Still Trying… Still Excited…

Daily Dose /

I’ve been trying to activate my new iPhone 4s for two hours and every time it shows me the phone number screen, I get excited all over again and enthusiastically enter my billing zip code and last four. I happily accept the terms and conditions (twice)… and am SURE this is going to be the time the network lets me in.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve been through this process 75 times in two hours. Each time, I feel hopeful. Each time, I feel excited.

Sigh.

Foiled again.

Trying again. Enthusiastically.

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I’m So Excited About the Weather

Daily Dose /

I went ahead and updated my old iPhone and my iPad to iOS 5 today. I haven’t really played with either device – who has time to play? But… the weather app. Have you seen the new weather app? I’m talking about the basic old iPhone weather app that comes standard on every iPhone. THAT weather app…

I’ve been kind of addicted to that app since day one but now… oh my goodness… hourly weather updates for every city in your app.

Love. Love. Love.

I don’t really care about any of the other upgrades, (OK I do but I probably won’t write about them once I figure out what to do with them – besides pay for extra storage in iCloud since I’m at 4.7GB at the moment), but the weather app ROCKS MY WEATHER ADDICTED WORLD.

Love. Love. Love. (Even if it’s raining right now and and will probably rain throughout the evening.)

How’s the weather in your world? Update your OS and your iPhone will tell you.

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I Now Pronounce You Someone Else

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

I knew going in that I Now Pronounce You Someone Else was not going to be my favorite YA book on the shortlist. And as expected, I did not love it. But – I did not hate it nearly as much as I thought. There was good stuff in there. Some pretty funny parts. Some very sweet parts. Some sad parts. Some serious anger-inducing parts.

Not bad for a book about a teen girl who plans to get married in order to get the life and family she didn’t have.

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Smelly Cat Coffee & My Dad

Coffee & Tea, Daily Dose, Friends & Family /

My dad likes Friends. Hold on. I’m not really sure he likes Friends, he might just like Phoebe. He calls her his “sister”. I don’t really see the resemblance, myself. Or maybe that right there is the resemblance – the weird ability to connect dots that aren’t there and oblivious to the fact that you’ve connected dots that don’t exist? OK fine. My father’s sister could be Phoebe from Friends.

What’s weird is that I’ve never watched more than a couple of full episodes of Friends. I only vaguely know who the actors on the show were. I might not even know who all of them were, though if I saw them I’d recognize them. I like Courtney Cox. I don’t really like Jennifer Aniston. The guys – I have no idea. Not my thing.

So anyway, I was talking to my father one day on the phone and he started telling me about Phoebe and his idea that she could be his sister because they were so much alike and I was uh huhing because I didn’t get it and then he starts rambling about Smelly Cat. I probably rolled my eyes while I laughed at him.  I might not know Friends but I do know Smelly Cat.

All of this discussion about my father and Phoebe and Smelly Cat happened years ago – he’s mentioned all three once or twice again over the years but that first discussion was the longest and it stuck with me. So that any time I see Lisa Kudrow, I think of my father. Any time I see the Smelly Cat video, I think of my father.  Whenever someone mentions Smelly Cat Coffee in Charlotte, I think of my father – though my father does not drink coffee.

As much as I love coffee – you’d think I’d have visited Smelly Cat, wouldn’t you? But no… I never have and I’ve always wanted to.

Several weeks ago, my mom called me from some bar in Charlotte where she was getting drunk with my cousin and my sister and she wanted to talk to me about Smelly Cat Coffee. I was annoyed. No I have not been there. Why are you calling me from a bar?! (I might be exaggerating about some of this – slightly – maybe – or maybe not, I wasn’t there so all I have is my mother’s word and… well she’s the one who tricked me into coming to Charlotte so I could deal with the Boo for her so…)

Anyway – I was grouchy again because I had never been to Smelly Cat and everyone else in the world has been. (I’m sure this is not an exaggeration at all and you can see where this is going, right…)

I went to Smelly Cat Coffee!!!!!

And it was a-freaking-mazing (notice I’m not cursing so much? Huh, wonder why?)

