Mundane Things

For reals

2011-10-13T10:30:00.001-07:00

We had a baby. For reals. Check him out at http://www.ineedanap.net

Always More Cats

2010-11-08T16:39:00.000-08:00

Sadly the new farm puppy got onto the highway when no one was looking and she didn't make it. Farm life is so difficult for small animals. We probably won't be getting another dog for a while to say the least. It's just too hard to get attached and then lose them to a horrible accident.

So there's more cats at the farm. The adults that seem to be sticking around are White Pants, New Orange Kitty, Mean Kitty, Theodore, and Momma Cat/Calico Kitty. Then we found some babies.

First there were 5 kittens hanging out in the big hay shed. Then we could only find 3. Then we found the runt of the litter didn't make it and the only one around was a black and white one. It showed up near the house so Joe brought it back to the hay shed and fed it. A couple weekends ago I went looking for it and found it over by the silos. I couldn't catch it but eventually Jeff did.

So we spent the weekend feeding it milk and carrying it around. It seemed like it was becoming pretty friendly and easy to catch. At one point I wanted to see if the mom cat would acknowledge it so we put the kitten down near all the other cats. Orange cat didn't mind it, Mean Kitty is jealous and hisses at it, and Momma cat wants nothing to do with it. Jeff's mom thinks maybe that means she's pregnant again but who knows. So since it seemed like the cats didn't all get along we put the kitten back in his hay shed with his kitten.

I found out that apparently the kitten has decided to make friends with the rest of the cat herd and has been eating with them in the other hay shed. Apparently there is now a second black and white kitten and both the kittens show up at Jeff's mom's door step and she brings them inside and feeds them milk every day. Lucky baby kitties!

Farm Inventory Update

2010-06-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

So if you hadn't heard the news Cam had an unfortunate accident and didn't make it. Additionally a new puppy as joined the Ferguson farm. So far she doesn't have a name.

As far as the other critters go, here's the latest:

1. Orange Kitty - still spotted on occasion
2. Calico Kitty - I see her more than most the others
3. Black Kitty with White Pants (aka White Pants or Whiskers) - still hiding from people but can be spotted from time to time when he lets his guard down
4. Big Black Kitty with White Pants (aka Big Pants) - have not seen him around lately
5. Theodore (previously known as Momma Kitty) - also seen the most often
6. Earl (it's new, big fluffy black cat that just showed up one day, I just named it now) - haven't seen him after the first couple times
7. Another calico kitty with black ears - just saw this one once
8. Another calico kitty with a loud calico pattern - saw just once so far as well
9. JR - the cat that was dropped off at the farm because he was sleeping on someone's porch and causing them to trip over him. He currently has taken over the dog house.

Birthday Weekend

2010-02-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

Puppy Update:

The puppy is hyper, or should I say HYPER. Holy cow is she a handful. The kids came out this past weekend to meet her and visit for a while. By the time we were done playing with her she was so wound up she was biting and jumping and acting like a total fool. Originally we had brought her in the house to see Amanda who broke her foot. We actually had her inside for quite a while and were playing fetch with her in the kitchen. So much for the "no pets in the house" rules eh? We played with her for a while in the shop and then took her outside to let her run and play out in the snow.

One thing I did notice is that even when she's wound tight she still seems to try and listen to what I say. Perhaps I'm her alpha right now. She jumps on me less than other people (still jumps though) and I can tell her to sit and she'll do it. So at least there is a little light at the end of the tunnel, she does have the capacity to learn and listen. We'll just have to keep it up.

I walked her up to the cow pens just for something to do and this time something clicked. She was smitten. Didn't want to take her eyes off of them. When they came to investigate her she backed them of by barking. This of course was alternated with licking their snotty noses. We put her in the bunk of the calf pen and she ran round licking and barking.

She spent the rest of the day staring off at the cows when she was running around hyper. I started putting her back in the kennel as well. Who knows if anyone else will keep it up but she made it all night without going to the bathroom in her kennel. I figure even if she goes in the kennel it's a lot easier to clean up one spot than random spots all over the shop. Plus I want her to have her own spot that is safe.

I bought her a "shop shirt" at target, it was on clearance for 2 bucks. I'm sure she'll hate it and it might be too big right now but it'll be funny for a photo or two.

So my birthday was also last weekend so we did all sorts of birthday things. Actually we celebrated Erma's 99th birthday on Friday at the home with some cake. Friday night we went to PKs for cheese pizza (I had veggies on mine - darn bday during lent). Saturday the kids came over and we went to Runnings for their Customer Appreciation 25 cent hot dogs and pop. We left early on Saturday and went to the Roller Derby.

Then on Sunday we slept in, had breakfast in bed, and decided to go skiing. It was super nice out and we could ski with sun glasses instead of goggles (which is good since I desperately need new goggles). We probably should have gotten a move on quicker but we ended up skiing for 3 hours at Afton Alps and I think that was pretty decent. We left before it started getting super icy which Afton is known to do.

Puppy Antics

2010-02-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

This has got to be the most hyper puppy on the face of the planet. We spent the weekend at the farm for the first time since we initial dropped Cam off. She's a ball of energy that has only increased since the last time we saw her. If you can believe that.

We've started working with her the best we can to get her trained and hopefully wear off some of her energy. We taught her to walk on the leash, she doesn't like it and still hasn't completely mastered heeling but she isn't completely a kite any more and the leash is nice to help correct her jumping problem. She's wearing her collar all the time now as well though she frequently scratches at it. I'm sure it doesn't help that she's not afraid to get dirty and frequently rolls around in the dust and dirt in the shop.

She likes to ride in the truck, tractor, or skid loader any chance she gets. She can't quite jump up into the truck yet but she's working on it. She can hop up on my lap when I'm sitting on a shop stool. She's gained only a ounce more of coordination between her front end and her back end.

She fetches like nobody's business and releases the ball (or whatever toy she happens to have) pretty easily.

She jumps up on people and she bites ... a lot. So we worked on that the best we could but she thinks corrections are a fun game and just tries harder. I told everyone to ignore her when they walk into the shop and only give her attention on your terms not hers. We'll see how that goes.

She eats like it's going out of style and she's starving to death. We're only giving her a tiny bit of food throughout the day because she inhales it without chewing. By Monday we started working on having her sit and getting one piece of food at a time as a reward for sitting calmly. The last thing we need is for her to become food aggressive and she was getting that way quickly. I was surprised at how fast she picked up on the sit and be calm to get food game. We'll see if she remembers it this coming weekend. I think once we attack the sit, jumping, and biting issues then we'll be on track to get her to learn to lay down and all the other herding commands. Hopefully she can perfect "here", "sit", "lie down", "that'll do", "no", and "stay" by the time she's a year old, then we can start working on the cattle.

