BabyBjörn

A few weeks ago I attended a 80s themed baby shower for a colleague and his wife. One of the gifts (as always one of the gifts is) was a BabyBjörn. Tim (or Tom as he has previously been known as here) immediately set out to learn how to use it. Even though there were a few baby size babies there, he found something he liked to carry around much better....and found that the leg hole was perfectly positioned for the tap. The pictures aren't that great because the Polaroid camera's film (remember the 80s theme) went bad.

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Cartoon Progress

After compiling the lists of suggestions and removing duplicates (there weren't that many), I am at about 380 names. That should last me a while, but I think I am going to need more. Craziness! The most submitted name was Speedy Gonzales. The one that I was most shocked to see (as in I would have NEVER remembered it) was Jabbberjaws. The silly shark that always said something like "Nak-Nak-Nak!" like the 3 Stooges. I shall have to go back and see who suggested it and give them some big thanks. Which out of all of these do you think would be the COOLEST printer name ever?

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What I Want for Christmas

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=cat2_galley_6&listing_id=18436120

Any takers?

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More Help...of the Cartoon Character Kind....

Today I FINALLY got approval to start naming the 800 or so printers at my job after cartoon characters. I don’t have to do all 800 at once, but I really need to start putting together a list, thus ANY and ALL suggestions will help. South Park and Sponge Bob are off the table. This reminds me of the time that Todd and I tried to name all the Disney full length cartoons!

The ones I have thus far are:


Batman
Boris Badenov
Brain
Buggs Bunny
Bullwinkle
Buzz Lightyear
Calivn
Danger Mouse
Destro
Donatello
Dot
Eyore
Foghorn Leghorn
Gargamel
Gonzo
Hobbs
Kermit
Leonardo
Linus
Marvin the Martian
Michaelangelo
Optimus Prime
Pinky
Racer X
Raphael
Ren
Roadrunner
Robin Hood
Rocky
Scooby Doo
Skeletor
Smurfette
Snagglepuss
Snoopy
Space Ghost
Starscream
Stewie
Stimpy
Tweetie
Wakko
Waldo
Yakko

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My Weird Father In Law

A while ago I posted about my weird mother in law. This post will be dedicated to my weird father in law and the weirdness of his food choices.

For instance he loves:

Smoked Minnows

Chicken Livers

Pig's Feet


Grits

And Banquet Sweet and Sour Chicken

And HATES:

Bow Tie Pasta because he says he feels like he is eating real butterflies.

Now, I am not saying that the things he loves may not have their place and that I think they are gross, I am just saying that it is weird of him to like them, but not the lower list. Hmmm....

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Am I Completely Crazy?

So, every time someone throws their cigarette ashes/butts out their car window while driving...and then I drive over them, I imagine that my car might explode. Am I the only one?

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Exactly How Blasphemous is this?

For the past week I have been working on one server. It is a very important server, and no matter what I do, it will not work they way it is supposed to work. It either works half way, or not at all. I have spent hours building, rebuilding, configuring, and learning command line Linux scripting. Today (before lunch so I may have been slightly impaired from hunger), my boss came in to see how it was going.

I commented to him, “Do you by chance have any type of consecrated healing oil?”… to which he responded, “I guess we could try the laying on of hands.”

I then answered back, “Do you think there is a patron saint of VMware we should be asking for help?” He then replied, “Does this server need an exorcism?”

An hour later, and not at all closer to a solution, my boss returned. He suggested, “Perhaps we should sacrifice something to it?” I replied, “So, now we have run the gauntlet and gone pagan?”

Since we were on the same wavelength at this point we both said together, “…Or perhaps we should just call in a suicide bomber!”

It still isn’t working.

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Mission Accomplished

I told him and all is well.

But I found this, and it made me think of how I was really feeling when I told him.



I hope he doesn’t read my blog one day….Hmmmm…if you are reading this post right now …sorry, but you know I couldn't resist. :-)

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Help...

What is the best way to tell someone that the reason their computer is infected with spyware and had to be rebuilt was because of the porn sites they spent time on? Do you just tell them they need to be more selective of how they find it? Do you tell them that they would be better off buying some DVDs from the local porn shop? Won't this embarrass them? I feel like a doctor that has to tell her patient that he has syphilis.

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What people what to know how to do….

This evening I was trying to look up how to best heat up a leftover steak without ruining it. This result from google intrigued me….. What most people are looking up to learn how to do.




What do you think?

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The Elusive Answer

You are all on the right track.

The song is called "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me". This is not be confused with "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from U2. Here are the lyrics, the last five lines are the part from my clip.

Hold me, hold me,
Never let me go until you’ve told me, told me,
What I want to know and then just hold me, hold me
Make me tell you I’m in love with you.

Thrill me, thrill me,
Walk me down the lane where shadows will be, will be
Hiding lovers just the same as we’ll be, we’ll be,
When you make me tell you I love you.

They told me be sensible with your new love,
Don’t be fooled thinking this is the last you’ll find.
But they never stood in the dark with you love,
When you take me in your arms and drive me slowly out of my mind.

