msbabs32: (geek)
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 11:16 pm
iPhone
Nick has decided he's going to get an iphone once his other plan runs out. Hazzah! No more stealenating mine at the mall, movie or grocery store.

I had to buy a new case. The first one I got was beautiful but was structurally flawed. It cracked and broke where the tabs holding it together were. It was beautiful but it only lasted about a month. I have to remember to go back to amazon and give the appropriate review. On the bright side I got a new one and I like it even better than the first.

Proprietary Cables: 5 cents each. Shipping $14.98. Still cheaper than going to the store to buy just one which costs $20 each. Each! I almost bought a $75 battery case despite the lackluster color choices simply because it had a built in Apple-miniUSB adapter. And you can sync through the mini-USB. Almost...and still consider it from time to time.

Sony eBook
Damned library *still* won't open on my desktop! I know you're there ereader software. I see your processes running in the TaskManager. The tech help saga took me from the India Help Desk to San Diego. I am at a dead end there. The software still opens on my travel laptop so I can go to that as a last resort. But damned if this isn't pushing me more and more towards a Kindle! Oh Kindle, why couldn't you have been just a little bit less hideously ugly when I was shopping for ereaders?
msbabs32: (Bah)
Sunday, August 16th, 2009 08:47 pm
Of late I am finding it deeply unfair that socially and physiologically women have to wear a second layer of clothing in this heat.
msbabs32: (Research)
Monday, April 27th, 2009 05:20 pm
Wandering Whole Foods this weekend I was perusing the produce area for healthy snacks at work, specifically fruit.  I saw the cantaloupe.   I like cantaloupe and these are already cut in half and prepared. I bought two halves and was happy. Eating one at home with only a spoon and with great ease strengthened my resolve. I took the other to work and tried to have there.  At home the cantaloupe was dispatched mindlessly. My stainless steel spoon easily sliced and scooped in one motion with only occasional  glancing. The experience was done with quickly, almost too quickly.

This was not the experience had at my desk. The plastic spoon lodged into the fruit and threatened to break.  Attempting to use more lateral forces failed as well. A plastic knife had to be employed to  get at any of the meat and it was messy.  I had to use a combination of the knife, the spoon and my fingers. It took quite some time to finish.  I almost bailed cantaloupe juice all over my desk several times. So while plastic utensils with cantaloupe is not a FAIL, I would not recommend it. No more cantaloupe at work, unless I decide to bring in a metal spoon.

UPDATE: Cantaloupe half and I did battle again at home. But this time I brought a metal spoon - and I made sure the spoon was small so it took longer....
msbabs32: (Bah)
Sunday, April 12th, 2009 11:37 pm
I cook with a lot of garlic. Two of my favorite dishes use at minimum 20 cloves a piece. Therefore I usually buy it prepared. The last couple weeks prepped garlic was unavailable at the normal grocery store. Not wanting to make an extra trip to Whole Foods I got the 3-heads pack. They felt firm, looked non-moldy and of enough quantity.
Just about every clove of every head had already started to sprout. I only get about 2 descent cloves from each head. To quote a friend of mine: Rasafrasa! I've gone through three packs from different stores. Every time the heads gave no indication they were bad - almost as if this was some weird food conspiracy.
So no more. Even if it means an extra trip to WF exclusively for garlic.
msbabs32: (plopped)
Monday, February 23rd, 2009 11:05 pm
I've been not posting much at all of late.  This is mostly due to the

My co-workers come from all over the LA area.  And they bring with them all the viruses, sickness and mini-plagues from their areas.  the come in sick and within a few days I am sick.  A couple days later everyone else is sick.  It's like I'm the canary of the office.  On the bright side I'm not sic for very long (1-2 days max), while others are sick for weeks.

N is catching his own sicknesses and they take him *down*.  I'm still able/stupid to do small chores around the house and cook.  N is in bed or on the couch miserable.

Work has descended on me.  I have been and will most likely be working long days and nights possibly for several months.

Dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-ant, dead-aaaaaaant, dead-dead-dead-ant.  Finally.  I woke up on Tuesday morning to ants - all over my counters, my stove and inside. My. Fridge and freezer!  Most were dead but a couple hardy ones were still milling around. I had to go to work so I turned up the power on both boxes.  They were now all dead.  Simple Green, Raid and draconian cleaning  methods later they are almost gone.  I still live in dread that they will find the pantry.

