Someone is corrupting her

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Okay, I don’t know which one of you jokers put her up to it, but Evie said to me, “You go to the doctor and get hairs, then come back.” So ha ha, have your laugh. Once we get to the bottom of this one, we’ll figure out who taught her “Daddy, you have hair in your nostrils.”

This month we learned that when we’re in the garden, “Mommy, it’s watering time!” equals pee pee. And since we’re in the crude vein, the other day we were driving in the car and Evie was picking her nose and handing her boogies to Sara for disposal. Then she said, “Do you have my boogies, mama?” and Sara said “Yes.” She asked, “Can I see them?”.

When we were swimming, we were trying to convince Evie to put her head under water. She was kind of going along with it too, until she declared, “I’m tired of this game.”

Along those same lines, Evie was examining the depth numbers painted on the side of the pool and Aunt Cecilia was explaining that ” meant inches and ‘ meant feet, as in 5’0″. Later Cecilia asked her what the marks meant and Evie said, “Inches and toes.”

Finally, Evie was riding in the shopping cart when she noticed the roll of wrapping paper next to her. “A didgeridoo!” she exclaimed.

Bacon Lip Balm

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We obviously all agree that bacon makes (most) anything taste better. I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t extend to lip balm.

This is from the people who made Bacon Salt, so I believe they know what they’re doing. It is a little pricey at $13 for a 4 pack, but come on! Well worth it.

I like how the article says, “bacon flavor both you and your partner can enjoy” which brings up an excellent point…if you taste like bacon, the chicks will undoubtedly come rolling in. (But not vegetarians)(but who needs them anyway)(sorry Rachael)

Link courtesy Meg.

Interactive Wall

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This is a really cool idea, basically, make a wall out of LED bulbs and put some sensors in so that it reacts to humans…well, you can read this description:

The wall includes tracking devices and low-resolution LED displays and is capable of showing many different visualizations based on the presence and movement of people. The 35,000 LED bulb installation is now installed permanently at La Vitrine Culturelle and can be seen every evening from 7 to 11 (145, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montréal)

So that’s the description, but you really have to see it for yourself:

Link via Urban Prankster.

Google Voice

/ Shane / 4 Comments

I now have a Google Voice account! Have you heard about this?

Basically, you pick a new phone number, but you keep all of your existing phones. You then set your Google number to forward to your regular phone(s). “What’s the point?” you ask. Well, there’s several reasons why you might do that:

  1. The phone number is independent of your other phone numbers. So if I get a new cell phone, home phone or work phone, I just update it in my settings. Either way, people can always keep the same number.
  2. You can have your google number ring multiple phones. So maybe during the day you can have your google number forward to your work phone, and in the evening to your home phone, but have it also ring your cell phone, no matter what time it is. So when someone calls that number, they have the best chance to reach me. You can even set this up per person, so maybe when my wife calls I have it always ring all of my phone numbers, but for other people I can redirect them right to voicemail without having any phones ring.
  3. You can pick your own phone number (see more on that below).

Now, if you get to pick your own phone number, you know you want to get it right. I spent almost an entire day trying to come up with a number that spelled something cool. I tried my first name, my last name, “pirates”, “bacon”, “packers”, “go pack”, “zombie”, everything the same digit like 555-5555, etc. Nothing. I eventually came up with something that was okay, but it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated.

There are also many other cool features, such as:

  1. You can have individual greetings, per caller, on your voicemail. Sort of like YouMail, but more comprehensive.
  2. I don’t have a text messaging plan on my phone, so text messaging is expensive. But I can send and receive texts for free to/from my google number.
  3. You can set it up so that if you get a voice mail, it will transcribe it to text and send that text to your phone.
  4. Remember when we had old school answering machines? You could listen to the caller and then, when you realized it was your brother calling from jail, you could pick up the phone and talk to them? Well now you can do that again, with your voicemail.
  5. You can record any call as well as download sound files of any voicemail.

There are tons more things it can do, those are just the ones that stood out. And the best part? It’s free! Ah, Google, what will you think of next? So, if you want my new phone number, let me know (you didn’t think I was going to post it on the Internet did you?)

Scenes from a Gas Station

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Yesterday I was at a suburban gas station. Parked next to me was a really old, beat up van. The van was packed as if the people inside were going on vacation. I was sort of curious because the van hardly looked like it wold run and the people inside were kind of confusing. The “parents” couldn’t have been more than 30 and the “kids” were probably between 16 and 18. Maybe it was a church group or something. Anyway, right then the man tried to start the van and it took a looong time getting started. When it finally roared to life I glanced up and caught the eye of the guy driving. He gave me a wink and a nod and a look that kind of said, “Oh yeah, listen to that beauty!”

I was still laughing at that a few minutes later when some shady dudes pulled up in a super ratty van and said, “Hey! You interested in an entertainment center?” I was like, “huh?” and he was like, “An entertainment center. For your house.” I said, “Uh..no thanks. I’ve already got one.” He said, “Are you sure, I’ll give you a good price.” “No thanks,” I said and they finally drove away.

This has really got me thinking. Who buys an shady entertainment system in a parking lot? Someone has to, right? Or else they wouldn’t do it. I mean, even if I could be sure it wasn’t stolen and / or broken, like say it was from a Best Buy van or something, what are the odds that A) I would be in the market for an entertainment system, B) I’d be carrying a large amount of cash with me (they didn’t look like they were set up for credit card transactions) and C) that I’d even be able to haul it home in my car. And why, out of all the people in the gas station, did they single me out as a potential customer? I was dressed pretty decently, I was coming from work, and I was even wearing my badge.

I almost wish I had the whole thing to do over again so I could pretend to be really interested, just to get more information. “Yeah? What do you got? Let me see!” I just want to judge their face to see if they’re surprised, or if that was a normal, expected reaction.

That was one of the strangest trips to the gas station in my life.