Sarolite's Personal Blog

Found Epileptic Pit Bull Needs New Home or Rescue - The Story of Juniper

2011-03-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

On the day she found us.

She wasn't interested in the blanket I got her, so I put it on her. Still not interested.
We didn't exactly find Juniper, she kind of found us. She walked right onto a neighbors' lawn, and the neighbors came knocking on our door because they thought she was ours. Clearly, she wasn't our dog, but the neighbor was so scared of her that we brought her into our front yard. She was exhausted, panting, and very docile. We just knew that if we took her to the pound, she wouldn't come back out alive, so we set out to find her owners ourselves.
That's her in the center on a group walk with my dogs.

Resting after coming back from the vet.
Fliers went up at the park, local veterinarians' offices, the pound, and everywhere in between. I posted her on Craigslist, FidoFinder, and even the Los Angeles Times. No one came to claim her. She was wearing a collar, but no tags. My vet confirmed that she had a microchip, but it wasn't registered to anyone.
Her favorite activity.

A couple of weeks later, we were awakened by banging on the coffee table. Juniper was having a seizure. She went on phenobarbital, which worked for about a month or two. She then had a string of seizures that weren't responding to phenobarb or valium. After 3 days shuttling her back and forth from her new vet to the emergency vet for overnight seizure watch, she is now stabilized on both phenobarb and kBr. She's had only one minor seizure since then.
She's more athletic than she looks- she learned to jump these puppy gates, so we got taller ones.

She scratches her back sometimes by wiggling around - it's cute. =)
Unfortunately, we've come to the realization that her people aren't coming for her, and we can't keep her. We had already maxed out our credit card getting a tumor removed from one of our other dogs, and now we've just about maxed out our Care Credit on emergency vet care for Juniper. We're buying her meds on Care Credit, and she's overdue for bloodwork. We didn't exactly clear a third dog with our landlord either, but for the moment it was okay because we're renting from family. We have to relocate now, however, and the few apartments we found that would take a pit bull would not take us with three dogs. We need help.

Juniper's glucose levels and thyroid check out okay. She got her rabies shot so we could license her, but we were going to space out her other shots (haven't been able to do the others yet). We haven't had occasion to see her with cats or kids, but she loves making new people-friends and she's good with other dogs both large and small. If anything, she's over-eager to play. She's highly food motivated. She walks well on a leash on most days (she responds a lot better to certain handlers). She'll sit and shake, but hasn't yet learned down or stay. She loves rope toys, and occasionally plush toys or balls, but her absolute favorite is chasing the water out of the hose in the back yard. She likes to spend quality time sleeping on the couch while I sit next to her, but she doesn't insist on sitting on my lap like the other dogs do. She has what I believe to be a spaying scar, but I can't confirm it.

We're currently renting an apartment in Austin while still paying rent in California because I just couldn't take her to the pound. We can only do this through June, though. Please share. <3

She jumped into the trunk while I was bringing in groceries one day.
This is her bath day smile.

A chance connection

2010-06-14T19:25:00.001-07:00

I was at the Southern California Genealogical Society's 2010 Jamboree this past weekend. I dropped by the Los Californianos booth, for at least the fourth time. The nice lady at the booth (I forgot your name!) asked me what the surname was of the family I had in early California. I told her Echeverría, and she asked if I was related to "that guy over there." Umm, not that I know of?

It turns out, another attendee (whose name I've also forgotten!) had asked about the same surname shortly before I did. Furthermore, it turns out that his Echevarrias were at the same mission as my Echevarria/Echeverría/Echebarria/Echevaria family, at about the same time. I didn't have any Nicolas Echevarria, though, so I gave him my name, email address, and the names of the people that I have in the area at the time. I asked him that if he found a connection, to please let me know.

Today, I got curious and did a search at the Huntington Library's Early California Population Project. Here's what I found:

* Nicolas Echeverria and Maria del Pilar Larias baptize a daughter Juliana in 1830. Godparents: Manuel Larios and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Echeverria and Maria del Pilar Larios baptize a son Juan Antonio de Gracia in 1832. Godparents: Manuel Larios and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Chavarria and Pilar Larios baptize a daughter Maria Antonia in 1834. Godparents: Antonia Rodrigues.

* Nicolas Chavarria and Maria del Pilar Larios baptize a son Jose Ramon de Gracia in 1836. Godparents: Manuel Larios and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Echevarria and Maria Pilar Larios baptize a daughter Maria del Refugio in 1838. Godparents: Manuel Larios and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Chabarria and Maria Pilar Larios baptize a daughter Maria Gertrudes Eufania in 1839. Godparents: Dolores Pacheco and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Chaberria and Maria Pilar Larios baptize a son Jose Francisco Guadalupe in 1841. Godparents: Francisco Abila and Maria Antonia Pacheco.

* Nicolas Chavarria and Pilar Larios baptize a son Clemente Patricio in 1843. Godparents: Mariano Castro and Rufina Galindo.

So, guess what Manuel Larios and Maria Antonia Pacheco were doing in 1849? Becoming the godparents of my ancestor's sister, Rafaela Genobeba de Jesus Echevarria Lebrija. Not the kind of link I would have hoped for, but this does deserve further research!

It turns out that Manuel Larios and Pilar Larios are brother and sister, and Manuel was a Soldado de Cuera.

I'll scan these people's records when the films come in (I already requested the baptisms last week), but I have a feeling that if the record had grandparents, they would be in the database. Wish me luck!

Echeverrias in the gold rush

2010-04-23T22:28:00.001-07:00

My 3rd great-grandparents Teofilo Estolano Echeverria and Jesus Gertrudis Lebrija are my most-traveled ancestors so far.

I have him in 1844 in Baja California as possibly some kind of government employee - see Google Books.

According to the 1850 US Census and 1852 California Census, Teofilo was born in Jalisco in 1818, and Gertrudis (as she is usually known) in Baja California in 1831 (her baptismal record from La Paz confirmed this). They have three children born in California- born 1849, 1851, and 1853. The marriage certificate of the 1st child says she was born in "Alta California" and for the 3rd child says San Francisco, CA. I believe that the 2nd child died before marrying, because his name is later re-used.

Then they have another nine children, all in Guadalajara, Jalisco. My 2nd great-grandfather in 1855, and his siblings in 1857, 1859, 1860, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1867, and 1868. I have baptismal certificates for all of the Jalisco children, and marriage certificates for several.

So here are my research goals:

Baptismal certificates for each of the children born in Alta California. I thought I'd find these in either the San Francisco or Monterey missions, but an extract book got me nothing.
Baptismal certificate for Teofilo. First guess would be in the church his later children are baptized, as this may have been near the home where he grew up in Jalisco.
Marriage certificate for Teofilo and Gertrudis. Since he worked in Baja in 1844 and their first child is born in 1848, I'll be looking in Baja first.
Marriage and/or death certificates for each child I don't already have.
And, of course, go up a generation and do it over again!

So today, I was browsing websites from a sheet of Popular Internet Resources I picked up on the freebie table of Southern California Genealogical Society in Burbank, CA. As this is the family I'm focusing on right now, I was opening a multitude of new tabs on California and Gold Rush history. In The Huntington Library's Early California Population Project database, 2006, I found the following from the San Juan Bautista mission:

Teresa de Jesus Antonia Echeverria, born on 17 January 1849 and baptized 3 February 1849, legitimate daughter of Agustin Echeverria and Marciana Lebrija. (I've never heard of either, but I always find it interesting when two couples share the same two last names.) How I know this person is connected to my family is that the godparents are Angel "Lebrinja" and Concepcion Calles- my 4th great-grandparents, whom I had no idea were ever in Alta California. Could two sets of siblings have married each other? This needs further research.

Not coming up by surname, but found by a search by mother's surname, Teresa "Echabarria" was born 4 April 1850 and baptized 15 April 1850, the legitimate daughter of Agustin Echabarria and Mariana Lebrija. An alternate spelling on the mother's first name and the father's last name!

Another child by the same name, Teresa "Echevaria" (yet a third spelling of this last name), daughter of Agustin Echevaria and Mariana Lebrija, was buried on 28 February 1849 and buried at "sementerio." I don't think that this is the mission cemetery, because my research leads me to believe that the cemetery adjacent to the mission was full by October of 1838.

Finally, I found one of the people I was originally looking for!

Rafaela Genobeba de Jesus "Echevarria" (four for four on ways to spell this name!), legitimate daughter of Teofilo Echevarria and Jesus Lebrija, was born 3 January 1849 and baptized the same day.

I still have to order the films to view the originals, but I'm putting this day in the "Win" column! One down, two to go (of step 1), with an added bonus of new potential cousins!

From a prompt on 9/11

2009-11-01T10:23:00.001-08:00

I was in England (from my native California) visiting my long-distance boyfriend. We had biked to a park and were just hanging out, when he got a text message. He told me I wasn’t going to be able to go home. I thought he was kidding with me because he didn’t want me to go home. He said we should get back to his house. On the way there, he got another text message saying “turn on your television.”

He didn’t tell me what was going on until we got to his house and saw it on the television. I don’t know anyone in New York, but I still cried. I called my family, and they said to stay where I was, that it was safer than being in Los Angeles. They were even concerned about me getting on a plane, but I told them it would be safer now than ever.

I was due to fly back on 9/17/2001, but as of 9/14/2001 British Airways didn’t know if the flight would be able to leave the ground. I asked for it to be rescheduled, because I didn’t want to go to London just to be turned back. I was rescheduled for 9/24/2001, and was angered to find out when I checked in they were charging me a re-booking fee, despite their website claims about rescheduling people. I never flew BA again.

Checking in for that flight, the metal detectors must have been on their highest setting, because I wore flip flops and nothing with buttons (thinking this would help me through security faster) and I still set off the metal detector with the hooks on my bra. My feet were cold on the plane for nothing! When I got home, everything was very surreal. Two weeks had passed, and it was like it never happened, because I didn’t go through the shock and anger and mourning with everyone else. Yet, it was everywhere. Only getting back to work made me feel connected to the real world again.

See more progress on: Write about where I was the morning of September 11th 2001

How to scan the old family photos

2009-10-31T22:48:00.001-07:00

"Parents' pictures are done!"

How I did it: I bought a sheet-fed scanner, which was much faster than the flat bed I already had. Then I hired an unemployed friend to do the work for me. I still have to put some of the pictures back, the ones that were in the albums with the sticky pages and now need to be mounted with corner mounts onto scrapbook paper. The scanning itself, however, is done! Until my sisters dig up their pictures...

Lessons & tips: Do your research on scanning resolution and format, etc, particularly if you are researching before purchasing the scanner.

It took me 1 year.

It made me Happy

See more progress on: Scan the old family photos

Finished making copies of original documents

2009-08-29T09:12:00.001-07:00

I now have copies of all of the original documents. Additional things I have processed since the last blog post:

* What appears to be a promissory note from 1904, signed by Refugio Echeverria, and co-signed by her father G. Echeverria (probably Guilebaldo).
* A letter from the same date as above, to the director of the "Normal Mixed School." It states that Refugio Echeverria wants to enroll in the school, and that she has fulfilled all of the indispensable requirements of the law and regulations to be admitted, as justified by the adjunct documents. It asks that the director grant her the right to attend her first year of school to be a teacher, and is signed by Refugio.
* A letter from a doctor Y. M. Cardenas, from the same date as above, attesting to having vaccinated Refugio Echeverria and to her good health.
* Birth certificate from 1886 birth of Refugio Echeverria.

Next step is to make detailed scans of both the documents (from the copies, as the originals are too delicate) and the photographs. After uploading to Flickr for backup purposes and to Geni for sharing purposes, I'll do what I can on short notice to stabilize the originals.

The things that are letter size or smaller are in archival-safe sheet protectors now, but all of the vital records are larger than legal size. My husband made a shopping trip for me to get scrapbooking supplies, as the 12x12 format is the only way to preserve the documents without folding, and within the next 2 days when my aunt goes back to Mexico.

Finally, I'll make another set of the copies for my aunt Angela, who is currently copying my files for herself. My aunt Cuca will be taking the originals home with her.

Genealogy finds from my aunts

2009-08-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

If you follow my twitter, you already know that my aunt and I have traded genealogy notes. I showed her how to use Legacy and gave her a file to start out with, and also lent her my Aceves-Echeverria binder to make copies of my documents. In turn, she and my other aunt (who is visiting from Mexico) lent me their stuff. I think that I got the better deal! A quick inventory of what I've processed so far...

Pictures (I put these on Geni already, coming to Flickr soon):
* Picture of my grandmother (of whom we were told there are no photographs) in a group with other family members, including two of her aunts who helped raise her children when she died. According to my aunt Cuca, their stepmother threw all of the pictures and documents out, but this particular photograph was in my aunt's room.
* Picture of my grandmother alone, edited down from the above picture.
* Picture of my great grandmother.
* Picture of perhaps another great grandmother. Will have to double check identities.
* Picture of my uncle in the 50s with the bus he used to drive.
* Picture of my grandfather and his second wife.
* Picture of a group of kids, probably my dad and uncles.

Documents:
* My aunt's birth certificate.
* My uncle's birth certificate.
* My grandfather's birth certificate.
* My grandmother's birth certificate.
* My grandmother's death certificate.
* My grandfather and grandmother's marriage certificate.
* Hand-written letter from 1908 from Juan Ramirez (believed to be a bullfighter) to great-grandma Refugio Echeverria, written when she was pregnant with my grandmother.
* Hand-written letter from 1910 from Refugio Echeverria (either great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother; must use dates to determine) to her brother.
* Hand-written letter from 1911 from a Refugio Echeverria to her son. Probably great-great grandma, as we believe that grandma was an only child.
* Receipt from 1920 for what appears to be burial permit fee for Refugio Echeverria (unsure which one).
* Hand-written letter from 1916 from Refugio Echeverria to her brother.
* Hand-written letter from 1933 from "Maria" to her aunt Elodia Echeverria (both of the Refugios have a sister named Elodia).
* Enrollment papers for my grandmother to attend school in 1915. Unfortunately, only the signature of the headmaster is on this, not of the parents.

There are still some more documents that I haven't gone through. Some of them are falling apart, and I'm taking my time in this process. Basically, I'm making a color copy of each document, putting it away, and working from the copy. I'm on a deadline of getting the documents back to my aunt Angela's house before my aunt Cuca goes back to Mexico, so an update will probably come shortly!

As you can imagine, I'm thrilled for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I had believed, as had my father, that no pictures existed of my grandmother. They had asked around decades ago, but come up empty. I'm so glad my aunt Angela asked my aunt Cuca to look through her papers before she came on her visit. Secondly, while I may have eventually gotten all of the civil registration documents, the hand written letters are something that can never be ordered or reproduced by paying a fee. I'm so blessed that my aunt had kept them all these years. A big thank you to both of them!

Meet Isis

2009-01-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

From Sarolite's Personal Blog

Since I haven't had the time/energy/etc to actually compose a blog post, I thought I'd start sharing some pictures.

This is Isis, our new Cane Corso that came with our new house. She's normally a very calm dog when she's inside, and a good guard dog inside and out. When put together with the puppy outside, however, she gets pretty hyper. We're working on a refresher of basic obedience training with her. She's big enough to take me with her if she decides she has to chase the neighbor's cat, so she needs a little more work before we can go to the park and stuff. She did great at my parents' house for a BBQ, and does reasonably well on walks. She just wants us to walk a whole lot faster!

Dental update

2008-10-13T22:40:00.001-07:00

So, the status of my dental work is as follows:

Done:

Fillings left and right side
Extracted all four wisdom teeth
Follow up treatment on dry socket from lower left wisdom tooth
Opened five teeth and cleaned out root canals
Temporary fillings on open teeth (they taste horrible, by the way)

To do:

Close root canals
Crowns over teeth with root canals
Fillings on front teeth
Redo a filling that got blood in it

The status of my orthodontic work...

I've been diagnosed by the dentist as having a dislocated jaw joint and bad bite. Treatment is going to be three steps:

Tmj orthotic - Worn to position lower jaw properly. Treatment will take 1-2 years, after which the orthotic is kept in case of relapse, such as due to injury. I have had impressions of my teeth done for this.
Phase 1 treatment - A different retainer-like orthotic to correct my jaw bone, which the orthodontist says isn't formed properly. It should correctly "relate" the upper and lower jaw to each other, so that my teeth will be able to line up properly. This treatment also takes 1-2 years, but can be done concurrently with tmj treatment. I also had impressions done for this. I should receive both orthotics in December.
Phase 2 treatment - After my jaw joint and bone are sorted out, then I get braces. The orthodontist said he'll work around crowns- his okay was what we were waiting for to finish that work.

Man, fixing your teeth is a lot of work! Expensive too. Orthodontist says if new insurance from husband's new job covers more than current insurance (which I still haven't gotten cobra paperwork for), they'll credit us back the difference in co-pays.

So, fingers crossed. I have two dentist appointments this week.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Dream last night

2008-09-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

In the first part of my dream last night, I am at some sort of semi-formal event at a water park, apparently. I'm wearing a black ankle-length skirt, black high heels, and a tight fitting blouse. Some of the lifeguards are people I have worked with before. I want to go say hello to one of them, so I just walk up the slide, which is on, with water and children coming down, to go say hello. I don't typically walk up the slides when they're on, although some people do - you're not supposed to, nor are you supposed to wear shoes or anything that can pit the slide!

I notice that they had put down rubber-like cushions affixed to the slide with very large bolts for the lifeguards to sit on without sliding down. I think that it's a pretty clever idea.

Walking down a slide that's on is a pretty sure way to fall, so I just sit down in skirt and high heels and slide down the slide. Another lifeguard at the bottom chastises me for walking up. I wave her off and walk away.

Next thing I know, I'm mingling with party guests who are all around an Olympic-sized pool. The pool has lane lines in it going long course. Then I realize that kids are starting to get into the pool. I wander over to the edge to keep an eye on them, because it appears that no one else is.

Eventually there are so many people in the pool, that I go to climb up on one of the lifeguard towers to see them all. It turns out there's an elderly man sitting on the chair in the tower already, eating some food from a paper plate. He probably just wanted a seat, but how did he even climb up there? He asks me if it's okay for him to sit there, and I tell him that it's okay today, but if he comes any other time it would not be okay. Perhaps it's the pool's grand opening? I stand on the top step leading up to the tower and keep an eye on the swimmers. I'm still in high heels, how did I get up the tower???