We did let her in with the cows to see what she'd do. She's willing to chase then and technically penned the all with Jeff's help but she's easily distracted by eating manure (yuck). She didn't seem like she had too many instincts kick in but she did keep her eyes on the cows, she wasn't afraid, and she kept watching them when we'd walk past the yard.

She's grown quite a bit in the last 3 weeks as well. My guess is she was around 5 lbs when we first got her. She has to be over 10lbs now. I can hardly carry her with one arm now and she gets heavy fast. We should have weighed her when we first got her, oh well too late now!

Puppy Updates

2010-02-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

Since we haven't seen Cam since we brought her to the farm we have to rely on stories from Jeff's parents. Jeff said that she likes to ride in the skid loader with Joe and usually curls up and takes a nap. She was in the big tractor with Jeff's dad. She was sticking close to the seat and didn't seem to want to get any where near the big windows. Joe showed up to get in the skid loader and all of a sudden Cam was next to the window barking at him. I guess she prefers the skid loader.

Jeff just talked to his parents on the phone and apparently the puppy takes after him. Jeff's dad was hauling manure yesterday and the dog was riding with. He was getting ready to take off and all of a sudden the tractor revved way up. He looked down and the puppy had both paws holding down the foot feed! Guess she lives up to her name!

Fat Lip

2010-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

So since October at least I've had this weird lump in my lip. Upon some interweb research I discovered this lump is called a mucocele or mucus retention cyst. Basically I must have bit my lip at some point and damaged a salivary gland which then puffed up and retained mucus. Thus creating a lump. As I'm between dentists right now I stopped up at the ENT department when I was at the clinic last for my allergy shots. The ENT nurse said they look at those lumps all the time so I made an appointment. Yesterday I went in hoping they'd remove it but figuring they'd look at it and want me to make another appointment. I was even prepared for the removal since I found a video on YouTube of one being removed (not as gross as it sounds).

The ENT doctor came in and poked around and looked at the lump and confirmed my diagnosis of mucocele. He also checked out my throat (noting that I wasn't a smoker) and my nose (straight septum contrary to someone else's diagnosis of deviated). He said since I've had the lump since October it probably wasn't going to just go away on its own and he could just remove it. He stepped out of the exam room and returned in record time with a tray set up for the removal of my lip lump. He numbed me up and he and his nurse set to work. They seemed very proud of their work; I guess the lump came out very nicely. It was about the size of a large pea. He thought sutures weren't really necessary but put 4 in anyway but if they fall out no big deal.

When the novacaine wore off it was pretty sore and it's pretty sore today. Ibuprofen seems to help quite a bit but it hurts to the touch and is pretty fat. The sutures kind of drive me nuts, they left really long pigtails and they stick in between my teeth. Hopefully things will start feeling better soon and I'll be back to normal sans lump!

Farm Inventory

2010-01-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

So typically if we have bottle calves at Jeff's family's farm I name them Steve. Though the last two were named Sparky and Little Guy (both heifer calves though). And my favorite cow who likes apples is Red Cow.

The cats seem to come and go but current here is who resides at the farm:
1. Orange Kitty
2. Calico Kitty
3. Black Kitty with White Pants (aka White Pants or Whiskers)
4. Big Black Kitty with White Pants (aka Big Pants)
5. Theodore (previously known as Momma Kitty)
6. Earl (it's new, big fluffy black cat that just showed up one day, I just named it now)

Gray Kitty has passed on and Black Kitty has disappeared.

And the puppy's name is Cam.

Advent Calendar

2009-12-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

Jeff got me a fancy advent calendar last year for the holidays. He filled it mostly with candy and little silly toys. This year he's taken it to a new level. In addition to the candy I've also gotten a kitchen rug and a pair of winter work gloves. Today I got a bag of M&Ms. Yum!

Math Blog

2009-11-19T10:04:00.001-08:00

Someone needs to write a math blog or a daily/weekly calculus problem with real life application. I'm pretty sure I don't have time to write one. But I'd like to be reminded of all the interesting derivatives I've forgotten. So chop-chop get to it!

Scrapbooking Weekend

2009-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Just got back from spending a long weekend "up north" for a scrapbooking retreat. I declared that one I finished the books I had started working on I would convert to digital photo books instead. The paper scrapbooks are so expensive and large and take a lot of "equipment." And I have a real problem narrowing down my photos or even cropping photos so I think digital is the way to go. So this weekend I made some real progress finishing my books. I have a book of wedding "stuff" that doesn't include the professional photos - just all the rest of the things that went on. That book is all but finished. My car book is missing a few photos as is my horse book and my "Jeff and Elise" book. But other than those few last things I'm ready to move to digital.

I started a blog book of all my Cody and Axel posts. That will actually end up being two books at least. I want to make a book(s) for the three hiking trips and maybe kayak trips. I'd like to scan in all my old photos and make a book of those as well. Then anything moving forward of course. The softcover books could go up to 200 pages and be under 50 bucks. Which I'm sure a single 12x12 scrapbook would cost at least and be only a fraction of the pages. That's not to say these digital books are any easier than a scrapbook. It took me ages to make my wedding book. I still have to pick out photos even if I can use more.

Anyway I'm still going to hang out at the retreats and work on my books and/or other crafts. It's a nice vacation and a good 3-4 days of working on something that is hard to find time to do otherwise.

So it was pretty nice out this morning so I left before noon to get back to the cities. Ended up riding both horses and bringing some of my extra tack and supplies back home. I made an attempt to pick up some of my stuff in the garage and put away the extra supplies. I put away all of my scrapbooking stuff and picked up the kitchen a little bit. Now I'm chilling out before a nice hot shower and getting to bed early. I was up til at least 2am every night at the retreat. Time for some good sleep in my own bed.

Shoulders Back?

2009-11-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

So my "mouse shoulder" is acting up again. And I just can't get this new desk adjusted correctly so that I can sit without moving it too much. I wonder if something like: http://www.shouldersback.net/ would help or since I'm cheap, a strategically figure-8'ed ace bandage? I would go back to the acupuncturist but it's so darn expensive and insurance only covers acupuncture for treatment or nausea and vomiting associated with certain medical conditions or osteoarthritis of the knee or hip. How lame is that? Very, if you ask me. I wonder if flex spending money can be used for acupuncture. Something I probably should have looked into before I enrolled for next year's benefits.

Yeesh what a day!

