Meanwhile, Back at the Blog

Goodbye Blogger. Hello Wordpress!

2004-12-02T09:22:00.000-06:00

I have decided to move this blog away from blogger and onto my own servers using WordPress as my blogging software. I still really like blogger but the downtimes are getting to me and the fact that any minor change to the template means I have to republish everything. There are some other minor reasons but those are the main two. So you can check out the new home of this blog and update any bookmarks.

2004 Hay Bale Snowman

2004-12-01T10:26:00.000-06:00

The 2004 Hay Bale Snowman is up! Christi and I, along with my parents, put it up Thanksgiving weekend. It was bitter cold but that didn't kill our enthusiasm. Since this picture was taken the mouth has been updated and another string of lights may have been put on in his midsection. If you'd like to see the Hay Bale snowman yourself it's located just south of Chatfield Minnesota (south of Rochester) on highway 52!

The Electrical Cost of Christmas Lights

2004-11-29T16:14:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year when the Christmas lights go up and houses and trees in the neighborhood look festive! However, each year I hear the same question "how much does it cost to have Christmas lights plugged in?"

Most people probably think back to Clark Griswold and his extremely lit up house in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. His electric bill could be through the roof but that's because he used more holiday lights than most people. For the average person you'll only see a few extra dollars while running your Christmas lights.

To prove my point I contacted Xcel Energy who is the main electric company here in Minnesota. I asked if they had information on how much Christmas lights would cost over the holidays. And here is what they said.

"Thank you for taking the time to write to us. Below is a the formula to calculate the cost if you know the wattage of the string of lights.

WATTS times HOURS divided by 1000 = KWH
KWH times RATE = cost.

Example:
100 watt string of lights times hours of monthly use (based on 8 hours a day for a month which would be 240 hours) =24000 watts divided by 1000 =24 kwhs.

24 kwhs X 7.5 cents = $1.80 per month.

So if you know the wattage of the string you can calculate the cost."

Now I'm not sure what an average 100 string of Christmas lights runs in watts, but I think it's about 50 watts. That means our example above is 200 lovely mini Christmas lights. A set of 25 C9 colored lights runs about 175 watts I believe. So that sing may run a little more. Watts from this Christmas Store

Now, as you can see, adding some Christmas lights to your house doesn't cost that much. Especially if the lights are newer since they have newer technology and energy conservation. Now if you go and decorate everything like Clark Griswold your electric bill may go up by 10 or 20 dollars. It all depends on the kind of lights, the number of hours you have them lit and the price of electricity in your area.

Give a little. It doesn't hurt.

2004-11-29T07:13:00.000-06:00

Well the Thanksgiving weekend is over and we had a great one. Friday we went shopping and boy did we do a lot. We were up at 5am, no thanks to the Target wake-up calls that didn't work correctly, and we were at BestBuy by 6 or so. I have to say that that was the busiest store we went to. We didn't by anything there but did learn that Mario Party 6 was on it's way! That has since been added to my Christmas list as I'm a big Mario Party fan! We hit many stores that day and three malls across the Twin Cities. But, everything we got wasn't for us. We put some money in the Salvation Army's kettles. Just the few dollars in our pockets but still, every little bit helps. We also checked out the sharing trees at the Mall of America. They were covered with tags of what people were wishing for for Christmas and hoping someone would get them. Again, we didn't spend a lot of money but bought three gifts for people in need. And it's fun as we got to go down the toy ails and ship for things we wouldn't normally buy. And if a $12 item can make one persons Christmas then I'm more than happy to help out and I hope you do too.

First Flakes of the Season!

2004-11-25T15:04:00.000-06:00

We are very excited that the first snowflakes of the season are falling on Thanksgiving! I hope they continue all night.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day Y'all

2004-11-25T09:47:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm busy sitting in front of the TV watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and reading the ads in the newspaper. I hope every eats and eats some more today and has a happy start to the holiday season. Oh and put up some Christmas lights already.

Decorate your desktop with holiday backgrounds!

2004-11-24T06:53:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again. Time to get out the Christmas decorations. This year I've created some desktop wallpapers for your computer. You can download Christmas/holiday desktop backgrounds and get your computer in the spirit! From snowmen to candy cane stripes I've got 9 wallpapers to choose from. Don't see one you'd like? Then let me know and I'll see what I can design for you. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Insanity the Ride in Vegas

2004-11-22T13:54:00.000-06:00

Insanity is the name of the new thrill ride atop the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas. And it does look quite insane. Spinning you around while your dangling over the strip below. WOW. X Scream looks a little more intense from the movies though. Just because of the motion towards the ground would be freaky! However, I wouldn't doubt that Insanity may have some of that going on too. Checkout the Stratosphere's Thrill Ride for facts, videos, and more.

Rascal Flatts and Chris Cagle Live

2004-11-21T13:43:00.000-06:00

We rocked out with Chris Cagle and Rascal Flatts at the Xcel Energy Center Saturday night. The concert was very good and highly entertaining. Chris Cagle is a great performer and has some great moves. It's to bad that he as considered an opening act as he could have gone on for hours. Rascal Flatts put on a great show also. Their music and energy is non stop and their stage was one of the coolest I've seen. It wasn't to big and complex but more like a scrap metal pile with neon signs, a long and skinny tv, and lots of lights to dot the background. Constantly changing in color, placement and even animated! It was a great show and I'd recommend it to anyone, even non country fans.

I beat the Hallmark System

2004-11-19T18:58:00.000-06:00

I beat the Hallmark system today! You know those Jingle Pals that they are advertising all over the TV? Well I went to get one and they are ten dollars cheaper if you buy three cards too. Well cards at Hallmark aren't always cheap. You can easily rack up the ten dollar discount by buying three cards. Well I took a moment to look and bought three 99 cent cards and still got my ten dollar discount on the Jingle Pals! I feel so superior. Ha ha.

Pumpkin Abuse Pictures - Breaking News

2004-11-19T09:18:00.000-06:00

These just in. Pictures of the perpetrator and the damage he's done!

In the first picture you can see the perp in this exclusive hidden camera footage. The second shows the damage he's done! If you see this perp, or others like him, hide your vegetables or witness the destruction. Lucky for us, this pumpkin is still smiling.

Pumpkin Abuse Continues

2004-11-18T23:01:00.000-06:00

The pumpkin abuse continues. So far the squirrels have taken and eaten probably 6 mini pumpkins. Today I saw one of them going for the smallest pie pumpkin sitting on our deck. He took a huge chomp out of the top of it, however it's to heavy for him to carry away at the moment. Check back for pictures as I may take one or two. In other news I'm eagerly awaiting snow. So far nothing. And today I finally broke down and bough Shapeshifter from Unsanity. Now I can theme my machine at home and enjoy the many different Mac styles.

