Technology woes

Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, right? After being with the company for longer than I care to admit, they finally gave me a new laptop. I was thrilled, though I knew it meant more work for me. Like today.

My carpooler had to leave early so we got in early and were planning on leaving at 4:30. Which means 4:45 to her, lol. I was been waiting all day for files to review and they were sent to me at 4:35. No problem. I'll just check the files at home. Got home and couldn't connect to my home wireless network. I could last week. But this week, IS gave me wireless access at work (which requires a manager's signature) and that obviously messed things up at home. Now I have to lug the laptop back into the office and find out what's wrong. I hooked up a network cable and finally connected to the office and got my files (plus more e-mails than I expected). Now I'm having trouble sending the files back. Could have something to do with their size. Even so, they (finally) arrived okay. Why can't I send them back? Grrrr, life definitely was easier with hard copy. Then all I'd need is my trusty red pen.

$4.55

And I was happy to pay that price.

Cosmo Cricket fun

Cosmo Cricket is having a design team call. I checked the pub boards on a couple of scrapping sites and checked out a few blogs (blogging is one element of the application). There's lots of competition out there. None the less, if you don't try, you can't get selected so here I am.



Let's review the list:
1. People who design really well. I think I do. My style is simple, but I still manage to get a few embellishments on there. ;)
2. People who love posting (this one was starred), maintain blogs (this one was underlined) and are connected with the online scrapping community. Here's the blog and you can read I said over at Linnecards.com and
Lifetimemoments.com.
3. People who love submitting. Yep, gonna send in some stuff this weekend. :)
4. People who are easy to work with, low maintenance and happy. Me again, and I'm totally deadline driven (it's required in my day job).
5. People who love Cosmo Cricket and know how to show it. Here I am again.
6. People who are available to focus on Cosmo Cricket (I don't think she expects exclusivity, but just so you're not spread too thin).Yep, I can prioritize and multitask with the best of them.

Forever 21

This isn't a post about wishful thinking; it's about the clothing store. One of my coworkers, around my age, is a big fan of this store. I guess it is popular with the high school/college crowd (she's got a high schooler), but there's still some stuff suitable for those of us of a more advanced age.

Yesterday, I finally checked out one and everything she said was true. The clothes are colorful, cheap, and trendy. Unfortunately for me, they were a little too trendy (I can't figure out how you're suppose to wear some of the clothes without exposing everything). And most of the things I liked weren't cheap. And if they were cheap (camisoles for under $4, capris for under $5), they were all out of Ls. Now, I'm not a huge person, but I also don't have the figure of a stick. I didn't even bother to try on the Ms because I didn't think they would stretch enough . Maybe super tight clothes don't bother other people because there were girls and women larger than me with armfuls of clothing. Based on their conversations, they were shopping for themselves. Still, I'll have to check it out again. Hopefully, they'll have some Ls in stock.

Commute costs

I just calculated how much my commute costs me at today's gas prices, just the fuel cost, not the wear and tear on my car. It is about $5.70 if I drive in and about half that if I carpool (I drive to a park and ride and meet my carpooler).

If I took public transportation, it would cost $3.40 each way (less if I bought monthly passes), involve three buses, and take up to two hours. Not really how I want to spend my time or money.

I did have one job where I took the bus. It was convenient, though I did have to make arrangements with my manager to work a half hour more every other day so that I could leave a half hour early every other day to catch the bus. At that time, gas was cheap, but I didn't own a car so I didn't have much choice. I didn't mind taking the bus since the stop was only a couple blocks from my house and it stopped right in front of my workplace. Granted, it took twice as long as driving, but I didn't mind since there were no transfers involved. Like I said, convenient.

Right now, I'm looking into carpooling with more people. My current carpooler's schedule only allows us to carpool one or two days a week. My occassional carpooler just gave notice. With gas prices being what they are (and the whole going green thing), I'd like to be carpooling four or five days a week.

Preparing for a crop

I'm going to a crop this weekend and need to prepare some page kits (you know, so I don't bring my entire stash with me). I started printing out photos last night and spent a few minutes at lunch today figuring out what others I wanted. The problem is, the majority of my photos from the past year are of the kids (my BIL's kids) and of those, 90% are of the twins. Granted, the twins are darling (I can hardly wait until they're old enough to come over for sleepovers), but I'm afraid I'm going to be tired of scrapping toddler pics. There's only so much pink and purple and flowers I can take in one sitting (not that little girl pages have to be in those colors, but those are the colors they're usually wearing).

Yeah, yeah, someday I'll scrap my China pics and all my vacation pics. My problem is, "moments" pages are so much faster and easier than "events" pages. That's something I need to work on. Or maybe I should just take fewer photos.

Credit card fun

Yes, fun is the right word. I went to my cc's website and ordered a card with a new design. Yes, it is a bit frivilous, but I think it will save me some headaches. Mr. Fix-it and I have ccs from the same company, but different accounts. He added me to his, but I still have my separate account that I hardly ever use. I guess the company noticed because when they sent me a new card, they also included a bonus. I will get a dollar credit each time I use the card in the next month up to a certain amount. So guess which card I'm using now? But I need to keep it separate from our joint card, hence the new design. So new design and $$, how can you beat that fun?

