Stupid Computer

As we all know, I am not the most technological person around. I learn fast but when it comes to installing or troubleshooting...well its crapshoot. So as you may recall my keyboard was a little sticky. Yes, I said WAS. I bought a new keyboard, I also bought some speakers in hopes to get the sound to come out of my computer, and a webcam. So I changed out the keyboard...as you can tell - its working just fine. I tried to hook up the speakers. I know that the computer is pretty dummy proof when it comes to hooking things up - you know the colored coded thing. I put the blue plug in the blue hole. Nothing. I checked the volume - made sure the volume on the computer wasnt muted (it was) but then again, nothing. I double checked the plug and the whole was not blue but green, found the blue hole - nothing again. I'm thinking its the soundcard. More on that later. So then I opt to install the webcam. I swear that thing took forever. I was chatting on IM with my friend Joel who is a wizard when it comes to these things and he asks me what my system information/speed/memory or something like that. I still havent seen that window pop up and its been an hour. I finally found the information and he told me (basically) that there is no help for my problem and I need a new computer. I felt like taking the tower out back and beating it a la "Office Space". So keyboard works, speakers not working, and webcam working. That my friends was my Friday night.

What's with the sweater?

Ok - so bowling tonight...I essentially sucked but that was not the highlight of my evening. Here is my story...I wonder if I'm overthinking it, probably am but its an interesting tale. Let me share.

So there is this guy who always...I mean ALWAYS wears a zip up sweater to bowl. Tonight I nearly took my shirt off I was so hot (relax I was wearing a tank top underneath). So anyways, the guy always wears a black sweater...I have bowled in the same league since October, curiousity got the better of me, I had to ask. Here goes the conversation.

Me: Hey, I have a question for you.
Man in the sweater: Ok
Me: I've wondered this for a while. Why do you always wear a sweater when you bowl?
Man in the sweater: I dont know.
Me: Aren't you hot?
Man in the sweater: I dont know.
Me: Uh, ok
Man in the sweater: OK
Me: Thanks
Man in the sweater: Wow, I didnt even think you'd notice.
Me: (speechless)
Man in the sweater: (walks back to his table)

Ok - now wtf is that supposed to mean. "I didn't even think you'd notice" That was by far the most awkward conversation I have had in a while. So here are some things that the comment could mean.

a) He thinks he's invisible.
b) He thinks the sweater is invisible.
c) He thinks I'm too involved with bowling to notice little things like that.
d) He thinks I'm too involved with myself to notice him.

Thats really all I could think of. I just thought it was ODD.

Thats is all.

GEEZ LOUISE!

Man its been a while since I've posted. I guess that reflects how exciting my life has been.

School started - I have already started to procrastinate...I'm right on track.

So I finally washed my car (well went to the automatic car wash) and actually took all the trash out and vacuumed. I know...my father actually touched the floor to see if hell was freezing over - reeeaaall funny dad.

It rained today - so much for my car wash.

I went to see the Aviator - I am cheering for Jaime Foxx to win the Best Oscar for his performance in Ray. I'll be damned if that freaking Leonardo DiCaprio isnt going to give him a run for his money. Holy cow that movie was impressive. Cate Blanchett was unbelievable as Katherine Hepburn. It was really good - really really good. The directing was awesome too - but that whole time you forget you are watching a movie. I can get into this aspect of my review of the film but I doubt most people want to hear me rant about it...wait this is my blog - I can rant about anything I freaking want! Actually, I'm a little tired. I need to finish some reading for my homework and I want to watch Desperate Housewives that I recorded last night since I was out. I'll rant later (see the procrastination comes out here too).

Bowling tomorrow night - I have to remember to buy my coffee before I head over there. Since the caffeine brings my score up. I may need to go from a Grande to a Venti since my game fell off midway through game 2- seriously I dont know if I can handle that much coffee in my system. I'm talking like its freaking steriods or something "Just one more hit man, one more hit...I NEED IT!" I'm so funny.

The Power of Three and where is all the stickiness coming from?

