July 01, 2008

Big news! Starbucks is closing 0.00000001% of its franchises. See article. This may equate to more hardship for you if you have to walk or drive one more block to the next closest Starbucks. I wonder if this will slow down their plan to open up 200 new Starbucks franchises in Antarctica (one every 50 square yards).

I'm not a big fan of Starbucks since I try to keep sugar intake in my diet to a minimum. I think of their products as "sugar masquerading as overpriced coffee".

Posted by megabeth at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

 
June 27, 2008

One of my biggest fears in life is that I'll end up with less money by investing in equities for retirement than if I had just put everything in a savings account. I really, really, REALLY don't want to spend the rest of my life working. Another thing that scares me is that if *I* don't do well (a person who has diligently saved for retirement since graduating from college), then that does not fare well for people who either chose not to or could not afford to save. We'll all be in the poor house together in thirty years.

So far, investing in equities for retirement appears to be a bad choice. My assets are down an estimated 15-20% this year. Including the value of my house. Will my generation will enjoy any of the good fortune that has befallen my parent's generation? Perhaps this is another 1970s and things will look better again in another ten or fifteen years.

If anyone thinks the Democrats are going to fix this, I think that is an incorrect assumption. But I also think that the Republicans aren't going to fix anything, either. I've invested more in international stocks in the past few years because I think the U.S. is no longer going to be the world's economic superpower; we're already on our way out. I wouldn't know where to place blame other than the fact that businesses and consumers in this country have had too much access to cheap credit, and it could take years to get ourselves out of this mess.

I have some equity holdings that were severely under water, and after this week, you could say my portfolio looks like the midwest does right now.

I'm moving most of my investments to Merrill Lynch this month since I am too stupid to manage my accounts without making some very painful mistakes. (Mutual funds, index funds and ETFs can still lose 25%-30%. I'm good at picking those.)

P.S. I thought this article, which presents a different perspective on America's prosperity, was interesting.

Posted by megabeth at 12:25 PM | Comments (3)

 
June 26, 2008

Coosa County, Alabama is one of the least populated counties in Alabama, yet it is just two counties away from the most populated county in the state. Its county seat is Rockford, which had a population of 405 in the year 2005. Rockford used to have a little downtown area but it's now deserted, and its main intersection is a four-way stop. Coosa County was once inhabited by agricultural Indians as late as the 1800s. The terrain is not mountainous because it is a bit south of the foot of the Appalachians, but it has a lot of rolling hills.

We go to the lakehouse several times a year and it's located in the middle of nowhere in Coosa County. The closest town, a 20-25 minute drive, is Wetumpka. The lake itself is privately managed to be a trophy bass fishing lake, which is why we find it somewhat easier than usual to catch a 5+ lb bass (and I have no idea what the heck I am doing out there with a fishing pole).

There are a few fields nearby which are plowed annually and grass is planted that attract deer. I've found several white quartz arrowheads in the field, and again, I have no experience with looking for Indian artifacts. There are numerous random piles of rocks which we can't figure out why they were put there; either to have the area cleared for planting, or as a burial marker. A lot of Coosa County appears to have been logged and then trees were replanted, so some of the forest areas are immature.

I like Coosa County because it is a wonderful place to ride a bike. It is truly in the boonies so traffic volumes are low. And when people do pass, they will slow down and take a good look at the weird people in spandex, then wave hello and continue. Many of the roads on the map don't even have a name or a number assigned to them. We can ride for long stretches without having to stop, and there are farms and other scenery to look at while passing by. During one ride we passed by Equality, then Richville. Both of these towns seem to be non-existant, other than their signs (and a deserted fire department in Richville).

I'll be back in Coosa County for the holiday weekend, looking forward to some more exploration by bike. This time we plan to ride by Weogufka State Forest, which seems to be a very large tract of trees and a mountain, but not much else. I will enjoy the silence.

Posted by megabeth at 10:05 AM | Comments (2)

 
June 23, 2008

On February 17, 2009 I will be completely emancipated from sending money to Charter Communications. That's the day that all television stations on analog are required to broadcast solely on digital. The TV converter box that will be required for older tv sets will allow people to view network tv channels and other free stations in a very clear picture with no fuzz or static. I have been paying Charter to get the network stations ("basic cable") because rabbit ears are not sufficient in my house to pick up much of anything. I will no longer need Charter to provide me with clear reception, which they do intermittently anyway, because they suck.

Posted by megabeth at 02:19 PM | Comments (2)

 
June 19, 2008

Maybe I am a Democrat. I don't agree with McCain/Bush on opening up drilling in currently restricted areas right now. I think that is a knee-jerk reaction to high fuel prices. I am not entirely against it, but I think it should be part of a long term plan AFTER the government has enacted various measures to increase conservation. They've already increased CAFE standards, but those don't go into effect for a while. Why were tax breaks for energy-efficient home installations and hybrid vehicle purchases allowed to expire? It's possible the only way to encourage conservation habits is to suffer through high fuel prices. I don't think people are conserving that much energy at current prices, so I don't see what the big fracas is about energy costs. If you are REALLY hurting, then you would do something about it immediately. Like change your habits. Seems like we should hit the low hanging fruit first (sorry about the silly overused corporate lingo.)

Posted by megabeth at 10:04 AM | Comments (4)

 
June 17, 2008

Little Ruby has been in my life for seven years. She was a pretty hyperactive young dog but always has been a very good girl and now that she is getting into middle age, she is becoming sweeter every day. My sister kept her last week while I was on vacation and decided that she wants to get a dog if it's just like Ruby. I explained to her that puppies aren't like that, that they have to be potty trained and taught to have manners and then most of them won't calm down for five years anyway.

Ruby usually doesn't act like she is interested in me, she won't snuggle with me but likes men better, especially those who have goatees. I guess because I am her 'mom', that familiarity breeds contempt. I've been told this is what it's like to have a teenage child, being underappreciated all the time. However, when I get home from work, she is very excited to see me and lets me give her a belly rub. Sometimes I scoop her up and hold her like a little baby and talk to her in baby talk. She lets me do this for a minute or two before getting annoyed with me.

The love I have for that little dog strengthens every year. When she passes, I'll probably be devastated.

Every morning when I back my car out of the driveway on the way to work, she stands at the fence and watches me intently. It breaks my heart every single day. I don't want to leave her alone, she is too sweet and good.

Posted by megabeth at 03:57 PM | Comments (5)

 
June 16, 2008

I dug up some old photos of Ruby right after Christmas when we went to the lake (in Coosa County, AL) and it snowed. If I made a snowball and threw it, Ruby chased it and then tried to eat it. She also did not like the stuffed Santa Claus doll. Silly girl.

You know you love Christmas in (almost) July. ;) Do you feel cooler already?

Posted by megabeth at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

 

I forget that this blog becomes blank if I don't post for a long time. I was on vacation at the beach all of last week and am now catching up on things at work. Of course I didn't want to come back and wish I could retire now.

We didn't take any photos this time because the camera wasn't working and I won't get all up on Facebook and say inane stuff like "OMG This vacation was SO FABULOUS, too bad you weren't there!!!"

The vacation was one week long, from Friday to Friday, and then I had the weekend at home to catch up and recover. That was planned well.

Posted by megabeth at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)

 
June 06, 2008

Los Angeles sues Time Warner Cable for providing crappy customer service, being dishonest to customers, and billing for intermittent service. Hello. Charter Communications is doing this right here in Homewood, Alabama. I figure that someone on the Homewood city council must be getting some major kickbacks, and the citizens who that person is supposedly representing are going through the same issues affecting Los Angeles residents.

Posted by megabeth at 09:39 AM | Comments (1)

 
June 05, 2008

Yesterday I saw a SUV that was entirely in its own lane. I clapped. Someone should give that driver a little gold star sticker!

Posted by megabeth at 07:57 AM | Comments (1)

 
June 02, 2008

I never thought I'd say this, but my next laptop purchase will probably be a Mac. I've been a PC holdout because I needed some Windows-based software like MS Office and other IT-related apps when I was working in the IT world. I no longer need to use those apps and I can get Microsoft Office for the mac. My current laptop is a Dell. I bought a 3 year warranty and used the heck out of it. It expires in two weeks and my hard drive went bad last week. I installed a new one gratis since I had the warranty. I figure this hard drive could last another couple of years and by then I'll be ready to purchase a new laptop. Like most people I am sick of (a) viruses and trojans (b) my computer has 'new updates' every three minutes and wants to restart itself all the time (c) it takes 5-10 minutes for my Windows desktop to load up once I've powered the computer on. I just want everything to be easy and most of all, I am sick of some random process locking up my computer while I am trying to use it. Also, firewall software that asks me every 2 seconds if an application is okay to run when I've already told it ten times that the application is okay to run. So if it takes me ten minutes to check email, nine of those minutes were wasted thanks to Windows. I'm ready to jump off this train.

Posted by megabeth at 03:44 PM | Comments (5)

 
May 29, 2008

I've been recycling all of my plastic containers and I just finished a container of Clif Shot Endurolyte, but there is no number on the container. The lid is a type 5 so I was able to recycle it. Anyhow, I thought I'd email Clif to see what the deal is on their containers since I'm sure they would like for them to be recycled. Their response was silence. They are green. At least that is their opinion. But probably not mine.

