5-Year Plan

I love Rodney Yee. He’s a yoga diety.

I hope to incorporate THIS into my 5 year plan.

Oh – I didn’t mention my 5 year plan? I have decided to become a certified yoga instructor…you know – in my free time. They don’t have yoga out here in the cornfields – they just got elliptical trainers, for goodness sakes. I shall be a pioneer.

This is the DVD I’m currently wearing out:

Plan a Garden

I’ve spent the better part of the evening tonight playing with this fun thing over at the Better Homes and Gardens site. No, this isn’t some elaborate game of hangman – It’s their Plan-A-Garden feature and I’ve been planning my front yard. Here’s what it looks like now (top view):

And here’s what it’ll look like when I’m done with it:

Except, you know…3 dimensional, probably.

Anyway, it’s a really fun way to plan a garden…so go HERE to play with it!

For some reason BHG has a lot of pop-ups…so turn on a pop-up blocker when you go.

MS Junk

Start –> Control Panel –> System
Choose the Advanced tab
Click Error Reporting
Disable error reporting
Click OK

These simple instructions turn off that annoying error message that shows up when a program crashes in Windows. Yeah – as if they’re really going to take my “report” into account to improve our collective Windows experience.

Go to Annoyances.org and learn other ways to stop Windows from doing those annoying things it does, like the Automatic Windows Update, the Flying Paper Animations, plus what to do if you hate the Start Menu. You can also figure out what’s slowing down your system when you boot up, and you can use the troubleshooting link to solve lotsa problems.

That’s right, Bill Gates – we’re sticking it to YOU!

7/5/1969

President: Nixon
Gas: $0.35/gal.
Stamp: $0.06/ea
Min Wage: $1.60/hr
Trivia: The Rolling Stones played a free concert in London’s Hyde Park

All of these things were true the day I was born.

Check out the dMarie Time Capsule and see what was going on back when you were itty bitty.

Make Up Make Out

Ok I’m back! Blog vacation is over. Got the Xmas decorations put away. Unpacked the suitcase from the trip to Hawaii last September. Vacuumed up a cubic yard of cat hair. Watered the plants. And last but not least, I finished my first of 2 projects for my current class – 9 minutes before it was due at 10:00PM tonight! Life is good.

I have to thank my pal over at Titration for today’s cool site. This one is WAY cool! Go to the site, pick 2 cartoon characters and some scenery, and watch them make out! I know, it sounds kind of gross. It is! It’s sort of like the free-love-flower-power movement on crack.

I made George Bush make out with a cat. It made me happy.

Go HERE.

Blog Vacation

I’ve been taking a bit of a break while I get caught up a little in life. School + Work = messy house, overgrown bangs, and dry garden. So while I’m on my blog vacation, why don’t you go and check out my FAVORITE travel site:

Kayak.com is the best, most user-friendly travel website, offering info on flights, hotels, cars – the usual. But it’s the best because it checks eleven katrillion sources in order to provide you with the best deals available, and shows graphs so you can see price trends over time – so you know if you’re getting a good deal or buying high. Cool!

Go Look!

The Inevitable Fame

I opened the newspaper today and couldn’t believe it!

Now you go get famous too!

Subservient Chicken

This dude freaks me out a little. Tap into your inner drill sergent – tell the chicken what to do. Make him run around, stand on his head…I told him to tip over the chair but I guess that’s where he draws the line.

Confessional

Confession #284 – 03/09/2005 – 07:56 PM

My ex-boyfriend made the mistake of telling me his email password and he never changed it after we broke up. I’ve been reading his email ever since. He really screwed me over so I don’t feel guilty about this at all!

heh heh…

…wha? No! I didn’t write this!

Or did I….

Visit Dave’s Daily and view anonymous confessions made by random interweb users. Or…leave your own.

Why?

I need to depart from my usual subject matter for a spell… I’m having an issue with a beef stew.

Over the last several months I’ve managed to destroy the ingredients of several would-be crock pot masterpieces. I don’t know where I got the idea that slow cooking was any more forgiving than fast cooking, but I’ve made a bad habit out of throwing things together and coming back 8 hours later to see what’s for dinner. It hasn’t been good. Mushy vegetables, tough meat, either too much liquid or completely dry. There’s really no excuse for this. I do have Google.