Ok - so its bowling night - bowled a whopping 113 the first game, 95 the second game and tanked on the last one bowling 79. As you can see, the caffeine from my vanilla latte wore off midway through the 2nd game. The team we played only had two people out of five. We started the night in 2nd place - one game behind the 1st place team. We won all four games - the team in first only won 1 - do the math people...we are in first place! I'm back on top of most improved...let me say - I am p-r-o-u-d. We seriously need to invest in matching shirts.

American Idol started tonight! Yes I know - stop rolling your eyes. I cant help it, its just so entertaining!

Amazing Race update - Jonathan and Victoria got eliminated...THANK GOODNESS!

Ok - so the other day my mom and/or dad spilled soda on my keyboard (its still debated between the two of them), now the right shift key, the /? key, and the left arrow key all stick. How annoying. I don't even know how to start cleaning this...

Alright, I think I'm done with the blog for tonight mostly because I'm tired and my arm is sore from bowling. I need a massage-just for general spoilage. Maybe that will be my gift to myself on Valentine's Day. Hmmm...thats a thought...

Vegas Part Deux

Ok - so my vegas trip. So this time it was a bit more low key - dont get me wrong, I'm still me and I had one "incident" but it was a good trip. Met my new nephew - he's so cute - he makes this duck face, so funny - he's also so tiny! I forgot how tiny babies are when they are first born since my son is so huge. Bruce was bigger than Jacob weight wise (Bruce was 9lbs 2oz and Jacob was 8lbs 8oz) so it was strange (in a good way) to hold him, just reminds me of how things were 3 years ago.

Friday night I went out with my friend Ashley for her 21st birthday - met up with her, her boyfriend Ricky, her parents, and her cousin Mary. Apparently Mary was drunk by the time I met up with them. So I met them at Bally's and already the itching to play craps started. So I throw down 20 bucks and about 15 minutes later, its gone. I had won and lost and won and lost and then well, walked away with no chips. So much for that. So we were trying to get a game plan when a security guard comes up to us and cards all the girls. I obviously am flattered and I give him my ID. He checks Ashley's ID, checks Mary's ID, then gets to mine-I say "Wow, I cant believe I'm getting carded!" And then he says "Damn, I cant believe you are older than I am!" Let me say the mini euphoria of being carded went right out the window. So I had fun that night - won money here and there and stuck to my budget! I only took $100 in cash with me and so I knew thats what I was going to be spending (or should I say losing). Thats pretty much it for my trip to Vegas - mostly stayed with the family and had fun. Oh and I totally kicked some butt at Scrabble.

We have housekeeping to do today - got laundry and taking down the xmas decorations - seriously if we get this done today it will be the soonest we have ever taken this stuff down. I remember growing up and all this being up around Valentine's Day.

So much for my plan

So last night was supposed to be my tv night. My parents took my son out so when I got home I was going to be able to quietly sit down and watch LOST and ALIAS. But did I? NOOOO. My cell phone kept ringing. I swear nobody ever calls me and the one time...one time I wanted the quiet - didnt happen. The beauty of vcr is that you can push stop and play - but it didnt matter, my night was tossed around a bit but I recovered and watched my shows. Now just doing laundry and getting ready for the big trip. CSI and Without a Trace tonight...damn looking forward to tv shows now - I need to get some more hobbies or something. At least school is starting next week.

The Wednesday Night Excitement...

So tonight is double the pleasure double the fun - its LOST and ALIAS night. Wednesday has officially become my favorite day of the week. I've been working late because I'm trying to do my job plus get things ready for the person who might be taking over my job. So then I get home and play with Jacob and then want to crash out. Not much time to watch watch my shows and relax. So I've been recording a lot of them and catching up at odd hours of the day. I still need to watch the 4 hour marathon of 24. I shouldnt get addicted to that show - but curiousity is getting the best of me.

I feel like I need to be more entertaining on this thing. But not much has been happening. Just a lot of busy stuff that is making the time pass until something good comes along I guess.

