kimmie

It's not me, it's you...

2011-03-23T19:50:00.001-06:00

After multiple frustrations with trying to make a cute post with pictures of the kiddo, I'm jumping ship to tumblr.

Check out the continued antics of all things Rama here: theramas.tumblr.com

Recent finds

2011-02-21T19:53:00.003-06:00

...and no, I don't mean Christmas Trees and Apes, though who doesn't love a good Christmas tree and an ape to boot?!

Well, you may know that I was quite an addict to all things T.V. while growing up (and still somewhat to this day...though the bambino has changed much of that!). Anyhow, it has been a while since I've added any shows to my 'much watch' list, but there are a few recent additions I wanted to share with you, in case you find yourself with some extra hours here and there:

Parenthood
After much prompting from Danielle, we tuned into Parenthood. It's loosely based on the old 80's movie Parenthood (which I probably watched well before I should have, but who's counting?!), and it's definitely worth tuning in. It's just real life, honestly. And it's not pretty, and it's not taken care of in 42 minutes. And they used a Bob Dylan song for the intro, so there ya go.

Who Do You Think You Are
I stumbled upon this over the weekend, actually, during an extended naptime that I was trying to take advantage of. Thanks to our Roku and Hulu, I've been able to watch a few of these here and there. And honestly, it's been really neat. If you haven't heard of the show, it basically follows various celebrities as they trace their ancestors. I've never been one for genealogy, but it really has been neat to watch these people dig back through time. It's also been educational, as they dive into various parts of national and international history. Anyhow, fun to watch, and sometimes sad.

Sports Night
Now no, this isn't currently on t.v., but Amar and I are big Aaron Sorkin fans, and so we queued this up on Netflix and have been watching it (it also has ties to Parenthood via the main character). So if you like the West Wing(!!!), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, or just good tv, then you should check it out. Note: we also recommend The West Wing (!!!) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip if it wasn't obvious in the previous sentence...and while we're on the topic of Aaron Sorkin: see also The American President.

Parks and Recreation
So I caught this over the holiday break, and I wasn't that enthused about it. But when there was a household of sick people, I had some good TV time to burn. And I was pleasantly surprised. Even moreso now that Rob Lowe (um, West Wing alum!) has joined. Goodness all around.

The Biggest Loser
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't really watch this show. It just comes on either before or after Parenthood, and so I wind up catching a bit of it here and there. And honestly, I think it's great. They take people who are morbidly obese and just kick their butts right off. I'm not a huge fan of reality tv (with the major exception being Project Runway...which I miss, by the way. Where are you PR?!), but this reality show actually saves lives. These people are on the fast track to a short life, and to be honest, I cry whenever I watch it. Yes, I realize that 90+% of the time, these people have gotten themselves into this condition. But they are making a change, and keeping their family from the pain of losing them early in life.

Online shopping

2011-02-20T11:40:00.003-06:00

Amar was looking for "something whimsical" to get as a wedding gift for his newlywed brother...so he had me type "husband and wife coffee mugs" at Amazon.com

This was the search result:

Which one doesn't belong?

Superbowl XLV: Musings and Observations

2011-02-06T20:18:00.003-06:00

My thoughts upon watching portions of the Superbowl (and the commercials):

Either Troy Aikman is a giant, or Joe Buck is tiny. I googled their heights mid-game, and still, I think the data has been falsified. My current working theory: Joe Buck has a long neck making his shoulders look really short compared to good ol' Troy.

The Steelers' head coach looks like Omar Epps. Arguably, Wikipedia does not have a good picture of either man, but trust me on this one. Doppelgangers.

I don't care what you say, I still get a kick out of the Etrade talking baby commercials. Good stuff.

Also, on the marketing front, I'm digging the Snickers commercials. They took the cake last year with Betty White getting tackled. And this year with (ick) Roseanne Barr and (ick-ish) Richard Lewis getting smacked around. Also good stuff.

Not Superbowl-related, per se, but I'm contemplating starting a Twitter account. Anyone have any strong feelings either way?

Not really looking forward to either of the upcoming Johnny Depp movies. Cartoon lizard? Pass. Yet another installment of Jack Sparrow? Meh.

did

Half-time show? Seriously. People wearing neon light-up suits dancing around with boxes on their heads? Pass.

I'll leave things there for now. Best wishes for all of your Superbowl watching adventures!

Rama Weekly Wrap-Up: 2

2011-02-05T20:12:00.003-06:00

In this, the 2nd installment of the Rama Weekly Wrap-Up, we have some hot topics to cover! So grab your favorite beverage, pull up a cozy chair and settle in.

Update 1: The nanny
We love our new nanny, Bethany! And better yet, so does Anjali. Seriously, it's been great. So for all you inquiring minds, yes, all three Austin-based Ramas are still fully intact and thriving thanks, in part, to Miss Bethany (ok, so she is married, but "miss bethany" sounds better that "mrs bethany" to me...just deal with it).

Cute baby picture #1..just to keep you reading:

Update 2: Apple products invade (bonus: smartphones arrive!)
We are now inundated with various Apple products at Casa de Rama. We got an iPad late last year. we got a cube thingy a few weeks ago to replace a (very!) dated desktop unit we got when we first got married. But are we done? Apparently not. Today, we welcomed a new member to the family - the MacBook Pro. Goodie! (Seriously folks, Amar may need an intervention at this rate.) Also, we finally joined the revolution and upgraded our phones to new ones. We are now both sporting the MyTouch 4G, and thanks to an employer discount and Amar's negotiating class at his Executive MBA program, they were practically free. Bingo!

Cute baby picture #2...work with me people:

Update 3: Snowpocalypse 2011
Yes, I realize that other parts of the country actually have, what are they called again? Oh yeah, seasons, but around here, not so much. There's essentially an on/off switch for summer, and if it's off, it's basically 50 degrees. If it's on, double that.

But with the rest of the nation facing a blizzard, we were feeling left out. And voila! Snow(ishness)! Here's what it looked like at our house for a few hours on Friday.

Rama Weekly Wrap-Up

2011-01-29T09:15:00.003-06:00

Hey folks,
It's blog-time again around these here parts. I was just thinking that nothing that I wanted to share with the internets really went together, per se, so I just decided to do a "weekly wrap-up"...and who knows, it might become a regular segment. Stay tuned!

So, without further ado, here is the Rama Weekly Wrap-Up:

The bambino:

The kitchen:

The casa:

Young House Love

the napkin

And just for a sneak peek at what I'm going for in the laundry room, here's one of my inspiration pictures that I snagged:

Yes, I realize that it's a pantry, but what I'm going for is the neatly arranged bins of goodness, along with the overall curb (or hallway?) appeal of the space. Plus, if I can get some good baskets like that, I can move the cleaning supplies out of the space under the kitchen sink and into an out-of-sight/out-of-reach area for when Anjali starts roaming around the house on her own.

Also, one more find to share with you if you're looking for color-scheme type input: Kuler. I've just tinkered around with it a bit, but it looks like a total fun time waster. Good luck!

Quick update

2011-01-23T16:56:00.003-06:00

I haven't been blogging much lately because both Anjali and Amar were sick over the past few days. Not much fun, but we did survive it all.

To all of you who asked, the pot roast turned out quite well. I even made another crockpot recipe the other day: chicken makhani. And yum - quite a success!

Also, just a fun moment in parenting to share with you:

Yes, as parents we occasionally talk about the contents of our daughter's diaper, especially since she's been sick these last few days. Well, today I asked Amar how the diaper change was, and his response was "it looked like the Scottish countryside on a gray and angry winter day." Well, that was informative.

Provisions

2011-01-15T10:40:00.002-06:00

I'm cooking a pot roast. The fact that 1) it's cold and gray outside and 2) my mother-in-law is no longer here to cook for the family, means that it's up to me (somewhat) and my severely lacking kitchen skills to provide dinner for us.

I was inspired by A Year of Slow Cooking and so I'm trying this "old fashioned pot roast".

I just wanted the internet to know.

If all goes well, we should have dinner on the table by 6ish. If all does not go well, we'll decide to fast....or get burgers.

Wish me luck!

Holiday fun, Rama-style

2011-01-09T21:09:00.004-06:00

There are times in life that I think God enjoys letting us venture out on our own, only so that He can be somewhat amused at what we get ourselves into.

For us Ramas, that time came over the Christmas break. Specifically, in taking an infant to a rather mountainous state and attempting to sleep for any longer than 60 minutes in a row. Did I mention that it was mountainous? Oh, and at the base of the mountain it was 10,000 feet elevation? And the room we stayed in was on the second floor, so that adds what, 12 feet? It was definitely those last 12 feet that the infant objected to so vehemently.

On the other hand, it was beautiful, so that was a good little bonus over the Christmas break.

All that to say that we enjoyed our holiday break and here are some pictures to prove it:

...anyone still there?

2011-01-03T10:34:00.002-06:00

I know that I've been REALLY lazy about updating this here blog lately. If you're still with me, then THANK YOU! If you've given up on me, then, well you won't be reading this so I don't really care all that much ;)

Seriously though, things have been busy and "updating the ol' blog" hasn't really made it into the top 5 on the priority list. Hopefully, I'll be better about it in 2011, but who knows.

For my inaugural post of 2011, I thought I'd start with something light: what we've been up to in the wild and wonderful world of the Ramas.

Amar's parents have been with us since late August, and it's been amazing. Sure, the small house has become even more cozy, but it's a small price to pay to have such quality time with them and to watch them interact with Anjali. She loves them to pieces!

We took a "vacation" to Colorado...and I use the word "vacation" very lightly. It was more like a trip. An adventure. The baby did great on the plane, but didn't love the altitude (10,000 feet!) too much. Yes, it was a beautiful winter wonderland in the mountains, but I think our next family vacation will be much closer to home, in a much warmer climate and at a much more sane elevation. Mountains: 1, Ramas: 0

And it's official, we have a big baby on our hands. But she's proportionate, so it's ok. At her 6 month check-up, she was in the 90% for height and weight. Her head, however, is normal-sized (50%), so who knows. We've started doing some sleep training, with great results so far. Here's to a restful 2011!

On the pet-front, we got the Scotties officially groomed for the first time ever, and they actually look like Scotties. They didn't quite know what to think of their new 'do at first, but they were super cute and we loved it. They even smelled like perfume for the first week or so (I kept holding them and smelling them!), so they probably thought I was weird - what's new? Now, due to their new look, when they get running really fast, they look like flying carpets. Good stuff!

Over the holiday break, we saw our fair share of movies as well:
The Fighter
Overall, a great movie, though not as much about boxing as one might suspect. Any Marky Mark lovers out there will enjoy it. Yay! Note: you have to brace yourself for the very profuse and artistic use of the 'f' word....you've been warned.

