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Well, I finally broke down and got a laptop. It has been a while since I had one, or felt I needed one. But here I am typing this on my shiny new laptop.

While I am extremely pro-Linux, and getting more so as I deal with Vista and the stupidity that is Microsoft’s latest OS (I can’t wait for Windows 7, anything is an improvement). Enough about Vista, be looking for that in a few days, as I have to deal with it, and pretend I have the intelligence of a basic moss covered rock in order to use it. I digress…

I didn’t end up getting a Mac for a couple of reasons. First is the price, it is more expensive for less machine, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I do understand it as they are pretty sexy. But I will admit as I type here on this backlit keyboard, this Dell is pretty sexy as well.

I have had some terrible support experiences with Apples over the last few years. You have to drag your computer to an Apple store, after you make an appointment, then you have to wait to get it back, which could be weeks. I don’t have the time for that crappy service. If I could tolerate that level of incompetence, then I wouldn’t have much of a case for the purchase of a computer in the first place.

Instead, Dell gives me next business day on site, with even accidental damage covered. Apple doesn’t even begin to offer that kind of service, regardless of their completely misleading commercials.

Then there is the issue of having to run Windows in a virtual machine for a lot of the software, and having to re-purchase the Adobe suite which is like $1800, instead of being able to use the fair-use clause and use the same copy for both my desktop and laptop.

So, what would the point of paying more for way crappy service, having to double up on software, new learning curve, and then running the other OS in a virtual machine. So, here I sit, hating Vista, but loving the machine, especially for the price. Thanks Dell, and oh, Apple, take note, either improve your warranty service, or just don’t bother going after the larger business market outside of the creative arenas.

As we all know, the economy is in the dump with no relief in sight.  In fact, it is only getting worse as we sink more and more closely to the dreaded “d” word, depression.

My wife and I have several credit cards like most Americans.  We pay our bills on time, always paying above minimums.  We shop to get the good rates and favorable terms, that is until recently.

In the last ~60 days, we have received several notifications that our interest rates are increasing and/or our credit lines are decreasing.  We have good credit, never missed a payment, always pay above minimum, and yet, even on cards we do not have a balance we are seeing our rates moved from fixed single digit rates to double digit variable rates.

A couple of the cards claim that they ran our credit and that is the reason for the increase of rates and decrease of credit line.  However, our credit score is higher now than it was when we were issued the card, so that reason is completely bogus.

Closing the account is not a viable option since that hurts our credit score.

This irresponsible behavior, tightening of credit without cause is only going to further the economic crisis.  We are, without cause, being charged more for the same credit.  It is like a double inflation.  Credit costs more, the dollar is worth less, and yet, without credit and a strong dollar, the American economy will never recover.

Credit companies must be held responsible for their actions.  Consumers need more options for recourse when adverse actions are taken without notice or explanation against their accounts.  Closing the account isn’t feasible since it hurts the credit score of the consumer.

Either this behavior is stopped, or the economy will continue to falter.  When faced with higher interest rates for no reason, and lower credit terms, do you honestly think the consumers will be willing to spend any rebates or refunds?  Of course not, we will be too busy trying to pay down our increasing debt load despite no spending or reckless actions on our part.

Write your representation now!

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We noticed tonight that we recently had some traffic to the site from the google search ‘missy moo’. This peaked our curiosity. What other missy moos are out there?

Well, it’s a popular name for a cat. Missy moo is Oober Yuckems ‘ not so secret admirer. Somewhere along the lines we ended up buying a bib from Australia (fyi-delivery by sea takes 2-3 months! we opted for air). We found some cute onesies (Link Removed on Remote Site) for identical twins, and the true meaning of missy moo.

gotta love the net

I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things.

We love to read. From day one we’ve read to Illianna. One of her favorite books is Peek-A-Zoo. It’s been a great book that’s grown with her. It’s more of an activity book. Dr Seuss has been great as well. My Many Colored Days is not a well known Dr. Seuss. Illianna has loved Oh The Places You’ll Go from when she was little. I think the illustrations catch her eye. It plays with black and white and bold patterns, which is good for babies. Recently Horton Hears A Who was turned into a movie. I haven’t seen the movie, but the book has a great message. Your tounge will get twisted when you read Double Trouble in Walla Walla, and The Cranky Sun has beautiful artwork. A Day With No Crayons is very creative and helps encourage children to see art in everyday things.

