New Page/Blog

Rob and I started a new web page. We have a bunch of ideas of stuff we want to put on there. I will have a new blog on that page instead of here. So.....

New Web Page And Blog Is Here: www.robmelindamac.weebly.com

2009

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Anyone make any new years resolutions? Mine is to try to get to the gym more. Yup, the same thing everyone says every year.
How was your 2008? Mine was pretty good. Highlights include moving into our house and flying back to Buffalo for Julie and Amanda's weddings. Hopefully 2009 will bring lots of good times and new experiences.

Pictures

I put up some pictures of mom and dad's visit.

Burr

I've turned Californian when it comes to weather. It was only 33 degrees when leaving for work this morning. There was a layer of icy frost on my window. Everyone who comes into the office has something to say about how cold it is. It is funny. But before you Buffalonians start going on about what babies we are, keep in mind that we have much thinner blood than you. I feel colder now than I did in Buffalo when temps would be even lower. The frost probably killed my flowers.
On another topic, how's the xmas shopping going? Only 9 days left!

Monday

Back to regular day to day life. Mom and dad are back to Buffalo today. We had fun and the week went fast. The weather was a bit colder than I had hoped. I'll put up some pictures soon.

B-Day

Happy Birthday Mom! And you're here in town to celebrate it this year!

Watch your accounts

Upon his morning check of our bank account, Rob discovered that someone got a hold of our debit card number and rang up over 1,000.00 in just 3 hours! They are putting a stop on that card. Wow I'm glad we caught it only 3 hours after the crooks made their first purchase. Go online and check your bank statements every single day. That's what we do and that's how we will stop those people from taking even more money out of our accounts. I have NO idea how they could've got our number.

Visit

My parents are coming to visit tomorrow. They'll be here for a week. Yay!

Sonic Boom

Yesterday while putting up some xmas decorations we heard this loud crash on the roof. It definitely sounded like something landed on our roof pretty violently which shook the house a bit. We couldn't find anything when we went outside to investigate. Later when eating out with Rob's mom, she mentioned that a strange thing happend at her place where something seemed to crash on her roof at the same time as ours did. Upon hearing our confusion, the lady in the next booth overheard us and told us that the space shuttle landed and that was the sonic boom. Wow. Such power in a sound wave.

We lost our Marmalade today. It was sudden and she went quickly so she didn't suffer too much. She was a good kitty. She kept to herself a lot but when she was in the mood to cuddle she would cuddle like crazy. She was found in a cardboard box on the side of the road as a very tiny kitten with her brothers and sisters. A friend of my parents cared for them and we took Marm home. Marm lived a good 13 years. I'll miss her.

Rain

It rained today. Below is a map that shows what happens when it rains. Each diamond is an accident which may cause traffic backup. It took me from 3:00 to 4:40 to get home from work today. But I did see two rainbows. Very pretty.

On the topic of traffic.... You've heard me rant about lane splitting by motorcycles. Here's an example of it. You see this alllllll the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cQvcZlo2yo

Rearrange

We rearranged our living room yesterday. It opened up the room a lot. We also did a lot of Christmas decoration shopping. We finally have a house we can light up. Yay. My parents are coming out in a couple weeks. That'll be fun too.

We took Milo outside on the leash very shortly. He liked it. After we brought him back in, he sat at the door and meowed at it because he wanted to go back out. It was cute.

Driving

Ha. I drive a lot. So I like this article because it is so true. http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=726147&topart=passenger Ten most annoying driving habits. I like # 1, 4 and 5 the most.
But they left out a few of my major gripes.
1. Tailgating. How does driving an inch from someone's back bumper get you anywhere faster? If they are trying to pressure me to go faster, it won't work because I'll usually go slower because of it. I want a license plate that reads "the closer you tailgate, the slower I drive".
2. Queue jumpers. The freeway is busy and cars are backed up and moving slowly. The lane on the right is an exit only lane. Most cars stick to the main lanes and leave the right lane for the exiters. The people that drive me CRAZY are the ones who don't want to wait in the line of cars like the rest of us and drive the exit lane all the way down and then cut back into main traffic at the last possible second. That just backs up people more. Ugh drives me crazy and I won't let someone in who tries to cut in front of me.
3. Extremely fast or extremely slow drivers. The fast drivers whip through traffic weaving in and out of every lane back and forth around every car. I just want them to get a speeding ticket so badly. Then there is the opposite. People who drive so slow, way below speed limit. They are even more of a traffic hazzard. And it backs up traffic, especially in rush hour.
4. Motorcycles driving between lanes. Don't even get me started on them!
Ah Los Angeles. :)

Wind and fire

The wind has been really strong yesterday and today. Gusts up to 65mph. You can hear it blowing against the house really strong. It is also warm out...in the 80's. When there's wind and warm temps, there's usually fire. And that is the case this time. Yesterday there was a fire near Santa Barbara that burned over 100 houses. And today there is a fire in Sylmar. That is right where the freeways meet that seperate San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita. All the roads are closed. It is a good thing this happened on a weekend because I take those routes to work everyday and I wouldn't be able to get to or from work at all. So far they can't contain it because it is so windy out. The fire is also threatening power blackouts for Los Angeles. Today Rob and I had plans to drive to Pasadena to go to a neat Christmas store. Well that's out of the question now... bummer.