The King's Speech
To be honest, I wanted to see this one because I really like a certain Mr. Colin Firth*. It was a good movie though, and I'd recommend it. It's a bit slow at times, but come on, what do you expect in a movie about British royalty? And note: there is also a bit of profanity in this one (not nearly as much as The Fighter), but it's done 1) with a British accent and 2) in such a way that you are cracking up...so I didn't mind it too much.
*How can you NOT love Mr. Darcy?!?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Any Team Narnia folks will enjoy this one (I just made that up, by the way...good stuff, eh?). Reepicheep is great, and Eustace is believably obnoxious, in a good way. Overall, a fun holiday movie. Anyone know if any of the other books are being made into movies?

There has been much, much more going on, but you'll have to come back for more installments. Happy new year!

Quick rhetorical question:

2010-11-01T11:35:00.002-06:00

Why is water that comes out of the ice machine not cold?!

Just a quick thought from my lunch break. Oy.

A weekend of firsts

2010-10-11T07:47:00.003-06:00

In retrospect, it seems that we had a great weekend a la Casa de Rama. We had a few 'firsts' that were enjoyable:

Usage of the TxTag
Since I'm now working out of an office in Round Rock several days each week, we decided that it was worth it to buy a TxTag. So we put it to use for the first time this weekend as we made our way to a friend's house in Pflugerville. Good times, though I'm still not too pleased with toll roads in general...

New kitchen sink
Our 'old' kitchen sink died, and I installed a new one. ('old' being somewhat of a misnomer, since we've only had it for about 4 years!) This was a 'first' because I haven't ever installed a kitchen sink before. Bathroom sinks, yes. Kitchen sinks, no. I take it as a good sign that it's still in working order after the weekend...

Laughing Baby
Our dear friend Tiffany got Anjali to laugh - and it was awesome! Yes, it's always cute when babies laugh, but when it's your kid, it's really fantastic. The only downside? We haven't been able to recreate it...but that's not for lack of trying!

Apple products
Amar surprised me yesterday by taking me to the Apple store and buying an iPad for the family. I was staunchly opposed to owning one, since I didn't really think we needed one, but I actually like it. It's a first real gadget (aside from an iPod Nano) from Apple...and it seemed post-worthy.

I thought I had some more 'firsts' but now I can't think of them...anyhow, hope you had a good weekend too!

The old college try...

2010-10-01T06:59:00.003-06:00

An Aggie who just saw the scoreboard:

Too much tv

2010-08-08T18:50:00.003-06:00

Not only is it a pillow.

Nor is it merely a pet.

In fact, it's a Pillow Pet.

Is anyone else plagued by this completely nonsensical informercial sweeping the nation? Yowzah!

Month in review: Parental Essentials

2010-08-03T07:41:00.004-06:00

I'm thinking I should trademark that accidental rhyme in the title. Eh?

And now onto bigger and better things: the content of this post

Praise the Good Lord that we've survived 5+ weeks of keeping Anjali alive. Seriously. Now, before I get too far into today's edition, I want to say that this will NOT become a mommy blog. Not to slam the mommy blogs, but just to specify that this is not one of them.

However, there will occasionally be some random child-rearing thoughts that I will share with you from time to time.

I just wanted to make that clear....

Moving on.

I wanted to give a shout-out to some key essentials that have helped us survive these last 5+ weeks. You may or may not be a parent, but I'm hoping that in either case, this will be somewhat interesting/useful to you...there have been 2 things that we really couldn't live without, and an additional item that seems to get almost as many comments as the baby itself. Allow me to enlighten you:

Item 1: The pacifier

Now let me say this, I'm all for kiddos coming equipped with a 'mute' button. However, our Creator did not necessarily design us that way, thus enter the pacifier. Whoever invented this device has simply got to be a gazillionaire at this point. I will admit that we've gotten a lot of mileage out of the pacifier. Not that this is a revolutionary thought by any means...I just don't think I really valued it much before having a baby. Now if they just made them for adults....

Item 2: The Moses basket

We live in a small house. This means that we have about 2 closets in the entire abode, and I am not about to clutter them up with baby gear. If you want to buy the latest gadgets for your kid, go for it. Around our house, however, we are trying to take a minimalistic approach. Thus, when considering purchasing a bassinet, I decided to pass.

However, some friends of ours mentioned that for their 4 kids, they used a Moses basket and definitely got their money's worth out of it. And since their kids are now all well past the infant stage, they loaned the basket to us.

HALLELUJAH!

I think Anjali has slept at least 6-8 hours a day in this thing, if not more (granted, those precious hours aren't in a row yet...). She loves it. We love it. This thing plus the pacifier have allowed me to sleep, eat, shower, brush my teeth and occasionally watch TV. It's been nice to be able to cart a sleeping baby around the house as needed without disturbing her.

Item 3: The stroller

Now, we haven't used this thing too much thus far, but when we have, we get a lot of comments. At church on Sundays, people will actually spend more time asking us about the stroller than about the baby. It's pretty funny, actually.

Anyhow, it's really easy to use and again, Anjali seems to like it. But it still cracks me up how a lot of people are super curious about it. I think next Sunday we'll have to give demonstrations in the church lobby just to fend off the crowds.

Well, that's my take on early parenting. We have lots to learn, and believe you me, I could do an entire month's worth of posts on the usefulness of the burp cloth. I will spare you the details...

You parents out there - was there anything you couldn't live without during the early infant stage? Let me know...

In praise of the Kindle

2010-08-02T08:11:00.002-06:00

It's no secret that we have a lot of books in our household. In fact, there are several bookshelves where I've had to double-stack books (two rows deep on various shelves) just to fit them all in.

So when Amar decided that he wanted to purchase a Kindle, I was very much open to the expense, because it meant that there would eventually be less book clutter in our house. Little did I know that I would soon become a Kindle fan.

Since welcoming Anjali to our household, I've gotten a TON of use out of the Kindle. I think I probably spent about 3-4 hours reading now, mainly because there's not much else I can do when I'm feeding her. And since feeding her means that I have one hand free, the Kindle is perfect. Basically, I can feed Anjali, holding her with one hand, and read a book in the other hand. I can turn pages one-handed (a simple click of a button). It's super easy to use, and I can switch between books without getting up. Good stuff!

Thus far, I've read the following books on the Kindle in the last 5 weeks:

Percy Jackson: The Titan's Curse
Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian
The Bible: Psalms 20-73 (I'm reading through Psalms and Provers this summer with our church via The Voyage)
Moneyball: The Art of Winning and Unfair Game
Liar's Poker

Also, books are cheaper on the Kindle. Books that would cost $10-$30 to purchase soft/hard copies of are only $4-$10 on the Kindle. All in all, the Rama household highly recommends the Kindle if you're considering purchasing one. Yay!

Adventures with wildlife

2010-07-30T07:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was not a banner day for me and wildlife. There were three separate incidents that led to this post. Had they not occurred on the same day, I wouldn't have really thought anything of it. However, nature seemed to be conspiring against me yesterday, thus this post was hatched:

Incident 1: The bird at HEB
After loading up Anjali in the car and dropping Amar's lunch off at his office, I decided that I had time to do a quick grocery store run. Upon arriving at HEB, I parked the car, loaded the baby into the cart and headed toward the store. I noticed that there were some HEB employees milling around the parking lot, but didn't really think anything of it.

I was about 20 feet from the store when I felt something on my the back of my head. I quickly moved to brush it off, and then saw a bird fly precariously close to my face. Then I heard someone behind me yell, "Yep - that was a bird. I'm working on it!" I turned around to see that it was one of the employees talking, and then surmised that I had just been dive-bombed by said bird. I felt my head again, to make sure that the bird didn't leave anything behind after it said hello to me. All clear. Luckily, the bird targeted me and not the baby.

Incident 2: The squirrel
After a successful trip through the grocery store, I loaded everything (and everyone) back into the car and headed home. About 3 blocks from the grocery store, I apparently murdered a squirrel. I say "apparently" because I didn't even see him. I heard him. More specifically, I heard a "thump thump" as I ran over him, and not until I checked the rear-view mirror did I realize what I had done.

Incident 3: The bug in the kitchen
Now, you may know that I have a strict no-tolerance policy towards all members of the bug, insect and/or arachnid categories. No-tolerance. I will either kill it, or distance myself so far from it as to render its scary qualities mostly ineffective. And all of them have scary qualities.

Last night, as I was heading to bed, I turned the kitchen light on. I noticed some dust particles coming from one of the lights, and called Amar's attention to it. We both examined the light for a few seconds, and then Amar said "WOAH!" I then saw the reason: a huge, black bug started to poke its head down from the light and into the kitchen. Amar quickly handed me the baby and I darted into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

Now, after Amar dispatched the offending bug, he and I started to realize that Bella, the not-so-bright member of the Scottish Terrier branch of the Rama family, tried to alert us to the insect earlier in the week. She spent the better part of one evening staring intently at part of the ceiling of the kitchen. Amar and I both inspected that part of the kitchen several times that evening, but found nothing. Bella remained intent (she's nothing if not dedicated, especially when it looks like she might get some sort of food out of the operation...and I can only imagine that this bug looked like dessert to her). So it now looks like we have a good watchdog in our family. Apologies, Bella, for underestimating your intelligence in the past!

All that to say that yesterday was not my day with the local wildlife. Hopefully today will be much less dramatic!

Chaos abounds...

2010-07-22T09:40:00.003-06:00

We had a bit of a chaotic moment last night at the Rama household. Looking back, it was pretty entertaining, so I thought I'd share.

In general, Anjali has been a great baby. She is relatively easy to calm, and very rarely gets REALLY upset. However, she is just a baby and thus, she will occasionally have moments where she is upset even though nothing is obviously causing her pain or discomfort.

Last night was one of those moments.

I fed her around 6PM, and Amar got home around 6:30. Almost immediately after he got home, she got fussy. And not just "give me a pacifier" fussy - all out wailing and flailing.

Amar and I took turns trying to calm her over the next hour. And just to underscore how easy a baby she's been so far, she's never cried for more than 5 minutes at a time; we're usually able to calm her pretty quickly.

Last night, however, she would have none of that. We rocked her. We swaddled her. We unswaddled her. We put her on her back. We put her on her stomach. We bounced. We danced. We took her outside. We changed her diaper....you get the picture.

After about an hour, I decided to try to feed her a bit more. Amar and I headed to the nursery, and right as we were turning the corner in the hallway, we somehow knocked the carbon monoxide detector loose and it fell to the ground. As soon as it hit the floor, it started emitting the most horrible, shrill, loud and obnoxious sound known to man. I think essentially the entire block thought that our house was about to self-destruct.

So I'm trying to feed a screaming child. Amar is running around the house with a small white box that is making a horrific noise and is not able to turn it off (apparently when it fell, some part got lodged inside that prevented it from being shut off). He starts threatening to smash it with a hammer. I start laughing.

Then, somehow, the house alarm starts going off. Screaming baby. Screaming carbon monoxide alarm. Screaming house alarm.

It was pretty awesome to say the least.

Eventually, Amar got the house alarm off. Then he found a hammer and started to work on the carbon monoxide detector. The baby had stopped screaming so that she could eat a second meal. And after about 90 minutes of non-stop noise at our house, we were able to rest peacefully and have a conversation at a normal volume.

Good stuff indeed!