Kiss me, kiss me,
And when you do I’ll know you that you will miss me, miss me,
If we ever say adieu so kiss me, kiss me,
Make me tell you I’m in love with you.

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Name That Tune...Volume 3

Let's see who is first getting this one!!!!

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A Conversation in One Act

So, yesterday morning me and two guys from work decided to get tickets to the Avalanche Pre-season opener last night. While coordinating the logistics of getting to the game (the three of us work in three different buildings in three different parts of town), this is the conversation we had.

The parts in this play:

Tom: A pretty funny guy
Candi: Tom’s “with child” wife
Marcus: Another pretty funny guy
Linnea: Uhm…me.
Mookie: What Marcus calls any child, kid, or fetus.

Marcus: Don't Need to Ask No Stink'in Wife. I'd like to go. I do ride the bus so I would need a lift to the bus station after the game and I didn't drive to the bus stop today so that means that I have to have Barb pick me up so I guess I do have to ask her if I can go. I'm making the call now.

Tom: since candi is driving down.. we can drive you to the station...or heck we could drive you to the edge of the freeway at least....

Marcus: I have my rides worked out...the K's will drive me to the edge of Denver and I'll thumb from there. I’ve been informed that we have to be prepared to throw our bodies in front of any oncoming puck heading for Mookie, are you ready for this Linnea? When should I be at the building?

Marcus: I can make to the building by 6...I'd like a cold one waiting for me.

Linnea: Sounds fine by me. I don't have a jacket/sweatshirt to get home in on my scooter. Anyone have a giant one they can lend me?

Marcus: you can be the first to wear the Av's jersey we're buying

Linnea: Hmmm...will that be warm enough? :-)

Tom: I have one in my locker in my cube

Marcus: Fine, I'll wear the Av's jersey.

Tom: I could have candi bring my avoholics jersey

Linnea: How bout I just wear the one in Tom's locker (if it is giant enough) and doesn't smell bad.... Then you two can fight over the avaholic one...

Marcus: Naw, I want one with Gretzky's number

Tom: Gordie howe

Linnea: Do you even know what Gretzky's number was?

Marcus: I just know he was one of the greatest Avalanchers to ever lace of a pair of skis

Tom: Or wear a garter

Marcus: Skis, skates it's really all the same...one of those Commie sports

Marcus: Have Candi stop by a pick up a 12'er and some brats...and make sure she cools the beer down...will she be able to lift the grill into your truck?

Tom: Honey... Here is a request for you...

Marcus: It will be good to see you again, Candi. Please don't hurt yourself with the grill...get a neighbor to help you (if Tom hasn't pissed off all of them).

Tom: oh i pissed most off.. a few have been more resilient than i would have thought

Marcus: I just wouldn't want the baby to come early, I know that grill is heavy.

Candi: OK, I can do the beer and brats but don't think I can lift the grill in the
truck. So, any other plans???

Tom: Of course not, the tailgate is too high..Put it in the car.. Geez.. I have to think of everything..

Marcus: Maybe you can stop and buy a hibachi?

Tom to Candi: You know what a hibachi is, Hefe?

Marcus: I just spit sunflower seeds all over my self...Tom, you're the man.

Candi: hahahahaha. I'll do what I can for ya but lifting the grill just isn't gonna happen. Besides Tom has got it locked down and doesn't give me a key for fears that I'll ruin his baby.

Linnea: The Grill "baby" or the real baby?

Tom: We all know the answer to that

Candi: The grill baby.

Marcus: That'll all change in a few months...I feel sorry for the baby already, not that his life is ruined, but T is his dad.

Tom: Ok, candi has agreed to pick us up at pat's.. So hussle up

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A Jail Story

Last week my sister and I went to visit a friend in jail. (Well, actually, more of Verity’s friend than mine, but she won’t go to the jail alone). Next to us in the visiting area were two sisters and their kids. They were visiting one of the sister’s husband/boyfriend/baby-daddy. When the visit was over, the 4 year old boy was just screaming and crying because he didn’t want to leave his daddy. On the way back to the elevators, Ver and I were talking about our families with a lady and her niece that had been visiting someone on the other side of us. The niece (about 15 years old) was FLOORED, FLABERGASTED, and just plain AMAZED that Verity and I have the same MOM and DAD, and that we have two more siblings…from the same MOM and DAD! She was so shocked that we didn’t even bother to tell them that they were actually married too!

You always hear about the break down of the family, but this was the first time I have ever been confronted by someone who thought that a “normal” family set up was extremely “abnormal”.

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The Soundtrack of My Life...thus far...and in order

“Movin’ Right Along” -- Kermit and Fozzie (From The Muppet Movie)
“Daydream Believer” – The Monkees
“Fishing in the Dark” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
“Desperado” – The Eagles
“Two Princes” – Spin Doctors
“Accidentally In Love” - Counting Crows
“I Won’t Back Down” – Tom Petty
“Stuck in the Middle with You" -- Stealer’s Wheel
“We’ve Got Tonight” – Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers
“Glad All Over” – Dave Clark Five

I thought about making a playlist.com playlist out of it for your listening pleasure, but who would actually want to listen to the soundtrack of someone else's life! :-) Perhaps I should burn it to a CD now?

