Haircut

Ok, I'm finally gonna do it. I'm cutting my hair off tomorrow. Yikes! It's been growing for the past 2 years and I had decided that I was going to donate it to Locks for Love. Well, it is long enough to donate and keep a descent length so I decided today that I was going to just go for it. Mostly I'm just tired of how hot it is to have it down, the fact that walking around in the heat with it down creates a messy look like I didn't bother to fix my hair, and in general just how big of a pain in the butt it is. My bosses wife is a stylist that works from home (she has her salon in her basement and is liscensed) so I'll be having her cut it tomorrow. I'm excited but nervous. The nervousness is because I'm not sure how short exactly its going to turn out... not about having it cut since I dont' get attached to my hair, ever). Wish me luck!

Fishing...

I love fishing techniques people use to get account information... in particular when I don't even have an account with that company. Here's the latest I got from "Wells Fargo"

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your WellsFargo Card account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the WellsFargo network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, your profile has been locked due to inactivity or because of too many failed login attempts.To restore your card account access, please take the following step to ensure that your account has not been compromised:
1. Validate your WellsFargo Information for any unauthorized withdrawals, and check you account profile to make sure not changes have been made.To get started, please click the link below:
https://online.wellsfargo.com/signon?LOB=CONS&screenid=ACCOUNT_HELP
We appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire WellsFargo system. Thank you for attention to this matter.
WellsFargo Card TeamPlease do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.
Online Access Agreement Security Guarantee Privacy Policy Home Contact Us
© 1999 – 2008 Wells Fargo. All rights reserved.

If you go to that link, the web address ends up being http://srv4.linesis.com/online.wellsfargo.com/das/cgi-bin2/session.php... much different from a wells fargo address, and this particular one asks for a ton of information, including your username and password, social, account and atm card number, atm pin, card CVV2 and the epiration date. ::sigh::
Open comment to phishers.... people aren't all as dumb as you think we are. Clearly you are though for thinking I would do this even if I did have a wells fargo account. Phishing reported.

Oh, as a side note... these phishers actually put links to the real wells fargo site at the bottom. Check it out... I was surprised especially since one of them is the security information section to report phishing!

Good thing we did the yardwork...

We recieved the follow letter yesterday through e-mail... guess it's a good thing we got everything done over the weekend since they have been known to fine people!

May 23, 2008


Dear --- Residents,

Summer has official begun here in our community. And at this time the Community Association would like to remind all of you about the importance of keeping your yards maintained.

Starting May 27th, the --- Community Association will be walking the community and issuing notices for delinquent yard maintenance. Please take this opportunity to inspect your yards and spend time getting them in shape.

We appreciate those who have already made the effort to keep their yards clean. We look forward to another wonderful summer season and appreciate the efforts of all residents in keeping --- a beautiful place to live.

Regards,


Operations Manager
--- Community Association

Long Weekend

The husband and I decided to take a much needed long weekend off (ok, so 3 of the days we already got but we took off 1 more!)to relax and take care of some business around the house. Originally the plan was to leave for the weekend, but since he had a final on friday night, it made it difficult to plan what we wanted to. Either way, taking 4 days off was well worth it. So what did we get accomplished this weekend? Our biggest accomplishment was the yard. We (by we, I mean D!) got all the yardwork done including weeding, mowing, trimming, fertilizing and laying new bark. We now have the prettiest yard on our street. We don't think that very many people are aware that you're supposed to replace bark... guess they'll find out when the beetles start making their homes there, not to mention the weeds. We spent a little extra on each bag of bark to get a brand that guarantees it will last longer (i.e. not fade as fast, should last a year compared to a month of the dark color), and should help prevent weeds, and it was well worth it. Compared to some neighbors on nearby streets, the bark that we picked looks really nice. It's a dark brown so it compliments everything nicely. I still wish we didn't have to have bark though, but our CCNR's require that or soil. Darnit.