Finally the lifeguards appear from out of a break room somewhere, and I step down from the tower.

Then I'm at my mom's house, although it's not her current house- it's the house we lived in until I was in the 4th grade, in San Gabriel. I walk in, and my dad and sister are there, along with some people I met on Geni.com, but have not met "in real life." (At least not recently enough for me to remember.) They're related on Mom's side, and apparently Dad and Irma don't have all that much to make small talk over. We sit around until Mom comes home and she reminisces with them.

Then we're all around the dinner table, and Mom and Irma are talking about changing the amount of rent that Mom charges to "Uncle Tony" or "Uncle Anthony." I don't have either, in real life. Apparently Uncle Tony used to do something to do with upholstery or flooring, but he lost his job and got another job paying less. He pays my mom $2,900 per month in rent, and they're talking about making it $1,800- which Irma says would be $900 per bedroom. The house is apparently in Santa Monica on Olympic Blvd.

Upon hearing them talk about it, I start having memories within my dream of living at that house. Apparently that's the first place I lived on my own, and I would take the Big Blue Bus to Union Station, and then the Metrolink to El Monte, and then- get this- a bus to Arroyo High School. In my dream, I hadn't remembered any of that until it got mentioned over dinner. I even thought that I've been lying on all my credit applications and so forth, skipping a past address!

While remembering all of this, I also had memories of being at Union Station, and seeing several people I went to high school with and don't keep in touch with now, including an ex-boyfriend and a friend I'd like to reconnect with. Apparently we all commuted to high school?

So yeah, next time I talk to Mom, I have to ask her about "Uncle Tony!"

Long day at the hospital

2008-09-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

So this is what happened today.

1PM appointment: The audiologist was first. She asked questions, looked in my ears, checked my ear drum movement, looked in my ears again, asked some more questions, looked in the left one again, then checked my hearing. Apparently my left ear drum doesn't look right, but my hearing within the normal range in both ears. She says I might have a chronic ear infection. The argument for this theory is very logical, and fits my work history and symptoms over several years. Follow up by an ear-nose-throat person on October 1st to figure out what's wrong with my ear drum.

2PM appointment: Dad had his feet done by a registered nurse practitioner. He's not allowed to cut his own nails due to the risks associated with foot care and diabetes. They'll call in a month to schedule for the following month.

3PM appointment: My doctor ordered an ultrasound of my liver due to an abnormality in my lab work. The doctor emailed me less than an hour later and said that I need to watch my fat intake, based on the ultrasound.

3:30PM to 6:00PM lab work: I went in for a diabetes screening and hepatitis screening (another part of checking on my liver). Results from this are on the members website now. The fasting number is well within range, but the number after drinking their 75 grams of sugar is higher than the internet would like me to believe is "normal." Both my parents and one of two sisters are diabetic, so I can't say I'm shocked. More on this later, I'm sure.

The doctor also emailed me about the dental work. She'll give the go ahead on the good stuff if my blood pressure is good the next time a nurse checks it. Otherwise, she'll medicate me first.

Tomorrow, Dad and I go to a class about blood pressure management.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Medical & Lifestyle Changes

2008-09-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm having a number of medical issues. Here's some current things I'm working on or that are coming up:

Gastroenternologist appointment went well. He had me start taking over the counter medication for IBS symptoms, and will be running a battery of tests to rule out things that are not IBS.
Husband's dental checkup went well. He just needs cleaning and a few minor fillings. Lucky him!
Thursday I have the following: 1:00pm get my hearing checked, 1:50pm take Dad to have his feet done/checked, 3:00pm have an ultrasound of my liver done, go to the lab to get more blood drawn afterward. The last two are added since my doctor emailed me regarding the results from the latest tests. Some abnormalities in liver function and fasting blood sugar. I was on a since-midnight fast then, and will be on a 12 hour fast this time, so I expect at least the blood sugar test to come out okay this time.
I've started keeping a food journal, and signed up for several classes offered by the hospital.
Coincidentally, my sister called today and said she wants to to start doing water aerobics at the aquatic center. Apparently we're starting tomorrow! Monday and Wednesday at 7:15pm.

More updates to come. By the way, I'm about 24 hours away from having all my LiveJournal blog posts imported to this blog. :)

Medical and Dental Work

2008-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've taken this semester off school to work on medical and dental stuff.

This is my progress so far. I apologize for the summary version, but I've just been really bad about blogging lately and there's a lot to catch up on.

Saturday, August 9. I went into urgent care due to extreme throat pain. Diagnosed with an ear infection and sinus problem that had caused rawness in my throat. (Antibiotic and an over the counter pain medicine.)
Thursday, August 14. I went to get a checkup at the dentist. There's a lot of work to be done. Ouch!
Wednesday, August 20. I went to the dentist, and got my two right side wisdom teeth removed. I also got my old silver fillings on the right side replaced and new fillings put in. In total, worked on 6 teeth and extracted 2. (More antibiotic and a prescription pain medicine.)
Saturday, August 23. I went to have my wounds examined. Dentist said holes left by wisdom teeth were healing nicely.
Tuesday, September 9. I went to have a physical with a new doctor. I got a tetanus shot, HPV vaccine, blood drawn for many tests, and referrals for a couple of things. Then Dad and I went to see his doctor. This works well for both of us to schedule our appointments together, so I'm going to try to keep doing that when possible.
Wednesday, September 10. I thought I was having the repeat of dental work but on opposite side. Instead, they wanted to do root canals. Unfortunately, they couldn't use the "good" anesthetic because my blood pressure was elevated. If they could, I'd be done in one more visit. Instead, it'll take many. I need to clear the good anesthetic with my doctor so we can hurry this dental stuff along. (More antibiotic and pain meds.)

I called and set up several appointments today Best of all, I set up an appointment for tomorrow to the gastroenternologist. I'm so excited for this, you can't imagine. I'm amazed at how easy it was to get the referral and the appointment, and I'm so ready to not be allergic to food anymore.

This is what's coming up:

Friday, September 12. Gastroenternologist at 10:10am.
Saturday, September 13. My husband has a dental checkup.
Thursday, September 18. I'm having my hearing checked at 1pm. People, including my husband, say that I talk loud lately and I'm constantly guessing wrong on direction that sounds come from. Dad is having his feet checked at 1:50pm.
Friday, September 19. I go to the dentist to finish up two root canals at 11am.
Monday, September 22. I drive Dad to the cardiologist. If any of my doctors want to see me that day, I'm already there!
Wednesday, September 24. I go see the gynecologist for annual checkup at 11:05am.
Friday, October 10. I have a consultation with an orthodontist.
Thursday, October 16. I drive Dad to have his eye exam. (In the diabetic sense, not the new-glasses sense.)
Friday, October 17. I have my eyes checked. (In the new-glasses sense.)

I have several dates in my calendar of when more visits are due, but not appointments for them yet. All in all, I'm glad I took the semester off! Hopefully I can get a lot of work started and have only maintenance to do next semester. My #1 priority is my GI problem. Fingers crossed for me, yes?

Ferret

2008-08-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

ferret
Originally uploaded by Sarolite

Ferrets are magical and clever creatures. More clever than the people who posted this undocumented one for adoption.

New Blog

2008-04-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'm migrating here because I can email in my blog posts, which I can't do to LiveJournal. Maybe that'll cause me to actually become a better blogger!

Back in School Again

2008-02-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

I’m writing this from the library at RHCC. In front of me are my computer, my book, my notebook, my purse, my sunlasses, my phone, my hair clip... Across the table from me is my brother Bill with his Art History book and to my right is my brother Albert with his laptop. He’s not being very productive, but he says he doesn’t have homework!I’m taking two classes this semester. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I take a class about The Contemporary Mexican American Female. I’m very much enjoying this class, and it’s getting me energized about education in general in addition to the topics that we’re covering in class. We have three books, each of which we’re going to read about a third of. The first book is Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. I’m very much enjoying this book, and I want to make an attempt at reading the rest of it during the summer. =)On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take a class on Small Business Management. I imagine that later on into the semester it’ll be more information that I don’t know, but at this point I’m not particularly enthralled with this class. We shall see. The book is big and expensive, and so far quite readable but not very informative. There is a website with a summary, a PowerPoint presentation, and a quiz for each chapter. These are a condensed version of the book. If Charles and I didn’t have ambitions toward business management, I probably could have done without the book entirely and learned from the PowerPoints and still done very well in the class. Oh well, I’m still hopeful that this class will look up later in the semester.I’ll try to do at least weekly updates on school, but as you know I’m not very good about blogging regularly!Topic for future discussion: Mexican American role models.

Another quick life update

2008-02-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

I neglect this blog a lot, I realize that. It seems that I never sit down in front of the computer for a long enough time to gather some thoughts. Today is a fluke because I'm forcing myself to do it. Maybe I need to do that more often!

Things that have happened since I was last here:

Started new semester at school. Two classes, a business class and a Chicano Studies class.
Started using the family tree site Geni.com, which I really like.
Got a new swim suit and will start swimming this week.
Tried on all of my clothes and donated about half of everything.
Started a new medication. Best results yet toward figuring out my stomach issue. I have an appointment on Friday to get some results from blood work.
Visited Lexie at the cemetery on her birthday, but missed Angel's birthday party due to being very sick from new meds.
Had a productive genealogy interview with Mom.
Bought a broomvac and microwave oven, thanks to Charles's parents and grandparents as well as my parents for contributing to the appliance fund!
Bought a year of Flickr Pro membership, making http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarolite/sets/ my new permanent picture home.
Started using DailyLit.com to read books sent via email. Clever service got me actually reading again. Downside is that I stay up too late at night reading books in bed on my phone.

Oh, and our friend Mike has un-disappeared. Go him!

I'll try to get on here more often, I'll feel like I have something to talk about more now that I'm back in school! I ordered books for today's class from Amazon.com today, and I'll put in another order tomorrow for tomorrow's class. I get free 2-day shipping from them, so I thought it best to try to get everything ASAP rather than wait and order together. Hopefully the other class isn't 3 books like today's was!

And of course, for more up-to-the-minute updates from me, go to my Twitter, which can be followed via txt, website, or RSS here: http://www.twitter.com/Sarolite

My dream last night

2008-01-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Charles suggested that I blog this.I had a dream last night in which I got into the car in a parking lot in a "bad neighborhood." I saw our GPS device still mounted on the windshield, and I made a mental note to remember not to leave it visible when the car is un-attended.I tried to start the car, and it wouldn't start. I unplugged the GPS from the lighter and tried again. This time it turned on, but something was dim. I figured I'd get going and the battery would recharge itself on the way home. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and its battery was also dead. Without thinking, I plugged it in to the phone charger.I drove out of the parking lot and went about a block when the car died. I couldn't call anyone of course, but I remember thinking about calling for roadside assistance versus getting someone to jump start the car,Next thing I knew, there was some lady there to fix the car. She went to each corner of the car and picked it up a little. Apparently, all but the rear left tire were flat. (That's the tire that was recently flat in real life.) She then proceeded to open up the trunk, fiddle with some levers or something, and pull... Then the two front tires folded in to the center and came back toward her like they were on a track. I was impressed, but not all together shocked. Apparently, this was a normal thing in my dream world! So then she simply took the tires off the track and replaced them, then pushed the track back and the tires went back into place. (I didn't know where she got the new ones from, I didn't see her vehicle.)Then she did some more fiddling in the trunk and pulled out something else from the front on a track. It appeared to be two side tanks of water near to where the tires would be, connected to a long and skinny central tank by clear plastic tubing. She explained something to me about how this device worked, where both tanks draw from the reserve. It looked like water, but I don't know what it was for sure or what it did!That's all I remember... Then, after I told Charles my dream, he told me that the car has been "died" twice in the past two days. O.O He's taking it to the mechanic now!

2008

2008-01-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

Looking back on what I said at the end of 2006:

I predicted we'd finish paying my parents and pay off the car early. Those didn't happen, unfortunately.
I predicted that Charles and I would both go to school part time. Instead, I went full time!
I predicted that Charles would go full time at Disney, which he did.
I predicted we would build the media server, which we did.
I predicted a trip to Minnesota, but instead my friend from Minnesota made a trip to California.
I predicted that I'd look for a cooking class, which I did try. Too expensive, though!

In 2007:

January

We relented and got cable.
I enrolled in school.
I started seeing a new doctor.

February

We switched from buying juice to drinking water from our new water cooler!
School started.
Charles and I watched a presentation of Opera at the Movie Theater.

March

We started going to Disneyland regularly!
I took my sisters to Disneyland.

April
May

I took my old high school friends to Disneyland. =)
I took Andy and his friend Matt to Disneyland when they came through Los Angeles as part of their graduation road trip through California.

June

I took my parents to Disneyland when they came home from Mexico.
Charles and I went to a preview day of the Nemo ride at Disneyland before it opened.

July
August

I signed up for fall classes.

September

We started researching RVs.
Fall classes at school started.
Charles's bike was stolen from our garage. =(

October

Charles and I went to Yosemite to celebrate our anniversary.
I spoke to USC and UCR representatives about transfer requirements.
I went to the California RV show.

November

Charles and I saw a production of "Annie" at LAVC.
I saw Star Trek Menagerie at the theater with Julio, Billy, Albert, and Kat.

December

We had to fix Charles's car, it had an alternator issue.
Charles and I saw the Valley Symphony's production of "Alice in Wonderland" at LAVC.
We moved stuff to our new apartment every weekend.
I registered for Spring classes at my new school, Rio Hondo.

Goals/predictions for 2008:

We will pay off all of our credit card debt.
I will be in school part time in the spring, then full time in the fall.
We will be researching cars, and possibly purchase a second new car to replace the Explorer.
We continue to work on a 20% down payment for the RV that we want, which we may or may not be able to do by the end of 2008. 2009 sounds more likely.
I will hopefully finish more of my cross stitching projects. I currently have one in progress and one ready to go.

Happy new year, everyone!

2007 Christmas Letter

2007-12-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

We thought we were going to mail these, but the envelopes for mailing them in ended up under some boxes in our move and weren't found until after the mailing deadline! So, if you're interested in a summary of our latest adventures, go here!

A happy and safe Christmas to everyone!

Geni.com

2007-12-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

After checking out many "web 2.0" genealogy sites, I found that I really like Geni.com. I started poking around, adding family, and so forth.

Then I tried out their search, and found a second cousin I didn't know about, and she not only lives in Los Angeles, she also answers her messages!

We're "friends" now, but when Geni.com releases their much anticipated tree-merging feature, we're both going to have some fun learning new things! Will keep you posted on that.

My mom Beatriz's mom Josefina has a brother Ismael, who has a daughter Dolores, whose daughter is my new friend. =)

Guess I'm staying on Geni.com!

I'm a very, very bad blogger!

2007-12-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't blog at all during the whole month of November! Isn't that horrible?So, here's what you've missed (if you haven't been reading my Twitter, anyway):I spoke with USC and UCR representatives about transfer requirements. Next on my list of people to talk to is UCLA.I gave blood. Harmless process. =)I went to my sister-in-law's baptism, which was lovely. =)Went to a few free concerts at school, and to Annie with Charles. All awesome shows! Charles and I have tickets to see Alice in Wonderland (a children's opera that my piano professor wrote) on Saturday night.I watched Star Trek Menagerie with my "brothers." Great nerd night. Then we checked out the new school together. My brother Rufus and I went to an orientation at the new school.Had Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws, not our customary two Thanksgivings due to my parents being out of the country. My sister Irma came to my in-laws' house with us (as did a friend of Charles), which was great. The next morning I went to Radio Shack to partake in some Black Friday shopping. When I came home from Black Friday shopping, I got word that my uncle had been in the hospital (in Mexico) since Monday, November 19th. He's still in the hospital now, but they're anticipating that he'll recover at this point. We also got word that my mom's half brother passed away in early November.Charles's car had an electrical issue. I'm glad we got it to start eventually, because I haven't figured out how you get a tow truck into the garage or push the car up the ramp! Our customary mechanic took care of it for us.We got the keys to our new apartment on the 1st, and have already started to move stuff in. I sent cards with our new address to a dozen or so people, those were out in today's mail. I also have what is hopefully a final draft of our Christmas letter ready, just need to buy more ink for the printer or run the pdf to Kinko's for many copies of color pictures. About 60 people on our mailing list, and I'm not counting people in Mexico, simply because I haven't begun to think about translating yet! Christmas letters should be in the mail next week at a guess. =) No pdf upload until they're in the mail, that would be cheating!School update:Speech Class: I got 75/75 on persuasive speech. Term paper due a week from yesterday, visual aid speech a week from tomorrow, and then the final. Also, this class factors in attendance and participation grades that I can't quantify (but should be good).Health Class: Average of three exams is a B. Professor says in the end it'll be an A, however. He's got some logic for that. I can't explain all the subtle nuances of it, but I assume it's attendance/participation/etc. Nothing else here is graded until the final.Piano Class: I got my first B(+) in the class today. I'm sure I'm getting an A in the class, however. There's a quiz on Tuesday the 11th, and then another "quiz" for our final on Tuesday the 18thChicano Studies Class: Have to finish workbooks by the day of the final. I'd call them 75% done or so. Everything else so far is A's.I can't believe the semester is almost done. December seemed so far away when we started!I'll try to post more, promise. (Perhaps my wifi working again will help. ) Until then, Twitter is my friend, because it listens to me when I'm away from the internet!

Fall 2007 Midterms

2007-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well, only one actually calls itself a midterm... but anyhow...

Speech class, I got more wrong than I thought I would! I wish they would let us look at the test sheets (not just the Scantrons back) to see what it was we thought we knew but didn't! Anyhow, I got 20/25 right, which is 80%. However, to make it out of 45 points like the syllabus said, he did the math in our favor. He said take your correct answers, multiply by two, and make that out of 45 (instead of out of 50 like it would be). So I got 40/45 points for it, bringing it up to an 88.8%. New grade: 117/125, 93.6%. I really want to keep this up in the A range, so I feel that I need to really nail the last two speeches to make up for any potential further missed points in exams. I think there's a final written exam. And there's a paper, which should be interesting.