Posted by megabeth at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)

 
May 27, 2008

Does drafting behind an 18 wheeler help increase highway gas mileage?

Here are some answers:
Yes at distances less than 100 feet, but it is not safe because at 100 feet your response time is only 1.25 seconds.

Discovery's Mythbusters found an 11 percent savings by following a truck at 100 feet.

A hundred feet seems awfully close, but I didn't find any tests done at 150 or 200 feet, so I suppose at any distance over 100 feet, there is no benefit.

Increasing gas mileage isn't much of a concern right now, anyway. I was driving on the highway yesterday (Memorial day) for a short trip and at 65-70 mph, I was being passed like my car was sitting still.

I just don't think $4 gas is all that big of a deal. If it were, you'd see people changing their habits. I think the news media is blowing it all out of proportion since they like to turn the most insignificant events into doomsday (see: weather related stories like "Thunderstorm 2006" or "The Rain Shower of 2008").

You don't hear Europeans whining about gas prices, and they have been paying $7-8/gallon for at least 15-20 years. I'd like to see gas here go up to $7-8 gallon and see what the general response is. My prediction is: maybe 5-10% will change their habits, but everyone else will keep driving SUVs, driving at high speeds, and driving frequently. Here are some reasons why nothing will change:

a) The U.S. infrastructure was built on cheap gas. Most people can't change where they live or work quickly, so they'll continue to deal with urban sprawl.
b) Most people think in the short term financially. Thus, if you had to take a big hit to sell your SUV to get a smaller car, you'd rather pay the incremental gas cost than lose a few thousand at once.
c) My spending habits may not be typical, but currently gasoline is 3.5% of my monthly spending (includes non-discretionary), with an estimated 10-12,000 miles driven per year. Whoop-te-doo.

The only people hurt by gas prices in my opinion, are people who are earning minimum wage. The rest of us, who may have to sacrifice buying that fifth flat screen tv this year, are not suffering, regardless of what the news media says.

Posted by megabeth at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)

 
May 25, 2008

Friday was my first day of bike commuting to work this year. Everything went splendidly. The money I saved on gas immediately was spent on fueling the engine that runs the bike. There was only one jerk encounter with someone who buzzed us. But most drivers seem to be more patient and understanding of people riding bikes and wearing back packs. Getting prepared for the bike commute is a little bit of an inconvenience (I try to bring my clothes a day early to work) but I should get into the swing of things. My goal this summer is to commute 3 to 4 days for every 10 days of work. It really depends on how things go if I am riding alone. If other drivers harass me a lot (this happens more often for a lone cyclist because a driver thinks he/she can get away with vehicular assault if there are no witnesses), then I'll have to cut back on my bike commutes. And I'll drive my car instead, increase demand for gas, thus raising the price, making other cars wait longer at red lights, and decreasing air quality. Sounds like a win-win if I'm not harassed on the bike. Too bad some people don't agree with me (and yes, I hate those people).

Posted by megabeth at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

 
May 23, 2008

A good article about basic gas saving tips.

I've slowed down my driving speed lately and think other people have done the same thing. HOWEVER, there is such a thing as 'too slow' and there are a lot of drivers who seem to be doing that also. It's not the actual speed of the car that is annoying me to death. It is how long the car takes to make a right or left turn. If you are making a right turn, it is not okay to come to a full stop and hang out, maybe call someone and pick some lint out off the dashboard and contemplate the meaning of life before completing the turn. This sort of behavior is probably wasteful of gas because it causes people to idle while they are waiting five minutes for someone who shouldn't have a drivers license to make a right turn.

Another thing I've seen happen several times lately: On a one way street with three or four lanes (downtown is like this), you cannot make a turn, right or left, from the center lane. It hurts me to think of how stupid some people can be. The wonderful thing about city blocks is: if you miss a turn, you can go to the next block and turn there. It is not worth causing a massive pileup because you have to turn that instant at that street, regardless of your or anyone else's safety.

Birmingham is so chock full of idiots, it scares me.

Posted by megabeth at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

 
May 22, 2008

The trading floor is an area with 6' by 6' cubicles with low walls so that people can talk to each other without standing up. It's a lively environment. I don't work on the floor, but I work with a lot of people on the floor so I'm on the floor just about every day for some purpose.

Someone dropped a bomb in the bathroom this morning adjacent to the trading floor. I could smell it from a hundred feet away. As I got closer, I thought I might need a gas mask. Luckily, I didn't pass out.

Seriously, if you need to poop and the bathroom is in close quarters, try walking to a distant bathroom where people are not working ten feet away. It is just a common courtesy.

Posted by megabeth at 03:47 PM | Comments (2)

 
May 19, 2008

I am working with some forecasting consultants at work and the general consensus is that oil prices will go back down sometime in the next year, although Goldman Sachs thinks it is going up to $200/barrel in the next six months. One article I read notes that $25 of the current barrel price is a premium resulting from high levels of market speculation.

Part of me likes the higher gasoline prices because (supposedly) there are less drivers on the road. But considering that Americans will drive their finances into the ground instead of changing their habits, those who can afford it will continue driving often and aggressively, and those who can't afford it will continue driving often and aggressively on credit.

I tried an experiment the past few weeks: I started driving my car in a way that makes it more fuel efficient (meaning more gradual accelerations and decelerations). Around town I am getting 26-27 mpg. But this is pissing a bunch of other aggressive drivers off, because driving the speed limit in Birmingham is a cardinal sin that will win you the bird finger and a pickup truck (with University of Alabama stickers) hovering three inches from your bumper.

Since I drive about 10,000 miles per year, an increase in fuel prices won't kill my budget. At 26 mpg, a dollar increase in fuel will cost me an extra $385 annually. I think that is the case for many people in the middle class who take mostly short distance trips. I don't think habits will change until gas is around $6-7/gallon.

Posted by megabeth at 05:47 PM | Comments (7)

 
May 15, 2008

I never thought I'd go skeet shooting in my lifetime. But this week my department took vendors/customers out on various activities and one of them was skeet shooting, and I decided I would like to try it out. The weather was awful and it rained all day, so instead of going through the course (15 stations), we did the 5-round. The location was very nice. I decided it was worth getting wet to try it out, and I also thought that I would never hit anything. I used a 20-gauge shotgun and starting hitting clays from the easier launch point after 3 or 4 tries. I only shot 25 rounds because the gun hurt my shoulder (from the kick back). And one of the employees loaded my gun each time since I am a newbie. It was fun. After playing around with the pellet gun in my backyard (still trying to thin the chipmunk population), I decided I like shooting guns, so clays are nice since I'm not killing anything. I'd like to try quail hunting, though, since it is one game meat that I would like to eat.

The industry I work in has increasing numbers of females in the past several years, but it still feels very much like a boys club. I didn't think I'd be able to schlepp with people since I have zero interest in football of any kind, but being athletic has made up for that. But I still hate golf.

Posted by megabeth at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

 
May 12, 2008

Whew! My sister got married this weekend and I need a week-long vacation on a deserted island by myself to recharge. I won't get more than a few hours by myself at any point in time, so I'll be in a bad mood until I can spend at least one weekend day alone.

I can think of a thousand reasons why I wouldn't go that route for a wedding, but being capable of being absolutely exhausted from being around people is one of the major ones, why my wedding should involve as few people as possible, maybe even as little as two.

Another thing is that my mother has managed to piss off so many people that some of them (family members) did not show up at all and some of the ones who did were acting like jerks. To me. And I didn't do anything to deserve being treated like that, since I keep my involvement in my mother's affairs to a bare minimum.

Anyhow, if someone ticks you off, please don't take it out on their children. They are innocent.

It makes me think my mother was right for whatever she did or stood up for if the people that she quarreled with act that ugly around people who are related, but weren't involved.

Posted by megabeth at 04:15 PM | Comments (1)

 
May 09, 2008

I am probably the only person who has noticed this interesting phenomena in the grocery store. How much does a bag of Tostitos cost? Well, nobody would know until they actually paid for it. I've been to several grocery stores and it is obvious that the Frito Lay company has directed the stores to remove all price stickers for their products, including the price label on the shelves. The bags themselves do not have a price printed on them, either. Is this to keep the consumer ignorant that corn (and other food commodity prices) are going up? I don't think that this is Frito Lay's responsibility. I figure a bag of chips is probably 3 or 4 bucks. But I'd like to be informed BEFORE buying the bag if they have decided to jack the price up to 5 or 6.

Another bone I have to pick with Frito Lay: their chip bags say something like, "Cooked with all natural oils!" Well, DUH. Oil comes from the earth. Even petroleum, an oil that we consider to be inedible, comes from the earth. This is like saying, "Potato chips that are made from potatoes!"

Frito Lay has done something right lately; they are now making a lower salt version of their potato and tortilla chips. However, for the privilege of having less salt added to your food, you get 30% less product for the same price as the extremely salty food. I bought a bag of Frito Lay reduced salt potato chips, and you can actually taste the potato flavor that is inherent in food that is made from potatoes. This is quite a change in comparison to today's American diet, which can be summarized briefly as, "Would you like some [insert food here] with your salt?"