Here's a picture of what the wind did to our fence.

V-Day

Happy Veteran's Day. Yup.

Election day

Election day is finally here which means no more having to listen to all the campaign stuff thats been going on for months and months and months. Unfortunately, before polls even close in California, they'll know who the next president is already. Makes it seem sort of pointless ya know? But nonetheless I'm gonna vote. I'm voting more for all the CA propositions than for the actual president.


UPDATE:
It is now 7:30 pacific time. The polls are still open for another half hour. No polling place can report their totals yet here in CA. However, the news is already saying that Obama won. So I guess not everyone's vote really matters huh. Oh well. Here's to hoping Obama is a good president!! I think he'll be fine.

Rain

It rained on Saturday! At 6am there was thunder and lightning. It was great. It also thundered a bit later in the day too. I love thunderstorms and they are so rare here.

Halloween II

Here are some pictures

As neat as our house looked, guess how many trick-or-treaters we got..... ONE!!!!!! One little trick-or-treater with his parents. We were sitting there all night with our bowl of candy waiting for kids. The problem is that we are at the end of a cul-de-sac and noone could see our house. The other neighbors around us all had no lights on so all the trick-or-treaters ignored our cul-de-sac and cut over to another street that starts several houses down from ours. I took a drive and there were indeed kids going up to all the houses.... just not ours. Pout pout.

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

We carved pumpkins yesterday. I'll post a picture later.

Update: It was a very slow day at work. My desk faces the front door of the building so all day I watched people in different Halloween costumes entering and exiting. I've seen 2 Dodgers players, a couple cats, Popeye, Uncle Sam, mexican, inmate, John Lennon, funny tennis player, flapper, weird army guy with blonde wig, vampire, 2 Charlie Browns, bloody zombie, clown, witches, and some other neat costumes. Some people wore orange, and some wore Halloween shirts. Not that any of this is particularly interesting to anyone reading this.... but oh well. I'll post later with a pic of our pumpkins!

ring ring

When we moved we got a house phone as a back up in case our cell phones don't work. The only problem is that we are always getting telemarketing calls on it. Today the phone rang 3 times. I usually never answer it. I answered one of the calls today. It was someone who called me Belinda and they wanted me to donate to a Thanksgiving food fund. We get calls all day from people wanting us to give them money for this or that. As for trying to stop them by adding our number to the Do Not Call list... no good. The DNC list does not stop charity organizations, only goods and services calls. If/when I want to give to charity, I'll choose where and when. So ring away telephone.... I ain't answering.

Cat

Last night we were awakened by a cat growling. A neighbor cat came into our backyard and was nose to nose with Milo in the window. Milo was growling at it. He would've attacked it if he could. The cat wouldn't leave despite us trying to scare it away so it went on for a little while. I wonder if it'll be back tonight.

The debate

I watched the debate last night. I am still an undecided voter so I was watching this debate rather closely.

Healthcare is a big deal to me. Obama seemed to have more plans in mind than McCain did to solve the problem. I didn't really follow what Obama meant when he was talking about how he was going to help people who are NOT covered by their employer and have to pay for their own coverage. I disagree with McCain's want to tax employer healthcare. That'd only make things worse in my opinion.

Education was ok. No big deciding factor for me. I did however like when Obama finished his speech about education, he said that it is also up to parents. He said something like: Parents have to put away the video games and instill good educational values to their kids. Very true and that alone would solve so many of the problems.

Abortion. I am pro-life and like that McCain is. At least Obama said he would consider banning partial birth abortion as long at it had exceptions like danger to the health of the mother. I agree more with McCain on this issue though.

Regarding Joe The Plumber, I know they are talking about the small businessman and it was interesting but it doesn't really affect me too much. I'm not a small businessman and I don't make over 250,000 so I would not be taxed by Obama's plan. I was interested that they spent so much time on him. McCain kept asking why Obama would raise any taxes at all in this economic crisis that we are in. But Obama would only raise it for the top 5% of the country which isn't too bad. He'd then use the money to "spread the wealth". BUT on the other hand, these people have worked hard to earn this money. Why should they be punished with higher taxes for being successful? I look at all these people milking the welfare system because they don't want to do any work and feel bad that it's the small businessman that has to pick up the slack. It is similar to the housing/mortgage crisis. Why should I have to pick up the pieces for other people who bought a house when they couldn't afford it? So I don't know.... there are pluses and minuses. I guess overall I should think about what would be best for me. And for this, I want to hear more about the Joe Sixpacks (middle class) rather than Joe The Plumbers (small businessman making more than 250,000). I hope I'm not totally missing the point and seeing all of this completely wrong. I have a tendency to do that sometimes.

