Archive for April, 2006
More on driving and cell phones
About a week after I posted this, a study came out on the dangers of multi-tasking and driving. You can read more about it in RofaSix’s post and Part-n-Pieces.
Becky also commented on this same thing in her post – that other things are just as dangerous as cell phones. I agree but I see cell phone usage more. I have seen people reading books, hitting passengers, trying to get something off the floor, and putting on makeup. But for every one time I see something like this, I see cellin’ 20 times. Based on the WSJ in Rofa’s post, the study also agrees:
Banning cell phone use while driving would not solve all distractions, but it would take care of the majority. And maybe I can sleep better while my husband drives us to work…..
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The first famous person I met
I was reminded of my chance to meet a famous person a few years ago by CalTechGirl’s post on Alton Brown. She found a link that is funny and great for Alton fans.
Alton Brown has a show on FoodTV that is very entertaining. He explains how things cook, not just straight forward directions. He give you base recipes and the knowledge to make changes to your liking.
He has given my family many recipes that are now part of our lives. (Sappy, huh?)
40 Cloves and a Chicken This is one of my All-Time Top Ten Dishes. The recipe does not talk about taking french bread, dipping it in the olive oil left from cooking the chicken. It has the the chicken juices and garlic all mixed in. Then you broil the bread and it is wonderful. All the 40 cloves are soft and cooked so you can use them like butter on the bread.
Free Range Fruitcake I don’t like fruitcake, but every holiday my Mom makes two of these. One for her and one for my husband. The love it!!!
The Puffy THE. BEST. CHOCOLATE. CHIP. COOKIES. EVAH!!!!!!!
No Pan Pear Pie Yummy, just look at the ingredients.
He has many others, but these are the first to come to mind. And just reading the recipes does not do Alton justice. The show is great and he adds so much more to them. And it is even entertaining!!!!
When Alton came out with his first book (I’m Just Here For The Food) we went to his book signing in Dallas. He spoke for while about the book and his show, answered some questions, then sign some book. We even got a picture with him. The picture makes me laugh for several reasons. Alton has a stupid grin, my girls don’t even care what is going on, don’t know who the guy to the left is and why he did not get out of the picture, and WOW! we look so young!
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(PrimoDonna on Apr 29, 2006 1:23 PM) From Prochein Amy’s mom: I made several changes to the fruitcake recipe. If any of your readers want to know about them, they can email me.
(Anti-MIL on Apr 29, 2006 1:43 PM) I can attest to the chicken only I gave up counting garlic. A ramekin full for each chicken, we always have at least 2, does nicely. Also the cookies…oh yes the cookies are wonderful. And don’t forget the brined turkey.
That is perhaps something…..
This is how I feel on my birthday.
Comments on this Entry:
(Anti-MIL on Apr 24, 2006 10:20 PM) Happy Birthday!!
(PrimoDonna on Apr 25, 2006 6:21 AM) Hey, I feel the same way, and I’m old enough to be your mother. Ha, hah, ha!!!
(PrimoDonna on Apr 25, 2006 6:22 AM) Hey, I feel the same way, and I’m old enough to be your mom. Ha, hah, ha!!!!!
(Ted on Apr 25, 2006 7:08 PM) Yay! Happy Birthday!
(NOTR on Apr 26, 2006 4:07 PM) Hey Amy!
Happy Dup-dup! But that ORANGE has gotta go! Whew!
You should have been thinking purple anyhow 
(Sissy on Apr 27, 2006 8:50 PM) Happy Birthday Girly! I hope you had a great day!
(vw bug on Apr 28, 2006 1:57 PM) A day late… but Happy BIRTHDAY!!!
Car Buying
By no means am I a car buying expert. I have only purchased 5 in my lifetime. Most purchased when I really needed them, so I lost some bargaining power. Plus, I did not know what I was doing. I have a friend who buys cars over the phone. He looks at the cars on Sundays when the dealers are gone, researches the price online (here and here) and then calls all the dealers in the area until one is willing to beat his price. Good thing about this is you don’t have to deal with them face to face and can say “No” very easy. Even better if you can go test driving and say no when you are at the dealers.
