Yankee Stadium: Predictions

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!

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

Yay Texas! Way to stay sane.



Image courtesy of NPR.

Is it really the thought that counts?

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

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

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

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

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

I just got this error message while at work:



Gotta love pessimistic developers!

I'm still alive - FYI

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

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...

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

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

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

Filling small amounts of time with randomness

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

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...

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

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

• 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

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.