Adam is Superman!

I am so lucky that my kids love to mug for the camera. Is it because I love to photograph them that they love to be photographed? Or is it because they love to be photographed that I love to photograph them? Either way, I'm lucky to get these wonderful jumping shots. This was the first time I actually used my camera in (somewhat) manual mode, setting it to ISO 400, 1/500 sec shutter speed and manual focus. Dova is becoming an excellent jumper as well and she is so much easier to fit in the frame because she is smaller. Here are other cool shots of Adam and Dova levitating.

Beautiful eyes, beautiful girl

Mr. Mom has been checking out all the playgrounds in the area and has found one in neighboring Townsend, MA that has the friendliest parents. I think most SAHM's are cautious of men even with children and aren't always friendly. I tried to explain to Doug that women are simply cautious of men in general because you never know which one is the ax murderer or child molester who may harm them or their children. Moms feel much more comfortable speaking to a stranger who is another mom rather than a stranger dad. Especially when you hear news of the creepy John Mark Karr.

So one day in this friendly playground, a mom looks at my beautiful girl and asks Doug, "What's wrong with her eye? It looks kind of slanted." WHAT?!?!?!? I would've hit the roof (or a nearby tree, or even an airplane flying overhead). Doug tactfully replied, "Well, she has some Asian in her." Hopefully that embarrassed the ignorant mom who simply shied away with "Oh, that must be it." Is it possible that I live so far in the boonies that people would think that something is wrong if you look Asian? Is it not obvious that Dova is partially Asian? Is she not the MOST BEAUTIFUL girl in the world? Of course, through my mom-colored glasses she is!

OK, in the mom's defense, Doug says that he wouldn't jump to those conclusions and that she was probably just noting that one eye was different from the other. But heck, that just makes her more beautiful in my view!

technorati tags: eyes, dova

Stranded by the Corvette

OK, I can see the eyes rolling now with thoughts of: "I wish I could have that problem", and "Gee, it must be hard to own a Corvette". But still, it's a funny(?) story worth telling.

A few weeks ago, we had our roof redone and the roofers came every morning promptly at 6:30 AM, waking our family to the sound of nails being hammered above our heads. On this particular morning, I was granted the honors of taking the Corvette into work, but the roofer's truck was parked outside of the garage, with just barely enough room to back out. Instead of risking it, Doug offered to pull the car out of the garage for me. I handed him my keys (above left) and he drove the car out of the garage without incident. Now in this car, you don't have to put the key into an ignition lock. You simply have to have the key on your person (or purse) and push the button with the green light (above right). We have two sets of keys and the car knows which one it is and greets you by name when you start up the car. It is one way of setting this car apart, to make it "fanceee" (as if 400 HP isn't enough).

So I drove off to work and pushed the bottom of the button to shut off the car. It shut off but the dash was flashing, "No key fob, Run or Stop?" What? I checked my pocket. No key, like it said. Doug still had it in HIS pocket! I quickly realized my choices were: Run, so I could drive the car back to where the key fob was left behind, or Stop and be stranded. Since I knew that my key was set to automatically lock when I left the car, I figured it was safe to stop. Plus, I work only 15 minutes from home so Doug could stop by before I left to deliver the keys. Still, I was furious at the design "feature" that left me stranded. What if I was still at my old job at 65 minutes away? Would I drive all the way there, only to drive all the way home and then try to explain to my boss that the car would have left me stranded if I stayed at work? What kind of lame excuse is that? What if I had driven 200 miles and needed to add gas? Would I be able to start the car up again? Or what if I didn't have automatic locking? Would I feel compelled to drive back home?

So my advice to Chevrolet is to warn the driver if they are driving without the key fob as soon as possible. The car obviously knows about 5 seconds after you drive off that the key is no longer inside. It would be unsafe to shut off the car, but not letting you know until you shut off the car possibly hours later is insane. Or maybe it's just their way to tell you that you're an idiot and shouldn't be driving the car. Especially if you're just the wife who can't even back the car out of the garage! (OK, I blame the roofers entirely for putting their truck in the wrong place and for my lack of sleep and hence forgetting the key).

How Many of Me?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 6 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My name not unique, as I often google it to find out who my clones are. The rest of my family's names however are completely unique. One person with hubby Doug's name, one with son Adam's name and 0 (zero!) with Dova's name. She is definitely one of a kind!

Biking at lunchtime

I'm fortunate to be able to bike at lunchtime on the Nashua River rail trail. This time of year is foliage season in my neck of the woods, so I took my newest camera along - a Nikon Coolpix 3200, thanks to Quentin who offered it to Adam for free. The trail is really gorgeous when it is sunny out, but even on a cloudy day you can see its beauty, especially along the river. I especially love when the trail is covered entirely in leaves so it feels like you are biking in the woods. Here is the entire set of pictures.

Oh, and in terms of the camera, it is actually the smallest camera that our family has, so it fits nicely in one of my bike shirt pockets. Just add an iPod and I'm set for a 12 mile ride. I haven't let it loose on Adam yet, but he was thrilled to learn that he had a new camera. Let's see if it lasts longer than the last one he got (lasted 3 months).

Happy belated Blog-o-versary!!

I went past my 2nd blog-o-versary in June without even a mention! To carry on tradition, here's a new template (maybe I won't feel the need to change it every year. I previously mentioned no ads, but here's a nice new section on the left; it's good to be flexible right?

Anyway, I really wanted a three column layout and a fixed width content area because I was tired of taking up all that much space. So now I'm limited to 500 pixel wide thoughts.

I played a bit on Blogger Beta with a new blog, mommybytestoo.blogspot.com, and to my shock the URL for mommybytes.blogspot.com was taken by another SW engineer blogging mom a few months ago. Good luck to her, although you all know who's the original.

A cat goes to heaven (joke)...

This joke was in my local cat shelter (Pat Brody's) flyer:

A cat dies and goes to Heaven. God meets him at the gate and says, "You've been a good cat all of these years. Anything you desire is yours, all you have to do is ask." The cat says,"Well, I lived all my life with a poor family on a farm and had to sleep on hardwood floors."God says,"Say no more." And instantly,a fluffy pillow appears.

A few days later, 6 mice are killed in a tragic accident and they go to Heaven, God meets them at the gate with the same offer that he made to the cat. The mice said,"All our lives we've had to run. We've been chased by cats, dogs and even women with brooms. If we could only have a pair of rollerskates, we wouldn't have to run anymore." God says,"Say no more." And instantly, each mouse is fitted with a beautiful pair of tiny roller skates.

About a week later, God decides to check and see how the cat is doing. The cat is sound asleep on his new pillow. God gently wakes him and asks,"How are you doing? Are you happy here?" The cat yawns and stretches and says,"Oh, I've never been happier in my life. And those Meals on Wheels you've been sending over are the best!"

technorati tags:cat, joke

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Microsoft's thorn in my side

I'm a mommy at home, but the majority of my waking hours are spent at work wrestling Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to my will. I am a software engineer that develops Windows GUI (graphics user interface) for biotech instrumentation. When we finally release our product, I'll put a screen shot up of my awesome program. I absolutely love the C# programming language (that's sharp and not pound as my buddy Tom used to think) and most of the time I'm in geek heaven while I'm at work. The biggest annoyance that VS 2005 brings is that dreaded designer error message above. So if you have never seen this message in your life (and never will), you can skip the rest of this post. For my geeky friends (you know who you are), read on.

