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The Christmas Roadtrip

Yesterday I departed again for the lovely city of Florence, South Carolina to visit my Mom. It's about a six or seven hour drive, which is a pretty good length drive if you have some good tunes. A month or two ago I broke the CD player in my car, (OK, I didn't actually break it per se, it just stopped working and is holding six of my favorite CDs hostage) so I connected up my laptop to the car's stereo via a tape converter with an awesome playlist of my favorite songs in the whole world since I started listening to music. The hours absolutely flew by while I rocked out to my killer playlist.

Tomorrow, we will be leaving at the crack of dawn for The Place Where There Is No Internet: Milford, Delaware. My grandmother lives there and most years my Mom and I pack up Miss Gidge and head up for a visit. I wish I could show you the picture of how loaded up with presents her SUV is right now. We're going to have to reorganize the inside or Gidget is going to have to sleep on some of our luggage.

I've already set up the sound system for the drive. My Mom recently broke her CD player, too, so again my laptop MP3 jukebox solution will be in effect. I mixed about 10 of my Mom's CDs with about 100 of my favorite songs that I thought my Mom would like to create the perfect playlist. You might think that my Mom's music would be....mellower...than mine, but you would be wrong. The CDs of my Mom's I put in there were like Incubus and Foo Fighters and Nickelback. I'm a little scared that she'll think my Keane songs are too wimpy.

We'll be in Delaware until next Wednesday or so, and then we're coming back to Florence and then I'm turning around and going back up to Raleigh to hook up with my best friend from high school and then we're driving to Boone for the New Year.

It's a good thing I came up with about 18 hours of my favorite songs in the whole world. We will be needing it.

I've Been Tagged!

Three names you go by:
Jen
Dangergirl
Jenny (when I was small)

Three screennames you have:
I only have the one...
Jen Dangergirl

Three things you like about yourself:
I like to take on new challenges
I have a great sense of style
I am able to pick up new skills easily

Three things you hate/dislike about yourself:
I procrastinate like crazy
My PMS Mood Swings
I avoid conflict at all costs

Three parts of your heritage:
British
German
Scandinavian

Three things that scare you:
Escalators
Revolving Doors
People on Cell Phones in cars around me

Three of your everyday essentials:
Caffeine of some form.  Lots of it.
Moisturizer
Reading blogs

Three things you are wearing right now:
Bathrobe
Slippers
Wet Hair

Three of your favorite bands/artists (at the moment):
The Killers
Keane
Silent League

Three of your favorite songs at present:
"This Fire" by Franz Ferdinand
"Mr. Brightside" by the Killers
"I Love You Cuz I Have To" by Dogs Die in Hot Cars

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months:
Raising a puppy
Eating all natural foods
French lessons

Three things you want in a relationship (love is a given):
Support
Partnering
Passion

Two truths and a lie:
I am an only child
I was born in England
Lima beans are one of my favorite foods

Three physical things about the opposite sex (or same) that appeal to you:
Tall
Dark Hair
Nice butt

Three things you just can’t do:
File my nails
Eat grits (or really anything with that texture)
Drive and talk on the phone at the same time

Three of your favorite hobbies:
Drawing
Cooking
Shopping

Three things you want to do really badly right now:
Quit my job and do something creative for a living
Make new friends in town
Pick out a puppy at the shelter

Three careers you’re considering:
Fashion Designer
Chef
Master gardener

Three places you want to go on vacation:
Paris
Safari in Africa
Japan

Three kids' names:
Jenna
Jack
Katie

Three things you want to do before you die:
Run my own successful company
Travel around the world
Be a great friend to my current friends and to those I make in the upcoming years

Three people who have to take this quiz now or die painfully:
Uh oh....Half of my readers have already been tagged!
Otter
Fabric Princess
Skwigg

Cable Sucks

My first mistake was that I got cable in the first place.  I should have known better.  I had cable for a while a few years ago, and, compared to satellite with Tivo, was soooo not impressed.  And guess what?  They haven't changed a bit.  Oh sure, they added OnDemand movies.  But my cable box would die and have to be manually rebooted about 50% of the time I ever delved into that piece of the GUI interface.

