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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Marathon Training


T-minus 8 weeks before the Great Ocean Road. I did 20 miles this Sat and it was OK. I have done 20 miles before but I did not feel 100%. However, it was really humid so I will cut myself some slack. My goal for this race is to finish in under 5 hours. So far, if I maintain my pace, I will finish at 4 hours and 59 min. YIKES! No room for lallygagging as my dad would say.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Cheesecake

All Todd wanted for his birthday was a cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake but my famous lime cheesecake. This cake is not for the lactose intolerant. In addition to Philly cream cheese there is a substantial heaping of full fat sour cream. Here is a picture of my finished product! It turned out so nice and super duper yummy. I am so domestic:)

Speaking of birthday, the other picture is of Todd and myself on my 30th b-day in Melbourne. Who fell asleep by the pool and forgot to cover her face?????


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Has anyone seen my laptop?????

I have waited, and waited, and waited for my FUCKING laptop to arrive. I am so over this! Dell called me last Friday and said they would deliver it on Monday between 9am and 1pm. I said that is an awfully long interval, but hey how can I argue when I work from home. Anyway, 3:30pm rolls around and no laptop and no phone call to say they are running late. I call Dell that night and they say the usual "We are so sorry for the inconvenience. Can we arrange an after hours delivery on Tues? The courier will be there between 5pm and 9pm" Whatever, sure...why not? Needless to say, last night I went to bed at 10pm with no laptop. I am waiting for Dell to open up so I can tear them a new one. I hope that this whole delivery thing is just some kind of "comedy of errors" but I have a sneaky suspicion it is just pure incompetence.

The thing that gets me is this...why does the delivery industry act as if they operate in some parallel universe? I mean that, if we say to a business colleague "I will be there at noon" and don't show up, it would be extremely rude and unprofessional. We would never stand for it, nor would we do it ourselves. Why do we let the delivery companies get away with it? What makes them so different? Ah, the question for my next PhD!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Laptop

I bought a new one. I hate myself. I am a product of America's consumer culture:( Worst of all, my new piece of conspicuous consumption comes with a copy of Vista and all it maladies. I had no choice. I can hear the Apple people screaming "Helooooo, over here" but I had two problems with Apple. First, to get the laptop I wanted from Apple I would have had to spend twice as much as I did for my new Dell. Secondly, I regularly use 3 software programs that do not have a Mac version. These programs are SO memory hungry that I am not even sure virtual windows could do the job. Plus if the program ran really slow then I would shoot myself for even attempting such a gesture. Even the guy at the Apple store told me to get a PC (sigh).

So why did I do it? I gave into the weight factor. First of all, I should premise why weight is such an issue. I am SO over America's war for oil plan that I ride my bike everywhere (lost 9.2lb in 3 months as a happy side note). Carrying a heavy book bag with books + external hard drive + CD's was getting a bit much. My data programs and digital interviews are HUMONGOUS. I measure their size in MB. So I figured carrying one laptop as opposed to all that other junk would be easier. I have NO intention of driving (too high maintenance for the bus, so that is not an option) so I can carry more stuff. There, nuff said. Plus, with my 2 overseas conferences this year it will be nice to be connected...at least periodically.