a piece the size you need, and only pay for that. At Lowe's, you have to buy a whole 8 foot or 12 foot (or whatever size it comes in) piece you need, no matter what. +1 Home Depot.

Lowe's is opened one hour later in the evening than Home Depot. +1 Lowe's.

Home Depot had this very cool thing last time I went to return an item. I did not have the receipt (I had it in my car a couple days before I got around to returning it, and the receipt blew out of my sunroof window one nice day when I was driving w/ all the windows open. Really!) so I wasn't sure how returning that item would go. But since I paid by credit card, they were able to swipe my card then scan the item, and voila! The transaction came up, they credited my card, simple. +1 Home Depot.

When you buy mulch, lawn soil or the like at Lowe's or Home Depot, you can just write down the product number and tell that to the cashier, and say "I want X bags of this." At Lowe's, you take your receipt, get your vehicle and drive up to the garden center. They actually have almost this drive-through kind of thing. You enter through the front, an associate helps you load the items on your receipt into your car, and you drive out the back and you're on your way. (kind of like one of those beverage drive-through places, but you've already paid). Last time I bought something like that at Home Depot, I drove over to the garden center and nobody was around. Checked the side, checked the front, nobody. Finally took my receipt back in and went up to the customer service desk. Evidently the garden center closes 30 minutes before the rest of the store, which is why nobody was over there. But they said we could just grab a cart and go get the items ourselves. So we did. But it's a good thing for them that we're honest people. Within reason, we could have easily made off with a few extra bags or grabbed some more expensive bags instead. Nobody checked. But what a hassle. +1 Lowe's

Well, my most recent experience was with paint. July 4th weekend, 2006, both Lowe's and Home Depot were offering rebates on paint. I ended up buying two gallons of paint, one color from Lowe's and one from Home Depot.

I mailed the Lowe's rebates on 7/10/06. I mailed the Home Depot rebate one week later, 7/17/06.

Lowe's fine print said "Allow 6-8 weeks for processing." Home Depot's fine print said "Please allow a minimum of 11-13 weeks for processing."

I received the Lowe's rebate check in the mail yesterday, 8/3/06. 4 weeks and 3 days after I dropped it in the mailbox.

I'm impressed :) +1 Lowe's

To be fair, if I get the Home Depot rebate within one week from yesterday, since I mailed it one week later, I will give them a +1, too. But I don't expect that to happen since their processing time was "a minimum of 11 - 13 weeks"

CURRENT SCORE:
Home Depot = 2
Lowe's = 3

Update: I got my rebate from Home Depot this past weekend. It was just barely shy of 7 weeks after mailing. So that was indeed much less than their stated "Minimum of 11-13 weeks" so I can't subtract any points from them. But I still can't give them a point because Lowe's turnaround time was SO impressive, but 7 weeks is not impressive. That's just average.

My Lawn Sucks

2006-08-02T20:25:00.000-05:00

Well, given the extremely hot weather lately, my lawn is definitely not as green anymore. But actually it's pretty good except for right next to the driveway. Not sure if that's just rockier soil or what.

I put the Scott's crabgrass preventer stuff down in the spring. But does anyone know what this is?

Is it Crabgrass? I thought it was. And maybe it is. But this description of Dallisgrass maybe seems more accurate

http://www.american-lawns.com/problems/weeds/dallisgrass.html

because the stuff in my yard is a little lighter in color (even though it looks darker than the brown grass in the picture) and the article says it tends to thrive in wet areas with lots of heat (I have been watering that area more, and it has been hot outside).

So I'm not sure what to do exactly. If I pull it up and reseed, well that will look like crap for awhile. Plus it might be too hot to reseed right now. (and my neighbor will probably think the dead grass spot is bugs, hahah) But at the same time, I've read stuff that says it's better to wait until fall and reseed. Because regular grass will germinate and grow roots in the fall, but crabgrass dies out once it gets cooler. Yet, if I let it go for now and this stuff starts spreading to my neighbor's yard I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy about that.

I've also got some other weeds in the corner, and I have no idea what this is.

(this is what it looks like "in context")

Here's what it looks like after I yanked some of it out to get a closer look:

If anyone has seen this stuff before, let me know!

Hmm... maybe I'm the one who needs something better to pay attention to.

