Jordan's Tricks - Roll Over

Roll is one of the first tricks I learned. They taught it at the basic puppy training at Petsmart. The way to teach this trick is to first have your dog lay down and use a treat to lead the dog's head. Once their head starts to follow the treat, their body will follow around until they roll. Don't let them get up or adjust their body, just slowly move the treat back to their side and across their body. Don't get discouraged if they don't get it at first, I didn't. It may take a while until they understand what you are trying to get them to do with their body. Once they start to understand the rolling move, you can add the word "roll" and a hand gesture and they will do it all on their own. Here is another video of Matt showing how to move a treat to lead a roll.

Jordan's Origin Story

When we first adopted Jordan we knew she was part yellow lab.  For one she looks like a yellow lab, and two the lady we adopted her from said her mother was a yellow lab.  But we could never really figure out what else she was mixed with.  The breeds we heard most often were Pit and Beagle but we were never completely convinced.  Recently we were watching Dogs 101 on Animal Planet and one of the breeds they covered was a Rhodesian Ridgeback and there is was.  It all started to make sense, some of the traits (both physical and psychological) that we couldn't tie to labs were present in the Ridgeback.  The Ridgebacks in the show were all very active, running around and leaping in the air like our little monster.  They were also bread to hunt lions in Africa which might explain why Jordan hates cats so much.  Okay, that might be subjective, but there is no arguing against the muscular build, ear shape, and head shape that are downright Ridgeback.  Another bit of evidence looking back is that Jordan would always gravitate towards labs at the park.  We figured it was because she is part lab and recognized these dogs as sort of her family.  When we first started going to the dog park Jordan also gravitated to a group of Ridgebacks that went for a while.  We didn't think much of it at the time but looking back I think Jordan may have recognized them as part of her family too. 

Lastly, I submit some photo evidence.  Doing a quick google image search for Rhodesian Ridgeback Lab mix I found some surprising pictures.  Judge for yourself and see if they don't look like matches for Jordan.

HopeKids

A little over a year ago, Matt and I got involved with an organization called HopeKids. Their motto is that "Hope is a Powerful Medicine" and the work they do is unlike any other organization I have ever seen. Basically, it is a place for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and their families to come to escape the world of chemo and doctor's office visits. The founder, Rob, thought that it would be nice if these children could look at their calendar and see things like movies, ice skating and zoo trips to look forward to. And the effect that his program is nothing short of amazing.

It's such a simple concept - sometimes I will look at my work calendar and start feeling overwhelmed, but then I will see that I have a fun lunch or a date with Matt planned and it helps me to power through the week. I can't imagine being a child and having to deal with countless trips to doctors who poke and prod and seem to make you feel even sicker. HopeKids gives them fun activities every week to look forward to so it is a little easier to bear. It also provides a network for families who are going through the same thing. The events are not just for the kids - they are for the parents, siblings, and other family members who are impacted by the cancer as well.

I am just so touched by the strength and courage that these kids show. When we watch them play, I'll sometimes forget that they are dealing with these terrible illnesses because they are just such fun, cute kids! They don't let their illness define them, and they don't let it drag them down or get in the way of having fun and living life. I am so inspired by that - it really puts life in perspective for me.

So this past weekend we went to a Tae Kwon Do event with the kids and it was so fun to watch them learn punches, kicks, Korean words and even nun-chucks! My favorite part of the day was when a little girl named Becca came in and we started chatting. She is probably 8 years old, and I told her I was glad to see her here because there were too many boys already at the class. We high-fived. Then I told her she could go warm up if she wanted, and she said, "Nah. I'm pretty great at this stuff." She then proceeded to show me how high she could kick to prove that stretching wouldn't be necessary. Matt had to double-check the car to make sure I didn't steal her on the way home!! Anyways, here are some of the pictures from the day:

How To - Feature your collection online

 

A good friend of mine has started a website where collectors can post pictures of their collections online.  The site has obvious appeal in that collectors can show off their collection to hundreds or thousands of fellow collectors online that they would not be able to otherwise.  Another advantage he pointed out is that having your collection featured online lets you also enjoy your collection without having to always have it on display at your house.  The movie ‘The Forty Year Old Virgin’ comes to mind, with his action figures on display all over his apartment.  It’s kind of a turn off if you want to court someone that doesn’t share your interest in collecting Transformers, baseball cards, Pez dispensers, or whatever it is.

    

I decided that I would participate in this phenomenon and put up my collection.  I had kept some cherished toys from my childhood called Dinoriders.  For years and years they have been sitting in a box, neglected, and now it’s time to show them the light of day and display them proudly on the internet. 