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Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc.

For the first time in a LONG time I read the first blog I enjoyed. It is the TVGal Blog at zap2it. She had a post about the TV characters she would love to be. So, I started thinking...in my life, which TV characters have I wanted to be. Here is my list.

The first years... (I spent my TV time with Nickelodeon)

• Mary Stone -- "The Donna Reed Show"
• Patty OR Cathy Lane -- "The Patty Duke Show"

• 1989-1992 D.J. Tanner -- "Full House"
• 1992-1993 Blossom -- "Blossom" (only because I was jealous of her hat collection)
• 1993-1996 Lois Lane -- but ONLY from "Lois & Clark"

Hmmm...no TV during college... so .... Post-college

• C.J. Cregg -- "The West Wing"
• Kaylee Frye --"Firefly"

What TV character did you want to be (or grow up to be)?

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IKEA

So, I saw this news post just now.

http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=99428&catid=346

I don't know how I feel about this. I like IKEA as a novelty, but will I just get sick of them them if they are here? Hmmmm..... I do like ligonberry though. Thoughts?

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Where Have I Been?

It has been a while, but between the Democratic National Convention and my new bike (the pedal kind), I just haven’t had ANY time to think about anything that would be worth reading.

The DNC was extremely anti-climatic for me. I didn’t see anyone famous (though I wasn’t looking either). The best part of the DNC for me was that it was the first time I ever rode my bike all the way to work when it wasn’t bike to work day. It is only 15 miles. I didn’t ride it home though; I put it on the express bus with me and then rode it home from the stop.

I did ride to AND from work yesterday as well. I love bike riding. I think it all depends on the bike though. The first time I rode a bike to work (on a bike to work day), it was my brother’s Mountain Bike. After 5 miles, I was done. I could barely move, walk, sit, sleep…anything for a whole week after that. I was even in VERY good shape then. After those five miles I walked it over to the bus stop a few blocks away and put it on the bus the rest of the way downtown.

My new bike is a hybrid. I love it. It isn’t as FABULOUS as a road bike, but even being as out of shape as I am, I rode it to work after only 2 days of having it. AMAZING!

This brings me to my preferred way of getting in shape. It does not involve gyms and diets and training logs and protein tide me over drinks. When I finally feel like I need a boost to get in shape, I just start doing what people that are already in shape are doing. My only stipulation is that it has to have a purpose beyond “getting in shape”. Like I really don’t like running, but playing basketball…perfect….running with a purpose. Biking just for fun….not so much. Biking to work = Biking with a purpose. Gym = no alternative purpose. Diet = no alternative purpose. Thoughts?

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Photobucket Thingy...

The Rules.....Go to www. photobucket.com(don't sign in)- Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box- Use only the first page, unless nothing there has anything to do with the question.- Copy the html and paste for the answer.

What is your relationship status?



What is your name?


Linnea = Limetree

What is your favorite color?



Who is your celebrity crush?



What band/artist did you last listen to?



Last movie you watched?



Who is your favorite Disney character?



Where is your dream vacation spot?



Dauphin Island!

What is your favorite thing to do?



What do you love most in life?



What's your favorite candy?



Favorite shoe?

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Two Sucky Lessons to Learn

The two things I learned this month while riding my scooter...

1. Don't blow bubbles with your gum if there is a chance you might ride through a pack or knats, mosquitos, or any other kind of bug.

2. Bees can still sting you if you hit them, knock them out, and try to get away from them. The worst part of that is that you get hurt twice, once when you hit them, and once when they sting you!

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New Recital...

This attempt isn't as good, but it was just as fun.

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Karma and the Wellington Lake Ducky Family

Since my “brakes” experience kind of overshadowed my Wellington Lake canoeing, I didn’t get to share my favorite moment from GC with you.

The afternoon of the second day, just after dinner, I was down at the waterfront with a about 10 of the 12 year olds. They were having fun skipping (or at least trying to skip) rocks. Just near our beach there was a kind of cove where a mama duck and 8 of the cutest ducklings EVER were living. Okay, so all ducklings are the cutest EVER.

As the ducks were swimming back to their cove, one of the 12 year olds started THROWING HUGE rocks at the mama and her babies! I told the girl to stop about 5 times before she just turned around and laughed at me and kept throwing! After about another 10 times of yelling at her, I finally got a hold of her and told her to stop and not to even THINK about doing it again. Seriously, what kind of person thinks it is funny to terrorize baby ducks!!!!!!!

Well, about 5 minutes later, this same girl had gotten a hold of a fake fishing pole and had waded out a little ways and was pretending to fish. One of the other first year girls, continued to skip rocks. Well, one of the rocks “slipped” out and totally PEGGED the “rock throwing, duck torturing girl” in the hand. She was crying and left a big bruise and welt. I took her up to the nurse who gave her ice.

