Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Greetings from Wine Country--Where I'm Not Here to Taste Wine!

I have finally been able to take a brief vacation and visit my friends Wendy and Marc and their 9-month-old, Sadie. They live very near Santa Rosa, in the Sonoma area. Little Miss Sadie Girl has grown so much since I last saw her at Christmas. She is, of course, as cute as ever. I'm relaxing in my PJs for now. Wendy works at a camp, so it's nice to be in the trees and becoming one with nature. Except for the part where there are a lot of things growing here that don't grow at home and I'm a wee bit on the allergic side.

On an unrelated topic, a friend commented on my Shelby Needs post (below) that the reason for the spike in popularity of that post is probably due to the fact that this meme is currently making its way through MySpace now.

Study of a Meme

Way back on November 15, 2005, I did a meme called "Shelby needs..." The rule is simple--you google "[your name] needs" and see what comes up.

A year and a half later, I still get comments on that entry. One today, in fact. I of course had to google Shelby needs again, and as it turns out, my blog post is the #1 result from google. Hunh. So a blog post about doing a search on a phrase that leads you to that particular blog post--it's so meta it's blowing my mind.

Additionally, the Shelbys of the world have also taken to debating in my comments. On the whole, it appears that Shelbys have a good sense of humor. Except for one, which gave me a headache when I tried to read it. I fear for this current generation of young people, truly.

I cut and pasted the comments in the extended entry.

hey,nice name!!lol
Posted by: shelby at February 2, 2006 03:52 PM

I went to google and put shelby needs and it brought me here!
Posted by: shelby at February 2, 2006 03:53 PM

lol i got an e-mail saying this thing and i just typed my name and got this. wierd. lol
Posted by: shelby at February 10, 2006 08:50 PM

So...I was wandering the web after being told to do the "Shelby Needs...." thing, and it brought me here. Well, after it brought me to a site all about dogs named Shelby. It made me sad. *apparently there are 5 million dogs in the US alone named Shelby*

Anywho, the point of this comment is that your entry amused me. Yay!
*Shelby
Posted by: Shelby at June 16, 2006 08:15 PM

woah! how many people are there named shelby? i was doing the _______ needs thing too. once I just looked up my name and it brought me to this site about a dog named shelby. very amusing and cute little site. shelby was a pug. i am a bean.
Posted by: shelby at July 3, 2006 10:07 PM

I'm not liking coming to this and it saying shelby needs a life, lil rude
Posted by: Shelby at October 22, 2006 08:48 PM

MY NAME IS SHELBY LOL
Posted by: shelby at June 1, 2007 07:29 PM

A friend told me to type in "shelby needs" I thought it was hilarious. I do think I need guinea pigs to do my evil bidding, but I don't want a job! It would be the death of me.
MAKE MORE LISTS,
The REAL shelby
Posted by: shelby at June 5, 2007 09:14 AM

wtf is this??? i mean seriously, how many of yall are tryin steal my name? LOL, jj. but cmon, i always thort i was da only one wit da name shelby, but GAWD, deres so many of ya, (the onyl otha time i herd shelby was on Steel Magnolias, a movie, wer julie andrews characta had da name shelby)
well neways, one day i will probs meet someone like u's wit my name,
shelbz (da first and only shelby, ha i wish)
Posted by: shelby at June 12, 2007 10:44 PM

Ummm. No, I'm the first Shelby. Haha. Who all is sick of hearing "Oh, Shelby..like the Mustang"...yessss..I was named after my dad's Mustang..and of course..."ohhhh..like that movie, Steel Magnolia's right???"
Posted by: shelby at June 16, 2007 07:51 PM

Well...so much for feeling special and unique. ;)
Posted by: Shelby at June 19, 2007 07:08 PM

yeah my dad named me after a mustang goshh dont i feel special
Posted by: shelby at June 27, 2007 11:56 AM

I've yet to make a study of the time lapses in the comments. For example, why were there none between October 23rd and May 31st but have been 6 in this month? There's probably a dissertation in there somewhere.

