Fancy Schmancy Fountain Drinks

A recent trip to Firehouse Subs outside of Birmingham resulted in Laura and I enjoying the most satisfying fountain drink ever.  After this trip, Laura & I couldn't stop gushing at how cool the high tech touch screen fountain drink machine was.

Approaching the drink machine, I wasn't even certain how to work the thing!  They had a sign posted next to the machine that I read aloud dutifully, probably causing the other restaurant patrons to really think we were some country bumpkins.  How sad is it that we had to go to Alabama to see the Coca-Cola Freestyle? (That's what it's called so says Wikipedia.)  Do these machines exist in Nashville?  If so, I've never seen one.

Here's how it works: you push your cup in for the ice, and then touch the screen to select one of 120 different kinds of drink combinations!  Laura got a Dr. Pepper, but then that opened up into an entirely new menu where there were diet options, cherry, raspberry, vanilla- even orange flavored Dr. Pepper if you so chose.  She opted for the cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper.  I pushed the button to get a Coke, and selected a cherry Coke Zero from my myriad of choices.

Yeah, I know.  As I re-read what I wrote I realize it sounds like I really am a country bumpkin, fascinated by the big fancy drink machine.  What can I say?  I'm easily amused.

iLessons & iLaughs

My mom's phone died, so she recently upgraded to the iPhone.  Aside from the obvious necessaries, like how to answer a phone call (which is still a work in progress, by the way), she spent a nice chunk of our ladies' night learning new apps (a pointless funny ap that makes you have a helium voice & a coupon app called GeoQpons) and tricks, like tapping the home button twice to bring up a menu of all aps running at the bottom of the screen, and closing the ones you aren't using to save the battery life, from my aunts and cousins, who are already iPhone-savvy.

I am keenly interested in watching and learning, too, because I am counting down the days til I can purchase my own iPhone (December 27th!), so I spent part of the car trip to Evansville playing with mom's new toy phone.

Back story:  every year mom attends Christmas Village, a huge crafts fair where tons of vendors come to sell their wares.  She sees some of the same vendors every year, including a bakery based in Haubstadt, Indiana.  They ran out of the rolls she always gets, so I was trying to google Haubstadt on the iPhone on our way to Evansville to see how close it is.  Turns out, it's really close.

I anounced to mom that I had found Haubstadt on the map, and I further exclaimed that I had found the bakery on the map (mind you, I had no idea the name of the place)- "how cool is this?  I found the bakery- it's the um, Little Haubstadt Bakery!"  I laughed, thinking that would blow my cover.  "Really?"  A gullible mom answered.  I definitely gave her a hard time about that one. 

Blogging from work

This is a test.  It is only a test. 

I'm trying this new Blogger gadget that will hopefully allow me to blog via email from work (or anywhere else, for that matter) by sending an email.  Yes, I know, "Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Banks."  This technology's been available, but I don't have smart phone, and blogging sites are blocked at work.  I could accomplish a whole lot more on my lunch hour if they'd unblock those sites... I'd also probably waste a lot more time at work.

So here goes my test... aaaannnnd, SEND!

  

But I really love technology

Why am I still up past 11 o'clock on a "school night?"  It's because this dadgum technology is too convoluted for my simple brain to figure out.

I currently am the proud owner of 2 Gmail accounts, 1 Yahoo account, 2 YouTube accounts, 2 Google accounts, Picasa, Reader, and probably some more Google related accounts that I'm probably forgetting.  And so I have been painstakingly trying to merge them all into one nice happy account tonight, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  Oh, and I've also been trying to uninstall and reinstall a printer so I can scan some pictures on another computer.  And I'm typing this from my old Mac, which is so defunct that it won't connect wirelessly, so it has to be directly connected to a modem.

I also did download a new song from Amazon tonight- Good Life by One Republic.  It's one of my current favorite whistle songs, and was free with a credit I had.

I do so heart technology (she says dripping with sarcasm).

On a side note, I am considering making the leap from Yahoo to Gmail permanently, but I'm not convinced it's going to make my life any easier if I can't link up all my current accounts.  Any whiz kids want to weigh in on this?

Spring cleaning

So I decided I would do a little spring cleaning to start out the long weekend and get that behind me so I can enjoy my days off.  I got the bathroom spic and span, and even hauled the Clorox mop up the stairs.  Give me a regular sponge mop any day.  The roommates don't know it yet, but I apparently pressed down too hard on the mop and cracked the handle.  How the heck are you supposed to get floors clean if you can't put some weight into it?