While D was doing the yard work, I cleaned the house. I scrubbed every nook and cranny on the main floor and the stairs and began the process of the upstairs. I hate doing the upstairs because we're never up there, but the pets are so that means scrubbing up there. I'm still not done with there but that's because I started spring cleaning upstairs. First, I wanted to completely clean out the guest room. This has been the cat's favorite room but that is to be no more since the dog evidently thinks it's her private toilet. I wanted to kill her for that. We ended up buying the Pet Spotbot this weekend after several recommendations from friends and I'm so glad we did. It worked wonders. After cleaning that room top to bottom, it is officially sealed off from any pets, just like the rec room. As for the loft and craft room... LMAO, it looks like a tornado ripped through it! I'll post pictures when I'm done but I've been working on major changes for storage. I'm officially changing my craft room into a craft/storage room so I built shelves this weekend. I still have a ways to go in there but one wall is complete. Right now though, everything from that room is stored in the loft. I emptied out the desk in the loft since we're going to be rearranging the loft and rec room as well. So yup, I've been busy creating disasters for me to fix. At least I'm getting rid of stuff in the process. Thank goodness for that! It will be nice when I'm done but it's getting there that is taking a while. I'm hoping that this next weekend I'll be closer to being done. We'll see though.


See below for more on our weekend!

Long weekend Cont.

As for the rest of the weekend... I did as much as I could for my online course which leaves me just the final and 3 projects left to do and I'm done with the course (I did all my quizzes, including 50 points of extra credit this weekend!). And then we had our nieces graduation party. We were really excited about this because we found her a really pretty freshwater pearl set (necklace, bracelet and earrings) from Zales for a great price. She was thrilled to get it too. We stayed within our budget too, although it was higher than say a birthday gift since not all our nieces and nephews have graduated, and besides, graduations,weddings and new babies are all life changing events that we're willing to spend a little more on! Anyways, the set was quite a bit cheaper than most would think since we bought them at the ideal time. The only bad thing is that we probably won't see a deal like that for a while for any of our other nieces that graduate. We were happy to get her a gift that she'll be able to use for a long time though which was our ultimate goal.
Other than that, our weekend was spent playing the wii fit and enjoying the weekend. BTW, anyone who says the wii fit isn't a workout and just a novalty... you have got to be kidding me. I've been so sore from that sucker! The more you play it the better the workouts get since the initial ones really aren't, but we are enjoying it. I'm not expecting to lose weight from it, but I can tell it's toning me up a little! Even family members that have played it have said the same thing.
So, that's my long post to catch up on the past weekend. I really am trying to update more but it's going to take some time for me to get caught up on life first! For now, that's what I got! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Irony of a parking spot

This picture was taken by my sister today (that's her in the window reflection). Talk about irony in a parking space.

96 years, and a night of laughter and smiles...

This weekend we had two large family events to attend to, both located close by since they were held the same day. First, D's grandma turned 96 years old! Whoo-hoo! She's still alive and kicking, although her memory is fading. She definitely does not know who I am, but sadly, she doesn't remember her great-grandchildren either. She told my MIL when she tried to remember her about who my 14 year old niece was, she said that there was no way she was Mike's daughter because she knew who Mike's kids were and she (my niece) did not belong to him! My poor niece was clearly upset by it, but luckily she understood that her great-grandmother is loosing it. Either way, we were happy to celebrate yet another year with D's grandma.
The other part of that day was "A night of Smiles and Laughter". It was a benefit concert for D's cousin Nate in memory of his wife and child (Jenni and Broden). For those who have read about a month ago, Jenni passed away due to complications related to her pregnancy. They had managed to initially save Broden but unfortunately he had passed on within 24 hours. It was a very sad and tragic event but this benefit allowed for all to celebrate her life and who she was. Not to mention, with the very generous donations, Nate should be financially ok as he gets through this. We did not get a chance to go over to the event but other family members did and we were all impressed by the turnout. On a side note, we all wanted to deck the health dept. official that was at the event since he was harrassing the food vendors and ultimately shut one down. I know he was doing his job, but he was being a jerk about it. None of the people were profitting by a single penny and he was treating them like they were some evil scammers. The one that he shut down was unfortunately because they had mistakingly left behind their food handlers permit. It is what it is, but he could've been nicer about it. Anyways, for any who are reading this that showed up and/or donated... thank you for supporting Nate and his family.