Update: Day 10

2010-07-06T19:09:00.003-06:00

So our little one is now 10 days old. It's been a long, but good, 10 days :) Kudos to all the parents out there - we now understand how hard but rewarding this adventure is.

We had the 2 week pediatrician visit yesterday and for those of you into the stats, here's what we found out:

Her head grew by 1 cm, bringing her into the 50th percentile for head size
She is back up to her birth weight, weighing in a 7 lb. 10 oz., putting her into the 40th percentile for weight
She is 20.5 inches long, putting her into the 50th percentile for length

All in all, she's doing really well.

Here are some more pictures that our friend Krista took:

The newest Rama

2010-06-30T09:48:00.003-06:00

Well folks, she arrived!

Anjali Katherine was born on Saturday, June 26 at 4:55 PM. She weighed in at 7 lb 10 oz and was 20 inches long.

All was well at the first doctor's appointment yesterday. Amar and I are mainly trying to keep her alive at this point, while also trying to get as much sleep as we can. Here are a few pictures from Anjali's first few days with us:

Note: eventually we'll post some pictures of her NOT bundled up, but for now, that's her favorite thing in the world, so we keep her wrapped pretty tight most of the time.

Some last minute updates...

2010-06-25T13:37:00.006-06:00

Well, things are about to change a bit around here, so I thought I'd provide a few last minute updates before we head to the hospital to meet our daughter this weekend.

Nursery Pictures
After the repair work was complete in the baby's room, I set things back in their proper order and snapped a few pictures:

40+ Weeks
Here's my last pregnancy status picture. The due date was 6/20, and it's 6/25, so I'm almost at 41 weeks in this picture...and apparently I make weird facial expressions during these photo shoots. Whatever.

Cuteness...
Now I have no freakin' idea what a layette is, nor did I really put one together for Anjali. Additionally, I intentionally didn't have a 'theme' for her room...I did, however, wind up with some personalized Scottie gear, courtesy of my dear friend Danielle. Check out the goods:

I then went on to make a Scottie-mobile, during one of the days this week that I was trying to pass the time.

Wish us luck this weekend!

Goats are awesome

2010-06-25T09:56:00.002-06:00

I've never thought much of goats until I just saw this. Now I want some.

Is that a gun in your pocket, or...

2010-06-18T13:16:00.003-06:00

I know we're all about Keeping Austin Weird and everything, but this is NOT the way to do that. Essentially, a young man looking to score cash for drugs takes a transgender prostitute to a convenience store and robs the owner using a caulk gun.

Among the things NOT to do are:

Pick up a transgender prostitute
Rob a Speedy Stop
Use a caulk gun as a weapon

Just to name a few....

People: there are other ways to keep this city unique.

Amar will be thankful for this site:

2010-06-18T08:51:00.003-06:00

Called YourNextRead. He'll be thankful for it because I think I probably ask him to pick out another book for me about every 2 weeks or so.

He and I don't exactly have what you'd call 'similar' taste in reading, though there are a few exceptions. However, this site may make things a bit easier on him and help me start using our local library (all of 1 block away) a bit more.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should read next? Looking for something light that I can read in small increments (i.e. something that fits well into the somewhat ridiculous schedule I'm about to take on...).

The sky is no longer falling: a job well done

2010-06-15T09:17:00.003-06:00

It's been about a week and a half since we got a new AC installed in our aging house. The AC is working great - I just need to figure out how to program it.

During that time, we've had a lot of people through the house to remove, install, repair and inspect the work. As you saw with my previous post, the work was not without its own drama. However, I didn't want to leave you thinking that we got the short end of the stick with the AC folks.

When we first started the process, we decided to go with the Strand Brothers, a local outfit here in town.

Being a homegrown Austinite, I was familiar with their cutesy radio commercials, and was generally understood their quality of work to be high. When we got a personal recommendation from a friend of ours, encouraging us to go with the brothers Strand, we decided to go for it. That, along with the fact that they do all the rebate (city, state, federal) stuff for you, and we were sold.

Midway through the installation process, some of the employees wound up accidentally making a small crack in the ceiling of the baby's room. The workers were super apologetic about it, and they scheduled repairs for a week later. Over the next week, the crack widened just a bit. Then, on the night before the repair was supposed to take place, the ceiling collapsed.

Amar called their offices immediately, and by 8:30AM the next day, there was a crew at our house. They came on Friday, Saturday and Monday to complete the cleanup, the repair, and the final inspection.

Faithful readers: know that the folks at Strand Brothers have handled this situation in a professional manner, with courtesy and humility. Every person that came through our house was respectful and competent. When they said they'd arrive between 8:30 and 9, for instance, they showed up at 8:30. When they said that they'd be done in an hour, they were done in an hour. When insulation filled our baby's room, they had a cleaning crew in the next day and hauled the dirtier items off to the dry cleaners.

The house is now well-air conditioned, the ceiling completely repaired and the house completely cleaned.

I have to agree with their slogan: they are indeed really nice boys!

Technology

2010-06-14T09:25:00.002-06:00

I can't even begin to imagine what this search would have looked like in an email-less world. Even just ~10 years ago, combing through 34 million pages of documents would have been painstaking.

However, in this day and age, very little of what you actually communicate is private. Keep that in mind, as this article points out, if you plan do to anything remotely suspicious or even slightly illegal ;)

Too bad for the folks at Lehman Bros. Really, I feel for them....oh wait, no. That must have been someone else I was feeling bad for. Oh yeah, the rest of the country.

Anyhow, I love the mental picture the Bloomberg article paints of a bunch of lawyers sitting in a conference room trying to compile a list of search terms that people might use if they were involved in a massive cover-up. Almost makes me wish I were a lawyer.

I'm sorry, but what?

2010-06-12T20:32:00.002-06:00

Has anyone else seen the commercials for the new "limited edition" Huggies Jean Diaper?

Is there really a need in the market for diapers that look like jeans?

Two men and a baby...

2010-06-11T06:48:00.005-06:00

...or, two and a half men.

Either title is appropriate for what went down at our house last night.

While I was out with some girls celebrating a friend's birthday, Amar and the birthday girl's husband volunteered to babysit another friend's baby. The reports we (the girls) were hearing at the restaurant were that things were fine, and while that was definitely true, it wasn't completely the whole story.

And now for the rest of the story....

After dinner was over, Danielle, whose baby the guys were watching, drove me home from the restaurant to pick up her child. When we showed up, things were great. Baby was happy to see mommy. The boys were happy to be child-free. Everyone was still alive and breathing.

...and then Amar said something like, "Well, we had a bit of an incident." I immediately thought that they were referring to a diaper-related incident. But then he pointed to the room we'll use for our baby and asked me not go to in.

Quick background: we recently had a new AC installed, along with some insulation in the attic. While that was happening, the workers managed to lean the wrong way on something in the attic and it wound up creating a small crack in the ceiling over the baby's crib. No major damage, and they were scheduled to come this morning to clean it up. In preparation for them to clean/repair it, I had moved all of the furniture in the baby's room to the other side. However, since the boys were babysitting last night, I moved it all back in case they needed to use the room.

Back to last night:

When Amar told me not to go in the baby's room, I glanced over at the door and immediately knew why: I could see insulation covering the floor in that area of the house.

I couldn't stop myself - I had to see what happened. So I slowly walked over to the door and nudged it open.

This, my friends, would not be on the list of things you want to have happen less than 10 days before your baby is due (especially if you've cleaned everything, washed everything):

The overall atmosphere in our newly-remodeled nursery. We're going for a factory-chic look here:

Detailed view of the hole in the ceiling, from whence came showers of insulation and drywall:

Another view of the wreckage:

You'll notice that the crib became a virtual bucket for insulation! Yay!!

Zoey was disturbed by the entire incident and spent some time deep in thought...

Note: no one was harmed. Praise GOD that the guys decided not to use that room last night.

Awesomeness defined

2010-05-30T11:20:00.002-06:00

Jim is a maker of awesome pancakes. I'm serious. You have to check out Jim's Pancakes to really appreciate what I'm talking about.

But as an avid eater of all things breakfast food, this is phenomenal....

Sneak preview:

A freakin' 3D Ferris Wheel of pancakes. BAM!

Happenings

2010-05-27T07:09:00.002-06:00

Just a quick list:

Got a new AC unit installed at the house yesterday - yeehaw!
Still pregnant, with ~3 weeks to go.
Getting a new computer at work...eventually.
Planning to work for ~3 more weeks...
Desperately need to bathe the dogs!!!
The yard folks planted some cute flowers w/o me asking - good stuff!
Baby laundry is done and ready for a little person to start wearing it.
Heading to the lake this weekend, and will plan on sparing people the sight of me in a bathing suit.
Car seat is installed - thanks Danielle!!
Amar started a new job and is enjoying it - also yeehaw!

I think those are the main highlights. I know I need to post another picture...we'll try to get to that this weekend.

Facebook Privacy Settings: The Tangled Web

2010-05-13T09:48:00.003-06:00

The New York Times has a good summary of the various ways to setup your Privacy settings on Facebook. I just went through and updated mine, because it seemed that most everything had defaulted to allow "everyone" to see things about me.

Take a few minutes to do the same, especially if you're concerned about what info is floating around on the web about you...

NYT Article: here

33 Weeks and growing

2010-05-04T09:13:00.001-06:00

Squeamish...

2010-05-03T11:23:00.003-06:00

Hooray for (hopefully) the last blood draw for quite awhile!

I had my 33 week check-up today (I will post another progress picture soon), and much to my surprise, I had to get my blood drawn again. Now, if you know me, then you likely know that not only do I not like medical things in general, but I have a specific aversion to needles.

So you can imagine my disappointment when the nurse told me that due to a new 2010 law, all pregnant women have to get an HIV test in the 3rd trimester. I asked her if I could just swear that I didn't have HIV, but she said no. They would just test the baby later if I refused to give blood today.

So my dear future daughter, I took one for the Rama team today. Be sure to thank me later ;)

Seriously though, I think this is the 4th or 5th blood draw since October and I'm glad to have it behind me. There is one phlebotomist in particular that I dread having take my blood. So I was specifically praying that I wouldn't get her today (had her the first time and don't want to re-live that). When Amar suggested that maybe that wasn't the best prayer, I switched to "please let me get someone who is compassionate" and gave that a spin.

Well, the first prayer was definitely answered: I didn't get the person I was dreading. However, the second prayer...not so much.

I typically explain to the nurse that "I'm not so good at the needles and blood thing" and they typically respond with "Awww, we'll make sure this isn't too bad." This is a dialogue I can support.

However, when I started my speech this morning, the guy barely acknowledged that I was speaking. Not a good sign.

After I closed my eyes, he then proceeded to jab the needle about halfway through my arm. Pain when shooting through my body. Then when he was done, he started wrapping the gauze and tape around the (still throbbing) wound. When he went to tear the tape off, he pressed (rather firmly) right where he had poked me. Yikes!!

I'm SO glad that Amar was there with me (even though friends/family are supposed to wait in the lobby). I got out of there as soon as I could, and then started to feel a little weak on the way back to the car. And, not surprisingly, I started crying.