Posted by megabeth at 08:21 AM | Comments (1)

 
May 06, 2008

I've become a better environmental steward lately, I guess because the increase in oil prices has led me to think about what happens if resources (and clean air and water) become scarce one day. I would feel guilty for being a mindless contributor to that. So we moved an existing cage that was being used to keep critters away from the cabbage plants up the hill and turned it into a compost bin. The lid had not been installed yet, so the other day my neighbor emails me to let me know that she found Ruby stuck inside the compost bin. I don't know how she managed to get in because the walls are fairly high. Apparently she put on her pitiful act so that my neighbor would rescue her. The reason I needed a more robust compost bin was primarily Ruby, because last summer I caught her eating corn cobs and the resultant methane emissions were very unpleasant.

The compost bin now has a lid on it. She can only gaze with desire at the stinky contents inside.

I also started a second recycling bin for plastics and glass that my city curbside program does not accept. The recycling center is downtown close to my office. If you live around here, it's Alabama Environmental Council.

Posted by megabeth at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

 
April 29, 2008

Once my toe heals up (week or so) I am going to start bike commuting again to work.

My car gets better gas mileage than I thought. For a trip to Atlanta that involved 85% highway and 15% city driving, my car registered 35 miles per gallon. But I want to be conservative and estimate that my car gets 24 mpg in the city. My round trip commute to work is about 13 miles so at $3.50 a gallon, my cost for a one-day commute is $1.90. That isn't enough to motivate me to ride my bike to work, but since I enjoy it, I'll do it anyway.

Addendum - I think there is something wrong with the fact that my 1997 car gets better gas mileage than most newer cars. Computers have made huge strides in the past ten years. So have television sets. Hybrids are new since 1997, but continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) have been around since before my car was manufactured. I test drove a CVT version of my car in 1997. And diesel fuel is a sloppy solution. Diesel emissions stink (and make people sick, I don't care how German your car is) and diesel fuel is now selling at a premium to unleaded ($4.06 per gallon average this month). Anyhow, it just seems like in ten years car manufacturers could have figured out how to build a cheaper or same cost version with better gas mileage.

Posted by megabeth at 03:13 PM | Comments (4)

 
April 26, 2008

I thought I would elaborate on my broken toe and how it happened. It is hard for me to admit I am stupid sometimes :-P but this lesson will hopefully influence other people who read this to practice safe lawn mowing habits.

When I was mowing the lawn on Sunday, it got stuck on the edge of the grass in some mud so I used my foot to push it out. Bad idea. Come to think of it, I have always used my foot to push the mower when needed. So what I've learned from this is to never use your foot to do anything with a mower. My foot slipped underneath the mower and it grazed the top of my foot. I was lucky because it only cut one toe, the fourth smallest one. The blade grazed the third toe and gave it a little scrape. The cut was about 1/2 deep into the toe. The damage was that it cut the skin (obviously), the tendon into two pieces, one artery, busted the joint capsule open, and decimated about 1/4 inch of the small toe bone at the end. Pulverized it into a powder, and left a small chipped piece which they did not retrieve because it would have required cutting. God makes our bodies with rendundant parts so your toes each have two arteries for blood supply. I had one uncut artery, which is the only reason why I still have a toe right now. The first thing we looked at after it happened is that the toe was turning blue or still pink, and fortunately it was pink (and purple).

Five days after this accident, I am no longer using crutches, which is also a testament to how quickly our bodies heal. It still has a ways to go, still sore, but I can hobble around as a bipedal animal again.

My father wants me to get a new mower (mine is very old) because the new ones have a safety feature when you let go of the handle, the blades stop turning. That would not have helped me in this situation because I was still holding onto the handle. Safety features on mowers are nice and can prevent accidents, but let's say a child runs out in the yard up to the mower and then slips and falls underneath it. The safety feature is not going to prevent that kind of accident. I know that I will never cut the grass again (or use a weed eater) without wearing steel toe boots. And probably will never use a chain saw again, though I'm one of those crazy people who find cutting things up with a chain saw to be a wonderful stress buster.

Accidents like this one happen in a flash. I deeply regret that it happened and am thankful it wasn't worse. But it served as a reminder that accidents can happen so quickly - if we knew they were coming, we would have avoided them.

The long term effects of this will be minimal - I may have some arthritis in that joint for the rest of my life. I should be back on the bike again in about a week to ten days.

One thing people keep asking me is how bad it hurt. When you experience a trauma, for a few minutes you can't feel it at all. Then the pain came and I got used to it. When we drove to the ER, the air circulating in the car was causing much pain because when you get a cut to the bone, air touching the bone is not a pleasant thing to feel. The next painful experience was when the doctor put shots in the toe to numb it up. Those were extremely brief. Then the nurse put a shot of antibiotics in my hip, and I thought my leg was burning and would fall off any minute. Truly the worst pain of the whole thing was that stupid shot. I refused any pain medications. I've felt far worse pain before than this. On a scale of 1 to 10, at times it was a 5 or 6 at the most. My pain tolerance is decent. That's why I can suffer on the bike. :)

Posted by megabeth at 12:28 PM | Comments (2)

 
April 23, 2008

Lately I haven't had the time to post updates. Just too busy right now. I had a little accident with the lawnmower on Sunday and broke the toe next to the little pinky toe on my right foot. I'm very annoyed with life on crutches. I can drive but can't walk until the pain subsides some more. Should be able to go back to cycling in a few weeks. My sister's wedding is in three weeks so I may be back at the mall looking for a pair of flats to wear with the bridesmaid gown. The bright side is that I need some time to get some stuff done that I usually make excuses not to do. Like Roth IRA allocations and financial planning and updating financial software.

On Monday I tried to install a Netgear router and was on the phone with Dell and Netgear technical support for literally four hours. And another few hours fiddling with the set-up. After all that, we could not get my laptop to connect to the router. So basically an entire wasted day on nothing. I decided to give up on going wireless in my house. It is not worth six hours of my time to set up. That hurt far worse than breaking my toe. I hate computers.

Posted by megabeth at 11:57 AM | Comments (3)

 
April 15, 2008

I just learned that karting is a sport. People buy their own go karts and take lessons and compete with each other. I am in Atlanta at a conference and one of the vendor companies took us to Andretti's for some fun. The go cart track was indoors and had a lot of tight turns. It was rather challenging and one time I crashed into a wall and no longer need a chiropractic adjustment. After that taste of speed, we proceeded to the video game room and played the race car video game where you compete against several of your buddies at once. That's when I became insanely aggressive (in the fantasy world of video games) and started driving my race car like a maniac. It was a blast.

The following two nights I have been to dinners with various companies so my social energy meter is completely drained out. I need three days in complete solitude to recover.

We are staying at the Hotel Intercontinental, which is the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. I have bathed an average of two times a day in order to fully enjoy the lush bathroom, which makes my bathroom at home look like a filthy public restroom in a football stadium after a game. Okay, not that bad in reality, but I feel an immediate need to renovate and open my wallet for the polished marble.

I took a 'sugar vacation' and allowed myself to enjoy the desserts that were offered to me, so I started to feel like crap today. There is a distinct correlation.

We also had a spa day and I graciously enjoyed the 90 minute massage while other people (mostly the guys) played golf in 45 degree weather and rain.

I am hoping to squeeze in a few hours of shopping tomorrow before heading back to Birmingham and getting my damn hour back. I need that hour.

Posted by megabeth at 10:02 PM | Comments (4)

 
April 11, 2008

The website tipping.org is a place for angry people who work in the food service industry to throw tantrums and whine about how little they are getting paid.

It isn't so true anymore, but people who go to college and get master's degrees and PhDs should probably make more money than people who dropped out of high school. Otherwise, why would people suffer so much to get through medical school? They deserve to be rewarded. Maybe doctors should be the ones receiving tips. Not people who put soup in a styrofoam bowl and hand it over the counter to a customer. I'm pretty sure that being well and/or alive is more important than being fed.

What I don't understand is tipping for take out. I think a restaurant should (a) charge an extra fee for the disposable food containers and utensils and (b) raise their menu prices if the people who work there aren't getting paid enough. I tip the person who cuts my hair, and they even went to school and learned a skill, whereas putting some plastic forks in a paper bag doesn't require any training.

So if I should tip the person 20% who gives me the pizza I ordered over the phone when I pick it up, then there would be no point in ordering take-out instead of delivery. And if I ordered delivery, I would tip the delivery driver instead of the person who assembled the order. Would the assembly person be angry about this?

Why would the person who gave me a burger and fries at McDonalds (hypothetically. I don't eat there.) not deserve a tip if the person who brought me a pizza inside a box deserves a tip?

Maybe we should start tipping retail cashiers since they put the clothes I buy in a bag.

Also the people who take my credit card statement and check out of the envelope to process the payment since they had to do some work.

And the people I buy stuff from on Ebay because they went to the trouble to put the thing I bought in a box and affix postage to it.

Also the guy who puts the drinks in the Coke machine at work becuase that is super, super hard work.

Oh! I did not mean to forget the person at church who gives me the program for the day's service. They should get at least $5 each time they do that.