It took ALL the compassion and humility I have ever had to not turn to the crying 12 year old and say, “Karma is a bi*** ain’t it.”

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The Answer

The song is the theme song from the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice; the 6 hour versions that is the BEST ever 6 hours in front of the TV you can spend.

I am working on another Name That Tune for this weekend. It will be a totally different genre.

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Linnea's Virtual Recital and Name That Tune Game

The clip is super short so it isn't huge or anything. No hints.

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The Top 10 Things That Have Changed About Me in My Old Age

1. I no longer kill spiders, unless they are in my bed.
2. I have no untamable itch to travel
3. I finally appreciate the art of being “domestic”. (I still can’t do most of it though)
4. Most of the pictures on my wall are hung in frames and with nails, not sticky tack, tape, and lamination
5. I enjoy practicing the piano.
6. I LOVE genealogy (someday I will have to post the amazing story behind this.)
7. The jewelry I wear isn’t ALL made of leather, rocks, Tabasco sauce bottles, boot laces, and weird metal shapes.
8. I actually use my crock pot for crock pot cooking.
9. I pretty much only watch movies that evoke emotions other than fear.
10. When I have kids, I have no desire to name them weird names.

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The Top 10 Things That Haven't Changed About Me In My Old Age

1. My favorite color has not changed (how many of you can name it?)
2. I still joke about serving Lucky Charms out of my crock pot.
3. I still spend a nice amount of time trying to track down people that have been dear to me at some point in my life.
4. I still enjoy canoeing, basketball, camping, and game nights.
5. I do not enjoy summertime. Give me Fall or Spring or Winter, but please…take summer and give it to the people that love it.
6. I don’t have kids.
7. I still have lots of creativity, but no artistic talent AT ALL!
8. I still can’t get up until the last possible minute before I have to leave. I will never be the person who gets up early, runs, reads the paper, has breakfast on the patio, and then gets ready for the day.
9. I still enjoy a good laugh and try to keep people around that amuse me, and that I can amuse.
10. I still get acne…when does that go away…SEROIUSLY!!!

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Virtual Recital

During the summer I have LOADS of free time, even though I work full time. Lately I have been buying lots of new piano music. I am enjoying learning most of it. However, I find that I need real motivation to learn them properly. Thus, I am instituting a virtual recital. I am going to learn a piece and then record it and post it. That way I also have some reason to learn a piece well. It will also be a game of "name that tune". I won't post the title, and we will see who can name it first. I will post the piece before next Sunday night.

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Brakes

I was all ready to write a nice little editorial about my one day spent teaching canoeing up at Wellington Lake this week. But, it turns out I had a traumatic experience on my way home that trumped the serene wonderfulness that was my day up there.

On my way home from Wellington Lake the brakes in my car went out, as in…no breaks as I drove the 45 miles down the mountain. Instead of pulling over and doing the sensible thing of calling for a tow truck and getting a lift home, I kept going….in second gear up the hills and first gear down the mountains. It worked out well, and I made it home. I didn’t even need to use the emergency break. I think this experience will not go on my list of brave things done…more like…the STUPIDEST thing I have ever done that worked out okay in the end.

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Why I Won't Run on Bear Creek Trail

I told this story to a friend yesterday, and I thought it might make a good blog story. It is PG-13, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Have you ever run or biked on the Bear Creek trail? It really doesn't matter, but if you have, you can picture this much better. There is a portion of it that is pretty thick foliage on either side for about .5 mile. So thick, you can only kinda see the creek, even though it is maybe 10 feet away. This was my preferred trail. It isn't overly flat, and isn't overly hilly as well, plus it is super pretty and there are just enough people on it to not feel like you are in the middle of no where, but not crowded. One evening about 20 minutes to dusk or so, I found myself on the normal path. About 2.5 miles into the trail, I passed a mid 20s guy wearing super white spandex running the opposite direction. About 3 minutes later I hit my turnaround point and started back. As I came around the corner where I had passed him before, I saw him about 50 meters ahead standing looking at the creek. As I got closer I could tell something wasn't right. I immediately thought, "Ooops…I caught him peeing.” As I got closer he turned around to face me… Turns out he wasn't peeing after all and I came pretty close to getting "squirted", if you know what I mean…as in …I am glad I picked up my pace and he didn't aim better. Now I can laugh about it, but it scared the crap out of me and still makes me want to puke. I haven’t been on that part of the trail since. You can’t make this stuff up I tell you.

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How Economical is My Scooter?

Lately people have been asking me about how economical my scooter is. Here are some pretty solid numbers about my scooter. I have put 7000 miles on the scooter since I bought it in July of 2006. Here are the calculations. I use $3 because that is the average of what I paid for a gallon of gas sometimes $2, sometimes $4.