Hormones!! Gotta love 'em.

To summarize:
All is well
I still don't like needles
I (still) know without a doubt that I was never meant to be a doctor

Keeping up with the Joneses

2010-04-21T15:39:00.003-06:00

I read a few finance and money blogs (because I'm a nerd and find some of that interesting...hope you do too!), and today there was a post about "How do you know when you're *rich*"...

As in, everyone has some sort of number in the back of their mind as so what it would take for them to consider themselves wealthy, or well-off, or comfortable. It's a different number for everyone, but it's interesting to think about.

Anyhow, part of the article talked about global wealth and how you measure up. Check out this site: www.globalrichlist.com to see where you come in.

Kind of helps set perspective a bit...

Link to the original article: Get Rich Slowly - Are we there yet?

30 weeks and growing!

2010-04-11T15:17:00.001-06:00

Off to a great start

2010-04-09T07:45:00.003-06:00

So I've been buried in Microsoft Excel this week, which by itself, isn't that bad. I'm actually a bit of a nerd like that. I even dreamed about this one particular spreadsheet last night - oy!

However, upon getting into work this morning and starting the data mining again, I got this error:

"Excel cannot complete this task with available resources. Choose less data or close other applications."

Nice.

Does that officially make me a power user at this point?

Happy Friday!

Resolutions - an update

2010-03-30T15:37:00.003-06:00

I think it was last year (or the year before?), that I noted some New Year's resolutions. Not being big on resolutions in general, I tried to keep it simple.

I think I did fairly well, if I recall. But I wanted to let you know that I'm still truckin'.

I'm still trying to read more, but I think I've broken my own personal record already this year. It's the end of March and I already have several titles under my belt.

Note: we have a LOT of books. So rather than going out and buying more stuff that looks interesting, I'm shopping our own bookshelves.

Here's what I've finished so far this year:

1) The last half of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis
I started this (again) last year, and for some reason, came to a stop mid-way through Prince Caspian. So I picked it up in January and polished off not only Prince Caspian, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.

If you have not read this, then you seriously need to ask yourself what you are doing with your life. And please, don't consider the movies as substitutes. There is SO much richness to the way that Lewis writes about his characters, their adventures, and timeless truths. Oy!

2) Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
This was a personal challenge for me, being someone who just about faints when driving by a hospital, much less when reading stories from inside the operating room. But I was immediately taken in by a "behind the scenes" look at the medical world.

I'm looking forward to reading some of Gawande's other works, also about practicing medicine: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, and Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. But since we don't own them, I'll be saving those for later.

3) The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury
Very "DaVinci Code" like in it's plot, but a page-turner nonetheless. Though I will say that I identified the "bad guy" the moment he was introduced. It was still a quick read and better than wasting time in front of the TV, which I have a strong tendency to do.

4) Deception Point, by Dan Brown
And speaking of DaVinci Code....

Yes, this is by the same guy. Totally different plot context, as in, it has nothing to do with Italy or the Holy Grail. But it's still an action/adventure story, with more twists and turns than are necessary. A quick read, and fairly entertaining. Though it's just a bit far-fetched...though I'm not sure he knows how to do anything other than far-fetched....

5) The Preservationist, by David Maine
Very interesting indeed. Amar hadn't read this one yet, so I gave it a try. It's a completely different look at a story most of us grew up singing songs about: Noah's ark.

But Maine writes it as a compilation of several first-person accounts, with a lot of artistic liberty to elaborate on what daily life must have been like at that time, what it took to pull this massive project off, and how this family unit survived and interacted with each other.

Also, not a book for kiddos. It's not that kind of Noah's ark story. But, if you're looking to challenge the way that you read some of the "classic" stories in the Bible, this will definitely do it. If you do happen to pick it up, let me know what you think about it. I'd be curious to know.

So that, my friends, is my progress to date. I'm off to shop another bookshelf...if you have any suggestions, let me know!

28 weeks and counting

2010-03-28T11:48:00.002-06:00

Here's a new picture: 28 weeks today...so I'm officially in the 3rd trimester. Yippee!

I know, I know...

2010-03-23T18:11:00.004-06:00

Several of you have been asking for some updated pictures, so here you go:

This is me last Sunday, at 26 weeks (almost 6 months).

I'm going to try to post a picture every 2 weeks, since at this pace, my circumference is rapidly increasing ;)

The official due date is June 20, so starting next week, I'll be in the third trimester. It's gone by so fast, and has generally been pretty easy so far. Here's hoping that trend continues!

Innovation

2010-03-02T18:39:00.003-06:00

I'm not one to take politics too seriously, so when candidates (or someone on their behalf) come up with something slightly interesting or amusing, I'm generally a fan.

For your consideration: Farouk Shami Rap

Mr. Shami is a very successful businessman, running in the Democratic primary for governor of Tx against current Houston Mayor Bill White. Too bad this rap didn't come out last week...could have gotten more folks to the polls.

Here's a teaser of the chorus:
Farouk, Farouk, Farouk is on fire
Servin' the community, his number 1 desire!

It's the little things...

2010-02-26T10:15:00.003-06:00

I did something today that wound up making a huge difference with respect to my ability to enjoy our house.

Since we moved in (about 2 1/2 years ago), there has been 1 window in our bedroom that just didn't quite shut correctly. I never spent a lot of time looking into it and just figured that it was one of the quirks of having an older house.

But this morning, as I was working from home, it started bugging me. Mainly because I could hear the kids at the nursery a few houses down and I couldn't concentrate...but also because I just knew that I hadn't figured out the mystery window yet. And solving that mystery could result in lowering the noise level...

So I went over to the window and started poking around. The bottom pane was all the way down, but wouldn't line up with the top pane which meant that it wouldn't close and lock. Why wouldn't this shut!? I opened the bottom pane to see if there was anything obstructing it....nope.

I kept looking around the casing of the window and then voila - perhaps the easiest home fix that I've ever done: I realized that the top pane of the window was open about an inch. What!?!?!

To be completely honest, I didn't even know that the top panes of the windows opened in that room. So I pushed up on the top pane and was able to finally close the window.

That freakin' window has been open an inch for the past 2 1/2 years. Letting in noise and air and who knows what.

But the moment I closed that window - immediate relief. No more noise. No more drafts. Amazing.

Yes, I am bragging about my own stupidity. It's great.

Insight into Iraq

2010-02-22T09:35:00.002-06:00

There are a lot of stories from the war in Iraq that get glossed over, since mainstream media tends to focus on what goes wrong vs. what goes right.

I saw this article on Slate today, a 5 part series on "Searching for Saddam". After reading the first installment today, I'll be tuning in to see what comes next.

Some interesting "behind the scenes" type info on how out military gathered intelligence, sorted through tribal social networks, and eventually came to find one of the most-wanted men in the world at the time.

Searching for Saddam: A five-part series on how the U.S. military used social networking to capture the Iraqi dictator

Enjoy!

Go Scotties!

2010-02-17T11:28:00.003-06:00

We have 2 Scottish Terriers, so you can imagine how they were each beaming with pride as I told them today that their long lost relative Sadie just won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club. They were overjoyed...and slightly envious of Sadie's dashing haircut.

The details, provdied by Good Morning America: Sadie Scores! Scottish Terrier Takes Best in Show at Westminster

Out of hibernation

2010-02-12T08:11:00.002-06:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but I saw this on the news today and thought it was worth getting the word out:

Courtesy of USA Today:

Snowboarders have a reputation of being a bit flaky, so when U.S. snowboard cross racer Graham Watanabe told reporters Wednesday that his second Olympic appearance was like "Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth I somehow tame it and ride it to the sky and clouds and sunshine and rainbows," the quote seemed almost too good to be spontaneous.

Not so, Watanabe said later, "It came from my heart." -- Sal Ruibal

That is one excited snowboarder.

Conan

2009-10-07T12:38:00.002-06:00

This article is just one more reason that I love Conan O'Brien....except that I'm not a huge fan of the Tonight Show...but other than that, awesomeness.

Glory Days

2009-10-01T07:36:00.002-06:00

I have never been a fitness buff (right, I'm sure ALL of you are surprised by that).

Back in the days of high school sports, two-a-days, sports camps and the like, I could hold my own, to a certain extent....though there was that time that I almost died in the weight room from trying to lift just the bar (I blame that more on my spotter than on my chicken-wing arms, but I've moved on).

And sure, when I was living with a personal trainer, I took advantage of that as much as possible (by joining her gym and willingly giving her lots of my money). She got me in great shape (just in time for my wedding), and while I tried to maintain that routine....let's just say I fell short.

Most recently, we canceled our gym membership. It dawned on me that I hadn't been in about 60+ days, and that I wasn't likely to get any value out of continuing to pay them. It just wasn't fitting into my schedule, nor did I make any effort for it to. So we bit the bullet and dropped out.

I now find myself winded after climbing 3 flights of stairs to get to my desk every morning (cardio has never been my strong suit). But I know that it hasn't always been that way, and I am getting sick of my chicken wing arms (though I will admit, the other night at Bible study, the 9th grade girls were comparing muscles, and they were impressed with mine...ha!).

So, the plan of action:
Amar has tried the 100 push-ups program before and liked it. I just realized that they also have plans for squats and sit-ups. Yippee!!

100 Push ups
I will admit that this is THE MOST DAUNTING thing that I've ever tried to do. I hate push-ups. Can't stand 'em. Am repulsed by the idea of them. But what's more off-putting to me is the idea of being hit in the face with my own flabby triceps when waving to a friend. So onward we go.

200 Squats
Now this is more in my comfort zone. We did tons of these in volleyball. So this will be a bit of a reprieve from the torture of the push-ups that I have to endure.

200 Sit-ups
Ah, the sit-up. Abs of steel, right? I don't necessarily have a lot of belly flab that I'm trying to cut through, but it could be better. So, if this is what has to be done, then I must do it.

Want to join me? These are all 6 week programs. I'm going to try to do them simultaneously, but we'll see how far we get.

Television

2009-09-20T17:32:00.002-06:00

As Amar and I were catching up on work email this afternoon, we were watching the 25 anniversary of the Cosby Show on WGN. After about an hour of the Cosby Show, they started running another old sitcom.

Kim: Aww, Family Ties!

Amar: What is this? The white Cosby Show?

Yes, yes of course it is.

Wow

2009-09-15T14:03:00.002-06:00

Please tell me that these people have something better to do.

Politico is reporting that the House of Representatives is now outlining how exactly members can and cannot insult the President:

House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has released a helpful, updated primer for members regarding their conduct on the floor and in committees.

Especially useful: The section on how to properly insult the executive branch in the in the chamber.

"Disgrace" and "nitwits" -- okay.

"Liar" or "sexual misconduct" -- ixnay.

Under section 370 of the House Rules and Manual it has been held that a Member could:

• refer to the government as “something hated, something oppressive.”
• refer to the President as “using legislative or judicial pork.”
• refer to a Presidential message as a “disgrace to the country.”
• refer to unnamed officials as “our half-baked nitwits handling foreign affairs.”

