Hello! Here is a link to the article in the New York Times that Jon was interviewed for! Check it out!! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/technology/circuits/06basics.html?ex=1189742400&en=b96083c72565e282&ei=5070

Learn their story at www.badholly.com then go to www.cafepress.com/badholly and buy their stuff. Never know when you will need a new coffee cup or thong. Especially if you never go to badholly.com and they break all your coffee cups or cut up all your clean underwear!

GO NOW www.badholly.com and www.cafepress.com/badholly

And don't tell H yet, that her creations have been unleashed on to the world!

Christmas is about giving not recieving. Today I had a chance to do just that. My company that I work for does "Be a Santa to a Senior" every year. It's a project where people pull a tag from a Christmas tree located at a store, buy gifts based on the suggested items listed on the tag, and drop off the purchased items in a special area. Then, volunteers wrap and deliver the gifts to seniors who are less fortunate or just plain lonely.

Today, was delivery day. I volunteered to help out (meaning I was not required by my job to help nor was I paid). I only had a couple of stops on my list. But let me tell you, it was truely a gifting experience. It is quite sad to see seniors who are struggling to make ends meet or worse yet, don't have any family that come to visit them for the holidays. That is the truely sad part - seeing people abandoned by their own family.

One lady that I dropped a gift off to today was so happy. Her eyes lit up and her voice got shaky. I asked her if she was going to open it, and she said she was going to save it for Christmas. To her, it will be something special on Christmas day to enjoy - it may be the only gift that she will get for Christmas. But atleast she has the comfort of knowing that there are caring people out there who took the time to buy and wrap a gift for her - people she doesn't even know.

So the next time a giving opportunity arises (whether it be "Be a Santa to a Senior" or another project) please take a few moments to reflect on what you have and help out by volunteering your time, money or resources - and at the very least, your prayers - because you give less than what you recieve in return.

I voted!

Remember to vote today! You still have a few hours to vote! And if you don't vote, I DO NOT want to hear you BITCHING about anyone who was elected or any issues that were voted on!

:)

Hello! Well, today I did two things I have never done before. I'm going to tell you one of the things I did and let you guess the other...

1. I learned to knit. Well, if you can call it that because I think I lost some stitches so there is this weird hole in the middle of my 5 rows of knitting. But I don't expect instant perfection and it takes time to learn. So now I know how to tie a slip knot, cast on, knit stitch and purl stitch. But besides casting off, I think those are the basics! I went to a class at the local library, met some great people and learned how to knit. It was alot of fun! Though it did take us half an hour to learn how to tie a slip knot even know I knew that part. But atleast it give me the opportunity to help some people in my circle who didn't know how. The library is going to try and get together another time were we could continue our class and learn the rest of what we didn't get to today since we ran out of time since most of us seemed to be slow learners! But I do have to give credit to anyone who knits because it is alot harder than it looks! I think you need alot of hand coordination! I don't know how those old ladies sitting in their rockers can fly through their knitting projects! But I'm sure it will go fast as I practice!

2. Now this is the one you get to guess...though I will give you a clue...it might be easier for you to guess if you saw me in person. And no I didn't dye my hair...that would be bad with the wedding coming up. Although what I did is sorta related to the wedding. I had been debating it for a few months, though I figured I would probably just go ahead and do it. So I did.

So go ahead and take a guess. Well, I have to be going cuz Jon's parents just got here. Till next time take care!!!!

I have decide that I am not going to touch any more major appliance at home! No more doing laundry, cooking, washing dishes...and I will get someone to flush the toilet for me and turn on the shower! I am not going to touch any more major appliances!

Why? Well, because every major appliance I touch breaks!! First, I partially broke off the handle to the dryer lint trap. Then, I broke the dial on the washing machine. I swear it just came off in my hand! Also later (the same day as the washer might I add), I pulled the dial off the shower knob! Also, our tub clogged really badly (though this was not all my fault cuz I'm not the only one to use or has ever used the tub) which was so bad we eventually had to call a plumber because we couldn't get it unclogged by ourselves. Then recently, our stove decided to have a malfunction and started spitting sparks of electricity out of the coil. And now it is the toilet that I broke!!

