I need a break from all the bleeping beeping!

So this is my on-call month at work. Yes you read that right - MONTH. Don't get me started. In addition to the various electronic devices I carry around with me regularly, for this month I get to carry around the handy-dandy team pager. Yes you read that right again. They still use pagers here. Anyway... It went off in the middle of the night last night and it took me a solid minute or two to figure out what the heck was making that beeping noise. That's when I came to the conclusion that if it takes that long to figure out what is going off, I just may have one too many electronic devices.

Over the weekend I heard yet another beep in the middle of the night and thought it was my cell phone receiving a text message. Nope - it turns out that we had lost power sometime in the night (thank you blinking clocks) and I discovered our cordless phone beeps when it gets powered on.

But none of that has helped me to figure out what beeped in the middle of the night last week. It was loud enough to wake me out of a deep sleep, but after checking the cell phone, iPod Touch, J's cell phone and everything else that was plugged in the kitchen to charge, I still can't figure out what made that noise. One of the laptops perhaps? I don't believe I've ever heard the Wii make noise before. I know the cat's homing devices make a noise when the battery runs low but I don't think this was the same beep. After searching the whole house I ended up convincing myself that maybe it was in my dream.

I think I need a vacation. These beeps are driving me insane!

It's called testing folks...

This was interesting - MSNBC article - Apple ‘stunned’ to find flaw in iPhone 4

So either no one at Apple tested the signal strength bars or Apple wants you to think you're getting great service even if you aren't. Hmmm... Makes you wonder if AT&T was in on that little scheme...

But seriously, the company is "stunned" to find out that their signal bar formula is wrong?! Don't get me wrong, I think Apple has some really great products out there, but do they really have such a big ego that they think their products are completely issue-free?? Stunned? Please!

I myself have been salivating over the iPhone since its inception (even though I love my Touch) but I refuse to switch my provider to AT&T. I heart my Verizon discounted-thru-hubby's-work family plan. And being the developer that I am, I refuse to buy anything that's newly released. Best to wait and let the other poor saps figure out the kinks. By then, maybe Apple will have worked out a deal with Verizon for the rest of us who refuse to become a slave to AT&T.

Several recaps...

Wow - it's been over a month since I last posted. Not a good track record for keeping loyal readers, I'll give you that. Let's see if I can give a bit of a recap - Mother's Day in NYC was awesome. No we did not get a chance to venture into Tiffany's but I did get a bunch of beads for my Pandora bracelet and enjoyed a yummy latte in Bryant Park with my favorite man. Doesn't get much better than that.

In other news, the back deck/gazebo is coming along nicely. We are currently in a holding pattern waiting for the roofing shingles to get delivered and we still need to decide what to purchase for deck boards. This has become the never-ending project, but it has to get done eventually, right? Preferably this year so we can at least USE it before winter arrives...again...

In exercise news, I have totally fallen off the workout bandwagon. I have no idea how it happened - it just did. I now get weekly calls from the fitness center asking where I am. But to be honest, I was doing a bit of outside jogging back in May but of course that doesn't count as far as the fitness center goes. Whatever. They're still getting their monthly dues so they can't be that upset. Of course this doesn't bode well for my "get fit" regime that I started BEFORE New Years. Neither does the fact that I had 2 tubs of cookie dough in my freezer from one of B's fundraisers, one of which has since been opened for baking... But I have every intention of getting back on that bandwagon, especially now that we have decided which dress we will be wearing for my best friend's wedding next year. It's gorgeous and elegant and a bit form fitting around the waist and hips. And I vow not to have to by any of that spanx stuff to fit in it. That's motivation right there I tell ya!

Most recently I have been having a hard time dealing with the fact that the school year is pretty much over. Where the heck did that year go?? Yesterday was B's graduation from the Academy that he's been attending since he was 4. Yes, he's been going there for 3 years and has attended every single program they offer - Nursery School, Pre-Kindergarten, Junior Kindergarten (his second year was a mix of these 2 classes) and most recently Kindergarten Enrichment to supplement the public school half day Kindergarten. Three years and over $30K in tuition (yes I just did the math - that's more than J and I paid for college - combined!) but in truth it was the best money ever spent. That school is simply fabulous and B has loved every minute of it. He has even admitted recently that he has more fun and does more stuff at the Academy than he does at the public school. I figured that would be the case. But alas, his tenure there has come to an end and I think it was more emotional for me than it was for him. At the graduation I saw several of the parents that we've met and kept in touch with over the years. It's like we all suddenly realized that this was our kid's last hurrah at this school, but thankfully most of these kids live in town so they will be seeing each other as they continue on in school. But then they presented gifts to the teachers and the teachers cried. Then several parents were presented with gifts from the teachers and the parents cried. It was quite the ceremony and I was thoroughly unprepared for the emotional-ness of it all. But now we're looking ahead to next year and all the challenges that first grade brings. I think B is ready for it. It's going to be another story for me though.