2009-11-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

So I make Jeff leave the farm immediately after church so I can get back for a little trail ride that some folks at the barn were planning. Jeff planned to bring the brown pickup back to the cities so he could bring the trailer back to the farm next weekend. The other boarders at the barn ran out of spots in their trailers so I convinced Jeff to let me take the truck and our trailer. It was a gorgeous day and a pretty good ride despite the sweating from Cody constantly trotting to keep up. But on the way home right before the intersection in Rosemont we blew the front passenger tire on the pickup. Jeff left work to come out and help and the barn owners came out with their pickup to get the horses and the trailer. Jeff limped the truck to a parking lot where we can hopefully get a new tire tomorrow. But ug, not the way to end a good trail ride that I had to fenagle to get to in the first place. On top of all that I left all my stuff, like my purse, in the truck that Jeff had to collect for me. He's back at work trying to finish up some stuff and I'll hopefully not burn down the house when I make supper.

Organization

2009-08-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting ideas found on the interweb:

"I have a box, all these miscellaneous things I cannot find a place for go in that box, the rubix cube, presents from grandma, etc. I have another box along side of it, if I use something from the first box, it moves into box number two. About twice a year, anything that has not made it into box two is thrown out, and the cycle repeats. Just saw it as an interesting method for all the other organizers out there."

I wonder if this conflicts with a "one touch" method of keeping things in the house organized? Of course it all conflicts with my method of leaving everything just laying around wherever.

More than just a phone

2009-08-10T09:53:00.001-07:00

Just to prove that my weekend didn't revolve around my phone here's a blog post. While we did get new phones on Friday and getting mine set up seems to be an ongoing activity we also went out to the farm. Saturday we went out to South Dakota for Matthew's birthday. We got him a small compound bow so we spend the afternoon shooting that followed by some ice cream. Sunday after church we had the buffet at PKs and then dropped some stuff off at the cabin and drove around Gary trying to find a horse trailer we saw an ad for. We didn't find the trailer and then found out it had sold anyway. We were going to stop on the way home and look at another trailer that was supposedly in St Paul only to find out it's in Somerset. So we're maybe going to see that one tonight instead.

My phone still hates me, I'm trying to figure everything out but every time I try and send a message it gets sent twice and photo messages don't always include the photo. I have no idea what the deal is with that but it's very frustrating.

Titles escape me

2009-08-06T07:10:00.001-07:00

To recap: I almost got a horse trailer, then not. Jeff almost got a new pickup, then not. We almost got iPhones, then not.

We took down a grain bin last weekend. Looked at a horse trailer, made an offer, offer accepted, waited a day, someone else made a better offer, no trailer.

Jeff's birthday is today. I got him some SCUBA stuff. Probably going to the farm this weekend. Maybe going out to SoDak to celebrate Matthew's birthday. Supposedly getting new phones tomorrow. ATT has absolutely no service in Canby but we were going to switch and get iPhones anyway. When Jeff called to bitch to Verizon about his crappy phone and the crappy service and to find out when he could cancel without paying the crappy cancellation charge, they gave him two new phones for free. So Jeff got a Blackberry Storm and I get a Samsung Omnia (5MP camera w00t). I told him to call the bank and get some free money too.

We're doing some cabin-ing a week from now. Then a week from that is some Kayaking with cousin Cody and Amy and Brad.

Tonight is my last class for WCR for Summer Session. I get 4 glorious weeks off before Fall Session starts. Though I have to write rider progress notes in that time.

The mini was in the shop yesterday. Boy are they nice to me now. One of the rally lights had stopped working, turns out it was a loose wire. Of course it would be foolish of me to think I could get out of there with the car fixed and no issues. They took of the magnetic rock guards to wash the car and then lost them. So after much running around they finally just gave me new ones. Really? Does everyone that goes to Motorwerks have this much trouble and if not why am I the lucky one that gets the brunt of it?

Weekend Update

2009-07-20T06:53:00.001-07:00

Since I slacked on twitter/status updates this weekend I'll recap in a nice little blog post. Ooo so lucky you are! My phone always seems to die when I get to the farm and my car won't charge if it's not running. Next phone I think I'll get an extra wall charger or two.

Friday the family met at the Glockenspiel for dinner. Sadly the Wienersnitzel was disappointing. I tried blood sausage which was ... different. Next time I'm getting the Jagersnitzel. After dinner we drove out to the farm.

Saturday was mowing day. I mowed the farm and then went down and mowed our property. Too much mowing. I like mowing as much as the next guy but when we end up moving out there, some of that mowing is going to the horses! Also kitties, baby kitties. The cat that the niece and nephew brought out to the farm was apparently not the boy kitty they thought it was because now there are 2 little 4 week old babies in the hay shed. They aren't too excited to be held and after I tortured them by petting they won't come out any more :( One is solid black and small and the other is a black tuxedo kitty. If they stick around for a while we'll get around to naming them. We put out food and milk and someone (probably mom kitty) gobbled it up. Saturday after some PKs pizza we went out to the softball fields for some beers and a band. They had some big tournament and were partying it up in to the wee hours. Unfortunately it was freezing out and we were tired so we didn't stay very late, maybe that was fortunate.

Sunday was church, dinner, some hanging out, and a trip out to the cabin to try and put the dock in. At least it wasn't as windy as last time but it wasn't quite warm enough to inspire me to swim. Jeff is thinking of having a few people out to the cabin in August sometime, hopefully it'll be warm by then!

Night Driving

2009-06-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

So I've claimed for a long time that I cannot see when I drive at night. Unfortunately my eye test did not prove much as far as supporting that theory. Additionally I can usually sleep in the car with no issues but on Friday, with Jeff driving, I kept dozing off and then waking up startled thinking that I was driving. Perhaps it's from the last time I drove home from the farm, I did doze off for a second and was headed right toward a mail box. I woke up in time and didn't hit it but wasn't terribly thrilled with the situation to say the least. So last night we have to drive Jeff's parents truck to the cities along with my car. I was doing pretty good for a while and wasn't tired. But I just couldn't see where I was going and I'd have to slow down a lot and then Jeff was super far in front of me but not far enough away that I could use my brights to see where I was going. Then it just felt like every turn I took I was going to go in the ditch or ever oncoming car that passed I was going to hit. So that just led to me be super nervous and a nice white knuckle death grip on the wheel not to mention my back is still not 100% so being tense was not helping matters. I finally had to stop in Cologne and we left the pickup there and Jeff drove the rest of the way home. I'm feeling pretty stupid for not being able to drive just the hour that was left but thinking I'm going to drive in the ditch for the 2 hours prior was taking it's toll. We have to drop the pickup off in Mound tonight anyway so we'll go pick it up later. In the grand scheme of things we saved a bit of gas since Cologne is closer to Mound than Farmington (I think). But still, ug.