My husband is very good at buying cars also. He knew exactly what he wanted to pay for our blue car. We had it special ordered so he knew the dealership had not lost any money on it sitting on the lot. Plus it was a Focus Wagon with a stick shift. Who would want that? (We may be the only ones, but we needed the “umph” for highway driving.) When we went to pick it up my husband prepared me. Since he knows me very well.
“No matter what happens, even if we have to walk out, DO NOT CRY!!!”
Luckily we did not get to that point and they took my husband’s price. Whew!
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(vw bug on Apr 24, 2006 8:25 AM) Luckily both my husband and I can be good negotiators… but usually not when we are together. But we did well on buying my van.
Blog Redo
The picture above is from our trip Easter Weekend to Lake Mineral Wells State Park. The girls went with the anti-InLaws on Friday, we enjoyed a nice night out that night, then made our way out on Saturday.
Oldest is sitting on a dock enjoying the water on her feet. Notice her shadow? You can tell she is smiling.
Comments on this Entry:
(Sissy on Apr 22, 2006 11:13 PM) Wow, great picture!!
(MICHAEL MANNING on Apr 23, 2006 10:36 AM) HEY! DON’T CHANGE THIS ONE. IT LOOKS FANTASTIC. COME BY AND VISIT MY INTERVIEW GUEST!
(Karen on Apr 25, 2006 1:08 PM) BEAUTIFUL photo! Lovely blog design–good job!
Go-tarts
Ahhh!!!! Sin in a stick!!!!
Have you tried Go-Tarts? They are even better than Pop-Tarts because the filling is thicker. That is my favorite part…..
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For those who keep up with politics (even just a little)
Here is a good joke…..made me laugh out loud.
Hat tip to Dash at “The Boiling Point”
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New Rules
Even the grandparents are getting tired of the girls “discussing” who should go first, who went first last time, who ALWAYS gets to go first, and who asked first to go first.
So I made a new rule. The conversation went something like this……
Youngest: “Can I have milk first?”
Me: “I have a new rule. I will give you milk first this time since I am just telling you about this rule but from now on whoever asks to go first, goes last. Understand?”
Both girls: “Yes.”
A few minutes pass. They finish their cereal. Youngest asks for more and states:
“Momma, I have a new rule. Whoever asks to go last gets to go first.”
I chuckled. “The rule is updated. Whoever asks to go first or lasts goes last.”
Youngest: “Awwwww, Mooooom!”
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Cellins vs. Drukens
On weekdays I average 2 hours on the road. Granted some of it is napping since I am car pooling with my husband. But when I am awake….
I am scornfull of cell phone users! OK, they suck!!!!!
They drive to slow, swerve, don’t pay attention, don’t look when they get into other lanes. BAH!!!!
Used to be when you saw someone driving like this, you thought they were drunk. Not anymore.
Don’t blow this off to female emotion. My frustration is based on first hand observations.
But there is some one backing me up on this. Mythbusters! This show on Discovery Channel has two guys who try to bust myths and urban legends. And they don’t just talk about it, they test it out. They try to replicate the situation to see if it is true. One episode they tested if steel-toed boots can be more dangerous than the regular variety. They smashed steel toe and non-steel toe boots with materials to represent real feet. They tried many different ways. They go out of there way to make sure they are replicating the myth as close as they can.
Another episode of note is #33. I am scamming the complete summary from the Unofficial Mythbuster’s Episode Guide. Read their results……
Myth: It is just as dangerous to talk on a cellphone as it is to drive drunk.
A British study that asked subjects to do memory tests, reasoning, and mental arithmetic, found that cellphone use did hurt driving. The study also compared it to drunk driving, though Adam didn’t describe the exact results of that comparison.
For this mythbusting, they wanted to focus on the talking aspect of cellphones, instead of dialing, as drivers would some sense to them would dial when the car was not moving.
