LolaGeek

Wow, my first official day in my new job and I’m already getting overloaded. I love it! Except I have lots of business travel coming up and it’s kind of cutting into my personal vacation plans, but hey, we didn’t need to go on a vacation anyway. I also learned a whole new component of my job today that’s actually a lot easier than I thought. My counterpart from another group in our department (who I’ve been working with for a while anyway) is such a good teacher! He throws in all these other little tidbits that are just the sort of things I’m interested in. And I think he’s glad that I got this job – while he was showing me how this system worked, I asked a “Why can’t we do ___?” question, and he was all excited to finally have someone else who “gets it” when it comes to technology :o)

Alsoooo, we got some really good money news today. Not, like, crazy good, but reassurance that we’re on the right life-path and that we’re realistic. True blog fans might be able to guess what I’m talking about. It has to do with the V.E.T.

And finally, I got fed up with all the spam comments again and installed a new CAPTCHA plugin. I tested it out and it seems good – hopefully it’s a little more user friendly than the last one, even; I know some people had problems with that one anyway. Let me know if you have any issues.

D pointed out that something seemed to have happened with my CAPTCHA plugin when I upgraded to WP 3.0 that prevented anyone from commenting. So I got rid of it. And now I’m getting nine million spam comments a day again. So I’ll have to find a more compatible plugin soon, but in the meantime, enjoy unhindered commenting, folks!

We had a fun day yesterday. GG’s birthday isn’t for a few more days, but we decided to celebrate on Saturday. We already had plans to go out to dinner, but then I heard about an event that was happening in the city that I thought he’d enjoy, so I just told him not to make any other daytime plans because we were taking the train into Philadelphia for a surprise activity. All week, his friends kept mentioning things to him that were happening downtown this weekend, and he kept asking me if these were the things we were doing. No, and not only that, those things sounded way cooler and I didn’t want him to be disappointed! Luckily, he did enjoy where we went, and said he would have liked going there even if there hadn’t been any special event going on.

Oh, but before we left, I have him the “present” part of his birthday present: a bottle of cologne (which I got a while ago but it’s sort of pointless now since he’s been making his own cologne, but he still liked it), and a new wedding band (which he thought he’d be getting next year on our 5th anniversary but I wanted to surprise him and give it to him early, and good thing too, because his old one fell apart days after I’d ordered this one).

So where did we go? The Reading Terminal Market, aka GG’s heaven on earth. There was an Amish Festival going on all week, culminating on Saturday with some outdoor events. I’d heard it advertised on the radio a million times. Well, the outdoor things turned out to be kind of lame – they had part of a street closed off, and they had a few pens with very frightened farm animals in them (cows, mini horses, goats, sheep, and a pig), and were giving wagon rides around the block (they had two regular horses pulling a big wagon, and two mini horses pulling a little wagon!). So it was mostly stuff for kids. We went inside and just started walking up and down all the aisles of the market, thinking about what we’d like to have for lunch. But first we had to stop and eat these fantastic cookies. Then we continued through the market and discovered the real Amish festival, which was that the whole center section of the market had been taken over by Amish crafts and foods! So for lunch GG got this huge crazy sausage sandwich and I got a Mediterranean wrap because I don’t eat sausages. We finished walking the rest of the market, then came back for homemade ice cream for dessert. We didn’t want to eat too much because we knew we had a nice dinner planned, but it’s hard to say no in a place like that!

We realized we’d just missed the next train home, so we killed an hour walking around the Gallery, which in the olden days was apparently the place to go shopping (my grandmother’s always telling me about how they’d go downtown there when they were really looking for something special), but is now mostly sneaker stores and a big KMart. Then we made our way to our train platform and… it was delayed. And delayed some more. Actually it ended up only being about 15-20 minutes late, but we’d still gotten there early, so we were sitting for a while and got very sleepy. When we got home, we got cleaned up and then took a nap! Then got dressed and went out to dinner.

We went to Seasons 52, which has been open here for a while now, but this was the first time we were able to go. I’d made a reservation – good thing, because the place was packed! Everything sounded delicious, so it was hard to choose what we wanted. GG ended up going with a chipotle shrimp appetizer, and I had a goat cheese ravioli (it was just one big ravioli – very good though!). His shrimp came with some guacamole on the side and he hates guac, but I tried a bite and told him he’d probably like it because it was really heavy on the lime and cilantro. He ate the whole little pile, just by itself! Then he had their swordfish special, and I had a delicious fillet with the most amazing roasted garlic mashed potatoes… Mmm, I’m going to try to recreate those sometime. The desserts at Seasons 52 come in these little glasses (a little taller than shot glasses?), so you can try more than one. So we each picked two: he chose pecan pie and mocha macchiato, and I had raspberry canoli and blueberry cheesecake (my favorite!)

You can see all the pictures from GG’s birthday activities on Flickr.

This morning we got up early and went to meet GG’s bagel friend, because he’s helping out with a catering delivery tomorrow, so we were invited for breakfast while GG learned what he’ll have to do. After breakfast, we came home and I just wanted to lie down for like an hour because I was still so sleepy, but somehow I fell asleep until noon! Then I went out to do food shopping, and now somehow I’ve wasted three hours at the computer when I still need to clean the house..!