Another Weekend

2009-06-12T15:14:00.001-07:00

Hey look another weekend just started and I'm sitting here at the computer! Jeff and his dad are wrapping up the last bit of their vacation and hope to be back on Sunday. That means driving straight through from Tennessee so I'm not holding my breath. Though I'm debating on if I want to go with next year on the trip. Of course then the question is would I rather ride along or take my own car. I guess we'll see.

I took today off work to have the chiropractor out for the horses. I got to sleep in a little, went out to the barn, groomed both boys, and just hung out for a while until the chiropractor got there. I attempted to take a nap earlier this afternoon but it wasn't completely successful. Mostly I just dozed.

I've printed out some more trail maps and have them hanging up to dry outside after putting some map seal on them. We're planning on going out to Lebanon Hills on Sunday and I hadn't added that one to my trail book yet so I figured I might as well do that. I've got the dishwasher running and I picked up the kitchen a bit. Now I'm having some mac and cheese, garlic bread, and a honey weiss.

My two other big goals for the weekend is to sort through my clothing and figure out what fits (which includes doing laundry), and to get a major portion of the Eilersperformance.com website redesign finished. We'll see how that goes.

Final Week Alone

2009-06-06T18:14:00.001-07:00

So this is the beginning of my final week of bachelorette-hood. Jeff left this morning for the Hot Rod Power Tour with his dad. They should be back sometime in the next week, they don't know for sure. So in total it would be 4 weeks that Jeff was here, there, and everywhere (cept home). The horses might be happy when he's finally back as I've been spending a lot of time out there in the past few weeks.

Of course my list of things to get done in these weeks is not a whole lot shorter than it was 3 weeks ago. I thought the rain today would help me get some things done but I'm pretty good at slacking and procrastinating.

I am technically working on my rider evaluations from Spring session which I hope to get finished this weekend. And I really want to dig through my closet and get things a little more organized. Since I've lost about 24 lbs so far a lot more things fit so I want to dig them out from the bottom of the pile. And I have a ton of freelance web work I should get moving on not to mention I want to redesign the family site. Really my to do list will probably always be too long.

Work is still stupid busy and I'm hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel one of these days so I can work on some projects. When is retirement again? I'm pretty sure I much more fascinating things to say but I seem to have forgotten them. Oh well. Use your imagination.

Internet Woes

2009-05-19T17:49:00.001-07:00

There's a reason I don't do networking for a living. I.do.not.get.it. So our one wireless (Airport Express) deal is in spot A in the house and has been in that spot forever. Internet worked fine upstairs, downstairs, anywhere in the house. Though we did notice that the connection to the world was getting unbearably slow. So we had the cable guy out and he checked all sorts of things, got us a new modem, discovered the cable into the house at spot A was crumby and suggested we use a new connection that he set up in spot B. So after a bunch of work we get the wireless working in spot B and everything's happy. But now when I'm in the basement I can barely get the wireless to show up and when it does it drops all the time.

So I climb up in the attic and find my other wireless (Airport Extreme) deal and think okay, we'll set up the second wireless deal at spot B and then I'll put the first wireless deal back at spot A (as a repeater) and everyone will be happy. So I fight with that for a while tonight and get everything set up. And I still can't keep a connection in the basement. Even with the wireless back in the same spot it always was. Seriously? How in the world? I.do.not.get.it.

Now I'm sitting directly under the wireless access point in the basement and it seems like I'm connected even though the network settings window says I'm not. So really, I have no clue what is going on here but it's quite frustrating. My only other thought is to move the second wireless access point into the basement but as I'm technically mere feet from that access point already I don't see how that would help me any.

The New Mini Has Arrived!

2009-04-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

The new Mini has arrived. I picked it up on Wednesday last week and turned over the keys to the yellow Mini. It was sad to see it go and I didn't let anyone speak within earshot of it that the plan is to dismantle it and research what is causing the issue. Actually a guy that was admiring my new Mini at the dealership started asking Jeff a bunch of questions about what was wrong with my other Mini. He wasn't quite sure what he should say with all the dealership people standing there. So the sales guy showed up all the new features that my car has. Garage door opener built in, blue tooth phone connection, iPod/usb connection, auto dimming mirrors, auto rain sensing wipers, and I don't even need to put the key in the ignition. I can have the key in my pocket and unlock and lock the doors and drive. Also it's impossible to lock the keys in the car as it will unlock itself if you leave the keys in it. It'll probably take me a long time to figure all the new fancy features out.

When we got the car home on Wednesday we had Jeff's coworker's husband come over and put on my stripes and the protective film. The poor little Minis get some wicked rock chips so he put the clear coating on the front part of the hood (oops - bonnet). And I had ordered some aftermarket stripes, black offset stripes for the front and the back so he put those on as well. So the Mini was lucky and only had to go out for the drive home from the dealership without it's "clothes" on.

Of course now I've driven the car all weekend including in the rain. So he got all wet, but I did get to try out the rain sensing wipers. I bought a rubber lint brush from the Horse Expo this weekend and I think that was maybe the best purchase ever. The black felt on the back of the seats get so full of hair and stuff from the barn and it's really hard to get off with the vacuum and with some tape or a regular lint roller. The rubber one seems to work wonders. So hopefully the Mini can stay nice and clean no matter how many times I go to the barn.

Nothing to say?

2009-04-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

I apparently haven't had much to say lately. And I don't seem to take many photos that aren't meant for Cody and Axel's blog. I did find out that Blurb can now pull in all blog entries from Blogger and make a book out of them. I grabbed, or slurped as Blurb calls it, all my horse posts and now I have a 366 page book to format and try to get down to an affordable price. A 366 page book is something like 70-90 bucks at Blurb, oops!

First picture is of Jeff and Scout at one of the family gatherings this spring. The second one is of Jeff and I at this year's annual Chefs' Brigade dinner, a fund raiser for We Can Ride. I finally broke down and wore the pink mohair dress. Unfortunately it doesn't hang well so most of the photos make me look like I'm wearing a sack. This one turned out okay save my ability to make a face in every photo.

What else? Supposedly I get to pick up my new car tomorrow. They are getting the driving lamps installed and working out all the paperwork right now. I suppose when you buy a car back from someone for being a lemon there's a bit more legwork to do than usual.

We Can Ride is in full swing so I'm busy with that on Thursdays and work is busy as usual so I'm just trying to keep from drowning in work. I suppose if I can squeeze in some over time that would be good for my pocket book. I spent last weekend at a scrapbooking retreat with a friend from work. I think total I worked on 32 pages. I have a few more photos to print out from the wedding and showers and things and then my wedding book will be mostly done. I have the professional photos in a printed bound book, the honeymoon photos in a small scrapbook, the guestbook and table drawings in a small scrapbook, and then the other wedding related photos in a scrapbook. Only like 8 more scrapbooks to go! I'll be switching to digital photobooks after I finish the books I've started. Scrapbooking is too much work! Of course I'll still go on the retreats, all I'll need is my laptop and maybe a scanner in that case.

