House Building 101

The Birthday Build was a great success! We had beautiful weather, a wonderful 15 volunteers there to help me, and two houses to work on. One house was prepped and painted, and the other was framed for siding . I was in the painting house, which was a far bigger sacrifice on my part than had I been hammering - I hate painting! But between us all we got all the walls ready, marked all the spots that needed to be fixed, primed the whole thing and rinsed out all our brushes and buckets and such - and all of that by 3:00! The other house did some siding, but then found out that they were far too skilled and were going too fast (another group was supposed to finish the siding next weekend, I think they helped pay for that house so they were doing the 'finish' work), so they then moved onto getting all the framing ready so the other group could just throw on the siding and call it a day. Our group was the only one that was staying there all day - apparently the other groups weren't as tough as us...or as dumb, call it what you like :) We had lunch and then headed back in to finish (the body was a little slow, but when you know you have a goal it makes it a little easier). When all was done we headed home and took well deserved showers!

Cynthia and Nikole getting the bathroom ready to prime

Dad and Aunt Barb "F-ing" up the house - that was my aunt's own term for putting the F siding on to get it ready for siding. The construction guys were cracking up at her.

The Dudley man hangin' out

Mom and Jordan painting one of the closets

nice and clean :)

Brandy painting the ceiling - this was not an easy task and she was not doing it in a very efficient manner, although it was hilarious

the clean-up crew

Sandor, John, Aunt Barb, Dad and Sandor's mom were all on siding duty

the 'A-students'. Dad and Sandor stayed after everyone else left to finish up the porch!

the whole happy crew

It's a Beautiful Morning

The Kaylinn pup and I headed to the beach this morning for a little stroll. I always keep her on the leash at first because technically you aren't supposed to have dogs off their leash, but in my opinion that's like taking a kid to a candy store and telling them to close their eyes. There are just so many seagulls to chase, and waves to jump and such a huge stretch of sand to run in, it seems a little like cruel and unusual punishment in the dog world. So, I wait and see how many other dogs are running around and how many people there are without dogs and decide from there. This morning Kaylinn was in luck. Most of the people on the beach had dogs, and all the dogs were off their leash, so I left Kaylinn free, and man did she have a good time!


It was a nice little morning, and we were even home, bathed (the pup dog tends to bring home a pound of sand in her hair) and getting breakfast ready before Sandor ever woke up!

So much food, so little time

We joined the Community Supported Agriculture program at a local farm and started getting our food last week. Every Tuesday we pick up our box of fruits and vegetables and head home to wash, cut and store them in the fridge to eat that week. Then you drop the box off at your pick-up spot and get another box the next week. It's pretty cool because you get food fresh off the farm, you support local farming, and it will likely force us to eat types of vegetables I would likely never buy in a store. The one catch is, since you are getting it fresh off the farm, you get whatever is in season - and it just so happens that just about the only thing in season right now are salad greens...lots and lots of salad greens. About 7 different types in fact. So, we have an enormous salad in the fridge. It's delicious, but even eating salads every night can't get us through that many salad greens, so we've begun handing it out for other people to enjoy. So far Brandy, Maia and Julia have enjoyed the joys of salad via our house via the Ambrose Family Farm! I think I've tasted half the lettuce options on this random poster thing I found while trying to figure out what each of them were.
Our other main in seasonal food item is strawberries. I've made us strawberry shortcake, strawberry smoothies, put strawberries on ice cream, dipped them in fudge, eaten them plain, frozen them for pancake mix, and last night attempted to make strawberry fruit roll-ups. The dehydrator worked quite well, but I couldn't find the little fruit roll-up maker addition to is so I had to just lay wax paper down on the dehydrator layers. It actually worked pretty well, although it's kinda hard to get the roll-ups off the wax paper without ripping the paper and taking it along with the fruit. I was pretty impressed by the taste of my little concoction, though. All it had was water, apples, strawberries and honey and it tastes just like the 5 dollar a box stuff you buy at the health food store. I'd say it was a success. Next up on the strawberry front will be jam - my mom is bringing me jars next weekend, but wish me luck on the actual cooking process. Welcome to strawberry central!
I'll tell you one thing, if nothing else this sure forces me to branch out of the boring cooking comfort zone!

