coca-cola panda's Journal

12:48PM - Free Breast Pump Contest

Win a Medela Freestyle Hands-Free Breastpump from Nature's Child - Wholesome goods for Mothers and Babies

I've heard a lot of good things about this pump. The deadline is the end of December (2008) Good luck all!

(1 Off World Team | Jump Into the Gate)

12:56PM - My Last Post, and New Years.

I would like to start by saying that this will be my last post.  I am not getting rid of my account and I’m not going to be loging on much if any.  I may log on from time to time to look through the communities but other than that If you want to find me, I’m on both Facebook and Myspace regularly.

Myspace URL: http://www.myspace.com/amyandjoe06

Facebook, I’m under Amy Elliott. 

Now onto my New Years part of the Post.

As each year comes and goes most people make New Years resolutions.  Most of the people who make there New Years resolutions just forget about them after a month or two, defeating the purpose of creating them in the first place.  Every year I try to be like the small percentage of those who actually work on there goals through out the year, and every year I get just a little better at it. 

The one thing I learned this past year reflecting on how well I did on my goals for this past year is that though they seemed realistic not all were able to be accomplished due to the way life happens.  Even though I did well with trying to accomplish my goals this past year and didn’t forget about them I still didn’t do very well.  That is why it’s taken me so log to try and post this years.

Last years New Years resolution was: “I will find a way to exercise and eat healthier while at my desk job.  I will also make sure that Joe and I spend much less and save much more.  Our largest goal is to have a house with in a year.”

I didn’t do that well in either of them.  Joe and I have both started to eat much healthier, before getting pregnant I started to loose a little weight slowly.  I didn’t do very well with exercising.  Joe and I also didn’t meet our goal of saving enough for a house.  This is partly because we decided to go on a few trips over the year and we spent money on things we didn’t need but we would need when we get our house (For example new recliners, and a second TV, all of which we got Joe’s work discount).  One of the largest set backs for this was we wanted to start a family, and once we knew that things were going well with my pregnancy we bought the crib and a few other things for the baby, we wanted to make sure we got things set up before I won’t be able to help Joe move things around.  I know I didn’t meet most of my goals but the way this year turned out I really wouldn’t want it any other way, Joe and I have had a really good year.

Now on to these years resolutions/goals.

1. Save up money for a house, and possibly at the end of next year buy our first house.
2. Exercise more.
3. Continue to eat healthier
4. Complete my first .NET project (A sheepshead game that I’ve started in Java and PHP and MySQL)
5. Use my blog more often adding past posts about our past travels, and more posts about programming and database related subjects.
6. Get and keep our apartment more organized.

That just about sums it up.  I think that this is going to be another good year, after all life is what you make it!

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:19PM - This weekend!

We have now booked our next trip!  It will be a nice small weekend trip to Crookston, MN and Grand Forks, ND to visit my grandmas.  I will be going to my first hockey game seeing the UND Fighting Sioux.  I also can't wait to go to the Mexican Village in Grand Forks and Happy Joes in Crookston.  I haven't been home to see the grandparents in a long time, Joe also has never been up in that area so I can’t wait for him to see everything.

On Sunday Joe and I went to the Scuppernong Ski & Hiking Trail.  This is a trail that I remember doing when I was young as a family.  It's a nice short trail for little ones to go hiking on with out getting too tired.  There's also a tree on part of the trail that my sister and I nick named "Spooky Old Tree"as it reminded us of the book "The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree"

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:17PM - My New Blog!

This is the official notice that my new blog is up and running.  I was hoping to post this a few days ago, but never got around to it.

http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/ourLives.php?useimg=4

There are still a few things that I’m working on getting fixed.  I’m going to create a form that you can fill out for bugs/suggestions but I haven’t had the time yet.  I’m also missing a few graphics the most obvious one is for the “triathlon” section (that part of the blog isn’t done yet, I need to get some info from Joe).  I also need to update some of my travels posts, I need to plot the lat/long of some of the places we were.