This coming weekend is the Horse Expo so I'll be spending all my time there between volunteering for We Can Ride and going to all the presentations I want to see I'll be all horsed out by Sunday, that's for sure. I even took Friday off of work to head over there. Maybe I should bring a tent and just camp nearby.

Okay so maybe the million blogs I have are a bit redundant. I just realized I posted two photos that would be more appropriate for the Jeff and Elise blog and not just the Elise blog. Oh well, I'll survive.

FriendFeed API

2009-03-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

I've been working on using the FriendFeed API to aggregate all of my posts from various blogs, twitter, flickr, etc and display them on my webpage in one place. After much fighting I finally have something working. It still needs some formatting and I haven't figured out how to parse the date yet but when I get that all figured out I'll be set. It seems to me that the few examples I was able to find were not functional right "out of the box" so I think in the interest of anyone else looking for sample code I might post my code here when it's complete. I'm by no means an expert coder and my code is probably messy and could be done better but perhaps it will give another newbie a chance. So keep an eye out for that, I'll probably just update this post with the code. I suppose I should find a way to paste it in so that people can just copy it easily.

This post is almost just a test post so I can retrieve the title and add it to my list and format it correctly in the feed. Two birds/one stone I guess.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-02-22T20:28:00.000-08:00

Apparently I forgot to post this when I first started the entry. Whoops.

A New Mini?

2009-02-10T07:14:00.001-08:00

Jeff and I went and test drove a regular mini last night. The dealership is going to buy back my car and I will buy a new mini. This time a non-turbo since they still haven't fixed the turbos. The non-turbo is cheaper so I can get more features. I'm also planning on getting some after market stripes and the 3M protection on the front. If I really get crazy I might get the windows tinted, but that won't be right away. Right now I'm leaning towards the new blue color but Jeff prefers silver. I think the silver is kind of boring so hopefully he'll come around on the blue. Unfortunately we have to order the car so it'll be 6-8 weeks before it arrives. I'm hoping to get it ordered this week. Poor yellow mini.

Part two of the Mini drama

2009-01-28T16:13:00.001-08:00

So I heard back from the dealership and was given some options.

1. Get full invoice price back minus 10 cents per mile. Go buy different car elsewhere.
2. Get full invoice price back towards either an 09 Cooper S or 09 Cooper with an additional 1000-1500 accessory incentive. Still could have the same issue and would still get any supposed fix that they come up with but I'd be in a 2 year newer vehicle with the same payments and less miles. Also would still qualify for these same options if they still don't come up with a fix in the next year.

I might be a glutton for punishment but I'm leaning towards option 2. Though just getting a different cheaper car would be good for my budget. Ug decisions.

Really tired of my car

2009-01-28T08:30:00.001-08:00

I love my mini except for this manufacturer's defect that BMW/Mini doesn't seem terribly concerned with repairing. My car is just about underivable right now, I limped it to work today because I had to be here, I'm swamped and can't miss any more work. I'm waiting on a phone call from the dealership manager who is supposedly talking to Mini to figure out what the next step is. Here's my priority list for the options I think they need to extend to me:

1. Fix my car now, permanently fix it even if that's a new motor or whatever (I'm guessing they can't/won't do this as I doubt they have a fix for it yet or they would have done it by now, the fixes they've tried do nothing).

2. Put me in a new mini for no cost on my end (I'll risk that the new mini might or might not have the same issue, if it has the same issue then I'll sell the new one back for cost minus mileage or whatever the going rate is. This would put me in a new car with low mileage so I'd be on top if the problem cropped up again).

3. Last choice, they buy the mini outright for at least my remaining loan balance if not more. If they offer less than my loan balance then we might have to get a lawyer to take care of this.

This has just been a huge hassle. I've put more miles on the car just driving it back and forth to the dealership not to mention the fact that every time something important comes up like funeral (actually it's happened for two funerals now) my car is left limping down the road. I was an hour late to work today because I couldn't get the car to run right and I can't drive on Hwy 3 only going 15mph.

Keep your fingers crossed that Mini will do the right thing. I've already prevented 1 coworker I know for sure from buying a Mini because of all my issues. I would think in this economy a business would not continue manufacturing cars they know have defects.

Building Portals

2009-01-15T06:23:00.001-08:00

I'm building a bunch of silly iFrame portals with some of my regularly browsed sites. Or rather, some of the sites I started browsing and then forgot about when I found new ones. It's not practical for actual browsing but it reminds me to check some of the sites I might have forgotten about. I'm sure there's some sort of service out there that would do this for me. But I haven't run across one yet. (For those of you wondering what in the world am I talking about? I am making a couple web pages that display 6 other webpages at once. I'm a nerd like that.)

Upgrading the Computer

2009-01-04T09:39:00.001-08:00

I've been threatening to upgrade my laptop OS for ages now. I went so far as to back everything up a month or two ago and then never did anything with the OS. Then the laptop started doing that fun crunchy hard drive thing so I was trying to run some disk utility programs to fix whatever was wrong with it. This weekend we decided to skip going to the farm because of the snow storm (yeah what happened to that?). Yesterday I went out to the barn for a while and started bringing some of my stuff back to the house in preparation for moving to a new barn. Today it's gorgeous outside but deceiving as it's only 0F. We couldn't find any good movies to go to and TV has been less than interesting lately so there's nothing on the DVR but Friday the 13th movies. So I'm upgrading the computer.

Unfortunately I don't have room on my hard drive so really what I should be doing is spending my Xmas money on a new drive (I still might). Until then I have checked my backups and I think I have most everything covered that isn't an application. I tried to start the upgrade but didn't have room so now I'm trying to delete things. Apparently I don't keep up on my Download directory. Trying to delete the 2000 items in that folder and it's taking days.

Additionally I am going to try and make a cooler for one of the horses out of two wool army blankets. Sadly one is green and one is gray so the poor horse that gets to wear it will look a little silly. But it should do the job if I ever need to cool out both horses at once or if one horse is just too sweaty for a single cooler. I figured moving the horses at the end of January is going to be a chilly trailer ride. Perhaps I can put the coolers on them in the trailer to provide an extra layer from the wind. If my blankets aren't big enough for the job I might have to break down and just buy another cooler.