There has to be a point where people draw the line at tipping, and people who think they should be tipped who don't deserve it are akin to beggars.

If I tipped the people who greatly enhanced my life, then I would be leaving large sums of cash for doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists (who I do tip generously). And also car mechanics, but since they can't be honest, they wouldn't get much anyway. And plumbers and electricians, since life would stink without those luxuries.

Posted by megabeth at 08:36 AM | Comments (3)

 
April 10, 2008

Sometimes work is fun. Like when I get paid to go bowling. We had a 'team building' event this week at the bowling alley. And next week at a conference, we had the choice of golf or a spa day. So I am getting paid to get a massage. I'm also getting paid to race go-carts in Atlanta. This is the kind of conference I like. It's a relationship building event instead of going to hours upon hours of presentations.

There are times when work is not so fun, like when we are doing the budget or compiling data for reports we send to government agencies. Also, I am often disturbed by the fact that I spend many of my waking hours in a small cubicle. Sometimes they let us out.

Posted by megabeth at 09:51 AM | Comments (1)

 
April 06, 2008

I took some vacation this week to unwind at the lake. The fish are biting good since it is spawning season. I caught around ten, most of them under 2 lbs. They were going for every kind of lures - spinners, minnows, worms and lizards. The biggest one I caught was 6 lbs. View image

I forgot to bring a hat so I borrowed my boyfriend's mother's sun visor. Niiiice.

Also I'm too chicken to touch the fish without a glove. I'm working on that. This is the first time I would remove the hook from the fish myself.

Posted by megabeth at 11:57 AM | Comments (4)

 
March 19, 2008

I'm not saying this out of jealousy because I want to get married. I'm saying this because my rear end is hurting from the giant pain in it. Here is what's required of me:

-$250 dress I will wear once.
-$35 shoes I will wear once.
-$100+ for hair makeup and nails day of wedding.
-1/2 day vacation I am forced to take because of a luncheon. I get three weeks a year. Three weeks. That is all.
-One Friday evening and entire Saturday for the wedding.
-One saturday night for a shower.
-One saturday afternoon for a shower.
-One sunday afternoon for a tea.
-One entire saturday from noon until midnight for a marathon bachelorette event including, of course, another two showers.
-buy a bunch of cute little 'outfits' for the showers.
-buy gifts for each shower/tea thingy.

I don't have any issues with giving gifts. But I would never make someone take vacation from work for me for a social event I am having. I would find that to be a selfish act.

Out of all the sacrifices I am having to make, being forced to take 1/2 day vacation is the largest and most painful. Much more painful than buying a dress I will wear once. Four hours away from work is about ten times more valuable than three hundred dollars.

The American wedding tradition is just about the most irrational thing in the history of the world. Plenty of people get married. Several times. This is not an honor that requires you to have fourteen different parties.

The thing that makes me barf is when the bride says "Thank you for being a part of my very special day." In other words, "Thank you for quietly tolerating my bridezilla behavior, I am only doing this because my friends did it to me when they got married."

My friends and I threw a baby shower last weekend. One baby shower, not ten of them. It was low key. There were no baby decorations, tacky paper invitations or caterers, and there was no dress code. I wore flip flops! Nobody had to go out and buy a little outfit to wear because she was so concerned that other people might make negative comments on her clothes. We brought home cooked food and everyone ate and talked and the guest of honor opened gifts. All that matters in my opinion is fellowship. But I guess that Hallmark and the wedding industry would have to strongly disagree with my anti-consumer attitude. Also the cultural offspring of Amy Vanderbilt would have major objections because they don't have anything else to do with themselves, except make excuses to go shopping.

Posted by megabeth at 03:59 PM | Comments (9)

 
March 13, 2008

It's interesting how a person rationalizes things after making a decision to ensure it was the right one. I had a dream last night that I found a house to buy that had this wonderful, big backyard with lots of sunlight for a garden. And today I reviewed the comps for the area where I live and I feel very optimistic. If I can sell the house for $X, representing a reasonable but slightly optimistic price, then I would be freeing up enough equity to buy another house with a 15 year mortgage AND have a lower monthly payment than I do now. Assuming current rates, though. If they go up, it will be more difficult to sell. The more I think about it, despite that the real estate market is depressed, the best time to change houses is when rates are very low. It is a very good time to buy and sell especially for those who are not trying to bite off more than they can chew - I don't care what the pundits are saying. In this city, at least, where employment is stable and that does not experience the wild upswings and downswings like other cities.

Or I'm just rationalizing my silly decision.

Posted by megabeth at 03:38 PM | Comments (4)

 
March 06, 2008

And you wonder why the airlines are struggling. American Airlines flies five passengers from Chicaco to London.

Posted by megabeth at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)

 
March 04, 2008

I've decided to (try to) sell my house this spring due to several various reasons. I know it's a bad time to sell, but it's a good time to buy. I figure it wouldn't be terrible to take the hit first, then get the benefit later. There's no guarantee I'll be able to sell it at a price that is acceptable and in that case the world won't end and I'll continue to own the house.

This decision has resulted in a minor crisis because I can't decide what to do next. I'm channeling my 'gut', which says to (a) move closer to work, even though I'm not too far from it now, and (b) try to find something that costs less than what I sell my house for, and (c) something that is mostly updated as my current house wore me plumb out on renovation work. I also considered scaling WAY down, but can't think of a good way to do this and live close to work as well as allowing some space between myself and my neighbors. The idea was that I could pay off the purchase entirely and not have a mortgage. Well, the only people my age who don't have a mortgage received a special gift from their parents. So it isn't realistic. Instead I will try to get a 15 year loan this time so I can pay it off faster.

Anyhow, this means I'll spend less time on my bike while getting the house ready. I'm still kind of in denial about this decision so it hasn't set it that I am going to be spending most of my free time for two months painting, cleaning, and updating.

Posted by megabeth at 04:57 PM | Comments (4)

 
February 28, 2008

Bush's dividend tax cuts save me a whopping total of $161 this year.

I wonder how much the rich folks saved. Probably $100,000 for each person.

Posted by megabeth at 07:37 AM | Comments (1)

 
February 27, 2008

I recently got a promo USB drive at work and the instructions were hilarious. Someone in China did not speak English too well, but they gave it their best shot. "Driver in stallion" = "Driver installation". And about a hundred other grammatical or spelling errors. This kind of stuff cracks me up. I love finding errors on restaurant menus. Check it out (pdf).

Posted by megabeth at 01:42 PM | Comments (1)

 

This does not give me a good feeling. If our country is in more debt than any other country, then why are we spending so much money?

This is evidence that the U.S. wedding tradition has gone way overboard. If a women is willing to jeopardize her health in order to 'look good' on her wedding day, then our values are severely twisted. Weddings have become a largely expensive and stressful event for the bride and groom. It doesn't make sense to me. I'd think people would want to enjoy their own wedding instead of putting themselves into debt and feeling stressed out for several months of wedding planning. But I am too rational of a person, and sometimes don't understand the behavior that goes along with irrational thought (also known as 'emotional motives').

Posted by megabeth at 09:33 AM | Comments (2)

 
February 25, 2008

I moved my domain-specific email over to Google Apps last week. It took a while because my domain registrar has a confusing user interface and no instructions. But after the kinks were worked out, I now have FREE email for my domain name with the excellent spam filtering that Google provides, as well as POP3 and the same webmail interface as Gmail users.

One reason why I moved it is because AT&T's DSL service has blocked port 25 for sending outgoing email. They are forcing their customers to use a bellsouth.net address if you want to use Outlook or similar mail reader. I prefer doing that over using webmail because it is quicker to send and receive emails. So, the most beautiful thing of all about Google's email (including Gmail) is that they don't use port 25 at all! I have been able to bypass AT&T's stupid rule.

I belive Google Apps has some minimal free webhosting, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Posted by megabeth at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

 
February 21, 2008

I have naked DSL with AT&T and decided I want to pay my bill online. So I went to their website and tried to log in with what I thought was my login and password. Then I realized I do not have an online account so I went to the registration page. On that page, you have to request an online registration code that is either given to you over the phone or sent by snail mail. The number that is automatically entered, however, is my account number, and since I have naked DSL, it does not work. So they are going to call a non working number to give me a registration code so that I can have an online account.

I decided to call them to see if there is another way to get that 'code'. The first number I called, was put on hold for 10 minutes to discover that I need to talk to someone at this other number, so she transferred me. Then I chose the option for having technical problems with the website. The automated voice told me to go the website at www.att.com and then hung up on me (!). I called back and when I talked to someone, they said I have to get the code via snail mail since my number is not a working number.

So I went back to the site and requested my only option, snail mail.

The customer service people at AT&T are nice and helpful, but the company's processes are still outdated and stupid.

Posted by megabeth at 04:19 PM | Comments (1)

 
February 18, 2008

I have been doing some research on plants that will grow in crappy Alabama clay soil. Which has no air pockets, is hard as a rock, is filled with small rocks, and has no organic material. Well, guess what. Only weed-like and/or invasive plants grow naturally in this kind of soil. Not the kind of plants you would purposefully go out and buy seed or seedlings to plant, but the kind you spend hundreds of dollars (on weed killer) and hours of time (digging them up or using weed eater device) to get rid of. Perhaps this is why people in Alabama used to eat so much pokeweed.