My Health exam was a whole other story... We theorize that he purposely makes it hard because it's open book! =P Open book, open note, work with a buddy if you choose, look it up online if you're able... Yet, I still got 72% on this! I didn't even miss any classes between the last test and this test! All of the questions are compound, all of the statements (two to three per question) have to be true for the question to be true, except in certain cases where two false statements make the question as a whole true. Luckily, the professor gives a 10 point bonus for being an active class participant, which brings it up to 82%. I wonder how the people who sit in the back of the class are doing. New grade: 170/200, or 85%. This professor lets you drop the lowest test score out of the 4, which would be this 82% so far, last test was 88%.

In Piano class, we have a quiz on Tuesday, seven short pieces. Yesterday, I could only play first one right in class! I practiced for an hour or so today, and now the first four are alright, as is the 6th one. The 5th and 7th ones still confuse me greatly. Mostly because the fingers move around more than once, and not just up and down a scale! Those two won't look pretty in class tomorrow morning, but I'll have it by quiz time! I was listening ahead in the CDs, and the pieces from later on in the semester sound complicated! (Current grade: Still 11 A's and 3 A-'s.)

Going to a concert tomorrow between classes. It's convenient timing, really. Class is over at 11:05am, concert starts at 11:30am, concert ends at about 12:45pm, next class starts at 1:00pm. I believe it's the Jazz Band tomorrow.

In Chicano Studies class, well, we're not doing much... I've had a few very interesting conversation with the professor about his methods and about the community college system. I have to say, if I hadn't talked to him personally, I would have felt that he wasn't an effective instructor. Having seen his logic now, however, I respect what he's trying to do. I still don't have any letter grades for this class though, which just feels awkward! (Current grade: There's an A in my head, but not on paper.)

When I talked to the professor yesterday, I also let him know that I would most likely be attending the USC presentation rather than his class on Thursday of next week, which he seemed quite pleased to accommodate. He said one of his books (which we had to buy for this class but haven't gotten to reading yet) talks about how to choose a university, which I may find helpful. I will look into it when we get there in class, or between semesters if we don't get to it.

I emailed CSULA about my transcripts that they never sent. (Or the post office lost two separate envelopes from them to two separate addresses.) They cashed our check many months ago... January 12th! I need to find a phone number to harass them at, but in preparation for such action, I first ordered a (free) copy of the check from the bank. Should be here in a week or so. (It's been so long, it's already off the online check viewing database!) I need to order transcripts from UOP as well, the transfer center said they should be transferable. They're accredited, after all, but they seem to be a special case if you ask the internet...

Hmm, there's more I'm sure, but that's all for today! (Future topics: Business stuff, mostly.)

Where does the time go...? Oh, yeah, to school

2007-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm reading my past Twitters as I write this to remember what's been going on in the past 15 days! Get ready for a long post!

First, school update (in the order that the classes occur each week):

Speech:
I got 50/50 points in my informative speech about plastination (random topic). Then yesterday, we took the midterm, 25 questions worth 40 points. I don't know how he's going to do that math! I should have the results tomorrow. (Total: 77/80)

Health:
Took the second exam of four yesterday in this class as well. Results tomorrow. (Total: Still 88/100)

Piano:
I went to a string quartet concert at school. It doesn't count toward my three concerts I have to go to for my Piano class (they have to feature a piano), but I became aware of this free concert series through my class. It was very nice, it made me want to obtain music from Shostakovich, as well as tango music and Irish music. Yup, good concert. =)

I got an A- on the C,.D, and G major scales. All one grade, expected that to be three separate ones. The minus is because I stopped and started over when I pressed a key and no sound came out. I know I should have kept going, but it really threw me off! Remember, strike the keys, don't press them! I got an A on the four pieces. I did better there, I missed something I don't quite recall now (didn't play all the notes in a chord or something) but I kept going like nothing was amiss. He's trying to turn us into performers, so he respects that.

This next quiz is harder, fingers moving throughout pieces to new keys... I'll get it though, with enough practice. I start out each time I practice by warming up with all the quizzes we've done so far. Not only warms up my fingers with familiar movements, but it's a psychological trick too. I remember when those things were difficult, and that makes me confident about making these new difficult things easier! (Total: 11 A's and 3 A-'s.)

Chicano Studies:
The group presentation went well. There were a few technical errors, small things really, like a photo that was attributed to a certain culture by the internet, but was not really representative of them. There was no grade given to it, or if there was we were not told what the grade was. Overall, the professor seemed to be very happy with it. (Total: Nothing's been graded, but I think I'll get an A)

Transfer Center:
During lunch today, I talked to the CSUN representatives who came to my school to talk transfer. The host, the Transfer Center (what a suitable name!) also had a table advertising upcoming presentations. So I went to the Transfer Center after classes to get more general information, and I talked to one of their counselors. We've decided that my first choice transfer school shall be USC and second choice UCR. I should probably apply to three schools for good measure, third choice will probably be CSUN or CSULA. I have an appointment to talk to a UCR person, and I'm on the waiting list for the USC guy (he doesn't come very often). I'm going to a presentation by said USC guy next week.

I was a little concerned that my grades from 10 years ago in the Early Entrance Program at CSULA might bring down my GPA too much (I was a C student back then), but the counselor said that they do take the time into consideration. Now my new concern, having come home and read the paperwork I was given, is that they'll consider it "courses taken before high school graduation." Technically, they were that, but I wasn't concurrently in high school too, as their definition implies. I was a full time college student. Hopefully, they don't apply this "before high school graduation" rule, or I may have to re-take a few classes just because I'll have too many "before high school graduation" credits to transfer in.

Oh, and I need to take a lot more math to get into USC than I have to take for my A.A. degree, so I need to get cracking on that!

Then, personal stuff...

Family:
I picked up the pictures from our top secret last minute trip. We went to Yosemite for our anniversary. Not a ton of pictures, but some. Check them out at my new picture home, Flickr.

Friends:
My "brother" Albert's girlfriend Kat is in her school's colorguard. I went to their first field show competition of the year with Albert, Julio (another "brother"), and Momma Lebsch (Albert and Billy's mom). It was a lot of fun, and they got 3rd place out of 5 for their color guard. Band and percussion didn't get any awards though, but that's probably because the show isn't ready yet. I can relate. Downside of the night, aside from getting very cold, was that my prescription sunglasses got lost! They fell, and we tried to follow where gravity would have taken them under the bleachers, but no luck finding them! That means they either ran away, or they were "found." Who would want to "find" prescription sunglasses and not turn them in though? I emailed the band director, and he's going to let me know if they appear, but they hadn't as of the Monday following the competition. In the next few paychecks I shall consider getting new sunglasses. Until then, I have normal glasses and non-prescription sunglasses.

My "brother" Billy's birthday is tomorrow, so I went to see him on Sunday. I took him, Albert, and Kat to the mall (by I took them, I mean I'm the only one with a car). Our other friends had work. Boring, aren't they? We had lunch, did some shopping, then we dropped by Pavilions to see a friend who works there and get a birthday cake. I told them we needed milk to eat cake with, and they introduced me to lactose-free non-alcoholic eggnog! I like it!

Things I've done:
I dropped my laptop accidentally, breaking my external wifi dongle... It made me sad, even more sad than when my internal wifi stopped working. Add those two together, and it means no wifi for me! Charles is going to buy me a new dongle, he says he wants to pick it out so we're sure it's compatible. Until then, blogging from the media server. I haven't made another attempt at blogging from my phone yet, but I will eventually.

I downloaded Google Maps for my BlackBerry. I like it, and I appreciate the effort they put into making it say "Do not use while driving" when you start it up. =)

I went to the California RV Show. I basically wandered around and stepped into everything that I could! We're ready to buy what we like, but since there were so many RVs in one place from different manufacturers, I figured it would be a great chance to make sure we aren't missing something even better! Turns out we're really not. Of course, there are different things for different people. But for our purposes, the Outlook is still the best. Other things that impressed me, but not for us: Airstream trailers are nice, and I saw a fifth wheel with three bedrooms! Three! Oh, and one class C (that I might have otherwise liked better) tried to eat me! It somehow snagged my shirt when I was stepping in!

I went to the cemetery to visit with Lexie, Grandpa Salvador, and "Grandma" Soledad. (My grandmother died when my dad was very young. Grandpa's second wife Soledad raised him and his siblings.) I've put together a list on Twitter of things to take next time to tend to their grave markers. In case anyone's ever unclear about what I want, I want to be buried at Rose Hills, someplace where you can hear the water from the Sycamore Valley. When we have some disposable income, I may talk to Charles about putting a down payment on a suitable place. I strongly feel that this is something that should be done before death. (I have very strong opinions on death and dying, for reasons discussed in an earlier post.)

Things to do:
We're going to become all official as a business. Charles and I ordered business cards today, and I've been figuring out where I have to go (and what I have to pay) to get our fictitious business name filed. After that, run the name in the paper for four consecutive weeks, then open a bank account. Still to do: act on all of the above, and research business license requirements. Meanwhile, Charles makes the product. Teamwork!

I think that covers everything... be back tomorrow with exam results, I hope. =)

(P.S. I think that LiveJournal's spell checking dictionary should know the word "blogging." It doesn't, go figure...)

New way to follow what I'm doing...

2007-10-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

By the way, I now use Twitter. It's like blogging for when I don't have time to sit at the computer and compose a blog entry. You can send it text messages from your cell phone, which I do often. (You can also IM it or use the website.) All entries are 140 characters or less, and I have 129 entries as of right now. It's for the more random thoughts I have!

Read my Twitter.

Oh, another thing, Yahoo photos closed down. I requested that my pictures be transferred to Flickr, but they're not yet there. Will let you know when I have a new home for my pictures. (I ordered a CD backup of each of my two Yahoo photos accounts, just in case this transfer doesn't work as expected.)

YASU: Yet Another School Update

2007-10-15T16:51:00.000-07:00

I attempted to send this from my new phone, but it didn't work. That's a topic for another day, however!

Okay, here's the latest!

Speech class: Lucked out and got the last date for my informative speech. Otherwise, I'd be very stressed with two big presentations due the same day! (So far: 27/30 total points.)

I need to find a speech to attend to analyze for a paper due in December. Where do you go about finding one of those?

Health class: Got an 88% on the first exam. It was harder than I expected. Not in a "I should have studied harder" kind of way, but in a "what does he mean by that question???" kind of way. I'll study more about reading the professor's mind! (So far: 88/100 total points.)

Piano class: The second quiz was four pieces. Got A, A-, A, A-. I'm going to get together with a classmate once or twice a week to help him out, which I've found helps me retain information. I process and re-phrase what I've learned from the lecture/book/practice, kind of like making an outline from a book you're reading.

I went to a concert conducted by my professor on Saturday. Charles had other plans, so I invited my "brothers" Billy and Albert (also invited Stephanie and Julio, but they decided against it) and Albert's girlfriend. It was pretty good. =) Now I just need to go to one more concert to fulfill the requirement for the class, but I plan to go to all the on-campus ones anyway. Most of them are free. =) (So far: 7 As, 2 A-s, and 2/3 concerts.)

Oh, I forgot my program from the concert in my mom's car! I'm sure he'll let me turn it in later though, or remember that he personally sold me the ticket, one of the two!

Chicano Studies class: My professor was out sick for two days, so we got behind a little bit. To make up for it, he skipped two quizzes and gave us all As on them in his book.

I'm finishing up a powerpoint presentation about the Chichimecs, Toltecs, and Aztecs to present tomorrow. I'm kind of stressed about it, to be honest. This class has only confirmed my "just lemme do it myself" attitude about group work... Out of 8 group members, only 4 of us have done our share, and being team captain I'm making up a lot of work that shouldn't have been my problem.

C'est la vie?

I honestly feel that had I been told "do this 60-to-80-slide presentation yourself instead of picking a group," it would have been done faster, better, and with less stress. Waiting on people that you have a gut feeling won't come through sucks. Your hunch about said people being confirmed is even worse. The deadline looming, and you find out at the 10th hour (not quite 11th hour!) that half of what was supposed to be contributed will not be... Guess it's supposed to prepare you for those real jobs at offices and stuff? Useless half of the team, you're fired! (So far: Nothing's been turned in until tomorrow, two fake As in the books.)

I'll blog about some more personal stuff when I don't have powerpoint slides spinning in my head...

Piano Quiz Results =)

2007-10-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

I got an A in all five pieces of the quiz in my piano class. Go me! All I had to do was stay in the practice room till my fingers hurt and my wrists stung, and I got it! Like magic! =)The book we use for class has a 3-CD set with all the music from the book in it. That helps a lot, to play along with the CD. Even moreso for first learning a piece, it makes the rhythm more logical when you’re hearing it rather than just reading it!Want to know what’s funny? The guy in the class who sits in the back not paying attention to anything and playing Mozart and Harry Potter music over his headphones didn’t bother practicing the pieces in the quiz. Dork. Getting ahead of the class and not bothering to look at the book is fine if you know how to sight read, but he doesn’t. He amused me greatly when it was his turn to do the quiz pieces!Of course, he claims that he didn’t know there was a quiz, which I believe because he doesn’t pay attention. However, he found out when I told him and someone else 20 minutes before class, and he used those 20 minutes to play things un-related to class. I even turned up my metronome so other people could use it to practice!Ahh, vanity, thy name is drummer in a piano class...

School update: Speech presentation, Chicano Studies presentation, Piano quiz

2007-10-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

I gave my first presentation in my Speech 101 class today. I got 27/30 points; the only thing I got docked for was going over the time limit. I knew that might be an issue, and I had already cut down on my content to try to get closer to the time. In the morning, I did it in under 5, but I guess I elaborated on a few more things in class than I did in my own living room. That, or my pauses for dramatic effect are longer when I have an audience.=P

I’m happy with the score though, I’d rather have time issues to improve upon than content or delivery issues!

Next stressor: Powerpoint (or in my case, Presentation) show about the Chichimec, Toltec, and Aztec Indians for my Chicano Studies class. Not everyone in my group is pulling their weight, which means someone else has to. I’m also doing all the talking in the presentation, and I have to learn really quickly how to pronounce the names of all the cities and gods of these indigenous groups! *collapses* But I’ll do it, cuz it’s gotta be done! This show has to be put together, and words learned, by two weeks from tomorrow.

I have a quiz tomorrow in my Piano class. I feel pretty good about it, but I felt pretty good about the last one too and I had some trouble with it.

My issue is that the only thing we’ve actually EVER played in front of the professor was that first mini-quiz (C and D major scales in each hand). We’ve never used the keyboards in class as anything more than desks, so when I practiced on my own for the quiz, I was making all the right sounds... However, on quiz day, he corrects us on our posture, hand position, wrist position, tempo, and so forth... So when I raised my wrists a little and turned my thumbs in more, it threw me off! Wish we played in class...

Quiz tomorrow is 5 pieces of 10 notes each (not moving our hands from the keys we start from, in other words), 4 measures each. It’s easy enough, unless the professor throws in some other thing I’m doing wrong to throw me off!

He was pointing out over and over the importance of using a metronome for practice, so I got him to okay using our metronomes for the quiz. Heading over to practice rooms now to practice for the quiz and playing to the metronome. (I downloaded a metronome program for my computer, called Gtick. But I got my physical metronome in the mail this weekend. I love new toys in the mail!)

Notice that I haven’t mentioned anything about my Health class (until right now). We have an exam there a week from today, but I’m not ready to stress on that yet, not until after tomorrow’s piano quiz!

Some thoughts to help us narrow down our RV choices...

2007-09-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

Charles and I have been talking further about our RV that we want to purchase. We love the '08 Destination, and still think it's gorgeous and fits all our needs. However, we're going to look at smaller things too! Ultimately, the decreased gas mileage and increased driving and parking difficulty isn't necessarily worth it for what we'd get versus a smaller rig.

So, we've been talking about our criteria in advance of the RV Show being held at the Fairplex in Pomona next month.

Some thoughts:

Queen sized bed is a high priority.
I have a pet peeve about showers that you step out of into the main hallway. Shower needs to open into bathroom, bedroom, or wardrobe area for when we have company.
Bedroom needs to be separated from the main cabin, preferably by a sliding door, but accordion door is acceptable.
Bedroom access should preferably not be cut off if someone's in the bathroom, especially if the bathroom contains the shower.
We must have a backup cam. (But we won't discount the possibility of getting it after-market.)
We want to be able to sleep four or five for trips. We don't need another full time bed (like a cab-over in a class C), just the ability to convert couches/dinettes to beds.
We need a place for our servers, possibly converting a bunk bed space.

We need to look into how to properly mount computers for the vibrations of the road.

We need enough tank space in water and holding tanks to go several days between stops with hookups. (Parking in someone's driveway or on the street rather than an RV park are not entirely out of the picture at this time.)

Will add to this later if we think of anything else!

Society

2007-09-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

I have to say, I’m starting to lose faith in society at large. Two of my best friends got robbed at knife point last night, by a masked man who barged into their hotel room and took three laptops (their two and their step-dad’s). What’s the world coming to?Apart from being disappointed in society, angry, and perhaps a little scared, I also feel something else... I can’t sum it up in one word, but these two friends were just starting to get somewhere... They’d had their laptops for about a month, before that they didn’t have computers at all. It’s like this person knew the worst possible time to do this, and I feel... helpless. I wish there was something I could do to make things right, but I know I can’t. I’m sorry, guys. =(

Expressing your feelings...