Likewise, it has been held that a member could not:

• call the President a “liar.”
• call the President a “hypocrite.”
• describe the President’s veto of a bill as “cowardly.”
• charge that the President has been “intellectually dishonest.”
• refer to the President as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy.”
• refer to alleged “sexual misconduct on the President’s part.”

Geez.

New Favorite Website

2009-09-12T17:12:00.003-06:00

I've added a few sites to my Google Reader lately, but by far my favorite has been My Life Is Average.

(If you're familiar with the (sometimes NSFW) site FML, it's much the same, but a TON cleaner and funnier in most instances).

Readers post in with interesting observations, funny happenings, and general commentaries on how humor and irony play out in their day to day lives.

Here are some of my recent favorites, many of which brought smiles to my face over the last few dreary, Seattle-ish days (titles are of my own making:

Harry Potter in Real Life
Last night, I was at a high school football game. My friend paid the announcer in the booth fifteen bucks to say, "Ten points for Gryffindor!" every time our team scored. He did. It was the best night ever.

Shout out to Justin Timberlake
Today at work, I found a sign up sheet for a company barbecue. We were supposed to write what we were bringing. I wrote "sexy back". Everyone is looking forward to my dish. MLIA

An Epic Battle
Today I wore a shirt that has the "Hello my name is:" sticker filled in with "Ninja." I saw a guy with the same shirt, but instead it said "Jedi." Although I intended to have a staredown, he nodded at me; causing me to nod back. I think he just used the force on me. Well played, Jedi. This battle is not over. MLIA

Necessity: The Mother of Invention
Today, while driving to school, I saw a man driving a motorized scooter down the sidewalk. I didn't think much of it, until I noticed he was pulling behind him a man on a rolling office chair. Best. Idea. Ever. MLIA.

Again with the Harry Potter Awesomeness...
Today at school there were army recruiters. I jokingly said to my friend "the only army I'll be joining is Dumbledores". One of the recruiters overheard me and walked over. I thought he was going to give me a huge speech about how important the army is and we need to respect it. Instead, he high fived me. I think Im in love. MLIA

And now for a random picture of a donkey:

P.S. It is officially pouring.

September Flood

2009-09-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

It's no secret that we've been very much lacking in the rain department lately. It is so dry, in fact, that not only does Lake Travis have islands...but those islands now have weeds growing on them.

Yes, they are now inhabited by wildlife.

Anyhow, the exceptional drought means that we wildly welcome any precipitation, no matter how much or how little.

But what is it they always say? When it rains, it pours.

About a week ago, it most definitely poured.

We live in an area that is near two creeks, one of which is known for flooding*. While we were in no danger of having water rush through our house, it was still pretty impressive. About 20 minutes after it stopped raining, I went out to take pictures (I'm a bit of a weather nerd...).

This was the scene in our neighborhood:

This is at the end of our street - waters were moving pretty quickly:

A few blocks North, Shoal Creek was definitely a river:

A few South away, the water was even closer to street level:

Sunrise the next day...beautiful!

*No - we are most definitely not in the flood plain. We made sure of that before we bought the house.

8 Years

2009-09-11T11:44:00.003-06:00

I was having lunch at my desk as it poured down (much welcome) rain outside. I noticed a few friends posting Facebook statuses about where they were 8 years ago today. I don't have a great story, but it's my story, so I thought I'd share it with you.

September 11, 2001
I was a Senior at Texas A&M University, and I had an 8 o'clock class that morning. It was an Anthropology class, and we were watching a video about a tribe in South America. While not exactly compelling, it wasn't a bad start to the morning.

After class, I rode my bike across campus to the Business school where I had my next class. As I would typically do in between classes, I ducked into the library to check my email in the computer lab.

It was typically busy at that time of the day, so I didn't notice anything different that morning. I checked my email - again, nothing out of the ordinary. Then I tried to access CNN, and the page was taking forever to load. I asked the guy next to me if he was having computer problems, but his English wasn't the greatest.

I gave up, and started making my way into my next class. That's when things started falling apart a bit.

There were t.v. sets in the hallway of the building that my class was in, and as soon as I walked in, I could barely move for all the people who were just standing in the hall watching the news.

I looked up and froze: iconic buildings in New York were on fire. People were jumping out of buildings. We were clearly under attack and no one knew what to do.

We all just stood there: mouths hanging open, some people crying, others in disbelief.

I think I remember us seeing the first tower fall.

Do I go to class?
What happens next?
Do I know anyone in New York?
Will there be more attacks?

What does life look like now?

After watching for what seemed like an eternity, I decided to go to my next class. I couldn't even tell you what we discussed.

Once that class was over, probably about 20 minutes after it began, we all found ourselves once again staring at the news in the hall. Another building had fallen. I didn't even know that was possible. We were all in a state of shock.

I went to my next class, where I knew the professor was a Christian. I think we decided to pray in class.

After about 15 minutes, I went back into the hallway.

It's all a blur after that, but it was one of those days you don't forget.

Where were you?

This Old House: Episode 1

2009-08-31T16:12:00.003-06:00

Warning: I get a bit nerdy about home repairs in this post...

Our house is about 60 years old, and while I love it, there are some things about it that occasionally need tweaking. The good thing is, I love tweaking things around the house*.

Most recently, I basically took apart the inside of the toilet. I've done some minor plumbing stuff in the past (replacing nobs, handles, flapper valves, etc.), and I thought this would be another routine replacement to fix a drip.

I initially replaced the old flapper valve, but upon testing my fix, I realized that while I had fixed the drip. I had apparently created another issue: the water wouldn't shut off all the way. This was no bueno, and I had definitely not fixed the problem.

I proceeded to do some googling, and found that I should probably also replace the whole valve. However, we've been a bit busy lately, so I didn't get around to fixing things in a super-timely manner (Amar had to bug me a bit...but the delay gave us a clear signal that we would not do to well in a 1 bathroom living establishment for too long).

Today, I (finally) stopped by the hardware store on my way home today and got the necessary parts (keeping my fingers crossed that this was the root cause...). After a few minutes of wrestling with the existing fixtures, I was able to replace the valve and tada - no more dripping toilet!

On the next episode, I'll finish painting the baseboards!

*Note: I do have a tendency to get in over my head at times, but never to the point where we need to call emergency services...at least not yet ;)

Problem Child

2009-08-18T20:42:00.004-06:00

For those of you who have met our dogs, you know that they have very different personalities.

Zoey, for instance, is shy but dominant. She is devoted, loyal, and she smiles. She also tends to be the more obedient of the two.

Bella, on the other hand, is a bit of a ditz. She has very expressive eyes, but there's not much going on behind them, if you know what I mean. She is very stubborn, very curious, and very food motivated.

At night, after they play in the yard for a bit, we call them into the house. Nine times out of ten, Zoey is the first one in. Prompt and willing to please her owners, she comes running around the corner and into the house without much delay.

Bella, however, is a different story. Sometimes she comes right away...other times she sees a shiny object and totally forgets what she was doing.

Being the curious one, Bella also tends to hop after things that hop. If she sees an interesting bug, she follows it around. The same goes for frogs. They hop, she hops right behind them.

And we have learned the hard way that dogs have a strong reaction after they come into contact with frogs: they foam at the mouth. Apparently the frogs have a very bad taste, which causes dogs to salivate uncontrollably and then the foaming commences.

The idea behind this, I'm sure, is to discourage dogs from licking frogs.

But Bella doesn't quite see it that way. She sees a frog, and is thus compelled to lick it.

This happened again tonight.

I noticed that she was taking her sweet time getting back into the house. So after a few minutes, I went out to check on her and reprimand her, only to find that yep, she had been licking frogs again tonight.

This happens about once a week at this point.

Cute? Yes. Smart? The jury is still out...

Here's to you, Bella puppy!

An anniversary, of sorts

2009-08-12T09:17:00.003-06:00

I stumbled upon this article, alebit a day or two late, and thought it was an appropriate anniversary to celebrate.

The article is about COBOL, a pretty ancient coding language by technology standards. It recently celebrated it's 50th anniversary.

The author states that though most people have never heard of COBOL, it accounts for about 80% of of the world's active code. To put that into context, you need a lot more lines of COBOL code to do the same thing that Java or C could do in about 2 lines.

The author also states that he has never met an active COBOL programmer in his life.

So why did I take note of this anniversary?

Because I was once a professional COBOL programmer. Yes, I was a pitifully awful COBOL programmer, but nonetheless, it was my job for the first 2 years of my professional experience.

Amar actually hates it when I mention that I was a programmer, because he doesn't really think that my "experience" counted. But I beg to differ.

I was a business major in college, and for some reason, my employer thought it best to put me into a very technical role. I floundered for quite awhile and asked pretty much anyone I could find if they could assist me. I wrote my first algorithm in COBOL. I ran my first batch job in COBOL. I performed my first 20 installs for COBOL projects.

And I hated it for the most part.

But looking back, I can see how has contributed to my current job as a Project Manager. In short, it has helped me be a better Project Manager.

Anyhow, sometimes you have to go through some messy stuff to get to the good stuff. It was just funny to realize that it's a 50 year old programming language that gave me my first foot in the door to corporate America.

Camp Braveheart Pictures

2009-08-10T15:59:00.004-06:00

Hey folks,
Here are some pictures I took at Camp Braveheart (see my last post for details).

I'm still getting used to my new DSLR (a fantastic Nikon D90!). And as usual, I had some fun in Picasa with the originals.

I uploaded some of my favorites to the link above, rather than post all 2,400+ of the original shots.

Enjoy!

P.S. Upon posting, I'm realizing that Blogger is not a fan of publishing my pictures in any way that looks good on this entry. So, just go to the gallery link above :)

Back from "vacation"

2009-08-06T15:06:00.002-06:00

Amar and I have been volunteering with the Youth Group at our church since about February. Most recently, we got to go to Summer Camp (aka Camp Braveheart) over the last week, and we had a blast.

The theme was Saul and David, and subsequently, we were asked to be characters that represented each of those figures (I was Saul, General McKinsie; Amar was David - General Callahan). Our roles mainly consisted of leading groups of students during game time. We each led our team like Saul or David would have led their army.

Amar was victorious occasionally, followed the rules, sought guidance from God and was generally pleasant to be around.

I, on the other hand, apparently scared the 8th grade boys.

I won most of our face-offs, not due to the talent of my team so much as due to my ability to cheat, be ultra-competitive, refuse to accept defeat, and focus on giving playing time to the known athletes. Also, I did a lot of screaming.

All in all, it was a ton of fun. But I was quickly reminded by about day 3 that I'm now an "old person" and thus, can't play 3 hours of volleyball in 100 degree heat like I used to.

I'll post some pictures soon, but wanted to blog because it's been, well, eons since I last posted.

Much love to you all. And if you have a rag-tag group of teens that you need motivated, don't hesitate to call!

Wordle

2009-07-01T14:15:00.004-06:00

Amar sent this link to me today, and I think it's pretty nifty. It generates "word clouds" based on text that you point it to. In this case, I pointed it at my blog. Guess what's been on my mind lately? ;)

Check it out at Wordle.