Regardless, I am going to attempt to grow various types of thyme on the hillside in my backyard in hopes that it would take the place of the weeds that normally occupy the hill.

I hope that thyme can suffer through four or five weeks of searing 100+ degree heat and zero rain in the summertime.

If you like to make things out of clay, then the soil here is awesome. Otherwise, it sucks.

If this experiment fails, I am turning my backyard into an Arizona cactus haven. (I'll have to truckload in a few tons of sand, but the cacti will love the drought conditions.)

Posted by megabeth at 09:10 AM | Comments (2)

 
February 15, 2008

I joined Toastmasters in January as a way to reach my goal of becoming a better public speaker. It is very easy since my company hosts a local club and the meetings are held in my office building.

Everyone gets a little nervous when speaking. I seem to have less problems with being nervous and more of an issue with saying the right things. This seems like an activity that I could potentially enjoy if I were good at it. The problem is: I think I am permanently broken. There is a connection between my brain and mouth that is either severed or not present. I can write all day long but when it comes time to speak, I spit out a few broken phrases as if I am channeling Tarzan.

"I Like. Proposal."
"Works good."
"Thanks, er. Yeah."

When I discover that I am speaking like a primitive creature, my anxiety balloons and creates even worse of a problem. My response is the opposite of typical nervous symptoms such as a red face, shaking hands, and stammering. Instead, my brain completely shuts down, and I become a dead statue.

Hypothetically, if I were to give a speech about oranges, it would go something like this:

"Oranges are... orange. Citrus fruit. Um, juicy. You can make juice from them. Have vitamin C in them. Okay. Thanks for listening. The end."

I would never be one of those people who goes on and on and puts the audience to sleep. Instead I would set a record for shortest speech ever.

But if given a sheet of paper and a pen (or a keyboard), I will wax eloquent on the many qualities and characteristics of an orange.

Who is this person I become when speaking in front of a group?

The great thing about Toastmasters is that it provides you with the chance to speak in front of people, over and over again. It is the ONLY way to get better at it. You can attend a little one-day class and hear an instructor talk about what to do and what not to do. Then you will return back to work and try to give a speech, and suck at it. Nobody ever learned to play a musical instrument by listening to someone else play one.

Yesterday I stood up in front of the group for the first time and gave a two-minute impromptu speech. I said "um" FIFTEEN times. What's funny is that I did not hear myself say "um" ONCE. The feedback is very eye-opening. I wonder if I am a hopeless cause. ;)

Posted by megabeth at 08:36 AM | Comments (3)

 
February 13, 2008

There is this Ann Taylor at the mall here in B'ham (Galleria) that has always been the strangest place. For several years their sales associates were icy and snobby, which cracked me up since it is just a CHAIN clothing store, not a high-end boutique, and while I find their prices to be too high, if you compare them with a wide range of clothing stores, they aren't particularly pricey in comparison. Clothes in general are just a ridiculous rip-off.

A while back, the store moved to a different space in the mall, and since then, their sales associates vigorously attack every customer who walks in the store. I have been asked if I needed any assistance about five times in two minutes. Once by an associate who looked like she ran into a vat of blue eye shadow. I was in too much surprise and had to look away quickly so I wouldn't laugh out loud. When I'm shopping, if I am accosted every thirty seconds, it is not possible for me to focus on the store's products long enough to decide if I have any interest.

So, after being asked if I need any help five times by three different women, I am trying to look at some clothes and garner enough concentration to decide if there is something I want to try on. I chose a few items and one associate again vigorously assisted me by taking these clothes to the dressing room. You'd think they were wanting tips. I tried the clothes on, and more often than not, Ann Taylor's clothes do not fit me right. My measurements are different from theirs. So there is this one sweater that does fit and look good, and I decide to buy it. It is on sale. I take it to the register, where the sales associate treats me icily because I am apparently not spending enough money for her approval.

I can't think of a single person on the planet who would enjoy being treated like a machine that spits out money, and if the money is not coming out, then the machine is a piece of crap which should be discarded immediately.

I will not go back to that store again.

Posted by megabeth at 03:40 PM | Comments (5)

 
February 12, 2008

At least half of the people who own dogs don't deserve them. I'm not a perfect dog owner, but there are a couple of things I would NEVER do. One is leaving a dog outside all the time, including nights, and never paying any attention to the dog. These dogs bark incessantly because they are trying to tell the world that their owner sucks. Unfortunately there is only legal recourse for physical neglect, so nothing can be done about people who consistenly ignore their dogs, but continue to feed them. Two is allowing a dog to roam wherever it pleases. This is particularly common in rural areas. Cars hit and kill dogs. It is cruel to allow your dog to be hit by a car. I don't think a person would enjoy being injured or killed in that manner, so why would you allow that to happen to a dog?

Makes me wonder how/if some people take care of their kids.

Posted by megabeth at 04:58 PM | Comments (1)

 
February 10, 2008

Beware of the rabid monkey who carries a Pooch Tube in its mouth. It is a very dangerous creature.

Posted by megabeth at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)

 
February 06, 2008

I've read a LOT of "Best Albums/Songs of 2007" on the internet in the past few weeks. These lists sound so cool. I'd rather get the autograph of the list writer instead of the featured artists. So in an effort to be reaallly cool, I'm writing a list of my own.

1. The Blah Blah Blahs - Living in a Blah. This band came on the scene just a year ago, and their sophomore album is even more incredible than the first. I often stop people walking by on the sidewalk or in the store and ask them if they listen to the Blah Blah Blahs. If they say no, I have found an opportunity to tell them that they are stupid losers. Yesterday I called some old Granny a loser, and she looked at me quizzically and walked away. Me, 1. Granny, 0.

2. Blahcity - Droning Blahs. Lord. Lord. LORD. LORD LORD LORD. This album sends me into an ethereal whimsy, the guitar sounds reverberating deep into my dark, mysterious soul. I want to write poetry. I want to love fiercely. I want to roll around in a field of daisies. If you haven't heard Blahcity, you are a stupid idiot who is clueless.

3. Bleeping Blahs - Da Bleepin' Blah. I know, this is a different genre than what I usually listen to, but I do have a diverse set of musical interests. I mean, most people don't, and they are stupid losers. Anyway. Da Bleepin' Blah is a foul-mouthed, angst-ridden, partyfest of lascivious wild partying music. Play it at your next party and your guests will think you are da bomb.

4. Bla! - Blahshnauzen Blauerahs. I feel so Euro when I listen to this album. I put on my tight black mock turtleneck and do the Sprockets dance. I tell my friends, look, if you're not into the Euro scene, then you are a total loser. The techno rhythms are infectious. I particularly like the song, "Bappity Bap". I can feel the synthesizer rhythm deep down in my bones, and Fred Frauline's voice is deeply satisfying. In "Bappity Bap", he laments, "I took too much acid at the club / Now I am crying in the toilet stall". That lyric really touched my heart.

5. Songs of Blah - Lisa Blahman. My list only has five items, so it was incredibly hard to decide between the amazing releases of 2007 that I haven't previously mentioned. I thought about it for a couple of hours, then made an Excel spreadsheet with all the pros and cons of the albums I was considering. I finally, with much stress and hair pulling, decided on Lisa Blahman. This up-and-coming singer songwriter has a high, lilting, soft, tender, tasty, songbird-like, gravelly, dark, mighty, loud, country, monotonous voice that just screams to me, "I am a pretty little songbird who needs rescuing". Her songs are about real life stories, some of which will bring you to tears. If you like her songs on Myspace, please buy them on iTunes instead of bootlegging, because I am cool enough to be on the insider track and heard from my sister's boyfriend's uncle's cousin who posted on her fan board that she is living in a van, traveling to shows all over the country. I really feel for these starving artists. If you haven't been to her website yet (www.lisablahmansingersongwritersongbird.com), then you are so not cool, and shouldn't be my friend. Ha.

So, there's my list. Go out and buy these albums. Or be a loser. It's your choice. Make the right one.

Posted by megabeth at 01:46 PM | Comments (4)

 
February 04, 2008

When I vote tomorrow, should I vote for the candidate who does not have a chance to get the party nomination, or vote strategically?

From al.com:
"If I vote in one party's primary, does that mean I must support that party's candidates in the Nov. 2 general election? At the bottom of the Democratic ballot, there is a paragraph that says in part, 'I do pledge ... to aid and support all the Nominees thereof in the ensuing General Election.' However, that pledge is unenforceable. In the general election, where you have a secret ballot, you can vote for whomever you choose. "

I may want to vote for the candidate least likely to select Edwards as his/her running mate.

Posted by megabeth at 03:40 PM | Comments (5)

 
January 28, 2008

Perhaps you haven't heard these two words before. I discovered them while eating out on the Gulf coast this weekend. Instead of grouper, seafood restaurants were serving swai and sutchi and advertising them as "Better than Grouper!" Not true. We got one waiter to fess up that sutchi is more like catfish. He said that grouper has been overfished in the Gulf of Mexico and restaurants have been asked to serve imported fish in place of Grouper until the fish has repopulated. You can still find grouper on the menu in some restaurants at a more expensive price.

