Category Archives: Random thoughts

The return of the Kindle

I came home from my long day (and my Modern Mexican dinner at Milagro with a friend) to anĀ  Amazon box containing two of the greatest things ever.

One, the latest Harry Potter movie on DVD.Ā  SWEET!Ā  I hadnā€™t necessarily liked the first 6 HP movies, but Deathly Hallows Part 1 was great!Ā  I did cry a lot.Ā  I started crying pretty much as soon as I realized it was near the point where (spoiler alert?) Dobby dies.Ā  Iā€™m a cry baby šŸ™

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Two, my new Kindle!Ā  (My old one got stolen).Ā  My new Kindle, WHICH as we speak is charging AND downloading all my previous 56 books to itā€¦I am so ridiculously happy about this.Ā  My parents gave me the first one for Christmas and I loved it.Ā  Then it got stolen and I was sad and really missed it.Ā  Now it is back!Ā  Still havenā€™t gotten the insurance check yet, but all in good time Iā€™m sure.Ā  I was IN THE MIDDLE of a book, which I can now finish reading!!

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It will be another month before I get the case I had before (and I wanted the same one, I liked it, it was purple) but Iā€™ll live.Ā  Iā€™m just thrilled that my life is beginning to return to normal.

Now for my stomach to return to normal.Ā  OMG.Ā  Milagro was delicious, though the service was a bitā€¦overwhelmed?Ā  We split the ā€œstreetā€ corn off the cob and some guacamole, and I had the shrimp tacos.Ā  YUM.Ā  What makes it modern mexican?Ā  Iā€™m not entirely sure (I could guess but it would probably just sound racist.)

Remember tomorrow is the internet concertā€”tune in at 6 pm central šŸ™‚

Workout done

I love the feeling of getting a great workout done in the morning.  I met with Mike this morning and he made me do all manner of squats, walking squats, and tons of shoulder exercises.  I also did a lot of side planking.  I am now ready to face my day! 

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(scary stalker picture)

Note how when Mike runs he actually leaves the ground.  Yesterday I was complaining about my running skills and Chris said, well you should have Mike coach you.  I said I didnā€™t want to pay for thatā€¦and he does occasionally make suggestions.  I just know I will go and run on my own but I wonā€™t lift weights.  And without the weights I wouldnā€™t be quite as awesome.

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(Iā€™ve used that before, but I still love it)

Okay, hate to blog and run, but I gotta go rehearse.  Donā€™t forget the concert is tomorrow night and you can all watch it!   (If you do, please let me know!!)

Where did the week go?

Wow, I canā€™t believe itā€™s already Thursday night.Ā  When you work practically non stop the time really flies by!

Tomorrow we hit the recording studio for my ocarina rehearsalā€”it should be fun!Ā  Iā€™m also hoping to have dinner with a friend, or maybe more than one.Ā  Chris has been rehearsing nights all week (and concerts now) so Iā€™ve been on my own in the evenings.Ā  Tonight and last night I went to the gym (tonight:Ā  hill sprints on the treadmillā€¦roughā€¦but I wore my Phoenix RnR Tshirt so I felt hardcore), but tomorrow will be a fun night instead.

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I should take a picture of myself IN the shirt, though this is an impressive picture with the medal and all.Ā  I donā€™t think we get enough opportunities to wear our race medals.Ā  Maybe Iā€™ll wear one at my wedding.

The weekend will be pretty hecticā€”we have a ā€œfestival concertā€ at the St Louis School of Music, I have a student playing Solo and Ensemble on Saturday morning, and thereā€™s the Ocarina Concert.Ā  Next week is crazy too in that I have two school concerts.Ā  However, after thatā€¦well we are just heading towards summer.

Next week Chris and I have an appointment to check out a venue we are strongly considering for our wedding.Ā  I am psyched!!Ā  We have been hard at work making the guest list and a tentative budget.Ā  Chris has also been hard at work researching things such as flowers, cake, invitations, and whatnot.Ā  I would help out more but this month is just crazy.Ā  Itā€™s funny that he is so into the wedding planning right nowā€¦and very nice, because one of us needs to be!Ā  (Donā€™t take that the wrong way, I absolutely am into getting married, but planning a wedding just makes me sleepy.Ā  Iā€™ve been ready to marry Chris for a decade now.Ā  Just tell me when and where to show up.Ā  Wait.Ā  Am I a guy?)