I found out why my posts here haven’t been numbered consecutively since I upgraded to WP3.0. Apparently this version gives a new number to various things (uploaded media, previews, autosaves, etc.), so the numbers of published posts will no longer be consecutive. How is that a good idea? I don’t get it. Oh well.

Yesterday I used the handicapped stall in the bathroom of my new building for the first time. I’d been avoiding it because I always feel guilty – what if an actual handicapped person comes in? But it was the only one open yesterday, so I used it. I’ve never actually seen a person in a wheelchair at this entire site, let alone this building, so I think it’ll be okay. (The bathroom where I was before didn’t have a handicapped stall – I guess they are supposed to roll over to this one – so this hasn’t been an issue until now.)

Very Exciting Thing! starts tomorrow. I am very excited!

And finally, this cartoon totally cracked me up this morning. “GLOM GLOM!” But yes, they somehow find ways to do these things even with regular-sized arms, don’t they?

At some point last night, something happened to this blog. I don’t know what, but it was totally inaccessible today – all that displayed was the title graphic and the background. So I spent my entire night tonight setting up new mySQL databases, installing and upgrading WordPress (finally I’m on version 3.0 – quite a jump from 2.0.4 that I was on before!), importing all my data, and then ironing out all the little kinks (for example, somehow all my posts tagged “Cats” were re-categorized as “Blogroll”). After all that, you, the reader, shouldn’t even be able to tell anything changed. I am enjoying the admin side of WP 3.0, though I think I will eventually need to change to a different theme, though, because this one isn’t really 3.0-friendly. I mean, it works okay now, but no widgets. (And I followed the directions to make a theme widget-ready or whatever, but it just gave me error messages.)

However, the outage has prevented you from hearing about our flea scare (no, we don’t have fleas here), and probably also my copious weekend plans. But I’m sure you’ll hear all about that after it’s over.

Now here’s a couple reviews of things I’ve tried recently…

Tovolo Yellow Groovy Pop Molds: As soon as it got hot this summer (which was, like, May?), I started looking for popsicle molds because I thought they’d be a nice treat to cool off. When we went to People’s Pops in NYC, it just intensified my desire to find these (which of course are one of those things you always see in stores, until you want some, and then you can’t find them). So I ordered these online, and I’m very happy with them. Usually popsicle molds are one unit, like an ice cube tray, and you stick the handles in the top. These are actually individual molds that sit very securely in a little yellow tray. So you can take out just one and run it under water to loosen it, without melting the whole batch. The first couple flavors I tried were just things I happened to have at home, and they were okay, but not very good. Then I made a fruit salad (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and peach) and put the leftovers in the blender, and those were the best popsicles yet! I have some apricots on deck, and my next popsicles will attempt to replicate the Apricot Chamomile flavor I had at People’s Pops (maybe with a berry tea instead of chamomile).

Warner’s Invisible Bliss Bra: Stop reading here if you think talking about bras is TMI. Okay, you may know that I’ve been looking for new bras for like two years now. Victoria’s Secret had some nice ones, but they stopped making them. Then I thought they had them again, but the new version totally sucked. And also they’d mis-measured me. So I gave up on them and started seeking out a new brand. I just wanted nice smooth bras, without lace/bows/etc., with good support and molded cups. On a recent trip to TJ Maxx I swung past the lingerie rack and almost passed these by, but I ended up taking one to try on. Oh my gosh, it’s like a miracle. First of all, so supportive. But also extremely comfortable. Very smooth, they say they use “Invisible Edge Technology,” which is like an elastic band that goes around the edges and then becomes the straps. The straps do not adjust, which so far is not a problem for me. I imagine after a lot of use they might just stretch out? But it’s so nice to not have to re-adjust them in the morning, because usually by the end of the day my straps would have extended themselves. Also, no tags. Yet another annoying thing to not have to deal with. The straps don’t fall down, and the underwire doesn’t ride up. So comfy to wear all day. I grabbed a whole handful when I was at TJ Maxx (they’re like 1/3 of their retail price there).

Create intuitive and reliable Amazon URLs on the fly with AtTheBigRiver.com: Pretty cool new system – you can link to just about anything on Amazon without having to look up the URL. Just take the name of the thing you’re going to link to, replace spaces with hyphens, and stick it in front of “.atthebigriver.com.” Look, here’s a link to the book I’m reading: rapture-ready.atthebigriver.com. (You can use affiliate codes, too…)

King of Crayons: “I occupy my time by screwing with coloring book pages. It’s like photoshop without a computer!” (OMG, this one totally cracked me up!)

I Didn’t Know I Had to Take a Dump: From the creators of TLC’s “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant” comes a new series about people caught off guard by their own bodies. (Following “Check Out Fatty” and “Wow, Midgets.”)