Updates

2009-06-25T09:11:00.002-06:00

If you're keeping track:

We have working reverse lights on the Pathfinder, complete with a light-up toggle switch and everything. Who could ask for more?

We have working AC in the BMW, just in time for the temperature gauge to read 105 on the way home from work yesterday - Yippee!

We recently found out that our dogs are overweight, so that's a bummer...they're gonna have to cut back on the peanut butter. More for me!

We'll be leaving for the doctor's office in just a few minutes, as most of the morning has thus far consisted of Amar's thumb bleeding profusely after he attempted to cut an apple for breakfast. Seriously, the fun never stops around here.

I got to hang out with high school girls for 2 hours last night and we had a blast. I started losing my voice about an hour into it...but, we came in 2nd in the scavenger hunt!

I'm 2/3 of the way through Harry Potter, book 6. Trying to refresh my memory before the movie comes out in July...get excited.

Our small group is going kayaking on Town Lake this Saturday, and I'm looking forward to that. Too bad we can't take the dogs, though...there's probably a weight limit on those things... ;)

That is all.

Order of events

2009-06-09T07:21:00.002-06:00

Background Info:
About a year ago, we lost the key fob for the Pathfinder. At this point, we have 1 key for the car. No unlock/alarm thingy. Just a key.

Also, we have a 1 car driveway, as in, we have to pull one car in behind the other car. In this instance, the Pathfinder was behind the other car.

Monday Night:
8:30 PM
Kim leaves Bible study and heads to the grocery store in the 12 year old Nissan Pathfinder (which she loves dearly, but has been a bit iffy lately).

8:45 PM
Kim loads groceries into the back of the Pathfinder, including a 40lb. bag of dog food.

9:00 PM
Kim pulls into the driveway, gets out of the car and doesn't realize that she's locked the driver side door. She goes into the house to ask Amar for help unloading the groceries.

9:01 PM
Amar and Kim go out to the car, and open the back door of the Pathfinder.

9:01:01 PM
Pathfinder alarm goes off (horn honks, lights flash, annoyingness commences).

9:01:10 PM
Kim debates about how to turn off the alarm since there is no key fob thingy. Should they crawl through the car and try to hit the 'unlock' button? That usually does it.

9:01:15 PM
Amar crawls through the car to hit the unlock button. No dice. Horn still honking. Loudly. At night.

9:02 PM
Kim runs into the house to get the keys.

Summary of the next 10 minutes:
We try to unlock the door with the key. No luck.
We try popping the hood. No luck.
We try starting the car. Not only does the alarm keep going, but the car won't start.

After 4 minutes, the alarm stops.
We frantically unload the groceries while we have a window of opportunity.

Then it starts again.
We try all of the above items again, except of course, the grocery unloading.
After 4 more minutes, the alarm stops again.

We stand quietly beside the car praying that the worst is behind us.

Silence.

So, it stopped. No idea why, but it finally stopped. We decided to just leave it be for the night, not sure what the morning would hold. Would we be able to start the car? Would we be able to even open the door? No idea.

I started dreaming about different ways to get the car out of the driveway. If the Pathfinder wouldn't start, how could we get the other car out? Could we push the Pathfinder out of the driveway and then drive the other car through the yard? Oh, yeah, that would be really inconspicuous...

Tuesday Morning:
7:30 AM
Amar goes out to the car and gently unlocks the door. No alarm.
He hits the "unlock" button to open the other doors. No alarm.
He opens the other doors. No alarm.
And finally, he tries to start the car: SUCCESS!

Happy Tuesday!

Alert: Free Food Tomorrow

2009-06-04T13:40:00.002-06:00

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the doughnut.

Love 'em.

So, I felt compelled to let you all know that apparently tomorrow is National Doughnut Day. Both Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Doughnuts are participating.

Unfortunately, I don't live or work near a location for either of these chains, but if you do, you should totally take advantage of the holiday.

Enjoy!!

More info @ The Consumerist.

TV Addict

2009-05-27T18:05:00.002-06:00

I grew up watching a lot of tv.

And I have a bit of an addictive personality.

Thus, there are several shows that I watch quite frequently.

I'm trying not to add any shows to the schedule. After all, there are occasionally other things that I like to do with my time. Like watch movies.

Anyhow, there's a show that I stumbled upon last summer, and I just now noticed that it's back, and yes, it's better than ever.

It's called Wipeout and it's on ABC.

I mean seriously, this is good television.

It's a ridiculously-constructed obstacle course, complete with commentators (who yes, occasionally make some questionable jokes). But it is hilarious. The stuff that they make these people do is just insane.

Side note: while Amar and I were in India, there wasn't much on tv that we could both watch and enjoy (the Indian ones were hard for me to follow, and the English ones were not incredibly compelling). The two shows that we could agree on were 1) BBC World News and 2) Takeshi's Castle. Hopefully you can figure out the former. The latter? Potentially the most awesome Japanese gameshow of all time. Needless to say, hours of entertainment.

Anyhow, you should check out Wipeout. Just give it a shot for 5 minutes and you will be sucked in.

Or, maybe it's just me. Is it just me?

Inbox insanity

2009-05-19T12:49:00.005-06:00

Several of my co-workers have recently started using Xobni, which is a MS Outlook plug in that claims to keep you from drowning in your inbox.

I don't normally have a problem with drowning, as I try to stay fairly organized most of the time. However, today I found myself digging through a folder that had about 2000 emails in it, trying to locate one specific email from a person whose name I couldn't remember.

And then I thought of Xobni, and thought, "What the heck, why not give it a try?"

I downloaded it, and after about 15 minutes of having it index my emails, I was able to locate that missing email in about 30 seconds.

Definitely worth it.

But the goodness didn't stop there. They have this feature called Xobni Analytics, which basically shows you a bunch of cool stuff about your email habits and trends. You can find out who you send the most email to, who sends you the most email, what your high volume hours are over the day, etc.

One thing I found curious was the "Time to Respond" metric, as I try to respond in a timely manner to most things. Here's my analysis:

If you click on the picture, you'll see that back in November, I had an average email response time of ~4 hours. Compare that with my average response time in May of ~30 minutes. That's what I call progress ;)

If you look at the data another way, you can tell the times that I'm more likely to respond quickly to your email:

You'll see that if you send me a email at 3AM, it might take me 3 days to respond to it. But if you send me an email between 6AM and noon, you're looking at an average response time of less than 15 minutes.

Is it just me, or is this cool?

It's ok, I already know I'm a nerd...this is just official confirmation.

More nerdy goodness...

Average email volume by day:

Average email volume by hour:

Twisters

2009-05-13T10:28:00.002-06:00

Is it just me, or does anyone else have recurring dreams?

It's not that I have the exact same dream on a recurring basis. It's more like, I have recurring themes in my dreams (and no, I didn't intend to rhyme there...).

The theme: tornadoes

I think the earliest I remember having a tornado dream was in college. Since then, I can recall about 10 or so variations on that theme.

Usually when they're in my dream, they are far away. I'll be looking out over the city, or over a field and they will be there. Sometimes just one, sometimes it's a whole gaggle.

A tornado made a guest appearance earlier this week in one of my dreams, and it was pretty vivid. Rather than it being far off, I was in it. I was in the wall of the tornado and I could feel the air almost getting sucked out of me.

I'm trying to figure out if the dreams correlate to anything going on in my life, but I'm drawing a blank.

So I'm curious to know if y'all have any thoughts on this. Do you have recurring themes?

On a side note, based on a very informal survey of the couples in our small group, it turned out that most of the guys in the group didn't dream very often. This was in stark contrast to the girls in the group, most of whom had vivid and memorable dreams.

Interesting.

Telling stories

2009-05-11T08:47:00.003-06:00

I've been noticing a personal and professional trend over the last few years: I'm getting nerdier.

Sure, I've always been on the nerdy end of the spectrum. 3 years ago when we were buying a washer and dryer, I did lots of research and put everything into a spreadsheet. Probably overkill, but it helped me think more clearly about the various facets of the purchase.

I now have an Excel addiction.

But more than that, I find that I've become a bit of a snob about spreadsheets. Everyone has their own preferences, sure. But spending 5 minutes doing some minor formatting really makes a huge difference in getting your audience to understand your data.

The same can be said about presentations, and I'm becoming increasingly nerdy about those as well.

Why spend hours crafting a deck that no one will remember? It's a waste of time and money, and it sets a tone for your future pitches. Polishing things ever so slightly can turn a bad presentation into a decent one.

But why stop at decent? What really makes things stand out? What makes them memorable?

Sure, fonts and images go a long way there. But I'm talking about really crafting your message. Telling a story.

This goes for more than PowerPoint decks. I'd argue that telling stories is most of the battle. Drawing people in, getting them to understand the context, the tension, the climax and the resolution...this is what makes it interesting...what makes it memorable.

We've all been to bad presentations, attended bad meetings, or read bad emails. That's part of what makes work feel like work.

But it doesn't have to be that way. A post from the folks at Duarte reminded me of that today. The post is about hiring professionals, knowing when you're in over your head. Check it out: here

Now, let me say this: not everyone can hire professionals. Heck, I know there's no way that would fly in my corner of cubicle city. But just changing our mindset about what we want to communicate can really help get us on the right track.

I want people to look forward to communicating with me, whether that be over email, via spreadsheets, in staff meetings or at coffee shops.

If you're digging this line of thinking, you should also check out "Death By Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni. Good stuff there as well. Very readable business fiction that will get you thinking about changing things up a bit...

Good luck out there.

Bravo

2009-05-08T09:39:00.003-06:00

I was sad to see that Project Runway would not be seen again this year on Bravo (and I still can't picture it on Lifetime...but that's another blog entry for another day). However, I gave their new show, Fashion Show, a try this week.

Let me just say this: I cannot fathom a world in which a grey satin harem pant is a "must have."

The challenge was to create a "must have" item and build five looks around it. Now, I might not be as fashion forward as the next girl, but harem pants in the first place are just not must-haves. The other items created were ok. Jacket? Yes, it could work. The concept of a skirt? Yes, could work. But I agree with the judges on this one: the way that these looks were executed leaves something to be desired.

Granted, they only had about a day to do it. So you have to cut them some slack. But seriously - it got a little crazy and unwearable pretty quickly.

And if any of you watched the show, please try to explain to me what Merlin is. I really can't understand it.

Will I tune in again next week? Most likely.
Do I like it as much as Project Runway? Not just yet.

Your thoughts??

Harem Pants Montage

*Images courtesy of Bravo

Yankee Stadium: Predictions

2009-04-20T09:27:00.002-06:00

Not sure if you follow sports, but it was hard to miss the recent thrashing(s) that took place in Yankee Stadium.

Given that home runs in the new park are up 250% from last year (currently averaging 5 homers per game in the first 5 games played there this season), it would not surprise me in the least if:

1) There is some sort of lawsuit against the architect, design firm, construction company, etc.

-OR-

2) There's some legislation floated about standardizing the existing and/or future designs of ballparks such that they all play in similar manners.

Just putting it out there...

