Yay! Blog! v2.0
Category: May 2004

Harry and David is one of the most decadent stores in which I've ever been. Except for maybe chocolate stores and ice cream stores. I went there today and got some pickled sweet peppers and had to really resist getting anything else. I could buy out the whole store and gain back all the weight I've lost in a week. A lady was handing out free chocolate truffle samples. Shame on her. heh!

They had raspberry pretzel mustard for sale. Sounds kinda gross, but sometimes the gross sounding stuff is the best. I *so* wanted some, but that's really asking for trouble.

Hope all of you are having a great Memorial Day weekend.

New Song - Move Along (Vocal Mix)
The latest rockin' blues song from Robby James Rabuck, Jon Solo and me. Robby played a version of this on his Ampcast radio show, mentioned something about me singing it, and I was all over it. This song has a great feel to it. Thanks to Robby for letting me sing and playing such great guitar, and thanks to Jon Solo for working his magic, too!

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The three day training I attended this week was hard on my pocketbook. With 1.5 to 2 hours for lunch each day, I couldn't help but shop at the nearby mall all three days. I ended up with 10 shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of shorts, and 2 jackets. Today, I hadn't intended on buying anything... I went to the mall to walk. I ate at Souper Salad again yesterday and today, so I needed to walk some of that off. I did walk... right into Foley's. They were having an awesome sale.

I'm really excited about the two jackets. They're like dress jackets, but they zip up in the front. I've always wanted a zip front dress jacket. I got a black one and a gray textured one. The most excellent thing is that they're both a size smaller than I thought I would wear even with the weight I've lost so far. Yay!

But really... after I shopped, I walked around the mall a couple of times fast.

Y'all didn't hear from me at all yesterday because after training, I started redesigning my website to make it accessible and to use CSS for layout. I'm still tinkering with the main page. I've got one issue that I'm having a hard time resolving, and I don't think it's a CSS issue. I've got some icons I want to right or left justify and have text wrap around. It works in everything except IE. In IE, the text wraps, but the images disappear! That's weird, too, because usually everything works in IE, but not in some other browser.

Anyway... I'm not messing with the design too too much. The cool thing is, that I'll be able to make more dynamic skins once I'm done... skins that will completely change the layout instead of just the colors and header images.

I'm going to get back to designing now. Whooot! I'm a code-monkey!

Today was the first day of a 3 day training conference. I got up extra early because it started at 8:30, and it was all the way across town. Misjudging how long it would take me to get there in morning traffic, I got there a full hour early. Sheesh. I drove around scouting for restaurants for lunch and a Starbucks, but ended up sitting in the parking lot listening to music for about 20 minutes, too.

I was taking 3 classes today, and I had written the room numbers down earlier in the week. I got to the first class and the instructor was having some problems getting the "student files" onto the computers. I know exactly how he was feeling... he'd tried his best to make arrangements beforehand and was assured it would be no problem by the IT guy, but when it came to doing it, the IT guy wasn't around to do it. Not that all IT guys are like that... I'm just saying I know the feeling.

The class was supposed to be about Accessible Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), but the instructor had to rearrange some things, and we started learning how to make Flash accessible. The instructor kept saying the class was 6 hours long, but according to my schedule it was only 2 hours. Then I realized I was in the wrong class. Hah!!! What a dork. Actually... the room had changed since I wrote it down, and I didn't verify that what I had written down was right.

The good thing was I learned a little about Flash. The bad thing was that the class I was supposed to be in was the one class of the whole conference I really wanted to attend!! At the break, I snuck out and didn't go back. I had to kill 30 minutes before my next class, so I went and sat in my car again. Fun.

The next class was about Accessible Javascript. I didn't learn much that I didn't already know.

Then it was lunch. Yay!! I don't follow my diet when I'm in training at a remote location, so I headed over for Souper Salad. I know... that sounds like diet food, but they have wonderful gingerbread and blueberry muffin bread with honey butter. And focacia bread. I didn't stuff myself, but I ate plenty I shouldn't have. I suspect I'll go back there tomorrow or Wednesday.

After lunch was Homepage Reader class where we learned how blind people listen to web pages. It was very interesting. My site is *so* not accessible. Or at least not blind friendly. They could get through it, but they'd probably leave from having to listen to the navigation links every time they visited a page.