Zales : Jewelry Store - Bad Service

2004-11-17T17:57:00.000-06:00

Let me just say that every store is different and this may not be true about yours but the Zales in the Ridgedale Mall (Minneapolis) is not a good Zales to go to. Why?

1) We bought my wedding ring there. They said they'd get my size, send it in and call me when it was in. They never called. We got tired of waiting and we went and sure enough it was there.
2) We got the extended warranty. However they failed to put that in the computer. Sure we paid for it but according to their system we didn't buy it. So went we went to get it resized a second time they told us it would cost. We took in the receipt and they added our warranty to the account, finally, and won't charge us to resize it.
3) While waiting for the ring to come back after it's second resizing we got no word of what was going on. After two weeks I went in to get it figuring it would be there and it wasn't. They said the store manager would figure out what was up and call me the next day. They did. They said that they would have to cut the ring and it might leave a line. They wanted to make sure that was OK with me before they did it. I stated that we agreed to all that the day we brought it in. But, since the clerk didn't put that in the computer, they had to hear it from me again. Ahhh My main issue here is the fact that that was all they were waiting for and they never called me?! I waited two weeks and they did nothing?! How stupid.

Of course they are all apologetic but give me a break. These seem like really minor issues and Zales doesn't even have a handle on them. I won't be doing any future business at that particular Zales jewelry store as the service is horrible.

What's in a name? Everything!

2004-11-17T13:26:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how one letter can make a huge difference to some people. Over at Apple they change the iPod Photo to iPod photo. I guess to keep everything under the iPod name and not confuse some. I bet they spent a lot of money re-branding posters, boxes, etc with the lower case p. Amazing.

Stupid Mall of America Traffic

2004-11-16T09:20:00.000-06:00

Well my extended weekend was pretty good. We went to the Mall of America on Saturday and the traffic was horrible. They had both ramps closed because they were supposedly full and there were traffic cops at a few lights but not the ones that really needed it. We were stuck at one light though four intervals and we were second in line! People were getting stuck in intersections and others were going in reverse though intersections. Just to many people with horribly timed traffic lights. I think there were a bunch of Iowa Hawkeye fans in town and that added to the number of people coming but the Mall of America needs to get that problem fixed and soon. We've never had any issues before with traffic.

New MGM/Mirage 'Project CityCenter' Hotel!

2004-11-12T16:28:00.000-06:00

Screamscape has the scoop on the amazing new Vegas hotel/entertainment project! MGM/Mirage will be building a gigantic hotel and entertainment that will bring a new style between Bellagio and Monte Carlo. Check out this image as it's amazing! And get the whole scoop over at Screamscape.

Someone Proved My Firefox Theory?

2004-11-12T14:10:00.000-06:00

It's sad to think but Firefox may have a pretty big issue. I had a theory a few days ago that Firefox got slower the longer the browser was open and someone has proven it. It's not scientific or anything, but it could be a real problem. Check out the findings.

It's warm. It's cold. It's warm. It's cold.

2004-11-11T16:47:00.000-06:00

It's warm. It's cold. It's warm. It's cold. That's how it's been around here for weeks. After hitting 60 just a few days ago, this morning it was 23 and today I don't think we hit 40. Now I don't mind the cold but lets get some snow! So far, that doesn't appear to be panning out. To bad to because it'd really help the holiday mood. Our plants however have no mood going on. I was surprised they made it into November but last night they sat out and froze to death. Oh well. They survived a good year. Now bring on the snow!!

Firefox 1 Day 1

2004-11-10T09:32:00.000-06:00

Well Firefox 1.0 has been out for a day and Firefox websites are starting to get back to normal. Most were slammed yesterday by people trying to get their hands on the new browser. A victim of their own success I guess. But that's good in a way. It shows the high amount of interest in this web browser and I can't wait to see the download numbers.

In using Firefox 1.0 on a Mac for a day I came up with a few oddities. There is a great feature about forcing links that spawn new windows to open in new tabs that disappeared from the final release. When I asked I was told that it's still there and can be turned on in the about:config area. However, they took it out of the preferences because there were issues. Not sure what yet but I still have that option turned on at work. Another theory I have is about Firefox getting full? After having the browser open for 5 hours straight yesterday it seemed really slow. So I quit it and restarted it and it worked great again. Can Firefox get full? Of what though?

Other than those two things Firefox 1.0 has been really great. I've switched from Safari and I'm spreading the Firefox word. This browser has about everything I need right down to the weather.

Oh and one more thing to note, my Firefox links might not work as that Firefox site is still trying to get back up on it's feet.

Firefox 1.0 - Now Available - Direct Download Links

2004-11-09T09:18:00.000-06:00

Firefox 1.0 is now available. The browser has finally made it to a milestone and I can't wait to see the feedback that it gets. When I upgraded I had no issues. Just had to re-install SpellBound spell check as it doesn't seem to be able to go from one version to the next. No biggie. Firefox 1.0 also has a new start page for those of you who go to the default Firefox one. I guess they partnered with Google for the new Firefox Google Start Page. Pretty sweet.

Since today is the big Firefox day Mozilla.org and SpreadFirefox.com can seem to be quite slow. Meaning they must be getting tons of hits. If you are looking for the download here are a few links for the English version. Windows Mac Linux i668 Those download links shouldn't be slow, but they are hosted on Mozilla so anything could happen.

Happy browsing and let me know if you find anything new and cool!

Basketball Flash Application Released

2004-11-08T09:23:00.000-06:00

The Dr Dish Drill Doctor has been released! It's a flash application that lets you create and save interactive basketball plays. Just move your players around the court and place them where you want. Also move the ball and Dr. Dish basketball machine. Once in place, set the position and then move them again. After a few positions have been set you can then play the play you designed and watch as it comes to live! I created this application while working at Artropolis and I'm very excited for it's release. Keep in mind it's being tested as it goes live so if there are bugs please report them. Enjoy!!

Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror

2004-11-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Well Halloween is officially over now, the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror as been on. I'd have to say that the Treehouse of Horror episodes are quite odd and very random, yet fun. I do prefer the 30 minute episodes way better though. Afterworlds we switched back to Extreme Home Makeovers on ABC and what they do is amazing. Tonight they re-did a home for a couple where were def and had one blind child and one normal child. They did so many amazing things so that the def parents could sign from any room and everything had labels for the blind kid. They defiantly deserve it and it was an amazing show.