2007-09-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

I think that there’s something about me that some people may not know. I’m a hopelessly sappy, emotional, romantic person. I cry, more than I care to admit. I’m going to tear up writing this, I can guarantee that. Don’t tell anyone! ;)There are a couple of things that I feel deep inside that are important to me, to what makes me who I am and defines what I like to see in the people I surround myself with. I thought it was about time I shared that with you...First of all, some events have shaped my views of the world.The death of a classmate in the first gradeBack before people knew that children had feelings, back before grief counselors or any such things, I had a classmate in the first grade who died. She was riding a bicycle and got struck by a drunk driver. I understood death, I had had older relatives die before that, and had gone to funerals... but it was the first time that I had had someone near me die that was so young... Before that, death was something that happened to adults, and all of the sudden, at the age of six, it could have been me.Unfortunately, that was something that I had to deal with on my own, because the school made no effort to ease that burden on us.I remember looking into Amy’s casket and thinking “she would never have worn that.” Amy was a tomboy, and she was buried in a light blue satin dress. I wrote my first will in the first grade.I wore a lot of black and white. I struggled with the purpose of our short time on this world at an age I wouldn’t wish upon any other child.What I learned from Amy’s death: Any day on this world could be our last. It doesn’t matter, ultimately, who we are or what we do, we have to accept the possibility of leaving this life at any moment.September 11th, 2001I was at the park with my current boyfriend at the time, in Gloucestershire, England. We had been talking about my return trip, scheduled for the following Saturday, and he kept jokingly telling me that I was going to stay.We were walking around the park, bicycles in tow, when he got a phone call... When he got off the phone, he told me that I may not be able to go home, and I thought he was just joking with me again. He said we should head back.Then he got a text message on the way home, saying “turn on the television.”When we got back to his house, we turned on the television to see fire, smoke, and destruction, along with a plane hitting one of the Twin Towers over and over again on a loop. Although I’ve never been to New York and don’t know anyone who was there, I cried... I think most Americans did.On a side note, this is when I’m going to take the time to tell you not to fly British Airways. I called them a day or two before my flight, and they still didn’t know if planes would be allowed off the ground by Saturday. Although their website said they’d re-schedule people who were supposed to fly that week, they charged me $150 to change my return ticket. They didn’t tell me this on the phone, just sprung it on me at the check in counter. Do not support BA, they took advantage of poor travellers stuck outside of their countries of origin. I have never flown BA since then.This is what I learned from 9/11: Never miss a chance to profess your feelings for people you love. The absolute worst stories I heard about 9/11 were those who lost a loved one and never got to say “I love you.” I don’t want someone I know to have “take out the trash” be the last words I say to them! Or even much worse, having a fight on your way out the door to work.You never know what’s going to happen, you never know when you leave someone’s side if that person will ever come back to you... Be it a spouse, family member, or friend, you don’t know... That’s why it’s important to me that before driving away, before hanging up the phone, before ending an IM conversation, I will end the conversation on a good note. I try to never be shy to say “I love you,” because I don’t know if I’ll get the chance again. The death of a co-workerI don’t want to go into too much detail, because this isn’t my family, so it’s not my story to tell. However, I will share what I learned... I realized that I had never told her how much I admired her work, how glad I was that she did the things she did. I always made an effort after that to tell my co-workers (especially those who were subordinate to me) and friends thank you, and let them know how much I appreciate the things they do. Sure, I had already learned to say “I love you,” but even people you don’t love need affirmation too.The death of my great-niece AlexisMy sister Martha is 15 years older than me, so I was only 7 when she had her first child Cyndi. Cyndi, in turn, was 15 when she had Alexis. I felt like I helped raise Cyndi and her sister and brother, and the baby was an extension of her... I was there when she told her dad she was pregnant, I watched her get all huge, and I watched the baby grow... Then two months later, she was gone. Lexie was born on January 13, 2005 and died of SIDS on March 13, 2005. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t enjoy life... A part of our family was gone, a part of me was gone with it...The day before the funeral, my friend Jenny Bell, my fiance (now husband) Charles, my sister Irma, and myself spent together at Irma’s house making salads and painting little stars pink and little hearts white... It was the best thing we could be doing, spending that time together. I wish the rest of the family had decided to participate. My friend David then helped us by setting up the auditorium across the street from work for dinner while we were at the funeral, along with some of the lifeguards. I’ll forever love and appreciate Jenny, David, and my friends from work for what they did for our family during our time of need. (And Charles, of course! Now he’s part of our family, so of course I’ll always love and appreciate him, not only for this but for a lot of things!)What I learned from this experience: Sometimes it takes a village... Charles, Jenny, and David supported Irma and me, but what they were really doing was supporting our whole family. By keeping us sane, and perhaps even strong on our good days, they enabled us to help everyone else... Thank you. I also learned that sometimes it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, but who you’re doing it with. Something as mundane as preparing salads can be so soothing and powerful with the right people...This is long enough already, so I’ll tell you about what I like in my friends some other time. Moral of the story is: Don’t hold things inside, tell it like it is. If you appreciate or love someone, let them know.By the way, I define love as the deepest and most sincere respect, admiration, and concern for a person that someone is capable of having. (Then of course, there’s the kind of love I have for my husband, that’s a step above that!) I have many acquaintances, but those friends whom I love, I consider family. You should know who you are.

RV Shopping

2007-09-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Charles and I have decided that the next upgrade to our lifestyle is going to be full-timing in a motor home. We've been seeing a lot of motor homes on the road lately, which got this conversation started.

For less than $200,000 (plus taxes, registration, etc) we can have a gorgeous, brand new, fully-furnished, decorated home. All appliances included, including two televisions. Do you know what you can buy in Los Angeles county for $200,000? Maaaybe 2/3 of a house in the middle of the desert, or 2/5 of a house in a middle class neighborhood. (We could get a livable RV for less, but some perks that come in handy for full time use do cost money.)

I went to a dealership on Saturday and checked out pretty much every model they had on hand. This is the model that we are currently planning on pursuing:
http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/winnebago/destination/index.php

Some of the things we like about it:

It's gorgeous and classy, inside and out. Very good first impression when you come in the door.
The chairs are plush and comfy.
All appliances included, such as fridge, stove, microwave, and two televisions (30 inch in the living room, 20 inch in the bedroom).
The bathroom is self-contained, as opposed to shower on one side and toilet/sink on the other side of the aisle. With the back slide-out, umm, slid out, there's even a hallway to walk to the bedroom without going through the bathroom. Only one of two RVs I saw with this feature.
Plenty of head room and elbow room in the shower. In fact, more usable elbow room than in our current apartment!
No major downside to having the slide-outs in (such as you would when driving or when parked on the street). Some other models made the bed or kitchen sink un-available when the slide-outs were in. So there won't be any dancing in the aisle, but it's otherwise the same as with everything extended.
The bedroom has sliding doors for privacy and a queen size bed (which can be upgraded to king).
Plenty of room for company on trips: Queen size bed in the back, queen size fold-out couch, the dinette makes a twin size bed, and three can sleep in the reclining chairs if they had to. (5 horizontal, three in recliners, total of up to 8 people!)
Optional combo washer/dryer in the bedroom. It's right next to the closet, can't be more convenient than that!

Comments welcome of course, but we're pretty sure of ourselves here! =)

Multitasking

2007-08-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Just FYI, my multitasking stats are as follows:

Talk and drive: PASSED
Text and drive: FAILED
Walk and chew gum: PASSED
Walk and talk: PASSED
Walk, talk, and chew gum: PASSED
Walk, talk, and open door: FAILED

The door decided to get better acquainted with my left big toe... I had quarters for the dryer in my right hand, opened the door with my left (that was my first mistake), and was talking to someone who was on the couch... Far too complicated, my poor toe paid the price! Lots of blood, pretty bad looking for a few days, and lost a sliver of nail too...

Healing nicely now, though, those first aid skills from work come in handy from time to time.

Sleeping is good for your health

2007-08-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

One of my friends disagrees, but I personally like sleep... Caffeine is not a good substitute, because eventually you have to come down... That or keep upping your dosage of caffeine, to the point where you drink three energy drinks in one sitting. Even when I worked nights I never needed more than one energy drink and a few sodas!You know what else is good for your health? Simplifying, getting rid of stuff, having a clean house... That's what I need to work on in the near future. My sleep cycle got messed up recently for a number of reasons, so my energy level has been lower than usual. However, once this is back in check, I plan to get cracking on some work here... I also have to work on this because I start school in the beginning of September.Fall classes are as follows:Monday and Wednesday11:20-12:45 Speech 10113:00-14:25 Health 011Tuesday and Thursday:09:40-11:15 Music 321 (Piano)13:00-14:25 Chicano Studies 007All of these are general education requirements except for Piano. I already have a music class I took at CSULA, so I wouldn't need to do this, but I've always wanted to learn. My parents think I'm silly, but so be it!

About cousins, and information from family! (Oh, and documents)

2007-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

I went to my cousin Patty's wedding yesterday. (I'm Patti with an I, she's Patty with a Y.) After growing up all my life thinking that we were second cousins, because our moms are "primas hermanas," I found out that it's in fact un-true! I asked my mom, in an attempt to slyly gather genealogical information from her, how exactly they're cousins. I lead off with confirming that it's on my mom's dad's side of the family. Then she tells me that actually her (my mom's) dad and the "prima hermana's" mom are cousins, they're the actual "primos hermanos." Shock and awe!

So in fact, we're third cousins, not second! I still have to figure this out...

Patti ----- Patty (3rd cousins)
Beatriz ----- Teresa (2nd cousins) (She has my mom's maiden name as her second last name, meaning she got the surname from her mom)
Manuel ----- Teresa's mom, ? (1st cousins) (To pass the surname on, she would have had to get it from her father)
Anastacio ----- Anastacio's brother, Teresa's grandfather, ? (siblings)

At this time, I don't have any siblings listed for Anastacio in my database. This is a whole new branch at a high level that I think will be worth exploring. Maybe I can talk mom into willingly giving up information soon. (My parents have strong anti-LDS sentiments, which seems to translate into anti-genealogy as well.) If not, I'll have to hit up my cousin Patty for information.

On another equally exciting note, my documents from Manitoba arrived yesterday while I was away. Some good new leads, a few French terms to translate, and a lot of bad handwriting to decipher! Boy am I glad we mostly type things nowadays! Doctors and others with bad handwriting should not be allowed to write on vital documents!

Fake milk jello

2007-07-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't written a month because I haven't been particularly inspired when I had the time and I haven't had the time when I've been inspired to write. Some topics for future discussion:

Yahoo photos is shutting down.
Switched servers with my husband.
Registered for my fall classes.

Today's topic, however, is milk gelatin, of the fake variety.

I had this craving for milk jello for some reason, I haven't had any in aaaages. Thus far, every recipe I've used Lactaid in as a 1:1 milk substitute has come out well. So this morning I was going to go to the grocery store and I called my mom for the recipe. I was unable to find anything like this online for some reason, so I decided that I must tell the internet how this is made!

The original recipe my mom gave me:
Put in as much milk as the unflavored gelatin says you should, minus half a cup.
Put in sugar to taste. (She says to make it a little overly sweet, and that'll come out good when it's done.)
Put in a stick of cinnamon.
Add a dash of rum or wine if you have some around.
Heat over low to medium heat.
Stir the gelatin (as much as the packet says you should for how much milk you're using) into the cold half cup of milk, where it's supposed to dissolve easier than in the hot milk.
When the milk is "nearly" boiling, add the rest of the milk with the gelatin.
Stir until boiling, turn off heat and allow to cool.
Refrigerate overnight.

My mom sometimes had some rompope which was supposedly made by nuns in Mexico. It's made with egg yolk, vanilla, cinnamon, ground almond, milk, sugar, and alcohol, probably rum. You pour some on the jello immediately prior to eating it. If my parents haven't gone to Mexico lately, however, they don't have rompope. I don't know if this means there are no sources to get it here, or it's inferior. =P

My experimentation on this recipe:
I used 5 cups of Lactaid total, and 5 packets of gelatin. (1 packet per cup is what's recommended for juice-based gelatin, hope it holds true for milk)
About 3/4 of a cup of sugar.
I think the cinnamon sticks I used are smaller than mom's, mine came in a jar from the spice section, hers come from a bin at the produce store. =P
Added a dab of vanilla extract, and a smaller dab of almond extract. (It may be of interest to note that these were inspirations I had in the spice area of the grocery store, before I knew what rompope was made of.)

It's currently cooling, we'll see how it comes out! I have 9 servings of about 2/3 of a cup each, perfect snack or desert size in my opinion. They're in disposable plastic cups, which my mom would never do! (She has kajillions of real cups.) Main issue with this is that I couldn't put the finished product in right away because the cup would melt. =P

On a side note, I need to put a fan in my kitchen! Toiling over a boiling pot of milk reminds me of how there's no air flow in there!

Update: Flavor is good, perhaps more cinnamon next time. It's a little too solid, however. I'm thinking 3 packets for 5 cups next time. We shall see. =)

Nemo Ride Review

2007-06-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

It's been an action packed couple of days!

I went down to my parents' house for the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday I went to the 2nd Arroyo High School All-Class Reunion. It was well organized, and I'm glad that I went. There weren't a lot of people from my age group though, mostly older people!

On Sunday I went to see my sister for a massage. It turns out I was pretty broken after all! I knew I had tightness in the back of my thighs, but the knots in the back of my calves and in my upper back were news to me! Irma suggested that I go back to see her once a week, and I think I will. She leaves you pretty beat up, but it feels better afterward... Not soon enough afterward, though. For future reference, do not get a deep tissue massage the day before going to a theme park!

On Monday I took my parents and Irma to Disneyland. We actually saw pretty much everything that interested us, because as a group we weren't interested in the things that have a long wait and because the few things that did have a wait we went to the front of the line for because my dad uses an electric scooter when we go to theme parks. Mom refused to have any pictures taken unfortunately!

In the evening, Charles met us at Disneyland and we went to preview the new Nemo ride. (Only Charles and me, it was limited to cast members and dependents at this point.) They took the submarines that were there before, repainted them, and converted them from diesel to electric. Then they added a bunch of new show elements. Overall, it's really cool. The best part was how everyone else was looking at us in line when they couldn't go on!

My impressions of the ride (SPOILERS AHEAD!):

The pre-ride area isn't particularly Nemo-ish, making it a bit too obvious that it's a re-theme. Same goes for the view from the windows before you depart and in the first few minutes of the ride. Although, what I would do if I ruled the world would be to theme the pre-ride area to some "explore the lost city" excursion in the style of the Jungle Cruise.
I love love love the sea gulls on the buoy (you can see them from the line area). Mine! Mine! It's the perfect bridge to get people into the movie mood, and they're a good match to the movie as I remember it.
The queue and loading area are fast and efficient. The cast members got people moving and ready to go, very clear and well organized. If you had twice as many subs in the water, the people would be ready waiting to board before they came around. Well done, cast members!
There's a male and a female character talking to each other over the speakers. Everyone knows there are no women on submarines! =P
I would have liked to see the two human characters in the water be at least a little bit animated. Kick of the flippers, maybe a small wave at the big yellow submarine that's floating by at close range?
Once or twice I felt like the glass a feature was behind was too visible, but it might not have been if I didn't know there was glass.
Soon after the point we identified as when you went into the cave (the light suddenly got very low), there were three voices talking over each other: the narrator talking to us about something to do with remarkable advances in some such, along with the male captain and female crew member having a conversation with each other. I don't know what happened here. Is one of them cast member activated and one is activated by where you are on the track, perhaps? It was very distracting trying to figure out which one to listen to though!
I wasn't quite buying the volcano thing until near the end of that story arc when you finally see it. Even then, it didn't elicit a word from our captain or crew characters, so it must not have been dangerous!
Most of the animated features were awesome. A few of them were not bright enough, making them look a tad translucent. Translucent marine animals = fake marine animals...
The mine field was awesome. The anglers were awesome.
My husband Charles was sitting under the forward hatch and some water fell on him mid-ride. The cast member said that wasn't supposed to happen and that she'd alert her lead about it. My guess is that condensation from inside the cave area dripped on the hatch, and since it doesn't go underwater it doesn't seal water-tight.
"Why's that whale eating that yellow submarine, dude?" Hehehehe. Cute, maybe even a little clever, however someone had to point out to me that we had been eaten. Need a visual here! (There's a visual when you get out of the whale, but not when you get in.)
"We better take her up before we have a run in with a sea serpent or encounter a mermaid!" Nice!
I would have liked the two characters to guide us through a bit more of the voyage toward the end... the captain and female crew member are conspicuously silent as we go through a mine field, anglers, jellyfish, eaten by a whale, pass an erupting volcano... then they just come back to say "We better take her up" like they've been there all along!

Overall, A- just because the cool factor of the things that went well is enough to compensate for the awkwardness of the non-story. That and it's a 12 minute ride, that gives it a bump right there.

Longest I'd wait for this ride (barring the "I have to see it all in one day" factor of visiting out of state, etc): 45 minutes.

Visit with some new-ish friends =)

2007-05-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Charles, Mike, and I went to the home of one of Charles's co-workers yesterday for Memorial Day. I had a great time.After lunch and swimming, we decided to stay for dinner too! Then we had some trouble finding our way around a traffic jam on the freeway, so we didn't get home until like 11:00pm! It was all good though. =)The couple who had us over have lived in numerous states before ending up in our area. It sounds almost exciting, going to new places and such. Then I thought, however, about how silly it would be for Charles and I to move around. Obviously, the place to be is here if that's where people settle in the end!

Visit from an oooold friend

2007-05-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

There are very few people I still speak to today that I've known longer than my friend Andy. He and I met back in the day on a mud, and he is an exceptional person! Throughout many years, he's always been a great friend.

I had planned to go to Minnesota to meet him in person for his college graduation, but I wasn't able to make the trip in the end. However, he and a friend of his (my new friend Matt) came to California this week and dropped by yesterday to meet me and my husband Charles. So of course, I took them to Disneyland!

I had a great time, and they say they did too! =) I hope the rest of their trip goes very well, and that it won't be the only time we meet!

Pictures are at the usual place. Not as many of them as I normally take on Disneyland trips, but enough to remember the day by!

So about medical care...

2007-05-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to point something out that annoyed me recently...When I was un-insured, I was charged $15 for a one-month supply of the generic thyroid medication I take.When we got new insurance, the pharmacy assumed I would want the brand name. It was about $26, less than my $35 co-pay at the time for brand name medication so I had to pay 100% and the insurance company paid nothing.Then we got another new insurance when Charles was switched from contractor to full time. Now the same brand name medication bears a sticker that says such:Amount: 14.49You pay: 5.07Ins pays: 9.42Reminds me of when a Ford dealership quoted us $4,000 for a repair, and then after they learned it was covered by insurance the quote dropped to about $2,500.This ridiculous price gouging is infuriating! Because I had no insurance, they were charging me almost twice as much as what they tell the insurance company the medicine is worth! I was being charged an $11 un-insured tax! Not only that, but generic medicine out of pocket costs more than brand name to the insurance company???Horrible. This is why people should shop around for products and services and consult experts when appropriate. For example, see a mechanic you trust before you let an oil-change-only place fix anything on your car other than your oil. (Not random, that's on my to do list for the near future.)

