Ultranormal

Category: family

  • None of these are interesting, sorry.

    Kevin wants me to do the “five things you may not know about me” meme.

    • Except for a handful of must-haves, I don’t like owning DVDs or books. I am more of a “watch ’em/read ’em and rotate ’em” kind of gal.
    • I started college in the Honors College with a major in Electrical Engineering. What the heck was I thinking?
    • Even though we’ve lived in this house for over seven years (!!!), the master bedroom looks like the “before” on makeover show: temporary curtains, no pictures on the wall, clutter everywhere. We have a big bed with lots of pillows and no tv, so at least we are doing something right.
    • Comfort entertainment:\
      movie- Drive Me Crazy\
      tv- Designed to Sell\
      song- Jukebox Hero by Foreigner\
      books- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Mammoth Hunters by Jean M Auel
    • Dream job: organizational professional. (Which is funny considering my bedroom, right?)

  • Tagged by a Chipman

    Well Steve got me, and well, since I’m awake and everyone else is in bed, why not? I like a meme as much as the next guy, so I’ll play along. Here are five things you probably don’t know about me, even if you’ve been reading this blog for almost eight years:

    1. I was a missionary for the LDS Church (yep, the Mormons). I was sent to the Spokane, Washington area, rode a bike for two months and then was sent to a very large area near Fairchild Air Force Base and then the fun started. In less than a month, I totaled a mission car, watched my companion sneak out of our apartment to go to Wal-Mart with a female friend of the family we lived with, blew out my ankle, and went home in a cast. It took me quite a while to get over my disappointment with the whole mission experience. It was “sold” as this great spiritual experience, but ended up feeling a lot like selling used cars to people who were pretty darned happy with their bikes.
    2. I was on a TV show. Yes, really. When I lived in Tucson, my friends and I started and ran a Saturday night tech call-in show that competed directly with SNL. It was called Tech X and I played “Otto the HED”, a floating head that sat behind the hosts and said really stupid things. Yes, there is video around somewhere, and I’ll try to post some… but won’t look too hard for it.
    3. I swear… a lot. Now, to some of you, this isn’t a surprise. To others, maybe it is. I don’t know why I do it, but I do. I’ve tried to stop, and hell, I may try again, but maybe not.
    4. I never finished college. You know number 1 up there? Well, after I got home, I recovered for a little while and then got what I thought was a summer job taking tech support calls for AOL at the call center in Tucson. I met so many cool interesting people and was having so much fun, I just never went back. I just kept learning and trying new things, and well, here I am.
    5. I hate bananas, hate them. No really, can’t stand how they feel, smell, or heaven forbid, taste. I always have and am not sure why. Just can’t stand ’em.\
      There you go. You know who I’m going to tag? I’m gonna tag Jen. Sweetie, that means you gotta post five things that folks probably don’t know about you. Won’t that be fun?

  • I am a pretty, pretty princess

    Tons of people, or like five, helped make my anniversary really special. (Thanks, everyone!) Should I tell the story in chronological order or by category? Hmm, I think ‘by category’ will illustrate how spoiled I truly was.\
    The presents:

    * Last fall I found a ring I wanted to mark the occasion (10 years, yo!). I was drawn to the sapphire stone because it represents loyalty and fidelity (except for Princess Diana, oops) and because the dark blue is so pretty. I was psyched when I found this and Kevin bought it for me:

    Photobucket

    * A couple of weeks ago, Kevin accidentally surprised me early with a second present. (I opened it thinking it was something I ordered). It was new digital photo frame, like the one we got my parents for Christmas. I was oooing and awwing over it so much, Kevin decided not to wait until Mother’s Day. YAY! The first picture I want uploaded:

    Photobucket

    The activities:

    * Since we knew Kevin was going to be out of town on our anniversary, we scrapped our original plans and celebrated last Saturday. We went to The Cheesecake Factory and saw Juno. Woot. It was the perfect movie to see and an overall great night. (Spoiler alert: Ellen Page is the cutest thing ever. And Jennifer Garner made me cry.)

    * My MIL called yesterday afternoon and offered to babysit the kids so I could go out. I whooped, “Hell, yea!” I saw 27 Dresses which was cute and perfect for the evening. (I’ve only been a bridesmaid/maid of honor six times. I feel like an underachiever now.) While I was out, my MIL and the kids cleaned up the toys in the tv room and did the dishes. Super woot!\
    The deliveries:

    * Shortly after breakfast I received two dozen long stemmed roses, perfectly arranged. They were beautiful and smelled so good. YAY! I love roses.

    * A little later, the doorbell rang again. Max excitedly announced, “It’s another delivery!” It was a big brown box… for Kevin. Oh well, can’t win them all.