(Also, as a point of clarification, in the movie Steel Magnolias, the character named Shelby who tragically died was played by Julia Roberts, not Julie Andrews.)

"That Ride You Hated..."

Kevin and I are working our way through riding every attraction at Disneyland that we've either never been on, has been changed significantly since our last ride, or we haven't been on in the last 20 years.

Yesterday we hit Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

Our expectations were low, but our curiosity was very high. At Build-A-Bear, I usually ask the children (and their parents) what their favorite rides were. California Screamin' (the largest roller coaster here), Space Mountain (an indoor roller coaster--my personal favorite), Tower of Terror (one of those indoor rides where you sit in an "elevator" and it drops you unexpectedly. I've never gone on it because I don't own a shirt that looks good with barf all over it), and Pirates of the Caribbean top the list. However, sometimes kids will give very funny answers.

For example, one little girl said, "My favorite ride? Ummmm [looks up at her mother] that ride you hated and said was a complete waste of time?" The mom, with the flat expression of someone who waited a very long time for a very lame ride, said, "Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin." The little girl said, "Yeah, that one!"

We were also intrigued because it has a FastPass. For those of you not familiar with the FastPass system at the Disney parks, it's a new(ish) feature on the most popular ride where instead of just waiting in line, you can get a FastPass ticket with a given return time (an hour window), walk around the rest of the park, and return at your designated time and wait in a very short line. FastPass is a win-win situation on crowded days, since you don't have to wait in line, so to speak. The reality is that you are still waiting that amount of time, but you get the opportunity to do other things like shopping and eating (the win for Disneyland).

Anyway, last night we headed over to the Car Toon Spin to check it out. The sign at the door said the wait was 43 minutes. We didn't time it, but that seems about right. The ride itself was...kinda lame. It was like a Fantasyland ride (like Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, etc.) where you are in a car on a flat track and the ride takes you through several rooms. Usually the rooms tell a story, but in this case I didn't particularly notice that. The thing that made the ride different was that you could spin your car, much like the Teacups. So you just kind of drive along through different rooms spinning your car. I can see why the mom was upset about it.

IBM--Doh!

Early in 2007, my former employer, IBM, entrusted a large amount of data tapes to a contractor to move from Point A to Point B. Somewhere along the line, one tape kinda fell off the truck, never to be seen again.

Oops.

The tape contained employee information of a rather specific variety, "specific" being "everything about an employee that IBM had in their system."

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnd, guess whose information happened to be on that tape?

If you guessed me, you're right!

Staying on the sunny side of life, IBM informed me that the information had not surfaced anywhere and that it was in such a format that it required specialized equipment to access it. They also assured me that according to their extensive investigation, the information had simply been lost, not stolen. And also, they were really, really sorry about it. In exchange for being dumbasses, they have offered me a free year's membership in a credit monitoring service, which I accepted. The service looks pretty cool, and I bet they threw a huge party when they got the IBM deal. I didn't have to provide any kind of payment information and the service would not be automatically renewed after IBM stopped paying, but of course I'm welcome to continue their service should I choose after my free period expires.

Thanks IBM!

A news article is included in the extended entry.

IBM Contractor Loses Employee Data

By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.Com

May 16, 2007

Corporate giant IBM has been touting its services as a data security vendor and consultant in recent years. It was among the companies hired by TJX to investigate the company's breach of 46 million customers' credit and debit card data in late 2006.

So it was a black eye on several levels when the company announced that a contractor had misplaced a data tape containing personal information on an unverified number of current and former IBM employees. The missing data tape contained such information as names, addresses, and Social Security numbers.

The unidentified vendor allegedly lost the tapes in transit to IBM's headquarters in Armonk, New York.

IBM put out an ad in a local paper asking for help in locating the tape, and began notifying affected individuals early last month.

Following the standard response to data breaches, IBM spokespersons said that there was no evidence the data had been misused, but said the company would provide a free year of credit monitoring to all affected individuals.

IBM had just unveiled a new suite of security and compliance products designed to track potential problems and generate compliance with regulatory measures such as Sarbanes-Oxley -- an announcement overshadowed by news of the data breach.