Star Wars Episode 3 Trailer Online

2004-11-05T16:34:00.000-06:00

For all you Star Wars fans the new trailer is up. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith will hit theaters on May 19, 2005.

Disney and Pixar Present Cars

2004-11-05T13:26:00.000-06:00

Coming November 5th 2005 is Disney and Pixars next, and maybe last, movie together title Cars. The NASCAR themed movie will feature Owen Wilson and Richard Petty to name a few voices. You can check out the teaser for Cars online now.

The OC on FOX is Back

2004-11-05T06:47:00.000-06:00

We were very excited for the return of the OC on FOX last night! We ordered in Dominos Double Melt pizza and had kettle corn for desert as we watched the OC. The show didn't disappoint. I'll be addicted all season long! However the pizza wasn't that good. We wouldn't order it again. Kind of like that new Holiday Spice Pepsi, it's ok, but I wouldn't buy it again. Our kettle corn was pretty good to finish up the meal though. Mmmm Kettle corn.

Firefox and Thunderbird Updates

2004-11-04T10:01:00.000-06:00

Mozilla released Firefox Release Candidate 2 today and Thunderbird 0.9! Thunderbird said that none of my extensions would work when I started it up but they all did. Pretty smooth sailing here. I'm hoping they fixed the 'new mail notification' icon issue. Half the time it doesn't show, thus I have no idea I have new mail. Firefox on the other hand was a smooth update from RC1. I found out thought that I had to reinstall the SpellBound spell check extension though. Other than that no issues. Not sure what's new, but I'm sure something is.

Aquafying Firefox - Customizing With CSS

2004-11-03T09:15:00.000-06:00

My ~~Firefox~~ Aquafox

Every day it seems that I find something new that I can customize in Firefox and I've started a page to keep track of it all. Aquafox - Customizing Firefox has lots of tweaks and edits that I've made to my Firefox browser to make it appear as it does above. From custom background images, to tabs, extension makeovers and config file edits, I'll change it all. Wanna know how I did something? Don't understand what I did? Have tips or tricks of your own? Join my Firefox discussion. I'd love to hear what you've done!

Using CSS to Control Multiple Hover Text Colors

2004-11-02T13:29:00.000-06:00

I found a great new CSS trick today to control the hover text color for different links on a page. Basically you add five class' to your CSS file.

/* black links with blue rollover */
.link-black {color: #000000;}
.link-black a:link {color: #000000;}
.link-black a:visited {color: #000000;}
.link-black a:hover {color: #0098cb;}
.link-black a:active {color: #0098cb;}

Then, on your page you'd surround your links with a tag that contained the style.
<p class="link-black">
<a href="2">poker</a>
<a href="3">texas</a>
<a href="4">doctor</a>
</p>

That's it! All the links in that paragraph tag should now have the link-black style. One thing to keep in mind though is that Internet Explorer requires that you have ALL five tags. If you only have a few of them, IE will not use any, however Firefox and Safari work fine with only a few.

I voted and got a cookie.

2004-11-02T09:10:00.000-06:00

I'm so happy that today is election day! That means that the TV ads will go away, the fliers will go away and so will the stupid signs littering the roadways. Whooo Hooo. I went to the local elementary school this morning where they were doing voting. I decided to get in early to beat the crowds. I showed up around 8am and waited in line. The smart little school had cookies, brownies, coffee and pop for sale too. So I got a cookie. MMmm good stuff. It took me about 45 minutes to wait in line and to vote. Ok so I had to register to that added probably 15 minutes in another line. All in all it wasn't bad at all. People were constant. It wasn't overly busy but not dead either. I could have been in and out in a half hour if I didn't have to register. Now I have my cool I Voted sticker on and don't have to worry about voting later today. So who did I vote for? Well there was no one for sewage council or something like that, not that I blame them, so I left that blank. I also left a lot of blanks when people were running against nobody. If you have no competition then how should you loose? I was disappointed I didn't get to vote for Mark Kennedy or Patty Wetterling. I guess I'm not in the right area to vote for one of them. Sad. Oh and I did vote for president..... but, like my mom, I'd rater not say.

Spell Check for FireFox

2004-11-01T09:22:00.000-06:00

Being a big fan of Safari I find it hard to switch browsers, but Firefox has me almost convinced. One thing it was missing was spell check and now I've found it. Spellbound is a Firefox extension that allows you to hit a button and it will spell check any text boxes on a site. This works on forums, emails, about anything with a text field! I've been using it for a few days now and it's really nice. No 'Check Spelling as You Type' but a spell check none the less. Spellbound is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Do you have any FireFox tips? Tricks? Or maybe you want more FireFox information? Check out my ongoing discussion about FireFox.

Happy Halloween!! Come, carve a pumpkin.

2004-10-29T13:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween Everyone! Check out our awesome pumpkin carving jobs too.

Think you can carve a better pumpkin? Try it with this cool pumpkin carving flash game I was sent.

SpiderMan 2 - Not as good but still great.

2004-10-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

My wife and I went down to the Hopkins cheap theater last night to see SpiderMan 2. The Hopkins theater is nice because it's only $2 each and only $1 on Tuesdays. The movies are all big named movies that have been out of theaters for a while but not quite on video. I have to say that I was excited to see this movie, we both were. All in all it was a good movie but it seemed long. The villain was much better this time around and the special effects were amazing once again! And, of course, they left it wide open for SpiderMan 3. Who do you think the villain will be? The friend? Almost husband? Girl who lived next to Spiderman? All good ideas but my money is on the almost husband.

Hobbits Are Real!?

2004-10-28T09:32:00.000-05:00

I was watching Good Morning America this morning and they say that they found human remains on an Indonesian island that are half the size of humans. Approximately three feet tall and they are referring to them as hobbits.

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Australia have found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 18,000 years ago on an Indonesian island in a discovery that adds another piece to the complex puzzle of human evolution.

The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis, found in a cave on the island of Flores, is of an adult female that was a meter (3 feet) tall, had a chimpanzee-sized brain and was substantially different from modern humans.

Hobbits, as made up by the Lord of the Rings movies, are not real, however they may become real. I hope not as I doubt a living thing could never live up to the standards as set by the movies.

More real hobbit information.

Self Hypnosis CDs and MP3s

2004-10-27T13:13:00.000-05:00

Check out my new self-hypnosis site. You can get CDs or MP3s that can help you hypnotize yourself and reach your goals. Get information on sleep hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, progressive muscle relaxation hypnosis, high blood pressure hypnosis and other hypnotism techniques. Shop for CDs and download MP3s that can help you learn self-hypnosis and maybe even relax a little. These may also be good Christmas ideas.

