rebates are evil...

imho, rebates are a joke. my experience with trying to make good on rebates has been nothing short of nightmarish. a couple of years ago i bought a cyndyne cd-rom burner and was convinced that "after rebate" i would have a pretty good deal on my hands. well, i made a copy of the receipt, cut out the original upc, mailed all required forms to the rebate fullfilment address, waited the required 6 weeks, and then.....nothing. i had to call customer service and jump through numerous hoops to get my rebate resubmitted, and several weeks later i did receive a check in the mail.
fast forward to now. i recently purchased a linksys wireless-g router, a wireless-g usb adapter, and a wireless - g notebook card, ALL with some sort of rebate offer. once again, i cut out the upc's, filled out the rebate forms, made copies, mailed my forms to the appropriate rebate address, waited the appropriate 6 weeks and.....nothing! i called and they don't even have record of ever receiveing my forms :-(! funny thing is, they make you wait the 6 weeks before you can even ask about it, NOW i have to resubmit and wait another 6 weeks.
makes me wonder how good a deal these rebates are...is my time not worth something? i'm giving a company lots of personal information about myself, (which they are no doubt selling to other companies), i wait for a month and a half, and they may or may not send me a rebate check??? it's bananas...somethings wrong with this pic.

is your blog safe?

you may or may not know that google owns blogger, where scads of people, like myself, keep our blogs. it seems that google recently deleted it's official blog (accidentally) which no doubt caused them a little embarrassment. sort of makes you wonder how safe all of those blogspot sites are?
here is an article on how to back up your blog from blogtweaks.
my site is a little different in that only my "main" page (the one you are reading) is hosted by blogger. the rest of of my site is hosted at 1 & 1.

it's just a fantasy, it's not the real thing...

as much as i enjoyed playing in a fantasy baseball league last year, i have decided to opt out this year for the following reason:

the time commitment was too great. i liked analyzing stats, picking my starting lineups, and competing with the other teams but driving 50 miles round trip and meeting once a month on a saturday with a bunch of guys i didn't know (i'm sure they are all great guys) to drop and add players just didn't seem like a efficient way to spend a saturday afternoon in the summer.
i have never had much luck in other fantasy leagues i have been in and i guess i don't have that "fantasy fever" that a lot of guys my age seem to have.
i still love baseball, it is by far my favorite sport. i am still looking forward to the coming season where i can track my favorite "real" teams, the twins, cardinals and redsox (in that order).
let's play ball!

text your vote...

it's no secret that i am an outed watcher of american idol although i am into it somewhat less this year than years past. if you aren't aware there is a slightly mean spirited website called vote for the worst that encourages people to vote for the least talented performer,(imo kevin covais) thus prolonging the "drama" that fox no doubt wants. the idea is that the show purposefully keeps a few contestants around that have zero chance of winning while much more talented performers don't make the cut, or get ousted early on, etc, just to fan the flames of america's obsession with reality tv. everyone loves the underdog, but some of these contestants have no business being in the final 12. i guess thats the way it is and it's not changing.

my predictions for the final two are:
katharine mcphee and chris daughtry

The Paomnnehal Pweor Of The Hmuan Mnid...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch as Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

a "dell" ightful wekend...

the crew and i returned from our weekend adventure at wilderness resort in wisonsin dells this afternoon. the place really is pretty awesome, depsite it's ultra huge-ness and tourist trapishness. allison has lived in minnesota her whole life and this was her first ever dells vacation. the resort resemebled a large university campus and and had 2 major water parks and will be opening a third next month. you literally had to take a shuttle to get back and forth between the water parks, especially if you had a 3 year old who insisted on walking by himself rather than being carried. the kids (and adults) had a great time and i can see us going back there, or somewhere similar some day.
i was thinking about how things have changed since family vacations of old when our parents loaded us into the country squire station wagon (complete with simulated wood-grain paneling). no car seats, or even seat-belts were required. you passed the time by hunting for license plates from different states or playing "i spy". on the trip back today, my kids sat in their car seats watching dvds as i set the cruise on 73 and listed to a set of pre-approved tracks from a playlist on my ipod shuffle. made the 3 hour drive seem like a walk in the park.
now, time to start planning the summer vacation!

see the rest of the pics here.

march 9 in history...

1796
napolean bonaparte married josephine de beauharnais, widow of a former french officer executed during the revolution.

1841
the supreme court ruled that the amistad slaves were free.

1862
the first battle between two ironclad ships, the monitor (union) and merricmack (confederate) occured, revolutionizing naval warfare.

1933
the special session of congress known as the "100 days" opened, launching FDR's "new deal". (often mistaken for being FDR's "nude eel")

1959
first barbie doll produced (they used one of barbies ribs to create ken later on)

1964
u.s. supreme court issued n.y. times v. sullivan ruling, first ford mustang produced.

1990
dr. antonio novello was sworn in as both the first hispanic and woman to be us surgeon general.

famous people born on march 9th:
mickey spillane, yuri gagarin, raul julia, bobby fischer, linda fiorentino, and rappers, "chingy" and "'lil bow wow".

march 9 is also:
national no smoking day (UK)
feast of st. frances of rome
baron bliss day (belize)

r.i.p. kirby...

probably the best player i ever got to watch play the game. he had his problems late in life but i think he had a big heart, played the game right, and was a good role model as a ballplayer.

streisand: bush is dummbe...

click here to read about barbara's rant re: president bush. apparently this is not the first time she has launched a spelling error-ridden rant on the 'net.
now, i have occasional spelling errors but usually for me, it has more to do with my typing inadequacies (and poor grammar usage) than my spelling. besides, no one reads my blog.
it's called "spellcheck" babs. all word processing programs have it.

almost there...

things have been pretty quiet on the blogging front this week due to many reasons. my work project went well, a LOT better than the previous one, due to some extra preparation on my end. which translated into a couple of late nights and early mornings.
haven't felt particlarly good all week. half-sick, stress, and lack of sleep has left me a little out-of-sorts, moody, and a bit more snapish than usual. but...i can feel the momentum turning. it's 4:30 on a friday, the weekend is here. at least 2 days to recharge, AND a short work week next week, followed by a mini-vacation.
more soon.