Monday, April 30, 2007

No kidding!?!?

I was at one of my least favorite stores earlier today. Wally-hell is just one of those places I go to only when I HAVE to.

As I'm leaving, I notice a bulletin board by the door. On the bulletin board is a collection of recall notices. One mentions the Easy Bake Oven. It states, "Young children can insert their hands into the oven’s opening and get their hands or fingers caught, posing an entrapment and burn hazard."

And I'm thinking that this was pretty much standard knowledge - that if you stuck your hand in the Easy Bake Oven, it would get burned. I guess not.

My other favorite on the board had to do with a building toy called "Magnetix". With a name like that, guess what it has plenty of in the set? Did you say magnets? You're awfully smart! This recall states, "If a child swallows more than one tiny powerful magnet detached from the plastic building pieces or one such magnet and a metallic object, the objects can attract to each other inside the intestines". The last science class I took told me magnets had this fancy trick of being attracted to each other or other metal objects. Once again, I didn't think this information was a surprise.

This all remids me of the Bill Engvall skits with "Here's Your Sign".

G'nite!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Shiny!

I'm typing this post on my fancy, new-fangled laptop! So if things are spelled wrong, it's because I can't type for crap on this keyboard. The desktop has this big, ergonomic keyboard. I have a hard time typing on this flat keyboard.

It's purty. It's shiny. It works fast. It's wireless! I can sit on the couch and surf the 'net! When it's nice out again and stops raining, I'll be able to sit OUTSIDE and surf the 'net. Technology rocks!!!

I'm considering putting a password protection on the laptop so hubby can't use it when I'm not around. I'm afraid he'll visit some website and try to upload some great new *internet accelerator* or what not. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it's new, don't get it messy!!! I think I have him threatened enough that he'll leave it alone....

I spent the last couple evenings moving all my favorites from the desktop to the laptop. It's almost like packing up and moving house. You don't realize how much crap you accumulate in just 3 years until you have to move it. One by one, I clicked on every link in my favorites folders. I found some that were no longer valid, so they got deleted. I found some I never realized I had. They didn't get moved. I found some I loved and had forgotten. Then, as I would decide which ones were keepers, I would copy and paste a link into an email. I sent the email to myself, and opened the email on my new computer, opened each link, then saved it. I wonder if there's an easier way.... Too late now.

My next project will be to make backup files of all the photos on the desktop. How do the rest of you store your digital photos? On CD? On a jump drive? At a photo hosting website? Heck, I probably have enough printer paper to print a copy of each one out. (Some "buy one get one free" sale at Office Depot.... I'm a sucker for a bargain.)

Monday, April 16, 2007

I should've seen this one coming

I have a few bucks saved up towards a laptop for myself. Just think - I'll be able to spend time on the internet without hubby leaning over my shoulder. I'm in heaven just imagining it!

A few nights ago, dh asks me if I had purchased one yet. (Um, no. I'm short at least $100 yet.) He tells me, "Go ahead and buy one." It will be my birthday present. I'll chip in what I've saved and the rest will come out of our *general fund*. Then he won't have to buy me anything for my birthday or Mother's Day. (I make it so easy for him, don't I?)

Tonight, I found a great deal on a "Scratch-n-Dent" model from a well-known company who's name ends the nursery song "The Farmer in the____". He says, go ahead and buy it! It's a great deal!

Barely an hour later, I get the question:

"Can I buy an XBox 360 now"?

Friday, April 13, 2007

Twice in one day!

That doesn't happen very often.

I'm talking about a blog post. Get yer mind outta the gutter. ;)

Cursing Mama had a cool Fun Friday link, and now I wanna share it too. It's pretty neat.




If you do one too, let me know. Do you think it matched you pretty well or not?

Labels:

Officially...

...we got 5 inches of snow. But over half of that melted yesterday. That makes me happy. It looks so strange to see such green grass peeking out from under the snow. I'll probably have to mow this weekend. LOL.

I've been researching laptops and how to get them hooked up to my internet. The night it was snowing, I was browsing the home website for my ISP to see if they had info about it. I found a page about wireless internet services. I wasn't seeing the exact info I was looking for, as in it didn't tell me any prices, but it did display a phone number. So I called.

I got a pleasant guy on the phone named "Tim". I told "Tim" I wanted to find out if I could get set up with wireless internet and how much would it cost me. He asked for my zip code. Then he thought out loud, and mentioned how he was getting sooooo many calls from my area that night and wondered why that was. I informed him we were all snowed in, so we were bored. I wonder if he realized I was serious.

Anyhow, "Tim" was very helpful. For an extra $7 a month and a one time installation fee of $100, we can have our home wired for wireless. Seeing as all the other websites I perused such as NotTheBestBuy or CircuitousCity were telling me it would be $130 or more for an install AND I had to buy my wireless router, I'm thinking my ISP sounds like a great deal. On to finding the right laptop for me! I'm searching for one that doesn't come with Windows Vista. It's too new and has too many problems yet, so I want to stick with XP for now.

Look at what kind of trouble I get myself into when I get snowed in....

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I have a couple rants this morning

Remember my post just a couple weeks ago about the spectacular 80º weather? Well, Cursing Mama was right (as I knew she would be). We're getting snowed on again. Check out this forecast:

TONIGHT:Cloudy and breezy with rain this evening, changing to snow; overnight accumulations of 1"-3".

WEDNESDAY:Cloudy, breezy and cold with snow; additional accumulations of 3"-4". Storm totals: 4"-7".

I think I'm gonna barf. I usually say one good thing about snow at this time of year is that it melts fast. I don't know how fast 7 inches can melt though!

***************************************

Next up to bat is a computer rant. Not internet, not email, just the computer itself. It's only a couple years old. I suppose that would mean it's in the jurassic period on the geologic timescale of technology. But it's got so many little glitches in it anymore. And I fully blame hubby. He's forever downloading new anti-virus software and firewalls and other "protective" goodies. But every time he downloads a new one, we have MORE problems. For example, right now, I can't open my email account unless I go in a backdoor way. And every time I do a search on a search engine, I get automatically redirected to bogus sites that have NOTHING to do with what I searched on.

I think we're at that point in our relationship when we're going to have to go separate ways. Separate computers that is. How dorky would it be to have two desktop computers in the house? I think I'll start saving towards a laptop for myself. Then he can download any darn thing he wants on his computer and it won't affect me. I'll just have to figure out exactly how to hook a laptop up to our cable internet.

And then I'll have to make sure he doesn't touch the laptop to try and "help" me with anything.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Smell like what??

Once a week, I volunteer at the library at Frodo's school. I have so much fun there. (Honest! I do!) When I'm there, a whole bunch of kindergarteners come in and they are such a riot. Some of the kids just grab the first book that they touch and come to the desk to check it out. I find myself asking a 5 year old, "Did you really want to read a book about the state of Massachusetts?" Usually the answer is, "Oh. I saw the picture of a boat on the front and thought it was about boats."

Then there's the kid that wants books ONLY about trains. The library has maybe 12 books on trains. He's had every one of those books checked out twice. Now he asks us for more train books, but he's seen them all. We've tried telling him that's all we have, he needs to find books about other things if he doesn't want those train books again. "How about planes?" I ask.

No.

"Cars?"

No.

"Rockets?"

No.

"Massachusetts?"

Recently, one boy was standing next to me and he leans over and says, "You smell like my mom."

I *think* that was a compliment.