Hypermiling

I drive a 2000 Honda Odyssey. In the past I have averaged 16-17 miles per gallon. With gasoline in the mid 3's right now, I've become obsessed with hypermiling. Basically, I drive in such a way so as to use as little fuel as possible. This includes driving more slowly as well as ceasing to accelerate well in advance of a red light.

It seems that people around me in traffic don't appreciate it very much.

I, however, got about 21 miles to the gallon on my last tank.

SCORE!

She didn't really just say that.....

This morning I found the laundry sorter in my bathroom completely broken down and clothes everywhere. Philip reported that daughter was the likely suspect.

When I confronted her, she retorted that if I did laundry more often she wouldn't have had to come looking for what she was looking for.

After a moment of an internal dialog of "did she really just say that? No, that's not possible...yes, yes, I think she did", I put my mean mommy hat on and informed her that I would be thinking about how I was going to respond to her disrespect.

I find that if I think about consequences instead of shooting off the hip I am able to come up with much more effective ones. In short order, the thought occurred to me that the child lives to text message. Guess who pays that bill? That's right....MOMMY!

So, I called Verizon and put a block on her phone. She will be unable to send or receive text messages until I turn it back on.

I'll be having a conversation with her about things that are her right and other things that are luxuries. Luxuries are things like being 13 and your mother still doing your laundry. Luxuries are things like text messaging (or having a phone in the first place). If she doesn't appreciate luxuries, they will go away.

I'm Such a Dork

Okay, so this weekend the need came up for me to deliver something to an elementary school in a different part of town. I was looking it up on the website and there was a place on this elementary school website that said "Information for Parents about Cheese".

Now, I thought "Isn't that nice that they give away free cheese to help these families!".

When I clicked on the link I learned that it was information about the form of Heroin known as Cheese.

I have no street cred whatsoever.

It's Business as Usual in the Riviera Maya and Cancun

As I sit here checking and rechecking on the status and position of Hurricane Gustav, I am glad to tell you that the storm did not impact Cancun and the Riviera Maya in the slightest. While I pray for Southern Louisiana, know that if you have a vacation booked this week, you can stop worrying and go with confidence.

Okay, NOW I'm Excited!

I have to admit, I've been pretty bored with the whole presidential process

until now

John McCain chooses his VP

She graduated from Wasilla High School in 1982 and I graduated East Anchorage High School in 1983. I love Alaska and the people of Alaska..they're so real an no nonsense. I'm really excited about this. Oh year, and she's a woman! I especially love that that was NOT the first thing I thought when I saw the news.

Backup, Backup, Backup.

Once a month I download, restore and test the nightly backup we do to our database. Today was that day. It went swimmingly. The process helps me sleep better at night knowing that our backup is valid.

Portability, People!

For today, a rant.

Several times recently I've been emailed something I needed to see in formats that I cannot view. The offenders were in Microsoft Publisher format and then Power Point.

People....send things in a more portable format...for instance, .pdf the stupid thing..everyone can view a .pdf.

You don't even have to pay for any expensive program to be able to do it..just go to www.cutepdf.com and download this perfectly safe freeware.

Rant over.