Monthly Archives: February 2009

Recovery.gov

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From the FAQ on the new recovery.gov site:

Q: I want to help. What can I do?
A: Over the course of the spring, increasing amounts of information will become available on Recovery.gov that will show where the money is going. We are counting on you to peruse that information and tell us what you find. Please share your stories, your ideas, and your comments. They will then be sent to the Board for their review.

I think this is awesome .. I really hope people are taking notice of all the new media outlets our President is using to get all of us involved in fixing our economy. 

I’m fighting a cold .. or actually I’m dealing with the same swollen throat / post nasal drip B.S. that resulted in me having a needle biopsy and 3 CT scans last year .. I feel lousy, but not sick .. it just sucks.

Stuck In My Head

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Another Liz mix that I love .. I highly recommend all the songs on this CD :) Lucacris’ new song would’ve been on here, except for the fact that Ella listens to all of Liz’s music and I really don’t think lyrics like “If I take one more drink, I’m gon’ end up f***in’ you,” are appropriate for an almost 3 year old .. even if it is bleeped out. As an adult though, I confess that I love Luda. 

  1. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Around The Bend
  2. Fall Out Boy – I Don’t Care
  3. Editors – Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
  4. T.I. ft. Rihanna – Live Your Life
  5. Your Vegas – In My Head
  6. Missy Higgins – Where I Stood
  7. Keane - Spiralling
  8. Jimmy Eat World – Let It Happen
  9. Paramore – Decode
  10. Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
  11. Carolina Liar – Show Me What I’m Looking For
  12. Living Things – Let It Rain
  13. Anberlin – The Feel Good Drag
  14. Weezer – Thought I Knew
  15. Bloc Party – One Month Off
  16. Pussycat Dolls – I Hate This Part Right Here *
  17. The Fray – You Found Me
  18. Britney Spears – Circus
  19. Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance
  20. The Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) 

* Its tough to pick a favorite on this CD .. but this one might be it .. surprisingly!

 

More of my favorite iPhone apps

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Weightbot: I picked up this app thinking I’d give it a try to start tracking my weight, and even though I’ve only updated it 3 times since I got it last month, it turns out I’ve lost 7lbs. I’ve actually lost 2 lbs since Wednesday. It has a neat graph if you tilt it on its side and calculates your BMI when you enter your weight. Super simple to update, I just don’t like to get on the scale very often :P

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner: I LOVE allrecipes.com .. and I used to surf their site while walking through the grocery store looking for inspiration for dinner. Now I can narrow down things I’m looking for, or just let it randomly choose something for me. You shake it to pick a recipe for you .. how fun is that :)

Virtual Zippo: Who doesn’t like playing with zippo lighters .. at least this one wont leave your fingers smelling like lighter fluid and ash.

Recappin’

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Dogs in coats 

I did follow through with my last post and spoiled my dogs Thursday, a walk, a trip to PetSmart and on Friday we actually made it to the dog park. They ran around like crazy for a half hour and then they said they were cold and wanted to go home :P If I could actually make / find a coat that fit them we probably wouldn’t have a problem. But as you can see:

Dogs in coats Dogs in coats 

They out grew the coats I made them last year .. they’ve only gained like 1lb .. but I guess it was enough. Daisy still fits in hers, it was always too big .. but big pup can’t get his head through his cape. So this winter Old Navy had a clearance on their dog coats/sweaters when I stopped in one day so I picked up a sweater and a jacket for each of them. Got them home .. ripped off the tags on the sweaters and they were too small. Really they’re skin tight, and probably too short for a long wiener dog. So I returned the jackets for a larger size, but they didn’t have the same style .. so I picked up a different style and they’re just ginormous. Thursday was in the 40′s and I actually wanted to walk with the dogs .. so I pinned the big jackets up a bit .. and well .. it didn’t work. I need to sit down and actually alter the jacket (which i think is actually supposed to be a vest). Of course when I finally do it, it will be summer time :)

Daisy on the window seat
Daisy says “I don’t need no stinkin’ coat” 

