Owner: mommy bytes URL:http://www.mommybytes.com Join Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:43:47 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Software geek / mom blogs about her life. I blog about the trials of parenting and work, and endlessly photograph my beautiful children. I often discuss gadgets, podcasts, movies, music, books, and send along fun things I find on the internet. Site statistics:Click here
Wordless Wednesday - Princess Face Painting 2007-03-14 18:42:00 In Dova's preschool they do face painting on Fridays and she always asks to be a princess. "You know, a little blue here, a little red here." No kitty faces for this one! Tammy Fae Baker, watch out! Read more:Wednesday
, Princess
, Painting
Bringing lunch from home for the lazy 2007-03-14 00:56:00 Here is my very best frugal tip for Frugal for Life (I know I'm months late!). Everyone knows that you save tons of money by bringing your lunch from home instead of buying it every day. But this requires work. Lots of work. Lots of work every day. I've finally perfected the system of bringing healthy inexpensive lunches from home with minimal work for even the laziest of us (I prefer to use the term efficient). The key is having a compact refrigerator at work. Sure, this costs money up front, but with this system, it could pay for itself in as little as a few months. I actually bought this cute Kenmore with a 15% coupon so it cost me about $120 when I got it.What I do is when I go shopping on Sunday, I buy up all the ingredients to make breakfasts and lunches at work. Deli meat, sandwich wraps, potato salad, apple, oranges, grapes, cheese, mustard, mayo, India relish, olives, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, english muffins, cream cheese, butter, and an occasional Lean Cuisin
Amazon Plog serving up some cool stuff 2007-03-10 05:23:00 I don't know how I happened upon my personalized Plog from Amazon
, but since it came with an RSS feed, I dutifully signed up for it in Bloglines. I subscribed to Current and Earworm and mostly get the latest digital camera and music news. But then I saw this video post and it was sooo cool!The closest thing to this interface now is actually the Wii!! You can change the angle of the earth and spin it around by waving your arm with the Wii remote. We sometimes check the weather just so that we can spin the earth around! Read more:stuff
Use the force for good 2007-03-10 04:23:00 Computers are my livelihood and I certainly feel that they enhance my existence. But as with all powerful tools, they can be used for not so good purposes. Hopefully you've seen the Dove - Evolution commercial below (thanks George for pointing me to it long ago):Finally, I love this Dove self-esteem commercial for Singapore (being Asian and living through all those stereotypical misconceptions as a girl):What beautiful curly hair!
Dova's Princess Lunch 2007-03-09 03:36:00 On our second day at Disney World, we had reservations for a Princess
character lunch at the Akersham castle in the Epcot Norway pavilion at 11:20am. This was the best time I could reserve two months in advance instead of six months, where apparently all Disney "in-the-know" would do. The character meals at Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom were already completely booked for every meal while we where there. I reserved an earlier time as opposed to later because Dova rarely eats a good breakfast (of course there was nothing available right at noon). It was well worth it as the food was fantastic, probably much better than at Cinderella's Castle. You would think that 11:20am would be easy to swing being the very first thing we were going to do that day, but not for this family. Adam stubbed his bare toe coming back from breakfast with Grandma and another guest helped carry him and his bloody toe back to our room. We opted to get a double stroller for gimpy Adam and Dova w Read more:Lunch
Another stolen credit card number 2007-03-04 04:55:00 My secondary credit
card number was stolen
, and here are my guesses of the source.Yet another unscrupulous waitress, this time at Pizza Hut in Merrimack, NH - the only time my card was out of my sight. That's also where I took this picture.Someone who stole my credit card statement - I did not receive the January bill, although the bill doesn't have the credit card expiration date listed. Then again, I seem to be "losing" stuff in the mail which magically reappears months later (darn kids! darn disorganized mail!)Someone processing the online Registry of Motor Vehicles - this card is rarely used for online purchases and this was the only one in the month previous to the theft.My guess is the waitress again like my last experience. They are probably selling numbers to a third party as the charges have always been big ticket European items. This time Bank of America did not call me. I had to call them after I received my statement with the bogus charges and also to remove the lat
