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October 5, 2008

Launch Bar

Filed under: Geek Girl, Reviews — Christine @ 1:54 pm

One of the few things that bugged me when I switched from PC to Mac was losing my quick launch area in the Start menu. Sure, I could drag all the oft-used applications to the menu bar, but there are a lot of apps that I use often and that just looked messy. Spotlight wasn’t exactly what I was looking for and seemed a little clunky. A couple of months ago, I was reading the latest issue of Mac World and saw a little blurb for a program called “Launch Bar“. There was a free trial and the cost was inexpensive (I don’t download free trials of anything if cost is more than I would be willing to spend- I’ve been down that road before) so I downloaded it to give it a whirl. It’s extremely easy to get it working and it so useful that I can hardly contain myself. I dragged the app to my dock and I’m a much happier girl now. One click of Launch Bar and then I just type the name of the file, or program that I want and boom. There it is. While writing this, I found a page on Object Development’s site that lists the programs features; some (ok a lot) of which I didn’t know about. Way cool. I don’t even have to hit “enter” anymore! Just hold down the last letter of the file you’re looking for and it opens. Just like that auto-magically. Hmm, I own the domain name auto-magically.com Maybe I should sell it. What do you think?

And since I obviously have an issue wherein I get distracted very easily - I couldn’t remember what the “dock” was called (brain cramp) so went to Apple’s site. In searching for it I came across some add ons for it. I think I have found my favorite, at least for now. It’s called DockDoctor by Inner Mind Media and it’s free and it’s fabulous. I now have a pink, glass shiny dock and I love it.

Pretty, right?

You can even use the themes that you download as templates to make your own which I may or may not do depending on whether or not I get sidetracked by a shiny piece of crystal or something… wait, what were we talking about?

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October 3, 2008

Project Runway: And then there were…

Filed under: Zeitgeist — Christine @ 1:33 pm

Really? (spoilers below the jump) (more…)

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October 2, 2008

Test

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 9:35 am

Testing from Flock.  Are you using Flock yet?  It’s great if you belong to different social networking sites.  Keep all your contacts, organizations, interests, rss feeds, you name it in close reach. Blog from it, twitter from it, flickr from it.  Me Likey  

Blogged with the Flock Browser
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October 1, 2008

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 11:26 am

It’s that time again folks. This year I donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the KatScan Fund.

Whatever you can afford - it’s a great cause.  Let’s save the boobies! 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever has! -Margaret Mead

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September 27, 2008

Rockin’ Into the Night

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 11:40 pm

When I was 14, there was this older boy who liked me. You know, liked me liked me. I thought he was pretty cute and he knew some really good friends of mine, very well. They had all been kids together in Far Rockaway and then most of them moved to Oceanside (where I lived), but Alan still lived in Far Rockaway. I met Alan through these friends and he had this hot, blue, 1970 442. I, as troubled as I was, liked dating older boys (he was 18!!), and I liked to drive really, really fast. Also, he was from Queens - that’s totally like New York City and I was very impressed. So when Alan called me and told me had tickets to a concert and that he’d like to take me to the concert and dinner, I was all in. I had never heard of the band and it was in the Calderone theater, which at that point was a pretty run down, small venue in a not so nice neighborhood. I was all over it. I tried to control myself and sound composed when I told Alan that the evening he was planning for me “sounds cool”. I have no idea where we went for dinner, but when we got to the theater it was still light out and the neighborhood was rough. There were bikes parked up and down the block and Alan maneuvered his car into a space between two big hogs. We walked into the theater and it was filled with the toughest looking bunch of guys I had ever seen. They had long hair, and braided beards and tatoos everywhere. We were, by far the youngest people there and I wasn’t sure that we were going to make it out of there in one piece. Here I was, this five foot, two inch, 14 year old with too much makeup, smoking Newport 100s and thinking who the hell I was and my escort for the evening was a cute, little Jewish boy from Far Rockaway who thought he was James Dean. Of course, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going to let Alan know how nervous I was and he certainly wasn’t going to suggest to me that we might be in over our heads, so we found our seats and started to look around.

