Thursday, January 31, 2008

I-GO Sucks.. I-GO Sucks!!!!

A while ago, my power adapter for my laptop went *POOF.* After all the smoke settled, I had no power. Remember the panic? I do. I went out and bought some cheap thing to get me through while I was in Bahrain. When I got home, I went to Radio Shack and proceeded to buy the ONLY adapter they had that would work with my laptop. THE most EXPENSIVE piece of crap on the face of the planet. Oops.. back to my story... I got home and bought an I-Go.. seemingly a great piece of equipment.. works with everything (except anything we tried to use with it), works anywhere... Well, the tip broke.. I went to Radio Shack to get a new one.. Turns out, they don't sell that tip seperately.. we had to buy a NEW package.. A NEW $130 box. Because it had only been a few days, Radio Shack was awesome and just replaced it.. So I didn't have to pay....

So.. There I was sitting at my computer, when all of a sudden, I notice that my power meter is low... even though it is "plugged in." Turns out my tip split again.. Only this time, I'm thousands of miles away from my friendly Radio Shack dude who broke the rules and replaced my I-Go for me, and months after the purchase. Certainly no one is going to do anything for me in this instance? Turns out I-Go still doesn't have a 103 tip sold seperately... And if you could see my stats, you would know that I-GO Tip 103 is one of the most popular searches to find my page.. BECAUSE IT SUCKS....

If you are looking to buy an I-Go.. Don't. Buy the $70 replacement power cord from Dell or Gateway or Motorola or whatever.. Then, Buy a $30 piece that converts your DC power in your car to AC power for your device. Seriously, I think you can even get them cheaper than that. They sell them at WalMart. THEN, remember that the little plug for the airplane you get in that fancy box is shit. They only have the power plugs like that in first class.. And if you fly first class that often, you're not worrying about a freakin' measley $130 power adapter.. right? So.. yeah.. Until I-Go gets with it and decides to sell the tips seperately, I'd go somewhere else...

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Dora the Exasperatingly annoying?

Am I the only person who thinks that Dora the Explorer is obnoxious? Seriously... We've only watched it a few times, and not on purpose. She yells throughout the entire show. I just don't get it. Yelling doesn't get the message across better... Can't they make it so that she's just talking rather than screaming about everything? Then there's her old buddy the map. He's just plain grating. I understand they're trying to help kids learn to remember things, but seriously.. If I have to hear the phrase "forest, path, lake" or hear his stupid song one more time, it might cause me to teeter over the edge and go from slightly insane to the nut job rocking in the corner talking to herself while ringing her hands and giggling uncontrollably.

I like the fact that they are pretty educational... The episode with Diego and the Macaroni Penguins was really informative... But, I think we're going to opt for less abrasive television from now on. Because I like to be able to sit and play with the Little Monster while the TV is on--without wanting to hurl every single toy the child owns through the screen just to shut up some cartoon character.

Please tell me that Dora isn't taking up the slot that Pocoyo would have, because, well, pocoyo is so damn cute it's crazy... and who doesn't want a pink elephant and a duck for best friends?? Seriously, go check it out... http://www.pocoyo.com/ If you click your language, you can go to the screening room and watch an episode. love that show.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Praise

Okay, as promised.. here are the things I have enjoyed thus far.



My house is huge. The baby has his own room, and a toy room downstairs where we spend the majority of the day. Our house is gorgeous, for the most part. It's in a nice area, with quiet neighbors, and with the exception of the parking habits of our neighbors, it's a decent place to live.



The weather is decent most of the time. I can deal with rain and fog when it is 50 degrees outside most of the time. Ask me again in July, I may change my mind, but for now, when at home it's -39 (slight exaggeration) with 3 feet of snow (again, slight exaggeration), I'm pretty happy with it.



I can see mountains and ocean from my neighborhood. Every day when I leave my neighborhood, I come around the corner and can catch a glimpse of the mountains and see the ocean all in one glance.



I live 100 miles from a big city. A city with awesome sour dough bread and tourist attractions a plenty.



There are no chain restaurants to speak of. Often I'll complain about this, but today, I'm making it a positive thing. Because there aren't many restaurants we're familiar with within a 10 minute driving radius, we're saving tons of money. I make dinner most nights.



Not the Momma is home. Every day. Before 2200 (that's 10PM for you non-military types). He is going to school, really, and getting paid to do so. That's wonderful. He leaves for work around 8am and gets home around 3:30 most days. Can we say LOOOOVE IT!! Granted, he has homework aplenty, but at least he's home, and I can interrupt him if I really need help.



Target, Kohls, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond and Old Navy are all within 10 miles of my house. That's right. If we could afford it (we can't, but I can dream), I could go shopping every day.

Moans and Groans

Don't get me wrong... I'm pretty happy with our new house. It's pretty big, and once I get the guest room cleaned out, and get some shelving in there, it will be pretty nice too. But there are some things I could do without.

The ants. Ants like California, and they especially like homes with messy babies. I have tried really hard to keep the floor clean, but no matter what I do, they come in. They come in through the front door, the back door, beneath the trim work, everywhere.

Crappy Dishwashers. What good is a dishwasher that doesn't wash, let alone even begin to dry the dishes? Especially one that shifts so that every time I need to shut the door, I have to jiggle it?