Adam is ready for ice hockey 2007-03-04 04:11:00 Here he is zipping around the rink while mom skates behind him with the camera. Check out the "cool" move with his hands behind his back about 2/3 through. We are foregoing skiing this year in an effort to save money for all the hockey
equipment and team dues. First one session of Learn to Play Hockey in the summer and he's off. Oh yeah, and maybe mom will play too. Hockey fever for everyone! Read more:ready
Knitting a womb is easy! 2007-02-28 05:24:00 When I first started knitting, I happened upon this womb pattern on knitty.com and thought I would have to wait until I was far more advanced to try it. But after my mitts, I decided to embark on the womb and found it quite easy. Here is much more information on this pattern from creator MK Carroll. I was also interested in the Wombs on Washington project where they were going to shower these knitted wombs on the steps of the Supreme Court in a pro-choice movement in March 2005. I can't seem to find much info on whether this "protest" took place or not.In other womb news, Doug finds it quite disturbing. I think it is kinda cute. The way I positioned the fallopian tubes makes it look like a doll's head with ponytails, just need to add some googly eyes. Here are all the other places it ended up during the photoshoot. Read more:Knitting
Our first day at the Magic Kingdom 2007-02-28 04:38:00 Although we got the park hopper option, we ended up visiting only one park per day while we were there. We never rode the monorail because the kids kept opting to go back to the hotel and play in the pool and sand. Our first day was at the MagicKingdom
. Here are some of the attractions we did:Spinning tea cups - Doug sat out and took these picturesAriel's grotto - We thought we were waiting in line for the new ride that we saw in the Bonus Features of the latest The Little Mermaid 2-disc DVD set (which Dova lost and I replaced with the 1999 version from eBay - the new enhanced version is definitely better in picture quality and sound). In reality there was no such ride yet in any of the parks and the line was only for autographs and pictures with this somewhat tired looking Ariel. This pleased our Ariel-loving daughter to no end, but good sport Adam was bored.Haunted Mansion - In an effort to have a good ride for Adam after the 50 minute wait for Ariel, we herded the kids into
Woo hoo 2nd place in a Chili contest! 2007-02-28 04:32:00 In my very first entry into a food contest last November, I was extremely excited to win 2nd place. The first place winner had a heaping full crockpot with large chunks of peppers and meat, where mine was less than half full, and a bit more refined in taste and texture (and of course in my opinion better tasting). I think the smaller amount had a lot to do with my second place finish, as it was completely gone after lunch. So if I ever enter another chili contest, I'll make a huge batch. This contest took place at work with about 9 people entering and everyone voting. The pots were numbered and I was a bit shy about telling anyone which one was mine. The winner was definitely not shy, so another lesson learned. I'm not a person who likes to self-promote and that kind of behavior really turns me off although it is effective in this world. Anyway, it was fun to win something - a $25 Hannaford (grocery store) gift card. Another side note - if I actually made that huge a pot, it Read more:Chili
Soccer pictures 2007-02-28 04:17:00 With spring soccer almost upon us, I thought I would post this cool picture of Adam on his soccer ball. He only really balanced for a split second and I luckily caught this shot with perfect timing. My first attempt looked like this. Lastly, here is his official soccer portrait for last season. Read more:Soccer
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party 2007-02-25 04:39:00 For our first full day at Disney World I purchased tickets to Mickey
's Very MerryChristmasParty
. I didn't quite understand why they made us pay extra money to come back in the evening. Previously, the evening activities, including the now defunct electrical parade and fireworks display, used to be free. I'm also not sure how they managed to get everyone out of the park by 7pm and readmitted for the party. In the end, we found that it was worth it for the short lines, live Christmas show, free cookies and hot chocolate and fantastic fireworks. On the way to the Magic Kingdom, Dova, who hadn't napped yet, slept on the bus, in the stroller as we wheeled her in, while Adam and Grandma sparred with their new lighted Mickey swords, through the Emporium store looking for an Ariel shirt for her, through the real generated snow blowing on Main Street and finally woke up for the Christmas show.Here are some rides activities we did that evening:Space Orbiter - We did have to wait a whi Read more:Christmas Party
