Domestic Geek

Just wanted to make a quick note to remind myself and everybody else that July 27th is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Show some love to the guy (or gal) that keeps your computers and networks humming along. When they're doing their jobs right, it's usually a thankless job, so please do something nice for yours.

This year's event is the 8th annual one. Read more at SysAdminDay.com.

On my way home from work last Friday, I was driving with the air conditioning running because it was in the upper 90s. All of a sudden, my vents were blowing hot air and I look at the temperature gauge on the dash board and I'm red-lining. I pulled over right away and turned off the engine and let the fans run. After calling and venting to Marcus, I drove over to Albertson's to let the car get really cool so I could check to see if I had antifreeze. Well, I did have antifreeze. Sh*t. I decided to try and make it home. It took me 2½ hours to get there. I would drive a bit and then pull over for a bit. I drove the entire time with my heater on full blast to try and dissipate some of the heat. Not fun.

Well, I found all of my warranty paperwork and we dropped the poor thing off at the dealer last night. The funny thing was is there was another Baja just like mine that I parked next to. At least she had company instead of being all alone all night (Yes, I'm lame like that).

Well, I got the call from the dealer this morning that she had a couple of blown head gaskets. Yippee. Apparently it's a common problem and fortunately is still covered under the original manufacturer's warranty. Whew. Of course, they have to drop the engine to get to them, so I won't be getting my car back until later this week. Poo.

The Mercury Retrograde decided to have one last go before Mercury went direct today. We got to sit in the dark at work for an hour and a half. I was working back in the file room and heard my supervisor mention that something was up because the battery backups were starting to beep. I was halfway to where I keep my purse to grab my flashlight when I found myself standing in pitch black. Oh, and my flashlight is broken. Darned thing now won't turn off. I had to pull the batteries. Apparently one of the fuse things up on a power pole blew and Excel had to come out and fix it. Marcus and I spent the time working on his servers since they were powered down (adding memory, labeling and moving power cords, etc.). What sucked was the other employees harassing Marcus as soon as the power came back that the servers weren't back up immediately. They have no clue what it takes to power up all those servers properly. *sigh*

Tomorrow starts my 10 day countdown to the final Harry Potter book's arrival. I'm halfway through book 4 in my quest to read all six previous books before the arrival of book 7.

A few minutes ago, I was catching up on some blogs I haven't had time to read much lately and read at post at Radhole about a Denver Kwik-E-Mart. He has some great photos posted.

Apparently 7-Eleven has remodeled eleven of their stores nationwide to publicize the upcoming July 27th opening of the new Simpson's movie. Here's a Denver Post story about the Denver Kwk-E-Mart that is at 3rd and Broadway. I do think it's a little lame that 7-Eleven wouldn't contract with vendors to get Duff beer:

But they won't find Duff beer, the brand chugged by Homer Simpson. The movie will be rated PG-13, and selling a Simpson-themed beer "didn't seem to fit," said Rita Bargerhuff, a 7-Eleven marketing executive. "That was a tough call, but we want to make sure it's considered good, responsible fun."

I pass by that location at least three times a week. I'll have to stop in.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Internet?

Wednesday, I decided to make a big fruit salad for Marcus' BBQ he was having over here. I've been really craving fruit since I had a good fruit salad at breakfast over at the Flying J truck stop when we went out last Sunday. Well, we went to Target for groceries and wouldn't you know it? No honeydew melons (which I was really craving) and no decent cantaloupe. They had some really tiny "organic" ones for $4 a piece. Um, no thanks. Well, Marcus drove me to King Soopers and they had cantaloupe (and some good looking green grapes), but still no honeydew. WTF? After we got home, I went ahead and braved Walmart by myself. Not only did I find the honeydew, but they also had cherries for $1 a pound. I was shocked! They've been around $3-4 a pound, so I haven't had cherries in forever. I grabbed a bag and now wish I had gotten more.

Well, as I was putting the salad together, I realized that I don't own a cherry pitter. I tried using a knife and ended up making mush of a couple of cherries. What was a girl to do? Google. I found a site that explained how to make a cherry pitter out of a household paper clip. With a little practice, it worked quite well.

I was a little irked because I had taken a watermelon from a bin at Target marked seedless, but I was obviously not when I cut into it. I personally like seeded watermelons better, but I really hadn't wanted to have to pick seeds out for my salad. I was hoping to find some good peaches or maybe throw in some mandarin oranges, but the peaches were hard (I guess it's too early still) and I totally spaced the oranges. Oh, well.

Anyway, my fruit salad finally consisted of cantaloupe, honeydew, green grapes, red grapes, cherries, strawberries, pineapple, apples and watermelon. I was even a good girl and tossed my apples with a little bit of lime juice so they wouldn't turn brown as fast. In addition to serving it at the BBQ and sending some home with Dad, I've had it for lunch the past two days at work, too. Yummy!

The official site for Blogathon 2007 opened up for registrations today.

It's hard to believe that in a little over three short weeks, I'll be participating again. I finally buckled down and decided to go with the same charity as last year, Livesrong: The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Last year we raised $148.50 and I'd like to top $500 this year. I signed up rather late last year. I didn't decide to participate until after I got laid off. I've definitely got more time to prepare this year. If you're curious about last year's posts, you can read the 2006 Domestic Geek Blogathon Archive.

This year, I'll be giving a Livestrong wristband to anyone that pledges $10 or more and I'd like to do a contest of some sort and have a bigger prize. Hmmm...we'll have to see about that. Any ideas for what I could do would be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, I'll have the pledge link up in the sidebar in a couple of days, but you can go Sponsor Me now through this link.

It's on, baby!