Oh, Microsoft

So, I've been a bit out of touch, but there is a reason for that...Microsoft Office 2007. Me and Microsoft need to sit down and have a chat. For some reason when the did their upgrades they decided to totally change the programs - to the point that the toolbar at the top isn't even the same so you can't find anything! That in itself would be bad enough seeing as how Microsoft themselves says that experienced users will see a 2-3 week decline in productivity following being upgraded (in my opinion if you have to make this statement about your upgrade you shouldn't be giving it out yet). However, add to the mix that instead of waiting until I had asked (which would have been this summer) to 'upgrade' me, the staff person (who shall remain unnamed) decided to put the new software on my computer while they were supposed to be fixing an e-mail issue. As it turned out they didn't fix the e-mail issue until about 6 hours later and then another one came up that was a result of the previous dealings with my computer that didn't get fixed until today. In the meantime, my extremely efficient process for dealing with life at work has been in a tailspin because not only is it difficult for me to get e-mails on a timely and normal basis, but I have also not been able to find how to make a text box and center text in it, or mark an e-mail as important, or change the animation on a powerpoint slide...(the list goes on)...without much searching and usually involving a help menu.

And so in conclusion, I am very certain that if it wasn't for the fact that I need Microsoft to do my job at all, me and Microsoft would be breaking up as a result of it's unnecessary and incomprehensible desire to screw up my beautifully efficient working world.

Chubby Cheeks

And now 30 years ago TODAY...Wow, I was a fatty...

And my Nanny and Pappy - I figured they deserved a blog moment since they were so instrumental in my April Fools Day post...

A new decade

New shoes, shirt and purse, and a birthday crown and flowers! We are off to a great day!

30 years ago today...

I was talking to my parents today and my dad told me a little story that started with '30 years ago today...'

...my 9 months pregnant mom was at my grandparents's house cooking dinner for my Pappy and my Dad because my Nanny was out of town. My grandmother called to see if my mom had had the baby yet and my grandfather responded 'Yes, and it's a boy!'. Nanny breaks down in tears, after which Pappy finally admits 'April Fools Day'. Ironically enough my mom was in labor all that day, but my grandfather didn't know until he asked her why she couldn't sit still. I was born the next day, and when my grandmother got home she didn't believe my grandfather when he said I was born and he was waiting for her to go to the hospital.

So that ladies and gentlemen is what was happening to me 30 years ago this day :) And the story was much cuter coming from my dad!

TAG - You're it...

As it seems, I have been tagged by Rachel! I didn't realize there was tagging allowed in blog world, but it seems pretty fun, so I'll give it a try. In being tagged I have been told to share 10 little known facts about myself and then tag other bloggers to do the same. So here we go...

1. I think sea cucumbers are about the coolest ocean animal there is. I realize that dolphins and sharks get all the hype, but as soon as I learned that they can shoot their guts out of their butts at would-be predators I determined they are way more fun. I also think it's pretty cool that you can use them to squirt people with water. You just pick them up off the bottom and squeeze them a bit and if you are lucky water comes out instead of their guts.

2. That little factoid above about the sea cucumber shooting out it's guts at predators is the only thing I remember from my freshman class biology class. Well that and the scientific name for the jellyfish - Chrysaora quinquiciera. So much for long term memory.

3. I can't remember numbers for the life of me. I have graduated from not one, but two science degree programs but memorizing numbers has just never been my thing. Thank goodness for cell phone address books!

4. I don't eat the corner crusts on bread. Anyone who has seen me eat a sandwich knows this - Maia specifically loves to pick on me about it. It's just too much bread for what little sandwich inside you get at the corner. Although sandwiches aren't the only thing - as a general rule I don't clear my plate on most meals. I don't know why, it just seems to happen. I guess I'm just not convinced that the starving children in Africa will want my scraps by the time they reach Africa.

5. If I were given a chance to be an animal it would be an otter! Have you seen how much fun they look like they are having even in a zoo. Imagine how cool it is to be an otter in the wild...well as long as you are an otter in the wild far away from killer whales.

6. The smell of diesel makes me sick. It's really annoying actually. I always hated switching tanks during 2 dive trips because inevitably the boat smells like diesel the whole time. It's also really annoying that I can tell when there is a truck somewhere up in the traffic line and yet I can't get out from behind the smell.

7. Speaking of smells - when I'm about to get a migraine, I don't see an aura, I smell really really super well. I know it's weird, but I'm not kidding. That knowing when I'm sitting behind a truck in traffic turns into knowing that in about 5 miles we are going to pass a truck. I'm serious people, this is no joke. And add the diesel smell making me sick to the sick feeling once I get the migraine and we are in for a world of trouble.