Outsourcing business tasks to third parties is a common cause of data breaches.

Many large companies and government agencies have contracted business processing tasks to smaller companies or third-party vendors, only to bear the burdens when the companies misplace data tapes, laptops, or other equipment containing personal information.

Most recently, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a technology company hired by Georgia's Department of Health to process health care claims and billing for the state, lost data discs containing information on 2.9 million members of the state's Medicare and child health care programs. The disc was lost while being shipped from ACS offices in Atlanta to Maryland.

Recipes From The Past

My parents are completely renovating their house so they have (or are in the process of) moving to a rental house and cleaning everything out. Whilst going through stuff, my mom found a whole bunch of recipes, both hand-written and clipped from newspapers, that belonged to my Grandma Rosiak, who was a very good cook. She asked if I wanted to go through them, so I said sure. I went through them a couple of days ago and pulled some out that sounded particularly good. It was funny, though, noticing some patterns.

Background first--my Grandma had a massive stroke when I was 10 years old and was completely incapacitated on one side of her body. She was never able to gain use of that side, including speech, which was extremely difficult for her. She passed away when I was 16, but unfortunately, nearly all of my memories of her are from when she was incapacitated. I only have a handful of memories from before I was 10.

So flipping through the recipes, I pulled one out and thought "Wow, that sounds fantastic!" It was for chocolate cake with vanilla frosting--my most favorite kind of cake. And then it hit me--I remember her making this once!!! I love chocolate cake but prefer not to have chocolate frosting because it's too much for me. It's really hard to find a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. However, I remember having this cake with my Grandma and I think that's when I decided that chocolate cake with vanilla frosting is the most heavenly concoction ever to come out of a cake pan.

Along those lines, I would say that on the whole, a majority of the recipes were for cakes, coffee cakes, breads, and cheesecake. Grandma definitely had a sweet tooth. There were also some ingredients that were rather amusing:

-Tang! Perfect for a fruit salad!
-Creamed cottage cheese! I had never heard of this before, but on the back of one of the newspaper clippings there was an advertisement for a specific brand of creamed cottage cheese
-Watermelon rind pickles! Sign me up!

Most of the recipes did come from the newspaper. There was a regular feature called the "Recipe Swap Shop" in which one woman would write in with a recipe she needed, and another would write in with the recipe. It was all very quaint and looked like this:

"My German grandmother used to make a wonderful apfel kuchen, but I've lost the recipe. It used a small touch of vinegar. Does anyone know of it? --Mrs. Hilda Schroeder"
-next week-
"I believe I have the recipe for apfel kuchen that Mrs. Schroeder is looking for. [recipe] --Mrs. Mary Kozlowski "

Other recipes were ones that were featured in articles. My favorite was for "Never Fail Pie Crust," which the contributor helpfully adds, "Even a bride will get excellent results." And then there were strange recipes in strange places. In the National Enquirer (yes, the same tabloid we have today, which was still a tabloid back then) I found a recipe from the "Cookbook Of The Stars" feature for "Jerry Lewis' Egg Dumplings." I had no idea Mr. Lewis cooked!

Fullerton Pooch Park

On Sunday we took the dogs to the newly opened Fullerton Pooch Park. It's a really nice dog park, with trees and grass. Scout and Digory had a good time. Well, Scout spent all of her time sniffing the ground and ignoring the other dogs, but that's her idea of a good time. Digory made new friends.

PLUS! I'm finally learning to use GoLive (even though my version is two releases behind) and have finally learned how to upload pictures to the happybeagle site! So go look at my rudimentary site with pictures of the dog park!

Don't worry, it has a happy ending

Last week I went out shopping and I was stopped at an intersection near a freeway entrance. There was a black whippet on the loose, kind of darting in and out of the street. Then he trotted into stopped traffic and reached the median which was covered in brush. Instantly I knew what was going to happen. The line of cars to my side got their light to turn left, and I just knew that the whippet was going to dart back out into traffic, and that there was no possible way the car turning left would be able to see him. Unfortunately, he did. The driver slammed on her brakes but there really was no way she could have stopped in time--he just darted right in front of her. Luckily she'd been going slowly, having just cleared the intersection, and had slowed down. The whippet was hit, but he quickly jumped back to his feet and started trotting away. He wasn't limping and didn't appear to be hurt, but I burst into sobs anyway. A guy in a truck in the turn lane beside me pulled across our traffic against his light and turned his blinkers on and started to follow the dog slowly, but the dog darted back across the street and headed the other direction. At that point I had already cleared the intersection, and left him behind.