My scooter gets 100 MPG:

7000 Miles
100 MPG = 70 Gallons
$3.00 * 70
________________
Cost… $210


If your car gets 25 MPG:

The same 7000 Miles
25 MPG = 280 Gallons of Gas
$3.00 * 280
____________________
Cost... $840


Also, in Colorado, a 49cc scooter does not require a motorcycle license or insurance. The registration is $7 for 3 years.

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Artur Turned 36

Not much to say about it though. Our friends Sean and Allison brought over thier Wii so the guys could do the boxing. Since Artur was a fabulous boxer in his day, he of course loved it. I wish I had thought to get this on video instead. All I had was the camera on my silly phone.

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Tim's Version of my "heroics"

One of the guys I work with, wrote this version of my bravery.....

"ok.. so picture this...

2nd game of the day....

The paint was flying fast and heavy..Paint shells exploding in the tree branches, whiting out the tree trunks..The staccato pulse of the enemy's weapons a constant reminder of the danger we were in...
Many was the man who fell to the ground screaming "Medic!!!", "I'm Hit" or "Mother, Help Me!"
So many of our brave boys were laying in paint splattered death at the front lines... Never to reach their objective...

As I walked back to the medic to treat my arm wound, through the din of battle i heard a quiet sobbing coming from a bombed out bunker...

Inside was Linnea, her sneakers covered by a blob of white paint..

She shot herself in the foot so she wouldn't get sent to the front...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

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Bravery and Paintball

Last Friday (6-13-2008), I tried making a list of the bravest things I have done. After about 15 minutes, I had a list of three things.

• Spent the night on the banks of the Danube, next to a bar.


• Hitchhiked for real (sign and all) from Terezin to Prague.


• Stopped a pick-pocket from victimizing a young lady’s purse on the metro in Tbilisi. (I didn’t think this was a big deal, but when we told people about it later they were adamant about not doing this so I don’t get STABBED in retaliation).

I have always considered myself pretty brave, sometimes to the point of stupidity (not like life threatening stupidity, but with more guts than most). So, my list is less than impressive.

I think this was the reason behind my actions during a paintball game on Saturday, that led to this giant bruise.

Sometime soon I will post the story of my heroic, brave, and pretty gutsy decision that had the 45 men thinking I was the bravest and craziest paintball player in a LONG time. I think that fulfills my braveness quota for this year. :-)

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Weirdest Mother-In-Law

I am pretty sure that if there were ever a “Weirdest Mother-in-Law” Award, Maria would win hands down!!!

Now, I am not saying that I don’t love her, appreciate her, and enjoy having her around most of the time but she does the WEIRDEST things EVER!!!

1. One morning a few weeks ago, I went into the kitchen and she had a wet paper towel draped over a whistling teakettle. I asked her why the paper towel. Her response? “I am using the hot teakettle to dry it out so I can use it again.” She was boiling water in the tea kettle JUST so she could dry and reuse a paper towel.

2. So, one day last year I realized it had been at least a YEAR since I had bought trash bags. Even for the most trash conscious households, this seems a little weird. But I finally found out why. Apparently, every day Maria empties the trash from the cans into plastic grocery bags, washes out the trash bags, line dries them in the backyard, and then replaces them.


3. She INSISTS that my ½ inch tall Kinder Surprise Yoda sit ON TOP of the phone jack.

4. Last week Artur found a turkey in our deep freezer that I kid you not, has been there at least 7.5 years. Maria did not want to just throw it away, she wanted to defrost it and put it in the greenbelt for the coyotes and foxes to eat. I explained to her all the reasons that was a bad idea. The one she seemed to believe the most was the poultry bones are bad for canines. SO….I come home to find that she has defrosted the turkey, boiled it to death, and DE BONED it….all so she could “do something nice for the coyotes and foxes.”

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More Dragons

So, one day last year, a magazine was mistakenly delivered to my house. Before returning it, I found this and HAD to try to make it. Now, it is my ONLY cake decorating success EVER. And for those of you who KNOW how un-talented I am when it comes to art in ANY form…I DID IT and it was EASY.

You can find the directions at http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50372

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Dragon Building

So, yesterday I participated in the move of a city agency to a new location. The new building was interesting. My favorite part was the big, green, metal dragon climbing on the outside of it.

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The 10 best non-“price of gas” things about my scooter

1. Ladybugs catch a ride home on my jacket and come to live with my tomatoes
2. The smell of Laundromats, Lilacs, Sprinklers, Bakeries, and Mowed Lawns
3. I get a great watch band tan
4. 7300 miles down...? to go....
5. If a bird hits you, it doesn’t die
6. Gawking People
7. Ignoring other enthusiastic scooter riders when they honk and wave.
8. Having to get off the thing to push the crosswalk signal button since most traffic lights don’t recognize it
9. Top Front Parking at Red Rocks
10. I don’t ever have to give anyone a ride anywhere

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Arthur

So, I had a post up since the last one, but the subject, MADE me take it down. :-)

Anyhow, Three times in as many weeks, Wendy's has advertised some FABULOUS Kid's Meal toys. Every time I just HAVE to have it, and each time I have been saddened to find a silly old Arthur toy. I really wanted the Sports Illustrated toys, and the Scene it DVD games. ALAS, I am stuck with the yellow Arthur toy cell phone/real calculator, the Arthur Stationary, and the Arthur Art kit.

