Current Terror Alert Status

Just in case you didn't know the terror alert: I bring you the Terror Alert Level as depicted by Sesame Street. (And this from the girl who has NEVER seen Sesame Street)



Ernie: All Commercial Flights
Bert: Everything Else

Sunday Trip to Dairy Queen

This afternoon, I went on a girls trip to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.
We pulled up and decided to park because the drive thru was several cars deep.
After looking briefly at the line inside we decided that on second thought, we would go through the drive thru. BIG mistake.

Our best estimate is that we arrived in the drive through lane at 5:10 and we finally were done and leaving at 5:50. Yes, you read that correct: 40 minutes for ice cream. After leaving we decided to rename Dairy Queen to Slow Queen. As you all know, when I wait exorbitant amounts of time in any line (Recall: Burbank Airport Blog) I utilize my camera phone. These are the pictures I took today at the Slow Queen in Mesa:

Note Picture #1: Unlike their competitors
Slow Queen makes their food to order. So when you order that blizzard, it should come out like ice cream, not a milkshake.

Note Picture #2: This is the dufus that added chocolate to the two orders of "Cookie Dough Blizzards, no extra chocolate"

Note Picture #3: Sitting in the back seat, I juggle 3 blizzards and a water. Check out my cool shoe in the background.

P.S. My ice cream was like a milkshake and we ended up throwing it out.

Things I Have Learned in Last 24 Hours

*If you are driving to Sedona from Phoenix, don't leave at 10:45AM
*The 101/I17 interchange is always backed up for no apparent reason
*Be very careful when handling expensive camera lenses near cliffs
*It is possible to spend more than an hour at Montezuma Castle
*They have a Magianno's in Scottsdale, AZ
*I am very worried about my brother James's 40th birthday party
*My pouty lips=not so hot
*There are several gas stations shut down in the Scottsdale area.
*Double check references when hiring LRM's family members
*As much as you would like to, you can not always WIN
*David likes Shiner bock
*Only 2 of 10 polled think ketchup (or catsup if you prefer) on the floor is funny. Always insist on Heinz.
*David is engaging (less discreetly, if that is possible) in taking pictures of freaks.
*According to a report I delivered, Gilbert has zero PC's
*Don't look for a black dress at an Outlet mall
*R still insists he did not drug me, he blamed E. His hot, pregnant wife has been properly informed of his antics.
*If you want to get cosmetic tattoos, ask your husband after midnight and when eyeliner is smudged
*If you get bopped on the head, you can still play pool
*Do not go to Denny's at 2:30AM and expect that your stomach won't hurt when you try to go to sleep
*Never order barbecue chicken strips when the rest of the table orders breakfast

Being a lessons learned type of gal, I welcome any and all lessons learned by our readers in the last 24 hours.

Happy Birthday, John Smith!

John Smith, you and the wife are one hot number. Hope you have a great birthday!!!!

When In Doubt, Reboot

This morning while trying to post my last blog, my Verizon Wireless Broadcard disconnected at least 15 times. I was really annoyed and cursing Phoenix (it had to be Phoenix coverage) and then as I was getting ready to throw this laptop out the window I decided, well, maybe I should try rebooting first.

Now, I am the worst when it comes to rebooting. My computer is in a perpetual state of standby. Pretty sad for someone who always tells everybody "Just Reboot". After now just checking the event log, I am ashamed to say that until a few minutes ago, I had not rebooted my laptop in 33 days.

I must tell you that it is now working faster and my broadband card has not disconnected once in the last 15 minutes. How great is that? The message of the day, "When in doubt, reboot"

No Laughing, Team ;)

Ringbacks and Answer Tones

I am apparently living in the dark ages because up until two days ago I had never heard of a ring back. For those of you that don't know what it is either, it's a customized tone that plays when someone calls your cell phone. The caller hears the tone rather than the actual phone ringing.

So I discovered theses when I was trying to download a ring tone for someone else. Rather than getting the ring tone ,I installed a ring back. (Please note that these are called Ring backs at Verizon and Answer Tones at Cingular) How could I not know these exist?

Tuesday night I became the proud owner of a couple of Cingular Answer tones. You can choose whether you want to randomly generate your ring backs or assign them to specific callers. For me, most callers will continue to get the regular ring tone but a few select callers will now experience answer tones when calling me. Here are the ones I currently have selected:

For my brothers and sisters (This is my favorite answer tone): http://www.cingularanswertones.com/Playtune.asp?contentID=5453054&contentTitle=Sister&audioURL=http%3A%2F%2Fvoicd%3A6824%2FAIRBOR%2F54%2F5453054%405453058%2EWMA

For my mom: http://www.cingularanswertones.com/Playtune.asp?contentID=5452755&contentTitle=Cool+Mom&audioURL=http%3A%2F%2Fvoicd%3A6824%2FAIRBOR%2F55%2F5452755%405452759%2EWMA

Others as assigned: http://www.cingularanswertones.com/Playtune.asp?contentID=10568236&contentTitle=All+I+Wanna+Do&audioURL=http%3A%2F%2Fvoicd%3A6824%2FUNIVERSA%2F36%2F10568236%4010568240%2EWMA

Happy Valentines Day!

