TuttleTree.com

Playing with your food
I mentioned before that a picture I took at my grandfather's 80th birthday party is being published in some coffee table book. In case you're interested, the ISBN is 0-7951-5247-7 and it's due to be published later this year. I put the picture, as well as the letter that came requesting my permission to publish it, up on flickr.

My new hobby
I was hoping to get a few more votes in before settling on a new blog-hobby. (And to the two gentlemen who left the lewd [now deleted] comments – surely you can do better than that, right?) So far we're at 2.5 votes for crocheting or knitting (Since Ed couldn't make up his mind I only counted his as half a vote), and a whole bunch of additional ideas. I'll consider any comments left before Sunday, 1/28 as votes, then I'll take the next 4 days to get my materials and a plan (or in the case of crocheting/knitting, a pattern) together for whatever it is I'll be doing, and then I'll start on 2/1. So run over there and leave me a comment/vote, why don't ya? This interactive blogging stuff requires effort on your part too!

Horizontal Scroll? Don't blame me!
If you're one of the unlucky few who are still getting a horizontal scroll bar and grinding your teeth while trying to read the blog, I suggest trying to update your browser! Every time I've seen it, updating to the latest version of Firefox (version 2) or Internet Explorer (version 7) has fixed it. And you should update for other reasons anyway, so don't get all mad at me for not supporting your outdated browsers. And if you're one of those crazy Opera or other alternative browser people… you should be smart enough to update anyway, right?

Oh, crap.
Remember my fondness for thin mints? Someone at work is selling Girl Scout cookies. As if the free candy and soda at the office weren't bad enough for my health. I keep forgetting to bring my checkbook to work with me though, and I never carry cash. This can not end well.

More features nobody cares about but me
As is always the case, when I think of something new and interesting to add to the ol blog, I realize upon its completion that nobody really gives a crap but me. Oh well, I still think it's cool. So for those of you that have accounts, if you check out your "My Account" page, you'll notice a new checkbox that says, "Collapse sidebar sections (log out and back in to see change)." If you turn that on, nothing happens. At least not right away. As parenthetically indicated, you have to log out and back in before the change will take place. But once you do that, 5 of the 8 sidebar sections (all except the menu, calendar, and random flickr pics) are collapsed. If you move your mouse over the section title, it expands to show its content. Move your mouse out of that section and it collapses itself again.

Why the heck would I do this? A couple of reasons. First off, I know how to do it; I find pleasure in the act of doing it; And it makes me feel smart. But secondly, and this was probably my mental excuse for doing it, when each of those sections is collapsed, they are all above the fold. Too nerdy?

First, a confession is in order. I love Facebook.

For my mom and anyone else who just wants the quick 'n dirty: Facebook is a social networking site where you post notes and photos and all kinds of other stuff about what you're doing and in turn you get to stalk all of your friends. It used to just be for kids in school but recently opened up to the public.

A few weeks ago I got a friend request from a girl whose name I barely recognized, and no details to help me figure it out. I figured we knew each other through high school but couldn't remember too much. So I sent her a detail request, asking how we knew each other. It's been over two weeks now, and I don't know if she's just computer illiterate and / or just doesn't use it much, or if she's avoiding the question because of the answer.

I looked her up in my yearbook and confirmed my suspicions. This girl was a total jerk to me and most of my friends. (Evidence: in her yearbook photo she has horns, a mustache, and a beard. Sign of a jerk if I ever saw one!) I transferred in for my sophomore year (this is a whole story of its own) and pretty much my only friends were other nerds from my nerd classes (advanced math and science, computer science, etc), and my girlfriend and her friends. I guess this girl didn't like nerds, or didn't like me, or didn't like my girlfriend, because all of my memories of her are just total jerkiness.

Right now the ball is in her court, and I guess I'm glad. I don't want to push someone out of my life because of some bad history… and if I've learned anything since high school its that we all change so much. Her information says she's engaged, and she's got a picture up that she's smiling in. She can't be that bad or crazy of a person, can she? Not, still?

So my dilemma is such: Should I just blindly accept her friend request and see what, if anything, comes of it? My guess is I'll never hear a word from her… I'll just be a +1 in the number of her "friends". But that's okay. I wouldn't really mind being used as a +1, as long as I can use her back. Maybe she will have found other people we went to school with that I can find on her friends list and get back in touch with them myself. But if I approve her friend request, then the possibility exists that she will see this. (I have automatic importing of the blog into Facebook as notes because I'm cool like that.)

So if that's the case… I'm sorry, Jenny. It was high school. I was a nerd, you were a jerk. I hope you're not crazy.

We couldn't get tickets. :(

I was bummed ALL day. Their website totally sucked and by the time we figured out how to find the $299 tickets, there were only departure tickets available on the 5th and return tickets available on the 9th, and it's just not worth it to go for 4 days.

There will be other trips. There will be other good deals. But to be honest, I had gotten my hopes up and my heart was set on it. I was very let down and mopey all day.

We ordered our passports already, so I guess we don't have a choice but to travel internationally in the next decade, otherwise that was a total waste. I don't think that'll be too hard to convince myself to do.