Riddle me this: If you were born on leap year, February 29th, which only arrives once every four years – On which day do you celebrate during the other three years?

My friends and I had opposite opinions on this one… They think it’s proper to celebrate a leap year birthday on March 1st and I totally disagree.

First of all, it’s a totally different month, and secondly, why would you want to celebrate it later if you could have it a day early? Isn’t that like punishing yourself?

We don’t pick the day we’re born. I don’t see why anybody would want to wait an extra day instead of enjoying their cake and ice cream a day in advance.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

15 comments February 28th, 2005

Spent another weekend (this makes three, so far) searching for the perfect diamond wedding band. This excursion was a little different in that I actually found one that I liked a great deal… Only one little problem: The price tag was double our budget.

I’m beginning to think that it’s going to take an eternity to find the right eternity ring. Speaking of rings, would you mind pulling the ring on this grenade… Take me out of my misery.

10 comments February 27th, 2005

So I made the second payment on my newish vehicle and thought to myself… “It’s a bit odd that I haven’t received my license plates yet.”

Is it possible someone stole them? As inefficient as I believe government agencies to be, there’s no way it could take this long. Weeks maybe, but months? This means I have to contact the Department of Motor Vehicles… Crap!

8 comments February 25th, 2005

February is almost over. I figure those of you who are gonna flake out on your New Year’s resolutions have already done so, and those of you staying the course have made some decent progress.

Those of you with weight-loss resolutions: How goes it?

When I look back on the decision to leave the land of “pushing size 14″ what stands out in my mind are the fears I had. Of course, the fear of failure. Not knowing whether diet and exercise would pay off or become fruitless torture. But there were other fears too…

People perceive you differently when you’re wearing insulation. For all the bitching people do about how poorly we treat overweight people, having been on both sides I must tell you – The shy girl in me preferred the life of a chubster.

What made me comfortable with the extra pounds was that I enjoyed that certain level of invisibility. Despite my unfounded narcissism, I liked the reduced attention, especially with regard to the opposite sex. I’m told it’s common among rape survivors. Stealth is security.

It’s freaky how things change as the fat melts away. People treat you differently. I promise you’ll notice the changes. Jealousy becomes an everyday reality as well. Though I must say, somehow you can get away with being less nice when you’re thinner… Bizarre.

Other mixed blessings: That store where you always found flattering outfits despite your former weight… Bad news. Everything they sell will look dowdy or matronly on your thinner body. You’ll end up cruising the mall searching out new favorites. As problems go, not too rough.

Maintenance… That’s another fun game. After working your ass off you finally get to level out, but figuring out what it takes to stay at your goal weight must require a degree in biochemistry. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, and I hit the mark a year ago.

Hope this helps. Preparing mentally may arm you to overcome some potential obstacles. For those of you still on the wagon, I’m rooting for you, and working right alongside as we gear up for…

7 comments February 24th, 2005

Foxy Tunes – Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more… Supports WinAmp, iTunes, foobar2000, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch, Quintessential, J. River, jetAudio, XMPlay, MediaMonkey, Media Player Classic, Sonique, wxMusik, Real Player, XMMS, Noatun, Juk, Amarok, Music Player Daemon, Rhythmbox, and many other players.

Flash Got – Enables Mozilla and Firefox to handle single and massive “all” and “selection” downloads using the most popular external download managers for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. FlashGot offers also a Build Gallery functionality which helps to synthetize full media galleries in one page, from serial contents previously scattered on several pages, for easy and fast “download all” commands.

Disable Targets for Downloads – Prevents sites spawning blank windows when clicking binary downloads, such as PDF files for example.

Map It – Highlight an address and get a map and/or driving directions using your favorite online mapping site.

IE View – Open pages in IE by right-clicking the page in Firefox. Handy for previewing pages in IE, and on those rare occasions when a site demands it.. Punks.

GMail Notifier – Great for us to use while we wait for GMail to come out with RSS for your Inbox items… Coming soon! GMail rocks.

Print It – This extension allows you to use print and print preview for the page you are browsing straight from the context menu.

View Cookies – Adds a tab to the Page Info dialog box, which shows the cookies of the current webpage. For developers, privacy-concious users, and nosey mofos like me.

Cookie Culler – Adds extended features to your cookie manager. Protect and unprotect selected cookies.

Nuke Anything – Adds a “Remove this object” entry to the right-click context menu, which will remove an object from a webpage temporarily. The effects can be undone by reloading the page.

Smooth Wheel – Helps scroll documents smoothly when scrolling with the mouse wheel.

Sort Bookmarks – This handy extension sorts your bookmarks alphabetically.

Dictionary Search – Right click on any selection and look up the word in an online dictionary. Trust me, regardless of how wonderful your vocabulary may be, every once in a while you’ll run across a word you don’t know.