Check out our good friend Wikipedia to learn all the ends and outs of Valentines Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day

P.S. I will be spending my third Valentines Day in a row lonely in Phoenix. Last year really sucked. Year before that I was treated to dinner with Ben and Bobbo at least the conversation and food was good but I missed my David.

Black Monday

I cannot blog tonight because I am in mourning. Can anyone guess why?

The New AT&T

In December, when my husband went to get my Pearl he was told that he couldn't use my old AT&T sim card because now only Cingular sim cards work in the phones. My sim card was old and before AT&T was bought out by Cingular. Imagine my surprise when I saw this sign yesterday at the Cingular store:


Unbelievable.

About Kim

Please note that the chances are slim that I will respond to an email asking me to answer questions about myself. Last week someone said that I was the least likely to respond and that people should just check the blog. Additionally, I had a special request that I should blog about myself this evening. So here goes, a combination of questions from the last several get to know you emails I received and some add ons:

First Name: Kim
Was I named after anyone: No
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Number: 8 or 88 (used to be 6)
Favorite Restaurant: Marstons (Pasadena) Phoenix City Grille or Richardsons (For you Phoenix readers), Blind Dog Sushi (Park City)
Sport I Played: Softball
Favorite TV show: Hello, 24.
Largest Cell Phone Bill: Over $600.00
Reoccurring Dream: Well, I haven't had it in awhile but I used to be chased in the desert by a motor home (This must be somehow related to my childhood)
Favorite Movie: Has to be Reality Bites (Right Bec??)
Favorite TV Show Growing Up: Wonder Woman (Was there anything else on?)
Favorite Store: Eddie Bauer
Best Medical Test (I've had almost all of them): The Esophageal Pill Camera
Worst Medical Test: Anything with needles (Although I am getting much better)
Best Friend in High School: Jen
Favorite Teacher: Miss Pate (5th grade)
4 Jobs I have had: Retail Sales, Hotel Front Desk Clerk (I hate the word Clerk), IT Manager, Adam VanSlyke's Best Babysitter
Person I Miss the Most: Both my grandmothers
Song that Reminds me of someone: The Joker, Shawn Traxler "Some People call me the Space Cowboy". There are others that are much more recent but this one has good memories.
Weekend Routine: Clean the House, People Watch at Starbucks
Would I bungee jump: If I were with the right person or going for a million bucks on the Amazing Race
Right Now I Am Listening To: I am in the middle of an 80's, 90's music marathon and listening to Right Said Fred's, "Too Sexy"
Favorite Smell: Obsession for Men
Favorite Drink: Iced Chai Tea from Starbucks
Favorite Hobby: Blogging and Taking Pictures with My Pearl
Favorite Food: Probably Sushi
Favorite Ice Cream: Pistachio
How Many Emails in My Work Email Box: 47 down from 217 earlier today (tomorrow I will be under 20)
How Many Emails in My Main Personal Account: 461
How Many Cameras Do We Have In Our House: 8
Best Alarm Clock Brand: REM

Copy the questions and answers and respond by leaving a comment. If you do not do this in the next 10 minutes you might die..........or someone might steal your kidney.......or a stranger might be waiting in the back seat of your car to kill you.......Do not interrupt your response if you hear a crying baby out on your front porch-it's a trap, believe me......I think all of the information above is hard coded on my hotel room key, good thing I demagnetized it last week.

Person Most Likely to Respond: Jane!
Person Least Likely to Respond: John!

My Week Recapped in Haiku

Monday:
Gigi is best meal
Voicemail changed forever
Cosmo gone too fast

Tuesday:
Home in my office
Doctor visits are pleasant
Treadmill is busy

Wednesday:
Taste of Chai Tea
Nuclear-like Meltdowns
Packing bags again

Thursday:
Merced drive is long
Good dinner companion
Raining is good

Friday:
Way too much email
Long lines at the airport
Too much bad data

(I challenge the other bloggers: James, Jen from Staples and Queen B to recap their week in Haiku format) Guidlines for Haiku writing can be found here (you know me, I don't really stick to the guidelines): http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem

Jasmine, Are Next American Idol

I took this picture last night during American Idol. Jasmine's family has decided to announce "Jasmine are next American Idol". Sorry the picture is not so great.

