Archive for January, 2008

Beaver Lake

Thursday, 31 January, 2008 at 9:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

Beaver LakeI went to this lovely place today, to install a broadband amp in a customer’s house.   Her house was right on the edge of the lake.    The lake is frozen over, of course, right now, but I imagined how it would look in the summer…. leaves on the trees.. boats floating on the lake…    It was beautiful.

 The drive was around 45 minutes.   I’d begun to wonder, on the way there, if I’d gone to far.   Attempted to call my customer.   Dead zone.   Oh well.   If I got to Missouri, I would have gone too far.   :)

 Amp install, successful.    Got to play with a sweet little Llhasa Apso for a little while.   Left, went back to work.   The rest is history, really.

Tomorrow is Friday.  Wow.. the week just flew by!

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Chamomile Lemon

Wednesday, 30 January, 2008 at 10:19 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

I’m drinking this.   I’m exhausted, but I don’t believe I’ll get the sleep I want, so I’m attempting to cheat with this.

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Wednesday Things

Wednesday, 30 January, 2008 at 5:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

Well, let’s start with Tuesday.   When I got to work, there were 39 unread emails waiting for me.   Normally, I have 1 or 2.    The job descriptions are all changing.   I have to convert Word documents to PDF, save them to the server and then link them up appropriately.   By the end of the day, I had over 60 in total.    It’s going to be a busy day, just with that, and mark my words, there will be a ton else to do.   :)

My mom has been so kind to send, what I think is, her entire collection of vintage cookie cutters.   My daughter asked why.   I told her that some of them are hard to come by, and grandma must want us to make cookies.

It is freezing here.   Yesterday in the afternoon, the temperature was 7 degrees.   The windchill was -14.   My boss said that it was really cold outside, just having returned from lunch.   I went out expecting to be frozen.   It was just another cold day to me.   Once you’re below freezing, the temperature all seems the same to me.

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Defensive Driving Take-Away

Saturday, 26 January, 2008 at 6:38 pm · Filed under driving

Ok, here are some highlights from my 8 hour class today.  I did take away some valuable information. 

Can I just say that the defensive driving parking lot can be a very dangerous place?  I mean, recent traffic ticket recipients all in one place?   It’s a little terrifying, to be honest.  :)

Now for the important stuff.  Seriously.  You should listen to this:

  1. Wear your seatbelt.   Your seatbelt allows you, in a crash situation, to stop with the car instead of being jettisoned OUT of the car.   Three out of FOUR people who fly out of their vehicle during a crash will die.   I saw video of several people actually having done this.  It was not pretty.
  2. You can slow down for  pretty little animals in the road, but braking hard or swerving to save their life is not a good plan.  Well, except deer, who can total your car (and you).
  3. There is a three-second following rule behind any vehicle being followed.  However, that is only a rule for perfect days with no inclimate weather.   If there is rain, snow (etc), sun coming up, fatigue, stress, a large vehicle involved… add a second for EACH situation.     For example, I might always require 5 seconds.   Since I AM a vampire and I do not sleep.   :)
  4. Don’t let your passengers, cell phone, iPod, CD player, air conditioner or heater, food, applying makeup or shaving (or anything similar) let you take your eye off the road for even one second.   One second is all it takes.   Trust me on this.
  5. When confronted with a head-on collision, it’s good to avoid that.   Head-on collisions are quite dangerous.   It is better to broadside a tree, rather than hit a car head-on.   So, faced with that situation, take a quick *read* of the road (determine the obstacles),  *remain on the right* side of the road (only applies in countries where you drive on the right-hand side of the road, by the way), *ride off the road*.. to the right (same rule as before), even if you have to drive in the grass or broadside a tree or pole.    Do not hit a tree or pole head-on… you’ve just essentially created your own head-on collision.   Try to avoid pedestrians at all cost.
  6. When taking a long drive, switch drivers, if possible, every 2 hours to avoid fatigue.  I saw an accident where a woman fell asleep at the wheel.   She rolled her SUV (her family inside) twice.   She was hospitalized with a swollen spinal cord.   She recovered (and her family was perfectly fine), but couldn’t bear to drive for 2 years.
  7. Don’t get ticked off at other drivers.  Think of them as someone’s FAMILY or FRIEND, who would be missed by someone if you ran them over and caused their death.

It wasn’t pretty.   On the roll-over video with the kid in the car (and they showed it twice, thank you!), I nearly burst into tears.  Anything like that with kids inside scares the hell out of me.   I guess I should always think of every car with a kid inside.

So that’s it.  One traffic ticket wiped off the face of the earth.    Lots of valuable information taken away.

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Protected: Why?