Disneyland again, again... or...?

2007-05-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, my camera would have me believe that I went to Disneyland yesterday with Julio, Kassie, and Albert. However, the car would have me believe otherwise.

I suppooooosedly filled up the tank with gas in El Monte.
Drove 25.7 miles to Disneyland.
Drove Kassie home to El Monte. (27.5 miles)
Drove Albert to Circle K to be picked up by his mom. (1.6 miles)
Drove Julio to my mom's house where he had his car. (0.6 miles)
Drove home to North Hollywood. (30 miles)
Drove to school this morning. (3.9 miles)
Then back home (3.9 miles)
Drove to the doctor's office. (5.8 miles)
And back... (5.8 miles)

104 miles that my camera would have me believe I've driven since I filled up the tank yesterday, and I have this much gas:

Something's not adding up here!

If you want to examine the photographic "evidence" for yourself, click here. (On a side note, I have 1,197 pictures in my Yahoo pictures site now, go me! You can download the pictures full size or even have them sent to your house or to be picked up at your local Target!)

Disneyland w/ some old friends

2007-05-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Not old as in old, you know, but people I've known for nearly a decade. =)

I stayed at my mom's house on Wednesday night so we could get an earlier start out of El Monte. I picked up Stephanie, Billy, and Billy's brother Albert and we drove down to Disneyland. on Thursday morning We got there shortly before opening, and there wasn't any line for the first three of four things we went on. It was great. =) We actually saw almost everything we wanted to see!

On Sunday, I'm taking Julio and Kassie (who had to work on Thursday) and probably Albert again. Charles and I went both Saturday and Sunday last weekend (but not all day). I may have to keep a close eye on my magicalness consumption, four visits in two weeks may be dangerous! =P

Pictures at the usual place- here.

Don't fly over Disneyland

2007-04-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

So for a solid week, NBC was airing commercials about a news story coming up about Disneyland. I quote, because I have it recorded when they played the commercial during my soap opera:

"(Picture of castle) Disneyland: (video of teacups spinning) a place (Minnie Mouse taking a picture with some teenage girls) where millions escape (boy with mouse ears on his dad's shoulders, dissolves into video of people on Astro Orbitor) into the world of fantasy, (page curls up into aerial shot of the plaza at the north end of main street) but is the magic kingdom (black and white closeup on a datebook someone's flipping pages in) receiving (black and white closeup of a male hand writing in the datebook) special privileges to (back to color, mouse ear balloons) maintain that fantasy? (Chuck Henry standing across the street from a Disney building in Burbank, NBC had to drive almost half a mile to get that shot!) Chuck Henry (small plane banking right over a residential area) uncovers what's happening (NBC ad) above (back to a castle shot, flanked by blue and logos as are all future images) the Happiest (the castle shot changes to a shot of a crowd with a monorail track in the background) Place on Earth. (Same plane as before, flying toward the camera from a hilly background) Thursday on the Channel (Mickey in flowers in front of the Main Street train station) 4 news at 11."

That's 16 images in 15 seconds, with at least three different transition techniques between them.

Well, they said that there was something going on above Disneyland. Another commercial, which I deleted without thinking about it, says that this privilege is not given to any other place, including a nuclear power plant or LAX (the Los Angeles International Airport, never did figure out where they got X from International, but that's a subject for another post).

So, I'm thinking, what could Disneyland get that other people don't? A no fly zone was my first thought, but then I thought, "what would LAX doooo if it had a no fly zone around it???" Become a new NASCAR venue?

My next thought was maybe they can keep their nightly fireworks display even though it's illegal (I'm not sure if it's illegal there or not, this is just my train of thought). Why would a nuclear power plant want to have fireworks, though? Or LAX for that matter?

So I bit. I watched the show. (Well, technically, I had MythTV record it, fast forwarded until I saw Disneyland, and watched just that segment. I fooled them!)

So what was this thing that no one else can have? It's a no fly zone after all. You can't go closer than 3 miles to the center of the parks unless you're above 3,000 feet. It's supposed to be for security, but the newscasters say it's probably to keep people from flying banner advertisements above the millions of park guests and keep sightseeing helicopters away. (I'd like to point out that they say that Disney "won't talk about it," but they display on screen a statement from the Parks and Resorts spokesman.)

There seems to be some debate over whether there is a credible threat to the parks. The internet tells me that "Counterterrorism officials said the Disney parks have come up in interviews with al Qaeda operatives. Pictures and information about the parks have been found during some terror sweeps overseas, they say." but yet other sources say that there is no credible threat. (Source) Lack of communication here? I can totally see the theme parks being targets, though. On Halloween night of 2001, Knott's Scary Farm was nearly empty because of a threat against it, even though the tickets were sold out in pre-sale.

Of course, with a draw like Disneyland, I can't blame them for not wanting advertisers over their parks either. The internet claims that, "At its height, the Orlando air wars daily featured biplanes towing banners, blimps and single-wing skywriters competing for attention." (Source)

Now, the internet tells me that there are other places that have no fly zones, "including President Bush's Texas ranch, nuclear submarine bases and stockpiles of sarin gas and other weapons of mass destruction." Also, "While the bill had originally offered flight protections only to some sports stadiums during games, it now forced the FAA to put the no-fly zones over the entertainment giant's parks as well." So that means that we can add stadiums during games to the list. Also add the Valdez terminal of the Alaska oil pipeline. (Source for all)
The internet also tells me that since the no fly zone came into effect, it's been challenged by conservatives who want to fly anti-homosexuality banners over the park. (Source) I can't say I'm disappointed that those efforts were blocked, that's the last thing I'd want my school-aged child to see while at Disneyland.

My conclusions:
1. No one's being hurt except for the aerial equivalent of pop-up window advertisers.
2. I believe that there has been and continues to be a credible threat to the parks.
3. The idea that LAX should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone is ridiculous.
4. The idea that the Las Vegas strip should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone (the news story says, "not even the Las Vegas Strip, which has a denser concentration of people...") is also ridiculous. If you look at this map, you'll see that if you put a three-mile radius around the strip, it would nullify the McCarran Airport.
5. The idea that the San Onofre nuclear reactor should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone is probably a good idea.
6. The claim that Disney is the only commercial operation to have a no-fly zone is a lie.
7. NBC's 11pm news ratings must be dropping.

So, that's my take on "the Magic Kingdom getting special privileges to maintain that fantasy."

Yahoo answers

2007-04-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

I like Yahoo Answers, as evidenced by the following:

Total Points	4,000
Points this week	41
Points to get to Level 5	1,000

Answers
Total answers	648
Best answers	180

Questions
Questions asked	20
Resolved questions	18
Stars received	9

I'm thisclose to the next level. =)

Hey, wait a minute....

2007-04-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

Now, I know that not many people are checking into their finances at 11:54pm Pacific, but I want to! I know that my credit card company does weekly maintenance downtime on Mondays, which always confuses me because it's still Sunday in my head (they're Eastern Time). So I went there today, and I was like, "Huh? It's Sunday night already?" (Don't scare me, I have homework due Monday morning!)

Both my bank and my credit card company are down!

The bank says:

Our Web site is temporarily unavailable due to a scheduled technology upgrade.

Bill payments and transfers scheduled during this period will be initiated as scheduled.

We regret any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

Do not be alarmed, they'll still be taking your money.

The credit card company says:

Our site is currently unavailable while we update our system.

We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that you check back later today to view your account information. If you have an urgent account servicing need, you can contact our customer service representatives at 1-800-951-6951, 24 hours a day.

We look forward to your future use of Online Account Services.

However, when they do their actually scheduled weekly downtime, it says something to the effect of "customer service reps can't access your information during this downtime" which is missing in this message. Are they going to have downtime again tomorrow night?

So, this makes me curious about our store credit card, so I go to their website and find:

We are sorry, but we are experiencing technical difficulties at this time. Please try back later.

If you have questions you may contact a Web Support Representative at 1-800-298-4240. Our representatives are available:
Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.CT
Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.CT
Web Support is closed for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.

Color me confused... (that's a shade of blue I think.) It's like the whole interweb is hiding our money...

MythTV

2007-04-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

I <3 MythTV. Even though I have live-in tech support (aka my husband) I took it upon myself to try to solve some of my own problems, since I use the media server more than Charles does. =)I figured out that our transcoding wasn't working because the default settings were not to MPEG-4 as one might expect. Easy fix once I found it.The other thing I fixed was the channels. An auto scan of channels over-writes the data downloaded from Zap2It, so I deleted and re-downloaded the channels and listings.Now if only the time stopped drifting...

Credit card charged

2007-04-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

I like this idea of faxing in requests. My credit card was charged on the Friday the 20th for those requests I faxed on Wednesday the 18th. I bet they'll be here lots quicker than the stuff I requested from the social security administration and from Los Angeles county! They even respond to emails quickly, that must mean they're not horribly understaffed! They already have the database online, and my request has the internal document numbers...

Must... be... patient...

Hard, isn't it? I feel like I've dried up all the online leads for now, until those documents come in....

Any day now!

Manitoba Requests Out

2007-04-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

A family friend has already done some looking into my husband's family, which is really cool. It's given me a lot to work with now that I'm starting to turn that way. (I'm not giving up my family, of course, just temporarily working with what's available online first while I finish reading the new book I purchased, Finding Your Mexican Ancestors.)

My mother-in-law's family originates in part from Manitoba, Canada. Their Vital Statistics Agency is wonderful. You can pay $25 (Canadian dollars) to send in a form and have them do the search for you, or you can search their database online and pay only $12 for records if you print out their order form from their database search. It's easy to do, super convenient, and half the price! What more could you ask for? Well, I suppose you could ask for it to be able to search the "mother's maiden name" field as well as the "surname" field in the same query. But other than that...

So yesterday, April 18th, I faxed in my order for 11 different documents, including birth, marriage, and death documents. There are actually a few more that I found in the database that I'd like to order, but that can wait until next month. I've used up my genealogy budget for this month.

Point is, if you have any births 100+ years ago, marriages 80+ years ago, or deaths 70+ years ago that took place in Manitoba, Canada, you should click here. If you want to search the database directly to save some money, click on "Search the database" on the left of that page, or click directly here.

Emergency Alert System

2007-04-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

I found this amusing for some reason. I opened up an I Love Lucy episode on MythTv, only to find a newscast isntead. It was a live shot of a memorial type service being held at Virginia Tech. I watched for a few minutes, and then there was an emergency alert system weekly test right during some important-looking guy's speech! They interrupted my interruption to my recording...

I would have thought there'd be something in place to prevent that kind of timing! What if it was an actual emergency instead of a press conference, and then a weekly test of the emergency alert system interrupts it... the very thought irritates me for some reason.

The dangers of modern society...

2007-04-02T17:34:00.000-07:00

So I bought myself a cute little chain charm bracelet at Disneyland last week...

Charles and I both have silver passes that get us discounts, but they don't like it when you use someone else's credit card for your discounted merchandise. One of my sisters carries cash, and she paid as she went. My other sister doesn't carry cash (which is good, she'd lose it) so I put everything on my check card and she was going to pay me at the end of the day. (I mention this because I normally wouldn't have even looked at the receipts that carefully.) I was going through my receipts to add up how much my sister owed me, and found out that my bracelet came with a warning label. Not anywhere near the bracelet of course, but only after you buy it and read the receipt. It says:

"WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm."

Lovely, huh? I think it would be amusing to try to return it and say "I want my money back because I'm going to have reproductive harm if I wear this!" Too bad I like the bracelet more than I fear the warning!

Anyhow, just wanted to remind everyone to be careful what they wear... oh, and don't eat bracelets! =P

Disneyland again =)

2007-04-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

I had to get in one more trip before our Spring Break blackout days, so Charles suggested that I go during the week sometime. I would have felt pretty silly going by myself, so I invited my sisters to come too.

We had a really good time. First we went to California Adventure. We got fast passes for Soaring Over California (which is awesome), went to see the Disney Animation's Turtle Talk with Crush and Animation Academy, then returned to Soaring Over California, then went to see the Aladdin Musical Spectacular, which was also very good.

Then we went to eat at Disneyland, went to the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, and the Tiki Room. We did some shopping in between, and eventually made our way to the photo shop on main street.There's a new photo service that I really like. They give you a card that gets scanned by each photographer in the park, so you show them the card at the photo shops and they pull up all your pictures, rather than having a ticket for each picture. Very cool, we bought some pictures of the three of us, including one to give to my parents. There's a picture from way back (I was like 8, maybe) of the three of us at Disneyland, and we wanted to recreate it but they don't have a photography place anymore. That and we weren't feeling silly enough to buy mouse ears either!

So anyway, after the pictures, we watched the Parade of Dreams at 7pm. There were a ton of people already, so Irma and I decided that we should camp out for the fireworks at 9:30pm. Martha and Cyndi went off to try to get on a ride or two in the meantime, while Irma and I saved seats. We got an awesome spot almost directly in front of the castle. =)

Then Martha and Cyndi rode Indiana Jones, which they had a fast pass for. Then we went back to a shop for a hat that Martha had her eye on before but didn't get, then we came home.

Pretty good day, if you ask me!

Pictures below:

My sisters:

Martha and her daughter Cyndi:

And again:

The three of us:

And again =):

Waiting for the Aladdin show:

On the Jungle Cruise:

Gas prices, stamp prices, dirty glasses...

2007-03-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

I want to talk about buying stuff today.

Gas

Every time the price of gas goes up, I kick myself (figuratively) for not filling up the tank the day before. =P It's a never-ending cycle though. Apparently, the only way to avoid the self-kicking sensation is to live in South Carolina, where a gallon of gas is about $2.26. Without leaving the state of California, I could get gas for $2.95 in Whittier (44 minutes from here). If I wanted to save a penny, the cheapest gas today is $2.94 in Folsom (in the Sacramento area), a mere 5 hour and 55 minute drive from here.

I, on the other hand, paid $3.13 today for gas because I had an eighth of a tank left, that was the only station in the area not totally out of my way, and I had to go drop off a spare key for the other car to my husband. (His key broke!) There was one station cheaper that I passed on the way home, but all the other stations were even more expensive.

Postage Stamps

When we got married in October of 2005, my husband bought 100 stamps in a roll (or maybe there were two rolls, I don't recall) for our wedding announcements that were mailed within the US. After that, there were some left over that I've been using for what little we mail.

All was well, we don't mail much so they were in a manila folder in my file cabinet for when we needed them. Then, the price of stamps went up! For the few stamps that were left, I decided that I'd rather put two stamps on each letter I mail (once a month for rent and some odd random letters/forms) than drive to the post office.

Instead of a 37 cent stamp and a 2 cent stamp, I put on two 37 cent stamps. Yup, I waste 35 cents every single month! You know why? Not only was it not worth my time to drive down there to save 35 cents per month, not only was it not worth my tiny fraction of my $3.13 gallon of gas to get there, and not only does the post office in fact charge for parking in the amount of 25 cents (remember, I'd be saving 35, before gas and time)... No no, it wasn't that. The price of stamps is going up again! (3 cents if the USPS gets their way, 2 cents if the Postal Regulatory Commission gets their way.)

I haven't even used the whole roll, and there will have been two rate increases. In a year and a half!

I would rather the rate go up 10 cents and stay there for 3 years than go up by 2 cents, then 3, then 2, then 3... I don't like 2 cent stamps, never will. And what about those people who bought 2 cent stamps the last time rates went up and now they'll need 2 cent stamps AND 3 cent stamps! Or 5 cent stamps, or 2s and 1s... WHY???

Speaking of which, they're coming out with a "Forever Stamp." It'll be sold at whatever the going rate is, and be good even if the rate goes up. If the rate goes up, the purchase price of the Forever Stamp will go up, but it'll be the same physical stamp, and still valid for the next increase.

I, for one, am going to stock up on Forever Stamps the minute they come out. There will be no 2/3/5/1 cent stamps in our home!

/rant

Eyeglass cleaning solution

Finally, I would just like to point out that there has not been any eyeglass cleaning solution since I've purchased my glasses at any of the following places: Ralphs in NoHo, my pharmacy in NoHo, Target in Burbank, Target in Baldwin Park, Target optical in Burbank, Walmart in Duarte... The lady at the pharmacy told me that they were having a hard time finding it to stock it. I think it's just a conspiracy to get us all to wear contacts, there's plenty of contact lens solution everywhere. Luckily, I had some eyeglass cleaning stuff from a long time ago, but I'm out now, and my glasses are dirty, and it irritates me.

But my new mp3 player, and the fact that we paid off both of our credit cards this month, make me feel a little better.

Ancestry.com

2007-03-19T08:14:00.001-07:00

Things have been slow moving in my genealogy lately. My husband was gracious enough to let me purchase a one year Ancestry.com membership, which is really cool. There's not much on my family though. =P

I've found quite a bit of stuff for my family on FamilySearch, and would have expected at least confirmation of the same information on Ancestry.com, but found nothing at all. I would love to see the day when Ancestry.com starts offering more records from non-anglo countries. Mexico has kept very good birth, death, and marriage records since 1859, and there has been much genealogical work done on the founding families of Mexico beginning in the 1500s.

I like the Ancestry.com "family site" for the most part. It's cool being able to link records straight into it, although some records that I've found have not had an "add to someone" button. This mostly happens with things like phone book records.

The downside is that there are no reporting features. Of course, the easy way to overcome this is to download the Gedcom and open it in Gramps, my normal genealogy program. Or so I thought. When I opened it, I found that everyone and every event was there, but there were no relationships between anyone. Defeats the purpose of the thing, doesn't it?

It turns out that the Gedcoms generated by Ancestry.com lack a tag that ties people to families, as per the Gedcom standards. Another Gramps user has already contacted Ancestry.com and was told essentially that they have no intention of fixing it. This is the genealogy equivalent of DRM (Digital Rights Management, the stuff that makes you not able to burn your mp3s to cds and makes your video fuzzy). "We will not follow the standards that the whole industry uses so that your data is portable, so your data which you've worked hard to find, source, and compile will be worthless outside of our website (and maybe the programs that we tell you to buy)." Lovely, huh?