I was supposed to go home after that. That class was over at 3:00, and I'd been looking forward to getting out early, but there was a repeat of the Accessible CSS class from 3:00 - 4:30. So I crashed it. BREAKIN' THE LAW!! It was worth it! I love CSS so much. I don't use it for layout on my site or at work, but I want to. It would take quite a bit of work to convert my site, though. A LOT of work. Ugh. One of these days, maybe....

UPDATE: I forgot... after I ate lunch at Souper Salad, I went to the mall and bought 3 pairs of jeans and 3 shirts. All one size smaller than I have been wearing.

The good thing about getting up early on Sunday morning to go to the grocery store to buy the things I forgot to buy on Saturday is that I still have time to go to the grocery store again Sunday evening to buy the things I forgot to buy Sunday morning.

Sunday weigh-in: PZ -16 LW -2 (lost 16 pounds total, lost 2 pounds since last week)

Just goes to show... if I diet seriously, I lose weight. Yay!

I didn't sleep well last night. All I could think of was ticks. Ugh. I did have a dream, but there wasn't that much to it. Here's what I remember:



I have to go to the grocery store again today. That's a nice thing about going to the grocery on Saturday. I have an extra day to go back to buy all the things I forgot or didn't realize I needed. Like dog biscuits and liquid dish soap.

• I switched up my routine this weekend. Usually, I go to the grocery on Sunday, but I went today instead. Exciting times...
• Lily had lots of ticks on her today. I'm wondering if my house is infested now. It only takes one female to finish her feeding and drop off and crawl away to end up with thousands of ticks in the house. I was so disgusted after I pulled the ticks off that I felt bugs crawling on me. I just took a shower, but it didn't help so much. I ordered a Preventic tick collar for her. I've read those work pretty good.
• Joan of Arcadia was weird and disturbing and sad and very intriguing. I cried at least three times while watching it. I don't know what to think of it now. The Dad had a mystical experience. The Mom saw God in a dream. And Joan was told she's been having hallucinations all along because she has Lyme disease. One of the times I cried was when one of God's incarnations showed up at the very end. I was so thankful to see him watching over her. All that stuff overshadowed the whole Grace and Luke thing, which would have been enough by itself to make a show memorable. Another part that struck me deeply enough to make me cry was when Adam found out that the Joan he knows and loves is a result of her Lyme disease, and he worries that she might change too much when she gets well.
• A couple of girls came to my door this afternoon selling stickers. They're always selling something. I bought three cat stickers and five smiley face stickers for 50 cents. I had iTunes playing, and one of the girls heard it and asked, "Why are you listening to music?" I thought that was a really odd question. I just told her I felt like hearing some music. I'll bet at her house, they have the TV on all the time.
• Speaking of... I think I've heard enough music for today. I'm gonna go watch some TV.

• An entry over at Brykmantra made me think of this: I never liked the show Kung Fu so much. But sometimes it was on, and I'd watch it. Back then, we didn't have hundreds of channels to choose from. One time they were sticking the grasshopper guy in a big box, and he had to survive the cold weather. I don't remember if it was overnight or for a few days or what. He did survive, of course. And he explained that he just relaxed or meditated or something instead of tensing up from the cold. So I tried that at the bus stop... I hated waiting for the bus in the cold. It worked!! Instead of tensing up all my muscles, I relaxed them. I was still cold, but it wasn't as unbearable as before.
• I'm not all that excited about the finale of American Idol. It's kinda like the show is already over. What does it matter who actually wins? Does it make any difference in Ruben's life compared to Clay's life? I'll still watch it, and root for Fantasia. I might even vote again, although I tend to jinx whoever I vote for.
• I've been having a blast at work the past several days. I'm building a new website, and I get to use cascading style sheets. We've not be able to use them before because we are catering to the oldest of the old browsers on our public site. This is going to be an extranet site only for other state agencies, so we can up our standards. I'm still using nested tables for layout, but text and colors will all the controlled with CSS. Thanks a lot to A List Apart for tips! {Note: I just went over there to get the URL for the link, and they have yet another super article about how to create truly expandable drop shadows. Yay!!}
• I'll be in training Monday through Wednesday next week. Three full days of geekery... learning all about accessibility and the web. It's the perfect time, too, considering we're just now designing our new website. We definitely want it to be accessible to people with handicaps!
• The Torani syrups I ordered should get to my house today. That means I'll be having a chocolate raspberry decaf coffee with whipped cream on top for dessert tonight. Yay!

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This morning, I got up a little earlier than usual. Mostly because Lily was licking my face, but really, if I hadn't wanted to get up, I would have told her to settle down a little while longer.

