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That is the caption of my photo taken today showing me in a space suit on Mars. The photo is not exactly realistic looking, but it's still cool. It was part of a NASA traveling exhibit with freebies, so of course I tried it out, hey it got me away from the desk for a few minutes. It is in a big 18-wheeler trailer split into 2 rooms. The first part shows a very quick video and then 4 players use a touch screen panel to add components to a lunar base. Then there is another quick movie about going to the moon and the 6 sites we've already been to. They also have a small moon rock that you can touch (it looked like a regular rock to me). Then the tour (about 10 people at a time) moves into the next segment which is a circular kind of hexagon shaped room. They show video on 4 walls and on the floor. It starts off like you're in the water looking at an island and you can stomp on the fish and make them move more. Here, I envision kids going crazy and making the trailer shake :) Then the video went into more moon stuff and how NASA has helped other areas of our every day lives. And another part had moon rocks moving everywhere that you could stomp on again. I think I got carried away with the stomping because I've already forgotten part of the video's message :)
I'll add the scanned photo if I can find the guy with the scanner on this floor.

Bittbox posted a new list. I was shaking my head in agreement at most of them, but these in particular:
2. Your clients pay you for your professional expertise and skill, yet you’ve run into one of ‘those’ clients, that refuses to take the advice from the very person he/she is paying for advice (you).
4. You’ve requested a vector logo from a client, and instead, they email you a 72 dpi image they grabbed from a website.
10. You’ve had a client ask you to “Make the logo bigger.” There is also a separate funny video for this.
12. You’ve learned to over-price web design projects because most clients are more picky about their websites than a high school girl picking out a prom dress.
19. You’ve done everything but give up a body part to talk a client out of a “Flash Intro.” Yeah. I said it. Flash Intro. Sad, so so sad. (goes along with #2)
24. You’ve had a client that wants a website they can “update” on their own, but doesn’t know shit about websites.

I can't remember who now, but a friend had words to the final countdown song in an email or chat and it's in my head now. We leave for Seattle in 2 days for the Alaskan cruise. So far the weather channel is predicting rain everywhere we go. I may kick myself for not buying some gollash (sp?) boots that were so fashionable in the Memphis mud. Then again I'm already worried about how much luggage I'll have.
My mother-in-law has planned this entire trip and kept up with all the confirmation numbers for hotels, cruise, cars, cabs, etc. I think I'm going to tease her about quiting the dental field and going into vacation planning.
We have our regular cat sitter lined up - I think we're his cash cow - he loves it when we go on vacation! Yesterday my boss held a 4.5 hour meeting, so I'm definitely ready to forget about this place for a while.

Not much else to speak of besides yard work and some movie watching. We saw Indiana Jones. And depending on all the plans in Seattle on the return, we may try to see Hancock, Will Smith's latest movie. Hopefully we'll catch some fireworks in Seattle somewhere.

I had my first gas tank that cost more than $60 today. Locally we are holding at about $3.99 and I'm thankful to have a car that doesn't want premium grade. I do remember when gas was under $1. I think that was about 12 years ago. Those were the good ole days when you could cruise for fun and not worry. Now I calculate a trip to store X will cost me an additional $4 b/c it's 10 miles across town. Or even leaving for lunch will add an extra $3, making now even cheap Taco Bell go up to about $7 so it's hardly ever worth it.

My group at work had their awards ceremony today. I liked the casual setting at the botanical gardens, but it was hot. I'm waiting to see if anyone got sick from the potato salad. (I stay away from mayo when it's served in 90 degree weather). I was nominated for a peer award under the communication category. I had a suspicion that I would loose to the younger, cuter, always happy and now pregnant girl and I was right. Everyone likes her including me, so I wasn't upset.

Before going to the Botanical Gardens I went to the Space & Rocket Center to see our exhibit getting set up. This was my first time in the new Davidson center. I was impressed. They did a good job of setting it up so you can walk under the Saturn V rocket. I'll have to take Jeff back with me and show him the fake moon dirt glovebox I helped create.