I will be adding a few things as time goes on, and will still post things on facebook/myspace, however at some point I’m hoping to look into an RSS feed.

Let me know what you think.

Enjoy!!

(Jump Into the Gate)

4:05PM - Were Going To Have A BABY!!!!!

Yes, you heard me right. Joe and I are going to have our first baby!

Oooo, I"m SO EXCITED!!!

(3 Off World Teams | Jump Into the Gate)

9:56AM - Vacation Update and Pics!

Per many requests I have put together some pics from our most recent vacation.  I have split them up into separate pages because I do plan on visiting more caves and covered bridges.

Here is the actual link to my post: http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/viewblogpost4.php?viewPostID=14&useimg=4
(the full blog for those of you interested is: http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/FullBlog2.php)

Here are the pages with photos:
Incline Railway: http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/RailwayIncline.html
Covered Bridges: http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/coveredBridge.html
Caves: http://cocacolapanda.justfree.com/blog/Caves.html

Enjoy!  I hope all of your summers are going well!!

<3 always,
Ames!!

(2 Off World Teams | Jump Into the Gate)

7:40AM - Insurance Companies and Bill Collectors

I know its been a while, i'm in the middle of composing  a nice entery about our travels out east.  And now, time for a Rant!

So, not quite a year ago I have to go to the emergency room.  We were under Joe’s insurance and we weren’t sure if mine had kicked in yet and because of that we had to argue with them to try and get them to cover what they should.  After many hours we just gave up because we didn’t have any more time to spend on that, it wasn’t a huge difference in cost.  So finally a few months ago we send out a check.  After about a month and half after sending out the check we get a call from a “Bill Collector” who said that we hadn’t paid our bill trying to get me to pay it over the phone and was incredibly rude about it.  A week later I get another call from them, and I told her that aberrantly the check got lost in the mail so we needed to get down to the bank and cancel the check before ending out a second one.  She actually listened to me so I thanked her, and told her about the rude lady that I talk to the first time; she said in her records they hadn’t started calling me at that time.  Well after about one or two more weeks someone else starts calling me from the same place (she’s calling every 2 or 3 days) each time she goes onto this long speech about how the insurance company this, insurance company that.  Every time I cut her off and say we have resolved everything and either we were waiting for the first check to be canceled (it took us a while to get to the bank).  Also once I told her that the check just went out in today’s mail she continued to try and get me to pay the bill over the phone.  Finally I just told her to call me in the amount of time that it takes for the hospital to tell them my bill is paid.  She calls a few days later, and a few days later (while I’m on vacation).  We get home and the bank calls us saying that our check arrived, however it was unreadable due to some flooding they had in that area.  Joe takes time out of his day to go to the hospital to pay the bill in person with credit card.  She kept calling me even after we got home, finally she called again yesterday (Thursday) so I give her a call.  She repeats everything she ever said, I cut her off because I don’t have time to talk to her since I’m at work.  I say my bill is paid in full for a week and half now and tell her to stop calling me.  She continues to tell me my bill is not paid and again tries to get me to pay it with her.  I ask her long she will continue to call, and she basically said as long as your bill isn’t paid and went on into more detail of stuff she was talking about before.  She then ask me how I paid my bill and tries to get more information about that.  I’m sorry, I don’t know if I’m paranoid or what but I will not pay her because my money belongs to the hospital not them and in turn I’m not giving them any information on the payment.  So finally I tell her “Your not listening to me, my bill is paid, your really starting to piss me off” or something along those lines.  I was so pissed off I was shaking, I then hung up on her as she was trying to say something stupid.  She calls back, so I say ‘fuck off’ or something like that and hang up.  I don’t know if it was the best thing to do, however if it gets them to stop calling I’m good with that.  If they call again I will just ask to talk to the manager/who ever is in charge there and make them stop calling because I can’t take time out of my day to keep telling them that its paid.

 
UGH! 

End rant.

Wow, that feels better!  Hope you all have a great day!!