For the test they used Kari and Adam as the test drivers and they went to Infineon Raceway near Sonoma. The test course had four parts:
* Accelerate to 30mph and then stop at a stop sign.
* Parallel park
* Time trial: average 15mph through the whole course (not faster or slower)
* Accident avoidance: while going 30mph, told to switch to left, right, or center lane
* Each part was graded by an instructor who was in the car with them.
Sober/Control Run
Both Adam and Kari passed the course, though Kari had a bit of trouble parallel parking.
Cellphone Run
For the cellphone run, Jamie talked to the driver on a cellphone asking three types of questions:
* repeat the sentence (e.g. “The driver was stopped for driving 67mph in a 20mph zone”)
* verbal puzzle “If Jack stole Ann’s ball, who’s the thief”, and the more difficult, “If you see a picture with a diamond, rectangle, and a circle, and the circle is to the right of the rectangle, and directly above the diamond, is the rectangle right above the diamond?”
* list five things about a particular subject “Give me five things that are in the interior of your car,” “Give me five things that are part of your daily work.”
Kari failed, including offenses such as using her elbow to steer and failing over half of the obstacles. Adam failed as well.
FYI: Kari’s answers to “give things that are part of your dialy work” included: “Kissing ass” and “doing my hair.” Adam’s daily work list included the more boring: “drilling and tapping,” “making phone calls,” “Checking my e-mail,” “avoiding phone calls from certain people.”
Drunk Driving Run
Both Adam and Kari got their blood alcohol level to just below 0.08 (legal limit), with police officers on hand to do the breathalyzer. Neither Adam nor Kari had eaten, so both were as hungry as they were tipsy.
Kari zipped through the stop sign, but her parallel parking was “one of her best efforts… marginally good.” She went too fast through the time trial part and killed a couple cones. She failed again, but not as bad as with the cellphone test.
Adam failed the parking test, and “half failed” the time trial for not looking both ways. Overall he failed as well.
Overall
The cellphone tests were failed by a much bigger margin, though Adam’s observation was that you can put down a cellphone — you can’t get instantly undrunk. Also, they tested the drunk driving below the California legal limit — Adam, at least, has gotten much drunker for MythBuster tests than that.
I was not surprised by the results.
Note to guys: You will really like this show since they blow up, shoot and destory things on a regular basis!!!
Comments on this Entry:
(PrimoDonna on Apr 17, 2006 6:21 AM) I agree with you both on the cell phone use and the show Mythbusters. I watched an episode yesterday where they busted the myth about the Civil War missile that traveled 125 miles.
(Becky on Apr 23, 2006 5:55 PM) I would also argue that .08 is really not that much and most of the people that I’m more scared of the person that’s at .20 getting behind the wheel. But, I also think that sleepy people, people eating, people messing with kids in the backseat, people putting on make-up, etc. are equally dangerous.
What did the Lone Ranger say…..
….when he took out the trash?
(sung to the Lone Ranger theme song) To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump dump!
5 years ago I had to take some old furniture to the dump. It was not very fun since you backed up your truck to the edge of the dump. The ground was rutted from the huge dump trucks coming in. Luckily I had my Father-in-laws truck or I would have been in trouble.
Fast forward to now. Old waterbed and misc stuff to get rid of. NOT looking forward to it. Get the address, drive with my husband, do the REQUIRED get lost/turned around. Find it right off of the highway. Hmmmm, I remember going down a rural road. Drive up and they have it “SET UP”!!!! You back your truck up to the edge and below that is a dumpster. No dirt! All concrete! They have several slots available with dumpsters at it and you just put your stuff in it!!!!
What was even better? I got to throw stuff!!!!!! Yep!!! The dumpster was full at the front. So we had to get the stuff to the back. THROW IT, BABY!!!!! There is therapy for you! Take your trash to the Drop Off Station!!!!
Comments on this Entry:
(PrimoDonna on Apr 15, 2006 9:16 AM) So is your garage empty now? Yes, throwing things sounds like a lot of fun. I wish I could have been there to “help” you!
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