But seriously, if I were a Yankees fan, I'd be a bit ticked off right now.

Happy birthday to me!

2009-04-18T15:25:00.004-06:00

So I aged on Monday. Monday specifically. I don't age everyday. It's just the one time each year. Blink and you may miss it.

Anyhow, in honor of aging day this year, Amar got me a super-sweet Nikon D90. Yes, I'm spoiled.

It came in the mail on Friday, and the weather turned nice enough this afternoon to test out the new guy in the yard. Here are some of the results:

Don't mess with Texas

2009-04-02T15:56:00.003-06:00

Yay Texas! Way to stay sane.

Image courtesy of NPR.

Is it really the thought that counts?

2009-03-28T16:28:00.003-06:00

When the efforts to greenify the office mean that employees who have to come in on the weekends, overnight no less, cannot get any lights to turn on in the building...you just might want to reconsider just how green you want to be.

I'm just sayin'...

Slightly ironic that this comes on the heels of a previous post about recycling?

Nah.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

2009-03-10T14:25:00.002-06:00

That being said: I'm entering a photo book contest

Wish me luck!

For more info on my particular book, this would be a good place to click.

The Three Rs

2009-03-09T10:34:00.003-06:00

In today's ever-greening society, I think it might be appropriate to redo the Three Rs to mean Recycle, Reduce and Reuse.

That being said, I want to give a quick shout-out to a company that it walking the walk: Preserve

Their motto is "Nothing wasted. Everything gained"

The deal is this: they recycle plastic into everyday, household items that you can buy. And then, when you're done with whatever it is that you bought from them, guess what? You send it back and they recycle it.

In checking out the prices, it seems reasonable: 8 plastic plates for $7, food storage items starting at $3.

You should check it out. If you don't check it out, you are essentially wadding the planet up and tossing it in the trash. Happy shopping ;)

Cube Envy

2009-03-02T15:26:00.002-06:00

So I read this article over on Lifehacker and I now have cube envy.

I think this one is my favorite....but oh! To have a window (check out the other pics)!

I want to be able to decorate 8x6 square like that!

Things

2009-02-25T09:48:00.003-06:00

Item 1:

I keep thinking today is Thursday. I woke up thinking it was Thursday. I cancelled a meeting thinking it was Thursday. I went to a different meeting thinking it was Thursday. Help.

Item 2:
This made me laugh. Let me know what you think.

Item 3:
Very excited about this. I (heart) George-Michael!

Maybe this is why I'm afraid of bugs

2009-02-23T11:19:00.003-06:00

I just got this error message while at work:

Gotta love pessimistic developers!

I'm still alive - FYI

2009-01-26T14:45:00.002-06:00

I'm still alive.

I just haven't had the time/energy/attention span/inspiration to blog in awhile.

I should be able to come back up for air after February 8th. Drivers for that include: work, church, reading list, sleeping, etc.

Peace out.

A Mighty Wind

2008-12-26T14:54:00.006-06:00

Also known as, we lost another tree today.

Yes, I know. The odds of us losing 2 trees to wind within a year are pretty low. Well, we're over-achievers here, so we just like to keep setting the bar high.

Here's a before glimpse of what our front landscaping used to look like:

Notice, if you will, the tall, skinny tree off the the left of the photo (helpful labels added by yours truly). Pretty. Elegant. And infested with spider mites.

By the time we knew what was wrong with it, the tree was pretty far gone. And apparently the only way to fix that problem was to douse the tree with a vigorous spray of water and soap every so often.

Since we didn't have a 40 foot ladder, this was a bit out of our league.

So we just decided to do the humane thing and let it die of natural causes at its own pace.

Last week, it was a bit windy...and I honestly thought that we'd lose the tree soon. So just about 2 days ago, we talked about calling someone to come and get it before it fell and potentially caused damage.

But we were a bit too late....

After a windy morning, we looked out the front door and saw this:

Here are some shots of the aftermath:

We had to use a circular saw, 3 extension cords, a spade, and a hand saw to cut the tree into movable pieces. Yay for manual labor!!

Just thought I'd mention...

2008-12-10T10:41:00.002-06:00

Yet another local business that you might be interested in: Palmer Concierge

Here's a blurb from the founder:

We endeavor to give back to the community by helping busy people shrink down their t0-do lists, giving them more time to focus on the important things. Palmer Concierge can help you by shopping for groceries or gifts, organizing your office or home, taking your pet to the groomer's, wrapping gifts, making your retail returns, and bringing you coffee, lunch, or dinner. Some of our other services include event planning, photography, making your scrapbooks, and wardrobe consulting.

When you use Palmer Concierge, we commit to returning 10% of our profits to organizations that assist our fellow Austinites in need. By helping you, we are helping others, too.

And a view of their pretty flier...

I don't know about you, but this is especially timely given the holiday season. Shopping, gift wrapping, various errands...anyhow, just thought you'd want to be in on the latest scoop!

My first book

2008-12-07T15:45:00.004-06:00

For a few Christmas presents this year, I decided to create a book on Blurb that showed some of our favorite places from our trip last year to Israel.

And you can check it out as well, if you're interested:

Book Preview

Enjoy!!

The Christmassing...and attack of the Scotties

2008-12-05T16:58:00.003-06:00

Christmassing is in full swing at the Ramas. I have proof. And two furry black helpers.

Filling small amounts of time with randomness

2008-12-05T10:39:00.003-06:00

Given that there was such a flurry of interest regarding the various aspects of redecoration that have occurred at our abode, I shall soon be posting the newly updated "Christmassing" of our house.

I've noticed something about myself: I tend to fill small amounts of time with tasks that I had no notion of attempting until just the last moment.

Case in point: random Christmas decorations were pulled out of the storage shed yesterday afternoon and were complete within about 90 minutes.

Done.

P.S. I just invented the word "Christmassing". You are now free to use it to your heart's delight. Enjoy!

Redecoration results

2008-12-02T16:51:00.006-06:00

After a little shoving around of heavy things in our living room, we arrived with this:

I have a vision for what I want to do about the wall above the sofa...hoping to work on that this weekend.

I'm also wanting to add seating, since we don't have much now. Also hoping to work on that this weekend...

Cool new site...

2008-12-02T12:58:00.003-06:00

Ok. Before you read the rest of this post, you must promise me NOT to read too much into this. I'm posting this, not out of any personal necessity, but rather to help spread the word about a neat site a friend of ours just launched.

Ready?

Are you sure?

We have a deal, right?

Ok. It's about babies.

BabysList.com is a new site that a friend of ours launched due to their own personal quest for all things baby. Here's an excerpt from Jeff's email:

I'm happy to announce the beta launch of another Austin Startup Lab company called BabysList.com. BabysList is a niche site that will serve the Austin and surrounding communities by assisting parents that want to sell, swap and search for all things baby, locally. It's my hope that this site will develop into a marketplace for parents to help others in their community that don't have the means to buy "new" baby products as well as provide a platform for letting stay at home moms and dads make additional income without the cost of shipping charges and risk of fraud.

BabysList was "born" (sorry I had to :) ) when Jen and I were shopping for Elise before she arrived. I was amazed at how much stuff we needed and what it all cost. Given the life cycle for most baby items is measured in months, I saw them as barely used, or in some cases not even used at all before the child grew out of that product. I set out to create a place where parents could market their used baby items to a very specific, local audience as well as find great bargains on all sorts of things for their baby.

This holiday season is shaping up to be a hard time for many people, so if you have any items that you were waiting for your next garage sale or were going to donate, I would ask you to consider posting them on BabysList so that local parents needing a little help with finances this holiday season have an alternative to buying "new". It's good for everyone when we all lend a helping hand.

Happy shopping!

Redecorating

2008-12-01T11:12:00.003-06:00

I am in the mood to redecorate. And luckily, I've been able to convince Amar to help.

So tonight, we'll be completely reversing the arrangement of items in our living room. Who knows, maybe it'll work out? Maybe it won't? Our living room has perplexed me since we moved in. It's long and narrow, and we have a rather spacious couch...so even though I'd love to introduce additional seating, it has been a challenge to figure out exactly how to accomplish that.

So we're just going to move stuff around a bit to see how we like it.

Also, I made a new masthead this morning. I hope you like it!

Happy December!!

A few updates

2008-11-26T08:53:00.003-06:00

My boss gave me the day off, even though I didn't ask for it. A great way to start the holiday weekend, if you ask me.
I made some kickin garlic & Parmesan mashed potatoes for our dinner group the other night. I love trying new recipes, especially when everyone loves the dish!
In the last 4 business days, 2 managers in my group resigned. Change, anyone?
On that note, Monday will mark me getting my 4th manager in 14 months. Given my recent track record, I preliminarily predict that she will resign in 4-6 months. (Kidding...hopefully!)
I'm working on a book on Blurb as a Christmas gift for a few family members, and I'm really enjoying it. I'll post a link once it's fully baked.
Medvedev is freaking me out a bit. Stay tuned.
I'm reading a new book called Epicenter, and really loving it. If you're at all interested in the Middle East, end times, and specifically the future of Israel, you should check it out.

Anyhow, happy Thanksgiving to you all! Enjoy the long weekend!

A river runs through it

2008-11-18T09:40:00.004-06:00

Or at least it did last night for a bit.

It seems that our neck of the woods is experiencing a little plumbing trouble. A few weeks back, Amar and I called the City after seeing water gushing up from the pavement around the corner. It was literally coming from a crack in some one's driveway.

A few hours after our call, the City crews showed up and seemed to fix the problem after some minor repairs.

Then a few days later, they were back at that same spot, ripping up the bike lane on that side of the street. It seemed the initial repair was a bit lacking.

Fast-forward to last night. As we walked to the car on our way out to get some food, Amar asked why there was water in the street. Upon further investigation, right around the corner (this time a bit closer to our house) it seemed that water was again gushing up from the ground. We called the City again and reported the issue.

Two hours later, when we returned home, water was still everywhere and there were no repair crews in sight. Amar called the City again, and they said they would have someone out there in "a few hours"...brilliant. This was around 9PM.

At midnight, we were awakened by loud thud, and another one, and another one. This went on, intermittently for about an hour. The repair crew had finally made it out to the newly formed spring.

Then this morning while walking the dogs, I wanted to survey the damage. Surely they had to have done something last night, right? Well, the whole block seemed to have traces of silt and sand that had been washed out of the construction site. And upon arriving at the scene of the crime, we saw where it came from:

A huge hole, about 15 feet long, 4 feet wide and deep enough for one guy to just barely stick his head out above ground. Half the road was closed.

(Not the actual picture of the street, but also not too far of an exaggeration...)

I mean, are we good citizens or what? We're practically on a first name basis with the 3-1-1 operator at this point.

Sometimes I surprise myself

2008-11-11T11:52:00.003-06:00

Last night, on the way home, I started thinking about dinner. Now, this is highly unusual for me. I usually don't ever think about dinner, or if I do, it's about 5 minutes after both Amar and I get hungry.

For some reason though, yesterday was different.