Humph.

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My Font III

So, in playing with the free install of Scanahand, the results were okay, but not as good as the one that Corrine did for me. Here is her explanation.

"Scanahand is limited in that you cannot edit the bearings (how your letters are spaced) in your newly created font. To change the left and right bearings you need to purchase other programs. The other item about Scanahand that concerns me is the signature box. I love the idea of using my signature in a word processing program and not having to really sign the letter that I'm writing. But, I don't want anyone else having access to my signature. Therefore, I sent you the two files; one with your signature and the other without. Unfortunately, in Scanahand you have to load your completed template twice. Once with the scanned template and the second with an edited template. Or complete a second template with the signature omitted. I have found while typing with the handwritten fonts that sometimes the spacing for some of the letters isn't to my liking or to others using these fonts. For example the capital "T" and the capital "J" often seem to be spaced too far from other letters. Or that the letters are too high or low on the baseline. I did change some bearings and baselines in a different program before e-mailing your font to you. If the letter spacing or baselines are not to your liking please e-mail me with the changes that you want made."

For $10, it was totally worth it to have a better looking font.

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My Font II

While I was in Utah, for Arwyn's graduation, a lady she works with did it for me. I paid her $10 to do it. Well, upon returning to Colorado, I found the program she used to do it, and GUESS WHAT...it has a free download and a month free trial. Thus...everyone can now do theirs. It is called Scanahand. Do a google search and try it out. You will need to print out the template and then scan it in and then upload it to the program.

Arwyn's Tips for doing a better job...

1. Write out a few words that begin with each letter so you see how you REALLY make it when you are writing and not just how it turns out when you have to write out the alphabet.
2. Don't use a ballpoint pen
3. Fill out the template with a few sheets of paper under it for padding.
4. If you don't like the way one letter is on your template, use white out and do it again, don't repeat the whole template over and over and over again.
5. Rememeber that the font must be registered on each computer you want it to show up on. If you send a letter to someone and they don't have your font, Word will pick the closest one it has.
6. Don't try cursive...it won't work.

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iFOE v. iPhone

We recently purchased some iphones on eBay. When they arrived, the seller had cheated us and sent us fakes. The phones they sent are so FAKE that some of the mistakes are funny. Here are pictures of my favorites.

1. The disclaimer on the back of the fakes....HILARIOUS!
2. The stem of the apple goes to the left instead of the right.
3. The model is "iFoe"....how funny is that.

This is just me making light of a really crappy situation.

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My AWESOME sister!

So, Arwyn has done it! 10 years after she started at BYU, she is finished. To be FAIR she did go to Russia four times, Brazil once, Graduate Massage School, and work for a year in that time frame too. Anyone want to hire a fantastic Political Science grad who speaks Russian and fluent Portugese? :-) That is her walking into the Marriott Center.

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My Font

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My Small Work Chuckle

The Dell PC model name of all our computers here is OptiPlex. Every time I type "optiplex" in email or Word, the spell check wants to correct it to “Potpie”. I could add "OptiPlex" to my custom dictionary, but then I wouldn’t get to chuckle every time it happens.

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Happy Birthday Mom!

So, today would have been my mom’s 60th birthday. Wow, how time flies. She was 53 when she died of Breast Cancer. Today at lunch I was watching a rugby game at the Czech sports bar where we had lunch. The referees were wearing pink uniforms with Breast Cancer Awareness messages on them. I thought that was very interesting.

When my mom died, the first thing I did was wonder if I had made her proud of me. My father reassured me that she was. That was enough to comfort me at the time. A week or so ago, I was going through an old box of letters. I found one she wrote me while I was away at college. I remembered receiving it, and then being board with it, and I never read the whole thing. Well, I read the whole thing last week. The whole letter basically her wondering if I was proud of HER!

No matter how sad it is, I must admit that at the time I didn’t appreciate her, and I wasn’t all that keen on spending time with her. Now, all I have to say is that I am SO proud of her! There are so many things that I appreciate now and qualities that she had that I didn’t understand, and now I covet these qualities. None of them have to do with mothering, but just the things she valued, the way she treated people, who she spent time with, the things she was good at….I want to be them all. I think she would be proud of that too.

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Up & Down

So, today on my way to church I was reminided of my tried and true rule for driving….

If your hair is up, the windows go down.
If your hair is down, windows stay up.

So, I left my hair down today, and had the car windows open. Thus…I ate my hair all the way to church, and had extremely windblown and tangled hair when I got there.

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Triathlon Miscommunication

So I think this 5k and running thing that I have started doing has caused some confusion at my house. My watch broke a few weeks ago. I told Artur he had to get me one, since he is the picky fashion one. The one he got me is a Timex Triathlon specific kind. Should I be worried of some hidden expectation/agenda? I have NEVER EVER even MENTIONED the word triathlon in the house. Should I have a talk with him?