I was just going to get basic digital cable with their DVR service.  I wanted to be able to tape a little "Daily Show", maybe some "Dinner For Five".  Turns out all I ever watch is on Fox and WB.  Sure, those channels aren't crystal clear over antenna.  But is it really worth 60 bucks a month so that I can see Gilmore Girls without static?  Nah, not really.

So I cancelled it today.  Today was the end of the "Try it for a month for FREE!" offer I originally signed up for.  Turns out, you can't actually cancel it until you bring them back the stupid box.  I find this out AFTER being on hold for their customer service for half an hour.

So you better believe I will be returning their crappy cable box tomorrow, and they better not THINK about charging me one penny.

Did I mention I have PMS? 

Winter Is On Its Way

I've been complaining for a few weeks now that it was not getting cold.  It's hard to buy Christmas presents when it is 70.  And people act like you're crazy if you wear wool skirts and fluffy sweaters.  And how do you get some wear out of your Christmas sweaters?

Well, all of my complaints have been answered.  Yes, yesterday it was windy and cold, but today it was 28 degrees when I drove to work.  There was frost on my car this morning.  It would be less charming if it had been bad enough to get out the scraper, but as it was, I was happy to take a deep breath of crisp winter air before I sat down in my car and prayed that it wouldn't take too long to get the heater going.

What Muppet Are You?

Today while I was waiting for some stuff to run and I followed a link to a link to a link and ended up at this awesome quiz dedicated to answering the age-old question, "Which Muppet Are you?" 

Drum-roll please...

You are Miss Piggy. You are talented and the center of attention. At
least you'd like to think you are. You're
really just a pig.

FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS: "Moi", "Moi" and
"Moi!"

LAST BOOK READ: "Women Who Run With Frogs And The Frogs Who
Better Wise Up Quick"

FAVORITE MOVIE: "To Have and Have More"

DRESS SIZE: If it's expensive, it fits.

BEST FEATURES: Eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, cheeks, hair,
ears, neck, shoulders, arms, elbows, hands,
fingers, legs, knees, ankles, feet, toes and so
on and so forth.

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Singing, Dancing, Directing, Producing, Writing,
Starring, and Being Famous.

What Muppet are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So which Muppet are YOU?

Can We Skip The Next Two Weeks?

I woke up this morning with a cold.  I probably would not have come to work today, except that my DSL line was down this morning and my addiction was too great to be separated from my beloved Internet. 

Luckily, everything is really low key here at work, and probably will be until next year.  And on that point, can't we just skip the next two weeks or so?

Not that I am all anxious to get back to working hard, but I am looking forward to other things that come with the new year.  All the usual stuff, exercise...eat better...yadda yadda yadda... which strangely is somewhat fun when it all starts. 

But the real fun is:

1 - I am getting a puppy. I have been wanting a puppy for a while now, and when I get back from vacation, I will start my search at all the local shelters.  I am looking for a good apartment dog that is fairly easy to train and won't be miserable while I am at work.  One that prefers love to playtime, but is okay with going hiking on a sunny afternoon. 

I found a puppy last week at PetSmart on accident.  I went in there to get a Christmas present for Miss Gidge, and the humane society was there and I fell in love with the sweetest little hound dog puppy named Nola.  Which, to digress further, is the name of my college roommate's dog, which I would clone if that were possible - she was that awesome.  It probably was a sign.  I would have taken Nola home with me that day but I didn't want to have to take her to my Mom's for a week where I would have to shield her from Gidget.  (And I hate to board her after only having her two weeks.)  If she is still there when I come back, I am totally adopting her.  I love her already.

2 - I am taking two classes at the local university: French II and Drawing.  I decided on French II because I had taken up to French III in high school and thought I could remember stuff.  I got a French book this weekend and it turns out I have no recollection of any verbs.  Let alone conjugation.  I'm sure it will come back to me.

So do you see why I am anxious to skip ahead?    Between all this and DeLush my mind is spinning so fast, I can barely manage to make myself go to bed.  Perhaps I need to cut back on the caffeine. 

The Caffeine Rotation

I am a firm believer that if your brain truly uses caffeine as fuel, that you must rotate your source of caffeine in order to achieve the optimal effect.

That said, I've been introducing coffee into my diet.  I know most people around the first of the year are thinking that they might get off of coffee.  My goal is to get off of soft drinks.  And I think coffee just might get me there.