    * But then! Late in the afternoon, I got an awesome gift basket from Kevin’s work peeps. Wheee. It contained pampering supplies and a gift certificate to a nail salon. I’ve never had a professional pedicure and I am really looking forward to it. (Thanks, Kevin’s work peeps!)\
    The expressions of love:

    * Kevin tells the world how he feels about me. Little old me. Aww, shucks.

    * Kevin made me a heart. I think out of everything I received and did, this is my favorite. I can just imagine him in front of the laptop, making sure the heart looks right on the monitor; I love how his pinkies aren’t touching; and the expectant look on his face as he peers over the top of the heart at the camera. It makes my insides all squishy and my heart go pitter-pat. Thanks, hon. I love you.

    Kevin making a finger heart.

  • Happy Anniversary, Lady!

    Kevin Lawver making a heart with his hands in a very cheesy self-portrait photo.

    Jen already posted her list, but since I’m in California, I’m not late with mine. I honestly can’t believe it’s been ten years. It certainly doesn’t feel like it. She said all the important stuff – that it’s been way easier than we thought it would be, and while we’ve had “issues” over the years, we’ve figured them all out together and come out the other side stronger and happier for it. Jen puts up with a lot. I travel too much, work long hours, am distracted when I’m at home sometimes (part of my New Year’s resolution, and I’m getting better, but it’s still hard to switch gears) and other stuff that’s not as important, but probably just as annoying.\
    Jen already gave a partial list of stuff that sticks out to me, but I was thinking about it last night, and here are some other things that have made the last ten years fly by:

    • Jen’s verbal dyslexia. I wrote a blog entry about it a long time ago (thanks for finding it, Dave!), but she sometimes mixes up the first syllable of two words (like “toin coss” instead of “coin toss”), and then gets this look on her face like she knows she just said something funny but can’t figure out what. My all-time favorite is “Moodist Bunks”.
    • It’s that we’re pretty much always making things fun, no matter how stupid, icky or menial they are.
    • She makes me want to be a better man.
    • She’s understanding and never makes me feel bad about things I can’t control.\
      Like I said five years ago, I’d do it all again in an instant. The sun definitely still shines out your ass, sweetie, and you’re gorgeous (if you haven’t seen Juno, you really should). Actually, since both of our asses have “settled” a little over the years, it shines even brighter.\
      I love you.

  • Brian, Snow Explorer

    I Found You, Mommy

    Jen took a bunch of pictures of the boys on Thursday playing in the snow. Enjoy!

  • He’p Me! He’p Me!

    Kevin is torturing me by watching Jackass 2, though he did actually ask if I minded. Why did I say no?? OMG, the movie is sooo stupid. The worst part? I can’t stop laughing.

  • Are you there Mom? It’s me, Jen.

    I need my mom to come mother my youngest because he’s doing things that are annoying (like asking for a specific food to eat and then changing his mind after he gets it) and things that are sad (like crying about going to school). Eeep.

  • Reducing the Guilt Bucket

    After I posted my New Year’s Resolutions, I started thinking about taking control of my time, and what I was really trying to do, and it’s come down to a single goal: reducing my guilt. I have goals and ambitions, things I want to accomplish, help with, and see get done. These things keep getting put in a bucket, and it’s now full to overflowing. It’s a massive burden of guilt (self-inflicted, of course) that’s not helping me get my time under control, or more importantly, my health.\
    So I’m doing something about it… Instead of fooling myself into thinking that I’ll have some great meadow of free time open up, I’m admitting defeat and removing goals. It’s not easy. Here’s what I’m doing about it:

    • I sent my farewell post to the CSS Working Group listserv this morning. I’ve been a member of the CSS Working Group for about four years, and in that time, I’ve never really been able to dedicate the time I want to it, and don’t see how I ever will. It hurts to leave. CSS is vitally important to the future of the web, and I want to be a part of it, but I’ll have to do it outside of the working group.
    • As soon as I find a replacement for me, I’ll be leaving the HTML Working Group as well. I’m just a placeholder anyway since Arun left, but again, it’s important and I want to be a part of it, but I just don’t have time.
    • And one more decision I’m not ready to announce yet that’s more painful than the other two combined. I still need to talk to some people before I can blog about it. But, just to set expectations: I’m not leaving AOL, and it has nothing to do with my family.\
      I’m also making great progress on the feeds and twitter front too. I’m down to 194 folks I’m following, and only have twenty-seven feeds to dump in the next week to get to 500 feeds.\
      Update: I heard from a couple worried friends who said this sounds “ominous”. That’s not my intention. I’m happy to finally be making hard decisions and to stop worrying about things I don’t have time to worry about anyway. This is all good stuff. I’m sad about leaving the CSS Working Group, but I honestly haven’t really been a true part of it for a while. It’s about accepting things I have no control over and prioritizing my health and family over work and everything else.