So there we are.  And now I need to go to sleep because my dad is coming in at 5:30AM and wants to have breakfast.....sigh..
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msbabs32: (Bah)
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 11:47 pm
So I'm starting to look into the subject of Reliability Engineering for work. I figure "Oh, I'll just go to Amazon. I can pay $30-$50 for a book. Then I found this book.
For those of you who followed the link, no you aren't hallucinating; that book from 1999, used, no software is $450.00. For those of you who didn't follow the link, that's not a typo - the book costs $450.00. And hence the title of this post. It makes most of the other books, averaging $100 look like a good deal.
I kinda get it. The only people who buy these books are professionals (read companies) and die hard component geeks. But $450 for a relatively ancient tech book? Screw stock options - write highly specialized yet necessary tech books!
msbabs32: (Bah)
Saturday, February 7th, 2009 11:40 pm
So the news says it's raining.  Two weather sites say it's raining right now, right where I am.  What does the window say?  Cloudy in the distance but definitely *not* raining.  In fact it hasn't rained since at least sunrise.  Hit refresh on the two weather sites.  They continue to swear it's raining and that it will continue to rain for the rest of the day.  The rest of the day has passed - no rain.  Sigh.
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msbabs32: (sick)
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 06:16 pm
I'm not dead yet!  I feel happy!  I feel happy!  I feel...

I don't know what the f@$*ing avairian flu/virus/bacteria/epidemic/black-death one of my co-workers brought from Ventura Country but it wiped out a good portion of my work hallway (almost 50%) including me.  Friday I felt fussy but thought I could beat it.  I had no appetite the entire weekend.  By Sunday night I was in bed sneezing. 
Monday I spent all day in bed under my electric blanket on HIGH.  Tuesday I was able to achieve a shower and getting dressed for work before the it hit again and I spent all day in bed - again.  During these days I barely ate or drank anything.  I swear even water tasted nasty - water I normally thought was good.  Even Dayquil - the magical elixer - did jack against this bug.
This morning I felt halfway human and made it to work.  Afternoon came and now I feel exhausted all along my body.  Nose feels like it wants to sneeze all the time but only does it occationally.  So once I get back home it's back under the electric blanket to bake for yet another night.  If the death cart comes by for me I'm gonna hide under the mountain of blankets on the bed.
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msbabs32: (Bah)
Sunday, January 18th, 2009 11:40 pm
So I *finally* found a shortening that N can eat and he was willing to try it.  I think to myself, he's almost never had biscuits, let's do that!  So I found the Good Eats Ma Mae's biscuit recipe.  Now I am up for trying variations - all purpose flour instead of soft wheat, drop instead of rolled - but I like to do a recipe as close as I can the first time for a reference point. 
I go to my local grocery store to find a biscuit cutter.  None.  Okay, maybe my local Whole Foods - no go.  next stop grocery stores around my work - no, nope and don't carry those.  Okay, I think, perhaps I need to go to a Bed Bath and Beyond.  They have everything.  3 regular BB&Bs and the main BB&B distribution center later, Nothing.  At best they had heart shaped and star shaped cookie cutters.  I do research online for what Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table would have.  WS will have them - in late Feburary.  Oh, Come On!
I mean a simple 2" biscuit cutter.  Usually part of a set of circular cutters of varying diameter.  I have seen the "giant cupcake" mold, "Build a Bear" mold, and electric contraptions to do everything there is to do in the kitchen.  But no circular cutters.  Is LA so isolated from such basic baking that they don't have this simple tool?  Apparently so.  I'm going to Amazon to get what I need and am starting to wonder if that should be my first stop in the future.
msbabs32: (Bah)
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 01:14 pm
Once again PETA has gone into La-La land when trying to get a message across:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99249669

<sigh> of course this could all backfire in several ways:
  1. People laugh at them and PETA loses (even more) credibility
  2. People go gung-ho and starts eliminating creatures that harm their new darlings.  What else do you do if a cougar is eating all the pets in the neighborhood?
  3. People start to re-question if eating domesticated house pets is such bad of an idea. People do eat cats, dogs and hamsters in other parts of the world.

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msbabs32: (Bah)
Monday, December 29th, 2008 10:38 pm
I think when we get back from Hawaii, I won't be tanned.  It seems like where ever we go it is dark/raining on that part of the island or the entire sky is cloudy.  I haven't put sunscreen on once and nothing.  So if it looks like I didn't go to the islands it is not due to lack of effort on my part.
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msbabs32: (Bah)
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 09:16 pm
No this isn't the beginning of a joke...well not the start of a deliberate one.  This was the scene of "Hunky Santa" booth I saw  at the mall tonight.  Now I have seen "Hunky Santa" for a couple years now and am usually okay with it.  Lately it has been "Hunky Santa and the Candy Cane Dancers".  That was fine.  Every hour or so the girls would come out and do a choreographed group dance.  The skirts were short and the dresses strapless, but nothing that compelled you to stuff a dollar somewhere.  This year they've decided to drop all pretenses.  There were two dancers with around Hunky Santa.  Lyricless techno music was pumping though the mall center.  One was on stillts and was dancing like she was on a pedestal.  She was fine.  The other girl was in heeled boots.  She was dancing like uh,...well like she was on a stripper's stage.  There was no pole and the clothes stayed on but those were definitely adult entertainment moves.  Call me a fuddy-duddy for tradition, but short of a porn flick Santa's helpers should *not* do a wide straddle handstand in a dress.