I drove over there on Saturday morning. There were just a couple of people there inside and a couple people outside. It’s the perfect rundown awesome kind of shop that I love. The baristas were friendly and interesting. The coffee was fan-freaking-tastic. I even bit the bullet and ordered a Cuban since it was on the menu and I LOVE me a good Cuban though it’s hard to get a good Cuban outside of the Miami area (or Cuba, I guess?)  — The Cuban – ex-freaking-ellent (oh, that didn’t work.)

I also ordered a cup of mini-brioche that was yummy and a regular old Sumatra that was just what a regular old Sumatra should be.

I took my order outside and promptly called my father to tell him that I was at Smelly Cat.

The man… did not know what in the hell (oops) I was talking about. It took me five minutes of explaining why I always think of him when I see/hear Smelly Cat.

Eventually – he got it and laughed for a long, long time.

Eventually.

Maybe Phoebe is his sister after all?

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Three Cybils – One Yay! One Nay! One In Between!

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult /

I’m digging into the poetry category and back into the YA category from the Cybils shortlist. I’m nonplussed about both categories so far, which is troubling.

First, Split. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it. Christian seemed wrong to me but not as wrong as both Miriam and Dakota seemed. The women in Jace’s new life seemed almost too perfect and too good, though the author tried to make sure that we understood neither was like Jace’s mom or like Lauren. Still. I don’t know. Miriam before she got to know about all of Jace’s problems seemed a little over the top, then once she found out the entire story, she seemed to willing to dig her heels in for the long haul. It just seemed – backwards and not as realistic as I’d hoped.  The most troubling thing here – this was the YA winner. Darn. Maybe it’s just me?

Then Ubiquitous – great title for a children’s poetry book. Nice pictures. Good idea. The poetry left me bored while I enjoyed the facts about all of the ubiquitous creatures. For a poetry book, the poetry shouldn’t leave you bored. Kids have a hard enough time getting in to poetry to start with.

Next comes Scarum Fair – loved it. Loved the artwork. Loved the poetry. Loved the idea. Not for kids who scare easily but for kids who like ghoulish make believe – fabulous. Love, love, love.

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Quest for the Perfect Onion Ring

Daily Dose /

I order onion rings at pretty much any new restaurant I try. Because – I’m always in search of the perfect onion ring.

The perfect onion ring is hard to describe because perfect onion rings come in all different styles.

Friends made a great angel hair onion ring, in Anderson. A light breading – not a heavy, dark, beer batter breading.

Years and years and years ago, I got the best beer batter onion rings at the golf course on Pope Air Force Base.

In August, when we went on our Rt 66 road trip, I had the best onion rings I’ve had in YEARS at the Polk-a-Dot Drive In.

Tonight, at Cheddars – I had a very good onion ring. Really most excellent. Not quite as good as any of the three onion rings mentioned above – but close, very close. That was a pleasant surprise.

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An NPR Confession

Daily Dose /

Are you sitting down?

I never listen to NPR. Ever.

At least not on the radio. I will sometimes wander over there online when someone shares a link or mentions a story in a blog post but it’s pretty rare and I never stay long.

When I’m working, I don’t really like a lot of sounds. I rarely listen to music for longer than a half dozen songs. I can’t handle more than a few minutes of any podcast while I’m working. It’s just distracting and becomes excess busy noise.

In the car, we listen to the radio. Or a book on audio. When we’re traveling, we’ll sometimes hit a talk radio show but that’s rare too (and in this area it tends to be conservative shock radio – Indiana, after all) but we can’t take much of that before we move to iTunes to enjoy the ride.

So no. I don’t do NPR.

~~

This week, I’m driving my mom’s Toyota and the radio is tuned to NPR- Charlote (WFAE).

On Saturday, the first time I drove the car, I found it mildly amusing. Car Talk was on and I kind of like the Car Talk guys. So I listened. And I mostly enjoyed it.

On Sunday, I listened again but it was Car Talk again which I found annoying. I like those guys but I didn’t want to hear the same show again.