I broke it last night at 10 pm. Of course, there are two simple rules for when something breaks...

1. Two or more things must break at the same time (it's the law of the universe).

2. Broken items requiring major repair must break in the middle of the week after 9 pm.

So, I go to flush the toilet and it doesn't flush (I thought it was making weird noises while I was in there, but I didn't realize it was the toilet. I thought it was the spa). Well, I go wake Jon up, since he was almost asleep on the couch and told him the toilet wouldn't flush. And no, the handle wasn't off the hook because I had that happen before. So we take the lid off the tank. And neither Jon nor I have the slightest idea what a broken toilet looks like so we have no idea what to look for although we figured out that the tank wasn't filling with water. So Jon calls up his dad since he is knowledgeable in house repair. Well, he told us to jiggle this thing and do that...and it started to fill up with water. So we flushed it and everything was fine. Well, of course to make sure it really is working again we try to flush again and nothing...

Well, in the mean time while Jon was on the phone with his dad, Paul (from Planet Hosting) is frantically calling Jon cuz Paul does that sometimes when he is freaking out about something. Well, last night just like many other times, they were having mail server problems. Something was broken in the mail server. So of course we have a broken toilet and a non-functioning mail server to fix at 10 at night after being at UT all day. So, Jon wasn't happy. And I don't blame him. So he went to work on the server and put me in charge of finding a possible cause to the toilet problem.

And we discovered two answers to our problems...

1. If you get lots of spam, don't ever in a thousand years decide that typing an automated message saying "Hi, thanks for the mail but I don't check this email box...blah blah blah..." and automatically sending it to every piece of spam you get would be a good idea. It's not...because for every piece of spam you get and send an automated message to, the spammer email box thinks your email is active and sends you more spam which in turn creates a big long cycle of sending automated messages back and forth to one another. And it bogs down mail servers very quickly. Which then pisses off the tech who goes in and deletes your whole email box since you pissed him off. Not pretty...

2. Apparently our toilet problem is caused by a broken gasket or valve or whatever it is called and the water is not refilling in the the tank. That seems to be our problem and thankfully it only requires a part under $10 to fix! I was getting worried we would have to rip out the whole toilet and replace it!

So with any luck, we will have a working toilet in a few days as soon as we get the time to go to the store and buy a new valve. But until then we will just have to make do with only one toilet for the next few days until we have the time to fix the other one. I'm very thankful we have two toilets!

So, I still think I shouldn't be allowed to touch anything of importance at home! I just continue to break things...granted most of the appliances at home are atleast 15 years old while the stove and oven are more like 25 years old! So maybe it is just their time...

But whether I decide to stop touching things at home or not, I think I will live by my grandma's philosphy (with a slight modification)...

If it's broken it can be fixed with either duct tape and a hammer (or in our case, duct tape, a hammer, superglue, or a screwdriver)!

Ok, so today Tony and Holly came up for the day to hang out and just chill like they do occasionally on Saturdays. So we did our usual things we like to do - sitting around talking, soaking in the hot tub, eating pizza, watching Holly beat up Tony while calling him a scum sucking whore slutbag bitch (Don't worry, they really do love each other and so far we haven't had to take either one to the emergency room yet - knock on wood). Ya, it was a typical visit from the two short people. Until we decided to play a game of Monopoly.