For any men reading this, the dancers can be seen Friday through Sunday at the Beverly Center Mall probably until new years (sigh)

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msbabs32: (Bah)
Monday, November 17th, 2008 11:11 pm
When the handle on our old toilet broke we decided to replace it.  We chose a comfort height (for someone of N's height) with elongated bowl - (insert angel choir here).  The guy at Home Depot assured us it was an easy job and should take us 30 min - an hour tops.  (trip 1)

So this last weekend we installed the toilet.  And I say last weekend because that's how long it took us to do it.  Name something that could go wrong and it did.  List of challenges:

Begin Day 1, 11 am
* Black gunk in old tank - made everything so fragrant and pleasant.
* Rotted Seals broke and leaked nasty-nasty water all over me.  <I heard myself scream in horror>
* Rusted bolts and nuts - Near friggin' impossible to remove.  My hands still hurts.
* Installed Toilet leaked out the base - F-ck! Needed to go back to Home Depot (trip 2)
* Flange below floor - WTF! G-dd-mitt! Had to go buy the ring with extension (trip 3)
* Flange *really* below floor - *&^%^%#@!  Had to buy new ring with extension AND extra collar (trip 4)
* Uneven Floor - made me tighten the bolts too tight.  Broke the bowl. $(#)*@!!#(*&$(*#&@! <deep breath> #(*&$(*#(!*@^$#@(!!*#&$!  A hammer was looking like a good tool to finish the job.
End Day 1, 10:30 pm

Begin Day 2, 9 am
* Went to back to Home Depot to get new bowl. (trip 4)
* New Bowl suggested to me by Home Depot help was wrong match. - <see above for cursing> went back for matching tank since wrong bowl was installed. (trip 5)

So yes finally at 5 pm Sunday we finally got the toilet installed.  The first time it flushed it was so unexpectedly loud I thought it was exploding.  I jumped back and hit the wall behind me.  It works now, but I still can't talk to people about it without swearing like a sailor.  So the lessons learned here are:
* Tools absolutely essential for removing an old toilet, but are to be banished from the room once installation begins
* Gloves and hazmat suits should be seriously considered - alright just the gloves
* To save on return trips, buy enough wax rings to sculpt a toilet
* Last, but certainly not least always suspect the "advice" from he Home Depot to be dirty, dirty, dirty lies.

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msbabs32: (Bah)
Monday, October 27th, 2008 10:48 pm
     The last week I have tried to find a silicone sleeve for my 13" laptop and a DVR enclosure case.  All the office supply stores, Best Buy and Circuit City did not have these things.  I didn't really expect them to, besides I just have to make a trip out to Fry's.  Fry's will have it (confident, affirming head nod).  Yeah...um, remember the magical times of the late 90's?  When any tech you could imagine you could find at Fry's and beyond.  Yes, the days when every nerd and geek swore angels sang everytime they walked in the doors.  Party's over - Fry's Failed
     They had neither the Si cover nor the DVR enclosure.  They did have a sleeve of the right size, but only one and it was poor.  I was truly stunned.  Fry's had to have it.  I was just looking in the wrong place.  So I walked up and down the aisle and halls.  I even checked all the end displays.  Nothing.  Nada.  Do not pass checkout.  Do not spend $200.  Disappointed, defeated and worst of all disillusioned I returned to my car.....purchasless.  So now I search the web for what I need.  Sigh.  I am one step closer to becoming a shopping shut-in; leaving the house only for  work and pick-up food orders.
msbabs32: (scared)
Thursday, October 9th, 2008 04:35 pm
OMG! Mother’s Cookies has fallen under the treads of the Economic Apocalypse's tank of doom!  You remember Animal Cookies.  Those little animal cookies drenched in icing with sprinkles?  Yes, I’m crying too.  And although I haven’t had them in forever, I’m going to the store and buy some.

consumerist.com/5061209/mothers-cookies-goes-out-of-business-kills-off-circus-animals

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