So what does it mean when I have no goals for 2008?

Well, since I have no goals, here's your chance to recommend some for me. Tell me, what you think my goals for 2008 should be. Of course, I retain the right to reject or laugh at them. :-)

My very metro brother has a knack for wanting impossible to find gifts. This year its brightly colored dress socks. I've exhausted everywhere I could think of. Anyone know where to find them in the Seattle area?

The kids and I were chatting on the ride home today about what they want for Christmas and both agreed that they want a Wii and a DS. I think that's a bit too much so asked them if they had to choose one which one would they pick. I eliminated the option of wondersquid choosing one and J the other in an attempt to get both, as I knew this was the first thing they would try.

Wondersquid very intelligently analyzes the options and says that she would choose the DS... since she travels alot and would get more use out of the DS and besides we already have an XBox at home that she could play games on.

Next up comes J, he ponders a bit and very matter of factly states, "Wii." I remind him that if wondersquid chooses DS and he chooses Wii that they don't get both. He nods his heads and replies, "I know".

"So why do you choose the Wii?", I inquire.

And my way-too-smart-for-his-own-good, 5 year old responds...

"Because the Wii is something you would only get for both of us. We can get the Wii for Christmas and then for my birthday in January, you can get the DS."

So I'm at Kidd Valley and the guy behind me starts chatting me, obviously hitting on me. When the guy leaves wondersquid asks, "who was that?""

dunno

Why was he talking to you?

That's just what guys do

Guys are weird.

yup. Remember that

Here's a news story: Toys coated with Ghb The little plastic beads toy that you spray with water to make it stick together and make structures...well the coating that enables it to stick together converts to Ghb.

What genius thought, "Hey, let's put Ghb on a toy for children who are notorious for putting things in their mouth"?

Oddly, the toy has recently become popular with the party crowd... :-)

Cambler recently posted about how J had decided to join his sister and become a cheerleader and now I know why...



:-)

So what's the current acceptability on the word "cholo"? When I was growing up, this was a derogatory, racial term applied to poor Mexicans (usually gang members) or those that had been "white-washed". It pretty much meant a half-bred dog. It wasn't obscene like n#@#$*r but was offensive like calling someone white-trash. My brother & I were going back and forth about it; he's heard it used recently as a sort of celebration of being hispanic. So...is this considered offensive or not now? I'm not connected enough to know how the word is currently received.

The context of the entire debate is whether or not Lean like a cholo is appropriate for a youth dance routine.

Got the skin for my phone from DecalGirl a couple of weeks ago. It took some patience to get it placed correctly but overall I like it. The coordinating wallpaper is a nice touch although you don't see it that often since the phone is usually on the home screen. The skin seems to be holding up pretty well, given the fact that I haven't decided on a case for my phone yet, and just toss it into a pocket in my purse (which was a big motivation for getting the skin knowing it would otherwise get scratched up.)

I also got the Ultra Screen Armor. Except for the one spot where I wasn't careful enough and got a single speck of dust underneath, its perfectly clear with no distortation and I personally can't tell the difference from the unprotected glass.

And luckily for me, the skin & armor do seem to be cutting down the noticability of the finger prints for me so I'm a little less OCD about continually wiping off the phone. Now on to pick a girly pouch case with handle, a bluetooth headset and a car kit. If you have any recommendations...

while watching videos on my iphone with the kids wondersquid proclaims "now this is *our* style, mom, a singing hippo and a crazy butt slapping dog."

So after much deliberation, I finally chose and purchased a new phone. I spent several months critically analyzing what aspects were the most important to me, researching several phones and got it down to two: the iPhone and the HTC Touch (touted iPhone killer).

This was probably the best side by side comparison I found. Done by a Windows Mobile guy but I found it very objective and liked that he did side-by-side step throughs of the various experiences so you knew exactly what it would be like e.g. pulling up a map on the Touch vs the iPhone. I went back and forth between these for quite a while and finally settled on the iPhone. The deciding factors were browsing and price. Indisputably, the iPhone has better browsing. Yeah, many major sites have mobile versions but the sites I need the most (checking schedules on my daughter's cheer team website, checking school newsletters, etc) don't and are pretty much unusable on the standard mobile browser. And with the recent price cut, the iphone (even with the mandatory plan) was more than $100 cheaper. Perhaps if "The Company" offered a better discount on the Touch I would have been swayed. That said the new HTC TYTN II p.k.a Kaiser soon to be known as the AT&T Tilt? with all the capabilities of the Touch plus 3G support, built-in GPS, slide out qwerty keyboard and tilting display was tops in my book, but at $300 dollars more than the iPhone even with "The Company's" whopping $20 discount, was more than I was willing to spend.