I was really shaken up and very sad when I got home. I had to cuddle with Scout and Digory for a while, and then I said some prayers that the whippet would be okay. About 2 days later, I think, Kevin said, "was the whippet you saw black?" I said that he was. Our neighborhood (actually a large-ish area of historic homes) has an email list that Kevin reads. He said that someone from the list had spotted the whippet at a local park and were contacting a neighbor who had whippets. The neighbor turned out to have 2 gray whippets, not a black one, so this guy was truly homeless. And then the good news! Someone was able to get ahold of whippet rescue and they caught the pup and delivered him to safe hands. YAY!!

Happy Father's Day

Dad, Grandpa, Grandpa, Father-in law, and KEVIN!

Technology, She Is Taking Over!

I just went through the closet and started putting away winter items (turtlenecks, flannels, etc.) into a rubbermaid bin to be stored for the summer. Kevin walked in and said, "What are you doing?"

Without thinking, I said, "I'm archiving these for the winter."

Ai yi yi.

It's My Birthday!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards, ecards, and emails! I'm having a great birthday so far. I kicked off the celebration by...sleeping in! I know this doesn't surprise many of you, but really, I don't sleep in a whole lot anymore now that I've been employed.

*Mandatory waxing poetic on another passing year*

I can't believe I'm 34. Where did all that time go? I honestly don't feel that old. People keep asking me if I got all depressed when I hit 30 or if I'm sad I'm not in my 20s anymore. I have to answer that with a wholehearted "NO!" I've enjoyed my life up to now, but my 20s included some really rocky periods and I capped off that decade by nearly getting a heart transplant. My 30th birthday was a celebration because I was just leveling off and maintaining my health from my heart condition. But even aside from that, I have to say that my life just keeps getting better every year. I'm married to a wonderful man, we own our own house which I adore, I'm surrounded by Beagle 1 and Beagle 2, and I've got my daughter on her way. Really, what more could I ask for? Bye bye 20s! Bring those 30s on!

This Is HappyBeagle, After All

Which Peanuts Character are You?

You are Snoopy! Take this quiz!

Nothing Exciting

Kevin made it back from Boy Scout camp okay--yay! I also narrowly survived a church committee meeting. Here's a hint: if anyone asks you to serve on a church committee, JUST SAY NO!

Who Says Animals Don't Have Feelings?

Kevin is off to Boy Scout camp this weekend. Scout has spent the last 3 hours either staring at the door, staring out the front window, or sleeping on the loveseat so she can see the door. She sure loves her daddy.

Bad Boy Scouts!

Well it looks like the Boy Scouts of Orange County funded an extremely expensive weekend junket for 3 of their executives. This article from the OC Register details the excess. Looks like the tab was $27,000 with an additional $5,700 for rooms for Orange County's 3 delegates. Granted the article mentions that other Boy Scout councils reimbursed Orange County for some of those costs, but still. I was also rather surprised to learn that OC's Boy Scout Council director Leslie Baron earned $258,947 in salary and expenses in 2005. How can I get in on that?

Arg!

Well I just wrote an huge entry but accidentally closed the window it lived in, so it's gone. Arg! I hate that!

Return to Work

I went back to work today and had the following conversation about a thousand times:

"I'm back! Did you miss me?"

"Shelby! I thought you got fired!"

Haha. Anyway, I'm adjusting well as far as jetlag is concerned. Poor Kevin seems to be a bit more knocked out than usual. I'm working on getting pictures up.

8 Things Meme

Suzanne, whose blog Adventures in Daily Living is a fabulous ode to design talent and a wonderful blog in general, has tagged me for this meme.