Mother's day weekend...NYC style

Mother's day is going to be a little different this year. We're heading down to NYC this weekend to see one of my favorite comedians here:


And instead of a hotel, we will be making use of my new membership at the Cornell Club (guess that master's degree is finally paying off - thanks RPI!) and staying in one of their guestrooms here:


Hmmm... maybe I can entice dear hubby to take a side-trip here:


Ya know...being mother's day and all...

Happy Mother's Day to all moms and moms-to-be!

The perks of outlet shopping

Wow - It's been almost a month since I last posted and since then a few things have happened. Nothing major though - just a few things here and there. First of all - our radio-active cat Hailie is well on the mend from her hyperthyroidism. Her fur seems to be making a healthy comeback and she's no longer eating us out of house and home. It's been a month since her treatment so she's completely safe to be around and we no longer have to reduce the amount of time we spend around her. That's a plus cause I think she was a bit depressed that we couldn't allow her to sit in our laps for hours at a time.

Other reportable news is my old (well not really "old" as it was barely 10 years old) clothes washer decided to kit the bucket. So we went out and got a new, bigger and more efficient Electrolux washer. Yeah, I had no idea that Electrolux made anything other than vacuum cleaners. But this thing is fantastic. It fits our queen/king comforters with ease and B really likes the blue-tinted LEDs that light up the controls. Not to mention the window in the front so you can actually see it working - which is something that my old washer didn't have.

And now after a fun-filled excursion to Maine this past weekend to meet up with a friend (not to mention over-spend at the outlets) I have yet another addition to my schnazzy laundry room - a brand new utility sink/cabinet! It's so sparkly white I think it's going to take me a long time before I actually use it. After showing it to me last night, my fantastic hubby confided to me that he had been planning to surprise me with a utility sink for quite a while but he never had a chance cause I was always home on the weekends. Well geez - I think I need to go away on weekend shopping trips more often!

The Gamma Girl

Hailie came back home this past Friday to very happy parents and a very miserable brother. Miserable because I think he was getting used to being the only cat. So for the first few days she was home he did nothing but hiss at her. Or maybe it was because she came back home smelling like a veterinary hospital. In any event, she seems thrilled to be back.

In anticipation of her arrival, I spent Thursday night cleaning out her litter box and replacing our current litter with a new corn-derived litter given to us by the vet hospital. Since her poop and pee will be radioactive for the next two weeks, we are required to flush all litter box contents down the toilet. That's all fine until we decided to let her run outside for a bit over the weekend. After spending almost 4 days in a kennel, how could I deny her some fresh air and a little time out in the sun? It wasn't until after the weekend that I discovered that she hadn't used her litter box at all. I wonder if she's retaliating because it's the same litter she had in the hospital? Could a cat develop a hate association with litter? No clue. But all I know is somewhere out in our yard we have a superfund site developing. How nice.

Turning a black cat green...

Since this blog has been dedicated to our two black cats, it only makes sense that I keep my faithful readers updated with their goings-on. Especially when one of them is about to turn green. And by green, I don't mean environmentally friendly. Or in anticipation of St. Patty's day tomorrow. Nope. This type of green reminds me of when I used to work at a large jet engine manufacturer and had to drive by several strange-looking ponds on my way to the parking lot. The water in those ponds looked like something from another planet. It was opaque with not a trace of algae to be seen. The pond itself was so green, I'd classify it as day-glo. Lord only knows what was in that water, but we used to joke that it was some sort of radioactive pit. And hence my connection between that green pond and my green cat. Ok, let me clarify that her fur color won't really be changing to a shade of day-glo green, but as of noon today she will become radioactive in an attempt to cure her feline hyperthyroidism. After a grueling 45 minute drive that included her not only peeing but also pooping in my car (yeah, THAT was a fun ride) we arrived this morning at the only veterinary hospital in the state that specializes in radioactive iodine therapy. And there she must remain, for the next 72 hours before we can bring our radioactive feline back home. Followed by two weeks of care and caution in order to keep ourselves from being exposed to the radiation. So things are going to be interesting here for a little while once she comes back, but it'll be worth it. This procedure has a 99% success rate which is why we decided to bite this very expensive bullet and get her treated. She'll be 10 years old this summer, but she's worth every penny. So even if she comes home glowing, I'll be very happy to have my little girl back.