My Kitchen II

2006-08-01T11:18:00.000-05:00

I got my kitchen painted last weekend, thanks to help from Brooke and from my brother Dan. I put some more recent pictures out there. The color in the photos looks fairly accurate. Most of them look a little lighter than actual, if anything, but not much. But the color turned out exactly as I had pictured, which is the important thing. It's even the color I pictured in my mind before I had given any thought to re-doing the cabinets, countertops, etc. It just so happens that it matches the countertops really well. Plus it nearly matches the color of the tile grout, bringing that out more. And, it matches a stripe in my living room couch when you look past the couch through the pass-through window into the kitchen. Yay!

Only lighting left to go.

The grass is greener on my side

2006-07-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

It seems like it has been raining a lot more than usual this late in the summer. But at least my lawn is green.

Every year since I have moved in, I have used Scott's annual lawn care program on my lawn (including the Summer Guard which is supposed to protect against summer bugs). Last year, my neighbor came over when I was out working in the yard and told me that he thought I have bugs in the yard. "That's what all those brown spots are" he said, as if I hadn't noticed them. I noticed them. But it was a lot more dry last summer. AND, all of the brown spots were in areas that get full sun all day long. The other shaded or partially shaded areas of the lawn were much more green. So much so, that it almost seemed like there was a line drawn exactly where the shade from the large cherry tree is in my front yard, with everything being green underneath it, and things being more brownish outside of the shaded area. So it seemed like too much sun and too dry was the culprit to me, why would I have thought there were bugs?

"I wouldn't have said anything except now the bugs are getting into my lawn. Watering won't help because it's bugs, not just dry" he said. He must have seen me watering my lawn a few times. Still a little surprised at this, I didn't say much. But I looked up some things on the internet later.

I found many articles like this one about grubs. It says that grubs
"... eat the roots of grass, causing irregularly shaped patches
of wilted, dead or dying grass in April and May, and again in
August to mid-October. With a serious infestation, the turf
can be lifted up from the soil and rolled back like a carpet.
If the damage to the grass is not too severe, the grass will
recover with normal watering and fertilizing."

So this seems to suggest that watering could help. But whatever. The article goes on to tell you how to check your lawn and count the grub population. It suggests
"If animals such as skunks, raccoons, birds and moles are digging up the
turf to feed on the grubs, consider treating your lawn."

It did seem that some of the dryer areas were being dug up by something. I had thought by a dog, but perhaps by some other critter. So I entertained the idea that the digging might be because of something feeding on grubs. And did as the article said to check the grub population. I picked 3 or 4 separate areas of the lawn, cut out a square of turf and lifted it up. And do you know how many grubs I found? Zero. Zero grubs.

I'm not so sure how my neighbor thinks he knows so much. Usually the grass seems greener on the other side. But my grass is usually greener before his in the Spring (thanks to Scott's fertilizers I'm sure). And mine seems greener to me a lot of the time. Explain that! Plus I have less crabgrass in my whole yard than his whole front lawn alone.

A couple of days later, he knocked on my door and said he had bought a bag of grub control and had more than enough for his yard so he wondered if he could put the rest on my lawn too. "It's a waste, but knock yourself out," I thought. "Sure," I said. I guess I didn't fix the brown spots quickly enough for him. Must be nice to have a wife to take care of half of the household chores so he has more time to get other work outside done, unlike me who has to do all the stuff around the house myself.

What sucks though, is that I have a hard time not stewing over this every single time I mow my lawn this year. Usually it passes. Sometimes I end up in a bad mood by the time I'm done mowing and stewing. But I like to be outside doing stuff so I guess it usually makes up for it.

I pulled some weeds from the lawn the other day, and planted some grass seed in their place. I wonder if he'll see the "missing grass" (where the weeds were) and think that's bugs too. I've been watering the lawn at night after they go to bed so he won't see me watering and tell me that watering won't help, again. Crazy, I know.

They're having a baby soon, so maybe he'll have something better to pay attention to now besides my lawn.

My Kitchen

2006-07-26T09:55:00.000-05:00

It seems like only about a month since I had my kitchen remodeled (see pictures). But time flies, and it's actually been about 3 months! They (Kitchen Kraft) started on April 24, 2006 and were done on May 8, 2006. They called me last week to ask if they could take pictures of the kitchen for the photo books that they show to other potential customers. Cool! Although now I have to clean :) They are coming tonight to take pictures.

I don't feel like I am "done" yet though. I still have to paint the walls. I guess it's pretty typical for them to leave that part up to the customer to do. It took me awhile to decide on a color, but I decided and I bought the paint at the beginning of July. Now it's just a matter of finding the time. And I've still got some lighting to do, which I opted to have my brother Dan and his boss who is an electrician come up from Dayton so we can all work on that and save me some money.
I hope it is OK with Kitchen Kraft that the kitchen is not 100% "done" for their photos. Then again, all of their portion of the work is done, so maybe that's all they want photos of anyway.