It seems silly to me to visit the coast and eat fish imported from Asia. So I ate tuna and mahi-mahi instead.

Posted by megabeth at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

 
January 22, 2008

We went to the lake this weekend hoping it would snow and be pretty. It was. There wasn't much we could do outdoors due to the subsequent cold weather after that, however. So I cooked some goodies in the kitchen (see photos below).

It was nice to have snow in Alabama for the first time in ?? years. I can't recall. It wasn't much; just a light dusting, but in comparison to nothing, it was a lot.

This is the new dam that was built to create a second lake. It had a lot of snow on it.

Mr. Snowman doesn't have arms. Sorry, Mr. Snowman.

The jacuzzi tub looked awfully inviting. This lakehouse is not campy.

What would be a trip to the lake without taking a picture of the lake? We did not do any fishing. They were probably at the bottom, trying to stay warm.

Very pretty walk along the gravel roads that lead to the house. I was making snowballs and rolling them, and Ruby would chase the snowball and then eat it. She didn't like being cold and wet, though.

So Ruby made it back to the house way before we did.

My first attempt at creme brulee. I decided not to make the sugar coating on top because we forgot the blowtorch. It was still very delicious. I used a vanilla bean, which makes a huge difference over vanilla extract. And with a million grams of fat per serving, it is bound to be tasty.

My current mission is to make an energy bar that tastes good and has decent nutritional value. The mass-produced bars tend not to taste that great. I can stand a Clif Bar, but it isn't delicious. I love Cup of Golds, but after perusing the ingredient list, I discovered that it (a) contains corn syrup and other simple sugars, (b) is somewhat closer to a candy bar than an energy bar, other than the protein content.

So the photo above was my first stab at it, and they turned out very tasty. However, not so healthy either, with too much fat and only simple sugars. I stopped by Whole Foods yesterday and bought some ingredients to create a healthier energy bar. I plan to hand out bars to folks at this weekend's training camp to get some feedback. I'll post an update on my energy bar project soon.

Posted by megabeth at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

 

This is one time that I wish I were wrong.

I kept doubting my prediction because business publications I read were optimistic and said that a slowdown is likely but a recession is unlikely.

I really want them to be right!

I think my retirement date was delayed at least 30 years as of yesterday. Ouch.

Thanks to the stupid banks who lend money to people who don't make enough money to pay back their loans. And thanks to Bush for having an expensive war that never ends and screws up the U.S. economy.

Posted by megabeth at 09:07 AM | Comments (4)

 
January 18, 2008

Ear candling is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of.

Posted by megabeth at 09:01 AM | Comments (2)

 
January 17, 2008

Everyone is different about how they are motivated. What I've learned about myself from bike racing this year is that putting pressure on myself about a hobby destroys my motivation. So this winter I have pretended that I am NOT training and that I am NOT doing any races this year. I'm not pretending to be a "closet trainer" to trick my competition because apparently I am my own worst enemy. Since I have tricked myself thus far, I have been following a training schedule successfully. Now if I can trick myself when starting a race into thinking that it is just a ride I'm doing for fun, then I should do well.

Posted by megabeth at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

 

The weather forecast predicts snow on Saturday and we were planning to go to the lake for the long weekend. I would love to be snowed in at the lake; it would be so peaceful and quiet and also beautiful. The main risk is loss of electricity, and there is a fireplace but I'm not sure how much wood is stockpiled. Thus we would have to do a lot of chopping.

If you live near me, I am selling gallons of milk for $50 each and a loaf of bread for $20. Give me a call. Cash only. Ha ha.

Posted by megabeth at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

 
January 16, 2008

I forgot to include this healthy food tip in the previous post. A lot of recipes use chicken broth - I use a ton of it in my kitchen. It never occurred to me to look at the ingredients of a can of Swanson or similar brand broth until recently; I innocently assumed that chicken broth is chicken broth and salt. Not so! It also contains the evil monosodium glutamate. I haven't had a chance to check the organic brands to see if they are better. Whenever I have bones left from a chicken or turkey, I make broth. Throw the frame into a pot with some carrots, onions and celery and a bouquet garni. Simmer for a couple of hours. Then put the strained and cooled broth into plastic containers (I use those chinese soup take-out containers, they are around 16 oz in size) and freeze. It also tastes better than canned broth.

Posted by megabeth at 02:49 PM | Comments (1)

 
January 15, 2008

While on my trainer I watch "Deal or No Deal?" and the countless numbers of contestants who get greedy and turn down $100K+ offers from the banker. They get carried away in the heat of the moment. I'm not sure some of them understand just how life changing that sum of money can be. My dream in my lifetime is to pay off my mortgage. It isn't unattainable since it's the only debt I carry. However, my principal payments are not even $200 monthly. I would have to raise a large sum of cash to pay off the loan at once. If you do not have a mortgage payment, you have effectivly given yourself a huge raise.
That is the life changing element of winning $100K on a stupid game show. So you're not going to have enough to buy yourself a mansion and a Porsche - take the offer anyway!

If I could pay off my mortgage RIGHT NOW, the next step for me would not be to buy a fancy car or a bigger house. It would just allow me to save massive quantities of income annually and retire in about ten years. By the time I'm 43. Retired. At 43.

Donations anyone? ;)

So why don't I shift my retirement contributions to paying off my mortgage? Because on a small incremental basis with no end in sight, one will receive a better return on investment by putting the money in the stock market instead of home equity. While home prices in recent years have risen quite a bit, this is more of an exception to the rule. Thus, it's better to save for retirement (at my age) unless you are getting close to paying off the entire loan.

The American way is to go through life in debt. Most of us have debt, so we think nothing of it. Then we feel tied to our jobs or careers in order to pay for the things that we want. Not to mention, the middle class is heavily taxed. How am I going to achieve complete financial freedom? By living well within my means, I am still not anywhere close to it. I blame the U.S. government for unfair taxation, but we also must blame ourselves for wanting to buy everything in sight. I'm not discouraging anyone, though. The American way buoys stock performance, which will help me retire sooner. So, go out and buy some things for yourself! Ha ha.

Posted by megabeth at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

 
January 14, 2008

In my employer's cafeteria they have a new display set up with "happy, healthy snacks", mostly nuts, but also gummi bears. I am not sure how gummi bears are healthy, except for the psyche. I love eating them, but have never proclaimed them to be healthy. Anything with corn syrup is not particularly healthy. I've been reading the ingredients in grocery store items, which means my shopping trips have become longer in duration. I'm surprised at how many foods contain corn syrup or corn syrup solids. And also, anything that is "low fat" such as peanut butter has a lot of other ingredients that nobody should ever be eating. And the cheaper the food product, the more likely it contains trans fats.

I found some bacon at Publix recently that boasts of being nitrate and nitrite free, so I bought it, tried it, and guess what: it tastes like bacon. I'm not sure why the bad food processing was necessary in the first place.

Muffin and cake mixes: It is so easy to mix together flour, sugar and eggs that it does not make much sense to buy a processed product.

Rice-a-roni and similar flavored rice and pasta mixes: It's again quite easy to cook some rice or pasta and add some chicken broth or garlic powder and salt.

Yogurt: I was amazed again at how much corn syrup is in flavored yogurts. Dairy products have a bit of natural sugar in them, but producers double or triple the amount of sugar per 4 to 6 oz serving. The best one we found after looking at ALL of them is sugar-free Activia (sweetened with sucralose). There's also a Dannon Naturals product, but it has a lot of added sugar. At least it's not corn syrup. I've started buying plain yogurt, then adding honey and some Polaner all-fruit jelly.

Energy bars also have some bad ingredients in them, including corn syrup. I have been eating PB&J instead, on whole-wheat bread with natural peanut butter and Polaner all-fruit. Natural peanut butter has nothing in it but peanuts and salt, and has become a popular product judging from the variety on store shelves.

My next kitchen project is to try to make my own energy bars. I'm looking for some brown rice syrup to use as a sweetener, as it contains more complex sugars. However, I haven't found it yet (need to look at Whole Foods.)

Posted by megabeth at 12:47 PM | Comments (3)

 
January 10, 2008

I caught a few small bass over the holiday break.

I still haven't gathered the courage to hold the fish without a glove on. When I took the fish by the mouth, he bit my finger. They only have some tiny little teeth that feel like rough sandpaper, but I was taken by surprise anyway.

I caught fish using a lure that looked like a little rubber band ghost with a spinner behind it. We had two of these lures and one of them was all white, and the other was white with a thin red stripe. They would only bite the lure with the red stripe. Whatever. I get impatient with fishing sometimes. Fish should not be that picky.

We had to throw back whatever we caught because the lake was stocked a few weeks prior with 1,000 Northern bass at 10 bucks a head. The new fish were marked with one pelvic fin removed. Once they spawn, they can be removed from the lake and eaten.

Posted by megabeth at 09:08 AM | Comments (4)

 
January 09, 2008

A Baker, LA resident sues the government for $3 quadrillion. The resident lived 100 miles from the coast when Katrina hit. I bet he does need $3 quadrillion, because it would cost that much to permanently sever his head from his ass.

Protesters ask Hillary to iron their shirts. She's not my favorite person, but she handled the situation well. I wonder what the protestors would say to Obama...

