Cellphones Saving Lives

So picture this (all you Healthcare or former Healthcare workers and all you patients or prospective patients-ha ha) you're lying there on the operating table and the power goes out in the facility. Generator power doesn't kick in and your are half-way through an emergency surgery. Well, it happened, to a poor patient undergoing an emergency appendectomy. Full Story Here What do the smart people do? Gather up a bunch of cell phones and use it for light. The doctors were then able to continue on and finish the surgery.

This is just another example of cell phones saving lives and why I don't go anywhere - and I mean anywhere - without mine. Think about it, your're walking through a bad section of town, gunfire breaks out but your cell phone (which you are talking on) blocks the bullet from hitting your head. Another life saved by a cell phone. (Especially if you have one of those huge brick blackberries, there is no way a bullet could penetrate that thing)

Another example, you're in the Grand Canyon and a Mountain Lion comes out of the woods and is about to pounce on you. You reach for your phone.....blast....no signal. Mountain Lion pounces, you die a slow, painful death. That's just one more reason that cell phones should have service in the Grand Canyon.

Fish......

To me there is a clear difference between saying "I love fish" and "I love seafood". I love seafood....don't get me wrong, I do like fish too. For instance: I like Trout, Halibut, Tuna and almost anything if it's raw. Raw Salmon, Ahi Tuna, Yellowtail, mmmm. For the most part if it comes out of the ocean I'll eat it.

Normally when you tell people that "you like fish" they either respond that (1) I hate fish (2) I love fish (3) I like fish as long as it's not fishy. Number 3 is the most common response.

What makes a fish fishy?

If your fish smells fishy, it's not fresh. Don't eat it.

See these two ice chests? They were on the plane, smelled way too fishy. Chances are if your fish is being transported around in ice chests, it's fishy.

My advice, only order fish or seafood at nice restaurants. Any place else and your taking a gamble.

What fish do I hate? Catfish, Carp and lets not forget that old Sucker Fish. I went fishing once and caught a Sucker Fish, it was big, made my mom cook it, it was terrible, I wouldn't try it.

Who Is This Man?

Surely, you all recognize him. My husband and family are shocked that I know who he is. Here's the story:

Scene: While we were in Yellowstone, we were in this one particular area (Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone) for a long period of time and David and I were walking around the visitor center. David spies this man and the following ensues:

David: "Look over there, I think that guy used to be a Senator"
Kim: "Oh yeah, that's Alan Simpson".
David looks at Kim shocked: "How do you know that?"
Kim: "Doesn't everybody know him?"
David continues to look shocked
Kim: "He was a Republican Senator from Wyoming"

Later, we meet up with my parents and I have them do 20 questions to figure out who we saw. I was sure Dad would get it right away, but nobody got it, even after I revealed his name they didn't know who he was.

Anyway, since then I have endured endless jokes about how I don't know basic things in life but guess what, I know who Alan Simpson is.

Who Wants To Be A Superhero

As promised on the Skinner Family News Blog I watched Who Wants To Be A SuperHero this weekend.

First, While bizarre, I did enjoy it and will continue to watch the season.

Second, I was expecting him to kick off Ms Limelight instead of Braid.

Third, I think I like Basura and Defuser the most. Parthenon looks the most like a Super Hero

Fourth, I have a question. What should my costume look it?

Mr. President

I don't care whether the President is Republican or Democrat. Whether we share the same views or hold opposite opinions. Whether they sleep with an intern or their wife. The President of the United States should be referred to as The President.

During the last election it irritated me to no end how news anchors and opponents would call President Bush, Mister Bush. You don't call the President, Mister Bush, you call the President either "The President" or "Mr. President". It is simply a recognition of the President of the United States. I don't mind if they just refer to the President by their last name but adding the "Mister" is offensive...at least to me. Same goes for the Vice President.

The NY Times today talks about Vice President Cheney receiving a new cardioverter defibrillator. The title refers to him simply as "Cheney". The first sentence of the article refers to "Vice President Cheney" but later in the article he is only referred to as "Mr. Cheney".

