Neighbor Gifts

This is my first year giving neighbor gifts for the holiday season.  I was so proud of myself for actually getting it done.  I gave away jars of canned spiced peaches along with a recipe for yummy peach cobler.  It made me feel happy to give something I would like.

Merry Christmas!

While Jacob was in San Diego

• I hosted the Bishopric FHE. A small group of us played a Star Wars trivia game. I of course had my traditional Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for the treat. I love this treat because I don't have to make anything. I also have a coupon for buy one dozen get the second dozen free. A good treat at a great deal--you can't beat that.


• I spent one evening doing endowments at the temple with the ward.


• I had my middle eastern dance class.


• I took Cuddles to get her nails clipped and also to get some of her shots. I go to this bargain place, however I had to wait forever and it ended up taking about 3 hours.


• I attended various back-to-school meetings and set up my lab.


• I taught my first week of school.


• I read a book.


• I looked online for new recipes. I am really struggling with eating. Nothing sounds good and I honestly would rather be hungry than eat. I figured if I could find some new recipes this may help me eat better. Trust me, I don't have an eating disorder, I just really hate cooking and nothing ever seems to be worth eating.


• I discovered the amazing Eyre family and their blogs and valuesparenting.com. I went on an Eyre binge and checked out as many of their books at the library and read up on good parenting. I also was introduced and actually checked out the book written by said Eyre family on "How to Talk to Your Child about Sex." I was intrigued that they would encourage parents to have the birds and bees talk when children are 8 years old. This way the communication door would be open, children really don't know enough yet to be too embarrassed, and you can influence they way they view sex and leave a wholesome impression before the world distorts everything.


• I went to an enrichment opening social. We played a cool get-to-know you game. Have people line up in two even lines. The person opposite from you is your one-question conversation partner. Out of the norm questions were written on a piece of paper and you would talk to your partner about it for one minute (literally, she had a timer). Then the paper is passed down the line one way while one of lines rotated in the opposite direction. This way you got to know at least one obscure thing about everyone in attendance. It was fun.


• I had the viser in the Honda fixed at the dealership for free as it is still under warranty.


• I spent an evening with John, Amber, and kids eating dinner and playing a game. I'm sure John and Amber were taking pity on me.


• I met with a Caroline from Classic Demo's so I can have adventures demonstrating new products in stores and earn some quick cash.


• I wrote and mailed letters inviting everyone to mom's surprise birthday party.


• I bought a box of peaches from


• I did not do any cooking. I mainly ate sandwiches, peaches, toast, and cereal/oatmeal.

Back To School

New Server

Well, this post is going to be geared for those who are technically minded.  I decided to get a server for my office that could handle several instances of vmware running simultaneously.  For work, I need to be able to test integrations from SCOM, MOM, SCCM, and several other Microsoft management servers.  I also need to test Active Directory, eDirectory, LANDesk, Altiris, SMS, etc.  I decided that the easiest and best way to do this would be by having several vmware instances that I would not have to blow away, but could activate whenever I needed them.  I would like to have many of these servers running all of the time so that I could use them while I am at Mark's house or elsewhere.

To accomplish this, I needed a powerful server.  To purchase this server from Dell.com or elsewhere online, it cost several thousand dollars.  I decided that I would build one myself to save money, and it ended up costing my a little over $400 due to some rebates that were available on the parts. This server has a top-of-the-line Intel quad-core processor, nice motherboard, 4 hard drives (each dedicated to a vmware instance which gets its own processor core dedicated to it), and 4GB RAM.  I believe that this setup should allow up to 3 vmware instances to run at the same time with very little performance hit.  I should be able to run even more if I need to.

It took me a little longer to assemble it than I thought that it would.  I didn't read any instructions (I never do :) ), and when I put it together, there were some things that didn't look right.  I noticed that the back of the motherboard was touching the metal case and I worried about that shorting-out.  I peeked at the assembly instructions for the motherboard and found out that I was suppossed to install some spacers between the board and the case.  I took it apart again and fixed it.  To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised when the time came to plug it in and turn it on. I half expeced it to spark, pop, and die.

Anyway, I am very happy to have my server!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This winter so far has been very mild;  it has not snowed once.  I have to admit that I was sad to think we wouldn't have snow for Christmas.  This is what it looked like a week before Christmas.  Yeah!  Finally, we got snow.  Lots & lots of snow.

Funny Guy

• The other day on Simpsons, Homer said in a sing song voice to Marge who was helping Lisa upstairs, "Marge, the dog is hungry"  and she replies in an exasperated sing song voice to Homer down stairs, "Then feed him."  Then Homer goes grumbling off muttering, "Yes, Master".  The reason this is so funny is because it depicts our marriage perfectly.  I can totally see this situation really happening with Jake and me.  --See what I have to live with! :)

Chaquita Fruit Bites Demo

Fun with Friends

Mark and Jen came over to play last Saturday. We had a lot of fun. Jake and I both enjoy Mark and Jenny so much. It is nice to have good friends to hang out with. It is also nice that they are willing to get a sitter :).

We played Settlers of Catan. Jake won both games. :)