A few weeks ago our 3.5 year old oven started acting up. It would sound a horrific alarm and shut down if the temp got higher than 375. After some research I came to the conclusion that GE sucked and it was not worth another $400 in parts and labor for a $700 oven. (Yes we lost $50 to a repairman who said they discounted the parts). So we got an upgrade, a Whirlpool convection oven. We also decided to try to install it ourselves before paying $120 to install it. I helped Jeff move both ovens (he should be glad I'm not a 5 foot 100 lb lady -the type he used to be attracted to, or maybe still dreams about, ha). It started off easy, but ofcourse he did have to pull the saw out and cut off about an 1/4" off the wood cabinet. It made our house smell like sawdust but everything turned out and it works. yea! I only baked some rolls in it tonight, so I'm still dont have enough info to compare a convection oven with a traditional one.

In other news, I heard a new (what I think is) redneck term. Some people were near a line talking and someone else came up and asked if they were in line and he said, "no we are just bumping our gums". WTF? Jeff and I laughed. I guess it means just talking. sounds stupid to me.

Friday night we hung out at Keith & Angie's for Keith's birthday. The no-kids night was definitely more calm after the past 2 kid-filled parties at their house. Oh, Kaylee's first birthday party was very cute last weekend. The castle cake was amazing. Saturday was Jeff's birthday. We didn't do much besides clean house and some yard work. Jeff got his new Tivo HD hooked up, as well as XM radio coming thru the tv. Sunday we had some friends over the pool and then back to our house for a cookout. Overall a nice pleasant weekend with good company.

Today at work I got to hear about some bikini-bull riding. A few guys went to N.Carolina for some training, met up with other customer/friends including some from Sweden and went to a bar advertising bikini-bull riding. The story wasn't as wild as I was hoping, but I couldn't help but wonder if they have bikini-bull riding in Sweden. I think they only saw fully clothed girls (though some in dresses) ride, so I'm sure it wasn't anywhere comparable to the nude beaches they have access to in Europe. Still, it's funny to think of Europeans in what was probably a redneck bar. ha!

I first saw an article about the solar tree - a large combination of street lights in a modern shape. (It is actually in Milan but designed by someone in Vienna.) This is so much prettier than a standard looking light post with a couple square flap looking panels attached.

Today I read an article about another solar tree, more like plant-sized version that comes potted. The leaves are organic thin-film solar cells.

I always get excited when I can see that designers have involvement in making something functional also beautiful. (I'm on the hunt for some more cool examples) And for the plant-size version, I'm hoping they come out with a palm tree size one. Jeff has been saying no to me when I ask for a palm tree saying it wont fit in our suburban setting (which I agree), but I'd make the sacrifice of standing out for a solar version.

I think I've made a friend of mine jealous about some upcoming travels/vacations. I can't help but to talk about going places and wishing to go places since everyday life seems too ordinary to talk about and probably boring to most people. I think I am a person that likes to stay on the go and escape my boring desk job, which I clearly remember saying I would NEVER have as an adult. I think those words came out of my mouth before I had to make my own money to survive. Lately I've been pondering how do people come up with a balance in life and planning, that is, spend enough of your money to have fun in your youth, while saving enough to retire on comfortably. I've seen too many examples of deaths too soon into retirement, or a disability limiting mobility. When I think of those examples it's easier to say sure, lets fly off to that destination since there is no guarantee we'll be around long enough or healthy enough to do it in our 50s or 60s. I'm also afraid of more family obligations I'll have in the coming years. My parents have buried 3 of their parents in the last few years, with many years before that consumed with providing care for them. Now they are working on fixing their own misc ailments as well as taking their siblings to the doctor for misc problems. That does not leave enough room for fun. Hmm, so yeah, I think I just validated my reasons for some trips this summer. Alaska is in a few weeks, then a friends wedding in Los Angeles. And recently Jeff's friend invited him to London, so I'm working on figuring out how to fit that in.

Last Friday Hsv police were in a high speed chase that made it's way on the arsenal. Communication didn't flow in time to move the barricades at the gate and the 2 ladies didn’t crash their car for several more miles on base. That crash resulted in the death of a NASA employee. Today a MSFC rep talked to everyone and answered questions. The usual questions flowed, why couldn’t they shoot the tires out, did the police call to warn the gate guards, this means they aren't prepared for a terrorist, etc. The terrorist question drives me crazy. I wish the country didn’t live in fear, it's not a good way to live your life. Anyone can die in a car crash at any time or a freak of nature like an earthquake. The latest story I heard was that this man had just come back from lunch with his family and his two boys, ages 6 and 3, begged their daddy to stay home and play with them. How sad to think that the 6 year old will probably grow up remembering that. It was another instance in life that makes me more aware of how lucky I am for so many things, family, health, friends, too many to list.