(Jump Into the Gate)

3:38PM - Graduation!! *SMILE*

It’s that time of year for School to be getting out, and seniors graduating.  I would like to start out by congratulating all of you who are graduating (wither it be from College or High School)! 

The past years have been hard and very stressful; at times I know many of you wondered if it was even worth it.  Well now you will see that all that work has finally paid off!  As you walk across the stage you are starting a new and exciting chapter in your lives; some of you already know what you will be doing, others just as confused as going into college.

I never thought I would care this much about graduation, but at Alverno I made myself a new family.  I will always be at home there, and I am proud to be an Alumnae of Alverno!  I accomplished a lot there, I gained the confidence that I needed, became fluent in speech giving, helped others learn the material, became a well known student helper in the computer lab and even started an organization.

I really hope that you have/are all taken advantage of your time in College and gotten out of it as much as you could rather than just doing the work to get out.  There is much more to Collage than getting the degree, it’s about the friends you make along the way, the people you’ve helped, and the things you’ve done/learned.  Graduation is a happy time to look back at all you have accomplished, you have all deserved it!

Good luck to you all!

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:44PM - Interesting News of the day…

Ok, once again I found an amazing article on my google homepage. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/technology/07copy.html?ex=1336190400&en=5aa4f77b7f495bdb&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

After reading that I just couldn’t believe it, I still can’t believe it.  I knew it was coming, I’m just surprised that there already talking about it.  Wow, although I’m not completely sure that I would want one right away.  Either way, I think it would be really cool to see how exactly one of these printers will work.

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:54PM - Todays news...

I came across two very interesting articles today.

There is another earth-like planet out there!  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070425/ts_nm/space_planet1_dc I knew it was just a matter of time before someone found one. 

A New type of computer/TV display is within reach.  Right now we are stuck with 1-Dimensional displays, MIT researchers have ALMOST found a solution to a two-dimensional display.  I think it’s a really interesting concept, however I can’t wait to see images/video/the real thing.  http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18572/

Well that’s all for now folks. 

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:52PM - Random News Article.

I came across this very strange article as I was looking at my Random News Feed.  Its short, and if nothing else you’ll probably laugh.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8922971

(Jump Into the Gate)

10:26AM - Anyone use MSN IM?

http://messengersays.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%215B410F7FD930829E%2125315.entry

for those of you that use MSN's IM I want to inform you about something a co-worker sent to me, the site above.  Its really easy to set up and it could possibly help save lives.

(Jump Into the Gate)

11:32AM - The world is an amazing place!

It’s strange how some things just totally catch you off guard.  Today as I made a stop at the post office I realized that instead of bitching at people for not being able to drive or park correctly (for example) that instead you should thank the others that are doing a good job.

I have always tried to be positive about things, and I normally think of things in a positive manor, hey if you loose your job it only means that there is a better one out there for you.  I never really thought about taking those thoughts and putting them to action. 

Today a man had thanked me for not parking him in, at first I was trying to decide what he was doing because he got out of his car and stood near my car instead of going into the post office.  He kind of freaked me out a first since I was sitting in my car not really knowing what was going on, but then the more I thought about it the more confused I got. 

Granted I do confuse easy, but this was more of a in deep thought kind of confusion.  Thinking of all the times I would scream and bitch at the cars that swerve into my lane, or ride the fast lane while going a measly 25-30 when the rest of the traffic is going at least 55.  I started to think of what I had come to, why has my optimism in life gone away? That’s when I realized I don’t really practice it.  When I’m talking to friends I usually try to convince them that the world isn’t collapsing; instead it is expanding to new and exciting things.  Other than that I never really tank those who make the world expand to these new and exciting things.

To all of you out there that are long over due for that Thank You, I want to say thanks for making the world a better place for us all!

(2 Off World Teams | Jump Into the Gate)

7:25AM - IT's back from the dead!!

Oooo, so guess what?  The server is up!!!

Its not complety set up for everything but it is up and running!  This means I can switch my blog over to there soon....now to think of a dyndns URL.