While I was on my cleaning streak (yes, it's considered a streak for me to get the bathroom wiped down, floors swept and mopped, and cleaned the mirrors all in one fell swoop), I decided to do a little more cleaning- this time on Facebook.

We are all guilty of having way too many "friends" on there.  I don't know my exact number, but it was around 400.  Just like phone numbers stored in my cell phone, it was hard to let some of you go, because, what if, just what if, I need to talk to you?  And then how embarrassing would it be to have to re-friend request you?  That darn Facebook, I don't why it keeps "deleting" my friends... we've all heard it before.  Usually I'm on the receiving end of that comment because I'm too much of a pack rat to purge the people I will never ever talk to.  But tonight I scrolled through the alphabet once, and unfriended the people I truly don't have a need to stay in touch with.  I may have only eliminated 20 or so, but it felt good to get that number down a little bit.

Now if only the number on the scale would move down that much too!

Reading Toy Research

Help, all you moms of little ones, out there!  I'm desperately researching the latest technology toys for Christmas so that I can mold my future genius so that he's reading War & Peace by age 3!

Any of you with suggestions of learning and educational toys for a 2 year old would be welcome, but I'm specifically looking at getting Bradley either a V-Tech VReader or a Leapfrog Tag Junior.  Both are toys geared at instilling an early love for books, and teaching them the building blocks for reading.

From my preliminary research, here's what I've gathered:

The Leapfrog Tag Junior is for children ages 2-4.  You buy the Book Pal (on sale at Walmart right now for $28.54), and then purchase books to go along with it.  Books are anywhere from $6-$14.  The child then holds the chubby Book Pal, touches it to the pages, and the book reads aloud to your child.  More info from Walmart's and LeapFrog's descriptions: 

• Download audio for your child's books, and keep up to five at a time on your book pal!
• See your child's progress through the online LeapFrog Learning Path, and get printable activities to expand the learning!
• Each Tag Junior board book introduces a different preschool skill - such as the alphabet, counting or social play - through 24 playful activities and more than 130 audio responses.
• Open-ended questions and fun sound effects encourage children to take charge, as they touch any part of any page to bring words, pictures or activities to life.
• After their child has played, parents can connect the book pal to the online LeapFrog® Learning Path to see their child's progress and get printable activities to expand the learning!
• Included sampler book, If I Were.., has 16 activities and over 70 audio responses.

The other front runner I'm looking into is the V-Tech VReader.

It retails for $54 at Walmart right now, and is for kids ages 3-7.  Unlike the Tag Junior, books are not something separate to keep up with, you download them right to the system.  It's more money upfront, but should grow with your child longer, assuming they will play with the same toy for 4 years.  (I can't think of any toy that I played with for that long, with the exception of my Barbie House.) 

• 4.3" color touchscreen
• Plays fully animated stories with story narration, character voices, vivid graphics and music and sounds
• Includes 3 ways to play: watch the story, reading games and story dictionary
• USB port and SD memory card slot for expansion
• You can download books online- looks like the books are about $20
• Many titles available online to download for free

My preliminary research aside, mydilema is that I like the price of the Tag Junior, but the downside is keeping track of the books and the chubby pen that goes with it.  (Of course both products have cases you can purchase separately, but I won't be doing that)  It also is only geared for ages 2-4.  On the other hand, the VReader would grow with him longer, and it's all one piece, and the screen is a touch screen and seemingly more interactive.  But yikes, the cost!  Any savvy shoppers out there have any advice based upon experience, hearsay, or stumbled across these reviews while doing your own Chrstmas shopping research? 

Computer Complaints

2010 has brought nothing but computer woes to me it seems! First there was the massive virus, then the week spent trying how to handle that, then the week at the computer shop. Then after getting it back home again, I couldn't get my pictures to offload from my camera (something I'm doing every few days in order to have new pictures to put in blog posts) and now the computer will not even turn on!! So I am back to using my decrepit, old, broken down Mac.

I am bored not being able to blog with pictures, and I'm sure you're bored reading this. Heck, I bet you're not Even reading this! You probably took one look and scanned down and saw no pictures of Bradley so you went on to your next stop on the world wide web. Can't say as I blame you.