The Night Owl

I've been staying up late - a bit of insomnia I guess, that and the loud wind and rain that is freaking me out. I rented a few movies and stayed up late to watch Under the Tuscan Sun - Loved It!!

Ok - thats pretty much it. Hopefully life will be more exciting after bowling tomorrow night.

D'OH and I cooked!

First and foremost let me say that I forgot to post something on here...the name of my new nephew! His name is Bruce Oscar, it means “The brush of the divine spear of he who dwells in the apple orchard”. The first thing that I told Oscar was "Why would you name him after a shark?" For those of you who didnt work at Universal or know the joke - Bruce was the name of the shark in Jaws - Spielberg named him after his lawyer. I'm excited, we are going to go see him next weekend..woohoo! Although this time in my travel to Vegas I hope not to get into a car accident or be solicited...so lets cross our fingers people!

And in keeping with my New Year's Resolution - I made dinner tonight. I bought that nifty cook book that gives you recipes that you can do in 30 minutes, from start to finish. Yeah add an hour to that and thats how long it took me to make dinner. I made Chicken Cutlets with Basil-Parsley Sauce and Arborio Rice with Peas. It came out soooo goood. I'm rather proud of myself. True I took a bit longer than the book said it would, but its better to be late than not to show up at all - right? The downfall of this whole thing is that now I have to wash all the dishes I used...oh well. So I have to go clean the kitchen. Is there no rest for the chef!?!?

On a side note - we watched HERO tonight with Jet Li - holy cow that guy rocks. Just wanted to say that. Ok, back to the dishwashing.

What is that white stuff? Could it be - SNOW?

So we had a snow day today...in my life I have been to the snow 3 times and seen it fall once. To my coworkers my excitement must have rivaled the discovery of cold fusion. Here is the story of my morning.

When I got out of the shower my mom came running up to me and told me that it was snowing. Mind you it was clear with a possibility of rain yesterday, let alone snow. So you can imagine my shock. I immediately run to the window to verify and ITS TRUE! I quickly change and wake Jacob up so we can go outside to play in the snow before I headed off to work. The snow was falling and dusting the ground and cars with that wonderful white powder. So I finally get to work about 7:30am and then it starts coming down hard. I went outside to see the snow it seemed like every 5 minutes. I wanted to go out and have a snowball fight - but nobody else did, so I resorted to throwing snowballs at the glass doors. People in the other buildings started to come out to look at the snow and throw snowballs to one another. Then it started to come down harders still. The road started to disappear...my car got a nice thick layer of snow on it...and surprisingly it wasnt as cold as I thought it would be since it was SNOWING. I finally got the ruler out and started measuring - you know for my own morbid curiousity-1 inch...1 1/2 inch...at about 2 inches we started to wonder if they were going to close the schools and such. And they did. Then we wondered if we were going to get the day off...AND WE DID! Never in my life did I have a snow day. I got home at about 9:30am and I immediately put all of my son's cold weather gear on and went outside to attempt to make a snowman. We got into a nifty snowfight - well as nifty as one can get while going at it with a 3 yr old. He had so much fun...I had so much fun...I would keep looking outside and just staring at the snow and it was just amazing to me. I know that may sound corny but it was beautiful. To see the snowflakes just fall and slowly build a blanket that covered anything on the ground - trees, streets, cars - just beautiful. Then at about 2pm the snow started to melt...my little wonderland was disappearing before my very eyes. The snow first turned to mush then eventually little puddles. Its sprinkling now and they are only predicting rain for tomorrow since it doesnt seem like the temperature will drop low enough for the snow to fall again. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

TROJANS RULE!

So yes I bet that little title made you giggle you perverts. But yes, my boys from USC kicked some serious butt against the Sooners. My first night back to bowling - so I have to gloat that when I looked at the stats sheet, I (yes me) am #1 in most improved. I guess I've improved 5 pins on my average (whatever that means). All I know is that my name is at the top of the list. So yeah me. My average went up to 90 (let me tell you, it puts the pressure on to actually knock all the pins down). I bowled 85 in the first game, 85 in the second game, and 122 in the last game.