Here are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Since many of you know me quite well, I'll try to pick some interesting things.

1. Habit: I tend to eat the same thing over and over again, every day for the same meal, until I tire of it, after which I will not eat it for months or sometimes years. For example, when Kevin met me, I ate toaster pastries for breakfast every day. About a year later, I switched to Kudos granola bars, but recently bought a new box of toaster pastries (although my current toaster doesn't seem to be cooking them properly right now). This batch of toaster pastries are my first, I believe, since 2000. I also eat frozen potstickers (cooked, of course) for lunch. I have been doing this for approximately the last 2 years. I eat different things when I'm not at home, but when I am home and fixing my lunch, it is usually potstickers. Yes, I know this is weird.

2. Habit: I cannot sleep without some kind of blanket. Even when it is a thousand degrees in the room, I have to be covered by something. Very, very rarely a sheet alone will work, but it's usually a blanket. I also cannot sleep with air blowing on me, either from a fan, the window, or someone's mouth. I can't stand getting breathed on in any situation.

3. Fact: When I was in fifth grade I wanted to be both a farmer and a professional tap dancer. I was into the Little House on the Prairie books and tv show and thought that being a farmer would be really cool. Unfortunately, I was torn between that and my intense desire to be a professional tap dancer. In fifth grade we had to draw a picture of our future professions, so caught between the two, I decided that I would be a farmer during the day and have a stage and theater in my barn so I could tap dance at night. My picture depicted the red barn with a tap dancing me. My teacher failed to understand my intentions (and could not wrap her brain around the idea) so I didn't do well on that assignment.

4. Habit: I sing or lip sync to whatever music I'm listening to almost all the time. If I'm in a singable location (the car, for example) I belt it out. In other situations I'll sing under my breath or lip sync. My co-workers make fun of me because they have caught me more than once walking in from the parking lot listening to my iPod and mouthing the words of the songs. Also, much like the food thing, I'll listen to the same song, cd, or playlist repeatedly until I tire of it and put it away for years. Kevin says that I leave the same cd in the player until God himself comes down to tell me to change it. Fortunately, iTunes and my iPod have made it possible to introduce a little variety into my life.

5. Fact: I have never eaten a Big Mac. It just never looked good to me, and the special sauce is very suspicious.

6. Fact: I look down on people who don't know how to type using all of their fingers There you have it--I'm a typing snob. I don't insist on strict error-free typing or textbook touch-typing (I certainly don't do that myself), but it's 2007, people. What the hell is wrong with you? Computers aren't going away so it will save everyone a lot of time over the course of the rest of your life if you learn how to do it now.

7. Fact: I don't know how to program numbers in our cordless phone. I'm sure it's easy enough, but I actually just dial everyone by hand. Since I have a practically pathological fear of the telephone (with a few exceptions--my mom and very close friends), this habit is not really all that challenging.

8. Fact: I hate shoes. Wearing them is all right, but I hate buying them, I don't understand why people would buy more than they absolutely needed (tennies, dressy black shoes, something in between, boots for snow--done!), and I have never understood the appeal of them, particularly spending a great deal of money on them. I think I missed that female gene (the handbag one too), but I see absolutely nothing attractive about buying a pair of shoes that squish your feet or are difficult to walk in, or really, any type of shoe at all beyond something strictly attire-appropriate utilitarian. I can count on one hand the number of shoes I have found to be "cute." If I've told you your shoes were cute, chances are good I was lying.

I'm supposed to tag people now, but I always feel like I'm imposing myself on them or something, so if you're interested and don't have anything else to write about--go for it!

Miss Me?

We have returned from a lovely vacation in France! Sorry to leave you hanging, but I didn't want to announce our absence over the interwebs and I figured you all are used to me dropping in and out enough that it wouldn't look too terribly suspicious.

Suffice to say that I have now been awake for over 26 hours, minus the 30 minutes I slept on the plane *sigh* so I'm a little punchy. Off to bed now and I'll update later. If you left one of the 11 answering machine messages or over 35 emails, I hope you didn't take this as a sign I don't love you anymore :D.