  • Things you need to see

    1) Holy cow, look at this cake! I can’t tell who is crazier, the bride or the groom.\
    2) Dexter, the acclaimed Showtime drama about a Miami forensic specialist who also happens to be a serial killer, is set to premiere on CBS on February 17, in an edited format. Check it out! Then let’s discuss, okay? This is totally one of those shows that you should watch from the beginning, as it has a season-long storyline.\
    3) OMG OMG, Look: the can organizer of my dreams. Last year I got it into my head that I NEEDED to buy my MIL something like this for Christmas. For months and months I looked and Googled, but was unsuccessful. Somewhere on the internet sold building plans for a can dispenser, so I asked Steve if he could/would build it for me if I bought the plans and supplies. He said he could build it without the plans, so yay! Anne and Monica are now the lucky owners of the homemade version of this (but those aren’t adjustable. Look, this one even holds tuna cans!) When I saw this today, I immediately bought it even though I was looking for something else entirely. Woot, the internet is awesome! Is it wrong to be this excited?\
    And for the Mormons in your life (or survivalists): large organizer.\
    4) I’m not going to mention Britney, but read this about mental illness.\
    5) This woman is strictly following the advice of Oprah for one year as a social experiment. Kind of neat. Let’s check back with her in about a month or two, yes?\
    and, last, but not least,\
    6) Just for fun: my favorite Brians.

  • 2007 in Books

    I’ve seen this a couple other places (sorry, can’t remember where at the moment, or I’d link to you), and decided that I’d try to remember all the books I read last year. With all the traveling I did, I did a lot of reading on planes. Thanks to Good Reads, I at least have a starting point to jog my memory.\
    h4. Fiction

    • Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony by John Scalzi: A great trilogy by ficlets former blogger-in-chief.
    • The Android’s Dream also by John Scalzi: This one’s not in the same universe as the Old Man’s War trilogy, but a royally good time – great pace, humor and a really good story.
    • Overclocked by Cory Doctorow: I never really read science fiction when I was younger, though I watched a bunch. I started with John Scalzi since he was blogging for ficlets, and then picked this up. I loved it. The story about sysadmins after the apocolypse was awesome.
    • World War Z by Max Brooks: I stayed up all night on the flight to Paris reading this. I wasn’t freaked out at all while reading it, but thinking about it later, got the chills thinking about it. This one will stick with you – a great zombie book.
    • Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet by David Wellington: The first one is the best of the trilogy and each successive one is less enjoyable, but they’re a lot of fun. An interesting twist on the zombie genre.
    • Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman: I love Neil Gaiman, and this book is a great time. It’s funny, quickly paced, and has his regular wit and skill.
    • Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman: This one’s uneven, because it’s all short stories, but there are a couple real winners.
    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling: Much better than the one that came before it, and a decent end to the series. I try not to lay too much of my own expectations for how stories should go on authors and as long as it rings true, I’m usually pretty happy. I was pretty happy by the end.
    • a couple by Michael Connelly, but I can’t think which ones at the moment, which probably means I need to take a break from him since they’re all running together.\
      h4. Non-Fiction
    • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard: This is my favorite book of the year, even though it was writting over thirty years ago. It’s a collection of essays about life and nature and contains some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read.
    • Agile Web Development With Rails by a bunch of smart dudes: Yeah, I’ve made it through this one a couple times, and I should probably add…
    • Ruby in a Nutshell by Yukihiro Matsumoto: If you count flipping through to jog my memory, I’ve probably read this one eight or nine times this year.
    • Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas collected by Robert Fulghum: A great collection of inspiring stuff. Always handy for a good quote. I’ve read this one every couple years since I got it.
    • Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World by Jack Goldsmith: This was a book club book for work, and I hated it. It’s a dark and unpleasant view of the internet and government control of it.\
      h4. In Progress
    • Wikinomics by Don Tapscott: Mr. Tapscott gave a great presentation at an AOL internal development conference over the summer and I got a copy of his book. I started it, but stuff came up, and I haven’t finished it yet.
    • Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger: Another one I started but haven’t finished. I don’t like taking hardbacks on the plane because they’re cumbersome.
    • Getting Things Done by David Allen: I know. I’ve been meaning to get to this one for over a year. I’m definitely not GTD.\
      I know I’m missing some in each category. I’ll try to remember them and add them later.