Posted by megabeth at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

 
January 07, 2008

The weather was so nice this weekend, so we were sitting outside on the patio. With the pellet gun. Mr. Sharpshooter patiently waited and pulled the trigger on a chipmunk. It writhed and spazzed out for a second then all was still. We ran up the hill to remove it so that Ruby would not have herself a snack. It had died with a nut in its mouth, shot through the back of the head.

I thought I wouldn't be bothered by the killing of vermin, but it is kind of grotesque. Maybe the murder of an animal is magnified by the suburban environment. In the woods, one might feel more primal.

We also secured the garden with a wire mesh cage, but it appears to be too late as most of my plants are gone or in bad shape. I think some more little Alvins and their big brother squirrels should die. I am tired of my backyard being a site of infestation. I'm going to try the bucket-bird seed trick once I finally get around to buying some bird seed.

Posted by megabeth at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)

 
January 04, 2008

I haven't been keen on the idea of killing things. When I catch a fish, I worry that the hook might be hurting its mouth. I don't think I could kill a big mammal like a deer. But the squirrels should die, because they appear to be eating my winter garden. I have one cabbage plant left, out of nine. All of the lettuce plants are alive, but eaten to the nub.

So it's open season in my backyard on squirrels and chipmunks. Anyone interested? Hunting club dues have been waived. I've been shooting at them with a pellet gun, but apparently I'm a bad shot. Need target practice.

I get cracked up about hunting squirrels from the back door. When I see one, I slowly open the door and stick the gun out, take aim, and... well, you can't hear a pellet gun.

This makes me a suburban redneck.

(Ooops. MT is acting up. It deleted my post about my trip to the lake.)

Posted by megabeth at 02:43 PM | Comments (1)

 
January 02, 2008

I was cleaning my track bike the evening before new year's eve around 10 pm, and my finger got caught between the chain and the chainring. On a fixed gear bike, the chain tension is very tight, leaving no slack for error. My first thought was "Good, I still have a finger", but I had heard a crunching noise and figured I had broken it. After the initial panic, I experienced the burst of adrenaline and then started to feel as if I were burning up with a fever, which then made me feel faint. After pacing back and forth for a few minutes, I had to sit down. Then, the adrenaline subsided and I was calm again.

Now what? We called some doctor friends (doctors marry doctors sometimes) and they happened to be at home watching a movie. In ten minutes, an orthopedic surgery resident had numbed up my finger and cleaned out the cut with saline. The finger was not broken and the cut did not need stitches. The alternative would have been the ER, which would have sucked. I probably would have waited until the next day to see a doctor, and then would have been dealing with an infected wound.

Hooray for home-administered medical services.

I will probably wear work gloves when cleaning my fixed gear bike chain from now on. The crunching sound of skin being cut to the bone gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Posted by megabeth at 12:31 PM | Comments (3)

 
December 29, 2007

Happy New Year!

Posted by megabeth at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

 
December 20, 2007

Tomorrow is my last day of work for December - I had some use-or-lose vacation time to burn. I'm excited about my time off. I will be doing some home improvement projects and some fishing at the lake. Also the annual Christmas get-togethers, this year with two families. I will definitely have some opportunities to hone my cooking skills.

I will have more time to ride my bike next week. And maybe I will. This winter I have been very unmotivated about training and can't bring myself to care enough to do anything about it. I like having this hobby, but I want to have other hobbies, too. I don't feel up for juggling a full training schedule, if I want to have a balanced life and do other things I enjoy, in addition to cycling. I will just ride my bikes for fun.

Hope you enjoy your holidays!

Posted by megabeth at 03:14 PM | Comments (2)

 
December 19, 2007

This is a dumb idea. What I see when driving every day is a bunch of people who don't follow traffic laws, and no police enforcement. In fact, this morning I saw a car fail to merge properly (using the median instead) right in front of a City of Birmingham squad car. The policeman did nothing. Most municipal police departments can't be everywhere at the same time, so the few instances in which they can enforce the law, perhaps they should do that.

The only time I see a traffic law enforced in the state of Alabama is during a "Take Back our Highways" campaign, which happens once or twice a year. If this is as good as they can do, I think we should do away with traffic laws entirely. Nobody follows them, anyway. Then the role of the police department would change from driving around and doing nothing, to becoming crime detectives. Alabama's two state troopers could continue to patrol the highways for the occasional car doing 150 mph. The minimum speed on I-65 from Birmingham to Montgomery is 80 mph, unless you want your doors blown off by passing cars, or if you're in the left hand lane doing 80, you want to be tailgated by an insane soccer mom talking on the phone and driving a 4-ton SUV.

In Asian countries such as Vietnam, there appears to be no traffic laws. It works pretty well because nobody can drive faster than 15 mph, since nobody stops for anyone and the roads are clogged with bicycles and mopeds. Sounds great! Let's sign up for that plan.

Posted by megabeth at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)

 
December 18, 2007

Time to pay the piper. I weighed myself on three different doctors' scales this week and what has happened isn't pretty. I don't have any willpower around food, so I handle that problem by keeping healthy food in the kitchen and exercising all the time. However, a lot of exercise isn't going to hold back weight gain in the situation I'm currently dealing with. I'm now working in a department that makes purchasing decisions in the latitude of tens to hundreds of millions. So, the gift baskets and towers of treats started arriving at the beginning of December. Candy, cookies, popcorn, candy, cookies, chocolate, cookies, candy, etc. Then came the visiting vendors taking us out to dinner. A decadent five-course, four hour meal at Ocean (I can't turn down the lobster!) probably resulted in a three-lb gain. And then the various holiday lunches, and lunches brought in for meetings in order to use the last of the 2007 annual lunch budget. Every day at work there is a complimentary lunch for some purpose.

This situation is disgustingly excessive. As a result of being spoiled, I have become picky about food. Some gift basket food is not that tasty. Like the "chocolate covered toffee with peppermint chips". A fruit basket would be better. Or Dean & Deluca. I'll take quality over quantity. Actually, I'll take the joy of watching everyone else eat the goodies.

Posted by megabeth at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

 
December 13, 2007

As a graduation present I received The Professional Chef to help fuel my cooking hobby. Getting back into cooking is one good thing that came out of being sidelined from cycling by an injury this past spring. I decided I want to take my cooking skills to the next level and try out some more challenging dishes. The book has some very nice illustrative photos. I'll start reading it over the holidays when I'm at the lake.

I'm also reading Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high. Part of my job requires negotiation skills, and I don't have much experience with negotiating contract rates. I don't think that "This is what I want. So there." is going to work. ;)

Posted by megabeth at 08:30 AM | Comments (1)

 
December 10, 2007

Something tripped off this memory from high school. I took an Algebra II class my sophomore year and the teacher was an old lady with a strong Southern accent. She said "maished" instead of "mashed", when describing potatoes. Also she spoke my name as "Bayuth" instead of the monosyllabic "Beth". Her class was not fun because she did not have a sense of humor. She would work problems each day on an overhead projector, and was really uptight about keeping the overhead film clean. The clear film was kept on a roll instead of by individual sheets. So, one day she was out of the room for a long period of time, and I took a marker and placed the tip down on the overhead film, then rolled the film out until there was a single line from start to finish. This cracked me and several other students up.

When she returned, she was not happy. Nobody ratted me out, though. This still makes me chuckle.

Posted by megabeth at 01:02 PM | Comments (2)

 
December 06, 2007

I'm already itching to do something new after finishing my MBA. (I'm done now. All assignments are completed and turned in.) So I decided to join the Toastmasters chapter at work.

The main professional weakness I have coming out of my master's degree is that my presentation skills still aren't where I want them to be. I want to be an interesting, dynamic speaker. I have a few speaking assignments coming up next spring at work and probably at my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner, so I'd like to hone my skills before then.

An MBA program should focus more on teaching presentation skills, but I saw more bad presentations in school than anywhere else, and the professors rewarded those students with good grades. Reading from slides, reading from notes, never looking up at the audience, using a monotonous tone of voice, groups that did not practice beforehand and thus had layers of overlapping content, low talkers, going 15 minutes past the allotted time, no involvement with the audience. Not once did any professor or visitor speak to any of my classes about giving effective presentations. It seems awfully strange for an MBA program to completely ignore this.

Fortunately I have this opportunity available to me at work. The meetings are held in the building during lunch hour. I think I would enjoy public speaking if I could overcome the nervousness I feel when I first begin to speak in front of a group.

Posted by megabeth at 08:47 AM | Comments (4)

 
December 05, 2007

I have always hated UPS. This is the crappiest delivery company on the planet. Brown = poop. Never had a good experience with this company. This time I have a delivery that requires a signature. But I'm not home from 8 to 5 on weekdays, and they only deliver from 8 to 5 on weekdays.

I can't choose a time in which the package is delivered, only the date. So they are going to waste a trip to my house because they won't work with me to schedule a time in which I will be able to provide a signature. I wonder how many trips UPS wastes every year because they are inflexible. Of course they won't deliver on weekends. Who in the hell would want to receive a package on a Saturday?

I tried changing the mailing address for delivery and I was told that they have to make an attempt again before I can change the delivery address.