My first knit fingerless mittens 2007-02-22 03:49:00 This was my very first attempt to knit with double pointed needles. I am forever searching for nice fingerless gloves to use on the computer, as I always suffer from freezing cold "mouse hand". The retail ones I have cover the thumb, which make it hard to use the back button on the mouse and also hard to use on a laptop. I wanted a pair that covered the fingers and thumb enough to keep them warm and make typing and mousing easy. I picked this pattern from Susan Aguirre because it looked simple and I could actually read it (after all I'm still a novice!). The first mitt had only a pouch for the thumb and really left it too chilly (hence it is hiding behind the other one in this picture), so the second mitt has a longer thumb (although still not quite right, fits Doug's thumb better than mine). After wearing these for several hours at work, I found that my fingertips were still a bit cold, but my palms were hot and sweaty. There's no satisfying this geek. Maybe I need to spr
Happy Chinese New Year! 2007-02-16 20:54:00 I've been saving this link for a while, check out this pork-flavored postage stamp.In attempt to be more Chinese
, I've been reading this:I bought this book because I'm really not as Chinese as I ought to be. In fact, here's a story that proves it. In my last job, there was a group of Chinese people (10 or so) that worked there. One woman organized a Chinese New Year
potluck celebration where she didn't invite me. Her boss, a friend of mine, asked why she didn't invite me and she replied, "Angela is not really Chinese". Now, she knew that I was genetically 100% Chinese, but apparently I didn't pass the "really Chinese" test. Now I'm forever labeled "not really Chinese" by my friends. Another person once told me that I had the best part of being Chinese, the looks, but not all the other baggage that comes with it (yes, they are a bunch of crazy superstitious people, but I mean that in a good way).The book is somewhat amusing, and sometimes a bit to factual. I did learn t Read more:Happy
, Happy Chinese
, Happy Chinese New
A Hockey Mom? 2007-02-14 07:00:00 I recently met an old colleague who told me that she needed another player for their women's hockey league. I haven't played in nearly 20 years and was planning to simply live vicariously through my son starting next season. Isn't that why we have kids? Anyway, I think I may join the pick-up games that run through the summer season. We'll see how these 40-year-old bones hold up!P.S. Check out the cool M&M Creator site. I'm not sure what I was thinking with that blue hair!
Things Dova says 2007-02-12 06:45:00 Don't let this coy face fool you! Here are some gems that Dova likes to say (even back when she was 2):Whatever (complete with hand flips and rolling eyes)This is my lifeGet out of my futureDon't even think about itI need to settle downI'm getting bigger every day!
Top Momma 2007-02-12 04:09:00 Click me please! I'm on the front page and need the clicks to stay up!! Please click on the picture with me and Adam when you are there. Read more:Momma
, Top Momma
Disney's Homeland security 2007-02-12 01:47:00 When we entered the Magic Kingdom on the first day of our trip, I was alarmed to see that they were using biometrics with finger scanning along with the ticket cards. Since I had gotten 10-day no expiration passes for use on another trip, this was going to foil my plan. I had three 10-day adult (age 10+) passes and one 8-day child (age 3-9) pass. Luckily for us, Dova was three weeks from turning 3 on this trip so she was free. My plan was to come back on the next trip for 5 days, after Adam was 10, where he could use Grandma's pass and Dova would use Adam's pass. Suddenly, my plan was foiled and we had to come back before Adam turned 10 to be able to use up his pass. Then we started our own biometric tests. First Grandma and I switched cards and we were admitted fine. Grandma's finger obviously has a different fingerprint was definitely wider than mine, if they were only going by dimensions. Later, Doug I and swapped cards and we flew through again. So this biometric scan Read more:Disney
, Homeland
, security
My voice feedback on the Daily Breakfast 2007-02-09 05:51:00 I have been way too shy to submit any voice feedback to the podcasts I listen to, but the whole Wii experience is creating a new outgoing Angela. So here is my feedback that appeared on DailyBreakfast