The 10th Annual Gathering Of The Juggalos: Okay, the video is a little long, but stick with it until the end. This is an infomercial for a music festival geared toward fans of the Insane Clown Posse (who call themselves “Juggalos” and “Ninjas,” and drink a type of soda called “Faygo” – they also say “woop woop” a lot). The two people they got to announce most of the bands in this video don’t seem to have a clue what they’re talking about. And the narrator who announces the rest of the video has such a dry delivery: “See you there, Ninjas.” (Curious how it turned out? This guy went to document the event and has a page of photos and a video.)

Confessions of a Car Salesman: Interesting article from Edmunds.com. It’s actually kind of terrifying, how they take advantage of people, but if you’re considering buying a car it’s worth the long read. (Not sure how long ago the original was written, but here’s a 2009 update.)

William Shatner Recites Sarah Palin’s Farewell Speech in the Form of a Beat Poem: The way it was intended to be heard. I have to admit, it makes a pretty good poem!

Pie Lollipops: My least favorite part of a pie is the crust, and these look to be about 75% crust, but they’re a cute idea anyway!

And the Pursuit of Happiness: I love Ben Franklin, he’s my favorite scientist. Disclaimer: this artist is a co-founder of the Rubber Band Society.

JK Divorce Entrance Dance: Unless you were under a rock for a week, you must have seen the adorable JK Wedding Entrance Dance (which was posted on a Sunday and by Thursday had gotten so huge that the bride and groom made a two-day appearance on the Today Show). Anyway, here’s a really great parody. J, K, and friends have apparently improved their dancing abilities since the wedding day…

How Different Groups Spend Their Day: Really neat interactive graph that shows what people are doing (by category) every minute of the day. You can sort by gender, race, age education, or number of children. I noticed black people spend the most time on the phone and doing religious activities, and people age 65+ watch way more TV.

A House Not for Mere Mortals: I saw this house on Lovely Listing recently. The architects (poets, artists, philosophers…) claim it will keep you from aging, by forcing you to use your body in ways you usually don’t, and by keeping you from getting too comfortable (“comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death”). “It’s immoral that people have to die,” one of them says. Wow, they’re going to feel really foolish when they do, you know, inevitably die.

How to Bake Cheeseburger Cupcakes: Adorable!

Fancy Fast Food: Fast food is disassembled and reassembled as gourmet meals!

Anti-Theft Lunch Bags: Eww! But… actually a pretty clever idea. (I bet you could make your own if you wanted, too.)

StillTasty: Should you keep that food or toss it? Look up foods in an alphabetic list by category or search for something specific to see how long it’ll last and get tips on storage. Also has a lot of articles on food safety and storage.

Jon Gosselin Match.com Video: JonMinus9 wants to meet someone who’s haircut is symmetrical.
Kate Gosselin Match.com Video: KatePlus8Minus1Hawaiian wants someone who likes backwards mullets – that’s party in the front, soccer mom in the back.

10 Odd Things You Can Buy from Amazon: I had no idea you could purchase such goodies as a wedding chapel, model uterus (with fetus), or radioactive uranium (!) on Amazon!

Top 10 Dumb Infomercials: These are all hilarious. (I think I posted that Slap Chop rap here a while back.) And how the heck can the Kush Support cost $55?!

The Future of Food: I’d been meaning to watch this documentary for a while, and I finally sat down and did it. It’s all about genetically modified crops and the effect it has on farmers and food. Frightening stuff.

Restaurant.com: You can get $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10 – or less! Save money the next time you go out – there’s a lot of restaurants listed here (including some of our favorites)…

Royal Guards Unexpectedly Play Thriller: So good, I love when marching bands play popular music. And I love when “Thriller” is played unexpectedly (see also: the “Thriller” wedding dance).

Audio Illusions: Like optical illusions, but for your ears. I didn’t think these would work, but they really did. You have to try them out! (From Aimee)

Not-So-Cheesy Adorable Knife Set: I need these. And then I need to have a cheese party. Will you come to my cheese party?

6 Extraordinarily Stubborn “Nail Houses”: A “nail house” is when an area of land is developed but one stubborn homeowner refuses to let their house be torn down (I guess this was the situation in the beginning of the movie “Up”). I’ve seen the one in the middle of the ditch in China before, but it’s neat to see how they built huge buildings around some of the others!

Let’s Panic About Babies!: Whether you hate kids or you are a parent yourself, you will enjoy this web site. “Thanks to five minutes of poor judgment, now there is a person living inside you. You don’t know who he is. … You’re expected to cheerfully tote him about as he drains nutrients from your system via a tube growing from his midsection.”

Web Site Story: If you like musicals, and you like the internet, you will enjoy this video. (Also, I think Brett Erlich is in it?! Is that him in the very first shot?)

81 Year Old Sweethearts: This is so cute! (“You didn’t age well!”)

Tiny Art Director: Read this artist’s young daughter’s critiques of his work.

24 Ridiculous Pictures of Boy Bands: Mostly cheesy poses in baggy outfits, but wow, some of these are unbelievable. (Suggested by Jen)

Did You Know? “We are living in exponential times”: Very cool video with facts about all the information available to us today and in the future. For example, if MySpace were a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world!