Friday Five: Hacked!

Happy Friday! I’m off today so you get a special mid-morning blog post!

Here’s this week’s Friday Five: HACKED!

1. When did someone last break something of yours?
On Labor Day, in the Peddler’s village parking lot, someone backed into my car. He scratched the heck out of my driver’s side rear panel, but left a note with his name/phone number. I was a bonehead and decided to do the “right” thing and go through GEICO. They were happy to pursue, and since I pay them heaps of cash each year, I was happy to let them. So I sat back and waited for them to tell me what to do next.

Unfortunately, the guy won’t deal with them at all, preferring to pay me out of pocket. So now I have to call this guy and go through heaps of extra inconvenience. If I go outside of GEICO, I don’t get the rental car coverage or anything that I, you know, pay for. If I deal with him out of pocket and go through GEICO, he’s going to have to pony up at least my $500 deductible and my rates will go up anyway, right?

Not to mention, he probably hates my guts for going to my insurance company in the first place. And I hate confrontation. So bleah.

2. When did you last play hackysack, if ever?
Never!

3. What was your most dramatic haircut like?
Back in college I had it really short, to the point where it was wedgy-looking in the back, and the stylist actually had to take clippers to the back of my neck for strays. I wore a baseball cap for months.

4. Hacking is basically breaking through the security that protects a computer or a website. What’s the closest you’ve come to doing something similar in real life?
Somebody here in my building never changed their default wireless router settings. So the network name is linksys and the password is admin. So I use their wireless connection from time to time.

5. In the world of stand-up comedy, a hack is a comic who steals jokes from other comics. Have you ever known a hack in your own field?
I’m a web designer! We’re all hacks! We always go online for snippets of code to solve problems, or for free javascript to do neat things.

~~~
Did you know that next week is October? Even after my planned days off — 2 for Boston/Blogher*, 3 for trip to see WM’s family in Michigan, 1 for Black Friday — I still have 5 days left. Our vacation days don’t roll over (and really, who knows if we’ll all be employed by December anyway?) so I decided to take today off. As usual, it’s crappy out. But I’m headed out to lunch with a friend, and will swing by Target afterward. So I’ll get my puttering in.

~~~
This Sunday, weather permitting, we’ll be at the Pennsauken Fall Festival (PDF). It promises the three “Cs” of a successful outdoor event, crafts, classic cars, and carny food. Okay, that’s four.

Have a wonderful weekend!

*I’m terrified about this. I won’t know anybody there, and I get very shy around people I don’t know. I feel like I need to be there though.

Posted at: 10:25 am in Family/Friends, General, Play, Work | Permanent Link | 1 Comment - add yours! »
Tags: blogher, blogher boston, friday five, fun, Work

Get well soon, Little Black Raincloud

I’d have posted the Friday Five last night, but when I got home from work, Misty (my little black raincloud of a cat) was peeing blood (!!). On the carpet. (!!!!) We hustled her off to the vet and after two ultrasounds, some x-rays, and the analysis of a sample of blood that was extracted from her bladder by a needle !!! the vet said…nothing. There are no white blood cells in the blood, so that means no infection. The ultrasounds and x-rays indicated no problems with her kidneys or bladder. No stones or obstructions. Other than the peeing blood (!!) she’s her usual cantankerous self. Diabetes would have shown up in her urine sample, and after having Mickey for so long, I know that diabetes != peeing blood (!!).

So the vet wants us to keep an eye on her. He thinks maybe she fell and injured herself or maybe it’s some fluke microscopic bleeding. She spent the night in the bathroom so as not to be bothered by the crazy dogs. Today she seems okay. No bloody pee on the towels or anything, and there’s no red in the box.

Googling “cat pee blood” does no good either. Every pet health thread I read ends up in a giant flame war. “Maybe the inhumane SHOCK COLLAR you put on your DOG has BROKEN its KIDNEY!!!” “Well, maybe if you didn’t BREED KITTENS your CAT would STILL be ALIVE!” They’re almost as bad as rec.arts.disney.parks used to be. Almost.

BTW, blood pee (!!) stains a carpet right good. :/

***

Friday Five for September 12: No way! Way!

1. Who lets you have your way more than you should?
Any guy I’ve been with. I’m a charmer.

2. According to the cliche, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but what’s the way to yours?

A lovely dinner and a twirl on the dance floor…even if the dance floor is the living room floor. Been pondering taking some ballroom classes w/WM. “Dancing with the Geeks!” (BTW, have you seen the cast list for Dancing with the Stars this season? I love the show, but Kim Kardashian? Shoot me now. She’s Heather McCartney without the brains, charm, and fake leg. Bleah.)

3. What’s something that should have been put away but hasn’t been?

The laundry from Wednesday night. It’s still neatly folded in the basket. On the sofa.

4. When did you last weigh yourself?

Last Monday. Diet restarts this upcoming Sunday. The layoffs and the birthday celebrations have made me lazy.

5. What do the cops in the donut shop say?
(grins) Way oh way oh oh-way oh way ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (walks like an Egyptian)

***

Today we’ll be at the Shamrock Festival in Gloucester City and tonight I’m out with Mom, Aunt and the Cousins to celebrate last week’s birthday. I put the word out that I wanted Toppers gift cards - I’m in need of a spa day.

Good thoughts for the kitty, please. As I twittered last night, these pets are my kids.

Posted at: 10:28 am in Family/Friends, General, Play | Permanent Link | 4 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: birthday, cat, local event, misty

Pillow talk

(scene: bedroom, lights out)

WM: (talking about his classes) …and the kids complain about my handwriting. They can’t read it on the board.
Me: Well, your writing is…delicate. And pretty. It’s girly!
WM: Well, you write like an ax murderer. Your writing doesn’t even rate “ransom note.”

Talk about below the belt! Penmanship/handwriting was always my worst subject in grade school. And now my writing is a strange amalgam of print, cursive, and cuneiform. So sue me!

(scene: living room, at my PC as I write this)
WM: (looking over my shoulder) I don’t know if I would have gone with cuneiform. I’d have gone with hieratic. It’s a low-rent form of hieroglyphics.
Me: LOW RENT????

Can you feel the love?

***
BTW, I was invited into the World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King beta. If you’re interested in that, i blog about my WoW life on the Courier-Post site.

Posted at: 8:30 am in Family/Friends, General | Permanent Link | 1 Comment - add yours! »
Tags: love, world of warcraft

What WM goes through every single day

(in our household, Charlie plays the role of “cat”)

Posted at: 2:47 pm in Family/Friends, General | Permanent Link | 2 Comments - add yours! »
Tags: cat