"Bush", that's fine.
"President Bush", that's better.
"Mr. Bush", not so much.

To The Work Spouses.....

How great is it that my two work spouses share the same birthday? July 28th is truly a great day and without it my life at work would be significantly duller. These two are responsible for:

Making me laugh, often
Telling me secrets and allowing me to share secrets
Picking up my mood
Holding me accountable
Saving my butt (when need be)
Bringing me back to reality
Loving me in spite of my "issues"
Doing Whatever I Need
Supporting Me
and above all...
Being Great Friends.

Jeff and Larry, you are simply the best! I hope you both have fantastic birthdays! You certainly deserve to kick your feet up and have a great relaxing day! Thanks for everything.

Mystery Contents.....

Last week Jennann blogged about the mystery contents of the ice chest. See the blog and photo of the item here. Random Photo

Now, I have one. Where is the box below and what is in it? One of these days, I will reveal the contents....... not as soon as Jennann did in her blog yesterday "Random Photo Conclusion"

To: REM, MJM and LRM

REM: Congratulations!!!! You Rock!
MJM: Good Luck!!!! You are awesome, I will be thinking of you all day tomorrow!
LRM: DT took this photo of a Condor in the Grand Canyon! ILY!

Get Back To Work!!!

The attached article says the average US worker wastes 1.7 of 8.5 work hours per day. Are you one of them? Wasting Time At Work

The Last Argument

Rikki sent this to me in email and I laughed so hard I just had to share it:

Entitled, The Last Argument, the caption for this photo reads:
"OK Honey, we're here! You can come out now"

Life Before TV Remotes....

David and I checked into the Hampton Inn in Sedona. The following ensued:

KT plugs her laptop in to check out the blogs
DT turns on the TV
DT looks for the remote
DT panics when he can't find it
KT says "Go down to the front desk and they'll give you one"
DT leaves
KT laughs as she makes the blog rounds
DT comes back with a remote
DT changes the channel
DT tries to change the channel again and the remote isn't working. Looks at KT, "What am I going to do, it's out of batteries"
KT "do you want me to go down and get batteries"
DT "Yes"
KT takes the remote to get batteries and front desk clerk just exchanges remote
KT thinks on the way up the elevator how inconvenient life without a remote was

Remember what it was like? First off, You had to really hate what was on to bother with changing the channel. Channel surfing did not exist. In old TV watching there was no channel guide, you had to buy that little magazine "TV Guide" Do they still sell that? Let's also not forget there were only about 7 channels. Now we get to watch Big Brother After Dark for 3 hours every night......on my 300th something channel.

BTW: DT just handed me the remote. The batteries in the second one are dead. I guess I am going to have to go down to the front desk again.

My Sisters Made Me.........

Oh wait, they didn't because I was the oldest. I on the other hand:

Made one of my sisters stand there crying while my cousin and I filled her diapers up with kumquats. I think this happened over and over...

When we were disciplined and forced to sit silently in the red/tan chairs for a specific amount of time I would purposefully wait until we had one minute left and start talking. This would reset the time back to what we started with. Becca would silently plead over and over with me to shut up....

Made them sit on the floor of the car when mom left me in charge while she ran into the grocery store.

Good Times!

Cellular Coverage & The Grand Canyon

On Thursday, the gentleman next to me on the plane (Not David) told me that he couldn’t wait until he retired so he could throw away his cell phone. True Freedom, is how he described the act of turning off his cell phone. I know of others that feel this way but needless to say I am not one of them. In this technology addicted body, there is no freedom in a lack of cell phone coverage, rather no cell coverage is the equivalent of being imprisoned. There are specific people that if need be I just need to be able to get ahold of, one is my mom, the others, well, you know who you are.

The Grand Canyon is visited by over 5 million people every year. I find it hard to believe that the majority prefer not to have wireless coverage. Please note that once you enter the park, your wireless coverage is gone, that is unless you are a lucky Alltel subscriber. I almost expected to see a sign that stated “Alltel the official wireless provider of the Grand Canyon”. It is 2007 there is no reason there shouldn't be adequete wireless coverage at the Grand Canyon!