Photo iPod and U2 iPod Now Available

2004-10-26T13:25:00.000-05:00

Apple unleashed the new iPods today. The U2 iPod is black and red with the bands autographs on them. Comes preloaded with U2 music as the rumors stated. Also new is the Photo iPod. In 40 and 60 gig sizes the vivid 2 inch color screen lets you view photos synced from iTunes 4.7 (new) on them. Slideshow abilities, with music, are available and you can even hook it up to the TV for showing off. Don't forget the Belkin Media Reader either, it allows you to store photos from your digital camera on your iPod. NICE!!!

Shapeshifter 2.0 - Change Everything

2004-10-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

Unsanity's Shapeshifter 2.0 is available for download. Now you can change themes, icons, cursors and desktops. Included is a theme browsing window that lets you view newer themes and download them. Themes also load faster which is always good. And, of course, it's safe!

Oh Apple Day... What is going to happen?

2004-10-26T06:19:00.000-05:00

Today we should have some big Apple related announcements. One, Shapeshifter 2.0 should be available for download soon. The free upgrade should come with a few sweet new themes also. Two, the Apple iPod update? Could it be flash based? Video iPod? U2 iPod? We should find out today. Three, iTuens Canada? And other countries? Those are rumors that should come to light or disappear later today. Check back for the latest news!

My blog, redesigned. Check it out.

2004-10-25T06:43:00.000-05:00

I have redesigned my blog. Fresh with new graphics, new stylesheet, new template and now the 'email article' icons are working! It took me a few weeks to get the design I wanted translated into blogger and working well on different platforms. Even though I've tested it, I won't be surprised to hear about issues with different systems, different browsers, or old post issues. Do you have issues? Comments? Or just want to tell me that it looks nice? Well please do. Just post a comment and I'll take everything into consideration. I hope you like the new look and feel!!

Sage - RSS Reader for FireFox

2004-10-22T09:25:00.000-05:00

In my constant quest to customize Firefox I came across Safari like tabs and Sage. Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox. Sage sits in Firefox's sidebar and when you click on a topic, it displays in the main window in an easy to view, simple webpage. [screenshot] So far I have to say it's pretty cool. I just need to find an easy way to add the feeds to sage. *edit* Found it. Maybe I need to read the instructions. Oh and if you are looking for Safari like tabs for Firefox, look here.

Thunderbird for eMail. It's gotta be good right?

2004-10-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

Since I've had success with Firefox I decided that maybe I need to check out Thunderbird. I had looked at it before, but never seriously used it until today. I decided to switch from Apple's Mail.app and check out Mozilla Thunderbird. It's a hard switch because it's not the easiest moving from one client to another. Not like web browsing. But I did. So far so good. There is a learning curve, as with anything, but it's fun at the same time too. I got a few extensions and my mail all imported and working great. I do miss the 'spell as you type' feature from Mail but at least there is a spell check when I send. I'm also not as happy with how the signature attaches its self to the very bottom of a message but I'm looking for that fix. However I am very excited for better HTML support and labels! Along with the many extensions that I can install. I'll stick with it until the end of October, that's my first goal, and then see what happens from there. If all goes good, it will probably be my work email client until the new Mac OS X comes out.

Help Spread Firefox and Get in the NY Times

2004-10-21T09:37:00.000-05:00

Mozilla Firefox is getting ready for a 1.0 launch in November and you can help out by giving a small donation, or a large one, to the community to cover advertising costs. By doing so, you'll get your name in the full page Firefox ad in the New York Times. How cool is that?! You can be a part of history for only $30 and you get your name in a world wide newspaper. Oh and if your a student, it's cheaper yet. Only $10. I may jump on this deal because it sounds like fun. It may be tax deductible too. Either way I'm just happy to help spread the Firefox browser.

Updates, Rumors, News and More

2004-10-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

I thought that today I'd lump a bunch of things together. -- My new blog theme is coming along great! Check for it soon, hopefully before November. -- Shapeshifter 2.0 is coming out next Tuesday. Shapeshifter is the best application for switching themes on a Mac! Speaking of themes, Hallo has reached version 1.1. I added a few more green/orange areas and a nice looking PumpkinApple menu. -- Apple has released upgraded iBooks with cheaper starting prices. Now the laptops start at just $999 and all come with wireless cards. -- Some sort of iPod event is happening October 26th. There are rumors of a 60gig color screen iPod or a special edition black U2 iPod. I'm hoping for the color screen one but we'll see. -- Adium .7 came out just days ago. I was a part of the beta group and it's nice to see it become a reality. Adium is an amazing multiple service IM chat application that is very customizable! -- That's the news for now.

Customizing FireFox - More Than You Know

2004-10-19T09:51:00.000-05:00

Customization is a big part of computers any more. From themes to skins people are constantly finding a way to change things. But did you know that you can change other things too? I'm running Firefox on a Mac and I was installing some pretty widgets into Firefox when I started poking around. While inside my application (right clicked on the app and chose 'show package contents') I changed the very old image and broken image graphics to something a little more up to date. The old ones were from the days of Netscape 4.x. I also looked in the style sheets and realized that when Firefox draws input boxes it refers to a stylesheet inside Firefox. So I turned all borders to be 1 pixel solid instead of that indented look that they normally have. To me, the output was amazing. I also changed the G in the Google search bar to a much smoother G with no border. A few minor changes that I felt make my Firefox look a little nicer! Be careful though, by switching some of the information you could make things worse. For a while I had checkboxes with no borders. Kind of hard to see on a white background as they were white themselves. But, all in all, I screwed nothing up and made some sweet tweaks to Firefox that I'm very happy with.

Check out the Firefox Customization page.

CherryOS - Emulate a Mac on a PC

2004-10-18T07:44:00.000-05:00

CherryOS is an emulator program that supposedly allows a PC user to run OS X. However, it may be to good to be true. The Maui, Hawaii based company's website for CherryOS crashed due to massive traffic and hackers. The company claims that it's $50 software can run MacOSX at 80%, which, if were true, would be a huge improvement for Mac emulators. There is no demo out and the product is not shipping, but they are taking pre-orders. Many people don't believe that the software works, or as well as stated. We'll just have to wait and see. The company is currently trying to get it's website back online and may even make a demo. They claim they wrote all the code and that it is as good as they say. We'll have to wait and see.

