Thursday, September 22, 2005

late at night

Hurricane Rita, My Blog and Our Servers

If my blog goes missing, it’s because our servers are in Houston.  They’re preparing in every way possible, so hopefully we won’t lose our, uh, hundreds of sites.  If we do, it’ll be for days and I’ll spend my time commenting on *your* blogs.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

early evening

Idiot of the Day - Me!

Yes, in a shocking turn at self-reflection today, I’ve realized that this has been one of the dumbest weeks of my life.  I have two bank accounts because when we first moved to the boonies of Vegas, there wasn’t a Wells Fargo built near us yet. So, I opened up an account at a bank a block away, then occasionally transfered everything to my main account at WF. Eventually, we got a WF nearby, so I didn’t need the account as much. I now use it for wire transfers from some of the companies I don’t want anywhere near my main bank account. So, I got a wire on Thursday. On Friday, I wrote a check to transfer that money into my main account, the WF one.  Cool, everything’s all set.

Today, I see in my WF account a check written for that exact amount, deducted. Yeah, duh, I wrote the check from the wrong checkbook. I wrote a WF check and deposited it in a WF account. Luckily, it didn’t look like I was stealing because I didn’t take any of that money out, plus I had enough in the account so it didn’t bounce itself. This could’ve been so so so bad. I had to call WF and tell the guy so he could put a note in my account, “Stupid chick called. She did the dumbest thing, but she wasn’t really trying to steal or anything. So, ignore that check. I laughed at her, told her to have a nice day and then hung up...and laughed some more.”

It would’ve been moderately bad if that was the only dumb thing I’d done in the past week.  But no, it’s been a real winner.  We bought a new little vacuum because we have a Hoover Windtunnel that must weigh like five thousand pounds.  It works great, but we have baby gates all over the house to keep the pets in certain areas; like Eli away from Phoenix, so she doesn’t eat her.  So, lifting the 5000 lb Hoover into each room and onto the stairs is quite the unpleasant task.  I figured if we had a nimble little vac that could be lifted in and out of rooms, or even better, one for every room (it’s, I dunno, a fifth of the price of the Hoover), the vacuuming would be done more often.  I ordered this sleek little Eureka Optima Vacuum and it was delivered last week. 

Since I ordered the vacuum, I figured it was my duty to assemble it.  Usually Leigh-Ann does all of the assembly.  She, uh, reads directions.  I do not.  Directions are boring.  I read the directions to assemble the vacuum.  They were short.  The vacuum was cute.  I wanted to use it.  It assembled like a charm.  I used it and it worked like a charm, only I thought, “What a great vacuum, it’s too bad the hose is so weak.” Two days later, Leigh-Ann used the vacuum.  There’s a dial to turn the suction on for the hose.  Duh.  Works great!  So, if you’re looking for a nice little vacuum that’s only $55 w/ free shipping, this is the baby for you.  Don’t forget, turn the dial when you want to use the hose.

Ah, and just when you thought my stupidity had discovered its limits this week...you were WRONG.  More bank account hijinks.  I have a credit union loan for my car, so naturally they had to open yet another bank account for me.  Well, I don’t keep any money in that account because I only use it for making my car payment.  They sent me a PIN.  I used it once, then promptly forgot where I put it.  So, I had to call them today too and plead dopey.  Luckily, I found out I can go into the credit union (which is only a block away from the house) and they can reset the PIN...to something I choose, and can therefore remember.

The moral of the story this week is - don’t let me do your banking for you or operate any household machinery.

Monday, September 19, 2005

early evening

You’ll Laugh, You’ll Cry, You’ll Cheer & You’ll Thank My Brother

My brother recommended that I read Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger, and while I generally like the same books as my brother, I honestly didn’t expect to LOVE this book so much.  It’s the most amazing coming-of-age novel I’ve ever read.  Since Publisher’s Weekly can describe it better than I can, here goes: From Publishers Weekly—Mixing nostalgia, baseball and a boy’s mostly epistolary friendship with a 1940s baseball star, this inventive but sentimental novel consists entirely of letters, fictional newspaper clippings, telegrams, war dispatches, report cards and other documentary fragments. Growing up Jewish in a tough, Italian Brooklyn neighborhood, Joey Margolis is troubled by anti-Semitic neighbors, by Hitler’s rising power, by his parents’ divorce and by his absent cad of a father. Craving a surrogate dad, Joey strikes up a correspondence with Wisconsin-born New York Giants slugger Charlie Banks. The boy’s outrageous fibs, tough-guy posturing and desperate pleas grab the reluctant attention of the superstar, whose racy vernacular guy-talk (peppered with amusing misspellings and misusages) hints at his deepening affection for Joey. Charlie is a politically enlightened proletarian ballplayer with a heart of gold. His liberal views find an echo in Joey, whose best friend, Japanese-American Craig Nakamura, gets shipped off with his family to a wartime internment camp. In a plot that swerves from Joey’s Bar Mitzvah to a White House meeting with President Roosevelt to a tearjerking climax, Kluger keeps changing the pace and piles on a slew of period references with a heavy hand. Despite these flaws, this debut novel is at its best a poignant, golden evocation of one boy’s lost innocence.

The “heavy hand” that Publisher’s Weekly talks about didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book at all.  It’s right up there at the top of my favorite books of all time.  Just the right amount of baseball, history, politics, sarcasm and heartbreaking love stories.  Normally, I just tell you how much I loved a book and don’t tell you to read it, so I can talk about it with you.  But...read it.  If you don’t like it, you can yell at me or something.

late morning

Ruining It For Everybody

On Saturday I received a lovely gift from a friend.  It’s a book ironically (or not so, ha!) titled Ruining It For Everybody by Jim Knipfel.  I only started it last night and am so far enjoying it.  The author is, let’s face it, a total mess - physically and psychologically.  But I love to read the warped views of people I wouldn’t meet under normal circumstances.  Plus, I really like the cover.  I’m fairly easy to please.

The irony in receiving this book is that it was sent before there was any message board drama in my life.  Perhaps I’ll ask my friend to do a reading for the rest of my life, based on books she thinks I’d like.  Prophetic titles amuse me terribly.  And certainly, my presence or lack of presence shouldn’t really affect a whole message board.  I’m just one person and no offense to the people who are mad at me, but I implicitly trust my gut instincts about people.  Plus, that million dollar bribe was kind of welcome too.  Oh, but that makes me laugh.  Anyway, I have immediate feelings about people I meet and rarely do those opinions change.  I think I can count on one hand where I completely misjudged someone and a couple of those were from childhood.

I think I’ll decide to make this a public thank you to person who sent me the book.  You shouldn’t have, but I’m so very glad you did.  It’s an author I’d never heard of, but I think I may enjoy reading all of his books eventually.  Plus, I can’t wait to read the book sent to Leigh-Ann too.  So, thanks again.  You rock!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

late at night

Welcome Back, Survivor

Aw, I’ve missed you, Stephenie.  Welcome back to my tv screen.  Bobby Jon, I could do without your eyes rolling back in your head.  Scary, man.  Margaret, the nurse practitioner...my new favorite Survivor.  While all of the guys were barfing (and by the way, CBS, stop it!  No more vomit shots), Margaret looked like maybe she’d taken a strenuous walk around the block and then had to come home and take care of the kids.  Tonight’s episode of Survivor was finally the one where I said to myself, “Uh, no, can’t be on Survivor.” It was one of my favorite first episodes because I could put some names to faces - Steph, Bobby Jon, Margaret, Gary Hogeboom, Rafe (wilderness guide - whodathunk?), etc.  And whoooo, monkeys, spiders and quicksandy mud, oh my.