We had a little party on New Year's Eve. Just a couple friends over for some food and some chit chat. Nothing major, we're all lazy and tired now that we're so old, hehe. I finally got my car back from the shop. 15 days at Motorwerks BMW and if I never have to bring my car back there it'll be too soon. It's quite evident that they really could give a rat's ass about their customers, at least myself. 15 days? Really, Jeff and I took the engine out of my TA in a weekend and put it back the next weekend. All these yahoos had to do was replace the intake manifold and a temperature sensor. I got it back after 11 days only to find the wires dangling out from under the dash and the driver door window not working properly so the door wouldn't shut all the way. After all that my car was still not a priority to them and another 4 days later I get it back, still with the wires hanging out. I've heard a lot of other horror stories from people that take their cars there too. I guess they figure since they are the only dealership around they can just jerk people around. They lost my business, I was thinking of getting an extended warranty but won't do that any more. I'd rather pay a mechanic that is decent to fix my car than have to deal with these idiots again. A coworker had asked me, knowing I had a Mini, how I liked the dealership. They had been debating between a Mini and a VW but had heard bad things about Motorwerks. Well I only confirmed the bad stories and they ended up buying a VW. They said that dealership was more than accommodating and seemed to actually care just a little bit. So stick that in your pipe, Motorwerks, I made you lose a sale. I'm working on a letter to Mini USA and Penske Automotive (who owns Motorwerks). I'm sure nothing will come of it but if someone gets fired over it that'd be nice >:)

Well this blog isn't titled Mundane Things for no reason now is it?

80s Clothes

2008-12-05T16:33:00.001-08:00

We're going to a big party tomorrow night and this year's theme is 80s Prom. So I stopped at Target on the way home to see if I could find something that resembled 80s clothes. The good part is that I found some good stuff. The sad part is that nearly everything Target had in their regular women's clothing section, was straight out of the 80s. Shoes, jacket, anklets, it was very disconcerting.

So my ensemble tomorrow shall consist of: black and hot pink pointy pumps with lightening bolts, blue with black polka dot anklets, black legwarmers, leopard print leggings, black sequin belt, black flash dance sweatshirt (assuming I can cut it the right way), big hair, and a head band.

I also picked up a Playstation 3 for Jeff and I for xmas. Our DVD player crapped out and our PS2 died as well. Since we got an HD TV we figured we might as well have a Blu Ray player and since we have all the PS2 games we can't play now ... I splurged. Oh well.

Ballet and Christmas

2008-12-03T20:17:00.001-08:00

So I went back to ballet tonight. I found a place in Lakeville that I thought I'd try out so I went tonight. It might be a little expensive and I think you have to pay per month not per class. I'll go this month I think for sure and then see how it goes. I'm curious if I'll be able to walk tomorrow, it's been a long time.

In other news I'm trying out a different wishlist website. It compiles items from wherever not just the individual site you're on (like Amazon or something). So I've updated the link on my website or you can check out Kaboodle.com if you're interested in what this is all about.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-30T10:20:00.001-08:00

Well we survived, by the skin of our teeth, but we survived. We spent all day on Wednesday cleaning and desperately trying to finish the kitchen, I don't think I've cleaned so much in my life. Jen and the kids arrived on Wednesday night and Thursday I got up early to put the turkey in the brine. I have to say, we cooked two turkeys one that was brined and one that wasn't. There really wasn't a difference. Both turkeys were moist and tasty but I couldn't tell the difference between the two. We also cooked up a ham with some Dr. Pepper instead of water. That turned out really well. We somehow managed to fit something like 20 people in the house for dinner. It was a little more buffet style than our usual thanksgivings but it seemed to work out alright. Until we ran out of forks. As I was gathering forks to wash so everyone would have one to eat with we noticed the sink wasn't draining. We ended up washing the forks in the bathroom sink while Jeff and dad and various other folks dismantled the kitchen sink to try and see what was plugging it. A bottle of Draino, a bent clothes hanger, a trip to the store, two more bottles of Draino, and some boiling water later, the sink still wasn't draining. Most of the guests had left and we were stuck with every dish in the house dirty. So we all went to a movie instead! We ended up seeing Four Christmases.

Friday morning Jen, the kids, Joe, Lisa, Jeff, and I got up to go tackle the MOA for black Friday. Really we were just going to see the American Girl store and the Lego store. Barb met us at the mall and we plowed through the crowds. We ended up running into Ronnie, Lynda, and Michelle. They mentioned having leftovers Friday night. We went back to the house and ordered some pizza before Jen and the kids had to head back to Canby. I was planning on taking a nap before going to Hudson for leftovers but I only ended up with about a half hour to nap. Jeff had picked up a drain snake at Sears but that didn't clear the drain either so he had called the Roto Rooter man. He was supposed to arrive sometime between 5 and 8 so Jeff had to stay at the house and wait. He is also working on a short film for a contest that is due Monday morning so he decided to skip leftovers. So I left Jeff with all the dirty dishes and went to Hudson. Jeff ended up getting most of the dishes done while I was gone. He had put the garden hose on the drain for the dishwasher so he could at least run that for a while. The plumber got the trap open in the basement and snaked the drain until it finally was clear. So I've been trying to get all the dishes done since. The kitchen is just about back to clean.

Yesterday Jeff and I went and saw the James Bond movie and then he worked on his film while I watched tv and played Wii (I'm more help if I stay out of the way).

Jeff is at work now trying to finish up his film. I'm planning on heading out to the barn in a little while to go for a ride. Laurie is coming to ride Kalani and possibly buy him. Unfortunately it's not quite as nice as it was the past few days. I'm hoping it will get up to the high of 36F that they are predicting. We should still be able to make it up on the trail it's not a lot of snow so it shouldn't be too slippery.

Tomorrow I took off work to finish getting ready for the pampered chef party. I'm probably going to go to WCR to ride Noah before he finds a new home, then I have to finish picking up some refreshments for the party. I hope to get the oil changed on the Mini while I'm out as well. I might be past the mileage for my second free oil change so I'm not looking forward to seeing how much that will cost.

So that's the update from the long holiday weekend.

Mish Mash

2008-11-24T07:23:00.001-08:00

Where to start? We've been cleaning the house like mad which is a fairly difficult feat considering we keep making more of a mess working on the kitchen. Supposedly the majority of it will be completed tonight when Jeff's cousin comes over and finishes the last of the wiring in the kitchen. Or at least the last of the wiring that will get done before Thanksgiving. I think we're still up in the air on what exactly we'll be doing with the new microwave/range hood though it'd be nice to have that on the wall so we can use it. I got most of the shopping done this weekend to avoid the masses of people in the stores this week but I do have a few last things to pick up. It will be non stop cleaning, rearranging, and cooking this week. Hopefully I can fit a trip to the barn in tomorrow.