There was not much to this process really.  I just had to take them out of the box, pose them for the pictures, and snap a few glamour shots of the little guys.  I actually had some fun playing with these toys from my childhood again.   

   

Superstar Collector made posting and organizing the collection pretty easy.  I did have to do a little internet research to remind myself of all the names and which characters went with each dinosaur.  And now my fantastic Dino-Rider Collection is proudly on display for everyone on the internet to see.  So I guess it’s back in the box for the dinos.  See you guys in another couple years.   

The travel has started again

Today I traveled to Lompoc, California for work again for the beginning of a launch campaign.  It had been several months since I've had to travel and I was getting quite used to it.  At least it's only for a couple days this time, and the hotel has updated the rooms a little.  They put dueling Samsung 32" LCD TVs in all the rooms.  Quite a step up from the old monster TVs they had in here before.  Plus I get to hone my crossword skills as is evident from the picture above.  I finished the crossword puzzle from the US Airways magazine on the flight over here.  It's not the most challenging crossword out there but I'm still proud I was able to complete it.  Andy and I failed to do the crossword on the 6 hour flight to Hawaii, but I finished the crossword, did a Sudoku, and flipped through the SkyMall catalog all in the time it took to fly from Phoenix to Santa Barbara. 

The Question

My drive home from work usually lasts around an hour, so I have plenty of time to catch up on phone calls or just listen to music. The other day, I was listening to a CD that my friend Kristina made for our team at work, where everyone picked 3 of their favorite songs for the mix. My favorite song is called "The Question" by The Old 97s.

Not many people know that Matt is pretty musically talented, and he learned to play this particular song on his guitar without me knowing. On December 22nd, a normal Tuesday, Matt secretly stayed home from work to get ready for what turned out to be a perfect proposal. He strung 20 strands of lights around our back yard, set up multiple Christmas trees, and had our picnic table set with roses, champagne and candles. When I got home and immediately realized what was going on, Matt asked me if he could sing me a song. It was the sweetest song I had ever heard,

"Someday somebody's gonna ask you

a question that you should say yes to.

Once in your life

Baby, tonight I've got a question for you"

Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was more amazing than any proposal I could have ever come up with. Where do these boys get these excellent ideas?! Anyways, I was listening to "my" song and thinking of Matt and what an amazing husband he is. Just a little Valentine's sap for everyone...

New Computer

 

Finally, after about 6 years of hard work it's time to retire my old PC.  6 years is ancient for a computer but he has performed admirably.  A friend of mine, Richard Fan, helped create him back when we were attending the University of Arizona.  We picked out some state of the art components (at the time), which is probably why it's stayed relevant for so long.  I did have to replace his power supply a few years back and I've upgraded his memory on several occasions.  I think he started off around 256MB and has made it all the way up to 1GB.  Now, an intermittent CD drive and some frustrating USB ports later I'm saying farewell.  

I ordered my new computer earlier today and it's very similar to the one linked above.  And the monitor is exactly the same but I did order it off eBay because I'm always trying to save money.  I am very excited for it to arrive and start playing with it.  There are so many games that have come out over the past few years that are way beyond my current computer's ability.  Andy will tell you my computer even struggles a little trying to play Starcraft online.  Plus, with the Samsung monitor and some cool nVidia software/hardware I'm going to try playing games & movies in 3D.  Hopefully it's as awesome as the promo videos make it seem. 

UPDATE (2/26/2010):  Unfortunately I had to return this computer because it was a piece of crap.  It may not have been that bad but I wasn't have good luck with it.  After trying to troubleshoot it for a couple days it was still freezing randomly so it is on it's way back to the store I bought it from.   I ordered a new computer on Tuesday which should get here soon.  Hopefully I'll have better luck with this one.  It's an Asus like the one in the picture but has better stuff inside than the one it links to. 

Splitting Hairs

Well, not so much splitting as cutting I suppose.  About a year ago, Matt and I determined that we could save almost $200 each year if I cut his hair for him.  Follow that with a trip to Great Clips so I could see how the "pros" do it and a trip to Target to buy some clippers and you've got yourself a money-saving plan!  The first few times were pretty rough...



Me: "does this look ok?"
Matt: "it looks... good..."
Me: "does it look 'good' or does it look horrible and you're trying to be nice?"
Matt: "no... it looks... good..."

All of those "dot dot dots" - that's the hesitation in Matt's voice while I'm freaking out that I'm the world's worst hairdresser!  But it got better each time we tried, and now we've got the system down to a T.  Am I as fast as those Great Clips girls?  Nope.  But his hair looks good and I get to cut it to my liking (Hence, faux-hawk. Yum!)  And each year, we save enough money for me to go to the salon...once. 