(Jump Into the Gate)

12:32PM - Sheepshead Game!!

Ok, remember a while back when I was creating the sheepshead game in java?  Well its been a while, and I have decided that i don't want to finish it in java.  I am in the process of completely re-doing the entire project!  I am starting with a project plan (And I plan to have the project plan finished by the end of the day)

I'm going to be breaking it down into pieces and setting deadlines, ones that I think would be reasonable and that I could be able to get this project done within a reasonable timeframe. 

If I have time tonight I may even start working on some of the layouts and design aspects.  If anyone is interested in helping out, feel free to let me know, I will be building it mainly in PHP and MySQL.  For those of you who play sheepshead and you have a special request just let me know and I will see what I can do.

The place that I fell I may need the most help is in deciding which cards to play, However when the game is finished I’m sure there will be a lot of things to add/change.  I am thinking that my max deadline for this to be finished will be with in 6 months.

Oh, and For those of you wondering; I haven’t forgotten about the blog.  My blog is going very well and I am going to be working on both projects so I don’t get sick of one or the other.

(Jump Into the Gate)

8:35PM - a little update

Not too much has happened lately, work is going good and school is just as bad as ever.   I can’t wait for this semester to be over!  The labs are really boring and I’m never going to use this stuff ever again! 

I’ve been working on my blog some more, most of the programming is done!  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m ready to do a full QA test on it.  I was talking to Cassie about the graphics she has some ideas, I can’t wait to see what she does with it.  I have also created some pins, a panda one, a Roomba one, some coke cola ones, and a few wine glass one.  I’m going to make a sail boat one, and I haven’t decided on what else.

In other news, I’m bringing my bike home tomorrow!  I had left it back home since I wasn’t using it.  I’m going to be hooking it up to the bike trainer I gave Joe for Christmas.  I guess its quick and easy to put the different bikes on, that way I can try to get in the habit of biking every day.

Wow, and what about the snow?!?  I was hoping we would just get rain :( oh well.  I’m almost wondering how much snow we are really going to get.  It seems to not be snowing that much yet, however the wind is blowing quite strong.  

I think I’m going to call it quits there…Once my blog is starting to look better (and I get rid of the test posts deleted) I will be sure to show you all.

(Jump Into the Gate)

9:06PM - My special project

So outside of work I've been working on a special project.  A brand spankin new blog.  I am actually very close to being ready to show some friends.  I have a few people who are eager to see what I'm doing with it.  I have two more things to finish before I'm ready to show most of the people (Ok, I've shown two friends and a few co-workers but no more till I'm finished....I'm hoping to be done by the end of the weekend). 

Ooooo. I'm just so excited!!!  I can't waite to show everyone. 

yeah, I'm going to go relax for a while, Joe should be here any min.

(Jump Into the Gate)

9:10PM - New Icon

Hey, I finally got it small!  I had the icon made for several days but I haven't had time to shrink it.

Well I guess for an update things are going well.  I have so much to catch up on.  Well I got to go.  Hope you all are doing good!

<3 always,
Ames!!

(Jump Into the Gate)

7:09PM - Honeymoon Pics!!

Well I finally got to it, the pics are online from the honeymoon.  We had an amazing time!

The pics are on facebook, or if you don't have facebook there on yahoo: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cocacolapanda/album?.dir=47a5re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cocacolapanda/my_photos
Joe and I both took off on my birthday, it was nice not having to go into work.

Well I am going to get back to stuff now.  Enjoy the pics! 

And thank you all for the warm happy birthday's!!

<3 always,
Ames!!

(Jump Into the Gate)

7:57PM - what a fun day.

Today was a lot of fun, I really miss hanging out with everyone more often.  It’s just so hard now that everyone is so busy doing there own thing.  I just wish more people could have made it. 

On another good note, our apartment is starting to look more like normal.  Things have finally slowed down since this last semester and the holidays. 

I’m watching the terminal, I forgot how good of a movie that was. 

(Jump Into the Gate)