Other things that happened this week? I subbed a couple days, took Friday off. I decided if a decent high school class popped up I’d take it .. but only one showed up and it was for english, not one of my strong points .. so I let somebody else have it. I spent Friday developing a business that I’ve been talking about for awhile .. in fact I bought the domain last year. It’s going to be a cool / urban dog boutique .. not froofy.. I have a biz plan in my head that involves starting it online in phases, and maybe eventually it would be a brick and mortar biz. But in this economy that step is years away. The first step is just getting the site up, it requires no inventory .. so the upfront costs are really minimal. The trick is getting customers to the site .. and if I can make that happen, well then it would just grow bigger. So we’ll see :)  

logo

Saturday I went to Annabelle’s birthday and took lots of pictures, but I gave them to Keri so I have no idea if there are any good ones. I was experimenting with my new gadget that will hopefully help with white balance, which I just hate dealing with (those of you with SLRs know my pain). I picked up [this lens cap] from photo jojo and in the camera it really seemed to make a difference. I downloaded a couple experiments from inside my house and they didn’t seem as neutral as they were inside the camera. So I’m wondering if my monitor color is really off (its been a good month since I calibrated). I’ll let you know if the lens cap is worth it when I play with it a little more.

I made a few South Beach recipes this week, and fully intended to photograph and share my reviews .. but I just haven’t been motivated to do it. I would much rather post pictures of my dogs :P Also, Saturday I got my official letter of eligibility to teach computer science in Florida. So .. if a job pops up I could take it without any problems. Of course nobody has open teacher positions right now …

And I think thats all I have to report today .. I need to jump into the shower and pack a bag. I’m heading south for the night to photograph little Tori tomorrow morning!

Regressing

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Since I started teaching more .. my dogs have seriously started regressing. I don’t know if its separation anxiety .. or just that maybe they don’t get let out as much during the day (though I know they can hold it .. most days I’m home they go 4-6 hours between trips out) .. but I’ve found more then a few ‘accidents’ when I come home from work. We’ve always had problems with potty training, so I’m not too bothered by it .. but what does bother me is Daisy’s new found love of stealing and chewing. 

Yes, they have also always chewed socks and pants .. but since I’ve been good about keeping the pants off the floor lately, and Sean has been not so good about keeping socks off the floor lately .. there has been a HUGE surge in the number of his socks where the toes have gone missing! I’m talking 10 – 15 socks everytime I do a load of laundry will go right into the trash. So .. I’ve been trying to go around and pick up socks every day for the past week or two. Now .. Daisy is stealing anything she can get off my desk! I found remnants of a pencil under the futon, I’ve caught her stealing a bandage wrap off my desk .. and numorus packaging materials that I don’t notice they’re gone because they really are garbage .. but to her .. they’re a treasure. Today when I walked into my office to turn on the computer she rushed in (door has been closed all day) grabbed a red sharpie from some where and ran it out to her bed in the living room. 

Its totally a game, for attention .. and I know its because I’m gone most of the day .. and when I come home I get on the computer, into the kitchen or sometimes clean house .. I hardly ever end up on the couch watching TV with them anymore .. and I cant even remember the last time we went to the dog park .. but I know it was last year :(  

So I’m off to go take them for a walk .. and then a trip to PetSmart to see if I can find some bones they wont finish in 10 minutes .. and if I don’t pick up a job tomorrow, I’m going to make a real effort to take them to the dog park :)

Here’s a random picture of Ella in a pretty dress .. she’ll be wearing this at Liz’s friend Rachel’s wedding this April. Liz is the maid of honor and I’ll be photographing the wedding .. it will be a total family affair!

Ella in a pretty dress 

sunday Sunday SUNDAY

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I have the super bowl on but for the first time in years not only am I not paying attention to the game, I don’t think I’ve watched a single complete commercial. 

I have a few updates to my 101 list, last night I started crocheting .. my mom taught me when I was a kid, and really this book just brought it back. I don’t think I knew the names of the stitches before, but now I do :) And I’m going to tackle that scarf soon! Also today after photographing the Konickis I stopped at the local library and signed up for my library card. I didn’t check anything out though because the one book that I wanted to get in the past was out. It was a book on square foot gardening, but I’ve decided to wait another year before starting any real beds. Also, this wasn’t on my 101 list but on my new year resolution post, I came home from the store today and actually chopped up my celery and put it in a bag and put my cilantro in a cup of water on my counter so both will be ready to use when I need them! 

I don’t have any sub jobs lined up this week, I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up one or two as the week goes on, but I’m not in a rush to get back in a classroom after last week. So I figured this would be a good week to start a strict 2 weeks of South Beach. Tonight I’m enjoying some girl scout cookies, the thin mints will be fine in the freezer for a few months, but I know the tagalongs wont. Oh well. 

Well I just watched a full commercial, the sobe lizard 3d commercial, I wonder if it was any good in 3D. 

Oh! I didn’t realize the pictures from last weekend were up on Liz’s kodak gallery – [Lion Country Safari] and [Trying On Dresses]