I am on day 4 of the Transformation Challenge, and I'm excited to have Scottie Dog and Rhonda Lu doing it with me, long distance. So far, I finally tried out a local yoga class Tuesday night, and I am still sore from it- VICTORY! and then yesterday, I resisted sharing a bowl of ice cream with Brian at 10 o'clock at night, only because I had eaten some after lunch prior that day. FAILURE! And then after I said no, I made him give me bites anyways... EVEN BIGGER FAILURE! Today I'm going running though, and tomorrow I have stroller class to look forward to.

Oh yes, and one more thing- Mom and dad are coming to visit tomorrow! I am super excited since I haven't seen them since New Year's. And hopefully I'll be blogging soon (with pictures) about how we got our computer fixed once and for all.

Can you hear me now?

We knew that it was only a matter of time before Bradley picked up the art of talking on a cell phone! Wonder where he would learn such a thing with two parents blessed with the gift of gab?

A few days ago I noticed Bradley picking up "his" cell phone (an old one of Brian's), flipping it open, and holding it to his ear. Now he's also adding some talking with the gesture- you can watch the video for yourself, but it sounds very much like he's saying "hi." It cracks me up every time he does it.

the Sideshow

I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that I undertook the project of creating a slideshow for Laura & George's wedding rehearsal/reception. What it's turned into however, is a sideshow!

I have worked tirelessly on creating this collaboration of pictures and music for over 6 weeks now, and it's getting a bit ridiculous! Who knew that making one of these things would be such a fiasco? But when you're gathering pictures from multiple places, scanning old pictures, employing no less than 3 computers, and 4 different slideshow programs, and trying to add mp4 files to programs that only accept mp3 formats, using programs that only allow you to add one song when you need many, and every time you re-save the pictures they get out of order, or you have different numbers of pictures saved in different places, it's all kinds of fun let me tell you! I'll spare you the rest of the details, but I am a firm believer now that Heather's husband Jacob is a genius, and my work here is finally done. You people coming to the wedding better OOH and Ahh and chuckle over this production while it's playing like there's no tomorrow!

Weddings and Funerals

This past weekend was full of ups and downs.  Brian, Bradley, and I made our second trek up to Tennessee for a wedding and a funeral, both for which I was asked to sing.  My childhood friend Dana passed away last Monday night.  She was a seemingly healthy 27 year old girl, who was there one day and gone the next, making it the most heart-wrenching funeral I have ever attended.  I forced myself to hold it together until the end, after I sang Amazing Grace.  What do you say to the mother who tells you she wishes it had been at her daughter's wedding and not her funeral that she had wanted you to sing?  

Dana's passing was a reality check for all of us.  We know we are never promised tomorrow, yet we live like we have an eternity.  As I ran through the words of Amazing Grace in preparation for the service I found a glimmer of hope at the end of the third verse:

Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come

twas grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.

I realized after hearing these words again that God is with us in the best and most difficult times.  He will never leave us, and by leaning on Him we can get through whatever life tosses our way.  It's so hard not to question God when He takes a person in the prime of their life, but I have to go on believing that there is a reason for everything, and know that in the Big Picture, Jesus is in control and will lead us safely home if we will let him.  

That same day after the service, we piled in the car and drove up to western Kentucky for my friend Ellen's wedding.  Ellen and I were potluck roommates our freshman year at UK and have stayed friends ever since.  I was so honored to sing for her special day, and stand next to her as a bridesmaid.  

About an hour outside of Nashville I realized in horror that I had left the cd for the song I was supposed to sing in my car (dad was driving)!  Luckily we were near Clarksville, so dad hopped off the interstate, pulled in front of a Hilton Garden Inn, and we used his laptop to steal internet from the hotel, downloaded the track again, and were back on the road in minutes.  Once in Princeton, Brian bought some blank cds from the Walmart down the road, and I had my soundtrack to sing along with for the rehearsal that night.  I heart technology!

We stayed in this shady motel in Princeton, KY- hop over to TAR for a long overdue shout-out to all things not right.  For a small town though, Paglia's where the rehearsal dinner was held had some of the best pizza and service I have ever had!  Ellen said that place is the only sit-down restauraunt in Princeton, but buddy, if that's the only place I could go to eat I'd be one happy camper!  