So after having it less than 24 hrs, I have to say I'm loving it. Browsing over Edge (at least in downtown Redmond) was surprisingly respectable. While waiting at a not lengthy stoplight in downtown Redmond, I was able to pull up my Facebook home to check friends' status and load my daughter's cheer team website. It was comparable, if not slightly better, than browsing on the phone over wireless at home with our sketchy cable internet service. I wouldn't use it for remote desktop (not that you could) but for std. browsing it was fine. The keyboard takes some getting used to and is definitely a personal fit kind-of thing. I recommend anyone thinking about one, play with the keyboard in the store for a while first. If you can't use the keyboard, it would be a deal breaker, since the phone would be useless without it. I can tell that cambler with his squarish fingers would absolutely hate it but after some initial getting used to it, I found I can be quiet proficient and quick with it. wondersquid with her much smaller fingers, I would have expected to be best at it, but oddly she struggled the most so its definitely a matter of personal fit.

The one thing that is already bothering me, however, is the very visible finger prints on the screen. As an OCD clean freak, who was constantly wiping off my old std cell phone, I should have better anticipated this. Hopefully, the skin and screen guard I'll soon be getting from DeCal Girl will alleviate some of this. I will be keeping a wiping cloth handy but with the sharpness of the glass screen, I can cope. And to be honest, I probably would have been constantly wiping off the Touch also, cause that's just how I am.

No, I haven't let cambler attempt any more "fixing" :-) But if you listen to NPR, you'll hear a rerun of the infamous cubed ice in next week's Seattle Food for Thought.  If you don't listen to NPR or aren't in the Seattle area, you can always catch the podcast when they upload it here.  It will be a follow up to the Noisy Kitchens commentary.

Anyone know where to find Andalucian style clothing in the Seattle area? It's the often seen Spanish riding wear with the flat brimmed hat where the women typically wear their hair in a low chignon at the nape of the neck. Steven Meisel did a great shoot for Vogue in 2005 featuring this style.

I just spent 30mins with J doing what I can only think to call, superhero what if.  What if Underdog had the force? What if Darth Vader came into our house right now but we had an ewok door?  I completely don't grok why on earth one would actually want to consider these things.(Supposedly, Jason would escape through the ewok door and grab the Tie-Fighter ?! parked in the backyard and I would jump out the window into the Tie-Fighter.  I have no idea what I'd be doing with Darth Vader while I was waiting for J to get our escape vehicle or why Vader would be at our house.  However, I could see a similar technique being useful when the Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking.)   But apparently this what he and the boys at school always do. 

I've also learned that I do not do noises correctly.  Apparently, my light saber sounds like a laser gun and my pirate sword is just stupid.  The ewok slingshot also has its own distinct sound.  My brain hurts.  I think I liked it better when we had long discussions about how to redo my room.

For your listening pleasure, I present the new rap hit single, "Cubed Ice".
And no, this hasn't been edited.  This is actually what it's doing.

...the most annoying thing cambler has done. AKA The Diagnose My Fridge Game.

I'll start...

Anyone who's been to our house knows that we have a stupid computerized fridge.  It has a computerized control panel allowing you to switch between water, crushed ice & cubed ice delivery options among other things.  And of course, it has the voice option so the fridge will talk as you press various buttons.  This is annoying in normal operating mode.  However, the computer fritzed out about a year ago.  We didn't bother fixing it since the important part (keeping stuff cool) still works.  The problem with the computer is that panel is only operational immediately following a power surge but only for a few minutes. The kids & I have known this for quite sometime but apparently cambler was not in the know because... yesterday we had a power surge and he mistakenly thought the computer was fixed.  And he turned the voice option back on. And then the computer froze again locked in it last set state.  The problem is that part of the fritzing is that the fridge thinks the "cubed iced" button is constantly being pressed.  And so now the fridge is repeatedly saying "cubed ice","cubed ice", "cubed ice","cubed ice","cubed ice","cubed ice","cubed ice"...you get the picture.  Exactly 11 times a minute.  Yes, I counted.  Several times :(

And we can't turn the voice option off until the next power surge.  I predict I will take a rolling pin to the computer in 2 days which would be precisely 31680 mutterings of "cubed ice."


And yes we tried a hard reboot unplugging the fridge from the wall.

Update:  It is now averaging 1 muttering of "cubed ice" every 2 seconds.  I may kill the fridge sooner.

It can be 90+ any day when I've got mojitos fresh from my garden. A muddler is the best thing I've ever bought!

Anyone done Nia? I discovered it on Yelp and it's sounds intriguing...I think.

I have to say that I'm really going to miss my old manager. As a parting gift, he got me my own Louisville Slugger complete with my name branded on it. You have to love a manager who appreciates the value of keeping a bat in your office! I was going to come up with a list of first targets but figured it would be quicker to create an exclusion list :-) Feel free to add yourself.

When your 5 year old comes up to you and says, "Mom, I need some Math homework. Would you make me some?"