8. I ate an ant in the Amazon. It tasted like lemons. Our guide told us to try it and I figured, hey, when else am I going to eat an ant?

9. I did synchronized swimming for 5 years. Yep, it's true - I put more make-up on in those 5 years than I have the rest of my life. Not to mention knox gelatin in my hair. In the end, my duet partner and I got a really good score when we didn't deserve it and I decided that I couldn't stand the fact that now that we were known we could get good scores even though we were just as good 3 years before but weren't known and so couldn't get good scores. Kinda ironic that I quit once I was considered 'known' enough. Oh well, I never liked holding my breathe while upside down in the water for minutes at a time anyway.

10. I don't have a bone behind my left ear. When I was about 12, I had a reoccurring ear infection that my new uncle (who happened to be an ear doctor) finally diagnosed as mastoiditis (the mastoid bone is the one behind your ear). So, that year instead of going to the state swim meet I was having ear surgery and not allowed in the water for 3 months (yes, all of summer swim season). But, I now have a functioning ear drum, only 10% hearing loss, and get to freak out my uncle by going diving (which as an ear doctor he is really not happy about).

Hope it was enjoyable!

In turn, I have tagged:
Sandor
Ad
Aunt Barb
Have fun! It was actually quite entertaining.

A Soapbox Moment

Over the last few months, I have referenced a number of blog and or websites that my friend Ad has sent me. He is far more versed in searching the web for interesting material than I and so I am always very entertained to read what he feels was worthwhile sending me. Many times it is something he figures I would find interesting, but every once and a while he'll throw one in there that he knows will fire me up just to pick on me (such as an article about how there is no link between autism and mercury in vaccines...don't get me started). I'm not sure which side of the coin the most recent e-mail belonged, for while it didn't make me want to start trowing things like the autism article did, it did get my brain going on all the ways I would question this person's view on the world. I decided that since I've been rather neglectful of my blog as of late that I would include my comment back here rather than in an e-mail to Ad. If you would like to read the entire blog entry he sent me it is located here: Turing'd.

If you didn't read the entry I'll quickly explain - the author suggests that certain professions have been turing'd (I'm not sure where this word came from, I for one while using 'googled' and 'texted' rather frequently, definitely missed this word's entry into our vocabulary), while others have not. From what I gather it means that certain professions have embraced the use of computers to accomplish what used to be accomplished by humans, while others hold out that humans still do things better. I will specifically be commenting on the last sentences of the blog which state: "Once you are Turing'd it is much easier to believe other occupations which we humans used to do uniquely, can be done by computers. You tend to be open to disruptive technology in all parts of your life. Have you been Turing'd?"

I will start my rebuttal by stating that I most definitely have not be turing'd. While I absolutely appreciate what computers can do and find many things extremely useful, I do not feel that as a general statement it can be said that computers will one day be able to do everything better than humans. They may be able to do many things faster than humans, however, faster does not necessarily mean better - please reference the childhood story of the Tortoise and Hare. I do not believe I would be as convinced of this fact if I did not have the specific job that I do. For those of you who don't know (or never knew how to explain it), my job is to provide science based information to people who are making decisions that impact coastal resources. The longer I am in this position the more I find a need to understand the discipline of social science in addition to the more classic biological sciences that I crammed in my brain in mass amounts during school. As a result I have become less impressed with technology's claim to be able to do all things than I was previously. I am daily faced with the question of 'how do I explain the many facets of this issue in a way that people can a) understand what it means and b) be compelled to change their behavior as a result. And let me tell you, a computer most certainly does NOT solve this question.