Ellen and I at Paglia's Pizza

Saturday was a gorgeous day, sunny and 80 degrees.  The ceremony was beautiful, held in the quaint, country Crider Baptist Church, and Ellen was the picture of the classic bride, complete with "Shelby hair!"  I have never been to a sweeter wedding- the church was surrounded by corn fields, the food was in the fellowship hall, with a tent outside.  Along with the usual nuptual fare they served homemade punch and lemonade, cream candy, country ham and biscuits, and Ellen handmade white chocolate suckers and individually wrapped them for guest favors.  Bless her mom's heart, Betty was up at 5 am making those biscuits and ham, but they sure were tasty.

Freshman Friends:  Stephanie, Ellen, and me

Mr. & Mrs. Jason Mach

Ellen, our gorgeous Bride

One funny story was that some old white haired lady turned around and asked Momma B how old Bradley was.  Mom replied that he was 3 months, and wasn't he just the cutest grandbaby ever?  Grandbaby, the woman exclaimed, I thought he was yours!   My mom got the biggest kick out of that, and it sure made her day!

Congrats and Best Wishes, Ellen and Jason!  I'm done with weddings for a while- it's been a hectic season, but next on our list is the Big One:  Laura & George on March 14th, 2009!  The countdown is on!

e-hate-mail

I've been a loyal Yahoo! mail user for years. My internet homepage is MyYahoo page, with all my customized weather, news links, bookmarked pages, and sports scores, all in various shades of pink. My email inbox page is also displayed in rosy hues, and junk mail showing up in my inbox never seems to be a problem. And up until this point, I've never had any complaints with the Yahoo! community. Until yesterday that is.

Yesterday my Yahoo mailbox decided to spontaneously purge itself. Every mail sub folder I had with emails saved into various categories (pictures, forwards, Quotes of the Day , South Africa, emails from Brian, baby stuff, wedding stuff), all gone. Years of my life saved in emails were gone inexplicably in a matter of seconds.

One minute I was checking my email, the next, I noticed that all my read emails had disappeared from my inbox, and it was only upon further investigation last night that I realized all my mail folders were empty as well. The helpful people from Yahoo! have been less than helpful, and I have resigned myself to the fact that I may be S.O.L when it comes to getting any of those electronic messages back from the great, wide Internet abyss.

I'm very sad about this, and would possibly consider switching mail servers if I could customize the color of my inbox.

Change: You can bank on it.

I'm a self-proclaimed Change hater. Moving is never fun for me. I'm still figuring out how to stay caught up on Grey's Anatomy when it comes on at the same time as The Office on Thursday nights (why did you switch from Sundays to Thursdays ABC?! A curse upon you!) And a few months ago when Regions Bank took over AmSouth I put off activating my new Green card as long as possible in a feeble attempt to hang onto my trusty royal blue Amsouth card as long as I could. Change is inevitable in life, and it's happening all around me. I just was made aware of it this morning as I finally heaved a sigh of reluctant acceptance, and decided to bite the bullet and update my bookmarks on my yahoo homepage.

I have all of my important and highly used web pages bookmarked on my yahoo home page so that they're all easily accessible. So I resolved to update them all this morning.
"Amsouth" became "Regions Bank."
"Cingular" became "AT&T."
"MBNA" became "Bank of America."
And as I stared at my now unrecognizable list of bookmarked pages I felt as though I had stepped into an alternate universe! What is going on in our society of conglomerates and corporate buy-outs? What happened to stability and a company name you can trust? I don't adjust easily to this. Mentally I still think "cingular bill" for my cell phone, and if I'd wanted an account with Bank of America instead of MBNA I would have signed up for one with them in the first place! Don't settle too much, because a bigger and better company will come along and buy out your trusted business before you know it.

Happy 3rd Birthday

The 3rd birthday of my blog went by without much fanfare (we turned 3 on May 25th!!!). Hey, I was at the beach, celebrating the divadomain- where did you expect me to be? In front of a computer?! I suppose if I were the planner like MA, I would have pre-composed a blog for the occasion and had it automatically post on the 25th but I'm not that organized. So here I sit, a week later, blogging belatedly.

3 years is a long time to have one's life recorded in cyberspace. I will never forget the day I discovered blogging. It was May 25th, 2004. I was working at the Bone & Joint Clinic- And by "working" I mean I played on the internet for most of my work day- And on this particular afternoon I was internet-stalking a guy via Google, and stumbled across the dude's name in a blog written by my music minister's son. At the very top of his page, there was an enticing little orange blogger button I'm sure you've all seen before that said "Create Blog."