We’ve been busy with lots of firsts lately. This weekend we managed to make it to the zoo. It was Illianna’s first time. I wasn’t sure she’d enjoy it just yet, but she sure did. There was a lion who was not in the best of moods and kept pacing back and forth and roaring. She *loved* that. Here’s this big intimidating lion giving it his all and she’s giggling at him. It was so cute. I now know a new noise to make to get her to giggle.

There was also this cool avery that had tons of birds flying around. You could go in and feed them. Ryan took Illianna in while I stayed with our stuff. When the birds would get spooked they’d all fly from one end to the other and the wave of ooooh’s and ahhhh’s from all the kids watching was adorable. Here’s a photo of Illianna checking out the birds.

Today was our second week of swim class. Illianna loves it. With her love of bath time, I thought she’d enjoy swim class. Illianna was chatting with another little girl, Sophie, during class. They were cooing back and forth. Sophie started splashing and giggling and then Illianna started kicking and giggling back. I wish I had a video camera. I did manage to get a pic of us after class.

We ran to Target just a little while ago and she successfully sat in the basket. I don’t have a shopping cart cover just yet. I actually went there to get one, but I’m not sure if it’s truely needed. I understand it’s supposed to help keep germs at bay, but kid are going to get germs and get sick. I don’t know if the hassle of having a cart cover is worth it. I think it would be easier for me to carry wipes and just disinfect.

Today was such a fun day! The weather was great… sunny and 70′s. We started out the day doing some gardening that was long overdue. You can tell I didn’t get out there much last year. Illianna wore a cute little outfit with flowers on it and a sun hat while sitting in her swing watching Mommy and Daddy play in the dirt and the doggies run around. Missy Moo’s time was cut short due to her morning nap, but we got the front yard done.

We then cleaned up and headed out for some toy shopping. I’m all about quality over quantity for toys. I think toys should be educational and developmental, not just brightly colored noise makers. We hit up a couple of the boutique stores in Ft. Worth and scored big time.

We found a hand puppet. OMG Illianna LOVES this puppet. She was laughing so hard and so long in the store. It was adorable! One husband went to go get his wife so she could see how much Illianna was laughing and how much fun she was having. We also got some little stacking pond pals by Lamaze. We have quite a few of their toys. I’m really impressed by them. Ryan and I don’t just go buy any toy, we spend hours ‘literally’ playing with everything at the toy store before we buy anything. Illianna liked the play table set up with Brio trains. She was holding herself up ‘albeit a short period’ and playing with the trains.

Today actually marks a milestone for Illianna. She can now sit up by herself. She’s been working on it for a while now, but today I plopped her down next to Tiki and she sat there all on her own for at least 5 minutes. While I didn’t take a photo of her sitting with Tiki (I thought about it) we do have photos of a proud mama holding the growing baby girl.

A few weekends ago Ryan suggested we attended our first ‘but not last’ comic book convention. He’d heard on the radio that Wizard World was going to be in town and found out Top Cow was going to be in attendance. Our $20.00 admission bought us 3-4 hours of fun and we could have stayed longer if Illianna wasn’t getting fussy.

There were so many cool vendors, the people watching was great ‘yes there were people in tights and capes’, and I had flashbacks to my teen years. Ryan and I both were on the look for old friends, but never came across any. It was great to see how the typical social misfit was totally in their element at the convention. I think everyone has a place in this world and figuring out where that is is a continuous process.

We found lots of goodies. Pawstar was one of the first. They have all sorts of cool things, but what really caught my attention was the cute bear hats. I recently had one of my coworkers pick me up the original Japanese version from Miki House when he was back in Tokyo for a visit. ‘I’ve got the shopping site bookmarked at work because it took me hours of randomly clicking around seeing as how I don’t read or speak Japanese- so good luck.’ Pawstar is much more reasonably priced and available in the US. Ryan was excited to come across Uberclok. ‘I think he goes to their website regularly and drools.’ We’ve got a pile of anime we need to watch and now we’re adding another movie to it.

The biggest find was some artwork by Dirk Strangely.

His name seemed very familiar to me and I thought I might have seen something of his at Hot Topic, but it was determined I’ve come across him from my shopping on ebay. He has a unique blend of dark and light. It reminds me of Mirror Mask.

All and all we had a great time being nerds and I can’t wait until next time.

It goes so wrong, right from the start….

My baby barely fits newborn clothes. Where in the world has the time gone? Mainly the issue is length. When we bought a couple of new footie sleepers at Target the other day, the woman told us to cut the feet off. Needless to say I’ve already chopped a couple of outfits. We keep meaning to measure her. The tape measure has been sitting on the counter for a few days now.