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Tech

RSS readers

Will you please comment on this post ONLY if you subscribe to the McBlog feed. Just wondering how many people read us via a RSS reader.

Categories
Personal

This just in! :)

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Categories
Tech

RIP Xbox 360

So I’m kind of excited, our Xbox 360 got the red ring of death! Why is that exciting? Well I was already talking to customer service b/c the optical drive didn’t recognize some games… they wanted me to pay for fixing it. But luckily Microsoft added 13 million to their budget to extend full coverage to any red ring of death xbox to cover the cost of replacing/fixing it. So the bad xbox went to TX via UPS yesterday… I’ll keep you posted as to what happens, but I’m expecting a refurbed in the mail by next Wed.

Categories
Health

Cool video about changing behavior

Our production team just came out with this video, it’s also available on our company blog. What do you think? What kind of things could you influence around your house?

[flashvideo file=http://vsmarts.vo.llnwd.net/o1/videovault/HyrumGrenny_AllWashedUp.flv /]
Categories
Personal

Simple Gifts


Today I am feeling humbled and grateful. I am grateful for SO many things in my life.

Right now I am especially thankful for an entertaining husband who actively participates in raising our kids and doing things around the house. I am also very glad to be able to care for two beautiful, healthy, curious children!

Categories
Ranting

Poor Produce

If only the watermelon I just sliced looked like the one in this photo! I was so excited to have some fresh seedless watermelon today (I even had the good intention of sharing some with my neighbor)…. But alas, I cut it open and it was mushy and just overripe to the point of tasting like yucky pumpkin-y taste. I’d “tested” it in the store with my eyes and ears to make sure it was a good one, and as far as I could tell, it was….

I’ve been having really bad luck with produce lately, from a variety of stores, even. I have thrown out several peaches, nectarines, and plums because by the time they are a little bit soft and seem ready to eat, they don’t taste sweet but more bitter/sour and they’re a little brown inside, and just gross.

At least we have amazing tomatoes (and soon, squash) in the garden to turn to for consolation! I’ve been making some dinners with our fresh garden tomatoes, which are divinely tangy!

And good thing my mom helped us plant raspberry bushes, an apple tree, and a pear tree in our backyard just a couple months ago. Now all we have to do is wait like 3 -5 years or something for them to bear fruit….

Categories
Ranting

Please!

Okay. I KNOW that people don’t enjoy the presence of nerdy folks like me, who regularly notice grammatical/spelling errors. Blame it on my roots, or on my language background from my BYU days.

But anyway, this one major issue irks me on a daily basis. Your vs. You’re. If you believe that the two are interchangeable, please rethink your belief! I am often surprised to see very intelligent people making that grammatical error on their Facebook status and elsewhere.

There’s a lot to say about “you’re vs. your.” However, since this post is just an annoying one, I will keep this short ‘n’ sweet.

Your is simply the possessive form of you, i.e. something that belongs to you. “Your smoothie, your issue, your mama.”

An example of the wrong use of the word is, “Your so sweet!!!” (Blech! Run in the opposite direction!)

You’re, on the other hand, is a contraction (= a combination of two words: you + are). Just make sure the words “you are” would fit in the spot where you’re writing “you’re.” Correct: “You’re so hot!” Incorrect: “You’re dog has fleas.”

Thank you! Have a nice day!

Categories
Family Fun

Serious Fun

Ok, so I’m a little bummed that I missed out on this family adventure…

cottondefense
Categories
Chase Adventures

AH this boy…

Sometimes, Chase is so sweet and innocent.

                         DSC03687

Other times, he is not.

                              DSC03756

We used to have trouble with Chase peeing in various places outside. Like he’d just pull his pants down in the middle of the playground and go, or he’d be playing inside and then I’d suddenly discover him outside, peeing off the front porch. Yes, disgusting, but after many time-outs, he has finally learned that he should only go in the toilet.

HOWEVER, the other day, I was overwhelmed by the stench of pee in Chase’s bedroom. Being a parent and all, the odor of any type of excrement is no stranger to me. But this was an exceptionally strong smell. I tried to figure out where it was coming from… I removed his sheets, looked in every crevice to make sure there wasn’t a used Pull-Up hiding somewhere (he still wears them at night), etc.

Finally, I opened the window to let in some fresh air, at which moment the odor was especially pungent. I looked down, and there I saw the air VENT…. I opened it up and searched around, not finding anything in there. I asked Chase if he had hidden a Pull-Up in there, but he said no. And then, after a little pause, he admitted, “I DID go pee-pee down there, though. Yesterday.” (According to Chase, “yesterday” means within the past few days). AACKk! At least he was honest, right?

I lectured him about it, aired the room out, & sprayed some air freshener. After a day of airing out, the stench seemed to be gone. Well, I think it’s gone… unless we’ve become desensitized and don’t notice the smell anymore… Someone please come over and tell me if our house stinks!

No, he isn’t peeing in the photo below. Surprisingly enough, he has never peed in the infamous, ever-present mud puddle at the park. He does like to pick up chicks there, though.

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AW, just look how sweet he is with his baby sister! That’s one thing that has been SO wonderful (thus far)—he totally loves Charlotte, shares all his toys with her, and enjoys entertaining her. They have quite the tight bond already. (No, he doesn’t actually use a pacifier.)

     DSC03750        DSC03789

So, do you think we should have allowed Nathan to leave our kid in the trash can on the corner of Center and University last month? I mean, Chase HAD taken off his shoes RIGHT before we had left for the carnival, & suffered the natural consequences of spending the whole evening barefoot. Although I shouldn’t label it “suffering”, because he rather enjoyed it… I don’t think he learned his lesson. OH WELL!

                          DSC03764

Yes, we still love Chase, anyway. Life would be so boring without him.

Categories
Tech

My new desktop

mydesktopSO I just found the coolest thing on a mac since the easy share desktop feature in iChat. It’s called GeekTools, and it’s geeky. The image to the left is my desktop at work (2nd monitor). The cool thing is you can put in little scripts that go and do things, like grab the date and time and pretty much any text from the internet. I’m grabbing the current weather and a weather image. This keeps my basic needful info up to date and plastered as if it was my desktop so there aren’t any stupid clickable widgets. Plus since they are all little scripts who’s refresh rate you can control it takes very little CPU power compared to widget/dashboard systems. I highly recommend pimping out your mac with geektools. Here’s how:

  • Grab a cool desktop image
  • Download and install GeekTools 3.0
  • Fill in all the geeklets you want & make em pretty

For the nitty gritty of how I accomplished the image above, hit the more link.