I knew that I had some beef stir-fry strips in the freezer. I had bought them quite a while ago, optimistically thinking at the time that it would be fun to try that...

And I also knew that I had frozen broccoli florets as well as some left over rice.

And in a moment of sheer inspiration and sense of impending victory, I decided that I would make beef and broccoli "stir-fry"*.

Adding to the level of complexity for the evening was the following:

Amar had a meeting to go to at 6PM. I made the decision to cook at 4:45 PM. Past cooking endeavours such as this one had dragged on for an hour or so, thus I knew I had to step it up...
I had no recipe that I could reference, so I had to find one by digging through a few cookbooks.
I have never made beef and broccoli, much less anything resembling "stir-fry" before.
After locating a recipe, I realized that I didn't have any ginger. Gasp!

In the past, this would have paralyzed me. I'm a perfectionist, and I don't like to try things that I know I can't win. The above constraints would have just sent me packing.

But last night was different.

Unencumbered by self-doubt or the fear of failure, I pressed on.

I started cooking additional rice, since I didn't have enough left-over.
I started mixing the stir-fry ingredients for the sauce.
I started chopping vegetables (onions, garlic, etc.).
I started prepping everything else.

And without stressing, without snapping at Amar, without setting anything ablaze, it happened**:

And we both actually liked it.

*Note: we don't necessarily have a wok, so I made due with what we did have: Pots and pans. I know, genius.

**Note: Not an actual picture of our meal, but pretty darn close.

White House hopes...

2008-11-06T11:46:00.003-06:00

When I took our dogs out this morning, they seemed a bit distracted. They just couldn't quite concentrate, and it wasn't because of the squirrels.

Nope.

It seems they are quite concerned as to the future of the White House: it's four-legged inhabitants, to be specific.

You see, the White House has been occupied for the past several years by two very distinguished, very proud little Scotties: Barney and Miss Beazley.

And as you might know, the Obamas will bring a new dog into the house after the Scotties move on.

While our girls will be quite sad to see such wonderful dogs move out, they are increasingly hopeful that yet another Scottie will be chosen to roam the Rose Garden. Before I left the house today, they provided me with a list to share, noting the benefits of adding a Scottie to the Obama family:

Scotties are quite opinionated and tenacious, thus making them valuable advisers to any policy issue that might arise on the Hill.
Scotties will keep the White House free of any potential rodent, specifically squirrels, which can be quite pesky. No worries of any mice on the premises when a Scottie is on the lookout.
Scotties will dance on command, and can be very adept at breaking any awkward silences that might occur when greeting foreign dignitaries. If any new Scottie needs training, Bella has offered to train them, as she happens to really love to dance. Her favorite song, of late, is "I like to move it, move it" as well as that Indian song at the beginning of "Inside Man".
Scotties can go from a day to evening look in mere minutes, requiring very little grooming.
Scotties like rope toys and peanut butter. (I'm not sure how this fits in with the whole "White House" theme, but I think Bella and Zoey just wanted to remind me...)

That was the extent of their list from this morning, but I'm sure it's so short simply because they got distracted and thought that they heard a squirrel.

So Obamas, please take these wise words into account when choosing your new pet.

Barney and Miss Beazley, I think Bella and Zoey speak for all Central Texas Scotties when they say that you will be missed.

Until next time...B & Z

Not to bug you too much, but...

2008-11-05T07:39:00.003-06:00

Here's another review of I.O.U.S.A. on another blog I read. Good stuff:

Slide:ology review

Change

2008-11-04T22:20:00.000-06:00

More embarassing pictures...

2008-11-04T11:36:00.004-06:00

I'm beginning to think that about 80% of the pictures of me on the Internet are pretty embarrassing. Not that I mind....but I just wanted to put a number on it.

Anyhow, just to pile on a bit, here are some pictures of my Small Group Bible Study at a Halloween party last week. We've gotten rave reviews on the costumes, so no pressure, but I think you're going to enjoy them as well.

Now, I who doesn't love a good red? And I must say, that being red had it's perks for the photo shoot. I mean, you can't deny that it's a primary color, and is a critical part of so many other colors and color combos. I don't want to assume anything, but the secondary colors were looking at little envious.... ;)

The crayons, in all their glory.

Arrogant primary colors.

Red and blue make purple!

Orange was a little embarrassed by his parents. I mean, who wouldn't be? His dad was wearing a skirt!

The color wheel - wheeee!!!

I'm red. He's brown. Got a problem with that?

Girl colors - unite!

Movie Reviews

2008-10-31T07:05:00.005-06:00

Within the past week, I've seen 2 movies, both of which I would recommend to you if you have $10 burning a hole in your pocket (or $20 if you want to see both, and spring for some popcorn).

I.O.U.S.A.

Yes, it's a movie about the national debt. And I can totally understand how you would just assume that this would be a real snoozer. But it was really good. It's hard to make a good movie about a global financial crisis, but these guys did it. I actually want to get it for people for Christmas....

You need to watch this. Even if you have no clue about the national debt, or don't care, this is an issue that requires our attention. It was really eye-opening, so if you do go see it, let me know! We can discuss :)

Body of Lies

Now, I'll be totally honest. It's never hard for me to watch Leonardo DiCaprio. However, this was not originally on my "must see" list until it became the movie chosen for our off-site at work. It's a spy movie set in the Middle East, and it was pretty entertaining. One of those that made me think about the plot for the rest of the day, trying to figure out who told who what and when and where they were and how on earth did this happen? Oy.

Anyhow, if you like action movies, or movies with plots about international spies who also happen to be fairly attractive (wink!), then you should go see this. I will warn you, there are a few scenes that I couldn't watch (violence-wise), but the rest of it was good.

One question: why do all spy movies have the same font? You know what I'm talking about. It's that all caps, computery-looking text that you can just imagine someone using to type in the coordinates of some safe house in the desert. Just something I noticed...

Enjoy!

How did we get here?

2008-10-21T13:39:00.003-06:00

Here's another little gem about our crazy financial times. Now, I don't really care if you're pro- or anti-bailout, it's nice to have a summary of how we got here, and just how much cash has been shelled out.

And the comic is just for fun, because apparently I enjoy making fun of the government (wink!).

Image courtesy of the Consumerist

A long week...

2008-10-18T15:10:00.001-06:00

I miss you, coffee.

Is it sad that this made my day?

2008-10-16T09:58:00.003-06:00

This picture literally made my day. I hope it makes you smile.

To be fair, here's the caption:

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008.

Link to Yahoo story

Face it

2008-10-06T14:45:00.003-06:00

We live in a world where a movie like this not only makes money, but it makes almost $30 million dollars.

Let me say again, that I do not approve of entertainment that features animals that talk. The only exception to that rule is the K-9 Advantix series of commercials. I mean seriously, how cute is that little singing puppy?!?!?

Note: if you happen to like talking animals, please don't take this post personally. I think we can still be friends, right?

My current reading list

2008-10-03T07:29:00.002-06:00

Ever since reading the "Frantic Family" book a few weeks ago, I've been on a bit of a Patrick Lencioni kick.

For those of you familiar with his work, let me know your thoughts. For those of you that aren't incredibly familiar with his work, he is a long-time consultant who writes business narratives in order to drive home a central point, whether that be about meetings, silos, goals, etc.

And given the fact that I'm married to one of the most avid readers I know, I didn't have to go too far to start picking up some more Lencioni and diving right in.

First up, Death by Meeting

And it happened to be quite timely, because I had a little Death by Meeting experience yesterday, despite my best efforts in recent days to avoid such a travesty.

Rather than having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting, or spending hours on end in a conference room and getting nowhere, Lencioni argues that there are different formats, frequencies and agendas that one should have on their calendar. Honestly, it helped me think about work differently, which can't be a bad thing, right?

Some of what he covers in the book helped me try some different approaches to my day-to-day meetings, and I'm hoping that in the long run, my time, and my co-worker's time will be spent more effectively. I'll keep you posted.

Next up: Silos, Politics and Turf Wars

If you've spent any time in corporate America, you just might be familiar with the idea that a lot of folks have an "us vs. them" mentality in the work place. I can guarantee that folks, including myself, do at my office.

A lot of what Lencioni talks about in this book is familiar to the topics in "Frantic Family", especially the idea of setting a rallying cry to unite folks.

Man, how I wish that this were as easy to put in place as he makes it sound. The fictional story that he paints would be great if it were happening in real life, but from what I've seen, a lot of businesses are a long ways from getting there.

But I'm holding out some hope. And this did make me think of things a bit differently. I'd love to talk to some of the execs in my department about what they see as our rallying cry and what they think about working through some of the existing politics. I see how his concepts could work at a small company, but trying to get 80,000 people unified around a few core concepts is a bit of a daunting task.

And finally, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this one, and I'm enjoying it. No, I am not an executive. Will I ever be? Who knows. But I don't think it can hurt to try to start thinking like one. Or to start thinking like an extraordinary one, at that ;)

Mammoth, revisited

2008-10-02T08:52:00.003-06:00

I have to admit I was a bit shocked when the news broke this week that evidence of Steve Fossett (cash, license) had been found near Mammoth Lakes, California. And then today, they found the wreckage of the plane near that same spot.

Why was I shocked? Becuase Amar and I were just there 6 weeks ago.

Here's a write-up in the Times about the find, first discovered by a hiker and then confirmed by an air search.

This is the kind of terrain that was searched.

Massive trees. Steep cliffs. Mountains. All in all, a tough find.

Hey Sports Fans!!

2008-09-30T13:01:00.003-06:00

I saw this today and it cracked me up, though it may be a little snarky:

Click on it to get a full size image of "September Madness"! Which bank or government entity to you think will go all the way?!

What a waste!!

2008-09-29T19:28:00.003-06:00

That's my takeaway from today's political activities. A. Complete. Waste.

A waste of time.
A waste of tax dollars.
A waste of money.
A waste of energy.

I was watching the news tonight, and NBC's political director Chuck Todd was on with Brian Williams. His insight into today's vote really caught my attention. He said, that after some analysis on the vote, he had determined that ultimately, 1 factor indicated whether a lawmaker would vote FOR or AGAINST the bill: whether or not they were facing a hotly-contested battle for their seat in November.

If a lawmaker was pretty much a shoe-in for their seat in the fall, they voted FOR the bill.

If a lawmaker was being challenged strongly for their seat in the fall, they voted AGAINST the bill.

If that is the case, and honestly it seems rather likely to (cynical) me, then I cannot think of anything more cowardly.

But then came the finger pointing, and the blaming.

Pelosi blames Bush.
Republicans blame Pelosi.
Democrats call the Republicans whiners.
The phrase "babies sucking our thumbs" was used.

I am honestly starting to think that the 1st grade Sunday school class that we teach could have done a better job crafting legislation and voting on it.

Please, for the love of God and country, stop the whining and do your jobs!

Whew.

Ok, sorry for the rant. Sorry for the series of rants, actually. Hope you're still hanging in there.

Dog show

2008-09-27T12:15:00.003-06:00

I took advantage of the late afternoon sun yesterday to do an impromptu photo shoot with the pups. Here's the outcome: