From the Visual Studio .NET 2005 trenches

Since I spend most of my day breathing VS .NET, I figured I post a few cheers and gripes. Here are my favorite features for the obsessively organized person that I am:

• Rename and extract methods often. The refactoring tools in .NET are fantastic. No more cryptic out-of-date out-of-context variable names and methods. Even renaming files and subsequently their class names is a breeze.
  
• Intellisense intellitype. Coding has evolved beyond how well you can copy and paste and is now how well you use the TAB key. The .NET intellitype somehow magically predicts what I want to type next. I try to make software that is fairly intelligent and in tune with the users needs, but not to the point of being telepathically scary!

Here are some wishes:

• I always use my extra back button on the mouse for navigating backwards in web browsers and Windows Explorer, and I'd like to see the back button used to navigate backwards in a source file (currently on the toolbar with Ctrl+- accelerator).
• Make classes public by default! It was in VS 2003 but not in VS 2005? What gives?

OMG, I've been assimilated!

Took some more quizzes and apparently I know more about Massachusetts than New York!!

Dude! You're 100% from Massachusetts!

Dude! Me and Sully and Fitzie and Sean are gonna hit Landsdowne tonight after the game, hang out at the Beerworks. I'll pick you up at the Coop at 6.

How Massachusetts are you?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

How New York Are You? Your Result: Buzz Word Proficient So you've been catching up on episodes of Sex & The City, you've prven you can find a good bagel and a solid cocktail. Maybe you're one of those Western New Yorkers...
Go Home Tourist!
Commuter
Hot Child In The City
How New York Are You?

What accent do I have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Northeast Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Midland
Boston
The South
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

People say that I don't have an accent, but apparently I've still got the NY accent according to this quiz, at least in my head. I think there is a difference between how you hear words when you read them (which was all learned while I lived in NY) and how you actually say them (which has changed over the many states that I've lived in). My friend Jennifer took the quiz and she truly got the result of "no accent". Doug, who always claims that he doesn't have an accent, landed solidly with a Boston accent. I was thrilled that there was now proof that he had an accent, to which he replied that the quiz was just bunk. I just can't win!

Day at MGM-Disney

On our last full day at Disney World, we went to MGM-Disney. Here are some of the attractions we took:

• Muppet 3D movie - Thankfully I finally convinced Dova to wear her 3D glasses and Adam had great laugh out loud fun.

• Honey I Shrunk the Kids - We lost the kids in this play area for a few minutes, but since there was only one way out, there wasn't too much chance of really losing them.

• Little Mermaid live show - This was the 3rd day in a row that we saw a live Ariel, this one a bit heavier than the rest. Dova loved it of course, but Grandma slept through the whole thing. Afterwards, I realized that I really should have videoed the whole thing as none of the pictures came out well. This video is the first part of Dova's favorite song "Part of Your World". If you are tone deaf, please feel free to listen to Dova's rendition as well. She does have the look and the moves down, but needs some work on pitch. Then again she was still 2 years old when we took the video!

• Lights, Motion, Action - Cool car show, but Dova slept on my lap the entire time through all the noise. I had to hold her in one arm and try to take pictures and videos with other hand.

After this, Grandma went to Animal Kingdom while we went back for some pool time. This time, I stuck Dova in the large wading pool so I could sit out and simply take pictures. We took them out of the pool when they turned blue and forewent the sand this time. After another warm bath, he headed out for our dinner reservation at Planet Hollywood which we nearly forgot about.

We got off a the Downtown Disney stop but later realized that the Planet Hollywood was actually next to the Pleasure Island stop. We walked quickly, stopping only to pick up some Ghiradelli chocolates. The restaurant was extremely noisy and Dova again slept on my lap. Instead of forking over another lump sum for the family picture above, I opted for just the $8 keychain for Adam (and let my scanner do the rest). We had the ambition to go to Epcot afterwards so I could see Figment, but the kids were simply too tired. We spent the evening in the hotel room and Dova got to wear her new Ariel costume. We watched the nearby fireworks at Epcot right from our rooms. Grandma was leaving early the next morning and Adam ended up sleeping in our room instead of hers. I slept with Dova and Doug crowded poor Adam.

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy Sandwich

Wordless Wednesday - Air Hockey

Petting the panda

I saw the "once-in-a-lifetime" call on Photo Friday of the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas and thought, hmm, I don't have any of those. Then after a weekend, and a night of insomnia, it finally hit me, I petted a panda in China. Now, how many people can get to do that in their lifetime?

Back in 1988, I went with my parents to visit China. It was the first time in 40 years that they had gone back since WWII. It was a very emotional experience for my mother who saw many changes to her old village and also so many things that hadn't changed. When we went to Beijing, we somehow managed through some connections (nothing happens in China without connections) to visit the Beijing zoo outside of public hours. I was 21 at the time, didn't understand all the Chinese being spoken around me and just went along. The first thing the zoo keeper did was throw in some food, which looked like a brown brick. After the panda started gnawing on it, they told us to go ahead and pet it. My mom was completely thrilled, I was amazed and my dad may have just touched it quickly, but not for this picture. The fur was a lot coarser than I imagined. I don't think the visit was very long, but I'm sure we thanked them profusely. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Ten reasons why I love my stay-at-home dad

Here's stay-at-home hubby Doug, hamming it up as a pizza head (from the Desert Hatter in Palm Springs, CA). I'm very fortunate to have Doug stay at home for the kids, both in terms of being able to afford it and his desire to do it. Here are my top reasons I love having a stay-at-home dad:

1. The obvious reason is bringing up our kids with a parent around. We have a fantastic preschool for our kids. But having a parent at home really affords us the opportunity to really instill our own values, not the school's. Adam goes to school everyday for kindergarten now, and Dova goes to preschool 2 days a week. When Adam gets home at 3pm he can get started on his homework right away with Dad's immediate help if he needs it.
2. More Daddy time - I think the kids used to feel closer to mom. Now Doug finally an opportunity to get close to the kids. Still, I enjoy the feeling of not being able to peel them off of me when I get home.
3. Morning routine simplified - I used to wake up at 6am, shower and dress, wake Adam at 6:30 am, have him dress (this would sometimes take the sleepyhead 20 minutes!), get him breakfast, make 2 lunches, wake Dova up at 7am, get her dressed, get her breakfast, get the school stuff together, get everyone's coat on, pile into the car by 7:30 (OK, this was usually 7:45), drop them off at school, say a tearful goodbye to Dova, and get to work by 8:30am. Nowadays, I can leisurely wake up shortly after 7am, dress Dova if she is awake and get to work shortly after 8am, shaving an hour and a half off the old routine. Doug takes care of lunches and getting them to school at the leisurely time of 9am (OK, he may disagree about the leisurely part). Whew, what a life saver! Plus mom can just snuggle in the mornings instead of constantly cracking the whip.
4. Better sleep for everyone - No more alarm clocks for this family!! I wake up naturally every morning and we no longer have to get the kids up early and allow them wake naturally as well. This makes them happier and much more helpful in the mornings (then again, I'll have to ask SAHD, he may have another opinion on the matter). Doug also gets to sleep in till 8am!
5. Laundry - Doug is an excellent laundry robot. Now, there no more complaints about his wrinkly shirts and pants when I used do it (shh, they are still wrinkly, but he can't complain when he does it himself). He's been pretty good about catering to my laundry rules as well.
6. Doctor and dentist visits - I used to miss work all the time for the endless doctor and dentist visits for the kids, plus all their sick days. Now Doug gets the pleasure of taking them to physicals, flu shots, lead tests, asthma checkups, dental cleaning and dental fillings. And since they spend less time at school, they've stayed healthier so there have been less sick visits and sick days as well.
7. Resident car mechanic - Doug graciously fixes everything on all our cars, but now he has more time to do it instead of cramming it into precious family time on the weekends.
8. Getting things done around the house - the honey-do list is long, but at least now there is a chance of things getting done.
9. Being home for deliveries and service - no more waiting for deliveries or repair people to come between the ridiculous hours of 8-12 or 1-5pm. I could afford to do it when I used to work from home and it wasn't too bad being close to work, but this is much more convenient. Plus Doug really cracks the whip with repair people to make sure the job gets done right.
10. Library - before this switch, the kids barely went to our local library. Now they are regulars and have a constant stream of new books and videos.
11. Bonus item: Buying kid's shoes - I used to buy shoes at lunchtime and had the kids try them on when I got home. I usually had a good eye for what fits, but still ended up returning a few that didn't. Now, Doug can take the kid to the store, and have them try it on right there! What a novel concept. For whatever reason, it was too much to cram in on the weekends before.

There you have it. I love you Doug and appreciate all that you do!

Day at Epcot

The second full day at Disney World, we toured around Epcot, by far Doug's and my favorite park. Here some are the attractions we took:

• Viking ride in Norway - Right after our princess lunch we hopped onto the Norway ride which had no line! Adam got spooked again because it was too dark and a bit scary. Dova also told me "Mom, that was too scary." She hammed it up for the troll afterwards though.
• Test Track - Adam had been all gung ho about this ride but once we stood outside watching the cars whiz by, he changed his mind and refused to go. I still got the four Fast Pass tickets to come back later. Grandma and I went when the time came, loved it, and I called Doug to come over and take Adam. The both loved it of course. While Adam was on the ride, I took Dova back over to the outside Nemo display. She was so cute another lady asked permission to take pictures of her as well.
• Spaceship Earth - It was a bit dark, but I heard Grandma talk Adam through it and he was pretty much OK with it.
• Nemo and the Living Seas - There was absolutely no line and we hopped right on board. Adam was still scared when Bruce the Shark showed up. I think all these rides are too larger than life for Adam and it is too much sensory overload. The line for Turtle Talk was too long so we skipped it, although everyone who went raved about it. He loved posing inside Bruce though!

At this point the kids were getting tiered so we headed back. Unfortunately I missed my favorite Figment (of Imagination) ride, and never made it back. At the hotel I insisted that everyone lie down "for a few minutes". At 6pm when Adam woke up he was really angry and disappointed that he lost the afternoon and missed playing in the pool. We headed back to Epcot and ate at Morocco for dinner and had excellent veggie dish, meatballs and tabouli wrap. Grandma bought a camel skin lamp while we were there. We watched the fireworks / laser show from the Japan pavilion. The exodus out of the park definitely felt like being herded and we had to wait three buses before getting on. Thankfully, we got to sit down as both Dova and Adam slept on the way back. Adam was so tired that we had to push him in the stroller and carry Dova back to the room. Another exhausting day at Disney!

Daylight Saving Time - woo hoo!

I'm loving the new early Daylight Saving Time. Notice, that I say "Saving" as opposed to "Savings". "It's not a SAVINGS bank!!" according to DST police Noorul. Interestingly enough, a Google search will produce 957,000 results for the incorrect "daylight savings time" and only 671,000 results for the correct "daylight saving time". Noorul, you have a long way to go on your mission!

My question is why ever go back to standard time? Lets do it all year round. Shift the time zones over. I hate when it gets dark at 3pm in December. I think it would also help curb seasonal depression. Even though you don't get more light hours, it gets dark later in the day. According to this article,

During energy crisis years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on Jan. 6 and in 1975 it began on Feb. 23.

Can you imagine the uproar from IT people if we willy-nilly changed DST nowadays? I've heard that you need to go back to standard time for the farmers so they don't have to work in the dark in the mornings (they purport a negative impact on livestock - do the livestock really know what time it is?). I've also heard that you need to go back to protect kids from waiting for school buses in the dark. Any way you cut it, it's a political issue, be it energy savings, farmers or schools. I just hope it continues to remain in place for longer portions of the year.

Here's yet more info on the matter.

Wordless Wednesday - Princess Face Painting

In Dova's preschool they do face painting on Fridays and she always asks to be a princess. "You know, a little blue here, a little red here." No kitty faces for this one (the teachers always apologize when I pick her up). Tammy Faye Bakker, watch out!

Bringing lunch from home for the lazy

Here is my very best frugal tip for Frugal for Life (I know I'm months late!). Everyone knows that you save tons of money by bringing your lunch from home instead of buying it every day. But this requires work. Lots of work. Lots of work every day. I've finally perfected the system of bringing healthy inexpensive lunches from home with minimal work for even the laziest of us (I prefer to use the term efficient). The key is having a compact refrigerator at work. Sure, this costs money up front, but with this system, it could pay for itself in as little as a few months. I actually bought this cute Kenmore with a 15% coupon so it cost me about $120 when I got it.

What I do is when I go shopping on Sunday, I buy up all the ingredients to make breakfasts and lunches at work. Deli meat, sandwich wraps, potato salad, apple, oranges, grapes, cheese, mustard, mayo, India relish, olives, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, english muffins, cream cheese, butter, and an occasional Lean Cuisine or frozen bowl from Trader Joe's (whew! I finally did inventory while at work). When I unpack the groceries, I set aside a shopping bag to bring into work and leave it in my fridge at home. Monday morning, I bring the bag in and unload it. This takes little or no time, just the ability to sort and remember to bring the bag once a week. I make up my sandwiches fresh everyday at lunch, which tastes better than pre-made soggy sandwiches. This also saves time and gas from having to go out for lunch. If there is a free lunch, no problem, the lunch hasn't even been made, so it can still be made fresh the next day. I've been doing this for nearly two years now and it's been great on my convenient food expense column.