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Work Inbox Poetry

I had so much fun with that one, that I created one from my work inbox as well. This one wasn't as straight forward, as there were many things I couldn't use - for reasons that will not be explained. But I used all the ones I could. :-) It isn't as good I don't think...but hey...it is what I had to work with.

WORK INBOX

RE: ?
Here it is. Let me know.
RE: HT # - Please review
I’m Lost
FYI Printer order for the C…
RE: Maybe you want in on this
Maybe you want in on this
Debt Manager
Paper Free Friday
RE: Remote use of Bloomberg
Change managemetn Meeting (sic)
Bloomberg
Delivery status Notification (Delay)
Ticket #........
Bill’s IDEA Information
RE: Print Server Backups
TS Greenprint Meeting
?
One More…
RE: Killing Me

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Inbox Poetry

So, this being National Poetry Month....and since I am reminded of it often since there are poets on the corners of many streets downtown reading their poems, I am adding my own creation.

As I was looking at my gmail inbox, the subject lines started to look like poetry to me. So, here is my poem directly from my inbox and in the same order of appearance.

INBOX


Jolly night
rats
Chat with Destin (9 Lines)
Missed you
(No subject)
Computer Help Again
Nauvoo
Southwest
Brad Laing added you as a friend on Facebook
gedcom
Blog
NCAA
To Do
Taken
Tomasi/Valentini Ship’s Manifest
Calligraphy
Yippee!!
One more try
I did it!

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Stupid Suit

Yesterday I spent the day with my brother and our pal Jordan. We went suit shopping for him. I told him I would get him a suit for his college graduation gift. He called me a few weeks ago and told me he needs it a year early. SO....Jordan and I spent 4 HOURS with the boy between 5 stores. It turns out that having three sisters made the boy the MOST IMPOSSIBLE, PICKY, RIDICULOUS shopper ever. He didn't find a thing. The three of us are not even close to that ridiculous when it comes to shopping. The most ridiculous part was that he wanted me to send my credit card with him to Ft Collins so he could buy the one he wants up there. Silly boy, but a great brother.

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Yoga Question

So, all the people in my yoga class are extremely fit (except me of course). Now...do you think that they are extremely fit because they do Yoga, or that only extremely fit people do Yoga? Which is it?

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10 Things I Love about Colorado

1. The weather
2. No cockroaches
3. No mosquitoes
4. No humidity
5. There is an International Airport, with actual useful international flights
6. Lax scooter laws
7. You can pick from 10 different 5ks to run every weekend
8. The Colorado Avalanche
9. BYU plays here against Air Force and CSU so there is no reason to go to Utah.
10. Air conditioning is OPTIONAL!

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10 Things I hate about Colorado

1. Not enough rainy overcast days
2. Traffic
3. State Income Tax
4. Denver Street Sweeping Days Parking Tickets
5. No Fireflies
6. The city lights in Denver that makes the stars seem less impressive
7. That there is a Caucus system instead of Primaries
8. Way too many Walmarts
9. The short growing season
10. That I can’t leave because I actually like it here.

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Planning

I could possibly be the least organized, least well planned person within some not-so unreasonable distance of my house. I hate making plans. What happens if something better comes along? It just stresses me out to think I have something that I am committed to do. Perhaps this is part of growing up? Anyhow, I bring this up because this year, we have to /had to request all our vacation leave from work by today (March 31st). I usually decide when I want a week off (or even a few days) no sooner than a week before I am read to commit to it. They changed the rules this year due to the Democratic National Convention. I guess the City of Denver is determined to make sure that nothing can go wrong, and if it does, my department is not allowed any vacations the week before, week of, and week after the convention, so we will be around to fix it ASAP. It is also because of the election. We have to be around those three weeks as well. The last big election Denver had was a disaster and many people were "released" from their positions because of it.

Anyhow, I waited until today (the last day possible) to request a week off in October. So....anyone have any ideas how Artur and I should spend that week? Suggestions? This will be the first time in my life I will have so long to plan it out. I love autumn! Ten bucks says I won't have made any final decisions until the night before we leave. That is unless any of you convince me there is something spectacular I need to start planning now :-)

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Agar-Agar

So this past week I discovered something fabulous. Agar-Agar. It is a gelling agent. Apparently it is better than gelatin since it is made from seaweed and not horse hooves and bones. Thus, it is vegetarian approved. It gels better and faster too. I needed it for some Russian cake I made. I picked it up from one of the numerous Asian markets around town. It was cheap. They actually had a HUGE whole shelf full of Agar-Agar dessert mixes. Perhaps I will pick some of those up too. Check it out.