Here's To You - Rascal Flatts Tickets

2004-10-17T13:19:00.000-05:00

We got our tickets to Rascal Flatts at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Minnesota. The concert is November 20th and our seats are pretty good. The interesting fact is that I think, not positive, that the only reason the concert is when it is, is because the Xcel Energy center is trying to fill the stadium since the Minnesota Wild Hockey team isn't playing. They need to make some money instead of having an empty stadium. Or so that's what I heard rumored on the news. Either way, we are going to have fun!!

New Apple Mini Stores

2004-10-15T06:46:00.000-05:00

Apple unveiled their new mini retail stores yesterday. The mini stores look much like their current stores, however they are skinner and contain fewer products. They may be smaller, but they make the same impact visually. Their stainless steel walls, seamless white floors and ceilings along with the glowing Apple on the front make them an eye catcher at any mall. The smaller stores will make it easier for Apple to put stores in new places. For more information check out the AppleInsider.

Sub-domain vs Directory Folder : I'm so confused.

2004-10-14T09:50:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to do research to see what works better in search engines, sub-domains or directory folders and I just get more confused. When most people discuss the differences they either explain it in great detail that it goes over my head, or they give no real answers. What I want to know, is that if a sub-domain has only 5 pages or so in the site, would it be more beneficial as a directory? http://zoo.site.com or http://www.site.com/zoo/ The reason I ask is because, lately, I've heard that the more pages in your site can help you get found in search engines. I've also heard that sub-domains don't count towards you site size. So would putting all my mini sites into directory folders on my main site be better? Or are they just fine in sub-domains? Does a search engine care? Will one be found easier than the other?

Netscape Is About To Come Charging Back

2004-10-13T14:17:00.000-05:00

Netscape turns 10 on October 13th and ZDNet has learned that they are planing on making a big comeback this year!!

Netscape has been very quiet in the past years as Internet Explorer has taken most of it's fans. However, things are starting to turn. Firefox is getting a lot of exposure lately and it's good exposure. There are a lot of reports of security issues with IE and a push to drop it. With a name like Netscape, it could be just the thing we need.

Now forget about Netscape that you know of today. Think about a new Netscape. Currently the old Netscape is build on pre-firefox code. If they get that updated to the latest from Mozilla they'll have great things under the hood! They also need a face lift. Let's face it, the bulky look it has now won't cut it. Also keep in mind who owns Netscape, AOL. AOL is widely used and if they started installing and using Netscape with AOL, that could be a huge push in itself.

Netscape is still a HUGE name in the browser world even though the browser hasn't done much in years and that's a great start. Tell people about Firefox and they may say What's Firefox? Say Netscape and they'll know what you are talking about. It still has the name recognition, now it just needs some fixing up and by the end of the year, we may have a brand new great Netscape.

I took the Rush Cut

2004-10-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

What's a rush cut? You've never heard of a rush cut? Good. That helps as I make up my new saying. We've all hear of short cut, that path that is shorter than the original. Or maybe even long cut, that path that's longer than the original way. Well now there is rush cut. Rush cut is a combination of short and long cut. During rush hour the main path is up the freeway. One stop sign, two stop lights, then I'm on the freeway and cruising fast like. Well, add in traffic and some rain or snow and the freeway is basically a dead stop. So I take the long cut. Through local streets, many stop signs, many stop lights and avoiding the freeway. However, during rush hour, the long cut is shorter due to the amount of time it takes me. This is a rush cut. A path that is typically longer except in rush hour, when this path now takes less time due to slow traffic on the short cut. Thus, the creation of rush cut!

Krispy Kreme Opens in Rochester Minnesota

2004-10-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

South East Minnesota residents now don't have to drive to the Mall of America or other Krispy Kreme locations in the Twin Cities. Krispy Kreme is now open in Rochester! Watch the cars line up and the people line up to get the sweet sweet doughnuts. It's located just off 52 next to TGI Fridays and Olive Garden. Don't forget, the drive through is open 24 hours a day so you can get you doughnuts day or night. Humm what will be popular this Thanksgiving and Christmas? Mmmm doughnuts.

Elvis and John Belushi Arrested in Minnesota

2004-10-12T09:44:00.000-05:00

Are you ready for this? Elvis and John Belushi met up with two women and took them to a bar in Crystal Minnesota, suburb of Minneapolis. At the bar Elvis and John got into an argument and ran outside where Elvis tripped and fell. 911 was called for a man down and arrived on the scene to help Elvis. At that time John Belushi sold the car of the women they brought to the bar. Police then chased Belushi to the little, local airport where they had a high speed (75mph) chase for ten minutes and then Belushi hid in a hanger and was found and arrested.

The Elvis and John Belushi impersonators were believed to be in a scam together. For a little more information check out Fox 9.

T-Shirt. Check. Shorts. Check. Ice Scraper?

2004-10-12T09:05:00.000-05:00

I heard on the news this morning that this was going to be our last nice day for a while. Maybe even our last 65+ day of the year! So I put on my shorts and my t-shirt and off to work I went. When I got to my car it was all dewey so I ran the windshield wipers and it didn't come off. It was frost! I sat in my car, with the heat on and the de-frost going to clear the windows. I didn't want to get out in the cold to scrape off my windows. Hopefully it does worm up today but so far I'm not impressed.

My Wife Left Me...

2004-10-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

... for Colorado for a few days. She's got work to do out there. (that's what happens when you are so smart, they send you places) So it's just me and the cat for a few days. It's so quiet and lonely but we'll survive. Yesterday, after she left, I went to the Mall of America and checked out the new iMacs at the Apple store. They are so nice. I love the all-in-one idea! Course I liked the old design too. Still do. Maybe I'll save up my adsence pennies and buy one some day! Otherwise, while she's gone, I have a bunch of web sites to update and things to get accomplished. Don't know if I can get everything done, but a good start is all I really need. Oh yea, I need to pay bills too.

Crystal Care Center Annual Gala

2004-10-08T10:05:00.000-05:00

We went to the Crystal Care Center Annual Gala last night and had a wonderful time. They had dinner, a silent auction, door prizes, raffle and a live auction. Much to our surprise we won a two night stay at Harrah's Las Vegas in the silent auction! In the live auction we bided on bowling for 60 and 10 dozen Christmas cookies but we didn't win either. We wanted to bid on a night at the Minneapolis Grand Hotel but that was way out of our price range. They had other great items too like Vikings tickets, Twins tickets, Timberwolves tickets, house cleaning, babysitting, lawn services and more.

Lynx Browser For Mac?