Friday, 25 January, 2008 at 6:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

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Driving School and Other Exciting Things

Thursday, 24 January, 2008 at 8:39 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

Saturday, I am off to defensive driving class, because I obviously need some help in that way, and one less point on my license.   :)     Who would have thought that I once taught driving instruction to impressionable young children.

The lesson I have learned:   do not drive behind anyone.  Ever.    I have seen too many crashes lately (not all my own, thank you) where even the 2-second rule fails miserably.    Keep your eyes on the road.   Give people space.  Stop being in a hurry to get somewhere.   Enjoy life, for God’s sake.    So you get a little extra time with the radio in the morning or afternoon.   It’s a good thing.

It is darned cold in this part of the world.   While parts of the world are flooding, this part is all snowy and -13F windchill (soon to be colder, I’m sure).   All the more reason for a warm fire, I say, and not going outside.    I always forget (always) that December is not the cold month.  If December seems cold, just wait until January and February. 

Brr…    This is where a trip to the beach and a nice margarita in hand sound really, really good!

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Cooking 101

Tuesday, 22 January, 2008 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

All this talk about compulsory cooking makes me smile.    Cooking, I know is not everyone’s favorite thing to do (you know who you are, missy… hehe) .    My friends who don’t cook usually get my speech explaining that cooking is relaaaaxing and creative.   

I cook all sorts of things.   Hand me a recipe.   All I have to do is read and measure.   

The thing is, my mom involved me in cooking when I was very young… 7, if I remember correctly.   My involvement in the Girl Scouts sometimes sent me seeking a cooking badge or two.    I try to do the same with my own daughter… she makes simple things like scrambled eggs…  helps me make cookies…make pizza.    She’s curious.   She loves to measure and I’m teaching her to read instructions.    It’s a fun thing to do together, really.

I enjoy recipes which allow me to be creative.  Some of them don’t even involve cooking.   A green leaf salad can be nice, for example.   Get a big plate, arrange it nicely with fresh vegetables (tomatoes fresh from the garden, onion, garlic, maybe some avacado, shrimp or chicken), a spritz of salad dressing.. you’re ready to go.

My mom taught me ALL about baking… scads of different cookies for Christmas, cake for special ocassions (even decorated some of them, thank you), etc.   My dad makes the most excellent Chinese/Korean food.   We also have those invaluable family recipes from the slovak and English side of the family, for example, Kolache  and suet pudding were common things to see during Christmas holidays.

But all of this talk about compulsory cooking has me thinking about all those nights when I just don’t want to be bothered with cooking.  Oh, I do it, but sometimes it’s just something quick to get it out of the way.     I need to think about doing something more creative with it again.

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

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Special K Protein Water

Monday, 21 January, 2008 at 5:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged


Today, at the grocery store, I picked up a box of Special K cereal with a free sample of their protein water mix  inside.   As luck would have it, it’s tea flavored.

I have to admit, even with my very loose definition of what tea is, this is certainly not tea.    But it IS protein laden, which makes a good 30 calorie snack, in a way, before or between meals.

By the way, my search for Tetley teabags failed miserably at the local Walmart grocery store.   The only thing Tetley there was their rendition of bags specifically for iced tea.   I am finally in the mood for hot tea, and no luck with the teabags.

There are more stores, though.  :)

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Day Off

Monday, 21 January, 2008 at 11:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

I have Monday off.   This is a good thing, although there is a ton I could be doing at work today.  It will wait, I’m sure.

I believe there is a law someplace against being required to finish off last night’s game of Princess Monopoly and running through the house tossing dog toys around.    At 6 a.m.    Six a.m. is supposed to be quiet, right?

So we’ve planted ourselves in the living room.  One of us is watching Aquamarine.   The other is typing this blog entry, coffee in hand.   Quiet.  Shhh.

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The Song Running Through My Head

Saturday, 19 January, 2008 at 8:53 pm · Filed under Music

Follow You Down
The Gin Blossoms 

Did you see the sky
I think it means that we’ve been lost
Maybe one less time is all we need
I can’t really help it if my tongue’s all tied in knots
Jumping off a bridge, it’s just the farthest that I’ve ever been
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
Anyplace but those I know by heart
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you down, but not that far
I know we’re headed somewhere, I can see how far we’ve come
But still I can’t remember anything
Let’s not do the wrong thing and I’ll swear it might be fun
It’s a long way down when all the knots we’ve tied have come undone
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
Anyplace but those I know by heart
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you down, but not that far
How you gonna ever find your place
Running in an artificial pace
Are they gonna find us lying face down in the sand
So what the hell now, we’ve already been forever damned
Anywhere you go I’ll follow you down
Anyplace but those I know by heart
Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down
I’ll follow you down, but not that far

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