Standard (American Edition) Monopoly game board layout

Free Parking		Kentucky Avenue ($220)	Chance	Indiana Avenue ($220)	Illinois Avenue ($240)	B&O Railroad ($200)	Atlantic Avenue ($260)	Ventnor Avenue ($260)	Water Works ($150)	Marvin Gardens ($280)	Go to Jail
New York Avenue ($200)		Monopoly										Pacific Avenue ($300)
Tennessee Avenue ($180)												North Carolina Avenue ($300)
Community Chest											Community Chest
St. James Place ($180)												Pennsylvania Avenue ($320)
Pennsylvania Railroad ($200)											Short Line ($200)
Virginia Avenue ($160)											Chance
States Avenue ($140)												Park Place ($350)
Electric Company ($150)											Luxury Tax Pay ($75)
St. Charles Place ($140)												Boardwalk ($400)
Jail				Chance		Reading Railroad ($200)	Income Tax (Pay 10% or $200)		Community Chest		? GO
		Connecticut Avenue ($120)	Vermont Avenue ($100)		Oriental Avenue ($100)			Baltic Avenue ($60)		Mediterranean Avenue ($60)

Now, our games of Monopoly are always fun and interesting (Tony and Holly once promised Jon, as I was not there at the time, their first born child in exchange for Park Place) and usually end when one set of couples has to leave. Well, not tonight...

It started good, everyone was picking up properties and having a good time. Until things started to go down hill for Tony until he finally had to surrender to Jon's Park Place/Boardwalk monopoly. Well, he was out. Well, then for a while Holly was rolling in some dough and not doing to bad despite her lack of monopolies. Well, unfortunately, it didn't end good for her either since she eventually owed me to much money to me and went bankrupt. So, now it was Jon and I left. And then the real fun started!

Now let me set this up for you...Jon had hotels on Park Place/Boardwalk and Baltic Ave/Mediterrenean Ave. and had all four railroads as well as utilities. I had hotels on Oriental/Connecticut/Vermont Ave., St. James Place/Tennessee/NY Ave., and St. Charles Place/States/Virginia Ave. (actually this one had 4 houses since we ran out of hotels, though later in the game it had a hotel and States Ave. aquired the four houses). And we each had misc. pieces of the reds and greens. So basically Jon had one corner and I had one entire side as well as part of the other side of the board.

So we played, and played, and played, and played. Eventually, I was about to lose to Jon's Park Place/Boardwalk monopony cuz I kept hitting it. I was down to about $200 while Jon was rolling in the dough with atleast $15,000. Well, that didn't last long because I starting missing his monopolies or passing them by since I was going to jail. Well, then he started to hit my properties. And the money came pouring in so I made a comeback.

So we played and played some more. Basically we ended up trading money back and for the whole game. So we eventually took a break (after deciding we were not going to call the game since we were both very curious who was going to win, esp. since the bank was starting to go bankrupt) to take another dip in the hot tub. Then we continued our game for another hour or so until Tony and Holly left.

After they left Jon and I continued the game. And eventually the bank ran out of $500, $100, $50, and $20 dollar bills! So we took another small break to print out $8,000 more from the monopoly web site and make a late dinner. Then we continued the game.

Eventually, I think we both realized we were getting no where (and that we didn't want to spend our entire spring break playing Monopoly) we decided on a trade. I traded my one red property for Jon's one yellow property. And we both bought 4 houses for each property. Well, that seemed to shift the game because suddenly (whether it was luck or just the game genies) I started to rake in the dough. And we continued this for a while until finally at about 12:30 am we called a draw with me winning under the conditions that I would not gloat (which I don't think I do but apparently Jon thought I might). But as far as I'm concerned we both won because Jon almost had me bankrupt at one point.

In the end, I probably ended up with somewhere in the range $30,000 since I had most of the $500s, and a huge portion of the $50s and $20s. 

And Jon and I agreed that this was the most interesting, highest stakes Monopoly game ever! We were wondering what we would do if the bank ran out of all it's money. But I'm glad it didn't come to that point! But it still was a very fun and interesting game! Now please don't ask us to play Monopoly for atleast a month!

WARNING: The following post may make you tired! Don't read before operating heavy machinery, a car or a hair dryer. Also, only read once a week or it may become habit forming even though this post is non-habit forming. Enjoy!

Hmmm...it's only 1:20 A.M. or so and I'm already tired. And I even took a nap today for 30 min. and I got up at 10 A.M. after going to bed around 1 A.M. last night.