2004-10-07T16:34:00.000-05:00

Anyone know if there is a Lynx browser for the Mac? I have found and online version that works pretty good, but I'd still like my own application. For those who don't know, like me five minutes ago, a Lynx browser shows you what a search engine spider supposedly sees. Not sure how true that is but it give me a different view at the sites I'm creating. Which, I now see need some BIG updates.

Trees Are On Fire ... Wait, Fall Colors

2004-10-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

Trees Are On Fire! Oh wait, nope they aren't. It's just the fall colors. Bright yellows, reds, oranges and golds. It's amazing how nature can do that. They've been changing a little bit the past few weeks but today I noticed a bright red tree outside our building. I'll have to go on a walk sometime and see if I can't get some good pictures. Now is a good time to go to the Minnesota Arboretum as they have lots of trees with no city. Nice.

Apple iCal for Windows? Linux?

2004-10-06T15:27:00.000-05:00

Every wish you could access or create Apple iCal calendars on other machines? You can! Mozilla has the Calendar project going on. "We are striving to build a cross-platform fully standards based calendar client based on the open iCal standard."- Mozilla What it does is adds a calendar app to Mozilla products. This app then can read and create .ics files, or otherwise know as iCal files. I have iCal calendars published on a WebDAV server (Spymac) and I was able to subscribe to them in the Mozilla Calendar. Everything showed up great! One thing to keep in mind is the Mozilla Calendar is in beta so bugs are there and it doesn't look as slick as FireFox's interface. However there is an entire calendar, events, alarms and more available. All completely compatible with Apple's iCal and usable on Mac, Windows and Linux running Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird or Netscape. Oh and it's free!

Download/Install Now.

Apple Web Site Has Issues?

2004-10-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

I visit the Apple web site a few times a day and I've started getting this message [an error occurred while processing this directive] Not sure what it means but a few refreshes and it was gone. Odd I tell ya.

Go Twins - Loose Yankees

2004-10-06T09:54:00.000-05:00

So far so good. The Minnesota Twins are up 1 game to 0 after a 2-0 shut out last night in New York. [insert homer hankey wave here]

Don't like the weather? Hold on it'll change.

2004-10-05T13:46:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year in Minnesota. The weather is constantly changing. There was frost on my car this morning (which thankfully I didn't have to scrape) and it's to get up to about 70 today. Don't like that? Just wait. Tomorrow maybe 80! Still not a fan? Well how about 60s for highs on Thursday? What about next week? Who knows. Maybe 85 maybe 55, we'll have to wait and see.

Adium 0.7 - Multi Instant Messaging Application

2004-10-05T09:16:00.000-05:00

I couldn't wait any longer and downloaded Adium 0.7 beta last night and it rocked. The new version sports very customizable buddy lists and supposed file transfer abilities (haven't tried that out yet). I was worried since it was beta that it'd crash or something bad would happen but so far so good!! I do, however, find myself changing the buddy list every few minutes. Background, no background, 50% background orange, buddy icons, no icons, window, floating list, status icons, names, aliases, more spacing, less spacing, bubbles, squares, name colors, idol colors, ahhh so much to fiddle with and so much fun!! Yea for Adium!!

Help Me Design My New Blog

2004-10-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

I really want to change the layout of my blog. New design, better design. However, it seems so hard to edit the blogger templates because I don't know what blogger tags do what. If you have any suggestions on how to 'easily' create my own template that'd be great! I've done a few in the past, however none of them seemed that easy, or turned out perfect.

Shaun Of The Dead Movie Review

2004-10-02T09:07:00.000-05:00

I had heard nothing about Shaun Of The Dead but Christi said it looked funny and wanted to go. I look at the trailer at Apple and it looked pretty good. It's about a slacker, Shaun, and his friend that try to save their friends from zombies! This is a hilarious movie! I laughed so hard at times that it almost hurt. The movie starts out slow, building characters and good ones at that. And the end they try to add drama which gets a little much but before you know it they are back to the funny stuff. I recommend this movie if you are looking for something a little different and very funny. Oh and be prepared for gore. It's a little gorey at times, but they even make that funny!!

Kohls Christmas Decorations Are Freaking Me Out

2004-10-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

It was October 1st and we were at Kohls and they had their Christmas decorations up in the store!! Target is selling some Christmas stuff but their store is not yet decorated but Kohls is!! WAY TO EARLY!

Somebody Loves Me

2004-10-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

I just got a cookie basket delivered to me at work and it's huge!! Seven cookies that are the size of my hand and a half an inch thick! Designed to be two bears at the beech! My wife got it for me from Cookies by Design. I was nice and shred them with the guys in the office, course they have a sugar coma now. Mmm cookies!!

Jack Skellington meet MacOSX

2004-10-01T09:28:00.000-05:00

Hallo has arrived for MacOSX! It's a Halloween theme that mixes some orange and black with Jack Skellington and even Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas. Also available are desktops, Nightmare Before Christmas fonts and gift ideas.

Kingda Ka is Coming, Be Afraid

2004-09-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

Kingda Ka, a new rollercoaster at Six Flags Great Adventure, is coming. It stands 456-foot-tall and launches you from 0 to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds. That's 36 feet taller and 8 mph faster than Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point making Kingda Ka the tallest and fastest coaster on earth! However, Kingda Ka offers riders more. A second hill, 129 feet tall, will excite riders as they enjoy extra airtime. Kingda Ka also has two loading stations and four trains to help put more riders through faster! Learn More at the Kingda Ka site.

U2 : Vertigo : Download New Song

2004-09-29T06:48:00.000-05:00

The band U2 has come out with the first single Vertigo from the bands new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, set to be released November 23rd.

From iTunes:
Opening with one of The Edge's fastest, most aggressive guitar riffs ever, 'Vertigo' is the title of U2's new single — and it's available today, exclusively on iTunes. 'Vertigo' offers a tantalizing hint of the band's first studio album in four years, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which is due to drop November 23. Be among the first to download this powerful song.

Download Vertigo by U2 today via

Beware of LaidLaw White Vans

2004-09-28T08:54:00.000-05:00

If you see this logo on the side of a white van keep an eye on it, especially in the western suburbs of the twin cities. I encountered two of these vans this morning and their driving skills were horrible. One van was going about 20 in a 30 zone and decided to slowly merge in front of me. No blinker, no warning, just casually left his own lane and entered mine. I was afraid to be behind them getting on the freeway but I had nothing to worry about as the van, now going slower, ran the red light, turned left and entered the freeway ramp. Good thing the cars with the green light were watching so they could hit their brakes an horns. The second van, and yes it was a different one, passed me on my way to work. This one was going much faster. He took the same exit as me and ended up right in front of me. We both had our blinkers on to turn right when he decided he didn't want to be in that lane anymore. So he switched his blinker to left and moved over like there was no one else on the road. In the mean time the car in the left lane almost got her front end taken out by the van. I don't know if he doesn't use mirrors or just didn't care. It was way to close for me and I wasn't even in harms way. Two vans, both with the same logo, in the same area, with no care for other cars on the road. If you see a white LaidLaw van on the road, be careful as you never know what they will do next.