There were more empty seats then there were occupied and the lights were still up high, so I was really able to take in where the exits were and how far I was from them. Back then smoking in public places was not only allowed, it was encouraged and in places like this it was almost required, so I thought that if I got into trouble I could burn someone with my cigarette while I ran screaming from the building. Yeah, I didn’t really think things through back then.

I settled into my seat and started to press my shoe against the floor just to hear the sucking noise that it made when I tried to lift it from the sticky mess that was the floor. Classy joint this Calderone. Alan went to get us two beers (yes, I was 14 - it was a different world people) and I was left all by myself in this sea of bikers. I truly don’t remember any other women being there. I’m sure there were, but they weren’t sitting by me. As I started to worry that my date had been dragged off, the guy sitting in front of me turned around and looked directly at me. This man was the scariest person I had ever seen. He was holding a big rebel flag and while I knew what it was to some extent, I had no idea why anyone would carry such a thing. I assumed the band was from the South and left it at that. He had straggly hair and an even more straggly beard, was wearing a T-shirt and a black leather vest. He had rings on almost all of his fingers and tattoos on even more of them. Skulls and earrings and rubber bands in his pony tail and when he had stared at me for too long not to acknowledge him, I said, “Hi”.
“Well, haaay” he said in a really thick drawl and smiled. When he smiled the skin around his eyes got all crinkly and he reminded me of Santa Claus. That thought was so absurd that I almost laughed out loud. “Have you ever seen ‘em before?” he asked.
“Um, no I’ve never actually heard of them.”
“Well, y’all are in for a treat.” I swear to God, this was the first time I’d ever heard anyone seriously use the world “y’all” and something about it seemed so warm that I relaxed a little.

By that time Alan was making his way to our seats with the beer. My new biker friend shook Alan’s hand and I really don’t remember if we ever exchanged names - but a couple of minutes later, biker guy passed us back a bottle of Southern Comfort and in the interest of diplomacy and peace between the North and South, we gladly shared in his bottle. (Again, It was a different time). The lights lowered and the band came out and started to play. Maybe it was the warmth of Southern Comfort in my belly, or the stale beer going straight to my head, but this was the best band ever. We danced and shouted and sang along to songs we didn’t even know. We had communion with these biker people and they were our tribe. It was a great night and the songs kept running through my head and I hoped and hoped that I’d hear this band again.

A week later I heard the single on the radio. It was “Rockin’ Into the Night” and the band was .38 Special. I’ve been a big fan ever since and even saw them a couple of more times over the years. I dated Alan for a while and stayed friends after that, although we’ve lost touch now.

Tonight I was flipping through the DVR and saw that I had a new Crossroads recorded. It was .38 Special and Trace Adkins. I settled in to watch it and all these memories came flooding back. You know what the funny thing is? .38 Special comes from Jacksonville and they play Ocala once a year or so. I think I’m going to go see them and relive some of my misspent youth. I love them Wildeyed Southern Boys, I really do. And Trace ain’t bad either.

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September 23, 2008

3653 Days

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 9:00 am

Wow, 10 years goes pretty quickly.

3653 Days Between…

September 23, 1998
and
September 23, 2008

3653 Days

= 87672 Hours
= 5260320 Minutes
= 315619200 Seconds

My 2002 take

Now I love Ocala and I think you’d be hard pressed to get me out of here.  Might need dynamite.  Happy Anniversary to Ocala and me.

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September 20, 2008

That’s Odd

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 2:54 pm

I’m playing with Stumble Upon - and I’m pretty new to it, so bear with me. I come across a blurb about Gwynneth Paltrow and Mario Batali on Oprah and since I have that Tivoed, but haven’t gotten to it yet, I click on it. A window pops up asking me to review and categorize the site, which is what I expected Stumble Upon to be about. What’s not expected is the capture word… Now, keep in mind the subject is Gwynneth Paltrow and one of the capture words is… well look:

Isn’t that Gwynneth’s mother’s name? Are these things random? Is this a sign of the apocalypse? Are Gwynneth, Mario and Oprah trying to send me a private message?

