My So Called Life

Missing: One Identity

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Identity theft, what a pain!  Victimless crime my pa-toot.

Someone got ahold of Sara’s info somehow, or maybe just a name and password and opened up a credit card in her name.  Then they made $1,000 in charges to a seemingly fake company.  We wouldn’t even have known about it except for the debt collectors calling to collect on the bills we are not paying on the charges we didn’t make on the credit card we didn’t know about.  We are working through the fraud department and it looks like we won’t have to pay anything, but it is a super hassle.  First off, we have to put a freeze on Sara’s credit to make sure whoever doesn’t open up more accounts.  Second off, we have to live in fear that there are more bombshells out there waiting to get us.  Hopefully this is an isolated incident.

I somehow can’t believe we are not going to have to pay that $1,000.  How can credit card companies continue to do business when they are hemorrhaging money to criminals like that?  Oh yeah, that’s right, by charging the heck out of the rest of us…

You know you’re a dad when…

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Today in the span of 5 minutes, I cleaned from the floor pee, vomit, poop, and pee.  In that order.

Do Pickle Pops give you a hang over?

/ Shane / 4 Comments

If you’ve been following the whole pickle pop saga, then you know that David Millar from Bob’s Pickle Pops saw my entry and interest in pickle pops and was kind enough to send me some free samples.  After you hear about something like frozen pickle pops, you just have to give something like that a try.  Plus, I originally dissed them without giving them a fair shake.

So, without further ado…

Pickle pops, old and new

They were actually different and tasted different too.  I thought the new version tasted better, although its appearance was more startling because it has little pickle speckles all through it.

My first reaction

Sara takes a taste (don't forget, she hates pickles!)

Allie's turn:

Dan's (admittedly fake) reaction

After trying the pickle pops, we all agreed that, well, “They taste pretty much how you expect them to taste.”  As I said before, I really love pickles and I have to say I was not really a fan of the pickle pops.  They didn’t taste bad exactly…I don’t know how to describe it.  It’s like when you’re eating a frozen treat your mouth expects a certain thing and a salty pickle is not that thing.  Unfortunately, thumbs down from all 4 of us.

But the experiment was not over.  Mr. Millar also mentioned making a “picklerita”.  I searched online but didn’t find any recipes, so we had to make our own.  I tried with just tequila, but it was improved with more tequila and some triple sec.

(Yes we are making these on the treadmill in the basement so as not to wake the baby)

Taste test

I have to say, after tasting the pop itself, I did not have high hopes for the picklerita.  It actually wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating!  Even still, if you have to have a margarita, for my money you are better off with the regular old kind, rather than a picklerita.  Although, of course, it did have a certain novelty factor.

But, as you can see, I drank it all:

So, in conclusion, I’ll have to take a pass on any future pickle pops, unless maybe if I get cancer.  But thank you to David Millar and Bob’s Pickle Pops for at least giving me the chance to find out!

A Visit from Vikings

/ Shane / 3 Comments

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.

An old friend from college stopped by on Thursday.  I was actually a little nervous to see her because I haven’t seen her in so long.  In that time she has lived in Austin, Beijing and currently Oslo.  A real world traveler this one!  Surely with all that life experience, etc. the two of us have changed quite a bit and probably have little in common.  Plus, she was coming with her husband whom I have never met.

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

Unfortunately I forgot my phone when I went to get them at the airport.  The one day I forget my phone!  I trusted the Internet when it said they would be 30 minutes late, but when I got to the airport all I knew was that their flight had landed.  I was nervous they ended up being on time and they couldn’t get a hold of me to see where I was.  I found myself trying to judge people to see if they looked like they had arrived from Brussels.  Unfortunately I only know 2 things about Brussels and since I didn’t think Jean-Claude Van Damme would be on the flight, I resorted to looking for people who were six foot four and full of muscles.

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

Eventually they came out and it was all good.  We stopped at Molly’s Cupcakes on the way home.   Then we ended up sitting at our house for a few hours before I dropped them off with their friend.  That part was kind of boring I’m sure.  It turns out it wasn’t really strange at all seeing her.  I guess our blogs sort of keep us in contact somewhat.  I guess if you get a long with someone on a personality level, that doesn’t really change over time.

Lucas was nice, I think we would get along.  We have at least 2 things in common: 1) we agree that when you are telling a good story, sometimes you might need to exaggerate a little bit to make it a good story and you don’t need someone else always correcting minor technicalities here and there and ruining your story. 2) I think we both tend to be a little oblivious and need the women in our lives to remind us of time lines, plans, etc.

So anyway, Meg (since I know you will read this), I’m really glad you came!  I enjoyed seeing you and I appreciate you taking the time out of your short trip to the U.S. to see little ole me.

My own fish out of water story

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The neighborhood blogs I read love to have “fish out of water” stories about white people moving to an all black neighborhood, particularly ChiKat and I Hate My Developer.  Sure I feel awkward sometimes and sure people treat me slightly differently or give me funny looks now and again.  There have been times when I wanted to explain to someone that I actually live in the neighborhood.  But nothing worth telling anybody about has ever happened to me.  Mostly things are sideways glances or other types of things that I could have just misunderstood, although I suspect I did not.

Today however, something decidedly odd happened.  I was walking over to the garden this morning and I heard someone speaking very loudly behind me.  An elderly black gentleman in an old beat up pickup was asking someone for directions and I could hear the man saying he didn’t live in the neighborhood so he wasn’t sure.  The man drove a little ways forward and asked the next person walking.  That person told him he didn’t know either.  The man then drove right past me without slowing and asked the next person who pointed him in the correct direction.

So there were 4 people walking and he asked all 3 of the others for directions (who all happened to be black), but pointedly skipped me.  I don’t know if he just didn’t feel comfortable talking to me or if he just assumed I couldn’t possibly live in the neighborhood and therefore wouldn’t be able to help.  I was actually anticipating him stopping to ask me and I was already hoping I would be able to help him out (I never actually heard the name of the street he was looking for).  I certainly wasn’t offended or anything that he didn’t stop, but it was certainly very odd.