Frequent flyer miles

I used to belong to just about every plan available. I had accumulated quite a few miles when I flew to Asia. And when DH and I were dating, we lived in different cities so I was always flying to see him (easier for me since I was a student and he was working). I'd choose whoever was cheapest and most convenient so the miles were spread out. After we got married, I'd fly home to see my parents or I'd fly about once a year for work. But for all that flying (which really wasn't that much), I never got enough points for a free ticket. Then with airlines consolidating, my miles would get lost. Sometimes, I'd get free magazines subscriptions, just to get something for my miles.

I used to have enough miles on one airline for a free ticket, but they upped the requirements and I don't anymore (grrrr). I was about to lose my 40,000 miles and these I care about. I'm sooo close! I went shopping on their site to see what I could buy for cheap, but the only thing that remotely appealed to me was a newspaper subscription. But wait! I could donate charity miles. That's a win win. I scrolled through the list of recipients and at first I choose the Red Cross. But then I saw the Shriners Hospital. I know Uncle T donated lots of time and money there and they provide their services for free. While there was no way to formally donate in his honor, I know in my heart I did.

One of my favorite websites is gone

Good-bye Tastespotting.com. You were my favorite food website, my favorite place to check out what other foodies were interested in. Unfortunately, I thought you'd always be around so I didn't save a lot of links from your site. I'll miss you.

(Tastespotting had food porn photos with links to (mostly) food blogs. It was a great resource for recipes. Check out notcot.com, their parent site.)

Miscalcuation on vacation hours

Grrrrr, I received my Earnings Statement aka pay stub and I miscalculated my vacation hours. Remember I took a vacation day earlier this week? I should have taken it last week. I ended up losing around 4 hours. That's half a day I could have used to play. I've redone my spread sheet so hopefully this won't happen again.

How much laundry?

I recently went three weeks without doing any laundry. I'm not sure what is more embarrassing: not doing laundry for so long or that I have enough clothes to last that long. Granted, there wasn't much to choose from towards the end, but it wasn't like I was wearing rags to work. So is it a good or bad thing that I'm trying to thin out my closet? Do I want to be doing laundry more often?

Ahhh, technology

I'm writing this from Mr. Fix-it's laptop while lounging in bed. Ahhhh, bliss! He's in the family room watching a movie and that's where the desktop computer is. But I wasn't interested in the movie so here I am. I figured I deserved a break. I cleaned up the kitchen, did laundry, put away some SB supplies, and now I need some me (and you, lol) time. Off to do some surfing.

Father's Day card

Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Or maybe I'm in denial that Uncle T is gone. I'm used to making him a Father's Day card too. Or maybe I'm feeling guilty that I'm not going home for Father's Day (not that I usually do) so I didn't want to think about when it is.

Hope Dad likes the card. I used Cosmo Cricket's Cogsmo. I wanted to use one of their robot die cuts, but they were too large for the card. But I did use one of their journaling cards on the inside. It said, "You are out of this world." I thought Dad might appreciate that.

$4.37

It's getting more painful. But less painful than the station across the street from where I filled it. That station was a dime more a gallon.

The best laid plans (or no more cooking for me)

I had all kinds of plans for today. I took the day off; it's a "forced" vacation day because if I don't take a vacation day, I'll stop accruing and we wouldn't want that to happen. I was going to start with yoga, then cook, then scrap, and in between, do a bit of laundry and cleaning. The latter isn't too exciting, but what the heck, I've got the time.

Well, I slept in late, but still managed to get to yoga. It always worries me a bit when I overslept for no discernible reason. It was a good session; maybe the extra sleep gave me more energy for class.

Got home and started some laundry, ate breakfast, then started on the Pioneer Woman's lasagna. I was going to divide the recipe into four small lasagnas, one to eat, one to freeze, and two to give away (aren't I nice?). I was just about ready to start the assembly, when I realized I need to shred or slice the mozzarella. But instead of slicing the mozarella, I sliced my finger. Now it hurts like heck and won't stop bleeding. I sure hope Mr. Fix-it gets home soon because I'm staying out of the kitchen. And no scrapping today either. I'm staying away from all sharp objects.

My face hurts

Yep, I must have bruised my face when I did the face plant, but thank goodness you can't really see the bruise or swelling. Plus my sinuses are hurting; must have something to do with working out in the garden this morning. I think I need a nap, but then I won't be able to sleep tonight.

He doesn't beat me

Since I bumped my leg on the coffee table last night and I took a face plant with the vacuum cleaner this morning, I'm a colorful sight this morning. I'm hoping my face doesn't swell up or bruise too much. I see a bit of redness and some swelling on my face, but I hope the ice pack did its work and I don't have too much visable damage.

My fashion advice of the day

Black thongs with white/light-colored pants is not acceptable business attire.

If you insist on wearing the above, make sure the pants fabric is heavy enough that your thong won't show through.

If you insist on doing both of the above, don't lean over in public.

If you insist on doing all of the above, tuck in your shirt (but don't tuck it into your thong).

You're welcome.

$4.29

I'm not looking forward to filling up later this week.