The best part that I love is the table that is built into the wall. I have lived in my house for over 4 years, and have maybe sat down in the kitchen to eat maybe 5 times, total. In the almost 3 months that my kitchen has been done, I can think of at least 4 times that I have sat at that table to eat already, whether by myself or with friends. I guess that means it is a good, functional design.

Code Monkey

2006-07-18T16:12:00.000-05:00

I'm wearing a skirt at work today, which if you know me, I do not wear skirts often. This is the 2nd day in a row actually. It has just been too darn hot, even for me. So, since I can't wear shorts to work, and I am a girl so it's socially acceptable for me to wear a skirt, that is what I've done.

At 5:00 pm today, I got a compliment on the clothes I'm wearing today (actually the guy used the word "outfit" which is also odd, b/c I didn't know guys used that word). And it occurred to me, at 5:00pm, that was the first time I had seen any of my co-workers all day. Or much of anyone for that matter. Thanks to LunchMaster I knew that other people I have lunch with, they all either packed their lunch or had other plans. So I went to the cafeteria and read a chapter in "Pragmatic Version Control using CVS" by Dave Thomas and Andrew Hunt. But I didn't see anyone I knew at lunch. My client manager's on vacation. And I've been sitting quietly in my cubicle coding the rest of the day. So, I never really saw anyone I knew all day. Odd.

Or is it odd? Being a code monkey like I am, I tend to favor e-mail and IM as means of communication over all else. That way I have history of what was said, because I will likely get caught up in something else and forget within a few days if I don't have it in writing... plus it's less of an interruption because if I'm in the middle of a thought, I can get to my email or IM whenever I'm ready. So I guess it's not so bad. It's much better than sharing a cubicle with a college intern with the constant barrage of questions, albeit appropriate questions for his level of experience, but still an interruption to my productivity and quest for sanity.

Anyway, my "nonsmoking break" time's over so I better get back to the isolated grind :)

Spanish Slang word-o-the-day

2006-07-10T12:58:00.000-05:00

It seems lately that I've learned most of my Spanish slang from watching comedian Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central. He can be kinda vulgar, but he's pretty funny.

The best is watching it with the closed captioning turned on, because sometimes they write out the Spanish words that he says, and I can go look them up. Although I usually try to make a guess based on context first.

The word I learned yesterday was "mijo", which he used twice. One was when he said something about his "aunt mijo". The other was something like "... and then my mom said to me, 'hey, mijo..."

So I thought it must mean something like "dude"? And in context, I think he was making fun of some aunt that was particularly masculine.

I wasn't too far off. According to urbandictionary.com, mijo means:

> 1.
> Conjoined spanish slang of affection. Mi + hijo, "my son." Can be said to any man or boy,
> usually by an older person. Can also mean "my dear" "sweetie" or "hun."

> 2.
> Spanish term of affection, meaning my sweetheart, baby, honey, etc. Used between lovers
> or other close people the way honey can be used.
>
> Also may mean son, or the female version mija means daughter. This derives from "my son"
> or "mi hijo". "Mi hijo" = "M'ijo" = "Mijo" so its basically a shortened version of this. Alternate
> versions: mijito, m'ijo
>
> Ay, mijo, I love you like a fat kid loves cake.

Notice here the alternate version "mijito" (see the ito/ita discussion in a previous post)

And I don't know how reliable this one is, but I liked this definition:

> 5.
> A friend or "homeboy" in a new slang created by Paul "the mijo" A.
> Someone you trust and know.
>
> you are my mijo

There were a few other definitions, but these pretty much sum it up.

Hasta Luego, mijos!

My First Blog Entry

2006-07-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm finally trying this blog thing out. Yay me. I've been reluctant to start a blog because I don't feel like I really have anything worth talking about. Time will tell.

I guess I should take a moment to explain my blog name, mi-blogita. I guess is kind of "spanglish" (a cross between english and spanish) for "my little blog."

mi = my in spanish.

blog doesn't have a spanish translation that I am aware of, so I just used the english word blog.

the "ito" or "ita" suffix is what makes it little or small. i.e. gordo/gorda means fat boy/girl, so gordito is "little fat boy" and gordita is "little fat girl". pescado is fish. pescadito is little fish. Extrapolating that, I made up the word blogita to mean little blog.

And, I'm out.