A friend at work has decided she needs to lose weight and the only way she can do it is with some sort of competition. So I've joined her little "biggest loser" contest. For a nominal fee everyone joins and competes to lose their set goal of weight or the most weight whichever one. The winner gets the pot of money at the end of February, which I'm told is up to $400 right now. Looking at the calendar that means I have to lose 2.5 pounds a week, this may be a difficult undertaking. I keep recalling when I lost my job I lost 20 lbs without trying so I am trying to channel that energy without losing my job. Of course Thanksgiving won't be of much help. Time to get working on the elliptical more. I can't say we've used that thing a whole lot since we bought it, but I have used it more than I use my bike trainer so I guess that's a good thing.

I'm on a preliminary hunt for a new barn for Cody and Axel. Tom is planning on selling his place this coming spring so the sooner I find a good place the better. Though of the two places I've emailed so far, I've gotten zero response. Not sure what I'm doing wrong there. Guess I'll keep trying.

Well I ran out of momentum on this blog post and since I took Wednesday off to prepare for turkey day and Monday off to prepare for the Pampered Chef party, I guess I better get moving on some of that work that pays the bills.

Pampered Chef Party

2008-11-04T18:26:00.001-08:00

So I'm having a Pampered Chef party on Monday, December 1. Cuz I'm feeling nice and crazy and figured why not have Thanksgiving and a party within a week of each other, right? It will be the grand opening of our new kitchen. Thanksgiving will be the preview night for family members. If I get off my butt I'll be sending out post card invites sooner than later. I also set up an event on my Facebook account that I invited a bunch of people through. I'm not sure the theme of the party yet but I kind of want to fit in some sort of beer tasting. We'll see when the time comes. I have some catalogs if anyone needs to take a look at them. Also if you are unable to come to the party and you want products you can order online here: http://ping.fm/fLctC and just enter my name as the host. The consultant said that we'll be within the deadline to get orders before Christmas.

Saga of the sick

2008-10-26T09:38:00.001-07:00

So Jeff's been sick since we returned from Maine. I was sick for the first week or so and then I recovered. Now Jeff's cold has mutated and reinfected me. At least that's all I can figure. Wednesday or Thursday I started feeling pretty crumby. Friday I stayed home from work. We went to Andy's place Friday night and ended up playing some cards and what not. I didn't feel too horrible at that point.

Saturday I got up and wasn't feeling too great. I went to the Scrapbooking Convention with Mom and hoped to get home to nap. Turns out I had ordered the wrong sized countertop so we had to run out to Ikea and exchange it for the correct size. I also had picked up solid shelves for the glass front shelves and we decided glass shelves would be better so we exchanged those as well. Except for the one set I forgot so we still have to return those.

When we got back Jeff worked on the counter for the sink and I got ready for the Halloween party at Tanya's. We didn't end up staying too long at the party I just wasn't feeling up to it.

And now today I'm coughing up things that I don't think were meant to be outside of a person's body. Jeff and Andy went to pick up some Skee Ball tables (hey look another project and no time to do it). He found parts for 3 tables and thought he could build 2 out of parts for 3 and sell one. So if you're in the market for a Skee Ball table Jeff might have one for you eventually.

The kitchen is coming along so I think we'll be in business by Thanksgiving for sure. I'm going to find myself a Pampered Chef consultant nearby and plan a party for after Thanksgiving, hopefully the beginning of December so if people want to buy gifts there is time. It will be my kitchen warming/pampered chef party.

And now I shall spend the rest of the afternoon sitting on the couch, hiding from the wind and the snow, and trying to get better.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

2008-10-23T06:41:00.001-07:00

Yes I'm trying to get ready for Thanksgiving already. As we were remodeling our kitchen I decided Jeff and I should have Thanksgiving this year. I'm still hoping the kitchen will actually be done. We have the dishwasher installed now. And Jeff's been finishing up the uneven parts of the floor and getting the tile down. All we have left is to assemble and install the one wall of cabinetry, counter-top, and get the fridge. Assuming that stuff happens sooner than later I will clean out all the wedding gifts from the guest room and finally put them in their place in the kitchen, yay.

So I'm working on the menu for Thanksgiving, so far this is what I have down:
Turkey
Ham
Gravy
Stuffing
Snacks (chips, crackers, cheese etc)
Rolls
Twice Baked Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Cranberries
Pies
Corn
Beans/Green bean casserole
Raw veggies
Cheese ball

I plan to sort this stuff out between people attending Thanksgiving. Jeff and I already will have two turkeys so that's taken care of. Did I miss anything?

Why I like Twitter (previously Weekend Update)

2008-10-21T10:29:00.001-07:00

I was going to write the usual weekend update blog post after the last trip to the farm but then I had some sort of inspiration to write about why I like Twitter so much. Of course then Ping.fm went down for a day and my Social Networking world as I know it came crumbling down. Okay not really.

Anyway, weekend first. We went out to the farm on Friday as usual. Saturday we rounded up the cows and calves and transported them from one pasture to the corn field. Then Jeff and his dad worked on the corn drier while I played with the kitten that's been hanging around. I also ended up mowing down at Lawrences. Saturday night was the big Canby Class of 1966-67-68 birthday party/reunion in Gary, SD. Jeff was video taping or trying to. Sunday I did more mowing at the farm this time while Jeff worked on the drier more.

So the whole Twitter thing is this: say your favorite website seems to be down, like Ping.fm for example. You can't really get information off the Ping.fm website as it's down. And it's not really something that would be on a news site and it won't show up on a google search quite that fast. So what do you do? Try http://ping.fm/sEDY2 There you're going to find out that everyone else is having the same issue with the site you like so much and you might find a link to a post that someone who works for the site has explained what the issue is. Viola! How about this: you get some not so great service at a company. You post a tweet that says "Company XYZ makes me mad." All of a sudden someone from that company has followed you and is ready to hear your complaint. It's quite the tool I'm finding.

I think in my head this was a much longer and more well thought out post but since I've had to wait a few days to post it I guess I lost all that eloquence. Oh well. It's just a blog.

Weekend Update

2008-10-06T06:09:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to actually put information in my blog (and waiting for Photoshop to load a PSD) I shall update you on the past weekend. Fasten your seat belts.

Friday Jeff and I went over to the fairgrounds for the Minnesota Harvest Horse show. We Can Ride was doing a demo and the topic of Jeff's film for the contest he's entering was going to be there. So we hung around for a while and admired all the horses, particularly a very large Irish Draught named Braveheart. Jeff filmed during the demonstration and then we called it a night.