Public Relations

School has officially begun... yes already. It's going to be a crazy 12 weeks but I know it will be well worth it. I have to say, the hardest class and the one I'm looking the most forward to is a professional design class. It's going to be challenging mainly because we have to design a trail system that is to be built in the coming year in only 12 weeks. That's from conception to full construction documents... yikes! It's scary but a great way to prepare us for the real world. We were each assigned teams and responsibilities so we can get a move on as fast as possible. While I was originally assigned as a team member, I'm even more excited now that my professor has given me a project manager role over public relations. I'm thrilled with the change since it gets my name out there, I'll be working with numerous cities and people (including Salt Lake's Mayor, the president of our school, and other high-ups from around the city and campus), and overall I just think I'll get to experience more of the project that some other students (excluding the other 2 PM's that is!). I can't wait to get a move on with it and will hopefully have lots of fun pictures of some things we do for it. I'm really excited about the kayaking trip a wildlife group is taking my class on. Ok, so it's not really a "trip" but we get to kayak a small section of the Jordan River. I'm excited for that! I'll give more details about the project at a later date since there is some controversial issues about it but I'll at the very least try to share pictures (i know I say that alot and never follow through but who knows, maybe I really will this time!). I will say that the project will improve the quality of life for area residents.

Hanging out with friends...

While hanging out with a friend of mine from school...

J: I really enjoy having talks with someone that can have a discussion about the F.E. Exam and shoes in one conversation.

Me: And, the boneheads we have classes with and clothes?

J: ::laughing:: and Concrete and Steel and Bra Fittings! I'm sure our professor would be thrilled to hear we were able to incorporate her class into a discussion about bra fittings!

"David's Day"

Anyone that has been watching American Idol knows that David Archuletta (sorry if I spelled that wrong!) is in the top three which means he got to come home for the weekend and be followed around by news crews and such. This morning he was on channel 13 News, then on 2 different radio stations before heading to the Gateway mall for a signing which he will leave later today for a parade and celebration at his high school. I got an excited e-mail from my mom this morning announcing that she got to meet him since one of the radio stations is in her building. She then followed up with this picture, once again announcing how excited she was to meet them. Seriously, my mom is the cutest woman alive! I love how she gets so excited over meeting famous people, despite the fact that she's met tons of famous people (I'm talking much more famous than AI contestant!) and had conversations with them and been totally cool about it. Anyhow, I haven't been watching American Idol but I did watch him on the news this morning. My favorite parts have to be that first off, nobody outside of Utah seems to realize that Murray, UT (where he is from) is INSIDE of Salt Lake County. That was very evident from the questions he got asked from people e-mailing from out of state. Seriously Folks, I tell people I'm from Salt Lake to make things easier. Shoot, if you were to mail me anything you could mail it to Salt Lake City as long as the zip code was right!

Second, I loved the question from Murray's Mayor and David's response...

Mayor: What is your favorite pick-up line that you use on the girls?

David: (turning bright red and giggling) I heard a great one the other day... I ask the girl "Do you like water?" She says "Yes" and I would respond "Well then you'd like 70% of my body!"

I really can't place which part is the funniest... the fact that the question came from the Mayor who happens to have a huge handle bar mustache... or the fact that David is a self-proclaimed airhead and seemed so innocent saying the line. The worst part of the interview was that someone had to bring religion into it by asking if he was going on a mission (which I didn't think was very appropriate considering he is there for his career and I doubt he wants to share his personal thoughts on that to the world right now... particularly when he is 2 years away from that!). He did very well though and handled it very professionally.

So that's kind of my review about the show I don't watch. I do have to say, I'm happy David is in the final three because I'm sick of hearing about Carmen Rasmussen and it's about time we hear a new name.

Melissa Sowers... pay your credit card!

I have no idea who Melissa Sowers is, but evidently she has given my companies phone number to her credit card company at some point. I recieved the following call that got my heart beating for a minute thinking my identity was stolen!