Google. It's a Love Hate Relationship

2004-09-28T07:42:00.000-05:00

It's fun to get into Google and get my sites showing up towards the top, however I'm not having as much fun this month. So far in September Google has eaten up over four gigs of bandwidth. I'm not sure where they are taking it all from but I've started throwing robots.txt files everywhere disallowing access to any bots. The main pages are fine but I think Google is getting stuck in the calendars or something. However, my bandwidth keeps going up and fast. I've had to purchase extra bandwidth at a price that I believe is much to high and all I'm trying to do is make it through September! There is also another bot, Pompos, that has eaten up 2.5 gigs of bandwidth also. So between just those two bots I've gone over my free 5 gigs of transfer. On average I usually use about three so I'm not to thrilled. Maybe it'll be good for the site in the long run but so far I see nothing good coming.

Lost My Wedding Ring

2004-09-26T19:08:00.000-05:00

I lost my wedding ring this weekend, but thankfully it was found again!! We were out chasing cats in the barn and I climbed over a gate and got my pants all dirty. So I wiped them off and my ring must have gone off with the dust. It wasn't for a while later that I realized it was missing. My whole family went out and my mom found it!! I think I need to get it taken in to get sized down a little. As it gets colder out my ring slips off easier and easier.

Wykoff Fall Fest

2004-09-24T17:01:00.000-05:00

We're off to enjoy Wykoff Minnesota's Fall Fest! It's fun to get out of the city and back to good ol' rural Minnesota. We are also taking the wedding pictures to show our families.

Wedding Pictures Have Arrived

2004-09-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

We have gotten our wedding pictures back and they look wonderful! Now we have lots of pictures to go though and see which ones we like and which ones we want blown up for our 8x10s. It's going to be hard since there are so many good pictures.

Microsoft Doesn't Care About You

2004-09-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

A recent CNet article talks about how Microsoft won't be adding any Internet Explorer security features to anything except Windows XP. That means if you have Windows versions 2000, ME, 98 and 95 they no longer care about your security on the internet. They claim that if you want security on the internet you better shell out the $199 for XP. If I were you, I'd just go to Mozilla.org and get FireFox and forget about all the security issues that IE has. If Microsoft doesn't care about you, why should you use their stuff?

Lost : If It's Dinosaurs It's Stupid

2004-09-23T13:12:00.000-05:00

We started watching Lost last night on ABC. It's that show about people that were in a plain crash and now are lost somewhere. But wait, there is something on the island. It sounds like dinosaurs, and it's big, but they never showed us what it actually was. If it's dinosaurs I'm going to be very disappointed.

Fastest Tallest Rollercoaster Woldwide

2004-09-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

Six Flags Great Adventure is gearing up for the September 29th announcement of their new rollercoaster that 'eats all records'! This means this new Rocket Coaster has to be over 410 feet tall and go faster than 120 mph to be the worlds fastest and tallest coaster. It'll be amazing to see what they come up with, however, if they build one that 411 feet tall and goes 121 mph they'll piss a lot of people off because that's cheating.

View Front of Media Invite
View Back of Media Invite

Alpine iPod Adapter

2004-09-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Alpine has made an iPod adapter that lets you use your iPod with their radios. And it hooks in so sweet! They even got the Alpine logo to appear on the iPod! Check out the demo it's pretty sweet.

PithHelmet Ad Blocking Software Slows Safari

2004-09-22T09:04:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of ad blocking software but it seems that the newest version of PithHelmet slowed down Safari big time. I have since downgraded to an older version and it seems that speeds have returned to normal. Which is good! Anyone else use PithHelmet and have this issue? Or am I just special.

Married One Month

2004-09-21T14:54:00.000-05:00

It's now about 3pm and one month ago the ceremony was ending and I was a married man. It's been a great month and I'm one happy man. If I could go back I would, just one month because then I'd be just married, with a bunch of friends, going to dinner and a dance followed by Hawaii!! Ohhh that'd be nice! For those of you who forgot to send us a gift, don't worry, we'll still accept them.

Twins Win Three Straight Division Titles

2004-09-21T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Minnesota Twins do it again, winning their third straight division title against the White Socks last night! We've had great playoff games in the past, however no World Series. Maybe this year. Either way, it's still awesome to see them doing so good!

Sawyer Brown Returning in 2004?

2004-09-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems that every few months Sawyer Brown has a new record label and is releasing a new single for their new album... which all disappears. They've been 'having new music' for a few years and it's sad to see that nothing comes out of it. Again today the rumors came about a new single and new album that should be out later this year. Mission Temple Fireworks Stand should be their first single from their new album Keep Your Hands to Yourself. I'll be looking for it on iTunes as I'm still a big fan.

Got a Playstation 2 to play Atari Pong

2004-09-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

We are borrowing a Playstation 2 for a while and we went out and got a game for it this weekend. It's an Atari Classics game. It has Pong and Centipede and other great old games in their original form. Granted I lost at Pong right away but I won against the computer the second time around. Sad thing was he was on easy. We need to buy another controller though as we only have one right now. It's still fun though!

Browse Happy - Switch Web Browsers Today

2004-09-17T14:54:00.000-05:00

Internet Explorer is becoming a major security issue anymore. "New security flaws are reported at an alarming rate and major security organizations like the US Department of Homeland Security now recommend against its use."* Do you questions about security risks or you just want to know what other browsers are out there? Browse Happy can help answer questions and give you facts on why Internet Explorer is a security risk and what other browsers are out there for you.

Parsing an iTunes RSS Feed

2004-09-17T09:32:00.000-05:00

So how do you parse an iTunes RSS Feed? It's actually quite easy, once you know how to do it. I used Magpie RSS to parse my feed and it wasn't as easy as the directions said. It said to upload four files and it'd work. Nope. You also need the code for your index page. Duh. And you have to figure out where to put the RSS feed URL. Yes, for people that know something about RSS feeds this may be common knowledge, but this script wasn't documented will for beginners. I did get it to work and it works beautifully! There are so many things I want to do with parsing RSS feeds now. For now though you can go download mp3s at my iTunes starter site.