Saturday the plan was to go to a movie. I thought we were going to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. So when I looked up the movie times that's the movie I looked up. When we got to the theater Jeff told the cashier he needed two tickets for Flash of Genius. Whoops. Flash of Genius had already started and we had missed part of it. So in the end we went to Nick and Norah. Jeff thinks I did it on purpose. After the movie we stopped by work so Jeff could work on moving the remaining items. They are doing construction down in the studio and he had to get everything out of the way. I left him at work and went back to the fairgrounds for the Saturday demonstration. Saturday's riders were from my Thursday classes so I was the facilitator of that demo. Despite one rider coming in right under the wire and one horse being a bit too wound up everything went well and there was a lot of smiling and waving. When the demo was over and the horses were loaded in the trailer we stayed to watch the Grand Prix jumping. Braveheart didn't go clear and he looked like he was a bit tough to handle but he's still my favorite. We missed Mad Season when we were getting burgers but he didn't fail us in the jump off and remembered that we liked watching him buck. Actually most of the jump off horses were a little wound and spent the victory laps bucking and rearing and acting the fool. Great for the audience. We won't know how much We Can Ride raised from the event for a while but there were quite a few people there so it should be good news.

Sunday we decided to make up for Saturday and went to see Flash of Genius. We stopped to look for some presents and made our way to Ikea for more kitchen pieces. I think now we have almost all of the cabinets and counter. We're still missing the fridge and we have to figure out what to do about the exhaust hood/microwave situations but once we get the parts we do have put together we'll be sitting pretty. I was getting a little worried that we'd still be half done for Thanksgiving but we might just make it yet. I still want to have a Pampered Chef party when it's done, hopefully that will be before Thanksgiving but we'll see. So after Ikea we stopped at work for a few more minutes and then had dinner at Pizza Hut. We ended the weekend by catching up on our DVR and also watching Lethal Weapon. I did catch a few minutes of Planet Earth in HD while Jeff was on the phone. I'll have to check out more of that, it's pretty impressive.

Soon I shall grace you with my social media flow chart I created, beware, I am a geek.

Seriously?

2008-09-05T11:01:00.001-07:00

So there's this mole on my back that's been bugging me a bit, it's always itchy. It could just be my extraordinarily dry skin but I found myself constantly asking Jeff if I had a wood tick, the answer always being the same, "no that's the same mole you ask me about every time." So I called the dermatology department of the clinic I go to see if I could get an appointment. Of course not! You need a referral for something as serious as your skin. So when I saw my regular doctor I had her give me a referral and I stopped down in the dermatology office since I was there and had time. Perhaps I could get lucky and get an appointment that same day. Oh no, there's a 6 month wait to see the doctor and a 1 month wait to see a nurse in their department. And if I want to see a doctor I have to go to St. Louis Park, not Burnsville. The nurse would be able to look at up to 5 moles but the doctor could look at them all. I opted for the month wait and made an appointment with a nurse.

So that appointment time came yesterday. I spent the day before trying to figure out which 5 moles she should look at, might as well get my money's worth right? So in the end I picked out the two larger moles on my back, one smaller but sticky outy one on my lower back, and another one on the front. So what really happened in the doctor's office? I apparently had picked out my moles by looking over my shoulder in the mirror and when I tried to point out the moles to the nurse I went a bit dyslexic and pointed to the wrong side. She said "yeah that one is probably fine but we'll biopsy it" and "this one? yeah that one concerns me so we'll take that one off too." I didn't get to the one lower on my back and the one on the front she said wasn't a big deal she would just take that one down a bit so it wasn't so obtrusive. So she numbs me up and works on the ones on my back. It's an easy process, no pain. She mentions me having to come back to get stitches removed. Stitches? I was totally not expecting stitches.

So I get home and have Jeff help me put new band aids on. Both moles on my back are stitched up and when I look in the mirror that's when I notice they were the wrong moles. I'm going on the assumption that the nurse knew what she was looking at and as the other moles are right there she saw them and wasn't concerned at all. But still, all that work and they didn't even take the right ones off.

So now I wait for 10 days to get the stitches out and up to 14 days to hear back on the biopsies. I'm not really concerned on the biopsies I just thought since that one was kind of itchy that maybe it should be removed and checked out.

I am not a fan of these stitches on my back. They itch so much I just want to scratch them and I have to put up with this for 10 days. I can't even put new band aids on myself. Ug.

FriendFeed

2008-08-29T13:07:00.001-07:00

So it would be really great if FriendFeed had put more specific classes for each type of entry so styling the widget would be more flexible. I'll probably have an easier time using CSS to customize my widget than I will trying to get the API to work on my site once php5 is loaded. Of course some of the CSS tricks I would come up with wouldn't work in IE (who uses IE anyways).

So this blog entry seemed a lot longer and more purposeful in my head. Oh well.

At least it's Friday

2008-08-08T06:36:00.001-07:00

So for now my website is just going to display the kind of crippled FriendFeed javascript. My webhost is upgraded to php5 which, when done, should let me use the FriendFeed API to import all my "stuff" and format it as I like. We'll see how well that works for me, it could require a bit of fancy coding to get it to work right.

We still haven't had any of Jeff's birthday cake. We keep waiting until after dinner and then by that time we're to full. Rolf and Julia are stopping by tonight to hang out so we'll force them to eat some cake. We're thinking of running over to the Dakota County fair, it is in our front yard practically.

Obviously the stove and the oven are hooked up now, thus the cake. Now we just need the rest of the appliances and cabinets. We're still sanding and working on the counter top as well so we haven't oiled it yet to see how that will turn out.

Tomorrow we're heading over to Steph's house for her housewarming. She's been in the house for a while now but has been doing some remodeling so the party was on hold for a bit. Sunday we were thinking of going to Valleyfair but decided against it. So we'll just head over to Hudson for Grandpa and Jeff's birthday cake and ice cream celebration.

Trying something new ...

2008-08-04T18:35:00.001-07:00

So I'm trying something new with my websites. Since I have so many social networking accounts and twitter and all that stuff I'm trying out ways to add a "lifestream" to my website. Seriously, I wrote out a little flow chart to figure it all out. It's still in the experimental stages right now so things might be changing by the minute. In the end it's probably pretty pointless to have so many sites with so much repeat content but some people look at some websites and some look at others. And really if I just have to update in one place it's no skin off my nose to have it show up in a million places, right?

I've tried the API but didn't get it to work right away so I might have to work on that one a bit. Until then I'm just trying out the basic embedding that FriendFeed has. It's not the greatest since you have to click on the blog posts to read them and I find that quite annoying. I'd also like to format the twitter feed so it actually looks like a status ("Elise is.." style rather than "posted on Twitter"). Blah blah blah more internet-y talk that is boring and you don't want to ready anyway ;)

I tried to use the google gadget for friendfeed but apparently you can't see anything on that one unless you're logged in. That seems a little pointless. I think my issue with the API is that I don't have php5 on my server. So I might have to keep digging for an RSS feed deal.