#239 at 19:05. If you don't know me, I am not Catholic at all, but I absolutely love Father Roderick and his SQPN shows. I've even dreamt about him. My mom also loves Brother Giles from the Secrets of Harry Potter podcasts. We must have a thing for those European accents. For those of you who are not so audio inclined, here it the text of the feedback: Hi Father Roderick,This is Angela from Pepperell Massachusetts in the United States. I wanted to give you some feedback on your geek section, which I personally love. I believe that podcasting has not reached the mainstream public, and that probably 90% of podcast listeners are geeks. The other 10% are people that have been shown the way and setup by geeks. There are many engineers that I know, who are supposed to be geeks, bu
My iPod - it's alive!! 2007-02-09 03:19:00 Here's my outdated looking iPod
Photo 30 GB, back when it was brand spanking new when I bought in on 4/15/05. Earlier this week, less than two years later, I got the dreaded sad iPod face with a bad clicking sound.It had been acting up recently, not playing songs (or rather podcasts, playing songs is a rarity), losing its memory (or really its FAT) and complaining of low battery especially when it was cold (it doesn't like the cold regardless). Like a good doobie, I went to the Apple support site to find it was a hardware problem. After trying the few things listed, I started to put in a service request. After muddling through 5 pages, they said it would be $268 to fix it!! I could buy a new one for less! Of course I was at work and I couldn't actually browse the Apple iPod site since it was restricted, but Jenn looked it up and found that I could get a 30GB video iPod for $249. But I really wanted the next generation iPod with the cool iPhone widescreen touchscreen (I assu
Chasing sunsets and sushi 2007-02-06 15:58:00 The rest of my trip to San Juan Capistrano was pretty pleasant as well. After the first day I simply drove around trying to find a beach to take pictures of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. It was actually quite a daunting task as I kept getting stuck in fancy residential neighborhoods with beautiful views but high walls. Finally I found the public beach and had to run to the water to capture this series of shots. I was so focused on taking these pictures that twice the waves came up and soaked my sandals and the bottom 6 inches of my jeans. Thankfully, I took the casual dress instructions seriously and didn't have socks and shoes on.For food, I relied heavily on the free Wi-Fi at the hotel to find restaurants. I googled for "best sushi near san juan capistrano" and had a fantastic dinner at Gen Kai sitting at the sushi bar. All the sushi chefs were drinking beer, toasting with the customers and the atmosphere was fun and festive. I ate nearly $50 of sushi, oops! I made up Read more:Chasing
Rancho Capistrano Part 3 (Gone Fishing) 2007-02-03 06:30:00 On day two of training, our first exercise in the morning was "Gone Fishing
". We were asked to wear long pants and tennis shoes the evening before so the stage was set for some physical activity. The instructor told us he was here at 6:30 am setting up our exercise. We walked down to the scary-looking climbing tower to see our fate. Up on the pole, a long rope was tied on about 15 feet up. Another robe laid out on the ground in a concentric arc about 15 feet away, delineating the swamp. Various objects were placed inside, three stacking rings, the stacking tree, a Big Bird which topped the stacker, another stuffed bird, a toy horse, and a fish. The goal was to get all the objects out of the swamp and into a bag. The rings and the stacker were stationary, but the animals could move around and of course any bird (including Big Bird) could fly. The stacker had to be stacked with the Big Bird attached. Everyone going in had to be blindfolded. Half of the people could walk in tet Read more:Rancho
, Capistrano
, Gone Fishing
Kissing the kids 2007-02-02 04:45:00 These pictures remind me of this post about a year and a half ago. My, how the kids have grown! This post is a draft from a full two years ago. At the time, I had a terrible illness that lasted two months and took two rounds of antibiotics to overcome. It was a combination of 3 days of high fever followed by 3 days of intense coughing followed by 3 days of high fever, etc. I made it into work only 5 days in the month of January (which made no difference since I was already laid off at that point and was only coming in 3 days a week anyway). I was paranoid about getting the kids sick so I was careful to kiss them only on the back of their heads and washed or sanitized my hands every time I blew my nose. I really missed being able to kiss them on their face and letting them be close to me.I remember seeing another couple being extremely affectionate with their baby girl, kissing her all over, biting her nose, and letting her explore the insides of their mouths with her tiny finge Read more:Kissing