The exact response states:

Dear ______,

We appreciate your message.
We are sorry for the trouble with the file. The GEDCOM file is read differently by the different programs. You may need to edit the file after it is entered into the new software.

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know. 1-800-262-3787

Jennifer
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com

Translation: The file is fine, all you have to do is add parents and children and spouses to every single person (all 1,000+ of them) after you import it! Nothing wrong at all!

I'll be emailing them soon, when I have the energy to address them in a way worthy of their already-stated non-compliance.

Ancestry.com Membership

2007-03-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Things have been slow moving in my genealogy lately. My husband was gracious enough to let me purchase a one year Ancestry.com membership, which is really cool. I've found a lot for his family, but nothing for mine. =P

I've found quite a bit of stuff for my family on FamilySearch, and would have expected at least confirmation of the same information on Ancestry.com, but found nothing at all. I would love to see the day when Ancestry.com starts offering more records from non-anglo countries. Mexico has kept very good birth, death, and marriage records since 1859, and there has been much genealogical work done on the founding families of Mexico beginning in the 1500s.

I like the Ancestry.com "family site" for the most part. It's cool being able to link records straight into it, although some records that I've found have not had an "add to someone" button. This mostly happens with things like phone book records.

The downside is that there are no reporting features. Of course, the easy way to overcome this is to download the Gedcom and open it in Gramps, my normal genealogy program. Or so I thought. When I opened it, I found that everyone and every event was there, but there were no relationships between anyone. Defeats the purpose of the thing, doesn't it?

It turns out that the Gedcoms generated by Ancestry.com lack a tag that ties people to families, as per the Gedcom standards. Another Gramps user has already contacted Ancestry.com and was told essentially that they have no intention of fixing it. This is the genealogy equivalent of DRM (Digital Rights Management, the stuff that makes you not able to burn your mp3s to cds and makes your video fuzzy). "We will not follow the standards that the whole industry uses so that your data is portable, so your data which you've worked hard to find, source, and compile will be worthless outside of our website (and maybe the programs that we tell you to buy)." Lovely, huh?

The exact response states:

Dear ______,

We appreciate your message.
We are sorry for the trouble with the file. The GEDCOM file is read differently by the different programs. You may need to edit the file after it is entered into the new software.

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know. 1-800-262-3787

Jennifer
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com

Translation: The file is fine, all you have to do is add parents and children and spouses to every single person (all 1,000+ of them) after you import it! Nothing wrong at all!

I'll be emailing them soon, when I have the energy to address them in a way worthy of their already-stated non-compliance.

I haven't gotten down to the Family History Center yet, too busy with school and such. I will certainly post when I do though. =)

Where technology comes from, part 2

2007-03-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Another interesting technology source I found in the news today:

The supply of water to the area is irregular, so the school has an innovative system that recycles rainwater and uses seesaws and merry-go-rounds to pump water. It also uses solar power and has landscaped gardens that supply vegetables for school meals.

If we harnessed all children's playgrounds around the world to pump water and/or generate electricity... I think we just stumbled onto something good! It's like one of those renewable energy sources you hear about on the news!

Interesting where technology comes from

2007-03-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

My husband, one of our friends, and myself went to Disneyland yesterday (Sunday). Lots of fun, I haven't uploaded the pictures yet but I will soon.I was reading the news this weekend and found the story of the kidnapped baby interesting. Especially interesting, this quote:

Susanne Moore, a former Covenant nurse who had a baby Friday at the same hospital, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the hospital placed an electronic band on her newborn girl's ankle. She said she was told that if the baby were taken too close to a door or elevator, a sensor would cause the door to lock or the elevator to shut down.
Moore said she also was told that if the band were cut off before it was deactivated, the hospital would be locked down.

A couple of comments here...

What has the world come to that we need to do this because we seemingly EXPECT babies to be stolen from hospitals...?
Cool idea. I imagine it's RFID technology, but how do you get it to detect when the band has been broken? Does this mean it's a non-re-sizable band that's completely made of electronic components/cables? Is it just a single cable that goes the whole circumference, and if so how do you prevent someone from cutting the rest of the band and slipping that part off? Hmmm.
This proximity-based door and elevator control is pretty clever, we were talking about something similar on the way home from Disneyland.
I can see other hospital applications here, particularly for hospitals that have this proximity based control already... why doesn't the ER/OR double doors swing open when a gurney approaches? (So you have to tag all the EMT's gurneys, but that's okay!) Why doesn't the elevator door automatically stay open when a gurney's approaching unless you press the close button (if you're full, you know).

Then you expand it out to office buildings, places where people can't carry their keys/badges all the time... aquatic centers come to mind! Hanging 2 big keys and like 9 small keys from the shoulder strap of my swimsuit on a whistle lanyard while I was teaching lessons may have worked, but it's not nearly as cool as the doors recognizing me automagically!Fun stuff.By the way, whoever was still sick at Charles's parents' house (I babysat on Saturday), I think I caught it from them. I've had a stuffy nose all day and feeling generally "blah."Still pretty productive though, I did the laundry that backed up due to our lack of drying capabilities since Friday.I also went to school today. I did better than I expected on the test we took last week, I got partial credit for admitting that something went over my head in the reading. =P The reading was about a girl who wanted to eat at the rectory of her Catholic school instead of walking home to eat. The question was something along the lines of "the author criticizes the role of the Catholic church, what criticisms does she have?" Totally over my head, I thought if there was anything criticized it may have been the Mother Superior, but not the "role" of the Church in daily life. Apparently the right answer had something to do with equality and preferential treatment. I guess I was too literal reading the question, because I still feel that's a stretch- inequality among students in that era is a socio-economic issue that may well be limited to that particular scenario that was described, and it's not the church's fault. Other than that, I only had a couple of minor errors, mostly accents and/or spelling in my short answer questions.Tomorrow, I have to go to parents' house. They're leaving to Mexico on Wednesday night, they'll be gone for two months. There's some talk about parents selling their rental property in about a year, supposedly mom thinks that she spends all of the rental income on upkeep. I think I need to talk her into sitting down and figuring out where her money goes when she gets back.Of course, there are those in our family who know where mom's money goes, that namely being to the thrift store, the other thrift store, the thrift store in the next town over once a month, the swap meet on Thursdays and Sears. She needs to figure it out for herself, though, to make it stick. Hopefully we can talk her out of selling, though, because that will leave both of my sisters without a place to live. Unless she doesn't really like them and that's her sneaky evil plan all along... Hmmm.Wow, that kind of jumped around... alot. I guess I haven't posted as often as I should. =P I'd break it up into subject-specific posts, but that ruins the free flow of information and such!

Meh. No hot water.

2007-03-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

By the way, I want to mention that we have not had hot water in our apartment building since Friday afternoon. Apparently it's an issue with the gas, not just the water heater, because the dryers aren't working either.You never realize how important gas is until it's gone! I can't wash dishes (not well anyway), can't do laundry (unless I want it to sit around damp until Monday), and can't take a shower at home (unless I wanna freeze!). Glad we're YMCA members and I can shower there!Maintenace isn't going to come out until Monday. They don't consider it an emergency situation that we can't take showers. =P

Dictionary woes

2007-03-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

I got marked down on my weekly vocab sheet last week due to using my English-Spanish dictionary rather than using a Spanish dictionary that gives definitions in Spanish. The professor wrote on my sheet that I should use the dictionary linked on the resources section of the class management system, which is the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary.

I like my other dictionary better.

I looked up jalea for example, which said "f. Conserva transparente, hecha de zumo de algunas frutas." Conserva I took to be something saved or preserved, transparente is transparent, made of zumo of some fruits.
So I look up zumo and it tells me "m. Líquido de las hierbas, flores, frutas u otras cosas semejantes, que se saca exprimiéndolas o majándolas." Liquid of the herbs, flowers, fruits, or other similar things, that are taken out by exprimir or majandar.
I look up exprimir, which I determined in my vast knowledge of conjugation to be the root of the word exprimiéndolas. It says "Extraer el zumo o líquido de una cosa, apretándola o retorciéndola." To extract the zumo or liquid of a thing, squeezing or twisting it. (Remember, zumo is defined as the thing that you exprimir, making a circular definition. A is made when you do B to fruits. B is what you do to fruits to make A.)
I then look up majandar, which in my vast knowledge of conjugation (see above) I determine to be the probable root of the word majándolas. It doesn't exist, neither does majándolas or majando (las is a suffix meaning to a female them). I give up on that part of the definition. (I later discover, by browsing in my Spanish-English dictionary, that the root word is majar, which it defines as "to crush, to mash." I don't get "mash" out of any of the three definitions in Spanish!)

What does my Spanish-English dictionary say about jalea? "nf. (noun, feminine) jelly."

Lovely, huh?

The next word, which was found in the story we read for homework over the weekend, again doesn't exist at all in any form I can think of (again, in my vast knowledge of Spanish conjugation) until I browse the Spanish-English dictionary.

Here's another one:

I found the word caló in the reading. The definition says "m. Lenguaje de los gitanos españoles." Masculine word, meaning the language of the Spanish gitanos.
I think a gitano is some sort of native, but I decide to check. I copy and paste it, and "gitanos" isn't in the dictionary, only "gitano" is. This is the problem with dictionaries that you can't browse, only search. But one letter differences, such as plural to singular, should be correctable by the system.

Me using the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary is like a person who's never spoken English being given a link to Wikipedia as a dictionary. You have to know the words to learn the words!

The next word I looked up was defined by three synonyms, only two of which I had any faint idea how to translate.

This is going to be a long homework assignment, and Charles is already asleep... *sigh* (Not that he was going to help me with my homework or anything, but I don't like waking him when I get into bed after he's been asleep a while.)

Disneyland, weeee!

2007-03-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

So, instead of doing my homework like I probably should have, Charles and I went to Disneyland yesterday. It was a lot of fun, esspecially since it was free now that he's a Disney cast member. We had a lot of fun, we went to Adventureland and New Orleans Square. (I couldn't believe he'd never been to the Tiki room before, so we had to start on that side of the park!) Of course, we were analyzing everything we saw and figuring out how things worked. =P

Pictures are on my Yahoo pictures page, though it's a lot of pictures of things we saw and not that many of us. But you can look if you want, of course! It's here.

PS. We got a new bigger bed, and I love it

Note to self

2007-02-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

Note to self: Don't look up a movie on Wikipedia until after you're done watching it. I'm watching Back to the Future II, and I missed something, so during a commercial break I looked it up. It's very difficult to stop where I'm done watching and not read ahead!

Good thing for backups

2007-02-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

Today I was working on synchronizing my tree on Ancestry to my tree in my genealogy program. It was going well, then I started to get errors. It told me to run the "check and repair" tool, and that kept hanging when it got to "checking for event problems." I forced it to quit, opened it again, then looked at the events. Almost all of my events were missing. The new imports I did yesterday were there, but not the rest.

Of course, I'm getting clever-er by the day and made a backup immediately before starting to import new gedcoms from the interweb. So now I'm importing the two gedcoms from yesterday into an empty database, merging and fixing them there, and then importing them into a COPY of the backup from yesterday. (I bet you would have thought I would import into my backup, that would defeat the purpose! Keeping a clean copy that works is very important!)

Working on husband's line

2007-02-20T02:52:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to take advantage of the three free days of Ancestry.ca that I got a link about in one of my mailing lists. Unfortunately, I soon ran out of little threads of my Hispanic family that had come into the USA long enough to show up on publicly available records.

Ah well, I figured I'd take a look at my husband's line. I've done very little there, to be honest.

Well, of course it figures that there are two submitters on One World Tree who have at some point researched his family, neither of which provided an email address to contact them! Each of the two was a little different from the other, but I do believe that one used the other as a source. To make sure that I got it all, I had to import them both and merge them in my program. I still have some cleaning up to do, removing some double events that the filters may have missed for example. But at this point, it looks like I picked up a very good number of leads. (Not very well documented, unfortunately.)

From my husband as generation 1, I added:
(Generations 1-3 were not new.)
Generation 4 has 3 individuals. (37.50%)
Generation 5 has 2 individuals. (12.50%)
Generation 6 has 3 individuals. (9.38%)
Generation 7 has 1 individual. (1.56%)

And of course dozens of siblings and cousins all around.

Current statistics (again, this may go down a little bit with some cleanup work I'm going to do.):

Individuals
----------------------------
Number of individuals: 527
Males: 257
Females: 270
Individuals with incomplete names: 30
Individuals missing birth dates: 444
Disconnected individuals: 5

Family Information
----------------------------
Number of families: 212
Unique surnames: 129

Not bad for a free three-day pass! Thank you, Ancestry.ca!

I Puritani

2007-02-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

My husband and I went to see the opera at the theatre last night. (They broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, but yesterday's presentation was pre-recorded from the live presentation some time last month.) We watched I Puritani, a Bellini opera about a star-crossed couple. The story was a tad predictable, but the performaces were excellent.

I personally would like to watch the rest of this series, even if that means going without my husband. =P

Homework!

2007-02-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

I'm doing the rest of my homework now. I was first surprised at how much I was able to read comfortably. Once I started reading out loud, that is. Reading it silently was frustrating for some reason. My inner voice can't pronounce things as well, I guess!Secondly, I was shocked at how many words I could pronounce when I saw them but wouldn't have been able to spell yesterday. After I do my outline, I'll add my new words to my two lists and let you know how much I've added to my vocabulary!

You would think...

2007-02-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

I've watched two documentaries about prison life recently (Salinas and San Quentin), and I can't help but think that there are a couple of simple solutions to most of the issues.At first, after watching the San Quentin one, I thought "wouldn't it be safer if everyone stayed in their cells except for activity time and didn't eat in a big, crowded, common cafeteria?" It was an observation based on just the simple logistics, avoid having a big concentration of inmates per guard in a place where you're giving them weapons (plastic though they may be, silverware can be dangerous) and giving them something to fight over (they said some fights are because people feel that they're getting less food than someone else).Then, after watching the Salinas one, it made me think "wouldn't it be safer if you did recreation time and meal time in shifts with the same race?" I'm all for racial equality on the outside, but it's pretty obvious that it's a major issue in the prison system. If you don't have warring factions in the yard at the same time, no one will get stabbed. Makes sense to me.Or I may just be crazy, who knows.

Grandpa's death certificate

2007-02-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

Today (well, some time in the past few days) I got my grandfather's death certificate in the mail.

What I learned that I didn't have before:
Occupation, time at job, and employer (He was a "vulcanizer" in my dad's birth certificate and a "sheet metal worker" in his death certificate)
Address at time of death (I don't believe this residence is still connected to our family, the address doesn't look familiar)
Hospital at which he died (which is the same one where I was born)
Date of burial
Funeral home

What I need to work on:
Cause of death. It's handwritten in doctor writing. "upper gastrointestinal k...... d..to ..." then another two lines of additional things I can't read.

I'll scan it later and see if someone can help me decipher it. =)

Oh, by the way!

2007-02-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

I know that I already posted a word to summarize the past week at school, but I just wanted to add to that the word hispanohablante. Apparently, that's what I am!

Spanish word of the day: diptongo

2007-02-09T22:20:00.000-08:00

A diptongo is the combination of a strong vowel (a, e, o) with a weak vowel (i, u). The resulting combination is always monosyllabic, and the weak vowel is typically slurred together with the strong one. The exception to this is if there is an accent mark on the weak vowel- that strengthens it, causing it to be pronounced separataly and in a separate syllable.

I was planning to share all the stuff that I've learned in the hopes that typing up my hand-written notes would help me remember stuff better. Then I realized how much I've learned and how difficult it would be to type it all without the benefits of a Spanish spell check! (Flock's spell check has to be reset to Spanish with every word, and I'm not sure how to change the language on the LJ spell check.)

Instead, I shall summarize!

This week we learned basic word deconstruction, including diptongos, die'resis (two dots over a u, I never even knew that Spanish had those!), tildes (accent marks, thankfully all in the same direction, unlike French that does both ' and `), and how to split a word into syllables. I also learned that interrogative words always have accents. I wouldn't have caught on to that pattern for at least two semesters if not told by the professor!

I just finished my workbook homework but I haven't done my reading yet. I have to read a 4-page story and summarize it in Spanish, presumably correctly spelled!

During class I keep a column on the right hand side of the paper where I put new words. I also highlight vocabulary in a different color than other stuff in my textbooks so that I can pick it out later. I picked out the words from all the sources today, and wrote them into two separate lists (the ones I would have typed out if I had any idea how to type and spell check in Spanish): words I didn't know at all and words that I could have defined before I started this class but wouldn't have known how to spell.

In my new vocabulary list, I have 61 words! A lot of them were not used in context, though, they were in lists in the workbook and are totally unrelated to each other. I still need to learn them though, I'm going to look them up in the dictionary after finishing my homework but before class on Monday.

In my "really, that's how they spell it?" list, I have 35 words. It's true what they say, spelling in Spanish is normally pretty intuitive when you understand how things work and how each letter is pronounced. If there's a deviation from it, it's indicated with accents, so it's nearly gringo-proof. However, there is some confusion while you un-train yourself from English pronunciations. For example, hueso (pronounced whueso, roughly) sounds to me like it should be weso. Of course, with my limited Spanish, I've probably been mispronouncing it all these years because I'd never seen it written and people have never corrected me all these years because it's "not bad for a gringa." Other than my hue/we/whe example, there's also cu/qu, q/ch/k (archaeologist is spelled with a q in Spanish), z/s, s/c, j/h (that's a gringo confusion I think), ll/y...

So, yeah, apart from a lot of grammar concepts that I think I've got about 80% down, I have 96 words to learn! Good thing Charles is at SCALE this weekend so I can do more homework. (Wow, I don't think I've said something like that in... well, maybe ever! See what happens when you take classes that interest you on a personal level?) I haven't been as productive today and yesterday as I typically would have been, for various reasons. I'm glad my workbook homework is out of the way now. =)

Photo blogging: If Google ruled the world?