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Linnea's Lessons Learned at Her First 5k Race

• Leave your car keys with someone at the finish line, or you might have to run the course a second time to find them.
• You should not only break your shoes in, but your socks as well.
• Check the elevation map before running it so you won’t be surprised with a 300 ft straight up incline in mile 2.
• Corporate sponsorship is worth it.
• A fruit rollup is not breakfast
• A high performance swimsuit works better than a sport bra to keep floppy parts from flopping.
• Having people you love at the finish line makes you feel fabulous!
• Runner’s High??? When does that kick in? Does it really exist?
• You can cut 15 minutes off your time on the day of the race!
• Running one may lead to wanting to run more.

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Leap Frog

The only reason I wanted to post this is so that I will have something to remember leap year by. Thus, it is now immortalized in a rediculous kind of way....here. Time for March Madness.

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Best and Worst Day of my Life

Okay, not my life, but of at least the last few years....


Reason's it's the Best...

Peter Forsberg will play with the Av's for the rest of the season. I know....I know....he probably won't play much...but his eyes are just so so so pretty!

Reason's it's the worst.

1. My dad called me this morning to tell me my grandma died last night.
2. When we tried to call my grandpa (her ex), we found out he died last month and NO ONE told us. My siblings and I are his only relations left....and they didn't tell us...unbelievable!

Sorry...nothing amusing can be said about that.

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Lime Green

A month or so ago I read a post by my pal Emilia. She spent who knows how long listing the things she found on top of her bureau. It amused me to no end and the list was ENORMOUS. It made me start wanting to list random things in my life. HOWEVER, I am apparently void of amusing things to list, at least since I got married. In High School I could have spend DAYS listing things on the floor of my bedroom. Anyhow... the only thing that amused me at all is the amount of lime green/neon green clothing I have. I have an extremely disproportionate collection of wearable lime greeness...These are all the lime-green items in my wardrobe....

1. One Polo Ralph Lauren Zip up Fleece
2. One button up Blouse with matching tank top
3. One pair of track pants
4. One pair underwear for running
5. One sports bra
6. Three work appropriate shirts (though the color may disqualify them from being "work appropriate".
7. One Sundress (I look like a Sprite commercial in it)
8. Three pairs of argyle dress socks
9. One pair "Chuck Taylor's" or just plain old converse if you prefer.
10. One Adidas zip up hoodie.
11. One belt
12. One overly tropical skirt (this skirt accidentally fell off me in the stairwell at work once) :-)
13. One turtleneck
14. One bathing suit top (the bottom is Navy)
15. One denim shirt (yup it is lime green)
16. One other tank top


Now...I also tried to find reasons this collection exists. It can only be one of three things:
1. I am paying homage to the high school I graduated from.
2. Lime green is my favorite color.
3. These are the only color items I am drawn to on the clearance racks. I believe there is a reason they made it to the clearance rack to begin with.

It isn't #1 or #2.

PS/FYI....our bedspread and pillow shams are also completely LIME GREEN (thanks to IKEA)!

AAAAKKK!

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5k

So....a few weeks ago I agreed to register to run a 5k. I hate running, I am scared of running, and I am bored by running. Thus...this whole thing kinda sucks...at least the training part. I want to be able to say that I did it. I was thinking the other day about Jr High and High School. I was voted Most Athletic Female in my Jr High school (which had 4 times as many students as my High Schools). I think that there is NO ONE that I now know that would even suspect that I am/ever was athletic. I guess that is cuz I have too many floppy parts now. How Sad. I am an extremely competitive person. I play to win. If I don't expect to win, I don't play. I am not a sore loser though. I guess it has been too hard to find competitive motivation. Let's see what this 5k can do for me.

I found a fabulous website that helped me find out how far I was running. http://www.mapmyrun.com/ If you run, walk, or bike...this site is for you!

Advice.....I need some good running pace fun songs to put on my "5k Training" Playlist on my ipod. Suggestions?

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One Milestone and One Supid Realization

First the milestone...

Last weekend we went up to Breckenridge for the Snow Sculpture contest. It was about and hour's drive. Anyhow....that is only important because I did something I have never done before that day...I swore.....quite a bit. I have never swore in my life. My fabulous husband says that Jordan is a bad influence on me, maybe he is right? :-)

One Stupid Realization:

My journal is BORING! I don't know why, but I just can't seem to write anything funny, witty, inteligent, or even interesting in them. Maybe it is because I don't think I am writing to an audience of any kind. BUT STILL....Maybe I should pretend I am blogging. Wait...that would mean that I have to be funny, witty, intelligent, and intersting here too. I think I should give up while I am ahead.

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Something Terrible and UNTHINKABLE

Today is the NHL All-Star game and I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT! What is my world coming too!?!

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Ring Ring Ring Ring....I get it already.

It has almost been exactly one year since I ripped the diamond out of my wedding ring. It ripped out in the middle of the road on an snowy/icy day, and I was lucky that I found it after an hour. So, a year later, it is still in an Altoids box waiting to be repaired. Does that mean I don't care about it? Does it mean I kinda want a NEW one? Nope...aparently, it means that I just haven't had the altiods box, and a repairman in the same room at the same time. I wonder where my ring will be this time next year.

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