No reception. That's right. There's NO phone reception in our home. I can't make a 2 minute call on my phone without it dropping. So, I have to get a land line.

No land line phone jacks. All of them are in the bedrooms. There is only one phone jack in all of the downstairs. Nice, huh? This didn't matter until we tried to make a cell phone call.

No Cable. We can't get normal Comcast cable in this area, which REALLY REALLY sucks. We are stuck with so-so internet that works, but it could be a LOT better. We are also stuck with an overpriced satellite bill. (Not that I'm complaining.. I am loving the zillions of channels.)

Backwards sinks. Our sink is backwards. The garbage disposal is on the LEFT side of the sink, while the majority of the counter and dishwasher is on the RIGHT side of the sink. This really bothers me. I just can't get it through my head which side the disposal is on. Disposals should ALWAYS be on the right side of the sink.

Companies that are idiots. We tried to buy a laptop this week. That was all fine and dandy, until the Credit Card company decided they didn't want to pay the Computer company for the computer. The computer company decided they didn't want to send us a computer for free.. Not that I blame them. The Credit card company also won't release the charge. They won't tell us WHY any of this is going on.. They are mailing us a reason sometime in the next 60 days. Oh, the computer company and the Credit Card company... they are one in the same, just different departments... Nice, huh?

Tack strips suck. Especially when you're walking barefoot to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Every night. I think I should probably make sure my tetanus is up to date.

Enough of that... I think tomorrow I'll post a list of things I like about this place... I can't complain all the time!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Excuses, excuses...

The past few weeks has been incredibly busy. Busy, I hate that excuse. People use it when you really aren't important enough to warrant a real excuse. Seriously, though, I have been really busy. We have spent the last twelve days unpacking, stacking, building, cleaning, scrubbing, organizing, folding, and trashing. We have the downstairs unpacked and everything is where it should be. Upstairs, the baby's room and bathroom are done. As for our bedroom, the guest bedroom and the office nook, that's a different story.

I would really like to have the guest bedroom completely done by OOH, Tuesday, but it isn't going to happen. We have to buy bookshelves. We moved out of a house that had a very large built in bookcase, and hence, we misplaced our shelves. They are most likely in the attic, and we forgot that we'd put them up there.. But at any rate, we are short some bookcases, and we have a lot of books to shelve. I also have decided that I very much dislike the furniture in the guest bedroom. I bought it second-hand for nothing, and now it's showing it. Sometimes furniture just doesn't do well through a move.

Our bedroom will be done when I feel motivated to finish it, and when Not the Momma dumps off the extra 21, 000 pairs of black socks, 21,000 pairs of white socks and 42,000 pairs of boxers. Mostly, it has to do with my motivation. You see, I like unpacking and arranging and finding places for things -- for a few days. But then, I lose interest. Call it Adult ADD, call it laziness, call it what you will. I get bored with unpacking. I am at that point. I have my new beautiful living room and dining room set up, the kitchen is put away (and there are tons of empty cupboards, because, well, there's more cabinet space here), and the baby's toy room is all together. As for the upstairs.. that's when I got bored.

And now it's time for me to quit giving excuses as to why I haven't been posting and why I'm lazy and tired of unpacking, organizing and cleaning. Why? Because Not the Momma took Little Monster upstairs to take a bath, in his fabulously wonderful ducky bathroom. Because even though Little Monster spent the greater portion of the evening whining, when he laughed when Mater was spinning around and running away from the combine in cars, I quit being irritated with him. Isn't it crazy, that kind of love? When you are irritated with someone to the extreme, then they do one silly thing and all the negative feelings melt away? I like it. :)

P.S. If you know my flickr account, I put pictures up there. If you don't, you can email me and I'll give it to you.. But I think there's a link over there --> somewhere.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

It hasn't been nearly three weeks...

I say as I wave my hand in your face, using the Jedi Mind Trick to confuse you into believing that I have been posting all along...

Quick recap.

We lived in the fifth wheel for a couple of weeks at a great RV park. We were fortunate that we didn't pick an island spot, because the RV that was there instead of ours had a huge tree land on it in the middle of the "Central Coast Hurricane 2008." That's what I'm calling the 75mph winds and crazy rain that hit us. We are "moved" into our new house. Moved meaning that we and all of our stuff is in the house. Has it been upacked? No. Why? Because Not the Momma brought home a plague that has caused me to fear the 30 million stairs I have to take to get to the second floor. Seriously, there are 12 foot cielings in the first floor. We have spent another fortune, like we always do when we move, and still don't have internet that works reliably well enough for me to work, let alone be posting here. (I am only feeling slightly guilty right now, because the internet is fast enough for blogger, but not fast or reliable enough to be uploading 5megs worth of artwork). We signed up for better internet and it was supposed to have been connected about 3 hours ago, but alas, as is the luck of this clan, that somehow my name would be mispelled and probably the credit card we used denied the payment, and so, we still don't have internet. Bummer dude. (Note how I am already speaking like a california surfer chick after about 3 weeks in the area.) Hopefully we can get it all resolved tomorrow.

We have all been pretty sick with a chest cold, including Little Monster, but we are on the mend for now. I promise to have something that isn't so whiny in the future, and possibly even pictures of CA Hurricane damage and the new house. House pics may be a while though. I refuse to show you our stacks of boxes and piles of crap.