I used to drink a lot of Mountain Dew.  Two or three 20-oz bottles in a day would not be out of the question.  I once worked for a dot-com that stocked the refrigerator with free Mountain Dew.   Then Red Bull hit the mainstream and I was able to buy it by the case at my local liquor store.  It gave me much more energy than Mountain Dew for less calories.  Yippee!

So I stuck to two or three Red Bulls a day for the past few years, but since I've been working so much lately, I was supplementing my Red Bull with Mountain Dew in order to keep the creative energy flowing.  And the amazing thing was that the Mountain Dew that had kind of stopped working for me years before was really working well again.

You know you are a caffeine addict when you say, "Oh, this problem sucks.  I'm going to need some Mountain Dew for this."

It also gives new credence to the idea of gateway drugs.  Today, it's just one Mountain Dew, but tomorrow you will be fighting a $30/week addiction to Red Bull.

So now I'm drinking one coffee and one Red Bull per day until the new year.   I have really been getting quite a surge from the coffee, which I expected since it is a brand spanking-new caffeine source in my life.  I got myself one of those new pod coffee machines this weekend because I have tremendous difficulty making drinkable coffee and because I didn't really want to trade my $2/hit Red Bull habit for a $2.50/hit Starbucks habit.

If this works, I will go from a very expensive Red Bull habit to a reasonable $4/week coffee habit.  My fingers are crossed.

Note to Self

Self,
If you are even contemplating wearing a fuzzy sweater, put your
contacts on before putting on the sweater. Better yet, no contact with
the fuzzy sweater until the contacts are securely on the eyes. You just
can't clean sweater fuzzies off of contacts.

Just wanted to save you all the pain and cursing and red swollen eyes.

Thanks, Jen

Christmas at Work

Today we had our annual Christmas luncheon at work. Our team and a lot
of the other folks in the department have been working lots of hours for
various reasons, so it was nice to get everyone together for a meal.
After our meal, the guitar "club" (which wasn't supposed to be a club -
it grew from a couple of guys bringing their guitars to work to jam at
lunch once or twice a week to a whole bunch of people at all various
levels of skill) had prepared a program of Christmas music for the
team. They even printed out words for us.

Now, I can't say I've never been cynical; two years ago I probably would
have rolled my eyes and snickered at the whole thing. But I guess in
the past year or so, I must have softened a bit. I was surprised to see
so many people's cynical reactions. And surprised that so few were
willing to sing along. "Frosty the Snowman"? Come on, the words are
right there and don't tell me you don't know the tune.

I have always loved Christmas songs. And I might not always be in tune,
but I was doing my part there in the audience today.

Pop-Tarts Pt II

I am at work late, waiting for stuff to run so that I can go home and hopefully get at least six hours of sleep before I have to return here.  Since I have been at work all day, I have little in the way of news, but I did want to share something that might be of help to those who find me on the web via a web search.

The stats on blogs are really fascinating.  I think it's awesome that I am the number 2 result on Google for Dangergirl, and that is one of the most common searches that lead to my site, but certainly not the most entertaining.

There are two searches that lead to me on a daily basis: "spoiled milk", which I wrote a whole post about, and something along the lines of "Pop-Tarts microwave".   And that's what I want to discuss today (whew, way to get to the point, right?)

I have eaten Pop-Tarts my whole life, and I have some advice for those who are looking to improve their Pop-Tart experience through microwaving. 

1. Wrap the Pop-Tarts loosely in a paper-towel when you stick it in the oven.  Don't put in on a plate cuz it'll get all mushy on the bottom.
2. Microwave it for 25 to 27 seconds.  Really super-good microwaves might go down to 23, but I've never experienced the power of a microwave that could heat a Pop-Tart in 22 seconds.  After weeks of experimenting, you should know exactly how many seconds is optimal for your microwave.
3. Eat the Pop-Tarts immediately after they get out of the microwave.  Something in their makeup turns them into cement 10 minutes after the little bell rings.  Seriously.

And that's it.  Perfect Pop-Tarts every time.  I hope this makes your search worthwhile.

P.S.  Mr. Vending Machine Guy: I sincerely apologize if I offended you with my critique of your Pop-Tart placement.  If you accept my apology, I would be most appreciative of having Pop-Tarts in the vending machine again in any location, high or low, that you so desire.  Thanks!