Mighty Lemon Drop

I should have known better than to put a date down...

Now it's the 14th - so hopefully he'll be my Valentines Day present! Or me his.. ;)

One of the first lessons I ever learned about the Army was that they don't "do" schedules; or they stick to them very loosely. Things happen and there's a lot of things that can alter situations that one thinks are in "stone."

Anyway, it's all good because I went out today and got the necessary ingredients to get this drink I saw them make on the Food Network a few days ago. Lately I've become a Food Network WHORE ...half the time when I get a minute to sit down and watch something on TV, there's SHIT on, and so I end up watching people cook & eat shit/stuff/food - it's better than eating it all myself right? Half the time what they cook is WACK but it's still fun to watch. I've picked up a few recipes along the way and one of them is the "Mighty Lemon Drop", which is an alcoholic drink that actually does taste a lot like a Lemon Drop.

I went to the Class Six (what us military folk call a liquor store on post) today and got all the yummy stuff to make it and these cute little martini glasses that only cost $4. Mainly because I want to mix one up for Andrew when he gets home, cause he loves all things lemon. Or at least I told myself that, ha! Of course, I had to try it out! And it is certifiably YUMMY.

Blogging while sipping on my "Mighty Lemon Drop"...can't beat it really...

It's so nice I had to take pics of my beautiful concoction. :)

Opera

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I just haven't been in the "mood" to the past few days.

On to more exciting things!

OK, it's not exciting to most people, but I wanted to share anyway. Recently I've been using Opera for my browser and I've been seriously impressed. Usually I prefer Firefox, but for some reason when I downloaded the new version it put up a Yahoo toolbar that I couldn't get rid of no matter how hard I tried. Every time I closed it out and went to bring it back up it would always reappear. Anyways...I LOATHE unneeded toolbars. I cringe when I see peoples browsers so full of toolbars that cut into their viewing space of the web page they are looking at. Especially when I find out that they don't even use the tool bars! I like my browser clean, organized, and efficient.

I took some screen shots to explain a few things I like about it..

(I had to divide the pic in half to make sure it would fit on my page)





Notice the "New Tab" circled in RED - this allows you to bring up consecutive web pages in the same browser window. Unlike, Explorer which pulls up a whole new window each time you want to view a different page. In this picture you can see I have a 'AOL' tab and my blog as a tab, while I am actually on my Tripod page. It makes it so I can easily click between pages if I need too. Very useful if I'm working on a template or something.

Also notice the BLUE STAR - this is known as the "Magic Wand" which stores passwords for you. You store your password once, and then the next time you visit the same page you see the wand light up with stars. One click on it and it logs you in and does all the foot work for you!

The PINK TRIANGLES are links that I have dragged over from my address bar. If you drag and click on the icon of the page your viewing, and drop it too the left, it will leave a little icon of the page you were viewing. Some of mine are, AOL, My Blog, Sitemeter, Myspace..etc..etc... It's nice because usually when you drag a link over it is in Text, and depending on the description of the site, it can be a WHOLE lot of text, and then you have to go in and edit it...which is a pain.




Now in this next picture you see my address bar, and in this instance I have clicked on it. When you click inside the window (where it says www.tripod.lycos.com) it will bring up a sub-window that keeps track of your 'Top 10' pages viewed when you click on the arrow, which I love. There you also find a icon to click on to go back to your homepage, all of your bookmarks, and more space to drag links.

Anyway, these are just a few things I like about this browser. If you give it a try, make sure and click click on "Tools" on the top of the toolbar and go into "Preferences" - there you can find all sorts of stuff to customize your experience. For example, the default setting is to automatically bring up your last viewed page when you first bring up your browser. You can change this to bring up your homepage every time instead. (which most people like better)

Go here if you want to download it! And if you do, let me know if you like it..or even what you don't like about it :)

I too know what it feels like to be thirsty..

God I hate when I get INSANELY thirsty right before I go to bed. I get so damn thirsty that when I go to take a drink of water....you would think it tasted like kool-aid and I was 5 years old. Seriously, I totally guzzle it. Then go for another glass. And another..