2007-02-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

GoogleMaps.png
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

As evidenced here, it occurs to me that if Google ruled the world (or if the world neglected to sanity check), we might not get to places in quite the same way as we did before.

DRM Goodness

2007-02-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

I couldn't sleep so I've been reading some stuff online. In the same news story, I found both of these quotes:

"Currently, music purchased at Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, for example, is wrapped in Apple's proprietary version of Digital Rights Management technology known as "FairPlay" and can only be played on the company's iPod devices. Songs purchased from rival online stores that carry different DRM technology cannot be played on iPods."

and

"Earlier this week, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs called on record labels to abandon their requirement for online music to use DRM, which is designed to limit unauthorized copying. Jobs said such restrictions have done little to slow music piracy and eliminating them would open up the online music marketplace."

Am I the only one who sees a conflict between those two messages? I guess there's just not another option to placate record labels that doesn't lock iTunes users into iPods and visa versa, right? I mean, don't get me wrong, an anti-DRM message from Jobs is a good thing. I just wish that would carry into his company's practices.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070209/ap_en_mu/emi_unprotected_music

School observations

2007-02-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Community college is an excellent place to people watch. It's like high school, except a higher percentage of students have cars, the books are more expensive, and there's hardly any 10-foot high chain link keeping you in. Therefore you could even people watch without being a student!

Some of my observations this week:

Similarly blocked class schedules means a constant and predictable ebb and flow of cars in the parking lots. Arrive 10 minutes before class, and you'll be parking on the other side of the school, no matter where your class is. If your class is on the north side of the campus, you'll be in the south parking lot. If your class is in the south side of campus, you'll be in the north parking lot. Do not attempt to spot swap with a student from the opposite side of campus, this will upset the delicate balance of the universe (or at least of the community college) and leave you both spot-less, but not in the clean way.
No one wants to be at school half an hour early, except the people who park in the side of the school where your class is. The near parking lot will be full by the time you arrive even half an hour before classes start. The parking lot on the opposite side, however, will be empty.
Emos run funny. This was observed at about 9:25am with a male emo running through the center square of the campus. This could be caused by their funny pants, or by the skateboards in their backpacks. If you are emo, you should plan to arrive in the near parking lot at least an hour before your class (or the far parking lot half an hour before) so that you don't have to run to your class.
My Spanish professor uses a Mac laptop, and heavily recommends Firefox over Safari. When a file looked funny, she claimed that it was due to being in Safari and closed it to open Firefox and start the demonstration over again. Yay! (I'm not a Firefox user anymore, I use Flock, but I like Firefox too.)
There will always be more left-handed desks than left-handed people, and thus right-handed people will have to sit at left-handed desks.
You have to have a receipt showing that you've paid for your classes to buy a book. I personally think that's ridiculous, particularly for a store in the business of selling books. "How DARE you buy a book that looks interesting and learn stuff without being in a class???" So much for studying to quiz out of stuff. The only possible justification I can think of is to make sure that there are enough books for the enrolled students, but I somehow doubt that the non-enrolled purchasers outnumber the people who forgot their receipts in their backpacks (which are not allowed into the bookstore). The short answer to this: keep 5 more in stock than you think you need, that'll last you until the next edition comes out!

Next time I'll tell you what I've learned that's actually related to my class!

My Spanish class is 5 units, whereas a typical class is 3, so I decided to only take Spanish this time around. It'll ease me into the whole reading and homework routine, and I'm only one PE class short of having a "normal" unit load. I've actually learned quite a bit already, this will help me communicate with my family in Mexico, as well as help my genealogy research, reading documents and writing letters to request such documents. =)

Lizard Picture

2007-02-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

HPIM1428.JPG
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

I just wanted to share this because I found it cute.

On the bottom left, by the way, is the old house, which I put back in. They both fit.

To get this quality of picture, I had to put the camera inside the tank at the other end, do not attempt this shot through glass. =)

Getting off the juice

2007-02-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

With a very prevalent family history of diabetes, I'm always very much aware that it's not un-likely for me to be diagnosed as diabetic at any time. When the doctor ran lab work last week, my blood sugar level was good. However, it was a 9:30am appointment and I can't eat until an hour after I take my medicine, so I was on an empty stomach when my blood was drawn. I figure it's good to keep an eye on my sugar intake even now, as I'm told that it can delay or reduce the onset of diabetes down the line.

Did you know that orange juice has 22 grams of sugar per 8oz serving? (Based on orange juice we'd normally get at the grocery store, a non-pulp calcium added Tropicana you can see here.) I'd imagine it's mostly natural sugar and not added sugar, but still not good! I picked up a half gallon of low-cal low-sugar (20 grams per serving) orange juice, without the calcium added, and it was edible.. umm.. drinkable? It wasn't great, however, and I decided that if I'm not getting the calcium out of it, it wasn't worthwhile. Especially since I've been so good about taking my vitamins and calcium lately.

So as my sister eloquently put it when I was on the phone with her today, I'm "getting off the juice." I bought this today at Fry's:

(Click on picture takes you to Fry's product information page.)

This replaces my one-gallon capacity water cooler that I bought when I was living in a 10' x 20' studio apartment, also known as the birthday cake. It was too small, and getting louder, so loud that I couldn't stand to have it on all day long. I thought it best to upgrade, since the small one probably needed repair worth more than its value to run quietly again.

The new one has three temperatures of water, with separate on/off switches for hot and cold water. So if I don't plan to have it make soup/coffee for me, I can switch off the heated water and still have cold water.

I'd tell you how I like it, but it's in the back of the Explorer down in the basement still. I might get it today, it's actually about 2/3 the weight of the filled 5-gallon bottles that are also in the car. I have cleaning to do, though, which will hopefully also clear a good space for the water cooler. Where the little one is right now isn't a good spot for a bigger one.

But yes, we never have soda at the house, and now I don't plan to drink any orange juice at home. Go me!

Received Grandpa's SS Form

2007-01-31T18:39:00.000-08:00

I got the social security form that I had requested a while back for my grandfather. I don't think that it's anything new, other than his signature and handwriting. It does, however, give a more solid source to things I already obtained from other sources. For example, his birth date, parents' names, and place of birth as he told them himself, as opposed to from my dad's (his son's) birth certificate.

Still waiting on his death certificate however.

Photo blogging: No Checks Accepted

2007-01-28T14:27:00.000-08:00

ChecksAccepted.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

We love our mechanic, he's been good to us and our cars. But his wall is confusing. Left to right, it reads: "We welcome your check," "Your check is welcome," and then "No checks accepted." Good thing we're not the check-writing type!

That crazy weather! (And lizards, and stores!)

2007-01-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

It rained today. Also known as free car wash day. I'm sure glad I bought new windshield wipers for the Explorer this month!

I went to PetCo to get food for the lizards. I got lost trying to go there last week, even though I've gone there once before. However, this time I asked the internet how to get there. I got the food, and also bought them a new house. I've been trying to get a good setup in their tank for a while. I want them to have seperate hiding places, because sometimes one of them goes in the house and the other one stays outside all day. You're technically supposed to have one more hide than you have lizards, but there wasn't room for two medium sized hides and I didn't think they'd even fit in the small sized ones. Today they had a new type I hadn't seen before. It's kind of like the magnetic two-part one, except without the outside part and for half the price. It looks like this (click will take you to PetCo product information page):

I scraped away some sand from beneath it because it has a floor and the old house didn't. Well, one of the lizards got so distracted digging around the mound of sand that it didn't take much notice of the house. The other one looked at the house confused for a while

Finally, I picked up the more docile one and put him down with his head just outside one of the three doors. He got the hint and looked inside. He went in up to his hind legs then backed out and kept digging.

I picked up the other one and put her outside another door. She went in, walked straight through, out the other door, and back around to the one she started at. When he saw that the other lizard made a big circle, that got the other one's interest. While they were exploring the house, I was also putting food into the dish, so they didn't poke around for too long before they decided to eat.

I put a VHS tape on the other side of the glass so they feel a little more secure in there for now, but I'll probably remove it when they're more comfortable. I'm also going to see if I have another hide in my lizard tank cleaning kit (a medium kritter keeper I put them in when I clean the tank, it stores lizard supplies when not cleaning) that will fit in the tank now. There may actually be room for a second one of these against the long side of the glass, then we'd be color coordinated (I've never seen this particular color, I even looked for a coordinating small hide while I was at the store today)! I wouldn't want to put another one of the same on the opposite short side because that's the food and water side. You don't want the food and water on top of the heater.

As I'm writing this, they've now discovered that they can climb on top of the house. I may need to start putting the lid on, because on their hind legs they may now reach the top of the tank. (They have a tendancy to do that, get up on their hind legs and make like they're going to climb up the walls. In fact, one of them's doing it now, but from the bottom level and not standing on the furniture. They'll learn eventually, I'd imagine.)

Oh, and today on the way back from PetCo I discovered Smart and Final. Go me! I went there and got some stuff instead of going to the grocery store on the way home. =)

Photo blogging: Elevator

2007-01-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

Elevator.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

As seen on an elevator in a parking structure in Burbank.

Shall we go right, or right?

Windows: Make recovery CD

2007-01-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

WindozeCD.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

This may be hard to read, it's a cell phone picture of a laptop screen. Not mine, but my aunt and uncle's new laptop that I was setting up for them (you know, downloading open source software in Spanish, etc).The powers that be (such as Microsoft and/or Compaq) are saving themselves a couple of pennies these days by not including CDs for new computers. The OS is hidden somewhere in some logical partition that supposedly won't go bad. You know, in theory. But they do recommend that you make a CD just in case.The text of the applet they pop up to do it, for those who don't have super-human eyesight:Number of DVD(DL)s required: 1Number of DVDs required: 2Number of CDs required: 12
Of course, all responsible Windows users who want to have a recovery disc should have dual-layer dvd burning capabilities. Can you imagine restoring Windows XP from 12 CDs?

Photo blogging: Draco

2007-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

Draco.jpg
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

I have a series of pictures that I'm going to post here over the next several days. Things that have accumulated on my cell phone.

This one is my late kitty Draco (July 2002-~February 2005.). He was very smart, very socialized to humans. I don't think he ever really interacted positively with other animals; he thought he was human. He'd wait for me outside the bathroom door, meet me at the door when I got home even when I worked nights (and got home about 4am), and at least once stole the ham right out of my sandwich while I was eating it. Sometimes, when I got out of bed, he'd go lay down on his back with his head on my pillow! Too cute. =)This picture was taken by me with my husband's phone (long before we got married, of course) and then sent to my phone.

Happy Birthday Angel

2007-01-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Angel,I'm writing this on your first birthday. As I mentioned on an earlier blog post, that perhaps one day you'll read along with this, I have only seen you three times since you were born, the last time being April of 2006. I was invited second-hand (your Grandma Martha told Irma to tell me) to celebrate your birthday at Chuck E Cheese. However, I felt rather un-compelled to go eat food that makes me sick for the privilege of seeing you. (There's nothing wrong with Chuck E Cheese, of course. I used to love going with your Grandma Martha and your mom and your aunt and uncle when everyone was younger. I just can't eat or drink milk products.)It is very clear to me that your mom and dad don't really care to have our family get to know you, and I really felt deep down that it was hypocritical of them to basically say "you can drop by our private celebration if you buy something." It wasn't really a birthday party... in fact, I was told that each person/couple could get their own table and do their own thing basically. I could not bring myself to attend.I'm sorry. I had to do what felt right to me. I feel okay about not getting you something for your birthday because I spent two weeks cross stitching for you before Christmas. Hopefully your mom and dad have the footprints that I stitched for you somewhere in your room... well, I don't even know exactly where you're living now, things are complicated right now. Maybe I'll stitch you something else down the line.I'm still sad... I don't feel guilty... although I feel twinges of it, like there's a part of me that thinks that I should feel guilty for our non-relationship.But it's not my fault. Believe me when I say that I would do whatever was in my power if I thought I could change the situation. Believe me when I say that I've shed almost as many tears for you as for your sister Lexie in this past year. I love you.-Patti

2007-01-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Second post in my series of "constructive criticism" of Linux, titled "More people would switch to Linux if..."

To review, the reasons posted in this post were:

    1. Pre-install a package manager by default. (This is for noob-friendliness.)
    2. Get behind communities building "killer apps." (The "why should I switch, what can Linux do that Windows can't" factor.)
    3. Get behind communities building software replacements. (The "hey, this isn't so different after all" factor.)
    4. Get software replacements into the hands of Windows users. (On their Windows computers, no less. This is the "hey, this is exactly the same" factor of Gaim, OpenOffice, etc.)
    5. Do things right. (Accessibility shouldn't break your programs. Your programs shouldn't override OS settings such as sound.)

Now, on to new stuff!

    6. One marketing person per every 100 technical people. This is a very conservative number if you were a company, but does the Linux community have even that? If so, they're not doing too good a job! General public awareness is just not there.
    7. Publicize anti-DRM information. Honestly, reading about DRM stuff in Vista is one of the main reasons why I'm not all too interested in test-driving it. If they knew how Windows is helping content owners take over the world, I believe that most people would be very unhappy with the concept and take more interest in Linux. Assuming you've completed number 6, that is.
    8. Attract commercial software developers, aka "get the gamers." I'm all for free and open software, really I am. If you add up how much I would have spent on commercial photo editing, office, and genealogy software, you'll see why (which is not news to Linux users, of course). However, to gain market share in this industry, you have to get the gamers. To get the gamers, you have to get the games. Blockbuster games come from big companies, not small communities with limited resources spread all over the world. (Muds come from those communities!)
Now, which will come first, the chicken or the egg? Will the gamers switch before there are games, or will the companies make games before there's a Linux-using audience pounding on their doors?
    9. Standardize software installation and increase compatibility. What happens when you have open source software that is being used by people in multiple distributions? You create packages for each one. What happens if your distribution isn't one that has a package made for it? You download the source and compile it.
What happens if your software is not open source (see above)? You have to either make packages for every distro your users might possibly use, or you have to exclude people. I bought a commercial game for Linux not long ago, and it wouldn't run on my computer because I'm running 64 bit Ubuntu. That sort of thing needs to be resolved before you can go after the gamers.
    10. Improve Windows emulation. This is also in line with "get the gamers." I recall when I was 13-14 (10 years ago) working on the NeXT operating system (see, I'm a little bit oldskool!), and in fact I participated in a NeXT Users Group. I'm not sure if it was virtualization or emulation, but they had a really nifty Windows widget for running Windows stuff. 10 years later, I'm amazed at how much effort this takes to set up on a modern Linux system.
Again, as with point number 1 about package managers, I acknowledge that it's not hard for people who have been using Linux for a while, but that's the problem. If it's hard for me, the diet coke of nerdyness (a la Dr. Evil), it's going to be hard for the people who are not using Linux because it doesn't run their Windows programs. Maybe if this worked out of the box as well...

Imagine this- I pop a Windows CD into my cd drive, such as a computer game with simulated people that shall go nameless. ;) The computer recognizes that there's an autorun that points to an exe. It asks me, do you want to auto-run this exe? Yes, I say, run it. The computer then opens a virtual machine and displays it as a new desktop on my taskbar, with a big arrow pointing to it saying your program is ready here. Score! No more longings for Windows now!

That's all for now, I'll be back when I have another 5 or so!

P.S. I think that these things need to be done pretty soon to get a big jump on Windows. There's a window of opportunity coming up with Vista's release, because of several things: necessity of hardware upgrades, cost of hardware/OS/software upgrades, and Vista DRM. Once people swallow the cost, have the "Vista compatible" hardware, and live within DRM rules (not thinking that they'll get more stringent with time), they'll be more resistant to change than in the window of time when they're making the change from XP to Vista.

Medical update

2007-01-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's doctor's appointment, I talked to the doctor about my back pain, food issues (as in, I'm allergic to food, not just milk products lately), and needing a refill for my thyroid medication but possibly needing to up the dosage (as per my last doctor). I left with two prescriptions (thyroid medicine and one for my stomach), a bit less blood, and an appointment to review bloodwork next Monday. The nurse took my blood in the office and they drive it in to Quest Diagnostics instead of sending all the patients there. Pretty cool, in my opinion.Overall, very positive experience. I like the new doctor, he's sharp, well versed, and honest. The nurse and assistants were very pleasant, upbeat (of course, I was the second appointment of the day so they weren't tired yet!), and professional. It came up in conversation with the nurse that she'd been working there for 20+ years, which I found rather reassuring. Can't have a private practice for 20+ years if your patients don't like you!Did I mention I'm driving to Burbank for the priviledge of having a primary care doctor who got his MD in the USA? Worth the 20 minute drive? Yes.

School update

2007-01-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

I’m officially enrolled in a Spanish for Spanish Speakers class. I took a Spanish class at Cal State 10 years ago, so the credits won’t count toward graduation, but this is a skill that I’ve been lacking. It’s more appropriate for me than the other class I took, which was a general Spanish class. Spanish for Spanish Speakers, on the other hand, focuses on grammar, spelling, and presumably more advanced vocabulary.

My class and parking permit are already paid. Next week, I’m going to start the financial aid process for next fall, take proficiency exams in math and/or English (although I took English 101 and 102 already at CSULA, so they should give me an okay for higher English classes already), pick up the parking sticker, and hopefully talk to a counselor about graduation requirements and what’s covered by my transfer credits.