So I have to say that I told my team about the call girl story and its all they could talk about. Mocking me was more like it. We also noticed that it seems like we are the loudest group - we are always screaming and cheering for one another. Hey, at least we are having fun.

Ok, going to go watch the Amazing Race that my dad was so kind to record.

Turtle has left the building and those pesky New Year's Resolutions

So I have to start this off by making a sad announcement. Turtle has died. Yes, our trusty little horny toad has perished. He was fine one day, trying to claw his way out of his little cage (or holding area if you are of the politically correct) . The next day he seemed to be frozen in a single position - he sometimes falls asleep in weird positions so I didnt think much of it, but later that night - he was still in the same spot. Let me describe the position (I'm assuming you have nothing better to do than to read about my dead horny toad so I'll go on describing it in further detail) - he looked like he was running with one arm (are they called arms?) up and the other one down...well I kind of flipped him over...you know like poking someone with a stick but I didnt have a stick, I had my finger and he just keeled over. When he fell on his back, he looked like the Geek in Sixteen Candles when he was stuck under the glass table after the party. ANYWAYS - so thats a good way to start the year - you know? I'm actually surprised he lasted as long as he did, but none the less...we move on.

So a new year always brings New Year's Resolutions. I made a few myself...and here they are - 1) Become a better cook, 2) Get into better shape, 3) Get more hobbies, and 4) Travel more.

So I actually started on a couple of them...#1 and #2 to be exact. I ordered two cookbooks by Rachel Ray (she's a cook on the Food Network if you don't know) from Amazon. She specializes in 30 minute meals...one is a general cookbook and the second one is a book that specializes in cooking with kids. So that will be fun. Should be here by the end of the week.

So the second resolution is actually kind of funny. I went to the gym...yes. I've been slacking for the past two months and I finally managed to go back - ok I paid my gym membership and decided not to let it go to waste. So there are two gyms on base - the main gym and the annex - I prefer to go to the annex. The parking lot at the main gym usually has about 40 cars or about 1/4 the capacity and the annex parking lot usually has about 20 cars about 1/3 the capacity. But today - I had to circle twice to find parking. I couldnt believe it. And its not like the annex was packed - same amount of people as usual but the parking! This one lady actually came into the gym and said "I hate New Year's". It was funny. True I cant really talk because I'm back after a little siesta - but I at least am recognized at the gym, so thats how I'm justifying it.

So for my last two resolutions, they will take time. I'm still pondering hobbies - I'm tossing cycling and rock climbing around - for those of you who know me relatively well are probably laughing at the rock climbing one. As for traveling, that will just develop on its own. I have one trip planned in late April but I'm hoping to do one more after that...just where might pose a problem because there are so many placed and experiences I want to do. I'm going to aim to take a cruise - my big goal is to take a cruise to Alaska. So I'll shoot for that. They can run kind of high, you know if you dont want to sleep in a closet, so I'll have to save for it. I'm excited though! Just thinking about it...the planning...its exciting! I guess I shouldn't work myself up about this since its going to be a while, but its still nice to dream.

Its been awhile...

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My aunt and cousins came back up for New Year's. We had so much fun (again). This time we didn't want to tempt fate and stayed home as to not to envoke the wrath of my aunt's bad luck.

So still no name on the new nephew. I've decided to take matter into my own hands and just calling him names I'm thinking of. Thursday was Bubba, Friday was Timothy, Saturday was Alex, and today its Rigoberto. Personally I'm voting for Christopher but as I've come to find out my vote doesnt mean much on the subject.

Thats pretty much your update. More to come as the week rolls along.

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEW:
Monday - I return to work and my regular routine at the gym
Tuesday - bowling starts up again AND USC is playing for the National Championship
Wednesday - the new season of ALIAS starts...WOOHOO!!!
Thursday - I have an exciting day at work planned as I do an orientation all by myself (I feel so grown up!)

Have a good one!