Amazon Plog serving up some cool stuff

I don't know how I happened upon my personalized Plog from Amazon, but since it came with an RSS feed, I dutifully signed up for it in Bloglines. I subscribed to Current and Earworm and mostly get the latest digital camera and music news. But then I saw this video post and it was sooo cool!

Of course it's a week late now, but I have to march home to view anything from YouTube. I loved Minority Report. My thoughts while viewing this were: oooh protein crystals... is that Star Trek TNG playing? oh no, more face morphing...

The closest thing to this interface now is actually the Wii!! You can change the angle of the earth and spin it around by waving your arm with the Wii remote. We sometimes check the weather just so that we can spin the earth around!

Use the force for good

Computers are my livelihood and I certainly feel that they enhance my existence. But as with all powerful tools, they can be used for not so good purposes. Hopefully you've seen the Dove - Evolution commercial below (thanks George for pointing me to it long ago):

Finally, I love this Dove self-esteem commercial for Singapore (being Asian and living through all those stereotypical misconceptions as a girl):

What beautiful curly hair!

Boing Boing: R2D2 mailboxes from the US Postal Service

Who'da thought the USPS would be so cool?! Alas, the URL printed on them doesn't work yet. Via boing boing.

Dova's Princess Lunch

On our second day at Disney World, we had reservations for a Princess character lunch at the Akersham castle in the Epcot Norway pavilion at 11:20am. This was the best time I could reserve two months in advance instead of six months, where apparently all Disney "in-the-know" would do. The character meals at Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom were already completely booked for every meal while we where there. I reserved an earlier time as opposed to later because Dova rarely eats a good breakfast (of course there was nothing available right at noon). It was well worth it as the food was fantastic, probably much better than at Cinderella's Castle. You would think that 11:20am would be easy to swing being the very first thing we were going to do that day, but not for this family. Adam stubbed his bare toe coming back from breakfast with Grandma and another guest helped carry him and his bloody toe back to our room. We opted to get a double stroller for gimpy Adam and Dova when we got to Epcot and had to sprint to make our appointment. When we arrived, the cast addressed Dova as "princess" and she immediately played the part. We also lucked out that her meal was free because she was only 2 years old, but being so precocious, she completely understood and enjoyed the experience just as any 3-year-old and older princess there. Here are the princesses we met:

• Ariel - Our first stop was with this picture perfect Ariel. She was amazed that Dova was holding a little Ariel doll. Of course we forked over $31 for the official Disney portrait as well.

• Sleeping Beauty - While eating, the first princess which stopped by was Sleeping Beauty. I, not being up on my princesses, had to ask who she was. I didn't know the color code yet (Sleeping Beauty = pink, Cinderella = blue, Belle = yellow, etc).

• Belle - Here's grandma getting in on the princess action too. And Belle is only yellow when she is wearing her ball gown.

• Jasmine - This beautiful Jasmine gave Dova a nice hug and I think she was genuinely happy to receive one from Dova. Or else, they've really brainwashed these princesses well.

• Cinderella - She also gave Dova a nice hug. The whole time the princesses were coming by, Adam refused to even look at them covering his head with his napkin (and rolling his eyes underneath I'm sure). This Cinderella was so sharp as she was leaving, she tapped him on the head and said "Bye, Prince Napkinhead". From them on, Adam was dubbed Prince Napkinhead and we still call him that to this day.

Another stolen credit card number

My secondary credit card number was stolen, and here are my guesses of the source.

1. Yet another unscrupulous waitress, this time at Pizza Hut in Merrimack, NH - the only time my card was out of my sight. That's also where I took this picture.
2. Someone who stole my credit card statement - I did not receive the January bill, although the bill doesn't have the credit card expiration date listed. Then again, I seem to be "losing" stuff in the mail which magically reappears months later (darn kids! darn disorganized mail!)
3. Someone processing the online Registry of Motor Vehicles - this card is rarely used for online purchases and this was the only one in the month previous to the theft.

My guess is the waitress again like my last experience. They are probably selling numbers to a third party as the charges have always been big ticket European items. This time Bank of America did not call me. I had to call them after I received my statement with the bogus charges and also to remove the late charge for not paying the bill I didn't receive. At least I didn't have to move all my automatic payments like last time.

Adam is ready for ice hockey

Here he is zipping around the rink while mom skates behind him with the camera. Check out the "cool" move with his hands behind his back about 2/3 through. We are foregoing skiing this year in an effort to save money for all the hockey equipment and team dues. First one session of Learn to Play Hockey in the summer and he's off. Oh yeah, and maybe mom will play too. Hockey fever for everyone!