I had a bowl of fruit after I took her for a walk... pineapple, watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew melon, blueberries, grapes and papaya. Then I took a shower. Now I'm having a good low carb breakfast... four slices of bacon, a sliced tomato with mayo, and some chunk swiss cheese. Yum!

I realized this week that pre-shredded cheese is coated with a starchy powder. Dang... I always use pre-shredded cheese... it's probably been messing up my diet. So I bought chunks of cheese (swiss and colby jack) and a shredder. I haven't used the shredder yet. Maybe this weekend I'll make some stuffed bell peppers. The recipe I have has cheese in the stuffing and melted on top.

Last night, I ordered some sugar free Torani syrups for my coffee... caramel, chocolate and raspberry. I'm not to sure I'll like the chocolate, but I wanted to try it. Chocolate's just not meant to be syrupy!

Sunday weigh-in: PZ -14 LW -0 (lost 14 pounds total, lost 0 pounds since last week)

No weight loss this week. Or to look at it the "glass half full" way... no weight gain! That's an accomplishment with all my trips to Chik-Fil-A and Starbucks. D'oh! I'll eat better this week.

Now isn't this the cutest thing...

Hi Karlyn!

I didn't have time to post yesterday because I went to a conference on open source software. It was interesting. There are some who are religious-style fanatics about open source software, which kinda made me think it's the best thing since pay at the pump gas. But really, it's just another option. There are good things and bad things about it, and the solution for any particular state agency's needs could be open source or proprietary. It just depends on a lot of factors. Don't worry... I'm not going to get into them... *BORING*

Then I had to rush home for the party at Ampcast that is Jon Solo's Happy Hour radio show. Then there were several other radio shows. I didn't leave the chatroom until after 1:00 a.m.! It was fun!

Today, I was busy burning CDs and making inserts for Kymberlie's Spring Burn It! CD swap. Got 'em all done. Now I just need to mail 'em!

Joan of Arcadia was awesome this week. And next week, the season finale, looks very intriguing. I'm already planning to get the DVD set of season I if they put one out.

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I get so discouraged when I go shop for birthday cards. Today, I shopped for a card for the people in my section at work to give to our supervisor.

There were cards that made fun of the recipient for their age. I hate those cards. Not because I'm sensitive about my age... I just don't get the joke. People are either sensitive or don't care. A "you're so old" type card will either make them feel bad or fall flat.

There were cards that made fun of the givers. One said something like, "We all got together and worked hard to make this a great birthday." Then when you open it up, you see a bunch of cartoon characters holding signs that are ugly with many misspellings. It said, "Hey... this is hard work coming from us!" What's with the self deprecation?? "Hey Boss.. Happy Birthday! We're just a bunch of idiots!" Sheesh.

There were cards that were outright mean. One highlighted the fact that not everybody was participating in the birthday greeting. Wah?

I had to settle on a card with the wacky theme of "we didn't get you anything but this card for your birthday." Ugh. But it had cute pictures of dogs on it, so I went with it.

The only other choices were syrupy "you're the greatest person who ever lived" kind of cards. Our supervisor is cool and all, but that would be way over the top.

C'mon Hallmark, et. al., get your act together. Can't you come up with some cards that just say "We hope you have a great birthday" and have a nice picture on them?

Check out this webcam picture of Robby James Rabuck...

Yay! It was a great mail day!

I got 3 CDs:

Heart - Dog & Butterfly
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
Kasey Chambers - The Captain

Those Heart CDs take me back to my second year in college. They came out before then, but that was the year I discovered how great the whole albums were. I remember listening to Dreamboat Annie over and over.

Kasey Chambers is a new discovery. I love her light raspy voice.

I also got a cassette from Frank Cotolo. He wrote a couple of songs and wants me to record them. They're cool... very folky. I've got another song to record this weekend, but when I'm finished with that, I'll start learning Frankie's songs.

I had another surprise that had nothing to do with mail. I opened the window to let Lily out into the backyard, and my backyard had tripled in size! The duplex next door is empty, and someone removed the fence!! I guess they're replacing it before new people move in. It was really weird!! It made me cry a little because I felt what it would be like to have a big backyard. I've never really yearned for one, but standing out there in that giant space made me yearn bigtime.

Lily didn't know what to do with herself!!

Speaking of Lily... it's time for her evening walk...

New Song - I've Loved You All My Life
It's great working with Jon Solo again! He asked me to record vocals for this one especially for our friends Robby and Karen's wedding.