Create AIDS Awareness Contest

2004-09-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

Kirupa.com is partnering up with Aids-Awareness for a contest to help spread AIDS awareness. Rules are pretty simple. Create a Flash movie between 30 and 45 seconds and less than 1MB in size with AIDS awareness as its main theme. We've got until October 31st so there is still plenty of time. I may put in my idea, just depends on when I can get around to it. Visit Kirupa.com for the full details.

Siegfried and Roy on the Lion Attack

2004-09-16T09:17:00.000-05:00

I watched the Siegfried and Roy special on NBC last night and it was absolutely amazing what they have gone though. Roy actually died for a minute but they brought him back to life! They also took part of his skull out and put it in his abdomen. This kept the skull piece alive for a few weeks while his brain swelled up and then went back down. Eventually they replaced it. Roy seems to be getting better everyday and Siegfried never leaves his side. They even showed Montecore, the lion, on the special and Roy was feeding him. There are no hard feelings there. They said that they think Roy had high blood pressure and that caused him to have a stoke on stage. Then, realizing something was wrong with Roy, Montecore did what any lion would do to protect their loved ones, grab them by the neck and drag them to safety. They also mentioned that if Montecore wanted to kill Roy he would have done so in seconds, but he didn't. It was great to see how well they are doing and how much they are looking at this as an obstacle, not the end of the road. Roy believes he'll get to be independent again someday and that is what he is working towards.

Party For Two by Shania Twain

2004-09-15T08:31:00.000-05:00

I was excited to see new music by Shania Twain this morning. Party for Two is the new song and it's a duet with Billy Currington. This fun song will be an instant Shania hit. Download Shania Twain's new single "Party for Two" from her upcoming greatest hits disc today in the iTunes Pre-Release section!

Update: I hear there is a POP version that features Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray!

Who needs a hurricane?

2004-09-15T06:40:00.000-05:00

Who needs a hurricane when it doesn't stop raining? In southern minnesota they got from 6-9 inches of rain last night and here in the twin cities, we've only gotten about an inch and a half but we've got six more hours of rain coming. Schools and intestates are closing in southern minnesota and I sure hope we don't get that much here.

Memory Foam Contour Pillow

2004-09-15T06:35:00.000-05:00

Christi picked up a Memory Foam Contour Pillow for me yesterday and it's soooooo nice. It's one of those memory foam ones that doesn't go flat! It worked great last night and it's so comfortable.

Firefox 1 Preview Release

2004-09-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

Mozilla today announced Firefox 1.0 Preview Release. They are working hard to get out one amazing web browser before the end of the year. Rumor has it, the final Firefox will be out in October and today we took another step closer! New features include an RSS subscription feature much like Apple is putting into Safari 2.0

Too Much Food - Jason Mraz

2004-09-14T07:04:00.000-05:00

I downloaded Jason Mraz's song Too Much Food a few days ago and it's a great song. Of course it's a little different but it's all good. That is part of it's appeal. I heard the song on the opening of NorthShore on FOX last week and I knew it was Jason Mraz, so I opened up iTunes and downloaded it. You can get the song too...

You can say that I'm one curly fry in the box of the regular
Messing with the flavor, oh the flavor that you savor
Saving me for last, but you better not eat me at all
Living in a fastfood bag making friends with the ketchup and salt
People say that I'm crazy for not moving on to better things
Instead of sitting around trash talking with the onion rings
But it's much too soon to leave this easy life
Pass me the spoon, pass the analytical knife

Free Stock Photography

2004-09-13T13:15:00.000-05:00

The right photo is often hard to find and if you use some sites like Veer or Getty Images the images cost big bucks! You could always do a Google image search and take some, but that's not very honest either. Today I found part of the answer, free stock photos at stock.xchange! They have a good variety from what I've seen and there are no prices. Some come with rules, like 'please contact the author before using' however others are free for you to use wherever! Keep in mind that this site gets hit a lot and their poor server is overworked. If it says it is to busy, just come back later. It's worth it I think. The quality is good and the site is very nice!

One Gig Free Space

2004-09-13T09:43:00.000-05:00

That's right, that is what Googles Gmail provides and I have quite a few email invites to give away. Want one? Just let me know.

Puke and Snot at the Renaissance Festival

2004-09-12T08:43:00.000-05:00

We went out to the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, Minnesota yesterday. It sure is fun to go to this festival because it's so different. People show up in costume and really get into it. I had some chicken on a stick and we checked out the Puke and Snot show among other things.

September 11th - Never Forget

2004-09-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

It's been three years and it still seems like yesterday. I'll never forget, however, I'll never live in fear. So I'm off to support the economy.

Joey on NBC

2004-09-10T11:55:00.000-05:00

Did you see Joey last night on NBC? What did you think? I thought it was a pretty good show, however the story never went anywhere. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with. Nice to see that they didn't change Joey, it's Hollywood so you never know what they'd do. I did think Joey's talent agent was a little over the top though. I like her as an actress but her roll was a little to annoying for me. I wonder what it'll do next week being up against the OC special or in two weeks against the OC premier!!

Sassy Pissey Pants

2004-09-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

Christi took our cat, Sassy, into the vet yesterday for a check up and a shot and she was not happy to be there. We take her to a nice cat clinic, so it's not like there are dogs barking or anything, but it doesn't matter. From the moment they walked in the door she was hissing out of her kennel. Once in back, and out of the kennel, she tried to get a way by sneaking off the table, or curling into a ball. Whenever the doctor tried to touch her she's start growling or hissing. At one point the doctor went to get another person, and protective gloves, because our cat started trying to bite the vet! The gloves protected them from loosing a finger when they gave Sassy a shot. Boy oh boy was she not happy. Then, on the way home, Sassy calmed down and starting meowing pathetically. It was her way of saying sorry and wondering if Christi was still there and if she was safe. At home she was all lovey dovey again.

Quiznos Sub Mmm Mmm Tasty

2004-09-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

I just had a great Quiznos sub for lunch. It was some sort of french dip / south west steak thing. I don't remember. But it was darn good! It's only for a limited time though!!

Second Purple Heart

2004-09-09T06:56:00.000-05:00

A family friend of Christi, Lucas Rath of Spring Valley Minnesota, was wounded in Iraq for the second time. He is doing good and is in line for his second purple heart. More Information

Free Download - Marc Broussard

2004-09-09T06:48:00.000-05:00

Come Around by Marc Broussard from his album Carencro is this week's iTunes Free download.