::work phone rings::
Me: This is Melissa
CC: Hi Melissa, this is David with Bank of America. We noticed that you've been in good standing with us since 1998 and noticed that you missed a payment. I was wondering if there was something we could do to help you.
Me: Excuse me? I've never missed a payment. (this is the part where I should've asked him for more information... thankfully he didn't ask for any from me!)
CC: Well we show your last payment being in February.
Me: What??? February??? That's not right... I've made my payments to date.
CC: Well did you just send it in? If so then everything is ok.
Me: ..... I've paid all payments (thinking what the heck is going on.... I know my payments went through so something has to be wrong on their end)
CC: The last payment posted was February 16 for $250
Me: (finally something clicks!) Which Bank of America Card are you calling from again?
CC: Delta...
Me: (sorry David for cutting you off, although I doubt you read this!) I don't have that card.
CC: I'm sorry, is this Melissa Sowers?
Me: Um, No.
CC: Oh, I apologize, your secretary sent me to you.
Me: That's because I'm the only Melissa in the ENTIRE company.

That was the end of that conversation, however, if Melissa Sowers happens to be reading this... You are over 2 months late on your credit card and they are looking for you!
And to David with Bank of America... Make sure you have the right person (i.e. verify their last name since you NEVER asked me for mine or said Sowers at any point in time) before you start discussing their finances with them. Thanks!

Tax rebate

This sucker should be in my account tomorrow... I can't wait. Although I'm not sure that the government would be too happy with my plans with it since none of them involve spending.... oh well.

Diversity

My diversity class over the summer is an online class so everyone was given early access even though it doesn't start until monday. Going through, it looks interesting and kind of amusing at the same time. It occured to me that since I'm pushing to finish school, my life has been quite boring. The first task is to fill out a survey about us including favorite music, favorite food, travel plans this summer, etc. You know my answers to those??? I dont' have a favorite music, I hate the favorite food question because I think it's lame so I put Prime Rib (I don't really have a real favorite), and I have no travel plans this summer because I'm taking classes. Then I have to fill out another survey about my leisure behavior (bet you can't guess what part of the class is about....), and guess what, I'm boring again. I don't do anything but go to work and school lately because my time is tight. I guess I could put blogging but not sure what she'd say to that.... hmmm... oh well, I'm sure things will get interesting, but first to get through the classes. I'm hoping to get this one out of the way as fast as possible since we're allowed to complete the class early.

Coolest remote ever...

This arrived in the mail yesterday. Yup, it's the new Logitech Harmony all in on remote. Cool, huh? Even better... I got it to try it out so that I could give my feedback on it and buzz about it (which, by the way, if you aren't a buzz agent, go sign up. I love it!). First off, let me say that I'm not paid for my opinion, they give me the product to be honest and talk about it and nothing else. With that being said, I've always thought all in one remotes were cool. Seriously, we have like 5 remotes in just our family room, what the heck is up with that? Even worse, they are all inter-dependant on each other so we can't watch a DVD without turning of the Dish and changing the input on the TV... three frickin remotes to do one thing. So when this came in we were stoked about it. With about 10 minutes (they said it would take 30... it didn't take that long!), we were all set up and ready to go. The touch screen is really cool, and seriously every function from all of our remotes was automatically put into it for us. While you have to use the internet to get it set up (it finds the functions for the remote for you based off of makes and models), it worked out great since more cheap universal remotes don't have all brands and don't continously update like logitech does. The one bummer was it can't connect to the Wii since it doesn't have bluetooth technology (the remote that is), and it's taking a little getting used to. For instance, when we turn on the dish, it turns on the TV for us rather than making us push on for each so we keep accidently turning the tv off. Other than that, it's pretty cool having such a high-tech gadget. Oh, and no more batteries! Yes! It has a docking station to charge in which is pretty sleek by itself. I'm still not sure how to use all the functions, but since it appears pretty user friendly I'm sure I'll get there with a little practice.

Anyone else have a universal remote? What do you like and dislike about it? I have to say this is my first one and while I didn't have to pay for it, so far the only dislike is the price. It's kinda steep ($249.99 msrp), but I guess if you want a cool remote to eliminate all remotes (guranteed... it has a backup in case they don't have the make and model of your device online by using infrared signals), I would definitely get it. I'm half tempted to buy one for my parents next year since they have twice as many remotes as we do! Oh, and if you are interested, I do have coupons for 10% off. Not much but something. Let me know if anyone is interested and I'll post it.