I can be working happily on a form, shut down for the night, and come back the next morning and see the message on the very same form. I could be working on a form and switch to a different form in the same assembly using the same controls and get the error. The purported "rebuilding your project" NEVER helps. Sometimes, you can clean and rebuild and it will go away (why rebuild doesn't perform a clean, I don't know). Sometimes you need to clean, close Visual Studio, open it, build and then it will go away. Once, I wasted a good half day when none of these tricks worked. I was googling, asking other programmers, and trying things out myself. I finally deleted my entire source tree, did a fresh get, and the error message finally went away. Then I went on the hunt for the lingering corrupt(?) file(s) that aren't deleted with a clean which were causing the error message. It turned out to be the [solution].suo file. So when all else fails, clean, close Visual Studio and deleted the .suo file. The problem is that you never know when you have to resort to the full treatment as many times the other tricks do work. Hopefully Micro$oft will fix this issue, which is getting all sort of flames on usenet. I never did see my particular solution posted, but it definitely works for me (I'm too shy to jump into that fire).

I can't resist this last graphic, although I need to be careful about badmouthing Microsoft, programming Windows is my bread and butter!!

25 Ways I Save Money

Here are some of my tips to share for Dawn and the readers of Frugal for Life. I tried to fill the list to innovative things that I do, as opposed to the usual "obvious things".

1. Always make lunches. I have a small fridge at work which I load up on Mondays and make lunches during lunchtime. This way it doesn't take time in the morning and saves on baggies. Also, stock my drawers at work with healthy snacks so I don't hit the vending machine.
2. Whenever making purchases, always ask the questions: "Is this something I want or something I need?" and "Do I have a place for it?". This not only saves wasteful purchases, but also keeps down on clutter.
3. Use an Oil Buying Network cooperative for better heating oil prices. In MA, call 800.649.7473.
4. While shopping online, always compare prices including shipping using CNET.com, Froogle, and eBay.
5. Shop at a cheaper supermarket further away.
6. Have a running list of which stores have the cheapest items between supermarkets, discount stores and warehouse stores, a mini price book of sorts.
   
7. Only buy things on my shopping list and limit impulse buys.
   
8. Using store reward cards to get extra discounts and store credit. Bob's Stores and Petco come to mind as stores that give good rewards.
9. Buy holiday cards, ornaments and gift wrap after the holidays when they are 50-75% off.
   
10. Use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) of course - Dawn, thanks for giving it the number 1 spot!.
11. Never buy clothes that aren't on sale.
12. Encourage friends to give me hand-me-down clothes, toys and gear for the kids, and continue the mommy chain.
    
13. Give haircuts to everyone in the family (kids and hubby but not myself, only get haircuts twice a year).
    
14. Use Vonage for my home phone. Contact me for a referral for Vonage.
15. Use ING Direct (4.40% interest) and Paypal (5.03% interest but not FDIC insured) for higher interest rates. Contact me if you'd like $25 from ING for opening an account.
16. Use credit unions with NO account fees, never pay foreign ATM or debit card POS fees, and always pay online.
17. Only use credit cards with no fees and 2% cash back benefits. Always pay in full so they are giving me money, instead of vice versa.
18. Max out every tax advantage program from 401k, IRAs, FSAs and 529s (OK, I can't actually max out a 529, but I do regular deductions from my paycheck).
    
19. Take the gas-saving car whenever possible.
20. Always note gas prices while driving and arrange trips to hit the cheapest station.
21. Combine trips for errands. Don't run an errand unless I have more than one.
    
22. Ride my bike on nice days for exercise instead of driving to the gym.
23. Shoveling the walk for "free exercise".
24. Borrow movies from the library instead of renting them. Same goes for kid's books, but I can't seem to read books myself from the library on a time schedule.
25. Buy used books, CDs and DVDs from eBay, half.com or Amazon and sell the ones I don't want or use.
    

My Celebrity Look-alikes

Interestingly enough, I match up to more Japanese celebrities than Chinese (or perhaps there are not as many Chinese celebs). I'm not sure how this blonde got first place though. That guy Ryo really does look like me. And please, I'm much cuter than Jennifer Aniston!!

Try it out at www.myheritage.com if you dare to be vain like me!