On another note, today is voting day. On the local ballot is a sales tax increase to 8.5% with the benefit going to schools. In my frustration yesterday trying to find out details of who and what else was on the ballot, I also looked up what Alabama property taxes were in comparison to the rest of the nation. AL ranked #49, and that is probably a correlation where our schools rank. If they want better schools, why can't the state or people of the state raise the property tax. That will hit those with money harder. Instead they propose a sales tax that hits everyone hard including the poor and lower income that rent. And for future reference if you need to do research on candidates, this is a great site: www.votesmart.org.

I have a new record for amount of time to get through the gate at work. Normally my commute to work is about 12 minutes. Today it was 37 minutes. I thought there was a wreck or maybe some random car checks since we had a highspeed police chase on base that resulted in a fatality last week, but no, the big slow down was so that people could take their badge out of the plastic sleeve and show to the patrolman. This is a new part of our special badges - a plastic sleeve holder since we can't punch holes in them to attach a clip. Now I have a new fear - this sleeve will become loose and my badge will fall out in the toilet.

Jeff and I finally finished painting the kitchen this weekend. Yes, thats me on top of the fridge in order to reach above the cabinets. Before I tried out a light green and it just didn't work with the rest of the tan elsewhere in the house. And since I'm not ready to paint the rest of the house, I decided to go with a darker color. It looks great and even goes with the ceiling color - yea, one less thing to paint. Here is another larger version.

I took a cute photo of Ginger near her new feeder. This is her usual pitiful 'feed me' face. If you click on the image there is a larger version that also shows the timer dial that comes with the feeder. You can set it to go off every 15 minutes if needed. So far Ginger has not tried to bang this one around like the last feeder.

I read a few articles about a miracle fruit/berry that tricks the tongue to make everything taste sweet, including lemons. It seems to change the flavor of most everything that hits your tongue for 30 minutes to 2 hours after eating the berry. A guy in NY has had a few flavor tripping parties to experiment with food. It sounds pretty cool. One lady was pouring Tabasco on her tongue and another said that Guinness beer tasted like chocolate milk. Here's the link for the NYTimes article. Even funnier was a video of the G4 network hosts trying it out, the chic couldnt handle it :) A guy in Florida is selling 30 berries with overnight shipping for $90. This Wallstreet Journal article has some more history on it and other peoples efforts and failures to work with the FDA for diabetic uses.

This cracked me up. I had dinner with a friend and in the middle of telling a story she mentions going online to smellywasher.com and buying their product. Great website name! Evidently front-loading washing machines tend to stink. So bad, that Linda's whole house stunk. How horrible! but the magic trick is to just use borax detergent with every load and it wont stink. So that website is ripping people off by charging $16 for plain Borax (or so Linda said, since I dont have one and have not tried it).

I took off on Friday since I knew the office would be dead. My goal of the day was to get my wedding photo album done (yes 2.5 years late). And I made excellent progress, I'm just lacking the honeymoon photos. This is my first time using blurb.com so I have my fingers crossed. They give you the exact size of the pages, so most pages I did my own collage in photoshop. Friday night we got a call from Jeff's friend that he was going to be in town and we should come down to his parents lake house. That was an offer we couldn't refuse. So Saturday we spent at the lake and caught up with Aaron and Karen who we had not seen since their wedding in California. The water was very cold so I didn’t stay in long. His family had a house full with 3 kids there and 3 grandkids, so we left after a wonderful dinner of bbq'd beef and pork tenderloin. Sunday we got caught up on yard work which I followed with an hour at the pool, and then a nap and then off to Keith and Angie's cookout. They had a big crowd, maybe 40 if you included all the kids. It's funny to think how their parties have changed to include the kiddie activities now. Monday I got the kitchen painted a rusted red color. I love it. Now I just have to paint above the cabinets. Most muscles in my body are sore from something or a combination of things I did this weekend. I guess now they'll stiffen up sitting at work.