Housing market in Salt Lake

Someone in the blogging world told me when I was buying my home that it was a big mistake because Utah was on the verge of having its own bubble pop. I thought this was odd that someone would tell me this, in particular because I wasn't buying a home to flip it, I was buying it to live in. Second, Utah has always been soft when it comes to real estate. It's the land of builders starting up their business. The profit margins for builders here are the lowest in the nation (I saw the stats a couple years ago when I was working for a new builder.... and these are the reasons they chose Utah), so the competition isn't quite as harsh. With only 2 national builders, it's really locals against locals, in particular because those 2 builders don't understand Utahns. For instance, once refuses to build basements although that's what homes here have. The other is higher end so rules are slightly different for them anyhow. Anyways, moving on from that, I saw this article today on msn and what do you know, Salt Lake is listed as the third best city for home sellers. Who would've thought...
Of course we still won't be selling our home anytime soon since the market still isn't all that hot here... just better than most places.

Grocery shopping

The grocery store by my house recently closed and since I don't like the next closest one we actually have to drive a distance to get our groceries. Do you know what I learned by this??? The farther you are from the store, the more you save. Yup, that's right, save. We used to go shopping every week but now it's a pain so we only go every other week. Even then, our trips are much smaller. You would think it would be the opposite but it's not. I'm almost grateful that store closed... it's helping out our budget a ton!

Gross floors

The Mr. and I have been discussing ripping out the carpet in our family room and laying pergo down to match the kitchen. This has been an on again, off again discussion since the carpet is still new. However, what we didn't realize when we bought the house was how much traffic the carpet was going to take in that area, the fact that there are two outside doors that enter onto it, and over all that it was probably too light to put there (we thought the carpet was darker when we picked it but we only had a small square to look at in the design center). Anyways, the door to our garage has been causing the worst of it all since it's our main entry that we use to the house, and since the fence is almost complete, the backdoor will soon become it's own problem. We've tried rugs but they catch on the door and do no good. So the dark patch of carpet began to grow, and grow, and grow. Let me tell you, it seriously was embarrassing having this nasty carpet right there. This weekend I borrowed my mom's carpet cleaner so last night I got to work. While I still want to go over the carpet again, the dark patch is officially gone. Yup, gone. No more nasty spot! Yea! However, I still want the carpet gone. We'll see... we've been thinking about installing the floors ourselves but I have my doubts about that. Anyone ever install their own wood floors??? It's a snap and lock system if that helps any, so I know it should be easier than most.

Insurance rate drops yet again!

I was pleasantly surprised to get my renewal for car insurance today to discover that it dropped again about $150. I was excited to see that since in the long run by paying in advance, it ends up being closer to $200. A drop is always good. Surprisingly though, I think this rate drop was due to me turning 26.... I was always told that it was 25 but we didn't see any drop for me, only the Mr. I just hope it keeps dropping since so far we've had a drop every renewal. Of course there was always a reason though... marriage, car accident got dropped off, husband turned 25, purchased home... etc, etc. Good news though for us. More money to go into other places.

One week vacation

School is officially out for the semester so now I can sick back and enjoy my whole week of vacation. Ugh, I hate that they didn't split the breaks equally between semesters, although I'm sure I'll be enjoying the almost month off between summer and fall.
Either way, I'm happy to have that semester down and ready to move onto the next. So far I only know how I did in one class and even that's not official, and then another class the professor said he doesn't give lower than a C to anybody. So since I was doing good in that class, I should have at least a B+ I figure. In the class that I do know, I currently have a B+ but since the high grade is only a 94%, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he curves the grades to 100% like the rest of my teachers since that would give me an A in that class (seriously, I'm less than 2% from an A- so that 6% would bump me to a flat A). The good news is that while I didn't do as well on that final as I had liked, I did WAY above average. That kind of surprised me since I didn't think that final was all that bad. My other finals though I'm not sure I did as well on. Guess only time will tell. Grades are due on the 13th but almost all my teachers said we would have them this next week. After my semester from hell though, I don't think I really care what the grades come back as. I'm relieved that the rest of my classes from here till graduation should all be easy since they are either lower level courses or I got to choose them myself since they are major electives.