Three Declarations:

(1) Any location that attracts more than 500,000 annual visitors should have proper cell phone coverage.
(2) If you are one of those who thinks there is freedom in no cell coverage, just turn your phone off.
(3) I hereby refuse to travel to any location where cell phone coverage is unavailable for significant periods of time.

Good Blogs of People We Know

This post is a spotlight on some of my favorite blogs and some new blogs that have recently surfaced. Last week I met fellow blogger Jennann and enjoyed a nice lunch with her and Rachel. So here it is, the great blog list:

In production since last Monday, we have "Bumble Bee's" Blog
The Happy Bunny totally rocks
James blog, don't hold your breath waiting for updates
Mobile Observations, a photo blog
The Mr and Mrs Smith blog and the happenings of John and Jane
The Life of the Skinners at Skinner Family News
The one, the only Queen B
The Evans Stalker blog (aka Jennann's Rachel made me do this!! )
Travel adventures at My Life with Two Carry On's
REM327's interesting thoughts and stories
Random Thoughts by Ann
From Coloma Michigan: My Thoughts by Teri
Life lessons at Lospace

Is James Learning Sign Language?

James is either practicing sign language or covering up his red white and blue braces.

Big Brother Update #2

Jen's HOH room was unbelievable. I thought I was going to die when she was carrying on about how disappointed she was in Big Brother because her pictures we rent that great. This picture is two years old.....whahhhhhh

Can Jen stop saying "Do you know what I mean?"

Jen's unitard. Jen, are you kidding? "Please nobody take it away from me" WOW. Joe's comment after seeing her in it "It's thing too" RO!

Will Amber ever stop crying? I have never seen anyone cry like this girl.

If I hear Amber say one more time "Kale's a mom just like me" I think I will die! WHO CARES!

At Least I'm Not This Guy

For all of those twho talk about my constant picture taking you can be glad that I am not this guy. Last night while Chris and I were having dinner this father spent their entire meal videotaping the scene in the restaurant. WOW.

Cingular Wireless Finally Gone

We have had a few posts in the past about Cingular taking over AT&T and then AT&T taking over Cingular. Well, it must be officially done because my Blackberry text messages changed this weekend from sending "Sent Via Blackberry by Cingular" to "Sent Via Blackberry by AT&T".

The Universe Says: Ketchup Rocks!

I read RuthAnne's comment about chasing after the man wearing the ketchup shirt. Here is her quote: "I chased a man with my camera phone for 20 minutes trying to get a good picture of his shirt, "I put ketchup on my ketchup." At one point, I think he was trying to get security. It just reminded me of all your weird ketchup coments." Absolutely hilarious, I laughed out loud.

In San Francisco, about three hours later, after dinner with my cousin, I spot a shirt that required an immediate purchase.

Four Unique Blogs Worth Sharing

Bent Objects. Terry, from Indianapolis has a sense of humor like no other. He makes "art" out of bent wire and it couldn't be funnier! Go visit him but first here is a sample of what you will encounter:


This only thing missing from this piece entitled "rejection" is a bottle of ketchup....Don't miss the Pear when you go over for your visit.




Another great find is "The lowercase l": In The lowercase l, William brings to us signs where all letters are uppercase except the l. Absolutely Hilarious.

We also have "Apostrophe Abuse" brought to us by Chris. While this is really funny, I will be staying away from it because I < class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">butcher apostrophes, especially, when I am on my blackberry. It seems that the comma always wants to be an apostrophe or vise versa.

To Queen B: The note you left on that car would not be considered passive aggressive but Jane the note you saw at the car rental on your last trip to Albuquerque might fit in. Check out the Passive Aggressive Notes blog.

Last note: all three of these last blogs have a bunch of links on them that are good: Including the office sign project, and the "blog" of unnecessary quotations. I always use unnecessary quotations.....next I'll find one that says unnecessary periods....you know I am an offender of that! Bunch of grammar "Nazi's". (yes, that is inappropriate use) I hate them....but they do make some entertaining blogs.