Let's take a specific example so I can make my point - I am presently setting up a workshop on wetlands. The audience of this workshop are developers, engineers, architects, planners and planning commission member who make decisions on development and it's impact on wetlands. Now, I first need to explain to these people who have not had 7 years of school specific to biological sciences why wetlands are important and why they should be protected in certain cases. I then need to let them know what regulations impact wetlands so that everyone is working on the same page regarding what can and can not be done (because believe me there is a lot of uncertainty on this issue). And lastly I need to offer up some solutions to them and help them look at these possible solutions constructively to determine if they would in fact work within their scope of work. Oh, and all of this needs to be done in about a 6 hour period, with appropriate breaks at an appropriate location with appropriate notice so that the appropriate people attend in the first place. Computers and technology greatly assist in my ability to inform the developers, engineers and architect portion of that audience group of the existence of said meeting. It also greatly assists in my finding appropriate speakers through searching the web, production of materials for the attendees, keeping track of people's contact information, keeping up to date on any changes in the political arena via online news updates and the like, the speaker's ability to add visuals into their talk through PowerPoint, the attendees ability to gather information post-meeting from my website, and a variety of other lesser things such as simply keeping track of my life on Microsoft Outlook's calendar. It does NOT however, in any way replace me in the equation. Not to act as if I'm super spectacular, really anyone who is committed and organized with proper training could do my job. But it needs to be a person. A computer will not be able to call the speakers and explain to them the intent of the course, work out with them what material should be presented, or present that material. In fact I have seen talks when people rely on PowerPoint and do not add their own 'human' touch, and it is a painful experience (with no increase in knowledge on my part by the way). A computer will also not be able to replace the interaction that is made by the 60 or so people that attend this meeting, and would not be able to map how these people may collaborate or network based simply on being in the same room, hearing the same information and starting up conversations based on their own unique personalities and experiences. A computer would also not be able to go back to work and apply this information in an effective manner, because while there are plenty of computer programs that can apply these ideas when deciding how to develop a plot of land - if there is not someone who wants to use them they are not going to be used no matter how great they are.

I could go on, but I think I have more or less made my point and do at some point have to actually get back to doing the work that goes into said wetlands workshop - because I promise my computer will not do it by itself. But I would like to summarize my opinion. I have not been turing'd because I think that at our core humans are social creatures and for that reason our culture will not allow social interaction to be done away with even if it is more efficient to do so. We have been trying to have computers do quite a number of things, and yet I am not convinced they even do them better than the people they replaced, so why would I propose they do more? I have yet to receive a call where I hear the pause caused by a computer dialing the number and transferring me to a person that I did not hang up on. I have yet to find an automated call number that didn't frustrate me enough to want to throw my phone across the room (that is unless in the very first menu it gave me the option to push one button and get a real person). I absolutely LOVE the fact that I can drive up to a gas pump, scan my credit card, pump my gas, get back in my car and head off. I would not however, be very psyched if I pulled up to a doctor office, scanned my thumbprint, listened to an automated recording of what may be wrong with me, was given a bunch of colored pills I was supposed to take and put back in my car. I personally will always prefer a real human doctor on this one, even with all their possible mistakes. I LOVE the fact I can keep up with my friends via blogs so that the major points in life are cataloged and I don't forget to ask them about theirs or tell them about mine. I would not however, like if my only way to speak to my friends was through totally unspecific blog entries posted through the world wide web. I prefer sitting down with coffee (that was made by a person by the way, I'm picky with my coffee) and chat about life.

So, I may be the only one left, but I am very happy to have not been turing'd and hope that others join me.

Social Butterflies

Sandor and I were quite the little social butterflies this weekend. Saturday we headed to church for the Eggstravaganza at which we helped with egg painting, egg hunting, egg relays - all things egg! It was quite entertaining, and being that the weather was beautiful this weekend, it was quite a nice day to spend outside. On Sunday we headed up to Columbia to attend Griffin's 2nd birthday party a-la-zoo style. The Griffin man was quite entertained by the entire experience, although he seemed to be a bit confused by the whole animals hanging out with people thing. My favorite animals of the day were the giraffe and the meerkats. I have been to the zoo a few times, but never realized they had meerkats - man those little guys are hilarious. I loved this one who was literally sitting in the sun and hanging out.

You could feed the giraffes, which was entertaining for us adults - Griffin however, was not amused.
Not until Dad helped him by moving him a little further bad from the large giraffe head :)

After our trip to the zoo, we then headed to Caleb and Michelle's for a St. Patrick's Day celebration of sorts. As always is the case at their house, while everyone else smoked and grilled, I played with the kids. We had a grand time swinging on the swingset - have you ever tried to swing 3 kids while swinging yourself? It is actually quite entertaining. At one point I decided my hips really did not fit in the swing although I had tried for about an hour to pretend that I wasn't cutting the blood off to my feet - so we moved over to the chairs and the kids took turns showing me pieces of dirt and grass while I commented on how interesting each piece was. When the one little boy decided to bring Caleb a piece of dog poop we stopped that game. Notice I was not brought the dog poop - while I definitely appreciated. After a lovely dinner of brats we headed in to watch a bit of Dora the Explorer before the went to bed - all in all a very calm evening. Apparently I have been deemed the kid whisperer.

So now back to work - at least I got my weekend in the sun!