Man, talk about the easiest support call in the world: I just got a new laptop, and tried to install Netflix viewer on the computer. The install ran, but when I tried to watch content, the web page went right back to the “Hey, we need you to install our software” message. After about 35 seconds on hold, I talked to a tech who politely told me I need to run the x86 version of IE, not the x64 version. I did, and voila! Life is good!
Man, is it hard to wait. I have a sexy new laptop being shipped to me from Dell, and I want to play with it *right now.* I looked up the tracking info on Dell’ site, and OMG, they shipped it via DHL. Gack.
That’s the company that sent the County’s 911 server to Dallas a couple months ago. It’s the company that once took eight days to deliver an “overnight” shipment to us. And now, DHL is the company that got my computer to Plymouth, MN – all of four hours from here – yesterday, then, according to the lady I just talked to, “handed it off to the USPS for final delivery.”
That’s great. Now I have to wait. Again. And we all know how well I do at that.
I’m hoping to get start riding my bike to (sort of) and from (definitely) from work soon. My plan goes like this: I’ll get up around my normal time (five-ish) and do normal morning things. Then I’ll ride seven miles to the hospital on the edge of town where I can catch a bus (with a bike rack!) that’ll take me the rest of the way to work. At the end of the day, I’ll just hop on the bike and pedal home (20 miles, door-to-door).
I figure that at first, the morning ride will take about 45 minutes, and I’ll be in the saddle coming home for close to two hours. Those times will, of course, decrease as I get used to riding again and get in better shape.
And why the hell would I subject myself to all that? Of course riding to work is one of the easier things I can do that’ll really make a difference, environmentally speaking. The bigger, more important reason, though, is that riding to work is a great way to build exercise into my daily life. Right now, I don’t get *any* exercise because, honestly, I’m one of those guys who needs external motivation. If I had to meet a buddy at the gym every morning, I’d be there, and giving it my all. But that’s not the case. So why not create an artificial external motivation and see how that works (and trust me, it’s a lot harder to do, then say)?
I’ll keep you posted.
I’m sorry it took me, like, forever, but it was soooo hard to find a dress in my size. No, really.
The rest of the Fickr world probably knows about Picnik by now, but it’s been a while since I’ve posted any photos, so it’s news to me. Awesome news. The kind that makes me do a little jiggly happy dance of joy in the middle of the living room. The cats woulda given me *the look* had they thought it might have done any good.
If any of you are like me, but more to the point, wondering what the hell I’m going on about now, here’s the deal: now you can edit photos in your browser window. Online. In real time. And picnik is linked to flickr, so you can do it all in one place.
w00t!
The short answer: sticky and wet.
We (The Wife, The Boyz, The GPs) went strwaberry pickin’ on Saturday morning at our local favorite berry patch. The season was young, the berries were awesome, and the pickin’ was fast. After only 45 minutes of knee-walking, we came home with about 35 lbs of fresh, delicious strawberries.
Since we had some ready-to-go child care (thanks Dad; thanks Mom!), I decided to make jam right then and there. The Wife gave me advice and a recipie, then went to work. I also went to work, and a couple hours later, had eight pints of delicious, sticky jam. Last night, since it was cool, I made another batch of jam before stashing the rest of the berries in the freezer.
I learned two important things about jam making:
I think the organizational parts of jammin’ as well as the “hey, look: the pot on the stove that’s been cooking away for an hour suddenly has something awesome in it!” factor both remind me a lot of homebrewing, and add a lot to the fun factor for me.
What’s next? I’m thinking pie filling. And wild blueberry jam (assuming there’s a decent yield this season). And raspberry jam. And (potentially) some crab apple jelly. Ooo la la!