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September 19, 2008

You’re Sew Sexy

Filed under: Gadgetry — Christine @ 8:15 pm

Dear Babylock Decorator’s Choice,

Oh how I loved you when I first set eyes on you. I loved your sexy curves, your many built in, fully programmable stitches, the way I could add a button, or make a button hole in any size with just the press of one of your ergonomic, soft to the touch keys.  How I longed to caress the many beautiful things that I would make once I had you in my possession.  I didn’t know what a cruel mistress you would be, how you would require my blood, my sweat and my tears.  I never knew that not only would I have to possess you, but I would also be required to spend hundreds, nay thousands of dollars on threads and needles and sacrificial fabric and cutting boards and scissors (no, the craft scissors would not do, you demanded sharp, sharp scissors) and tape measures and ribbon and $75 instruction booklets because Nancy  is our leader and I must do what she tells me to do if I’m ever to make one thing that doesn’t look like it came from a 5th grade sleep away camp and she says that I need this workbook.  You promised me that I would be able to learn to sew, if only I had the proper tools.  Alas, you have broken my heart.   You mock me from the corner of the table in my studio.  You laugh at me every time I must dust you because you haven’t been plugged in for months.  I hear you snicker as I slice my finger on the rotary cutter, trying to cut a rectangle 16 inches by 36 inches to make the ridiculous pillow sham that I found the instructions for on About.com.  If only I’d known, Babylock Decorator’s Choice, that you would never return my love.

And still, I grasp at the dream; the dream that someday I will sew.  The impossible dream that someday, somewhere, something will come from these hands and your needles.  Something worthy of a place of honor in my home. 

 

Forever Hopeful,

Christine

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September 16, 2008

Cause I’m All About Keeping it Real, Yo.

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 11:01 am

I love to cook - I think we’ve already covered that.  That being said, there are times when mom really needs a short cut, a way to get something on the table that’s not evil fast food, or yet another DiGiorno Pizza. So when I was looking up the Publix flyer last week I saw that Tyson Meal Kits were buy one get one free and anyone who knows me, knows that I love me some BOGO.  

Not usually a fan of meal kits, I decided to try this one anyway.  The quesadilla meal kit looked harmless enough and it gave me an excuse to have some of the La Mexicana salsa (available at Publix and so good that I almost never make homemade anymore).  I also picked up some Wholly Guacamole because I didn’t want to have to be tied to fresh avocado’s timeline - this meal was supposed to be about an easy meal that would be there for me when I needed it and I remember that she said it was really good. She was right.  I usually don’t like any prepared guac. but this was almost as good as mine.

So, I set everything up and went about preparing the quesadillas and found that there wasn’t near enough filling for six quesadillas and the chicken was what you would expect from Tyson.  Not awful, but just not terrific. The general consensus was that while these were certainly more than edible, I won’t buy the kits again.   When they’re not BOGO - the cost is prohibitive; I believe it was $7.49(?) for the package.  One package would not feed this family of four. And it would be just as easy to buy the fresh ingredients seperately and oven roast the chicken and then chop it.  If you didn’t want to chop the peppers and onions yourself, bags of frozen peppers and onions are readily available and very cheap.  

All of that being said; I still devoured three of them.

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September 14, 2008

Because Nothing’s More Romantic than Dolphin Puke

Filed under: In My Life — Christine @ 5:48 pm

I may have mentioned here and I know I’ve mentioned in the real world that the people that built this house had more money than sense. There are incredible details and fixtures that must have cost a small fortune.  The house is almost 4000 sq. feet, two stories, and it was oringinally only three bedrooms.  The door on the master bedroom is a beautiful hardwood and weighs at least 200 pounds.  There are pillars on the outside that are covered in what I think is lava rock.  There are decks everywhere and walkways everywhere.  I could go on and on and on, but I think I’ll leave some of the details for future posts when I can’t think of anything else to write.  What I’d like to focus on here are the fixtures in the master bathroom.  The faucets are all dolphin. The bathtub and the two sinks in the vanity have these huge dolphin faucets.  Now, I love dolphin as much as anyone else, maybe more and when I saw them I thought they were the greatest things I’d ever seen… but I may be changing my mind…  When I went to draw myself a bath, in the three foot deep jacuzzi tub thankyouverymuch, I stepped in and looked at the faucet that was still pouring into the tub and I’m not sure about you, but a dolphin throwing up into my tub is not exactly what I have in mind when I want a bath.
(more…)

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