Sunday weigh-in: PZ -14 LW -0 (lost 14 pounds total, lost 0 pounds since last week)

My new favorite show is Aquateen Hunger Force. Oh man... that show is nuts. For those who haven't seen it.. the main characters are a shake, a carton of french fries with a goatee, and a meat wad. They like to hang out in their neighbor Carl's above ground pool. Intrigued? Go watch it! It's on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

Joan of Arcadia was good this week, but it was one of those shows where the women go whacko. Joan's mom jumped all over Joan's dad for not being supportive in the way she wanted him to be, but I thought it was embarrassing for women. She wanted him to praise her art. He said it was nice, and that just wasn't enough. I can see her being disappointed, but to get upset and make him feel bad? Then Joan got all bent out of shape because Adam didn't notice that she started wearing makeup. C'mon girls... ya just gotta let guys be guys.

Tru Calling is over for this season. Wow! It's getting very interesting. What started off as a show with Tru saving a life (or some variation) every week has developed a great story arc that really makes you think. If someone is supposed to die and you save their lives, have you messed things up in the future? I mean... who is the real hero... Tru, who saves the lives, or Jack, who makes sure the people die?

American Idol is getting down to the wire. It truly is the battle of the divas now except that Jennifer Hudson should be there. I predict they will fall in this order... Jasmine, Diana, LaToya leaving Fantasia #1. Then again... when Jasmine is voted off, who will gain her votes the next week? If Diana gains them, then maybe LaToya or Fantasia will fall. We'll see. I just hope they have a better show next week. I'm not a big fan of big band. Go Fantasia!!

Queer Eye is still just as good as ever, but my interest seems to be waning a bit. It takes me several days to get through a whole show.

Family Plots is a new fav. It's a reality show where the cameras are in a family run mortuary. The middle sister is the embalmer. The other two sisters work in the office. The Dad picks up the bodies. The sister's fiance owns and runs the place. It's pretty intense and interesting.

No time for TV today... I've got lyrics to write, a song to debut (maybe), grocery shopping to do, and stuffed bell peppers to cook. I better get started...

My friend Smilestir's Live365 broadcast, Blueicewater Radio, won best blues station in the 2004 Best of Live365 contest. Yay!!! If you like blues, you'll love Smilestir's broadcast!

Smilestir is the cool chick who wrote the lyrics and speaks on Tax Lady Blues.

I sent an email to a nice lady I work with to set up a meeting on Monday. She replied:

"Great - I bet we could meet in that area next to my cubicle - it is open and has green chairs."

Thank goodness for green chairs.

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I just got an email from my coworker. It said,

"Please bring your own damn juggling balls to work. You can't keep
stealing mine every time you have the urge to juggle.

Thank you."

I take orange wedges to work with me about 3 days a week for a snack. Today, I took a blood orange. Ever seen one?

Most of my coworkers thought it was really gross. It was yummy, though! One of my coworkers saw it on my desk and thought I'd left an orange there all weekend and it had rotted.

It stained my thumb purple for a while, too.

Yay! Blood Oranges!

Yep... I cropped and formatted a bunch of pictures this afternoon, so I have fodder for my picture blog again. It's the rest of the pictures from the San Antonio Zoo and other San Antonio things. Plus plants, flowers and animals from my long walk around the neighborhood today. I didn't save the best for last... I posted it already for tomorrow's picture.

Sunday weigh-in: PZ -14 LW -2 (lost 14 pounds total, lost 2 pound since last week)

Yesterday, I kept having weird anxiety attacks. I have them every once in a while and usually at night. The first time I really noticed them was when I was in Arizona on vacation last August/September. I'd wake up in the middle of the night at the hotel feeling hot on the inside, cold on the outside and dizzy.

Yesterday was the worst I've had. I had several strong ones during the day. When it happens, I become painfully aware of my surroundings. This is very hard to explain... it's almost like I wonder how I got where I am. Like in a dream where you don't know where you are, but you know it's where you live. I dunno... strange.

I also saw a commercial jet fly low overhead while I was walking Lily. It was headed for the airport. It made me cry. I got that kind of feeling, too, when I was in Arizona and saw planes go overhead, but it never made me cry. It just made me feel a strong sense of emotion.

If I had to guess what it's all about, I think it's because I'm not where I want to be in my life. I want to be somewhere else... both physically and in terms of, well, living.

Anyway... I feel a little better so far today. Probably because the sun's out. Now if this chill would just leave the air, the weather would be perfect. Who let Jack Frost out to make things chilly again, anyway?