Very inflexible.

Very stupid.

Pea-brains in charge at UPS.

Posted by megabeth at 01:42 PM | Comments (1)

 
December 04, 2007

If you put a tiger tail hanging out of your trunk, doesn't that look like you kidnapped the school mascot (a tiger) and threw it in your trunk? I would think, as a football outsider, that this is a display that you are against the college football team that you are, in actuality, rooting for.

I don't see elephant trunks hanging out of people's trunks. I guess elephants are too big to stow away in the trunk of a car.

Posted by megabeth at 03:14 PM | Comments (1)

 
December 03, 2007

This weekend I did a lot of cooking for various events. Since getting back into cooking this year, I have greatly expanded my repertoire of recipes. While I prefer to stay with the tried-and-true, I have been making myself try out new recipes in order to learn new cooking skills.

This was the birthday boy's treat (click for larger photo). I have made tarts in the past, but these were different. Instead of making custard, I made a baked cream-cheese filling. They turned out well, although I used store-bought pastry crusts for the sake of saving time.

For a potluck I made a spinach artichoke dip based off this recipe which uses Swiss chard. I haven't tried any of her recipes yet but will try others since this one turned out very well. I used frozen spinach instead of chard and since mayonnaise is illegal in my kitchen, subbed sour cream for mayo. Also, the dip will be baked instead of heated via stove top. I usually don't stick with any recipe verbatim.

Last, I made cookies for a holiday cookie exchange. The lesson I learned is not to go about something without a plan. I made some small round sugar cookies with the intent to put icing on them. What kind of icing, I didn't know. I decided to use a decorating tip to put a dollop of white or chocolate cream cheese icing on top of the cookies. The icing was not thick enough to hold its shape, so I ended up making half moon cookies. They look good. Do they taste good? Well, yes, but I am not as much of a fan of the cream cheese icing as I initially anticipated. Does cream cheese icing even go with sugar cookies? I dunno. I think I went cream-cheese crazy this weekend.

Posted by megabeth at 09:22 AM | Comments (2)

 
November 30, 2007

This news story has upset me a lot. In short, a Beagle was skinned alive, and its owner found it and they had to euthanize the dog. The photo shown on the news displayed the dog, still alive, with a rectangle-shaped piece of skin neatly removed from the dog's torso. I'm not asking "Who would do such a thing", because clearly there are a lot of people in this world who do not deserve the species recognition Homo sapiens. I am asking "What would this person do to another human being?". It scares me that when I am driving, going shopping, working in my yard, sleeping in my bed, etc, that there are people nearby who are so base, cruel, and vile, that I could be the next victim, or my dog, or someone's child. If a person lacks a conscience, there is no telling what they will do next.

Posted by megabeth at 08:19 AM | Comments (2)

 
November 28, 2007

My capstone course is wrapping up next week. Each week we had a local CEO visit the class and give a presentation on his company. So last night a fellow student and I were talking about what would have happened if Charter Communications' CEO had paid us a visit. First of all, there would have been blood spattered on the walls of the classroom. I envision an army of students carrying AK-47s, shotguns, and knives. The poor guy would then be robbed of any cash he was carrying in order to help defray the cost of paying for cable and internet service that was not received. There would also be a degradation into foul language as epithets were thrown at the poor CEO. I don't think he would live through the experience.

We had a class on Time Warner Cable, and I have never seen so much collective anger directed towards Charter Communications. Everyone had a complaint.

I just don't understand why the company is still in business. There are other options in a market area where Charter has a monopoly, particularly satellite. If you can pay $60 a month for cable, I bet you can pay $80 a month for satellite.

The only way this company is going down is if people stop giving it money... for nothing.

Posted by megabeth at 09:10 AM | Comments (1)

 

Several years ago I had jury duty and was put on a jury in a criminal trial for an African-American woman who had been arrested for having crack rock in her apartment in a local housing project. Her excuse was (drumroll please... it was intelligently and carefully crafted...) "it wasn't mine". Ha ha. Anyhow, I listened to the case with an open mind. Perhaps it wasn't hers, if there was sufficient proof. There wasn't. So the jury heads back to the deliberation room to discuss a verdict. What happened next suprised me a lot. The black women on the jury were the most unsympathetic, angry and vicious about the case and ready to slap a guilty verdict on her immediately. They had no sympathy for the defendant, they said.

On that note, I also have no sympathy for the women in my peer group. What have they done that is criminal? Driving with road rage. I don't understand why insurance rates are higher for men than for women, because women in their 30s and 40s can't drive worth a crap. They also talk on their cell phones way too much while driving. Cell phone + psycho woman + SUV = very dangerous situation. The other demographic I see who has issues with driving is men in their 20s, since they are young and stupid and haven't made enough mistakes to learn from them. What excuse does a 38-year-old woman have for acting homicidal behind the wheel of a car or truck? None. I don't think "I have kids and it is stressing me out" is a good excuse for any sort of ugly behavior behind the wheel. What scares me even more is that a lot of these women are driving huge SUVs - not the midsize Highlander, but a gigantic Yukon that can kill and maim people, simply because "I have kids and I'm stressed out". I'm pretty sure if she is driving a vehicle like that, then her life could not possibly be bad enough to take her anger out on other innocent drivers. I don't care if the psycho woman driver has kids, is stressed out, has an important presentation, has to buy Christmas gifts or just had an argument with her husband. There is no excuse for road rage. What is wrong with people that they can't realize that they made choices that put themselves where they are now? That's why I can't feel sorry for a woman who is acting like a homicidal maniac. Is there something I don't know as a woman, about being in my 40s? Because if my hormones make me act that ugly, then I don't want to be around in ten years.

Posted by megabeth at 08:31 AM | Comments (2)

 
November 26, 2007

On Buy Nothing Day (Nov 23), I spent a total of $18. On groceries. So sue me. I like food.

Posted by megabeth at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

 

Ruby has to be the most stubborn dog in the world. This morning, it's pretty warm outside (upper 50s) and lightly raining. She does not want to go potty in the yard. So I go outside with her to see what she does. First, she pees. In my head, I clap quietly. Then she looks at me and I am staring down at her, saying "WEE WEE" sternly. She walks over to the other side of the house where she can hide from my view. So I walk over there and stand next to her, saying "WEE WEE" again. Does she think she is hiding from me? She thinks I can't see her. After a few minutes of this, she runs to the back door. I let her in, for the time being. Twenty minutes later, we are back outside and she runs to her "hiding place", which I am standing next to, telling her to "WEE WEE". Finally (after a few more unnecessary minutes of standing in the rain), she climbs up the hill and poops. REALLY. If she just went outside and did everything quickly, we would not have to draw this out to ten minutes of standing in the cold or rain. And I will be standing in the cold/rain EVERY MORNING, making sure that she uses the potty, for the rest of this winter, whether it takes 5, 10 or 20 minutes. I will win this battle.

Posted by megabeth at 09:06 AM | Comments (1)

 
November 20, 2007

I found a chili recipe that uses fresh jalapeno peppers, so I thought I'd try it. My garden this summer had a very productive pepper plant, and I have been stowing them away in the freezer. I made the chili and threw in five (chopped) peppers, but forgot about "jalapeno hands". I did not wear gloves, so I suffered from burning hands for a few hours. This made me think the chili would be too spicy to eat. This is where you might think I am going to write about gastric distress. And this is where I am glad to say that there was none, because the chili was spicy, but perfectly so.

Posted by megabeth at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

 
November 14, 2007

I have two papers and one group presentation remaining before I graduate. I have been writing papers early because I fear that I may slack off at the end. The strategy class requires a dozen papers (about one per week). It sucks.

What will I do with the extra free time? I think about this often - it is similar to the feeling you get when anticipating a vacation. First of all, I will be able to pour my full intellectual energy into my job. And I will ride my bike more often, play the piano, and start some new home improvement projects.

Also I will update my iPod, since I haven't done that since the BeeGees were topping the charts.

Posted by megabeth at 08:31 AM | Comments (7)

 
November 13, 2007

In Venezuela, gasoline is 6.3 cents per gallon. Six new Hummer dealerships are opening in the country in early 2008. They also use oil to generate electricity. A third of V's oil production is consumed domestically (at 6 cents/gallon, obviously production costs are subsidized) or given away to other countries, such as Cuba, in exchange for skilled medical professionals. (Did you know that Cuba has a highly effective state-funded education system?)

The rest of V's oil production is mainly sold to the U.S. So Chavez can't hate us too much, hmm? Here's why: The rig count in Venezuela is not sufficient and production volumes are dwindling. There is a global shortage of oil rigs due to demand, but also, because Chavez was such an a-hole to the multinational oil companies (like Chevron), contractors don't want to pursue opportunities on Venezuelan soil. Too much political risk, and taxes are too high. So I think Your Highness is going to make some compromises, eventually.

addendum: Gasoline in producing countries is usually dirt cheap (same situation in the Middle East). It's causing problems for the long-term because conservation is not even a blip on the radar, and if consumption continues at high rates, the imminent scarcity of cheaply available oil is going to hurt all of us.

Posted by megabeth at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

 

The economy is slowing down. I don't need to read anything to know this; since I remember numbers