I saw this in the most recent edition of Runnerā€™s World

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The real questionā€¦are the seatcovers poop-proof?Ā  (Iā€™m sorry, Iā€™m sorry for all the poop jokesā€¦I just canā€™t help myselfā€¦)

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June 2011 of Runnerā€™s World, that is how I look without a shirt alsoā€¦oh, wait, Iā€™m a womanā€¦(also am not convinced of the whole no hair look for men, but thatā€™s another story)

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Yup, thatā€™s how I look!

Okay.Ā  So I never made my May goalsā€”I feel like May will just be me trying to get through and live to see the end and then Iā€™ll catch up on my goals in June.Ā  Iā€™m still waiting to get my kindle because I didnā€™t realize the cover I wanted was backordered and was causing the whole order to get behind.Ā  I fixed it though and my kindle should be arriving in a few days.

Well, Iā€™m off to bedā€”Happy Cinco de Mayo to my Mexican readers!

Text messages

I was both an early and a late adapter for text messaging.  I wasnā€™t the first of my friends to start, but I definitely text all the time now.

Back when texting first came into the world, I mocked it.  I said, why not just make a quick phone call?  How annoying to type in all those letters?  Then I discovered predictive text, or T9 as Sprint (my phone carrier) called it.  I went from 10 texts a month to over 1000, and realized I should sign up for the unlimited pack. 

I texted all the time.  I texted without looking, back in the days when I didnā€™t have a touch screen.  I (admittedly) texted while driving, though letā€™s say I was always stopped at a light or whatnot.  I texted friends who were sitting right next to me, and I definitely annoyed people (still do) texting when I should be talking with the actual people who are in my presence.

I even started sending texts when picking a friend up (say, at their house) rather than calling.  A quick text ā€œhereā€ that they would receive rather than having to answer the phone.  Again, something I originally mocked, and then embraced.

Then I got a touch screen phone.  My current phone is the HTC Hero, and is a touch screen.  I would like to go on the record and say that I hate touch screen typing.  However, I have overcome itā€™s limitations (having to look at the screen rather than feel the numbers) and continued to text with a vengeance.  I use one finger on the tiny picture of a keyboard.

I hear there is a technology for voice-to-text.  You speak into your phone and it sends what you say as a text message.  I imagine itā€™s almost like making a phone call but slightly more challenging. 

When I got engaged I sent out some mass text messages.  I texted Leslie first, who responded, WHY ARE YOU SENDING THIS VIA TEXT MESSAGE?  The answer, it was FASTER.  And it JUST happened.

Hereā€™s the issue.  The conversations are stored together, and once they reach a certain point, my phone finds it impossible to delete them.  My text conversation between Chris and I (my highest, of course) was over 2000 messages long.  With another friend, over 1000, and with several other friends, over 100.  When I first got my phone I stayed on top of the deleting, but I evidently got lazy.  Whatā€™s more, my phone was NO LONGER able to delete the messages and would crash instead.  It also was running the messaging program very slowly.  And then yesterday I realized that I might have MISSED getting a bunch of messagesā€”most definitely some from Chris and Leslie and who knows who else?  IT WAS A DISASTER.

I finally realized I should google the problem.  I donā€™t know why I waited so long to use google on my problem.  And guess whatā€¦

Thereā€™s an app for that.  In fact there are a variety of apps for that.  Apps that delete your text messages that your phone canā€™t on its own.

So now Iā€™ve deleted MOST of my messages, in fact, now my phone will automatically delete all but the last 100 messages. 

Will I start receiving all my text messages?  That I cannot say.  I certainly hope so.  I guess thatā€™s the issue with this fancy new technology, it just doesnā€™t always work. 

So, if you have texted me and I didnā€™t respond, I probably didnā€™t get it.  You know otherwise I always have to have the last word! (Or donā€™t know when to quitā€¦whateverā€¦)

What are your thoughts on texting? Do you prefer phone calls, emails, texting, smoke signals, or what?

Oil change

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Feel like I just had one but its been close to 5000 miles already! Plus one of my blinkers was out. I am watching one of the guys vacuuming my floor mats!

Gotta kill some time in Chesterfield anyway. What is everybody up to today? I had teaching, rehearsal, have more teaching and desperately hope to make it to the gym tonight. I want to get a run in, or maybe a hill workout.