Then I'm up half the night emptying my bladder. It's lovely.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate October 19th? No? Well I do. I am glad that it is now past midnight and it's the 20th. I think I did that on purpose, but on accident ...at the same time. Weird huh?

My horoscope today

Glenda,
As a Venus-ruled sign, you Librans can feel the potential that's coming into your life. Whether it's true love or just a highly enjoyable interaction, joyous Jupiter is smiling upon you. But the good news comes with a catch. In order to receive the benefits of the moment, you'll need to relinquish control of your heart.

Huh? Relinquish control of WHAT? Ummmmm. Ummmmm.

NO.

ANYWAY - Happy Valentines Day everyone :)

I'm going to get my make-up on and showered early today and just sit around my house and secretly hope I get flowers or something. I've never gotten flowers delivered on Valentines Day, and I probably won't this Valentines Day..so don't ask me why I'm setting myself up for failure...but I can't help it. A girls gotta dream :)

(I've got this Italian boyfriend this year..and he is LOADED..so I'm thinking my chances might be good!! At the very least I think he's going to make me lasanga!! Yes ladies..be jealous.)

Hah. ;)

Boom Boom Boom

(Don't ask me what the title is all about, I hadn't had any coffee yet, so shhhhh)


In 10 minutes this morning I solved almost every issue I had with my template that had previously stumped me the entire day/night yesterday. I tried over and over to find what was making my margins overflow and cutting off my side bar text, or better yet, making my sidebar non-existent. But for all I tried, nothing seemed to help.


This morning I woke up and diligently stared at the stylesheet for a few minutes, and all of a sudden I knew just what to adjust - so I changed a few numbers, published it, and walla!


I must have been getting in my own way yesterday. Don't you hate when that happens?




Overall, I'm happy with it, there's still a few bugs to work out (like why my pic on top flickers when you run the mouse over it) but all in all, I don't have many complaints..and I'm picky!


Anyway, my Saturday night was beyond exciting, sitting at my desk, troubleshooting the page code- going out to the club/bar or hanging with friends is wayyy overrated. Well...at least my night was cheaper!?! Ok, we all know better, but I could think of worst nights. *desperately trying to make myself feel better, heh.


Coffee, coffee, coffee - need it - going to get it -more later!


PS - About to drink my coffee, and seeing "blog successfully published" - it was such a sweet moment, I had to take a pic :)

Speakers

Hmmm...so maybe I'm a liar. I had full intentions of writing in here yesterday, that counts for something right?

Yesterday the hubby and I went out and spent a gift card he got for Christmas for Best Buy. We got new speakers for my car, which has 4 speakers, each 6.5's. On the floor of the Best Buy they sounded really good, and weren't outrageous in cost which was a plus.

But here's the thing - and please remember this people. BEST BUY SUCKS. I know, I know, I used to be a fan of them too, but seriously folks, these people and their product support are lacking big time.

So we get these 2 sets of speakers, and all we want to make sure of is that they don't need a wiring harness, or a special bracket. For this we wait at least 20 min, because the ONE dude on the floor was busy selling a satellite radio kit to another couple. The guy finally inches our way, and we ask him. He tells us we should be fine, and that now days speakers don't really need kits in newer cars.

Coool. I had my doubts so we drive around to the back of the store where they do the installs. I go in the shop and ask the ONE service technician if I should need anything. He stumbles. It looked like his brain HURT to find this little piece of information out. For heaven sakes, THIS IS WHAT THEY DO, how hard can it be? After a good 15 minutes of staring at a computer screen he gives me a half ass answer that He "thinks" it might need a bracket, but he's not really sure, and he's not really sure of what type of bracket, but he "thinks" if it does they will have to special order it. (huh? So what do you know?)

So we get home, and just for the fun of it I go check online at Crutchfields. There I can plug in exactly what car I have and then it lets you know the speakers (or whatever else) that fit your car. I do that and find the exact same pair of speakers - $10 cheaper - and then go to put them in my "shopping cart" after I do this they always add any kits you might need for the install.

Turns out I do need special speaker brackets, and a wiring harness. All of which are FREE if I had just bought the speakers at Crutchfields. Since I did not, the brackets are $15 a pair and the wiring harness is $12.