Great line: "I'm not George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush you should have run four years ago" -McCain. However, how much does he differ? How much would he really change within his party? Would he continue with Bush's foreign policies or change a lot about it? They touched on free trade and talked about foreign oil but I wish they would have talked about their thoughts on the war a little more and the troops overseas. I would rather they talked about that than their blabbing on about negative campaigning.

So who am I going to vote for? I don't know yet. My vote won't really count too much anyway, this is an Obama state. I'm really interested on voting for the California propositions. Especially 2 and 8.

wind + fire = bad

Hi there. It is Monday morning. It's really really windy out today. When driving to work this morning I looked to my left and saw a big fire. I could smell the smoke really strong too. It is pretty bad and the worst part is that the winds are spreading it quickly. Also, they can't bring in the water helicopters yet because the winds are too strong. I'm glad I leave early for work. I hear the 5 freeway is really backed up now. Hmm. I wonder if they're gonna close the 5. In which case I'm not sure how I'll get home.

Update: Firefighters got it under control. Yay. Much more smoke than fire now.

Update again: Another fire now to the west of the other one. It's that time of year.

Baseball

Although we cheer for the Angels, the LA Dodgers are our other team. They are playing Philadelphia now, Michele and Drew's team. So it's us against them. Go Dodgers!!

Vice presidential debate

We watched the vice presidential debate last night. We missed the beginning though. I agree with them both in some aspects and disagree with them both in others. All I can say is that Biden was straightforward and used examples to back up his points. Palin seemed all over in her answers but came back with a strong end. Overall, I'm still undecided but I could see Biden taking over as president if need be....... I cannot see Palin being able to run this country if the need arose.

Trip East

I'm back from my trip east. It was fun. Here's a real quick summary of my busy trip: I flew into Philadelphia on Wednesday and spent all day Thursday walking around the city with Michele. Happily the rain held off. We walked a lot! I also took public transportation for the first time in a long time...trolly, subway, bus and train. Friday we checked out Temple University where I saw Michele's work and we met Drew after class. The drive from Philly to Buffalo was about 6 1/2 hours or so. We made it in time for Amanda's wedding rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner had a rough start with the restaurant not being ready for us but it all worked out. Good pizza and pasta and wings! Then Saturday was Amanda and John's wedding. It was nice. I liked seeing all my relatives again and dancing at the reception. I wished Rob was there though. Sunday was a relaxing day. Went shopping with mom and watched the Bills game. Glad the Bills won... it wasn't looking good in the first half. Monday morning I met with Rob's Aunt Pat and cousin Mary for a bit. Later, dad and I herded some geese at the park on our bikes. Very fun! My plane took off at 4:40pm on Monday. It arrived in Vegas 40 minutes early! That never happens. The Vegas to Burbank flight was so short. Rob picked me up at the airport and I had to go to work the next morning...blah. Overall great trip! I want to rewind and do it again. I took a ton of pictures and I'll post the good ones in a photo album soon so keep an eye out for them. That's it.... I'd better get back to work now.

Fall

Happy First Day Of Fall! If you live somewhere that the leaves change color, enjoy that. I love the fall season and the whole halloween/thanksgiving/apple cider/pumpkin/orangy-brown feeling. (too bad we don't get that out here. oh well)

Almost trip time

In one week I'll be in Philadelphia right now. Woohoo! It's going to be a very short trip but a good trip. I'm excited to see everyone. The only thing I hate is the airplane. I don't mind flying and I have no fear of flying. All I hate is the air sickness! My hands and feet tingle to the point that I can't close my fingers. I also get so hot and sweat horribly. Then the stomach ache begins. Yuck yuck yuck. Usually Dramamine helps and I hope it does this time.

Politics

I'm probably the last person to talk anything about politics but why does Palin seem to be getting more press coverage than McCain, Obama or Biden? I've never seen such coverage of a vice presidential candidate before. I'm tired of seeing her.

Motorcycles

I hate motorcycles on the highway. Here in LA, it is legal for them to drive between lanes on the dotted line and weave between traffic. They sneak up on you and come so very close to your car. It is scary. Cars are always switching lanes so quickly and bikes get right in your blindspot. Why would this be legal? I can understand them going between lanes when the traffic is really slow or stopped...then it makes more sense and is not as dangerous. My problem is when they do this when traffic is going at full pace. Just because they are a motorcycle, they think they can go 10 miles over the speed limit (and often more than that) and still whip between lanes. Couldn't they revamp the law to only allowing them to go between cars if the flow of traffic is under a certain speed limit?