What else to have to do? I thought, so I clicked on the button, and my life as a twenty-something was forever changed. I set up the divadomain using the only pink template available and began by writing my first blog- The List- it detailed my most-favorite and most-abhorred words. My hobby/creative outlet/new means of communication began.

I've done a lot of thinking lately. 3 years of blogging. So what's different about the 3rd year from the 2nd? I liken it to being out of the terrible twos, and coming into my own personality and being more comfortable in my own skin. I did some research about Typical Behavior Milestones for children, but I find that they apply in my current life stages as well.

The two year old:

• Wants exactly what she wants when she wants it.
• Will not usually give in.
• Everything has to be done just so. (Hello, OCD tendencies that popped up out of nowhere!)
• Likes to give orders.
• Has trouble making decisions
• Wants to continue doing whatever she is doing no matter what.
• Wants things to always be just the way they have always been; may accept new things but wants to keep the old things too.
• May begin to bite. (OK, maybe not so much this one!!)

The three year old:

• Enjoys having things the same way all the time; ie: peanut butter for lunch every single day
• Isn’t as demanding as a two year old.
• Likes talking and word games.
• Tends to be clumsy; spills and falls are very common.
• Will sometimes revert back to being a baby and clinging to Mommy.
• Does not share well. ("Amanda doesn't share food!")
• Loves pretending. ("I'm 21 and in college, dangit!")

Thanks to all my friends, family, stalkers, and strangers who continue to read this blog. I would probably still blog even if no one else read it, but it makes it so much more fun when you do (and post comments)! I love being able to go back at random and see what I was up to on any given day, and love that many of your lives are documented in here too. Here's to many more happy years of blogging to come, Lord willing!

A Curse upon you, Comcast!

I bet many of you are getting agitated at looking at last Wednesday's blog- I know- a whole week has gone by, and no new blog from yours truly. Like any good person that always has an excuse for everything, I'm going to point the finger of blame at someone other than myself.

Sure, it's been busy at work, and sure, there have been plenty of little snippets of life that could very well be turned into hilarious diatribes, but it's all Comcast Cable's fault that I can't document these moments for your reading enjoyment. See, here's the deal: I sit at a computer all day at work. 8 hours of staring at a tiny monitor and doing permanent eye damage to myself all to make a buck or two. So then I come at the end of the work day and the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen. ha ha of course we all know that is not true, because the Last thing I want to do usually is to go running, but I've been making myself go- or at least being guilt-tripped into going from my friend's husband a few hundred miles away over the phone. Seriously- that happened yesterday. The other thing that qualifies as the last thing I would want to do is going to the grocery store. Saying that the last thing I would want to do when I come home from work is to be on the computer would be like saying that I also would not be up for talking on the phone any more after spending my work day talking to people all day long, and we all know that couldn't be farther from the truth!

Back to the Evil Comcast Empire. They suck. I am tired of fighting with them, but my laptop that I keep up in my room hasn't been connected to the internet lately. There are glimmers of hope when it will work for a mere 5 minutes before losing connection again, but that's not going to cut it. Our desktop which is in the basement IS connected to the internet, no problem, so I know if I call our dear friends at the Monopoly of Cable Headquarters, they will tell me that's not their problem that the wireless router isn't working anymore. I know better though. Because the last time those Comcast Cronies were at the house they let me in on a little secret in the internet empire: as they add more and more customers in the area, the cable signal gets weaker and weaker. They wouldn't promise me that day that the signal would be strong enough for the wireless router to send the internet signal up 2 stories. But I didn't argue with them that day because I checked it and it worked. I was happily online. But now the tides have turned and I have a feeling I know who's to blame for it. George W. Bush. No, of course I am kidding, he is only to blame for the war (Ted Kennedy, anyone?). The real enemy here is the Comcast Cable Corporation. Their weakened signal has prevented me from blogging, researching used cars to buy, and horror of all horrors- checking MySpace!

Let's all take a moment to lament the loss that affects us all. No blogging and no MySpace- what is the world coming to? I'm thinking of reverting to DSL and joining the Slowskys in their internet endeavor. Also, just to make sure you are reading, I intentionally used the word "farther" up above instead of the grammatically correct "further." Just keeping you on your toes. Sorry for the lack of blogging. I miss it as much as you do. We're all in this together!