Before:                                            After:

    

Wall Art

I hate white walls. Actually, hate might be an overstatement. But white walls definitely give me the decorating itch and we have had a giant bare spot in our house for a few months now. Solution: Wall Art. While Matt and I were planning our wedding, it seemed like we were hemorrhaging money left and right. So we made the decision to not order a wedding album (wedding albums = $2000. Really?!) Instead, we printed out some of our favorite pics at Wal-Mart and bought some cheap frames at IKEA. As a gift on our wedding night, Matt gave me a beautiful frame that said “You’re My Everything” (our wedding song – aww!), so we used that as our center point for the photo collage.

Once all of the photos were in their frames, we started the tedious task of measuring, nailing and hanging. Matt’s precision combined with my hammering skills (just until Matt’s hand heals – then NO MORE MANUAL LABOR FOR ME!) combined to create some nice décor. Now instead of a big, white wall, we have a nice little photo homage to ourselves. Conceited? Maybe. But it’s our house so I say it’s ok.

My work is like a reality TV show...

 

Except the best thing I can win is my current job.   They just did another round of layoffs, or as they like to call it, a "Reduction in Force."  After they do this RIF they like to hold a meeting for whomever is left and tell us our jobs are safe, for now.  I understand that layoffs happen and there is no good way to go about it, but maybe they could make it more fun by handing out roses to the employees that get to keep their jobs or doing a cool torch ceremony.  At least they could come up with a cool catch phrase for the people they let go.  That's all I would ask for if I happen to be one of the unfortunate few in the next RIF.  Well that and maybe a nice severance package would be nice.

How To - Make some extra cash by selling your old textbooks

If you're like me, you still have some old textbooks laying around from your college years.  I thought I might need some of the advanced science or engineering books for use in my career, but as it turns out I haven't even cracked one of them yet.  For that matter, I haven't even thought about looking anything up in them since I graduated a little over 4 years ago.  So when Pamela and I were cleaning out our office recently I decided to get rid of these books that were taking up valuable closet space.  Instead of just throwing them out I thought I would take a minute and see if they were worth anything, because I remembered paying quite a lot for them when I first bought them.  I guess textbooks dealing with science and engineering don't change all that often so there was still a market for them.  I was surprised to find that the lowest price for some of the books online was close to $100.  Don't get me wrong, some of the books could be had for $.75. 

The best way I've found to get rid of old textbooks is to sell them online through Half.com.  There are many places to buy textbooks at a discount online but not many places to sell yours for a decent rate.  Several websites I found would buy the books at an extremely discounted fee.  Think like the on campus bookstore where you could sell back a book for $10, that you bought the previous semester for $100.  Half.com is run by the same people as eBay but there are no auctions and the things you can sell are limited.  It's sort of like eBay's version of Amazon.com.  Anyway, you can enter the ISBN number from your textbooks and see what the going rates are for them.  If that book is selling for a decent amount you can go ahead and try to sell it. 

If you have an eBay account and PayPal account you are all set to start selling, otherwise you'll have to create those.  They are both free to create and maintain and only takes a few minutes if I remember correctly.  The PayPal might take a little longer if they need to confirm your bank account.  But don't worry PayPal is very trusted and safe, giving them your bank info will not open you up to internet scams or anything.  Once you have your accounts you can use the link on Half.com to sell your books.  A thing that I like to think helps me sell my books is actually writing a description with my book.  When buyers are looking at the books for sale they can either see the bland, auto-generated, description put in by the book warehouse or a detailed description of the actual book you will be selling and why they should buy it instead. 

Once you have listed your books it's then a waiting game.  The Half.com website will let you know by email when you have made a sale, and the next steps to take.  The email lets you know where to ship the book to, and the Half.com website has options where you can pay for your shipping right there.  I usually ship it on my own or have Pamela mail it for me, but you can use their methods if you like.  Half.com works as an escrow service and collects the money from the person buying the book so you know you'll receive the money.  They will however take a healthy cut of the book sale, somewhere between 10%-15% I believe, but in my opinion it is definitely worth it.  I don't think I could sell the books as easily for as much anywhere else. 

UPDATE:  I listed 15 of my books at Half.com that were worth anywhere from $8.00 to $110.  I tried to list it as cheaply as possible so they would be the first ones sold if anyone is actually trying to buy that book.  The total listing prices combined for all the books was around $700.  So far I've sold 4 books and after the Half.com fees I've made about $170.  Not bad for some old textbooks I had laying around.