And every day since, I’ve listened to some sort of NPR programming for 15 minutes – an hour while in the car. Some of it has been interesting. Some stupid and boring. An interview with Tavi was fabulous. That girl is awesome. Totally love her. Loved the interview. If you didn’t hear it – you should listen. Tavi on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.   The anti-PSA test doctor was interesting. So was the Executive Director of Greenpeace talking about Duke Energy & Progress Energy (that’s a scary freaking merge, if you ask me.)

After a week of listening to WFAE’s pledge drives and their programming – I’m torn between wanting to rip the radio from the dash because I’m sick to death of the pledge drive and wanting to pull over and call in a pledge.  After all, if I pledge I’ll be entered to win a trip to … Chicago… for Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.  I totally need a trip to Chicago, don’t I?

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Boo x2

1 Comment / Daily Dose /

I figured I should update y’all with what happened to the Boo problem.

What happened was my mother laughed her ass off and then instructed me upon the way to enact the Boo. Apparently this neighborhood DOES this.

She knew about it and she did not warn me.

I am beginning to suspect she called a neighbor and said “hey, could you boo my house while my daughter is there…”

What makes this worse is that my mother has lived in this house for years and SHE herself has never been home to receive or carry out a Boo. She is always out of town when the house gets Booed and someone else has to do the Boo for her.

That, my friends, sucks ass.

So anyway.

I hung the stupid Boo paper on the door because my mother scared the everloving shit out of me by saying that if I didn’t hang it on the door I might get Booed again and have to do four of those fuckers instead of just two. So hell yea I taped that ugly fucker on the door right away.

And then I ignored my mother’s suggestions as to how to Boo the neighbors because let’s face it, her suggestions sucked. And also were not very helpful since she only had an idea for one Boo bag and that required me climbing on a chair and digging around in a cabinet. Screw that. My time is more valuable than that. Instead, I wandered over to Hobby Lobby (shut up, it made sense at the time) and created my own Boo bags – or boxes actually.

Then, Duncan and I delivered the Boo Boxes to two neighbors on exactly the day the Boo-mail said we should. We did not get shot. Or yelled at. Or questioned in any way. One of the houses that I thought I might Boo had a loud barky dog in it so I backed my ass out of there real quick (See Duncan, that dog barks when he hears asshats on his porch…) and chose a different house.

It’s been two days and one of the houses we Booed has put the ugly ass Boo paper on their door. The other house, the one I thought would be most likely to participate based on the whirligig in the front yard, has done squat.

This ticks me the hell off.

In fact, it annoys me so much that I’m tempted to get my ass up on the chair and dig around in the cabinet for the stupid Boo Bag gift idea that my mother suggested and take another fucking Boo to those people and teach them a lesson. You don’t play the first time – you get Booed again and you WILL keep getting Booed until you play along…

Hell, if I was going to be here longer, I’d totally make their lives hell until they joined the Boo Crew.

Hmph.

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Keurig vs Tassimo

Coffee & Tea, Daily Dose /

We have a Tassimo.

My mother has a Keurig.

I can now say that the Tassimo wins, hands down.

The T Discs are more expensive than the K Cups, that’s true, but after using the Keurig for five days I’m 100% sure I won’t be replacing the Tassimo with the Keurig. Here’s why.

– The water container thingy on the Keurig is a pain in the rear. It’s oddly shaped. It is hard to take off and put back on, when compared to the very simple to remove/replace water container of the Tassimo. That little handle on the Tassimo and a basic rectangular shape = huge improvement over the Keurig.

– The Keurig has to think about brewing or I don’t know what the hell it’s doing but when you turn it on it makes noises like it’s thinking or working or doing something and you have to wait until it tells you that it is ready to brew. Screw that. With the Tassimo, you turn it on and as long as there’s a disc in the machine and water to in the thingy – it’s ready to go.

– The brew temperature on the Keurig is messed up. You can tell it what tempt o brew to but the highest temp is 192. Either this particular machine isn’t managing to hit the 192 degree mark or 192 is not hot enough. My coffee has yet to be hot – not even once.

– The Tassimo and the Keurig both brew small cups of coffee and espresso but again, the Tassimo wins. Sometimes the Keurig brews such a small cup that I am not even sure it HAS brewed any coffee. The Tassimo may short cup us once in awhile but never THAT short.

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