In any case, I decided to go the no-brainer route and bought a frozen version – Marie Callender’s Crock Pot Meal: Old Fashioned Beef & Vegetables.

So I’m making it, and here are the instructions:

1) Remove sauce and potato pouches from bag. Place potato pouch on a plate in refrigerator. Thaw sauce pouch by holding under warm running water for 20 seconds.

Check.

2) Pour sauce into a Crock Pot Slow Cooker, add 2 1/2 cups of HOT water and stir until dissolved. Wash hands.

Whoa there…hold up. Wash hands?

3) Stir in beef and vegetable mixture from bag. Cover and Cook on low 8-10 hours.

Ok, they just breezed right by that whole “wash hands” deal. Why are they telling me to wash my hands? Do they imagine I’ve stirred the hot water into the contents of the sauce packet with my HANDS?

4) 35 minutes before serving, pour refrigerated potatos into Crock Pot Slow Cooker and stir. Wash hands.

Again with the wash hands! What exactly is Marie Callender insinuating? I haven’t touched anything except the plastic packaging and a spoon! Are they concerned that there’s something bad on the plastic? On my spoon? Or just that I probably don’t wash my hands enough in general? Does Marie have a wicked case of OCD and assumes everyone shares in her compulsion for hand washing?

I’m going to call Marie and get to the bottom of this! Stay tuned.

אני טמבל

The last semester of my senior year of undergrad, I needed to take 19 credits to graduate. I needed one more Theology class to meet all the requirements of my degree. Yes, Theology. I went to a university with a halo over it. So, in a moment of pure insanity, what did I register for? Hebrew.

Yes, Hebrew. I’m not Jewish. I don’t read the Old Testiment. I do like Reuben sandwiches and lox, but that’s probably beside the point. The rationale for this decision escapes me now, but apparently I really wanted to learn an entirely new alphabet – right to left – while on the verge of graduating from 17 straight years of school. And did I mention I was taking 19 credits that semester? I’m not sure but I think I had to get special permission to take that many classes in the first place…and then I CHOSE to take HEBREW CLASS.

Oy, the folly of youth.

Anyway, if YOU’VE ever had the burning desire to learn Hebrew, go HERE.

And in writing this post I came accross THIS site – this software will translate “I’m an Idiot” into 17 different languages!

Carnivale

I don’t know if anybody still remembers Carnivale – it was HBO’s short-lived attempt at dramatizing the lives of a bunch of carnies while personifying good and evil in a farmboy and a priest, respectively. It wasn’t a very good show – every single episode asked more and more questions in an attempt to create a sense of mystery and intrigue. Unfortunately, the writers of the show neglected to answer any of these questions in subsequent episodes, leaving the viewer with a sense of always almost knowing what’s going on but never really knowing but maybe I’ll watch one more episode and then I’ll know what’s going on but nope still no answers and oh well it’s the end of the season and I still don’t know what’s going on so I quit.

Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for Carnivale. My husband and I met about the time Season 1 came out on video and we bonded while watching it over several consecutive weekends.

But all of this is neither here nor there. Way better than the show is THIS WEBSITE. You go there and the chick from Carnivale gives you a tarot card reading – just like in the show! Only, she’s really just a drawing of the chick from Carnivale. But anyway, before moving to small town America I asked the Carnivale Tarot lady if I should leave the city and move to a cornfield to take a job I knew nothing about. Tarot lady said something cryptic I think….which apparently I interpreted as a green light. Hm.

WebStrider

Webstrider – an encyclopedia of info on the web…all smooshed into one page! Very exciting if you’re an info junkie. Or if you get tired halfway through spelling g-o-o-g-l-e. Or if you have really realy good eyesight and have a knack for reading small print. Or if you think you might need to know where to get a free credit report, and then quickly go read the London Times, and then hop over to Moviefone and Gas Buddy. Seriously tho, THIS is actually a really great one to add to your favorites.

Weird Music and Bubble Boy

Ok, Go HERE for some fun and games. Pick up the balls with the mouse put them in the phonograph…then enjoy the show.

Ok, now this one is really fun! Go there and drag bubble boy around with your mouse.