I would probably have missed this entirely had it not been for a faithful blog reader who called to make sure I saw this lovely sign. (Typically during Idol I am reading email and forced to do the rewind because I just missed something)

Please note that while Jasmine did not make it to Hollywood (which means she is not are next American Idol) we are holding out hope that her sister Dedra will be on stage during the next Spelling Bee championship.

Announcer: The word is "Our"
Dedra: Can you please use it in a sentence?
Announcer: Our house, in the middle of our street Our house, in the middle of our ...
Dedra: Our, A-R-E, Our
Announcer: Not so Much

Traveling Light

If you have been reading awhile you will have discovered that I have a technology addiction. In fact, back on January 6th I wrote about "Traveling and Electronics" http://kim1champ.blogspot.com/2007/01/traveling-and-electronics.html

Twice since the "Traveling and Electronics" story I have traveled light. It is a very weird but liberating feeling. I feel so free when I am not lugging my laptop around and my blackberry is so awesome that the need for the laptop on quick day trips is greatly diminished.

Here is a picture of what I took with me on my first traveling light trip:

1 lipstick
Day Quil
IPOD
Blackberry
Work Badge

You Know Who You Are

Don't ruin the fun for everyone by causing unnecessary problems. It's the middle of the day, get back to work.

Where Did I Take This Picture?

Two Questions:
(1) Where did I take this picture? (2) How did it turn out all red?

Thursday Morning, I Needed ID

Thursday morning I had the displeasure of locking myself out of my hotel room. After waking up and deciding I needed ice, I grabbed my phone, room key and ice bucket and headed down to the ice machine. When arriving back at the room, the key would not work. I tried it a couple of times, looked down at what I was wearing (I was wearing red pajama pants and my pink Mercy Gilbert t-shirt, no shoes or socks) and thought I guess I'll have to go down to the front desk.

I headed down to the front desk and told them that my room key would not work. I was in 412. They asked if I had any ID, I said nope and they said they couldn't let me in the room without it. I then thought, hmm, I wonder if I ever took a picture of my drivers license. So I went into my drivers license picture folder (on my phone) and unfortunately I had lots of peoples drivers licenses but not a photo of my own. (I have since remedied that) I asked if I would gain or lose credibility if I could produce a picture of the drivers license of the guest in room 419. The front desk clerk, clearly alarmed just looked back at me like I was from outer space. I guess that answered my question. He decided to call security and have them escort me up to my room and verify my ID. While waiting for security I received a lecture on data security from the hotel front desk clerk. I decided not to ask him if I could take a picture of his license.

In case you are wondering my ID collection now contains the following:

10 Arizona Drivers Licenses
8 California Drivers Licenses
2 Texas Drivers Licenses
2 Nevada Drivers Licenses
1 US Army ID
1 Concealed Weapon Permit

Losing My Car.....Or My Mind?

Let me tell you that I normally have a very good memory but something happens to me when I go into the hospital parking structure at Reno. I tend to lose all sense of direction and it literally wipes out my memory on where I parked the car earlier that day. Two days straight, as I was leaving work, I couldn't find my car.

The first day I had no clue where it was but fortunately I had my guide, Jane with me and she had the brilliant idea of pressing the little clicker continuously until we found it via the beeping.

Fast forward 20 hours and we are getting ready to leave the hospital for the airport. This time I had parked in an end spot and I thought I knew right where the car was. We were parked on level 3 and this was noted when we arrived in the morning when someone remarked: "I have 3 kids and we are on level 3". So after getting off the elevator at level 3 I can't find the car. I almost began to panic that the car wasn't where we left it. To further embarrass myself, I called Larry and asked him where did he move the car? What practical joke were they playing on me? He didn't have a clue what I was talking about. (So then I remember, Kim push the button) I push the clicker, and hear far off beeping. Finally, I find the car. We had walked up to level 3 not down to level 3. STUPID.

Fast forward 3.5 hours I am on the phone with Ray walking aimlessly in the Burbank airport parking structure. While talking to him I managed to walk the 2nd and 3rd floors without finding the car. I finally realize that since I was going to be in Reno for 3 days I had parked in the cheaper lot. Once I recalled this deviation from my normal routine I found the car immediately and proceeded to exit the parking lot. Luckily, Raj had the night off and I was on my way in a matter of seconds.

Yo Dad, Happy Birthday!

Maybe for your birthday James can show you how to view this message.

Happy Birthday To The Hottest Chick in Kansas

Happy Birthday to the Julezatron
Happy Birthday to TheGreatJules
Happy Birthday to the Figgster

Hope you had a fantastic day.........

Hold the Whip Please

There are two reasons why I never get whipped cream on iced drinks:

(1) The calories
(2) I HATE the dome lid

I hate it when they run out of the regular lids and my drink ends up with the dome lid. This happens every once in awhile at Starbucks and it drives me crazy. Today it happened on this blended mocha I ordered at the airport.