Then we decide to check out the speakers in the car, just to see what's ahead of us....and that's where I was for the remainder of my night, heh. We took off all the door panels, yanked out the old speakers, spliced the old wires the way they need to be....fun stuff people! :)

Now my car is sitting in the garage looking pretty gutted, but the only thing it's waiting for is those brackets. Today we are going to call around a few audio shops in the area to see if they have them, the bracket I need is actually made for GM vehicles and Jeeps, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

So yes....there is my ultra long excuse why I didn't post in here yesterday. It's probably boring to read about, but trust me, it's HELLA FUN to rip your car apart. (no, not literally! I was careful)

Anyway, wish us luck on finding those brackets. That's the goal for today.

That and Andrew has to pack, he leaves TOMORROW morning :(

Another 5 months on my own. fucking hell.

Back on track: Installing my MP3 player in my Toyota Matrix

Like I said in my last post regarding this, there is an accessory you can buy, that will hook up to your factory stereo, or any other stereo that doesn't have input jacks.

Here's a link to the device that fits in my car, but keep note that this manufacture makes different models for different cars too.

The frustrating thing was that even though I knew these parts were out there, I still went to 4 different car audio shops, only to hear that they either didn't exist and wouldn't' work, or to just get a FM tuner (yuck), or they would have to call around to see about it. (still no call..how rude)

For men that work with car audio, it surprised me how much they didn't know about this option.

Most people think they have to get a new stereo to add a device to their car, and most car audio shops, or even Best Buy aren't about to stop you from shelling out some more cash in their favor. But I'm here to tell you, you can get these things, and save at least $100 or more in the process. Plus, if your factory stereo looks cool like mine did, it's cool to be able to keep it in there and still be able to have the option of adding whatever you want.

So anyway, on to the good stuff!


I took a $25 Belkin cup holder/ cradle for handheld devices, and I made it fit my top consoles vent! As you'll see in the pics, I just hollowed out the bottom of it, leaving just enough to hold the stem that the cradle screws unto..that way it doesn't interfere with any air flow.

So here's what it started out as..and what I did:

And what I ended up with.. (sorry, it's a little blurry)


And then the best news of all!!! I got the part I ordered today, and am happy to say it's all installed and sounds GREAT!! It didn't come with the best instructions, but I put on my thinking cap and it all worked out.

I'm still in awe of myself, hehe.

Anyway..here's the part, and the back of my stereo and what went on - The 2 empty ports on the right are for the cables that are still in the car..I assume they are your stereo wires, and power etc. The 2 ports on the left are where I plugged in the interface. Only one of the connecters fit, but as it turns out, it only needed one.



And here's the final product! Which I think looks awesome!! Not too mention the sound quality and how easy it is to operate while I'm driving :)



Oh yeah, by the way.....I AM for hire :)

Also, Crutchfield gave me a referral code to give out, so that if this (or anything else they carry) interests you, you can enter it when you check out and save $20 off your order!! (You have to spend at least $200 though..bummer)

Of course they also let me save $20 on my next order..so we both win:)

The referral code is:

py719-t7xuj-5v28v

Auxiliary Interface: Mystery solved

It all starts here :

That's my new MP3 player (Phillips Go Gear Jukebox HDD6330/17) and I'm super excited about it. It took patience, but it's finally mine, and it's a great way to waste some time. It's gorgeous too, isn't it? It has 30GB of storage, which some people have told me I'll never use, but only because they fail to see the extent of my addiction to my tunes. It's just enough!

Between my husband and I we have over 700 cd's, with a good majority ripped, plus I made sure the player was compatible with Napster, so for $15 a month I can put all the music I want on it, without having to pay .99 a track just to hear a new album or the latest hit. Unlike...uhhhhemmm..the ipod.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with it. It does have it's quirks, and the product support could be better, but all in all I'm happy with it.