Feed View – Shows newsfeeds and blogs in a more stylish way. Without the extension, Firefox just shows the default XML stylesheet. It also adds the ability to add a Live Bookmark and switch article lengths.

StumbleUpon – Lets you “channelsurf” the best-reviewed sites on the web. A collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people.

Delicious Delicacies – My favorite extension of all, it restores my favorite cookie placeholder text: “Cookies are delicious delicacies” …Right on!

7 comments February 23rd, 2005

Speaking of Firefox, which Extensions are you using?
(I’m posting an inventory of my favorites tomorrow)

Of course, that’s assuming you use it, and it doesn’t seem many have made the switch to a better browser. According to my hits 43% of you are using Microsuck Internet Exploder, and 38% Nutscrape Navigator.

I must evangelize about the benefits of Firefox…

Tabbed Browsing
View more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they’re ready for viewing when you’re ready to read them. MORE

Live Bookmarks
RSS integration lets you read the latest news headlines and read updates to your favorite sites (Blogs!) that are syndicated. MORE

Privacy and Security
Built with security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer free of malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity your business.

Popup Blocking
Stop annoying ads in their tracks with Firefox’s built-in blocker.

Smarter Search
Google Search is built right into the toolbar, with a plethora of other search tools available including Smart Keywords, and the new Find bar which finds text as you type without covering up anything.

Hassle-Free Downloading
Downloads are automatically saved to your Desktop or any folder you specify, so they’re easy to find. Fewer prompts mean you finish faster.

Fits Like a Glove
Simple and intuitive, yet fully featured, Firefox has all the functions you’re used to – Bookmarks, History, Full Screen, Text Zooming to make pages with small text easier to read, etc.

Developer’s Friend
Firefox comes with a standard set of developer tools including a powerful JavaScript and CSS error/warning console, and an optional Document Inspector that gives detailed insight about your pages.

Extremely Customizable
Simply add buttons to your toolbars, or install new Extensions that add new features. There are Themes to browse with style, and use the adaptive search system to earch an infinite number of engines.

Free and Easy
At only 4.7MB, Firefox takes just a few minutes to download over a slow connection and seconds over a fast connection. The installer gets you set up quickly, and the new Easy Transition system imports all of your settings – Favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers – So you can start surfing right away.

15 comments February 22nd, 2005

Finally got around to starting my own group on StumbleUpon. If you’re unfamiliar with SU, I suggest you check it out because you’re missing out on thousands of cool sites that people who share your insterests are waiting to share with you.

Not sure if there are plug-ins for other browsers yet, but StumbleUpon currently works in conjunction with Firefox. Download the plug-in here and learn why collaborative surfing is a good thing.

My group is Pin-Up Hotties – For those of us who love, admire, and even imitate the bombshell. If you enjoy this special form of cheesecake art, consider this my personal invitation to join.

Have fun stumbling and ADD ME to your list of friends!

5 comments February 21st, 2005

Wasted an entire weekend thanks to those evil little rocks! I’ll need the President’s Day holiday just to recover from searching for the perfect wedding ring. Yes, I said wedding ring, and yes, I realize that I’ve been married for a thousand years. Please allow me to explain…

Short Version: I am one picky lady.

Marilyn Monroe lied to us when she sang “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” – I’ve just been to the most prestigious jewelers on the planet and I didn’t find a damn thing that I really felt was made for me.

Harry Winston, Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany, David Orgell, Buccellati, David Webb, Van Cleef & Arpels… You name it and I was there this weekend. Didn’t even let pouring rain deter us from hitting Rodeo Drive, because this past Valentine’s Day my husband declared that I may no longer walk about with a naked ring finger.

There’s the girly part of me that thinks, “Yay! Big sparkly shiny things!” but then there’s the 51% majority that’s just too practical and thinks, “How about a kick-ass flat panel home theater system with a DVD recorder and surround sound instead?” Mr. Aurorealis isn’t having it… We’re getting a ring. End of story.

So what does this mean? It means we’re spending every weekend for the rest of our lives searching for the ring. We’ve already spent two of them shopping with no luck. I’m exhausted by the whole idea of continuing, and the longer it takes the more picky I become.

Now I’m screwed. We visited all the awesome jewelers and I walked away empty-handed and unimpressed. What’s with all the boring and uninspired jewelry out there? Is it really too much to ask for an interesting diamond eternity band? It would seem so.

I’m probably just being a relentless bitch, but I don’t want something on my hand all day every day for the rest of my life that doesn’t make me smile every single time I look down at it, and with all the time I spend typing away… That’s a lot of life.

Wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted.

17 comments February 20th, 2005