I think it has to do with the fact that it is winter and the days are shorter (though getting longer now) than in the summer. The cold dark weather just makes me want to sleep more!! Either that or it's stress. Stress makes me want to sleep alot too. And I sure have been experiencing alot of it lately. So that could be it too.

Or I could have mono...Hmmm...don't think so since I have been kissing anyone besides Jon!

Maybe I am just getting old! Though I hear older people need less sleep than younger people. Maybe I am getting younger!

Also, it could be that I like to sleep. Well, ok, let me rephrase that...I love to sleep. It feels so good to wake up refreshed and I love laying there daydreaming before I drift off to sleep.

Well, whatever it is I hope it goes away soon since I like staying up late. Reasons why I like staying up late...

1. It is quiet.

2. I can do whatever I want without anyone bothering me.

3. I can just chill out and watch TV or a movie since I don't want to make alot of noise and wake anyone else who might be sleeping.

4. It's a great time to read, crochet, color, or just basically reflect on life. Also, some of my best ideas come to me, while being in a state of craziness right before sleep.

5. If I stay up at night, I just may meet a vampire or alien one day since vampires can't be out in daylight and UFO's usually show up better at night in the sky!

Though going to be at a "reasonable" time also has it's advantages...

1. Jon and I can cuddle and fall asleep holding each other. Or atleast next to each other since we tend to turn back to back to sleep unless we are really tired and I fall asleep on his arm and cut off his circulation until he finally moves 3 hours later then wakes up in the morning wondering why his arm hurts. Sorry hun, but your arm makes a really really good pillow!

2. If I go to bed at a reasonable time, I get up at a reasonable time. Which means more daylight to enjoy. This is mostly needed for the winter when there is less daylight to go around.

3. It makes those mornings where you have to get up early easier to get up than if you get in to a late sleeping pattern.

4. Unfortunately the rest of the world runs on an early schedule (esp. here in Marblehead) so you sometimes can't wait until 2 P.M. to start your day.

5. And if you get up early, you might just be able to catch (unless you are in the bathroom which is a totally different rant - cuz really, how does he know when you are not able to answer the door? Since that is when he always shows up!) when the mailman drops off a package at your door that requires a signature at 10:30 A.M. Because if you catch the mailman at the door before he speeds off in his little white truck, you just might not have to put on pants that day since the post office requires that you wear them to pick up your package!

So does anyone else suffer from bouts of sleepiness? Cuz I know I am not the only one! Maybe my body still thinks it is sitting in an insanely boring lecture. That makes me really tired too! Hmmm...

Well, if you will excuse me, I think I am going to head to my nice comfy bed, pull up a Jon arm, and sleep sleep sleep!

Oh good grief!!! To anyone who is looking for satellite internet I hope you don't have to use Direcway! If you do, I feel so terribly sorry for you!

Jon and I have direcway and the service SUCKS! Actually the service is nice when it is working, but when it is not...hence the start of our problems. If you want to know the complete story let us know when you have an hour or two for us to tell you since it is way too much to type (and starts all the way back in December)! But the bottom line is, while Direcway satellite is working is great but so help you if you ever have a problem!

Their tech support STINKS! I think they hire a bunch of random idiots that filled out "yes" when asked what kind of computer service experience on their application! They really don't know a damn thing about fixing your satellite service! Oh, and be prepared to be on hold for atleast 45 minutes! And that is if they don't "accidentally" disconnect you and their phone service doesn't hang up the phone. And make sure you make it very clear to those idiots exactly what you want or you will be calling them at least 4 more times and waiting on hold for 45 minutes until you finally get someone (after being switched numerous times between the service, technical, and billing department) and try to explain to them in very simple words "I need a static IP, please make sure when you go through the recertification process that I have a static IP". I don't see what is so hard about understanding that phrase (but it must be too hard for some people to handle considering we had to tell at least 4 different people this phrase). Hmm...I think I need a static IP. It's not that difficult!

But I guess on the plus side, if I ever need a decent job in computers someday, I can become a Direcway technician! Because even though I don't have any computer fixing experience, I don't think it really matters!