Daylight Saving Time - woo hoo! 2007-03-15 15:26:00 I'm loving the new early DaylightSaving
Time. Notice, that I say "Saving" as opposed to "Savings". "It's not a SAVINGS bank!!" according to DST police Noorul. Interestingly enough, a Google search will produce 957,000 results for the incorrect "daylight savings time" and only 671,000 results for the correct "daylight saving time". Noorul, you have a long way to go on your mission!My question is why ever go back to standard time? Lets do it all year round. Shift the time zones over. I hate when it gets dark at 3pm in December. I think it would also help curb seasonal depression. Even though you don't get more light hours, it gets dark later in the day. According to this article,During energy crisis years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on Jan. 6 and in 1975 it began on Feb. 23.Can you imagine the uproar from IT people if we willy-nilly changed DST nowadays? I've heard that you need to go back to standard time for Read more:Daylight Saving
, Daylight Saving Time
Day at Epcot 2007-03-18 17:38:00 The second full day at Disney World, we toured around Epcot, by far Doug's and my favorite park. Here some are the attractions we took:Viking ride in Norway - Right after our princess lunch we hopped onto the Norway ride which had no line! Adam got spooked again because it was too dark and a bit scary. Dova also told me "Mom, that was too scary." She hammed it up for the troll afterwards though.Test Track - Adam had been all gung ho about this ride but once we stood outside watching the cars whiz by, he changed his mind and refused to go. I still got the four Fast Pass tickets to come back later. Grandma and I went when the time came, loved it, and I called Doug to come over and take Adam. The both loved it of course. While Adam was on the ride, I took Dova back over to the outside Nemo display. She was so cute another lady asked permission to take pictures of her as well.Spaceship Earth - It was a bit dark, but I heard Grandma talk Adam through it and he was pretty much OK w
Petting the panda 2007-03-20 04:39:00 I saw the "once-in-a-lifetime" call on Photo Friday of the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas and thought, hmm, I don't have any of those. Then after a weekend, and a night of insomnia, it finally hit me, I petted a panda in China. Now, how many people can get to do that in their lifetime?Back in 1988, I went with my parents to visit China. It was the first time in 40 years that they had gone back since WWII. It was a very emotional experience for my mother who saw many changes to her old village and also so many things that hadn't changed. When we went to Beijing, we somehow managed through some connections (nothing happens in China without connections) to visit the Beijing zoo outside of public hours. I was 21 at the time, didn't understand all the Chinese being spoken around me and just went along. The first thing the zoo keeper did was throw in some food, which looked like a brown brick. After the panda started gnawing on it, they told us to go ahead and pet it. My mom was completely Read more:Petting
Ten reasons why I love my stay-at-home dad 2007-03-20 03:59:00 Here's stay-at-home hubby Doug, hamming it up as a pizza head (from the Desert Hatter in Palm Springs, CA). I'm very fortunate to have Doug stay at home for the kids, both in terms of being able to afford it and his desire to do it. Here are my top reasons I love having a stay-at-home dad:The obvious reason is bringing up our kids with a parent around. We have a fantastic preschool for our kids, Country Kids. But having a parent at home really affords us the opportunity to really instill our own values, not the school's. Adam goes to school everyday for kindergarten now, and Dova goes to preschool 2 days a week. When Adam gets home at 3pm he can get started on his homework right away with Dad's immediate help if he needs it.More Daddy time - I think the kids used to feel closer to mom. Now Doug finally an opportunity to get close to the kids. Still, I enjoy the feeling of not being able to peel them off of me when I get home.Morning routine simplified - I used to wake up at
I'm a twit! 2007-03-21 19:30:00 Twitter is so cool and way too addictive.. You can always see my latest in my left sidebar. Otherwise check my profile to see what I've been blathering about and add me as a friend!
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