By the time I’m done with this semester’s “for fun” Spanish class, I should be ready (counseling, financial aid, etc) for a normal course load with classes that’ll actually help me graduate. Based on what I can see in the catalog, things look good. =)

Charles wants to go to school now too, even though he’d rather do a bunch of tech classes than do everything and get a degree. =P

See more progress on: finish my degree

Happy Birthday Alexis

2007-01-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today would have been Lexie's second birthday. (My sister Martha's granddaughter who died of SIDS in 2005.) We went to the cemetery today, my other sister (Irma) and me. Dad's not a fan of cemeteries, mom decided to lunch with her friends instead, Martha was at work, and the kids aren't speaking to us. Ah well, probably better that way. We took her some flowers and birthday balloons. This year we didn't sing "Happy Birthday" though.I cleaned up her stone with some water and a washcloth, arranged the flowers, and arranged some other things that were still there from Christmas. They're really developing that area now, there are several small statues in the grotto area that weren't there before, the stone arrangement in front of the grotto now has a working fountain arrangement. It's lovely really, just a faint trickling noise as water flows from within three of the stones.On the way back to the car, I looked around at the new arrivals as I usually do. I saw a few stones that were completely covered in mud. It made me sad, so I stopped and cleaned them before we went home. That made me feel better. I think there's one I missed a few rows away, but I only caught a glimpse as I was walking to the car and I was out of water in my water bottles already (I brought a spray bottle and a squirt bottle, worked very well).I didn't cry this year, not at the cemetery anyway (I cried in the car on the way to pick Irma up at her house). Just a lot of reflection. I pictured her at two years old, having a birthday party... What made me more sad than that is the fact that it reminded me of Angel. I literally have seen him three times: when we went to visit the week after he was born in January of 2006, my uncle's anniversary in March, and my dad's birthday in April. He's going to be a year old later this month, and Cyndi doesn't want anyone from our family to see him. She even covered him up and ran off when she bumped into Irma's husband in the alley not long ago. I know that she knows it hurts us... *sigh*Cyndi and Martha dropped Angel off at my parents' house a few weeks ago, supposedly to let my mom and dad spend time with him. It was really so they could go to the gym to get in the jacuzzi. Well, my parents didn't mind keeping an eye on him, but they had to call Martha's cell phone and tell them to come back because he didn't recognize them anymore and wouldn't stop crying.I don't know what to do, so I just let it go. I can't force the issue, nor do I really want to. I'll just keep visiting Lexie, they can't keep her from us... Hopefully Angel takes some interest in our family when he's old enough to know better, but it seems unlikely at this time.

Wouldn't you know it?

2007-01-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

We've had television for about 24 hours and I've already lost the remote!

A new way to get rich quick

2007-01-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

I found this amusing: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0111072wynn1.html

Steve Wynn purchased a Picasso painting for $48.4million, accidentally poked a hole in it, and is trying to get $54million from his insurance company. Plus he still gets to keep the painting... which he can probably still sell for at least $48.4million...

Now, to find a way to capitalize on this plan without having $48.4million in initial capital... (Something that appreciates rather than depreciating like cars. What would an insurance company pay 111.5% of the purchase price for that I can afford that would still be usable after the damages? Hmmm.)

Made a checklist for microfilm request

2007-01-11T22:03:00.000-08:00

I've made a spreadsheet of film/fiche that I want to request to be sent to a local Family History Center for viewing and hopefully printing. The spreadsheet has the date, names, and batch numbers. It's sorted by batch number and then date for easy searching when I get the film.

I haven't been to the FHC yet, but I wanted to have some idea what I want to request when I get there!

At this point, what I'm looking for is:

Marriages from Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Church in Guadalajara, Jalisco- Batch M607022. 9 records.
My paternal great-great-grandparents' wedding, as well as people I presume to be three of his siblings and one of hers (and their spouses of course). The only other people with familiar surnames that I found in that batch are the surname of one of the people one of the proposed siblings married. That makes these four people (and four spouses by extension) the siblings-in-law of my great-great-grandmother's sister. I'm going to print them out while I'm there for my "for future research" file to search more extended family in the future. I'm all for growing collateral lines and spreading my tree outward as well as upward (or backward, as you may look at it).

Christenings from San Pedro Tlaquepaque Church in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco- Batch C603265. 6 records.
Christening of my paternal great-grandmother (child of the couple above), as well as three siblings christened within 5 years (christening records have parents on them, so this is as confirmed as it can be before I get to the FHC). Also one other person with their surname, and another with their mother's maiden name (possibly cousins).

Christenings from San Franciscio, Tamazula De Gordiano, in Jalisco- Batch C023470. 4 records.
Three Tejeda men had children within two years of each other christened at the same church, one of those children being my great-grandfather. Two of the fathers I've got records for showing them as having the same parents, so I've got two of my great-grandfather's cousins for sure. The fourth child has the same church, surname, and very close in date so that's another "file for future research" record.

Christenings from Tamazula De Gordiano, in Jalisco- Batch C603759. 6 records.
Presumably a compilation of different churches from this town? This has the same four records above, but I'm going to look them up in both because one lists one surname and the other lists two surnames. There may be other differences. Additionally, this file also has two other people with the same surname, as the second surname (mother's maiden name). I think it quite likely that this could be children of the sisters of the group of brothers above.

I'll try to get to the FHC next week and order the film. (I also have to go to the school for a parking pass and assessment test, but I haven't been feeling well the past few days. Hopefully I can get both of these things done next week.)

Watching television instead of reading it!

2007-01-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

We signed up for a "broadcast basic" package for $12/month that'll get us the channels that in some parts of the county you get with rabbit ears. (2-13, plus some foreign language channels, Discovery, National Geographic, and CNN.) The guy's coming out tomorrow between 10am and noon, and the building's pre-wired, so there'll be plenty of time for me to watch my 1pm soap opera! I've been reading it every day for many months now, this will be nice.Charles and I discussed the fact that we rent a lot of movies... in fact, sometimes more than once in a week. It's entirely possible that watching the better shows and movie selection on the "standard cable" package (with 36 additional channels, including History, HGTV, USA, Comedy Central, A&E, and TV Land) might in fact be cheaper for us than continuing our movie rental binge. We'll have to see if getting the broadcast basic slows down our rental intake.It's one of those delicate balances, you know. If we still rent a lot of movies, that means we really like feature movies from the video store even with tv, but if it does slow us down a lot that means we don't need standard cable and will be content with broadcast basic. "We should upgrade to basic cable" is somewhere in between. See how complicated life is? =)

Vampire.gif

2007-01-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

Vampire.gif
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

This amuses me. =)

Things I'd like to invent

2007-01-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

I'd like to see an applet for my Palm PDA that allows me to backup to my SD card. My Zire 31 has 14MB onboard, and I have a 1GB SD card that's got 883.5MB free after music and applications. My PDA recently (while I was at my parents' for the weekend for our trip to Sea World) reset itself and I wouldn't be able to get my information back on it until I got home. (I lost some anyway though.) Wouldn't it be nifty if I could back up my contacts/calendar/etc to my card?Edit: My husband's Sony Clie can do this. It's one of the things I doubt would work if I beamed it to my Zire. It needs to be a palm applet, not a Clie utility.

2007

2007-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

Looking back on what I said at the end of 2005:

I said we'd have a couch by the end of 2006, and we cut it close! We got our couches on Christmas Eve.
I was planning to go back to school, but it didn't work out. A definite will-do for 2007, however.
I wanted to get my health taken care of more. I was working on this until we lost our benefits, and am now working on that again.
Charles's OSER project I predicted would take off in 2006. We got more buy-in and name recognition through some public speaking engagements, but progress on the project itself has slowed.
I predicted we'd pay off our Capital One card. We did, then maxed it out and paid it off again a few times, as our financial situation changed. We're doing well at managing our credit, in my opinion.
I planned to fix up the Explorer. We did finally fix the power windows, because it got broken into and we figured we might as well replace the window motors at the same time as the glass. We didn't get an audio upgrade, however.

In 2006:

January

My niece's second baby, Angel, was born.
Henoc, my co-worker of many years, got married.
We went to the Queen Mary.

February

I got in a car accident in the Explorer.
We went to SCALE, where my husband spoke and we manned a booth for his OSER project.
I started getting into genealogical information I didn't get from my relatives.

March

I went to the National Aquatic Conference and level 1 of the National Aquatic Management School. I met some really awesome people there, from New York state, Philadelphia PA, and Albuquerque NM.
My uncle Jorge (my dad's brother) and his wife Lupe celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

April

Our Explorer got broken into at the parking lot of my work. Grrr. They stole my swim/carry-on bag that Charles got me for Valentine's day of 2005, clearly thinking it was a purse.
We went on a FamilyLife marriage retreat in Valencia, which was awesome.

I was making the long drive from Oxnard to Loma Linda to teach with my friend Jenny again.
I started scanning my mom's pictures. I still have many more to go!
We went to Castaic Lake for Memorial Day.
I got my new laptop.

June

I had my birthday in June. =)

Busy, busy, busy at work. I was running the 50m x 25y x 7-14ft pool at VAC, with a crew of 17, the other manager got the rest of the guards and all the shallow water.

July

Much of the same.

August

My work hosted the girl's Junior Olympics.
I quit my job.

September

We moved to North Hollywood.

October

We got new furniture and joined the YMCA. (Unrelated, I'm just saving space!)

November

My parents, sisters, and myself went to Sea World. Following that, Charles and I went a couple of times.
Thanksgiving, of course. (Which at my parents' house was canceled two days before and then un-canceled at 11am that day.)

December

My sister had surgery in San Diego, where we spent a week living at the hospital.
We got our insurance cards.
My godparents came to visit, I hadn't seen them since March of 2005.
Christmas, again canceled and then un-canceled at my parents'. At Charles's parents, Christmas as usual!

Goals/predictions (not resolutions, goals are better) for 2007:

Charles and I will both take some college courses, but neither of us go full time (or even half-time).
I will continue to work on my health.
We will finish paying my parents, and probably pay the car off when we have enough saved to write them a check.
Charles will probably become "full time" or a "project hire" at Disney.
We will finally build our media server.
I may one day finish scanning mom's pictures...
I will attempt to acquire evidence for all of the dates and relationships already in my genealogical database while continuing to add more.
I plan to take a trip to Minnesota in May for a good friend's college graduation.
I will try to find a good (but not too-expensive) cooking class some time in 2007, so I can make more foods at home. =)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Happy new year!

A cool new LJ tool I'd like to see

2006-12-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

By the way, I was thinking it would be cool to be able to see a mood calendar. Use their css, just like the calendar that shows a clickable number of posts in the day, except populate it with the mood icon (in the person's own set) for the post that day. If there are several, you can either show several little ones or show only the one that is used the most and then put a + by it.

Out of town again

2006-12-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

I'll be gone through Sunday, most likely. My godparents want to go to Sea World before my parents' passes expire, so I'm going to play tour guide. =)

More people would switch to Linux if...

2006-12-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Based in part on a conversation with my husband a few days ago, I've decided to compile a list of things that I think would help the Linux community gain dominance over alternative operating systems.

I shall begin with things that Charles and I have discussed recently or that I have thought about recently. Please note that I have used Debian and Ubuntu, but by far more Ubuntu, so my observations are with that bias.

Pre-install a package manager by default. I know "apt-get synaptic" isn't hard for most of you, but how are us noobs supposed to know it's there? The package system in general is great, esspecially coming from a Windows background, but it needs to be more visible.
Get behind communities building "killer apps." For me, GRAMPS, the open source genealogy program was my killer app in that it got me to switch to primarily using Linux (in the days when I was dual-booting). Things like that are great for niche markets like genealogists, graphic artists (Gimp- do you know how expensive Photoshop is?), etc, and enough to push some people over that line. However, there also have to be replacements for mainstream software. See below.
Get behind communities building software replacements. Sure, once in a while we need to have new bright ideas. However, most of the time we don't need to re-invent the wheel. Everyone wants an office suite, done. Everyone wants internet communication, done. Everyone wants internet browsers and rss readers, done. Everyone wants pop mail clients, done. What's not done?

I used to love Access for work stuff, and I worked at a swimming pool. I can only imagine people with real jobs, with more real shoes and less water. (But again, don't re-invent the wheel. What we need to do is optimize Open Office and enhance support for Access there.)
I know for a fact that I'm not the only person who strugged with an M$ Money replacement. No one's quite there yet in what I've seen, but if I was to make a wager on it, my money (no pun intended) would be squarely on kMyMoney. They're not quite there yet with reports, but boy are they close. The workflow is similar, the features are almost there...

Get these software replacements into the hands of Windows users. Imagine the day when instead of paying for Office and Photoshop, everyone downloaded Open Office and Gimp. Then instead of downloading YIM, AIM, and MSN Messenger, they downloaded Gaim. Now, imagine when all of those users, those OOo/Gimp/Gaim-using users, switch to Linux. Suddenly things don't look so foreign, and they realize that there's even more free software out there. The shock is reduced, kind of like tranquilizing an animal when putting it into a new environment! (I know some people are resistant to the idea of creating Windows binaries for Linux software, but this is the upside.)
Do things right. One of my major annoyances has been sound lately, but I'm sure that there are other things out there. I have a sound icon on my toolbar that has ultimately become useless. I can slide the master sound over, but programs such as Gaim and Flash (on MySpace profiles) override the master sound on the computer. Useless! I have the computer muted and things are dinging at me and throwing music at me, it's not the OS's fault, but it certainly ruins the experience. (Another example is accessibility being turned on causing my genealogy program to crash. What's with that???)

I'll come back to this when I have more, hopefully I'll keep the numbering right. =P

Selective Service

2006-12-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

In poking around the school's website, I was reading some stuff about the Selective Service (links to there in relation to financial aide and such). Did you know that illegal immigrants are required to register for the draft? However, they're told that "Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today!"I just found that noteworthy. I'm tempted to say I have a bridge to sell you, but then I decided that it's actually more thought-provoking that it's quite possible they really do want to draft the illegal immigrants. They're keeping their information filed away with promises of future benefits, and choosing not to pursue immigration-related charges against them. Not sure what to think about that...

Going back to school. Again. Slowly...

2006-12-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

I went to Cal State at Los Angeles from 1996-1997 (at the age of 13).I then went back to high school, graduating in 2001. I bummed around, worked, traveled, then went back to school again, attending the University of Phoenix in Diamond Bar in 2004-2005.I stopped going to school before the summer, my first summer as a manager at an aquatic center (having been an assistant manager the previous summer, I knew I wouldn't be able to do both school and work for those three months). At about that time, my FAFSA got "randomly" selected to be audited, and I figured that rather than prove my parents couldn't afford to educate me I should wait until October when I got married and my parents wouldn't have to be on my financial records.Shortly before we got married, my soon-to-be husband lost his job. Then after getting married, I moved, I got a new job (was working two jobs for a while), he got a new job, I quit my old job (the commute was 77 miles each way for $12.75/hr, not worth it once hubby was working), he lost his new job (so I was working as much as I could), then he got another new job, I quit my new job, and we moved to be closer to his job. I think we've finally slowed down now. *fingers crossed*So I went and applied online for the local community college. I honestly don't plan to work anymore, but perhaps I'll learn something for my own enjoyment or that will help my husband in his open source and consulting stuff, or that will be of help to us when/if we have kids. I'm probably going to continue toward Business Management because that's what I was studying before and it interests me, but I may change that.Funny thing is, when I tried my ssn/dob combination after it sent me an acceptance email (it's not hard to get into community college!), it came up with my maiden name. Strange, I thought, but then I figured it was probably because I had put that name down under "Other names I've attended school as" or some such field. But then, it showed my old address. Bewildered at this point, I poked around and found some health fee hold from Fall of 2005. I think I got enrolled in the Los Angeles Community College District when I took a steward class at the union hall. I never would have thought about that!Anyhow, there's a session of classes starting next week, but that's far too soon, and it's a condensed session. Too fast for me to get stuff together! I told it I'd like to start in "Spring." Off to look at class lists! I'll head down to the college in the next week or two to talk about graduation requirements and other such formalities. Really, I just wanna learn stuff, but I figure it's best to do it right and maybe even graduate some day! =P

Christmas 2

2006-12-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

Last night we had Christmas at my husband's family's house. As I predicted after Thanksgiving, there were people, and food! Two of Charles's little brothers kept me entertained/busy pretty much from when we got there until food was served, so I don't know what Charles even did most of the time! It's always nice when everyone comes over, there are enough adults around after kids start going to bed for several conversations to carry on at once. I think it was about 11pm when we got home, we always lose track of time when we're there. =)We went right to bed when we got home, but Charles got into his bag of Christmas stuff this morning and wore all new clothes to work. I'll be getting into the plates of leftovers very soon!(The reason why I don't have pictures here is because Charles's parents, one of his sisters, and a family friend all had cameras out and took plenty of pictures. In my family, I'm the only one that really takes many pictures, so I always bring my camera to their house for such occasions.)

Couches! Yay! (Oh, and Christmas 1)

2006-12-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

So, among other Christmas goodies from my family this year, we got couches! You see, my sister Martha got some other couches (I'm unsure where, if she bought them or what) and gave her couches to my other sister Irma. Irma then gave her couches to her husband Paco to use in his garage. Well, he had them for a month or so before he said that they were in his way and too big for the garage, so he gave them to us. In return, we gave him a little blue sofa-chair that we got from a neighbor.We went to my parents' house yesterday and traded our Focus for their Tahoe. Then we went to my sister's house, loaded up the two main portions of the couch set, brought them home and unloaded them. Then we loaded the blue chair for Paco and drove back to mom's in time for our Christmas meal. I don't know if you'd call it a late lunch or early dinner, it was about 3:30pm. We had dinner, did gifts, and were done by like 7:30pm. We were going to go to Irma's to drop off the blue chair after gift-giving but my mom said she'd drop it off for them today, we'll pick up the corner piece in the Explorer some other time. Irma and Paco ran off, so there isn't a picture of the whole family together this year like there normally is... Oh well, just means I have to post more pictures to show everyone!Tonight is Christmas with my husband's family. =)Pictures from last night below!My Aunt Tere and Uncle Mario (also my godparents)My parents and godparents.My sister's kids, Carynna, Michael, and Cyndi (left to right).My sister Martha and her kids.Irma and PacoMe and CharlesMy cross stitching project went over well. Turns out Cyndi had picked up the same one but had trouble making it because she had forgotten how to do stuff, being so long since she stitched. She said she couldn't believe I finished it. =)Couches!

2006 Christmas Letter

2006-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

We made a brief Christmas letter this year. It wasn't in time to mail out, but I've posted it here for anyone interested. It actually seems more fitting for a letter from us to be in electronic format than in your physical mailbox, doesn't it? It's got some pictures from throughout the year too. =)

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

HPIM0633.JPG
Originally uploaded by Sarolite.

Going to my parents' house soon. We're taking our gift exchange gifts and something for the baby, and hoping someone there will have gifts for us even though Christmas is still somewhat iffy. There will be food, however, or so we've been told.

By the way, in case you've never seen a skateboarding snail, I thought I'd pass this on to brighten everyone's Christmas! =)