The drama began when I started trying to intagrate it into my car, which is the main reason I wanted it anyway. Before looking deeper into the situation, everywhere I looked it seemed that an FM modulator would be the answer to my quest to listen to my player in my car. So I shelled out $40 dollars for a tuner with a wider range, just to be sure I would get a good signal.(you tune into an empty frequency, plug the adapter into your player, tune it to the same station, and it broadcasts to your radio)

Words cannot express how frustrated I was when I heard what kind of sound it put out. Ugggg. Even on stations that seemed to be totally clear, it was static. Not to mention what a pain in the ass it is to have to constantly play with it and your radio as you travel, just so you can keep a decent sound coming in.

I mean just LOOK at it.. :




This little problem interferes with my jam session's and highly irritates me.

Hence, the second phase of this story-

My search for a loophole! I can't really afford a whole new stereo (I spent enough on the player) and I knew it didn't have RCA input jacks in the back of it because it didn't have any "aux" buttons on the front. So I started to wonder if there were any conversion options out there.

And there was!!

They plug into your cd changer pins on the back of your stereo, and convert the interface into RCA input jacks, so you can plug in any old Y RCA cable that ends with a stereo jack. Thus, once connected, all you have to do is hide the cable and plug it into your headphone jack on your mp3 player...WHICH MAKES A DIRECT CONNECTION FROM YOUR PLAYER TO YOUR SPEAKERS. And yes, I meant to yell that. It's that cool:) unfortunately it's not the easiest converter to find because the fit not only has to be exact, but also compatible with your head unit.


Anyway..I can't go into the whole thing tonight, because I'm wiped out and need to get to bed, but I will brag on the fact that I now know how to take my console apart, disconnect my dash, my stereo, and more. And I'll also mention before I sign off that most men are douche bags.

Just because you don't see a woman walking in your car audio store very often with her stereo cradled in her hands and with a sense of what she needs and wants, doesn't mean that it CAN'T HAPPEN! It might be a rare and unexpected thing, but it doesn't give excuse to unloading your BS on her or for patronizing her like your speaking to a five year old. grr.

Really.

Meanwhile..
look at the fun I'm having :)

There's some unexplainable sweet satisfaction of seeing the mess I've created. Especially when I know it's NOT a mess, and before too long it will be back together and better than ever!


(Before I started) (this is the only picture that isn't mine, I forgot to take an initial picture, but still wanted to show a "before")

Right after I got the console cover off, stereo still connected.

My stereo almost out...

Pure chaos..Or the beginning of it. :)

Frosty

It snowed today for the first time this season. Let the fun begin?!?!

Muddy dog paws
Runny noses
Icy Sidewalks
Lost mittens

Here I come...


P.S. - Yes...I'm getting restless with my template AGAIN. I have issues. One day I'll totally feel like having some purple in here...and the next it makes me gag, and so on and so forth. Ahhh....maybe I should make a template that looks sort of "rainbowie"...uggh..nevermind, then I'd get up in a sour mood and just want everything black again. See what I mean?

AOL Explorer

Regardless how you may feel about AOL (personally I love it) you should really check out their new browser! It still uses a Windows platform and IE, it's just tweaked like crazy and super awesome. Like when you run your mouse over links you've saved, it brings up a tiny preview page.

Anyway, I'm not really that good at explaining these things...but trust me, it really is pretty cool. You don't have to have an account with AOL to download it either, plus you can customize your homepage just like any other browser. Also, it transfers all your old bookmarks, and favorite links, so you don't have to worry about losing those.

Download it. (it doesn't hurt anything to try does it?)

Switch

So..

I switched back to a default template, it's kind of bland, but my other template was acting wiggy. Rather than spend hours trying to figure out why - TADA!

It's cool tinkering with base templates though, so in a few days (or sooner) it might not look as bland. Unless I decide I like bland..which is totally possible :)

** UPDATE**

• It's 1am and I'm about to stop tinkering. I added the key and lock image and the footer bar & background....not too shabby :) Changed the font at the top too -- I love it.
• I think I'm getting a cold. How'd that happen?
  
• Jordis left Rock Star:INXS tonight. She looked pretty sad about it, but I wasn't too upset over it...it's just the sooner she can get to work on an album of her own :)
  
  Anyway, gotta get to bed. Peace out.