Update on the cat saga - instead of buying child gates, we got online and looked for a different automatic feeder. Jeff found an expensive one, but hey, I could feed Ginger 48 times in a day if I wanted. The place had great customer service when I emailed a few questions - the guy was even funny and said the cat couldnt break it unless of course she was the size of a small dog and body slammed it. It arrived yesterday and Jeff took some pleasure in putting together a new gadget. Then we tortured the cat while testing it out to get just a little bit to come out at a time. It has a chute of sorts and the bowl is under that. It was pretty funny to watch her have to use her paw to move the pieces that were under the chute, but she ofcourse figured it out. And later we were watching tv and I heard a noise that sounded like a metal fence rattling or something. I had already forgotten about the feeder - Jeff laughed at me for getting startled. Ginger didnt know what it was either and we had to coax her to the bowl. She must have figured it out throughout the night because she did not meow at us at all until Jeff's alarm went off. Yeah! so far so good. I also think this feeder will be easier for my cat sitter to figure out when we go on vacation.

I'm attempting to build up some stamina for hiking and walking in Alaska.
Last night Jeff and I went out to eat and then looked at ovens and paint, so I didn’t walk.
I'm meeting some girl friends tonight, so I don’t think I'll be walking after a martini, so I decided to bring a change of clothes and walk on the little trail near by my office. It's a half a mile loop, part of it shaded and part open and sunny. I forgot my MP3 player so here are some of the random things that popped in my head...

* The wooded area is also close to the steam/piping (?) lines. Today they are making a constant chug chug sound that makes me think of a monster breathing heavy while chasing you and I'm walking along what is now a secluded wooded curvy path, perfect background for a scary movie.
* Ah, the smell of honeysuckle brings pleasant thoughts back
* Ooh, wild strawberries, I loved strawberry shortcake when I was a kid. When I was a kid I didn’t have to worry about exercising, oh how it'd be nice to be a care free 5 year old again. I was usually only scared of some of my brothers friends and could go hide under my tall bed with the strawberry shortcake comforter.
* Ah, the smell of freshly cut grass.
* I see 5 construction workers, 1 is holding something, 1 is hitting it with a sledge hammer thingy, and 3 are standing around watching - wonder how much gov't money is being wasted just in that little group.
* Those people passed me on the trail and didn’t say hi, they must not be from the south.
* (looking through the trees), ack that man is not wearing a shirt - it's highly improbable that he is one of the 4 good-looking men I've seen around here, must walk faster so I don’t run into him.
* I wonder how different the trees and foliage and greenery will be in Alaska. It'll be nice to be in completely different surroundings. Man, what do cityslickers do when they are just surrounded by concrete and buildings. Guess I'm pretty fortunate to be able to break up my work day with nice walks like this in 74 degree weather.

My cat won't shut up. She wants food all the time - will eat till she pukes, then eat the puke. Every morning she'll come in and meow at the top of her lungs between 4 and 5am. I have already bought a $50 feeder than opens automatically by a turn dial, but it doesnt allow the times to open more than every 5 hours - this is a problem in the middle of the night. Here are the options I'm considering:
- Buy 3 child gates and lock her in the kitchen/utility room area all night, every night
- Find a shock collar for small animals
- surgically remove her vocal cords.
So I think the first one is the most humane :) Guess I'll break my personal rule and actually go to Walmart this weekend to purchase the kiddie gates.

I got an email from Trip Adivisor saying I had been to one of the best destinations for 2008. I was intriqued so I clicked on it. Out of the top 100 world destinations I've been to:
#11 Salzburg, Austria
#16 Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
#34 San Francisco, CA
#41 New Orleans, LA
#52 Napa, CA
#62 Prague, Czech Republic
#75 Munich

Several of the top 25 U.S. destinations were in Hawaii and California. I already have the travel bug and this didn’t help any. I just added more places on my list to explore.

Quick synopsis of my running around lately:

Apr 19 - Bham - hang w/brothers and see a comedy show

Apr 26 weekend in Houston/Kemah to hang with my parents and more brothers. This time water and a boat was involved :)

May 2 weekend in Memphis for Beale Street music festival. Tunes, mud and lots of people describe that

May 4 flew to Chicago for a web design conference. Lots of brain stimulating presentations broken up with fun people and bars and pizza!


I'll write more when I have time. Now it's on to planning a mothers day weekend and doing laundry.